'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1865 to December 1867. (Edited by the Honorary Secretary.) Volume XVIII.' [‎16] (151/268)

16
OVERLAND JOURNEY FROM
Suviani'), as no other than Nestorians and Jacobites, the former 0 f
these designations being their own, and the latter that applied to them
by the Romish section of the Oriental Church, which holds them as
18. Of the Arabs we saw little after passing Mardin, or of the
Kurds after leaving the banks of the Euphrates . To our hosts among
both I have every reason to feel grateful. Their hospitality was plain
and straightforward, simple, and void of all ostentation. It was as
much the" instinct of their nature as the dictate of their religion that
it should be offered to the traveller, whatever his rank or creed, and
there was no arriere pensee of remuneration. No doubt that it is just
as well to give on parting a sum of money equal to, if not in excess of,
the probable cost of entertainment, but I would add, if opportunity
offer, a trifling token of good-will, such as a silk kerchief, or nick-nack
for a woman or child. I found this arrangement tell with excellent
effect at the villages of Bayat and Izz Oghlu. In the former a poor
infant was immediately adorned with the trophy, in the latter it became
part and parcel of the new-born hope of a Kurdish family. The ap
preciation of the gift was so hearty and sincere that I regretted I had
no larger supply wherewith to mark our progress westward. But it is
not only as furnishing me with a night’s or day’s lodging and shelter
that I remember the Kurds. It sometimes fell to our lot to halt for an
hour or so in the midst of a long hot march, and seek refreshment at
their hands both for ourselves and cattle. The bread-cake, curds, and
omelette, all these were soon got ready and placed at our disposal.
These good folks never appeared to be put out or in hesitation while
giving us the best of their domestic fare.
19. We had heard of the Yezidis, and passed two or three of
their encampments, but it was not our fate to be quartered upon their
hospitality. Not so, however, in the case of the Kizzilbashes. Of
this class we came upon several villages between the Euphrates and
Sivas. To judge from the character given to them by the Turkish
telegraph officials, their morals are of the worst description, and they
have practices such as are acknowleged by the Yezidis ; but I do not
put implicit faith in these assertions. Recent inquiries lead me rather
to the belief that the fact of their being Shias is the great reason why
the Sunni Turks shun and keep separate from them- Among the lower
order of Asiatics a distinction of this kind is quite sufficient to account
for scandal and defamation up to any amount of invention and falsehood.