476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wild and indomitable^, addicted to highway robbery, in constant 

 antagonism with the Government, and often compelling the 

 officers to use force in the collection of the taxes. 



The great national sanctuary of the Yezidees is " Sheik Adi," 

 the supposed burial-place of the founder and prophet of the 

 religion. It was formerly a Chaldaic cloister, called Lalish, but 

 was captured by the adherents of Sheik Adi, about the middle of 

 the tenth century. It is in a beautiful valley, shaded with a rich 

 vegetation, through which flows the sacred brook Semsen, coming 

 down underground from Jerusalem, and here leaping from 

 terrace to terrace. Every Yezidee is baptized and has his wind- 

 ing-sheet dipped into its holy waters, in order that he may be 

 more sure of entering the paradise which Sheik Adi has promised 

 him. Here resides the great sheik, who is next to the Myr, and 

 whose blessing is good for the healing of diseases and for the as- 

 surance of a large posterity. The next place in the hierarchy is 

 held by Mullah Haidar, a descendant of the learned Hassan el 

 Bassri, and keeper of the book with the seven seals. 



In one of the apartments of the temple are preserved the six 

 sacred brazen images. They are roughly cast figures, in the shape 

 of plumply developed cocks, one of which weighs more than seven 

 hundred pounds, while the others are smaller. They are a gift 

 from the dying prophet. There wer« originally seven of them, 

 but one has been unaccountably lost. The holy book was also 

 concealed for a time in Sheik Adi. This book was probably 

 written in fairly good Arabic, at about the end of the tenth cent- 

 ury, by Hassan el Bassri, Sheik Adi's disciple. It has existed 

 since then in only a single copy, and is divided into two parts, of 

 which the first contains the history of the creation, in occasional 

 agreement with the Biblical narrative ; and some account of the 

 origin of the Yezidees and their subsequent fortunes, not always 

 accurate, and containing many anachronisms. The second part 

 — which is evidently to a considerable extent of later origin, for 

 it shows various handwritings — explains the doctrines, precepts, 

 and rites. The occurrence of Chaldaic words indicates that some 

 Christian or ex-Christian priest or monk had something to do 

 with its construction. According to this curious book, darkness 

 prevailed before God created the heavens and the earth. He be- 

 came tired of hovering over the water, and made a parrot, with 

 which he amused himself for forty years. Then he became angry 

 with the bird, and trampled it to death. The mountains and val- 

 leys arose out of its plumage, and the sky from its breath. God 

 then went up, made the dry sky, and hung it to a hair of his head. 

 In the same way hell was made. God then created six other gods 

 out of his own essence, in the same way that a fire divides itself 

 into several flames. These six gods are the sun, the moon, morn- 



