Haxthausen, speaking of the Russian Izedis, says that they believe that Satan (Shaitan) was the first-created, greatest, and most exalted of the archangels; that the world was made by him at God's command, and that to him was entrusted its government; but that, for esteeming himself equal with God, he was banished from the Divine presence. Nevertheless, he will be again received in favour, and his kingdom (this world) restored to him. They suffer no one to speak ill of Satan ; if the Tatar Muhammedan curse, Nalat Shaitanna-accursed be Satan, be uttered in their presence, they are bound to slay either the speaker or themselves. On a certain day they offer to Satan thirty sheep. Christ, they say, is merciful, and his favour easily procured ; but Satan is not so easily propitiated. Haxthausen further relates that, questioning the Russian Izedis concerning this doctrine, he was asked by a white-bearded Izedi, " Dost thou believe that God is righteous and all-merciful?" "Yes," replied the Baron. "Was not Satan the best beloved of all the archangels ?" resumed the questioner ; " and will not God take pity on him who has been exiled so many thousand years, and restore to him the dominion over the world he created ? Will not Satan then reward the poor Izedis, who alone have never spoken ill of him, and have suffered so much for him?" "Martyrdom," exclaims the German traveller, " for the rights of Satan !-strange confusion of ideas, with something, nevertheless, touching."

Fraser relates a curious legend which exists in Seistan, among the inhabit­ants of which are not only many fire-worshippers, ghabirs or ghebres, but a considerable number of these Shaitan purust or devil-worshippers. The account is as follows:-

" In former times there existed, they say, a prophet named Hanlalah, whose life was prolonged to the measure of a thousand years. He was their ruler and benefactor; and as by his agency their flocks gave birth to young miraculously once a week, though ignorant of the use of money, they enjoyed all the comforts of life with much gratitude to him. At length, however, he died, and was suc­ceeded by his son, whom Satan, presuming on his inexperience, tempted to sin, by entering into a large mulberry tree (a remarkably fine mulberry tree throws its shade in the present day over the court at Sheikh Adi), from whence he ad­dressed the successor of Hanlalah, and called on him to worship the prince of darkness. Astonished, yet unshaken, the youth resisted the temptation. But the miracle proved too much for the constancy of his flock, who began to turn to the worship of the devil. The young prophet, enraged at this, seized an axe and a saw, and prepared to cut down the tree, when he was arrested by the appearance of a human form, who exclaimed, ' Bash boy, desist! turn to me, and let us wrestle for the victory. If you conquer, then fell the tree.'

" The prophet consented, and vanquished his opponent; who, however, bought his own safety and that of the tree by the promise of a large weekly treasure. After seven days, the holy victor again visited the tree, to claim the gold or fell it to the ground; but Satan persuaded him to hazard another struggle, on pro­mise that if conquered again the amount should be doubled. The second ren­counter proved fatal to the youth, who was put to death by his spiritual antago­nist ; and the result confirmed the tribes over whom he had ruled in the worship of the tree and its tutelary demon."

In this legend, Mr. Fraser remarks, the leading doctrine of all these Eastern religions-the constant contention between the powers of good and evil-is plainly shadowed forth, with the additional moral that, as long as he was actuated by a disinterested zeal for religion, the young prophet was victorious over the spirit of evil, but failed so soon as that zeal gave place to a sordid cupidity for earthly treasure.

The " tree", it is also to be observed, occupies a prominent place in all the religions of the East-Chinese, Hindu, Persian, or Arabian. It figures largely in the Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures. Needless to remark what an im­portant place it also fills in the Jewish history of our first parents.

This legend becomes still more interesting when compared with the following passage, which is taken from Assemani (vol. iii, p. 493), in the part where he treats of the religions of Mesopotamia and Assyria:-" According to the natives of the country, the Yezidis were at one time Christians, who, however, in the

course of ages, had forgotten even the fundamental principles of their faith. I am, nevertheless, not inclined to helieve this their origin; for I am of opinion that the word Yezidi is derived from Yezid, which in the idiom of Persia signifies God. Yezidi, the plural of Yezid, indicates the observers of superstitious doc­trines (as may lie seen from Antonio Gyges, Tesoro della lingua Arabica). Yezid was, in fact, the name of the idol which Elias, bishop and missionary of Mogham, overthrew with three blows of an axe; and this fact sustains the opinion I have advanced. Monseignore Tommaso, bishop of Marquise, who lived in the commencement of the ninth century, relates that when this Elias, after having been chosen bishop of Mogham-a city on the frontiers of Persia, and near the Caspian sea-proceeded to enter on the duties of his diocese, he found it occupied by a barbarous people, immersed in superstition and idolatry.

" The bishop, however, commenced his instructions ; and his flock confessed that they received them with pleasure, were convinced of their truth, and were inclined to return to the true God, but that they were terrified at the thought of abandoning Yezid, the object of religious veneration of their ancestors. This idol, they said, conscious of approaching rejection and contempt, would not fail to revenge itself by their total destruction. Elias desired to be led to this object of their adoration. They conducted him to the summit of a neighbouring hill, from whence a dark wood extended into the valley below. From the bosom of this rose a plane-tree of enormous height, majestic in the spread of its boughs and deep obscurity of its shade ; but, transported with holy zeal, he demanded a hatchet, and rushing to the valley, sought the idol, whom he found lowering with a dark and menacing aspect. Nothing daunted, however, he raised the axe, smote down the image of the prince of darkness, and continued his work till not only was the mighty tree laid prostrate, but every one of the numerous younger shoots, termed by the barbarians the children of Yezid, were likewise demo­lished."

The similarity of these two legends, coming from such opposite quarters, is very remarkable, and can scarcely be quite accidental. It may be from some confusion of persons that the Izedis fast three days upon the winter festival of Khidr Iliyas or Elias (see "Rich, p. 69). Such a confusion of names is not un­common in the East. That excellent orientalist the Rev. Mr. Renouard, says, for example, in allusion to a tomb called Ehidr Ilyas, or Khizr Iliyas, at Angora, that it is the name of a Turkjsh saint and hero, confounded by the Turks with St. George and the prophet Elias. (Journal, Royal Geo. Society, vol. ix, p. 273.) We are aware, also, from D'Herbelot, as substantiated by Sir Henry Rawlinson (Journal of Royal Geo. Society, vol. ix, p. 36), that the tomb of Baba Yadgar, in the pass of Zardah, which is the chief sanctuary of the Ali Ilahis, a mountaineer sect whose faith bears evident marks of. Judaism, singularly amalgamated with Sabsean, Christian, and Muhammedan legends, was regarded at the time of the Arab invasion of Persia as the abode of Elias. (See D'Herbelot, in the titles Holwan and Zerib Bar Elia.)

Mr. Rich, alluding to one of these Khidr Iliyases much venerated by the Kurds on the frontiers of Sulaimaniyah, that they are not so much tombs as resting places of the prophet Elias. The notion that Elijah never died, and that he is still on the earth, where he is to remain until the coming of Jesus Christ, is common to many Jews, Mohammedans, and other Eastern sects. The pro­phecy that Elijah should come "before the great and terrible day of the Lord", has probably given rise to the notion that he had not yet completed his part on earth. The wisest rabbis have taught that Elias sits under the tree of life in Paradise, and keeps account of the good works of the Jews, especially of their sabbath observances. Jesus Himself was taken for Elias, reappearing after nine centuries of concealment. (See Buxtorfs Synagoga Judaica, Basle, 1641, pp. 80, 255.)

It is on account of this everlasting life, supposed to be enjoyed by Elias, that in it. Their Pir, or Sheikh, reads prayers, every one at intervals crying out, Amen, and this is the whole of their worship. It is true that they pay adoration, or at least a sort of worship, to Malik Taus, the figure of a bird placed on a kind of candlestick. (This figure, he adds in a note, is that of a cock, and is produced but once a year for the purpose of worship.) They will not spit into the fire, or blow out a candle with their breaths. When the sun just appears above the horizon, they salute it with three prostrations. When they are taxed by the Christians and Turks with having no books, they say it is because God has so peculiarly enlightened their minds as to render books and a written law unnecessary."

Next to Satan, among the Izedis, but inferior to him in might and wisdom, are seven archangels, who exercise a great influence over the world ; they are Gabrael, Michael, Raphael, Azrael, Dedrael, Azraphael, and Shemkeel. Upon this Layard remarks, "It will be remembered that in the Book of Tobit (ch. xii, v. 15) Raphael is made to say,-" I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One." " The seven spirits before the throne of God" are mentioned in Revelations (ch. i, v. 4; ch. iv, v. 5.)

This number of seven, in the hierarchy of the celestial host, as in many other sacred things, appears to have been connected with Babylonian, Assyrian, and Chaldeean traditions and celestial observations.

the Muhammedans call him Khidr, or evergreen. D'Herbelot relates that Elias appeared to Fadilah, a chief of the Arabs, at the resting place in the pass of Zardah, before alluded to, upon the occasion of the capture of Holwan, in the sixteenth year of the Hegira. It is in reference to this superstition, that a Turkish poet observes, " keep yourselves from believing that this world is your home; your home is in heaven alone ; strive, therefore, by the means of virtue to reach that home where Elias dwells, and where a place is prepared for you."

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W. Francis Ainsworth, 1861

Primitive Christian Worship