Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/173

Rh days. Ba-Sheaka and Ba-Hazâni, the adjoining village, being the two places where most of the Shaks exist, they are the great scene of Yezeedee festivities. I was absent in the Tyari country when the chief rites were performed, but Mrs. Badger having accompanied my sister and Mr. Rassam on a visit to Ba-Sheaka, took several notes of the proceedings on that occasion, which I shall insert here as illustrative of the religious customs of the Yezeedees, and as introductory to the succeeding remarks on their worship of the Evil Principle.

"April 18th, 1850.—We took a walk through the village this morning, and noticed a small enclosure which was erected by a Yezeedee last year, and who is said to have been incited thereto by the Evil Principle in a dream. The promise made to him if he obeyed was, that all persons suffering from cutaneous diseases should be cured on rubbing themselves with the dust taken from that spot. After visiting the fountain, where we saw a number of females performing their ablutions in preparation for the coming feast, we went to the shrine of Sheikh Mohammed, situated in a pretty grove of olive-trees. Part of the court of this building serves as a kitchen, in which were a number of Yezeedees engaged in slaughtering ten sheep destined to be eaten this evening by the community. There was also a large stock of food in the place, which had been furnished by the villagers, each according to his ability, to be distributed among the poor. We next entered the shrine through a low entrance, and found there a broken cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which is said to cover the remains of the Sheikh. The enclosure round the shrine contains several other tombs, and a number of small apartments.

"This being new year's day with the Yezeedees we again walked through the villages to witness their festivities, and observed a number of wild scarlet anemonies stuck over the entrance to several of the houses. We learned on inquiry that these were intended to propitiate the Evil Principle, and to ward off calamity during the coming year. The practice reminded me at once of the blood sprinkled upon the door-posts of the dwellings of the Israelites in Egypt as a sign for the destroying angel to pass over, and it also recalled to my memory a custom prevalent among the Hindoos and Parsees of India, who hang a string of