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THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



The Iranians are the more intelligent part of 

 the population. To them chiefly are due the arts, 

 philosophy, science, and poetry for which Persia has 

 been famous for many centuries. Among them a 

 number of the ancient sect of fire-worshippers still 

 survive. These are the Guebres. They are a re- 

 markably pure race, for they have never intermarried 

 with other people. The Guebres are Parsis, the 

 word being derived from Pars, an ancient province 

 of Persia, from which the country takes its name. 

 Par si is the name given to the fire-worshippers 

 ill India, who, flying from religious persecution at 

 home, established themselves at Bombay. 



Special mention must be made of the colony 

 of Nestorians, of whom there are about 30,000 in 

 the north-western provinces. They have become 

 distinguished among the sectarians of the world for 

 the devotion with which they have preserved the 

 doctrines of Nestorius, who was Patriarch of Con- 

 stantinople in the year A.D. 430. In Persia they 

 are called Nasranee. They are Chaldeans, and their 

 language as they speak it to-day is Chaldaic. 



The Kurds of the north, one of the sub-tribes 

 of the old Iranic branch, are as rugged and wild in 

 character as the region they inhabit. They are the 

 most turbulent of the tribes over whom the Persian 

 ruler attempts to exercise authority. Their fierce 

 aspect is in keeping with the deeds of brigandage 

 and murder for which they are notorious. Though 

 classed as Iranian and apparently of Caucasian stock, 

 the Kurds are rather puzzling to the ethnologist. 

 Polak says of them, that in colour of hair, skin, 

 and eyes they are so little different from the 

 northern, especially the Teutonic breed, that they 

 might easily be taken for Germans. They are prob- 

 ably a mixed race. Professor Keane, speaking of 

 the Kurds of the Euphrates and Tigris Valley (which 

 is included in Turkey in Asia), says they appear to represent the aboriginal pre-Aryan race, 

 which at a remote period extended almost continuously from the southern slopes of the 

 Caucasus throughout the whole of the present Armenia, Luristan, and Kurdistan. He considers 

 them to be the Allophylian race spoken of by Herodotus. The word Kurd is doubtless a 

 corruption of Carduchi, whom Xenophon mentions as inflicting so much damage on the 10,000 

 Greeks retreating from Artaxerxes. The Kurds are wanderers, and to this day make their 

 winter quarters in the ramifying caverns where Xenophon found the Carduchi. They have a 

 reputation for honour as well as courage, and in Persia the Shah entrusts his safety to Kurdish 

 officers in preference to any others. 



In Central and Southern Persia the more important of the Iranic tribes are the Luris 

 and Bakhtiaus. Together they number about 500,000, of whom at least 200,000 are Bakhtians. 

 They are brave and warlike, inhabiting the Bakhtian Mountains, and yield only a half-hearted 

 obedience to the Shah. They are very poor, and frugal in their diet. A former chief of the 

 Bakhtians broke through the primitive habits of his race. He built himself a palace at 

 Changanghove, and furnished it with articles imported from Europe. His style of living was 



By permission of Messrs. A'twion < Co., 3, Fleet Street, E.G. 

 A PERSIAN HORSE SOLDIER. 



