A Full Blooded Persian

A FULL BLOODED PERSIAN

Is Studying Medicine At The University.

HE IS ELISHA E. SAYAD

He Has Been In This Country Three Years. He Didn't Know a Word of English.

Perhaps the strangest student in the university, said the Detroit Tribune yesterday, is a young man from Persia.

For not only is Elisha E. Sayad a native of Persia, as one may guess by his curious surname, but a man with a high purpose--to work among the people of his native country as a medical missionary. He is a medium-sized, dark man, whose swarthy skin sets off the handsome features peculiar to the oriental type; young, with deep piercing eyes, and silky, jet-black hair. His three years' residence in this country previous to his arrival at Ann Arbor were spent as a student at Hope college, and he has progressed wonderfully, when it is borne in mind that he could not speak a word of English before that time. The story he tells is entertaining. He comes from Oroomiah, a city in northwestern Persia, and the center of influence of the Nestorian christians, the name by which the Persian converts of the Presbyterian missionaries go--the only sect, it is said, which has found a strong foothold in the country.

Sayad is the son of a native elder of the faith. After going through the course of the college established there by the missionaries, he taught the Bible for three years in one of the schools planted among the Mohammedans. Through the influence of the missionaries he came to this country in order to more fully fit himself for the work he had determined upon. In some parts of Persia a minister is in extreme danger of violence, while a medical minister can go where he pleases and be assured of a kindly reception. His influence for good is thus doubled.