Christians, as a general rule, took the precautions that the European missionaries advised: with the result that while four thousand Mussulmans died in the city alone (the numbers in the villages were unknown), only five individual Christians perished; and one of these was a Christian scientist who refused to boil his water. Mussulmans held that Azrael was showing undue partiality to infidels, and many of them even put the Cross over their doors to deceive him! One would like to investigate the state of mind that dictated that act! Fancy trying to fool the Angel of Death! There was, of course, a good deal of panic, and every stomach-ache was put down as cholera at first. One man even declared that he had seen the fatal microbes following the American doctor about, "like little dogs"; but the general belief was that he had been indulging in strong prophylactics! Almost all the Mussulmans in Urmi itself, and the plain around it, are of the _Shiah_ persuasion, as good Persians should be. In consequence the celebrations of Mohurram are particularly striking. Long processions of mourners parade through the streets, beating their breasts, and mourning for the martyrs Hassan and Hosein; while occasional bands of devotees rush by in white garments striking at their shaven heads with the heavy "Mohurram knives" (which are really short broadswords of old Roman pattern), till the blood gushes out upon them. As the heads are shaven it is true that a light blow will draw blood, and that therefore the ceremony can be made a matter of display and little more. As a fact, however, there is no sham about it, for the feast scarcely ever passes without one man at any rate actually dying from his self-inflicted wounds; at least this was certainly the case before the Russian occupation.