Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1910 — SHOW NOAH’S GRAVE. [ARTICLE]

SHOW NOAH’S GRAVE.

Natives About Ararat Connect litany Spots with History of Flood. The region of Moupt Ararat and the local traditions which still, keep alive the story of the ark having rested there were described the other evening in a lecture given in London before the Royal Geographical Society by Capt. Bertram Dickson, who made a series of journeys to the neighborhood while British military consul at Van, a London correspondent says. The country east of the Tigris, he said, was known to the ancient Assyrians as the mountains of Nairi and at other times the Niphates and the mountains at Urartu, from which comes the name Ararat. The Bible historian took the account of the ark resting on Ararat from the Chaldean legend, which m;».le it rest on th*e mountains of Urartu; while local traditions, Christian, moslem and yezidi (or devil worshipers) alike make its resting place Jebel Judi, a striking sheer rocky wall of 7,000 feet, which frown over Mesopotamia. , Common sense also suggested that with a subsiding flood in the plains a boat would more probably run aground on the high ridge at the edge of the plain rather than on a solitary peak miles from the plains, with many high ridges intervening. The lecturer thought himself that the local tradition had the greater element of truth. „There is a large ziarat (zijgurat or sanctuary) at the top of Jebel Judi, where every eve in A.ugust Is held a great fete, attended by thousands of energetic moslems, Christians and yezidi% who climb the steepest of trails for 7,000 feet in the terrific' summer’s heat to do homage to Noah. This mountain seems to have been held sacred at all times, and certainly it has a wonderful fascination about it, with Its high precipices and jagged, tangled erags watching over the vast Mesopotamian plain. The local villagers can show one the exact spot where Noah descended. While In oae Tillage. Hassana, they showed his grave and the vineyard where he 1b reputed to have Indulged overfreely In the juice of the grape, the ov ner declaring that the vines

have been passed from father to son ever since, f Capt. Dickson recounted some curious stories of the Inhabitants of these regions, particularly the Kurds. These people, he said, claim to be the descendants of Solomon by his concubines, and though nominally one race they are split up into numerous hostile clans, with little in common but their religion, their language and their love of a gun and cartridges.