However, such disqualification affords us some compensating latitude. If our gain be exclusively temporal we can run but little spiritual risk. The less respectable shrines may prove just as eligible as the orthodox, and we can visit Mecca and Benares with as much immunity as Rome. _Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo_; and a call on the witch of Endor will at least assure us a thrill. In which dangerous frame of mind it becomes an overwhelming attraction to a professed patron of pilgrimages, to find himself within easy visiting distance of the only temple extant which is specifically and avowedly dedicated to the Author of Evil Himself. Nearly every form of religion which has yet been known to man seems at some time or other to have struck root in the soil of Mesopotamia; and there are but few of the number that have left no stumps or fossils to remind us of the days when they were yet flourishing in their pride. Some have bequeathed us the ruins of their temples, their sacrificial ash heaps, their votive tablets, or the images of their gods. Some survive but in fragments of fantastic folk-lore, still lingering on ineradicably as the parasites of more modern creeds. But one of the oldest and weirdest of all is still a living reality--the religion of the Yezidis or "Devil-worshippers" who congregate principally in the _vilayet_ of Mosul. "Devil-worshippers" they are indeed; for they themselves do not scruple to admit that the Being whom they seek to propitiate is actually identical with the _Sheitan_ of the Christians and Moslems and Jews. But, fortunately for the morals of the neighbourhood, their homage stops short of imitation. Theirs is a religion of Faith, and not of Works. They are under no obligation to make evil their good according to the boast of Milton's Satan; but only to "respect the great place" of their Divinity, and see to it that he is "sometime honoured for his burning throne." Thus, though they are accused of many enormities,[41] it does not appear that they are actually worse in theory, or half so vicious in practice, as many of the most blameless of their "true-believing" neighbours: and "good Christian men who are stable in the faith" may adventure themselves into their Vale of Devils with no more material misgivings than worthy Sir John Mandeville of old. The Yezidis form one of the recognized _millets_, or subject religious sects, existing in the Turkish Empire. But recognition in their case by no means implies toleration. They are universally abhorred as outcasts--almost as "untouchables"--like the _cagots_ of the Pyrenees, or the lowest _pariahs_ of Hindustan. A Christian is a "dog" to a Moslem, and a Jew ranks many octaves lower; but there is no room on the chromatic scale to show the position of a Yezidi: he is the sort of human being that is less regarded than a beast.