The men wear shirts closed up to the neck, and their religious law forbids them to wear the common eastern shirts open in front. Their shirt is the distinctive mark by which the Yezidi sect is recognized at once. They are clothed besides with loose trousers and cloaks, both of white, and with a black turban, from beneath which their hair falls in ringlets. They usually carry long rifles in their hands, pistols in their girdles, and a sword at their side.
In their physical characteristics they are like the Kurds, wild, rough, uncultured. They are muscular, active, and capable of bearing great hardship. In general, they are a fine, manly race: tall or of medium stature, with large chest; strong deep voice, audible afar; clear, keen eye; frank and confident, or fierce and angry; nose of moderate length, and fairly small head. Their legs are rather short, but the soles of their feet are large. Their complexion is usually dark and their eyes are black. But there are different types. The predominant type is tall, with black hair, fine regular nose, and bluish brown eyes. The rest are of shorter stature, with longer features; light, bright eyes; and large, irregular nose. The Yezidis sometime shave the hair off their head, leaving only a long, thin forelock.
II
Funerals
If a young or well-known man dies, they make in his likeness a wooden form and clothe it in the dead man’s clothes. Then the musicians play mourning tunes, while the relatives stand round the model. After wailing for a while, they walk in procession in a circle around the form, and now and then kneel down to receive a blessing from it. Those who come to the scene, according to their custom, ask the parents of the dead man, “What have you?” They reply, “We have the wedding of our son.” They continue wailing for three days. Afterward they distribute food on behalf of the dead. For a year they give a plate of food with a loaf of bread daily to some person, thinking that thereby they are feeding their own dead. On the seventh and fortieth day from the time of death, they visit the grave to mourn over their lost one. Now, if the dead be a common man, he is not honored with such a ceremony. He is usually buried an hour or two after his death.
The funeral rites are simple. The body of the Yezidi, like that of a Mohammedan, is washed in running water. After being laid on a flat board, they dress him with his former clothes, close the openings in his body with pieces of cotton, place the sacred clay of Šeiḫ ‘Adi in his mouth, on his face and forehead, under his shoulders and eyes, and on his stomach. This done, they carry the dead on the board to the cemetery. The ḳawwals, burning incense, lead the procession; the immediate relatives, especially the women, following, dressed in white and throwing dust over their heads, and accompanied by male and female friends and neighbors. If the dead be a man, they then dance, the mother or the wife holding in one hand the sword or shield of the dead, and in the other, long locks cut from her own hair. They bury him with his face turned toward the north star. Everyone present throws a little dust over the grave while saying, “O man, thou wert dust and hast returned to dust to-day.” Then the šeiḫ says, “When we say, ‘Let us rise and go home,’ then the dead man will say, ‘I will not go home with the people.’ And when he tries to get up, his head will strike the stone, when he will say, ‘O, I am among the dead.’” When they return home, the family slaughters oxen and sheep and gives meat to the poor. The poor kill four or five sheep; the rich, a hundred. The kochaks prophesy of the dead, whether he will return to the earth or will go to another world.
They hold that some will be eternally condemned, but that all will spend an expiatory period; and that the dead have communion with the living, in which the good souls dwelling in the heavens make revelations to their brethren on earth.
III
Nationality
Four different theories have been advanced as to the race to which the Yezidis belong. There are those who think them to be of Indo-European origin, for there is a type among them that has a white skin, a round skull, blue eyes and light hair. And there are those who suppose them to be Arabs on the ground that the color of skin of another type is brown, their eyes are wide, their lips are thick and their hair is dark. The western writers, moreover, have in the past always taken them for Kurds because of the close resemblance of the two in appearance and manners. In his “La Turquie d’Asie,” Vital Cunet says that though the Yezidis have been taken for Kurds, they can no longer be regarded as such, for in many ways they resemble other nationalities. On the other hand Hormuzd Rassam, in his “Asshur and the Land of Nimrud” seems to agree with those who suppose them to be of Assyrian origin. He bases this inference on the independent and martial spirit which they possess, and their tendency to rebel against their oppressors, which, according to him, may be taken as an indication of ancestral inheritance.[162]
IV
Locality
The Yezidis dwell principally in five districts, the most prominent among these being that of Šeiḫan. This term is the Persian plural of šeiḫ, an old man; and it signifies the country where šeiḫs dwell. This district lies northeast of Mosul, covering a wide area in which are many villages. It is their Palestine. In it lies their Mecca, Lalish, where their sacred shrine, the tomb of Šeiḫ ‘Adi, is. Lališh is the centre of their national and religious life. It is situated in a deep, picturesque valley. Its slopes are covered with a dense wood, and at the bottom of it runs the sacred water. Other notable places here are the two adjoining villages, Ba‘ašiḳa and Baḥazanie, at the foot of the mountain of Rabban Hormuzd, a six hours’ ride from Mosul. The former is the center of the tombs of their šeiḫs; the latter is their principal burial place, to which bodies are carried from all the various districts. It was formerly a Christian village with a monastery. And Ba‘adrie, northeast of the City of Mosul, about ten hours’ ride away, is the village where their amir resides. It is close to Šeiḫ ‘Adi’s.