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"...Such was the Nestorians's reputation for ferocity. In Amadiyah, visiting mountaineers were not allowed in town after dark, for fear they would storm the citadel and capture it. "They are regarded as almost invincible," Grant says, "and are represented as having the power of vanquishing their enemies by some magical spell in their looks."
--Fever and Thirst, Chapter 7
"Mirza tells me that there are 115 guests today! Among them are a number of Tiyari men, whose wild looks, combined with the splendour of their dress and arms, are a great interest...Their jackets are one mass of gold embroidery (worked by Jews), their shirts, with hanging sleeves, are striped satin; their trousers, of sailor cut, are silk, made from the cocoons of their own silkworms, woven with broad crimson stripes on a white ground, on which is a zigzag pattern; and their handsome jack-boots are of crimson leather. With their white or red peaked felt hats and twisted silk pagris [head-cloths], their rich girdles, jewelled daggers, and inlaid pistols, they are very imposing."
--Isabella Bird, in Hakkari. From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, (1891)
