IN THE DESERT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 20 August 1925, Page 2

IN THE DESERT.

EARL’S DAUGHTER LIVES ON ACID DROPS. CHASED BY BRIGANDS. Lady Dorothy Mills, the novelist, daughter of the Earl of Oxford, has just arrived in London after an exploration of the Middle East, during which she investigated strange religions in Turkey and Mesopotamia, and was chased, by brigands across a trackless desert. “I started across the Syrian desert for the borders of Kurdistan,” she told an Evening Standard representative, “to see the home of the Yizie, a devil-worshipping community. To get there we had to go 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 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 of the Arabs fell off and were drowned. Finally we. stuck on a sandbank, and had 1 to wade through, pushing the car before us. 1 ‘Next day there was the worst sandstorm. I ever remember. We lost all sense of direction, but we had to keep goino- to escape, being covered with sand The next day we ran across some Bedouins, who told us that brigands were ahead, in a low range of hills.

“We had to push on, as w e 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 bullets fell 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 hadi nothing more to eat than six acid drops. “We then came in sight of the few mud villages where the Yizie live, at th© 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 6000 years hence, when th© devil returns to himself. 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 of Satan, and they ban all blue, which is believed generally in the east to keep off the evil eye. They have weird superstitions about bad luck. You must never refer to or eat fish, for the devil is supposed to live in the water. “With the exception of those connected with the priesthood, no one is allowed to read or write. In former times the punishemnt 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 Ne(w 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.