Journeys In Persia And Kurdistan ( Vol.Ii).

LETTEE xx RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE 103

After Mohammed and All they speak of Moses, Abra-
ham, and Jesus as " Prophets," but of Moses as a law-
giver, and of Jesus as aught else but a healer, they seem
quite ignorant.

And so they pass away, generation after generation,
ignorant of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man, of the love to God and man which is alone the
fulfilling of the law, and of the light which He, who is
the resurrection and the life, has shed upon the destiny
of the human spirit.

Generally I find them quite willing to talk on these
subjects; but one man said contemptuously, "What
has a Kafir to do with God ?" The women know
nothing, and, except among the sons of the leading
Khans, there is no instruction in the Koran given to
the children. If I have interpreted their views correctly
they must be among the most ignorant of the races bound
by the faith of Islam.

Khuramabad, August 6.—Leaving the camp on
Parwez, and skirting the gravelly slopes on the north side
of its ridge, a sudden dip over the crest took us among
great cliffs of conglomerate, with steep gravelly slopes
below, much covered with oaks growing out of scorched
soil. Grooves, slides, broken ledges, and shelving faces
of rock have to be descended. One part is awfully bad,
and every available man and some passing Bakhtiaris (who
wanted to be paid in advance for their services) went
back to help the animals. The charvadars shouted and
yelled, and the horses and some of the mules were taken
by their heads and tails, but though nearly every man
had a fall, horses, asses, mules, and a sheep which follows
HaMm got over that part safely. It was a fine sight,
thirty animals coming down, what looked from below, a
precipice, led by Hadji leading Cock o' the Walk, shak-
ing his tasselled head, and as full of pride and fire as