spoonful of wine, first to the
Sheikhs present, and then to all the rest. They then eat fruit, offer
other prayers, and the assembly breaks up. The rites of initiation are
frightful in the extreme, attended by threats, imprecations and
blasphemous oaths, declaring their lives forfeited if they expose the
secrets of the order.

They use given signs and questions, by which they salute each other, and
ascertain whether a stranger is one of them or not. In their books they
employ the double interlacing triangle or seal of Solomon. They call
each other brethren, and enjoin love and truthfulness, but _only to the
brethren_. In this they are like the Druzes. So little do they regard
all outside their own sect, that they _pray to God to take out of the
hearts of all others than themselves, what little light of knowledge and
certainty they may possess_! The effect of this secret, exclusive, and
selfish system is shown in the conduct of the Nusairiyeh in robbing and
murdering Moslems and Christians without compunction.

As it has been said, the Nusairiyeh women are entirely excluded from all
participation in religious ceremonies and prayers, and from all
religious teaching. The reason given, is two-fold; the first being that
women cannot be trusted to keep a secret, and the second because they
are considered by the Nusairiyeh as something unclean. They believe that
the soul of a wicked man may pass at death into a brute, or he may be
punished for his sins in this life by being born in a woman's form in
the next generation. And so, if a woman live in virtue and obedience,
there is hope of her again being born into the world _as a man_, and
becoming one of the illuminati and possessors of the secret. It is a
long time for the poor things to wait, but it is a convenient reward for
their husbands to hold out before them.

Yet the women are so religiously inclined by nature that they will have
some object of worship, and while their husbands, fathers and sons are
talking and praying about the celestial hierarchies, and the
unfathomable mysteries, the wives, mothers and daughters will throng the
"zeyarehs," or holy visiting shrines, on the hill tops, and among the
groves of green trees, to propitiate the favor of the reputed saints of
ancient days. These shrines are supposed to have miraculous powers, but
Friday is the day when the prophets are more especially "at home," to
receive visitors. On other days they may be "on a journey,"