WHEN THE DEVIL COMES TO CALL.

His buying habits also changed.

''Normally, he took about four or five pieces of bread every day,'' said Sheik Shahir al Khazraji, 31, who owns a bakery across the street from Zaydan's house. ''All of a sudden, about three weeks ago, he started buying 40 pieces of bread every day. On the night before the American attack, he brought 60 pieces of bread.''

Jaboori said people in the neighborhood began to tell him stories of Zaydan's behavior. His friend had begun visiting a tobacco shop down the street and buying cigars. He usually smoked cigarettes. One day, a store owner across the street told Jaboori that Zaydan had come in and asked for ''the biggest bag of the best rice they had.''

Jaboori said he finally confronted Zaydan, who acknowledged that four men were staying in his home, ''and they have a big problem with them.''

''The way he said that, it suggested that the `big problem' was a person,'' Jaboori said. ''But when I asked him to tell me what this problem was, he said he couldn't tell me.''

Jaboori now thinks the ''big problem'' was Saddam Hussein. Sadi Ahmed Pire, director of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's Mosul office, said Kurdish spies in the area reported that as soon as Zaydan left his house on the morning of the attack, another car left Zaydan's home with three men inside.