..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY
#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA
#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS
#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA
#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER
#6--SUN STORIES
#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER
#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ
#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM
#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT
#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY
#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON
#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA
#15-- THE HAUNTINGS
#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER
#17-- THE STONE-THROWING
#18-- THE KAFTAR
#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE
#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID
#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE
#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.
#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS
#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON
#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH
#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON
#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH
When he gave the astrologer the lamp in exchange for the bowl the ganzowra pondered on what he had heard and yearned to go to the place which the astrologer had described, and asked the ruler of the shiviahi take him thither.
The melka replied, "I am not able to approach that place because of the powerful talisman which protects it and which prevents all beings who obey the Melka ad eHshukha (King of Darkness) from coming near it."
The ganzowra said, "All I ask is that you will prevent lions, wolves, leopards, and snakes from attacking us on the way. I wish to discover this talisman and see what it is guarding."
Answered the spirit, "Be it so! I will conduct you to a place not far from it: near, however, I dare not approach."
The ganzowra and Nasurai and Mandai got ready and on the Sunday they set out. There were many of them. The ruler of the shiviahi brought a shiviahi with eyes of fire set vertically not horizontally, in his head. His eyes appeared flames of fire, and if a wild animal saw him, he wan so frightened that he ran for a distance of three days, so that while the shiviahi traveled with the ganzowra and his people, creatures Red on all sides.
After a month of travelling, and, with the aid of Shamish, they traveled in one day a forty-days' journey, they reached the place of the skandola (the Talisman).
There they saw the animals as they had been described to them, standing on a marble base. The lion and scorpion were of gold, the serpent, 'Ur, which surrounded the group, was of steel, but of such steel as was made in ancient times, strongly tempered so that it cut iron as though it were a cucumber. The hornet was of a red metal, I know not of what kind.
After they had removed the talisman, the Mandai lifted the marble slab, and beneath it they saw a deep vault going down into the earth. They lowered ropes and chains into it, but could not touch the bottom. The ganzowra and the Nasurai examined it; then one of the Mandai said, "I will descend! Make a long chain, and give me food and water for a month, and I will be let down and see what is there."
They made a very long chain, gave him a lantern, food, and water, and let him down, bidding him farewell, for they did not know if they would ever see him again. They let him down and down, but, when he was already deep down in the earth, the chain parted in two! They thought, "He must be dead!"
The Mandai fell, but when he came to the bottom, he fell on something that was soft as cotton. The lamp had gone from him when i.e. fell, so that he had no light. He unfastened the chain from his waist and threw it from him, then walked forward with his skin of water and his food, feeling his way in the dark. He thought he saw eyes of fire before him, but when he reached towards them they fell like ashes of fire. Likewise, if he touched anything, it crumbled beneath his hand. We walked, and presently a staff knocked against his legs. He stretched forth his hand and grasped it, and felt that it was thick and durable and hard. He said to himself, "This is fortunate, for if I meet animals down here, I can defend myself."
And, as soon as he had the staff in his hand, he began to feel light-hearted and glad. He walked thus for seven days beneath the ground, and then he heard the noise of an animal (gharshasha) and he followed after it. At last he saw a light, and the animal issued by it into the upper world, for it was a hole. The Mandai enlarged it with his staff until he could get through it. Then he came up through it and saw the world, all white and fair, and a river! He washed his face, drank water and rested a little, then began to pray and thank God saying, "Aka hei aka marey, aka Mandi-t-hei. Akvesh ehshukha, atres anhura!" --that is, "There is Life, there is my lord, there is Manda-t-Hei! He took me from darkness and filled me with light!" (Sic. actually the translation of the later phrase is, " I tread down darkness and establish the light".)
And his prayer was a good one. If a man is angry and repeats that prayer he becomes cool and his anger departs from him
He rose and then looked at the staff. It was all of gold and bore an inscription, a talisman written from end to end of it.
After he had been there about an hour, he saw people approaching him. They wore no clothes, but their bodies were covered with white hair, smooth, like the down on a bird's breast. On their faces the hair grew but lightly, and on the palms of their hands there was none. They seized him and took him away with them and he was afraid, saying to himself, "These people will kill me, for they see I am not of their kind!"
They took him to their Sultan, who, like they, was unclothed and clad only by the white hairs, which grew on his body. Their houses were of tree-trunks and bamboo, for the air was temperate: there was no cold there. It was a pleasant climate, and vermin snakes, scorpions, and beasts of prey there were none in that place.
When the Sultan saw him, he bade them loose him and they unbound his fetters.
The Sultan took the staff from him, looked at it, and questioned him, but the Mandai did not understand his tongue. Then the Mandai told the Sultan by signs what had happened to him and how he had come there The Sultan asked him by signs, "On the mountain Are where you live, are there many more people like you? Are there many?"
The Mandai told him that they were many. The Sultan signed to him that he must sir with him and teach him his language and his writing so that he might converse with him.
The Mandai taught him the Mandaitic writing and pointed to things and told him their names in Mandaean. He 'took and gave speaking' with him and remained there a month.
After that the Sultan said to him, "We are of your kin, but we live near Mshuni Kushta. Formerly our speech was like yours, but it has changed." And he said, "There are many here, we are millions! I will show you how many we are--men, women, and children."
And he took the Mandai amongst the villages and the tribes and showed him their places of prayer. Not one of the people wore clothes, but their hair fell long from their bodies so that they were not naked.
The Mandal sald, '"Hiwel Ziwa ordered us to wear the rasta, the himiana, and the tagha. How is it, if you are of our race, that you do not wear these?"
The Sultan said, "Formerly, when our numbers began to be great, we quarreled with the Nasurai."
He asked, "Why did you quarrel with them!"
The other replied, The Nasurai have a doctrine, a knowledge, which they would nor share with us. We wished to obtain that knowledge from them by using force and by quarrelling with them. There were seven great kings, and I was one of them, who tried to make war against them and acquire their secrets. We rose one morning, and our speech was confused! A light descended upon us, di, di, di, di! in the place where we were all assembled. It descended upon our whole nation, men, women, and children, and our Mandai tongue went from our minds and we knew our tongue no more. We looked one upon the other like lunatics (athwal), and were unable to comprehend one another. By degrees, we began to talk a language, which came to us. We knew that Hiwel Ziwa had descended upon us and divided us from the Nasurai by this confusion of speech."
"We were afraid, and thought that we might be burnt with fire from above, but, thank God! we were not burnt, only we lost our language. We wandered to this place, and hair grew on our bodies, so that we discarded clothes, for the climate was good. There is no poverty among us, and one is equal to another." We draw our water from the river and we grow corn and barley for our food, and not one Is greater or richer than the other. We sleep where we will, and only I am in authority. No rough wind or dust comes upon us, and no tempests. There is a soft breeze from Awathur here, and hot winds and rough winds from eHshukha (the Darkness) never reach us. It never becomes dark, for we see the sun constantly, there being twilight far a short while. It is never too hot and never too cold."
Then the Sultan said to the Mandai, "That staff which I took from you enables a person to walk the distance of seven years in a week. It is so strong a talisman that, if a wholly pure person raises it to strike another, the mere wind made by its striking will kill! Such is the power, which God gave it. That vault is a seven years' journey in length, and you went through it in a week."
"The vault was used by the Mandaeans of olden timer, for at one time they used to make writings and images in stone, not on paper. There are in the vault images of gold, copper, and stone. When you put your hand on the they fell away, for they are very ancient and were made by the Mandaeans of old time who hid the images of their gods there. They represented them with their hands clasped one in the other, which is a sign of the Mandaean faith; for when one is baptized one must stand with hands clasped--thus! And you may see images with their hands folded in this manner in museums: it was our people who made them! The hands are clasped and pressed to the body."
"That vault was once a place of prayer. It is shallow at one end and deep at the other. It once belonged to our people, but since the confusion of speech, we have not known the way to it. Our language was once your language, and we used the (cuniform) writing such as is now in the museum. These misfortunes came upon us because we wished to quarrel with the Nasurai and God was angry with us."
The Mandai offered to show them the way into the subterranean place, and he rook them to the vault (sirdab). There they saw inscriptions on marble and on statues and on lamps and on the roof--everywhere there were inscriptions. And they said to him, "The staff is full of wonderworking! But be careful not to quarrel, because, if you do, by virtue of the staff, your opponent will die. God has forgiven us! You are the sign, for you descended into the vault and found the staff, and were able to lead us to the place in which we used to worship! By means of the staff, which can convey forty persons the distance of a year in a day, we can go and return."
The entire nation learned the Mandaean tongue and their understanding became as strong as it was before. They followed the ancient religion of the Mandaeans and practiced ablutions in the river. The sultan said to the Mandaean, "I would restore this staff to you but that it was by its means that God led us back to our faith and restored our worship to us. No doubt it was his purpose that it should come to us through you."
Then the Sultan, with forty of his people and the Mandaean himself seized the staff, and away they went taking food and water with them, and traveled to the Mountain of the Mandai.
The Nasurai had bewailed the man, thinking him dead. His seven sons and his daughter had mourned for him. The Nasurai, the Mandai, and the tarmidi wept for him, saying, "He has gone and there was no use in his going!"
One Sunday, after the space of years, they saw a man approaching with a company of forty, whose hair shone white in the sun.
The Mandai assembled and gazed, and the Nasurai and tarmidi were with them. The man came near. They looked, and then they began to kiss him and those with him. All embraced and one moment they laughed and one moment they wept. The parting of years was over!
As for the Mandai, he saw his parents and his children and rejoiced. There was great joy and jubilation.
The ganzowra began to talk with the Sultan. He knew already from his study of history of the disappearance of these people, but he had not known where they were.
The Sultan and his people wished to be reunited with them, but the Nasurai and the Mandai decided that they would leave the Jebei Mandai and go back with those who had come from their country in the north, where there was no dirt, nor wild beast, nor any harmful thing. They migrated, forty at a time, by aid of the staff, until all of them had gone to the country in the north. The water of the river there is so pure that once a man has bathed in it, no dirt can remain on him ever afterwards. The climate is equable, there is neither hot nor cold. And fleas and other vermin there are none there.
But it is difficult to reach that country because, to get to it, one must cross a region of extreme cold. Thither most of the Mandai went, and only we Subba in Iraq remain. The country is near Mshuni Kusta, near the North Star.
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY
#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA
#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS
#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA
#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER
#6--SUN STORIES
#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER
#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ
#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM
#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT
#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY
#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON
#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA
#15-- THE HAUNTINGS
#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER
#17-- THE STONE-THROWING
#18-- THE KAFTAR
#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE
#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID
#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE
#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.
#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS
#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON
#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH
#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON
#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY
#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA
#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS
#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA
#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER
#6--SUN STORIES
#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER
#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ
#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM
#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT
#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY
#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON
#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA
#15-- THE HAUNTINGS
#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER
#17-- THE STONE-THROWING
#18-- THE KAFTAR
#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE
#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID
#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE
#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.
#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS
#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON
#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH
#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON
#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY
#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA
#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS
#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA
#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER
#6--SUN STORIES
#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER
#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ
#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM
#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT
#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY
#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON
#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA
#15-- THE HAUNTINGS
#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER
#17-- THE STONE-THROWING
#18-- THE KAFTAR
#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE
#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID
#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE
#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.
#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS
#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON
#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH
#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON
#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH
The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937 (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962) page 319-325
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar
