..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
pages 363-366
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar
#23--- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
When a Mandaean dies he is not put into a box like a Christian, but is wrapped in a bania which is of bardi, and like a reed mat. Then ropes are twisted of the leaves of the date-palm, and bound about the whole, and stalks of the palm-frond placed between the ropes so that four pure and pious men, called hallali, can carry the body to its grave, holding these palm-stalks (jerids). The body is never buried at night, and if a man dies at sunset or in the afternoon they bury him next day. In case three hours must elapse before a man is buried, to make the bania and the ropes, which must be freshly woven, and all the other preparations, six hours are usual.
Our religion forbids us to weep for the dead, as weeping enables the shiviahi to harm them, and men never do so. But women sometimes keen for the dead. It is not good, but they do it!
In Muhammerah there was once a Subbi called Bahram. He was sick unto death, so they clothed him with the rasta and he died. It was about ten o'clock when he died (i.e. two hours before sunset). A Persian doctor saw him and said that he was dead. He was dead, completely dead. They brought reeds and wove the bania, and washed him and closed his eyes, but left the burial for the next day, because the day was near its close. They put a light white cloth above the corpse, a lamp beside it, and attached skandola and knife to the body. This we do with our dead, removing the skandola and the knife chained to it before the man is buried. The clay of the tomb is sealed with the skandola on all four sides. But should the dead be a bridegroom or a woman who has died in childbed, the leave the skandola on the finger of the corpse.
So they prepared the body of Bahram, and friends came to watch beside him, for we do not leave the dead alone. Now Bahram had a son and daughters, wife and an old mother. He had supported them all by his work as smith.
At about one o'clock of the night his mother came to him, saying, 'I want to see my son!" She came near and uncovered the face of the dead. The watchers said to her, 'Why do you uncover him?"
She replied, "He is my son! I yearn to see him!"
She bent above him and kissed him, and said, "O my son! Who will now provide your children's food? And what shall I do, I! I must beg my food from door to door of the Subba, and your children-must they beg too ?"
She stretched out her hand and caressed his breast, crying, "Thy breast will go beneath the dust! O the pity!"
As she touched his breast, she felt that it was a little warm. She thought that a vein seemed to beat. She called the watchers, saying, "Come, come ! My son's body is not cold I A pulse is bearing!'
They came and felt him and said, 'Yes, true! He is a little warm"
His heart then began to beat feebly, but his eyes remained closed until, gradually, gradually, the lids began to lift a little. But the eyes remained for some time fixed and unmoving. By this time it was midnight. At last his eyes began to show life. When she saw that his eyes were moving, his mother was overjoyed. She was glad with a great gladness. She went and milked a cow in the courtyard and warmed the milk, and brought it and put some into his mouth with a spoon. He began to swallow. Gradually, gradually, his two arms and legs began to move. At sunrise he sat up!
All the people said, "Bahram died and came to life again!" Some of them came to him later and said, "You were dead! You went and returned! Tell us of the road and what you saw! Tell us!"
Said he, "Those who took me from the body were dim-sighted (aghmish saru) When they brought me to Pthahil, in the place of souls, he looked at me and said to them, 'Ye have made a mistake: ye should have brought the soul of the girl Zarifah.' Then they brought me back, softly, softly, and my soul re-entered my body.'
Zarrfah was the daughter of a neighbor, and at the moment Bahram told them of this, she appeared to be in perfect health, and they gave her no word of what he said. But, at the fall of that day, although she had appeared to be weil, she died suddenly, of a sickness of the heart. Strange!
This has happened more than once. There is a tribe of the Subba called the Al Bu Zahrun, who live at Halfayah near al-Amarah. They subsist by making boats, sickles, spades, hatches, and such implements for the Arab of the district. Amongst this tribe was a man who died. He died completely, and all who saw him thought him dead. But, like the other, he returned into the body. They had made all preparations for his burial when he returned, and he had been dead six hours.
They asked him, "Whither went you?"
He said, "They took me towards the place of souls. And amongst those with me, I saw Sindal and Tamul. They also were on their way to Pthahil. But Pthahil ordered me to return, for the shiviahi had brought me in mistake for another."
When they heard what he said, the Subba of that place sent into al-'Amarah where Tamul lived, to ask after his health. They found that he had died. But Sindal lived amongst the Subba who were in Persia and they telegraphed to ask about him. His relatives telegraphed back "'He died on Sunday morning." So it was true.
The tarmidi asked the man who had returned concerning the appearance of the souls of the dead, and he replied, "SindaI and Tamul looked exactly as when they were alive, and wore the same clothes they had worn in life. They appeared exactly as they would have appeared if one had seen them in a dreamt."
On the Subject of the Death Rasta
Upon the rasta of one about to die, we sew gold thread on the right and on the left silver. The right is for Melka Ziwa for the gold is the metal of the sun and the left is for Melka d Anhura for silver is the metal of the moon. But we say that Melka Ziwa and Melka d Anhura are one though some ways they are two. When my father, Mulla Khidhr was about to die he said, "The time has come for me to put on my rasta!" and was joyful at the approach of death. When he had been washed and put it on he sat up and shortly after word died willingly.
..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
