The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1917-10-04

TIME other day there was the re-
port that some of the British sol
diers on the Tigris had come
across a village of Red Heads.
Strange people are these Red Heads,
writes ]. @. Bristow-Noble In the Lon
don Globe. They are the last of the
Baal wOrshipers. The men wear red
caps, hence their name Red Heads.
They also wear red knotted cords
around their necks. The cord Is put
on during babyhood and is never re-
moved. 1t Is inferred with the body
after death. They shave their heads
except for patch on the top, and
here they allow the hair to grow long,
and pialt II into pigtails, which hang
about their ears. They are tall. wiry
fellows. with enormous nppetites for
both food and drink.
The women, who do not veil them
selves, and who dress simply In loose
fitting garments. are thin and spare.
but wonderfully strong. In their homes
they wear breeches as well as skirts.
There is no wife-beating among the
Red Heads, but plenty of husband
beating. The husbands take their fire.
quent chastisements meekly and pa
tiently. They employ themselves both
the women and the men, In agriculture
and theft. They produce couple of
crops--tobacco and durra the rest Of
their time Is given up to looting the
Turks crops and cattle. Their little
whitewashed, low-roofed dwellings,
hut chuttara1
windows are divided into three apart
ments; a kitchen, guest room, q
sleeping room. A few earthenware
lars, about FIVE feet In height and
filed with grain and dried fruits, are
kept In the guest room, and the guests
help themselves.
Tree Their Sanctuary.
In the center Of every village there
is q small circle rallied off, and In this
space there is planted the special re-
ligious emblem, an evergreen oak. No
one except the father priest of the vii
Iage enters the inclosed ground, which
., decorated with small flags, strings of
coins and bright-col6red beads. Around
and about the circle the Red Heads
celebrate the only religious festival
known to them, the Gathering of the
New Moon. which takes place every
month. Directly a new moon makes
its appearance the people are called
together by lay priest beating bar
rel-shnped drum stuck end up on the
ground. Here they come, the women
In long, clean. white gowns an" bring
Ing pots and pans and vegetables and
spices and wine, and the men, all ar
rayed in their smartest garments, drlv-
ing a flock of sheep before them and
carrying bundles of kindling wood and
quantity Of charcoal. Fires are lit,
cooking utensils placed thereon, and
the sheep killed by the priest, who
sprinlxles little of the animals blood
on the oak. and the carcasses flayed
and cut up into Joints, and the latter
cooked over the fires, before which
millet and wheat cakes are by this time
baking on huge flags. In the mean
time tables on trestles are set up and
laid with wooden plates, horn spoons
and steel knives and forks, and soon
the feasting begins. The women wait
on the men, who gorge steadily for
about an hour, and then, while their
wives and daughters are clearing up
the little they have left, indulge in
dancing. drinking and general merri-
ment.
No religious formality marks the
feast, no blessing or benedictien or
grace. Indeed, not ut birth or burial
or marriage do these survivors Of the
ancient Baal worshipers employ amy
formula ar observe anything In the
nature Of a religious ceremony. They
have no bible. no prayer book, no
liturgy, no place Of worship. Their
one and ONLY sanctuary Is the sacred
tree inclos-re, their only religious sym
boil the evergreen oak.
All Babies Are saited.
When baby Is born 1t Is warmly
clothed. placed on large wooden plat
ter and taken to the priest, who, In
front Of the sacred tree. strips It and
salts It. Probably this accounts for
the few Red Heads that now survive.
It beiDg said that their numbers have
dwindled t0 a mere 1000 or 5000. For
the service the priest Is given shoul-
der from the sheep which It Is usual
20 kill on such occasions and which