LADY DOROTHY IN THE DESERT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 33

LADY DOROTHY IN THE DESERT.

£ABX>S DAUGHTER LIVES ON ACID DROPS. OHAHEP BX BBIGA>T>S. "MABGOT'S" TBUB DAUGHTER. Lady Dorothy Mills, the novelist, daughter of the Earl of Orford, n aa jLt" Vv lt% nd ° n "**" M «Ptowtfan of the Middle East, during whicn she Investigated strange religions la Turkey and Mesopotamia, and was chased by brigands across a trackless desert. m." 1 aCr ° BB the Syiian for the borders of Kurdistan," she told an "Evening Standard" representative, "to see the home of the Yizie, a devil-worship-ping community. To get there We had to so through Iraq, which at present is forbidden. "I was determined to get through, however, and so had to choose the' worst and most deserted path. I chartered a Ford car, driven by an Arab chauffeur, and with a party of Bedouins, set out across the desert. "We met with our first adventure when crossing the Euphrates. "We hoisted the car on to a native raft. There was a strong wind, the river was in full flood, and half-way across some 01 the Arabs fell off and were drowned. Finally we stuck on a sandbank, and had to wade through, pushing the car before us. Flight Across tho Desert. "Next day there was the worst Bandstorm I ever remember. We lost all sense Of direction, but we had to keep going to escape being covered with sand. The nest day we ran across some Bedouins, who told us that brigands were ahead, in a low range of hills. "We had to push on, aa we were short of food and water. We jammed down the accelerator, and Went as fast as we could across the trackless sand. The robbers fired at us from all sides, but their ballets feU short, and we escaped across the hills. ""We missed the village where we were to replenish our supplies, and nearly died of thirst, for our water had to go in the car. For twenty-four hours I had nothing more to eat than six acid drops. "We then came in sight of the few mua villages where the lisle live, at the foot of the hills of Kurdistan. They worship the devil, on the ground that he is stronger than God. They think that they will not get to .Heaven until' COOO years hence, when the devU returns there htmaCtt. If, however, they do four times more good than evil on earth, they think that they will get to heaven. "Their clothes are red, in honour «f Satan, and they ban all blue, which la believed generally in the east to keep off the evil eye. They have weird superstitions about bad luck. You must never mention the name of the. devil, or any sound that resembles it. Yon must never refer to or eat fish, for the devU Is supposed to live in the water. Men Like the Dead. "With the exception, of those connected with the priesthood, no one is allowed to read or write. In former times the punishment was death. They are wonderfully moral. If a husband is unfaithful even his relations will condemn him to death." Lady Dorothy also came across the few remaining Samaritans, the descendants of those mentioned in the New Testament. There are about eighty of them, and they have the appearance of dead men. Their faces are like parchment, and they seem devoid of all energy.