'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎63] (94/582)

BY THE PASS OF THE ARCH.
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familiar to me to be mistaken wherever I saw them, even among a
crowd of strangers ; the Koords also are a very marked race, and
appear from their physiognomy to be of a Tartar origin; while the
Persians are, if possible, a still more distinct family than either.
But, in the course of my enquiries, I learned that there were
formerly in these mountains a people called Nessereah, who, like
those of the same name in Syria, paid divine honours to the pudenda
muliehris, and held an annual feast not unlike the ancient myste
ries of Venus. They had however made gradual advances towards
Mohammedanism, though they still retained this strange mixture
of pagan rites among themselves; and while they professed, in
the presence of Moslems, to read the Koran, and be followers of
the Prophet, they were scarcely ever seen to pray, were known
openly to make, sell, and drink wine, to commit incest under the
guise of religion, and to have secret laws and opinions which it
would be death to any of them to divulge. They had lived long
in the mountains in this state of independence, until a series of
persecutions and gradual emigration had brought them to settle
in the villages around.
The greater part of these people are now at Kerrund, where
they form the majority of the population, and are called both
Nessereahs and Ali-Ullaheeahs, from some peculiar notions which
they have of an incarnation of God in the person of Ali. They
are however regarded by all as pagans, and a hundred tales are told
to support this opinion. At their annual feast it is said that
they all meet in a room, where, after some ceremonies performed
by their chief, the lights are put out, and every female takes off
her drawers and hangs them on a place in the wall. The men then
enter, and each takes down a pair of these drawers, still in the
dark, when, the light being renewed, the owner of each garment is
sought out, and she becomes the partner of the man who possesses
it for the night, or, as some say, his wife for the whole ensuing
year.
The opinions and practices of the Nessereah near Aleppo, are