DURING our stay at Mosul in 1842–44, we made several excursions among the Yezeedees, visiting all their principal villages in the neighbourhood, and holding frequent intercourse with the beads of their community. In 1850 we resided for two months at Ba-Sheaka, where we had an opportunity of witnessing many of their religious rites and ceremonies, and of gleaning a mass of information respecting:
Origin of the Yezeedees.--Yezd and Sheikh Adi designate the Supreme Being.--Yezeedee poem in honour of Sheikh Adi who is the Good Principle.--Emblems of the Deity: the sun, fire, and water, and how worshipped.--The Evil Principle.--Extract from Mrs. Badger's journal.--Sacred festivities.--Sheikh Nâsir and Husein Beg.--Procession of the Melek Taoos, or the symbol of the Evil Principle.--Description of this Image.--Worship of the Evil Principle.--Magism In the religious system of the Yezeedees.--What the Yezeedees have borrowed from Christianity and Mohammedanism.--The five sacerdotal castes.--Their temporal chief.--Character of the Yezeedees.-- Glimpse at their past history-They are an unpromising field for missionary exertion.
