Nacxitl, Cochimetl,
Yacapitzauac. The sister
who completed the group of
seven, was named
Chalmeca-ciuatl (Sahagun,
op. cit. Book I, chap.
XIX). This god and his six
brethren, to whom the
merchants offered
sacrifices when they had
safely returned from their
perilous and long
expeditions, doubtlessly
were Polaris and the Ursa
Minor or Major.

APPENDIX II. A PRAYER-MEETING OF THE STAR-WORSHIPPERS.

Sook-es-Shookh, on the river Euphrates, in the Mesopotamian villayet,
though an interesting spot, is not an imposing or attractive place. Like
most of the townlets in this part of Asia Minor, it is just a straggling,
overgrown village, a few one-storied plastered houses, with flat roofs and
narrow doorways, dotted here and there, a number of wattled and mud-daubed
huts huddled irregularly about, a _mesjid_, of course, a khan or
caravanserai, and one or two open spaces with the inevitable refuse and
rubbish heaps, where a bazar or market is held on Fridays. It looks,
however, picturesque and peaceful enough, as we ride into it, in the
deepening twilight of a late September evening. The stars are beginning
already to twinkle overhead, but there is still sufficient light left to
note the strange, white-robed figures moving stealthily about in the
semi-gloom down by the riverside. Clad in long snowy garments, reaching
nearly to the ground, they pass to and fro near the edge of the water,
some wading into mid-stream, while the sound of a strange salutation
exchanged in a strange tongue, _Sood Havilakh_, strikes oddly upon the ear
long accustomed to the ordinary salutation, _Selam Alekum_, of the
Arab-speaking Moslemin. _Paderha Sutekh_, "their fathers were burned,"
cries our Persian _Charvadar_ and guide in disgust, as he catches a
glimpse of the white-robed figures, thus delicately hinting that they are
not followers of Islam; and a Jew from Hamadan who accompanies our party,
on his way to the tomb of Ezekiel, deliberately spits upon the ground and
exclaims, in pure Hebrew, _Obde kokhabim umazaloth_, "servants of the
stars a