Now the species of the serpent increased, and began to bite man and animal. It was finally caught and burned, and from its ashes fleas were created. From the time of the flood until now are seven thousand years. In every thousand years one of the seven gods descends to establish rules, statutes, and laws, after which he returns to his abode. While below, he sojourns with us, for we have every kind of holy places. This last time the god dwelt among us longer than any of the other gods who came before him. He confirmed the saints. He spoke in the Kurdish language. He also illuminated Mohammed, the prophet of the Ishmaelites, who had a servant named Mu‘âwiya. When God saw that Mohammed was not upright before him, he afflicted him with a headache. The prophet then asked his servant to shave his head, for Mu‘âwiya knew how to shave. He shaved his master in haste, and with some difficulty. As a result, he cut his head and made it bleed. Fearing that the blood might drop to the ground, Mu‘âwiya licked it with his tongue. Whereupon Mohammed asked, “What are you doing, Mu‘âwiya?” He replied, “I licked thy blood with my tongue, for I feared that it might drop to the ground.” Then Mohammed said to him, “You have sinned, O Mu‘âwiya, you shall draw a nation after you. You shall oppose my sect.” Mu‘âwiya answered and said, “Then I will not enter the world; I will not marry.” It came to pass that after some time God sent scorpions upon Mu‘âwiya, which bit him, causing his face to break out with poison. Physicians urged him to marry lest he die. Hearing this, he consented. They brought him an old woman, eighty years of age, in order that no child might be born. Mu‘âwiya knew his wife, and in the morning she appeared a woman of twenty-five, by the power of the great God. And she conceived and bore our god Yezid. But the foreign sects, ignorant of this fact, say that our god came from heaven, dispised and driven out by the great God. For this reason they blaspheme him. In this they have erred. But we, the Yezidi sect, believe this not, for we know that he is one of the above-mentioned seven gods. We know the form of his person and his image. It is the form of a cock which we possess. None of us is allowed to utter his name, nor anything that resembles it, such as _šeitân_ (Satan), _ḳaitân_ (cord), _šar_ (evil), _šat_ (river), and the like. Nor do we pronounce _mal‘ûn_ (accursed), or _la‘anat_ (curse), or _na‘al_[44] (horseshoe), or any word that has a similar sound. All these are forbidden us out of respect for him. So _ḫass_ (lettuce) is debarred. We do not eat it, for it sounds like the name of our prophetess Ḫassiah. Fish is prohibited, in honor of Jonah the prophet. Likewise deer, for deer are the sheep of one of our prophets. The peacock is forbidden to our Šeiḫ and his disciples, for the sake of our Ṭâ´ûs. Squash also is debarred. It is forbidden to pass water while standing, or to dress up while sitting down, or to go to the toilet