Between each of these ejaculations she made a pause, looking eagerly into the faces of the men before her, who, for sole answer, gave a loud, simultaneous snap of finger and thumb, pointing towards the ground as they did so, and shouting the one word, "Yiz-ora," (the first syllable strongly accented and much prolonged;) "discover, reveal!" They can say nothing more to urge her on, because they themselves are ignorant: but the weird women watch their countenances eagerly, to detect, if they can, some unconscious sign or token that their guesses are near the truth. Suspecting a trick, Nowamso lapses into silence; but Nozilwane rushes about like one possessed, sobbing and quivering with excitement, "It is this--it is that!" The tall Nozinyanga strikes her lance firmly into the ground, and cries haughtily, in her own tongue, "It is his watch!" throwing around a haughty glance, as if daring any one to contradict her. The others then join hands, and gallop round and round, making a suggestion here and a suggestion there, all alike improbable; the "inquirers," as the kneeling men are called, affording them no assistance. At last Nozilwane strikes home: "His pipe!" she exclaims; "Yoziva, yoziva, a thing which has come off his pipe."
And so it is. Nozilwane's pluck, and perseverance, and cunning scrutiny of our faces at each hit she made, have brought her off victoriously.
A murmur, or rather grunt, of admiration goes around. The "inquirers" jump up, and "subside into ebony images of impassive respectability." The weary chorus disperses in small groups, and the exhausted sisterhood drop, as if by one consent, on their knees, sitting back on their heels, and raise their right hands in salutation.[43]
There can be no question as to the antiquity or universality of Serpent-Worship, whatever may be the difference of opinion as to its origin. According to Bryant it began in Chaldea, and was "the first variation from the purer Zabaism." But this statement requires from us a brief preliminary explanation of that ancient form of worship.
Zabaism, or Zabism, has had its two sects,--first the Chaldean Zabians of the Kuran,--the "Parsified" Chaldee heathen, or non-Christian Gnostics,--the ancestors of the present Mendaites, or so-called Joannes Christians, who reside in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, and speak a corrupt form of Chaldee-Aramaic. And second, the Pseudo-Zabians, or Syrian Zabians, in Harran, Edessa, Rakkah, and Bagdad. It is the latter who now chiefly represent Zabism.