Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/183

Rh all their monuments are dated from the Hegira. The festival of the new year must always be kept on Wednesday, which with Friday, they seem to consider the most sacred days in the week. The service already described as being performed at the Shaks of Sheikh Mohammed every Tuesday and Thursday after sunset has respect to these two days,—as the day with all easterns begins at that time. Friday, however, may be observed to conciliate the Mohammedans. None fast on these days, nor do any abstain from work; in fact the visit of a few Kawwâls to the village shrines seems to be the only rite by which these days are hallowed. The only fast of the Yezeedees is kept for three successive days in the month of December, when they profess to commemorate the death of Yezeed ibn Moawiyah. This also I consider another artifice to conciliate the bigotry and intolerance of their Mohammedan rulers. Their seeming neglect of this exercise may be regarded as another feature of Magism, since Zoroaster, as is well known, condemned fasting as a criminal rejection of the best gifts of Providence.

Sufficient has already been said by way of accounting for the different traces of Mohammedanism which are to be met with in the creed and practices of the modern Yezeedees. My conviction is that they have no real respect for any of the distinctive doctrines of Islâm, and if a few of their Fakîrs have learned to read a chapter or two of the Koran, the unwelcome task has been undertaken with the same object, viz. in order that their sect may be the more readily tolerated, or for the sake of learning the language of their rulers. Circumcision cannot be regarded as a distinctive Mohammedan rite, nor is it deemed indispensable by the Yezeedees. The large tribe of the Khaletiyeh on the Tigris about Radhwân do not practise circumcision, nevertheless they are held to be orthodox Yezeedees.

The sacerdotal order of the Yezeedees, like that of the Magi of old, is extremely numerous, and is divided into five castes which are prohibited from intermarrying, and are thus kept distinct. The first in dignity is Sheikh Nâsir, who may be regarded as the patriarch or supreme Pontiff of the whole sect. This office is hereditary in the family, and generally descends to the first-born son. It is the province of the Great Sheikh to direct all the religious affairs of the community, to lead in their