Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/169

Rh He who dies enraptured with me, I will cast him In the midst of paradise, after my pleasure, and by my will; But he who dies neglectful of me Shall be punished with my contempt and rod. And I declare that I am the essential one: I create and provide for those who do my will. Praise be to mine essence; for all things are by my will. And the world is lighted with some of my gifts. I am the great and majestic king; It is I who provide for the wants of men. I have made known to you, O congregation, some of my ways. Who desireth me must forsake the world. I am he that spake a true word; The highest heavens are for those who obey me. I sought out truth, and became the establisher of truth; And with a similar truth shall they attain to the highest like me.

Confused and unintelligible as much of the above rhapsody is, it tends to confirm our hypothesis that "Sheikh Adi" is one of the names of Deity in the theology of the Yezeedees. I believe this poem to be the only fragment now extant in any way connected with their creed, and I very much doubt whether they ever had any sacred Scriptures. Their occasional pretensions to possess such must be regarded as another artifice to evade the hatred of the Mohammedans, who are taught in the Korân to consider those who are not the "people of a book," i.e. have no written revelations, as fit objects for every species of indignity and persecution. Should this, however, be a mistaken conclusion, it is an indisputable fact, that hardly one Yezeedee exists who could understand a well written Arabic treatise; their Patriarch himself scarcely knows a letter of the alphabet, and his principal scribe can just read and write the colloquial dialect. So then, if they really have any books, it is clear that they can make no use of them. The notion entertained by some, that they had a secret language of their own, seems to be without foundation.

Yezd, or Sheikh Adi, is held by the Yezeedees to be the good Deity, and to him they offer their worship, which may be divided into two kinds, direct and indirect. The former consists of a few hymns, which are handed down traditionally among the Kawwâls, who may be regarded as the sacred musicians and hierophants of the sect. I have heard several of