El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-05-19


about Sarpul, and near Kasri-S nirir
g the buildings Of the later ChOsrCe5 Ii,
! in great ruins, bat better pres erwin Q
than aught else On the Corpse roa1 the
glory of these days when
"There was palace of kings ere the
world was waXen Old
For miles and miles the great brown
stone walls which shut in its garden
t run over valley AID hill. But the
, strength and glory Of these old times
are gone. The vandal people defac=
the Inscriptions and pillage the old
, buildings for stone which they will not
hew for themselves and brick which
they will not burn. In the Tagd-i-
Bustan. Faith Ali Shah the present
ed carving OF himself, with his long
, beard, his thin waist, and several of
his multitudinous sons. On the face Of
the great carvings at Bustan, attribu
ed to Alexander, is tas, eless carving
in Arabic, made at the time OF the
Shah's visit to Kerbela, of some
parasite who did not scruple to spoil
queror Modern Persia, having never
done one great thing contents itself
with celebrating the traces OF its past
greatness
What are the inscriptions of Darius
to Kurd5? They would barter them
for goats. Low as their life is, how
ever and small as is their world, the
Kurd4 have qualities of which the ur-
| bane PersianS speak with respect and
envy. There is free and often low
ing home-life among lem. The fam
| ily has its hearth, and welcomes friend
| and stranger to it. In scores of Persi-
an villages through which we have
| passed I have almost never seen a fam
! lily group gathered in home-likeway-
the children in their right p! aces. and
that playful cheerfulness present
which one sees in many Kurdish
homes. The Persians themselves speak
of it. Yet these Kurds are untouched
practically by the gospel. Into the di-
aIect spoken by those living on the
Corpse road only portion OF our Cos
pei has been translated. That they
are not all .irrevocably committed to
Islam as indicated by the large defec
ton from Islam to the faith of the Ali
Illahies, curious sect living along
this road. at Sabnah. at Kerind, and to
the north. The Ali Illahies, are a d s.
torted vindication of Henry Martyr.
They have week faith, some say
no faith, in the Koran, and regard
Moses, Jesus, Mohamme5, Ali. Henry
MARTIN and David Livington with some
other of the patriarchs and prophets
as divine manifestations. When Hen |
ry Martyr came to Persia in the early |
years of this century he was rejected |
and reviled. Now, a Moslem sect del |
fes him. We stayed with Sayid at |
Sabnah, who is leader among the |
Ali Illahies of his town, and who re-
fused money as we left, saying. I'VE |
are the people of the truth, and we |
must receive freely all the people of |
God" Hut some said he had other |
motives. The sacrament of the Ali |
Illahies is form of fire worship.
Their dervishes have learned to eat it |
or appear to-, as part of the ceremony.
\ fire eating dervish is no. pleasant |
spectacle, but no dervish is.
Ard the Corpse road is full of der
wishes. They prey upon the pilgrims.
Each evening at the stopping places
the dervishes go about from house to
house begging. At Man Tagh one
came singing with ceaseless repetition,
so pilgrim friend, give to me, give to
me. So make your pilgrimage blessed.
O, my soul. O. my soul.' AT Sarpula
agwhite-eyed, erect, Arab went about
with the refrain, God lives: God lives.
There is need of bread: there is need of
tea: there is need OF sugar; there is
need of wood. Blessed are those who
give. Peace he with you" He was
followed by curious trio, one curly
haired young negro; the others, old,
thin-haired, STOPPING men-all bare
great gnaried dervish's club. The
negro was a dramatic and elccuent fig
ure, who said, "God will give; God Will
give" which he explained to mean
that Gcd had given to US, but we would
not turn it over to him: which, indeed.
we would not. To such a complete No.
CATION Of all godliness, as a dirty, idle,
gnOraut whining dervish l would not
give one cent. He is Christ's repre-
> o1,,t h 10 Iat i l
is no. one point in which he resembles
Christ. Il
The Corpse road is lined with grave {
yards. Everywhere in Persia the
are built on the roads. The s
YAK l-i-dowleh, one of the most prom {
inent men in western Persia, told me
these graves were put on the highways
90 that pilgrims passing by might $
throw a little dust on them, or give
them a blessing; that from every viii
age some one in generation went on
a pilgrimage, so that every road in
Persia was sure to be tragersed by !
pilgrims feet. Often the gcaves are I
put directly in the road, or the road t
5trays out Of It's course over the graves I
which are usually unmarked, and not {
20 be identified. {
Kermanshah is the only place west !
Of HamadaA, on tLe'rOad OF the dead, /
where there is a Christian worker |
until Bagdad Is reached. AT Herman !
shah young HISTORIAN and his mother I
are at work, finding an open door {
among the Jews and both opposition c
md encouragement among Moslems I
We spent the Sabbath with them, and i
attended the little meeting in the t
a dozen Jews sat along the t
wall, and a group of children listened :
ittentively. AS [ spoke to the Jews of v
jhe coming day when this great race f
would recognize in Jesus thoir Mes
.iah and Goa, several interrupted and
said, I'VE do; we do" One old man '
,eioined, Il believe Jesus was the )
Christ. [ know none better than He" a
At the close they asserted that of the I
500 Jews in Kerman5hah not score c
intellectually. All were l
that the Messiah had come; |
hat Jesus was He. but" they said c
We hold back. We fear TO con- t
less. Who will marry our
How shall we live?" t