are usually fixed in a kind of stare. Light grey, and even
blue, is a common colour for t ie eyes." The dansmen, too,1
may be easily known by their firm step and open and
determined manner. At the first glance, yon peFceive that
they are the lords of the country.
Paragraph 5.—Of the Yezidès^
An account of |he Kurdish; people would be imperfect
without some notice of the Yezides, who .are, scattered-
through different parts of Kurdistan, though the Yezides
appear now rather to be a religious sect than, a particular
nation,.
The Yezides are not confined to Kurdistan, pr, . at least-,
to the country generally so terme^ A, considerable body
of them inhabit the,hills of Sinjar, near the river Chabur,
and the plains round Nisibin and Orfrn, tcf^he,;westward, of
Mosul, where they were not lon g : sinee visited, by Mr.
Forbes.-J;,).
. The principal abode of the Yezides is in;Kurdistan, where,
they are said to speak the Kurdish language in., a. „peculiar
dialect. They are found in various districts of the Kurdish
lordship of Julamerik, ip Amédiyah,. Jezira.j^n Oniar, and
Zakhó. Their pontiff, or the acknowledged“ superior*„of
the whole sect, is the Sheik-Khan, whose family resident
Baadli, the capital of the Yezides, which .Mr. Rich saw;
at a distance surrounded by rocky, walls, on his wayutpj
El Kosch. The Mir Sheik Khan, atthaftime, was styled;
Saleh Bey,- and it" was observed by Mr. Rich, gthat the
Yezides, as well as the Druses, are fond of Mohammedan
titles. They reach far to the northward of Kurdistan, and
a band of them was seen by M. Am. Jaubert, on th©c
western side of Lake Vén, on the way to Bayazid. A colony
of them was lately found on the Bosphorus, opposite to
Constantinople, where they had assumed the name o f“ Mam
Soyindar.’V *. They are also spread in Arabia among the
* Visit to the Sinjar Hills, 1839, with some account of the Yezides, &c., by
F. Forbes, Esq., M. A., &c.—Journal of the Royal Geographical Söeiëty, vól. lx,
page 409.
native tïabes. What^they were in their origin, whether a
particular tribe- of people or a' religioixs sect;, or both, it is
impossible, from-, the factual ready.; kb own concerning them,
to^ptermine. M. Rich«pbserv«s^tb&t. they had a darker
m Kurdistan than the other Kurds,- a circumstance
wj^^usebp^tOiAndi#at.©«aASoiithern origin.**5 In the
hills-fipar Mosul^they speaks the Kurdish language, and are
arme^lwi:)^. bows' and,ar,rows' and5 slings^ U
’The Yezides h a ^ ^ h ^ h ^ ifflto .worship i§ië Dé vil. Some
b aVe 'Stpposéd; flikt théy? offer a d^rècatory adoration t’e th e
Evif; PriiiGijpl^ilf the bjd Persian but the-being
to whom they pay tokens-of rf fear is the Shaitan
Spf the- Arab^! Many absurd^nf rëfêlÉin^st®®ie.S' -have been
Jè'lated cff’them. By Mr. Ainsworth they .have* heen.-vindicated
from many of ^^èUhechsations; This intelligent
'traveller ffound, dp>-mquiry!,/|fööd rpason tbSbeEjèv© that the
hlotory of the. Mtlik Taus, or king peacbckVi i-S relatedfby
Fathei^Maurizio,(Jarzonff M. RouSseau, Mr. Buckingham,
Mr. FdrbesVand other modern traveller^-is a calumny in-
.•v?|f^d;by thëlChristianÉb’fithbSecbuntries. Mr. Ainsworth
SEJyS; “ I VentüKêfièhis^öJsl^ióh VithréS'eïw'e'i fo rif'is curious
that a. Christiah^^residingii at Kathandiyah, in* th.e .ne'igh-
'bourhood of the Yezide^; Still persisted' in thfe truth- of this
tradition.-“- The Mohammedan Kurd^r(noit Yezides^who
served as muleteers, remarkëd to* nbèi that I had myself
found it to be>a falsehoodff The imagds!§>¥' David'and Solomon‘
have no more CM^tehbe than thb peacock; and I
rieëfi not add, that the account off theiEaSsëmbling5 on the
»The most complete account of the'Yezides is W be Toüüd'm Professor
Riftér’s Erdkunde von Asien, Bandfö’. 2 s. 748-7^.,-f^Every, thing
known respecting them is there collected. The chief purees of information are
Father Garzoni’s notes,’ containing the* flrst accourit of die
by Sestini, in his “Viaggi e ,èpaclfii‘&versi> \RitterJ 728)J -Rousseau’s ^Description
du Pashalik de * Bagdad,” published’fiy- De 'S^ cy fk which a long
extract is to he found in “ Buckingham^ Travels in -Mesopotamia,” and Von
Hammer’s accoufit o f the Turkish Empire, •translated from the Jehanuuma.
Niebuhr was one, öf the first travellers who described tliem The latest and
most correct information on many points of their history, is to be found in Mr.
Ainsworth’s memoir in thé Journal of the Geographical Society, and in his
Travels and Researches in Asia Minor and Kürdistan.