ON THE NOMAD TRIBES OF ASIA MINOR. 177 



their flocks and tents. The history of the Afsbah tribe vvonld appear to 

 be lost in obscurity ; all that is known of thera is that, in 1508, this tribe, 

 in conjunction with six others, succeeded in assisting Shah Ismail in his 

 wars, and obtained from him certain privileges, one of which was that of 

 wearing a dress peculiar to themselves, and a red cap, which gained for 

 them the Turkish name of Kizil-b.ashi, or red-heads. 



The mud villages inhabited by the tribes closely resemble one another : 

 they are principally conspicuous for certain round constructions standin"' 

 about 15 feet in height, and built in the form of a dome. These are made 

 of dried cakes of dung, and are the only fuel possessed in the district. 

 Each house has one, and the cakes are made by spreading the dung of 

 their animals on a flat space before the house, mixing it with mud, and 

 when it has assumed the desired consistency they plaster the cakes on to 

 the walls to dry, and then build them up into the round structures called 

 kusks or kiosks, and the fuel is called banians ; women are generally em- 

 ployed in making this kind of fuel. Over the houses of most of the 

 inhabitants may be seen the skulls of horses or donkeys placed there 

 to keep off the evil eye. On entering the village we interrupted a 

 Passion Play of the most primitive description. Many gelims and 

 nummuds, or carpets made by the tribe, were spread over the chief place 

 of the village. The performers, dressed in coats-of-mail and brandishing the 

 daggers and weapons commonly found amongst them, performed the play 

 of Houssein and Hassan ; whilst the male spectators wept as if their hearts 

 would break, and the women uttered screams of distress. After the 

 happy denouement they all got up, and with hands spread towards 

 Kerbela, thanked Allah for mercies vouchsafed. I have seen these plays 

 often in Persian towns, but never with the inten.sity of feeling and passion 

 shown amongst these wild mountaineers. The collection of individuals at 

 the play gave us an opportunity of noticing the principal features of the 

 inhabitants : their eyes are small, they have high cheek-bones, their beards 

 thin and straggly, and their frames very robust. 



Out.side the village is the grave-yanl, in the centre of which is a tiny 

 circular tomb of mud over the body of a Seid, or holy man of the tribe. 

 On either side of his tomb were poles for decoration at the annual festival 

 of the Mohurrim. The Afshah tribe belongs to the Shiah faith, as do 

 most of the Tatar-Turkish tribes, whereas their hereditary enemies of the 

 Kourdish tribes are almost universally Sonuee. At funerals they gene- 

 rally take the riderless horse of the deceased to the grave. 



About four miles from Dehshir, at the village of Tschaierli, we com- 

 menced the ascent of a very high pass, and then descended into the bed 

 of the Kizil-Uzen river. This pass is called Ali-panj-Angoost, or the 

 five fingers of Ali, from some peculiar pointed rocks which are greatly 

 venerated by the tribes, and all around were little piles of stones placed 

 by passers by in token of respect — the same idea commonly seen through- 

 out Persia, for whenever travellers come within sight of some sacred 

 shrine they add a stone to the many piles around them. There are 

 several villages on a plain of considerable fertility, by the banks of the 

 Kizjl-Uzen river, Dooskhandi, or salt-diggers' village, so named fiom the 

 tact that rock-salt is obtained from the mountains behind. The Kizil- 

 Uzen is one of the most important rivers of Media, rising in Mount 

 Zagros, in Kourdestan, and after a meandering course of about 45'0 

 mile.><, flowing into the Caspian. It is supposed to be the river Gozan (2 

 Kings xvii. 6), and is certainly the most important stream between the 



1889. N 



