..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
He went to the ganzowra Shaikh Damuk, father of Shaikh Joda, and told him what had happened, saying, "I cannot understand how the bird had the strength to tear the net, for it was thick strong netting!" The ganzowra said to him, "That was no bird, it was a melka. Next time you see it, do not anger it, but speak politely to it, saying, "Mas'ud I want to catch bird for food, that my family may eat."
Shaikh Zibid went to the chol again and set the snare and soon saw the bird again. He began to talk to the bird while it was yet far off, saying, "Mas'ud! I beseech you, permit birds to come, so that I may catch khudhairi, koshar, bilbish!" I ask this favor from you and will neither hurt nor seize you any more!"
Now the Arab had four or five snares set in that place. The bird Mas'ud went to the snares of the Arab and drove the birds away from their snares and into that of Shaikh Zibid. He flew before them, as a shepherd leading his sheep, and brought them into Shaikh Zibid's snare, and he with them. Shaikh Zibid seized the birds, but let the other go free, saying, 'Pardon, Mas'ud! Deign to depart! Thanks, Mas'iud, well done!"
Every day he caught birds, and when they asked him how it was that he caught so many, he replied, "Mas'ud brought them to me!" He used to give some of the birds to my grandfather and my relatives there.
One day Shaikh Zibid and one Fayyadh, a Subbi, were walking in the chol. The weather war fine and it was night, with a moon. Fayyadh thought he saw a white hare moving before them, hither and thither, and presently he stooped and seized the hare and put it in his bosom, saying, 'I will take this to my son."
They walked on, for the weather was very pleasant and were out to enjoy themselves. Presently Fayyadh he heard some one calling him by name from far away, "Ya Fayyadh! Ya Fayyadh! " He looked in every direction, but saw no one, nothing! When they walked on, it began again, " Ya Fayyadh! Ya Fayyadh!" They stopped. No one! Nothing! Once, twice, thrice they heard this calling and by now it was near dawn. Shaikh Zibid began to laugh about it, and Fayyadh drew out the white hare to look at it, and holding it in his hands, he asked playfully, 'Who cries Fayyadh!"
She replied, 'I, my uncle! You are my uncle."
Startled, he threw the hare to the ground and fled away, running. Shailih Zibid did not run away: he followed the hare and picked her up and began to talk with her, saying, "Please what are you? Of what kind and species? Jinni, melka, what are you?"
She answered, 'I am a daughter of the king of the jann and one of our slaves, in the shape of a wolf is seeking to do me harm, and I come to you for protection." For, if a wolf makes water upon jinni no matter what shape the jinni has taken for protection, it (the jinni) is choked and dies."
Shaikh Zibid looked and saw the wolf, which was watching them in the distance to see what would happen.
She cried, "Look at that wolf! Do you see it!"
The wolf began to draw closer to Shaikh Zibid, but the latter had with him a lance with an iron tip and when the wolf had approached quite close he hurled his lance at it and killed it. Shaikh Zibid said to the hare, 'Now all is well! Return to your father!"
She began to run before him and he followed her. His heart began to fail him, not knowing what might befall him, but he said to himself, "Courage! Why fear I killed the slave who sought to harm her; without doubt, her father will be grateful to me!" They came to a mound like a hill (ishan). She entered and he entered with her. He saw a place for sitting in, and she said to him, "Stay here while I fetch my father.
Do not fear if shiviahi come; fright is evil, and no harm will come to you if you are not afraid."
And, in fact, whilst he sat there, some of her people, the shiviahi, came and looked at him. Their eyes were put lengthways in their faces, not set horizontally like eyes of men. They were smaller than men and uglier.
After an hour, a light came towards him from below, and a voice said to him, in Mandaean, "Asoth havilakh!" for the spirits speak to every man in his native tongue. Shaikh Zibid returned, "Aswatha ad hei havilakh!"
Then the king said to Shaikh Zibid, "You did well to save my daughter from the slave--that slave was not a good spirit! What do you command me to give you?
Ask whatever you desire!"
Shaikh Zibid replied, "I ask of you that if I visit a sick person I may be able to cure him, or if a mad person that when I go to him he shall return to his senses."
The melka said, "As you wish! All knowledge shall be yours!" Then he ordered Shaikh Zibid to come close to him and Shaikh Zibid went until he stood before the king. The king said, 'Gaze at me!" and holding a bowl of water in his right hand, he began to recite softly to himself. Shaikh Zibid thought that rays of light issued from the eyes of the king and entered his own head. When the king had done reciting the spells, he bade Shaikh Zibid drink from the bowl, after Shaikh Zibid had drunk of the water, he began to see the world with other eyes! He saw it just as a man looks at it after he has been taken half drowned from the sea! He rejoiced in the world! "How beautiful it is" he thought, and was happy beyond measure. The king repeated, 'All knowledge is now yours!"
And, lady, Shaikh Zibid was a miracle of knowledge from that day! If a man or woman sought from him information as to the whereabouts of a relative of whom they had no news, he would say to them, 'Come again tomorrow, and I will tell you where your son is" (if it were a ran who was lost)
Then his spirit left him; went out from him in his likeness into the air and searched for the lost person, learnt where he was, and returned into his body. Fsh-sh-sh! he returned unto himself, and when the inquirer came back and asked him, "What have you seen!" he would reply, as it might be, "Your son is in the district (markaz) of the Muntafiq", or "with Shaikh Mahy in Nasariyah" or wherever it might be, naming the place.
Shaikh Zibid was wonderful. Not only Subba but Islam went to him. If something had been stolen, the robbed persons came to him and said, "Tell us where the thief is!" He would reply, "Not so! but I may get your property back for you!' Then, having in the spirit found out who the thief was, he would call him secretly and say, 'My son, give back that which you have taken", for he did not wish him to be imprisoned or beaten for his crime. He would reason with the thief quietly.
He had only to approach spoiled food and it would become wholesome, and to go near the sick and they were cured. People used to swear by his name that they would tell the truth and it was a binding oath. He died about seventy-five years ago when he had attained an age of about one hundred and twenty years, and is buried in Halfayah.
Aye, he had only to look at those whose wits were distracted and they were sane. When he had become weak and old and could go no longer to see sick persons, they used to take his staff and touch a patient with it and he was made whole instantly. My father used to go to his house when he wanted news of his son. He used to visit him in his house, a clean, pleasant place in a garden surrounded by flowers, grass, and trees. This was the house he used to sleep in when his spirit left him.
..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
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar
