..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
My father like it to be kept clean and the river edged with grass and reeds ran before the house. It was a clean sweet place.
It was the time of a feast, the Dehwa Shishlam Rabba, dedicated to one of the great melki whose name is Shishlam Rabba.
On that day and the night preceding it, the gates of the world of light are opened wide. The Moslems know that there is such a night, but they do not know, as we do, when it takes place. The feast falls after the ripening of the dates.
My father used to rise early--at dawn--to pray. That day as it was a feast, a happy day, I rose at dawn like my father.
The sun was not yet up when I went out, and my father was at the river, for he had not finished his prayers.
I saw on the smooth space before the house a being standing with his staff (margna) on his shoulder, praying towards the north. He was shining and very white.
I ran to my mother, who was still sleeping, and roused her and said to her, "My mother! Who is that praying before the house?" But he had not been praying aloud, no voice had been audible.
She said, "No one! Don't be afraid, there is no one!"
I said, "Yes, there is someone wearing a new white rasta."
I returned again to look and he turned himself and gazed at me, and light seemed to come from his face. He was beautiful I Of great beauty I And then, I saw nothing more!
When I went to my mother again, she said to me, "That must have been a natri, the guardian spirit of our house, do not fear."
My father then came up from the river and I went to him and told him what I had seen, saying, "One came here in appearance like a darwish, wearing white clothes. I went to call my mother, and when I returned again, he looked at me and disappeared."
My father said, "Why did you not come for me! I would have spoken with him.
That was a Guardian, and there was no cause for fear: he is very good." And my father was sad and began to pray.
When he had finished his prayer, my father looked happy and said to me, 'You are like our family, you see, you uncover, you see spirits. Whenever you see one, call me, so that I may speak wit them."
My father's words remained in my memory and if I saw anything, I always told him.
Another time I saw one of the shiviahi. Shaikh Joda's sister, Qurtasah, used to weave, and she made me an 'abayah'. I used to hang this cloak, of which I was very fond, in a locked room in my grandfather's, Shaikh Mahv s house. I went one day to hang it there at ten hours of the day. The place was old and large and dark. I entered it and went to throw 'abayah' on a rope.'
There was a high table in the heel of the room, upon which onions and gourds were stored, and they used to make laban (curds) on it. I looked, and I saw on the table a spirit about a foot high--one of the shiviahi --very small and very ugly. I said to him, my father having bidden me not be afraid, '"What are you?" He shook his head.
My cousin (bint khalati) was with me in the room: her name was Ileywa. I cried to her, "Come! Look! There is a shiviahi!"
I mounted on a jawan (tall, wooden receptacle for pounding rice) and she was a the other end of the room. I said to her:
"Give me a stick (chimagh) so that I may strike it and take it to show my father!" For I was ignorant and did not understand, and wished to treat it like an animal.
She reached me a chimagh and I hit at it, but could not reach it.
She said "Hit it on the head and let me see it when you have killed it!" But it escaped me and fled.
I went to my father, who was sitting working, and told him what I had seen, and how the shiviahi had escaped me when I tried to kill it.
He said, "What were you about! That was very bad behavior! That shiviahi was probably a keeper of the house and so did not harm you, but, if it had not been, it might have killed you!"
I began to be afraid, and I never put my 'aba'. in that room again. I would not enter it. In our house was a myrtle-tree growing in the yard, which my father had planted. One day, I saw the shiviahi sitting beneath the myrtle-tree. I began to cry, "Father, father! Come, this is he!"
My father said "Say to it 'Ushma ad Hei' (Name of the Life) and do not be afraid".
My aunt said, "The boy is frightened least the shiviahi do him harm. I must write him a zrazta'."
My father said, "Aye write him one. I have no time."
They wrote me a zrazta and when I had put it into my bosom I was no longer afraid. I was free from alarm and happy.
..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
