Mandaean Oral Traditions and Folklore

#6 A--- A SUN STORY

#6 B---THE REBELLION OF SHAMISH
#1--LEGENDS OF CREATION, THE FLOOD, ETC.
...A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY

#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA

#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS

#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA

#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER

#6--SUN STORIES

#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER

#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ

#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN

#10-- THE MILLENNIUM

#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT

#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY

#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON

#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA

#15-- THE HAUNTINGS

#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER

#17-- THE STONE-THROWING

#18-- THE KAFTAR

#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE

#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID

#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE

#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.

#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.

#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS

#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON

#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH

#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON

#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH

Once there was a ganzowra who prayed to Shamish. Shamish came down out of his boat and went to the ganzowra and said to him, 'Why have you summoned me? This time I have come to you at your demand, but if you call upon me again I shall harm you!'

But the ganzowra did not heed this warning and again made incantations and summoned Shamish. This time also Shamish came but he was angry and said to the ganzowra "Did I not tell you not to call me?" And he took the ganzowra away with him to his boat, where he was burnt up and destroyed utterly.

A question from E.S. Drower to the narrator who answers

(I said "Is Shamish then evil ---The priest answered-- No Shamish is not evil. Does he not pray daily nine hundred butha to the Melka d Anhura? How then can he be evil?)   
The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran
By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937  (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962) pages 288-289
Narrator: for both stories a priest (Drower gives no name)
#6 A--- A SUN STORY
#6 B---THE REBELLION OF SHAMISH
When Shamish was first set in his ship he consumed and burnt all the living things of the world. Then the souls complained to Melka d Anhura who took Shamish and imprisoned him for 360,000 years. Then Ruha went and begged that her son might be released and Melka d Nhura put him back in his place but he put with him twelve natri (guardian spirits) to see that he did no harm. The light of Shamish comes from his drafsha (drabsha banner) and between Shamish and the uthri there is a curtain. In those days the earth wad not solid and its surface was covered with black water. Then Pithahil came and created the world and Adam and Eve were created.