'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎64] (95/582)

64
FROM SERPOOL, ACROSS MOUNT ZAGROS,
kept equally secret; and tlie Syrian custom of the hosts giving
their wives and daughters to the enjoyment of strangers who so
journ among them at their town of Martowan, is known to all
who have passed that way. M. Volney, the first, I believe, who
publicly noticed this custom, considers it as the remains of the
worship of Venus; and I have little doubt but that the practices
of the people here spring from a similar origin, though they
themselves are too ignorant of their own history to be conscious of
it, as well as too reserved to say what they think. It is clear, how
ever, that no part of Mohammedanism can have led to such rites,
since it is as free from all mysteries of that nature as Christianity
itself. #
As the original religion of this sect has been thus so mixed
with later ones as now scarcely to be identified, so their race has
lost all marks of primitive distinction by their having learned the
language and the manners of the people by whom they were sur
rounded—those in Syria speaking only Arabic, and these only
Persian and Koordish. The former, however, are said to inter
marry only among themselves, which they can well do, from being
a numerous people; but here, where they are few, it would be
more difficult; intermarriages with Koords and Persians there
fore continually happen, which take place the more easily, as from
their outward profession there is scarcely any distinguishing these
pagans from the purer disciples of Islam.
After all that has been said, it may be judged how far these
people are likely to be the remains of the Greeks before spoken of.
Rennel, in his Illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus, says :
" The Boeotians, (Thebans) carried away by Xerxes, (Polymnia,
233,) were placed in the country of Assyria, at Celonee, now Ghi-
* A colony of the sect of Ismael, and followers of Hassn Subah, appear to have settled
n the mountams between Tortosa and Tripoli, in Syria, as well as here on Mount Zagros.
friends t H r? the TartarS PraCtiSed the CUSt0m 0f lendi ^ their wives to their
p 86 V " ' NeSSereeah and ^ ^ Hist, of Chengiz Kkan,