In the year 1892 there came a new _Vali_ to Mosul--a sanguine and active "Reformer" whose name was Osman Bey. He had set out from Constantinople equipped with a Radical "Program" and his programme (as is usual with programmes) was planned on an extensive scale. He had to do just three things--to cure the Arabs of Nomadism; to make the Kurds pay their taxes; and finally to induce the Yezidis to discard their heathenish superstition. The first problem floored him promptly, for the Arabs decamped to the desert; and the Kurdish chiefs eyed him pretty blankly when he proceeded to propound Problem II. But when he got to "thirdly and lastly," and invited their co-operation, the worthy fellows cheered up amazingly and found things looked feasible after all. Taxation was much less intolerable when viewed in relation to its context, for the "Peaceable Persuasion" of the Yezidis would leave them a profit on the deal. Accordingly all through the _vilayet_ the unhappy Yezidis were attacked and plundered; their women were carried into captivity, their men were tortured and slain. And while the Government troops were ravaging the plain villages, Sheikh Adi itself (hitherto immune from such visitations) was completely ransacked by the Kurds. It was not till after sixteen years that the poor proscribed Yezidis were reinstated. Until the general amnesty at the revolution they remained in exile from their shrine. Consequently when "Rabbi Mr. Wigram" visited the place in 1907 he found it only tenanted by the Moslem Mollah in charge. The Mollah allowed him to go anywhere, scoffing valiantly at Yezidi superstitions; and through that gloomy doorway the investigator accordingly went. But afterwards the sceptic admitted that _down there_ he had never ventured; and had never in the least expected to see his visitor come up again alive! Unfortunately at the time the searcher failed to realize the unique nature of his opportunity and consequently did not push his explorations as thoroughly as he otherwise would. It was very dark down the staircase, and he was only provided with matches. But it seemed to him that he had penetrated into a vast natural cavern, teeming with rills of trickling water--the birthplace of the sacred spring, which feeds the temple tanks, and forms the main source of the rivulet which flows down the glen below. And here, perhaps, we have the key to the time-honoured sanctity of Sheikh Adi. It was primarily a seat of that fountain worship which is one of the earliest of all known cults. _Melek Taüs_ himself was but a later accretion, though now he has usurped pre-eminence; and even yet his worshippers are half-conscious of a god behind their god. Sacred fountains by the dozen, and sacred trees by the score, may still be met with in these outlandish regions. But in Christian and Moslem villages they are reverenced somewhat shamefacedly. Among the followers of a lower religion the old superstition has retained a firmer hold.