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>How had the Yezidis come into possession of this complex system? Had it been from the Watchers? Or had this knowledge come from the conical-cap wearing people depicted on the walls of the hidden cavern at Ras al-'Ain in the Kurdish foothills?
>The Secret Cavern
>Yezidi myth and legend must contain many elements inherited from older indigenous cultures of the Kurdish highlands. Who these people were, and what their relationship might have been to the Watchers, is unknown, yet one tentative clue comes from a series ofstrange carvings greatly venerated by the Yezidi. They are situated in a cavern at a place named Ras al-'Ain, on the Syria-Turkish frontier, and were seen, and described to the Baghdad authorities, by E. S. Drower in 1940
>To reach this secluded site, Mrs Drower had followed an elderly Yezidi woman named Sitt Gule up a precarious rock-face. The two had climbed higher and higher, using available crevices as footholds, until the woman took them around a right-hand bend where they suddenly encountered deeply worn steps. These entered a lofty cavern in which a gushing spring issued from behind a rockface. On inquiring as to who was worshipped here, the woman had replied 'Kaf', or more correctly kahaf, a Kurdish word meaning 'cavern'. Yet Sitt Gule clearly believed this to be the name of the genius loci, or guardian spirit, of the place, for she went on to point out his image to the Englishwoman
>Looking around, Mrs Drower noticed that the walls contained niches, blackened with the smoke of a thousand lamps, as well as various shelves for offerings and lights. There were also three large panels in which were carved extraordinary images of human forms. One was unfortunately defaced beyond all recognition. The second contained 'a single seated figure facing the worshipper, almost Buddha-like in its dignity and repose'
