Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/171

Rh and I have frequently seen an idol temple or pagoda surrounded with similar tokens of Pagan adoration.

Mr. Layard mentions a building and a herd of white oxen at Sheikh Adi, dedicated to "Sheikh Shems," which he supposes to be the sun. It is clear, however, that the Yezeedees so designate the place for the sake of brevity, as the entablature over the doorway records the names in full, namely, "Sheikh Shems Ali Beg and Faris," for two persons are mentioned in the inscription, which has been given entire a few pages back. In like manner the word "Shems" frequently enters into the construction of Mohammedan names.

Fire and light, as being elements cognate with that of the sun, are received by the Yezeedees as symbols of the good Deity. They never spit into a fire, and will frequently pass their hands through the flames, and make as though they would kiss and wash their faces with them, just as the Christians do with the incense in their churches. Water, also, is held by them to be a symbol of Yezd, it being a most powerful agent in communicating temporal blessings to mankind. Hence almost every fountain and spring is considered sacred, and when in their power, as those at Sheikh Adi, Ba-Sheaka, Ba-Hazani, and others, they leave a lamp burning nightly in some adjacent niche or cave, in token of their adoration. On this account bathing is looked upon by them more in the light of a sacred duty than as an ordinary purification; and their objection to frequent the Mohammedan baths of the country has, I have no doubt, some connexion with this superstition. For the same reason they consider fish moobârak, i.e. blessed, the term which they apply to every thing sacred, and which reminds one of the aghiasmata of the Greeks. I have been informed that only a few of the lowest classes among them ever eat any produce of the waters.

The above rites and ceremonies form the sum of the religious worship offered up by the Yezeedees to the good Deity. They have no forms of prayer, and it is shocking to any Christian mind to hear them allow with the utmost indifference that they never pray. I have frequently urged upon them the duty of acknowledging their dependence on on the ground of common gratitude, natural instinct, and what they admit to be due