THE STAR WORSHIPPERS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 233' 



one of three trades. They raise the finest dairy produce of 

 Mesopotamia ; they buikl a peculiar kind of Hght canoe 

 called Mashlioof, and for the rest, all of them are silver-smiths.. 

 No traveller should visit their villages without carrying 

 away specimens of their beautiful inlaid-work, black metal 

 on silver and gold. A peaceful people they are, industrious, 

 though mostly poor and seldom affording trouble to their 

 Turkish rulers. Both men and Avomen have a remarkably 

 fine physique ; tall, of dark complexion, good features, and 

 with long black beards, some of the men are typical patriarchs, 

 even as we imagine Abraham appeared when he left their 

 present country for Haran. On ordinary days their dress 

 does not distinguish them from Moslems or Jews, but on 

 feast days they Avear only Avhite. Their Avomen go about 

 unveiled and ha\^e a more masculine cast of features than 

 Moslem women ; they are also rather taller. 



The two great things however that distinguish the 

 Sabeans are their language and their religion. Both are 

 remarkable. The former because of its long preservation 

 among a dying people, and the latter as the most remarkable 

 example of religious syncretism. 



Naturally the bazaar-talk of all the river-country is Arabic ; 

 all Sabeans speak it and a goodly proportion read and write 

 it ; but beside this they have a household language of their 

 OAvn, the language of their sacred books, Avhich is called 

 Maiidaitic. So closely related to Syriac that it might almost 

 be called a dialect, it yet has an alphabet and grammar of its 

 own, and their writing and speech is not fully intelligible to 

 the Syriac-speaking Christians from Mosul. Wright says- 

 that their alphabet characters most resemble the Nabathean 

 and their language that of the Babylonian Talmud. The 

 only grammars of the language are the Sketch of a Sahean 

 Grammar hj Captain Prideaux and the accurate and 

 elaborate Manddische Grammatik of the indefatigable 

 scholar Noldeke. One great drawback of the latter hoAvever 

 is that the Hehreio character is used throughout and not the- 

 Mandiiitic. Accompanying is a table of the alphabet Avith 

 its Hebrew and Arabic equivalents ; also a few brief 

 sentences and the days of the week to show the construction 

 of the language and its close similarity to the Arabic. One 

 peculiarity is the naming of the letters Avith the a voAvel and 

 not as in other Semitic languages by special names : alif,, 

 bay, jeem, dal, etc. The oldest manuscripts of the Man- 

 diiitic date from the sixteenth century, and are in European. 



