EARLY INHABITANTS OF WESTERN ASIA—LUSCHAN. 563 
with the word Ali-Ullahi or Layard’s Ali-[llahiya,! meaning people. 
that worship Ah. I treated at large of this curious sect in 1889,? so 
that I can be brief here. 
They live high up in the mountains, generally in tents covered with 
felt, sometimes in round [!] houses, and keep rigidly apart from all the 
other inhabitants of Lycia. They speak Turkish, are originally re- 
garded as Mohammedans, and have also Mohammedan names, but they 
have no inner connection with the creed of Mohammet. They believe 
in metempsychosis and in good and bad demons. Hares and turkeys 
are considered as unclean, and the peacock as a sort of incarnation of 
the devil. 
Their somatic qualities are remarkably homogeneous; they have a 
tawny white skin, much hair on the face, straight hair, dark brown 
eyes, a narrow, generally aquiline nose, and a very short and high 
head. The cephalic index varies only from 82 to 91 with a maximum 
frequency of 86. The mean length-height index is 781, the mean 
facial index, 876. A typical skull of a Tahtadji is figured here (pl. 11). 
M. BEKTASH. 
Whilst the Tahtadji live high up in the mountains of Lycia, a similar 
sect, the Bektash, dwells in the Lycian towns, principally in Elmaly. 
Their creed has never been exactly studied, and they are very anxious 
to keep it secret. Like the Tahtadji they affect a certain affinity with 
the real Moslems, but they never intermarry with them. 
I published the measurements of 40 adult male Bektash in my 
paper on the Tahtadji? and quote from it here, that the cephalic 
index oscillates only between 84 and 89, and the auricular height- 
index between 74 and 83, with two maxima at 75 and 82. The 
facial index has a very distinct maximum at 86. 
N. ANSARIYEH. 
Exactly corresponding to the Tahtadji and the Bektash in south- 
western Asia Minor are the Ansartyeh=Nussairiyeh in northern 
Syria. 
In some places, as in Antiochia (ad Orontem), they are called 
“Fellah”’—from their principal occupation—but have no connection 
with the Fellah of Egypt. Ali that is known about their creed is 
exactly parallel to our knowledge of the Tahtadji, and the same 
tales of nocturnal orgies, “jus prime noctis,” and ‘spiritistic”’ 
meetings are told of both groups. 
Many Ansariyeh have also in their general appearance a striking 
likeness to some Lycian Tahtadji. I measured 15 adult men. 
1A. H. Layard, Nineveh, vol. 1, p. 296 ss. 
2 Petersen and von Luschan, Reisenin Lykien, etc., Wien, C. Gerold’sSohn. Partly reprintedin Archiv. 
f. Anthr., vol. 19, 1890. 
