notice. The Arabs think themselves always ailing and never fail to
consult a _hakim_ or doctor when there is opportunity. The hakeem is
supposed to know both their malady and its cure by simple observation;
to tell the physician for what cause they seek him would be an insult
to his wisdom and for him to ask them settles the matter that he is
not a true hakeem. The common diseases of Arabia are the following,
according to Arab nomenclature:—_El Kibd_, _i. e._, the liver, or all
visceral infirmities; _er rihh_, literally, “the wind,” or rheumatics
and neuralgia; _humma_, fevers; _tahāl_ or ague-cake; _el-hasa_ or
stone; ophthalmia; “fascination” or hysterics, (as when they say a man
has a jinn or a child has been looked at by the evil-eye); leprosy,
phthisis, dropsy, stranguria, ulcers and senile itch. For any and all
of these ailments, beside others not so common, yet sometimes epidemic
like smallpox and cholera, the Arabs seek a hakeem. All medicine, save
amulets, charms and exorcisms, is called _dawa_. Their pharmacopia is
not large but quite remarkable; in addition to such simple herbs of the
desert as their hareem collect and dry they use in grave emergencies
that which is harām (forbidden) and unclean. Patients have come to me
for a small piece of swine’s flesh (which they suppose all Christians
eat) to cure one in desperate straits. Doughty tells how among the
Bedouins they give the sick to eat of the carrion-eagle and even seethe
asses’ dung for a potion.
_Kei_ or actual cautery is a favorite cure for all sorts of diseases;
so also is _khelal_ or perforating the skin surface with a red-hot iron
and then passing a thread through the hole to facilitate suppuration.
Scarcely one Arab in a hundred who has not some _kei_-marks on his
body; even infants are burned most cruelly in this way to relieve
diseases of childhood. Where _kei_ fails they have resource to words
written on paper either from the Koran, or, by law of contraries,
words of evil, sinister import. These the patient “takes” either by
swallowing them, paper and all, or by drinking the ink-water in which
the writing is washed off. Blood-letting is also a sovereign remedy for
many troubles. The Arab barber is at once a phlebotomist, cauterizer,
and dentist. His implements—one can hardly call them instruments—are
very crude and he uses them with some skill but without any mercy.
Going to the proper place in any large Arab town you may always see
a row of men squatting down with bent back to be bled; cupping and
scarifying are the two methods most in vogue, although some are quite
clever in opening a vein. The science of medicine in the towns is
not much in advance of that of the desert—more book-talk but even
less natural intelligence. A disease to be at all respectable must be
connected with one of the four temperaments or “humors of Hippocrates.”
Medicines are hot and cold, wet and dry; and the same fourfold
classification distinguishes all ailments. There are four elements
only, and the stars must be favorable to induce a rapid cure. Whatever
is prescribed must be solid and material; if it is bitter and painful
so much the better. Rough measures act more strongly on the imagination
and faith-cure is a reality in such cases. Burton gives this sample of
a correct prescription:
“A.”[100]
“In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful, and blessings
and peace be upon our Lord the apostle and his family and his
companions one and all. But afterward let him take bees-honey and
cinnamon and album græcum of each half a part and of ginger a whole
part, which let him pound and mix with the honey and form boluses,
each bolus the weight of a Mithkal, and of it let him use every day a
Mithkal, on the saliva, (that is to say, fasting, the first thing in
the morning). Verily its effects are wonderful. And let him abstain
from flesh, fish, vegetables, sweetmeats, flatulent food, acids of all
descriptions, as well as the major ablution and live in perfect quiet.
So shall he be cured by the help of the King the healer, _i. e._, the
Almighty. And the peace.”
Honey has always been a panacea in Arabia on authority of the Koran and
tradition. The only reference to medicine in the revelation of Mohammed
is this ignorant statement: “From the bee’s belly comes forth a fluid
of variant hue which yieldeth medicine to man.” (Surah xvi. 71.)
This being the only remedy prescribed by Allah, it is no wonder that
tradition affirms its efficacy as follows: “A man once came to Mohammed
and told him that his brother was afflicted with a violent pain in his
belly; upon which the prophet bade him give him some honey. The fellow
took his advice but soon came again and said that the medicine had done
no good. Mohammed answered: ‘Go and give him more honey, for God speaks
truth and thy brother’s belly lies,’ and the dose being repeated the
man was cured.”[101] Coriander-seeds, peppermint, cinnamon, senna,
iris-root, saffron, aloes, nitrates, arsenious-earth, pomegranate-rind,
date-syrup and vinegar—such are some of the common household remedies
of Arabia. All Arab women profess a knowledge of herbs and the art of
healing so that the “hakeem” can scarcely make a living if he clings
solely to his profession. A Mecca “M.D.,” says Hurgronje, was also
watch-maker, gun-smith and distiller of perfume; to fill up his idle
hours he did a little silver-plating and dealt in old coins! Yet this
man was at the head of the profession in Mecca and was able, so they
said, to transmute the base metals and write very powerful charms.
The following are used as amulets in Arabia: a small Koran suspended
from the shoulder; a chapter written on paper and folded in a leather
case; some names of God or their numerical values; the names of the
prophet and his companions; greenstones without inscriptions; beads,
old coins, teeth, holy earth in small bags. Amulets are not only worn
by the Arabs themselves and to protect their children from the evil-eye
but are put on camels, donkeys, horses, fishing-boats and sometimes
over the doors of their dwellings. The Arabs are very superstitious
in every way. In Hejaz if a child is very ill the mother takes seven
flat loaves of bread and puts them under its pillow; in the morning
the loaves are given to the dogs—and the child is not always cured.
Rings are worn against the influence of evil-spirits; incense or
even-smelling compounds are burned in the sick-room to drive away
the devil; mystic symbols are written on the walls for a similar
purpose. Love-philtres are everywhere used and in demand; and nameless
absurdities are committed to insure successful child-birth. The
child-witch, called _Um-el subyan_, is feared by all mothers; narcotics
are used freely to quiet unruly infants and, naturally, mortality is
very large. Of surgery and midwifery the Arabs as a rule are totally
ignorant and if their medical-treatment is purely ridiculous their
surgery is piteously cruel, although never intentionally so. In all
eastern Arabia _blind_ women are preferred as midwives, and rock-salt
is used by them against puerpural hemmorrhage. Gunshot-wounds are
treated in Bahrein by a poultice of dates, onions and tamarind; and the
accident is guarded against in the future by wearing a “lead-amulet.”
There are many other superstitions in no way connected with the
treatment of the sick. Tree-worship and stone-worship still exist in
many parts of Arabia in spite of the so-called “pure monotheism” of
Islam. Both of these forms of worship date back to the time of idolatry
and remain as they were partly by the sanction of Mohammed himself, for
did he not make a black-pebble in the Kaaba, the centre of his system
of prayer? Sacred trees are called _Manahil_, places where angels or
jinn descend; no leaf of such trees may be plucked and they are honored
with sacrifices of shreds of flesh, while they look gay with bits of
calico and beads which every worshipper hangs on the shrine. Just
outside of the Mecca gate at Jiddah stands one of these rag-trees with
its crowd of pilgrims; in Yemen they are found by every wayside.[102]
XXVIII
THE STAR-WORSHIPPERS OF MESOPOTAMIA[103]
“In a remote period of antiquity Sabeanism was diffused over Asia
by the science of the Chaldeans and the arms of the Assyrians. They
adored the seven gods or angels who directed the course of the seven
planets and shed their irresistible influence on the earth.... They
prayed thrice each day, and the temple of the moon at Haran was the
term of their pilgrimage.”—_Gibbon._
In the towns along the lower Euphrates and Tigris, especially at Amara,
Suk es Shiukh, Busrah and Mohammerah, there dwell an interesting
people, variously known as Sabeans, Nasorians, or St. John Christians.
They call themselves Mandæans, and though numbering only four or five
thousand, they are and have always been entirely distinct from the
Jews, Moslems and Christians among whom they have dwelt for centuries.
Their origin is lost in obscurity although the few scholars who have
studied the subject trace their history through the maze of their
religion to ancient Babylonia and Chaldea. In this remnant of a race
and religion we seem to have an example of the oldest form of idolatry,
Star-worship, and many of their mysterious customs may throw a
side-light upon the cult of ancient Babylonia. Mandæism is not only of
deep interest as “the only existing religion compounded of Christian,
heathen and Jewish elements,”[104] but it affords another proof of
the early spread of religious ideas in the East, and the Babylonian
origin of much that is supposed to be Alexandrian Gnosticism in a
semi-Christian, semi-pagan garb.
In the English Bible the name _Sabeans_ is perplexing, and although
used of three different tribes or peoples, none of these are any way
related to the present Mandæans unless those mentioned in Job. Sabean
is also the term used in the Koran, where it undoubtedly applies to the
people and proves that when Islam arose their numbers and settlements
were far from unimportant. The Koran recognizes them as distinct from
idolaters, and places them with Jews and Christians as people of the
book.[105] From this it is evident that the Sabeans could not have
been, as some allege, a minor Christian sect or identical with the
Hemero-Baptists. Although giving special honor to John the Baptist,
_they can in no sense be called Christians_.
Isolated by a creed, cult and language of their own, the Sabeans[106]
love their isolation and do not intermarry with strangers nor accept
a proselyte to their faith. Nearly all of them follow one of three
trades. They raise the finest dairy produce of Mesopotamia; they build
a peculiar kind of light canoe, called _Mashhoof_, and all others
are silver-smiths. No traveller should visit their villages without
carrying away specimens of their beautiful inlaid-work, black metal on
silver and gold. A peaceful people they are, industrious, though mostly
poor and seldom affording trouble to their Turkish rulers. Both men
and women have a remarkably fine physique; tall, of dark complexion,
good features, and with long black beards, some of the men are typical
patriarchs, even as we imagine Abraham who left their present country
for Haran. On ordinary days their dress does not distinguish them from
Moslems or Jews, but on feast days they wear only white. Their women go
about unveiled; they are rather taller and have a more masculine cast
of features than Moslem women.
_Specimens of_ MANDÂITIC CURSIVE-SCRIPT _with transliteration and
translation_.
[Mandâitic:] = Àssooda hāvilak = peace be to you.
[Mandâitic:] = kethkŭm skawee = how much is it?
[Mandâitic:] = ana libba kabeelak = I love you much.
[Mandâitic:] = kasbah we dahwah = silver and gold.
[Mandâitic:] = hofshaba rabba = great day (Sunday)
[Mandâitic:] = atran hofshaba = Monday.
[Mandâitic:] = aklatha = Tuesday.
[Mandâitic:] = arba = Wednesday
[Mandâitic:] = hamsha = Thursday.
[Mandâitic:] = shitta = Friday.
[Mandâitic:] = shuvah = Saturday.
The two great things that distinguish the Sabeans are their language
and their religion. Both are remarkable. The former because of its
long preservation among a dying people, and the latter as the most
remarkable example of religious syncretism.
Naturally the bazaar-talk of all the river-country is Arabic; all
Sabeans speak it and a goodly proportion read and write it; but beside
this they have a household language of their own, the language of their
sacred books, which is called Mandâitic. It is so closely related to
Syriac that it might almost be called a dialect, yet it has an alphabet
and grammar of its own, and their writing and speech is not fully
intelligible to the Syriac-speaking Christians from Mosul. Wright says
that their alphabet characters most resemble the Nabathean and their
language that of the Babylonian Talmud.[107] One peculiarity is the
naming of the letters with the ā vowel and not as in other Semitic
languages by special names. The oldest manuscripts of the Mandâitic
date from the sixteenth century, and are in European Libraries (Paris
and Oxford). But according to Nöldeke the golden period of their
literature, when their religious books received their final and
present form, was 650-900 A. D. At present few can read or write their
language, although all can speak it, and from religious motives they
refuse to teach those outside of their faith even the first lesson,
except secretly.
Although meeting Sabeans for years and being their guest on frequent
journeys up and down the rivers, I could find no satisfactory answer
to the question what their real faith and cult were. The popular story
that they turn to the North Star when they pray and “baptise” every
Sunday was all that Moslems or Christians could tell. Books of travel
gave fragmentary, conflicting and often grossly erroneous statements.
According to some accounts they were idolaters, others classed them
with Christians. An anonymous article in the London _Standard_, Oct.
19, 1894, entitled, “A prayer meeting of the Star-worshippers,”
curiously gave me the key to open the lock of their silence. Whoever
wrote it must have been perfectly acquainted with their religious
ceremonies, for when I translated it to a company of Sabeans at Amara
they were dumbfounded. Knowing that I knew _something_ made it easy for
them to tell me more. The article referred to was in part as follows:
“It happens to be the festival of the Star-worshippers celebrated on
the last day of the year and known as the _Kanshio Zahlo_, or day of
renunciation. This is the eve of the new year, the great watch-night
of the sect, when the annual prayer-meeting is held and a solemn
sacrifice made to Avather Ramo, the Judge of the under world, and
Ptahiel, his colleague; and the white-robed figures we observe down
by the riverside are those of members of the sect making the needful
preparations for the prayer-meeting and its attendant ceremonies.
“First, they have to erect their _Mishkna_, their tabernacle or
outdoor temple; for the sect has, strange to say, no permanent house
of worship or meeting-place, but raise one previous to their festival
and only just in time for the celebration. And this is what they are
now busy doing within a few yards of the water, as we ride into the
place. The elders, in charge of a _shkando_, or deacon, who directs
them, are gathering bundles of long reeds and wattles, which they
weave quickly and deftly into a sort of basket work. An oblong space
is marked out about sixteen feet long and twelve broad by stouter
reeds, which are driven firmly into the ground close together, and
then tied with strong cord. To these the squares of woven reeds and
wattles are securely attached, forming the outer containing walls
of the tabernacle. The side walls run from north to south, and are
not more than seven feet high. Two windows, or rather openings for
windows, are left east and west, and space for a door is made on the
southern side, so that the priest when entering the edifice has
the North Star, the great object of their adoration, immediately
facing him. An altar of beaten earth is raised in the centre of the
reed-encircled enclosure, and the interstices of the walls well daubed
with clay and soft earth, which speedily hardens. On one side of the
altar is placed a little furnace of dark earthenware, and on the
other a little handmill, such as is generally used in the East for
grinding meal, together with a small quantity of charcoal. Close to
the southern wall, a circular basin is now excavated in the ground,
about eight feet across, and from the river a short canal or channel
is dug leading to it. Into this the water flows from the stream, and
soon fills the little reservoir to the brim. Two tiny cabins or huts,
made also of reeds and wickerwork, each just large enough to hold a
single person, are then roughly put together, one by the side of the
basin of water, the other at the further extremity of the southern
wall, beyond the entrance. The second of these cabins or huts is
sacred to the _Ganzivro_ or high priest of the Star-worshippers, and
no layman is ever allowed to even so much as touch the walls with his
hands after it is built and placed in position. The doorway and window
openings of the edifice are now hung with white curtains; and long
before midnight, the hour at which the prayer-meeting commences, the
little _Mishkna_, or tabernacle open to the sky, is finished and ready
for the solemnity.
“Toward midnight the Star-worshippers, men and women, come slowly down
to the _Mishkna_ by the riverside. Each, as he or she arrives, enters
the tiny wattled hut by the southern wall, disrobes, and bathes in the
little circular reservoir, the _tarmido_, or priest, standing by and
pronouncing over each the formula, ‘_Eshmo d’haï, Eshmo d’manda haï
madhkar elakh_’ (‘The name of the living one, the name of the living
word, be remembered upon thee’). On emerging from the water, each one
robes him or herself in the _rasta_, the ceremonial white garments
peculiar to the Star-worshippers, consisting of a _sadro_, a long
white shirt reaching to the ground; a _nassifo_, or stole round the
neck falling to the knees; a _hiniamo_, or girdle of woollen material;
a _gabooa_, square headpiece, reaching to the eyebrows; a _shalooal_,
or white over-mantle; and a _kanzolo_, or turban, wound round the
_gabooa_ headpiece, of which one end is left hanging down over the
shoulder. Peculiar sanctity attaches to the _rasta_, for the garments
composing it are those in which every Star-worshipper is buried, and
in which he believes he will appear for judgment before Avather in the
nether world _Materotho_. Each one, as soon as he is thus attired,
crosses to the open space in front of the door of the tabernacle, and
seats himself upon the ground there, saluting those present with the
customary _Sood Havilakh_, ‘Blessing be with thee,’ and receiving in
return the usual reply, _Assootah d’haï havilakh_, ‘Blessing of the
living one be with thee.’
“The numbers increase as the hour of the ceremonial comes nearer, and
by midnight there are some twenty rows of these white-robed figures,
men and women, ranked in orderly array facing the _Mishkna_, and
awaiting in silent expectation the coming of the priests. A couple
of _tarmidos_, lamp in hand, guard the entry to the tabernacle, and
keep their eyes fixed upon the pointers of the Great Bear in the sky
above. As soon as these attain the position indicating midnight, the
priests give a signal by waving the lamps they hold, and in a few
moments the clergy of the sect march down in procession. In front are
four of the _shkandos_, young deacons, attired in the _rasta_, with
the addition of a silk cap, or _tagha_, under the turban, to indicate
their rank. Following these come four _tarmidos_, ordained priests
who have undergone the baptism of the dead. Each wears a gold ring on
the little finger of the right hand, and carries a tau-shaped cross
of olive wood to show his standing. Behind the _tarmidos_ comes the
spiritual head of the sect, the _Ganzivro_, a priest elected by his
colleagues who has made complete renunciation of the world and is
regarded as one dead and in the realms of the blessed. He is escorted
by four other deacons. One holds aloft the large wooden tau-cross,
known as _derashvod zivo_, that symbolizes his religious office; a
second bears the sacred scriptures of the Star-worshippers, the _Sidra
Rabba_, “the great Order,” two-thirds of which form the liturgy of the
living and one-third the ritual of the dead. The third of the deacons
carries two live pigeons in a cage, and the last a measure of barley
and of sesame seeds.
“The procession marches through the ranks of the seated worshippers,
who bend and kiss the garments of the _Ganzivro_ as he passes near
them. The _tarmidos_ guarding the entrance to the tabernacle draw back
the hanging over the doorway and the priests file in, the deacons and
_tarmidos_ to right and left, leaving the _Ganzivro_ standing alone
in the centre, in front of the earthen altar facing the North Star,
Polaris. The sacred book _Sidra Rabba_ is laid upon the altar folded
back where the liturgy of the living is divided from the ritual of
the dead. The high priest takes one of the live pigeons handed to him
by a _shkando_, extends his hands toward the Polar Star upon which he
fixes his eyes, and lets the bird fly, calling aloud, ‘_Bshmo d’haï
rabba mshabbah zivo kadmaya Elaha Edmen Nafshi Eprah_,’ ‘In the name
of the living one, blessed be the primitive light, the ancient light,
the Divinity self-created.’ The words, clearly enunciated within, are
distinctly heard by the worshippers without, and with one accord the
white-robed figures rise from their places and prostrate themselves
upon the ground toward the North Star, on which they have silently
been gazing.
“Noiselessly the worshippers resume their seated position on the
ground outside. Within the _Mishkna_, or tabernacle, the _Ganzivro_
steps on one side, and his place is immediately taken by the senior
priest, a _tarmido_, who opens the _Sidra Rabba_ before him on the
altar and begins to read the _Shomhotto_, ‘confession’ of the sect, in
a modulated chant, his voice rising and falling as he reads, and ever
and anon terminating in a loud and swelling _Mshobbo havi eshmakhyo
Manda d’haï_, ‘Blessed be thy name, O source of life,’ which the
congregants without take up and repeat with bowed heads, their hands
covering their eyes.
“While the reading is in progress two other priests turn, and prepare
the _Peto elayat_, or high mystery, as they term their Communion. One
kindles a charcoal fire in the earthenware stove by the side of the
altar, and the other grinds small some of the barley brought by the
deacon. He then expresses some oil from the sesame seed, and, mixing
the barley meal and oil, prepares a mass of dough which he kneads and
separates into small cakes the size of a two-shilling piece. These
are quickly thrust into or on the oven and baked, the chanting of the
liturgy of the _Shomhotto_ still proceeding with its steady sing-song
and response, _Mshobbo havi eshmakhyo_, from outside. The fourth
of the _tarmidos_ now takes the pigeon left in the cage from the
_shkando_, or deacon, standing near him, and cuts its throat quickly
with a very sharp knife, taking care that no blood is lost. The little
cakes are then brought to him by his colleague, and, still holding
the dying pigeon, he strains its neck over them in such a way that
four drops fall on each one so as to form the sacred _tau_, or cross.
Amid the continued reading of the liturgy, the cakes are carried round
to the worshippers outside by the two principal priests who prepared
them, who themselves pop them direct into the mouths of the members,
with the words ‘_Rshimot bereshm d’haï_,’ ‘Marked be thou with the
mark of the living one.’ The four deacons inside the _Mishkna_ walk
round to the rear of the altar and dig a little hole, in which the
body of the dead pigeon is then buried.
“The chanting of the confession is now closed by the officiating
_tarmido_, and the high priest, the _Ganzivro_, resuming his former
place in front of the Sacred Book, begins the recitation of the
_Massakhto_, or ‘renunciation’ of the dead, ever directing his prayers
toward the North Star, on which the gaze of the worshippers outside
continues fixed throughout the whole of the ceremonial observances
and prayers. This star is the _Olma d’noora_, literally ‘the world
of light,’ the primitive sun of the Star-worshippers’ theogony, the
paradise of the elect, and the abode of the pious hereafter. For
three hours the reading of the ‘renunciation’ by the high priest
continues, interrupted only, ever and anon, by the _Mshobbo havi
eshmakhyo_, ‘Blessed be thy name,’ of the participants seated outside,
until, toward dawn, a loud and ringing _Ano asborlakh ano asborli ya
Avather_, ‘I mind me of thee, mind thou of me O Avather,’ comes from
the mouth of the priest, and signalizes the termination of the prayers.