ON THE NOMAU TRIBES OF ASIA MINOR. 179 



At the next village of Ghar-dare we first made the acquaintance of 

 the underground houses, where the nomad tribes usually reside with their 

 flocks during the winter months ; these zerder, as they are called, are of 

 different kinds. Here they are detected only by mud domes with holes at 

 the top, over which the road passes, and at the top of which the village-life 

 is carried on ; not unfreqaently accidents happen and a donkey or horse 

 descends through the ceiling on to the family below. On the plain of 

 Mianduwab, to the south of Lake Urmia, they are of a different form, 

 slanting roofs appearing above ground, made of thatch. You descend 

 into the rooms below by a sloping path ; here you see the rooms, cup- 

 boards, and shelves (tarcheh) all hollowed out of the ground, but having 

 Been one is quite sufficient, as yon reach the surface one mass of fleas. 



We passed many villages on our road in fertile valleys ; of animal life 

 we did not see much except wolves and vultures. 



At Genjabad we were again entertained in the house of a chief of a 

 branch of the Afshah tribe, Mousa Khan by name, and another day's 

 journey brought us to the mud village of Baba Nazere, inhabited by Kourds, 

 and close to some ruins which we proposed to study, so we here put up 

 for several days and had ample opportunity of studying the inhabitants. - 



The chief of the village, Sarmas Beg, gave us up his house, a miser- 

 able mud tenement consisting of two rooms. The climate at this elevated 

 spot was intensely cold and wet, even though it was in May, and for fuel 

 we had nothing but the dung cakes which I have already alluded to. 

 Sarmas Beg had three wives and seven stalwart sons, who always rode 

 out to protect us when we went out, and performed for ns many of the 

 Kourdish horseback games. One, the ' bazi,' consisted of riding at full 

 gallop in twos or threes before us with lances posed and trembling as if 

 for casting; then, at the word of command, they executed a sharp turn 

 and charged back again. Then they did for us the Kaygatch, or shoot- 

 ing at an object with a gun when at full gallop. The dexterity they 

 displayed at shooting backwards when in the saddle and at full gallop, 

 reminded us forcibly of Xenophon's account of the skirmishing capabilities 

 of the Parthian archers. All Kourdish games are wild — beating with a 

 rope at anyone who tries to catch an individual placed in their midst, 

 dragging by the leg a man tied to another, who tries to touch one of his 

 opponents without letting go of the unfortunate victim. But what 

 interested us most at Baba Nazere was studying a peculiar form of 

 religion which is common.to many of these wandering races, and though 

 our material for this study was collected at many other points I cannot 

 do better than set it all out here. 



By the Persians these people are called the Ali-ullah-hi, or sect who 

 affirm that Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomed, is God ; they call themselves 

 ' the friends of the Seid,' or followers of Nazere, who is said to have 

 founded this religion. One of the great centres of this religion is 

 Genjabad, the village we passed through before reaching Baba Nazere, 

 the name of which place I have little doubt is derived from their prophet. 

 One Iman Kooli of Genjabad is reported to have dreamt that a land- 

 slip would destroy part of the village, which came to pass, and by reason 

 of his prophecy many were saved. Each community of Ali-ullah-hi has 

 a Seid, who presides at their .secret meetings held in a room in the 

 village. They have freemasonry signs by which they know each other, 

 and, like the howling dervishes, they are great at fii-e-eating and other 

 hori'iblc tricks of juggling. These meetings, or zekker as they are called, 



N 2 



