\ 
' ' — ■ ■■ I Mill 
Part IL Tra)}els into the hEv At^r. i6$ 
white Napkin about their Neck in falhion of a ftole i and another rag, which 
is a Fillet like to thofe that are ufed to bind, up the Arm after bloodletting, 
thefe make in all feven pieces, being thus accoutered, they walh, (for inftance,) the 
Feet ar?^. Beak of the Pullet they are to kill i becaufe they fay it eats, and many 
times treàîfe upon unclean things; then they kill it, faying in their Language: In 
the name of the merciful God^ may this be blejfed to thofe that eat it. They do the 
fame with Sheep, faving that they wafh them not, faying that they eat only Grafs 
and no unclean things, and the like alfo with Fiih. The power of performing 
this Office, extends to the Children of the Minifter, fo foon as they have attained 
to the fixteenth or feventeenth year of their Age, provided their Fathers have 
difcharged that duty, othcrwife it is not lawful for them ; I have been fo curious 
as to fee that pleafant Ceremony. Thefe people (who think all that are not of their 
Religion Profane,) have a fpecial care not to drink in a Veffel wherein one that The Sabem 
is not zSabean hath drank \ but if it be their own they break it, that fo none that ^^^^'^ IÎ°"r°^ 
belong to them may be polluted by drinking in it. They have another ftrange fj^^on w"rink 
whimfey, which is, that they abhor the blew colour, as much as the Jrws do Hogs \^ their Glafs. 
Flelb, and that for a very ridiculous reafon. They fay that the Jen?/ knowing by The Sabms 
their Books, that Baptifm was to deftroy their Law, were fo malicious, as that abhor thcco- 
when St. 7o&/2 was about to Baptife our Lord, they threw into Jorc/^/n a good deal 
of Indico^ thereby tofpoil the water i but that God fent an Angel with a Veffel 
full of pure clean water, taken out of another place of the River of Jordan^ 
wherewith St. John Baptifed our Lord j and that from that time forward God 
. curfcd the blew colour. This is the opinion of the Vulgar, but one of them told 
me, that the reafon why they hated that colour is, becaufe there is Dogs Turd ufed 
J in dying of it, and they look upon a Dog to bean unclean Beaft. Moft part of 
the S abeam zteGo\d(w\ths, all very poor, and a great many of them live in B«/j(féir<« 
upon the Canal i feveral of them alfo live in the Villages of Pgezjre, but the greatcft 
part in Harvize and Songer) two Towns belonging to the King of Perfia in Chufi- mrvhf. 
Jias. The fiift which is four days Journy from Bajfora is watered by the River 
Karrah, which falls into the Tygrix a little above the place where it joyns Euphrates. K'^'^rbn. 
The fécond which is Soufier the chief Town of Chufijian, is eight days Journy from 
Bajfora, and is watered by the River Caron, as I have faid already. The Sabeans 
are extreamly ignorant, and their Dodlors have not much to ftudy upon account of 
their Religion -, for they have but two Books, and thefe not long fince made nei- 
ther, though they give it out that they were in being in the days of /Idam ■■> but the 
truth is, their ancient Books were with their Churches burnt by Mahomet and his 
Succeffours. For an inftance of the flupidity of thofe people, having asked them 
how many months they had in their year, they made anfwer that they knew nor, 
and that I muft ask that of their Scheik} it is fo with them in every thing elfe. Ne- 
verthelcfs the fécond of November of this prêtent year one thoufand fix hundred fixty 
five, when I faw the Sacrifice of the PuUct i I put (o many queflions to them, that The Sabians 
at length I learned that their year confifts of three hundred threefcore and fix daysi fhe"punct 
to wit, of twelve months, of thirty days apiece i and befides thefe twelvemonths The Sabians 
they have fix days over. I alfo knew that they reckoned that fame day the fécond Year, 
of November, to be the twentieth of their firft month i fo that their year muft have 
begun the thirteenth of Oâober. I did what I could to learn fomething of their 
Epoche, but could not. I was informed befides, that their firft Feaft begins with 
their year, the fécond three months after, and the third after three months more. 
The End of the Third ^oo^ 
