Outwardly the Druses keep up the appearance of friendship with their neighbours, but the intrigues of political agents, and the wary cunning of Roman priests, have of late years tended sadly to interrupt the harmony that existed between the Druses and the Maronites.
The Yezidees, of whom there are some thousands in the country next claim attention. They are most numerous in Koordistan, where they are all comprised in one general body. In Syria, however, we are accustomed to divide them into three tribes—the worshippers of the sun, the Shemisees; the worshippers of the devil, the Sheytanees; and the cut-throats. I do not mean to say that the latter portion are greater cut-throats than their co-religionists of the other two sections, for like the Mahommedans, with whom they come chiefly into collision, the whole of the three divisions are equally distinguished by the same murderous inclinations. Like the religion of the Druses, that of the Yezidees is an indescribable mixture of nearly all the religious creeds of the East and West. They respect Christ and the Christian saints; but they do not disavow Mahommed and Moses. They baptize their children, but they conform also to the Hebrew practice of circumcision. They commemorate the birth of the Saviour, but they also celebrate the feast of the Passover with all the forms and solemnities customary among the Jews; and they also abstain from all the food which is considered unclean by the Israelite. While worshipping but one God, they profess profound veneration for Ahriman, the prince of darkness, and they also adore the fiery element, bowing before the rising sun. In praying, they are careful to kneel with their faces towards the East. Indeed, it would seem as if, doubtful of salvation under a simple faith of their own, the presiding minds of the Yezidees had collected the principal points from all religions in the world, in order to make sure of the right one. Some of them even do not hesitate to make an avowal of this kind. The most peculiar feature of their religion, is the extreme respect which they pay to the devil, who is never mentioned by his right name, but is always mysteriously spoken of _as the great incognito_, _the bird of Paradise_, and whose worship is always carried on after sunset. I am assured too, that his Satanic eminence is always present on these sacred occasions, and is accustomed to acknowledge the honours paid to him by his credulous worshippers by a yell or scream of a most unearthly kind, its effect being to prostrate on their faces the whole of the parties present. Their head-priest possesses an extraordinary amount of influence over the whole body.