File:The gorge of the Zab in Tyari.jpg

Identifier: cradleofmankindl00wigrrich (find matches)
Title: The cradle of mankind; life in eastern Kurdistan
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Wigram, W. A. (William Ainger), 1872-1953 Wigram, Edgar Thomas Ainger, Sir, 1864-1935
Subjects: Kurds Kurdistan -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. & C. Black, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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stance of Tyariterritory. Jewish villages are rare in the land, but thereare a few ; mostly claiming descent from the ten tribes which were settled here by Sargon. If the descent so claimed be correct, the lot of thesepoor Hebrews was doubly hard ; for they were raided onthree successive Good Fridays by the Tyari m.en, not becauseof any feud, but purely out of respect for the day ! Some-thing had to be done, in the raiders opinion, to show theirabhorrence of an act about which they had much the samefeelings as King Clovis; and much the same uncertaintyas to dates. The episode was mediaeval, but the people are mediaeval;and even more civilized people sometimes use the Jewsequally ill. The Tyari men must have sung with rightgood will in those years, the anthem of their Easter vigilservice : Woe to the people of the Jews ! That strange observances, beliefs, and superstitionsshould linger in this corner of Asia, even to a greater extentthan in other parts, is natural enough. Second sight.
Text Appearing After Image:
o H h rt rr^ H h*N < u s: 03 c a X X aj H o c « C^ o^ c o - THE SEERS DARK SPIRIT 305 however (to take one widespread phenomenon), does notseem to be so common a faculty here as is the case in Scot-land ; or it may be simply that the Oriental is more charyof speaking of such a matter to a foreigner. Still, we haveheard of cases ; notably that of a Seer whom his fellowtribesmen consulted on all matters of importance, and whoforetold at the last the disaster that would befall them inone special raid. If you go out to battle now; he said, you will flee seven ways before the Mussulmans ; and thoughyou yourself, chief, will be saved by a willow tree, death willbe my portion. The prophecy was literally fulfilled ; theChristians being routed in the skirmish, and scattered. TheSeer himself (whom the Kurds had intended to spare) waskilled by a random shot ; and the chief took to flight, andbeing pursued, had to save himself by swimming the Zab.He was, however, swept away by the cu

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