Now the species of the serpent increased, and began to bite man and animal. It was finally caught and burned, and from its ashes fleas were created. From the time of the flood until now are seven thousand years. In every thousand years one of the seven gods descends to establish rules, statutes, and laws, after which he returns to his abode. While below, he sojourns with us, for we have every kind of holy places. This last time the god dwelt among us longer than any of the other gods who came before him. He confirmed the saints. He spoke in the Kurdish language. He also illuminated Mohammed, the prophet of the Ishmaelites, who had a servant named Mu‘âwiya. When God saw that Mohammed was not upright before him, he afflicted him with a headache. The prophet then asked his servant to shave his head, for Mu‘âwiya knew how to shave. He shaved his master in haste, and with some difficulty. As a result, he cut his head and made it bleed. Fearing that the blood might drop to the ground, Mu‘âwiya licked it with his tongue. Whereupon Mohammed asked, “What are you doing, Mu‘âwiya?” He replied, “I licked thy blood with my tongue, for I feared that it might drop to the ground.” Then Mohammed said to him, “You have sinned, O Mu‘âwiya, you shall draw a nation after you. You shall oppose my sect.” Mu‘âwiya answered and said, “Then I will not enter the world; I will not marry.”
It came to pass that after some time God sent scorpions upon Mu‘âwiya, which bit him, causing his face to break out with poison. Physicians urged him to marry lest he die. Hearing this, he consented. They brought him an old woman, eighty years of age, in order that no child might be born. Mu‘âwiya knew his wife, and in the morning she appeared a woman of twenty-five, by the power of the great God. And she conceived and bore our god Yezid. But the foreign sects, ignorant of this fact, say that our god came from heaven, dispised and driven out by the great God. For this reason they blaspheme him. In this they have erred. But we, the Yezidi sect, believe this not, for we know that he is one of the above-mentioned seven gods. We know the form of his person and his image. It is the form of a cock which we possess. None of us is allowed to utter his name, nor anything that resembles it, such as šeitân (Satan), ḳaitân (cord), šar (evil), šat (river), and the like. Nor do we pronounce mal‘ûn (accursed), or la‘anat (curse), or na‘al[44] (horseshoe), or any word that has a similar sound. All these are forbidden us out of respect for him. So ḫass (lettuce) is debarred. We do not eat it, for it sounds like the name of our prophetess Ḫassiah. Fish is prohibited, in honor of Jonah the prophet. Likewise deer, for deer are the sheep of one of our prophets. The peacock is forbidden to our Šeiḫ and his disciples, for the sake of our Ṭâ´ûs. Squash also is debarred. It is forbidden to pass water while standing, or to dress up while sitting down, or to go to the toilet room, or to take a bath according to the custom of the people.[45] Whosoever does contrary to this is an infidel. Now the other sects, Jews, Christians, Moslems, and others, know not these things, because they dislike Melek Ṭâ´ûs. He, therefore, does not teach them, nor does he visit them. But he dwelt among us; he delivered to us the doctrines, the rules, and the traditions, all of which have become an inheritance, handed down from father to son. After this, Melek Ṭâ´ûs returned to heaven.
One of the seven gods made the sanjaḳs[46] (standards) and gave them to Solomon the wise. After his death our kings received them. And when our god, the barbarian Yezîd, was born, he received these sanjaḳs with great reverence, and bestowed them upon our sect. Moreover, he composed two songs in the Kurdish language to be sung before the sanjaḳas in this language, which is the most ancient and acceptable one. The meaning of the song is this:
Hallelujah to the jealous God.
As they sing it, they march before the sanjaḳs with timbrels and pipes. These sanjaḳs remain with our emir, who sits on the throne of Yezîd. When these are sent away, the ḳawwâls assemble with the emir, and the great general, the šeiḫ, who is the representative of Šeiḫ Nasir-ad-Dîn, i. e., Nisroch, god of the ancient Assyrians.[47] They visit the sanjaḳs. Then they send each sanjaḳ in care of a ḳawwâl to its own place; one to Ḫalataneye, one to Aleppo, one to Russia, and one to Sinjar. These sanjaḳs are given to four ḳawwâls by contract. Before they are sent, they are brought to Šeiḫ ‘Adî’s tomb, where they are baptized amid great singing and dancing. After this each of the contractors takes a load of dust from Šeiḫ ‘Adî’s tomb. He fashions it into small balls, each about the size of a gall nut, and carries them along with the sanjaḳs to give them away as blessings. When he approaches a town, he sends a crier before him to prepare the people to accept the ḳawwâl and his sanjaḳ with respect and honor. All turn out in fine clothes, carrying incense. The women shout, and all together sing joyful songs. The ḳawwâl is entertained by the people with whom he stops. The rest give him silver presents, everyone according to his means.
Besides these four sanjaḳs, there are three others, seven in all. These three are kept in a sacred place for purposes of healing. Two of them, however, remain with Šeiḫ ‘Adî, and the third remains in the village of Baḥazanie, which is distant from Mosul about four hours. Every four months these ḳawwâls travel about. One of them must travel in the province of the emir. They travel in a fixed order, differing each year. Every time he goes out, the traveler must cleanse himself with water made sour with summaḳ (sumac) and anoint himself with an oil. He must also light a lamp at each idol that has a chamber. This is the law that pertains to the sanjaḳs.
The first day of our new year is called the Serṣâlie, i. e., the beginning of a year. It falls on the Wednesday of the first week in April.[48] On that day there must be meat in every family. The wealthy must slaughter a lamb or an ox; the poor must kill a chicken or something else. These should be cooked on the night, the morning of which is Wednesday, New Year’s day. With the break of day the food should be blessed. On the first day of the year alms should be given at tombs where the souls of the dead lie.
Now the girls, large and small, are to gather from the fields flowers of every kind that have a reddish color. They are to make them into bundles, and, after keeping them three days, they are to hang them on the doors[49] as a sign of the baptism of the people living in the houses. In the morning all doors will be seen well decorated with red lilies. But women are to feed the poor and needy who pass by and have no food; this is to be done at the graves. But as to the ḳawwâls, they are to go around the tombs with timbrels, singing in the Kurdish language. For so doing they are entitled to money. On the above-mentioned day of Serṣâlie no instruments of joy are to be played, because God is sitting on the throne (arranging decrees for the year),[50] and commanding all the wise and the neighbors to come to him. And when he tells them that he will come down to earth with song and praise, all arise and rejoice before him and throw upon each the squash of the feast. Then God seals them with his own seal. And the great God gives a sealed decision to the god who is to come down. He, moreover, grants him power to do all things according to his own will. God prefers doing good and charity to fasting and praying. The worship of any idol, such as Seyed-ad-Dîn or Šeiḫ Šams is better than fasting. Some layman is to give a banquet to a kôchak after the fasting of the latter forty days, whether it be in summer or in winter. If he (the kôchak) says this entertainment is an alms given to the sanjaḳ, then he is not released from his fasting. When it comes to pass that the yearly tithe-gatherer finds that the people have not fully paid their tithes, he whips them till they become sick, and some even die. The people are to give the kôchaks money to fight the Roman army, and thus save the sect (Yezidis) from the wrath of the man of the year.
Every Friday a load of gifts is to be brought as an offering to an idol. At that time, a servant is to call the people aloud from the roof of a kôchak’s house, saying, it is the call of the prophet to a feast. All are to listen reverently and respectfully; and, on hearing it, every one is to kiss the ground and the stone on which he happens to lean.
It is our law that no ḳawwâl shall pass a razor over his face. Our law regarding marriage is that at the time of the wedding a loaf of bread shall be taken from the house of a kôchak and be divided between the bride and the bridegroom, each to eat one-half. They may, however, eat some dust from Šeiḫ ‘Adî’s tomb instead of the bread for a blessing. Marriage in the month of April is forbidden, for it is the first month of the year. This rule, however, does not apply to ḳawwâls; they may marry during this month. No layman is allowed to marry a kôchak’s daughter. Everyone is to take a wife from his own class. But our emir may have for a wife any one whom he pleases to love. A layman may marry between the ages of ten and eighty; he may take for a wife one woman after another for a period of one year. On her way to the house of the bridegroom, a bride must visit the shrine of every idol she may happen to pass; even if she pass a Christian church, she must do the same. On her arrival at the bridegroom’s house, he must hit her with a small stone in token of the fact that she must be under his authority. Moreover, a loaf of bread must be broken over her head as a sign to her that she must love the poor and needy. No Yezidi may sleep with his wife on the night the morning of which is Wednesday, and the night the morning of which is Friday. Whosoever does contrary to this commandment is an infidel. If a man steal the wife of his neighbor, or his own former wife, or her sister or mother, he is not obliged to give her dowry, for she is the booty of his hand. Daughters may not inherit their father’s wealth. A young lady may be sold as an acre of land is sold. If she refuses to be married, then she must redeem herself by paying her father a sum of money earned by her service and the labor of her hand.