THE STAR WORSHIPPERS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 237 



the name of the Living One, blessed be primitive Ught, 

 the uncient hght, Divinity self-ci'eated.' [Then] . . . 

 the reading being in progress, they prepare the Peto 

 Elayat, or high mystery, as they term their communion. 

 One kindles a charcoal-fire in the earthenware stove by 

 the side of the altar and the oilier grinds small some 

 of the barley brought by the deacon. He then expresses 

 some oil from the sesame seed, and mixing the barley- 

 meal and oil, prepares a mass of dough which he kneads 

 and separates into small cakes the size of a two-shilling 

 piece. These are quickly thrust into the oven and baked. 

 The fourth deacon now takes the pigeon left in the cage, 

 cuts its throat quickly with a very sharp knife, taking care 

 that no blood is lost. The little cakes are then brought to 

 him by his colleagues, and, still holding the dying pigeon he 

 strains its neck over them in such a way that four small 

 drops fall on each to form a cross. Amid the continued 

 reading of the liturgy the cakes are carried around to the 

 worshippers by the priests, who themselves pop them directly 

 into the mouths of the meml^ers with the words, ' Marked be 

 thou with the mark of the Living One.' The four deacons 



inside the Mishkaa [ ..C^^c] w^alk round to the rear of the 



altar and dig a little hole in which the body of the dead 

 pigeon is then buried." 



What a mosaic of ceremonies and what a mixed cult in 

 this one river-bank service ! Every minute particular of it is 

 correctly described, I am told, by the Sabeans of Amara, and 

 yet they themselves do not furnish the clue to the maze of 

 tPieir cult. 



Here one sees Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, as it 

 were, engrafted on one old Chaldean trunk. Gnosticism, 

 star worship, baptisms, love feast, sacrifice, ornithomancy, 

 and what not else in one confusion. The pigeon sacrifice 

 closely corresponds with that of the Mosaic law concerning 

 the cleansing of a leper and his belongings, Leviticus xiv, 

 4-7, 49-53, and is perhaps borrowed from that source. But 

 how anti-Judaistic is the partaking of blood and the star 

 Avorship ! {cf. Job xxxi, 2(5-28.) The cross of blood seems a 

 Christian element, as does also the communion of bread, but 

 this again is in discord with all that precedes from a New 

 Testament standpoint. Yet a complete system of dogma 

 lies behind all this curious cult, and one can never under- 

 stand the latter until he knows the former. Saheanism is 



