they have plundered; whereas the Bakhtiari rarely add murder to robbery, unless in the case of resistance being offered. The Belooches assault their victims with matchlocks and swords, and they defend themselves with shields of asses' skin. I have given this minute description of Yezd, partly because it may tend to afford the reader some idea of the conditions of life in Persia, where the state of things in one province more or less resembles that of another province; and partly because Yezd claims notice as being the last spot in Persia where the descendants of the fire-worshippers[1] who so long ruled the empire have found a resting-place, on the condition of cultivating the earth for their alien masters.
The number of the Guebres in and around Yezd is reduced to about eight hundred families. They possess two fire temples in the town of Yezd, and one in each of the eight villages occupied by them in its vicinity. These consist of arched apartments open to the weather, and paved with small stones. These are the houses of prayer, and in a dark room adjoining each is preserved the sacred fire buried beneath a heap of ashes on a raised piece of brickwork or on a regularly- constructed altar of stone. The Guebre priests are of two degrees the Moobid, or chief priest, and the Destear, or inferior clergy. The Moobid, before going to meals, recites a prayer, when he places before him fire, holy water, and the Hom, a knotted plant found in the desert. To his care is confided the Zendavesta and
the Dessateer, or book of prophecies; whilst the sacred
- ↑ In several parts of this work, the Guebres, or Parsis, are called fire-worshippers, because they are generally known to English readers by that name.
