Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

266 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE.
far as we know it at present, but the astrological and
magical leanings of tlie people, the names still given
to the planets, and the preference for certain sacred
numbers, e.g. 360 and the epoch of 480,000 years,
point distinctly to their Chaldean and Nabathean
ancestry. It is even asserted by a Mohammadan
historian of the tenth century that in his time the
Mandseans kept the feast of Thammuz, the Babylonian
prototype of Adonis, and it is likely that many other
of their beliefs and practices may be traced to their
Babylonian descent. Next to the Chaldean must be
placed the Parsy element, which was introduced by
the problematical Parthian founder of the sect, and
which is shown in the occurrence of Mithra and Rauso
and Razista of the Zend Avesta among the Mandeean
objects of veneration. But the most considerable
element in Mandgean religion is derived from those
peculiar Gnostic sects which sprang from the dying
struggles of paganism. We shall not here concern
ourselves with the founding or the history of the sect
for nothing certain is known of either. Chwolsohn's
ingenious and learned reasoning is now pronounced
by the highest Mandgean authority to be mistaken;
otherwise we might follow him in identifying the
Sabians with the Elkesaites or Elchasaites of Pseud-
origines, Theodoret, and Epiphanius—the Mughtasila
or " Washers " of the Fihrist—founded at the end of
the first century of the Christian era by a holy man
named El-Hasaih or El-Chasai, 'HXxao-ai, 'HX^ai, who
came from Parthia and taught Parsy ideas and doc-
trines to the Babylonians. The sect of the Elkesaites
;