Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/185

Rh The Peers and Kawwâls are empowered to exercise the same functions, for which they receive a fee. Sheikh Nâsir is also occasionally solicited to preside over the funeral rites, which are more generally conducted by the Kawwâls and Sheikhs. These are extremely simple, but in one respect peculiar: when a Yezeedee is about to die, a Kawwâl is called in, who pours into his mouth a quantity of water; if he happens to die before this ceremony can be performed it is reserved till the body is brought to the grave. Whilst the corpse is laid out in the house, the Kawwâls chant one or two hymns to the sound of their sacred instruments, and then precede the funeral procession to the grave, burning incense as they go. Morning and evening for several successive days the male and female relatives of the deceased repair to the grave in distinct parties, the women to weep and mourn, and the men to burn incense, and watch a short time in silence round the spot. It strikes me that these rites go to support the hypothesis already advanced, and that as a symbol of Yezd or Sheikh Adi, the life-giving principle, the infusion of water is intended to typify, or is supposed to convey, vitality after death. Some would fain deny it for fear of reproach, but I think there can be no doubt that the Yezeedees hold the doctrine of the metempsychosis.

The next in dignity are the, or Elders, who are few in number compared with the other minor orders of the priesthood. In a subordinate degree they are supposed to possess the powers, and permitted to exercise the functions of the Pontiff, and frequently act as his deputies.

The may be regarded as the scribes of the sect, though few of them can write. Sheikh Nâsir, who has already been mentioned as having furnished me with the eulogy of Sheikh Adi, belongs to this order, and is perhaps one of the most learned among them. He can spell over a few chapters of the Koran, and write a tolerable hand; but he could not explain to me the meaning of several words in the Yezeedee poem.

The Kawwâls have been so frequently brought before the reader in the exercise of their peculiar office, that little further