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CHRISTIANS 
 
 UNDER THE CRESCENT 
 IN ASIA. 
 
 REV. E. L. CUTTS, B.A., 
 
 Hon. D.D,, University of the South U.S. ; 
 
 Author of " Turning Points of English Church History," and of 
 " General Church Hidory" <S^c. 
 
 PrBUSBED CNBER THE DIRECTION OF 
 
 TIIB COHMITrRE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDrCATlOlCf 
 
 APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY POR FROUOTINO 
 
 CBRIaTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES : 
 
 77, GEKAT QUEEN- STREET, LIXCOLN'S INN FIELDS; 
 
 4, BOYAL EXCHANGE; 48, PICCADILLY; 
 
 AND BY ALL B00KSSLLEB3. 
 
 KEW YORK : POTT, YOUXG & CO. 
 
LOKDDN: 
 
 Fdiktep by Jas. TarscoTT i-KO Gox. 
 
 Suffolk Lane, City. 
 
SRLF 
 URL 
 
 5136301 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Previous communications with the Nestorians — Cause of the present 
 visit — Letter from the Nestorians of Oroomiah ] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LONDON TO CAIRO. 
 
 London to Alexandria — A flying glimpse of the Delta — Cairo — 
 The bazaars — The Mouski — Night watchmen — Fleas — The 
 Pyramids — The Sphynx — Port Said 11 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE COAST OF SYBIA. 
 JafEa — Beyrout — Tripoli — Latakia 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALEXANDRETTA TO ALEPPO. 
 
 Plain of Alexandretta ; its associations — Description of the town 
 — The start — The mountain pass — Bailan — The Lake of 
 Antioch — The Plain of Antioch — Fording the Kara Sou — The 
 marsh — The hills — Hot springs — Camp at Afrin — Ancient 
 architectural remains — Rocky plateau — Ruined city — Distant 
 view of Aleppo 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 Search for quarters — De;?cription of an Aleppine house — The town, 
 Castle, minarets — The proclamation of the Trinity from the 
 minaret of Zacharias — The churches — The consulate — Stories 
 of Arab adventure — Our future course — Statistics 39 
 
VI 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALEPPO TO BIRIDEJIK. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Eastern procrastination — Start from Aleppo — Camp at the Village- 
 by-the-mill — Tumuli — Village of Baruz — Tortoises and 
 scarabei — A landscape — Chaban Beg-coi — The benefaction of 
 water — The village well — Camp at Begler-Beg-coi — Cross the 
 Sejoor— Camp at village — Pleasant country — Eeach the 
 Euphrates — View of Biridejik — The ferry — Search for camping 
 ground — Camp on the mountain top 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BIKIDEJIK TO UKFA. 
 
 Pastoral scene — Watering the flocks — Camp — The sand-storm — 
 Tent overthrown — Kufia, ancient ruined city — Ancient subter- 
 ranean fountain — The Jebel Nimrood 69 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 UKFA. 
 
 Its site — History — Description — Camp by Abraham's Pool — The 
 sacred pool — The sacred fish — The castle — The columns — 
 Other fragments of classical architecture — Visit the Pasha — 
 Ancient monument — The great mosque — The Mosque of Abra- 
 ham — The Armenian Bishop, church, and schools — Jacobite 
 priest, church, and education — American Protestants — 
 Statistios 74 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TJRFA TO DIARBEKR. 
 
 Start fromUrfa — Kara-kupri-coi — Sand-storm — Camp atRas-el-ayn 
 — Description of camping-ground — Journey by moonUght — 
 Mishmish — Flies — Journey by moonlight — Suarek — Arab story 
 — Macadamised road — Camp — Companions — Koord horse- 
 stealer ; his escape — Koord village — Luncheon — The Mesopo- 
 tamian plain — Camp — Zaptieh marksmanship — Distant view of 
 Diarbekr 86 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DIABBEKR. p^^^ 
 
 Cairp in the dty moat — Visit from Mr. Boyajian ; take up resi- 
 dence at his house — Description of the town; its history — 
 Roman architecture — Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian — 
 Shrine — Miracles — Church of St. James — Classical carving — 
 Beds on the house-tops — Visit the Pasha — Meet the Chaldaean 
 Archbishop — Statistics — The Protestant community — Jacobites 97 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DIAEBEKR TO BITLIS. 
 
 Ford the Tippda — Parting view of Bitlis — Camp at Salik-coi — 
 Mid-day halt — Camp at BismU-coi — Ford the river Bothman — 
 Camp at Geraseir — Alarm of Koords — Up into the hills 
 — Dangerous bit of road — Jacobite village and church — The 
 mountain land — Seert — Again up the mountains — Village of 
 Kufra — Mountain scenery — Overtaken by the dark — Camp 
 among the Koords — View of the valley — Curious geological 
 formation — Approach to Bitlis 109 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BITLIS. 
 
 Ride through Bitlis — Camp on mountain-top — The Armenian vicar 
 —The Protestants 122 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BITLIS TO WAN. 
 
 Over the mountain-tops — Tumble of a pack horse — Careful culti- 
 vation — Village of Andt — The village priest — Armenian church 
 — Scenery — The valley of Gazeldara — The Snban Dagh — 
 Pigeon shooting — Lake Wan — Camp — The katurjis — Village 
 — Pastoral scene — Tomb — A sick camp — Fever dream — Edremit 
 — Monastery and Church of Akhtamar — Arrive at Wan 126 
 
VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WAN. „.„„ 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Description of the plain — Traditions of Eden and the Deluge — The 
 history — Cuneiform inscriptions — " The gardens " — The town 
 — The dogs — Turkish tricks !— Armenian desire for Church 
 reform 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 WAN TO KOCHANES. 
 
 Start from Wan — Camp at Choschab (?) — Up among the mountains 
 — Eeach the snow-line — Gazelles — A scramble — Belated among 
 the mountains — A Nestorian camp — A sunrise — Among the 
 snow-drifts — Traces of wild swine — Rumours of bears — The 
 mountain-tops — The Jelu mountains — The vallej' of Kochanea 
 — Luncheon at the Koord camp — Arrive at Kochanea — Re- 
 ceived by the Patriarch 147 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NESTOBIANS. 
 
 The world at the end of the first quarter of the fifth century- 
 Its religious condition — History of religious controversies — 
 Nestorius made Patriarch of Constantinople — Controversy 
 on the mode of the union of the two natures in Christ — 
 The Third General Council — Neatorius condemned — Deposed 
 — History of the Church of the Eastern regions — The doctrines 
 of Nestorius maintained as orthodox in this branch of the 
 Church — The missionary work of this Church — The Christiana 
 of St. Thomas — The story of Prester John — The Eastern 
 Church persecuted by the Turks ; exterminated by Tamerlane — 
 Schism in the Nestorian body — The Chaldseans — The Nestorians 1 68 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 KOCHANES. 
 
 Our house — Interview with the Patriarch — Description of the 
 valley and village — Our mode of life — The Patriarchal Court 
 —The Jester— Folk-lore 176 
 
CONTENTS. IZ 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE NESTOKIAN PEOPLE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Arrival of the Bishop of Jelu ; of the Metropolitan — A border 
 
 foray — Arrival of Mar Goriel and the Persians — Intejcourse 
 
 with the people — Their character — Portraits of notables 188 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 
 THE NESTOEIAN HIERAKCHY. 
 
 The Patriarch — Bishops — Archdeacons — Priests — Churchwarden 
 — Deacons 201 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 R ABB AN YON AN. 
 Stories of him — Description — Life — Character 207 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF KOCHANES CHURCH FURNITURE. 
 
 Description of the precincts — Interior of the church — Its exterior 
 — Its furniture — The vestments 213 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 DIVINE SERVICE. 
 
 Description of the Eucharistic service — The leaven — Daily prayers 
 — Burial service — Ecclesiastical customs 221 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 Doctrines — Superstitions 230 
 
 CHAPTER XXm. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 State of edncatioii — General knowledge — Natural intelligence 236 
 
IT CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Musical instruments — Singing — Sword-dance 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 EOCHANES TO OROOMIAH. 
 
 The pass — The ford of the Zab — Camp at Shawoota — The land- 
 scape — False alarm of Koords — The Plain of Gawar — Hospit- 
 able reception — Diza — Turkish exactions — Mumbishoo — 
 A bivouac — Plain of Barados — Luncheon at the Koord camp — 
 Through the hills of the robbers — Fever and thirst — Genesa — 
 — Sleep on the house-top — Triumphal entry into the city of 
 Oroomiah 240 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE CITY OF OEOOMIAH. 
 
 The palace — The suite — The Serparast — Visitors— The church — 
 Houses— Social condition of Nestorians 251 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE PLAIN OF OROOMIAH MAR GOEIEL's VILLAGES. 
 
 Description of the plain — Journey through Mar Goriel's villages — 
 Dine at Dizatika — Alarm of Koords — Reception at the villages 
 — Entrance into Ardishai — Excursion to the lake — Dinner at 
 Guktapa 2G0 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 SEIR. 
 Alarm of Koords — Their actuai doings — Church of Mar Serghees . 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE PLAIN OF OROOMIAH MAE YONAN's VILLAGES. 
 
 The city walls— Crierbash— The '• Hillsof Ashes " — Arda — Superajan 
 
 — Grievances of the Nestonans — Back to Seir 276 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE AMEKICAN MISSION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Conversation with the Missionaries — Their policy — Their subse- 
 quent letter, and remarks upon it 282 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 PLAIN OP OROOMIAH — MAR YOHANNAn's VILLAGES. 
 Farewell dinner at Dr. Yussuf's — Start for Yangeji — Loose our way 
 — Sleeping on the house-tops — The lake — Nestorian camp — 
 Gavilan — Koord depredations — Notes on the Persian Nestorians 
 — The Papal mission 290 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 OROOMIAH TO TABRIZ. 
 
 Last of the Plain of Oroomiah — Turkish post on the top of the 
 pass — Plain of Salmast — Bivouac at Yoshanlui — Topschai — 
 Tassach — Description of caravanserai — Kusa Kuran — " Lame, 
 halt, blind," on their way to be healed — A caravan — Dizakalil 
 — Maian — The vineyards — Tabriz 296 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 TABRIZ TO JULFA. 
 
 Travelling by waggon — Cloud effects — In the pass — Remarkable 
 
 mountains — The River Araxes — Julfa 306 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 JULFA TO ERIWAN. 
 
 Russian travelling — Remarkable mountain scenery — Ararat — Nat- 
 chewan — Ararat again — Kurask — Still Ararat — Kamalia — 
 Associations of Arai-at 309 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 ERIWAN TO TIFLIS 
 
 The military road — Suchia Fantanka — Uncomfortable quarters 
 — Lake Goktslia — The Forest of Grusia — Dilijen — Romantic 
 scenery — Russian travelling — Tiflis 319 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 TIFLIS. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Description of the town — Nestorians in Russia 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVn. 
 
 TIFLIS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 Railway journey from Tiflis to Poti — Poti — The Argonauts — 
 Theodosia — Yalta — Odessa — The Bosphorus 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVin. 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE . 
 
 The Bosphorus — The Golden Horn — The panorama of Stamboul — 
 Sultan Ahmed's accession — Sta. Sophia — The dancing dervishes 333 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 
 
 Antagonism of Mussulmans and Christians — Good dispositions of 
 the Porte — Persecution of Christians — The two remedies — 
 Influence of Consuls 339 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 Prospects of the Anglican Communion — Its relations with the 
 Eastern Churches— Its duties towards them — Proposed aid to 
 the " Nestorian " Christians 343 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 Statistics of the Nestonan Villages — Dedications of the Churches... 353 
 
CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT 
 IN ASIA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Until the year 1834 the Nestorian Christians inhabiting 
 the mountains of Koordistan were almost unknown to us ; 
 they were surrounded on all sides by independent Koord- 
 ish tribes, whose fierce temper and lawless habits made 
 their country inaccessible to the European traveller. In 
 the year above mentioned, the Turkish Government estab- 
 lished its sovereignty over all these tribes, both Koordish 
 and Nestorian. In the following year, 1835, the Eu- 
 phrates Valley Expedition gave Englishmen access to them ; 
 and the pubUcations of the members of that expedition 
 excited in England an interest in the remnant of the 
 ancient Christianity of the further East, which had so long 
 lingered, isolated and disregarded, in the midst of its 
 mountain fastnesses. The result was that the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society and the Christian Knowledge Society 
 concurred, in 1838, in sending Messrs. Ainsworth and 
 Rassam on a special mission to Koordistan. The narrative 
 of their journey was published by Mr. Ainsworth in two 
 volumes of *' Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, 
 Mesopotamia, Chaldaea, and Armenia." 
 
 These gentlemen also presented a special report to the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in which they 
 
2 OHEISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 stated that the Patriarch Mar Shimoon and others of the 
 Nestorian bishops and clergy were anxious to have a clergy- 
 man of the Church of England sent out to assist them in 
 the education and improvement of their people. 
 
 This led to a further enterprise with a more definite 
 religious aim. Two great mission societies — the Christian 
 Knowledge and the Propagation of the Gospel Societies — 
 agreed to send, under the sanction of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and the Bishop of London, an English clergy- 
 man and an assistant on a special mission to the Nestorians 
 of Chaldasa and Koordistan. The Rev. G. P. Badger and 
 Mr. J. P. Fletcher were selected and sent out in 1842. 
 They remained in the country about a year. All regular 
 missionary work was interrupted by the fact that during 
 the time of their mission a Koordish chief had made an 
 attack upon the Nestorian tribes, had destroyed churches 
 and villages, massacred many of the people, and driven the 
 Patriarch and the rest to seek safety in flight. The 
 protection of the English missionaries proved the salvation 
 of the Nestorians from utter destruction ; the representa- 
 tions of the English diplomatic authorities induced the 
 Turkish Government to interpose, and Bedr Khan Beg was 
 banished to the island of Cyprus. 
 
 After having been a year among the Nestorians Mr. 
 Badger and Mr. Fletcher were withdrawn by the societies, 
 to the great grief of the Nestorians. Two or three extracts 
 from the letters of Mar Shimoon at the time will best 
 express the feeling of the Nestorians on the subject. 
 
 " Through your deputy (Mr. Badger) we have learned 
 with certainty that there still remains in the West a Holy 
 Cuurch independent and free from the corruptions of the 
 See of Rome, which is the mother of error, with a priest- 
 hood derived from the apostles, a right doctrine respecting 
 the Holy Sacraments, as well as a primitive ritual. 
 
 *' I entreat you, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that you do not reject this our petition, seeing that it is 
 
INTRODUCTION. ii 
 
 not a great thing with you that you should continue to us 
 the presbyter George Badger to assist us, and because the 
 "whole is for the glory of God and for the welfare of men. 
 Nor can I think that this is a hard matter to a nation holding 
 the true faith, and which sends forth so many messengers 
 among the people and brethren, so that in you is accom- 
 plished the saying of the Psalmist, ' Their sound is gone out 
 into all lands, and their words unto the end of the world.' 
 Is it not a small matter to such a nation to give up one 
 person to those who are in so much need of his assistance ? 
 
 "And again we repeat our supplication that you turn 
 not your face away from our request, which is but a little 
 one, but made to a great people and a blessed Church. 
 For, behold, the messengers of the Pope are as spies 
 among us, and are using every species of intrigue to get 
 an opportunity of entering into our country, in order to 
 deceive the hearts of the simple ; and these come to us 
 without our asking them ; and do you wish to go far from 
 us — you towards whom we have a cordial will ? "* 
 
 Notwithstanding these urgent entreaties. Dr. Badger 
 was withdrawn. 
 
 From that day to this occasional appeals have come 
 from the Nestorians praying for English help. In 1868 a 
 formal petition, chiefly from that portion of the Nestorian 
 people which is located in the plain of Oroomiah, reached 
 the late Archbishop of Canterbury, and he had put forth 
 an appeal to the Church of England based upon it, when 
 his death put an end for the time to any further action. 
 We put this letter on record here as the fullest recent 
 expression of the feelings of the Nestorians, and as the 
 appeal which ultimately gave rise to the mission of inquiry 
 to the Nestorians narrated in the following pages. 
 
 " This petition to be delivered into the hands of the 
 Reverend, Catholic, Orthodox, and Benevolent Fathers; 
 
 * Dr. Badger'8 " Nestorians and their Rituals," i., 291, 293, 295. 
 b2 
 
4 CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the beloved and blessed and illustrious, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and the Bishop of the Metropolitan City of 
 London, in peace and prosperity. Amen. 
 
 " May it be honoured and graciously received by their 
 saintly and pure hands ! 
 
 " To the most reverend and zealous Fathers, the elect 
 of the Holy Ghost, set as watchmen over the rich pastures 
 of the heavenly Lamb, the dispensers of spiritual streams 
 to all who thirst after the truth, whose resplendent beams 
 are diffused throughout the world, whose pure doctrine has 
 watered the once barren lands, whose Ught, like that of the 
 morning star, has shone upon the dark places of the earth, 
 the comforters of the afflicted and sorrowing, the sun of 
 the present generation, the meridian of our time, the 
 holy ministers, elect primates, orthodox patriarchs, watch- 
 ful shepherds, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Right 
 Reverend the Bishop of London, who follow after the life 
 of the Crucified One which leads to heaven, and who 
 dwell in perfect peace and security within the dominions of 
 her glorious Majesty, the most excellent Queen Victoria : 
 
 " We desire to represent to you our abject condition, 
 our spiritual destitution, and our lack of the means of 
 instruction, trusting that you may condescend to listen to 
 the appeal, and to relieve our necessities for Christ's sake. 
 In so doing, we take the liberty of submitting to you the 
 four principal causes which have reduced our community 
 to its present low condition, and which, moreover, threaten 
 its existence. 
 
 " First, you are undoubtedly well acquainted with the 
 past history of our community. At the beginning it was 
 highly flourishing, its boughs were vigorous, its leaves 
 green, its fruits delectable. Even from the time when 
 Nestorius was persecuted it sent forth its branches into 
 the far East, because it was planted by the watercourses. 
 It continued to prosper for many generations, sending 
 forth branches far and wide. At length the wild boar, in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 "the form of the first Mohammed, lopped off some of its 
 branches — for he dealt it a severe blow — and thereby 
 arrested its growth ; then it fell into the clutches of another 
 wild boar, ani the two conjointly, viz., the Eastern 
 Mohammed, who assailed it in front, and the Western 
 Mohammed — that is, the Pope — who assailed it from 
 behind left it prostrate. The former devoured its out- 
 ward substance, and the latter its internal economy, and 
 both gloated over its misery. Thus our community fell 
 from one depth into a lower deep, its numbers decreasing 
 at every fall, until but a small portion of it survives. 
 Moreover, the rulers who govern us are corrupt, and by 
 their careless administration foster violence and oppres- 
 sion. The judges, too, treat the daughters of our 
 people wrongfully. Plunder is committed with impunity ; 
 robbers steal, and no one dares to remonstrate; out- 
 rage is perpetrated, and the criminals are allowed to 
 escape ; felony is rife on the highways, and the felons are 
 screened ; evil-doers bear sway throughout the land, and 
 no one ventures to resist them. To such an abject con- 
 dition has oppression reduced our people that the living 
 among us are led to envy the unmolested dead. As to the 
 Mohammed of the West, through the agency of his crafty 
 emissaries he deceives the ignorant of our community, 
 promising them protection if they will but join their Church. 
 The illiterate fall an easy prey to their wiles, not knowing 
 that these men are whited sepulchres. Moreover, when 
 the aforesaid missionaries see any of our poor oppressed by 
 the tax-gatherer, they come forward to aid them by way 
 of charity ; others they indirectly cause to be oppressed in 
 order that they may relieve them ; their object in both cases 
 being to induce them to become Papists. Such is the line 
 of their policy towards our unfortunate and unprotected 
 community. 
 
 *' The second cause of our present abject condition is the 
 spiritual ignorance prevailing among our people. * * * 
 
6 CHKISTIANS XTNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 In fact the clergy and laity are on a par as regards 
 spiritual matters, all apparently -walking in the road to 
 perdition. Our eyes wax dim when we thus contemplate 
 the sad estate of the daughter of our people, and 
 unless, in paternal sympathy, you come to our relief, 
 no remnant of us will be left, and we shall be like Sodom 
 and Gomorrah. 
 
 " The third cause is the deplorable decay of learning 
 attiong us. Our ancient books have been destroyed, and 
 we have no scribes or printing presses to replace them, 
 no schools wherein to educate our youth. Our old semi- 
 naries have either been taken from us, or have become the 
 resort of the vain and the wicked. The learned have 
 perished from amongst us, and no students are rising up to 
 fill their places. * * * Alas for the bruise of the 
 daughter of my people ! Truly the summer and harvest 
 are past, and we are not saved. Hasten, we implore you, 
 to our rescue. 
 
 "The fourth cause is our isolated and forlorn con- 
 dition. The people of Israel, after a captivity of seventy 
 years, were restored to their own land ; but our captivity 
 has lasted 700 years, and yet no one has remembered us ; 
 and now we would lift up our eyes unto the hills, hoping 
 that help may come. But if we look to the hills of Russia, 
 we discover that they are covered with images and idols ; 
 if to those of Rome, we see [the Western] Mohammed 
 holding sway there ; if to those of America, the prospect 
 does not suit our views, neither is it adapted to our wants. 
 For the Americans have been labouring among our people 
 in Persia for the last thirty-five years, and yet not one 
 of the people has been able hitherto to write a simple 
 commentary on any portion of the sacred Scriptures. 
 Our people, moreover, are not well affected towards 
 their peculiar tenets. But in looking to England we are 
 all of one mind, and find comfort and hope in the anticipa- 
 tion of receiving succour from the great City of London. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 Hence we implore the Lord Jesus Christ, and cast our- 
 selves at your feet who are His disciples, beseeching you to 
 compassionate the condition of our people, who are wander- 
 ing over our moimtains like sheep without a shepherd, 
 and send us some of your missionaries and preachers 
 to guide us in the way of life ; for verily we have all gone 
 astray, each one following his own devices, through our 
 utter lack of pastors, instructors, and counsellors. We 
 are in the condition of fatherless and motherless orphans. 
 We are persecuted and have cried aloud for help, but no one 
 has come to comfort us. Woe unto us, for we have erred 
 and are benighted ! Therefore we beseech you, Fathers, 
 to save us from the all-devouring sea which surrounds us — 
 deliver us from its overwhelming billows, and rescue us 
 from the fierce storms which threaten our destruction. 
 
 " Having thus set before you a summary of our melan- 
 choly condition, we earnestly trust that you will not fail to 
 come to our assistance, and will not stand aloof from your 
 disconsolate brethren, who are on the brink of ruin. The 
 harvest truly is abundant, but we are destitute of a single 
 labourer. Our hope in Christ is that He may implant 
 sympathy in your hearts towards us, and move you to send 
 spiritual labourers to us from your Church, which is 
 endowed with riches and knowledge. For our hearts are 
 pained and our sight is dimmed through bewailing the 
 miseries of our Zion, tossed to and fro by the raging 
 waves, and devastated by voracious wolves. But Thou, 
 Lord, who art eternal, and whose throne is everlast- 
 ing, be not angry with us, neither cast us ofi" for ever. 
 We deserve Thy chastisements ; nevertheless, in Thy 
 manifold mercy, haste to deliver us. 
 
 " Finally, we pray you, holy Fathers, to pardon the 
 liberty which the undersigned — the suppliants of your 
 spiritual aid — have taken in submitting the foregoing state- 
 ment of their deplorable condition to your gracious con- 
 sideration. 
 
8 CHEISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN A^IA. 
 
 " Sealed with the seals of the following Bishops, Pres- 
 byters, Deacons, and Laj-men : — 
 
 " The Bishop of Gawar, the Bishop of El Akri, 
 
 the Bishop of Doori. 
 ^* Of the District of Tehooma — Presbyters Hoshana, 
 
 Hoshana, Shimon, Lachin, Eliazar, Hoo- 
 
 shaba, Ghwerghis, Israel, Yelda, Toobana, 
 
 Yelda, Sleewa, Yohannan, Yeshua, Sleewa, 
 
 Hurmuzd, and Yonan ; Deacons Binjamin 
 
 David, Matlub, and Ghwerghis. 
 " Of the District of Deiri — Presbyters Hoshana, 
 
 Hurmuzd, Abraham, Ishak, Schieimun, 
 
 Yohannan, and Khamis. 
 ''Of the District of Tydri — Presbyters Habsun 
 
 Bezza, and Ghwerghis ; Deacons Ismail, 
 
 Nurono, Hoshana, and Khamis ; Meleks 
 
 Khushaba and Jebbo. 
 « ''Of the District of Gdwar — Presbyter Khamis ; 
 
 Deacon Tammo. 
 " Of the District of Akri — Presbyter David ; 
 
 Deacon Yosep. 
 " Of the District of Doori — Presbyters Toma and 
 
 Yohannan. 
 " Of the District of Jelu — Melek Ahrun ; Deacons 
 
 Suleimun and Dakhyd. 
 ** Of the District of Bdz — Meleks Abd- Yeshua' and 
 
 Simun. 
 " Of the District of Rikani — Presbyters Khammo 
 
 and Yelda." 
 
 The Archbishops of Canterbury and York were minded 
 to respond to these persistent supplications, but it seemed 
 to them that more definite information was needed of the 
 actual state of the Nestorian Christians, and of the way in 
 which help could be most usefully given them. Their 
 Graces thereupon, in the spring of 1876, commissioned 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 the writer of the following pages to visit the Nestorians, 
 and bring back such information as was set forth in a 
 detailed paper of instructions. 
 
 A report of the results of the visit addressed to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury has been printed by his Grace's 
 order, and circulated among ihe members of the two 
 societies — the Christian Knowledge and the Propagation of 
 the Gospel Societies — which put at his Grace's disposal 
 funds sufficient to defray the cost of the expedition. It 
 was, however, thought that a fuller account of the incidents 
 of the journey, of the nature of the country, and of the 
 manners and customs of the people, than could properly be 
 included in a formal report directed to certain limited 
 questions, would be generally interesting, and would serve 
 the purpose of eliciting a wider sympathy and aid for the 
 plans which the Ai-chbishops have undertaken on behalf of 
 iJiis interesting people. 
 
A STREET IN CAIRO, 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
11 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LONDON TO CAIRO. 
 
 We started on our journey "from Kentish Town to 
 Koordistan " on the 26th of April, 1876. Our party con- 
 sisted of three persons — myself, my son, who is distin- 
 guished in the narrative by the initial W., and a Nestorian, 
 Deacon George, who had been in England two years, and 
 who now returned home in our company and acted as 
 interpreter. Our route was from London to Paris, Paris 
 to Marseilles, Marseilles to Alexandria. I pass over this 
 part of our journey. The reader has taken up the book 
 as one of Eastern travel, and it is hardly fair to delay him 
 with a preliminary chapter of European touring. Yet 
 this chapter was full of interest to us. The railway 
 journey right across France, with a few days at Mar- 
 seilles — a miniature Paris with a more beautiful climate ; 
 the view of the Bay of Naples, and a few hours' run over 
 the town ; the Straits of Messina, with a view of snow- 
 crowned Etna ; the distant length of Crete ; the pleasant 
 idleness of the voyage — pleasant to one who had been 
 working hard in a large London parish for some years ; 
 all this formed a very agreeable preparation for the more 
 novel scenes and the harder work which lay before us. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 10th of May, we came in sight of 
 Alexandria. First we saw something on the horizon like 
 the funnel of a steamer — as we came nearer it was seen to 
 be a lighthouse ; then, on the right, a line of palm-trees 
 and windmills with eight sails each, and a forest of masts 
 on the left, were visible over an horizon of sea ; lastly, the 
 
12 CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 line of low, sandy coast rose into sight. The Arab pilot 
 boarded us, and before we had finished admiring this 
 first-fruits of the East in his baggy purple trousers and 
 jacket and red fez, we found ourselves inside the harbour. 
 Then the touters of the hotel came on board, twenty or 
 thirty of them, struggling with one another to get at us ; 
 shouting at us and at one another — at us cajoleries in 
 broken English, at one another vituperations in Arabic. 
 Landed, we plunged at once into the midst of Eastern 
 life. I knew that a man's first day in the East was 
 a day of wonders, but I was not prepared for its great 
 interest — books and pictures and photographs do not 
 prepare one for the reality. The picturesque streets with 
 their overhanging balconies, the palms and acacias and 
 cacti, form the background of a series of pictures. The 
 pictures are composed of the most wonderful mixture of 
 races and costumes. Here is a big athletic Nubian in a 
 long robe and turban, which look snowy white in contrast 
 with his ebony skin ; there an Arab in his coarse short 
 linen tunic and abbai, and his head covered with a 
 kefiyeh bound with a rope of camel's hair ; a Turk 
 in plum colour; a native woman covered with a blue 
 mantle, and veiled so that only her eyes are visible ; a 
 European lady in the latest (but one) Paris fashion ; a 
 crowd of labouring men in blue dresses ; and traders in 
 European coat and trousers and fez. But to single out a 
 figure here and there and try to describe it does not give 
 an idea of the vast variety of costume and the novelty 
 and brilliancy of the scene, as the numerous people pass 
 to and fro in continually new combinations, in the bril- 
 liant sunlight or the cool shadows of the streets. It was 
 like a page out of the " Arabian Nights." 
 
 Pompey's Pillar, sole relic of the great Temple of 
 Serapis, and Cleopatra's Needle, were enough to set us 
 musing over the eventful history of the city which once 
 ranked second only to Rome among the cities of the world. 
 
LONDON TO CAIRO. 1^ 
 
 The steamer made a stay of three days at Alexandria ; 
 we took advantage of the opportunity to run up to Cairo. 
 If a railway journey across a country has its disadvantages, 
 it has also its advantages. It does not limit you to the 
 high-roads and the towns, it carries you right across country 
 and shows you a sample of everything. It carried us on this 
 occasion across the vast level of the Delta, marked at first 
 by barren sandy soil, with palm-trees and huge cacti, and 
 gleams of lake and canal ; then by attempts at cultivation, 
 with thin, parched crops which do not seem worth reaping. 
 At length we find the whole land cultivated. For long 
 distances the view is not unlike flat parts of England, e.(]., 
 about Peterborough or Ely, only every now and then a 
 group of palms or a mud village reminds one that it is 
 Egypt. The first sight of an Egyptian village ! A group 
 of mud huts, some square, about seven or eight feet high, 
 with a heap of litter piled on the top by way of thatch ; 
 only a door, no window ; some round-roofed with a flat 
 dome, which carries a cowl-shaped chimney; no yard, or 
 garden, or enclosure. A village is a group of a dozen or 
 twenty of these huts dropped down anyhow in the middle 
 of the open country. It is the colour of them — the same 
 colour as the soil they stand on — which makes much of their 
 strangeness and wretchedness. In larger villages we saw 
 some houses two stories high, and here and there a 
 threshing-floor outside the village, where the oxen 
 dragged a rude chair round and round over the straw, 
 just as they did three thousand years ago. In some 
 better-looking villages the houses were placed with some 
 degree of regularity, so as to form an outer wall, with a 
 gate into the street. The towns had a greater number of 
 two-story houses, some of them whitewashed externally, 
 with gardens, as if they might belong to Europeans. 
 
 Sometimes the railway ran for a distance alongside a 
 high-road, on which we watched the travellers as we 
 steamed along. There is a man in a long blue robo 
 
14 CHRISTIANS TJNDEE THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 sitting gravely astride a donkey, while his wife, muffled 
 up to the eyes, follows, also astride a donkey; there is 
 a stalwart fellow walking along at an easy swinging 
 pace with a long walking- staff. And, see, there is the 
 first camel ! and there an Arab woman with her boy 
 astride on her shoulder, holding on by her head. When 
 tired of looking at the landscape there was abundant 
 interest in our fellow-passengers in the long second-class 
 carriage. In the furthest compartment is a young native 
 woman, with her husband and a female servant ; she is 
 veiled to the eyes, and at first kept her face completely 
 concealed, while her dark eyes flashed and sparkled with 
 excitement as she looked at the passengers and chattered 
 to her companions. Presently she lighted a cigarette, and 
 had to draw her veil a little aside, with slender henna- 
 stained fingers, every time she applied it to her lips ; this 
 was evidently a trouble, so at last, to smoke at her ease, 
 she took off her veil altogether, and all the charm vanished 
 with it — she was not pretty at aU ! 
 
 A Turk got in at one of the road-side stations with 
 his little son. He soon found sitting hke a European 
 uncomfortable, so he took off his yellow slippers, tucked 
 his feet under him on the seat, and made himself com- 
 fortable. He was a big fellow in a white silk under-vest 
 and saffron silk tunic, and light chocolate over-robe, the 
 colours beautiful and beautifully harmonised. He untied 
 his bundle and ate his supper, he and his boy ; then the 
 boy made cigarettes for his father to smoke, and made 
 them with a dexterity which revealed long practice, while 
 the father took out his beads and played with them now 
 and then between the whiffs of smoke. 
 
 We missed the proper station for refreshment, or we 
 should have bought a piece of bread and a roast quail 
 each, and torn them to pieces with our fingers like other 
 people, and had water poured on our hands to wash them ; 
 but I had understood that there was a buffet at the next 
 
liONDON TO CAIEO. 16 
 
 station, where I assumed that we should alight and 
 lunch a la Franga ; the result of our mistake was that we 
 went foodless and hungry, except for oranges, which could 
 be bought everywhere. 
 
 At length the sun went down, and the short twilight was 
 soon over ; the stars came out one by one large and bright, 
 and beginning to feel weary and hungry, I tried to doze ; 
 then the collector came round for tickets, and in a few 
 minutes more we were at Cairo. A carriage whirled 
 us over a broad European-looking " Place," through a 
 fairly broad street partially roofed overhead, and pulled up 
 at the entrance to a narrow lane, which seemed to plunge 
 down into a labyrinth of back slums. A lamp at the 
 corner of the lane, however, bore the inscription "Hotel 
 du Nil," and assured us that our driver was right, so, 
 having only hand-bags to carry, we dismissed our carriage 
 and plunged into the abyss. After some distance and 
 several turnings we found our lane terminated at the gate 
 of the hotel. We entered and found ourselves in a qua- 
 drangle planted with palm, and accacia, and cactus, and 
 floweiing plants, surrounded by the apartments of the 
 hotel, with the dinner-table under a broad verandah 
 lighted by coloured lamps. In another moment we found 
 ourselves in presence of a courteous host, who promised 
 us a late dinner by the time we had washed off the dust 
 of our travel, and kept his promise handsomely. 
 
 By the time dinner was over the moon had risen over 
 the one- story east side of the quadrangle, and was shining 
 among the palms and climbing plants ; the air was still 
 and balmy, and we sat late into the night enjoying the 
 beauty of the climate and the scene. 
 
 Thursday, May 11. — Next morning early — for we had 
 short time and much to see — we mounted our donkeys 
 (they are the Hansom cabs of Cairo), and went out to see 
 some of the principal mosques and the citadel. I shall 
 not attempt to describe them. We had onlv time for n 
 
16 CHBISTIANS XJNDER THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 leisurely glance at general effects and no time to study- 
 details. The view from the comer of the citadel garden 
 was very fine ; the city with its domes and minarets lay 
 below ; then the Nile, and beyond it the Pyramids of Gizeli 
 and Sakhara looking small in the distance. Returning 
 we went through the bazaars — a labyrinth of narrow 
 alleys roofed overhead, lined with shops, all the shops of a 
 trade being together ; the silk bazaar in one place and the 
 copper bazaar in another ; the carpet bazaar, the silver, 
 the gold, the rose, the grocery bazaars, all in separate 
 quarters. Each shop is a smaU chamber, say six feet 
 frontage, and a little deeper from back to front, with an 
 open arched front, the shopkeeper seated cross-legged in 
 the middle of his shop with his goods before, beside, and 
 behind him, all within his reach, smoking placidly and 
 waiting for his customers, or sometimes lying along the 
 bench in front of his shop asleep. The narrow alleys 
 were crowded with people — black, brown, and white — 
 French, Turk, Greek, Egyptian, Arab, Negro, Copt, in all 
 sorts of costumes, the majority on foot, but many on 
 donkeys, and now and then a loaded camel stalked along 
 with his head on a level with one's face — a weird-look- 
 ing head, with hanging lips — grinding his food as he 
 went, with a motion of the lower jaw alternately from right 
 to left and from left to right, and eyes full of an expression 
 of long-suffering remonstrance. So we passed slowly on 
 through one bazaar after another, our donkey sais shout- 
 ing to make way for us through the crowd — a yielding, 
 good-natured crowd, which did not offer the slightest 
 rudeness, and did not even stare at us as much as I 
 should have expected, for we must ourselves have formed 
 a remarkable part of the motley crowd — an English clergy- 
 man in his usual costume with a wide-brimmed felt hat 
 and puggaree ; a young Englishman with fair complexion 
 and light hair, in a grey morning suit with a pith helmet ; 
 and a Persian with black curly hair and beard, in Frank 
 
LONDON TO CAIBO. 17 
 
 costume terminating in a straw hat. I am sure that all 
 Kentish Town would have laughed to see us gravely 
 mounted on donkeys and gently working our way through 
 the Cairo bazaars. 
 
 " Hallo 1 here 's a row !" a lad had got hold of an old 
 fellow by his grey beard, and was tugging at it, screaming 
 and gesticulating, while the old man was trying to get away. 
 A crowd filled up the street about them. What had the 
 old man been doing ? Trying to pilfer, perhaps ; his sub- 
 mission to the ill-treatment seemed to indicate that he was 
 in the wrong. " Make way for the Ej0fendis ! " shouts 
 the donkey sais, and the three gentlemen above described 
 gently push their donkeys thi-ough the crowd, while the 
 old fellow takes advantage of his opportunity and slips oS. 
 
 We emerge again from the bazaars into the Mouski, 
 the High Street of Cairo, and amuse ourselves by looking 
 at the buildings and the passengers, the houses, with 
 stone or plastered lower story, overhanging upper stories 
 of timber, and projecting windows with carved lattices, 
 and now and then a mosque or a fountain. We are getting 
 accustomed to the variety of costume, and only something 
 new particularly attracts the attention. There goes a grave- 
 looking elderly gentleman on a white mule — " ye that ride 
 on white asses." Most of the carriages have running foot- 
 men, who run a little ahead of the horses with a long 
 white stick, and cry out to clear the way, as Elijah gii'ded 
 up his loins and ran like a running footman before Ahab's 
 chariot to his palace at Jezreel. Here comes a funeral. A 
 number of men walk first, then comes the body, which seems 
 to be that of a child ; a boy walks' beside it ; a number of 
 women follow, all joining in a monotonous chant. We 
 stand aside to let the procession pass; our donkey sais 
 joins in the chant, and continues it for some little while 
 after we have resumed our way. 
 
 Here is a Greek or Armenian Papa in his black robes 
 and peculiar hat and rosary. Here a lady in a dehcate 
 
 A 
 
18 OHBISTIANS UNDKB THE CKESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 rose-coloured silk di-ess under her black outer robe. 
 There a woman riding on a donkey with very short 
 stirrups. There ! just in time to see a wedding party of 
 ladies in French costume get out of a carriage in a by- 
 street, the bride in orthodox white silk, the negro boy who 
 has acted as running footman in a new white smock for the 
 occasion. An officer rides past on a well-bred horse. 
 And so on and on, with no end to the succession of charac- 
 ters and the variety of grouping. 
 
 But soon other characteristics of the scene begin to force 
 themselves upon us : the great number of people who are 
 partially or wholly blind ; the number who are maimed or 
 disfigured ; the apparent poverty and wretchedness of many. 
 
 Tinkle, tinkle, clash ! It is the water-carrier jingling 
 his little brass dishes. He carries the water in a great jar 
 at his back, with a shade of green boughs to keep ofi" the 
 sun ; a long tin pipe projects over his shoulder, and he 
 pours the water out by a dexterous stoop forward. Here 
 is a man watering the roads, with the water in a goat-skin 
 at his back; he uses the skin of one leg as a spout, and 
 jerks the water to right and left over the road ; if he did 
 not, the road would soon be ankle-deep in dust, and the 
 incessant traffic would fill the air with such clouds as to 
 make the street unendurable ; as it is, the street is con- 
 verted into a kind of Rotten Row, and the wheels glide and 
 hoofs prance over it inaudibly. 
 
 " Black your shoes, sir ? " 
 
 '' Want a good donkey, master ? " 
 
 " Caroche, sir ? " 
 
 So the boys salute you at every comer as you get into 
 the French quarter, the new town of Cairo. Whenever 
 you are tired, or if you should by chance lose your way, a 
 very easy thing to do in the labyrinthine bazaars, jump on 
 the first donkey you see, and tell the sais, ** Hotel du Nil," 
 nnd you will soon find yourself threading the narrow lane 
 which leads to it, and will not be sorry, after a long 
 
LONDON TO CAIRO. 19 
 
 morning's sight-seeing, to find that you are just in time to 
 wash off the dust and sit down to dejeuner at the orthodox 
 hour of 12.30. 
 
 I wasted the afternoon in trying to hunt up the Consul- 
 General, to whom I had letters of introduction, and found 
 at last that he was in Alexandria, Strolling out after 
 dinner, we saw the way in which the shops are protected 
 from robbers. Before the door of many of them lies a 
 little wicker frame, on which a rug is laid, and a watch- 
 man lies there all night. Every now and then one of 
 them raises a cry of "Allah il Allah ! " or something of 
 the kind ; the cry is taken up by the others, and they 
 make so loud a cry, and so frequently, that strangers are 
 often prevented from sleeping by it. At the "Hotel du 
 Nil" we are so far from the main streets that last night we 
 did not hear the cry at all. We saw one of these watch- 
 men kneeling on his mat with his hands on his knees, 
 saying his prayers with apparent devoutness, no one except 
 ourselves thinking it a strange procedure. 
 
 After the matutinal cup of coffee and roll, we started 
 soon after seven in a carriage for the Pyramids of 
 Gizeh. Therein we made two mistakes — we ought to have 
 started an hour earlier, and we ought to have taken a 
 more substantial breakfast. It is a drive of about an hour 
 and a half, or thereabout, through Ismailia (the new 
 quarter of the city), across the Nile by a tubular suspen- 
 sion bridge, and across a cultivated plain, up to the edge 
 of the desert. The Pyramids are a little within the edge 
 of the desert ; behind them are low sand-hills, beyond 
 the hills the Sahara. Standing as they do in a vast plain, 
 with nothing near by which to measure them, they do not 
 look to the eye so huge as we know they are, and it is only 
 gradually that we come to realise their size. 
 
 We were at once surrounded by a group of Arabs, wild- 
 looking fellows, crowding round us, screaming and gesti- 
 culating with very unnecessary excitement, for there is a 
 c2 
 
20 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA.. 
 
 regular Pyramid tariff — 2s. each for the ascent, and 2s. for 
 the interior — hut it is the Arab nature to try to get some- 
 thing more than the tariff. I don't know that they are 
 really much more greedy than other people who live on 
 tourists, but they certainly make more noise over it. At 
 length, with the assistance of the driver of the carriage, 
 who had been supplied us by the landlord of the hotel, 
 and who acted as a sort of dragoman on our behalf, and 
 by refusing to negotiate with anybody but the sheik, we 
 got the preliminaries arranged, and started. Each of us had 
 a body-guard of four Arabs, one to take hold of each hand 
 and pull him up the gigantic steps, with a third to give a 
 push from behind at the extra high steps, and a boy with 
 a water-bottle. The ascent was really hard work, because 
 of the height of the steps and the intense heat, but it was 
 perfectly safe, and, with the assistance of the Arabs, there 
 was no real difficulty about it. From the top we looked 
 over an interminable tract of desert on one side, and on 
 the other over the fertile plain watered by the Nile ; the five 
 Pyramids of Sakhara northward, groves of palms, lines of 
 canal, Arab villages, &c., &c. ; the smaller Pyramid close 
 by, the Sphinx down below, the foundations of the Temple, 
 and traces of tombs all round. In the hollows between 
 the low hills of the desert the sand had flowed down like 
 streams of water. It was touched with a delicate greenish 
 bloom. After a long look all round we descended, and 
 found the descent quite as fatiguing as the ascent ; but the 
 two Arabs, one on each side, broke one's descent, like 
 coach springs, and saved the human machine the jerks of 
 an unassisted jump and the danger of a fall. The one 
 thing we had to complain of was that at every pause of 
 ascent the Arabs were pestering one with eager solicitations 
 for additional backshish. The tariff price went to the 
 sheik and was di\ided among aU the men of the tribe, 
 they said, and what was that among so many? I promised 
 them an additional backshish ; but then at every pause of 
 
LONDON TO CAIRO. 21 
 
 the descent they were pestering one to pay it before we 
 got down, lest, they said, the sheik should take it from 
 them ; while I felt it safer to retain a hold upon them until 
 their services were completed. Once down, my muscles 
 were so much strained by the unusual exertion, and the 
 heat was so oppressive, and I was so disgusted by the im- 
 portunities of the Arabs for additional backshish, that I 
 declined the descent into the interior; so we got the sheik 
 to keep his men oflf while we went quietly to look at the 
 Sphinx, and lay on the warm sand to study it. Every- 
 body knows it from photographs, everybody differs as to 
 the expression of the features. It gave me the impression 
 of a blank stony stare, with which it has gazed over the 
 Nile valley since the dawn of human history, and witnessed 
 the rise and fall of dynasties, and the lives and deaths of 
 generations of men, with the same passionless regard. In 
 reality the absence of the nose so defaces the features that 
 it is hard to tell what the expression originally was. 
 
 The heat was intense and oppressive ; it seemed to 
 parch all the moisture out of one ; one was continually 
 drinking ; the sweet Nile water out of the cool, porous 
 gooUeh (water-bottle) was delicious, but the draught only 
 gave a momentary relief. A pleasant drive back brought 
 us to our hotel in time for breakfast. In the afternoon a 
 khamsine (hot wind) began to blow. There was summer 
 lightning in the evening and a slight shower. There were 
 two showers of rain at Cairo last winter ; so that it does rain 
 in Egypt, though seldom. 
 
 On Saturday, May 13, we returned to Alexandria and 
 re-embarked. 
 
 On Sunday, May 14, we found ourselves at Port Said, 
 where the steamer remained all day, and we stayed quietly 
 on board of her. It was a cloudy morning, with a good 
 deal of rain, and the temperature rather cold ; it might have 
 been an English April day. In the afternoon the weather 
 cleared up, the sun came out, and it was hot. 
 
CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE COAST OF SYBIA. 
 
 On Monday, May 15, we reached Jaffa, where the steamer 
 remained all day. From the sea the town presents the 
 appearance of a rounded hill covered with houses rising 
 one above another. Eeefs of rock stretch out in front of 
 the town, so that the steamer has to lie outside, and the 
 passengers land in shore-boats. In rough weather the 
 landing must be very hazardous work ; even with tolerably 
 smooth water we found the swell hurling itself with heavy 
 blows against the reef, and the clumsy boat had to be 
 carefully navigated through a narrow opening in the barrier. 
 Inside there is a little harbour of smooth water, and a 
 narrow quay at the foot of the town wall, itself protected 
 by a second low wall and towers. Bad as the harbour 
 is, it has always served as the port of Jerusalem. Jonah 
 sailed out of this little harbour when he fled from the 
 Lord. The cedar beams which Hiram sent for the build- 
 ing of the Temple were landed on that narrow quay. It 
 was very provoking to be a whole day within so short a 
 distance (about thirty miles) of Jerusalem, and not to be 
 able to go up to the Holy City. We had to content our- 
 selves with wandering through Jaffa, and taking a walk 
 among the orange groves in its neighbourhood. The town 
 has considerable interest. The houses are well built of 
 hewn stone, with balconies projecting on corbels. Round 
 and pointed arches abound and vaulted passages, and the 
 narrow streets are very picturesque. Near the mosque, at 
 the north end of the town, is a little square, surrounded by 
 
24 CHBISTIANS UNDEE THE ORESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 a colonnaded cloister ; in the middle a fountain under a 
 dome, making a very charming picture. Beside the 
 fountain lie two tall capitals, with a double row of acanthus- 
 shaped leaves, the relics of some ancient building of con- 
 siderable architectural pretensions. The bazaars lie about 
 this square, and though small in size, are very picturesque. 
 Underlying the mediaeval wall at the north side of the 
 town we observed some traces of masonry of much larger 
 stones and of earlier date. A large piece of the wall on 
 the north-east has been broken down quite recently, but 
 the remainder of the old fortifications — so far as we saw 
 them on the north and the west (sea) side — are perfect 
 and full of interest. 
 
 We walked out into the country northwards, through 
 gardens and orange groves ; called at a farm-house, and 
 bought some oranges which were gathered for us off the 
 trees ; but I suppose they were out of season, for they 
 were thick-skinned and woolly. 
 
 The house which is called that of Simon the Tanner is 
 built of large stones like those we observed on the north 
 wall of the town, and is clearly of earlier date than the 
 surrounding houses, and is still surrounded by tanneries ; 
 and if not actually the house where Peter lodged and saw 
 the eventful vision, it is probably the same kind of house, 
 and near, if not upon its site. It serves to help us to 
 realise vividly the scene and surroundings of the history. 
 
 There was a good deal of bustle in the town ; the bazaars 
 were full of people, the streets with strings of asses and 
 camels. A cargo of goods was being loaded on camels on 
 the quay ; I watched the loading of one. The men had 
 got twenty planks on one side of the pack-saddle — they 
 were only short planks, but they looked like a heavy load — 
 and they were proceeding to balance them on the other 
 side, when the camel, who had previously remonstrated 
 with guttural noises, and threatened with sharp turns of 
 his long neck and vicious snaps at the projecting portions 
 
THE COAST OP SYRIA. 25 
 
 of his tormentors' bodies, at last fairly struck, got up from 
 his knees, and threw off the unbalanced load. The men 
 took it very quietly ; they did not beat the camel, or even 
 indulge in the usual screaming and gesticulation, but pro- 
 ceeded quietly to get the camel into position again, and 
 to replace his load. Perhaps their conscience whispered 
 that the poor beast had sufficient reason for his rebellion. 
 We did not wait to see the end of it. 
 
 Tuesday, May 16. — We arrived off Beyrout, and cast 
 anchor in the roadstead. The town rises from the water's 
 edge up the side of a hill. The eye ranged over a wide 
 extent of country, and the Lebanon range, with its sides 
 streaked with snow, formed the background of a very 
 striking picture. As we were to stay here all day, we 
 landed to see the town and to make some inquiries. The 
 massacre of the consuls at Salonica had occurred, a 
 squadron of British men-of-war was at anchor in the 
 roadstead, the whole country was in agitation, and we 
 needed good advice as to our future proceedings. The 
 consul referred us to the American missionaries. The 
 missionaries advised us that we might venture to proceed, 
 notwithstanding the agitation, feeling our way carefully as 
 we went ; but a more real danger, they told us, was that 
 we were late in the season for travelling across the country, 
 and they impressed upon us that it was only by taking 
 the greatest care, travelling by easy stages, with plenty of 
 good food, plenty of sleep, no fatigue, and no exposure to 
 the sun, that we could hope to escape the fever of the 
 country. 
 
 The town is large and thriving, with many modem 
 houses and several good hotels. We got some luncheon 
 at Bassoul's Oriental Hotel, and found a rather large party 
 of tourists there, who, however, were at the end of their 
 tours. Acting on the advice of the American missionaries, 
 we bought here two tents — the large tent lined, and with 
 a canvas screen stretched over the roof, with an interval 
 
26 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 between to make it less pervious to the heat of the sun. 
 We also went into the bazaar, and laid in some stores for 
 our journey. 
 
 We went on board again in time for dinner, but the 
 steamer lay at anchor till midnight. It was a charming 
 evening. We lounged on deck, and watched the changing 
 appearances of the Lebanon under the changing light. 
 When the sun had set, and the mountain was nothing 
 but a mass of purple on the horizon, we turned to admire 
 the town, whose numerous lights had all the effect of a gay 
 illumination. The lights of the men-of-war in the bay, 
 the distant sound of their band, a shore-boat rowing about 
 with music in it, the stars shining large and brilliant all 
 over the sky, the coolness of the air after the hot day, 
 made up a most enjoyable evening. 
 
 Wednesday, May 17. — We woke about five, and found 
 ourselves stationary off Tripoli. The town is in the plain, 
 at a little distance from the sea, embowered in groves and 
 gardens, with a vast old castle in the middle of the town. 
 The old port is a separate town, about a mile from the 
 city, at the extremity of a point of land on our right. A 
 hue of detached rocks stretches round from the point in a 
 segment of a circle, and on the furthest of them, right 
 opposite the city, is a little castle used as a prison. 
 The plain about Tripoli seems fair and fertile. The Le- 
 banon range is still the background of the scene. Since 
 morning the sun has drawn up light clouds which hang on 
 the sides of the mountains, and the snow-streaked summits 
 are seen through the floating masses of vapour with very 
 charming effect. It is the most beautiful piece of scenery 
 we have seen since the Bay of Naples. 
 
 In the afternoon we lay off I^atakia, a small town with 
 a large mosque in a commanding situation, while eight or 
 nine minarets showed the existence of others less con- 
 spicuous. A ruined castle defended a Httle harbour pro- 
 tected by a wall, only large enough for small boats. The 
 
THE COAST OF SYRIA. 2T 
 
 sea had become rough, and the task of landing goods and 
 passengers was not only difficult but dangerous. The 
 shore-boat at the foot of the steamer's ladder rose and fell 
 on the waves, and tossed and tumbled about, and ground 
 and crashed against the steamer's side, so that the unfor- 
 tunate passengers who had to land needed to exercise 
 considerable presence of mind and dexterity to avoid 
 stepping into the boat just when it was receding many 
 feet below them, with the risk of tumbling into the sea, 
 or of trying to step in when it was ascending, and getting 
 their limbs crushed between the boat and the ladder. 
 There was just one moment, as the boat hung on the top 
 of the wave, when it was necessary to let go everything 
 and step in. An invaUd lady was carried on one arm by a 
 gentleman friend, who hung on the step for what seemed a 
 very long time before a favourable moment occurred when 
 he could venture to step in and lay his burden fainting on 
 the stern sheets of the boat. The sea continued rough 
 during the night. 
 
28 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 ALEXANDKETTA TO ALEPPO. 
 
 On the morning of the 18th of May we awoke in a storm 
 of lightning and thunder and heavy rain, and going on 
 deck, found ourselves at anchor in the Bay of Alexandretta. 
 We are in the north-east comer of the Mediterranean. On 
 the left, in the distance, are the mountains of Cilicia. Right 
 before us the picturesque range of Amanus sweeps round 
 at the distance of a few miles, terminating on the south in 
 the bold bluff of Ras el Khanzir, which projects into the 
 sea and forbids any passage round it. This sweep of the 
 Amanus encloses the plain of Alexandretta ; the town lies 
 along the edge of the low beach. 
 
 It is a nook of land full of the most interesting histo- 
 rical associations. In the East the great roads are defined 
 by the natural features of the country, and have continued 
 unchanged for centuries. The great road from Europe to 
 Asia always lay through the pass between the mountains 
 and the sea, through the " Cilician Gates " on our left, 
 across the plain over which our eyes range, and by the 
 Bailan pass and the " Syrian Gates," through the Amanus 
 range before us. Across that plain Alexander the Great 
 followed the footsteps of Cyrus the younger. The Ptole- 
 mies, Tiberius, Vespasian, Sapor, Constantius, Heraclius, 
 the Khalifs, the Byzantine emperors, the Sultans of 
 Turkey, the Crusaders, in succession, have marched their 
 armies across that little plain, and threaded the defile 
 through which we shall follow them before nightfall. 
 
 The storm soon blew over, and we put ourselves and our 
 baggage into a shore-boat and landed. 
 
ALEXANDEETTA TO ALEPPO. 29 
 
 While the people at the Custom House were trying how 
 long it was possible to delay our luggage, and the vice- 
 consul was obligingly trying how soon he could find horses 
 for us, we walked through the town. Alexandre tta contains 
 800 houses (the population of Eastern towns is reckoned by 
 houses or families, and in ordinary cases five may be taken 
 as the average number of a family), divided in religion be- 
 tween the Mosque, the Synagogue, and the Church. The 
 Christians are again divided into Latin, Greek, and Armenian. 
 There are no antiquities in the place. The only things of 
 interest are a large buUding, formerly a factory of the East 
 Indian Company, and some tombs of an English family, 
 who lived here in the seventeenth century, in the church- 
 yard of the Greek Church. The neighbourhood is charming. 
 Lofty hills of picturesque outline, the lower heights of the 
 Amanus range, enclose on the land side the little plain, 
 whose coast is washed by the sea, now blue and sparkling 
 again after the sudden storm which swept over it an hour 
 ago. Unhappily the drainage of the hills is not carried off 
 by any natural watercourse ; it soaks down to the lowest 
 level of the plain, which is down by the sea-shore, and there 
 forms a marsh, and in this marsh the sea-port of Alexan- 
 dretta is situated. The streets are irregularly planned like 
 very narrow lanes, with a raised footway on each side, and 
 a track in the middle for the horses and camels. We walk 
 on until the road gradually disappears under water, and 
 we continue our exploration by means of a plank with a 
 hand-rail, which leads further into the marsh. We are 
 still in a suburb of the town, for the houses continue at 
 intervals. They are judiciously adapted to the exigencies 
 of the circumstances. Four posts driven into the deep 
 soil fonn the framework. A platform, a few feet above the 
 water, forms the floor ; another platform, eight or nine feet 
 higher, forms the roof; and a screen of " wattle and dab " 
 completes the enclosure of the house. They are veritable 
 " lake dwellings," and excited our interest greatly. As we 
 
30 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA, 
 
 looked round we thought of Martin Chuzzlewit's " Eden." 
 The glare of the hot sun on the surface of the marsh 
 seemed to be breeding fevers under our very eyes ; and 
 the innumerable frogs, thrusting their heads above water 
 and filling the air with their croaking, gave the last touch 
 of weirdness to the scene. 
 
 We were thankful, when we returned from our walk, to 
 find our luggage piled up in the vice-consul's yard, and 
 the horses just coming round. Then came the unpacking 
 of the long box in which our guns had been brought, and 
 the big box in which our saddles were stowed, and the 
 bargaining about whether we needed a horse more or less 
 to carry all our luggage, and the price per horse from here 
 to Aleppo. The bargain being at length concluded by the 
 vice-consul on our behalf, it is sealed, not in the English 
 fashion by our giving the katurji earnest money in advance, 
 but by his giving us several medjids (dollars) as security for 
 his fulfilling his bargain. 
 
 At last the pack horses are loaded, the saddle horses 
 saddled, the stirrups adjusted to the right length, and 
 we start in Indian file through the narrow streets and out 
 into the open country. As we turned our backs upon the 
 steamer still at anchor in the roadstead, we felt as if we 
 had left hold of the last rope which connected us with 
 England ; and with the caravan of pack horses bearing 
 our tents and goods pacing steadily eastward before us, 
 we felt that we had fairly entered upon our adventures. 
 
 The scene before us was a very pleasant gate of entrance 
 into Asia. The bold, picturesque hills which bound our 
 prospect remind me of some of the scenery of our English 
 lake district. The broken ground in the foreground is 
 dotted over with the tents of Turkish soldiers who are wait- 
 ing for a steamer to take them off to the seat of war. Our 
 road soon carries us among the spurs of the hills, diminishes 
 to a bridle track, and ascends and wiads continually round 
 •and up the hill-sides. We are fairly and pleasantly 
 
ALEXANDRETTA TO ALEPPO. 81 
 
 launched on our adventures ; new trees and shrubs 
 shadow the road, and new wild flowers catch the eye. 
 That, I think, must be oleander with its handsome bunches 
 of purple bloom, and that looks like a wild hollyhock ; and 
 what is that tall spike of handsome yeUow bloom ? How 
 dehghtful it all is, and what spirits we are in ! Is it that 
 the air among the hills is exhilarating ? or is it that our 
 spirits are elevated by the sense that we ai'e fairly launched 
 on our adventures ? 
 
 The ravine grows deeper and narrower at our feet, and 
 higher mountains appear beyond those which we fii'st saw 
 from the level of the plain, until, as evening draws on, we 
 come in sight of the town of Bailan, which is to be our first 
 sleeping place on Asiatic ground. The town fills the whole 
 gorge, rising back towards its head and up both its steep 
 sides, no two houses being apparently on the same level. 
 It looks very un-English ; all the walls, of sun-dried earth, 
 are stiU the colour of the soil, and the flat roofs give an 
 unfinished look to the houses as if the roofs were not put 
 on yet. The twihght is upon us as we ride through the 
 street of the town, but we see an aqueduct across the gorge, 
 and hear the sound of abundant waters everywhere. 
 
 Our katuijis (horsemen) are Bailan men, and spend to- 
 night at home, and try to persuade us to sleep in one of 
 their houses. But we have taken the trouble to carry tents 
 on purpose to avoid the necessity of ha\-ing to sleep in the 
 native houses, so I decline their invitations. Then they 
 want us to pitch the tent in the garden of one of the houses, 
 but when I have been persuaded to climb up the lull- side 
 to inspect the garden, I find it a little back-yard in which 
 the fowls seem to be the only gardeners, so I decline again. 
 I am induced to go a little further to inspect another most 
 eligible camping ground, which turns out to be the roof of 
 one of the houses of the town. When I insisted at last 
 upon going to the usual camping ground, we resumed our way 
 through the town, and turned aside upon a bit of rocky waste 
 
82 CHEISTIANS UNDEE THE CEESOENT IN ASIA. 
 
 ground beyond, where a wayside fountain supplies the first 
 necessity of life. Alas ! we had wasted the short twilight 
 in false stoppages, and we had to put up our tent, and make 
 our first attempt at camping out, as well as we could in the 
 dark. The attempt was not very successful ; it was eleven 
 o'clock before we got a fire made, and some tea and boiled 
 eggs for supper, and midnight before we lay down, without 
 undressing, on our mattresses, to fall soon asleep.* 
 
 May 19. — Notwithstanding our late hours last night we 
 were up this morning before dawn ; we washed at the fountain 
 by starlight, breakfasted off" tea and eggs, with a good 
 draught of new milk, and started by 5.15. 
 
 For more than an hour our road still ascended, gradually 
 climbing the slope of the ravine till it brought us to a 
 table land at the top. On the way we met our first caravan 
 of camels and pack-horses and mules, then another and 
 another ; for though the road we have travelled is nothing 
 but a bridle-track, it is the great high-road by which all 
 the commerce of the country for many miles into the in- 
 terior finds its way to the sea. 
 
 When we have reached the commencement of the 
 eastern descent, and are able to look over the other side of 
 the country, we realise for the first time the height to 
 which we have so gradually ascended. We overlook the 
 great plain of Antioch. Beneath us is the Lake of Antioch, 
 called Bahr Ajoub (the White Lake) from the colour of 
 its waters, half its hither side so shallow that it is covered 
 with reeds. On the right is the gap through the hUls 
 by which the Orontes flows down to Antioch and the 
 sea. 
 
 As we descend we meet here and there with traces of a 
 paved road, relics, probably, of the period when Syria 
 formed part of the Roman empire. Now and then we meet 
 
 * Bailan has a population of 500 houses, of which 300 are Mussul- 
 man, 200 Armenian, and there are twenty-four persons who style 
 themselves Protestants, converts of the American missionaries. 
 
AliEXANDKETTA TO ALEPPO. 83 
 
 a string of camels. We overtake a group of travellers ; 
 the man is in Frank dress, and carries a gun slung over his 
 shoulder ; a native nurse carries a child on horseback before 
 her ; the lady of the party rides in a takterawan — a square 
 box, strapped more or less securely on the back of a horse, 
 with rods at the four corners, which support a pyramidal 
 canopy of coloured calico to protect the fair traveller from 
 the sun, and curtains to screen her from the gaze of man- 
 kind — a picturesque vehicle to see winding among the 
 bushes down the mountain paths, but a most uncom- 
 fortable and not very safe one for the cramped and helpless 
 occupant. 
 
 At the bottom of the pass is a considerable square 
 building, with a pointed arched entrance and a range of 
 vaults on one side of the enclosure, probably a ruined 
 khan built three or four centuries ago for the convenience 
 of travellers. Here we enter upon the plain, at first 
 stony and sprinkled over with dwarf acacia bushes, after 
 a while covered with long grass. There are several great 
 tumuli here and there about the plain, which look arti- 
 ficial, both from their situation and their shape. At about 
 eleven o'clock we come to a river, the Kara Sou, or Black 
 Water, and have our first experience of a ford. It looks 
 rather deep, and flows between steep, high banks of black 
 soil, and the broken slanting paths down the banks indicate 
 that the ford lies diagonally across the stream. There are 
 some black Koord tents on the other side, a little way up 
 the stream, and their inhabitants are assembled on the 
 opposite bank to see us cross. First go the baggage 
 horses. It is rather deep, but they are getting safely 
 across, when one horse misses the ford and begins to 
 wade down the stream ; deeper he goes at every plunge ; 
 he carries the trunks, in which are books, clothes, and 
 photographic plates. With a shout and a plunge several 
 of the Koords take the river, and head the horse back 
 towards his proper exit, or he might have waded down 
 
84 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 between those high banks as far as the Lake of Antioch. 
 The things in the mails got wet of course, but most of them 
 were such as took no great harm from a wetting. We had 
 no opportunity to dry them for the next two days, and 
 some of my books still bear traces of their immersion in 
 the Kara Sou. 
 
 As we approached the other side of the wide plain our 
 horses' feet began to splash into water, and very soon we 
 found ourselves crossing an extensive marsh. Our leader 
 chose to ride along a track which was free from the rank 
 vegetation, and seemed to me like a ditch across the 
 marsh. I chose to take a line of my own where the 
 grass seemed thickest, and therefore, I assumed, the marsh 
 shallowest or the ground firmest; until it occurred to me 
 that the supposed ditch was really the road, and the 
 absence of vegetation arose from its being trodden under- 
 foot; when I too turned into this strange high-road 
 from the towns of northern Syria to their only seaport. I 
 wished we had been riding post ; I should have enjoyed 
 equattering through the marsh at a hand gallop like a 
 moss-trooper. After half an hour of marsh, as we ap- 
 proached a wide creek, we came upon the remains of a 
 paved causeway, known as that of Murad Pasha, 
 which no doubt once carried the traffic high and dry 
 through the marsh. The (pointed) arches by which 
 it crosses the creek are kept from falhng into the water, 
 because the creek is unfordable, but the causeway 
 on the other side, for some twenty minutes' distance, 
 is in such a state of disrepair that it is unusable. 
 
 Having crossed the creek, the caravan stopped to lunch. 
 It was 12.30, and we had been seven hours in the saddle, 
 and were hungry enough. But, alas ! in our ignorance of 
 Turkish travelling, we had made no provision for luncheon. 
 There w^ere two or three black Koord tents a few hundred 
 yards ofi", and our katurjis soon bargained for a bowl of 
 yohoort (a sour preparation of milk, something like 
 
ALEXANDKETTA TO ALEPPO. 85 
 
 -curds), and having brought some native bread with 
 them, they feasted sumptuously. But we EngUsh could 
 not eat yohoort, and there was no fresh milk to be had ; 
 long before noon all the morning's milk has been sub- 
 mitted to some process for its preservation. As a favour, 
 in consideration that we were travellers, the Koords dis- 
 tm-bed their bowls to let us have a little, which was half 
 milk, half butter, and I had a few biscuits, and we made a 
 scanty luncheon out of these. Then we lay on the grass 
 for half an hour, and then resumed our journey. 
 
 In another hour we had reached the other side of the 
 great plain, and pursued a bay of it which wound in 
 among low hills. Presently it brought us up into the 
 hills — stony, barren hills, with here and there a little rude 
 cultivation ; so out upon a wide plain, with low hills in 
 the distance, and two or three great square tumuli scat- 
 tered about it. See, a group of five vultures sitting to- 
 gether ! Soon after a flock of storks hovering round and 
 round, and at last settling gently down on the ground, as 
 rooks do at home. I noted metamorphic rocks cropping 
 up here and there through the prevailing limestone. We 
 pass a caravanserai by the road-side, out of which people 
 come to look at us ; among others, three European Popish 
 priests, who mount and start Aleppo-wards, while our 
 katurji is bargaining for barley for his horses and loading it. 
 Some miles further we pass a famous mineral hot spring, 
 over which a rude bath-house is built ; and a little further 
 still we come to a shallow sparkling stream, with a house 
 and a group of trees on the further side, which are the 
 village and river of Afrin. A little after six o'clock wo 
 cross the river, and pitch our tent on a patch of grass 
 on the further side, glad to find that the solitary house 
 is a house of public entertainment, where we can get the 
 food which by this time we very much need. Fried eggs, 
 even if the oil in which they are fried is a little rancid, 
 and boiled fowls, even if they are all bone and sinew, are 
 
 d2 
 
86 CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE OBESOENT IN ASIA. 
 
 very acceptable to travellers who have had a light break- 
 fast, and still lighter luncheon, and thirteen hours on 
 horseback. 
 
 May 20. — The katurjis grumbled because I -would not 
 get up till four o'clock ; but at that hour we rose, washed 
 at the river, breakfasted on tea and hard-boiled eggs, and 
 got on our way by about 5.30. 
 
 At first we wound among low hills, which grew bolder 
 as we got further on. At 6.10 we came to a village, in 
 whose buildings some great squared stones were intro- 
 duced; others were lying about; and there were several 
 subterranean excavations, with a well-hke opening from 
 the sui-face of the ground, which I was told were used for 
 storing wheat. Half a mile further were much more im- 
 portant remains situated on a steep bank, above the dry 
 watercourse along which the winter rains pour down 
 from the hills ; a subterranean chamber, partly blocked 
 up with stones, entered by a door in the side of the bank. 
 Rather extensive remains of walls, of very large stones, 
 with a bevelled base. At the further end a doorway, 
 moulded and sculptured. The lintel, of one fine stone, 
 is moulded, and has a cross patee within a circle, sculptured 
 in the centre, and a leaf in each of its angles. The 
 capitals of the pilasters which carry it have a suit of 
 mouldings, which may enable the Byzantine antiquary to 
 determine the date. 
 
 There was some rude cultivation here and there in 
 favourable patches of soil, but for the most part the 
 country is barren and treeless, but with large showy 
 wild flowers in profusion. At length we reached the top 
 of the grassy hills, and came out upon an extensive rocky 
 plateau. It was as if the ground had been paved by the 
 Titans with huge slabs of rock, irregular and ill-fitting, 
 and then other rocks had been scattered plentifully all 
 about. There was no road across this plateau, only famt 
 traces here and there of the hne along which previous 
 
ALEXANDBETTA TO ALEPPO. 87 
 
 horses had scrambled and slidden round and over the rocks. 
 In some places, indeed, there was only one practicable way 
 of surmounting a difficulty. Every horse must needs 
 place his foot on the same spot ; and here holes six inches 
 deep were worn in the solid rock by the traffic of centuries. 
 No description can give an adequate idea of the ruggedness 
 of the road, yet the horses picked their way through it 
 cleverly and at a fair pace. 
 
 At 9.30 we descended into an extensive shallow basin, 
 or plain, in this rocky table-land, where there was some 
 depth of soil which was cultivated. In the middle of it 
 stood the rather extensive ruins of an ancient city. A 
 few Arabs still live in corners of the old houses, and one 
 larger building is converted into a mosque. The people 
 caU their town Isera. The consul at Aleppo told us it 
 was the ancient Dana ; and Texier's map and Keith 
 Johnston's atlas place Dana hereabout. If so, it is a 
 city of historic fame. It lies in the great road from 
 Antioch to the East. It was part of the dominions of 
 Zenobia, and near it, probably in the battle-field afforded 
 by this basin of cultivated land, was fought the great battle 
 in which Aurelian defeated and took captive the heroic 
 Queen of Palmyra. 
 
 Some of the buildings are in a wonderful state of per- 
 fectness, considering that the storms and earthquakes, the 
 political and social changes and chances, of thirteen cen- 
 turies have passed over them since they were last in- 
 habited. There is, for example, a group on the west side 
 of the town. On one side of the street is a house built 
 of great hewn stones, with a two-light window in the upper 
 story, divided by a shaft, whose capital has an imitation 
 of the Ionic volute at its angles and a cross in a circle 
 between them. On the opposite side of the street, a little 
 higher up, is the facade of a public building, with a portico 
 in front, supported by two handsome columns of semi- 
 classical style. At the further end of this building is a 
 
88 CHRISTIANS UNDER THK CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 circular arch. A little lower down, on the same side of 
 the street, are the remains of a church. Its walls still 
 stand to a considerable height. In the north wall is a 
 square-headed doorway, still perfect, with the lintel 
 moulded and sculptured on both sides. Part of the dome 
 of the apse still stands, built of large squared stones ; and 
 the jamb and part of the arch from the nave to the 
 sanctuary. The mosque is also not improbably another 
 church, and there are many other buildings besides. 
 Altogether the town is most interesting, and deserves 
 careful examination and description.* 
 
 Kesuming our journey, at a little distance on the right 
 we saw what appeared to be another ruined town on the 
 top of a hUl ; two hours afterwards, a few miles off on 
 the right, a ruined city, with walls and gate, and a castle- 
 like building in the interior ; an hour after, still other less 
 considerable ruins at a little distance on the left. But aU 
 these we were obliged, with great regret, to leave un- 
 visited, our business being to make the best of our way to 
 Koordistan, not to make a survey of the ruined cities of 
 Northern Syria. 
 
 At last we descended from this plateau into a monotonous 
 rocky region of low hills and shallow valleys, across which 
 we travelled some hours before we reached the last hill-top, 
 and Aleppo lay before us in the valley. It was a more 
 imposing-looking city than I had anticipated. A large 
 mediaeval castle, on a lofty isolated rock, formed its 
 nucleus. The town stretched to right and left of it, 
 dignified with frequent domes and minarets ; extensive 
 groves of trees surrounded the city ; monotonous low 
 hiUs bounded the view on every side. 
 
 * De Vogue's Syrie Centrale does not, in the numbers ah'eady 
 published, give any illustrations of this place, and none seem to have 
 been published. 
 
89 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 As we approached the city, I cantered ahead with the 
 interpreter, leaving W. in command of the caravan, with 
 directions to wait at the entrance to the town while we went 
 to the consulate to ask the consul's (Mr. Skeene's) advice 
 about our lodgment. For in these Eastern towns there are 
 no hotels. The traveller will find one or more khans, 
 whose khanji will show him into an empty room, where he 
 may spread his carpet on the dirty floor, and send out to 
 the bazaar for his food. And sometimes he may find board 
 and lodging with a citizen family, who receive him as a 
 guest, and to whom, if no payment is asked, he makes a 
 present on his departure, whose amount is really his hotel 
 bill, as calculated by the guest instead of the host. There- 
 fore we needed advice as to our lodgment. 
 
 The consul would have hospitably solved our question 
 by taking us into his own house, but for the fact that part 
 of the consulate had been shaken down by an earthquake, 
 and another part carried away by a flood, and he and hig 
 family were living in the four rooms remaining to them out 
 of the original twenty. He, however, directed us to the 
 house of a Madame Cleopas, who would take us in, and 
 sent a kavass to show us the way. 
 
 We had travelled seventy miles through plain and marsh, 
 across mountain pass and rocky plateau, without a stumble, 
 but the slippery stones of the streets proved more dan- 
 gerous than all the rest of the journey, for two of our 
 horses fell in the half-mile between the city gate and our 
 lodging. 
 
40 CHKISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 We were very glad at length to find ourselves in the 
 cool courtyard of an Eastern house, with a marble tank 
 in the middle, a group of trees overhanging it, and two 
 or three kindly women bustling about to supply our 
 wants. How pleasant the deep draught of cool sherbet 
 which was at once brought to us ! and how we looked for- 
 ward to the nice little appetising dinner which our land- 
 lady — a tidy little Frenchwoman (what luck!) — would 
 serve us in a trice. We sat on the edge of the marble tank 
 and watched the katurjis bring in our luggage, and pile it 
 in a heap on one side the courtyard, then we had a httle 
 wrangUng over the settlement of accounts and the back- 
 shish, and finally shook hands all round, and dismissed 
 Johannes and his men for ever. Then we made a hasty 
 toUette, and sat down in the divan to wait for dinner. It 
 was pleasant to see the bustle going on in the rooms oppo- 
 site, which we took to be the kitchens ; one of our party 
 saw, with hungry, thankful eyes, a fowl being got ready for 
 the spit, and announced it gleefully to the rest. The reader 
 may think that we were greedy people to be thinking so 
 much about our dinner, but the fact is we had not dined 
 since Tuesday, and this was Saturday. The reader may 
 rejoin that if that were the case it might be natural to 
 think much about dinner then, but it is in bad taste to talk 
 about it now. But we should give a very imperfect sketch 
 of our impressions of Eastern travel if we did not make it 
 clear and prominent that considerations of breakfast and 
 dinner become very important considerations of daily re- 
 currence. In your well-ordered English household break- 
 fast and dinner come as regularly and, for all you know 
 about it, as spontaneously as sunrise and sunset ; but in 
 Eastern travel you soon find out how much forethought 
 somebody must bestow upon the subject if you are to get 
 any breakfast and dinner at all ; and a few failures in your 
 arrangements soon bring you from the lofty indifi"erence to 
 eating and drinking, natural to a well-fed philosopher, down 
 
ALEPPO. 41- 
 
 to the humiliating condition of a hungry animal. At last 
 dinner was served ; but alas for the vanity of human expec- 
 tations ! It was a jour maigre with our landlady, and the 
 bazaars were shut when we arrived. Pillaff with yohoort 
 (rice and sour curds) is very good, no doubt, when you 
 have learnt to like it, but we had not yet acquired the taste ; 
 and fried potatoes very insufficiently represent roast meat ; 
 there was a salad, indeed, but the fowl we expected with it 
 was an optical illusion ; and there was nothing stronger 
 than water wherewith to wash all down. Well, we tried to 
 make fun of it, and, like the Barmecide, invited one another 
 to take another slice of the sirloin or a leg of the fowl ; 
 but it was melancholy fun. In the morning the consul 
 paid us a visit, and insisted upon our dining with him 
 every evening during our stay. 
 
 The house in which we found ourselves was a very good 
 example of an Eastern town house, and I was very glad of 
 the opportunity of making myself thoroughly acquainted 
 with it. Some of my readers wiU, I think, be glad of a 
 careful description of it. The open court already men- 
 tioned forms the nucleus round which the various apart- 
 ments are arranged. This court is paved with marble, 
 once white, now mellowed by age and use to the colour of 
 parchment. In the middle of the court is a square raised 
 tank, constructed of marble slabs, with a fountain in the 
 middle. At one angle of the tank a little well shaft is 
 bored through the marble and down into unknown depths, 
 and over it is a small crane of ornamental ironwork, by 
 which a tiny bucket is let down into some subterranean 
 reservoir or aqueduct, and brings up bright cold water for 
 drinking. The tank is shaded by a couple of trees, which 
 have soared upwards in search of light and sun and spread 
 into a mass of foliage above, while some orange-trees in 
 tubs supply fresh green foliage below. The rooms ranged 
 round this court are two stories high, with flat roofs which 
 form an additional suite of open-air parlours and bedrooms. 
 
42 
 
 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 The accompanying sketch plan, drawn from memory, and 
 therefore only to be relied on as an indication of the 
 arrangement of the main divisions of the house, will help 
 our description: x is the narrow street, formed of high 
 stone walls, whose only openings on the ground-floor are 
 the doorways of the houses, and here and there a small 
 projecting window in the upper story, by which the inmates 
 of the houses can get a view up and down the street ; just 
 beyond Madame Cleopas' door a pointed arch is thrown 
 over the narrow street, \vith a chamber over it. The 
 entrance into the house is by the passage c ; a is the court, 
 B the tank, d the divan — a deep recess of the whole 
 height of the house, opening into 
 the court by a lofty pointed arch, 
 with voussoirs of alternate black 
 and white marble carried on Sara- 
 cenic carved corbels ; it forms a 
 lofty open-air sitting-room, and is 
 the reception-room of the master 
 of the house ; it is raised two 
 steps from the courtyard, paved 
 with marble, and has a broad 
 raised bench round three sides, 
 cushioned and comfortable ; the 
 comer of the divan d is the place of honour ; it opens by 
 two doors into the small eating-room e and the saloon r. 
 There is a chamber over the passage c and the room e. 
 G F are two large saloons occupying one side of the house ; 
 they have vaulted cellars or store-rooms beneath, opening 
 by low arched windows upon the court ; over them are two 
 chambers lighted by two tiers of windows, the lower square 
 openings closed with shutters only, the upper nai-row, 
 unsplayed and unglazed lancets, with Saracenic arches. 
 The chamber over f, which we occupied as a bedroom, has 
 also a small triangular projecting window towards the 
 street, into which the curious may thrust his head and see 
 
 plan of house at 
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
ALEPPO. 4S 
 
 what IS going on in the street below. On the third side of the 
 house is h the kitchen ; i, wood house and oflBices ; these 
 have chambers over them ; and the flat roof over them is 
 converted into a bower by a trelliswork, over which are 
 trained the boughs of a vine which grows up the side of 
 the wall. A fine external stone stair, s, from its first 
 landing gives access to the chamber over the kitchen ; a 
 a few more steps lead to a handsome stone balcony, carried 
 on bold corbels, which gives access to the chambers over 
 G F, to the flat roofs over d and e, and to the chamber over 
 the arch which has been described as crossing the street at 
 this end of the house. The stair t gives access to the cham- 
 ber over c E. The fourth side of the court is a blank wall, 
 along which is a narrow flower-bed, with a few plants 
 of lavender, and a few flowers, and a vine growing up into 
 the corner. The house is well built of hewn stone; the 
 stone stair and balcony and the pointed arch of the divan 
 are very good architectural features, and the whole efiect 
 of the house is very picturesque. The divan was our 
 chief sitting-room, cool and pleasant at all hours of the 
 day ; the view from it into the courtyard with its fountain 
 and trees, and the background of grey stone half hidden 
 by vines ; the glow of the air and the blue of the sky 
 above, and the cool shadows below ; the women of the 
 house moving about the further side of the court now and 
 then ; aud the swallows darting in and out to their nests 
 under the roof, made altogether a very charming picture 
 of an Eastern interior ; one could lounge in the corner of 
 the divan, inhaling the soothing breath of a chibouk, and 
 enjojing the picture, for an hour together. 
 
 In the heat of the day we were very thankful to keep in 
 the shelter of our cool and pleasant quarters, but in the 
 cooler portions of the day we saw what we could of the 
 place. 
 
 It is a fine city. The houses are lofty, built of good 
 hewn stone, with pointed arches and ornamented doorways, 
 
44 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 and projecting latticed windows, and other features of 
 architectural interest. I suppose the greater part of it is 
 work of the fifteenth century. The bazaars are extensive ; 
 they are vaulted over with plain pointed stone vaulting in 
 square bays, with a square hole through the crown of each 
 vault, through which alone the streets with their shops 
 receive their light. The open streets of the city present 
 many interesting architectural street views, with which the 
 traveller may fill his sketch-book ; but the bazaars are the 
 focus of interest to the curious traveller. There is a 
 curious contrast between the glare of the sunlight in the 
 open streets and the clear definition of every object, and 
 the hazy twilight of the bazaar, into which the square 
 slanting shafts of light stream in through the holes 
 in the vaulting. There is endless interest in the un- 
 glazed shops, each with its merchant squatted on the 
 counter surrounded by his goods, smoking his narghile 
 and chatting with his neighbour ; in the cook-shop at the 
 comer, where there is always a long skewer of kabobs over 
 the charcoal fire ; in the iced sherbet-dealer's stall, with 
 his mechanique always whirling round and striking its 
 little bells. In the busy part of the day, too, there is 
 a constant stream of passengers slowly making its way 
 through the bazaars, exhibiting great variety of costume: 
 the native merchant, in his graceful white robe and turban ; 
 the Arab camel driver, in his abbai and kefiyeh ; the 
 Christian women, in their hissar, a snowy cambric veil, 
 which covers the whole figure and face, leaving only one 
 bright, curious eye visible ; the travelled Turk or Arme- 
 nian, in Frank dress, with a red fez ; not forgetting the 
 two Englishmen, who sti-oUed about in their native costume, 
 rare enough to be a subject of interest and speculation to 
 all beholders. 
 
 But the whole scene needs a little treatment in one's 
 mind to realise its pictorial efi'ect. In fact, the streets are 
 dirty, the confined air of the bazaars is musty, the things 
 
ALEPPO. 45 
 
 exposed for sale in the shops are trumpery, the dresses of 
 the people are chiefly linen and calico. But half shut 
 your eyes, so that you see only the stately mediaeval 
 architecture, the wonderful lights and shadows, the flowing 
 forms and briUiant colours of the costumes, the varied 
 groups and interesting faces, and you see that every step 
 gives you the material out of which an artist would make 
 a picture full of interest, and from which the traveller may 
 derive unceasing delight if he will put himself into the 
 vight attitude of mind. 
 
 The town walls and gates are tolerably perfect and in- 
 teresting. The castle seems the mere shell of an ancient 
 wall enclosing modern buildings. The rock on which it 
 stands has been scarped so as to deprive it of all pictu- 
 resqueness. The feature of most interest remaining is the 
 great entrance gate and its barbican on the outer side of 
 the moat, and the draAvbridge and covered way which con- 
 nect the two. They make a group of great architectural 
 interest, of which we obtained a photograph. The castle 
 is said by tradition to have been built by the celebrated 
 Saladin, after its destruction by an earthquake in 1170 a.d. ; 
 and the same tradition says that the window over the upper 
 gateway was a favourite lounging-place of his son Malek- 
 ed-Daher. The gate bears the name of the Malek and the 
 date A.H. 605 (a.d. 1227). Several of the khans are large 
 and architecturally interesting. Some of the mosques also 
 are ancient and fine buildings. The minaret is a very 
 charming architectural invention, and the combination of 
 the dome and minaret has a most happy effect. We 
 studied the various modifications of design of the minarets 
 with great interest ; it seems to be the characteristic feature 
 of the Mohammedan religion, and has attracted the fancy 
 of the Moslem artist, as the cross did that of the Christian 
 artist of the Middle Ages. In its general form it is a 
 round, or multi-sided column, a spreading capital supports 
 the gallery from which the muezzin makes his proclamation, 
 
46 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 and from the midst of the gallery rises another short column 
 with a conical capping, sometimes terminated by a metal 
 crescent. From these minarets the muezzins, five times a 
 day, caU the people to prayers. It is a singular sound. 
 From one of the minarets near our lodging we used to 
 hear a loud voice begin in a monotone, which was taken 
 up by more distant voices, just as in a European city one 
 clock begins to strike the hour and the others chime in one 
 .by one : " La illaha il allah, mohammed resoul allah " ; 
 these voices, coming out of the sky and floating over the 
 subjacent city, proclaiming the Name of God, are not with- 
 out a solemn effect. 
 
 Indeed I was greatly struck with some of the external 
 phenomena of Mohammedanism. This perpetual procla- 
 mation of the name of God to every town and village is in 
 striking contrast with the way in which we keep our reli- 
 gion within the church walls, and shrink from obtruding 
 it upon the public notice. Again, the sight of a Mussul- 
 man saying his prayers in public is very striking ; the 
 absence of false shame, the manly dignity with which he 
 stands before his God, the humble reverence with which 
 he kneels and prostrates himself in the dust before His 
 Majesty, the absorbed attention with which he repeats his 
 prayer ; it made me blush as I thought of the way in which 
 Englishmen usually behave in Divine service. The simple 
 earnestness of their belief in God and His overruling 
 providence, too, is in contrast with the state of mind so 
 common among us, of vague early religious impressions, 
 honeycombed by a smattering of scientific doubts, picked 
 up out of newspapers and magazines, among the "edu- 
 cated " classes, and the stolid indifference of the unedu- 
 cated masses. 
 
 The minaret of the Mosque of Zechariah is square, and 
 is said to have been the tower of a church dedicated to a 
 saint of that name, converted into a mosque at the time 
 of the Mohammedan conquest. It is said that the procla- 
 
ATEPPO. 47 
 
 mation made at midniglit from this minaret, and made with 
 the hand before the mouth so as to disguise the words, is not 
 the usual proclamation of the muezzins, but is a proclama- 
 tion of the Name of the Holy Trinity. The following story 
 is told in explanation of the peculiarity : the first muezzin 
 who made the usual proclamation from the minaret of the 
 desecrated church fell from his high tower and was killed ; 
 the next also met with a violent death ; the third, before 
 he ventured to execute his office, went into the church and 
 prayed to the Christian saint to whom it had been dedicated 
 to save him from the fate of his predecessors. It is Uke the 
 story of the captains of fifties who were sent to take Elijah.* 
 A venerable figure appeared to him, and promised him his 
 life on condition that, instead of the usual proclamation, he 
 would recite the trisagion. Accordingly the pious muezzin 
 made the proclamation dictated to him, in these words : 
 "Kadoos Allah, kadoos el kawi, kadoos ilezi la 
 lEMOOT, EKHAMNA," which is an Arabic translation of 
 
 ayios 6 6eos, ayios 6 Icrxvpos, ayios 6 dddvaros, eXer/soi/ rifxa.^. 
 
 The office of muezzin has been handed down from father 
 to son in the same family ; and to this day the listener can 
 hear the voice from the minaret of Zechariah begin : 
 ^^ Kadoos Allah, kadoos, ^c," and go ofi" into an unintelli- 
 gible cry, clearly difierent from the usual cry, and believed 
 to be that which is written above. 
 
 I saw three of the churches, the others were closed. 
 The Papal Greek is a modem church, divided into nave 
 and aisles by clustered columns, without capitals, which 
 support vaulted roofs. Over the aisles are triforia, which 
 form wide galleries, where the women sit behind lattice- 
 work. It has an altar and two side-altars, as in orthodox 
 Greek churches. The choir has curious stalls of the 
 simplest construction, like a child's nursery chair, the seat 
 being made to turn up like the seats of our cathedral stalls. 
 The bishop's throne is a carved seat, fixed at the east end 
 * 2 Kings i. 9. 
 
48 OHEISTIANS UNDER THE OKESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 of the south range of stalls, facing west ; on the opposite 
 side of the choir is a chair for some other dignitary facing 
 south. There axe two ambones, like pulpits, one on each 
 side of the nave. The decoration of the interior was rather 
 gaudy. A priest in Greek vestments was reading the 
 Gospel in " sing-song " in the south chapel, the people 
 standing to hear, and at the close of the Gospel he read a 
 notice that from this day (Ascension Day) people were to 
 keep their fasts again. The church would hold about 600 
 on the floor, besides the triforial galleries. Outside in 
 the court, under a kind of cloister, stood a confessional of 
 a usual European type, i.e., with a central stall for the 
 priest and two stalls for the penitents, all open to the front, 
 and therefore in sight of the people. 
 
 The Maronite Church is divided into a body and aisles 
 of about four bays. The columns are slender, with capitals 
 of the usual honeycomb pattern, with which the vaultings 
 of the Alhambra have made us famihar ; there is a brass 
 fillet at the top and bottom of each column, and the whole 
 effect is rather elegant. There is a raised platform at the 
 east end, on which are arranged five altars with a low 
 screen in front. Also on this platform, near the middle of 
 the east wall, is the bishop's throne, facing west, with a 
 portrait of the bishop at the back of the chair in the atti- 
 tude of benediction. There were rows of benches in front 
 of the altars, in which some men were sitting, apparently 
 engaged in silent prayer or meditation. A curtain screened 
 off the western half of the church, which was appropriated 
 to the women. 
 
 The Papal Syrian Church is a modern church, with 
 sanctuary, choir, and nave and aisles of about five bays. 
 
 The Romanists are building a new church, which will be 
 a fairly handsome building, with schools adjoining. 
 
 " Her husband 'a to Aleppo gone, master of the Tiger," 
 
 Macbeth, Act I., Sc. 3. 
 
 I used to think this one of Shakspeare's geographical 
 
ALEPPO. 49 
 
 blunders, like his giving a seaport to Hungary, but I 
 am not so sure of it now. True, Aleppo is seventy miles 
 from the sea, with a lofty mountain range between them ; 
 but Alexandre tta is regarded as the port of Aleppo, as 
 Seleucia was the port of Antioch, or the PiraBus of Athens, 
 or Ostia of Rome. Only a week ago, when there was a 
 panic among the Aleppine Christians in consequence of the 
 jnurder of the two consuls at Salonica, the admiral of the 
 Mediterranean fleet telegraphed to the consul at Aleppo, 
 offering to send him a frigate if he thought it necessary. 
 So fcShakspeare was not necessarily tripping when he 
 assigned Aleppo as the destination of the unfortunate 
 master of the Tiger. 
 
 The place was well known byname at least in Shakspeare's 
 days, for the English Levant Company, incorporated by 
 Elizabeth, had a factory here, as one of the stages of the 
 overland route which the commerce with the East pursued 
 before the discovery of the sea route by the Cape of Good 
 Hope. There is not a single English merchant left in the 
 place now ; but the chancellerie of the consulate contains 
 a whole room full of old documents relating to the factory, 
 out of which probably an interesting paper might be com- 
 piled on the early commercial relations between England 
 and the East. 
 
 Every evening a little before sunset we lounged across 
 from our lodging, willingly losing our way in the labyrinth 
 of streets, so as to see more of the town ; then across one 
 of the burial-grounds, watching the glowing sunset and the 
 new moon, and enjoying the cool air ; and so to the consu- 
 late. The dinner was made piquant by novel Eastern dishes, 
 and Greek wines and Aleppine nuts and fruits, and stiU 
 more piquant by our host's stories of his long experience 
 in the East. I have permission to enrich my journal with 
 some of these stories, which, however, have not the 
 same flavour as I recall them in memory, and write them 
 in cold blood, as they had when our host told them while 
 
6iD 
 
 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 we cracked our Pistachio nuts and sipped our Greek 
 wine. 
 
 When Mr. Skeene first came to Aleppo a case came 
 before him in his consular court for adjudication. One of 
 the Utigants called upon him, and, without any beating 
 about the bush, ofiered him a bribe of £500 for judgment 
 in his favour, Mr. Skeene indignantly turned to the 
 dragoman and told him, ** Kick that fellow down-stairs," 
 and the dragoman in his zeal obeyed the order au pied de 
 la lettre. Of course the consul felt a glow of self-approval, 
 and was glad to have had an opportunity of giving an 
 example of the honour of an English gentleman. Next 
 day he heard that the disappointed visitor was saying 
 to his friends, " What a man this new consul is ! I 
 offered him £500 for his judgment, and he kicked me 
 down-stairs. How much more, I wonder, does he want ? 
 Does he expect £1,000 ?" 
 
 On another occasion he was obliged in justice to send 
 a man to prison — an infirm old man ; he said to the drago- 
 man, " You must take him to prison, but see that he is 
 not beaten or illtreated," as prisoners often are. The 
 dragoman returned. 
 
 " You attended to what I said about that old man ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, I made it all right." 
 
 " What did you do ? " 
 
 " Well, sir, when we got into the bazaar, I let the old 
 man slip off, and took another man instead." 
 
 " What ! and took him to prison ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; he 's quite safe there." 
 
 So then the consul had to send explanations to the 
 Pasha that a mistake had been made, and get the innocent 
 man liberated. 
 
 During the Indian Mutiny, a man presented himself, 
 
ALEPPO. 61 
 
 emaciated and in rags, at the consulate, and addressed the 
 consul in English with an Irish accent. Mr. Skeene found 
 that after the massacre at Cawnpore he had escaped and 
 fled across the country, and had walked all the way till he 
 found himself at Aleppo. 
 
 " And what was that big river I passed a fortnight ago ? " 
 
 "Why, that was the Euphrates." 
 
 " Ah ! the Euphrates, was it ? A mighty fine river." 
 He had been kindly treated ; whenever he saw a caravan 
 going westward, he joined it, and the camel drivers would 
 give him a crust of bread, and so he toiled on. 
 
 Mr. Skeene suggested that after such a wonderful feat 
 he should be inclined to complete it by walking right across 
 Europe and home. "Yes," he said, apologetically, "but 
 you see, sir, I do begin to feel a little tired." So Mr. 
 Skeene gave him money to get home, which he would only 
 accept as a loan, and duly repaid. 
 
 Mr. Skeene was out with a tribe, of whose sheik 
 he was a sworn brother. A caravan was seen in the 
 distance, and the whole tribe started off for it. Mr. 
 Skeene was mounted on a hot three-year-old, which he 
 could not master, so that H.B.M. consul found himself 
 galloping with a tribe of Bedowin to plunder a caravan. 
 The traders made no resistance ; the sheik merely turned 
 the head of the leading camel towards his tents, the rest 
 followed. But the consul entered into conversation with 
 his brother the sheik. " Why take the property of these 
 poor men ? " "By our laws it is honestly ours ; besides, we 
 have been three months with nothing to eat but dates, and 
 here are sixty camels, each bearing two sacks of wheat." 
 
 Some of the caravan people, overhearing the conversa- 
 tion, at last recognised the speaker through his Arab dress. 
 " You are the English consul at Aleppo ! " " Yes." " Then 
 we are saved." " My poor fellow, I have said what I can 
 without effect. I cannot help you." " Yes you can. Are 
 
 £2 
 
52 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 you not the sworn brother of this sheik ? " "Yes." "And 
 are you not the sworn brother of Mahommed el Ganim of 
 the Weldi?" "Yes." "Well, the caravan belongs to 
 him ; Mahommed and the sheik being both your brothers, 
 are also brothers, and a brother will not rob a brother." 
 The matter was explained to the sheik. He gravely 
 examined into the case. 
 
 " Are these the sacks of Mahommed el Ganim ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Swear it by Allah ; " and he swore it. Then the sheik 
 turned to the consul. 
 
 " Is Mahommed el Ganim your brother ? ' 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Swear it." 
 
 And the consul swore it. 
 
 With a motion of his hand the sheik turned the leading 
 camel's head towards Aleppo ; and the tribe of Bedowin 
 looked on in silence whUe the whole train of sixty camels 
 solemnly paced after it, carrying away the 120 sacks of 
 wheat, which they had already counted as their own. The 
 consul stayed a week or two with the tribe and had nothing 
 bat dates to eat for his pains ! 
 
 An Arab had set his heart on a famous mare owned by a 
 member of another tribe. He tried to buy it in vain. He 
 tried to slay the owner, and so win the horse ; but its 
 fleetness baffled his pursuit. One day he put himself in 
 the way, and as the famous mare rode by, her rider saw a 
 man writhing on the ground. " What are you doing 
 there ? " " I am ill and in agony." " Well, get up and 
 hold on by my mare, and I wiU help you." " I can't ; I 
 can't walk a step." " Well, I see who you are, but I won't 
 leave you here." And he dismounted and helped his 
 enemy laboriously into his saddle, who, as soon as he was 
 fairly seated, struck the sharp stirrups into the mare's side 
 and galloped away, " Stop ! " cried the man, " stop and 
 
ALEPPO. 68 
 
 hear me. I give you the mare on one condition — that you 
 will never tell the trick you played me, lest people should 
 be afraid to help those who are really in distress." 
 
 On one occasion Mr. Skeene was visiting a tribe of Arabs, 
 when in the evening some of the tribe rode in triumph- 
 antly. They had brought in the bags of the Aleppo mail. 
 
 The consul remonstrated. They offered him the letters. 
 
 " No ; I must have the money also." 
 
 " Impossible ; it was our fair spoil, purchased with our 
 own spears." 
 
 " Then order my horse and let me go ; I will not stay 
 any longer with you." 
 
 " You would put me to shame if you left me ; my 
 character for hospitality would be forfeited." 
 
 " Well, then, give me the money." 
 
 At last the men with the money were ordered in. The 
 sheik beat them well, and made them disgorge their spoil. 
 Just then scouts came in ; " the troops are upon us." The 
 tents were struck, the flocks, and women and children 
 were sent off. The consul said good-bye. 
 
 " You will not leave us now ? " 
 
 " Yes. The troops are acting against you ; the English 
 consul has no business here." 
 
 They let him go with the letters and the money. He 
 rode out and cantered up a neighbouring hill. He saw 
 the troops in the distance, horse, foot, and guns. He saw 
 the Arabs manoeuvring ; they let the troops get almost 
 within gunshot and then cantered on a little, like a lap- 
 wing, luring the troops away from their families and flocks 
 hiding behind the hills. Then avoiding the troops — for 
 he would not betray his late hosts — he took a course north- 
 wards, and cantered 180 miles into Aleppo ; summoned 
 the merchants next day ; delivered their letters and 
 money ; and found that the whole sum taken had been 
 honestly returned. 
 
54 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 I may mention two other stories learnt here, one which 
 interested us in the present disturbed state of affairs. In 
 the former troubles in a.d. 1860, when 4,000 people were 
 massacred in Damascus, there was a rising also of the 
 fanatical Mussulmans in Marash and fighting in the streets. 
 Word was sent to the consul at Aleppo. He went to the 
 pasha, and urged him to send troops. He was willing to 
 send some foot, horse, and a couple of guns, but there was 
 a difficulty about a commander. 
 
 " I am an old soldier," said the consul ; " will you put 
 them under my orders ? " 
 
 " Will you take orders from the consul ? " said the 
 pasha to the lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 So off they went. At a day's distance from Marash the 
 consul rode forward with half a dozen attendants. On 
 the road one was taken ill, and another's horse had a 
 reluctance to go further, and they aU dropped off one by 
 one, and the consul rode into the town alone ; went to the 
 house of the American missionaries, and learnt from them 
 exactly how matters stood. The authorities were paralysed, 
 and the crowd, under some sixteen leaders, were having it 
 all their own way. 
 
 He rode to the Serai. 
 
 " Where is the pasha ? " 
 
 " He is ill, and can see nobody." 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " He is in the harem." 
 
 He went to the harem ; the door was locked. Ho 
 knocked, and was told the pasha was ill and would 
 see nobody. He put his foot to the lock, and the door 
 flew open under a scientific kick ; pushed his way through 
 a cluster of negresses, and found the pasha lying on his 
 divan; felt his pulse, and drew his own conclusions as to 
 the state of his health. The pasha would do nothing, but 
 gave Mr. Skeene verbal permission to act as he thought 
 
ALEPPO. 55 
 
 best. He learnt that the leaders of the riot were at that 
 moment assembled in a mosque ; on his return he happily- 
 met his troops entering the town ; at once marched to the 
 mosque ; put a cordon of sentries round it, and arrested 
 all within. That night all was quiet ; next day the ring- 
 leaders were sent to prison, and the riot was at an end. 
 
 The other story is of the cholera last year in Aleppo. 
 Mrs. Skeene was on the eve of a projected visit to England, 
 and the consul urged her to go. "Do you think I will 
 leave you alone at such a time ? " They put their httle boy 
 in safety, and remained to do their duty. The consul's 
 stabling happened to be empty; his wife turned it into 
 a hospital, collected sixty patients, begged money 
 from some of the richer townspeople ; and during four 
 months had the English hospital fuU, and nursed the 
 patients with her own hands. When we were there the 
 number was reduced to thirty inmates. 
 
 In the course of these after-dinner conversations the con- 
 sul impressed upon us that our projected journey was a much 
 more serious undertaking than we were disposed to think 
 it, both on account of the general dangers, and especially 
 on account of the dangers of the climate. Almost every 
 EngUshman new to the country, we were assured, had to pay 
 his tribute to the malarious climate. Especially we were 
 advised that we ought not to make the proposed detour by 
 Mosul. The plague was raging in the lower part of the 
 Tigris ; one death from it had occurred at Mosul, but that 
 was in the case of a stranger who had brought it with him, 
 and the disease had not spread ; another case, however, 
 might be imported, and it might spread. In any case it 
 was not unlikely that the Turkish authorities might remove 
 the existing cordon sanitaire to the north of Mosul ; and we 
 
66 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 were assured that to be caught within it, and have to do 
 quarantine for a fortnight in a Turkish lazaretto, was 
 almost as bad as to have the plague. But it was not either 
 of these possibilities which decided us. It was the high 
 probability that unseasoned European travellers crossing 
 the low plain about Mosul, and staying in Mosul at this 
 season, would be attacked by Syrian fever, which, if it oc- 
 curred to any one of our party, would, at the least, detain 
 the whole party for months. The visit to Mosul was only 
 a secondary object of our journey ; its primary object was 
 to visit the Nestorians of the mountains and the plain of 
 Oroomiah, and return within six months ; and it was not 
 worth while to incur the very probable risk of sickness and 
 detention for the sake of the secondary object. It was 
 therefore determined that on arriving at Diarbekr we should 
 turn northward toward the hills : " Remember that every 
 mile of northing and every foot of elevation is so much 
 gain," said our experienced mentor. 
 
 I cannot speak too highly of Mr. Skeene's kindness to 
 us. The agent to whom we had letters of credit, on which 
 we depended for funds for the greater part of our journey, 
 was insolvent, and the consul kindly arranged our money 
 matters for us. The inquiries for money, however, made a 
 little gossip, and we were annoyed to learn that the rumour 
 going about the bazaars was that the Englishmen were 
 taking £100,000 to the Nestorians — a rumour quite enough, 
 if believed, to ensure our getting our throats cut before we 
 had left Aleppo many hours. We took care to get the 
 truth put into circulation that we were not taking a lira to 
 the Nestorians ; that we had no more cash than would pay 
 our expenses from Aleppo to the next town where we could 
 get English letters of credit cashed ; but that we had a 
 good many cartridges, with firearms of the newest con- 
 struction, and that we intended to defend ourselves if 
 attacked. 
 
 The consul also kindly superintended our hire of horses. 
 
ALEPPO. 57 
 
 The scene was an interesting one. He came to our lodging 
 •with a dragoman and kavass, and was served with coflfee 
 and a narghile, according to etiquette ; we all lounged on 
 the divan, while the kavass was sent to the khan to find 
 a katurji hashi (proprietor of caravan horses) and bring 
 him to us. He stood below the divan, made the usual 
 salute by touching the ground, his heart, and his forehead, 
 and the dragoman opened the bargain with him. He asked 
 too much, and, after a long wrangle, persisted in asking a 
 higher price than the consul considered fair : — Were we not 
 Englishmen, and therefore wealthy, and therefore fair game 
 for extortion all along the line ? The consul at last briefly 
 terminated the negotiation : " Send him away ; fetch 
 another." And the kavass started for another katurji 
 bashi, while Madame Cleopas brought the consul another 
 narghile. Another came, salaamed, and another abortive 
 negotiation ensued, in the middle of which the first 
 katuiji reappeared ; the two, I suspect, were in col- 
 lusion. His attempt at imposition was also speedily ter- 
 minated by the consul's peremptory decision, " Send him 
 away ; fetch another." And with the third we at length 
 came to an arrangement, which — considering that we were 
 English — was not considered very exorbitant. The consul 
 had also looked us out a servant, who had previously 
 travelled with Europeans, and was accustomed to their ways 
 and wants, and was reputed honest — for an Armenian. He 
 came and salaamed to the consul and his new masters ; his 
 wages were settled, and he was sent ofi" to the bazaars to 
 buy items of outfit which we had forgotten, and to lay in a 
 store of provisions to last us from Aleppo to Urfa. Finally, 
 we gave orders that everything should be ready for a start 
 early next morning, and went oflf at sunset to pass our last 
 pleasant evening at the consulate. 
 
 Our return from the consulate every evening was quite 
 imposing. A servant went before us carrying the lantern, 
 which everybody who is abroad after night-fall in an Eastern 
 
'58 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 town is required by the police regulations to carry ; then 
 maisched two kavasses, in their gay jackets, carrying their 
 swords, as an escort. We followed, picking our way care- 
 fully, lest we should tread upon one of the dogs which lie 
 scattered about in the road, and do not take the trouble to 
 get out of the passengers' way. 
 
 The following statistics of the population of Aleppo in 
 1876 were given us by Mr. Skeene : Mussulmans, 83,500 ; 
 Christians, 29,900; Jews, 6,600; total, 120,000. 
 
 The Christians are divided as follows : Eoman Catholics, 
 850; Orthodox Greeks, 1,640; Papal Greeks, 9,730; 
 Old Armenians, 34,600 ; Papal Armenians, 5,400 ; Protes- 
 tant Armenians, 80 ; Maronites, 4,200 ; Jacobites, 40 ; 
 Papal Syrians, 4,500 ; total, 29,900. 
 
 There are six churches, viz. : Greek Orthodox, Papal 
 Greek, Maronite, Old Armenian, Papal Armenian, and 
 Papal Syrian. The few families of Jacobites have no 
 church and no priest. 
 
59 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 ALEPPO TO BIRIDEJIK. 
 
 Saturday, May 27. — In the East things are the opposite 
 of things in the West. In the West it is a sign of respect 
 to take off the hat, in the East to keep the head covered, 
 and take off the shoes. In the East gentlemen wear 
 petticoats, and ladies trousers. The gentlemen dress gaily, 
 and the women in somhre colours. We wash our hands 
 before dinner, they wash them after dinner. We tuck up 
 our feet in bed, and leave our heads bare ; they carefully 
 cover over their heads, and leave their feet sticking out 
 at the bottom. In short, Eastern customs are in a hundred 
 things in curious opposition to those of the West. Above 
 all, in the East " procrastination is the soul of business," 
 and " punctuality the thief of time " ; and they " never do 
 to-day what they can put off till to-morrow." We were 
 to have been off by daybreak ; we actually got off at 8.45. 
 There is usually a horse to be shod at the last moment, or 
 a pack-saddle to be mended. Then it takes time to arrange 
 the luggage into suitable horse-loads, and to allot the 
 heaviest loads to the strongest horses, and to get all the 
 horses safely loaded. Then everything is done with 
 deliberation ; if the converse of the adage, "More haste, 
 worse speed," be true, the Turks ought to make good 
 speed, for they certainly never hurry. 
 
 At last we were all arranged, and made quite a con- 
 siderable caravan ; four baggage horses, an extra horse 
 for the use of the two katurjis, the servant, the zaptieh, 
 the interpreter, and our two English selves, made ten 
 
60 CHEISTIANS UNDEB THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 horses and seven men. We wound in single file through 
 the narrow streets to the nearest gate, round the exterior 
 of the wall, and took a course along a well-marked road 
 which led N.E. The katurji bashi accompanied us a 
 little way to see that we were fairly started, then wished 
 us bon voyage, and cantered back into town. 
 
 Our road lay along the aqueduct which supplies Aleppo 
 with water. It was constructed for the city by the 
 Empress Helena as one of the good deeds with which she 
 marked the way of her pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 
 Alongside this venerable monument of ancient civilisation 
 runs the latest adjunct of modern civilisation — the tele- 
 graph wire. It looks quite picturesque, with its slender 
 poles forming a straight line, visible for miles across bar- 
 ren plains, up the rocky sides and over the lofty ridges of 
 mountains ; the contrast is piquant between the caravan 
 tracks, unchanged since the feet of the camels of the 
 Patriarchs trod them, and the iron thread along which 
 modem science has compelled the lightning to carry its 
 messages. 
 
 "We passed some fields of tall, showy poppies. 
 Three women in coloured costumes, which harmonised 
 with the flowers, were in among the poppies, all of a row, 
 at a little distance from one another ; as we passed they 
 all stood to gaze, shading their eyes from the sun, and 
 formed a glowing picture, which reminded one of the 
 German picture of a little maid among the meadow 
 flowers which was in all the London print shop windows 
 a year ago. 
 
 Our road lay over an undulating plain with low hills on 
 each side ; the road itself was a broad belt of many inter- 
 lacing bridle-paths. At 2.46 we came to a Koord 
 village, with a stone mill built upon the stream, which 
 flows here with a lively natural current before its waters 
 are guided into Helena's aqueduct, and carried ofi" to 
 quench the thirst of the Aleppines. 
 
AIiEPPO TO BIRIDEJIK. 61 
 
 The stream is called the Halb-arch, the Aleppo stream, 
 and the village Dagerman-li-coi, the village at the mill. 
 Just beyond the village, on a plot of grass beside the 
 stream, we camped for the night. It was a short day's 
 work, but the next stage we were told would be nine 
 hours, the stopping-places being fixed by the possibility 
 of finding water for man and beast. We found our 
 arrangements much more comfortable than on our journey 
 from Scanderoon to Aleppo. Very soon after we had dis- 
 mounted, Philippus brought me the folding camp chair to 
 sit on under the shade of my umbrella, while, with the 
 willing help of the katurjis, he got the roof of the tent set 
 up, the sides being left open for the sake of the pleasant 
 breeze ; and presently we found our camp table spread 
 under its shade with portable soup, a capital cold leg of 
 mutton and a ham, presents from our late kind hosts, 
 strawberry jam and bread for sweets, and Turkish coffee 
 to finish with. We enjoyed our pic-nic much, and spent 
 the evening pleasantly. There are several tumuli in sight : 
 a quadrangular one, which we passed an hour ago on our 
 road hither, the zaptieh says is called Tell-Fifur ; further 
 on is a round tumulus ; a small round tumulus just 
 outside our village is still used as the village burial-place. 
 These tumuli abound, we are told, all the way round by 
 the river to Bagdad ; many of them are probably natural 
 hills artificially scarped, others altogether artificial. Many 
 of them seem to have still a village upon or close adjoining 
 them. Nothing seems to be known of their history; I 
 should think they would be likely to repay the labour of 
 examination and excavation. The sun is on the horizon ; 
 the twilight here is brief, and it is time to erect the tent 
 walls, get the baggage under its protection, spread out the 
 mattresses, and make all snug for the night. 
 
 Sunday, May 28. — Up before dawn, the stars still in 
 the sky, the skylarks already singing overhead. We got 
 a good wash in the river, breakfast, packed, and off by 
 
62 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 5. 1 5. After following- the course of the Aleppo water for 
 an hour we turned off to the right, over an xindulating 
 stony country, with low hills for the horizon all round. 
 At 8.20 came to a village called Baruz, built partly of 
 stone, partly of adobe. The village well is deep ; the 
 bucket is raised, not by a windlass, but by tacking the rope 
 to a horse and running it straight out over a bar. The 
 water was slightly brackish. A little way on the left was 
 a tumulus, with the village of Ochtarin at its base. Here 
 we entered upon an extensive plain with low hills on the 
 right, and the distant mountain range of Taurus on the 
 north. On the top of a hill on the right was a round 
 building with a conical roof, probably a tomb, with three 
 or four trees grouped round it. Tortoises here and there, 
 beetles hastily rolling their balls of dung out of the way of 
 the horses' hoofs, strange insects, served to interest us 
 till ten. The sun by this time was very hot, and we had 
 had nearly five hours' travelling ; we therefore halted on a 
 little rising ground where there was a well like that at 
 Baruz, with camels resting about it. We had the roof of 
 the small tent put up, and lunched. A family, which 
 seemed to hold the well as their own, and to sell its water 
 to travellers, looked to us like Bedowin ; but the young 
 fellow said neither his father nor his grandfather knew 
 when their family came into this country, but they knew 
 that they were Turcomans. 
 
 Our morning's journey had been over a monotonous 
 country — undulating, barren, featureless, treeless, but 
 I enjoyed it much. To live in the open air, to ride 
 along bridle tracks through a wide, free, unenclosed 
 country, hour after hour, with the mule bells jingling be- 
 hind ; to rise before dawn, and watch the stars fade out 
 of the sky, and the east brighten, and the sun rise ; the 
 halt at noon for luncheon, the pleasant bustle of erecting 
 our temporary home in the evening ; all this to an adventur- 
 ous temper, to which a (juiet English clergyman's life had 
 
ALEPPO TO BIRIDEJIK. 63i 
 
 afforded no outlet, is delightful. And these monotonous 
 countries often have a beauty of their own. For example, 
 as I sit under the shade of the tent after lunch, writing up 
 these notes of travel, here is a vast level plain before me, 
 full of lovely colour, stretching to the foot of a range of 
 hUls in the far distance, with the peaks of a further range 
 here and there visible. The nearer range, the katurji 
 tells me, is about six hours off, i.e., about eighteen or 
 twenty miles ; the more distant range may be thirty miles 
 or more. Look at the colouring of the plain. In the 
 foreground a deeper green and coarser texture, then a 
 band of more tender green ; beyond that a broad belt of 
 soil newly turned up by the plough, so red that at first I 
 took it for a patch of poppies ; next a patch covered with 
 a weed which looks exactly like lavender in full bloom ; 
 then more greens and reds, dashed in with a big brush, 
 sweeping in broad irregular bands across the plain. The 
 distant mountains bound the view with a boldly serrated 
 sky-line. Look again at the plain, for the points of living 
 interest in it. Yonder on the left is the tumulus, with a 
 large village at its base, which we passed this morning ; 
 two or three more Koord villages are scattered over the 
 plain ; yonder specks, when you look intently, you see are 
 camels feeding ; a little cloud of dust shows where a flock 
 of sheep is following its shepherd ; a flock of goats crossed 
 the foreground a few minutes ago ; and there goes a camel 
 dragging the pack-saddle to which he has been tethered 
 by the head, with strange grotesque contortions. If I could 
 paint well enough here is material for a painting, which 
 might not attract the crowd of visitors to Burlington House 
 — ^unless, perhaps, I put the camel in the foreground — but 
 which I think would delight the connoisseur. 
 
 Started again at 2.30 p.m., and though the sun was 
 very hot there was a pleasant breeze. In an hour came 
 to a village where is the tomb of Choban Beg ; annexed to 
 the tomb a little building, in which is a great amphora of 
 
CA CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 water, that man and beast may drink gratis of the posthu- 
 mous charity of the good Beg. The mouth of the village 
 well stood high among great stones, and the water was 
 drawn by two young women, not using a windlass, but 
 catching at the rope with their hands, each under the 
 other, with a practised dexterity which soon brought the 
 leather water-bag to the surface. At 7.30 we arrived 
 at the village of Begler-Beg-Coi, where we pitched the 
 tent outside the village, on a natural carpet of green with a 
 pattern of yellow flowers. The sun had just set ; the 
 purple of the distant mountains was deepening into black, 
 the week-old moon was already growing bright in the sky, 
 and a planet as bright beside her. How delicious the 
 deep draught of sheep's milk ; and how acceptable the 
 dinner of portable soup, cold fowl, jam and bread, and 
 coffee ! What a noise the dogs made in the village. How 
 glad we were to lie down on our mattresses and go to 
 sleep, knowing that we had to be up again before dawn 
 next morning ! 
 
 Monday, May 29. — We were up before dawn. The 
 Bailan men were quite right when they grumbled because 
 I would not get up till four o'clock ; we have learned by 
 experience to do better; and accordingly we were up, 
 breakfasted, packed, and off by 4.40, just as the sun was 
 showing above the horizon. At 5.30 we pass a village on 
 the left on the sloping base of a tumulus. At 7.30 
 ford the Little Sejoor, which they tell us comes from 
 Aintab. For two and a half hours we ride across a plain 
 with low hills, and at nine come suddenly on the Great 
 Sejoor, a tolerably full brook, with a quick flowing turbid 
 stream five to eight yards wide. We ford the brook 
 at the head of a rapid, and halt for luncheon on the other 
 side. Kesumed our journey, and rode over undulating 
 country deeply seamed by guUies, worn by the winter tor- 
 rents from the neighbouring hills. In the afternoon we 
 approached a cultivated country with olive-trees and vine- 
 
ALEPPO TO BIRIDEJIK. 65 
 
 yards on the hillsides, and corn in the valley. Descended 
 into the valley and camped for the night at a considerable 
 village, with a ruined mosque and good minaret, which we 
 photographed. 
 
 Tuesday, May 30. — We resolved to make one stage 
 into Biridejik, and accordingly rising before three o'clock, 
 were ready to start at four o'clock. Little credit is due 
 to us for the early rising, for the barking of the village 
 dogs, the croaking of the frogs in the stream just below, 
 and the attacks of a legion of insects made us glad to get 
 away. We started at once, leaving the caravan to follow 
 at its own pace, and had a very pleasant morning's ride, 
 especially the earlier part of it. The country was like an 
 average bit of any hilly English county ; the hillsides 
 were thickly planted with olive-trees; the level ground 
 had large patches of vineyard, and some unusually good 
 crops of wheat and barley, so that the country had a rich, 
 well- cultivated look, in pleasant contrast with the barren 
 wolds and stony hill-sides we had been riding over for 
 days. 
 
 After about three hours we came to a large village, and 
 at the zaptieh's suggestion rode into it, and pulling up at 
 the village coflfee-house, dismounted, and drank a cup of 
 coffee each, while the people gradually crowded round to 
 see their European guests. We heard the music of a 
 wedding as we entered the village, and as we rode out of 
 it across the cemetery we saw them digging a grave. 
 
 Two hours further we reached the top of a long gentle 
 descent, and came in sight of our destination. At the foot 
 of the slope runs " the fourth river, which is Euphrates " — 
 " the great river, the river Euphrates." Far away to the 
 north, i.e., on our left, was a range of high mountains, 
 with a good deal of snow in patches and streaks about 
 their summits. A broad reach of the Euphrates gleamed 
 under the sun on our right, and in front beyond the river 
 was the city of Biridejik. We rode down to the river-side 
 
66 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 and took shelter under a great solitary tree until our cara- 
 van came up, that we might all be ferried over together. 
 
 There was an extensive cemetery on this side the river — • 
 the city of the living on one side, the city of the dead on 
 the other, with the symboUcal river between. There was 
 a tumbledown building among the graves, which we were 
 told was a reUgious house and place of pilgrimage. We 
 ought to have been able to obtain some sort of refresh- 
 ment here, but the chief had gone across to the city to lay 
 in stores, and the half-naked negro in charge could give 
 us nothing but water, and a narghile for those who cared 
 for it. I assumed from the maps that we were upon or 
 very near the site of the city of Zeugma, once an outpost 
 of the Roman power. 
 
 The view before us was worthy of study. The Euphrates 
 here is a broad, full, strong stream, and the wide sandy 
 margin showed that after rains it spreads far beyond its 
 usual bed, and must then present a formidable river to ford. 
 The ground on the opposite side of the river rises at once 
 into bold hUls, fantastically moulded and seamed by the 
 rains. A row of houses Unes the water's edge, and the 
 town rises steeply up the hill behind them. On the left, 
 on an isolated rock, stand the ruins of an extensive and 
 strong castle ; groves, vineyards, and gardens surround 
 the city. It is the ancient city of Apamaea we are looking 
 at, the frontier town of Mesopotamia. 
 
 When our caravan arrived it marched straight down to 
 the water's edge, and signalling to the ferryman on the 
 other side, we proceeded at once to cross the river. 
 There were a number of ferry-boats — half a dozen or so 
 — moored on the opposite side, two of which came over to 
 fetch our numerous party. They are very curious examples 
 of shipbuilding : in shape like the fore-part of great 
 ancient lofty-prowed galleys which have been cut in two 
 amidships ; built of short, broad, irregularly-shaped slabs 
 of wood, rather than planks, nailed on anyhow, as if the 
 
ALEPPO TO BIKIDEJIK. 67 
 
 original boat had been patched and patched till it was all 
 patches. With a little jibbing and plunging we got our 
 horses aboard ; the clumsy ark was thrust off into the 
 stream, and drifted rapidly down, while the boatmen with 
 great rude sculls steered a diagonal course, which in a few 
 minutes brought us alongside a narrow wharf at the lower 
 end of the town. 
 
 W. and I landed and rode off through the skirts of the 
 town, with the zaptieh, to see the camping-ground he 
 proposed for us. Half-way up the hill he reined in his 
 horse, turned round in the saddle, pointing out the place 
 where we stood with a wave of the hand and a self-satisfied 
 air, as if challenging our admiration for a paradise of a 
 camping-ground. It was a small platform of limestone, 
 nearly surrounded by an amphitheatre of limestone rocks, 
 hot as a baker's oven, and blinding with the glare of the 
 sun reflected from floor and sides. We replied to our 
 guide's look of self-satisfaction with a shrug of the shoulders 
 and an emphatic shake of the head. The katurji had 
 spoken of a place on the hills, beyond the town, beside 
 the pool which supplies the town with water. We took 
 for granted that it would be a grassy margin decked with 
 flowers and shaded with trees, and we were resolved to 
 push on in search of this pleasant spot. The zaptieh 
 refused to understand, or at least to respond to, our ges- 
 tures to proceed, so we left him to tell the rest what had 
 become of us, and pushed forward by ourselves. It was 
 one of the bits of our journey which dwell vividly on the 
 memory. Up and up a rough hollow way which wound 
 steeply up the limestone hill, under the intense heat and 
 glare, hot and parched with dust and thirst ; up and up 
 till we began to think we must have mistaken our road ; 
 when we came at last to a place which — we recognised with 
 dismay — agreed roughly with the katurji's description, 
 though it differed widely from the ideas which that de- 
 scription had suggested to our imagination. We had 
 
 f2 
 
68 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 traced for some time the narrow watercourse through 
 which the stream rushed down the hill to supply the town ; 
 it brought us at last to the source from which it sprang. 
 Bat how different from the pleasant pool with a grassy 
 margin, beneath the shade of trees, in a hollow of the 
 mountains, which we had pictured to ourselves ! It was a 
 shallow, marshy, rush- grown reservoir, in the bare limestone 
 table-land, without a blade of verdure or a patch of shade. 
 Here we must wait till the caravan should come up — if, 
 indeed, that stupid zaptieh did not persuade them to 
 encamp in his amphitheatre of heat and glare. I looked 
 in vain for a shelter from the pitiless sun ; there was not 
 a rock, there was not a shrub. So at last I sat on the 
 ground and gathered myself into the smallest possible 
 compass, and made my sunshade cover as much of me 
 as it would, and waited with what resignation I could, 
 understanding better than ever before the Scripture simile 
 of " the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." 
 
 The caravan came up in an hour or so, and we were 
 soon under the welcome shade of the tent. 
 
 In the evening clouds gathered over the sky, a strong 
 wind arose, and we had a blustering night. I had con- 
 siderable fears for the safety of our tent, for the rocky 
 ground afforded bad holding for the tent pegs, and some 
 of the ropes were tied to large stones instead of being 
 fastened into the ground ; but everything held fast, and we 
 passed the night in safety. 
 
69 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BIEIDEJIK TO UBFA. 
 
 Wednesday, May 31. — Started at 5.45 and rode through 
 the morning, up hill and down dale, leaving the caravan to 
 follow at its leisure. 
 
 In the bottom between two low hills was a well, where 
 we halted for a draught of water, and to wait the arrival 
 of our caravan, which we had outridden. 
 
 The whole neighbourhood, so far as we could see, was 
 barren and uninhabited, but there were two Koords at the 
 well who seemed to claim a right of property in it. One 
 was a frank-looking young fellow, but the other was a 
 short, strongly-built fellow, with a low brow and villanous 
 countenance, and both armed with pistol and dagger. Had 
 I been a lonely traveller, I should have thought twice before 
 I drew rein and asked for a drink of water from their well. 
 But though we had left our caravan behind, we were three 
 in number, and two of us, at least, well enough armed to 
 feel at our ease. The well seemed shallow, and the water, 
 brought up in a leathern bag instead of a bucket, was 
 muddy ; it seemed as if the well was only a subterranean 
 reservoir into which some spring slowly collected. Beside 
 the well were three or four shallow troughs of hard-beaten 
 earth, into which the water was poured from the leathern 
 bag, and flowed from one to the other, gradually deposit- 
 ing its sediment. We took a draught or two from the 
 last and clearest, and lay down on the hill-side to wait for 
 our caravan. 
 
 Presently our zaptieh rode up, and, after a short parley, 
 the frank-looking young Koord jumped upon one of our 
 
70 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CEE SCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 horses and set off, at as great a pace as he could get out of 
 the horse, round the shoulder of the hill. Had we been 
 alone I should have thought the right course was to jump 
 on the other horse and race after him pistol in hand ; 
 under all the circumstances I lay still and waited the 
 event. After a quarter of an hour's absence we saw him 
 slowly returning, bearing a great bowl in his hand ; just at 
 the same time our caravan came up and supplied us with 
 bread to eat with the bowl of milk our young Koord had 
 brought us. 
 
 While we were enjoying our luncheon, quite unex- 
 pectedly, round the shoulder of the hill streamed flocks of 
 sheep, goats, cows, women, and girls, and within two or 
 three minutes the desolate well was the scene of an act in 
 a patriarchal pastoral drama. The cattle hastened to the 
 water-troughs, the men filled and emptied their leathern 
 bag of water into the troughs, the women pelted intrusive 
 cows with stones and made way for their sheep and goats. 
 At length the cattle were satisfied, the men left their well 
 and began to chat with the women, and the women to 
 laugh and chat with the men ; they looked at the strangers 
 but did not come near them, and they were still there when 
 we got into our saddles again and continued our journey. 
 
 In the evening we came to a large caravanserai, with a 
 mosque on the opposite side of the road, a well close by, 
 and, just beyond, a small stream creeping through the 
 sandy soil. We declined the caravanserai and pitched 
 our tent beyond the stream. The sheik of the neighbour- 
 ing village, a big broad Turk, came to pay his respects to 
 us, and when he left sent us a present of milk and butter. 
 A small party of travellers passed at a Uttle distance — a 
 gentleman in Turkish uniform, a taktaravan, i.e., a litter 
 carried by two horses, baggage horses, and servants. 
 They also eschewed the caravanserai, but erected their 
 tents under the shelter of its eastern waU. Presently the 
 gentleman, attended by his servant, came across to pay us 
 
BIKIDEJIK TO UKFA, 71 
 
 a visit. He turned out to be an army surgeon from 
 Bagdad, going on leave to Constantinople. While con- 
 versing with him, I saw through the tent door that the 
 horizon to the south-west grew overcast with a lurid haze ; 
 presently came a gust of wind, bringing with it a shower 
 of fine sand, and I recognised that it was a sand- 
 storm sweeping down upon us. We closed the tent, and I 
 laid hold of the canvas and lent my weight to aid the 
 straining ropes, trying at the same time to keep up a con- 
 versation with our guest. But it was of no use ; the tent- 
 pegs were in sandy soil and had little hold. An extra 
 gust, a crash, and over went our canvas house, burying us 
 all beneath its walls. Fortunately no one was hurt ; we 
 crept from under the fluttering canvas, and stood on it to 
 prevent its being blown away. Our guest laughed at my 
 apologies for our inhospitable treatment, and sent off his 
 servant to fetch some very large tent-pegs from his own 
 stores, with which the people soon got up our smaller 
 tent, to which we adjourned the conversation. 
 
 Thursday, June 1. — After our last night's adventure I 
 was tired, and slept badly. The tent put up hurriedly in 
 the storm did not fit, and left two openings, through 
 which, however, entered nothing worse than the cats, who 
 ran over us unceremoniously, and stole the pair of fowls 
 which had been cooked ready for to-day's dinner ; con- 
 sequently I did not rise till four, and we did not get clear 
 off till 5.45. 
 
 We had a long morning's ride over a country like parts 
 of Wales, or the fells of Westmoreland, till 11.15, when 
 we stopped to lunch at a Koord village close by extensive 
 ancient ruins. The only walls left standing surround a 
 quadrangular space, and may be a comparatively recent 
 structure built out of the old materials. The stones, it is 
 true, are very large and not easily moved without machi- 
 nery ; but one of them has some moulding upon it, 
 another has apparently formed the lintel of a doorway, 
 
72 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 and this raises the supposition that the rest also are not 
 in their original situation. There is a very large subter- 
 ranean cistern, L-shaped in plan ; one limb of the L 
 is covered with a semicircular vault of massive stones, and 
 has a stone stair leading down into it ; the other limb of 
 the L looks as if the excavators had come upon a natural 
 cavern and had taken advantage of it to enlarge their 
 reservoir. It is still half full of water, and supplies 
 the neighbouring village and its cattle. There is also a 
 large chamber excavated in the rock with rude niches 
 in the sides as if for lamps, one recess large enough 
 for a bed ; and there are two large square shallow 
 tanks sunk in the floor on one side. Similar chambers 
 with similar features occur in some of the ruined Syrian 
 cities, and are said by M. de Vogiie to have been kitchens. 
 Another chamber is excavated with a rude arched section, 
 outside the entrance several crosses are rudely incised 
 into the rock, and pieces of rock are left projecting like 
 rude bas-reliefs (but we could detect no trace of design in 
 them). There are also several of the subterranean exca- 
 vations with circular plan and domical elevation with a 
 well-hole at the summit, which we have conjectured to be 
 store chambers for corn. Perhaps the most interesting 
 remains are a group of graves under the ridge of rock 
 eastward of the city. They are aU dug in the rock, and 
 five or six of the large massive coverings still remain, of 
 the usual fifth and sixth century type. One grave had a 
 loculus on each side, another seemed a single grave. 
 Some stone cofiins appeared partly above ground, and 
 probably carved out of rocks which projected above the 
 surface. The ancient name, the Koords told us, was 
 Kufia, the modem village is Kara Sukou. The Koords 
 of the village, when asked who used to live in the ruined 
 city, replied Nimrod and Abraham. Nimrod and Abraham 
 are the heroes of the popular legends here, as Arthur 
 or Robin Hood in England. These ruins are worth a 
 
BIRIDEJIK TO URFA. 73 
 
 more careful examination than we were able to bestow 
 upon them. They seem to be of the same character and 
 age as the ruined cities of Central Syria. 
 
 A good many loose volcanic stones lie on the surface 
 of the ground, especially on the first descent after leaving 
 Kufia. Sooo after the scenery became bolder, the hills 
 loftier and steeper, ribs of limestone showing through the 
 hillsides and cresting their tops. The track rises steeply 
 towards the summit of the hills before us. Nearly at the 
 top we come to a fine ancient fountain. A large subter- 
 ranean chamber excavated in the rock is roofed with 
 massive horizontal stones overlapping one another in the 
 earliest form of the arch. In the floor at one end of this 
 subterranean chamber the excavation is carried still deeper 
 to form a reservoir, which a spring keeps filled with good 
 cold water. There are steps down at each end, so that 
 the traveller may ride his horse down at one end and rest 
 there, or foot passengers may descend at the nearer end 
 straight to the water. 
 
 From this point the scenery becomes still bolder and 
 more wild, and the horse track ascends steeply through a 
 narrow pass, with traces of an ancient road here and there. 
 A bold rocky ravine runs down to our left, but we still 
 ascend, and find our road pass through a cutting in the 
 ridge at the summit of the hill, vvhich forms a rocky gate- 
 way easily defensible. On the further side the road plunges 
 down a deep rocky ravine, along the bottom of which 
 runs a mountain torrent, towards the city of Urfa, which 
 is a Uttle beyond. Immediately on passing through the 
 rocky gateway we find traces of a work partly cut in 
 the rock, which must have been an ancient fort ; and 
 there are other traces round about of habitations, partly or 
 wholly formed out of the rock, which may have housed 
 the garrison stationed in this strong fort to defend the 
 western approach to the ancient city of Edessa, the capital 
 of the kingdom of Osrhoene. 
 
74 
 
 THE MOSQUE OF ABRAHAM AT XTRFA. 
 [From a Photograph.) 
 The Head is that of a Dervish. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 URFA. 
 
 Its natural advantages must have attracted a population 
 to the site of Urfa from the earliest times. Its chief 
 advantage is a copious and beautiful fountain of water 
 which springs in the hollow between two spurs of the 
 mountain of Jebel Nimrood. This is situated at the comer 
 of a fine fertile plain ; it is defended on the west by the 
 mountains, and is accessible on that side only by the pass 
 which we have described. 
 
 The local traditions claim for it that it was one of the 
 
URFA. 75 
 
 cities of the first monarchy — Ur of the Chaldees — and 
 associate the names of Nimrod and Abraham with the 
 natural features of the locality and the most striking anti- 
 quities of the city. The writer on Urfa in Smith's " Bible 
 Dictionary," however, disputes the claim of Urfa to this 
 distinction, and gives reasons for believing that Ur was 
 in Chaldea Proper — the low country near the Persian Gulf 
 — and that Mugheir has " the best claim, and is entitled to 
 be (at least provisionally) regarded as the city of Abra- 
 ham." The Greeks called the famous fountain by the 
 name of Callirhoen, and built a city on the ancient site, 
 which they called Antioch, in honour of Antiochus ; and to 
 distinguish it from the other cities of the same name the 
 distinguishing affix Antioch ad Callirhoen was given to it. 
 In the time of our Lord it was commonly known as Edessa, 
 and was the capital of the little kingdom of Osrhoene, 
 ruled by a race of kings who were called by the dynastic 
 name of Abgarus. 
 
 One of the earliest legends of Christianity is connected 
 with Edessa. Eusebius, the historian of the early Church, 
 relates that King Abgarus sent messengers with a letter 
 to our Lord, who wrote him a letter in reply. Eusebius 
 quotes the documents, which, he says, were found in the 
 public archives at Edessa. Modern historians reject the 
 documents as unauthentic. " Whether the story is founded 
 in any degree on truth we have no means of determining. 
 All that is certain is, that Christianity was early difi"used 
 in this country." * A little later than the time of Eusebius 
 we find an addition to the legend. Abgarus, it was said, 
 commissioned a painter to take the likeness of our Lord, 
 but, dazzled by the glory of His countenance, he gave up 
 the attempt, whereupon the Saviour Himself impressed 
 His image on a piece of linen, and sent it to the king. 
 Procopius tells us that our Lord was believed to have pro- 
 mised that Edessa should be impregnable. The posses- 
 * Neander, " Church History," i., 110. Bohn's Ed. 
 
76 CHRISTIANS imDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA.. 
 
 sion of the picture and the promise of impregnability 
 were connected together in the popular mind ; and when 
 Chosroes besieged the city advantage was taken of this 
 popular belief; the miraculous picture was said to be 
 discovered built up in a wall ; its recovery excited a fear- 
 less enthusiasm ; the place was bravely defended, and the 
 great king was obliged to raise the siege. After the con- 
 clusion of the war under Marcus Aurelius between the 
 Roman and Parthian empires the Romans built forts and 
 left garrisons to secure the fidelity of the Osrhoene 
 princes ; and Caracalla finally reduced it to the rank of a 
 province, conferring on Edessa the dignity of a colony. 
 
 The city is specially interesting in the history of the 
 Nestorians. There was a flourishing school here in the 
 early part of the fifth century, " the Athens of Syria," 
 of which Ibas was the head. In this school were trained 
 a body of clergy for the Persian Church. Ibas was of the 
 same theological school as the great theologians of Antioch 
 — Diodorus and Theodoret — and translated their works into 
 Syriac. Ibas maintained the orthodoxy of Nestorius, and 
 the students who were sent forth were imbued with the 
 same theological opinions, so that Edessa was the semi- 
 nary of Nestorianism. 
 
 In the history of the Crusades Edessa occupies a pro- 
 minent position. As the first crusade was slowly forcing 
 its way across Asia Minor, the Christian prince of Edessa 
 sent to ask the aid of one of its chiefs. Baldwin accepting 
 the prince's ofi"er to adopt him as his heir, in return 
 for his assistance, left the crusading army in spite of 
 the remonstrances of the other princes, and marched 
 straight to Edessa. The men of Edessa rose against 
 their king and killed him, whereupon Baldwin at once 
 succeeded to his power (a.d. 1097), and the kingdom 
 of Osrhoene, under the name of the County of Edessa, 
 formed one of the feudal constituents of the kingdom 
 of Jerusalem. When the Saracens conquered the other 
 
UKFA. 77 
 
 Christian possessions in the East, Edessa still main- 
 tained its independence, until, in 1144, Zenghis, Prince 
 of Mosul and Aleppo, after a siege of twenty-five days, 
 stormed the place, with a frightful slaughter of the inha- 
 bitants, and utterly destroyed the city. It was this last 
 calamity which roused Europe to the undertaking of the 
 second crusade. 
 
 As we approached the city we saw two rocky ridges, 
 spurs of the mountain we had left behind, with a hollow 
 between them. In this hollow, luxuriant with groves and 
 gardens, rises the fountain of CaUirhoe. The northern 
 ridge on our left is crowned with a long line of mediaeval 
 •wall, strengthened with towers ; it descends into the hollow, 
 and is lost among the groves, and re-appears ascending the 
 hill to the right, where it joins the defences of the imposing 
 castle which crowns the southern hill. The town of Urfa 
 occupies the slopes of these hills and the hollow between 
 them. 
 
 We entered by a gateway beside the castle, whose 
 walls towered above us, and found that our camping-place 
 was an orchard of well-grown mulberry-trees at the foot of 
 the castle rock, beside a large tank of running water. If the 
 ground had been covered with turf the site would have been 
 perfect, but it was bare earth ; if the orchard had been 
 private it would have added to the tranquilhty of our rest- 
 ing-place, but the enclosure, with its shady trees and fair 
 water, formed one of the public playgrounds of the 
 Edessans. We gained, however, in exchange for privacy, 
 a constant succession of pictures of Edessan costume and 
 manners. 
 
 It is almost sacred ground, if we may believe the 
 legends of the place. For on looking up to the castle, 
 towering over its mediajval walls may be seen two great 
 pillars with Corinthian capitals, upon one of which a 
 stork has built her nest. The legend says that these form 
 part of a machine from which King Nimrod hurled 
 
78 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Abraham into the fire kindled down here in the hollow 
 where the great tank is. But the fire was miraculously 
 changed into water and the faggots of the fire iuto fish, 
 and Abraham escaped unhurt. The tank is full of fish 
 — carp, I think — which are considered sacred, and are 
 never caught. On the contrary, it is an act of piety to feed 
 them, and the visitor can buy parched maize for the pur- 
 pose on the spot. We rested our first afternoon and 
 evening under the pleasant shade beside the refreshing 
 water, and amused ourselves by feeding the fish. They 
 swarmed in the water, and when a handful of corn was 
 thrown in they rushed upon it so that for a space of four or 
 five cubic feet there was nothing but a dense mass of 
 struggling fish, while shoals of others were hastening up 
 from all quarters. None of them were very large ; I sus- 
 pect the seniors do not condescend to join in a public 
 scramble for maize. We sent our interpreter in the even- 
 ing with the zaptieh to report our safe arrival, and convey 
 our compliments to the pasha. I was sorry afterwards that 
 we did not go ourselves, for our messenger found the pasha 
 not at the Serai, but in the camp outside the town, where 
 in a temporary theatre a fete was in progress, at which the 
 civil and military officials were present. He sent polite 
 messages, and four kavasses to take care of us and do us 
 honour. It was a glorious night, with a brilliant moon; 
 and our white tents under the shade of the trees, the castle 
 on one side, the water of Abraham on the other, made a 
 beautiful picture. Venus, too, was visible, larger and 
 more brilliant than I ever saw planet before. The minarets 
 of the town were illuminated, each with a circle of lamps 
 round its gallery, which twinkled through the trees and 
 added to the charm of the evening. 
 
 June 2. — We rose early in order to utilise the cool part 
 of the day, and paid our first visit to the castle. It is 
 built on the summit of the ridge, and, following the exi- 
 gencies of the site, is long and narrow. The outer walls 
 
UBFA. 79 
 
 are very perfect, and the whole external appearance very 
 imposing, but the interior is a mere mass of ruins ; con- 
 siderable pains must have been taken to reduce the interior 
 to such a wreck while the outer walls are still so perfect. 
 Two or three small portions of the building are still partially 
 standing, but not enough to afford any indication of the 
 original plan of the castle. The opening of the castle well 
 is stiU visible, which must have descended to a great 
 depth. The moat is a remarkable work On the north 
 side the rock descends very abruptly down to the margin 
 of the water of Abraham, and this side was within the 
 defences of the town. But on the other three sides a deep 
 and wide trench has been hewn out of the soUd rock, 
 making an absolutely impassable gulf between the exterior 
 world and the foot of the castle wall, which rises from the 
 internal edge of this formidable moat. In one place a 
 needle of rock has been left, rising out of the middle of the 
 moat, as if to support a narrow drawbridge by which a 
 postern might give egress to the country ; the principal 
 entrance is on the town side. 
 
 We examined with great interest the two fine columns 
 which have already been incidentally mentioned. Each 
 stands on a separate square plinth ; they are of consider- 
 able diameter, built up of segmental stones, the alternate 
 stones having bosses left projecting. There is an inscrip- 
 tion in Cufic {i.e., ancient Syriac) characters on one, but, 
 alas ! we were unable to read, or to make a satisfactory 
 copy of it.* I do not pretend to any knowledge of classical 
 
 * Dr. Badger gives a copy of the inscription, Vol. i. p. 323, and 
 Bays it is in the Estrangheli, or old Syriac character, but so defaced 
 that he was not able fully to decipher it. " Neither the langnaije nor 
 the character is pure Syriac. The former appears to be mixed with 
 Arabic words, and the latter with Hebrew letters. The subj<iined is an 
 attempt to translate the original, the true signification of which I shall 
 leave to the more learned to decide : ' 1 Afteli Neh . . . the son of . . , 
 
 the son of . . . shtrt . , . tkis pillar . . ■ Eadrianta of the world 
 
 , , , was surrendered by the queen, the daughter of Maako ....'"♦ 
 • Maako, among the Jacobites and Armenians of Urfa, means Margaret, 
 
80 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 antiquities, but the impression left on my mind was that 
 these remarkable and very perfect columns were of Roman 
 character. If they are a mere remnant of a colonnade the 
 building of which they formed part must have been on a 
 very grand scale ; but they may have been twin monumental 
 columns, erected here in memory of some persons or event 
 which perhaps the inscription might explain. In a tower in 
 the upper part of the castle are built in several stones, carved 
 in a bold and fine style with vine foliage and classical 
 mouldings, which might very well have formed parts of a 
 cornice which would match with the Corinthian pillars. 
 
 After breakfast we paid a visit to the French Consul, 
 whom we found recovering from an attack of the fever of 
 the country From him we learnt that the ofl&cial fete last 
 night and the illumination of the mosques was in celebra- 
 tion of the accession of Sultan Mourad, vice Abdul Aziz 
 Eifendi dethroned. The revolution seemed to be accepted 
 with great indiiference. The people of Turkey are not 
 poHticians in our sense of the word. It is race and religion 
 which divide men here into hostile parties. 
 
 From him we went to pay our respects to the pasha. 
 We found nothing to impress us with a sense of Eastern 
 magnificence. The Serai, or Government House, is a large 
 barrack-like building, with a barren square, like a parade 
 ground, in front. We were ushered into a room, with bare 
 floor and plain walls, a table, behind which the pasha sat 
 in an arm-chair, and a couch at his left hand, to which he 
 welcomed his visitors. He received us pohtely, but without 
 ceremony, and chatted with us on various indifferent sub- 
 jects. Finding that we were interested in antiquities, he 
 took us out into the courtyard to show us a sculptured 
 stone which had lately been discovered, and of which he 
 allowed us to take a photograph. It seems to be a sepul- 
 chral stone, with the head ot a man in low relief, with 
 whiskers and moustache, and Phrygian bonnet, and an 
 inscription on the right-hand side of the stone. He also 
 
UBFA. 81 
 
 took us through his stables to show us a Cufic inscription, 
 built into the wall at the back of the Serai, overhanging 
 the city moat on the north of the town. I could make 
 nothing of the inscription, but I was glad of the opportunity 
 of seeing the stables. It was a long building, clean and 
 sweet, and in excellent order, with a great stone basin of 
 water at one end. About ten or a dozen fine-looking bosses 
 were tightly tethered by the head and the hind heel. When 
 I expressed a conjecture that the fragment of sculptured 
 stone which he had shown us might be the missing portion 
 of a stone which is said to exist at the Papal convent, 
 the pasha politely pressed upon me a horse and guide to 
 take me across the city to see it. But I was unwilling to 
 take my companions the journey on foot through the in- 
 creasing heat of the day, and reluctantly declined his 
 courtesy. 
 
 We devoted the remainder of this day and two following 
 days to seeing the city and its antiquities. 
 
 The Oloor Jamesi, like several other of the Urfa 
 mosques, was originally a Christian church. A large 
 courtyard, with a fountain ia the middle, was probably 
 the atrium of the basilica. Ranged round the fountaia, 
 and in a row on the north side of the court, are a series of 
 capitals of columns, of debased classical character, which 
 perhaps are the debris of the colonnade which surrounded 
 this atrium. In the east corner of the court is a square 
 tower, whose upper stage is carried into a hexagonal lantern. 
 It is now used as the minaret of the mosque, but we were 
 allowed to ascend it. The view of the city and the sur- 
 rounding country was fine. We took a photograph from 
 this elevation, and a stork, standing on one leg on the top 
 of a neighbouring minaret, was obliging enough to stand 
 still to have his portrait included in the picture. 
 
 The mosque of Ibrahim (Abraham) is a handsome build- 
 ing, and with its attached buildings and gardens surrounds 
 three sides of a large tank, the fourth side being open to 
 
 o 
 
82 CHRISTIANS XTNDEB THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the public street. We were able to take a photograph of 
 this, from ■which the woodcut at the head of this Chapter is 
 taken. 
 
 The city is well built of stone, the bazaars extensive and 
 busy, and full of untiring interest. The town seems a 
 thriving place ; it has some manufactures ; it exports wool, 
 Alexandretta being its nearest port. The country round is 
 very fruitful, and since there is no market for its produce 
 except the town, all the necessaries of life are cheap. 
 
 The evenings were very pleasantly spent in our orchard. 
 It was always lively ; people came to sit by the water and 
 smoke, some bathed ; the soldiers brought their horses to 
 wash, and since the latter all refused to take the water 
 there was a series of combats, in which excited men tried to 
 force the frightened animals into the water. The groups of 
 man and horse in vehement action and statuesque attitudes 
 were sometimes worthy of the chisel of the artist of the Tore 
 Famese. One man interested me very much, a dervish, 
 habited in a scanty white tunic, with bare head and feet, 
 black hair cut short over the forehead, and falling in 
 massive locks on his shoulders, with fine features, dark, 
 dreamy eyes, and a remarkable expression — grave yet 
 kindly, dignified yet simple, the very model of a John the 
 Baptist. Dervish as he is, he acts as attendant at the 
 coffee-house at the entrance to our orchard, and it is 
 strangely incongruous to see such a man handing a cup of 
 coffee, or carrying a coal to light a narghile. 
 
 In the evening of June 2nd there were flashes of intense 
 white blinding lightning, rolls of thunder, and a smart 
 shower. 
 
 Our duty led us to pay a visit to the Armenian bishop, 
 Gregorius. Another elder bishop was with him ; priests 
 and gentlemen came in and gradually filled the divan, which 
 ran round three sides of the room ; a group of servants 
 stood and listened to the conversation at the lower end. 
 
 After presenting our credentials and delivering our mes- 
 
UBFA. 88 
 
 sage of sympatliy and good-will from the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury to the prelates of the ancient Churches of the 
 East, and receiving complimentary rephes, the conversation 
 turned upon the state of religion and education among the 
 Armenians. Here it is perhaps right to say that the gentle- 
 man who acted as interpreter, and who also took an inde- 
 pendent part in the conversation, was the chief agent in 
 Urfa of the American missionaries of Aintab, an intelligent 
 Armenian partly educated in Germany. What was said 
 about the Church may have been a little coloured by the 
 medium through which it came. I gathered that the 
 Armenian Church was an inactive institution, but that there 
 was a growing desire for education and for ecclesiastical 
 reforms, and that some progress was already being made, 
 chiefly through the pressure of the more intelligent laity 
 upon the hierarchy. The chief difficulty in the way of 
 progress was said to be the use of old Armenian — a dead 
 language — not only in the services of the Church, but also 
 as the basis of the education given in the schools. The 
 number of Armenians in Urfa is between ten and eleven 
 thousand, of whom, I was told, perhaps 125 can read and 
 write. There are six schools at work, one of them recently 
 built ; but there is a great want of books and apparatus, 
 trained teachers, and a better syllabus of subjects. 
 
 In crossing the cemetery to the church I noticed that 
 many of the gravestones have no inscription, but incised 
 symbols of the trade of the deceased, like our old English 
 gravestones — e.g., I noted scissors for a tailor, a shoe for 
 a shoemaker, a hammer and anvil for a blacksmith, &c. 
 
 The church is a large modern building, erected in 1846, 
 with three aisles, and galleries round three sides for the 
 women. There is an altar at the east end of each aisle. 
 The altar is elevated on a narrow platform, about four feet 
 high. The bishop's chair is at the north-west corner of 
 the choir, facing east. The east end is rather showily 
 decorated, and there are religious pictures hung round the 
 o 2 
 
8i CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 church ; one of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Child is of the 
 usual Byzantine type, of embossed metal, with painted 
 faces ; a lamp was burning before it. They were in the 
 middle of service when we entered. Four or five priests 
 seated in a row inside the choir- screen facing east, and 
 four or five boys in white albs, forming the choir. 
 
 In the absence of the Jacobite bishop we visited the 
 priest in charge, who received us very cordially, and showed 
 us over his church. It is quite modern and fairly hand- 
 some, with pointed-arched vaulting and Saracenic architec- 
 tural ornament in piUars and doorways. On a narrow 
 platform at the east end, about four feet high, are several 
 altars, each with a step in front for the celebrant. There 
 is a daily celebration, and part of a host is reserved in a 
 covered ciborium, kept in the tabernacle over the high altar, 
 for the sick. Two books of the Gospels were interesting — 
 one folio, the other quarto — both with silver covers of 
 ancient Byzantine type. The MS. enclosed in the foho 
 cover is quite modem, written in double columns — one 
 column in ancient Syriac, the other a translation into 
 Arabic language written in Syriac characters. The quarto 
 MS. was dated about the middle of the fifteenth century. 
 Among the altar plate in the sacristy were five or six 
 chalices, one enamelled, two with porcelain cups set in the 
 usual silver stand. There was a double-headed bishop's 
 staff, the volutes being of serpents, and like our Saxon 
 style of design ; a single-headed crook of more modern 
 type ; several hand crosses, one jewelled ; censers ; sets of 
 vestments, &c. There is a patriarchal veil set with plates 
 and bosses of silver. The patriarch does not wear a mitre 
 but a veil on his head, which is thrown off at the reading of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 The Jacobites have one school, containing about 100 
 children, the eldest of them about twelve years old, and 
 one teacher. The course of instruction is first the Lord's 
 Prayer, the Creed, and the Psalter, by rote, in the old 
 
TJRFA. 85 
 
 Syriac ; and at about eleven or twelve years old, if the 
 children continue in school till then, the meaning is ex- 
 plained in modern Syriac, 
 
 I had a visit from the teacher of the Armenian Protes- 
 tant body in connection with the American mission at 
 Aintab, the gentleman who acted as interpreter on my visit 
 to the Armenian bishop. I gathered from him, and others 
 who accompanied him, that the eyes of the reforming party 
 in the Armenian Church are directed towards the Church 
 of England, and that they would gladly receive help and 
 direction from that quarter. The thoughts of my inter- 
 locutors, however, took the shape of a Church of England 
 schism from the Armenian Church, and I had to explain to 
 them that the Armenian Church would have our best wishes 
 in any endeavours to reform itself and educate its people, 
 but that the Church of England would not lend itself to 
 any endeavours to proselytise from the Armenian Church 
 and establish a sect outside it.* 
 
 * These are some statistics of Urfa : population in 1876 : — 
 
 Mussulmans 15,400 
 
 Christians 13,500 
 
 Jews 310 
 
 29,210 
 
 Old Armenian 11,600 
 
 Jacobite Syrian 1,500 
 
 A few Armenian Catholics, and a few Chaldeans (Papal Nestorians), 
 ind about 300 Armenian Protestants, who have no distinct plan of 
 worship. 
 
86 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 tJBFA TO DIAEBEKR. 
 
 Saturday, June 8. — ^It is always impossible on a first 
 start to get off early in the morning. So as the weather 
 was intensely hot we resolved not to attempt to start until 
 evening, and to travel in the night. We started at 5.30, 
 nearly dinner time, and were so unwise as not to dine 
 before we started. 
 
 We rode through an undulating country, cultivated but 
 tame. About an hour's ride brought us to a village, Kara 
 Kupri (?) Coi, Blackbridge village, situated on an emi- 
 nence in the middle of a valley. It was suiTounded by 
 gardens, fields, and trees, and looked pleasant in contrast 
 with the monotonous, treeless character of the rest of the 
 journey. We horsemen had ridden on ahead of the cara- 
 van, a proceeding against which the leading horse of the 
 caravan protested as an infringement of his honour of pre- 
 cedence. Accordingly he trotted after us, leaving his 
 more contented companions behind ; but his trotting 
 loosened his load ; presently down it came, part of it still 
 coimected by a rope with the pack-saddle, and we had 
 the pleasure of seeing our belongings dragged along the 
 rough path, as martyrs used to be dragged at horses' 
 heels in the days of persecution. Clouds began to gather 
 about the sunset, with strong colours of gold and red and 
 murky purple. The hills too were richly coloured by the 
 level rays ; and we found that part of the monotonous 
 effect of the scenery is owing not only to the absence of 
 trees and cultivation, but to the atmospheric conditions, 
 
UBFA TO DIABBEKE. 87 
 
 to the strong glare of the sunlight which pours straight 
 down upon it nearly all day long, to the consequent ab- 
 sence of shadows, and to the absence of aerial perspective 
 due to the dryness of the air. The clouds began to look 
 wild and stormy. The short twilight faded and the moon 
 was obscured by clouds. We plodded on in the growing 
 darkness. A smart shower fell, and then a whirlwind 
 suddenly rushed upon us from behind, densely charged 
 with sand and dust. The zaptieh, leading, turned his 
 horse off the path into the field, and we followed, half 
 suffocated with the sand. The atmosphere thickened 
 and the darkness was complete. I could not see my 
 leader, and let the horse take his own course. Fortu- 
 nately the storm did not last many minutes, how many 
 I cannot tell — minutes seem very long under such cir- 
 cumstances ; we crossed the brow of the hiU we had 
 been ascending, and either the hill sheltered us, or more 
 probably we had got beyond the path of the storm. 
 The air slowly cleared and I caught the outline of our 
 guide, and had the satisfaction of knowing that I had not 
 strayed out of the way. For hours we journeyed on in 
 the dark, intensified by the splendid lightning which 
 flashed frequently out of the banks of cloud. We did not 
 get to our stage till near midnight, exhausted more from 
 want of food perhaps than from fatigue ; got stiffly out of 
 the saddle, walked three or four paces out of reach of the 
 horses' hoofs, lay down on the ground and fell asleep on 
 the instant. The small tent was pitched, some soup and 
 cold fowl got ready, and we were waked to eat ; after a 
 few mouthfuls, which we ate half-asleep, we lay down on 
 our mattresses and slept heavily again till morning. 
 
 Sunday, June 4. — We spent the day quietly where 
 we were. It was a cloudy day with a pleasant breeze, 
 and we enjoyed the quiet out-door life. The scene, too, 
 was pleasant, in the main undulating chalk downs ; our 
 tents were pitched beside a pond, Kas-el-ayn (the Foun- 
 
88 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CKESCaENT IN ASU. 
 
 tain-head) ; opposite was a lofty tell, one of the great 
 sepulchral mounds which abound all along the road from 
 here to Mosul. To the right a natural hill crowned with a 
 circle of trees. The high-road ran between the pond and 
 the tell, and people were coming and going now and then 
 on horses, asses, camels, among them a family of Turkish 
 gypsies, for the country abounds in gypsies. In the morning 
 we saw a Koord shepherd with his flock on the side of the 
 tell ; he stood before them and played to them on his 
 pipe, and then walked away still playing, while they slowly 
 followed him. The shepherd's pipe, then, of Theocritus 
 and Virgil and Spenser, was not a poetical invention. 
 
 What a profusion of hfe is nourished by the pool. 
 Every stone in it has a turtle squatted on it with his head 
 cocked up in the air. As we walk round the margin 
 multitudes of green-throated frogs leap from under our 
 feet and splash into the water ; rustlings through the flags 
 tell us of other creatures also — rats, perhaps — stealthily 
 getting out of the way of the human intruders into their 
 little world. Myriads of insects hover over the water ; 
 swallows skim its surface ; great water-flags and many 
 flowers grow round the margin. 
 
 The zaptieh amused himself and benefited us by 
 catching fish. He made, with turf and stones, a little bay, 
 with a narrow entrance, in one corner of the pool, and 
 went away and waited. I suppose the fish flocked to the 
 turbid water in search of food ; and when a shoal of them 
 were fairly in his trap, the fisherman stole rapidly for- 
 ward, closed the opening with a turf, and using his hands 
 for a landing net, flung the fish out upon the grass ; they 
 afibrded us an acceptable dish at dinner. 
 
 At sunset the clouds again were very fine, and the most 
 wonderful golden glow was thrown over the downs with 
 their chalky hollows, and especially over the tell standing 
 out conspicuously in the middle distance. 
 
 Monday, June 5. — At 10 o'clock at night we resumed 
 
XJBFA TO DIABBEKR. 89 
 
 our journey. The moon was struggling among the clouds, 
 and we did not see much of the country we passed 
 through, only its broad general outlines and its nearer 
 features. Probably we did not lose much ; the country 
 Beemed to consist of low hills, with partial cultivation 
 in the shallow valleys between them. From midnight 
 till one we were in a pass through the hills, in places 
 narrow and rocky ; it was a bit of romance to ride through 
 such a place at midnight by the light of a clouded moon, 
 with a wild-looking Turk for guide, and a caravan of pack- 
 horses following. 
 
 About sunrise (4 o'clock) we came upon a plain, 
 bounded on the north side by a semicircle of mountains 
 with fine bold outlines. Our course ran across the plain 
 towards the opposite end of the semicircle. At 7.30 we 
 arrived at the village of Mishmish. We camped in a narrow 
 winding gully with rocky sides and a grassy bottom, 
 through which flowed a good sized stream ; there were 
 some trees along the valley, and some caves in the rocks, 
 which helped to make up a pleasant camping-place, where 
 we rested through the heat of the day. 
 
 Every course has its advantages and disadvantages. If 
 you travel by night you must rest by day, and the disad- 
 vantage of resting by day is — the flies. They tease the 
 horses so that they do not get proper rest ; they tease the 
 travellers too. When you eat, three, four, or half a dozen 
 flies settle on the morsel while you raise it from your plate 
 to your lips, and dispute it with you, and it requires skil- 
 ful and prompt manoeuvring to get it safely into your 
 mouth. When you lie down to sleep they settle on your 
 face, and when at last you have succeeded in covering 
 your face so as to leave no loop-hole, they settle on your 
 feet and sting you through your socks. It is because they 
 will not let me sleep that I am now writing about them. 
 I suppose it has always been so in these countries. The 
 Nimrood sculptures represent the king as accompanied 
 
90 , CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 always by an attendant bearing a fan of the kind which is 
 still used in the country to brush away the flies. 
 
 It must have been hereabouts that Beelzebub, the Lord 
 of the Flies, put it into the head of one of his votaries to 
 put a martyr to death by smearing his naked body with 
 honey and leaving him to be stung to death by the flies 
 and other insects. Not that I mean any disrespect to the 
 flies when I incidentally allude to the instigator of evil as 
 the Lord of Flies. I recognise the valuable use they serve 
 in the economy of creation. They are the minute scaven- 
 gers of what would otherwise be noxious. All I complain 
 of is that they should mistake two respectable and inofien- 
 sive English travellers for noxious matter to be scavenged 
 out of existence. Poor creatures, they pay the penalty. 
 In the evening when the katurjis come to pack up the 
 tent, the upper part of its interior and of the pole are 
 black with them ; there is no help for it, they get rolled 
 up in the rough, heavy folds, and in the morning only a 
 small proportion of them survive to plague anybody. 
 
 Tuesday, June 6. — We left Mishmish by moonlight, 
 and rode through the moonlight night seven hours over 
 an undulating plain. This brought us to the town of 
 Suarek. We camped near the well at the foot of the 
 mound, on which are still some small remains of fortifica- 
 tion. The kaimakam was exceedingly polite. He sent 
 five zaptiehs (in addition to the one who travelled with us) 
 to take care of us, for which high compliment we expres- 
 sed our grateful acknowledgments. But soon after he sent 
 five more ! We sent these back with a pohte message, 
 thanking the kaimakam for his solicitude, but expressing 
 a fear that we could not " guarantee the safety" of all 
 ten. Perhaps it was a poor joke, and the reader will not 
 understand it without explanation. These zaptiehs are 
 useful as guides, and as shovdng that the traveller is 
 under the special cognisance and safeguard of the 
 authorities, and in bargaining with the villagers on the 
 
tJBFA TO DIAEBEKB. 91 
 
 route, but the traveller must not place much confidence in 
 their protection in case of an attack. The consul at 
 Aleppo told us that on one occasion he was travelling 
 through a district disturbed just then by the Arabs, and 
 the kaimakam tried to dissuade him from continuing his 
 journey ; when the consul persisted, the kaimakam insisted 
 upon sending with him all the soldiers he had at hand. 
 On the way a group of horsemen was seen in the distance ; 
 the soldiers halted and held a council of war ; the result of 
 which was that their officer told the consul they must decUne 
 to go any further unless he could " guarantee their safety." 
 The consul laughed at them, and rode forward ; the soldiers 
 " guaranteed their own safety " by riding back. HappUy the 
 strangers were friendly Arabs, and the consul got through 
 without further adventure. This was the story we had 
 in mind when we declined "to guarantee the safety " of 
 the ten soldiers sent us. 
 
 A little later in the evening the kaimakam sent an 
 officer with three attendants to inquire after our welfare, 
 and to ask if we wanted anything. Wanted anything ! I 
 suppose he meant, did we want any more zaptiehs ? No, 
 thank you ! Did we want anybody bastinadoed ? No, 
 thank you. "Want" anything! We wanted a good 
 dinner very much, but we could not tell him so ; and we 
 wanted a great many other things which we did not sup- 
 pose to lie within the intention of the polite inquiry ; so 
 we sent a polite reply, and excused ourselves for not being 
 able to visit the kaimakam in person. Our officer dechned 
 the usual complimentary coffee, and would not stay to 
 gossip, but took his leave and went about his business 
 like a European. 
 
 I had a visit from some Armenians, with whom I had a 
 long and interesting conversation. They gave me the fol- 
 lowing statistics of Suarek. It contains about 3,000 families, 
 of whom about 2,500 are Mussulman ; about 300 Armen- 
 ian ; 80 to 3o Syrian. Protestant about 35 families — 
 
92 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 10 families who call themselves Church of England, and 
 who receive an occasional visit from some clergyman (I 
 think from Diarbekr), and 10 Jewish families. I was told 
 that some time ago 150 persons, householders, signed and 
 sealed a letter to a Mr. Phillips, a clergyman at Jerusalem, 
 asking to have a clergyman of the Church of England sent 
 to them. 
 
 When our visitors lighted their lantern and departed I 
 threw myself on my mattress, very tired, and was soon 
 asleep. It was a sultry night, and taking advantage of 
 the security afforded by our regiment of guards quartered 
 outside, we left half the side wall of the tent open all 
 night. 
 
 Wednesday, June 7. — We rode through the street of 
 Suarek as the day began to dawn ; the muezzins were 
 crying the first hour of prayer from the minarets of its 
 three mosques. 
 
 There are extensive gardens and vineyards around 
 Suarek, and the country round is partially cultivated. 
 There has also been an attempt to make a road to Diar- 
 bekr ; it has been macadamised for a mile or two, but as 
 horses and camels prefer the smooth, soft plain to the jag- 
 ged points of the stones, the road has never got worn 
 down into order ; after the first mile or two the stones 
 have been thrown on the road unbroken for another mile 
 or so, and then the attempt has ceased altogether. We 
 pursued our journey over an undulating plain, partially 
 cultivated with " long fields of barley and of rye, which 
 clothe the wold and meet the sky," intersected by several 
 deep watercourses. Any one may get leave to cultivate 
 any of the hundreds of miles of waste land on paying a 
 royalty to the Crown ; the barley is for the most part not 
 cut, but fed off in the autumn. 
 
 At the end of seven and a half hours' riding I pull up 
 short by a well and decline to go further without rest and 
 refreshment, and it is agreed to camp there for the night. 
 
TTRFA TO DIAEBEKR. 98 
 
 Two merchants from Karkou (Shushan) and their servants 
 came and asked permission to camp near us, and to join us 
 in our journey, for the sake of protection. They were 
 returning from Stamboul, where they had been in pur- 
 suance of their trade ; their caravan of camels had gone 
 across the desert, and they were taking the pleasanter way 
 round by the river. Then came a party of men with a 
 taktaravan, a horse Htter, returning from Bagdad, whither 
 they had conveyed three Latin priests. Lastly, came 
 two men with a prisoner, a Koord horse-stealer, who had 
 been pursued and caught, and was being carried back in 
 triumph with his booty. It made our camp quite busy, 
 for all these people, when they had made their own arrange- 
 ments, came and squatted round the door of our tent to 
 gossip. Suddenly there was an outcry and a confusion, 
 and men running hither and thither. What did it all 
 mean ? The Koord prisoner had slipped his bonds, and 
 resumed his stolen horse, and ridden oflf under our very 
 noses. One saw a man quietly walking a horse as if lead- 
 ing him to water, but never thought that anything was 
 wrong. When fairly outside he swung himself into the 
 saddle, and away he went with a fair start, and the open 
 plain to gallop over, and the deep watercourses to hide 
 in, and the night darkening fast. The odds are greatly 
 in his favour. 
 
 Thursday, June 8. — Started at L80 a.m. Soon began 
 a rugged ascent, which lasted for several hours, and 
 brought us at length to the top of the range of hills, and 
 to a Koord village of black tents, where we were to change 
 our zaptieh. On the south side of a kind of village green 
 the tents were ranged in one long line. A Koord tent is 
 in shape a semi-dome ; often they are large and lofty, and 
 always open in front. Two or three horses were picketed 
 in front on the green, brown children in the scantiest of 
 garments played about, and men and women could be 
 seen moving in the twilight about the open tents. The 
 
94 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 cliief came out to us and invited us to dismount and take 
 some refreshment. We gladly took the opportunity to 
 study the economy of Koordish life. We were conducted 
 to the chiefs tent, on the extreme right of the encamp- 
 ment, and something was found for us to sit upon. We 
 found lying on a couch an unhealthy-looking young man, 
 who had come up from town to the hills for the benefit 
 of his health, which he appeared to be trying to re- 
 establish by a course of diligent smoking. We, too, were 
 offered cigarettes while coffee was being prepared. I 
 happened to be seated where I could see the process of 
 preparation. A handful of berries were roasted in a pan 
 over the fire, turned into a mortar, and pounded to a fine 
 powder ; put into the coffee biggin with sugar, and boiled 
 up, and served in little Turkish cups. No wonder it was 
 good ; for to have the coffee fresh roasted and ground 
 is the secret of good coffee. But the coffee was only 
 intended as a hors d'ceuvre, for presently in came a large 
 round metal tray with bread, and a great dish of fried 
 eggs and cheese and butter. One dish interested me 
 much — a flat dish of buttei*, in whose surface dints had 
 been made and filled with honey. The butter was very 
 light in texture, unlike our solid English butter ; the 
 honey, too, was thin and aromatic. I learnt to eat the dish 
 native fashion, viz., by breaking off a piece of the native 
 bread, and converting it into a little scoop, with which a 
 little butter is scooped up and dipped into the honey, and 
 the whole conveyed into the expectant mouth. " Butter 
 and honey shall he eat," says Isaiah, but I did not know 
 before that in combination they form a usual dish of 
 pastoral countries. They told us here of great ruins 
 southward, which they called the Castle of Job. Before 
 we left we watched the young ladies of the family weaving 
 one of the many-coloured rugs for which the Koord looms 
 are famous ; the loom was of the most primitive kind, 
 but the jewelled fingers of the young ladies were skilful, 
 
tJEFA TO DIARBEKR. 95 
 
 and the manufacture is strong and durable, as well as 
 
 gay. 
 
 We bade farewell to our host, and rode off under the 
 guidance of his son, who acted as our zaptieh. We soon 
 came to the edge of the hill, and found that the range up 
 whose long sloping back we had ascended for hours, dip- 
 ped suddenly on the other side, and formed the boundary 
 of a plain which extended further than we could see. It 
 is true there was a haze over all the plain, and the range 
 of our vision was perhaps not in reality very extensive, but 
 the scene enabled us perhaps to realise better than a clearer 
 view would have done the idea of looking from the hill- 
 top over the boundless Mesopotamian plain. The descent 
 was steep and rocky and dangerous; but we got down 
 without misadventure, pursued the course of a mountain 
 stream for some hours, and found our caravan, which had 
 travelled on while we stopped to lunch, ready camped. 
 Fortunate they who had made a good luncheon at the 
 Koord tents, which I had not done, for Philippus had got 
 nothing for dinner for us but egg, rice-pudding, and a cup 
 of coffee. 
 
 Our zaptieh gave us here an illustration of the practical 
 value of his protection if we should be attacked by a 
 party of marauding Koords. A large hawk or small 
 eagle, I do not know which, was perched on a telegraph 
 pole close by, and the zaptieh laid hold of his gun and 
 undertook to show his skill as a marksman upon the devoted 
 bird. He took long and careful aim, pulled the trigger, 
 and the piece missed fire. He reprimed the gun, the 
 hawk looking on with interest at the manoeuvre, took 
 deliberate aim again, fired, and missed. The hawk, tired 
 of waiting any longer to be killed, spread his broad wings 
 and sailed away, and the zaptieh looked disgusted. 
 
 Friday, June 9. — Having an easy stage before us, and 
 being very tired, we did not rise till 3 a.m., and got under 
 way by 4.30. Crossed an irregular plain, dipped into a 
 
96 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 wide shallow valley, crossed it and the stream in the 
 middle of it, ascended to the level of the plain again, and 
 came in sight of the city of Diarbekr. The aspect of the 
 city as approached from this side is very imposing, and 
 realises better than any place I have seen the ideal of a 
 great ancient city. The dark walls are lofty and entire, 
 with great round towers at intervals ; they rise sheer out of 
 the extensive plaia without any suburbs. Behind the walls 
 are seen towers, domes, and minarets ; the size of the 
 town is considerable, and at this distance all looks perfect. 
 A mountain chain, with fine outlines and patches of snow 
 on the summits, bounds the whole view to the north. It 
 looks worthy of its history, for this is the famous city of 
 Amida, so often taken and retaken by the Roman and 
 Persian arms. 
 
97 
 
 VIEW OVER THE HOUSETOPS OF 
 
 DIARBEKR. 
 
 {From a Photograph taken from the first 
 
 floor of the house of Mr. Soyajian.) 
 
 The two dogs are also from a Photograph, 
 showing how they lie in the streets of the 
 towns of the East. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DIABBEKR. 
 
 I HAD a letter of introduction from the consul at Aleppo 
 to Mr. Boyajian ; and we sought to communicate with him 
 in the first instance in order to take his advice whether we 
 had better seek lodgings in the city, or camp outside it, 
 and if so, where ? But we could not ascertain from the 
 people about the gate where to find Mr. Boyajian ; it turned 
 out afterwards that we ought to have inquired for him 
 under the name of Baron Thomas, and anybody could 
 have directed us to him. We accordingly looked out 
 
98 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 for the most eligible place we could find for camping, 
 and at last pitched our tents on the outside of the city 
 moat, between the north gate and the west gate. In 
 the afternoon I dressed and ordered the horses, to go and 
 pay a visit and present my letter of introduction to Mr. 
 Boyajian, whose identity had meantime been established 
 and his residence discovered by the interpreter ; but by 
 that time I felt so ill and incapable of exertion, that I sent 
 the interpreter with my apologies and the letter, and 
 begged Mr. Boyajian, if he knew anything of medicine, 
 to be kind enough to pay a visit to me. In a short 
 time he kindly came, a gentleman-Uke man in modern 
 Turkish dress, riding a handsome grey ass, with a servant 
 on horseback behind him. He protested against the posi- 
 tion of our camp beside the almost stagnant water in the 
 dty moat, and hospitably pressed us to take up our 
 quarters at his house. I thankfully accepted his kind- 
 ness; he put me at once on his servant's horse and carried 
 me off, leaving W. to see to the packing of our necessaries 
 and to bring them after us on one of our horses under 
 the conduct of his servant. 
 
 We were very fortunate. Our host's house, which had 
 been built or improved by a former consul, was perhaps 
 the best in Diarbekr. The divan, resembling that of 
 Madame Cleopas at Aleppo, had a tank in the middle with 
 a constant flow of water through it, and looked out into a 
 garden, and was the coolest place in the city. Mr. 
 Boyajian spoke English well — his wife was an English- 
 woman — and he had already as guests in his house two 
 other English ladies, the wife of an Englishman, who had 
 recently settled as a merchant in the city, and her sister, 
 and we were entertained and nursed with the utmost hos- 
 pitality and kindness. 
 
 The town is situated on the summit of the lofty rocky 
 bank of the Tigris, which with a circular sweep encloses 
 the eastern side of the city. It is defended by a wall built 
 
DIABBEEB. VV 
 
 of black basalt, with four gates commanded by gate towers, 
 and further strengthened by square and round wall towers. 
 On the river side the wall is not so lofty ; on the land side 
 it is further strengthened by a second low wall and a ditch 
 beyond. Internally there is a broad space left clear all 
 round the walls for military operations. The walls as they 
 stand were possibly in great part rebuilt or repaired in 
 mediaeval times out of old material, for fragments of 
 columns are plentifully built into them. This great 
 and strong place played an important part in the wars 
 between the Roman and Persian empires. It was en- 
 larged and strengthened and garrisoned with seven legions 
 by the Emperor Constantius, in view of the war threatened 
 against him by Sapor, the King of Persia. One of the 
 Roman officers of the garrison was Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 the historian, who gives a minute account of the siege. 
 Sapor had been advised not to waste time in sieges, but 
 to march straight through Mesopotamia and Syria and 
 seize at once upon Antioch. But in passing under the 
 walls of Amida (a.d. 360) the great king resolved to try 
 whether the terror of his arms would not awe the garrison 
 into a surrender. The reply to his summons was a dart 
 hurled from the wall, which glanced against the royal tiara, 
 and the indignant king listened impatiently to his minis- 
 ters, who conjured him not to risk the success of the 
 enterprise in the endeavour to avenge the insult. The 
 next day Grumbates, king of the allied nation of the 
 Chionites, advanced towards the gates with a select body 
 of troops and again demanded the instant surrender of the 
 city. The reply was a general discharge of missiles from 
 the walls, and his only son, a beautiful and valiant youth, 
 fell by his side pierced by a dart from one of the bal- 
 listse. This strengthened the resentment of Sapor, who 
 solemnly swore that Amida should serve as a funeral pile 
 to expiate the death and perpetuate the memory of the 
 slain youth. The city was surrounded and a general 
 
 h2 
 
100 CHKISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 assault delivered again and again, but always driven back 
 with dreadful slaughter. A nocturnal sortie of the garrison 
 hewed its way into the heart of the Persian camp. On the 
 other side a small party of the royal guard were introduced 
 by a deserter up the rocky bank of the Tigris, and through 
 a neglected postern into the upper story of one of the wall 
 towers, where they planted the Persian banner ; but they 
 were all cut to pieces and the postern closed and defended 
 before their comrades could effect an entrance. Sapor 
 was reduced to a regular siege, in which he was assisted 
 by Roman deserters. The city was defended with all the 
 skill of the military art of the times. But the resources 
 of the besiegers were at length exhausted ; a practicable 
 breach was made ; some of the troops and to\sTispeople 
 escaped from the town ; the rest were involved in a pro- 
 miscuous massacre. The siege had lasted seventy-three 
 days ; Sapor had lost 30,000 of his troops. The ruin 
 of Amida was the safety of. the Roman provinces, for at 
 its conclusion Sapor returned without attempting any- 
 thing further. 
 
 In the peace which the Emperor Jovian, after the death 
 of Julian, made with Sapor, Amida was surrendered to 
 the Persian monarch. It was recovered again by the 
 Romans. 
 
 In the reign of Anastatius, the King Cabades again 
 besieged it (a.d. 503). Again the city for three months 
 withstood its assailants, who lost 50,000 men before its 
 walls. At length an unguarded tower was scaled in the 
 night ; the besiegers entered by it at dawn, and 80,000 of 
 the inhabitants were slain in the massacre which ensued. 
 At the termination of the war, however, it again reverted 
 to the possession of the Romans. 
 
 The city possesses many interesting remains of past 
 times. A lofty wall which encloses one of the principal 
 mosques has two rows of porphyry pillars, one over the 
 other, apparently of Roman workmanship, and is said to 
 
DIABBEEB. 
 
 101 
 
 have been originally part of a temple.* The Church of 
 8S. Cosmas and Damian, occupied by the Jacobites, 
 retains its original apse. The capitals of the pilasters 
 which support the trumphal arch are of classical design, of 
 large size and fine workmanship. The moulding round the 
 
 CAPITAL OF PILASTER SUPPORTING THK "TRIUMPHAL ARCH" OP 
 THE CHURCH OP 8S. COSMAS AND DAMIAN, DIARBEKR. 
 
 arch, which is continued as a cornice along the east wall 
 of the nave, is also of great depth, fine design, and rich 
 efiect. The tombs of the canonised physician- saints 
 are shown in the church. There is a small hole in the 
 
 * There is a fine drawing of it in Hommaire de Hell's Voyage en 
 Twquit, Plate XLTT. 
 
102 CHBISTIANS THTDEB THE OEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 front of the tomb and a metal pin hangs beside it. The 
 devotee may thus touch the relics of the saints with the 
 metal, and then apply it to his own person, and thus (so 
 they say) cures of diseases are occasionally effected. 
 We paid a visit to the priests of this church, who re- 
 ceived us in a pleasant corner, sheltered from the sun 
 by the wall of their house, with a tank of water in 
 front and a few shady trees, gave us coffee and pipes, 
 and chatted with us for half an hour. The Church of St. 
 James (probably St. James of Nisibis), occupied by the 
 Greek Church, is said traditionally to have originally ex- 
 tended westward as far as the city wall. This would be a 
 very disproportionate length for the church, even if a 
 great courtyard at its west end, as in many other basilican 
 churches, were included, but the tradition may be taken 
 as an indication that the church was of great length. The 
 portion which remains is the apse and the eastern wall of 
 the church. Here again the capitals of the triumphal 
 arch are of the same grandeur and the same semi- classical 
 style, and probably the same date as in SS. Cosmas and 
 Damian. 
 
 These churches deserve complete description and illustra- 
 tion by drawings. I engaged a Bulgarian refugee residing in 
 the place to make me drawings of the cornices, but I sub- 
 sequently heard that he had left without executing my 
 commission, and I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. 
 Boyajian for the drawing from which the accompanying 
 woodcut is taken. Some of the mosques and minarets 
 are fine buildings, but the Diarbekr mob is esteemed the 
 most fanatical in the whole region, and I felt bound to 
 listen to the dissuasions of my friend against trying to 
 visit them. 
 
 Diarbekr, like Urfa, has within the walls a reservoir 
 supplied by copious springs, and tenanted by sacred fish. 
 These sacred fish are supposed to be a superstitious relic 
 of the ancient worship of a fish-god which existed in 
 
DIARBEKR. 108 
 
 Mesopotamia, as well as among the Egyptians and Philis- 
 tines. 
 
 The house in which we were residing was perhaps the 
 loftiest in the town, and from the windows of our bedroom 
 in the upper story we could see a wide sweep of the walls 
 and towers, the ruined citadel, the mosques and minarets, 
 and, lastly, we overlooked the housetops of that quarter of 
 the town. These housetops presented a curious picture of 
 Eastern life. Upon every one of them was a great wooden 
 bedstead, with posts at the four angles, and horizontal 
 laths to carry curtains. About simset the women might 
 be seen busy unrolling the bundles of bedding and ar- 
 ranging them, then spreading the white curtains of the 
 bedstead, till every housetop possessed its square tent, 
 within which the whole family passed the night. By sun- 
 rise in the morning the curtains were removed, the bedding 
 rolled up into great bundles, and the city assumed its 
 usual aspect. 
 
 The heat here was very great. At eight o'clock in the 
 morning in the shade in Mr. Boyajian's divan, the coolest 
 place in the city, the thermometer was at 88 and 89. In 
 the sun in the middle of the day I do not know how high 
 it rose, perhaps as high as 120. 
 
 • Mr. Boyajian accompanied me to pay my respects to the 
 Pasha of Diarbekr, who is the chief official of the whole 
 vilayet. The visit had its points of interest. The Serai is 
 about half a mile outside the north gate. We walked to the 
 gate, and there waited a few minutes for a vehicle which plies 
 between the town and the Serai for the benefit of the 
 officials and others who may have business there. The 
 vehicle was a rough cart without springs, with poles at the 
 comers supporting a rude curtain to screen the travellers 
 from the sun, the said travellers sitting on a very uncom- 
 fortable wooden seat slung from the sides of the vehicle. 
 As we approached we saw the white tents of the troops 
 encamped in front of the Serai. Arrived at the Serai, a 
 
104 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 servant at the foot of the stairs carefully wiped the dust 
 off our bright leather boots, and thus excused us from the 
 unpleasant ceremony of taking them off at the door of the 
 pasha's room. On the top of the stairs we passed through 
 an ante-room occupied by a sentry and servants, and 
 entered the audience chamber. The pasha sat in an arm- 
 chair in the further corner of the room — a man past the 
 middle age, dressed in the modern Turkish costume, i.e., 
 in clothes of European fashion, with a fez ; a pleasant, 
 gentleman-like, courteous person, who said a few kind 
 words to me, and then went off into a conversation with 
 my companion, with whom he is on very friendly terms. 
 Very soon after we had taken our places a servant handed 
 round glasses of sherbet, which is nothing more than iced 
 water poured upon some vegetable syrup, very pleasant in 
 this climate. Another servant brought us cigarettes, 
 ready lighted. After a short interval coffee was served in 
 the usual fashion. 
 
 A secretary entered the room with a bundle of papers. 
 The pasha courteously apologised for turning from us to 
 attend to him on the ground that it was public business. 
 I was glad of the incident. The pasha took a small bag 
 from his pocket and took a seal from it, which he handed 
 to the secretary. The secretary, with his Uttle finger, 
 charged with the thick black ink which they use in the 
 East, smeared the seal and rubbed off the superfluous ink 
 on the ball of his thumb. Meantime the pasha had glanced 
 over the first paper, handed it to the secretary, who afiixed 
 the seal, and so with the rest. Then came another class of 
 papers. The pasha took out his purse, extracted from it 
 a smaller seal, which the secretary inked as before, and, as 
 the pasha glanced through the remaining papers and 
 handed them to him, sealed them also. Then he carefully 
 wiped the seals and returned them to the pasha, who as 
 carefully replaced the one in its bag and the other in its 
 purse; and the secretary salaamed and retired. The 
 
CIAEBEKR. 105 
 
 pasha did not sign his name ; the seal thus carefully 
 retained in his own possession was the authentication of 
 the document. So it used to be in England ; and every- 
 body who has ever had occasion to sign a legal document 
 will remember how the legal tenacity of ancient precedert 
 still puts a red wafer to represent the seal, though with us 
 the autograph has come to be the essential part of the 
 authentication. In the East the secretary writes the name, 
 and the seal is the important thing ; in Europe the lawyer 
 affixes the seal, and the name is the important thing. 
 While all this was going on, a servant had brought in other 
 lighted cigarettes. An intelligent-looking ecclesiastic came 
 in to pay his respects, and I was informed that he was the 
 Chaldean Archbishop of Diarbekr, while he was informed 
 who I was and what was my errand. He said, in French, 
 that I was intruding into his province ; I begged, with 
 every respect to his Grace, and deprecating any argument 
 on the subject, to be allowed to hold that I was on a 
 legitimate mission to the true representatives of the ancient 
 Church of the East. The Archbishop took his leave ; and 
 after a few more kindly phrases from the pasha, who 
 promised us a zaptieh to guide and guard us on our fm*ther 
 journey, we also shook hands and left. 
 
 I add some statistics and some notes on the religious 
 condition of Diarbekr. 
 
 The population of the city is 25,000 persons. More 
 than half is Christians of various denominations, mostly 
 of the poorer classes, though they have some merchants, 
 &c., among them. The Mussulman population is fanatical 
 and oppressive. The Christian population is divided as 
 follows, the number being reckoned in families : — 
 
 Old Armenians, 1,500 ; with two churches, three schools, 
 a bishop and twelve priests. Papal Armenians, 200. These 
 are divided into two equal bodies, one retaining its old 
 ecclesiastical liturgy and customs, the other conforming to 
 those of Rome. They have one school and five priests. 
 
106 CHEISTIANS UNDEB THE CBESOENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Jacobites (Monophysite Assyrians), 250 to 300 families, 
 many of them very poor and ignorant, with one miserable 
 school and three priests. 
 
 Papal Syrians, 30 ; with one church, one school, and 
 one priest. 
 
 Orthodox Greek, 50 ; with one church, one school, an 
 archbishop, and two priests. 
 
 Papal Greek, 5; with one priest. 
 
 Chaldeans (i.e., Papal Nestorians), 200 ; with one church, 
 one school, an archbishop, and four priests. There are no 
 Nestorians living in Diarbekr, but there is a colony of them 
 at Jiza, a distance of seven or eight days' journey, and 
 some of them come into Diarbekr in winter in search of 
 work. 
 
 Armenian Protestant, 900 ; Syrian Protestant, 100 ; with 
 one church, three schools (two boys' and one girls', contain- 
 ing 130 children), one minister, one assistant minister. 
 
 Jews, 50. 
 
 There is also here an Armenian clergyman (Mr. Garabet), 
 ordained by Bishop Gobat, who has a congregation of 
 about ten persons, who worship in a room in his house, 
 and profess to be of the Church of England. 
 
 The position of the joint body of Armenian and Syrian 
 Protestants here is remarkable, and is an illustration of a 
 wide-spread condition of religious feeling. The Protestant 
 body was originally gathered together by the American 
 missionaries ; Mr. Boyajian, an Armenian gentleman of 
 considerable intelligence and good education, was its 
 minister. After a while he and his congregation became 
 dissatisfied with the form of the church the American 
 missionaries organised. With the help of English and 
 American Christians, they subscribed money and erected a 
 new church for themselves. Many of them were anxious 
 to introduce the English Prayer-book and connect them- 
 selves with the Church of England ; others, however, were 
 not prepared for this step, and "it was not eventually taken. 
 
DIARBEKK. 107 
 
 Many of the congregation feel the irregularity of their 
 ecclesiastical status. They would gladly be members of a 
 reformed Armenian Church ; but they feel that to go back 
 to the Armenian Church as it is would be in some respects 
 a backward step in their religious Ufe, while, probably, the 
 Church would not receive them back without concessions to 
 which they could not submit. On the other hand, they 
 repudiate much of the teaching and discipline of the modern 
 American missionaries. This body of Protestants looks 
 with strong sympathy to the Church of England. 
 
 Here we had to come to a decision as to our future 
 route. We had already recognised the wisdom of the 
 caution given us at Aleppo ; a week's indisposition here 
 had emphasised all that we were told of the trying charac- 
 ter of the climate in these plains at this time of year, and 
 it hardly needed the advice of the German army doctor 
 we had called in professionally, and of the friends we 
 made here, to confirm us in the resolution not to attempt 
 the journey to Mosul. But we had hoped to make an 
 excursion as far as Mardin, the residence of the Jacobite 
 Patriarch and Metropolis of the Assyrian Monophysites. 
 We had indeed special business with him ; he had visited 
 England a year before, asking help to educate his people, 
 and we were specially commissioned to visit him, and 
 gather information which might guide those at home who 
 had been interested in the visit of the representative of 
 this grand line of patriarchs of Antioch. We learnt, how- 
 ever, that the Jacobite Patriarch had not returned from 
 India, whither he had gone from England on the affairs of the 
 Christians of St. Thomas ; and we gathered that though it 
 was a pity to miss seeing Mardin and its neighbouring 
 monastery, and the view from its steep height over the 
 Mesopotamian plain, yet the special object of our expedi- 
 tion would lose nothing. We had seen the representatives 
 of the body at Urfa, and here at Diarbekr, and we should 
 come across specimens of their villages on our future 
 
108 
 
 CHEISTIANS XJNDEB THE ORESCENT IN ASIA.. 
 
 journey, and we should add nothing to our knowledge of 
 them by visiting Mardin ; while, on the other hand, the 
 excursion would occupy a week, and that journey would 
 carry us further south. We accordingly abandoned the 
 intention to visit Mardin, and resolved at once to take the 
 road through Seert and Wan to Kochanes. 
 
 We learnt that in addition to the forty families of 
 Jacobites at Aleppo, 304 families at Urfa, and 250 to 300 
 families at Diarbekr, there were 500 famiUes at Mardin, 
 and others in scattered villages, whose numbers are not 
 certainly known, but we were told that the whole body 
 probably did not exceed 70,000 persons. 
 
 WALL-TOWBR, DIABBSKB. 
 
109 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DIAKBEKB TO BITLIS. 
 
 Tuesday, June 13. — We left Diarbekr late in the evening 
 in order to make a fair start early next morning. Rode 
 down the river bank and forded the Tigris, and paused on 
 the other bank to take in the view of the town from this 
 side. The Tigris here sweeps round towards the west, its 
 bank rises steep and irocky, and on the summit of the rock 
 the walls of the city are founded. The serai, which was a 
 kind of citadel, is on this side, and adds to the apparent 
 strength and picturesqueness of the view. As we ascended 
 the opposite hills and got a view over the whole town, 
 it put on a very curious appearance. We have already 
 described the curtained beds on the housetops which are 
 in general use. By this late hour of the evening they were 
 all prepared ; and the whole town looked as if it had 
 erected an upper story of white walls. Two hours' ride 
 up the hills brought us to the village of Salikkoi, where we 
 camped for the night outside the village, with a distant 
 view through a cleft of the hills of the black walls of 
 Diarbekr and its white-curtained beds. 
 
 Wednesday, June 14. — We rose early, and had a long 
 day's journey through low hiUs and across fertile plains ; 
 there were great fields of fine wheat and frequent villages. 
 We stopped for our noon meal and rest beside a rivulet, 
 where there was a tomb, and a group of fine mulberry-trees as 
 an appendage to the tomb, the fruit being free to all comers. 
 Another party of travellers also came up and rested under 
 the trees. The chief came and introduced himself to us. 
 He was a Turk of Stamboul, and was traveUing from place 
 
110 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA., 
 
 to place collecting the salt dues. He had a sen'ant and 
 two or three attendants ostentatiously armed. Resumed 
 our journey in company with our Turkish acquaintance. 
 Camped for the night at a village called Bismilkoi, our 
 friend taking up his quarters in one of the houses in the 
 village. He entertained us while waiting for dinner with a 
 collation, in a garden, of bread and native cheese, fruit, 
 cucumber, and a liqueur which we tasted for the first time 
 — rose raki, i.e., arrak flavoured with rose leaves. We in 
 return gave him dinner, and treated him to the last of half 
 a dozen bottles of English beer our cook had picked up in 
 Diarhekr. 
 
 Thursday, June 15. — Another long day, in which we 
 descended into the broad valley through which the Bothman 
 river flows. This river is the ancient Nymphaeus, and in 
 the time of Procopius was the boundary between the Eoman 
 and Persian empires.* We skirted it for some distance, and 
 at length had to cross to the other side. It was a weird- 
 looking ford. It was not only that the river was broad, 
 and the stream ran rapidly, but that the water was turbid 
 and red like a thick mixture of brick-dust and water. A 
 dervish was waiting on the hither side to guide travellers 
 across, just as in old times in England a hermit often 
 established his cell by a dangerous ford, in order to benefit 
 his fellow-men by acting as host and guide. The dervish 
 stripped off his clothes, and took my bridle rein, and the 
 rest followed. I confess I was glad of his help. Only 
 those who have forded a broad, deep, rapid river know 
 how trying it is to the nerves. If you look, as you natu- 
 rally do, at your horse's head you lose sight of the banks, 
 the water swirls past under your eyes and makes you 
 giddy, you lose the direction, the horse splashes heavily 
 forward, stumbling among the stones at the bottom, and 
 threatening to pitch you over his head ; and when horse 
 
 * Mr. Taylor, " Eoyal Geographical Society's Jonmal," Vol. xxxv., 
 p. 30. 
 
DIABBEEB TO BITLIS. Ill 
 
 and man are tired with a long day's journey, and the man 
 is depressed with low fever besides, it is a com&rt to have 
 a friendly dervish at your bridle rein. A short rrae through 
 marshy country brought us to the village of Geraseir 
 beside a lofty tumulus, at whose base we pitched our camp. 
 I did not Uke the situation. The marshy district round 
 must necessarily breed malaria. I went half-way up the 
 tumulus, and lay there tiU late in the night, and then took 
 shelter in the tent, resolved to rise and march on as soon 
 as it was Ught. 
 
 In the middle of the night there was an alarm — guns 
 firing, men shouting, dogs barking, then a straggling line of 
 men hurrying from the village. What is it ? A shepherd 
 had run in to report that the Koords had made a dash and 
 carried oflf the flocks of the village from their pasturage. W. 
 was naturally anxious to shoulder his rifle and go ofi" to see 
 the scrimmage ; but when it was pointed out that since he 
 could not speak a word of the language he might find himself 
 in considerable perplexity on such an expedition, and that, 
 besides, it was not the business of a deputation from the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury to go a-shooting Koords, or 
 getting himself shot by them, in a night skirmish, he 
 followed the wiser course of turning over to the other side 
 and going to sleep again. He lost nothing by it, for in 
 the morning we learnt that it was all a false alarm ; the 
 shepherd had fallen asleep and his flock had wandered, 
 and when he awoke and missed them, he jumped hastily 
 to the conclusion that the Koords had carried them off. 
 But I noted the fact that everybody seemed to think it 
 quite a probable occurrence ; I called to mind that when 
 the zaptieh had to ride over on the previous evening to 
 the neighbouring village to report himself to- the authority 
 there, he borrowed our rifle for his protection on the road ; 
 and I came to the conclusion that on crossing the Red 
 River we had entered a disturbed country haunted by the 
 Koord freebooters. 
 
112 
 
 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Friday, June 16. — Rose before day, and got off as soon 
 as possible out of the malaria district. Soon got out of the 
 Bothman valley, and began to approach the lulls ; they lay 
 before us in a long line, with a crest of bare rock which 
 
 A KOORD. 
 The cloak thrown over hia dress is of very light texture, like muslin. 
 
 looked like a Cyclopean fortification, with a deep gap 
 where the road ran across. At the foot of the hills, but 
 some distance off our road, was a little Jacobite monastery, 
 shaded by trees ; the com land for a long way round be- 
 longed to the fathers. 
 
DIARBEKB TO BITLIS. IIS 
 
 - At last we began to ascend the hills in good earnest, and 
 the effect was immediately perceptible ; the pure air and 
 the fresh breeze dispelled the feverish languor and depres- 
 sion, and braced the nerves and made us new creatures. 
 Arrived at the summit we looked down upon a remarkable 
 landscape. We were on the summit of the range of hills 
 which formed one side of a mountain valley ; a considerable 
 stream ran winding through the valley. The hills on both 
 sides of the valley were of remarkable shapes. Ranges of 
 hUls, range above range receding from the valley, looking 
 like hUls of soU which had been ravined and rounded and 
 moulded into fantastic shapes by centuries of rainy seasons ; 
 with not a tree or shrub to break their forms, and the 
 grass upon them withered by the sun into the colour lof the 
 brown hills. It looked like a world in which the hiUs had 
 been formed, but the vegetation had not yet been created. 
 We took a slanting course down the hither side of the 
 valley. One piece of the road was memorable. A lofty 
 hill rose sheer out of the river to a considerable height, and 
 our road zig-zagged up the steep sloping side. The track 
 in the friable soil was narrow — perhaps two feet wide — and 
 the constant falling of the soil from below the path tended 
 to eat it away, and the falling of the soil from above to 
 block it up. At one steep place, which almost overhung 
 the river roaring among its rocks below, a Uttle landsUp 
 had fairly carried away a piece of the path, leaving it 
 half its normal width. As we approached it the question 
 which came into one's mind was, whether the weight of 
 horse and rider would cause a further landslip. If it did, 
 the next few moments would see horse and rider among 
 the rocks in the river below ! There was no help for it ; 
 it was not possible to turn on the path and retrace our 
 steps ; so without a word or pause we paced quietly on, 
 and happily without an accident. 
 
 We camped for the night at a little Jacobite village called 
 Ayn Karam (Fountain of Mercy) from a clear and copious 
 
 I 
 
114 CHKISTIANS TJNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 spring which rises on the hill-top. We had a long conver- 
 sation with the village priest. He told us something of the 
 grievances the people suffer. His complaint was chiefly of 
 the mode in which they are oppressed by the tax-gatherers. 
 It is not of the amount of the lawful taxes they complain so 
 much as of the way in which the collectors demand and take 
 almost what they like ; they quarter themselves on the 
 people without payment ; they give irregular receipts, which 
 the collector of next year refuses to recognise ; they behave 
 altogether like the foragers of an invading army rather than 
 the collectors of the lawful taxes of a civilised government. 
 If the publicans in old times conducted themselves in like 
 manner, no wonder they were abhorred. 
 
 The priest showed us the village church — certainly the 
 humblest house of God I have ever seen. It is a low 
 building, six or eight yards long, built of mud, with a flat 
 roof. Internally, the sanctuary is divided from the nave 
 by a solid wall with a door through. The roof is supported 
 by four poles, each set in a mass of clay by way of base ; 
 the roof is composed of rough sticks, over which are laid 
 boughs with the dried leaves on them, and over them a 
 thick layer of earth. The altar is large in proportion to 
 the space, and is made with two ledges at the back like 
 a super-altar, the whole structure being of earth and plaster. 
 There is a step in front on which the priest stands. One 
 small loop over the altar and the open door admit light 
 and air into the building. Here the priest says his office 
 regularly every night and morning, and here the handful 
 of villagers assemble every Sunday to offer their worship 
 to God. 
 
 Saturday, June 17. — Descended the hiU, forded the river, 
 and ascended the opposite hills. Found ourselves then on 
 an extensive undulating table-land, with a loftier range of 
 mountains round the north and east sides of the horizon. 
 The foot-hills of these mountains are cruriously ravined 
 and seamed and wrinkled, and look like the gnarled roots 
 
DIARBEKB TO BITLIS. 115 
 
 of the mountains ; they are formed, I suppose, by the 
 debris, which has fallen from them, and been modelled into 
 these fantastic shapes by the winter rains ; above, the moun- 
 tains are all rugged and bare, with steep precipices, and fine 
 outlines, and streaks of snow. We passed the town of 
 Red wan on our right, and stopped to lunch at the village 
 of Seerta or Badrichan. Here is a larger house than usual, 
 built on a mound ; the village, of about forty houses, 
 clusters round the base of the mound, a small stream runs 
 by. In the afternoon we only made another hour and a 
 half, and camped for the night beside a spring. The 
 plain we have been crossing was formerly peopled by the 
 Yezidees, a tribe with a religion whose tenets are unknown 
 to their neighbours, and we therefore hesitate to believe 
 in the devil-worship of which they are accused. Some 
 years ago they were disquieted by the Turks and migrated, 
 but a few of them are said still to linger here. 
 
 June 18. — Started early (4.30), and rode forward ahead 
 of the caravan, feeling much better in health, the sweet 
 morning mountain air seeming to reinvigorate one at 
 every breath. The scenery was picturesque, among hills 
 with patches of brushwood ; round the sloping side of a 
 hill by a narrow path overhanging the valley ; down one 
 deep rocky hill- side, across the tiny torrent at the bottom, 
 and up the opposite rocky hill-side. Then we descend a 
 steep smooth slope into a marshy valley with a larger 
 stream meandering through it. Ascend the opposite side, 
 and are again among mountains on all sides — nothing but 
 mountains — rising on the left into snowy peaks. In winter 
 it must be awfully bleak and dreary. We crossed the Bitlis 
 water a little before it joins the eastern branch of the 
 Tigris. Here is a lofty bridge, which must be invaluable 
 when the river is filled by the rains, but we crossed by 
 the ford a little lower down. On the top of the opposite 
 hiUs we found a fertile and cultivated little plain, with 
 fruit-trees dotting the hill- sides, and at the extremity of 
 
 i2 
 
116 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IS ASIA. 
 
 the plain came to the town of Seert. It is a small, good- 
 looking town of stone, built on the slope of the hill, with a 
 couple of mosques and minarets, and a large serai at the 
 upper part of the town, and the bazaars at its lower part. 
 The houses are many of them of old stones, the ruias of 
 an ancient town on the same site. The minaret of one of 
 the mosques is a short thick pillar of red and green 
 vitrified brick, with remains of a band of ornamental work 
 in blue (?) brick ; it iaclines to one side, like the Tower 
 of Pisa. We camped outside the town, where a covered 
 fountain and a magnificent old tree, beside a tomb, gave 
 us shade and water. 
 
 Mattran Petrus, a Chaldean metropolitan, Uves at a 
 monastery a Uttle way out of the town, but was absent at 
 the time of our visit. 
 
 The new zaptieh whom we took here told us there 
 were two roads to Bitlis — one by the valley, the other over 
 the mountains, and advised us to take the latter, as we 
 should find cooler air and more frequent springs ; we 
 thought it probable that we should also have finer scenery, 
 therefore we adopted his suggestion. 
 
 The result answered our expectations. We soon left 
 the plaiQ of Seert behind, and found ourselves again in 
 the midst of mountain scenery, winding through defiles, 
 plunging down steep descents, climbiog others still steeper 
 and higher ; the hills mostly with rounded outlines and 
 dotted with bushes of oak and acacia, but bills on a 
 large, bold scale ; while every now and then from a hill-top 
 we had a panoramic view of these nearer hills and defiles, 
 with the wilder, grander forms of the distant mountains 
 streaked with snow for a background. About noon we 
 came to a mountain village, of which we were told that its 
 name is Kufia, and that it is an ancient and famous site, 
 but it seems to be unmarked on all the maps. We saw 
 first a bold, rocky height crowned by a group of stone 
 buildings which looked like a fortress, and turned out to 
 
DIARBEKR TO BITLIS. 117 
 
 be the house of the bey, and an ancient church turned 
 into a mosque. Our road wound by a steep, rocky path 
 round the side of this height, and brought us at last to a 
 kind of village green, shadowed by a fine spreading mul- 
 berry-tree a little below the village acropolis. Here we 
 pitched our tents for the rest of the day, for the rough 
 mountain path had been very trying for the horses. It 
 was a little oasis among the barren mountains. The vil- 
 lage is built of stone, with seventy or eighty houses 
 (fifteen Jacobite families, two or three Armenian, and the 
 rest Mussulman), a mosque, a bath, two Mussulman 
 schools, three mollahs, a church at a little distance from the 
 village, a Christian school, and a priest ; and is surrounded 
 by luxuriant gardens, orchards, vineyards, fields, growing 
 figs, pomegranates, grapes, mulberries, rice ; of course a 
 plentiful spring and careful irrigation were the sources of 
 this fertility. The view over the country was extensive 
 and picturesque, and would have been much more 
 picturesque but for the absence of trees. 
 
 The school-room was said to be an ancient building as 
 well as the mosque, but we could not get permission to 
 visit them. We paid a visit to the priest. In the evening 
 the priest returned our visit at supper time, and we made 
 him sup with us. The chief man of the village and others 
 of the people also paid us a visit, squatted in a half- 
 circle round the tent door, and chatted and smoked. They 
 complained of oppression, but it seemed to me that what 
 they complained of was the high-handed dealing of their 
 own feudal chiefs, and that all the fault to be attributed 
 to the central government was that it did not, and 
 probably could not, protect them. 
 
 Tuesday, June 20. — We were up and out early enough 
 to see the first sunlight fall upon the peaks of the opposite 
 mountains. The mountain air was delicious, it was like 
 inhahng some exhilarating fluid, which gave vigour and 
 delight in every draught. We started at five. Our 
 
118 CHBISTIANS tJNDEB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 journey tlirough the day was through still finer scenery. 
 We were approaching the higher mountain region ; the 
 mountains were more abrupt and rocky; the ravines nar- 
 rower and deeper; and above all there was a sufficiency of 
 trees to give us the contrast of waving forest with the 
 rigid outlines of the hills, of green foliage with grey cUff 
 and boulder. The journeying was a climbing up and down 
 steep stairs of rock. I feel that it is impossible to make 
 the reader comprehend the nature of the ground. In 
 many places it was literally a cyclopean stair of huge, 
 irregular rocks — the ascent was laborious, but the descent 
 was startling ; but seeing that the pack horses, with heavy 
 loads on their backs, could do it safely, we assumed that 
 the saddle horses with men on their backs, could do it 
 equally well. It was only here and there we dismounted, 
 e.g., where the horse had to climb up some crevice between 
 rocks whose projecting corners seemed to leave no space 
 for our legs to pass ; or where he had to descend a similar 
 place, putting one foot into one deep hole and another 
 into another, and where a clumsy step would break the 
 horse's leg and his rider's neck. 
 
 Wild as the country is, our guide told us that there were 
 numerous villages in the mountain valleys — one contain- 
 ing about 1,000 houses, with extensive vineyards, sending 
 great quantities of raisins to market. Gold mines used to 
 be worked among these mountains in old times, and some 
 English adventurers had offered to work the mountains 
 
 Still up and down, sometimes zig-zagging sharply up the 
 rocky heights nearly as high as the snow-line, then 
 plunging down agaia into the ravines, crossing the brawling 
 torrents at the bottom, to climb up again on the other 
 side. At 10 a.m. we halted in a little valley through 
 which a larger brook flowed briskly among the rocks 
 under the shade of trees ; ate, bathed, slept, and enjoyed 
 it much. Kesumed our road at 3.30, still among fine 
 
DIABBEKB TO BITLIS. 119 
 
 wooded hills. We were warned that we might possibly 
 come across a wolf or a bear. It began to grow dark 
 before we had reached the place where our guide had 
 intended to stay for the night, and the road was not one 
 which could be travelled in the dark. Fortunately a 
 Nestorian who had joined our caravan could tell us of a 
 place near at hand where some Koord tents were pitched, 
 and where, consequently, we should be sure of water, could 
 most Ukely buy milk, and could get the protection of 
 guards. 
 
 In another quarter of an hour we reached the place, 
 too dark to see anything more than that we were on an open 
 space near the edge of a steep descent, with a deep valley 
 at our feet, and the opposite hills dimly defined among 
 the stars ; the rush of a waterfall was somewhere close 
 behind us among the trees. The Koords good-naturedly 
 came to our assistance, brought a pile of fuel and lighted 
 a bonfire, by whose light we were able to pitch our tent ; 
 then we bought native bread and butter and milk, and 
 supped ; then we held a divan of our wild companions 
 round the tent door by firelight, and finally took ourselves 
 to our mattresses, and slept soundly till dawn. 
 
 Were not we in dangerous quarters ? Well, we learnt 
 that there were near a thousand of these Koords scattered 
 about the valley into which we looked ; and that the 
 settled inhabitants of the country had complained of 
 their depredations, and that the pasha had ordered them 
 to leave. If they had come upon our tent in the evening 
 they would probably not have scrupled to take anything 
 they could lay hands upon, the horses especially, and they 
 might even have attempted to coerce and rob us of every- 
 thing we possessed. But coming to them as we did, and 
 throwing ourselves upon them, I had no fear of the families 
 of the two or three tents among whom we were camped, and 
 we hired a couple of their young men as guards over our 
 tent and properties during the night against others. 
 
120 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Wednesday, June 21. — Next morning, having been told 
 that it was only a short ride into Bitlis, we did not start till 
 about six, and contented ourselves with a very slight break- 
 fast. In truth we had not the materials for anything more 
 substantial. We had exhausted our stores ; the Koords had 
 no eggs, we had not yet learnt to eat yohoort — the piece 
 de resistance of a mountain meal — so that there was nothing 
 left but milk and native bread and butter, and a cup of 
 Turkish coflfee. 
 
 Regaining the road we had left last night, a few paces 
 brought us to a break in the trees, through which we 
 looked right down into the valley, and along the whole 
 length of a reach of it. It was a charming prospect. The 
 hills rose steeply out of the valleyj throwing out spurs into 
 it here and there ; the whole bed of the valley was green 
 with growing rice, the margin fringed with old walnut 
 trees ; the village we ought to have reached last night was 
 a little way up the valley ; the rising sun threw slanting 
 lights and shadows across the scene. It was fortunate we 
 did not attempt to push on to the village last night in the 
 dark. We had to scramble down a rocky path, with 
 boughs of trees stretching across here and there, which 
 would have swept us out of the saddle ; moreover, pretty as 
 the valley looked, it was far better to sleep in the moun- 
 tain air than among the rice-fields. Our way now wound 
 along the valley until noon. Then we halted for an hour 
 and lunched off our last tin of sardines and a bit of native 
 bread. Our guide grumbled at the halt, because we should 
 so soon reach Bitlis ; so we let the caravan and servant 
 precede us, with orders to pitch the tent and cook the 
 dinner in readiness for us. When we resumed our jour- 
 ney we presently found ourselves involved in a picturesque 
 rocky pass, where two horses could only here and there 
 pass one another. We had experimental proof of it, for we 
 met a caravan coming up the pass, whose katurjis were not 
 very much disposed to put themselves out for us, but our 
 
DIARBEKR TO BITLIS. 121 
 
 zaptieh scrambled ahead and rated them soundly, and 
 drove their beasts aside for us to pass. Half-way down 
 the pass we stopped to drink at a copious spring which 
 flowed out of the hill-side from between two strata of rock 
 in a broad, thin sheet of water. This pass led us down 
 into the valley through which the Bitlis river runs, Avith a 
 full stream and strong current. As we rode up the valley 
 we noticed on the left a remarkable geological formation. 
 It looked as if the Titans had laid a roof of large irregular 
 slabs of hmestone over a great group of older rocks. 
 We made out that a calcareous spring had slowly flowed 
 over the rocks and gradually left a precipitate of stone ; and 
 then an earthquake must have broken the covering into 
 slabs. A Uttle further on the right, on the other bank of 
 the river, we saw a large building with a church, which we 
 (rightly) conjectured to be the Armenian monastery — one of 
 the chief establishments of Bitlis. We could see the groves 
 and houses of the town, and began already to look out for 
 the tent, which was to be pitched outside. But we had 
 still a long ride before us. 
 
122 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BITLIS. 
 
 BiTLis is most picturesquely situated. The river along 
 whose sides we had been riding for some time past descends 
 into the head of the valley down the bed of a steep winding 
 rocky gorge. The town is built on the steep sides of this 
 gorge. The hills rise in irregular terraces, and these 
 terraces have afforded sites for the houses. 
 
 As we approach the town the road crosses the ravine by 
 a bridge carried on a bold pointed arch, from the middle of 
 which there is a very picturesque view up the gorge. 
 Having reached the other side of the bridge the road turns 
 to the left at a right angle, and runs along a terrace of rock, 
 paved with irregular flat stones in fair order, under the 
 wall of the town. A little way on, the road again crosses 
 the ravine to a similar natural terrace, with a similar pave- 
 ment on the other bank. Further up is a mosque with 
 some architectural pretensions. Half-way up is the shell 
 of an extensive Saracenic castle. A Uttle further we ride 
 through the narrow lanes of the bazaar ; and stiU on and 
 up, winding with the ravine, crossing from side to side, on 
 bold single-arched bridges, as the formation of the ground 
 requires. It is a fine town, with its paved streets and 
 houses of stone, far the best we have seen in the East ; bmlt 
 entirely on the steep sides of the ravine, it follows its wind- 
 ings for an hour's ride, from the valley right up to the 
 head of the gorge. I shall not soon forget the ride through 
 it. I had hoped that we should find our camp pitched in 
 the valley before we entered the town, and at every turn we 
 
BITIilS. 123 
 
 looked out anxiously for it. Travelling all day under the 
 hot sun, with insufficient food and a touch of fever, had 
 brought me into a strange dreamy state, and the whole 
 thing began to seem like a nightmare, in which one was 
 condemned to wander on through a wonderful town, wind- 
 ing this way and that way, always up and up, along paved 
 terraces on the brink of a ravine, across unparapeted 
 bridges, with the stream always roaring and foaming 
 below ; winding this way and that way, still up and up, 
 with bridge after bridge and terrace after terrace, for 
 ever. It came to an end at last ; right through and 
 above the town, on a platform of the mountain some 5,000 
 feet above the sea, we caught sight of the white roof of the 
 tent. I pushed through a gap, rode across the field, dis- 
 mounted and lay down on the ground, and began to shiver 
 violently. 
 
 Thursday, June 22. — "We two Englishmen and the 
 Nestorian deacon were all ill, so we sent for the doctor, a 
 middle-aged German army doctor, who made light of our 
 ailments, and promised to put us into travelling condition 
 again in two or three days. We were really detained until 
 the following Monday, and they were four very unpleasant 
 days we spent here. In good health and spirits one laughs 
 at the discomforts of tent life, but when ill and depressed 
 they are not a laughing matter. Notwithstanding the 
 height of our camp, tbe heat during the day was very 
 great and trying ; when we opened the tent walls to let the 
 breeze blow through, it brought with it a fine dust, which 
 settled upon everything — the bedding and the food, filled 
 our hair, and covered our faces and hands. In the even- 
 ing the wind blew cold from the snow mountains on the 
 other side of the Bitlis valley. The kaimakam sent us 
 three zaptiehs to take care of us and our belongings, but 
 they did not prevent the boys of the town, and sometimes a 
 few men among them, from crowding in front of the tent 
 door, and prowling all about, to study, with praiseworthy 
 
124 CHEISTIANS UNDEB THE CKESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 but troublesome curiosity, the natural history of tbe English 
 species of the genus homo. We were also interviewed by 
 several deputations and individuals. I was anxious to 
 examine the castle and some other buildings which had 
 passed across my retina, and dwelt on my memory, in that 
 fantastic nightmare ride up the town, but I felt unequal to 
 the effort. W. rode into the town one day and took a few 
 photographs. The castle is a mere shell, the interior 
 buildings having been destroyed, as at Urfa. 
 
 I received a visit from the native agent, and a deputation 
 of a score or so of the Armenian Protestants who are under 
 the teaching of the American missionaries. Of the American 
 missionaries themselves one family had left for Wan the 
 very day of our an-ival ; the other, Mr. Knapp, was good 
 enough to pay me a visit subsequently, but, unfortunately, 
 I was very unwell at the time and quite unequal to the 
 effort of receiving his visit. From the Armenian Protes- 
 tants themselves, and from other sources of information, I 
 received the impression that their cause was not making 
 progress in Bitlis, and the fact of the reduction of the 
 missionary staff seemed to confirm this impression. I also 
 received a visit from the principal priest of the Armenians, 
 the vicar of the Armenian bishop, to whom I communicated 
 the contents of the Archbishop of Canterbury's circular 
 letter to the Eastern prelates. He expressed much gratifi- 
 cation, and paid compliments to the English Church. 
 From him, and another Armenian priest who subsequently 
 visited me, I obtained information about the religious con- 
 dition of the town, which I collated with that previously 
 obtained from the Protestants. The population, I 
 gathered, amounted to about 25,000 persons, of whom 
 only about 2,000 were Christians. Of the Christians about 
 1,700 are ancient Armenians, and about 300 Armenian 
 Protestants. The Armenians have four churches besides 
 the monastery which we saw in the valley outside the 
 town, twelve priests, six schools, and about 400 scholars ; 
 
BITIilS. 125 
 
 the Americans have one missionary and a native assistant, 
 two schools and about fifty scholars. There used to be 
 here 100 Armenians, who had adopted the papal obedience 
 with a papal priest to minister to them, but now all but one 
 family have rejoined their ancient Church. There are also 
 from twenty to thirty Jacobite families without church, 
 priest, or school. I learnt that there is no preaching 
 among the Armenians here. " The Sunday morning 
 service is three hours long ; the people would not stay for 
 a sermon after that." 
 
 " Is there any catechising of the children ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " How, then, do the people learn anything about their 
 religion ? " 
 
 " Those who can read pick up a little knowledge of it, 
 and those who cannot read do not." 
 
 On Sunday, June 25, we were so far better as to be able 
 to resolve upon striking camp and resuming our journey 
 next day. The mounted zaptieh whom the pasha selected 
 as our guide and guard rode up in the evening to intro- 
 duce himself and take orders. He rather gave himself 
 airs, and assured us that he was a very fine fellow, and 
 was always appointed to attend the pasha and great 
 people, that he knew the whole country intimately, and 
 would lead us by a short and pleasant cut. Philippus 
 was so impressed by his pretensions that he paid him the 
 compliment of treating him, like a visitor, with coffee. 
 We, on the contrary, were rather unfavourably impressed. 
 
126 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 BITLIS TO WAN, 
 
 Monday, June 26. — Up by dawn and off soon after sun- 
 rise, feeling not very strong, but very glad to get out of 
 hospital. We rode up between tlie hill-tops which fonn 
 the head of the Bitlis ravine, and in about half an hour 
 our boastful zaptieh justified my opinion of him by admit- 
 ting that he bad missed the road, and leading us in a 
 scramble down one hill and up another to regain the right 
 track. The right track turned out to be anything but a 
 pleasant one, and not fit for baggage horses. We soon 
 heard the katurji loudly expressing his opinion of the guide 
 and his short cut. In places it was so steep an ascent that 
 we had to hold on hard to the saddle, or we should have 
 slipped off behiad ; in some places indeed we had to dis- 
 mount. Moreover, the track was so narrow between 
 rocks, or with a rock on one side and the ravine on the 
 other, that it was barely passable for a horse with a bulky 
 load. We horsemen managed it all well enough, but one 
 of the baggage horses came to grief. Hearing a great 
 cry behind, I turned round in the saddle just in time 
 to see him tiurning somersaults, literally head over heels, 
 down the steep hill-side, while the katurji was standing in 
 a tragical attitude with his arms extended to heaven, call- 
 ing Allah to witness the wickedness of the zaptieh. It was 
 the horse who carried the bulky bedding on one side, and 
 the tents to match on the other. I daresay they broke his 
 fall, and brought him up after three or four turns. His load 
 was soon loosened, and he relieved us considerably by 
 
BITLIS TO WAN. 127 
 
 scrambling to his feet ; there were no bones broken, but 
 the poor beast was a good deal shaken, and had an ugly 
 wound where the rocks had scraped off both skin and 
 flesh. We felt that if it had been one of the saddle horses 
 which had fallen, his rider would have had a very good 
 chance of having his neck broken in the fall. How the 
 beasts shame us men with their patient endurance of pain 
 and willingness to labour ! In a very few minutes he was 
 reloaded with his bulky burdens, and was scrambUng 
 desperately up the hill-side to regain the track. 
 
 To-day, for the first time, we passed over the snow line 
 and soon began to descend the other side of the mountain. 
 Very soon we were amazed to see a vehicle, drawn by four 
 beasts, occupying the road. True, the vehicle was only a 
 rude sledge, and the four beasts were only two pairs of 
 oxen ; but it was curious to have passed through all the 
 plains without seeing anything like a vehicle (except the 
 'bus at Diarbekr), and to find it at last up here among 
 the mountains. But we soon noticed another fact equally 
 curious. In all the plains we had seen hundreds of miles 
 of land left barren, and other hundreds of miles with the 
 rudest possible culture ; but here we found an elaborate 
 system of irrigation, and every little valley which afforded 
 a few acres of soil washed down from the mountain sides 
 elaborately cultivated. I suppose the presence of water is 
 the reason of the difi'erence. Among the mountains there 
 are springs, "which run among the hills," and that is the 
 one element wanting in these hot climates to make the 
 soil fertile. This explains, what I never clearly under- 
 stood before, the ancient fertiUty of the hill country of 
 Palestine. We made a very short day's journey, and 
 stopped at an Armenian village called Ant (or Andt) for 
 the rest of the day and the night. As we rode through 
 the village street the women came out and stood at their 
 doors unveiled to look at us. I shall be ungallant enough 
 to say that they were rather coarse-featui-ed, swarthy, 
 
128 CHRISTIANS TODER THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 unkempt, untidy, and dirty, witli nose rings in one 
 nostril, and headdresses of coins. We halted on a charm- 
 ing plot of grass close by the church, which was like 
 a village green, and unloaded, and began to pitch 
 our camp. Our zaptieh here showed the result of his 
 experience as a guide of the " pashas and other great 
 persons," by ordering the people about in a hectoring way, 
 and impressing all the bystanders into our service. We 
 took the opportunity to read him a lesson, by scolding 
 him for his conduct, and ordering him to ask for two 
 men who would act as our watchmen at night, and 
 who should be engaged also to render any other services 
 required, and should receive a proper backshish. 
 
 Our camp was a very pleasant one ; the morning's ride 
 had refreshed without fatiguing ua ; the people were 
 friendly, and we passed a very agreeable day. 
 
 The head man of the village and the village priest came 
 to pay us a visit ; we invited them to share our luncheon, 
 and had an interesting conversation with them. The 
 priest had only been ordained a year before. He was a 
 native of the village, who had been taught to read a little 
 when a boy in a monastery,* where he was one of the 
 servants. He had kept up his reading, and a year ago, on 
 the occurrence of a vacancy, the head man had presented 
 him, with the concurrence of some authority at Bitlis, to 
 the bishop of a neighbouring monastery,* who had 
 ordained him priest. 
 
 After luncheon we looked at the church. It is a very 
 plain stone structure, with nothing externally archi- 
 tectural about it and nothing ecclesiastical in its appear- 
 ance except that a number of small crosses patee (^) 
 are scratched on some of the stones. Attached to the 
 west end is another lower and wider building of inferior 
 construction, which looks Hke a mere outbuilding. On 
 entering the latter building by a small and low door, we 
 * Probably the great monastery at Bitlis, 
 
BITLIS TO WAN. ^ 129 
 
 found that this is the nave of the church — a perfectly 
 plain room, which might be a stable, with its roof sup- 
 ported by rough posts. Another small and low door gives 
 access from the nave into the chancel. This is a com- 
 paratively lofty building, with a plain pointed-arched stone 
 groining, very dimly lighted by one small sht in the east 
 wall. At the east end is the sanctuary — a raised platform 
 about three feet high, with three narrow steps in the 
 middle by which the priest ascends to it. The altar slab 
 (mensa), marked at the angles with crosses paUe, is placed 
 on a stone table, which has only one central stone pillar. 
 A very rude wooden frame over it represents the canopy, 
 and there is no other furniture. The church possesses 
 some books, which were in the custody of the head man, 
 and we could not get to see them. 
 
 We saw here for the first time the substitute for a 
 church bell, which is general throughout the East ; it con- 
 sists of a short board of thin hard wood called a semantron ; 
 it is held suspended by a cord from the middle of one of 
 its long edges, and is struck with a wooden mallet ; the 
 sharp and slightly sonorous sound is heard for a con- 
 siderable distance, and is quite enough to answer its 
 purpose of reaching the ears of all the villagers, and 
 announcing to them the hours of morning and evening 
 prayer. We found the semantron and mallet hung up on 
 a peg against the outer wall of the church. 
 
 The church is endowed with three fields, to maintain it 
 in repair, and find the requisites for Divine service. 
 
 The village consists of about thirty houses, built of 
 stone, and finished with domical roofs of mud. The view 
 of it from our tent was very picturesque, with a bold 
 rocky blufi" rising above it, on which grew some old gnarled 
 walnut-trees. The valley was well irrigated, divided into 
 fields, and well cultivated ; there were some very fine 
 walnut-trees here and there, and an abundance of other 
 trees, and the whole settlement was the most thriving and 
 
130 CHMSTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 beautiful which we had seen in the East. Seeing num- 
 bers of wild pigeons, W. took his gun, and we strolled 
 round the neighbourhood and shot a few birds for dinner. 
 Eeturning as the sun was setting, we had again occasion to 
 observe how the scenery of this country loses by the con- 
 stant glare of the sun upon it all day long. This morning, 
 as we rode down into the valley, it did not strike us except 
 for its fertility and good cultivation. This evening, with 
 subdued slanting hghts, it is quite a different place. The 
 lulls are thrown into perspective one behind another ; the 
 folds of the hills and the jutting rocks have their lights and 
 shadows ; the valley looks larger when its features are thus 
 brought out, and its features look bolder and more pictu- 
 resque. I quite made up my mind that no scenery can look 
 well under a sun which is always glaring down upon it from 
 above, and in an atmosphere so dry and clear that there is 
 no aerial perspective ; and that a perpetual blue sky is 
 monotonous, it needs clouds to make it picturesque ; and, 
 finally, I found myself learning to appreciate more highly 
 than ever the charms of English landscape. 
 
 Tuesday, June 27. — W. took two photographs of the 
 village and the church, and this delayed our departure 
 till about an hour after sunrise. The tints of the hills 
 as the sun rose upon them were glorious. The green hill- 
 sides glowed like green gold, the ridges of rock like rose- 
 coloured marble. About two hours' ride down the pleasant 
 cultivated valley brought us into a larger valley, called 
 Gazeldara, with a good-sized rapid salmon stream hurrying 
 on to discharge itself into Lake Wan. We crossed a 
 bridge, and turned up the opposite bank of the stream. 
 The people think much of the beauty of this valley, and 
 it is comparatively picturesque, the chain of hills on the 
 left especially. After an easy and pleasant ride of 
 four hom-s up the valley we turned out of it towards 
 the north, and, without any great ascent or descent, found 
 ourselves at the head of a smaller valley, whose stream 
 
BITLIS TO WAN. 181 
 
 also discharged itself into Lake Wan, but in a more 
 easterly direction. After a short ride, a turn of the valley- 
 brought us in sight of the lake, and beyond it of a grand 
 conical mountain, with its summit covered for a long way 
 down with snow. Its solitary grandeur was very imposing. 
 I recognised it at once as the Suban Dagh, the great 
 mountain of this neighbourhood, concerning which the 
 local tradition says that the ark first touched upon its 
 summit as the flood subsided, but swung loose, and 
 drifted seven days more, when it took ground on Ararat. 
 Near it is the crater of an extinct volcano,* five miles 
 across, with a lake within its enclosure, one of the largest 
 of the disused chimneys through which once the internal 
 fire found vent into upper air. There is another smaller 
 extinct volcano at a little distance. Soon after we halted 
 for luncheon. After luncheon W. wandered off with his 
 gun, and shot us five pigeons for dinner. His last shot 
 was from a considerable distance, and he observed that 
 it was in the direction of the camp, and was rather 
 curious to know whether it had caused us any incon- 
 venience ; when he returned I had the pleasure of satisfy- 
 ing his curiosity with the information that, besides his 
 five pigeons, he had also shot one Armenian in the back of 
 the neck, but fortunately the shot was so far spent that, 
 though it gave the man a stinging blow, it did not even 
 break the skin. The shooting was not merely for 
 amusement, for the pigeons were a very important 
 accession to our bill of fare. We could not always 
 get either mutton or fowls at our camping-places, and 
 when we could it was of no use to me, for the fowls were 
 very small and all bone and sinew, and afforded no 
 nutriment whatever ; the mutton was usually so tough 
 that I could not bite it through, and after I had 
 chewed a mouthful in the vain hope of getting some 
 nutriment out of it, I had to throw it away; so that 
 
 * The Nimrood Dagh. 
 
 e2 
 
182 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 frequently my dinner consisted of the first course and the 
 last only — the first course a plate of concentrated soup, 
 which we were obliged to husband, for we had not brought 
 a sufficient stock with us ; and the last course a cup of 
 cofi"ee. When we were fortunate enough to shoot a pigeon 
 in the course of the day there were at least two mouthfuls 
 of good succulent meat for a piece de resistance. It was 
 unfortunate that it took me a long time to acquire the 
 taste for yohoort, which is the food of these pastoral 
 countries, and it was the rich, deUcious sheep's milk which 
 kept me alive. After we had started in the morning we 
 kept a bright look-out for the first flock which came in 
 sight; and when we spied one the zaptieh was sent off 
 at a canter to ask if they had milked, and if so, to bargain 
 for milk. Presently he returned with the shepherd, bear- 
 ing a quaint earthenware or brazen vessel full of the 
 frothy milk. It was one of the events of life to raise the 
 full vessel to one's lips and drink deep, and surrender it 
 with a sigh of satisfaction to the ready hands of him whose 
 turn came next. He who has not drunk sheep's milk, 
 fresh milked, out of a large bowl, at six o'clock in the 
 morning, after a poor breakfast and a couple of hours' 
 ride, does not know what milk is ;• cow's milk is like 
 insipid milk and water in comparison. 
 
 After luncheon, a short ride through strange geological 
 phenomena brought us to the lake at a level spot where 
 the shore was marshy and the land encrusted with salt, for 
 Wan is one of the chain of salt lakes of which the Caspian 
 is the greatest. Following the shore eastward, it soon 
 brought us to the rocky hill-side, sloping down to the 
 water, with a fairly good horse-track engineered through 
 the rocks and along the slopes at a little height above the 
 lake. It was picturesque, but the air was perfectly still, 
 the heat was great, and the waters of the sail-less lake 
 were without a ripple, and glared wader the sun with 
 strange wrinkles over its surface, and streaks of un- 
 
BITLIS TO WAN. 188 
 
 natural livid colour, like a dead sea. After two and a 
 quarter hours of slow riding we passed a corner of the lake 
 where the hills fell back and left a few acres of cultivated 
 land between their slope and the margin of the lake, 
 where was a village ; a few good trees about the village, 
 and wooded hiU-sides, made a pleasant picture. A little 
 further a wild duck with a flock of ducklings broke out 
 from the reeds, and paddled straight out into the lake. 
 W. sent a charge of shot after them, and knocked over 
 one or more of the little ones ; but they were too far out, 
 and I discouraged the idea of stripping and swimming after 
 them. We were in sight of a bold timbered blufi", behind 
 which three large masted boats were moored, and on 
 whose back was a village, at which we halted for the 
 night, and camped on the village green, surrounded by the 
 huts of the village. W. and Deacon George started off 
 at once to bathe in the lake, gun on shoulder for the 
 chance of another shot at the wild ducks. I eat in my 
 arm-chair, and amused myself, as I had often done before, 
 with watching the evening's routine of the katurjis. First 
 they unloaded ; then whUe one lent a hand to pitch the 
 tent, the other picketed the horses. The routine was 
 always the same. Three iron pegs were driven deep 
 into the earth, and a strong rope passed through them 
 so as to form two sides of a square, and to this the horses 
 were attached by their head-ropes ; the katurjis sleep in 
 the middle of the square to protect their horses from thieves. 
 The pack-saddles are left on till they are cool. By the 
 time the tent is pitched the horses are ready to be groomed. 
 Each katuiji takes his share. First they are methodically 
 dressed all over with the clicking curry-comb, then rubbed 
 over with a dry cloth ; the groom always spits on his 
 cloth when he rubs the eyes and ears and face. The 
 pack-saddle is put on again ; it is a big, clumsy, heavy 
 wooden affair, but is always kept on lest the horses' backs 
 should get cold. When they are all groomed the katurji 
 
134 CHRISTIANS tTNDEB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 goes round again amidst the whinnying of his horses, fills 
 their noso-bags with barley, and leaves them to eat 
 their supper. Then the head katurji, a good Mussul- 
 man, goes to the neighbouring stream or spring and 
 washes his hands and face, spreads out his prayer carpet, 
 and gravely and reverently goes through his evening 
 devotions. The second katurji, who never says his 
 prayers — at least within our observation — occupies himself 
 with making a fire, and doing the cooking for himself and 
 his chief. Often they find their supper reinforced by 
 something which Philippus can add from his department, 
 and sometimes they get a cup of coflfee from him. They 
 smoke a pipe or two out of the bashi's hubble-bubble, then 
 roll themselves up in a blanket, covering the head so com- 
 pletely that they look Uke two bales of " soft goods," stretch 
 themselves on the ground in the midst of their cattle, and 
 apparently sleep without a break till morning. It is a real 
 pleasure to see Hassan at his work. He is a fine, well-made, 
 strong fellow, with a fine Eastern face. He does everything 
 without the slightest fuss, with a gravity, method, strength, 
 and cleverness which it does one good to see. They never 
 beat their horses ; they carry neither whip nor stick. The 
 horses are all free ; one is always the leader of the troop, 
 and is jealous of his precedence, and the rest follow their 
 leader in single file. For the most part they obey the 
 katurji's voice, and if one fail he picks up the nearest stone 
 and throws it at him, usually, from constant practice, 
 with accurate aim, though often it hits the load instead of 
 the beast, but that is enough to enforce discipline. 
 
 Travelling day after day with the horses always under 
 one's eye, one soon distinguishes their difierent characters. 
 The horse I ride, an intelligent, gentle, easy-paced Httle 
 creature, is getting old. On perfectly level ground tra- 
 velling at a walk it will stumble every ten minutes, but 
 at a hand-gallop it will pick up its legs cleverly, and will 
 scramble up and down the mountain paths and climb the 
 
BITLIS TO WAN. 135 
 
 slippery rocks without a fault. The leader of the caravan 
 is as vain as a woman of his bell, and as jealous of his 
 precedence ; if one rode before him he would sometimes 
 rush angrily past to regain the lead, and it required a little 
 quickness sometimes in throwing one's leg over the horse's 
 neck to avoid having one's thigh ripped up by the jagged 
 comer of a tin box, which formed part of the leader's load. 
 Then there was a Roman-nosed mule, whose charac- 
 teristics were ill-temper and obstinacy ; and a thick under- 
 bred horse which had no character at all, it was simply a 
 lazy drudge. Lastly, there was a little ass, which the 
 second katurji had brought for his own riding, a humble 
 little creature, which ambled along with the rest, and got 
 through his day's work as well as any of them ; his cha- 
 racteristic was humble usefulness. 
 
 Wednesday, June 28. — Started at sunrise, turned away 
 from the lake over the shoulder of the hill, down its long 
 sloping back, and so into a broad, fertile, weU-cultivated 
 valley, surrounded by rounded hills of moderate height. 
 The valley contained several villages. We passed by one 
 in which a rather large new church, with the very unusual 
 feature of a gabled roof, rose high out of the cluster of 
 domed houses. Here we halted for ten minutes or a 
 quarter of an hour ; sent into the village for a bowl of milk 
 and drank it as we stood, remounted and rode on. 
 
 We halted for luncheon at a spot where a spring broke 
 out, about half-way down a long descent, and a village a 
 little way off on the left gave us a chance of getting milk 
 and bread. Here we saw another pastoral scene. The 
 spot where we had halted was on the desolate side of a 
 moorland hill covered with coarse grass, but it turned out 
 that the water which had attracted us made the place the 
 rendezvous of the flocks of the neighbouring village ; and 
 while we were lying about on the ground after luncheon — 
 we under the roof of the tent, the servants under the shade 
 of the luggage — the flocks of sheep and lambs were led 
 
186 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 dovm by the shepherdesses to water and to be milked. 
 The two flocks were kept separate, in spite of their loud 
 complaints — those of the lambs in shrill incessant bleating, 
 responded to by the hoarser and less frequent voices of the 
 ewes — till the mothers had all been milked, then their 
 lambs were allowed access to them ; every lamb ran to its 
 mother, and the scene finished amidst the general satisfac- 
 tion of the woolly people, the lambs butting against their 
 udders and wagging their taUs with delight, and the 
 mothers lifting their heads from the coarse grass, and 
 turning to bestow a caress of quiet maternal gratification. 
 
 After luncheon our road led us across a range of higher 
 hills ; we climbed up a rugged track, scrambled down 
 a very steep descent on the other side, passed a solitary 
 tomb high up the hill, which is a great place of pilgrimage 
 once a year to the Christians of the whole country round, 
 and so round the hill-sides, gradually descending into a 
 long narrow valley which wound for miles round the foot 
 of the hills, with a stream running through it. The sun 
 was set already, and as we were still more than an hour 
 from our intended camping-place, I insisted upon camping 
 where we were. Here was water, and there was a village 
 near where the katurjis could get barley for their horses, 
 the two indispensable requisites for a camping-place, and 
 there were two or three Koord tents already pitched on the 
 ground, showing that it was probably the best place we 
 should find in the immediate neighbourhood. Our whole 
 party was beginning to give way under the hardships of the 
 journey. Hadji Katurji, fine fellow as he was and used 
 to the life, had been ill and helpless all the afternoon ; 
 Philip the cook ditto. I could sit on my horse and travel 
 on in a dull, listless way as long as the horse could go, but 
 when we came to our halting-place I could do nothing 
 more than get heavily out of the saddle and stumble to the 
 nearest convenient spot, and lie down on the ground. 
 George also was not well. 
 
BITIilS TO WAN. 137 
 
 The bragging zaptieh came out in a new character this 
 evening, and rose greatly in our estimation. WhUe Hadji 
 was lying groaning on the gi'ound the zaptieh went to com- 
 fort him, spoke to.iiim cheerily, knelt down on the ground 
 beside him and prayed for him, and then went off to help 
 to make up the fire and cook the dinner. W. made the 
 soup, and the zaptieh fried the chicken, and made himself 
 generally cheery and useful. It was rather a miserable 
 camp that night. 
 
 Thursday, June 29. — Next day the katurji and cook 
 were still ill, and others of us not very well. We got 
 loaded with some difficulty, and started late ; plodded 
 wearily through a monotonous day's journey over hill and 
 valley, and camped at night at a considerable village, with 
 the prospect that early to-morrow we should get into town 
 within reach of the bazaars and an American doctor. 
 
 Friday, June 30. — I slept all last night a feverish sleep. 
 I had a sensation that everything had fallen into ruin, and 
 chaos was come again ; and when I awoke in the night I 
 awoke in such a state of confusion, that it took me some 
 time to assure myself that I was not lying amidst the 
 rubbish of the world, and that I was not in an equally^ 
 disintegrated and " rubbishy " state. It was only slowly 
 that my senses seemed to clear themselves, and I was able 
 to realise distinctly that I was really lying under the tent, 
 that I was whole and sound, that I was lying on a mattress 
 covered by a blanket — in short, that I was really myself and 
 the world going on as usual. 
 
 Hadji was not better this morning, but Philip was about 
 again, and we got off in fair time. We rode two hours 
 across a plain, bordered by the lake. At a little distance 
 from the shore is a barren rocky islet, called Akhtamar, rising 
 to a height of some hundred feet, with a church and convent 
 on a small plateau half-way up. The whole scene was 
 very picturesque and poetical. The island is said to have 
 contained, from a very remote antiquity, a castle of the 
 
138 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Armenian kings. Mr. Layard* attributes the foundation 
 of the monastery to the seventh century, and the building of 
 the present church to the tenth. He describes it as a cross 
 church, with a hexagonal tower and conical capping at the 
 intersection of the cross, with the upper part of the interior 
 of the building almost covered with broad bands and panels 
 of sculpture in bas-relief. The Archbishop of Akhtamar 
 in 1113 declared himself independent of the Armenian 
 Patriarch of Echmiadsin, but he is recognised only by a 
 small number of Christians in the neighbourhood of 
 Wan. We crossed a brook by a bridge, and it took us 
 another two hours to cross the ridge of a low hill. At the 
 further side of the hill was the thriving village of Edremit, 
 amidst gardens and groves, and on the last rocky spur of 
 the hill the ruins of a fortress and an ancient town. A 
 beautiful and abundant spring of water gushed out of the 
 rock-hewn cisterns. We only halted for a deep draught 
 of water for man and beast, and pushed on two hours more 
 by the margin of the lake, with the town of Wan and its 
 remarkable castle before us all the way. There was a fresh 
 north breeze blowing, which raised tiny " white horses " all 
 ^ver the dark waters of the lake and drove them, charging 
 in squadrons, on the shallow shore. I think the cool breeze 
 did me good ; there were numerous clouds overhead too, 
 which every now and then screened us from the heat of the 
 sun. I rode the six hours without fatigue, and at the end of 
 it found I had more appetite than I had had for weeks before 
 — appetite enough to make an instant demand upon Philip- 
 pus's saddle-bags, and eat some cold lamb and dry bread 
 found there, and then to eat some soup and kabobs an hour 
 afterwards. W., however, had been gradually sickening 
 all morning, and fancied that the malarious plain of 
 Wan affected him, while Hassan continued as ill and 
 wretched as ever. 
 
 * "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 413. 
 
189 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The salt lake of Wan is from 25 to 30 miles long by 
 about 9 to 12 miles broad. On its west side is tbe grand 
 conical mountain of Suban Dagb, further north the great ex- 
 tinct volcano above mentioned, and other mountain chains 
 surround it on all sides, sometimes sending spurs down to 
 the margin of the lake, but leaving numerous and wide 
 spaces of fertile plain and valley. There are several towns 
 round its margin, as Akhlat and Yastan ; but Wan was 
 probably always the capital of the district. There are 
 some remarkable traditions about the place. One is 
 that it was the site of Paradise, and a Persian proverb still 
 speaks of any very beautiful place as being beautiful as 
 Wan. It may have been a beautiful country when its 
 fertile plains and valleys were well cultivated by a nu- 
 merous population, dotted over with villages embowered 
 in gardens and groves, the lower slopes of its hills clothed 
 with oliveyards and vineyards, the uplands covered with 
 sheep feeding among walnut and mulberry trees, and its 
 higher mountains decked with forests of oak and beech ; 
 when the central lake was enUvened by the sails of boats 
 and galleys ; lake and plain, upland and forest, fenced in on 
 all sides by mountain ranges, with snow streaked sides, while 
 Suban Dagh dominated the whole country with its snow- 
 capped cone. But it is not a Paradise now. Then there 
 is the tradition, aheady mentioned, that tbe ark touched on 
 Suban Dagh before it floated off to Ararat. There are 
 traditions, too, of great geological changes; in ancient 
 
WAN. 
 
 141 
 
 times, it is said, the road from Wan to Akhlat was straight 
 across what is now covered with the waters of the lake. 
 Wan seems always to have been the capital of the 
 country. Tradition says that the city was founded by 
 Semiramis, who called it after her own name, Shemiram- 
 gerd. The rock always afforded an impregnable position 
 for a fortress, and the arrowhead inscription cut on its 
 southern face seems to show that it was early occupied. 
 It derives its modem name from King Wan, who rebuilt 
 the city a short time before the era of Alexander the 
 Great ; it was restored by Yagh Arshag, brother of the 
 first Persian king of the great dynasty of the Arsacidse 
 (b.c. 150). It passed into the hands of the successive 
 Eastern conquerors — the Seljouk Tartars, Tamerlane, the 
 Turkomans, the Osmanlis, who captured it in 1533, and 
 it is still one of the great strongholds of the Turkish 
 dominions. 
 
 The castle rock is a detached ridge of rock about 600 
 yards long and about 300 to 400 feet high, which rises 
 sheer out of the plain, with a steep slope on the north, 
 and a sheer precipice all along the southern face, leaving 
 a narrow space on the summit, the whole of which is 
 strongly fortified. It is divided into three parts : the 
 central part is the longest and highest, and upon it are 
 placed the main buildings of the castle ; the two ex-' 
 tremities are at a lower level, and have been cut ofi" from 
 the centre by deep and broad fosses cut across the rock, 
 but these ends are also carefully fortified. The sloping north 
 side of the rock, which is the most accessible, has no less 
 than five successive lines of wall, strengthened by towers. 
 The southern side has only a wall on the summit of the 
 precipice, and one or two towers at lesser heights, where a 
 little natural platform of rock seemed to offer a possible 
 footing. 
 
 The antiquity of the place is illustrated by a number of 
 cuneiform inscriptions, which were first copied by the 
 
142 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 German traveller Schulz, and published by him in the 
 " Transactions of the Asiatic Society of France," vol. ix. The 
 most ancient of them, Mr. Layard says, are in a character 
 identical with that on the oldest monuments of Assyria. 
 Some are carved on various parts of the castle rock, others 
 are on stones buUt into comparatively modern buildings. 
 They chiefly record victories of ancient kings, with a hst 
 of the spoils or sacrifices to the gods, with a list of the 
 victims, and contain the names of kings and countries 
 which will probably be helpful some day in making out the 
 ancient history of the district. The great inscription on 
 the southern face of the castle rock, visible to all beholders, 
 is a trilingual inscription of Xerxes, the son of Darius, 
 very nearly word for word the same as those of the same 
 king at Ecbatana and Persepohs. 
 
 Other features of interest here are suites of excavated 
 chambers in various parts of the castle rock. Mr. Layard 
 explored some of them, and gives a plan and descrip- 
 tion of one suite.* They were probably constructed 
 for the reception of the tombs of the ancient kings of the 
 district. Some of these chambers have their legends. A 
 vaulted recess on the north side of the rock is called the 
 Treasure Gate, and is held to be a sacred spot both by 
 Christians and Mussulmans. Beneath it, the story says, 
 an iron gate, guarded by genii armed with swords of flame, 
 closes the entrance to a vast hall filled with all manner of 
 riches. The magic words which alone can open the portal 
 are contained in the cuneiform inscription sculptured 
 beside the entrance. At night a serpent keeps watch at 
 the entrance, and retires at break of day into a hole near 
 the cave. A rock some distance east of the city also con- 
 tains numerous excavated chambers. A lofty recess in the 
 face of this rock, which contains a cuneiform inscription, is 
 called the Shepherd's Gate, from a tradition that a shepherd 
 having fallen asleep beneath it was told in a dream the 
 * " Kineveh and Babylon," p. 396. 
 
WAN. 148 
 
 magic word which would open its portal. Awakening, he 
 spoke his " open sesame," the stone floors flew open, and 
 he entered a vast hall filled with treasures. He filled his 
 shepherd's bag with gold and returned, but finding that 
 he had left his stafi" behind, he again spoke the charm and 
 re-entered to recover it. But the doors had closed behind 
 him, and he had forgotten the word. His dog waited out- 
 side till nightfall, and then went home and brought the 
 shepherd's wife to the place. She could hear her husband's 
 voice behind the stone portals, but no one could give him 
 help. And the voice of the imprisoned shepherd is occa- 
 sionally heard even to this day by the terrified passer-by. 
 
 The modern town is situated at the foot of the castle 
 rock, on the southern side. It is surrounded by a wall, 
 chiefly of mud, with a moat, and a lower second wall out- 
 side the moat not kept in repair. It contains two mosques 
 and a church, and a labyrinth of narrow, dirty streets. A 
 suburb, called the Gardens, stretches from the town east- 
 ward for a couple of miles to the foot of the Varak 
 mountain. Most of the Christian families live here, and 
 have two churches. Morning and evening the long 
 street, shaded by willow trees, is alive with merchants 
 and clerks walking to or from their places of business in 
 the bazaars of the town. The houses of the American 
 missionaries are at the eastern extremity of this suburb, 
 and nearly at the foot of the mountain. We pitched our 
 tents on the open grassy plain at the foot of the castle 
 rock, just outside the west wall of the town. We sent a 
 special messenger with a letter to the patriarch announcing 
 our arrival at Wan, and our intention to reach Kochanes 
 by Friday at latest. 
 
 Saturday, July 1. — W. really ill with fever, Hassan still 
 ill, I far from well. In the afternoon things looking worse 
 rather than better, I rode up through the Gardens to visit 
 Dr. Reynolds, the medical member of the American mission 
 here, to beg him to come and look at our invalids. He 
 
144 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THB CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 came early on Monday morning, and very kindly pressed 
 us to take up our residence at his house, but I was un- 
 willing to lay such a burden upon his hospitality. He 
 pronounced our ailments aU to arise from the malaria, and 
 prescribed vigorous treatment accordingly. We only re- 
 mained in Wan long enough to recruit our own health and 
 hire fresh horses to Kochanes. Our location was picturesque 
 enough. Northward we looked up to the castle rock, with its 
 steep precipices crowned by the embattled wall, over which 
 peeped a few tall towers, one with a flagstaff and the dome 
 and minaret of the castle mosque at the corner. Below, 
 to the east, was the double wall of the town, with houses, 
 domes, and minarets rising above it. To the south were 
 the dark and lofty ranges of the Hakkiari mountains, 
 looking stern and desolate, with no sign of life or vegeta- 
 tion, and their summits streaked with snow. If we had 
 been approaching the mountains now for the first time 
 their aspect would have been very formidable, but we had 
 already been among them and knew their secrets, and 
 did not fear them. In the mornings and evenings there 
 were fine effects of floating cloud and gorgeous colouring. 
 The morning and evening experiences were much plea- 
 santer than those of the night. Horses were picketed 
 here and there all over the plain, and there were grooms 
 with dogs on the watch to protect them. These dogs all 
 over the plain were barking at intervals all night long, 
 responding to the barking of the dogs in the c-ity. One 
 solitary bark in the city would begin it, then a general chorus 
 through the streets would take it up ; this would be 
 answered from the plain ; the noise would last some 
 minutes till they began to get tired, and left off one by one, 
 then rose and fell again, till it ceased entirely for awhile, 
 only to break out afresh just as one was beginning to 
 doze. There was one brute somewhere near our camp who 
 was most aggravating ; he threw his whole strength into 
 making his bark as loud and sharply defined as possible, 
 
WAN. 145 
 
 and he persisted in it when the others were getting tired, 
 and provoked them into answering his challenge again 
 and again, and always left off last. 
 
 On Monday morning, July 3, there was a sharp hail- 
 storm of large stones, many of them egg-shaped, and the 
 size of a small filbert. W. was much worse ; Dr. Reynolds 
 came down, put him on horseback, and carried him off to 
 his own house, out of the malaria of the low ground on 
 which we were camped. I remained behind to arrange 
 about a new team of horses. We wished to re-engage 
 Hassan, but he was still so ill that he declined to under- 
 take the further journey. 
 
 We had a little experience of Turkish dealings. George, 
 with the assistance of a Nestorian living here, Daoud by 
 pame, had made an engagement with some katurjis who 
 had come from the neighbourhood of Kochanes, and were 
 glad to get an engagement back again, and we settled to start 
 next day. This, however, did not suit the katurji bashi, a 
 kind of recognised chief of the katurjis, whose percentage 
 very likely was affected by a direct engagement, so he 
 proceeded to upset our arrangements. The pasha sent him a 
 requisition for horses for the service of Government, 
 and he pounced upon the horses we had hired. I sent a 
 messenger to the pasha to complain. The pasha was very 
 7)olite, bade a kavass go into the bazaar with my messenger 
 and bid the katurji bashi give me immediately six good 
 and sufficient horses. I thought my business was done ; 
 but I observed that the natives were not so confident ; 
 they hinted that though the pasha had given the most 
 satisfactory orders it was possible they might not be obeyed. 
 They were quite right. The rascal of a katurji bashi 
 speedily brought three horses on the ground, and went off 
 to fetch three more, and we began to pack up. But the 
 other three did not arrive. At length, late in the afternoon, 
 they came ; but then the men found they had to go into 
 the bazaar to get ropes for loading. Meantime it began to 
 
146 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE ORESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 rain hard and steadily ; we had to replace the tent walls, 
 which had been taken down. The ground began to get 
 soaked with wet, the evening grew cold, and I began to 
 feel ill and shivery. So at last I gave up the attempt to 
 get off that evening, got upon Daoud's horse, cantered 
 up to Dr. Reynolds' house, and claimed the hospitality 
 which he had several times, with great kindness, pressed 
 upon me. I found W. better, but still very weak and ill, 
 and went to bed very thankful that it was a bed proper, 
 with sheets and pillows, and was under the shelter of a 
 good roof, instead of being a mattress laid on a spongy 
 plain, with nothing but the dripping canvas between us 
 and the storm.* 
 
 * From a letter received since my return, I learn that a number of 
 Armenians residing in Wan have written to Bishop Gobat at Jerusalem, 
 asking him to ordain a priest for them. I have mentioned in the text 
 that some of the people at Suarek had sent a similar request, and that 
 an Armenian, ordained by Bishop Gobat, was residing at Diarbekr. It 
 is earnestly to be hoped that the Diarbekr precedent will not be fol- 
 lowed in other cases. For the Church of England to encourage schisms 
 from the Armenian and other Eastern Churches would greatly injure 
 our chance of being able to influence those Churches in the direction 
 of revival and self - reformation. To ordain clergymen for such 
 separatist congregations would be, it seems to me, an act contrary to 
 all Church order. 
 
 The importance of the Armenian Church is, I imagine, little known 
 in England. They are the most numerous Christian community, 
 numbering about three millions in Asiatic Turkey, besides, perhaps, 
 as many more in Russia and Persia. Their Patriarchial See is at 
 Echmiadzin, near Eriwan. The Armenians are a very highly endowed 
 race ; physically a tall, slender, high-bred looking race, with a very fine 
 type of face ; I was very much struck with the finely-cut features and 
 pleasing expression which was quite general among the young men. 
 They are intellectually acute, and they are of an energetic, enterprising, 
 ambitious disposition. They are the great commercial race of the East. 
 It is said of them that the three degrees of comparison in commercial 
 astuteness are, positive Jew, comparative Greek, superlative Armenian. 
 From a religious point of view, they are the most enlightened of all 
 the Christian communities of the East. For some time past there has 
 been a reforming party among them ; but the hierarchy is conservative, 
 and among the ruling, influential Armenians iu Constantinople there 
 ia said to be a tendency to scepticism, which is antagonistic to Church 
 
147 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 WAN TO KOCHANES. 
 
 Tuesday, July 4. — In the morning we found that 
 during the night fresh snow had fallen on the mountains ; 
 horizontal layers of cloud floated across some of them, 
 some were partially enveloped in cumuli ; over and 
 through the clouds the white peaks, sun-Hghted, shone 
 with fine efi'ect. 
 
 Our invalid was better, and though weak with illness, 
 the mountain air was likely to benefit him, so about nine 
 we set ofi'to overtake the caravan, which had started earlier. 
 Our way wound up among rounded grassy hills till noon, 
 when we halted for luncheon beside a copious fountain. 
 In the course of the morning we met our special mes- 
 senger returning from Kochanes, charged with an answer. 
 The incident was quite Eastern. We all stopped on the 
 road, the messenger kissed hands and presented his letter. 
 It was wrapped first in a small square of linen, then in a 
 square of paper, then the envelope appeared with a broad 
 band of paper round it secured by the patriarch's great 
 seal, lastly the letter was extracted from its envelope, 
 placed in the hands of the interpreter, and read. In cere- 
 moniously courteous phrase it expressed pleasure at the 
 announced visit of the Archbishop's commissioner, and 
 
 revival and refonn. The reforming party looks to England witk great 
 interest ; and it seems as if the Church of England might, by judicious 
 action, at once repress the tendency of the more enthusiastic to secede 
 from the Armenian Church, and help to promote a better system of 
 education, a revival of spiritual life, and ecclesiastical reform within 
 this the most ancient of all national Churches. 
 
 l2 
 
148 CHKISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IW ASIA. 
 
 assured him of a friendly welcome. The messenger re- 
 ceived his backshish as a messenger of good news, and 
 went on his way rejoicing, and we also went on our way, 
 glad to have put ourselves into such near communication 
 with the object of our journey. We did not start again 
 tiU after three ; in another hour crossed the summit of the 
 hill and descended — a long descent — into a valley, in which 
 were several villages surrounded by groves and gardens. 
 At 5.30 we halted at one of these villages for the night, 
 our invalid being better at the end than at the beginning 
 of the day's work. The situation of the village being low 
 we pitched our camp on one of the housetops ; it was a 
 new experience to drive tent-pegs into the roof of the 
 house, and finally to light our fire there. Next door to us, 
 and a few feet higher, was the grass-grown roof of the 
 church ; the church-bell or semantron was erected en per- 
 manence on a housetop on the other side of the village 
 street. About six it was beaten for prayers, and after 
 prayers the priest paid us a visit. It is an Armenian 
 village of about twenty or thirty houses. The priest says 
 prayers every morning and evening; on Sundays and 
 holy days he translates the Gospel for the day into the 
 vernacular and gives an exposition of it. Immediately 
 adjoiaing our housetop was a large square tower, with its 
 door at the first story. Years ago, when the country was 
 stUl more disturbed than it is now, the tower was the 
 village fortress, in which the inhabitants sought safety 
 when a party of marauding Koords came down from the 
 mountains upon them. 
 
 Wednesday, July 5. — We did not get off till 6.30, 
 crossed the remainder of the plain, and ascended by steep 
 zig-zags the sheer slope of the hills beyond. The descent 
 on the other side was equally steep and more rugged, and 
 we got down it with some difficulty. The horses were a 
 very poor team of weedy, grass-fed brutes ; the katurjis 
 were equally feeble and poor-spirited, and we had loads 
 
WAN TO KOCHANES. 149 
 
 coming off, and horses falling, and tlie men not equal to 
 the emergency. Oh ! for Hadji Hassan and his clever, 
 hardy horses ! We did not know how fortunate we were in 
 him until we lost him. If it had not been for Daoud with 
 his strength and high spirit we should almost have broken 
 down by the way. 
 
 We halted for luncheon beside a small river, not far 
 from a village with a castle, the residence of a Koord bey, 
 now absent in Zozonne.* Resumed our way up the hill 
 again, taking the river for our guide, not winding 
 tamely round the hills so as to turn their flank, but 
 ascending straight up towards their craggy snow-covered 
 summits. Towards the end of the journey our guides 
 rode forward to reconnoitre • a camping-ground, and we 
 strayed ofi" the slightly marked track and found our- 
 selves on the side of a great hill which sloped steeply and 
 smoothly down to the torrent bed, trying in vain to make 
 out whether one of the slightly marked tracks before us was 
 our road, or whether they were all sheep tracks wandering 
 round the hill-side. When we met our guides 'returning 
 by another path we concluded that we had strayed out of 
 our way ; we had to retrace our steps a few hundred 
 yards, and camped beside the mountain stream. We had 
 attained such a height that we were very near some 
 patches of snow, so near that one of the men fetched a 
 supply of snow to cool our drink. In the night the scene 
 looked wild and grand by the moonlight, and the white 
 tent looked like a bold intruder among the snow-covered 
 craggs and silent solitudes of the mountains. It was very 
 cold last night and to-night, with very heavy dews. 
 
 Thursday, July 6. — I had to rouse the servants this 
 morning, and then to give them a scolding for dawdling 
 over their breakfast so late as six o'clock. They wanted 
 
 ♦ In summer the inhabitants of the plains and valleys drive their 
 flocks up into the mountains, and encamp there. This is called going 
 into Zozonne, 
 
150 CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 to take an extra day over the journey ; I was resolved to 
 press on with no unnecessary delay. 
 
 Our way after all did not lie right up among the highest 
 peaks at whose base we had camped, but here quitted the 
 stream which had guided us up from the valley, turned 
 to the right over a shoulder of the mountain, across a table- 
 land, struck a raAdne, and so descended into the valley on 
 the other side. About noon, when we had nearly finished 
 the descent, we saw a herd of gazelles, which, startled 
 by our appearance, bounded up the opposite mountain 
 side. The leader had almost gained the very summit, 
 and I was watching to see the herd appear in relief 
 against the sky as they crossed the brow, when he turned 
 round, and, with all the rest at his heels, raced down the 
 mountain fiide, crossed the ravine, and up the slope 
 which we were descending. The zaptieh flung himself off 
 his horse and began to stalk them up the hill. W., 
 forgetting his fever and his fatigue, put a cartridge into 
 his rifle and followed ; but the gazelles were too fleet for 
 the sportsmen, and did not let them get within shot. 
 We lunched beside a considerable stream, whose waters, 
 we were told, flow down to Mosul, and which I assume to 
 be a feeder of the Zab. After luncheon, over the very next 
 hill we had to ford a still larger stream, which, we were 
 told, is joined by the former at a httle distance. In a few 
 hundred yards we had to ford it again ; and still a few 
 hundred yards further Daoud propounded a theory that 
 the path which ran along the sides of the hills over- 
 hanging the stream had been carried away by a landslip, 
 further on, and that we must once more ford the stream 
 and make our way along the other side. What we had to 
 do was to climb the opposite hill, and then to work across 
 country, cutting off a bend of the stream, and so descend 
 and ford it once more. Climbing the opposite hill was 
 not pleasant work ; the horse I rode had neither strength, 
 nor courage, nor cleverness, and was not to be depended 
 
WAN TO KOOHANES. 151 
 
 upon in an emergency ; moreover the baggage horses 
 were scrambling about in all directions, and not unfre- 
 quently in a direction exactly above one's self, and if one 
 of the weedy brutes had come head over heels, and they 
 seemed always on the point of doing so, he would have 
 carried oneself down the hill- side and into the torrent 
 with him. However, we got safely up, and made our 
 way across the trackless upland and descended into the 
 valley further on. Here we found ourselves in a marshy 
 valley with a considerable village at its upper end. The 
 katurjis wished to halt there for the night. I refused for 
 two reasons : first, it was an unhealthy place for our 
 convalescent to sleep in ; and, secondly, I had announced 
 our arrival to the patriarch for Friday, and I was resolute 
 to keep the engagement if possible. Accordingly I cut 
 short the controversy by pushing forward, and leaving the 
 rest to follow. Beyond the village we took a mountain 
 torrent for our guide and plodded slowly on and up 
 until the sun set, and then began to look out for a camp- 
 ing-place. At this juncture we met a Nestorian returning 
 to the village below, who told us that a little further on 
 was an encampment of Nestorians in Zozonne. It was 
 much better to push on to them, where we should find 
 friends, food, assistance, than to camp where we were, 
 where there were no necessaries but water and grass. 
 Accordingly we pushed on into the gathering twilight. 
 The road narrowed into a pass among picturesque rocks, 
 expanded into an upland, narrowed into a pass again, 
 which once more opened upon an upland, where at a little 
 distance we saw the fires of tents and heard the barking 
 of dogs. We rode forward ; our Nestorian interpreter 
 explained who we were, and we had our hands kissed, and 
 were welcomed to the shelter of the tents. 
 
 They threw dry bushes on the glowing ashes, and made 
 it bum up fiercely, like a bonfire; it was soon burnt "like 
 the crackling of thorns under a pot," but the bushes were 
 
152 CHKISTIANS ITNDEE THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 lavishly renewed, and lighted up the picturesque scene. 
 The tents were like those of the Koords, already described 
 (p. 93), and the people dressed in similar outlandish 
 dresses. They spread carpets for us, and we gladly 
 stretched our weary Umbs upon them ; they gave us bread 
 and yohoort, which we ate with appetite, but wanted some- 
 thing more substantial. We looked down into the ravine 
 and could dimly see into the depths below, and the outlines 
 of the rocks and peaks against the sky, and chatted with 
 the people about us, until W., tired out, wrapped himself 
 up in a rug and fell asleep. So we passed an hour or more, 
 and began to wish the caravan would come. At last 
 Philippus came and told us one of the horses, the one 
 which carried the tents, had fairly broken down, and wanted 
 us to pass the night where we were. I did not care to 
 sleep among the insect inhabitants of the tents ; and as 
 we wanted food more substantial than our hosts had given 
 ufl, and as it was growing very cold, I feared the effect of 
 all these things put together upon our convalescent, who 
 was suffering considerably from the hard day's work and 
 want of food. Daoud volunteered to ride down on his own 
 good horse and another borrowed from the Nestorians and 
 bring up the tents. At last, at 10.30, we were summoned 
 to our own tent, and found some supper ready for us ; we ate 
 it shivering with cold, and got to bed with all our coverings 
 over us. I promised the men, however, that I would have 
 them up before sunrise. 
 
 Walked round the tent in the middle of the night. It 
 was splendid moonlight, clear and cold ; the nearer rocks, 
 brilliant with the silver light, the depths of the ravine in 
 dark shadow, the hoarse distant roar of the torrent, the 
 grey distant mountains, formed a scene exceedingly wild 
 and grand. 
 
 It was worth all our hard work of the day before to see 
 the scene which greeted us when we left the tent before 
 sunrise next morning. We were encamped on a level 
 
WAN TO KOCHANES. ^ 153 
 
 spot on the steep rocky side of the ravine ; we could see the 
 stream foaming among its rocks at the bottom, the sky line 
 of both sides of the ravine was broken by peaks and crags ; 
 looking down the ravine the eye was led to the mountain 
 range on the other side of the valley from which we had 
 ascended, with its infinitely varied details of ridge and 
 slope, and its patches of snow. The gradual brightening 
 of the dawn, and then the first rays of sunlight on the 
 mountain tops, and the imperceptible spread of the light 
 downwards tUl the whole scene was illuminated, were very 
 fine. The air was pure and keen, and the sense of exhila- 
 ration was delightful. Behind a rock near the tent we 
 found a natural basin of spring water, in which we washed, 
 then breakfasted while the caravan was loading, and got off 
 in excellent time. 
 
 It was in some respects the most picturesque ride we 
 had had in our whole journey. We rode right up the 
 upland, where there was no track, towards the mountain 
 summits. For weeks past we had seen the snow on the 
 highest mountains. For days patches of it had been about 
 us and a little above us, to-day we rode right up into it ; 
 it filled up ravines and hollows, and clothed the sheltered 
 slopes. The mountain streams which flowed down every 
 ravine had tunnelled their way right through the deep drifts, 
 so that by stooping a little we could scramble into them ; here 
 and there the fall of an undermined portion of a drift left a 
 cliff of glittering snow, and enabled us to measure its depth. 
 Water flowing everywhere. In one place we pass along a 
 hill-side famous for its "hundred springs" ; at every few 
 yards a spring breaks out of the hill-side ; a little further 
 there is a table-land where the wild swine have quite 
 recently rooted up the turf, and we scan all the neighbour- 
 ing hollows and ravines in the hope of seeing and perhaps 
 getting a shot at them, and up the wild rocky ravine on the 
 right is a very likely place to meet a family of bears. See ! 
 there is some living creature among the rocks yonder, but 
 
154 CHRISTIANS tJNDEB THE OBESOENT IN ASIA. 
 
 whether bear or boar, or what it is, no one can determine. 
 W. and Daoud are off their horses at once, load their rifles, 
 and hasten off with all the eagerness of young men to kill 
 something worth killing. After a long walk up the ravine 
 back they return, Daoud carrying the game over his 
 shoulder. It was an old goat we had seen, which scam- 
 pered off on the approach of the sportsmen, leaving her 
 kid behind, which Daoud contrived to catch. I took 
 the part of my dumb fellow -creature, and we left the poor 
 little thing on the green turf, where its mother would 
 soon rejoin it when we were out of sight. 
 
 Further on we find a large encampment of Koords. It 
 is a tribe from the neighbourhood of Mosul, who every 
 summer leave the hot pestilential plain of Mosul and come 
 up here with their flocks for pasture. I can imagine 
 nothing more delightful than the contrast. We halted at 
 their tents, and drank a draught of the rich mountain 
 milk. 
 
 Still we ascend the sloping upland, the scenery growing 
 wilder, the mountains more covered with snow, the 
 wind bleak, the whole scene winterly, and the temperature 
 to match ; I kept my horseman's cloak on all day and was 
 not too warm. 
 
 Turn round : "Do you see the snowy hUl in the far dis- 
 tance, over the shoulder of the nearer mountain ? " 
 
 " I think I see what you mean, but it is very indis- 
 tinct." 
 
 " That is Ararat ! " 
 
 I try hard to distinguish it, but can hardly with a 
 good conscience say I have seen it. A little further on 
 look to the right and left. To the right, down the vast 
 valley, between two ranges of the mountains, the eye 
 travels on to a world of wild precipitous rugged mountains 
 in the distance, which are piled up into a lofty range ; not 
 a blade of grass, not a patch of forest, not a trace of 
 habitation can be seen ; nothing can look more savage 
 
WAN TO KOOHANES. 155 
 
 and desolate ; but there are valleys between the crests, 
 and there is pasture on the mountain uplands, and they 
 shelter the Tyari tribes of the Nestorian people, who still 
 maintain themselves in semi-independence in their inac- 
 cessible fastnesses. Look to the left, another valley with 
 still wilder mountain forms in the middle distance, and a 
 distant horizon of mountains, which mark the boundary of 
 the Turkish and Persian empires; beyond them lies our 
 way to Oroomiah. 
 
 Here I feel very hungry, and we halt on the ridge and 
 lunch off bread and butter and bread and honey, and a few 
 scraps of meat which Philippus has wisely saved from last 
 night's supper. There is no fountain near, but they bring 
 us snow from the neighbouring wreath. 
 
 The scene grows ever wilder as we ascend and get up 
 among the peaks which crown the range ; we ride through 
 the fields of snow ; we have to cross a deep ravine, sinking 
 but little into the snow which fills it ; we mount the oppo- 
 site slope and attain the ridge. 
 
 There bursts upon us all at once a wonderful view. 
 
 There is a deep valley at our feet, and beyond over its 
 opposite wall rises a magnificent granite range, with preci- 
 pitous crags and sharp peaks, rising high into the heavens, 
 plentifully patched and streaked with snow. The sun is 
 getting low in the heavens behind us, the opposite wall of 
 the valley is already in shadow, but the lofty granite range 
 beyond is still in brilliant sunshine, which brings out the 
 sharp edges of rock with strong lights and shadows, and 
 makes the snow of dazzhng whiteness. 
 
 You see, about the middle of the range, where there is 
 a group of the sharpest ridges and slenderest needles, just 
 beneath them, deep down in the vaUey at our feet is the 
 little mountain village of Kochanes, the latest refuge of 
 the successor of the great patriarchs of the eastern regions, 
 who from their see in the Persian capital ruled over five- 
 and-twenty metropolitans, and hundreds of bishops, and 
 
156 CHEISTUNS UNDEB THE ORESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 thousands of clergy, and myriads of believers, extending 
 from the north of Tartary to Ceylon, and from China to 
 the Tigris. 
 
 Look to the right; on the sloping ground between two 
 snow-streaked peaks, you see some white specks forming 
 a line ; they are the tents of the Turkish troops, of the 
 Pasha of Julamerk, who are in Zozonne. They are the 
 representatives of the Mohammedan power which a 
 thousand years ago destroyed the wide-spread Christianity 
 now represented by a handful of Nestorians ; it is only 
 some five-and-twenty years since they broke the inde- 
 pendence of these mountain tribes, and this is the garrison 
 which keeps watch and guard over Kochanes. 
 
 Although the village was apparently almost at our feet, 
 we had stUl a long afternoon's journey down ravine and 
 across upland before we should reach it. A little way 
 down we found an encampment of Koords, and knowing 
 that we should not reach Kochanes till late, we begged for 
 hospitality. We were received by a fine-looking, middle- 
 aged man, who welcomed us into his black tent. On a 
 rug near its entrance sat the father of our host, a venerable 
 man 100 years old, his son told us, and he certainly had 
 all the appearance of very great age ; he looked at us 
 when we saluted him, but his faculties seemed to be 
 torpid; he showed little further interest in us, or in any- 
 thing which was going on about him, but sat still on his 
 rug, mechanically smoking the chibook which from time 
 to time was replenished and relighted for him. After a 
 while another old man came in from a neighbouring tent 
 to see us, who would have seemed to us very old but for 
 the more venerable appearance of the patriarch we have 
 described. The women soon brought us in a welcome 
 meal of pastoral fare — eggs, yohoort, and milk, and native 
 bread fresh from the oven. 
 
 The descent was very picturesque, down rocky hill- 
 sides, along steep ravines, across torrents which foamed 
 
WAN TO KOCHANES. 157 
 
 and roared down every hollow, fed by the snow-drifts and 
 patches, getting deeper and deeper down into the twilight 
 valley, while the opposite mountains presented continually 
 new combinations. We passed igneous rocks of a beauti- 
 ful purple with a columnar cleavage, which I should think 
 would make noble slabs and columns. So we pushed on 
 through rough stony fields, with patches of barley here 
 and there, and reached the outskirts of the village. 
 
 We learned afterwards that we had missed the grand 
 reception which had been prepared for us. The horse- 
 men of the valley had been sent off to Bash Kalah, the 
 half-way town on the principal road between Wan and 
 Kochanes, and had they met us on the road they would 
 have fired a feu de joie, and escorted us home. Since 
 there was a second nearer road over the mountains by 
 which it was possible we might come, another party of 
 footmen had gone by that road to welcome us. But un- 
 fortunately our amateur guide Daoud fancied he could 
 bring us by a still shorter track, which turned out to be 
 some hours longer, and so our friends were disappointed. 
 
 At the outskirts of the village a group of men were 
 assembled to meet us, the chief personage an old man 
 with a venerable white beard. " That is the patriarch's 
 father," said our guide. We dismounted and advanced to 
 him, and exchanged brief greetings. The whole party 
 turned to conduct us to the village. A Uttle further was 
 another group, and we had no need to be told that he who 
 stepped forward a pace to greet us was the patriarch. We 
 kissed his hand, he kissed W.'s head, said a few words of 
 welcome, led the way into a house which he had appro- 
 priated to our use, and after a few more sentences of 
 courtesy considerately left us to the rest and refreshment 
 we needed. 
 
158 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE HISTOBY OF THE NESTORIANS. 
 
 The degree of interest which the reader will take in these 
 Nestorians will depend very much upon the amount of his 
 acquaintance with their remarkable history. It has been 
 our duty to read up the subject carefully ; and if the reader 
 will be good enough not to skip the chapter, we will take 
 pains to give him the result of our historical reading as 
 briefly and clearly as we can. 
 
 First let us get before us the scene on which the history 
 is to be represented. The time is the earlier half of th« 
 fifth century — about a.d. 428. Just then both divisions 
 of the Roman empire were ruled by women. Valentiaian 
 III. reigned in Ravenna, but his mother, Placida, ruled in 
 his name ; and the two great generals, Aetius and Boniface, 
 upheld the failing empire against the attacks of the Goths 
 on the north, and the Vandals in Spain. Pulcheria, the 
 royal Church-Virgin, who had turned her palace into a 
 reUgious house, nevertheless ruled the Eastern empire 
 wisely and well in the name of her brother Theodosius II. 
 
 Persia was the great rival of the Eastern empire. The 
 great king maintained that " manifest destiny " had as- 
 signed to him the whole of "Western Asia, and that Rome 
 was rightfully a European power only ; while the Romans 
 held fast by force to the provinces of Asia Minor, Syria, 
 and Mesopotamia, which the arms of their ancestors had 
 won. Frequent wars were waged between the two powers 
 with various fortune. Sapor (a.d. 357) invaded the 
 debatable land, but was frustrated by the defence of 
 
THE mSTORT OF THE NESTORIANS. 159 
 
 Amida. Julian in revenge led the Koman legions as far 
 as Ctesiphon. On his death Jovian made an ignominious 
 peace, which abandoned the provinces beyond the Tigris 
 to Persia. Quite recently another short war had been 
 waged between Yezdegerd and Theodosius, on an occasion 
 which we shall state presently in speaking of the rehgious 
 condition of these countries. 
 
 Armenia, long a subject of contention between the two 
 great rivals, was on the eve of losing its independence by 
 a division of its territory between them. 
 
 Round this orbis veteribus notus lay a world unknown. 
 Beyond the Rhine and the Danube were great forests 
 inhabited by the stalwart barbarians, who had become a 
 terror to the civilised "West. The plains of central Asia 
 swarmed with restless tribes, who kept the Eastern 
 empire in constant apprehension. China and Japan were 
 almost as much an unknown world as the continent of 
 America. Southward lay India, only partially explored 
 by Alexander's conquests, and Arabia altogether unex- 
 plored. Beyond the Cataracts of Syene and the fringe of 
 Mediterranean coast which constituted Pro-consular Africa, 
 lay all Africa, a region of fables — " of anthropophagi 
 and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." 
 The scene of the Nestorian history at first lies chiefly in 
 the Eastern empire, but its actors come from aU parts 
 of the " known world " ; and in the second part of the 
 history it spreads its agents far and wide into the un- 
 known world, and introduces a new interest into the story. 
 
 We need next a brief consideration of the rehgious con- 
 dition of this world of the former half of the fifth century 
 which lies under our eye. A century had passed since 
 the reign of Constantine, and Christianity was the estab- 
 lished religion of the empire. Armenia had adopted it as 
 the national religion even before the conversion of Con- 
 stantine, and claimed with justice to be the first Christian 
 
160 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 kingdom. Magianism continued to be the established 
 religion of Persia, but a regularly organised and numerous 
 Church had long existed there, sometimes protected, some- 
 times persecuted by the Great King. Before the beginning 
 of the fourth century it had already attained considerable 
 magnitude, and was acknowledged to be an autocephalous 
 branch of the Church. Its head exercised patriarchal 
 power, but bore the special title of Catholicos, and his see 
 took rank next after the great Patriarchates. This was 
 recognised by the fathers assembled at the First General 
 Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325). 
 
 This Church of the East had lately passed through a 
 persecution. Marathas, a Mesopotamian bishop, who had 
 laboured with much success among the Persians as a 
 missionary, was sent by Arcadius as an envoy to the 
 king, Yezdegerd. While at his court he detected 
 and exposed the arts by which the Magi endeavoured 
 to work on the superstitious feelings of the king. In 
 consequence a complete reUgious liberty was obtained 
 for the Christians, and it was hoped that Yezdegerd 
 himself would become a convert (a.d. 414). But 
 this prosperous state of things was destroyed by the 
 indiscretion of another bishop. Abdas, in his zeal, 
 destroyed one of the Magian temples. The king ordered 
 him to restore the building on pain of death and retaliation 
 on the Christian temples. Abdas refused, and the king 
 fulfilled his threat. His disposition towards the Christians 
 was changed, and a terrible persecution ensued. On the 
 death of Yezdegerd (a.d. 420) the persecution broke out 
 again under his successor, Varames. Some of the Chris- 
 tians escaped to the Eoman territory. The king demanded 
 their extradition, which the emperor refused, and a war 
 ensued which lasted a few years, and terminated in favour 
 of the empire. In the course of this war an incident 
 occurred which may be properly introduced here as 
 illustrative of the character of Eastern Christianity. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE NESTORIANS. 161 
 
 Acacius, Bishop of Amid a, having learned that seven 
 thousand Persian captives were in his neighbourhood, 
 called his clergy together, and proposed to them to sell 
 the gold and silver vessels of the Church, and to give the 
 proceeds for their ransom.. He maintained the ransomed 
 captives for a little time till they had recovered from the 
 effects of their privations, and then sent them to the 
 Persian king as evidences of the real spirit of Christianity. 
 
 In the Church of Egypt, Cyril had obtained for his see 
 of Alexandria a degree of political influence hitherto quite 
 unexampled in the history of the Church ; he was a more 
 wealthy and important person in the city than the Roman 
 prefect, while he ruled over a hundred Egyptian bishops 
 and thousands of fanatical monks who inhabited the 
 deserts. 
 
 In Pro-consular Africa, which flourished under the wise 
 and virtuous government of Count Boniface (though on the 
 eve of the Vandal invasion), Augustine, the great theologian 
 of the Latin Church, was passing at his see of Hippo the 
 last years of his life. 
 
 Antioch, the great and polished capital of Syria, then a 
 rich province, filled with fine cities and a numerous popu- 
 lation, was the patriarchal head of the Eastern Churches 
 of the empire ; and a renowned school of theology, or rather 
 a succession of renowned theologians, made it illustiious 
 throughout the whole Church. 
 
 Celestine was the occupant of the distant see of ancient 
 Rome, whose pretensions to lordship over Christ's heritage 
 were still in the bud, and with whom our history is very 
 little concerned. 
 
 The Church of Constantinople, still mourning the 
 unhappy fate of Chrysostom, had lived tranquilly under his 
 successors, Atticus and Sisinnius, until the death of the 
 latter in the year 428 introduced the hero of another 
 great ecclesiastical crisis into its see. 
 
 There were two candidates for the vacant see, and to 
 
162 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 solve the diflSculty which ensued the emperor was requested 
 to nominate. He pointed out Nestorius, a monk of An- 
 tioeh, of some reputation for sanctity, learning, and 
 eloquence. The fact that he came from the same Church 
 from which Arcadius had selected Chiysostom gave prestige 
 to the nomination, and Nestorius was elected by the clergy 
 and people. 
 
 Before we recount the suspicion of heresy which the new 
 patriarch very shortly incurred, it will help to a really 
 intelligent apprehension of the controversy if we pause for 
 a moment and take a rapid survey of the theological condi- 
 tion of the Church at this moment. 
 
 When the civilised world became Christian the specula- 
 tive subtle Eastern intellect began to apply itself to the 
 problems which the new religion presented to it, as it had 
 previously for centuries to the great questions of religiou 
 and philosophy. 
 
 The nature of the Godhead was the great subject 
 which, in the successive problems which it offered, oc- 
 cupied the minds of men for three centuries of profoimd 
 thought and subtle disputation. We must not fall into the 
 vulgar error that the Church volunteered to propose to 
 men subtle definitions on these difficult questions, and that 
 the heretics were the people who declined to accept them. 
 The history of all the heresies and consequent councils is 
 this : that in speculating on one of these difficult theological 
 questions an explanation suggested itself to some man — 
 usually a man of considerable ability and often of con- 
 spicuous position in the Church. He was persuaded that 
 it was a true solution of the question. He taught it to 
 others, and so his theory spread. Other men of eminence 
 in the Church as bishops or theologians came forward to 
 declare that the new theory was incorrect, and that it was, 
 or at least led in its consequences to, a dangerous subversion 
 of the faith delivered by Christ to the apostles, and by them 
 
THE HISTOBY OF THE NESTOBIANS. 163 
 
 to the churches. Synods met to judge the question. The 
 error still spread, causing so much distress in men's minds 
 and confusion in the churches, that a general council of the 
 whole Church had at length to be summoned to effect a 
 settlement. The bishops were always supposed to act, not 
 as theologians supporting by argument what seemed to their 
 minds the correct view, but as witnesses of the sense in 
 which their churches had received from antiquity the 
 doctrine in dispute. The truth thus ascertained was care- 
 fully expressed in some form of sound words which should 
 guide the minds of men hereafter. Many of these heresies 
 were ingenious speculations, plausible enough at first sight ; 
 a succeeding heresy was often the result of a very natural 
 reaction of men's thoughts in the direction opposite to the 
 previous error. These heresies have played an important 
 part in the elucidation of Christian truth. They have ex- 
 hibited all the various paths of theological speculation, and 
 the Church has ascertained in the course of these three 
 centuries of controversy which are the blind paths leading 
 to nothing, and which the dangerous paths whose first 
 slight divergence will lead the speculator by degrees very 
 wide of the truth, and which are the paths in which the 
 untheological believer may safely tread. 
 
 The first of these speculations was that of Arius, an 
 Alexandrian presbyter, on the nature of the being of Christ. 
 He exhausted language in expressing the elevation at which 
 Christ stood above all other creatures, but denied that He 
 was very God, of one essence with the Father. The First 
 General Council of Nica^a did not succeed in discrediting the 
 error. Supported by the Court of Constantinople, with all 
 its influence and power, Arianism became dominant in the 
 East, and when Constantius became master of the other 
 half of the empire, it was pressed upon the Western bishops 
 also. For a time it almost looked as if error would prevail 
 against truth. But the heresy, already discredited in men's 
 minds, collapsed when the death of Constantius deprived 
 
 M 2 
 
4 
 
 164 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CKESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 it of external support, and it has never again seriously 
 troubled the Church. 
 
 But a natural sequel to the Arian theory then came into 
 prominence, and Macedonius' denial of the deity of the 
 Holy Spirit called forth a second council, whose decisions 
 were very generally accepted ; and the Creed, which embo- 
 died the decisions of these two councils, is still the creed 
 in which all Christendom concurs. The question being 
 settled that Jesus was perfect God and perfect Man, 
 speculation next busied itself with questions about the 
 relations of these two natures in the unity of Christ. 
 ApoUinaris, a bishop of Laodicea, a scholar of reputation 
 and a friend of St. Athanasius, put forth a theory on the 
 subject. Adopting "the Platonic division of man's being 
 into body, animal soul, and intellectual soul, he maintained 
 that Christ's human nature consisted of the two former 
 only, and that His divinity supplied the place of the latter. 
 The error was condemned by the second council, and it did 
 not spread very widely or continue very long. 
 
 But in the course of these controversies occasion had 
 been made for another. The theologians of Alexandria on 
 one hand and of Antioch on the other had had different 
 errors to combat — the one Arianism and Macedonianism, 
 the other Apollinarianism. The Alexandrian divines had 
 had to insist strongly on the divinity of Christ, and had 
 got into the habit of regarding the two natures of our Lord 
 in their union, and sometimes used language which seemed 
 to imply that the two natures were no longer distinct, but 
 blended into a third nature sui generis. The Syrian 
 theologians in combating Apollinarianism had been led to 
 insist upon the perfectness of the humanity of Christ, to 
 analyse human nature with great subtlety, and define 
 what is necessary to its perfectness ; and they had used 
 language which impUed that the human nature of our 
 Lord could not be perfect without a personal human 
 basis ; and the conclusion from their teaching was that 
 
THE HISTORY OP THE NESTORIANS. 165 
 
 in the unity of Christ there are not only two natures but 
 also two persons. 
 
 These speculations seem very subtle to us. The Western 
 mind of those ages was equally averse from entering into 
 them ; and the active controversy on all these questions of 
 the Divine Being was for the most part agitated in the East. 
 The Eastern mind entered into them with avidity. They 
 were discussed in the forum and the baths, the streets and 
 the shops. The opposite parties were in great earnest in 
 their antagonism, for they believed God's truth to be at 
 stake. Each tried to convince the other, then to silence, 
 then to eject the other from the communion of the Church. 
 
 It was necessary to know what heresy is, and what 
 had been the course of previous heresies, in order to be 
 able to understand the controversy which now arose, of 
 which Nestorius, the Antiochene monk, newly promoted 
 to the patriarchate of the imperial See of Constantinople, 
 was the centre. 
 
 One of the clergy whom Nestorius had brought with 
 him from Antioch, in a sermon in the principal church, 
 thought proper to attack the use of the word Theotokos, 
 which was frequently applied to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 The word had been used by the best theologians of the 
 past ages of the Church, not in the sense that the Virgin 
 Mary communicated the Divine nature to the Saviour, 
 but as conveying the fact that the Divine nature was 
 joined with the human nature as soon as that human 
 nature was divinely conceived, so that He who was born 
 of the Virgin was both God and man. To the Syrian the 
 word appeared to involve the ApoUinarian heresy of a 
 confusion between the two natures, while the people of 
 Constantinople thought that to refuse the title Theotokos 
 to the virgin mother was to cast a doubt on the divinity of 
 her son. 
 
 Nestorius supported his friend in his own sermons, and 
 
166 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 there was a great excitement in Constantinople, -which 
 proceeded to threats of popular violence on one side and 
 abuses of authority on the other. The fact that some of 
 the Egyptian monks adopted Nestorius' view brought 
 Cyril of Alexandria into the controversy. It is to be 
 feared that he was only too ready to assail the See of Con- 
 stantinople. Alexandria had been in dignity the second 
 see of Christendom when Constantino made a new capital 
 at Constantinople, and the Second General Council recog- 
 nising the political fact, raised the Church of Constan- 
 tinople to the dignity of the patriarchate, and gave the 
 see of new Rome precedence next after that of old Rome, 
 and before those of Alexandria and Antioch. Theodore, 
 the uncle of Cyril and his immediate predecessor in the 
 see, had taken an active part in the persecution of Chry- 
 sostom, and now Cyril led the opposition to Nestorius. 
 
 We do not propose to go into the details of the con- 
 troversy. It is sufficient here to say that Celestine of 
 Rome took his side with Cyril, while John of Antioch 
 maintained the orthodoxy of Nestorius ; so that the four 
 great patriarchates of Christendom were divided two against 
 two. Under these circumstances a general council of the 
 Church was summoned under the authority of Theodosius, 
 to be held on the following Whit Sunday in the church at 
 Ephesus where the Virgin Mary was behoved to have 
 been interred, and Candidian, a high officer of state, was 
 commissioned to preserve order in the council. 
 
 There are two allegations made on the side of Nes- 
 torius : first, that he had not fair play in the council ; 
 second, that if his explanations of his incriminated language 
 had been received in a friendly spirit, as Cyril's explanations 
 of the doubtful statements in his anathemas were received, 
 he might probably have been allowed to pass uncon- 
 demned. 
 
 When Whit Sunday came John of Antioch with his 
 bishops had not arrived, nor had the delegates of Celestine 
 
THE fflSTORY OF THE NESTORIANS. 167 
 
 of Rome. It might have been legally correct to open the 
 council at the appointed time, whoever might be absent ; 
 but the bishops did not take that course. They waited for 
 John, waited a fortnight ; then, although courteous letters 
 had been received from John accounting for his delay, 
 and announcing his speedy arrival, they resolved to open 
 the council at once without him. Nestorius protested 
 against this, for the Syrian Church maintained his ortho- 
 doxy. Theodoret, the great theologian of that age, with 
 sixty-seven other bishops, protested against it. Candidian 
 did not concur in the opening the council, and Nestorius 
 refused to appear and plead till the Eastern bishops had 
 arrived. Nevertheless it was formally opened, the question 
 brought forward at once, Nestorius pronounced a heretic, 
 and sentence of deposition recorded, all in the same day. 
 Candidian refused to recognise the meeting, and formally 
 declared it null and void. When the Eastern bishops 
 arrived five days later they refused to recognise the pro- 
 ceedings of their fellows, and held another meeting, which 
 they considered to be the legitimate council, and which 
 pronounced Nestorius orthodox and anathematised CyrU. 
 Candidian sent the proceedings of both meetings to Theo- 
 dosius, and deputations from both sides were summoned 
 to the presence of the emperor. 
 
 We need not go further into the details of the history. 
 The result was that the emperor declared no decision in 
 favour of either side ; but, in the hope probably of pro- 
 moting peace thereby, he called upon Nestorius to act 
 upon a request which he had made earlier in the proceed- 
 ings, to retire to his old monastery. 
 
 The validity of a council depends ultimately on its 
 general acceptance by the Church. The council presided 
 over by Cyril has been generally accepted as the Third 
 General Council, and its definition of the question in 
 dispute as the orthodox faith, viz., that there are two 
 whole and perfect natures — the Divine nature and the 
 
168 CHBISTIANS TJNDEE THE CBESOENT IN ASIA.. 
 
 human nature — united in one person in Christ ; or in other 
 terms, that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity to 
 the Divine nature He had from all eternity assumed, in His 
 incarnation, human nature. 
 
 There remains the question whether the doctrine of 
 Nestorius, as explained by him, was reaUy contrary to this 
 truth. " He steadily disavowed the more odious opinions 
 attributed to him ; he repeatedly expressed his willingness 
 to admit the term Theotokos, provided it were guarded 
 against obvious abuses. The controversy more than once 
 appeared to be in such a position that it might have been 
 ended by a word of explanation, but an unwilhngness on 
 both sides to concede, and personal animosities " * exagge- 
 rated the misunderstanding into a schism, of whose mag- 
 nitude and importance probably neither side had the 
 faintest anticipation. The opinions of Nestorius were, 
 however, suppressed within the empire, and the attention 
 of Roman Christians was speedily diverted to the con- 
 sideration of a heresy in the very opposite direction. 
 
 Here we enter upon the second stage of the history, 
 which leaves the empire and follows the progress of 
 Nestorianism in the countries of the East beyond its 
 boundaries. But here it is fair to say that the Nestorians 
 themselves would object to this mode of tracing their 
 history. They would decline to be deduced from Nestorius 
 as their founder. If they hold the same doctrines for 
 which Nestorius suffered, they contend that it is because 
 the doctrines of Nestorius were orthodox, and the same 
 as the Church of the East had held from the beginning. 
 If we desire to trace the history of the religious ancestry 
 of the present Nestorian Church, they will bid us recognise 
 it in the history of the Church of the Eastern regions. 
 No doubt the modem Nestorians are by race and by eccle- 
 siastical lineage descended from these Eastern Christians, 
 * Eobertson's " History of the Christian Church." 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE NESTORIANS. 169 
 
 and our knowledge of them will be imperfect unless we 
 include that portion of their history which precedes the age 
 of Nestorius. 
 
 It is wonderfully interesting to get out of the familiar 
 groove of our English Church history and to approach the 
 subject of the history of the Church along this new line. 
 
 Who first introduced Christianity among the ancestors 
 of these Nestorians ? And when they reply, the three Wise 
 Men who were guided by a star to worship the new-born 
 Christ, we are startled, but a little reflection shows that we 
 cannot deny it. The Magi, in all probability, came from 
 the country in which the ancestors of the Nestorians dwelt, 
 and when they had returned to their own country we can- 
 not doubt that they spoke openly of the Christ to whom 
 they had done homage, and thus prepared the way, as John 
 Baptist did, for His coming, St. Thomas they claim, of 
 the apostles, as the special apostle of the East ; but they 
 attribute the founding of their special portion of the Church 
 to Addaeus or Thaddseus, one of the seventy, and to Mari, 
 his disciple ; and the latter they regard as the first of the 
 line of bishops through which Mar Shimoon traces his 
 spiritual descent. Mari, they say, established the eastern 
 see at Ctesiphon, then the capital of the Persian mon- 
 archy. To Mar Mari succeeded Abrees, who is said by 
 the Nestorian histories to have been nominated and con- 
 secrated by Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem. After a vacancy 
 of twenty-two years, Abraham, a kinsman of James the 
 Lord's brother, succeeded ; and next Jacob, who was also 
 of the kindred of our Lord. At his death the Eastern 
 Church sent two of its clergy to Antioch, that one of them 
 might be consecrated to the vacant see ; but they were 
 seized as spies of the King of Persia, and condemned to 
 death, together with the Patriarch of Antioch, to whom 
 they were accredited. One of them, however, Ahad' 
 Abhooi, escaped to Jerusalem, and was there consecrated. 
 But this incident showed the inconvenience of the existing 
 
170 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 arrangement, and henceforward the prelates of the Eastern 
 Church consecrated their own chief bishop. A Nestorian 
 writer of the fourteenth century, quoted by Dr. Badger 
 (vol. i. p. 141), says that it was by a formal agreement 
 of the three patriarchs that the See of Ctesiphon was thus 
 relieved of its dependence on Antioch, and made auto- 
 cephalous. Its bishop took the title of Catholicos, which, 
 Dr. Neale says, meant procurator-general of the See of 
 Antioch ; and it was not tiU long after that these prelates, 
 ha\'ing the authority, assumed also the title, of patriarch. 
 This Eastern Church grew and prospered in spite of 
 persecution. At the time of the Nestorian controversy, 
 the Eastern Church sympathised with their brethren of 
 Antioch. Many of their clergy had been trained in the 
 school of Edessa, where these views of the question in 
 dispute had long been taught. This was a flourishing 
 school, the prototype of the Benedictine schools of Monte 
 Cassino and Salerno, where science and literature, as 
 well as theology, were cultivated, which supplied clergy 
 to the Persian Church. Ibas, the head of this school 
 and afterwards Bishop of the see, was favourable 
 to the views of Nestorius and inculcated them 
 into the minds of his pupils. Barsumas, one of the 
 doctors of the school, was created Bishop of Nisibis 
 and exerted himself greatly to propagate the Nestorian 
 views in Persia and the East. He induced Bubuaeus, the 
 twenty-first Catholicos, to avow the opinions condemned 
 at Ephesus ; they obtained from the Persian king the 
 recognition of the Nestorian views as those of orthodox 
 Christianity, and the expulsion from liis dominions of 
 those Christians who refused to accept them. The 
 Nestorian party was thus confirmed in possession of the 
 ecclesiastical establishment of Persia, which they have 
 retained ever since. Barsumas established a famous school 
 at Nisibis, which became a great centre of missionary 
 work throughout the East. In the sixth and seventh 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE NESTORIANS. 171 
 
 centuries this great Church could count up its twenty-five 
 metropoUtans, or archbishops. Those who dwelt nearest 
 to Bagdad met the Catholicos in yearly synod ; those 
 furthest off sent their confession of faith to him every 
 sixth year. The prosperity of this Eastern Church 
 culminated in the beginning of the eleventh century. It 
 may be doubted whether Innocent III. possessed more 
 spiritual power or counted a larger number of spiritual 
 subjects than the patriarch of the city of the caliph. 
 Northward they followed the track of the wandering 
 Tartar tribes through the valleys of the Imaus, and 
 across the steppes of Central Asia. Some of them even 
 penetrated into China, where a biUngual inscription, 
 Chinese and Syriac, purporting to be of date 781,* 
 relates that a Nestorian missionary laboiired there with 
 success as far back as the year 635. Another Nestorian 
 mission entered China by Canton, and laboured success- 
 fully for a considerable period. Timotheus, one of their 
 most distinguished patriarchs, sent forth in the ninth 
 century from the monastery of Bethabe, in Mesopotamia, 
 hosts of missionaries, who roved in the neighbourhood of 
 the Caspian, The Nestorian schools, especially those of 
 Bagdad, Edessa, Nisibis, and Dschondisapur, in Kusistan, 
 " exercised a very marked influence on the geographical 
 diffusion of knowledge," f gave the first impulse to 
 scientific and medical investigations, and scattered the 
 seeds of civilisation far into the distant East. 
 
 The Christians of St. Thomas on the coast of Malabar 
 are a stiU existing monument of the missionary labours of 
 the Eastern Church in India and Ceylon. This remarkable 
 outlying fragment of Christendom attracted the notice of 
 our King Alfred in the tenth century ; in the sixteenth 
 century the Portuguese were astonished by its discovery. 
 It was in reaction from the Portuguese missionaries that 
 
 * Now generally admitted to be genuine. 
 t Humboldt's " Cosmos," ii. 678 (Bohn's EdJ. 
 
172 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 these Christians of St. Thomas finally exchanged their 
 Nestorianism for the Monophysitism of Syria. 
 
 The curious legends current in the West, some time after 
 the twelfth century, of the kingdom of Prester John are 
 founded on another of these successful Nestorian missions. 
 The story is this. The Nestorian metropolitan Ebedjesu, 
 Bishop of Maru, in Chorasan, in Persia, in a letter to his 
 Patriarch Maris, relates that a king of Kerait, in the 
 beginning of the eleventh century, had been converted to 
 Christianity by means of Christian merchants, certainly Nes- 
 torians. The prince, it is said, thereupon sent a request to 
 the metropolitan that he would either come to him person- 
 ally or else send a priest to baptize him. The patriarch is 
 said to have empowered Ebedjesu to send to that country 
 two priests, together with deacons, and ecclesiastical 
 vessels. Two hundred thousand people of the nation are 
 said to have embraced Christianity, and the king was 
 ordained priest ; and receiving the baptismal name of John, 
 was called Presbyter (Prester) John, and his successors in 
 the kingdom were also ordained priests and bore the 
 dynastic name of John. Exaggerated stories respecting 
 the power of these princes and the extent of their empire 
 were current in the West in the thirteenth century. Nean- 
 der says that the report of the Nestorian metropolitan is 
 confirmed in all essential points by the narratives of 
 Western missionaries and travellers, who were not ac- 
 customed to exaggerate ; and that we may regard the main 
 story of the conversion of the Princes of Kerait, a kingdom 
 of Tartary situated north of China, as a fact sufficiently well 
 established, however uncertain the rest of the story may 
 be.* 
 
 Under the Caliphs of Bagdad the skill and learning of 
 the Nestorians frequently secured their appointment to the 
 most important offices both in the cabinet of the sovereign 
 and in the provinces, 
 
 * Neander's " Church History," vii. 62 (Bohn's Ed.). 
 
THE HISTOEY OF THE NESTOEIANS. 173 
 
 "The calipha had extended a liberal toleration and 
 protection to all their Christian subjects, but when their 
 power was superseded by that of a Tartar race of sovereigns, 
 a new fanatical and barbarous policy was adopted through- 
 out their dominions." The first great persecution of the 
 Chaldeans (Nestorians) appears to have taken place during 
 the reign of Kassan, the son of Arghoun, the grandson of 
 Hulaka. But it is to the conquests of Tamerlane that the 
 ruin of the Christians of these countries is especially to be 
 attributed. In his Mohammedan zeal he persecuted them 
 without mercy, destroyed their churches, and put them- 
 selves to the sword. I follow Mr. Layard and Dr. Badger 
 in thinking it probable that it was at this time, i.e., in the 
 middle of the fourteenth century, that the Christians of the 
 plains fled for refuge to the inaccessible fastnesses of the 
 mountains of Koordistan. 
 
 In the middle of the sixteenth century an unhappy 
 schism took place, which has divided the people into two 
 hostile parties ever since. For a hundred years before 
 that date it had been the law and custom that the 
 patriarch should nominate his successor during his life- 
 time from among his nearest relatives, a nephew being 
 usually selected. But in 1552, on the death of the patri- 
 arch of the day, some of the bishops assembled at Mosul 
 set aside the claims of the patriarch- designate, and elected 
 another, Sutaka, to the vacant seat. The mountain 
 Nestorians and the Nestorians of Oroomiah, making together 
 two-thirds of the people, adhered to the regular succession ; 
 the people about Mosul gave their allegiance to his rival. 
 The method of hereditary succession to the Nestorian 
 sees may or may not be a desirable mode of nominating 
 bishops ; the same doubt may be raised as to the present 
 mode of electing a pope, or of nominating English bishops ; 
 but in any case a change in the mode should be effected 
 by the regular action of the Church. The rival line of 
 Mosul patriarchs raised a strong presumption against its 
 
174 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 own legitimacy by its own act, when it proceeded at once 
 to abandon its ancient independence and put itself under 
 the obedience of the Koman see. This line was, however, 
 recognised by the Turkish Government. The Mosul 
 branch have taken to themselves the name of the Chaldean 
 Church. The Kochanes branch are commonly known by 
 the name of Nestorians. 
 
 The Mosul patriarchs have outlying bodies, under 
 metropolitans, at Diarbekr, Seert, and Salmast, and a few 
 adherents under a bishop at Oroomiah. The Chaldean 
 bishops, it will be remembered, formed a notable group 
 in the procession of bishops who walked through St. 
 Peter's on the occasion of the promulgation of the dogma 
 of the immaculate conception. But the Chaldean Church 
 has always submitted uneasily to the rule of Rome, and has 
 obstinately refused to abandon its own customs. The 
 present patriarch refused to receive the dogma of the 
 infallibility, and has persisted in his refusal, and confusion 
 reigns among the Chaldeans.* The Nestorians still adhere 
 to their ancient doctrines and customs. 
 
 The Nestorians, again, are in two sections : the tribes 
 who inhabit the mountains of Koordistan, who are under 
 Turkish rule ; and the people who live in the plain of 
 Oroomiah, in the dominions of the Persian Shah. The 
 
 ♦ The Univers publishes an Encyclical, addressed by the pope to 
 the bishops, clergy, and faithful of the Chaldean rite of the patriarchate 
 of Babylon, It details the offences of Joseph Audu, whose election as 
 Chaldeaa Patriarch was confirmed in 1848, and who has almost ever 
 since shown an insubordinate spirit. He is charged with fomenting 
 disaffection in Malabar agr.inst the Latin bishops and missionaries, 
 with long refusing to consecrate two bishops selected by the pope from 
 a list which he had submitted to him ; with delaying his submission to 
 the decrees of the last Council ; with submitting eventually only with 
 the reservation of his rights and privileges ; and with sacrilegiously 
 consecrating bishops not approved by the pope. The pope threatens 
 to excommunicate these usurping bishops if they do not immediately 
 retire, and to excommunicate the patriarch also if by submission he 
 does not avert such a stigma on his age and rank. — John Bull. Feb. 
 10, 1877. 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE NESTORIANS. 175 
 
 two sections of the people differ in appearance, costume, 
 and character, but they agree in all religious questions, in 
 obedience to Mar Shimoon, and in strong attachment to 
 the religion for -which they have suffered so many ages of 
 persecution. Kochanes is the centre of one section, the 
 city of Oroomiah of the other. * 
 
 ♦ The immbers of the people are estimated by the American mis- 
 sionaries at Oroomiah at — 
 
 Mountaineers 66-,00{> 
 
 Oroomians 25,000 
 
 81,000 
 Chaldeans 36,000 
 
 Making a total ot 117,000 
 
176 
 
 VILLAGE OF K0CHANE8. 
 {From a Photograph.) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 KOCHANES. 
 
 The house which had been assigned to us was that of a 
 cousin of the patriarch, which happened to be disengaged. 
 Beside it, with only a passage between, was that of the 
 patriarch's father. Ours was substantially built of rough 
 stones and mortar, with the usual flat roof. We entered 
 the one door into a room with roughly-paved stone floor and 
 bare walls, and no furniture ; on the opposite side was a rude 
 ladder leading to the upper story. Another room on the 
 ground floor, on the left of the entrance, was locked, and 
 probably contained things belonging to the absent owner. 
 The ladder gave access to a small ante-room on the first 
 floor, hghted by one large, unframed, unglazed opening, 
 
EOCHAKES. 
 
 177 
 
 which made a kind of balcony. A door led out of this into 
 the one living room ; pains had evidently 
 been taken to furnish it comfortably for 
 our use. 
 
 The accompanying plan will help us 
 to describe it : o is the door from the 
 anteroom ; it is Ughted by two windows, 
 h h, square openings under arched heads, 
 divided into small panes by strong wooden 
 cross bars, but unglazed ; in winter the 
 framework is covered with oiled paper. 
 c c are arched niches in the thickness of 
 the wall, with a wooden shelf across, 
 which serve for cupboards ; they remind 
 one of the openings in our old English 
 church walls, which ser-ved for piscina 
 and ambry, d is the hearth, with a 
 chimney projecting over it, like twelfth 
 
 PLAN OP APARTMENT ^, . / \,'' , . ■ • -p , n 
 
 AT K0CHANE3. Or thirteenth century designs m England. 
 The roof is carried on numerous massive poles for 
 rafters, across which are placed stout sticks, then lath 
 and plaster, and above all a thick layer of hard-beaten 
 eai-th. The furniture of the room consisted of Koord rugs 
 laid on the floor for carpets, two divans (couches), e e, also 
 made gay with rug coverings, and a tall, massive brass 
 candlestick, with a thick candle placed in the middle of the 
 floor at /. 
 
 We had so long been accustomed to sleeping under 
 canvas that we shrank from sleeping within four walls; 
 accordingly we had our tent pitched, and slept in it for 
 the first night ; then we found that people were made a 
 little uneasy by it, and for the rest of the visit we slept on 
 the divans in our room. 
 
 Next morning we sent to ask his Holiness for an inter- 
 view to present the Archbishop's letter and pay our respects. 
 Presently a servant came to conduct us. We entered 
 
178 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASU. 
 
 through an arched doorway into a porch, -whose pavement 
 was the living rock ; next into a passage whose pavement 
 of rock was eked out in places with large rough stones ; 
 this was so dark that the servant took me by the hand to 
 guide me. A door on the left hand of the passage admitted 
 us into a small dark ante-chamber, and thence we passed 
 into the screens of the hall. We take off our shoes at the 
 door and enter the room ; the patriarch, with some of his 
 relations, meets us at the door, and conducts us to our 
 seat. Our servants have followed with a present displayed 
 on a large round metal tray, which they place on the 
 ground before the patriarch. We deliver our letter, which 
 is translated by our interpreter, and state our errand, which 
 is to assure the patriarch of the interest and sympathy of 
 the Archbishop ; and, in reply to requests for the help of 
 the Church of England, to ask for some definite plan in 
 which England might render assistance in improving and 
 extending the education of the Nestorian people. The 
 patriarch expresses in earnest words his pleasure and 
 thankfulness ; charges me to write at once to the Arch- 
 bishop and convey his words ; states that he will summon 
 the chief men of the nation to consult on the subject named 
 in the letter, and then will himself write to the Archbishop. 
 Pipes are brought ; coffee is handed round ; a little general 
 conversation ensues ; and in about half an hour we take 
 our leave, and stroll into the valley to look about us. 
 
 The mountains here form a deep valley, whose upper 
 end is half filled in by a table -land ; the ravines run round 
 the two sides of this table-land, with their torrents, the 
 confluence of fifty smaller torrents fed by fifty snow-drifts 
 on the mountain sides. These two torrents unite their 
 streams at the foot of this table-land, and the resultant 
 river runs eastward down the vaUey to swell the waters of 
 the Zab. The table-land affords room for the village and 
 fields of Kochanes. The two sides of the valley are steep 
 and lofty hill-sides ; the hill on the south is called Tirsha, 
 
KOCHANES. 179 
 
 that on the north Saidha ; the head of the valley is closed 
 in by the mountains, Tgella and Birtgella, over which we 
 passed on our way hither. Looking down the valley the 
 view is closed by a range of snowy mountains. 
 
 The village consists of the cluster of rode one-story 
 buildings, with a two-story tower of defence in the middle, 
 which form the patriarchal house ; three or four houses 
 like that in which we are quartered belonging to relations 
 of the patriarch ; and about a dozen huts of the peasantry ; 
 with a small water-mill at a little distance. The church 
 is built upon one of a group of rocks a little below the 
 village, and a gi'oup of fine well- grown trees shades the north 
 side of the church, and there is a considerable grove a 
 little further north. We lounged down to the churchyard 
 trees, and sat under the shadow of their foliage, the irri- 
 gating channels flowing past our feet and adding to the 
 coolness and charm of the place. A few of the people 
 joined us, sat round in a circle, lighted their pipes, and 
 carried on an interesting conversation. It was a delightful 
 rest after our toils, which had really been considerable, 
 instead of travelling over a brown, treeless desert, under a 
 burning sun, to be lounging under broad spreading trees, 
 with a pleasant breeze from the snow mountains, and the 
 murmur of flowing water in our ears, with a chibook of 
 the finest Turkish tobacco to help the drowsy charm. 
 There was a mental repose, too, in the consciousness of 
 having reached the object of our journey, and a deep sense 
 of gratitude to God who had brought us so long a journey, 
 through so many dangers, without a single personal acci- 
 dent. W., not yet strong after his last attack of fever, 
 lay on the ground ; one of the servants ran to fetch him a 
 mattress and pillow ; presently he fell asleep, and our 
 visitors quietly took their leave ; the servant broke ofi" a 
 bough from the tree and fanned the sleeper untU he, too, 
 nodded over his voluntary task. 
 
 For the first few days our life was very quiet, but the 
 n2 
 
180 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 novelty of everything about ua gave us ample occupation. 
 We soon fell into routine habits. We did not rise so early 
 as the people, because we did not fall into the habit of 
 taking a siesta in the middle of the day. I fear they must 
 have taken us for very lazy people, for the patriarch had 
 said prayers at dawn, and breakfasted, and got through a 
 day's affairs before we were stirring. Here is a day's pro- 
 ceedings : rise about six. No tub to be had, so adjourn 
 to the ante-room and call Sliemon, who brings his brass 
 basin and ewer, and pours water for us to wash ; I finish 
 by bidding him pour it over my head. Sliemon is the 
 chartered joker of the patriarchal court, so he plays the 
 practical joke of pouring on, notwithstanding my cries 
 of " Bassa ! bassa I " (" Enough ! enough I ") until his 
 ewer is empty. Then comes breakfast. Enter first the 
 patriarch's major-domo, an elderly man, Picho [ch. hard) 
 by name, who has taken a liking to us, and performs his 
 functions with affectionate empressement. After him a 
 strapping young fellow, who is a kind of henchman of the 
 patriarch ; he brings in the breakfast on a great round 
 white metal tray which he places on the floor. The major- 
 domo spreads the cloth (a compliment to our European 
 habits), then places the leaves of native bread round the 
 margin of the table, after the native fashion, to form table- 
 cloth and napkin. Then the dishes are placed on the 
 table. What are they ? A great bowl of pillaff, i.e., rice 
 boiled as if for a curry ; another bowl of balls of spiced 
 pillaff wrapped up in green leaves, boiled eggs, yohoort, 
 i.e., sour milk, butter in pretty Uttle balls, honey, the 
 skim off the great bowl of boiled milk, and snow-cooled 
 water. 
 
 Breakfast finished, enter another member of the patri- 
 archal household as important as the major-domo — the 
 ofiicer who presides over the coffee ; I should liken him to 
 the butler ; a short, middle-aged man, Mirza by name, 
 handsomely dressed in crimson, with the dignified courtesy 
 
KOOHANES. 181 
 
 and admirable " drill " of the official of a great house. He 
 is followed by another henchman, who carries the tray 
 containing the coffee service. It is not etiquette to take 
 more than one cup, but the Turkish cups are so small and 
 the coffee is so super-excellent that we should like another; 
 this he observes with tact, and, with amiable condescension 
 to our foreign training, gives us another, and makes us 
 feel rather ashamed by suggesting a third cup. 
 
 Breakfast over and the table cleared, a servant comes 
 to announce a visit from his Holiness. We go to the door 
 to receive him. He puts off his shoes at the door, 
 salutes us by touching his forehead, and asks after our 
 well-being. We conduct him to his place on the divan. 
 He is generally accompanied by several of his family : his 
 father Benjamin, whom we instal on the other divan ; two 
 of his cousins, Shamasha Johannan and Shamasha Yona ; 
 sometimes his uncle Nathan ; whom we seat, uncomfortably, 
 I fear, on our camp chairs ; two or three servants. follow. 
 All being seated, the servants hand pipes ; it is a very 
 necessary part of the ceremonial of a visit, and is done 
 with a good deal of etiquette. The servant fills and hghts 
 the pipe, and smokes it until it is fairly lighted ; then he 
 approaches with measured steps, places the bowl on the 
 ground, measuring his distance judiciously, then with a 
 radial motion presents the stem, at the same time making 
 a low bow and placing his hand upon his breast. It is a 
 compliment, equivalent to our old fashion of taking wine 
 with a man at dinner, to smoke a few whiffs and then pre- 
 sent the pipe to some one of the company who is not 
 smoking. The pipes are hardly fairly under way when the 
 chief butler enters again with his henchman and pours out 
 coffee for the whole company. It is supposed that the 
 coffee and the pipes and the servants are all ours, and 
 that we are entertaining our guests. After half an hour's 
 conversation, always be it understood, through an inter- 
 preter, the patriarch rises ; we conduct him to the door. 
 
182 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 where he and his company put on their shoes again, and 
 we bow them down the ladder which forms our grand stair- 
 case, and amuse them by taking leave in Syriac — awad 
 bassema. The combination of rude house and furnishing, 
 with a little court, and a numerous attendance, and a cere- 
 monious etiquette, help us to realise the life of our barons 
 in the feudal ages. 
 
 It is most curious of all, perhaps, to find the mediaeval 
 jester still in existence here. Sliemon ( = Solomon !) fulfils 
 aJl the functions of the office, except that he does not wear 
 any distinctive badge of office. He is by no means wanting 
 in sense, but he says and does, and is permitted to say and 
 do, the most eccentric things, and every one has a joke, 
 verbal or practical, for Sliemon, and Sliemon is not back- 
 ward with his jokes, verbal and practical, in return. He 
 takes liberties with everybody. One evening he had gone 
 to the house of one of the greatest men in the nation and 
 fell asleep over the hearth. The people for a joke locked 
 the doors, went to bed, and left him there asleep. In the 
 middle of the night he woke up cold, saw the joke which 
 had been played upon him, and proceeded to improve upon 
 it. He went to the bedroom of the great man, tickled him 
 in the side till he moved, and repeated the trick ttU he 
 finally moved off his mattress upon the floor ; then Sliemon 
 got into his warm bed and pulled the rug over him and 
 went comfortably to sleep. But presently the great man 
 woke with the cold, sat up and found himself out of bed 
 and some one snoring ia his place. On pushing the intruder 
 he recognised Sliemon's voice, so with one or two good- 
 humoured boxes on the ears he turned him out to find 
 himself a bed elsewhere. We heard a score of his strange 
 pranks, and he was the standing amusement of the 
 patriarchal court. 
 
 Then we read or write, or otherwise occupy ourselves for 
 an hour or so, by which time the temperature of the room 
 is growing hot, and we adjourn to the shade of the ever- 
 
KOCHANES. 183 
 
 pleasant grove of trees by the church. Somebody is sure 
 to join us here, and, if we can get hold of the interpreter, 
 we chat with them till about two, when we return home 
 for a meal, which may be called luncheon or dinner. Bowls 
 of pillafF, plain or spiced, bowls of yohoort, a bowl of 
 broth, with shapeless pieces of mutton floating in it, are 
 the native dishes ; but here our own Armenian cook comes 
 to our assistance, and has usually a fowl or a couple of 
 skewers of kabobs for us, and a sweet dish of some kind 
 to follow. We always have the luxury of iced water to 
 drink. After dinner pipes and coffee, with the usual 
 etiquette ; then perhaps we call to Sliemon, who is always 
 in attendance in the ante-chamber, to fill the pipes again, 
 and we lounge on the divans and chat. About five, evening 
 prayers in church ; the patriarch sometimes sends us word 
 that he is going to prayers, and we dutifully obey his inti- 
 mation. We soon find out that the etiquette of the court 
 is that after morning prayers those who are supposed to 
 have the entree return with the patriarch to his house, and 
 pipes and coffee are served, and there is half an hour's 
 conversation. After evening prayers everybody is at liberty 
 to attend the levee. We are punctual in our attendance. 
 We put off our shoes at the door; that is to say, we 
 English made a compromise, we wore dress shoes, and 
 wore india rubber shoes over them, and we put off our 
 overshoes at the door. The patriarch takes his seat, with 
 his legs tucked under him, on his divan ; he motions me 
 to an arm-chair placed beside him at the upper end of the 
 room ; he beckons the junior member of the commission, to 
 whom he is paternally kind, to a seat beside him on the 
 divan ; the rest squat round the four sides of the room on 
 the rugs on the floor. Sometimes the patriarch's father 
 comes in a little late, and the etiquette is for every one to 
 rise till he has taken his seat ; the venerable old gentleman 
 begs us, with pleasant bonhommie, not to disturb ourselves, 
 but it would be a grave breach of poUteness not to do it. 
 
184 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CKESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Then come the pipes and coffee, with the usual ceremonial. 
 We talk about things English and Nestorian, and Koordish 
 and Turkish ; with all the etiquette there is an utter absence 
 of gene ; everybody who has anything to say says it, and 
 anything interesting is translated for the benefit of the 
 other party. After half an hour or so we ask his Holiness 
 if he will please to dismiss us ; I never quite knew before 
 what the phrase to take your leave meant — it means to ask 
 and take this permigsion to depart. Sometimes when we 
 asked leave the patriarch would ask in reply if we were tired, 
 to which of course we replied that we were only fearful 
 of tiring him, and remained till another lull in the conver- 
 sation. 
 
 The day has now grown cool again, and we take a con- 
 stitutional do'W'n the hill-side on the north, through trees 
 and brushwood, to the mountain stream at the bottom, and 
 then climb back by another route. The walk might not be 
 quite safe in winter, for the bears from the Gelu mountains 
 come down thus far when the snows drive them into the 
 valleys. Or another evening we accompany the sportsmen 
 to the stream, on the other side of the valley to sit for an 
 hour, and watch for a rifle-shot at the wild goats as they 
 come down from the mountain on that side to drink. Or 
 another evening we go down the valley till we arrive at the 
 point where we can see the two streams meet down below 
 to continue their tumultuous course towards the Zab. 
 " Take care ! " says our companion, " there is a large snake 
 somewhere hereabouts." "How large?" "Oh! as thick 
 as a man's leg!" We manage to get home before the 
 short twilight has quite died out of the heavens, and in 
 time for supper, which is a repetition of dinner ; then the 
 divans are, chiefly by the addition of our own pillows, 
 converted into beds, and we usually adopt the early habits 
 of the country and betake ourselves to sleep. 
 
 We have the pleasure to give a portrait of Benjamin, 
 and of Isa, his son by a second wife. The latter is a bright, 
 
KOCHANES. 
 
 185 
 
 handsome boy, with complexion as dark as a Spaniard, 
 and large fine dark eyes ; his father has dressed him in "a 
 coat of many colours," white full trousers, gay silk vest, 
 whose ground colour is gold, a scarlet jacket, and a hand- 
 
 PORTRAITS OF BK>JAMIN, THE PATRIARCH'S KATHBR, AND OF ISA 
 
 (PROMOUNCED ESHA = JOSHUA), BENJAMIN'S SON, AND THB 
 
 patriarch's HALF-BROTHBR. 
 
 (From a Photograph.) 
 
 some fez with a very long tassel. The group might serve 
 as a model for a picture of Jacob and Joseph. 
 
 About the third evening we had a second visit from the 
 patriarch after supper. He feared we might be ennuyet 
 
186 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE ORESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 and had come to spend an hour with us. After a couple 
 of games at chess, in which I was beaten, I introduced a 
 conversation about the amusements of the people in the 
 long winter evenings. I found they, like other Easterns, 
 were fond of story-teUing ; and I induced those present to 
 tell me some of the popular stories. I give them here, not 
 because they are very good stories, but because the popular 
 stories of a people help to admit us into the mind of a 
 people; and I give them not as the stories in which the 
 upper classes of the Nestorians, who recited them to me, 
 found pleasure, but those with which a lower class of the 
 people amuse themselves over the hearth on a winter's 
 evening. The first is, " The Harm a Hatchet did " : — 
 
 Three men went one winter day to cut boughs for the 
 sheep. One climbed up into a tree and began to hack away, 
 when he clumsily cut his hand. He threw the hatchet down 
 and it unfortunately hit one of his two companions, who in 
 his anger flung it away from him and wounded the third. 
 They all returned bleeding to the village and told their story. 
 The villagers, hearing the story, decided that the hatchet 
 was mad, and held a consultation what should be done 
 with it. They resolved to burn it, and so put it out of 
 the way of doing further mischief. When it was hot they 
 began to beat it, when one stroke made it cast out sparks 
 and at the same time jump out of the fire. They con- 
 cluded that it was still aUve, the fire could not kill it ; what 
 could be done to get rid of the dangerous creature ? 
 Some one suggested to hang it. So they put a rope round 
 it and hung it up to a beam in the straw shed. But being 
 still hot it burnt through the rope, fell on the straw, and 
 set fire to the shed ; the flames spread and burnt down the 
 village. The people left their burning houses and ran 
 away. Next day one of them went to look at the village, 
 and saw a cat sitting on the roof of one of the ruined 
 houses washing its face ; the man thought it was making 
 the usual gesture in taking an oath. He went back and 
 
KOOHANES. 187 
 
 reported that the hatchet had turned into a cat, and that 
 he saw it swear that no one should hereafter inhabit that 
 village. So the people forsook the village, and it remains a 
 ruin to this day. 
 
 This has some resemblance to the stories of the wise 
 men of Gotham in Notts, and the equally wise men of 
 Coggeshall, in Essex, in our own folk lore. The next 
 story I think I remember to have seen somewhere before 
 (perhaps in the " Arabian Nights "). 
 
 A man was leading his donkey to Mosul. Three Koords 
 overtook him, and one proposed that they should steal 
 the donkey. But how ? Another of the Koords suggested 
 a plan, which he proceeded to put into execution. He 
 took the bridle carefully off the donkey's head and put 
 it on the head of one of his companions, and led the 
 donkey away. When the man reached the bazaar, all 
 the people wondered, and asked why he was leading a man 
 so by a bridle. He turned and saw the man, and ex- 
 claimed, " Where 's my donkey ? " 
 
 The man whom te was leading repUed, " I was your 
 donkey. Twenty years ago a wicked enchanter turned 
 me into a donkey, but coming into Mosul has broken the 
 spell and I am a man again." 
 
 The Koord, who was a fine big fellow, assumed a 
 threatening air, " What have you to say in excuse for work- 
 ing me so hard and beating me so much all these years ? " 
 
 The man humbly apologised, and said he did not know 
 that he was a man or he should have treated him dif- 
 ferently. 
 
 " But you must give me some compensation for all this 
 ill-treatment." 
 
 " I am a poor man, and have only got five beshliks." 
 
 ** Well, give me them and I will forgive you." 
 
 So the Koords got both the man's donkey and his 
 money. 
 
188 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 THE NESTOEIAN PEOPLE. 
 
 After we had been at Eochanes a few days the plot 
 thickened, at least more actors came upon the scene. We 
 were watching one afternoon a number of ant-like figures 
 (at least they looked about that size) crawling down a zig- 
 zag line on the steep hill to the south, when some one told 
 us that it was Mar Serghees, the Bishop of Gelu, with his 
 people, coming from his village up in the Gelu mountains. 
 He was the harbinger of many followers. We learnt by the 
 results that the patriarch had sent messengers all over the 
 Nestorian country, even to the distant plains of Persia, 
 bidding bishops and priests, and maleks and reises, to come 
 to Kochanes to welcome the messengers of the Archbishop 
 of the English Church, and to consult what answer should 
 be returned to his letters. Every day they came, every 
 one with his attendants ; every bishop, with two exceptions, 
 came ; scores of priests ; every tribe sent its chief, with 
 half a dozen to a score or more of his principal men. 
 Some only stayed a night and returned, for it was a 
 busy time with their pastoral and agricultural work ; some 
 stayed a few days, some important persons a still longer 
 time. 
 
 Two of the arrivals were attended with a public cere- 
 monial. Soon after breakfast (July 20th) they came to 
 tell us that the mattran was coming up the vaUey. The 
 mattran, or metropolitan, is the person next in dignity to 
 the patriarch, and I guessed from the announcement that 
 it was proper that I should take part in his reception. I 
 
THE NESTOKIAN PEOPLE. 189 
 
 went out at once. Some of the people were already 
 marching off down the valley. I saw Benjamin (the 
 patriarch's father) and others sitting under the shade of 
 one of the houses, and guessed that my place was with 
 them. The patriarch did not come out ; he came out to 
 welcome the Archbishop of Canterbury's representatives, 
 but it was not etiquette to come out to meet his own suf- 
 fragans. I gathered that there is a written code of cere- 
 monial which is carefully followed. After half an hour of 
 expectation, we saw a long procession of men winding up 
 the path by the stream on the north side of the valley ; in 
 the middle of the procession one man on horseback, who 
 was of course the mattran, presently two other horsemen 
 came in sight, who were his two suffragan bishops. They 
 dismounted and walked towards us, who had formed into 
 a group to welcome them. I was introduced to the 
 mattran and kissed hands, to which he replied with the 
 courtesy of kissing his own hand at the same time. Then 
 Benjamin intimated that I was to go to my own house 
 to be prepared to receive a formal visit, after the new 
 comers had paid their respects to the patriarch. Soon 
 after, however. Mar Serghees came to say that the mattran 
 and his companions were all tired with their journey and 
 begged to defer their visit till afternoon, and Mar 
 Serghees sought to make the time pass pleasantly by 
 volunteering a game at chess. 
 
 After dinner a number of men came pouring into my 
 room, filling the lower part of it, sent by the patriarch 
 to tell me their tale with their own lips. They were 
 Nestorians, men of Hoze, near Wan. The previous after- 
 noon, July 19th, about 150 of Ali Khan's men, headed by 
 his son Mamme, had come upon them, carried off their 
 cattle, 1,050 sheep, 200 oxen, 12 buffaloes, 7 horses, 
 4 plough chains, and stripped and carried off the clothing 
 of the twenty-two men who were with the cattle. Ali Agha 
 is a Koordish chief we were warned against at Wan; his 
 
190 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 horsemen make frequent incursions into the country round 
 about, and we were fortunate that it was not we who were 
 robbed and stripped by them. Ali Agha is like one of the 
 old Border chieftains of our own country. A man of good 
 blood, the head of a powerful tribe, with lands and flocks 
 and herds, hospitable and kindly at home, maintaining a 
 good position in society, who adds to his means and 
 exercises his followers in these raids on the property of 
 his neighbours. Being a Persian subject, he sends his 
 horsemen across the border into these ill-governed, ill- 
 protected Turkish districts, and they retire with their 
 booty into Persia, and laugh at pursuit. This, for ex- 
 ample, was a dashing and successful exploit, and the 
 gallant riders went ofi" I daresay careering their horses 
 round and round after their Persian fashion and laughing 
 over the fun of it. And the old Agha I daresay smiled 
 on Mamme, and told him he was a fine fellow, and 
 would maintain the honour of the family. I was greatly 
 interested in this illustration of the border life of England 
 and Scotland 800 years ago, and could enter into all the 
 dash and romance of the affair ; but I had the reverse 
 of the medal before me in these poor ruined villagers 
 appealing to heaven and the Englishman for help 
 against the spoiler. I made them write out a schedule 
 of their losses, and, Mar Shimoon also desiring it, I wrote 
 to the British Consul at Tabriz, asking him to try to get 
 these poor fellows some redress. If I had my way I would 
 give that gallant fellow Ali Agha fair warning, for the 
 sake of the old customs which he has inherited, and if 
 he did not profit by the warning, I would give him a 
 short shrift and a long rope, by way of inaugurating a 
 new reign of peace and security on this unsettled border. 
 
 While these Hoze men were still with me a servant 
 came to announce that the patriarch, the mattran, and the 
 bishops were coming to pay their formal visit, and the poor 
 fellows were rather summarily dismissed. 
 
THE NESTOEIAN PEOPLE. 191 
 
 The Mattran is a man past the middle age, short and 
 broadly built ; he seemed to me to be an earnest, thought- 
 ful, cautious person. He was treated with a good deal 
 of ceremonious consideration. One of his bishops was a 
 very young man, I should think not more than about 
 five-and-twenty. The conversation turned on our mission ; 
 it took a religious turn, and I was struck with the abundance 
 of scriptural allusion, which showed a familiarity with the 
 Bible. The mattran compared the coming of Englishmen 
 to them to the mission of Moses to deliver God's people 
 from the oppressions of Egypt. I took occasion, while 
 deprecating so exalted a comparison, to point out that the 
 immediate result of Moses' interference was an increase of 
 suffering to the Israelites, that the people had to endure 
 great hardships in working out their deliverance, and that 
 it was only their children who actually entered the pro- 
 mised land ; and tried thereupon to moderate what seemed 
 to me a tendency to over-sanguine expectation of the im- 
 mediate and great results which English help would 
 bring. After a short conversation the patriarch rose, 
 and we bowed our visitors down- stairs. 
 
 As we came out of church after evening prayers we saw 
 another large company filing through the trees along the 
 path by the stream. Some of our Kochanes men had gone 
 to meet them, others stood on the knoll outside the 
 patriarch's house and fired shots of welcome, which were 
 answered by the approaching party. We saw at once by 
 the Persian hats which many of the new-comers wore that 
 they were the Oroomiah men. Our company returning 
 from church to the patriarch's house met the new-comers 
 on their way to the same point ; there ensued a great 
 deal of hearty welcoming, with embracing and kissing 
 after the Eastern fashion ; then we all passed on and filled 
 the patriarch's reception-room. After the first burst 
 of conversation the Oroomiah bishop told us some of 
 their adventures. The Serparast, i.e., the official who is 
 
192 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 appointed by the Shah as gOTemor of the Christians of 
 the district and protector of their interests, had forbidden 
 them to come to Kochanes, threatening to fine and im- 
 prison any who should disobey him. " Why?" we asked.- 
 Whereupon we were told — what I do not vouch for — that 
 the Serparast was appointed quite recently through an 
 intrigue of the Papist party in Oroomiah, and that it was 
 the padri* who had induced the governor to hinder this 
 great gathering of the Nestorians at their national centre, 
 and to keep those of them over whom he had control from 
 direct communication with the Englishmen. They did not 
 know that we had resolved to visit the Persian Nestorians 
 in their own country. The bishop, however, had defied 
 the governor's threats ; a number of the priests got out of 
 the town secretly, others came with less difficulty from 
 their villages, and they made up a considerable company, 
 who had come — the major part of them on foot— a journey 
 of three days across a wild and dangerous country in 
 obedience to the summons of their patriarch. After some 
 speeches on both sides on the subject of our mission we 
 took our leave. 
 
 Our time was very fully and very pleasantly occupied in 
 making the acquaintance of the people. There were 
 constantly fresh arrivals, who all paid us a formal visit 
 first ; and many of them again and again, in our own room 
 or under the shade of the church trees, took opportunities 
 of coming to talk to us. Mar Shimoon's people calcu- 
 lated that about a thousand of the Nestorians had re- 
 sponded to his summons, and paid their respects to him 
 and to us. Now a score of the Tyari men, with their 
 chiefs and priests, filled our room ; presently it was a Uke 
 number of the Tehoma tribe ; next perhaps a couple of 
 priests came to ask some questions about the EngHsh 
 Church, or about what steps it was proposed to take with 
 respect to their own Church; we, on the other hand, sought 
 
 * The Romish criests 
 
THE NESTORIAN PEOPLE. 
 
 193 
 
 repeated interviews with the more important people. If 
 we strolled out in the heat of the day to rest under the 
 church trees, a group soon surrounded us for informal 
 gossip, for which we were as anxious as they. After the 
 Oroomiah men arrived there was no difficulty in finding an 
 
 THE PATRIAECH, MAR SHIHOOK. 
 {From a Photograph.) 
 
 interpreter; several of them had learnt more or less of 
 English from the American missionaries, and we picked up 
 a good deal of information. This concourse of the people 
 afforded us very great advantages ; it brought us into 
 intimate communication with nearly all the chief people 
 
 o 
 
194 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IK ASIA. 
 
 of the nation, without our having to travel from tribe to 
 tribe to seek them, a journey we were glad to be spared, 
 for the climate of the deep mountain vaUeys in the height 
 of summer is as trying and dangerous as travelling in the 
 Mesopotamian plains. 
 
 The valley was lively with them all day long. I ought 
 not to omit to say that they were all the patriarch's 
 guests. I incidentally heard that they were consuming 
 half a dozen sheep a day ; how many hundredweights oi 
 piUaff, and how many pounds of tobacco were also 
 expended from the patriarchal storehouses I cannot even 
 guess. To put them up at night was the easiest part 
 of it. Eight or ten slept on Benjamin's housetop, 
 which was just under our windows. I suppose every 
 other housetop in the village was equally crowded. In 
 walking about after dusk one stumbled over men sleeping 
 here and there on the ground. It reminded me of the 
 way in which Angus M'Aulay disposed of the clansmen 
 who mustered at his castle : 
 
 "Old Donald hastily rushed into the apartment. 'A 
 message from Vich Alister More ; he is coming up in the 
 evening.' 
 
 " * With how many attendants ? ' said M'Aulay. 
 
 *' ' Some five-and- twenty or thirty,' said Donald, ' his 
 ordinary retinue.' 
 
 " ' Shake down plenty of straw in the great barn,' said 
 the laird. 
 
 " Another servant here stumbled hastily in, announcing 
 the expected approach of Sir Hector M'Lean, ' who is 
 arriving with a large following.' 
 
 " ' Put them in the malt-kiln,' said M'Aulay, ' and keep 
 the breadth of the middenstead between them and the 
 M'Donalds — they are but unfriends to each other.' 
 
 " Donald now re-entered, his visage considerably 
 lengthened. ' The teil 's i' the folk,' he said ; ' the 
 haill Hielands are asteer, I think. Evan Dhu of 
 
THE KESTORIAN PEOPLE. 195 
 
 Lochiel will be here in an hour, with Lord kens how 
 many gillies.' 
 
 *' < Into the great bam with them beside the M'Donalds,' 
 said the laird. 
 
 " More and more chiefs were announced, the least of 
 whom would have counted it derogatory to his dignity to 
 stir without a retinue of six or seven persons. To every 
 new annunciation Angus M'Aulay answered by naming 
 some place of accommodation — the stables, the hjre, the 
 loft, the sheds, every domestic office was destined for 
 the night to some hospitable purpose or other. At length 
 the arrival of M'Dougal of Lorn, after all his means of 
 accommodation were exhausted, reduced him to some per- 
 plexity. ' What is to be done, Donald ? ' said he. . . . 
 
 " ' What needs all this ? ' said Allan, starting up and 
 coming forward with the stern abruptness of his usual 
 manner. 'Are the Gaels of to-day of softer flesh or 
 whiter blood than their fathers were ? Knock the head 
 out of a cask of usquebae ; let that be their night-gear, 
 their plaids their bed-clothes, the blue sky their canopy, 
 and the heather their couch. Come a thousand more, 
 they would not quarrel on the broad heath for want 
 of room.' " 
 
 And what kind of men were these Nestorians ? Physically, 
 fine athletic fellows, with a good physiognomy, picturesquely 
 dressed in the style shown in our photographs, which, 
 however, fail to give the gay colours of trousers and vest, 
 waist-shawl, jacket, and turban, which had much to do with 
 the picturesque effect. The costume consists of very loose 
 trousers gathered in at the ankle, of the gayest colours 
 and most showy patterns ; e.g., a pattern which seemed to 
 be a favourite with the young men was crimson, with 
 broad longitudinal stripes formed of two lines of light yel- 
 low, with a zig-zag pattern between them; a vest of some 
 showy material ; a shawl wound round the waist ; a short 
 sleeved jacket over aU. On the head is worn a tall conical 
 o 2 
 
196 CHEISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 cap of white felt, sometimes worn alone, but more com- 
 monly wound round by a couple of small shawls of different 
 colours, with an end of each hanging down behind. The 
 mountain fashion is for men to shave the head, leaving a 
 few long locks behind, which are often plaited into two 
 " pigtails " ; since the turban is worn iadoors and out this 
 peculiarity, which to our eyes does not improve the 
 appearance of the men, is not seen ; they all wear 
 the moustache, and many also the beard. There are 
 some fine faces among them. They are well-armed, 
 every man with a "hanjiar" — a large dagger with a 
 curved blade and large handle — stuck in his shawl ; 
 many of them with scimitar accompanied by a small 
 round shield hung at their backs, made of leather, 
 strengthened with iron, with the front covered with 
 embroidery, and a central spike surrounded by a long red 
 fringe and particoloured tassels ; some with rifle also, 
 involving cross-belts for powder-horn and ball-pouch. A 
 finely made man, fully equipped, was a very picturesque 
 person, and we had the pleasure of seeing such men by the 
 score. 
 
 Intellectually quick, bright, intelligent, but with no book 
 learning at all. With the mixture of self-respect and 
 manly courtesy which moimtain tribes-men seem usually 
 to possess, they are in manners, gentlemen. Morally 
 brave, irascible, honest, affectionate, generous, chaste, a 
 little subtle, and not always truthful. On the whole a fine set 
 of feUows, well worthy of the interest and help of their 
 English co-religionists. With some of them we became 
 on terms of real friendship. 
 
 Of course they were the upper class of the people with 
 whom we thus became acquainted, and we saw them at 
 their best. But we took advantage of our opportunities 
 to study the lower class of the people also. Very poor 
 many of them, but the poverty of the mountains, not the 
 degrading poverty of cities. Ill-lodged and ill-clad many 
 
THE NESTOEIAN PEOPLE. 197 
 
 of them. Look at that little fellow, one of a group which 
 stands to watch us as we take our evening walk ; his sole 
 clothing is what once was a shirt, but is now a rag, which 
 hangs down his back only, and is, I suppose, a token that 
 his mother knows he ought to wear clothes — if he had 
 them ; the costume is pleasant enough this weather, but 
 I hope he has a lambskin coat to put on when winter 
 comes. 
 
 The people were glad to have their portraits taken, 
 and we secured quite a gallery of all the notables of 
 the Nestorian nation. Some of them our readers will 
 be glad to see as examples of their physiognomy and 
 costume. 
 
 First, as is due, we present our readers to his Holiness 
 the Patriarch. Unfortunately our photographic plates were 
 not all equally successful ; some partially, some wholly 
 failed, and the patriarch's portraits, although we took 
 the precaution to take two sittings, are among our 
 failures. The engraving (p. 193), therefore, can only be 
 trusted for the costume and general appearance of his 
 Holiness, but not as an accurate representation of his 
 features. He is seated on his heels, after his usual fashion, 
 in his divan. 
 
 We have already given Benjamin, the patriarch's father ; 
 here is a portrait of Nathan, the patriarch's uncle, and 
 father of Kaiser, the patriarch designate. 
 
 Our next picture (see Frontispiece) is a group of the 
 Tyari men, who came as a. deputation from their tribe to pay 
 their respects to the Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy. The 
 two chiefs are in the middle of the front row. The man in 
 the white coat and very tall turban is Malek Daniel ; on his 
 right, conspicuous from the ivory-handled hanjiar stuck in 
 his girdle, is his co-chief, Malek Gonri. On Malek Daniel's 
 left is a priest who celebrated Holy Communion in Kochanes 
 church on the first Sunday of our visit ; on his left, and at 
 the extremity of the line, is Rabban Yonna, of whom we shall 
 
198 
 
 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE ORESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 give another portrait when we shall have occasion presently 
 to describe his remarkable character and position. The 
 man standing up between the two Maleks is a priest with 
 a fine physiognomy. Of the rest I have a memorandum 
 
 UATUAN, THE rATllIARCHS U^'CLE. 
 
 [From a Photograph.) 
 
 of the names, but I fear they would not interest the 
 reader. 
 
 With much diffidence I put before the reader portraits 
 of some of the ladies of the patriarchal household. The 
 ladies here maintain a certain amount of the reserve of 
 
THE NESTOEIAN PEOPLE. 
 
 199 
 
 Eastern women. They go about the village unveiled ; 
 but they never appear at meals or receptions. We were 
 not introduced to any of them. W. on one occasion was 
 dressed up in Nestorian costume, and was carried off into 
 the penetralia of the patriarch's house to show his sister, 
 Madame Sultie, what a fine young Nestorian he made ; 
 
 TWO NKaTOKIAN LADIKS, 
 (JFVcm a Photograph.) 
 
 but I was never admitted to any such privilege. It was 
 only with much persuasion that we induced some of them 
 to allow their portraits to be taken. As we pleaded that 
 we desired to show English ladies what Nestorian ladies 
 were like, we venture to think ourselves at liberty to 
 present their portraits here. 
 
200 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Of the two ladies in the present picture, the elder lady 
 on the left is Haroi, the ■wife of Benjamin, and mother of 
 Isa. The younger lady, Gerusha, is a very pretty lady, 
 whose heauty was the cause of some adventures in her 
 youth in escaping from the clutches of a Turkish neigh- 
 bour ; she is now the wife of Shamasha Johannan, the 
 sou of Nathan. 
 
201 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE NESTOBIAN HrEEARCHY. 
 
 The hierarchy of the Nestorian Church consists of— 
 
 Mar Shimoon, Catholicus and Patriarch of the Eastern 
 
 regions. " Mar* Shimoon " means the Lord Simon. All 
 
 the Nestorian prelates have dynastic names, as the 
 
 Pharaohs and the Caesars, and, to come to Chaldea, 
 
 the Abgaruses of Edessa had. Every patriarch is Mar 
 
 Shimoon, the present being about the seventeenth of that 
 
 name. "Catholicus" is the original title of this line of 
 
 prelates, and is a memorial of the short time during which 
 
 they were dependent on the See of Antioch, for, according 
 
 to Dr. Neale, it means procurator-general of that see. 
 
 They afterwards assumed the title, which rightly expressed 
 
 the independent patriarchal power which they possessed. 
 
 " The Eastern regions " means east of the Umits of the 
 
 Roman empire. The dignity is hereditary, that is to say, 
 
 the possessor of the see selects a successor from among 
 
 his near relations, a preference being given to his nephews. 
 
 A successor is often selected at a very youthful age. 
 
 From the time of his nomination he has to submit to the 
 
 restrictions which are laid upon the bishops ; he must 
 
 not eat flesh, and he must not marry. The successor 
 
 to the present patriarch is already nominated in the 
 
 person of Kaiser, a son of Nathan, and nephew of the 
 
 patriarch, a boy of about thirteen or fourteen. He 
 
 is being educated, together with his cousin Isa, by a 
 
 * Afar means also saint ; in the feminine, Mart, as Mart Martam, 
 Saint Mary. 
 
202 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 private tutor ; but he does not appear, so far as we could 
 see, to be treated with any special deference. 
 
 The ecclesiastical status of the patriarch seemed, so far 
 as we could gather, to exceed that of a bishop who was 
 regarded as simply the first among his brother bishops. 
 He seemed to us to be regarded as, and to be, the auto- 
 cratic ruler of the whole Nestorian Church. 
 
 The patriarch also wields the authority of a chieftain 
 among the Nestorians, with the sanction of the Turkish 
 authorities ; for example, during our brief residence there, 
 we were witnesses of his decision of a civil case of disputed 
 property, and of a criminal case of murder, which was tried 
 by his delegate. The circumstances are worth detailing. 
 
 One morning a man came into our room to pay his 
 respects, who began with *' Good morning, sir," but we 
 soon found that this was all the EngUsh he knew. He 
 was a Greek, but looked more like a northern barbarian, 
 with a great muscular frame, unkempt hair and beard, and 
 a shaggy coat. His servant, an active, bold-looking 
 fellow, was armed to the teeth, with a long rifle, a bell- 
 mouthed pistol hung at his belt by a chain, and a dagger 
 which deserves a special description : a blade about 
 eighteen inches long, three broad, with a rib down the 
 middle to strengthen it, double edged, and brought to 
 a long point, both edge and point as sharp as a razor ; it 
 must be a copy of the old Koman sword, and for use at 
 close quarters there could not be a more formidable 
 weapon. I found afterwards that as the curved hanjiar 
 is the national weapon of the mountain tribes, this short, 
 straight, cut-and-thrust sword is the weapon of the Per- 
 sians ; indeed we found it in use among all the people 
 north of Persia right up to the Caucasus. Our Greek was 
 a timber-merchant, i.e., his business was to go about the 
 mountains in search of the grand old walnut-trees which 
 exist here and there, and to purchase them for export to 
 England and elsewhere, where the beautiful veining of the 
 
THE NESTORIAN HIERARCHY. 203 
 
 wood makes them very valuable for furniture, and espe- 
 cially for pianos. These men are known to carry a good 
 deal of money to pay for their trees, and it is very neces- 
 sary that they should take every precaution against rob- 
 bery among these wild Koords. Our visitor's business 
 here was to lay a complaint before the patriarch and seek 
 justice at his hands. Some time before he had purchased 
 a walnut-tree and paid for it ; the vendor, who was a 
 Nestorian, had sold it over again to another merchant, and 
 there was a dispute between the two purchasers. In the 
 evening our friend was at the patriarch's levee ; I heard 
 the patriarch say a few words to him, and saw the man's 
 face brighten, and conjectured, what turned out to be the 
 case, that the patriarch had given a decision in his favour. 
 
 On another occasion I had stroUed down to the group 
 of trees beside the church, and saw a number of our 
 Nestorian friends seated on the ground in a large circle. 
 I was going to join them, thinking they were only holding 
 a friendly conversation, when I was told that they were 
 conducting a trial. " A trial ! what about ? " "A mur- 
 der; one man killed another, and the widow has had him 
 brought up for trial." " But who is trying him ? " I asked, 
 looking in vain round the circle in search of the judge. 
 " Oh, the mattran is trying him. It is the patriarch's 
 business, but I suppose he wanted to pay the mattran a 
 compliment, so he asked him to take it." "Is the man 
 guilty ? " " Yes, there is no doubt about that." " Then 
 what will they do with him ? " " Oh, he will have to pay 
 blood-money to the widow." 
 
 We narrowly escaped a tragedy still nearer home. A 
 fine, frank, good-natured young fellow, a henchman of 
 the patriarch's, and one of those who were told oflF to our 
 service, had a quarrel with his brother, and stabbed him 
 with the ever-ready hanjiar ; his brother fired his gun in 
 return, but happily missed. Our young man was in dis- 
 grace for a day or two, but the wound he had inflicted was 
 
204 CHKISTIANS UNDEK THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 not serious, and about the third day he was filling the 
 chibouks and handing the coffee as usual. 
 
 The relations of the patriarch form an aristocracy, the 
 patriarchal revenue being by custom apportioned to their 
 support. These revenues consist of the profits of lands 
 and villages, of offerings in the nature of tithes, and of 
 presents, which, according to the custom of the East, are 
 made by every one who has a favour to ask, or even a right 
 to claim, or who desires to pay his homage acceptably to 
 his superior. 
 
 Next after the patriarch in dignity is the metro- 
 politan, the only one left out of the twenty-five who 
 once owned allegiance to the patriarch of the East. 
 Mattran is the Syriac for metropolitan ; he is usually 
 designated by his title — the mattran ; his dynastic name is 
 Hnan Isu, which means mercy of Jesus. It is not an 
 unusual Christian name among the people, who seem to 
 delight in such names as much as our own Puritans did. 
 It is the privilege of the mattran to be the consecrator of 
 the patriarch. He has jurisdiction over three bishops 
 (Aboona) — Mar Yohannan, * Mar Sor Isu, f and Mar 
 Dink'ha, J They have no territorial designations, but are 
 known by their dynastic names ; and all four exercise their 
 office in the territory of Bisham-is-din, much harassed, I 
 fear, by their Koordish neighbours. 
 
 There are also the following bishops : — Mar Serghees 
 of Gelu, Mar Slewa of Gawar, Mar Isu, Mar Yavilah, 
 and Mar Yohnan of Berwar. In Oroomiah, Mar Goriel, 
 Mar Yohannan, and Mar Yohnan. Mar Yussuf of Djezerah 
 joined the American missionaries and married, and is dis- 
 owned by the Nestorian Church. There were also 
 formerly two other bishops in Djezerah, but their succes 
 sion has not been filled up. 
 
 This makes a total of twelve bishops, besides the 
 patriarch, in the actual exercise of their office. Vacant 
 
 ♦ John. t Servant of Jesus. J Brightness, or Epiphany. 
 
THE NBSTORIAN HIERAKCHY. 
 
 205 
 
 sees are tinder the care of the patriarch, who keeps them 
 in his own hand, or allots them to a neighbouring bishop 
 at his discretion. The bishops, I gathered, are maintained 
 partly by property, partly by tithes (which are voluntary), 
 but the amount of their incomes, I should think, is very 
 inconsiderable, even from the native basis of estimate. 
 
 THB ARCHDEACON OP TYARI 
 {From a Photograph.) 
 
 There are two archdeacons — one in the Tyari district, 
 one in that of Tehoma. The accompanying woodcut is a 
 portrait of the Archdeacon of Tyari. 
 
 The number of priests (kasha), as collected from the 
 statistics given in an appendix, is nineteen ; but the list 
 is perhaps not quite complete. In their appointment, in 
 
206 CHBISTIANS UNDEE THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 case of a vacancy in any village church, the malek of the 
 village and the principal people nominate a man to the 
 bishop, who consecrates. Any one is eligible to the office ; 
 but practically, in the majority of cases, it is one of a 
 priestly family, who is trained for and elected to the 
 pastorate of a village. The patriarch has also the right 
 to consecrate a priest, without cure, at his discretion. 
 
 Many of the village churches are endowed with a 
 field or vineyard, part of whose produce is paid to the 
 priest. He also receives voluntary offerings, and some 
 trifling fees for tuition. Some few of the churches have a 
 larger amount of property, which is farmed to a serder 
 (guardian, warden). The patriarch nominates the serder, 
 receiving a present ; the serder takes charge of the repairs 
 of the church and the cost of Divine worship. He, of 
 course, makes a handsome profit out of his holding, and 
 only a portion of the profit of the church lands goes to the 
 maintenance of the priest. 
 
 The ecclesiastical revenues of both priests and deacons 
 are quite insufficient for their maintenance, and they all 
 practise some secular employment also — the priests, I 
 think, almost universally agricultural or pastoral employ- 
 ments only. 
 
 The order of deacons {shamasha) is a permanent and 
 numerous order, since a priest may not celebrate Holy 
 Communion without the assistance of a deacon. It is 
 probable that the number of deacons is at least equal to the 
 number of priests ; but there are often several deacons to 
 one church, so that there are probably considerably more 
 of the third order than of the second. 
 
 The deacons have a small share in the offerings made to 
 the church which they serve. 
 
 The minor offices of sub- deacon (hupat-diacona) and 
 reader {karuyah) are also recognised ; but since no one 
 was pointed out to me as a sub-deacon or reader I imagine 
 that they are practically obsolete. 
 
207 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BABBAN YONAN. 
 
 Many years ago I took a good deal of interest in the sub- 
 ject of the ancient hermits and recluses. I made some 
 researches into their history and wrote a couple of papers 
 upon them.* The picturesque externals of their life, and 
 especially the reUgious and psychological problems which 
 their inner life presented, attracted me greatly. I went out 
 of my way to see a man who had scooped himself out a sub- 
 terranean habitation and laid claim to the character of a 
 hermit on one of the hill-tops overhanging the Wye ; but 
 I came to the conclusion that he was simply trading on the 
 ignorant curiosity of neighbours and tourists. I paid a 
 visit also to a hermit living in an ancient hermitage scooped 
 out of a rocky hill-side, overlooking the Seine near Mantes ; 
 but though the hermitage was genuine and interesting, the 
 hermit I found was only an old peasant paid to Hve in the 
 hermitage in the day-time. 
 
 But here in Kochanes I was delighted to discover a 
 genuine example of the mediaeval hermit of the best type, 
 uniting in his own person the characters of man of learning, 
 poet, visionary, and prophet. 
 
 The patriarch had invited him, among the other notables 
 of the people, to visit us at Kochanes, and I heard a good 
 deal of him before he came, which greatly excited my 
 interest. 
 
 He used to live for some years in the little chamber 
 which I have described, adjoining the church of Kochanes, 
 * " Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages." Virtue & Co. 
 
208 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 then in a chamber beside the church of Asheetha ; now he 
 has removed to a kmd of hermitage up in the mountains, 
 where he lives a life of study, contemplation, and prayer. 
 He foretells the future, and the people believe that his 
 prophecies are fulfilled ; he sees visions ; he writes poems ; 
 he is esteemed the most learned man of the nation, and is 
 
 RABBAN TONAN. 
 {From a Photograph.) 
 
 held in great respect by all classes of the people. The 
 patriarch and several of the bishops have been his pupils. 
 I must give two of the stories they told me about him. 
 
 On one occasion while the Rabban was engaged in devo- 
 tion in church Satan appeared to him, and asked him why he 
 was always saying " Holy, holy, holy " to God ; he could not 
 make Him holy by saying it. He replied that God is holy, 
 
BABBAN YONAN. 209 
 
 and it is the duty of His creatures, and was his delight, to be 
 always praising Him as " Holy, holy, holy " ; whereupon 
 Satan fell upon him and beat him, and finally took him and 
 cast him on the flat roof of the church. Next morning when 
 the priests and people came to prayers they did not find 
 Rabban Yonan there before them as usual. They searched 
 the sanctuary, but he was not there. One mounted the 
 ladder to the roof, and there found him insensible, bruised, 
 and bloody, where Satan had flung him. 
 
 One day as he was travelling along the road a Mussulman 
 laid hold of him and made him carry his sack of flour. 
 Presently some Nestorians met them, and began to beat 
 the Mussulman for the indignity he had put upon their 
 Rabban. The Mussulman protested that he did not know 
 his sacred character, or he should not have done it, begged 
 his pardon, and would have resumed his sack ; but Rabban 
 Yonan interfered to prevent the beating, and persisted in 
 carrying the sack, saying such was the Gospel command, 
 " If a man compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." 
 
 The first sight of him was enough to give one confidence 
 in him as a transparently honest, single-minded man. He 
 is about thirty-five years old, with a pleasant face and un- 
 pretending manners, and nothing which would at first sight 
 make a stranger think him a remarkable person. 
 
 I have had the pleasure of several conversations with the 
 Rabban. At nineteen years of age, he told me, he made 
 the resolution to give up earthly labour and to give himself 
 to study, especially the study of Divine things. I ascer- 
 tained that he knew the history of St. Anthony and 
 Macarius, and had read the letters of Jerome on the ascetic 
 life, so that his asceticism is not entirely of native growth, 
 but runs upon the old lines. He told me, in perfect sim- 
 plicity and good faith, some of the visions he had had, and 
 interpreted one of them which he had three years ago as 
 relating to my visit to the Nestorians. 
 
 I do not feel at Uberty to give any particulars of an 
 
210 CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 interesting spiritual conversation we had together ; but I 
 may say that my whole intercourse with him left me with 
 a strong respect and liking for him. In studying the lives 
 of the old mystics I had often noticed the curious practical 
 shrewdness which formed a part of their mental character. 
 It was probably confidence in their shrewd sense, as well 
 as faith in their disinterestedness and rectitude, which 
 made their counsels so often sought by their contemporaries. 
 I was much interested ia noticing the same trait of cha- 
 racter in the Rabban. He was the first man who talked to 
 me of the mineral resources of the mountains, and the 
 possibihty of English capital and skill being applied to 
 their development, to the advantage of the Nestorian 
 people as well as of the English adventurers. In the last 
 sight of the recluse and visionary which rests on my 
 memory, he had a breech-loading English rifle to his 
 shoulder, and was glancing along the sights with the air of 
 a man who quite appreciated its merits. 
 
 The first inquiry which rises in the mind in studying 
 such cases is, (1) are these men impostors, and only pre- 
 tend to their abnormal experiences ? or, (2) are their 
 dreams and visions and prophecies real and divinely sent ? 
 or, (3) are the men honest, and believe that they see 
 visions, and have encounters with Satan, while it is all 
 unreal, and is owing to some special state of brain or 
 peculiarity of constitution ? 
 
 This is, perhaps, not the place to write down all the 
 thoughts which passed through my mind on the general 
 inquiry, as I lay under the shade of the church trees and 
 watched the Nestorian seer's intercourse with the people, 
 and studied the play of his countenance. I think I ought 
 here to limit myself to this special instance. 
 
 And first, I say again that Rabban Yonan is no im- 
 postor ; if my judgment is worth anything he is a single- 
 hearted, honest man. Secondly, I hesitate to believe in 
 the reality and Divine origin of his experiences, because I 
 
KABBAN TONAN. 211 
 
 think in all the cases I heard of there seemed nothing in 
 the history worthy of such a special Divine interposition. 
 Therefore, thirdly, I believe that Eabban Yonan is entu-ely 
 convinced of the truth of his visions and dreams, and all 
 the other remarkable things which he relates, but that 
 they are all subjective phenomena. I am not surprised 
 that a man who lives a solitary, ascetic, contemplative life, 
 like Rabban Yonan, should experience some uncommon 
 mental and spiritual phenomena. We all know what 
 strange thoughts sometimes pass through our minds with- 
 out our volition, and without any cause which we can 
 trace. I am not surprised that a solitary, ascetic, contem- 
 plative, who lives in the presence of God, and who is 
 entirely possessed with the truth that nothing happens 
 without God, should have strange involuntary thoughts 
 come into his mind, that they should be of a spiritual 
 character, that they should be so vividly impressed upon 
 his exalted mental state, that he should refer them to God 
 as the sender, and should consider them to be visions. 
 And in a lower and natural sense I should admit that they 
 come from God, and may, in that sense, be called 
 visions. I am not surprised that these visions should 
 sometimes take the shape of a transaction in which the 
 seer and other personse, human or spiritual, take an active 
 part, and that the seer should be convinced, beyond the 
 reach of argument, that the transaction was real ; when 
 dreams seem so real, and only the waking dispels the 
 illusion, is it so very strange that a waking dream should 
 seem still more real ? And since they take place in the 
 waking state there is nothing to rouse the dreamer, and 
 convince him that he has been in one of the phases of 
 that state in which the body lies quiescent and the senses 
 in abeyance, while the mind lives, unguided by the will, in 
 a subjective world which has no reality. 
 
 Will this account for the fact — I accept it as a fact — 
 that Rabban Yonan, having entered the church in the 
 
 p2 
 
212 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 eyening for prayer, was found next morning, without any 
 volition or consciousness of his own, on the roof of the 
 church, bruised and bloody ? I think the history of som- 
 nambuHsm will easily explain this, for there was a ladder 
 giving access to the roof. I fear I shall greatly shock 
 some of my Nestorian Mends should they read this, which 
 I shall regret ; and grieve good Rabban Yonan, which I 
 shall regret still more. But perhaps these are two reason? 
 the more why I should say it, with this addition for their 
 sakes, that I believe this is the view which will be taken by 
 the vast majority of English Christians, including the 
 wisest and most spiritually-minded among us. 
 
 The Rabban is a deacon of his Church, and took part 
 in the regular services of the church while I was there. 
 I have given a portrait of him from his photograph, which, 
 however, fails to give the right expression of simple good- 
 ness which was the usual expression of his features. 
 
218 
 
 BOUTH-WBST VIEW OP THE CHTJBCH OP K0CHANE8. 
 {From a Photograph.) 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE CHXJECH OF KOCHANES CHTJBCH FUENITUBE. 
 
 About the middle of the valley stands a picturesque group 
 of rocks, and on the largest of these the church of Kochanes 
 has been built. The old church, dedicated to Mart Mariana, 
 still stands a mile off up the valley, but unused and with 
 its roof partly fallen in. The present church was erected 
 about seventy or eighty years ago, and is dedicated to Mar 
 Shimoon, the name-saint of the patriarchal family. It is 
 a plain, substantial stone structure, but its situation, 
 and some peculiarities of its construction, give it con- 
 siderable picturesque effect, of which the reader can judge 
 for himself from the accompanying engraving. 
 
214 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Let us first walk round the outside. The rocks about it 
 are chiefly at the east end, picturesque in form, with nooks 
 between them, and usually a goat with her little one 
 leaping about them, or sheltering from the sun on a ledge 
 of rock under the church wall. A grove of fine trees shelters 
 the church on the north side, and several of the channels 
 through which the irrigation of the land is conducted run 
 among the trees, and give the grove the pleasant addition 
 — tenfold more pleasant in these hot countries — of the 
 sight and sound of running water. The gi'ound slopes 
 rapidly down from the south side of the church into the 
 deep ravine. On the north, west, and south sides are a 
 number of graves with a simple slab of stone laid over each 
 of them, or a simple unhewn stone set up at the head. 
 Under the west wall of the church is a row of graves of the 
 patriarchal family, with gravestones shaped with the axe, 
 and with a cross or an ornamental device incised upon 
 them. No enclosure marks the hmits of a graveyard, only 
 the graves are clustered round the church. The ground 
 was sprinkled over with pretty wild pinks, which came 
 into bloom during our stay. It is the west end of the 
 church which is represented in our woodcut. The reader 
 will observe in the foreground the footpath leading down 
 from the village, and on the left-hand side of the picture, 
 part of the grove of trees. The ladder which afi'ords access 
 to the church door is plainly seen, and on the shelf of rock 
 beside it stand two men, who give a scale by which the 
 dimensions of the building may be estimated. The extent 
 of the church, as distinguished from the courtyai"d on the 
 right and the appendage on the left, is easily seen by the 
 different texture and colour of the masonry. The only access 
 to the church is by means of this rude ladder. From its top 
 round the visitor must make a high step over the threshold, 
 while at the same time he bends his head low to avoid the 
 lintel, for the door is only three feet high. To a stranger 
 the ascent and descent to and from church are not without 
 
THE CHURCH OF KOCHANES CHURCH FURNITURE. 215 
 
 some real risk of a false step and a fall ; but tlie people, 
 accustomed to mount to bed on the housetops by such 
 ladders, walk up and come down face foremost without 
 needing to steady themselves with even a touch of the 
 hand. Having effected a safe landing without falling 
 off the top round of the ladder, or knocking his head 
 against the hard lintel of the door, the visitor will find 
 himself in the courtyard, lettered e in the accompanying 
 plan. The nearer half of this courtyard is protected by a 
 timber roof, and forms a porch, d, open to the east ; its 
 two walls, w and s, are pierced with several small windows, 
 which overlook the approaches. At the further end of the 
 court is a recess, f, in the thick wall, within which is 
 placed a little altar, and behind it a small window, so that 
 this end of the court forms a little open-air chapel, in 
 which the daily prayers are often said in summer-time. 
 It is not unusual among the Christians of the East for 
 prayers, especially evening prayers, to be said out of doors 
 in front of the church. On the south of this chapel are a 
 few stone steps, which give access to the upper floor of 
 the building, g. It is a building of two stories, forming a 
 little house, such as we have adjoining many of our 
 English churches. With us these chambers were in- 
 habited by a chantry priest or a recluse, and this little 
 house at Kochanes was first inhabited by one of the 
 patriarchs, then it was the usual dwelling of Rabban 
 Yonan, now it is unoccupied. There is a curious access 
 to the lower story of this house by a trap -do or in the floor 
 of the porch at k, which leads to a passage under the 
 south side of the courtyard, which I have no doubt is 
 really the space between the sloping south side of the 
 rock and the wall which has been built up on that side to 
 render the church inaccessible. The wall between d and g 
 is only a low parapet wall, over which we look into the 
 ravine and up the opposite hiU-side. We take off our 
 shoes in the porch before entering the church, pausing a 
 
216 
 
 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 moment to examine the bas-reliefs with which its lintel 
 is ornamented. The ornaments consist of a central cross 
 of knot work, and side ornaments of the same style, very 
 like the carvings on a Saxon churchyard cross. Again, the 
 visitor must step over the high threshold, and bend his head 
 low under the lintel, for the door is only three feet four inches 
 high, and he will find himself in the inside of the church, 
 in almost darkness, for the only windows are a cross loop, 
 high up in the west gable, and two small lancets in the 
 sacristy. "When his eyes have adjusted themselves to the 
 
 PLAN OP THE CHURCH OF KOCHANES. 
 
 twilight he will dimly see the interior, which we will 
 try to describe by help of the accompanying plan. 
 
 The church is di\ided into two unequal chambers by a 
 thick wall, a a ; the western chamber is the nave, a. The 
 smaller chamber is subdivided by a screen wall six or seven 
 feet high into a sacrarium, b, and a sacristy, c. The 
 whole interior is covered in by a plain stone- vaulted roof, 
 divided into bays by broad stone arches carried on pilasters. 
 The dividing wall is pierced by a narrow chancel arch, 
 
THE OHTJBCH OF KOOHANES CHURCH FXmNITimE. 217 
 
 placed centrally with regard to the sacrarium and altar, 
 and therefore not in the centre of the east wall of the 
 nave. A small square door at the south leads into the 
 sacristy ; the chancel arch and the door are ascended by 
 three steps. Over the altar is a canopy of stone con- 
 sisting of a pyramidal roof of stone carried by round 
 arches on four pillars. The structure almost fills the 
 sacrarium, and is almost unseen from the nave. Behind 
 the altar is a recess which is empty. The sacristy serves 
 also as the baptistry. The font at i is narrow, but propor- 
 tionally deep ; the chUd to be baptized, by trine immersion, 
 is thrice let down into it as into a miniature weU. In the 
 nave are three tables or altars at rf e/: d is called the 
 altar of prayers, the anthem books, &c., are placed upon 
 it, and a rude chandelier ; / is the altar of the Gospels, 
 and a copy of the Gospels lies upon it wrapped in a cloth, 
 with a cross laid upon it ; another small table at e has 
 also a cross laid upon it. There are no seats in the nave ; 
 no one ever sits down during Divine service ; a cross- 
 handled staff is sometimes used by aged and infirm people, 
 upon which they lean when tired. At the west end of 
 the church is a narrow platform about four feet high; 
 under it are buried twelve of the patriarchs, and a begin- 
 ning of a second row, on the top of the first, is made at its 
 north end, where the late patriarch Hes buried. At k is 
 a stone stair, which gives access to a small door high up 
 in the north wall, through which is entered the chamber h. 
 This is an affix to the church, where the bread for the 
 Holy Eucharist is prepared and baked. There is a way 
 out of this chamber into the space between the groined 
 roof and the flat external roof of the church. 
 
 Looking at the elevations of the interior, we see that 
 the side walls are divided into bays by the pilasters which 
 carry the broad groining ribs, and each bay is ornamented 
 with sunk paneUing in two stages. The chancel arch is 
 surmounted by a string course, carried in the shape of a 
 
218 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 stepped gable, and the whole is enclosed in a semicircular 
 arch which spans the entire east wall. There is a niche 
 on each side of the chancel arch. A curtain hangs across 
 the arch, which is drawn across it at certain times of the 
 eucharistic service. 
 
 The Instrumenta are simple, and nearly all modern ; what- 
 ever the church had which was valuable was carried off, and 
 the rest destroyed by Bedr Khan Beg thirty years ago. The 
 altar is, I presume, of stone, of small size ; it is entirely 
 covered with a vestment of white silk (?), in which a pattern 
 of silver wire is inwoven. Two candlesticks stand upon it, 
 and a cross is placed in the recess behind it. The altar 
 is so situated that it would not be possible for the celebrant 
 to stand anywhere except in front of it in his ministration. 
 
 The chalice is a large semicircular bowl, without the 
 tall stem and knob and spreading base of our English 
 type ; the paten a large plain salver ; both of silver. 
 
 The bronze censer, with rudely-designed scriptural figures 
 embossed upon it, is an antique, found some years ago on 
 the site of a church ; it stands, when not in use, on a dwarf 
 pillar in the south-east angle of the nave. A rude lamp- 
 stand with several branches, surmounted by the figure of a 
 bird, doubtless intended for the Holy Dove, stands upon the 
 altar of prayers, but seems to be seldom used ; the clergy 
 commonly use rolls of thin wax taper, held in the hand, 
 when they need a light by which to read gospel or anthem. 
 The lectern is (as is usually the case in Eastern churches) 
 a very simple wooden stand, like a broad low office stool, 
 with the top V shaped so that the book lies only partly 
 open upon it. A long staff standing in a corner of the 
 sacrarium with an ivory crutch handle looked like a patri- 
 archal staff. The service books were numerous, none very 
 old, but the most modem -finely written in a large bold 
 black character, exactly in the style of the gi-and calligraphy 
 of the ninth and tenth centuries. Every book was wrapped 
 in a cloth covering to protect it from dust. 
 
THE CHtTRCH OF KOCHANES CHUBCH FUENITURE. 219 
 
 The vestments, I think, have a special interest. The 
 earliest illustration of the use of the chasuble as a clerical 
 vestment is of the early part of the sixth century ; it after- 
 wards came into general use both in the Greek and Roman 
 churches. There is good reason to believe that previously 
 to this period the pallium was used by the bishops and 
 priests as the upper vestment, while the deacons wore 
 only the white tunic and orarium. It will be remembered 
 that the breach between the Nestorians and the rest of the 
 Church took place about the middle of the fifth century ; 
 and it is interesting to find that the Nestorian clergy at 
 the present day wear the pallium and not the chasuble. 
 The cope, which the canons of 1603 require the celebrant 
 to wear in cathedrals, resembles the pallium, though perhaps 
 the framers of the canon were not aware that they were 
 making this near approach to primitive usage. Some of 
 our readers wiU be glad of a more particular account of 
 these Nestorian vestments. The deacon wears an alb, 
 which they call soudra, shirt (soudra d'oumra, " shirt of 
 the Church ") ; it is shorter and fuller than the mediaeval 
 shape, with several red or purple crosses sewn upon the 
 breast and back. The alb is girded with a narrow blue 
 and white girdle, "zounara," which is regarded as an 
 essential part of the clerical vestments. He wears also an 
 " ourara " (orarium), stole, of the same material as the 
 girdle, crossed over the right shoulder, and only long 
 enough for the ends to be tucked inside the girdle. The 
 priest wears the alb, girdle, and the stole over both 
 shoulders, and crossed over the breast ; at the celebration 
 of the H0I3' Eucharist he wears also a " chadra " (tent), 
 which is a large square of white linen or calico, with red 
 or purple crosses sewed at the upper angles. It is thrown 
 over the shoulders, and held together in front by one hand ; 
 at certain places in the service he raises it from his 
 shoulders and places it so as to cover the head ; at other 
 places he takes the corners in bis hands and stretches it 
 
220 CHRISTIANS UNDBB THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 out to its full width so as to form a kind of screen between 
 himself and the people. The only difference between the 
 vestments of the priest and bishop is, that the latter wears 
 a long stole, not crossed on the breast, reaching down to 
 the ankles. On entering a house, a man keeps on his 
 turban but takes off his shoes, but the clergy officiating 
 at Holy Communion are bareheaded, but retain their 
 shoes. 
 
 The ordinary dress of the clergy is like that of the 
 laity, except that the clergy often — not universally — wear 
 a turban of dark colour; they even wear the hanjiar like 
 the laity. I called to mind that the mediaeval English 
 canons are perpetually forbidding the clergy to wear 
 clothes hke other people, and especially raihng against 
 their wearing the baselard or dagger, which every laymen 
 had hanging to his girdle. I observed that both priests 
 and laymen laid aside their hanjiars in the porch when 
 they went into the church. 
 
221 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 DIVINE SERVICE. 
 
 Dr. Badger in his book, " The Nestorians and their Litur- 
 gies," and in a pamphlet recently published, has translated 
 the Liturgies of the Nestorian Church. They are of the 
 family of the Liturgy of St. James, and present many 
 points of interest. I shall not attempt an analysis ; it 
 would be tedious and uninteresting to the general reader, 
 it would be insufficient for the student, but both may be 
 interested in a description of the external aspect of the 
 service. 
 
 I did not actually communicate with the Nestorians. 
 We may hope that formal explanations may, some day 
 soon, relieve them of the imputation of heresy which has 
 so long severed them from the other branches of the 
 Church ; but in the meantime it was not my duty to act 
 as though those explanations had already been happily 
 made and accepted. But I did " assist " at their worship, 
 and allow myself to be put into a conspicuous place in 
 church, as an evidence of sympathy with these our fellow- 
 Christians. 
 
 Justin Martyr tells us that the primitive Christians 
 were accustomed to assemble for their worship before 
 dawn; and it was yet dark when the beating of the 
 board, which answers the purpose of a bell to the Eastern 
 churches, warned us to rise, and the dawn was only 
 gradually brightening when we climbed the rude entrance 
 to the church. A group was already gathered in the 
 porch with the patriarch in the midst. We gravely saluted 
 
222 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 one another, put off our shoes, and entered the church. 
 The patriarch took his stand at the east end of the nave 
 beside the north wall. 
 
 The priests and deacons stood in front of the people. 
 The men nearly filled the nave ; the women stood on the 
 south side. Every one as he came in kissed the cross on 
 the desk before the chancel steps, and that on the book 
 of the Gospels, and the patriarch's hand, and then fell 
 back into his place. 
 
 The service was performed by a priest and two deacons. 
 There was a good deal more of moving from place to 
 place and of ceremonial than we English Churchmen are 
 accustomed to. The service was chanted to a "tone' which 
 to our ears was very strange and unmusical ; but then 
 Nestorians, who have attended some of our most musical 
 churches, have found our chanting equally unpleasing to 
 them. One of the most curious things in the matter of 
 the service is that the deacon every now and then, like 
 the chorus of a Greek play, comments on the progress of 
 the service, even whUe the priest is still going on with it, 
 and tells the people what appropriate thoughts and feel- 
 ings they ought to be entertaining. For example, before 
 the anaphora, while the priest is silently praying, the 
 deacon says : " With reverence stand and behold the 
 things tlaat are about to be performed. . . . Let none 
 dare to speak, and whosoever prays let him pray mentally, 
 and let all in fear and silence stand and pray. Peace be 
 with us." 
 
 And when the priest signs the elements with the sign of 
 the cross, the deacon explains the symbolism : " With the 
 enlightened eyes of the mind behold the meekness, 
 humility, and lowliness of Christ our Saviour, and with 
 the thought of pure intention let us discern and see the 
 Son, the only-begotten of the Father, led away to the 
 passion of the cross, and let us pray. Peace be with us." 
 Again, in the middle of a long prayer the deacon says : 
 
DIVINE SERVICE. 223 
 
 " Lift up your sight to the height of the highest above, 
 and behold with the eyes of your minds, and contemplate 
 that which is being done at this time. The seraphim 
 stand in awe before the throne of the glory of Christ, and 
 with one loud voice sing unceasing alleluias and praises 
 to the body which is laid out, and to the cup which is 
 mingled, whilst the people pray, and the priest intercedes 
 for all the world ; and mentally say, Peace be with us." 
 
 Again, while the priest is invoking the descent of the 
 Holy Spirit on the elements, the deacon comments on it : 
 " How awful is this moment, and how dreadful is this 
 hour, in which the priest invokes the Spirit. ... In 
 stillness and in fear, and with trembling and amazement 
 stand and pray. Peace be with us." 
 
 At the administration, the priest takes his stand on the 
 south side of the chancel arch, a (sub) -deacon concealed 
 by the curtain holds the paten for him ; the deacon with 
 the cup stands on the north side of the arch ; the people 
 come up, one by one, and communicate standing ; the 
 priest gives the bread usually into the mouth, sometimes 
 into the hand, saying, " The Body of our Lord, to the pure 
 behever for the forgiveness of sins ;" then the communicant 
 crosses to the other side, where the deacon holds the great 
 chalice-bowl in both hands with a napkin covering his 
 hands, and says, "The precious Blood, to the pure believer 
 for the forgiveness of sins, a spiritual feast unto life ever- 
 lasting." The communicant holds the long end of the 
 napkin under his chin, drinks, wipes his mouth with the 
 napkin, and retires. Some kiss the hands of priest and 
 deacon— the hands which give them the heavenly food. 
 First, the priests and deacons communicate, then the men 
 and boys, then the women and girls ; the children were 
 communicated in the bread only ; but I think the bread 
 given to them is sprinkled with a few drops of wine. While 
 the distribution was proceeding a group of deacons round 
 the altar of prayers chanted anthems. 
 
224 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 A few words about the elements. The bread is made 
 of wheat flour ; the corn is preferred which has been 
 gleaned by the girls ; it is ground in a hand-mill ; it is 
 made with leaven ; and the Nestorians have a tradition on 
 the subject, which makes them regard the question as of 
 the most sacred and solemn importance. The story says 
 that as our Lord went up out of the Jordan after His 
 baptism, John Baptist collected in a phial some of the 
 water which was dripping from His sacred body ; at his 
 death he gave it to his disciple John, afterwards the apostle. 
 At the Last Supper our Lord, the story says, gave to each 
 disciple a loaf, but to John He gave two loaves, and put it 
 into his heart to eat one but to preserve the other, that it 
 might serve as leaven to be retained in the Church for per- 
 petual commemoration. When John stood by the cross 
 and saw the blood and water issue from the Lord's pierced 
 side, he took the phial of the water of baptism from his 
 bosom and added to it of the water from His side, and he 
 took the loaf and dyed it in the precious blood. And 
 when the disciples went forth to convert the nations, they 
 took John's loaf of the Last Supper, of which the Lord had 
 said, " This is My body," dyed as it was in the blood 
 from His side, and ground it into powder, and mixed it 
 with flour and salt, and divided it among them to serve as 
 leaven for the body and blood of Christ in the Church. 
 Also they took of the water of Baptism and of the wounded 
 side, and mixed with it oil of unction, and divided this 
 also to be a leaven for baptism. 
 
 Whether the Nestorians of the present day believe this 
 legend, and beUeve that they possess this sacred leaven, I 
 do not know ; but as a matter of fact the leaven with 
 which the bread for the Holy Communion is made is 
 handed on from sacrament to sacrament, and the bread is 
 prepared by the clergy, and made entirely within the 
 precincts of the church. The sacrament is reserved for 
 the sick : I believe it is not placed in a pyx, or ciborium, 
 
DIVINE SERVICE. 225 
 
 but is folded in a cloth and placed in some convenient 
 place in the sacristy. The bread is made into circular 
 cakes about two and a half inches across by quarter of an 
 inch thick, with a device stamped upon them. They show 
 a similar reverent care about the other element also. I 
 was sauntering through the valley with one of the 
 patriarch's people on Saturday evening, when one of the 
 priests overtook and passed us with a pitcher in his hand. 
 After some time we met him returning with his pitcher 
 full. On asking what he had been so far to procure, I 
 ■was told that he had been to a spring, which was reckoned 
 the purest in the valley, to fetch water with which to mix 
 the cup for the morrow's sacrament. 
 
 The Eucharist is usually celebrated only on great fes- 
 tivals, but it is usual for the whole congregation to com- 
 municate on those occasions. After the service is over 
 there is a customary salutation, " May your Eucharist be 
 blessed to you." 
 
 After their service was over the patriarch allowed me 
 to celebrate Holy Communion for our own party at the 
 same altar, and many of the people remained to witness 
 our ritual, and no doubt to show their sympathy with us. 
 One of their deacons, a near relative of the patriarch's, 
 kindly gave me such help as he could ; e.g., without my 
 asking it he administered the chalice, while I said the 
 words of administration ; he thereby saved our rite from 
 one apparent defect in Nestorian eyes, for with them the 
 priest does not celebrate without the assistance of a 
 deacon. 
 
 Prayers are said in church every morning and evening, 
 and I frequently assisted at evening prayer. The clergy 
 at these offices wear no clerical vestments. The office was 
 always said by the patriarch himself standing in his usual 
 place. The service is short ; it seemed to consist of the 
 chanting of some psalms, with a brief lesson and a few 
 prayers. As the people came in they kissed the cross, 
 
226 OHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the Gospels, the patriarch's hand ; at the conclusion the 
 patriarch gave his blessing. There was always a fair con- 
 gregation. 
 
 Here is a translation of one of the " morning praises" 
 which forms part of the daily prayer. The former part 
 is chanted antiphonally in semi-choirs, the latter part 
 being said by the whole choir. The group of Nestorians 
 who translated it to me seemed impressed with a sense of 
 its beauty : — 
 
 " 1st semi-choir. — At the dawn of the day we praise 
 Thee, Lord ; Thou art the Redeemer of all creatures ; 
 give us by Thy mercy a peaceful day, and give us remission 
 of our sins. 
 
 " 2nd semi-choir. — Cut not off our hope ; shut not 
 Thy door against our faces, and cease not Thy care over 
 us, God, according to our worthiness reward us not. 
 Thou alone knowest our weakness. 
 
 " 1st semi-choir. — Scatter, Lord, in the world love, 
 peace, and unity. Raise up (righteous) kings, priests, and 
 judges. Reconcile the princes,* heal the sick, keep the 
 whole, and forgive the sins of all men. 
 
 " 2nd semi-choir. — Li the way that we are going may 
 Thy grace keep us, Lord, as it kept the child David 
 from Saul ; give us Thy mercy according as we are 
 pressing on, that we may attain to peace according to 
 Thy will. 
 
 " 1st semi-choir. — The grace which kept the prophet 
 Moses in the sea, and Daniel in the pit, and by which the 
 companions of Ananias were kept in the fire, by that grace 
 deliver us from evil. 
 
 " Whole choir. — Li the morning we all arise ; we all 
 worship the Father, we praise the Son, we acknowledge 
 the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Father, and the mercy 
 of the Son, and the hovering of the Holy Spirit the Third 
 Person, be our help every day. Our help is in Thee. In 
 * i.e.. Give peace to the nations. 
 
DIVINE SERVICE. 22? 
 
 Thee, our true Physician, is our hope. Put the medicine 
 of Thy mercy on our wounds, and bind up our braises 
 that we be not lost. Without Thy help we are powerless 
 to keep Thy commandments. Christ, who helpest those 
 who ftdfil Thy wUl, keep Thy worshippers. We ask with 
 sighing, we beseech Thy mercy, we ask forgiveness from 
 that merciful One who opens His door to all who turn 
 to Him. Every day I promise Thee that to-morrow I 
 will repent ; all my days are past and gone, my faults 
 BtiU remain. Christ, have mercy on me, have mercy 
 on me." 
 
 I may also give here the translation of part of the funeral 
 service. The burial service of the Nestorians is very full 
 and dramatic, and there is a separate service for priests, 
 deacons, laymen, women, and children. Dr. Badger trans- 
 lates the service for priests as a specimen. The following 
 anthem to be said while the corpse is being put iuto the 
 grave difiers a little from that which he has given. It 
 is in the form of a dialogue between the newly dead 
 and those whom he is about to join in Hades and the 
 moui'ners : 
 
 The newly dead. — " Hail, my brethren and friends who 
 sleep. Open the door that I may enter in and see your 
 ranks. 
 
 Those in Hades. — " Come, enter, and see how many 
 giants are sleeping here, and have been made dust and 
 rust and worms, in the bosom of Sheol. 
 
 " Come, enter and see, child of death, the race of 
 Adam ; see and gaze where thy kind dwells. 
 
 " Come, enter and see the abundance of the bones and 
 their commingling. The bone of the king and the bone of 
 the servant are not separated. 
 
 " Come, enter and see the great corruption we aro 
 dwelling in. 
 
 The mourners. — " Wait for the Lord, who will come and 
 raise you by His right hand." 
 
 q2 
 
228 CHBISTIANS TTNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 The second Sunday we passed at Kochanes waff 
 the octave of Pentecost according to the Nestorian 
 calendar. After breakfast the two boys, Isa and Kaiser, 
 came into our room in their shirts and trousers and wet 
 to the skin. We found it was the custom for people to 
 sprinlde one another with water on this day, in memory, 
 no doubt, of the baptism of the 3,000 converts on the 
 great Pentecost, and we took our part in the observances 
 of the day by giving the boys a fresh sprinkling. When 
 the patriarch and his party paid us their visit a little 
 after, we found that the custom was not, as such old 
 customs are with us, confined to the young people, but all 
 ranks and classes, as it used to be with ns, took their 
 share in them. Bishops sprinkled bishops, and Mar 
 Serghees and I sprinkled one another. 
 
 This set us talking about other similar customs, and I 
 took down those which were told me in answer to my 
 inquiries. At Christmas the children carry a garland to 
 church ; it is placed on the table at the chancel step 
 during Divine service ; afterwards the children dress up 
 one of the girls as a bride (no doubt representing the 
 Blessed Virgin) and go round to the houses of the vil- 
 lagers, who give them some small present — not in money, 
 but in kind ; the children, lastly, make a feast upon the 
 things thus givfin them. 
 
 On Palm Sunday branches of a tree which at that time 
 of year has handsome red branches, are blessed by the 
 priest and distributed to the people, who carry them home ; 
 each makes his branch into a ring and hangs it up in the 
 house till next year. There is no procession, as there used 
 to be with us. 
 
 At the beginning of Lent some one is dressed up to per- 
 sonify Lent (Soma). He goes from house to house in the 
 village, and at each there is a Uttle dialogue. " Who are 
 you ? " "I am Soma," &c. The point of the custom is 
 that " Soma " recites the rule of fasting. Some fast till 
 
DIVINE SEBVICE. 229*^ 
 
 evening, some only till dinner ; and if any one eats before 
 then Soma will come and cut off the band which holds 
 the forbidden food. So when the children get hungry and 
 impatient for food they are silenced by the threat that 
 Soma will come and cut off their hand if they eat before 
 the proper time. 
 
280 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 Into the subject of the doctrines held by the Nestorian 
 Church Dr. Badger has inquired with all the advantage of 
 a knowledge of the language, a study of their literature, 
 and some years' residence among them. He has devoted 
 one volume of his valuable work* to a detailed comparison 
 of the Thirty-nine Articles of our Church with statements 
 in the Nestorian service books and the writings of ap- 
 proved Nestorian writers, and has shown the large surface 
 over which we run parallel with them, and the places in 
 which we differ. To that volume I refer those who desire 
 full information on this important subject ; a brief state- 
 ment of results will be enough for my present purpose. 
 
 In constitution. — " They have the apostolic organisation 
 of the Church in a threefold ministry, which has, beyond 
 question, descended in an unbroken succession from the 
 earliest ages to the present day. We note as points of 
 difference from the constitution of our own Church — in 
 some respects perhaps for the better, in others for the 
 worse — the authority of the patriarch more autocratic 
 than that of our archbishops ; the hereditary succession to 
 sees, as against our royal nomination to them ; the popular 
 election of a priest, in place of our system of nomination 
 by a patron, who theoretically represents the interests of 
 the people ; the existence of a permanent order of deacons, 
 as against our lamentable deficiency in this respect. 
 
 In doctrine. — " They hold a special presence of Christ in 
 * " The Nestorians and their Rituals." 
 
DOOTBINES. 231 
 
 the sacrament of the Eucharist, but do not adopt the 
 Roman definition of the mode of the Presence. They 
 administer in both kinds, and with leavened bread. 
 
 " They have not exalted the Blessed Virgin Mary beyond 
 the status of other eminent saints of the Church, and 
 hesitate to call her Theotokos without explanation of the 
 sense in which they allow the title. 
 
 " In their more modern service books are invocations of 
 saints, which, if I am rightly informed, are absent from 
 their more ancient books, and the ideas of the intercession 
 of the saints, and the consequent worship of the saints, 
 enter very little into the popular religion. 
 
 " They believe in an intermediate state of the departed, 
 in which the faithful are capable of being benefited by 
 the prayers of the Church, and they consequently pray 
 for the dead, in the sense in which the primitive Church 
 did so; but they do not believe in purgatory and its 
 corollaries. 
 
 " They make use of confession for edification ; but they 
 do not insist upon it as necessary, and practically, I 
 believe, it is seldom used. 
 
 " I conversed frequently with several of their most 
 learned people on the question on which Nestorius was 
 condemned by the Council of Ephesus. They define that 
 they hold in the Unity of Christ, two natures, and two 
 knumi, in one parsopa. They explain that knuma has not 
 the same meaning as our word person, but means rather 
 essence ; while they say that the word parsopa does ex- 
 press nearly that which we mean by person. Their state- 
 ments left on my mind a strong persuasion that they 
 maintained the assertion of two knumi only because they 
 considered it necessary to guard the truth of the whole 
 and perfect humanity of Christ; and that the modem 
 Nestorians at all events believe that there are two whole 
 and perfect natures, the Divine and human natures, united, 
 not by confusion of substance, but by unity of parsopa, in 
 
282 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 one Christ. One of their service books has the two phrases, 
 ' The Divine Nature clothed itself with the human nature;' 
 * There is one Son only, not a [Divine] Son and a [human] 
 Son, making two.' " — Br. Badger, ii. 41. 
 
 Dr. Badger says on this subject, in a paper read at the 
 Church Conference, Liverpool, 1869, and printed in the 
 Colonial Church Chronicle for 1869, page 416, &c. : — 
 
 " We should bear in mind when approaching the sub- 
 ject of Nestorianism, that [the great opponent of Nestorius] 
 Cyril had, as Hooker says, 'avouched' in his writings 
 against the Arians, that ' the Word, or Wisdom of God, 
 hath but one nature, which is eternal, and whereunto He 
 assumed flesh'; which declaration, although not so meant, 
 was ' in process of time so taken, as though it had been 
 his drift to teach that even as in the body and soul, so in 
 Christ, God and man made but one nature,'* — an error 
 which was subsequently condemned by the Council of 
 Chalcedon. Bearing these things in mind, and also the 
 different uses which conflicting theologians had made of 
 the almost cognate terms ova la and {moarda-is, there is 
 a, priori ground for behoving that Nestorius's formula of 
 ' two natures and two vTroardafis' in Christ was designed 
 to combat the fearful error, which obtained so extensively 
 afterwards, of the confusion of the Divine and human 
 natures in our Blessed Lord. Nestorius denied to the 
 last that he held two distinct persons in Christ ; and 
 Basnage, La Croze, Thomas a Jesu, and Mosheim, have 
 defended him against the charge of heresy. 
 
 " But the question which more immediately concerns 
 us is, whether the so-called Nestorians of the present day 
 hold the heresy attributed to Nestorius ? My own solemn 
 conviction, after a careful study of their standard theology, 
 is that they do not. Fortunately, some of the most emi- 
 nent divines have come to the same conclusion, since even 
 Assemani, as Gibbon justly remarks, * can hardly discern 
 * Book V. chap. 52. 
 
DOCTRINES. 233 
 
 the guilt and error of the Nestorians ; * and our own learned 
 Richard Field, writing two centuries and a half ago, says : 
 'But they that are now named Nestorians acknowledge 
 that Christ was perfect God and perfect man from the first 
 moment of His conception, and that Mary may rightly be 
 said to be the mother of the Son of God, or of the Eternal 
 Word, but think it not fit to call her the Mother of God, 
 lest they might be thought to imagine that she conceived 
 and bare the Divine nature of the three Persons — the 
 name of God containing Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' f 
 
 " That, I beg to remark by the way, is the main argument 
 of the so-called Nestorians against the use of the word 
 BfOTOKos, which, rendered in Syriac into ' Mother of God,' 
 is much stronger than the Greek title, or its Latin equiva- 
 lent Deipara, implying that the Blessed Virgin was as 
 much the parent of the Divinity as of the humanity of 
 Christ. Field then goes on to say : ' Neither do these 
 Christians so say there are two persons in Christ, as if the 
 human nature did actually exist in itself, but only to imply 
 that there is a potential aptness in it so to exist, if it were 
 left unto itself. Yet the form of words which they use is 
 not to be allowed, for it savoureth of heresy, and took 
 beginning from heresy.' Therein, also, I fully concur 
 with the profound divine, and I have every reason to 
 believe that in the event of any response on our part to 
 their overtures for intercommunion with us, the so-called 
 Nestorians would forego their present formula, and adopt 
 that of the Council of Ephesus." 
 
 Besides formal doctrines, it is right to say there is a wide 
 region of pious opinions and traditionary practices into 
 which I do not enter. It may be taken for granted that a 
 people with the traditions of centuries still undisturbed, 
 have picked up, and still retain, a good many unfounded 
 opinions and superstitious practices. They are more or 
 
 * " Decline and Fall," chap. 47, note, 
 t "Of the Church," Book III. chap. 1. 
 
234 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 less conscious of this, and are not unwilling to hear what 
 the Church of England has to say on the subject. If I 
 rightly appreciate their attitude of mind, they are proud 
 of their ecclesiastical history, and tenacious of their ancient 
 customs, and have far too much sense and spirit to be 
 willing to put their Church into the hands of any other 
 people — Roman, English, or American — to reform for 
 them ; but they are conscious of the need of some reforms, 
 and are willing to learn, and not unwilling to make such 
 reforms as shall commend themselves to their own reason 
 and conscience. They have considerable confidence in 
 the English Church, and are desirous of receiving its 
 counsel and assistance. 
 
285 
 
 CHAPTER XXin. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The system of education among the Nestorians is the 
 same which, as we have seen, exists among the other 
 Christian bodies of the East, the Armenians and Jacobites, 
 and is the same in principle as that of the Mohammedans. 
 It consists chiefly in learning the sacred books by rote in 
 an obsolete language. The Nestorian scholars are set to 
 learn the Psalter and the Gospels in old Syriac, and if 
 they stay at school long enough they learn to translate 
 these books into the modern language. But the children 
 only go to school for the winter months, and cease to go 
 at all after eleven or twelve, so that the majority of them 
 on leaving school can neither read nor write. Usually only 
 the priests can read. There are a few men, however, with 
 a natural taste for learning, who educate themselves ; but 
 the book learning of these seems to be almost limited to 
 their own ancient literature, whose remains are chiefly 
 theological. 
 
 One evening when Benjamin and Nathan, the Aboona 
 of Gelu, and Shamasha Johannan, the patriarch's cousin, 
 were with us the conversation turned on astronomical 
 subjects. We found that their notions were the primi- 
 tive notions, that the earth is round, but flat like a mill- 
 stone, and stands still while the heavens move round it. 
 Mar Serghees adduced some of the old Scripture argu- 
 ments, " God made the round world so fast that it can- 
 not be moved," &c. Thinking to approach the subject 
 from another side, I asked what caused the changes of 
 
286 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the moon, Johannan answered, " God made it so." I 
 remembered Galileo, and did not imperil my character for 
 orthodoxy by any further argument. 
 
 Yet they are a quick, intelligent people, quite capable 
 of a high degree of cultivation. Chess is sometimes 
 taken as a test of mental power ; we played with several 
 of them, and had the pleasure to be well beaten by them, 
 the servants even looking on at the game with eager 
 interest. They have the facility of acquiring languages, 
 which seems to be common to Eastern people. Many of 
 them know Koordish and Turkish as well as Syriac. 
 Our interpreter knew something of English, German, and 
 Russian besides. One Nestorian on a visit here, whom I 
 found a very intelligent and agreeable companion, knows 
 twelve languages — Syriac ancient and modem, Persian, 
 ancient and modem, Turkish, Koordish, Arabic, Latin, 
 Italian, French, English, and Russian, He has lived in 
 Teheran, and dresses in modem European costume ; but 
 his brother, who is here among the Tehoma men, is still a 
 picturesque and illiterate mountaineer. 
 
 The people are aware of their deficiency; they are 
 very desirous of raising themselves in culture and civilisa- 
 tion ; they are impressed with the idea that education 
 must be the first step in this progress, and are earnestly 
 asking help to introduce the European system of educa- 
 tion. I trust that the Church of England will give this 
 interesting people the very small amount of help and 
 direction they ask. With the natural intelligence and 
 energy and ambition of the people, an English system of 
 education, so infinitely superior to anything in the East, 
 either Turk or Christian, ought to put them in a fair way 
 to become a remarkable people, capable of playing an 
 important part in the future history of these Eastern 
 regions. 
 
287 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 I MADE some inquiry about the musical instruments and 
 music of the Nestorians. I found that they have the 
 shepherd's pipe and tabor, a kind of flageolet and a 
 kind of clarionet, but I could not learn that they had any- 
 thing like the bagpipes, which in mediaeval England 
 accompanied this phase of civilisation ; and I could not 
 ascertain that they had any stringed instrument. Sha- 
 masha Johannan had made for himself a kind of lute with 
 three strings, played with a bow of horse-hair, but he 
 had copied it from a Persian instrument, and taught him- 
 self to play. He played us some ecclesiastical tunes, 
 some dance music which was inspiriting, and some tunes 
 very like those we usually hear on the bagpipes. 
 
 When the Oroomiah men came, there was a musi- 
 cian in their company who had brought his lute to 
 enhven the journey, an instrument of the same kind 
 as, but superior to, Johannan's. There were also some 
 singing men among them, and they were all fond of 
 music, so that we had a concert in our rooms nearly 
 every evening. The Persian singing was very inte- 
 resting to us but very unpleasing ; the singer pitches 
 a very high note, and quavers about in quarter tones, 
 for Persian music is so scientific that it has quarter 
 tones, so that an English ear fails to catch the melody. 
 Once they played and sang a Turkish song, which had 
 been written after, and on the subject of, the Crimean 
 war, and on my expressing a wish to have the melody 
 noted down, I found that any system of musical notation 
 
238 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 was quite unknown to my friends ; they learnt everything 
 by ear. 
 
 I inquired diligently for any ancient ballads or songs, 
 but could not ascertain that they possessed any, ancient 
 or modern. I suppose they must have them, and that 
 some future traveller will be more fortunate than I. 
 What my friends sung every evening was ecclesiastical 
 music exclusively . 
 
 The evening before our departure I was deep in an 
 
 A PERSIAN KESTORIAN MUSICIAN. 
 
 interesting conversation with Rabban Yonan in my own 
 room, when the patriarch sent me a message to come and 
 see the sword-dance, which I had several times expressed 
 a wish to see. On coming down I found that the patriarch, 
 instead of holding the usual evening levee in his own 
 room, was holding it alfresco in the narrow space between 
 my house and Benjamin's. The stone benches outside the 
 two houses afforded a divan for some, others squatted on 
 the ground. When we had paid our respects and taken 
 
MUSIC. 289 
 
 the places reserved for us beside the patriarch, the enter- 
 tainment began. Our Persian minstrel thrummed a tune 
 on his lute. Two dancers entered the lists armed with 
 the curved scimitar and the small, round, gaily- tasselled 
 shield. The first part of the performance consisted of 
 graceful posturing ; they kept time with their feet to the 
 music in a kind of trois-temps, now with slow, graceful 
 wavings of the sword, then with quick twistings of the 
 shield, which made its gay silk cords and tassels twirl 
 round the central spike ; they passed and repassed one 
 another with a graceful salute. Suddenly one uttered a 
 shrill cry, and crouched down at one end of the lists, 
 holding his sword and shield before him ; it was a chal- j 
 lenge ; the other approached and crouched in a similar 
 attitude, the music ceased, and they began a mimic 
 combat. This crouching position is that in which they fight 
 in single combat ; because it presents the least possible 
 surface to the enemy's attack. Quick cuts were met by 
 dexterous parries with the shield ; and after a few minutes 
 of this sword-play, they jumped up, the music struck up 
 again, and they recommenced their posturing. "When 
 either was tired he withdrew and another stepped into the 
 lists. The monotony of the exhibition was varied by the 
 specialities of the performers. One played the bufibon, 
 cut capers in his dancing, uttered sharp shrieks at every 
 stroke in the fencing, and made grimaces at the spectators. 
 Another well-made young fellow distinguished himself by 
 the grace of his attitudes, his superb air, and the dis- 
 dainful glances of his half-shut eyes. Not unfrequently the 
 sport turns into half-earnest, and the combatants will 
 continue their duel till the first blood is di'awn. There were 
 symptoms of it on this occasion, and two or three sharp 
 blows were struck, which cut ofi" the silken trappings of 
 the opposed shield ; but at a word from the seniors the 
 combatants smiled and desisted, the music struck up, and 
 the dance movement began again. 
 
240 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 KOCHANES TO OBOOMIAH. 
 
 July 26. — After many affectionate farewells we left the 
 mountain valley, where we had made so pleasant and so 
 interesting a sojourn, with regret. The Oroomiah men 
 were to return with us, the majority of them on foot, and 
 the patriarch sent his cousin Johannan and several 
 servants to escort us causa honoiis over the first stage of 
 the journey. We started at 8.30 down the valley, plunged 
 down the steep hUl into the ravine through which the 
 torrent flows, and followed its downward course. The 
 pass is a very fine , one ; the mountains lofty, the gorge 
 between them narrow and rugged, leaving room only for 
 the torrent, which chafes and foams over the rocks. The 
 road is a mere track which scrambles round and over the 
 rocks, and crosses from side to side of the stream, accord- 
 ing to the nature of the ground. A handful of men could 
 hold the pass against an army. 
 
 About noon we arrived at the valley of the Zab, into 
 which the Kochanes Water runs ; forded the river, which 
 took the footmen up to the waist, and rested for half 
 an hour under the trees till the caravan overtook us. 
 Sliemon the Jester was of the party ; he asked one of his 
 comrades to carry him over, who carried him to the middle 
 and then pitched him over his head, and the valley rang 
 with Homeric laughter, whUo Sliemon floated down the 
 rapid current and struggled for his life. 
 
 Then we left the valley of the Zab at once and began to 
 ascend the steep side of another picturesque ravine. After 
 
KOCHANES TO OROOMIAH. 241 
 
 about an hour's stiff climbing reached the brow of the hill, 
 and the village of Swawoota, and since the next village 
 was seven or eight hours distant across the mountains, we 
 resolved to spend the night here. 
 
 We halted under the shade of a magnificent old walnut- 
 tree,'where the people spread rugs for us, and the priest and 
 chief villagers came to pay their respects to us ; and we had 
 some luncheon of mUk and bread, and pipes and coffee, and 
 finally lay down for a siesta. On waking we found our 
 tent pitched on the brow of the hill, with a magnificent 
 view before us. The ravine which we have ascended leads 
 the eye to the opposite mountain of Tura Gelula, which 
 forms a central point in the landscape, of bold and remark- 
 able form, with the village of Sorenis on its shoulder. 
 On the right we can see the valley of Kochanes, with the 
 snow-streaked mountains behind it. On the left is the 
 range of mountains up whose side we have cUmbed about 
 half-way. The church of Swawoota, picturesquely perched 
 on an isolated mass of rock, occupies the foreground. 
 Altogether it is one of the finest and most striking land- 
 scapes we have seen. As evening drew on, three fires 
 were lighted on the brow of the hill before our tents, and 
 groups of people were busy about them — first cooking and 
 then eating their evening meal ; there were twenty people 
 with us besides our own immediate party. Beyond the 
 fires we looked down into the purple twilight of the 
 darkening valley, and up to the outlines of the mountains 
 against the sky. After supper all who considered that they 
 had the entree came into the tent, and we had some sing- 
 ing. One fine tune, from the service for the dead, I begged 
 Mar Goriel to have translated for me, and I have already 
 given it at page 227. In the night we had an alarm that a 
 party of Koords were reconnoitring our camp, who, if they 
 did not attack us, might try to steal some of the horses. 
 We sent out a couple of scouts to gain information, and it 
 took them half an hour to find out that it was our 
 
242 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 katurjis, who had taken up their night quarters at some 
 distance from us, who had caused the false alarm. Still, 
 though it was a false alarm, it was an illustration of the 
 state of insecurity in which these people live. Next day 
 we learnt that a marauding party of Koords had actually 
 been in the neighbourhood that night, and swept off the 
 cattle of a neighbouring \'illage. 
 
 Thursday, July 27. — A glorious morning. The early 
 part of our journey lay along the mountain tops, with a 
 wide view of valley and mountain around us. It is not 
 possible to imagine the delight of riding across the moun- 
 tains in the cool, pure, delicious, exhilarating mountain 
 iair. I can quite understand how it is that people who 
 have breathed this air in youth, and been brought up 
 among such scenery, and lived the free, wild life of 
 mountaineers, pine in the air of cities, and amidst the scenes 
 and restraints of civilised life. I feel sure that in all 
 succeeding summers I shall call to mind the pure cool 
 air of the Koordistan mountains, and long to be riding 
 about their summits again. 
 
 After a morning spent among the mountains, we de- 
 scended in the afternoon into the plain of Gawar. At the 
 foot of the descent we had to ford a stream. The privileged 
 Sliemon asked the bishop to carry him across, and the 
 bishop let him mount his shoulders, intending to repeat 
 the trick of throwing him over, but this time the jester 
 clung to the bishop so tightly that he got safely over, 
 amidst universal merriment at his impudence. 
 
 The Gawar is a fertile level plain, like the filled up basin 
 of a lake, about eighteen miles long from W. to E., and 
 averaging six miles from N. to S. It is immediately sur- 
 rounded by rounded hills, beyond which on the south lies a 
 range of snow-streaked peaks, beyond which again lies the 
 Mattran's country of Bishamisdin. There are about sixteen 
 villages in the plain, and a fringe of them at the foot of the 
 hills round it. We rode all afternoon across the plain. We 
 
KOCHANES TO OROOMIAH. 243 
 
 let the caravan continne its journey, while we halted at one 
 of the villages ; they spread a rug for us to sit upon on the 
 slope of the hill just outside, and the chief man brought us 
 some sour milk, and others of the people came to look at us 
 and to pay their respects. A few miles further is the village 
 of Karpul, where a little cove of limestone rocks runs back 
 into the sloping hillside, and from the very base of these 
 rocks a dozen copious springs pour out their streams and 
 unite into a little brook of pure cool water. It is as if one 
 ot the subterranean streams which are not unusual in the 
 caverns of limestone hills, here found a crevice, by which 
 it issued into open day. In the Peak of Derbyshire it 
 would have been an interesting phenomenon and a pleasant 
 scene, but one must travel in these hot and arid countries 
 to appreciate the sense of delight with which one watches 
 the cool, limpid water well forth, and drinks and drinks 
 again. Ten miles further, and towards evening we reached 
 Diza, where we were to pass the night. Diza is the 
 capital of Gawar, has a bazaar, and is the residence of the 
 kaimakam and station of the troops. We saw the white 
 tents of the camp outside, and as we approached the 
 village we met the kaimakam coming out with a wild- look- 
 ing escort, some in Arab costume, with long slender spears, 
 some in the modern uniform of the Turkish soldier ; he 
 saluted us courteously as we passed one another. 
 
 We had here a specimen or two of Turkish customs. It 
 seems that Diza is the frontier town between Turkey and 
 Persia, and Persian passengers through it ought to pay 
 some trifling fee for a permission. Many of our friends 
 had taken other routes across the plain to avoid the 
 exactions of the Government officials of Diza. The 
 kaimakam held the bishop accountable for this, and 
 demanded a fine from him. I counselled resistance, but 
 the bishop made some compromise. Then the kaimakam 
 accused him of conveying merchandise into the town, and 
 socreting it in the house of Priest John to avoid the 
 
 b2 
 
244 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 customs dues. The bishop replied that the supposed 
 merchandise was the personal baggage of the English 
 travellers, and that so far from having been smuggled into 
 the place, it happened that the caravan stood outside the 
 gate, in full view of the officials and the townspeople, for a 
 couple of hours, waiting tiU the travellers arrived. The 
 kaimakam did not venture to meddle with us Englishmen. 
 We hired fresh katurjis here to take us into Oroomiah, 
 but we neglected to take the usual " fast-penny," and 
 when the morning arrived, the katurjis had broken their 
 engagement and taken themselves off, and we had to wait 
 till another team could be engaged. 
 
 Friday, July 28. — Here our Kochanes friends, together 
 with some of the Christians of Diza, accompanied us in a 
 kind of procession to the outskirts of the town, and then took 
 their final leave of us. When we had got half a mile on our 
 journey a man came floundering across the country to inter- 
 cept us. When he came up he iavited me to take the horse he 
 had brought. I thought it was because the horse I was on 
 had cut some capers at starting, and it had been questioned 
 whether it was safe to ride ; but in the meantime I had 
 had time to find out that I was well mounted and I did 
 not care to change him ; moreover, when the man took off 
 his clumsy saddle, I saw that the new horse had a sore 
 back. So I called the interpreter to tell the man I was 
 satisfied with what I had. There ensued a loud wrangling 
 between the two, and the interpreter told me — aside between 
 two sentences — to ride on ; so I quietly walked on. This 
 produced a fresh explosion of loud talking, in the middle 
 of which the interpreter called after me to push on ; so I 
 set off at a hand- gallop, and soon put a mile or two between 
 myself and my follower. When the interpreter came up, 
 I learnt that it was only a Turkish trick. The man wanted 
 to exchange my good horse for a worse ; it was then 
 George told me to go on. Then the man declared that it 
 was wanted for Government employ ; it was then that the 
 
KOCHANES TO OEOOMIAH. 245 
 
 interpreter gave me another hint, and I carried off the 
 horse at a gallop, while George spiritedly told the fellow 
 that there was nothing to prove that Government had 
 requisitioned the horse, and that if he went after it the 
 Englishman would not give it up. Then the man appealed 
 to the winds, declaring the value of the horse to be 100 
 tomauns (we knew that he had bought it that morning for 
 eighteen), and that if the Koords carried it off he should 
 demand that sum in payment for it. At the Nestorian vil- 
 lage of Munbishoo was a church well built of hewn stone. 
 We dismounted and sent for the key, and looked into it. 
 In its general features and arrangement it very much 
 resembled the Church of Kochanes. When we came out 
 the people of the village had assembled, and kissed hands, 
 and led us in a kiud of procession through the village, and 
 escorted us a short distance on our way. About noon 
 we stopped at another Nestorian village, and were 
 hospitably entertained by the chief man on bread hot from 
 the oven and fried eggs, and yohoort and sour milk. We 
 stopped again by a mill two or three hours further for the 
 caravan to overtake us. The bishop lighted a fire, brought 
 out his travelling kettle, and made us a good cup of tea. 
 The caravan and footmen came up so late that we resolved 
 to camp where we were for the night. A quarter of an hour 
 brought us from the mill to the village. We took up our 
 abode in the farmyard of one of the houses. The 
 enclosure wall served to protect our horses and baggage. 
 Everybody was tired, and it was now dark ; we did not 
 give them the trouble to pitch the tents, but they brought 
 us out a couple of wooden bedsteads, on which we laid 
 some rugs, and covering ourselves with our cloaks, slept 
 in the open air, 
 
 Saturday, July 29. — Up before sunrise, and on our way 
 an hour after. An hour or so brought us to the end of the 
 valley, and we entered again into " the long windings of 
 the lulls," through which we wound for some hours, fording 
 
246 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 a good-sized trout stream on the way, till we came out on 
 the plain of Burados, a level space some six or seven miles 
 across. Here we were to lunch at a Koord encampment, 
 from whose chief we were to seek a safe-conduct across the 
 dangerous border hUls into Persia. We were received in a 
 spacious black tent ; our host was a stout, middle-aged 
 man, who looked much more like a comfortable merchant 
 of Aleppo or Diarbekr than the chief of a tribe of wild 
 Koords. We found that he was a near relative of Ali Agha, 
 and W. whispered to me, " What woiild he say if he 
 knew of the letter you have in your pocket ? " for at that 
 very moment I had in my pocket a letter which I had 
 written to the consul at Tabriz, detailing Mamme's raid 
 on the village of Hoze, and asking him to obtain redress 
 for the plundered villagers. After lunch two of the young 
 fellows entertained us with a dance. It was of the kind in 
 which a love story is represented in pantomime. It was 
 not very entertaining. At the end of it the lover fell down 
 on the ground before us as if dead. His companions 
 lifted an arm, and it fell helplessly to the earth ; then 
 they lifted his head, and it feU back with a thud. It was 
 intimated to me that the only charm which would bring 
 him to life again was a piece of silver placed on his chest, 
 and I placed a coin there, amidst the general approval. 
 StUl he did not stir, and when they attempted to lift him 
 up, he feU back again with a heavier thump than before. 
 It was whispered that the charm was not strong enough^ 
 so I added another silver piece, at whose touch he jumped 
 up nimbly, and the performance concluded amidst applause 
 and laughter. 
 
 By this time it was high time for us to resume our 
 journey, and our host consented to send a couple of his 
 people to see us safely over the mountain ; for the hills 
 on the frontier between Turkey and Persia are infested by 
 bands of Koords who plunder caravans and travellers. 
 
 In the afternoon I fairly knocked up, and wished to stop 
 
KOOHANES TO OBOOMIAH. 247 
 
 at a village which we saw a little off the line of march, but 
 just then we came to a spring, and I drank and bathed my 
 head and felt refreshed, and being assured that the village 
 where friends expected us to stay for the night was only an 
 hour further, I consented to go on. But it was very hard 
 work. We horsemen pushed on ahead of the caravan and 
 footmen. Sometimes I went at a snail's pace, for the heat 
 was intolerable ; then I pushed the horse into a gallop and 
 overtook the others, and so on and on, and yet no signs of 
 the village. At last when I had lagged behind my com- 
 panions some distance I fairly gave in, got off my horse, and 
 lay on the ground, waiting till some of the others should 
 come up. My mouth and throat were perfectly dry and 
 parched ; my tongue felt like a bit of shrivelled leather. 
 A small party of the footmen came up. They had no food 
 and no water ; but they assured me there was a spring a 
 little further on, so I climbed on my horse again and went 
 on with them. One of them had some lumps of sugar in 
 his pocket, and I ate one and got a little moisture in my 
 mouth by it. After riding another half hour I inquired 
 again about the spring, and found that it was stiU miles 
 ahead, so I dismounted again and lay down tUl the caravan 
 should come up. But when at length it arrived Philippus 
 had no water either, so I sent one of the men off on horse- 
 back to the spring to bring me water. By this time the 
 gun was descending and the evening growing cooler. A 
 little water and a few raisins and the coolness of the even- 
 ing and the rest revived me, and I remounted and tra- 
 velled on. An hour's descent brought us down to the plain 
 of Oroomiah. We rode past a Koord village, but did not 
 halt there. Another half hour in the dark, and we seemed 
 to turn off the track into a field. One of the party suddenly 
 fired a pistol-shot by way of signal, and after a little while 
 men came to meet us. I was amused at the care suddenly 
 bestowed upon me. A few hom's ago I was lying half dead by 
 the roadside alone ; now one man took my bridle, two others 
 
248 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 placed themselves one on each side of me. Every little 
 watercourse we came to, and we had to cross several, my two 
 henchmen held me carefully in my saddle as if I were a sack 
 of wheat. At last we entered the village street of Genesa ; 
 a man at the comer lighted us with a lantern up a little alley. 
 We found om'selves in the courtyard of a house ; dis- 
 mounted, and climbed up a ladder to our host's reception 
 room. It was about three when we rose that morning ; 
 we had been on the road in the heat of a summer's sun all 
 through the day, and now it was about ten at night. I 
 may be pardoned if I confess that I could not help falling 
 asleep as I sat in the midst of our friends waiting for supper 
 to be served. 
 
 After supper we retired to sleep on the housetop. It 
 was my first experience of this ancient Eastern custom. We 
 had no bedstead surrounded with curtains like the people 
 of Diarbekr, simply a mattress laid on the roof and a rug 
 to cover us, with some neighbouring trees for our curtains, 
 and the heavens fuU of brilliant stars for our canopy. The 
 air was pleasantly cool, and we slept deliciously after our 
 fatiguing day. 
 
 Sunday, July 30. — Being Sunday we rested where we 
 were, and I excused myself from getting up before dawn to 
 attend the Nestorian service in the neighbouring village 
 church. Our host must be a man of substance, for his house 
 was large (by comparison) and partly of two stories. The 
 reception-room on the upper floor was a good-sized room, 
 with some decoration. On descending (by ladders like 
 those at Kochanes) into the courtyard we caught a glimpse 
 of the kitchen, and of the ladies of the house, busied in 
 their preparations for the entertainment of so large a party. 
 We spent a good part of the day under the shade of the 
 trees in our host's orchard, carpets being spread on the 
 ground for us to sit upon ; and some of the people of this 
 and of neighbouring villages came to visit us. 
 
 Monday, July 31. — We had a six-hours' ride before us 
 
KOCHANES TO OROOMIAH. 249 
 
 into the city of Oroomiah, and did not start till late, in 
 order, as I afterwards found, to give time for the arrange- 
 ments which our friends had made for our reception, A 
 few horsemen rode out to Genesa before we started to escort 
 us into the city. Soon after we had started others met us ; 
 and all along the road at intervals other parties met us from 
 Oroomiah, or joined us from the villages. They would dash 
 up at a gallop, fling themselves off their horses, kiss hands, 
 remount again, and join our procession. The more dashing 
 spirits amused themselves after the Persian fashion, by 
 careering at full gallop over the fields, pursuing one another, 
 and imitating military exercises. Before we reached the 
 outskirts of the city our Kttle party had grown into a 
 cavalcade of a couple of hundred horsemen. 
 
 Acting on the advice of my friends, who knew the 
 customs of the country, we had sent forward the previous 
 day a letter of introduction which the Persian ambassador 
 in London, at the Archbishop's request, had given me to 
 the governor of Oroomiah, and the governor honoured us, 
 very unexpectedly to me, with a public reception. A little 
 way outside the town we were met by the son of the acting- 
 governor, the son of the chief military officer, and the 
 brother of the Serparast (governor of the Christians). The 
 governor had sent two caparisoned horses to be led before 
 us; the Serparast had sent his chief servant, who rode imme- 
 diately before us, and half a dozen kavasses, who marched 
 before us to clear the way. We formed a kind of proces- 
 sion — the servants in front, the officials on each side, and 
 our Nestorian cavalcade behind us. Crowds of people 
 lined the road to see us. The Nestorians of course mus- 
 tered in full strength ; the Jews formed a separate group 
 on a little elevation by the roadside ; the Mussulmans had 
 come as people will come to see a sight. A nomenclator 
 posted himself at my elbow to tell me who everybody was, 
 and with whom I was to shake hands and to whom I was 
 to bow. It would have been much more amusing if it had 
 
250 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 not been that the heat was intense and the dust stifling. 
 But I rejoiced greatly that the reception constituted a very 
 important event for my Nestorian friends. They are habi- 
 tually despised and oppressed by the Mussulmans ; their 
 bishops and chiefs are " snubbed " by the officials ; it 
 will be remembered that the Serparast had threatened with 
 fine and imprisonment those who, at the patriarch's invita- 
 tion, should come to Kochanes to meet me. They had 
 been afraid to return except under my protection. It was 
 therefore a great demonstration for the Nestorians. We two 
 Englishmen formed the centre of the procession with a 
 Nestorian bishop on each side of us ; and there were a couple 
 of hundred of Nestorians on horseback, and how many 
 on foot I do not know, in our train ; and instead of slinking 
 in by the bye-ways, in fear of fine, imprisonment, and beat- 
 ing, the officials of the city had come out to receive their 
 English friends, and they perforce were permitted to share 
 the honours bestowed upon us. The demonstration meant 
 to the actors in and spectators of it that the Church of 
 England was interested in the well-being of the Nestorians, 
 and that Persia received the representatives of the English 
 Church with public honours, and must henceforth regard 
 the Nestorians as having powerful friends. 
 
251 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE CITY OF OROOMIAH. 
 
 The governor had directed that apartments should be 
 prepared for us in the empty palace of the ex-governor j 
 we were conducted to it, a guard of honour at the gate 
 presented arms, the official gentlemen installed us in our 
 apartments, and then left us to our repose. 
 
 It was a large building of two quadrangles and a garden 
 beyond. Two large rooms had been furnished for us ; 
 the two Nestorian bishops took up their residence with us, 
 causa honoHs, and we had to mount an estabUshment. 
 First were the guard of soldiers at the gate, whom we had 
 to pay and feed, or give them money to provide themselves 
 with food ; we adopted the latter alternative. Then there 
 were four kavasses, with whom we had to make a similar 
 arrangement. There was a respectable Mussulman in 
 charge of the palace, who was condescendingly polite to 
 us ; the Serparast had sent us a servant, a sleek, well- 
 drilled person, with henna-stained fingers, whe served 
 sherbet, coffee, and pipes to our numerous visitors. We 
 had our cook, Philippus, and we engaged two other 
 servants, acting always on the advice of our Nestorian 
 frienJs. 
 
 Here we stayed four days, receiving a constant succession 
 of visitors. The gentlemen of the American Mission were 
 among the foremost, who renewed personally the offer they 
 kindly »ent us by letter as we approached the city, to put their 
 town-house at our disposal. The Serparast also honoured 
 us with an early visit. I have not yet described his office. 
 
252 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 In reply to the constant complaints of the Christians of 
 their oppression, the Shah's Government has appointed a 
 special officer, under whose rule and protection Christian 
 subjects in Oroomiah are placed. The present Serparast has 
 very recently been sent from Teheran. He is an Armenian, 
 a gentleman-like person, who was one of the Persian Com- 
 missioners at the Vienna Industrial Exhibition of 1875. 
 Since he speaks French, we were able to communicate 
 directly. His Excellency made some very polite speeches, 
 after the Persian fashion, expressing his gratification at my 
 visit, and so forth, to which I made an elaborate speech in 
 reply ; I concluded by saying that the honours with which I 
 had been received and his present expressions of politeness 
 were the more gratifying because I had understood that he 
 had interposed to prevent my Nestorian friends from coming 
 to Kochanes, at the patriarch's invitation, to welcome me. 
 The Serparast said that was easily explained ; it -was harvest 
 time, and it was undesirable, &c., &c. I listened gravely; 
 it seemed to me a very lame apology, but it was an apology ; 
 I thanked him for giving me an explanation, and said that I 
 concluded that now, at least, the authorities would find no 
 fault with the Nestorians for coming to meet me. We had 
 visitors of all kinds, Nestorians, of course, in abundance — 
 their chief men, and deputations from their villages ; 
 Mussulmans, Armenians, Roman Catholics ; and a large 
 deputation of Jews, who came to teU us their grievances. 
 
 The heat is very great ; this is the hottest month here, 
 and the season is exceptionally hot After the first night 
 we slept no more in-doors, but had our mattresses laid on 
 the pavement of the courtyard, and slept sub Jove. 
 
 Wednesday, August 2. — In the morning paid a visit to 
 the bazaars. Eeturned, at their room in the khan, the 
 visit of some Armenian merchants who had paid us a visit 
 the previous day ; they gave us cofiee, and presented us 
 with a tray of sweetmeats. In the afternoon returned the 
 Serparast's visit in state, first sending to ask when he 
 
THE CITY OP OROOMIAH. 253 
 
 would receive us, and going with two soldiers, two kavasses, 
 the two Nestorian bishops, and a servant. Coffee and 
 cigarettes, and gossip ; was amused at the Serparast's 
 solicitude about our health, telling us what to eat, drink, 
 and avoid ; above all, to eat no fruit. Receiving visits all 
 the rest of the day. 
 
 Thursday, August 3. — In the morning received visits. In 
 the evening paid a visit to the garden of the Shahzadah 
 (the Shah's son, the governor of the city), on the invita- 
 tion of his chief gardener, who is a Nestorian. The 
 garden is very inferior to our English gardens. It was a 
 large level plot of ground, part vineyard, part orchard, 
 , with shrubs and roses planted along the walks. There 
 are two large summer-houses. We were very hospitably 
 entertained with raki, tea, and fruit, and passed a couple of 
 hours pleasantly. 
 
 This morning I rose very early and found that the water, 
 which is running across the court aU day long, into the 
 tank and out of it again, was not running, and its channels 
 were green with slime, and exhaling, I have no doubt, 
 malaria. This accounted for the fact that I had been 
 feverish, and W. had to-day a very sharp attack of fever 
 and ague. We made arrangements to go out to Seir for a 
 few days and camp on the hills there ; and that night we 
 had our mattresses removed to the housetop, where the 
 air was hkely to be purer. 
 
 Fnday, August 4. — Removed to Seir, a small village on 
 the hUl-side, about six miles from the city. The American 
 missionaries have a good house here, which, being sur- 
 rounded by a waU, with a view to protection from the 
 Koords, is called the Castle. We pitched our tents a few 
 hundred yards outside the village. We commanded a fine 
 view of the wooded plain and the distant lake, surrounded 
 by mountains ; the area of the plain is picturesquely broken 
 by the projection of the spurs of the mountains into it ; 
 and there is a fine group of hills in the middle of the plain 
 
254 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 called the Bizoudari — the calf mountain ; altogether the 
 view was an unusually grand one. 
 
 The effect of the fresher, purer air was at once percep- 
 tible, and the medical member of the American Mission 
 kindly took our invalid in hand. 
 
 Saturday, August 5. — We rested in the shade of our tents, 
 and nursed our health, and feasted our eyes on the view, 
 and improved our knowledge of things Oroomian by chat- 
 ting with the two bishops, who had come up to Seir with 
 us, clearly regarding it as part of the honour and kindness 
 they desired to show us that some of their chief people 
 should always be with us. 
 
 Just below our tents was the threshing-floor of the 
 village, and we had the opportunity of studying the whole 
 economy. The tenants pay their rent in kind, not a fixed 
 amount, but a proportion of the com crop, usually, I 
 believe, a third. The landlord is secured against dis- 
 honesty in the transaction by the law that the corn must 
 be threshed out on his floor. Accordingly we see the 
 people bringing their parcels of wheat on rude, wheel- 
 less sledges drawn by oxen and buffaloes, and stacking 
 them in separate heaps around the floor. Every man's 
 corn is threshed in its turn. The process goes on " from 
 morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve." The floor is 
 strewn with a thick layer of sheaves ; two buffaloes 
 drag round and round over it a heavy beam, into which a 
 multitude of flints are inserted ; both ear and straw are 
 thus cut up into chaff, and the feet of the beasts help to 
 tread the com out of the husk. Then men with broad 
 wooden shovels throw the chaff up against the wind, the 
 heavy com falls into one heap, and the lighter straw and 
 husks fall into a second heap close by. A servant of the 
 landlord is on the watch day and night. A little look-out 
 is erected for him, consisting of four poles thrust into the 
 ground, which carry a floor about eight feet high and a 
 roof six ffeet above that ; the sides and roof are loosely 
 
THE CITY OK OROOMIAH. 255 
 
 fenced with leafy boughs to keep off the sun, but leave 
 interstices through which the watchman can see all 
 round.* The landlord's steward comes frequently to take 
 his master's share of the grain. 
 
 To sit in front of our tents and watch all this going on 
 in the foreground, with the plain and mountains and 
 distant lake for a back ground, is like a realisation of a 
 Georgic of Virgil. 
 
 I may speak here of some other implements which have 
 interested me by their primitive forms. The plough is 
 just like that we see represented in the illuminations of 
 our Saxon MSS. The spade also is of the same 
 primitive fashion ; both handle and blade are carved out 
 of one piece of wood; the blade small, rounded at the 
 bottom and shod with iron, with a cross piece of wood a 
 little above the blade for the foot to tread upon. Saxon 
 Bible illuminations of the expulsion of Adam and Eve 
 from Paradise, illustrating the truth that then " Adam 
 delved and Eve span," put into Adam's hand a spade of 
 exactly the same shape ; and the women here go about 
 twirling a spindle, just like that which the Saxon artist has 
 put into the hands of Eve. 
 
 Our neighbours, the American missionaries, invited us 
 to their house, and kind Mrs. Cochrane, the widow of 
 one of the old missionaries, who still lives here with her 
 daughter, sent little dehcacies to our invalid. Let me say 
 here that the American missionaries with whom we came 
 in contact, both at Beyrout, Wan, and Seir, though they 
 could hardly help, I suppose, regarding us as formidable 
 rivals come to trouble their work, showed us great courtesy 
 and kindness, both at Wan and Oroomiah inviting us to 
 take up our residence with them. 
 
 Sunday, August 6. — Mar Goriel went into the city to 
 
 * A similar hut is erected for a watchman in the vineyards and 
 melon gardens when the fruit is ripe, a " lodge in a garden of cucum- 
 bers" (Isa. i. 8). 
 
256 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 celebrate Divine service, and I rode in with him. The 
 service was conducted as I had ah-eady seen it at Koch- 
 anes, except that the singing was of better quality. The 
 bishop, standing on the chancel steps, preached a short 
 sermon. I could not understand a word of it, but it was 
 easy to see that the address was an eloquent one ; the 
 preacher was earnest and impressive in manner, and long 
 before he had concluded men were shading their faces with 
 their hands, and sobs and smothered exclamations were 
 heard from the women. The church seems an old one, 
 bunt of stone, pleasantly situated in an enclosed church- 
 yard planted with trees. The plan of the church is like 
 that at Kochanes, with these additions : At the west end 
 is a kind of transept, whose limbs form chapels, in 
 which are placed two handsome tombs of two recent 
 bishops of the line which is called by the dynastic name 
 of Mar Johannan. At the east end of the nave is a low 
 screen wall, about four feet in advance of the wall which 
 divides the sacrarium from the body of the church. Towards 
 the north end of this screen an embrasure is cut into the 
 wall, where the deacon stands to administer the chalice, 
 while the priest administers the bread from the chancel 
 step. We lingered a little in the churchyard and were 
 introduced to the people ; some of the younger women 
 were very nicely dressed, and I was pleased with the 
 appearance and manners of the people. 
 
 There is another ancient church in the city converted 
 into a mosque, but I did not know of its existence till we 
 had left Oroomiah, and I did not therefore see it. 
 
 After service we went to the house of Khooda Verdi, 
 ■who had invited us to dinner. All the trades here are 
 organised into guilds, and have their officers, as with us io 
 the Middle Ages, and our host is the head of the carpen- 
 ters' guild. His house I take to be a fair example of the 
 houses of the fairly well-to-do citizens. Out of the hot, 
 dusty, dirty lane of the Christian quarter, we entered through 
 
THE CITY OP OROOMIAH. SB7 
 
 a passage into a courtyard surrounded by buildings — the 
 stable, the workshop, the offices — but planted like a garden. 
 We crossed this into another quadrangle planted still more 
 prettily as a garden, and surrounded by the living rooms. 
 On the further side is the reception-room on the right, 
 and the kitchen on the left, divided by the corridor, which 
 runs through to another garden at the back of the house. 
 I was glad to see so nice a house, everything in excellent 
 order, the garden giving evidence of loving care, and every- 
 thing wearing an air of substantial comfort. There was a 
 large company assembled to meet us, and our host enter- 
 tained us very handsomely. Of course it was interesting 
 to us to see the order of a Persian dinner. The cloth 
 was spread on the floor in the middle of the room ; the 
 attendants were two young men, probably the apprentices 
 or journeymen of our host, waiting upon their master and 
 his guests as they used to do with us in England. It 
 was curious to see them walking over the table-cloth with 
 their bare feet in the execution of their duties. Next, 
 the flat oval loaves of native bread were laid all round the 
 edge of the table-cloth, then the dishes were placed on the 
 table, platters of pillafi", pillaff with the members of a fowl 
 ready carved and laid on the top of the rice, bowls con- 
 taining pieces of boiled mutton swimming in its broth, 
 pickles, &c. All being ready the company squatted round 
 the table-cloth, the bishop said a long grace, and we fell 
 to with a good appetite. It is the custom to begin with a 
 small glass of raki, just as in remote parts of the country 
 in England an old- school farmer will still ask you to have 
 a glass of spirits before dinner. Some half-hour after 
 dinner dessert was served, consisting of grapes, water- 
 melons, musk-melons, apricots, &c. The fruit in Oroomiah 
 is very fine and abundant. We had a good deal of inter- 
 esting conversation with our friends. The son of the host, 
 Serghees by name, married to the daughter of Dr. 
 Yussuf, is a fine, intelligent young fellow, full of ingenuity 
 
258 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 and enterprise in his business, and a favourite with the 
 Shahzadah ; through him we learnt to read the feelings 
 of the young men in these countries with respect to the 
 way in which they are treated by the Mussulmans. Things 
 have mended of late years, but time was, not long since, 
 when, if a Christian riding through the street met a Mus- 
 sulman, he must dismount on pain of being horsewhipped 
 on the spot by the man of the conquering race, indignant 
 that a Christian dog should presume to remain mounted 
 in his august presence, and this fiercely contemptuous 
 feeling has by no means died out. An indication of the 
 comparative estimate of the two races is to be seen in the 
 " blood-money " assigned to individuals ; the blood-money 
 is the customary fine which a man-slayer must pay to the 
 nearest relatives of the slain man * ; for a Mussulman it is 
 1,000 tomauns (£500), for a Christian 800 tomauns (£150). 
 We had an illustration also of the course of justice in 
 these countries. One of the guests present at dinner — an 
 old Nestorian — was the hero of the story. Some months 
 ago he had a quarrel with a woman, and in his passion 
 struck her with his stick ; she had her child in her arms, 
 and it fell to the ground, and its death shortly after was 
 attributed to this assault. He was brought before the 
 authorities on a charge of murder ; but on payment of a 
 certain sum to the woman, and a backshish to the Serparast, 
 he was acquitted, and there the afiair ought to have ended. 
 But when our friend the new Serparast came into ofiice this 
 old story was revived ; our Nestorian was sent for and sent 
 to prison. On Saturday the Serparast sent for him, and told 
 him, to-morrow being Sunday, he might go, but he should 
 require him to appear before him again on Monday morning. 
 A.S he left, one of the Sei-parast's people intimated to him that 
 if, when he came on Monday, he brought a backshish of about 
 fifteen tomauns he would probably be dismissed again. 
 
 * So in the days of our Saxon forefathers every man had his " bot " 
 according to his rank. 
 
THE CITY OF OBOOMIAH. 259 
 
 I looked on our old friend, sitting at dinner with a very 
 desponding look, as a great curiosity. He was not dis- 
 posed to give way: " If I have committed murder let me 
 be tried and punished ; but I will not have the charge 
 held over my head and made the means of fleecing me 
 whenever the Serparast wants a little money." It seems 
 to me that the law is systematically used here as an instru- 
 ment of oppression. If an official can once catch you 
 tripping, he gets his hook in your nose, and treats you like 
 a milch cow ; so that the people are exceedingly cautious 
 in all they do to avoid giving any one a hold upon them. 
 
 "Why don't you appeal to his superior ? " said I in my 
 innocence. " Because I should have to give him a still 
 larger backshish for a decision in my favour." The 
 higher the official, the greater the backshish ; and they 
 all are said to have their price, from the Shah (who 
 received a backshish from the Pope the other day as the 
 price of certain privileges and favours to the Papal emis- 
 saries in Persia) down to the lowest employe of the 
 Government. 
 
 We had a pleasant ride back to our tents in the cool oi 
 the evening. We found there a state of excitement. A 
 large body of Koords, as many as 2,000 or 3,000, they 
 say, are in the neighbourhood plundering the villages. 
 The city itself is not free from alarm, for last year when 
 the Koords were plundering the plain, the city people got 
 troops sent against them, who, they say, perpetrated great 
 cruelties, such as killing a woman, tossing a child into a 
 boiUng cauldron, &c. ; the citizens now naturally fear the 
 revenge of the Koords. The village of Seir had been in 
 a state of alarm all day. 
 
 82 
 
260 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 THE PLAIN OP OBOOMIAH MAB GOBIEL's VILLAGES. 
 
 The plain of Oroomiah, stretclung about fifty miles 
 north and south, and the salt lake which borders it on the 
 east, are set in a frame of mountains, on some of which 
 patches and lines of snow are still remaining in the 
 middle of August. The plain is very fertile, well-watered 
 and well-wooded ; it is very beautiful now, and in spring 
 must deserve its name of " the Paradise of Persia." It is 
 thickly dotted over with more than 1,000 villages, of which 
 104 are inhabited by Nestorians. 
 
 Monday, August 7. — The three rivers which rise in the 
 mountains, water the plain, and discharge their waters into 
 the lake, are called the Nahra-mdeemita (city river), the 
 Barandizd, and the Nazlu-chai. These rivers define the 
 jurisdictions of the three bishops. Each takes the Nes- 
 torian villages watered by one of the rivers. I started 
 this morning to accompany Mar Goriel through his 
 country watered by the Barandizd, and to stay with him 
 at his village of Ardishai. Dr. Yussuf, brother of the 
 late, and uncle of the present. Bishop Yohannan, and one 
 or two others came up from the city to accompany us. 
 It was a pleasant ride, in spite of the great heat, across 
 the plain. At noon we reached the village of Dizatika, 
 where it had been arranged that we were to dine with a 
 Mussulman, the owner of a moiety of the village. The 
 Nestorian population of the village came out to meet us, 
 and escorted us in a sori. of procession to the house of 
 our host. I found that there was a good deal of dissatis- 
 
THE PLAIN OF OEOOMIAH ^MAK GOBIEl's VILIiAGES. 261 
 
 faction at our going to dine with a Mussulman, one of the 
 chief Nestorians having desired to entertain us. I explained 
 that for my part I would rather be the guest of a Christian, 
 but that I was entirely in the bishop's hands, and sug- 
 gested that no doubt he had thought it politic to accept 
 the courtesy offered by the Bey. We ascended to the 
 reception-room on the upper floor, where dinner was 
 served. Our host was courteous, but seemed a Uttle 
 pre-occupied, for which he certainly had sufficient excuse, 
 for at intervals well-armed scouts came in to report the 
 doings of a large body of Koords who were in the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood, and who, it was thought, might attack 
 the village. Our host had to take into consideration what 
 he should do in that case ; either flee and leave his house 
 and village to be plundered, or resolve to defend his 
 property, and perhaps die fighting on his threshold. 
 Soon after dinner we took our leave — I was glad to hear 
 afterwards that the Koords did not come near the village 
 — and resumed our journey. Our journey soon began to 
 assume the character of a progress. Additional friends 
 joined us from various villages. Every Nestorian village 
 we came to the people came out to meet us ; first the 
 children, then a little further on the mass of the people, 
 and lastly the principal people, some on foot, some on 
 horseback. We had to stop to receive their greetings, 
 which were very eager and hearty ; for they looked upon our 
 coming as a pledge of English coimtenance and aid, and the 
 commencement of a new and better future. They con- 
 ducted us through the village, and a little distance beyond, 
 and then took their leave. From village to village our road 
 lay sometimes through enclosed lanes, but more frequently 
 by bridle roads across the fields. Our escort, which grew 
 in numbers continually, amused themselves, Persian fashion, 
 by careering round the fields and " showing off " their 
 horsemanship. One retired captain of cavalry entered into 
 the amusement with great enthusiasm, and was evidently 
 
262 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CBESCENT IN A8U. 
 
 gratified by the interest with which we watched his feats. 
 The enthusiasm was contagious ; my horse was young 
 and mettlesome, and I soon found myself prancing about 
 with the rest. When we got out of the fields into the 
 lanes the eagerness of horses and riders was not to be 
 checked instantly, and we raced along them in such sort 
 that more than once we nearly ran into a deputation 
 waiting by the roadside to receive us. 
 
 At several villages the deputations brought us bunches 
 of grapes for our refreshment. In Oroomiah they pay 
 great attention to the cultivation of the vine ; they say that 
 they have more than a hundred different kinds of grapes 
 on the plain ; and that some of the bunches grow so large, 
 that to carry one from the vineyard without brushing off 
 the bloom needs, like the grapes of Eshcol, a staff borne 
 by two men. They throw up the soil of the vineyard 
 into ridges, the vine is planted in the side of the ridge and 
 trained over the surface, the grapes lying on the ground, 
 while water is conveyed by a system of irrigation into the 
 intermediate furrows.* 
 
 The Mussulmans do not drink wine, and the Government 
 forbids its sale in the bazaars. The Christian proprietors 
 make it for their own consumption ; but all that we tasted 
 was of the most inferior quality. Great quantities of grapes 
 are eaten in the season, but the bulk of the grape harvest 
 is converted into raisins and exported, chiefly to Russia. 
 
 At one village there was a curious ceremony. Several 
 men were stationed at the roadside with a lamb, which, as 
 we approached, they laid on its back, and one of the men 
 held his knife as if to kill it in our honour. I suppose it 
 was an offering of the materials for a feast, if we chose to 
 
 * It was curious to see the different ways of culivating the vine in 
 the different countries we passed through. In some parts of Italy the 
 boughs of neighbouring vines are tied together into rude arches for 
 mutual support ; in other parts elms are planted in rows for the vines 
 to climb up. In France and Germany the vines are pruned like currant 
 bushes. 
 
THE PLAIN OP OROOMIAH ^MAR GOBIEl's VILLAGES. 263 
 
 accept it. We were told what was right to do — to thank 
 them for the honour and beg that the lamb might not be 
 killed, and to give them a backshish. 
 
 At the village of Takia we stopped at the house of 
 Kasha Shalita, the priest of the village, who had been one 
 of the Oroomians who came to us to Kochanes, where he 
 entertained us to tea in the orchard. Under the shade of 
 two of the trees carpets were spread, and we all took our 
 places ; the people of the village came to pay their respects 
 to their bishop and his English visitors. Shalita showed 
 us an ancient Syriac copy of the Gospels (?) which he 
 possessed, and with which he had no disposition to part. 
 
 As we approached the bishop's village of Ardishai we 
 found that the people had prepared us a grand reception. 
 First the mass of the people met us in the field outside 
 the village, the women also lining the way and pressing 
 forward to kiss hands. Then we advanced towards a 
 large group of the elders of the village, who also kissed 
 hands and bade us welcome. While this was going on our 
 horsemen were careering about the field, some of them 
 firing ofi" their guns. When the salutations were ended the 
 villagers formed a procession in advance of us ; our horse- 
 men formed in order after us, the bishop and I occupying 
 the centre ; and so we advanced towards the village. A 
 little further another group joined us. The sexton took his 
 place at the head of the procession ringing a hand-bell ; a 
 thurifer went immediately before us swinging his censer ; 
 and lastly the village choir chanted a psalm of welcome ; 
 and so they conducted us in a kind of religious procession 
 through the streets to the bishop's house. The style of 
 reception was a little startling, but the scene was very 
 picturesque, and interested me very much. When we 
 got into the bishop's house I begged him to say a few 
 words of thanks, from the flat roof, to the people who still 
 crowded the street. We had mounted by a ladder from 
 the courtyard to this roof, another short ladder gave us 
 
264 
 
 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE ORESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 access to the roof of a still higher building, and in the 
 middle of this higher roof the bishop's reception-room had 
 been erected, with a verandah on one side ; a kind of 
 drawbridge connected this with another room on the other 
 side of the court. A plentiful supper concluded the 
 evening, and I was glad to get early to bed. 
 
 A NESTORIAN BISHOP AND TWO PRIESTS OP OROOJIIAH. 
 
 I take this opportunity of introducing the Aboona Mar 
 Goriel (the Bishop Lord Gabriel) to the reader in the 
 accompanying woodcut. He is the fifteenth Mar Goriel of 
 his family. The Bishop does not adopt the modern Persian 
 costume, but retains what, I suppose, is the ancient Persian 
 fashion. The priest on his right hand is the Kasha Shalita 
 
THE PLAIN OF OROOMIAH MAK GOEIEL's VILLAGES. 265 
 
 above mentioned. The priest on his left is Kasha Yonan, 
 another of the Oroomian clergy. 
 
 Tuesday, August 8. — I was up early, and paid a visit to 
 the three churches of the town before breakfast. One is 
 a modem church built by subscriptions which were raised 
 by the former American missionaries ; I understood on 
 the spot that the present American missionaries claim it 
 in consequence as their own ; I was, however, told by the 
 American missionaries that they do not claim any pro- 
 perty in it, but that, like all the other churches, it belongs 
 to the people. The second church has been recently 
 built by the French Papists, and when we looked in a 
 service was going on. The third is the ancient church of 
 the village, lying in ruins, but with several handsome 
 tombs of the bishops in the church and churchyard ; 
 the present bishop has set his heart on restoring it, and I 
 heartily wish him success. 
 
 After breakfast the bishop had arranged an excursion 
 to the lake for our entertainment. Three carriages- and- 
 four waited at his door to receive the party. The " car- 
 riages " were the great, heavy, rough drays on which the 
 wheat is earned from the field to the threshing-floor ; the 
 wheels are formed of several pieces of wood fastened 
 together into a solid wheel, perhaps four feet diameter 
 and two feet thick. They had put poles at the corners, 
 and rigged up a curtain to screen us from the sun, and 
 some rugs were spread for us to recline upon. The 
 "four" were draught bufialoes, which are driven without 
 reins. The driver of the shaft-cattle stands in front of 
 the dray, with a huge whip with a leather thong, which he 
 uses very freely ; a lad sits on the yoke which is fixed to 
 the horns of the leaders, facing backwards, and keeping up 
 a monotonous chant, without which the cattle would not 
 work. After a great deal of fun we were all packed into 
 the carriages, and started through the village. Now the 
 right wheel was in the narrow road, and the other on the 
 
266 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 bank which bounded it on the left ; in another minute the 
 left wheel was in the road, and the right wheel in the 
 ditch which bounded it on the right, and so we lurched 
 along till we cleared the town. Just outside were the 
 threshing-floors. Piles of wheat were heaped up all about, 
 and on three or four floors the oxen were dragging the 
 rude threshing-machines round and round over the layers 
 of wheaten straw. Beyond this we came on the broad 
 margin of the lake — a salt marsh, dry with the summer 
 heat and hoary with the crusted salt. Here the drivers 
 of the two carriages took to racing, urging on their weird- 
 looking cattle with whip and voice ; the bufi'aloes went at 
 a fairly fast pace, and the huge unwieldy drays lurched 
 along, with their clumsy wheels nearly up to the axle in 
 the yielding soil, and we were tossed helplessly to and fro. 
 It was a Titanic chariot race ; I never saw anything so 
 wildly grotesque. At length we reached the waters of the 
 lake, but they still drove on a considerable distance through 
 the shallow water until we stood stiU, surrounded by the 
 still, gleaming lake. I found that part of the entertain- 
 ment was that we should all bathe, so I fell in with the 
 humour of the occasion, and presently there we were, 
 bishop, priests, and layman, old men and young, all most 
 decorously furnished with a towel or a handkerchief, or a 
 something, round the loins, striding and splashing along 
 towards the deeper water. The water is intensely salt, as 
 is soon discovered if the swimmer is careless enough to 
 get it into his mouth, or, still worse, into his eyes ; and 
 it is consequently extremely buoyant, it seemed as if one's 
 feet never would sink to the ground again. After we had 
 re-dressed, our friends brought out a store of cucumbers, 
 water-melons, and gi-apes, with which we refreshed our- 
 selves, and then lumbered back again into the town. 
 
 After dinner we started to the village of Guktapa, to 
 the house of Malek Yohnan, who had invited us to dine 
 and spend the night with him. His house is one of the 
 
THE PLAIN OF OBOOMIAH — MAR GORIEL's VILLAGES. 267 
 
 best we have seen ; the large courtyard is turned into a 
 blooming garden; the kitchens and oifices are on the near 
 side, the reception-rooms on the other side ; a long 
 verandah in front of the reception-rooms is covered with 
 a vine, from which very large branches of grapes, not yet 
 quite ripe, hang temptingly. Under this verandah rugs 
 were spread for us to recline upon, and fruit and tea were 
 served. We attended eveniag service at the village 
 church ; the ordinary service was followed by a short 
 sermon and extempore prayer. We supped under the vine- 
 covered verandah, with lights formed of a candle placed 
 within an ornamental paper lantern. The effect was very 
 pretty. We had during the evening a good deal of con- 
 versation on the doctrines and customs of the Church of 
 England. I was surrounded here by the scholars of the 
 former American missionaries ; our host had been one 
 of their preachers and teachers for many years. Their 
 questions showed a considerable intelligence and know- 
 ledge of the subject ; and I had for iaterpreter the most 
 literary of the Persian Nestorians, who, having been em- 
 ployed to translate American religious works into Syriac, 
 was well qualified to interpret between us. From the 
 intelligence with which the questions were interpreted to 
 me in English I inferred that my answers would be con- 
 veyed with equal accuracy into Syriac ; and where there 
 was any shade of meaning which I was anxious to have 
 conveyed with precision I took pains to ascertain first that 
 my friend perfectly understood the point himself. He 
 was in the employment of the American mission, but I had 
 no doubt of the bond fides of his intervention.* 
 
 * It may very likely occur to some reader to ask, Did I fairly repre- 
 sent the history, doctrines, and customs of the Church of England to the 
 Nestorians ? I may reply that I had quite recently written a sketch of 
 English Church History, and a sketch of Some Chief Truths of Religion, 
 which were published by the Christian Knowledge Society. If the 
 reader takes sufficient interest in the matter, he can procure these books 
 and ascertain from them what views were put before the Nestorians aa 
 those of the English Church. 
 
268 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Our host's family seems to have been long one of the 
 leading families among the Persian Nestorians. He told 
 me that his ancestor came with a large following down 
 from the mountains and settled here ; that the head of 
 the family was recognised by successive Shahs as the 
 malek of the Nestorians, and he showed me documents 
 with the seals of several Shahs recognising them in that 
 capacity. In recent times his office has been shorn of 
 some of its scope and prestige by the appointment of 
 two other maleks, each presiding over a section of the 
 people. 
 
 Wednesday, August 9. — When I woke soon after sun- 
 rise I found that the rest of the party had gone to morning 
 prayer. After breakfast we started homewards — i.e., 
 towards our tents at Seir ; a number of our friends 
 accompanied us a considerable distance, causa honoris. 
 Just outside the village of Guktapa, on the hill which 
 forms the cemetery of the village, we saw a new school 
 just buUt by the Americans ; it was a nice convenient- 
 looking building, and cost only 100 tomauns (£50). Our 
 road led us along the bank of the river outside the city, 
 and past some of the pleasant suburban houses in which 
 the Government officers and other well-to-do people 
 live during the summer months. Here our Guktapa and 
 Oroomiah friends said good-bye, leaving a very small 
 party of us to return to Seir. My horse had been fidgeting 
 and dancing all the way hitherto ; I gave him his head 
 now, and we gallopped the rest of the way, up hill and 
 down dale, till we rode into camp, just in time for dinner. 
 
 Found W. better ; but he had his tale of adventure 
 during our absence, which I insert in his own words in 
 the next chapter. 
 
269 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVm. 
 
 SEIR. 
 
 " My father, with the Nestorian bishop, &c., had gone 
 to spend a couple of days in visiting some of Mar 
 Goriel's villages, and it was thought better that I, who had 
 been suffering rather severely from fever and ague, and 
 was unfit for exposure to the sun of the plain, should 
 remain at the camp with the cook — Philip. For the last 
 week or so there had been reports of serious depredations 
 of the Koords, and since we had been at Seir we had been 
 able almost every evening to hear firing of guns, and dogs 
 barking in the distance. I do not think these alarms gave 
 us any great inconvenience in the way of fright ; for my 
 part I never seemed to realise the idea that we might be 
 attacked any night by 500 or 1,000 armed Koords, who 
 would walk off with all our effects, and perhaps cut our 
 throats into the bargain. This view of the case never 
 occurred to me. I saw and heard that the villagers around 
 us were frequently despoiled of their cattle and goods, and 
 in a great many cases of their lives, and I pitied the help- 
 less sufferers who were thus ruthlessly robbed, and would 
 have helped them if I could ; but somehow it never struck 
 me that we might be in the same plight. We were 
 armed certainly ; but what could two or three men, even 
 though these men were Englishmen, do against a thousand 
 Koords, who are also armed to the teeth, and have a law 
 amongst themselves that if any one of them is killed, his 
 nearest relative must revenge his death. I never even 
 ^uite made up my mind how I should act in case of an 
 
270 CHRISTIANS TJNDEB THE CEESCENT IN A.SIA. 
 
 attack — whether to fire away and kill as many as possible 
 before I was myself kUled, or whether to stand calmly by 
 and allow them to rob anything and everything, and take 
 my chance for my hfe. I believe the latter would have 
 been the wisest course if they had been in any force. If 
 there had only been one or two of them, I think, with our 
 superior weapons, they would have stood a poor chance. 
 
 " Well, to return : I was left in the tent with the cook 
 only. I had been for a short ride in the afternoon, and 
 when I came back the cook met me, and told me that 
 there had been a good deal of excitement in the village 
 that afternoon, owing to rumours of the Koords being in 
 the neighbourhood in considerable force. Upon this 
 information I went to the house of our interpreter, who 
 was a native of this village, and was at the time ill in bed. 
 I asked him what he thought about the matter ; was there 
 any immediate danger to us ? He said that he did not 
 think they would attack the village, as it was only a very 
 small one, and there would not be much to be gained by it, 
 though they might attempt to drive ofi" the flocks from the 
 neighbouring pasturage, as there were a good many beasts 
 at that time feeding there, which had been increased by the 
 remnants of flocks which the Koords had already despoiled. 
 He advised me to take my gun and rifle to the tent with 
 me, which I had left at his house to be cleaned, &c., and 
 promised to send me two men in the evening to keep 
 guard outside the tent, and give me warning should there 
 be any danger. With this I was perfectly satisfied, and, 
 having given the guns to the servant to carry to the tent, 
 strolled back with him and ate my dinner without any 
 further thought about the matter ; but just as I had got 
 fairly into my first pipe after dinner, two men came run- 
 ning up to the tent in great excitement, shouting some- 
 thing about Koords which I did not understand ; but 
 when they came up, I was informed that the Koords were 
 coming upon us in great force. The cook rushed up to 
 
SEXB. 271 
 
 me, and entreated me to run for it ; but when I asked him 
 where we were to run to, he did not seem quite clear on 
 the point himself ; all he cared for was to run somewhere. 
 I in vain attempted to point out to him that we were just 
 as Ukely to run towards them as away from them (as our 
 informants did not know from which quarter they would 
 approach us). He still entreated me either to run away 
 somewhere, or to hide, or do something equally silly. I 
 refused, of course, to do anything of the kind, and tried to 
 pacify him by showing him that I had a revolver in my 
 pocket, a double-barrel gun, and a Westley Henry's rifle, 
 with which latter I assured him that I could kill at least 
 twenty men in a minute at a thousand yards distance ! 
 This information seemed somewhat to comfort him, and he 
 even showed an inclination to handle the gun himself, but 
 I informed him that if it came to firing, his part of the 
 business would be to load as fast as he could (which, by 
 the way, he could not have done at all, as a breech-loading 
 gun was to him an unfathomable mystery) and hand it to 
 me to fire, as, from all accounts of desperate resistance 
 that I have ever read, this always seemed the correct pro- 
 gramme. At this stage of the proceedings one of the 
 American missionaries, who have their summer residence 
 in this village, came out to me, and very kindly offered me 
 a bed in their house, thinking that I should be safer there, 
 as they knew that my father had gone down into the plain, 
 and that I was therefore alone. 
 
 ' ' As our baggage was a great deal too heavy to remove at 
 that time of night (it was about eleven o'clock by this time), 
 and as if it did come to plundering I should at least like to 
 superintend the transaction, I decUned this courteous 
 offer. 
 
 " Our interpreter had sent me two men to keep watch, as 
 he had promised, and they seemed to take the affair very 
 coolly, and my cook also had quite regained his usual com- 
 posure ; in fact he was inclined to joke about the affair, and 
 
272 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 took to imitating the cries and gesticulations of the men who 
 had thus alarmed us all. Affairs having arrived at this satis- 
 factory point, I, being very weak and feverish, thought a 
 little sleep would be a pleasant diversion, and accordingly, 
 having seen that my guards were in their proper places, 
 turned into the tent, and, having placed my revolver under 
 my head, the gun on one side of me and the rifle on the 
 other, lay down to try to get a little rest. For some time 
 I was kept awake by the reports of rifles and guns, which I 
 could hear distinctly, and which seemed to be not very far 
 off. After a short time, however, I fell asleep, and did not 
 wake again until the morning, when a sad tale awaited me. 
 It seemed that the following were the events which had 
 caused us our alarm of the previous evening. 
 
 " Two tribes of the Koords had for a long time past been 
 at daggers drawn with each other, and they had arranged to 
 fight it out on this particular night. They were to meet in 
 the plain at a certain place, which happened to be very 
 near to us, and there to settle their long standing differ- 
 ences. 
 
 " One of these tribes had to pass through the village next 
 to ours to gain the appointed battle-field, and on their way 
 they stopped at this village, and ordered the villagers to 
 provide them vsdth dinner. This the trembling villagers 
 did, thinking themselves very lucky if they could get off so 
 easily. The Koords, having eaten and drunk their fill, 
 started off right merrily to meet their foes ; but they were 
 beaten and driven back with considerable loss. Accordingly, 
 when they arrived at the village on their way back to the 
 mountains, they were not in very good temper, and this 
 the poor villagers were made to feel ere long, for, having 
 again eaten and drunk as much as they could obtain, they 
 began to feel in the humour for plunder. The first house 
 which they attempted to rob was that of the deacon. He, 
 very naturally, barred the door against them, and when 
 they had smashed this in, himself stood in their way, and 
 
SEiR. "278 
 
 tried to protect his home from desolation and ruin. This 
 show of resistance exasperated the fierce Koords, and they 
 cruelly butchered the poor priest on his own threshold. Like 
 tigers, having tasted blood, their appetites were whetted for 
 slaughter, and they proceeded to plunder in all directions ; 
 but most of the people knew what to expect if they stopped 
 to protect their hearths, and made their escape in good 
 time. The Koords then burnt the village, drove off the 
 flocks and horses, and retired to the mountains, no doubt 
 much comforted after their recent defeat by this little in- 
 dulgence in the art of robbery, arson, and murder. 
 
 " One poor Koordish woman, who had married a Nes- 
 torian, was trying to escape with her husband, and did get 
 some distance from the scene of slaughter, but beginning 
 to get tired with her rapid flight, she lagged some distance 
 behind her husband. As she was walking along, one of 
 the Koords suddenly jumped out from behind and stabbed 
 her with his hanjiar in the back ; she uttered a loud 
 scream, which brought her husband to her aid. She was 
 not badly wounded, and managed to get on again. After 
 she had gone a little further, the same man sprang upon 
 her again, and inflicted two more wounds in her back, 
 this time much more serious wounds. Her husband, how- 
 ever, managed to get her into our village, and I was told 
 that she was then in some tents which were just below our 
 own encampment. 
 
 "I went down to the tents in the morning with the 
 brother of our interpreter, but when we passed them they 
 told us that the poor woman had died half an hour pre- 
 viously. 
 
 " This cowardly assassination was probably perpetrated 
 by one of her own relations, who would think it a meri- 
 torious action to kill her, as she had married a Christian 
 and forsaken her tribe." 
 
 While we were sitting " in the tent door " after dinner 
 
 T 
 
274 CHEISTIANS XJNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 enjoying the view over plain and lake and mountain, a 
 number of men came and sat in a circle before us ; and one 
 of their number told us their tale, which was only a more 
 precise version of the events detailed in the previous page. 
 They were men of the neighbouring villages of Ombi and 
 Tulla. On Thursday last a body of Koords, headed by 
 the chiefs Ali Agha and Ali Paha, of the Sedanaii tribe of 
 the Harki nation, came to their villages and stayed tUl the 
 following day, on their way to encounter Ali Khan, of the 
 tribe of Shekaki; they were hospitably received, and left 
 on Friday in search of their enemies. The two bodies of 
 Koords met, and the Harki men were beaten. On their 
 return, they came to the villages again on Sunday morning, 
 and were again entertained and fed. But before leaving they 
 began to plunder the place. Shamasha Yakoob, a Nestorian 
 deacon, of whom the American missionaries speak very 
 highly, shut his door against them, but a shot, fired through 
 the door, wounded him ; and, having bm'st the door open, 
 they stabbed him to death with their hanjiars on his own 
 threshold. Their blood thus heated, they proceeded to 
 sack the town, but the rest of the inhabitants had fled 
 before them. They carried off flocks, herds, and house- 
 hold goods. The following schedule was given me as a 
 correct statement of their losses : — 3,253 sheep, 100 oxen 
 and cows, 36 buffaloes, 25 asses, 4 horses, 9 guns, &c. 
 
 The object of the visit of these men to me was to get me 
 to make a statement of these facts in writing, which they 
 might lay before the British consul at Mosul, and ask his 
 influence to obtain them redress from the Turkish Govern- 
 ment. I sifted their story, and compared it with disin- 
 terested accounts as well as I could, and sent them off to get 
 a dinner while I wrote according to their wish. But the 
 consulate at Mosul and that at Tabriz have both been vacant 
 for a couple of years, and the people all over this part of 
 the world miss their protection. 
 
 In the evening we rode over the hills to the neighbour- 
 
SEiR. 275 
 
 ing little village of Mar Serghees to see the church. It is 
 an interesting ancient stone building, with a double body. 
 On the north side is a little underground cave, into which, if 
 an insane man is put over night, he is found in the morning 
 to have recovered his senses. Our interpreter, a native of 
 Seir, assured us that he knew instances of this supernatural 
 cure. The church is hung round with pocket handker- 
 chiefs, mostly cheap printed ones, with John and Mary at 
 the stile, and other old-fashioned popular patterns. The 
 effect is very curious. We saw the same thing at one of 
 the other churches in the plain. They are all votive offer- 
 ings, made with the same motives with which Greek 
 women made offerings to Juno Lucina ; and Mussulman 
 women, as well as Christian women, make their vows 
 and hang up their offerings in the churches which have 
 this special reputation. Adjoining the church is a good 
 country house, whose owner, a Persian sultan, i.e., cap- 
 tain in the army, was spending a few weeks of the 
 summer here. He was courteous to us, inviting us to 
 take a cup of tea, which we gladly accepted, and offering 
 more substantial refreshments, which we declined. Part 
 of his pastoral wealth consists of five or six hundred hives 
 of bees ; the hives are earthenware jars, which are piled 
 horizontally, in rows and heaps, like empty wine bottles. 
 We did not mount for our return ride till twilight was 
 deepening into night. The bishop set us the example, and 
 we followed it, of galloping recklessly over the hills, up hill 
 and down dale, as hard as our horses would go homewards. 
 It was deUghtfuUy cool, the stars were beginning to shine 
 out of the pearly sky, the horses entered into the froUc 
 con amove, and the riders enjoyed it greatly. 
 
 t2 
 
276 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE PLAIN OP OROOMIAH MAR YOHNAN's VILLAGES. 
 
 Thursday, August 10. — We started for another two days' 
 tour across the plain, among the villages under the juris- 
 diction of Mar Yohnan. Our first stage was to the village 
 of Cherbash, a little beyond the city, where Kasha Elia 
 (Priest Elias), who is a kind of vicar-general of the patri- 
 arch for the Persian part of the nation, had invited us to 
 dine with him. 
 
 Our way led us half round the city, and gave us an 
 opportunity of seeing how its mud wall was crumbling 
 everywhere into the moat, and how the moat was getting 
 filled. in, and had only here and there a pool of stagnant 
 water ; the effect was not one of picturesque ruin, but of 
 lazy neglect and unwholesome decay. But we soon found 
 ourselves in the fields again, and at a little distance saw a 
 crowd of the good people of Cherbash, who had come out 
 to give us the usual welcome. A few of the same principal 
 people were invited everywhere to meet us, and it began to 
 be quite pleasant to see so many well-known faces amid the 
 crowd of strange ones, and to feel that we were acquiring, 
 here also as at Kochanes, quite a large circle of friends. Our 
 host had invited a large company to meet us, and enter- 
 tained us handsomely, and everything passed ofi" with much 
 enjoyment. 
 
 We learnt that the little Koord war was at an end. The 
 Turkish ambassador had remonstrated with the Turkish 
 Koords on proceedings which might embroil Turkey with 
 Persia, and Ali Khan had promised to withdraw his people ; 
 
PLAIN OF OBOOMIAH — MAB YOHNAn's VILLAGES. 277 
 
 the sheik will then withdraw his, and the affair is over 
 for the present. 
 
 Towards evening we rode to the village of Digala, where 
 we were to sup with Malek Pera and spend the night 
 at his house. The malek had built himself a handsome 
 new gate-house of burnt brick (the houses generally being 
 built of mud), which made the approach to his house quite 
 imposing. Here again we were most hospitably received 
 and handsomely entertained. The supper was served on 
 the housetop by the light of painted paper lanterns. 
 Sjipper over, mattresses were spread for us, also on the 
 housetop. The malek himself had a great standing bed- 
 stead on the roof of the adjoining building, which was a 
 little lower, and I noticed, as an indication of the state of 
 society, that his gun stood at his bed-head. We slept 
 soundly under the stars. 
 
 Friday, Atigust 11. — There are two (if not more) lofty 
 "hills of ashes" in the plain, concerning which the people 
 have a theory that the ancient fire-worshippers had stations 
 here, and that these hills are the ashes of their perpetual 
 fires. One of these hills is just outside the village of Digala, 
 and we went out this morning to look at it. The people 
 have found that the ashes and soil are capital manure, and 
 have made extensive excavations, which laid the interior of 
 the hill open in several places almost down to the bottom 
 for our inspection. The ashes lie only in thin irregular 
 layers here and there, at various depths, amidst the heap 
 of soil. Towards the bottom of the hill we observed a 
 portion of a wall in situ. Building stones have been found 
 in other places ; fragments of pottery, and entire vessels of 
 pottery (one of which I saw), and implements in metal. 
 The whole remains produced on my mind the conviction 
 that the hill was simply the debris of ancient habitations. 
 If the mounds which lie so thickly between Aleppo and 
 Mosul were dug into I should expect to find similar remains. 
 The soil I take to be the remains of the earthen walls, of 
 
278 CHBISTIANS UKDEB THE CBESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 which nearly all the villages here are built; the thin layers 
 of ashes may be the charred remnants of their roofs. 
 
 Took leave of our host after breakfast, and rode on to 
 the large village of Arda, where we dined at the house of 
 Priest Hoshaba. There I learnt from a Chaldean priest, 
 who was one of the company, that his party were disap- 
 pointed that I had not paid their bishop the compliment of 
 going to pay my respects to him, and that the bishop 
 would have been gratified by, and would have returned, my 
 visit. I fear they would not be better pleased with my 
 explanation, that though it was true that I was the bearer 
 of a letter and messages of greeting from the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury to the prelates of the ancient churches of 
 the East, I must decline to recognise him as one of 
 them, but as a schismatical intruder. That if the bishop 
 had thought fit to do me the honour which other per- 
 sonages in Oroomiah had done, to pay me a visit of 
 compliment, I should have known how to return his cour- 
 tesy ; but that, to tell the truth, I was rather amused 
 to find that he had been expecting what he knew well 
 would have been, under all the circumstances, a remark- 
 able act of deference and homage from me — one which it 
 never occurred to me to pay him, and which, now it was 
 suggested to me, I utterly declined to pay. 
 
 We walked through the town to the house of Deacon 
 Syad, who had asked us to take a cup of tea with him, and 
 then took horse and rode to the village of Superajan, the 
 village of the Bishop Mar Yohannan. On the way we 
 halted to look at a church dedicated to Mar Daniel, stand- 
 ing out in the plain, at a distance from any village, which 
 my friends seemed to regard as of special interest. The 
 church consisted of a plain chancel and nave, built of hewn 
 stone, groined with a barrel arch ; it had a horseshoe- 
 shaped chancel arch, and a little ornamental carving on 
 the tympanum of the west door ; but I did not see any- 
 thing of remarkable architectural interest in it. At Super- 
 
PLAIN OF OROOMIAH MAR YOHNAn's VILLAGES. 279 
 
 ajan we were quartered in a new and unfinished building, 
 which Deacon Hnan Isu has erected for a school, and now 
 seeks to get permission from the authorities to open. We 
 supped on the housetop by lamplight ; the special inci- 
 dent of the evening was a visit from a Nestorian lady, who, 
 having been brought up in the family of one of the old 
 American missionaries, spoke English with great facility 
 and correctness. She acted as spokeswoman of the 
 assembled people in putting before me their grievances 
 and wishes, and in asking information about England. I 
 fear some of my answers and explanations were disappoint- 
 ing. They complained that the villages had to pay in taxes 
 perhaps twice as much as the sum which found its way at 
 last into the Shah's treasury ; and thought it possible that 
 some English moneyed men might be found to farm the 
 taxes of the Nestorian villages, and while making a fair 
 profit relieve the tax-payers of a large proportion of their 
 burden. I had to point out that the system of farming 
 the taxes was a part of the national system, that it was 
 very improbable that the Persian Government would allow 
 foreigners to take any part in it, and that no foreigners 
 would be likely to undertake it without the prospect of a 
 large profit on the trouble and risk ; and that by the time 
 the foreign tax-farmers had calculated the expenses of 
 their establishment here, and their profit and risk, it was 
 very likely they could not afi'ord to make much reduction 
 upon the sum at present exacted. 
 
 The people seemed to think that there were institutions 
 or individuals in England who would take in young Nesto- 
 rians and educate them as physicians and schoolmasters 
 and clergymen, and what not. One old priest was urgent 
 with me to take his son back with me and place him in 
 some such way. And I was told of one poor young fellow 
 who had gone over to England to get an education as a 
 physician and had died there. 
 
 I agreed that in the present state of medical practice in 
 
280 CHEISTIANS UNDEE THK CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the East the medical profession would afford an honourable 
 and lucrative career to some of their young men, if they 
 could get them trained in the European school of medi- 
 cine. But I had to explain that in sending a young man 
 to England they must be prepared to allow him as much 
 as 200 or 250 tomauns (£100 or £125) a year while he 
 was learning, first English, then the ordinary branches of 
 an English education, as Latin, &c., then while he was 
 a medical student, and walking the hospitals, i.e., perhaps 
 for foar or five years ; that it seemed to me their hope 
 lay in getting out a competent medical man as a member 
 of the expected English college staff, who would undertake 
 to train a class of medical students, and perhaps establish 
 a small hospital. 
 
 I had to disappoint my friend the priest by assuring 
 him that no school would take a young fellow of twenty 
 who could not even speak English, and that I knew no 
 one who would take him gratuitously as a private pupil ; 
 and I had at last rather peremptorily to decline to take him 
 back to England with me, and to point out that the pro- 
 posed English college was to be established on purpose to 
 give an education to such young men as his son. 
 
 Some of the grievances which were named to me I had 
 to point out they endured in common with the Mussul- 
 man subjects of a bad Government — e.g., the oppressive 
 system of taxation, and the corruption of the sources of 
 justice ; or as the result of class prejudices, as the refusal 
 of Mussulmans to buy their produce in the bazaar ; or as 
 a consequence of their being inhabitants of the unsettled 
 border land between two ill-governed states, as the hability 
 to Koordish raids ; and that in these matters no foreign 
 power could help them. 
 
 Others of their grievances, however, it seemed to me were 
 capable of speedy redress. These three, for example : — 
 
 1. According to Persian law, if one member of a 
 Christian family turn Mussulman, he or she becomes 
 
PLAIN OF OROOMIAH ^MAE YOHNAn's VILLAGES. 281 
 
 entitled to the property of the family, and under the word 
 family not only father and mother, but collateral branches 
 of the family are sometimes included. It is very rarely 
 that a Christian apostatises under the influence of this 
 temptation ; but it is not uncommon for an enterprising 
 young Mussulman to seduce or carrj off by force a Chris- 
 tian girl of well-to-do family (as enterprising Irishmen 
 not very long since used to run away with an heiress and 
 effect a forced marriage), to declare that she has become a 
 Mussulman, and to claim the property of her family. If 
 the girl has not deserted her religion, it is perfectly easy 
 to get another girl to personate her ; she can only be 
 produced in court veiled. A young man was made known 
 to me who had recently been deprived of his property in 
 this way, and was seeking redress. 
 
 2. The testimony of a Christian is not received in a 
 court of justice against that of a Mussulman. 
 
 3. The Christians are not liable to serve in the army, 
 and pay a special poll-tax in lieu of personal service ; but 
 lately the authorities have begun to impress young Chris- 
 tians to serve as musicians in the military bands. It 
 seems to me that the next time Persia needs any favour at 
 our hands we may very well ask, as a condition, the 
 redress of these vrongs of our co-religionists. 
 
 Saturday, Awjiist 10. — We started early from Superajan 
 and rode into the city, where we dined with Dr. Yussuf, 
 brother of the late and uncle of the present Bishop Mar 
 Yohnan, one of our kindest and trustiest friends, whose 
 house had been always open to us on our visits to the city. 
 We trusted to Dr. Yussuf the arrangements to be made for 
 our departure on Monday homewards, and we sent formal 
 messages of leave-taking to the governor and the Serparast. 
 In the evening returned to our tents at Seir. Sunday, 
 August 10, we spent quietly at Seir. In the evening we 
 saw Persian troops at a little distance marching back to the 
 city from their duty of observation of the Koords. 
 
282 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE AMERICAN MISSION. 
 
 On the eve of my departure from Seir two members of the 
 American Mission, Mr. Labaree and Mr. Whipple, paid me 
 a visit and had a long conversation. First they gently 
 deprecated interference with the work they had been car- 
 rying on for more than forty years. It was easy to reply 
 that if we came it would be on the repeated invitation of 
 the Nestorian Church (as represented by all its bishops and 
 nearly all its clergy and its chief men), which of course 
 had a right to seek for counsel and assistance from the 
 English Church ; that it was natural that they should 
 seek assistance from ms, and that tee should afford it, 
 seeing the many reasons there were why they should feel 
 special confidence in us, and we a special interest in them. 
 Then the missionaries sought my concurrence in the out- 
 lines of an arrangement between the English and the 
 American agencies, e.g., that we should not establish a 
 school in villages where they already had one, or afford 
 inducements to their agents to enter into our service. I 
 replied that my mission was simply one of inquiry, and 
 that I had no authority to enter into any such arrange- 
 ments. On being pressed to give some indication of the 
 course likely to be taken by any English clergyman who 
 might be sent out, I very carefully abstained from saying 
 anything which could possibly embarrass the future. My 
 beUef is that the people of the villages where there are 
 already schools will at once seek to put them under 
 English control, and that a considerable number of those 
 who have formed both the American and the Papal con- 
 nections will return to their own Church. 
 
THE AMERICAN MISSION. 283 
 
 Of the American missionaries I desire to speak with 
 fairness and respect, but I am very much surprised at the 
 small number of their adherents after fifty years of work, 
 when I am assured that not more than 300 families can 
 be reckoned as belonging to their connection ; and I am 
 struck by the attitude taken up by many Nestorians who 
 formerly were under their instruction and influence. I 
 think the facts may be explained thus. The older Ameri- 
 can missionaries here sought to do that which we are now 
 seeking to do — to educate the people and help them to 
 improve themselves, without trying to make proselytes 
 and establish a separate body. They did very much for 
 the people, and everywhere I have come upon the traces of 
 their work, in intelligent men, who desire general educa- 
 tion and improvements in their Church, while they still 
 venerate and cling to that Church with its grand past 
 history, and its claims upon their fidelity. 
 
 All the older American missionaries are dead or gone, 
 and within the last few years have been succeeded by 
 younger men, who are said to pursue different measures 
 and to have difierent aims. I desire to speak of these 
 gentlemen with all fairness, and I certainly feel towards 
 them much personal kindness and gratitude. As I ap- 
 proached the city they were kind enough to send me an 
 invitation to occupy their house in the city. They paid 
 me a visit immediately on my arrival. It was convenient 
 to us to pitch our tents near their house in Seir, where we 
 had recourse to the skill of their medical member, and we 
 received much kindness from them. 
 
 Still it is my duty to report fairly that the present American 
 missionaries here appear to me, from all I have heard of 
 them, to hold decided nonconformist views, and naturally to 
 desire to win others to these views. Among the new steps 
 which the American missionaries have taken are these : — 
 
 They refuse to receive as " members " any persons who 
 will not become total abstainers. 
 
284 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CBESCENT IN ASU. 
 
 They refuse to baptize the children of any who are not 
 *' members." 
 
 The old American missionaries, when they had trained 
 a man as a preacher, procured his ordination by his 
 bishop ; the present missionaries have begun to procure 
 for their preachers " ordination " at the hands of one of 
 the priests in their interests. 
 
 They are beginning to build chapels of their own, and 
 in other ways to form a separate religious body. 
 
 The Nestorians are strongly attached to their ancient 
 Church, and hold their distinctive Church principles with 
 great tenacity ; I think it is therefore easy to understand 
 why many of those who were the pupils of the earlier 
 American missionaries are alienated from their successors, 
 and why these seem now to be making httle way among 
 the people. 
 
 Since my return the American missionaries have 
 stated their own case in a letter to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, which was published in the Standard news- 
 paper, Feb. 3, 1877, and which I subjoin : — 
 
 "To HIS G-KACB THE AKCHBISHOP OP CANTERBURY. 
 
 " Oroomiah, Persia, Jan. 1. 
 
 ■' Dear Sir, — The Rev. Mr. Cutts, wlio visited Koordistan and Oroomiah 
 last summer as your representative, with the view of establishing a 
 mission of the Church of England among the Nestorians, and with 
 whom we had several pleasant interviews on departing, kindly offered 
 to convey to you any communications we might at any time desire to 
 forward. We have not felt disposed to avail ourselves of his kind 
 offer until now, when, finding the work committed to us by the Pres- 
 byterian Churches of America involved in grave compUcations as a 
 direct result of his mission, we should be untrue to our trust, and do 
 injustice to you, did we fail to call your attention to the facts, and beg 
 your serious consideration of the evils with which the proposed mission 
 threatens us. We do this the more confidently that your broad and 
 liberal views on Christian xmity have long been recognised, both in 
 Europe and America. 
 
 " The facts are briefly as follows :— Several of our Nestorian helpers, 
 returning recently to their field of labour in the mountains of Koordistan, 
 were arrested, by order of Mar Shimoon, and taken to his patriarcliial 
 
THE AMERICAN MISSION. 285 
 
 residence at Kochanes. Upon their arrival he demanded why they 
 presumed to return to the mountains, saying, ' Do you not know that 
 I have delivered all my people over to the Church of England ? ' They 
 replied that they had so understood, but that they did not suppose that 
 the American missionaries would be expected to withdraw from the 
 country as a consequence of that action. The patriarch reiterated his 
 determination to suffer none but agents of the Church of England to 
 do religious work among his people. Our helpers, some of whom had 
 been long and actively engaged in mission labours with their people in 
 the mountains, urged their claim persistently, but without effect. They 
 appealed to the laws of Turkey, as granting religious liberty to all 
 Christians ; to the former friendship of the patriarch for the American 
 missionaries, and the benefits he and his people had received at their 
 hands ; to the history of our work, in which during more than forty 
 years both missionaries and native helpers had been accorded almost 
 unrestricted access to the mountains. The patriarch appeared to be 
 affected by these arguments, but said he could not withdraw his pro- 
 hibition in view of his agreement with Mr, Cutts, that none but re- 
 presentatives of the Church of England should be permitted to work 
 in the mountains. Our helpers, during their detention, were treated 
 •vith marked indignity. Their baggage was seized, and on its way to 
 the patriarch's house a considerable sum of money was abstracted from 
 it by his men. They were finally expelled from the mountains, and 
 with them our entire correspondence, prepared with much care and 
 labour for the guidance of stations beyond (with which our communica- 
 tions are now entirely cut off), together with a quantity of Syriac Bibles 
 and Testaments era route to the mountains, were thrown back on 
 cur hands. It is due to the patriarch to say that ... he did make an 
 effort to recover the money stolen by his own men, almost upon 
 his own premises, and that a portion of it was restored. We can 
 characterise the action of the patriarch in this matter in no other 
 terms than as a high-handed outrage upon the liberty of the 
 Gospel without a precedent in the history of our labours in the 
 mountains. Worse than all, it was perpetrated in the name of the 
 Church of England. This act will strengthen the existing impres- 
 sion among the people, that your mission is undertaken in a spirit un- 
 friendly to the interests of our work, an impression, I may say, for 
 which we disclaim all responsibility. 
 
 " It would hardly seem necessary that we should call the attention of 
 your Grace to the work of the American Mission to the Nestorians. 
 It is not to be supposed that you wovdd establish a mission among a 
 people with the brightest pages of whose later history you were un- 
 acqu.ainted. And yet so persistent has been the effort of late years on 
 the part of unworldly men to misrepresent us, and to depreciate the 
 character and extent of our work, that it is fitting we remind you of a 
 few facts connected with its history. This mission was undertaken 
 with the hope of purifying the worship of the Ancient Nestorian 
 
286 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Church, and reviving its historical spirit of piety and missionary zeal 
 through the existing ecclesiastical organisation. This hope was not 
 abandoned until, after many years of labour, its realisation was found 
 impossible. Patient and persevering efforts were made to enlist the 
 patriarch and priesthood in the work of educating and elevating the 
 people, until at length the fact was recognised that in religion, as well 
 as in politics, the thing to be reformed is seldom a useful ally in the 
 •work of reformation. The work has since been carried on directly with 
 the people. The work accomplished and its results speak for them- 
 selves. For nearly half a century the missionaries from the American 
 Churches, at an average annual outlay of 25,000 dollars, have toiled to 
 improve the condition, spiritual and temporal, of the Nestorian people. 
 Not from ourselves, but from an English diplomatist in the East, the 
 statement comes that the American Mission have done more than all 
 the foreign embassies in the country to ameliorate the condition of the 
 people of Persia. While approving the correctness of this statement, 
 we take the opportunity to make grateful acknowledgment to the 
 promptness with which the representatives of Great Britain have 
 almost uniformly seconded our efforts when we have asked their aid. 
 Since 1835 sixty-seven adult missionaries have laboured here, ten to 
 twelve of them entirely, or principally, in the mountains, four being 
 buried there. Flourishing male and female schools have been in opera- 
 tion from an early period. From the former about 150 preachers and 
 teachers have been sent out. The numerous graduates of the latter 
 are scarcely, if any, less useful in their own sphere. Five self-support- 
 ing churches have been organised, with ten others partially self-sup- 
 porting, and there are forty-six congregations with helpers xmder our 
 care. Three high schools and sixty village schools partly supported by 
 us are in operation. Among the Nestorians of Persia, with a popula- 
 tion of 25,000, there are very few villages of more than twenty houses 
 in which we have not planted a school. In these viUages upwards of 
 2,500 can read, the direct result of our educational system. The mem- 
 bership of the churches is about 875 ; of these 125 were added during 
 the past year, with the promise of a greater number in the coming 
 year, as a result of the work of grace now in progress in the churches. 
 Notable among the labours of the missionaries is the translation of the 
 venerable Peschito version of the New Testament into the spoken 
 tongue, which had not previously been reduced to writing, and the 
 publication by our mission press of twenty-one million pages of 
 Christian literature in Syriac. A commodious hospital and a medical 
 training-class have been organised, and gratuitous medical service to 
 the poor has always been a prominent feature of the mission work. 
 The mountain field gives a less encouraging result, attributable in part 
 to the physical obstacles it presents to successful missionary labour, 
 and in part to the wild and lawless character of the people themselves, 
 together with the hostility of the patriarch to all reforms, whether 
 from within or without his Church. There are several bright spots. 
 
THE AMEEICAN MISSION. 287 
 
 however, here among them, the Church at Hassan in Bohtan, whose 
 honoured pastor was formerly a bishop of the old Church. 
 
 " Now, concerning the question of the establishment by parties 
 within the Church of England of another mission in Oroomiah, in view 
 of these facts, much might be said. We feel assured that the occur- 
 rence which called forth this letter is but the presage of evils which 
 such action will entail upon us. We will not call in question the right, 
 but we do question the wisdom, of planting a rival mission among a 
 people with so limited a population, a people of volatile temperament, 
 largely pauperised by unwise benevolence, and ready to welcome who- 
 ever comes with the promise of political protection, whether Russian, 
 French, or English, and especially at a time when we have to encounter 
 opposition and reproach in our efforts to counteract the mercenary 
 spirit of the people, and lead the churches up to self-support and in- 
 dependence. We would ask whether, assuming that our work is of the 
 Lord, there be room for another mission here ? Can your mission ex- 
 pect to build except upon the foundations which we have laid, or to 
 grow except by arresting, or impeding, our natural growth ? Can you 
 expect to carry on your work except by employing the men whom we 
 have educated, paying them higher wages than we can give, for the 
 reason that their education has involved you in no expense ? Will the 
 spectacle of a rivalry of this character be an edifying one to the Mus- 
 sulman population, among whom there exists an interesting state of 
 inquiry regarding the truths of Christianity. These questions we sub- 
 mit to your consideration without discussion. We are not disposed to 
 raise an issue upon them, and though we cannot be indifferent to what 
 we consider the inevitable consequence of the rivalry which we deprecate, 
 we rest the responsibility with its promoters. But we cannot concede 
 any infringement of the freedom of conscience heretofore enjoyed by 
 the Nestorian Christians, and Protestant Christendom would justly 
 condemn us did we fail to insist that the patriarch and his Chm-ch shall 
 not be permitted to construe the terms of your aUiance with him in a 
 seHse adverse to the principles of religious liberty. This much we are 
 sure neither your Grace nor the Church over which you preside will 
 be disposed to deny us, and we would therefore respectfully suggest 
 that a letter to Mar Shimoon from yourself, in accordance with the 
 catholic spirit in which we feel assured you will view the case, would 
 be amply sufficient for this purpose. — Yours very respectfully, 
 
 " (Signed) " George W. Holmes, " W. L. Whipple, 
 
 " Wm. R. Stocking, " Benjamin Labaree." 
 " I. M. Oldfather, 
 
 It may be expected that I should make some observa- 
 tions upon this letter. 
 
 I observe that of what happened to the native agents of 
 the Americans in the mountains we have only the state- 
 
288 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 ment of the American missionaries of what their native 
 employes stated to them ; and there runs a tone through 
 the narrative which puts us on our guard, if that were 
 necessary, against coming to any conclusions upon it until 
 we have heard the statements of the other side. 
 
 I may, however, state at once that it is not correct to 
 say that I was a party to any '* agreement that none but 
 representatives of the Church of England should be per- 
 mitted to work in the mountains," if these words mean 
 that I entered into a compact with the patriarch that he 
 should hinder any others from working there. If it is 
 meant that the patriarch had resolved not to give a formal 
 permission, in the sense of approval, to any foreign agents 
 to work among his people, except such as should come to 
 him recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, I 
 was aware that he had formed such a resolution, and I 
 thought, and still think, that under all the circumstances of 
 the case it was a judicious resolution. 
 
 The summary which the Americans give of what their 
 compatriots have done during nearly half a century among 
 the Nestorians is interesting. That work was done chiefly, 
 it will be admitted, by Dr. Grant, Mr. Cochrane, Mr. 
 Whipple (the father of the signer of the present letter), and 
 others of the elder missionaries, who are now dead or gone ; 
 they worked through the existing Nestorian ecclesiastical 
 organisation, seeking to educate and evangelise the Nes- 
 torian Church from within. The present missionaries, 
 however, as I have stated in the text, and as they openly 
 avow in their letter, have abandoned the policy of working 
 through the existing ecclesiastical organisation, have set 
 themselves openly in opposition to it, and are gathering 
 separatist congregations out of the Nestorian body. This 
 new policy, I believe, will prove fatal to their work. 
 Many of their former adherents, including some who were 
 the fellow-helpers of the earlier school of missionaries, 
 have withdrawn from their connection, and it is chiefly 
 
THE AMERICAN MISSION. 289 
 
 these who have lately swelled the long-continued cry for 
 help from the English Church. 
 
 The first paragraph of the letter and the last answer 
 one another. The first paragraph holds up the patriarch 
 to universal reprobation because he declines to sanction 
 the intrusion of the American agents, who avowedly seek 
 to draw away his people from their ancient Church, 
 The last paragraph holds up the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury to universal reprobation if he shall intrude any 
 English agents into this field, which the Americans wish 
 to keep to themselves. 
 
 We are accustomed to this kind of appeal from Dis- 
 senting bodies. When they have established a mission 
 abroad, and the Chui'ch of England proposes to establish 
 a mission in the same country, they deprecate this un- 
 friendly intrusion upon their work, and point out how this 
 rivalry will injure the cause of Christian missions in the 
 eyes of the heathen. But when they are sending a 
 mission into any part of the mission field pre-occupied by 
 other workers they appeal to the principles of rehgious 
 liberty. 
 
 But here the case is difierent from those to which we 
 are accustomed. This ia the case of an ancient Christian 
 body which, by the mouth of its entire hierarchy and the 
 vast majority of its people, appeals to the Church of 
 England to help it to educate and revive and reform 
 itself. The American Congregationalists desire us, in the 
 name of religious liberty, to refuse this appeal, in order 
 that they may not be hindered in the endeavour, which 
 they openly avow and have just commenced, to tear this 
 ancient Church into pieces. I think it will be found that 
 English Churchmen have a strong sympathy with these 
 descendants of the Christians of the further East, and are 
 not disposed to abandon them to the new policy of the 
 A m erican CongregationaHsts. 
 
290 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE PLAIN OF OEOOMIAH MAR YOHANNAn's YtLLAGES. 
 
 Thk villages of the third Oroomian bishop were at the 
 northern end of the plain, and it was arranged that we 
 should see something of them on our way to Tabriz. 
 
 Monday, August 14. — We struck tents, packed our goods, 
 and prepared for departure. But departing is very slow 
 work in these Eastern regions. The baggage horses were 
 to have been up early, but they did not arrive till late. 
 We left the katurjis and servants to load and foUow us, 
 while we rode down to the city, where one of the leading 
 Nestorians, Baboula, had pressed us to halt for a fare- 
 well dinner. Dinner was hardly over when we were sur- 
 prised by a visit from the Serparast, who, learning where 
 we were, had come to say adieu. In conversation I asked 
 him if statements which had been made to me about the 
 two Persian laws recorded above, page 280, were correct, 
 and received his assurance that they were. I ventured 
 to say that they seemed to me indefensible, and that I did 
 not see how the Persian Government could refuse to 
 listen to remonstrance against them. I ventured further 
 to suggest how greatly he would signalise his tenure of 
 office as protector of the Christians, and win the gratitude 
 of the Christians of Europe as well as of Persia, if he 
 could get them repealed. 
 
 When we began to talk about continuing our journey 
 we learnt that our katurji had deposited his load at Dr. 
 Yussuf s, and gone off with his horses, and did not intend 
 to continue his journey till the next day; and we were 
 
PLAIN OF OROOIHAH MAE YOHANNAN'S YXLLAGES. 291 
 
 pressed to follow his example, sleep at Dr. Yussuf's, and 
 start fair early next morning. To this I would not agree. 
 Malek Babou of Yangeji had invited us to make a short 
 stage of four or five hours to his house and sup there, and 
 I would not break the engagement ; so I left peremptory 
 orders for the luggage to overtake us on Tuesday night 
 at Gavilan, where we were to stay at Mar Yohnan's, 
 and we got ofi" by five o'clock. We had only just got out- 
 side the town, however, when a group of Mussulmans 
 drinking tea by the roadside invited us to join them, 
 and at their invitation we dismounted and sat on the 
 ground with them and drank a cup of tea. This delayed 
 us half an hour, and helped to bring us into difficulties ; 
 for we had only got half-way to our destination when 
 night overtook us. Dr. Yussuf was a capital guide, and 
 led us safely along the bridle-paths and across the ditches. 
 I well remembered one particular bridge over a wider 
 ditch than usual which had a hole in the middle, and I 
 had noticed how conveniently a well had been dug on the 
 other side, so that the rider when pitched over his horse's 
 head at the hole in the ditch might himself go head first 
 into the well. But Dr. Yussuf guided us safely over this, 
 as over many pitfalls, and we were beginning to feel 
 tired, and to think we must be near our night quarters, 
 when our guide pulled up in the middle of a field and 
 admitted that we had lost our way ! We tried a cast in 
 one direction which led us to nothing. We tried in 
 another direction, and saw a village a httle way ofi" and 
 made towards it, when we were pulled up short by a 
 wide brook — how deep we did not know — between us 
 and it. However, our guide plunged his horse in and 
 scrambled up the bank on the other side, and we fol- 
 lowed his example ; but when we rode into the village it 
 was not the village we sought. We holloaed, but the whole 
 village seemed asleep, and we received no answer except 
 the barking of the dogs ; I daresay both dogs and villagers 
 
 u2 
 
292 CHRISTUNS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 took US for a group of Koords who were better left with 
 no other answer. We rode off again in another direc- 
 tion, and I was making up my mind that we had better 
 " hobble " the horses and sleep on the ground till dawn, 
 when we fortunately met a belated villager, who indicated 
 our way, and we rode on with fresh hope. Rode into 
 another village street, and in answer to our holloa a 
 lighted candle held up on a housetop dimly disclosed a 
 group of men, and showed us that our friend the malek 
 had stUl clung to the hope of our turning up, although it 
 was somewhere near midnight. I was very tired ; we made 
 a hasty supper, and lay down as we were on the house- 
 top to sleep. A curiously public life is this living on the 
 housetop. When I woke at dawn in the morning and 
 happened to look over the edge of my bed, I found 
 myself looking down into the sleeping face of the lady of 
 the adjoining house ; and when I got up to make such a 
 toilette as circumstances admitted I found half the popu- 
 lation of the village had risen and were making their 
 toilettes also ! Our host, I forgot to say, was the gentle- 
 man who had been imprisoned for murder all the week, 
 and let out on Sunday to go and see his friends, and 
 who had dined with us on that Sunday at the house of the 
 chief carpenter. It turned out that when he returned to 
 the Serparast on Monday, the protector of the Christians 
 transacted some piece of ordinary business with him, and 
 dismissed him without any further explanation. 
 
 Tuesday, August 15. — When I got sight of our host by 
 daylight I was much amused. He was to accompany us 
 to Tabriz, and he had got himself up for the occasion. 
 The last time I saw him he had sandy hair and beard. 
 This morning it was died black, and trimmed with great 
 precision after the ancient Persian fashion ; a day or two's 
 growth showed that it ought to have been snowy white. 
 He was attired in a plum-coloured coat, and when shortly 
 after we saw him with a firm seat on a good horse, he 
 
PLAIN OF OROOMIAH MAR YOHANNAn's VILLAGES. 293 
 
 certainly did not look like the septuagenarian I supposed 
 he really was, $ 
 
 Our road after breakfast took us by the margin of the 
 lake. What had looked in the distance like a line of 
 breakers turned out to be the fringe of salt at the water's 
 edge. The breeze gently ruffled the surface, and the view 
 of lake and mountain was a very pleasant one. After a 
 three hours' ride we came to a row of black tents pitched 
 on the low marshy pastures near the lake ; their tenants 
 were Nestorians, and we pulled up and rested our horses, 
 and got a refreshing draught of milk for ourselves. 
 Another hour brought us to Gavilan, the village of Mar 
 Yohnan. 
 
 The American Mission has a " Castle " here, a large 
 piece of orchard and vineyard, surrounded by a lofty wall 
 with turrets at the angles, and an extensive house in the 
 middle of the ground. The American party is strong 
 here ; the Papal party also is strong, and has built a 
 chapel in the middle of the village, the village church 
 unfortunately being on the top of a rugged hill an hour's 
 walk out of the village. There is a great antagonism 
 between the two parties. "We took tea at the " Castle," 
 and returned to dine and sleep at the bishop's house. 
 Two of the villagers were brought to me to tell me how 
 a few weeks before some of Ali Kagha's Koords, of the tribe 
 of Mamadie, had come down upon them from the hills and 
 swept off fourteen oxen and twelve cows ; this makes the 
 fourth example of Koord cattle-lifting which has been 
 brought under my own notice during the short time we 
 have been in these parts. 
 
 This was our last day in the plain of Oroomiah, and 
 this will be the place to insert some particulars which 
 have not yet found a place in our diary. 
 
 The Nestorians of the plain differ much in character 
 and circumstances from those of the mountains. They are 
 a less picturesque and interesting people, more " civilised." 
 
294 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 They dress in rather loose trousers, gathered in at the 
 ankle, a kind of frock coat, girded wi^ a belt at the waist, 
 and a tall lamb-skin cap, like other Persians. The neces- 
 saries of life are more abundant and more easily obtained 
 in the fertile plain than in the mountains, so that they 
 are not so poor. On the other hand, the people here 
 complain that they suffer much more oppression at the 
 hands of their Mussulman neighbours and masters than 
 their brethren of the mountains. 
 
 The Nestorians here cling with great tenacity to their 
 religion, and are diligent in attendance upon its outward 
 observances, e.g., there is daily morning and evening 
 prayer in all the churches, which (at least in the evening) 
 are regularly attended by a fair proportion of the people. 
 Preaching here is common (general, I think) on Sundays, 
 and the people, perhaps, hold their religion more intelli- 
 gently than their mountain brethren. 
 
 In all the 104 villages of the plain there is, perhaps, not 
 a single school open at this moment, and in the winter 
 months the number of (Nestorian) schools is very few 
 indeed. Yet there is a considerable desire among the 
 people for the establishment of schools ; there are a 
 number of men qualified to teach in them, but they want 
 some one to organise and superintend the working of a 
 system of village schools ; and I think that a clergyman 
 and a trained schoolmaster in the city, and a little help in 
 money, would suffice to create and carry on a system of 
 schools all over the plain, which would do an excellent 
 work among the people. 
 
 The Roman Catholic establishment consists of a bishop, 
 seven French priests, and three native priests, eight 
 Lazarists and sixteen Sisters ; of whom the bishop, four 
 French and three native priests, four Lazarists, and some 
 Sisters are in Oroomiah ; one priest in Tehooma (in the 
 mountains) ; and the rest in Salmast. In Oroomiah, city 
 and plain, they have about two hundred persons converts ; 
 
PLAIN OF OEOOMIAH MAB YOHANNAn's YHJAGES. 295 
 
 in all the mountains and this plain, and Salmast, about two 
 hundred houses. They offer many advantages in the way 
 of protection from local oppression, education, and kind- 
 ness, but they seem to be making little progress among 
 the people. 
 
 It is very natural to think that among the archives at 
 Kochanes, or in some village in the fastnesses of the 
 mountains, or at the city of Oroomiah, or somewhere 
 among the bishops or maleks scattered over the plain, 
 there may exist ancient records which would throw a light 
 upon the histoiy of the people, or, perhaps, records of 
 still greater and more general interest. I made diligent 
 inquiry, and I believe that nothing of the kind exists 
 among the mountain tribes or the Persians of the plain. 
 The late patriarch possessed a document said to have 
 been (and I have no reason to doubt it) a confirmation of 
 his possessions with the seal of Mohammed himself, and 
 he may have bad other documents of equal age ; but 
 when Bedr Khan Beg seized the patriarch's house thirty 
 years ago he carried off this interesting document, and 
 destroyed all other writings he could lay hands upon. 
 
 The Chaldean portion of the nation may possess some 
 literary treasures unknown to us, but I think it unlikely. 
 The majority of the Syriac MSS. in the British Museum 
 (among them the important version of the Epistles of 
 Ignatius) came from the book rooms of monasteries in 
 Egypt ; and it is probably in some such ancient collections 
 of MSS., if anywhere, that the discovery of any other 
 treasures of Syriac literature is to be anticipated. 
 
296 
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 OROOMIAH TO TABRIZ. 
 
 Wednesday, August 16. — ^We resumed our travelling habits, 
 rose early, and started for Gavilan by five o'clock. We 
 were rather a large party, viz., our two selves, interpreter, 
 and servant, and two katurjis, and five chief men of the 
 Persian Nestorians (Mar Goriel, Malek Yohnan, Malek 
 Pera, Malek Babou, Dr. Yussuf), and an extra servant — a 
 round dozen in all. We soon found ourselves ascending 
 the mountains which divide the plain of Oroomiah from 
 the smaller plain of Salmast. The road is a well-marked 
 bridle track, steep enough in places, and the scenery wild 
 enough, but presenting no such difficulties as in the 
 former half of our journey. It possessed some dangers, 
 however, for at the very summit of the pass we found a 
 military post, where a guard of Persian cavalry was sta- 
 tioned to protect travellers and caravans from the plun- 
 dering Koords. It was a very pictui-esque scene : beside a 
 rough shed among the rocks a group of spears was stuck 
 in the ground with their pennons fluttering wildly in the 
 strong breeze which blew through the pass ; the horses 
 were tethered hard by ; the soldiers gathered by the road- 
 side to see us pass ; a sentry was stationed on the windy 
 top of the hill, whence he commanded a view of the road on 
 both sides. 
 
 Descended gradually into the plain of Salmast. Up a 
 valley on the left we saw a wood of forest trees, near 
 which is a natural hot sulphur spring, over which a 
 bath-house has been erected. An hour further we came 
 
OROOMIAH TO TABRIZ. 297 
 
 to the village of Hassar, or Koodkaran ; a mud wall with 
 round towers at the angles encloses a few stragghng cottages, 
 and at its gate is a khan, with a room over the gate, where 
 we stopped to lunch. Outside the gate is an unenclosed 
 tomb, with a sabre carved on the top and an inscription. 
 
 Hence we rode across the marshy lake end of the 
 plain, the plain itself stretching away among the moun- 
 tains on our left. It was an amusing ride. We squat- 
 tered through the marshy land, and scrambled across the 
 ditches which intersect it, and cantered over the firmer 
 ground, the Persians singing every now and then, and W. 
 replying with snatches of English songs, and each side 
 making fun of what seemed to them the other's want of 
 melody, till we reached the village of Yoshanlui, amidst 
 its groves and gardens at the foot of the mountains on the 
 other side of the plain. Here, instead of pitching the 
 tents — which we never used again — we hired accommoda- 
 tion in a native Mussulman's house, and took up our quarters 
 there. They were not luxurious quarters ; a carpet was 
 spread for us in a corner of the courtyard, which served 
 all the purposes of a farmyard, the edge of our carpet 
 being about a yard from the manure heap ; this served 
 for the common sitting-room, and we bargained for space 
 enough on the housetop to spread our rugs for bed room. 
 We bought a lamb for supper for our large company. The 
 shepherd brought it on his shoulders, and it was critically 
 examined by our Persian friends. The first was rejected 
 as too lean, and another was fetched. Then they bar- 
 gaiued about the price. The poor beast was killed on 
 the spot, a few yards from where we sat ; in another 
 corner a fire was kindled to cook it. I was reminded of 
 Ezekiel : " Set on a pot, set it on and also pour water 
 into it, gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good 
 piece, the thigh and the shoulder, fill it with the choice 
 bones .... make it boil well, and let them seethe the 
 bones of it therein .... the pot whose scum is therein." 
 
298 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 The incident aflforded another Scripture illustration : while 
 they were putting the pieces into the pot W. cried out to 
 them to keep out one of the " thighs " and roast it, for, 
 like the sons of Eli, he was tired of sodden flesh, and 
 would have roast. Still another illustration : when all was 
 cooked and served they put the shoulder before me be- 
 cause it was the priest's portion. Climbed up to the 
 housetop by a ladder and slept there. 
 
 Thursday, August 17. — Started very soon after sun- 
 rise, and rode all day along the plain, perhaps six miles 
 in breadth, which surrounds the head of the lake, having 
 the mountains on our left hand and the lake on our right, 
 a fringe of villages and gardens at the foot of the moun- 
 tains; the rest of the plain barren at this dry summer 
 season, but in spring no doubt covered with grass. After 
 four and a half hours' ride we stopped outside the village 
 of Topschai, under the mud wall of a vineyard and the 
 shade of a few trees, for our noon rest. It was not a 
 promising-looking halting-place, but it turned out a very- 
 pleasant bivouac. The boiled mutton of last night " coldly 
 furnished forth " a luncheon, and fi*om the vineyard over 
 the wall we obtained (by fair purchase !) more grapes 
 than we could eat. We were all in good spirits, and 
 enjoyed ourselves much. 
 
 On starting again I happened to be a little in the rear 
 of the rest, and accustomed as we had become to Eastern 
 costumes, I was struck with the gay appearance of our 
 party. Old Malek Babou in his plum-coloured coat, with 
 the white shirt showing at the sleeves ; Malek Pera in 
 his blue coat and white girdle ; and, above all, the bishop 
 in red Turkish riding-boots with yellow tops, loose crimson 
 trousers, gay chintz vest and green coat, with chintz girdle 
 and red fez, " glancing like a dragon-fly " ; the housings 
 of the horses were gay with green and scarlet and gold 
 fringe. To see the party pricking across the trackless 
 plain, with the mountains on one side anjd the lake on the 
 
• OROOMIAH TO TABRIZ. 299 
 
 other, under a brilliant sun, was like a scene out of an 
 old romance ; the pith helmet and riding-boots gave 
 picturesqueness of outline even to the grey morning-dress 
 of the young Englishman who formed one of the group. 
 
 Late in the afternoon we halted at the village of Tassach ; 
 the walls of the village were extensive, and its groves and 
 gardens stretched half across the plain. Our Persians 
 proposed to lodge at the caravanserai, and I was very 
 glad of the opportunity of studying one, and the customs of 
 travellers staying in one. We rode through a great gate- 
 way into a very large oblong courtyard. Over the side 
 through which we entered was a range of rooms ; that 
 over the gateway was the best. On the left side of 
 the courtyard was a row of niches in the wall, which 
 served for mangers, and beside each manger was a ring, 
 to which our horses and mules were soon fastened by 
 their halters. Of the right side of the courtyard the 
 further half was occupied with enclosed stabling, the 
 nearer half with small rooms for passengers, with a verandah 
 in front. At the opposite end of the courtyard were 
 the rooms of the keeper of the khan. We took possession of 
 the great room over the entrance, which was approached 
 by an exterior stair in the corner of the courtyard, and 
 had a small anteroom which served as a kitchen. The 
 roof of the verandah formed a "housetop," where carpets 
 were soon spread, and where we ate and slept. I went 
 out into the village to look at a mosque close by, which 
 is in a dilapidated condition, but has a fine dome, and is a 
 building of ancient date and of some architectural merit. 
 While we were taking a glass of tea en attendant the 
 supper, another traveller and his servant rode into the 
 khan, mounted at once up to our open-air parlour, slipped 
 off his shoes at the edge of the carpet, and stepped across 
 and kissed my hand. It turned out that he was an 
 Armenian of Oroomiah, who knew who I was, and was 
 known to some of our party. He was a lucky fellow, for 
 
800 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 supper was served at the time, and he got an invitation 
 to join us, without having to wait for his food as we had 
 had to wait for ours. During supper a loud trampling of 
 hoofs and jangling of bells was heard, and a large train of 
 empty pack-horses trooped into the courtyard, and filled 
 it full of life and animation for the rest of the evening. 
 Supper ended, we lay down to sleep upon our carpets, 
 with a horseman's cloak thrown over me. It is really 
 very pleasant to sleep thus. The air is pure and cool 
 (it is sometimes cold before dawn) ; and it is pleasant to 
 lie and look up at the stars and listen to "the noises of 
 the night." To-night the noises were a continual jangling 
 of bells of all sizes and tones as the pack-horses moved, 
 and the cUck-click of the instrument used here for a 
 curry-comb (karika in Syrian, kashou in Turkish) as the 
 katurjis groomed their horses, which were continued long 
 after dark. 
 
 Friday, August 18. — Again we got off soon after sun- 
 rise, and our way still lay along the plain of Choldiama, 
 with distant views of the lake and the picturesque moun- 
 tains beyond it. After about five hours' ride we halted for 
 luncheon under the trees, beside a pond supplied by a 
 pure spring, outside the village of Cusa Kuran. We could 
 get nothing for luncheon but fruit — grapes, peaches, and 
 plums. I thought of the Serparast and his emphatic 
 " suftout point de fruit," but after a five hours' ride one 
 must eat something. 
 
 In the afternoon we got into the great caravan road 
 between Stamboul and Teheran, which, after the solitary 
 ways we had been used to, seemed quite busy with traffic. 
 We met numerous groups of people, men, women, and 
 children, sick and lame and blind, some on foot, some on 
 horseback, some in horse-litters, on their way to a reputed 
 worker of miracles at Choi, to whom all the credulous 
 Mohammedan world is flocking to be healed of its diseases. 
 Now a bhnd man led by a woman, his wife or daughter ; 
 
OEOOMIAH TO TABBIZ. 801 
 
 then a lady, muffled up to the eyes, riding on a pillion behind 
 a servant ; then a poor wretched object dragging himself 
 along on crutches: — Such scenes as were witnessed 1800 
 years ago, when the roads " from GaUlee, and from Judea, 
 and from Jerusalem, and from Decapolis, and from beyond 
 Jordan," were thronged with sick people " that were taken 
 with divers diseases and torments, and those which were 
 possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and 
 those which had the palsy, and He healed them." 
 (Matt, iv.) 
 
 We overtook also a long caravan of pack-horses loaded 
 with bales of European goods ; many of the horses, the 
 leaders of subordinate teams brought together into this 
 great caravan, had bells ; but the leader of the whole caravan 
 had, besides half a dozen smaller bells, a large deep-toned 
 bell, and his load ornamented with a couple of flags. 
 
 We arrived early at Dizakalil, where we were to sup and 
 sleep. It is a remarkable village, the property of the 
 Shah, surrounded by large vineyards and gardens, each 
 enclosed by a lofty wall. What was remarkable was the 
 newness and good repair of the walls and their extent. 
 We rode for a considerable distance between these blank 
 walls, fourteen feet high, with a vine trailing over here and 
 there, the branches of the trees overhanging, but with no 
 passengers and no sign of life. At last we came to doors 
 in the lofty walls with people standing about them, then 
 to a small khan, where all Christian travellers stop, and 
 where we therefore took up our abode. This was much 
 smaller than our khan of last night, but the same in its 
 general features. 
 
 Saturday, August 19. — We had before us a hard day's 
 journey of about thirty-two miles into Tabriz, so we had 
 agreed to rise very early. Dr. Yussuf woke us at half-past 
 two, and we (at least I) dutifully got up and dressed, and 
 ate some breakfast, and then lay down again and dozed 
 tin it was time to start. We got off by the first glimmer 
 
802 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 of dawn, and were well on our way before the first rays of 
 the sun darted over the mountain Miancholi on our left. 
 Our road lay across a vast plain, which stretched before 
 us all the two-and-thirty miles into town, and on our 
 right further than we could see. At first the plain was 
 covered with coarse grass, then came a tract so impregnated 
 with salt that it grew nothing but scanty patches of a low 
 shrub. We were told the plain was famous for robbers. 
 Presently we met a man leading a horse, who got into 
 conversation with our Persians, and told them the led 
 horse was that of his servant, who had been killed by the 
 robbers the previous day. In the middle of the plain is a 
 large "castle," i.e., a square enclosed with a lofty mud 
 wall, with a gate tower, and round towers at the angles, 
 where troops are stationed to protect the road. We over- 
 took an immense caravan of pack-horses on the road 'to 
 Tabriz, loaded with merchandise, and making a long 
 cloud of dust. Fortunately we had a strong cool breeze 
 from the mountains all day, or the day's march across the 
 plain would have been more trying than it was. After 
 six hours' riding we stopped at a caravanserai in the 
 village of Maian for rest and food. The khanji was not 
 to be found, and we had some delay and difficulty in 
 getting an entrance ; then we had an uncomfortable 
 luncheon of water-melons and grapes, and had to pay for 
 the water we drank ; an uncomfortable sleep on the floor 
 of the room ; and were glad to get into the saddle again. 
 Two hours more brought us to the gardens and vineyards 
 which surround the city. These, as at Dizakalil, were 
 surrounded by lofty walls ; the doors into them were very 
 remarkable ; they were very low, so that no animal could 
 get through them ; they were framed with stone, and the 
 door itself was a massive slab of stone, with two pins 
 worked out of the stone itself for hinges, which turned in 
 holes in the sill and lintel. We found one vineyard, how- 
 ever, with a gate through which our horses could pass, 
 
OKOOMIAH TO TABRIZ. 808 
 
 and the owners were there, and our friends arranged that 
 we should make up for our poor luncheon by getting 
 some fruit here. It was very pleasant. We sat under 
 the shade of the trees, and our hosts presently brought 
 us a basket full of bunches of grapes of different kinds, 
 and we feasted upon them. 
 
 We were not uselessly delaying our journey, for while 
 we were thus occupied we had sent forward one of our 
 number to ascertain whether the English consul had 
 arrived ; if not, to go to the French consul, who was acting 
 for him, and ascertain where we could find lodging in the 
 city. We met our messenger as we entered the city. We 
 learnt that the English consul had not yet arrived, and 
 the consulate was unfurnished ; but the acting consul 
 offered to furnish an apartment for the two English sub- 
 jects, leaving the Nestorians to find lodgings in the city. 
 We adopted the suggestion, and proceeded to the British 
 consulate. The house is quite a palace. It consists of 
 two very large quadrangles, planted with trees and shrubs, 
 and cultivated as gardens, each surrounded by buildings. 
 The reception-rooms are in the block of building be- 
 tween the two gardens, a stately suite of large rooms, 
 while a colonnade extends along the whole front, support- 
 ing the roof of a verandah, and giving a grand appearance 
 to the house. It does not take much time or trouble to 
 furnish an apartment after the Eastern style : lay down a 
 couple of strips of carpet, and the room is furnished and 
 ready at once to receive its guests. Let a narghile and 
 a tray of coffee-cups be forthcoming at the right time, and 
 a tray of boiled mutton and pillaff later on, and a bowl 
 and ewer for washing the fingers, and what more can a 
 traveller need ? We did not require nearly so much. In 
 effect, we put our luggage into the apartment, and lived 
 and slept in the verandah, and our own camp equipage 
 and servant supplied all our needs. 
 
 The English consul not having arrived, our journey to 
 
804 CHBISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Tabriz was a useless detour. I had come that way en- 
 tirely to give the consul a report of my visit to the Nes- 
 torians, and to try to interest his sympathies strongly on 
 their behalf, and to introduce my Nestorian friends, who 
 had private affairs in which they sought the assistance of 
 his good offices. I saw the French consul, but I had 
 been forewarned by common report that he was in the 
 interests of the French Papal party in Persia, and antici- 
 pated that he would use all his interest against us and 
 our friends ; I was not therefore surprised when he made 
 difficulties even about our own further route through Russia, 
 and made a great favour of smoothing away the pretended 
 difficulties, and absolutely refused to see the Nestorians, 
 or to hear what their business was. 
 
 •There was nothing else to detain us in Tabriz ; on the 
 other hand, we were told that we should have to lose no 
 time on the road to catch the steamer from Poti on the 
 Black Sea to Constantinople, and that if we missed that 
 steamer we should have to wait a fortnight for the next. 
 We accordingly resolved to take the road again next 
 morning. The Russian consul was in his summer quarters, 
 a dozen miles off, up in the mountains. We ordered a 
 horseman to be sent off at the first dawn to get our pass- 
 ports visees. We directed horses to be hired for ourselves 
 and our baggage ; and then sauntered through the bazaars 
 and through the European quarter to the house of a 
 German gentleman who had invited us to dinner ; and 
 then home to our mattresses under the verandah. 
 
 Next morning after breakfast our interpreter appeared, 
 and on inquiring whether the horseman had come back 
 with the passports, we found that he had sent off a foot- 
 man with them only ten minutes before. This is the way 
 they do things in the East. Not that it mattered much, 
 for they could not hire horses enough for our journey, and 
 I was advised to resign myself to circumstances and wait 
 till next day. 
 
OROOMIAH TO TABRIZ. 805 
 
 To this Eastern skill in the art of how not to do it I 
 opposed my' Western determination to do what I had 
 resolved to do. I found that a fourgon could be had in 
 the afternoon to Julfa, so I ordered it to be hired and 
 packed, and everything to be ready for a start as soon as 
 the passports should arrive. The morning was filled up 
 with visits from some of the European residents at Tabriz, 
 from the American missionary there, from a kavass of the 
 governor with a complimentary message and two trays 
 of sweetmeats, vsith taking leave of our Nestorian friends, 
 with seeing the foutyjon packed, and with luncheon. 
 
 I had supposed that a fourgon was a light van con- 
 structed to carry passengers. I found it a rude tilted 
 waggon without springs, drawn by four horses abreast, 
 into which first your luggage is thrown anyhow, and then 
 you may climb into it and arrange your things as well as 
 you can, and sit or recline upon them at your pleasure. 
 We were all packed and ready, when at last our footman 
 arrived with the passports at about five o'clock ; and, re- 
 sisting all attempts to induce us to postpone our departure 
 till next morning, with a brief repetition of hearty adieux, 
 we jolted through the streets of Tabriz. 
 
806 
 
 CHAPTER XXXm. 
 
 TABBIZ TO JXTLFA.. 
 
 FouB or five hours' journey across the plain of Tabriz north- 
 ward brought us after dark to a khan, where we stopped for 
 the night. My companions slept in the khan ; I preferred to 
 sleep in the waggon, as it stood out in the open road ; the 
 bed might be a hard one, but it was clean, and the night 
 air pure. Next day we began to enter among the hills ; 
 passed a mass of rock capped with a calcareous covering 
 like that near Bitlis. Halted at noon at the khan of a long 
 village, and when it was time to start — the fourgonji was 
 not to be found. He did not turn up tUl five — two hours 
 too late. The consequence was that at dark, when we 
 were still two hours short of our station, just the two 
 hours he had wasted, he pulled up by a mill at the road- 
 side, and declared that it was not possible to drive the 
 rest of the road iu the dark. We failed to move his 
 unwilliagness, and halted where we were perforce. My 
 companions slept in the mill-house ; I again preferred the 
 waggon and the fresh air. 
 
 Wednesday, August 23. — Having stopped last night 
 short of the station, we saved some distance to-day by 
 leaving the station altogether on our right, and taking a 
 more direct road to Julfa. We started before sunrise. 
 For the first hour or two the road was a track over the 
 rocky and rock-strewn surface of the baiTen hills, with 
 higher ranges in the distance. There were some remark- 
 able cloud efiects. A thick layer of fleecy cloud or mist 
 spread over a great table-land on our right, and overflowed 
 
TABEIZ TO JITLFA. 807 
 
 down the hill-sides. Here in " a veil of thinnest lawn," 
 through which every rock was visible ; there it poured — 
 or seemed to pour — over the edge of a great semicircular 
 declivity, like a Niagara. Thus it continued as long as 
 we were in sight of it. The sun tipped the western moun- 
 tain tops with rose tint as we began to descend the hills, 
 and I suppose, as he gained power, he would gradually 
 gather up the mists into clouds and dissipate them in 
 the heated air. People seldom do gain anything by 
 taking a short cut, and I doubt whether we did now. 
 The road gradually descended into a pass among the 
 mountains, not the rounded hills of which we had seen 
 so much, but rocky mountains, with the strata tilted up 
 almost perpendicularly. A mountain stream made its way 
 through the pass on its course to the Araxes. It was 
 certainly the wildest drive I ever took in any vehicle. 
 At its best the road was nothing better than a track 
 across the rocky and rock- strewn surface of the hills ; 
 but when we got fairly down into the pass we came 
 to the worst of it. Here the road had been swept 
 away in places by the last storm ; the waggon lurched 
 down the broken bank into the rocky bed of the stream ; 
 presently the driver shook up his horses, and charged 
 them at the broken ascent of the bank a little lower 
 down, and the waggon heaved up again into the road. And 
 this happened, not once, but half a dozen times. How- 
 ever, we had a profound conviction that the driver would 
 do his best to keep his horses and waggon from coming 
 to grief, and in taking his best care of them he could 
 not help taking his best care of us. So we did not 
 trouble ourselves about the dangers of the road, but foimd 
 occupation in keeping ourselves under shelter from the 
 burning sun, and in admiring the wild scenery and the 
 wonderful tricks which nature — first in some terrific 
 momentary upburst from beneath, which must have rocked 
 the earth on its axis, and then in the long silent labour of 
 
 x2 
 
308 CHRISTIANS UNDEE THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 snow and frost and rain — had played with the internal strata 
 and the surface conformation of the mountains. 
 
 At length the jaws of the pass gradually widened, and 
 we had a stretch of plain before us through which flowed 
 the historical Araxes ; and an hour's comparatively easy 
 driving brought us to Julfa, the frontier town between 
 Persia and her mighty and dangerous neighbour of the 
 north. 
 
 As we emerged from the pass we came upon some very 
 remarkable mountain scenery. On the right a great 
 regular conical hill, large enough to be called a mountain, 
 buttressed by its own debris, which had slid down with 
 curious regularity into little conical hills all round its 
 base, like the apses of a Ehine church surrounding its 
 central tower. Right in front was a still more remarkable 
 mountain — a huge mass of rock from base to summit, 
 roughly domical (an elliptical dome) in outline, but deeply 
 serrated and ridged. A bold shoulder struck out to the 
 right, from whose extremity rose a lofty pinnacle. It 
 reminded one roughly of the dome and minaret of a 
 mosque. A few miles further we drove into the desolate- 
 lookiag station of Julfa. A custom-house, post-house, 
 and telegraph station on the Persian side of the shallow 
 river, and another custom-house, post-house, and telegraph 
 station on the other side, and apparently not a habitation 
 besides. We had an introduction to the gentleman in 
 charge of the telegraph station, who hospitably entertained 
 us. " Don't you find it rather dull here ?" we ventured to 
 ask him. "Ah! c'est bien triste ! Voila " — pointing all 
 round the horizon — " pas un arbre, pas un brin d'herbe ! " 
 " And how long have you been here ? " " Sept ans ! " We 
 beg to suggest Julfa to his Imperial Majesty as a place of 
 exile when Siberia shall have become inconveniently 
 crowded. 
 
 There are some ancient tombstones at Julfa which are 
 interesting, and the inscriptions, we beheve, unpubhshed. 
 
309 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXrV. 
 
 JULFA TO EEIWAN. 
 
 The mountains we penetrated by the rugged pass described 
 in the last chapter are not an unsuitable border for the 
 ancient and feeble Persian empire on the side of its young, 
 vigorous and aggressive rival of Russia ; and the historical 
 river Araxes is a fitting line of demarcation between the 
 two empires which stretch, one northward to the Arctic 
 seas, the other southward to the Indian Ocean. 
 
 We were carried across the river in a clumsy ferry-boat, 
 and our luggage was carried up to the Russian Custom- 
 house. "We presented our passports, which were acknow- 
 ledged to be en regie. We had brought a letter from the 
 Russian consul at Tabriz, which authorised us to use the 
 Government postal service. There was our baggage, not 
 very great, and with nothing contraband in it — except a 
 bag of Turkish tobacco ! — and we submitted ourselves and 
 our belongings to the gracious consideration of the gentle- 
 man in a flat cap who represented the majesty of the Czar. 
 His Imperial Majesty's representative was grimly civil, but 
 dilatory. It was a long time before we could induce him 
 to look at our baggage at all ; then after the fatigue of 
 peeping superficially into one trunk, he took a rest before 
 he asked us to unstrap the next ; and then took some 
 time to make up his mind that on the whole it was not 
 necessary to look into any more. Then we had to order 
 the carriages, and there was more delay about the horses ; 
 they had to be fetched up, or fed, or something ; mean- 
 time, seeing a Samavar brought out, we took the hint and 
 asked for some tea. By the time we had finished tea it 
 
810 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 was already twilight, and I was strongly urged to stay where 
 we were for the night. But I suspected that all the delay 
 had had this for its object, and I was resolved not to encou- 
 rage future tricks upon travellers by crowning this one with 
 success. Besides, I was in no mood for delay. We had 
 left Persia fairly behind us on the other side the river, and 
 our faces were turned homeward. As for the night, what 
 more charming than to drive at a rapid pace through the fresh 
 soft night air ? So I insisted ; two troitkas were harnessed, 
 our luggage packed, and presently off we went, with jingling 
 bells, at a dashing pace, into the deepening twihght. 
 
 We could see the outline of the hills we were approach- 
 ing, and the stars coming out fast above them, and the 
 cleft in the ridge through which our road must pass. Is 
 there anything more exciting than riding or driving rapidly 
 through the dark ? And after the slow caravan, and the 
 slower /offn/on, the pace of the troitka was glorious. Every- 
 body knows the troitka from pictures ; it is a small cart 
 built roimd- bottomed like a section of a boat. Two of our 
 trvmks form a seat for the two travellers, and two others a 
 seat for the driver. Three horses abreast, the shaft horse 
 with the picturesque semicircle over his head, to which 
 he is strapped up, I think, for the purpose of preventing 
 him from breaking out of his trot into a gallop, and so 
 shaking the vehicle — or at least the passengers — to pieces. 
 The side horses are loosely attached by their traces, and 
 can put down their heads and fling up their heels and 
 gallop along at a great pace — a pace which brings us, long 
 before we expected it, to the first post-house, where we 
 supped and stopped for the night. 
 
 thursday, August 24. — Rose early from my bed on the 
 floor of the post-house, and going into the air was just in 
 time to catch the rose-tint on the range of western hills 
 at sunris3. The forms of the range were tame, but the 
 rosy flush touching each projecting ridge and peak was 
 delicious. With all my early rising I could not get our 
 
JTJLFA TO EEIWAN. 811 
 
 party off till seven o'clock ; but once started again the 
 rapid driving through the morning air was exhilarating. 
 There were very wild mountain forms on our right ; indeed 
 I think in the same space I never saw such a wonderful 
 combination of various forms. Just behind us was the cone 
 we saw yesterday with its conical buttresses, then the grand 
 rugged domical rock with its pinnacle, the mosque and 
 minaret ; on the horizon the ordinary wilderness of water- 
 moulded hills. Presently there came in view two ridges 
 of rock, which started suddenly out of the plain, like the 
 castle rock at "Wan ; two long ridges, some hundred yards 
 apart, steep, rocky, deeply serrated, rudely fitting to one 
 another, like the jaws of some vast monster protruded 
 through the earth and about to devour the heavens. 
 
 " Look theee ! " A turn of the road had brought 
 IT into view. A world of plain lay before us ; on 
 either side long mountain ranges; right opposite, on the 
 further side of the plain, beyond its horizon, a vast conical 
 mountain rose into the heavens, snow-capped deep down 
 from its summit, with broad ribs of snow stretching further 
 down its sides, and a network of snow between the ribs. 
 It must be Akakat ! 
 
 We had not expected to see it till a further point of 
 our journey, and then we had only calculated on seeing 
 it on the distant horizon, or perhaps catching a passing 
 glimpse of it in the gap of a nearer range. But this must 
 be Ararat ! It is on a grander scale of magnitude from 
 all the world of hills and mountains around us ; it is of a 
 different order of creation. The Titans might have moulded 
 this curiously complex system of hills, or thrown up 
 those rugged jaws of stone, or even have upheaved that 
 vast rocky dome with its fantastic pinnacle ; but God 
 Almighty made this mountain, which in its vast bulk and 
 simple majesty dominates them all. The difference in 
 size and style may be compared with the difference between 
 the houses on Ludgate Hill and the dome of St. Paul's. 
 
812 CHKISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASU. 
 
 It MUST be Ararat ; but wbere are the double peaks ? 
 When one came to analyse the mountain, after the first 
 burst of delighted surprise and the long pause of solemnised 
 admiration, it appeared a gi'and simple cone, sweeping 
 down with a gentle curve into a broad spreading base, 
 filling the eye, and satisfying the mind, and realising one's 
 ideal of a great and famous mountain. Some world-famous 
 mountains turn out to be merely the slightly highest peaks 
 of a number of rival peaks in a mountain range ; but here is 
 the primitive idea of a mountain, rising from a vast base 
 in one grand mass, isolated, simple, and severe, till his 
 snow-crowned head seems to reach the heavens. 
 
 How seldom the things and places one has heard much 
 about do satisfy us when at last we see them. I can 
 count on my fingers those with which I have not been thus 
 disappointed : Lincoln Cathedral on its height ; the Nor- 
 mandy Mont St. Michael, with its combination of natural 
 and artificial features, more picturesque than any painter 
 ever invented ; Lake Lucerne ; the Alps ; Venice, in- 
 cluding St. Mark's ; and now — Ararat ! 
 
 What is the cause of this general disappointment with 
 the grand works of art, and even of nature ? It would seem 
 that the mind can picture to itself things more beautiful than 
 art can achieve, or than even nature ordinarily presents. 
 It follows that the mind of man is on a greater scale than 
 the things of this world, for it conceives a grander world — 
 more noble cities, more majestic men, more beautiful 
 women, fairer landscapes, brighter stars, a more heroic 
 life in a nobler society. Is it not an evidence that man 
 is the exiled native of a grander world, and is adapted 
 to a nobler life ? Is it not a prophecy that there is a 
 "golden city," and "a new heavens and earth," and a 
 diviner life awaiting him hereafter ? 
 
 Meantime I thank God that I have been allowed to see 
 the majestic vision of Ararat — for it must be Ararat, 
 although it has only one peak I 
 
JTJLFA TO ERIWAN. 313 
 
 We travelled towards it all day across the plain, and 
 therefore had it constantly before our eyes. It absorbed 
 the attention and afforded a subject for unceasing study. 
 If we looked round it was only to compare it with the 
 dwarfed mountains around, and to see anew how it 
 dominated the whole world besides. 
 
 At noon we reached the town of Natchewan, where we 
 halted for our mid-day meal and rest. There is a very 
 good post-house here, where they served us some soup 
 and cutlets for dinner in European style. After dinner I 
 strolled through the bazaar, which is of Eastern character. 
 
 About 4.30 off again on our homeward road. What a 
 pace the troitkas go ! How recklessly they round the sharp 
 street corner to the left and then to the right, and out into 
 the open country once more ! 
 
 " Thebe are the two peaks ! " We have suddenly 
 come in sight of Ararat again. How different its appear- 
 ance under the different atmospheric conditions. A cone 
 of pale blue-grey, silhouetted against a sky only a shade 
 paler, a haze concealing all detail ; even the snow of the 
 summit is undistinguishable from the rock of its sides. 
 But a horizontal cloud floats between the peaks and 
 clearly distinguishes their several outlines. The lesser 
 peak is not where I had strained my eyes to see it, as 
 a mere lesser peak of the great snow-clad summit ; it is 
 another mountain — the lesser Ararat — of the same general 
 simple conical outline as the greater mountain. But 
 hitherto the two had been in a direct line with our line of 
 approach, so that in the distance the greater outline had 
 swallowed up the lesser ; and the horizontal cloud resolves 
 them into two. 
 
 And so all afternoon we drive on across the plain, con- 
 stantly watching the continuous changes of aspect of the 
 great mountain, only glancing round now and then at the 
 nearer landscape we are passing through. As sunset ap- 
 proaches we give it a more undivided attention. It sets near 
 
814 CHBISTIANS UNDEB THE CKESOENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the mountain, on the left of it. A small cloud touches the 
 mountain on that side. The mass grows purple, lighter 
 above and diaphanous, the cloud golden. Gradually the 
 sun goes down, attended by no clouds, but with an unbroken 
 golden splendour. The mountain gradually darkens from 
 the base upwards, till it is seen as a majestic cone of 
 purple-black silhouetted against a sky still glowing with 
 the rays of the departed sun, and the cloud — still touching 
 the mountain side — is diminished to a grey speck. 
 
 We reach the post- station at Kurask. A family has 
 possession of the usual passengers' room. We are shown 
 into a smaller one, vacated for us by one of the officers of 
 the station. We wait a weary time before we get some 
 fried eggs for supper. My companions propose to sleep in 
 the hot, close room. I have spied an empty wooden bed- 
 stead standing out in the courtyard, and prefer laying my 
 blanket on its wooden laths, and pulling my cloak over me, 
 to get what sleep I can, but to get fresh air at all events. 
 
 Friday, August 25. — A little before sunrise I climbed 
 out of my wooden bed, and went to look for Ararat. I 
 was a few minutes too late. The sun had not risen upon 
 us mortals, but up in heaven there the snow-peak was 
 already illuminated by his beams. I do not think there 
 had been any rose-tint, I was early enough to have caught 
 lingering traces of it, but I should have liked to see the 
 first ray strike on the snowy peak. Again this morning 
 we travelled with our faces towards the mountain, gradually 
 passing very close by it, so that again I spent the morning 
 in studying it. Very soon after the sun rose a little 
 cloud floated in the wedge of blue heaven which divides 
 the two mountains. Gradually it grew into a long, narrow 
 streak of horizontal cloud, which lay motionless across 
 the higher mountain just at the snow-line. As the sun 
 grew hotter the cloud grew broader and denser ; a crown 
 of cirrous cloud which appeared to rise out of the glen 
 between the two mountains hovered over the snowless 
 
JULFA TO ERIWAN, 815 
 
 peak of lesser Ararat. As the morning advanced the 
 crown grew heavy, and settled down on the lesser peak ; 
 and the horizontal cloud across the higher peak threw off 
 fragments, which floated down the wind to the right. 
 
 As we journeyed on, gradually passing the mountain on 
 our left, the lesser mountain was gradually disengaged 
 from the greater mass ; till, about noon, between the 
 stations Bashmirashin and Serderak, we obtained our 
 finest view. A few trees formed a foreground and 
 measure.* Ararat is not so much a mountain with a 
 double peak, as a twin mountain. The lesser mountain 
 on the left is from this point of view a sharper, steeper 
 cone ; its downward curve terminates on the left in rocks, 
 and leads the eye on to a range of bills. It has no snow 
 on its peak, though the ribs of snow on the higher moun- 
 tain descend far below the level of its height. The greater 
 mountain is a less sudden curve. On the left it is con- 
 nected with the lesser mountain by a serrated ridge ; on the 
 right it slopes down in a grand uninterrupted easy curve, 
 which loses itself in the level surface of the plain. I think 
 the horizontal cloud which has clung to the mountain all 
 day, sometimes so broad that the snowy summit only just 
 appeared above it, is the vapour arising from the melting 
 snow at the snow-line ; while the masses of cumuli, which 
 settled thicker and lower on the lesser height, are the 
 vapours drawn up from the glen between the mountains. 
 
 After the noon-meal and rest we resumed our journey, 
 and our study of the mountain. The clouds about the 
 
 * Little Ararat is 12,840 feet above the sea ; the greater Ararat is 
 16,916 feet. Aralych, the town at the base of the mountain, is 2,600 
 feet above the sea, so that the actual elevation which the spectator sees 
 is 14,300 feet, " probably the greatest elevation in the world." The 
 radius at the base of the greater cone is about 14 miles ; of the lesser 
 9 miles. The two mountains are wooded to the height of 8,000 feet. 
 The ice-field extends about 2,000 feet down from the higher summit. 
 The perpetual snow-line is at the height of 13,400 feet. — " Caucasus, 
 Persia, and Turkey in Asia." By Baron Max von Thielmann. Trans- 
 lated by C. Heneage, 1875. 
 
816 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 lesser Ararat had risen, and the peak was almost clear 
 The horizontal mass across the greater Ararat had turned 
 into cumuli, which were pressed by a light breeze against 
 the mountain side ; most of them pass behind the moun- 
 tain, but some light fragments are broken off and float, 
 luminous with the sunlight upon them, across the hither 
 face, and reunite, and all drift down the wind together. 
 As the twUight deepens there remains the great purple 
 mountain with a grey spectral light about its summit, where 
 the snow glimmers faintly in the light of the young moon 
 which hangs in heaven just above it. 
 
 Stayed at the post station of Kamalia ; supped off 
 kabobs, and grapes descended from the vineyards which 
 Noah planted here — whence else could they come ? Slept 
 in my cloak on a wooden settle in the entrance lobby of 
 the post-house. 
 
 Saturday, August 26. — This morning we drove close 
 under the mountain. There are no cloud effects, and the 
 mountain looks as prosaic under the untempered sunlight 
 as such a mountain can. All its details are clearly visible. 
 It is by no means a smooth cone moulded by the rains 
 out of plastic earths. Its sides are seamed and wrinkled, 
 it throws out spurs into the plain, and on the north-east 
 side there is a vast precipitous chasm from near the 
 summit, which might have formed a dry dock for the ark. 
 
 It is the physical grandeur of the mountain and the 
 beauty of its atmospheric phenomena which have chiefly 
 engaged our attention, but no doubt its historical associa- 
 tions have underlain our thoughts all along, and heightened 
 the absorbing interest of the last three days. What a 
 history ! *' And the ark rested upon the mountains of 
 Ararat," freighted with the scanty salvage of the old 
 primeval world, which alone had survived the universal 
 shipwreck of the flood of God's wrath. 
 
 "And Noah went forth out of the ark, and his sons, and 
 his wife, and his sons' wives with him," after that awful 
 
JULPA TO ERIWAN. 817 
 
 year. They stepped carefully out of " the door of the ark, 
 which was in the side thereof," and took a few paces on 
 the solid ground, and looked round them on the scene 
 which now lies before my eyes. The locality of Eden is 
 lost, but this great "holy place" remains identified so 
 long as the twin mountain remains on its spreading base. 
 And somewhere here about is the place where Noah builded 
 an altar unto the Lord, and offered that great sacrifice of 
 the beasts which had been specially reserved for it all the 
 year of the flood. And here God talked with Noah, and 
 made the new covenant with him and with his posterity ; 
 and appointed the bow in the cloud (the Nestorians call it 
 " the Bow of God ") as the token of the covenant. " Put 
 off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou 
 standest is holy ground ! " 
 
 Americans come over to England, to visit the town 
 or the hamlet, the farm or the manor-house, from 
 which their ancestors set out to plant a new family 
 in the new world ; hither am I come as to the spot 
 from which the wanderings of my ancestors began. I 
 trace up my pedigree to Him who looked forth from yonder 
 mountain side 4000 years ago, upon a world to whose 
 sovereignty there was no rival claimant. No ! no ! a 
 thousand times no ! It is not Ararat, though encircled 
 with the luminous Bow of God, which I am content to 
 accept as the cradle of my race ; Eden, the garden of 
 God's planting, where God used to walk at eventide with 
 my ancestor, is the home from which I am exiled ! Not 
 to Noah, grand as is the figure of the one man whose in- 
 tegrity saved him amidst the destruction of a world, but 
 to Adam I trace up my ancestry. I am the son of John, 
 who was the son of WilUam . . . "who was the son of 
 Japhet, who was the son of Noah," truly ; but I do not 
 stop there ; I continue, " who was the son of Lamech 
 . . . who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, 
 who was the son of God." I stop not short of that 
 
318 
 
 CHRISTIANS UNDEK THE CRESCENT IN ASIA.. 
 
 glorious termination : my ancestors dwelt in Eden, in 
 the golden age, and the first of them was of Divine 
 original ! 
 
 In the afternoon, when we resumed our journey at 
 about five o'clock, the mountain had again put on its 
 splendours, a necklace of fleecy, lumiaous cloud, and the 
 diaphanous Ught of the peak. If these are the every-day 
 phenomena of the mountain, there must sometimes be 
 glorious displays of rosy dawns, and gorgeous crimson 
 and gold sunsets, and in winter masses of storm clouds 
 and flashing lightnings and rolling thunder. As we get 
 further round the mountain we find that from the north-west 
 side it throws ofi" a spur from the base of the higher peak, 
 by which it descends into a chain of hUls which go ofi" into 
 the far distance. 
 
 MOrNT ARARAT. 
 
aiif 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 ERIWAN TO TIFIilS. 
 
 The last part of our day's journey was along roads 
 shaded by trees, and bordered by frequent vineyards. 
 Towards noon we crossed a barren hill, meeting groups of 
 country people in holiday costume, who seemed to be 
 returning from "market day" at Eriwan. We made a 
 long descent down the hill, with the town in full sight on 
 the opposite hill, with a fortress on an elevation, and green 
 domes of mosques ; and the river Zenqui flowing in the 
 valley between. 
 
 We drove into the post-house, and there deposited our 
 luggage, and had the refreshment of as much washing as 
 can be got out of Eastern appliances. At one we walked 
 round to the Club, which is on one side of the principal 
 square of the town. There is no hotel in the town, but 
 European travellers are welcomed at this institution, which 
 serves for hotel, restaurant, and cafe. We found the chef 
 able and willing to supply us with a comfortable dinner of 
 Russo-German character, to which, however, I was not 
 well enough to do justice. This indisposition, and the 
 short time we had at our disposal, prevented me from try- 
 ing to see the mosques and the fortress which had attracted 
 our attention on approaching the town. 
 
 About three o'clock we were again en route. We were 
 told that from Eriwan we should find a good chaussee, one 
 of the great military highways which the Russian Govern- 
 ment, in imitation of the Roman empire, of which it 
 aspires to be the successor, has made from the heart to the 
 
320 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 extremities of its vast territory. It looks as if there had 
 been a disagreement between the local authorities of Eriwan 
 and the imperial authorities as to whose duty it was to 
 complete the last mile of road, but certainly neither of 
 them has done it. It was as bad as if the Turks had had 
 the care of it — pitted with holes, and strewn with boulders ; 
 even the troitka had to go at a walk. But after that bit of 
 debatable ground the road was all that had been promised, 
 a good macadamised road in first rate condition, and the 
 troitkas whirled along behind three good horses to the 
 music of their bells. As we rose up the hill above the 
 town, the gardens and houses of the town were at our feet; 
 the vineyards formed a broad belt, which stretched 
 irregularly across the plain ; and Ararat, thirty miles off, 
 formed the background of the picture. It was our last 
 sight of it. 
 
 On we travelled far into the dark, and stopped at last at 
 the post-station of Suchia Fantanka — the Dry Fountain. 
 The post-house had one room for travellers with two unclean 
 looking couches, which my companions were not afraid to 
 occupy. After trying to appease my hunger on the yolks 
 of two under-boUed eggs and black bread, I asked for my 
 bed, and was shown into a second room inhabited in two 
 corners by two separate groups, perhaps members of the 
 postmaster's family, and invited to sleep on the stone floor 
 in a third vacant corner. It reminded one of the room in 
 a London lodging-house, where each comer was let to a 
 separate family, with a single man in the middle of the 
 room, and one of the party told a shocked distiict visitor 
 that they were all very comfortable till the gentleman in 
 the middle took in a lodger. In answer to a vigorous 
 remonstrance, they foimd an old wooden bedstead some- 
 where and dragged it into my corner. I laid my blanket 
 on the boards, and covered myself with my cloak, and did 
 not get a wink of sleep for hours ! " Why not ? " Fleas ! ! 
 mosquitoes ! ! ! sand flies ! ! ! ! and I don't know what 
 
KRIWAN TO TIFLIS. 321 
 
 besides, attacked face and feet and hands and body. 
 Ugh! 
 
 August 27. — Rose very early in the morning, glad to 
 leave my uncomfortable couch. We had told the post- 
 master that we desired to start by sunrise, but no one was 
 stirring in the house. I accordingly went round and 
 knocked loudly at all the doors, and holloaed, until I made 
 the postmaster turn out, looking very cross. I insisted upon 
 having the horses put to at once, would not wait for break- 
 fast, but set off out of our wretched quarters at once. We 
 were soon up among the mountains again, driving through 
 the pure fresh air at a rapid pace, and speedily forgot the dis- 
 agreeables of the night. At the first post-house we stopped 
 for breakfast. In the course of the morning we came to 
 a village built after the European instead of the Eastern 
 fashion : instead of blank mud walls with no opening but 
 the door, there were doors and windows. I remember how 
 the first sight of the Egyptian villages struck us ; it was 
 curious that in two months we had grown so accustomed 
 to the Oriental type that this first return to European 
 fashions struck us with a sense of novelty and interest. 
 
 Our road led us some miles along the heights above Lake 
 Goktscha, another of the series of salt lakes, of which the 
 Caspian is the greatest, and Wan and Oroomiah are other 
 examples. Goktscha is equal in size to the largest of the 
 Swiss lakes, and is over 6,000 feet above the sea ; it is 
 surrounded by mountains, which are not very striking in 
 their forms ; and again we had to notice how the absence 
 of verdure on the earth, and of clouds in the sky, and of 
 perspective in the atmosphere, injured the pictorial effect 
 of the scenery. There was one picturesque point, in the 
 monastery of Siwanga, which is situated on a small islet a 
 very little way from the shore. A boat full of people were 
 returning across the quiet lake, and we saw others on the 
 shore of the lake, who were doubtless returning from 
 Divine service at the church of the monastery. 
 
822 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 After leaving the lake behind, we came to a picturesque 
 village of timber houses, and soon after began to descend ; 
 a beautiful country lay before us — a country of bold 
 hUls beautifully wooded with oak and beech, with deep 
 valleys between ; behind the hills, lofty downs, roUing wave 
 above wave ; and behind and above the downs a boundary 
 of mountains rising up to heaven, with deep ravines and 
 lofty peaks. It is the forest of Genesia, a magnificent 
 scene, and would make a domain for a prince. We rattled 
 down the steep mountain side by twenty zig-zags, and along 
 one of the dells till we came to an open valley where two of 
 the mountain streams meet, and at their confluence is the 
 straggling town of Dilijen. 
 
 Monday, August 28. — Next morning again the scenery 
 was magnificent for the whole stage of fifteen miles. We 
 were winding down through bold lofty hills wooded from 
 base to summit, with narrow glens between and sandstone 
 clifis ; then we came into a winding pass through a lime- 
 stone country, rounded masses standing out from the 
 wooded hill-sides like towers, and crowning the heights like 
 a fortification. It reminded me of the scenery of the Wye, 
 with this difference, the hills and rocks here are on a much 
 larger scale, but the scene lacks the full-flowing tide of the 
 Wye ; the river here is represented by a shallow, lively 
 trout stream. Altogether the scenery, of which Dilijen is 
 the centre, is glorious, and in England it would be one of 
 our most popular touring grounds. 
 
 By mid-day we had got fairly out of the hill country, and 
 stopped to change horses at a post-house in the plain. The 
 postmaster had eleven horses in his stable, but he had 
 received an order to reserve horses for some Russian 
 general who was expected along the road, and he refused 
 to send us on. We tried backshish and buUyiug in vain. 
 We had to kick our heels in the vile post-house for more 
 than three hours — from two till past five — when the post- 
 master professed to suppose that his general would not 
 
EBIWAN TO TIFLIS. 823 
 
 come to-day and let us have our horses, and away we 
 went across the plain. 
 
 Passed through a scattered village of subterranean houses. 
 All that could be seen above ground was a small semi- 
 dome, like that of a Koord tent in shape, but made of earth. 
 This formed the entrance porch to the hut, burrowed out 
 under the level plain. On and on we drove through the 
 dark, trying to make up for the time we had lost ; and at 
 past ten o'clock at night halted for the last time at a post- 
 ing-house. After supper I turned out of doors, laid my 
 blanket on the wooden floor of the porch for a bed, pulled 
 my cloak over me for a covering, and slept. 
 
 Let me say a few general words on this short experience 
 of Russian travelling. The road we traversed, which is the 
 great military road through the lately annexed Trans- 
 Caucasian province, is excellent ; the posting arrangements 
 are ver}'^ well conducted ; the troitka indeed is not a very 
 comfortable vehicle, but it is not very uncomfortable ; the 
 horses are good, and the pace is admirable. The stages 
 are long — ten, twelve, fifteen miles — and the traveller may 
 make as many or as few of them in the day as he pleases ; 
 beginning at dawn and travelling into the night he may 
 get over a great deal of ground. There is no temptation 
 to linger on the road. The post-houses are sometimes in 
 a village, but quite as often they stand alone by the road- 
 side, and the accommodation they offer is vile. There are 
 usually two rooms appropriated to travellers, the rest of 
 the building being the private residence of the postmaster 
 and his family. Each public room has two couches, a 
 small table, and a chair or two. The floor is filthy, the 
 couches usually swarm with vermin, the atmosphere is 
 frowzy and sickening. For food there is always the 
 samavar with its boUing water, and good tea, a dish 
 of fried eggs and brown bread, and sometimes in a vil- 
 lage, in the season, the traveller may send out and buy 
 fine fruit at a very cheap rate. Nothing much to complain 
 
 y2 
 
824 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 of in fine weather, you need not sit or sleep in the house, 
 and fried eggs are wholesome and nourishing food ; but in 
 cold rainy weather it must be terribly bleak across these 
 open plains, and to sleep in the post-house night after 
 night must entail very serious inconveniences ; and a diet 
 of fried eggs becomes monotonous after a fortnight or so. 
 
 Tuesday, August 29. — Got ofi" in good time, made a 
 stage before breakfast, made our tenth consecutive meal of 
 eggs and tea. Another stage took us into Tiflis by one 
 o'clock ; drove to the Hotel d'Europe, and found ourselves 
 once more in the bosom of civilisation. 
 
825 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 TIFLIS. 
 
 The town of Tiflis stands in a basin surrounded by hills ; 
 the river Kur, a broad stream, and after rain a voluminous 
 one, flows through the middle of the town. On the side 
 on which we entered there are a series of great water-wheels 
 erected by the river-side, each of which, turned by the 
 stream, raises water, which is conveyed by a trough into the 
 adjoining garden and keeps it constantly and thoroughly 
 watered. In the middle of the town one bank of the river 
 rises into a rocky cliff crowned by houses with picturesque 
 effect ; a ruined castle crowns a rocky elevation which 
 overlooks the town ;* half-way up one of the hill-sides which 
 enclose the town is built a small church on a ledge of rock. 
 The whole town has a fine effect. 
 
 It is divided into two quarters. The old town, a maze of 
 narrow streets divided into the Armenian bazaar and the 
 Persian bazaar, &c., is very picturesque, and filled with a 
 very mixed population — Georgians in their round fur caps, 
 Armenians both in native and European costume, Circas- 
 sians in their handsome mUitary-looking dress, Persians in 
 the tall hat which easily distinguishes them, Russian 
 officers in uniform, Europeans in frock coats, and peasants 
 in all kinds of nondescript habits. The Russian quarter is 
 like a part of a European city. It is the capital of the 
 Trans-Caucasian province of the Russian empire. The Grand 
 Duke Michael has here a handsome palace, and of course 
 
 * There is a good view of it in Stackelberg's //C Caucase Piiloresquc, 
 pi. xxiv. 
 
826 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the officers and civil employes have their houses in this 
 quarter ; there are also three good hotels, theatre, public 
 gardens, museum, shops, &c., and open street carriages, of 
 the same kind and quite as good as those of Brighton. 
 There is, lastly, a large German colony here, which chiefly 
 inhabits a separate suburb. 
 
 We had hoped to reach here so as to stay one night and 
 proceed next day by rail to catch the steamer from Poti to 
 Trebizond and Constantinople, but on our arrival we were 
 told that the dii-ect steamer had been requisitioned by 
 Government in view of the warlike preparations against 
 Turkey, and we had to wait four days for the next boat, 
 which went round by the Crimea to Odessa, whence we 
 should get another steamer to Constantinople. 
 
 This gave us a few days' rest at Tiflis, which was very 
 acceptable. The contrast was very sudden. We had been 
 travelling hard for a fortnight, living on eggs and tea, 
 sleeping in the open air. We found ourselves transferred 
 at once from the filthy discomfort of a Russian post-house 
 to a Parisian hotel. Our breakfast had been the inevitable 
 fried eggs and tea ; our dinner was selected from a carte of 
 thirty or forty dishes, and we went to bed in a four-poster 
 with sheets and piUows ! But we soon found that barbar- 
 ism has its compensating advantages. The bed was hot, 
 and the air of the room heavy and sultry, and the piUows 
 uncomfortable, and the noises of the hotel and of the town 
 kept one awake. I would gladly have turned out of bed 
 and bedroom and wrapped myself in my blanket and slept, 
 as on so many previous nights, in the pure air, under the 
 stars, listening to the wind sighing and the birds chirping 
 as they awoke on their roosts. 
 
 When we parted from our Nestorian friends at Tabriz 
 they charged me with a batch of letters for friends in Tiflis, 
 and this reminds me to mention another curious incident 
 among my Eastern experiences. I have told how we were 
 amused with the tricks of a professional jester, and became 
 
TIFLIS. 827 
 
 intimate vrith a prophet, and saw a train of maimed, halt, 
 blind, and sick on their journey to a reputed worker of 
 miracles, but here I found myself put into relations with 
 a false Christ. There is now living near Acre a man who 
 professes to be Christ returned to earth again. At Seir one 
 of his followers paid me a visit, and I had an unsatisfac- 
 tory conversation with him ; for there is no dealing with a 
 man who explains Scripture according to mystical canons 
 of his own making, and who accepts his unreasonable 
 fancies as inspired intuitions. Among the letters given 
 me at Tabriz for delivery here was one addressed to this 
 false Christ from one of his followers — it was thought 
 that I might conclude my travels with a visit to the 
 Holy Land, and I was begged to take such steps as 
 might be possible to get it forwarded. If I had had 
 the opportunity I confess that I should have used the 
 letter as a means of introduction to so remarkable a per- 
 sonage. As the fact stands, the letter is stUlin my posses- 
 sion. I do not know who was the writer, and cannot 
 return it to him ; I am unwilling to send it by post to its 
 destination. Either party may have it, the seal unbroken, 
 if they will apply to me for it ; but meantime it lies among 
 the curiosities of my Eastern journey, and not, I think, the 
 least curious of them. 
 
 The letters of which I was the bearer brought me into 
 communication with some Nestorians at Tiflis, and thus I 
 became aware of the fact, of which no previous intimation 
 had been given me, that there is here a considerable Nes- 
 torian population. The poorer Nestorians go in large 
 numbers to Russia much as the Irish used to come to 
 England at harvest-time, in search of work; and some of 
 them settle in Russia ; about Eriwan, for example, there 
 are two or three Nestorian villages, and about Tiflis others. 
 These settled Nestorians have for the most part conformed 
 to the Russian Church. 
 
 Tiflis is the centre of the floating Nestorian population. 
 
828 CHRISTIANS UNDKR THK CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 Here I was told there are as many as 5,000 of them, 
 chiefly sojourners of the poorest class, who stay six months, 
 a year, or two years, and then return to Oroomiah and 
 Koordistan ; but some have settled here, and some of these 
 are in a higher social position — e.g., merchants in the 
 bazaar, &c. I made the acquaintance of some of these 
 Tiflis Nestorians, and found that they had lately formed a 
 committee for the purpose of establishing here some kind 
 of training college in which promising young Nestorians 
 might receive the earlier part of their education, thence be 
 transferred to Europe for some years, and then return as 
 teachers of their own countrymen. They pui-posed to send 
 agents over Russia and Europe to collect the funds necessary 
 for the establishment and maintenance of this scheme. The 
 committee was good enough to hold a special meeting to hear 
 a report from me of the object and results of my journey. 
 I ventured also to suggest what seemed to me the objections 
 to their plan in any case, and the special objection 
 to their prosecuting it in the event of a college being 
 established in Koordistan. I understood them in reply to 
 express gratitude at the prospect of the establishment in 
 Koordistan of such an institution as they had been con- 
 templating, and that they came to a resolution to suspend 
 all further action with respect to their own plans, and 
 intimated a willingness to give what aid they could in 
 support of those which their people generally had adopted. 
 
829 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 TIFLIS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 We had arrived in Tiflis on Tuesday, August 29. We 
 stayed there on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday 
 morning started by rail for Poti. 
 
 The rail followed the course of the river, and gave us 
 glimpses of rafts of timber being floated down the stream, 
 as on the Rhine ; old towns and villages by the river-side ; a 
 round tower here and there on the bank ; castles, churches, 
 hermitages on the heights. It was very tantalising to 
 catch just a glimpse of places of evidently great interest 
 with the certainty that one would never see them again. 
 
 As we proceeded, the hills began to close in upon the 
 narrowing valley ; the railway began to wind up into the 
 hUls with steep gradients. Then the hills become well 
 wooded ; the valley becomes a mere ravine, and the river a 
 mountain torrent. Then the hills become lofty and bold, 
 and the scenery wild and grand. We see a village here and 
 there built of great logs of wood with projecting galleries, 
 something Uke the Swiss chalets. To avoid tunnels and 
 bridges, the railway winds round the hills, and shows us 
 all the scenery to advantage. 
 
 Presently we notice that the stream is running with us ; 
 we have, then, just crossed the water-shed, left the head 
 waters of the Kur, which guided us up to its source, and 
 now we have taken the waters of the river Rion for our 
 guide down the other side of the Suram mountains and 
 across Mingrelia to the Black Sea. Still we travel 
 by narrow defiles through lofty, bold, well-wooded hills, 
 
330 CHKISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 with occasional bold walls of limestone cliff. A little past 
 the water-shed we catch sight of a large country house 
 romantically situated among the bold wooded hills, which 
 I think must be Eorshom, the villa of the Grand Duke 
 Michael. The valley gradually widens, affluents from the 
 lateral ravines swell the volume of the river, tiU we come 
 once more into a broad valley of arable fields. 
 
 The twilight deepens into night, but there is a moon 
 nearly full, and we catch glimpses of the weird-looking 
 forest, the virgin swampy forest of Mingrelia through 
 ■which the river and the railway run for five-and-twenty 
 miles to Poti. We pull up at last where the full, slow 
 river flows out of the marshy, tangled forest, and glides on 
 between low tongues of land into a glassy creek, which 
 finally opens into the sea. 
 
 It is near midnight. We gather our things together, 
 get into an open carriage, and are driven across a bridge 
 into the town of Poti. It is a very recent creation of 
 the Russian Government. The houses are all quite new, 
 and built on piles ; but we found a sufiiciently comfortable 
 hotel, and a good supper ready for us, and went to bed 
 without much apprehension, notwithstanding the reputa- 
 tion of Poti that no European sleeps there without catch- 
 ing low fever. We felt that we had already paid our dues 
 to the climate, and might go to sleep with a good 
 conscience. 
 
 All this region of swamp and forest is classic land, for 
 it is the land of the Golden Fleece. Jason steered his 
 Argonauts over the shallow bar and up the slow stream of 
 the Rion; All the journey we have travelled is classic 
 ground. It has been for centuries the route from the 
 Black Sea to the Caspian. In the time of Justinian it 
 was proposed to carry the Indian trade across the Caspian 
 to the mouth of the Kur, and up the Kur so far as the 
 river was navigable ; then by a portage through the ravines 
 through which the railway runs, tUl it could bf launched 
 
TIFLIS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 831 
 
 again upon the waters of the Rion, and carried down to 
 Poti and so to Constantinople and the west. 
 
 Saturday, September 2. — Left Poti about nine, en route 
 for Odessa. The Russian steamer was a fine vessel, with 
 even better accommodation and arrangements than the 
 French Messageries steamers. We had calm weather, 
 and had nothing to do but to lounge on deck, and read, 
 and rest body and mind in a charming dolcefar niente. 
 
 Sunday, September 3. — Touched at Theodosia, where 
 we landed and walked about the town. Looked into the 
 church — a spacious structure, clean and cared for. A 
 priest with a wonderful deep bass voice was intoning 
 prayers ; the responses were very effectively sung by three 
 voices in harmony ; a few people worshipping. The whole 
 was reverent and impressive. 
 
 Monday, September 4. — Touched at Yalta, the fashion- 
 able watering-place of the Crimea, but had not time to go 
 ashore. As seen from the sea the country is charming — 
 rocky, wooded hills, and picturesque glens winding down 
 to the sea ; villas lining the beach, and dotted about 
 among the woods. 
 
 Touched at Sebastopol, but again had not time to go 
 ashore. We entered the harbour between two formidable- 
 looking batteries, and noted others lining the shore ; but 
 on the whole, to my unmilitary eyes, the fortifications did 
 not look so imposing as I had expected, or the traces of 
 the bombardment so evident as the accounts of travellers 
 had led me to suppose. 
 
 Tuesday, September 5. — Arrived at Odessa early. Landed 
 and had breakfast, and then walked about the town. It 
 is a fine town, with new streets of good houses, and boule- 
 vards broad, straight, planted with trees, looking more 
 like a first-class watering-place than a commercial sea-port. 
 
 Left again in the afternoon in a smaller but well-ap- 
 pointed steamer with only one other first-class passenger ; 
 it was like cruising in one's own yacht. Before dinner 
 
332 CHEISTIANS UNDEE THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 was quite over our lady fellow-traveller asked if we gentle- 
 men objected to smoking, and being assured that we did 
 not, took out her tobacco bag and book of papers, dexter- 
 ously made a cigarette, and puffed away with a gusto 
 which proved her enjoyment of the luxury which English 
 ladies think so unfeminine, but which Russian ladies seem 
 generally to indulge in. 
 
 Wednesday, September 6. — We arrived about eleven 
 o'clock in the Bosphorus, off Therapia, and instead of 
 pushing on for another hour into the Golden Horn, we 
 were obliged by the Government regulations to anchor 
 there for the night. 
 
833 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 Thursday, Septembei- 7. — At sunrise we weighed anchor 
 and finished our short course to Constantinople. On each 
 side of the narrow strait low hills rise with a gradual slope 
 from the water, well wooded, with winding glens between. 
 Every here and there is a village of good houses, and villas 
 are scattered along the mai'gin of the water, and nestle 
 among the woods on the hillside. The European side 
 especially is picturesque in its natural features, and rich in 
 handsome waterside villages and rural palaces. The 
 straits between are studded with shipping, from the great 
 Turkish ironclad war steamers down to the caique with a 
 single pair of oars. As we steamed down the straits the 
 rising sun illuminated this European side, and the pan- 
 orama was beautiful. Very shortly we turned to the right 
 into the Golden Horn — the Frank quarter of Pera being 
 on our right, Stamboul, the ancient city of Constantine and 
 capital of the Greek empire, on our left. The dragoman 
 of Missiri's Hotel came on board and took charge of landing 
 our luggage, passed it through the Custom-house by help 
 of a bribe, administered with no affectation of concealment 
 on either side, and we soon found ourselves in our hotel. 
 
 We stayed at Constantinople four days ; but the greater 
 part of two days I spent in going to Therapia in search of 
 our ambassador, with whom I had business to transact. 
 Two days I had a slight attack of fever ; still we saw a 
 good deal of the general aspect of Constantinople, and I am 
 very thankful to have seen it. It deserves all that has been 
 said about its wonderful situation and its external beauty. 
 
834 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA, 
 
 At Urfa we saw the illuminatioiis in honour of the 
 accession of Sultan Murad ; here we saw Sultan Hamed 
 go in state to the mosque of Eyoob to be invested with 
 the sword of Islam. We hired a boat and were rowed 
 down the Golden Horn. The panorama of Stamboul is 
 magnificent ; I know nothing to compare with it. The 
 arm of the sea called the Golden Horn is bounded on the 
 south by a chain of five low hills, which slope down with 
 an easy curve to the water's edge. The houses of the city 
 rise one above another up these slopes, largely interspersed 
 with trees and gardens, with here and there a dome and 
 minaret, and each height is crowned by a great monumental 
 building. Beginning on the left, there is first the Seraglio, 
 with its towers and cypresses, then Sta, Sophia, the mosque 
 of Suleiman, the mosque of Mahmoud, each group of build- 
 ings crowned with its dome and flanked with its minarets. 
 And this forms the bacligroiind to the gleaming arm of the 
 sea covered with shipping. The north side of the Horn is 
 not so wonderfully beautiful, but it does not disgrace its 
 vis a vis; the houses rise up the hill-sides which bound it, 
 interspersed vrith trees, and diversified with several domes ; 
 the great building of the Seraskieriate by the waterside, at 
 the upper end of the Horn, and the Tower of Galata crown- 
 ing the hill at the lower end, give it dignity. 
 
 We rowed down the course, which was already marked 
 out by men-of-war's boats for the imperial procession, and 
 landed at a waterside cafe at the upper part of the Horn, 
 whence we got a fair view of the water. The state caiques 
 were very handsome, long, narrow boats, pulled by twelve 
 to fifty rowers. The style of rowing is very remarkable ; 
 the men rise to their feet with one foot on the bench in 
 front to get the first part of the stroke, and fall back on 
 their seats and lie well back to pull the last part of the 
 stroke through. The rowers of the Sultan's caique did some- 
 thing still more extraordinary, for they did not merely puU the 
 oar up to the breast, but while Ij^ng back in the way above 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. Sb5 
 
 described, they passed their hands over the head as far as 
 they could reach backwards in order to lengthen the stroke. 
 The boats were handsomely carved and gilded, the uniforms 
 of the rowers gay and quaint, and the gala dresses of the 
 great personages dazzling, and the whole pageant interest- 
 ing. We saw the Sultan land, and caught a glimpse of him 
 as he rode through the street, surrounded by his guards, 
 towards the mosque. 
 
 The exterior of Sta. Sophia is not very striking; the 
 lower part of the building has little architectural pre- 
 tension ; the drum seems to be too short, so that it does 
 not lift the dome sufficiently above the building, and the 
 row of windows round the base of the dome looks like 
 part of the drum and reduces the visible and effective part 
 of the dome to a comparatively small segment of an 
 ellipse. The interior, however, is very fine. The narthex 
 is a vast hall, worthy to be the entrance to such a church. 
 The interior is very grand, with its vast space, its expansive 
 dome, and its noble design. Its historical interest is 
 transcendent. That it was built by Justinian is one of its 
 modern claims to historical interest, for Justinian gathered 
 for it the gems from some of the greatest buildings of 
 classical antiquity. These eight porphyry pillars were part 
 of the Roman temple of the Sun of Aurelian, which the 
 Roman patrician Marina received as her dowry, and made 
 over to Justinian to be incorporated in his church. These 
 two columns of green granite, which support the women's 
 gallery, came from Ephesus, and are said to have formed 
 part of the Temple of Diana. Look at the mosaics of the 
 domes and walls, greatly injured alas ! Look at the beauti- 
 fully carved Byzantine capitals and cornices. Above all 
 look, as long as leisure will allow you, at the grand general 
 effect of the vast and noble interior with its overhanging 
 dome, and call to mind while you gaze the persons and 
 the scenes which have been witnessed here. 
 
 We were not able to give more than a glance at the other 
 
836 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 gi'eat mosques. The Mosque of Suleiman and that of 
 Ahmed are very grand buildings, and I think that of the 
 Valide Sultana, near the waterside at the end of the old 
 bridge, struck me equally for its architectural merit. 
 
 It is only fair to warn the traveller that Missiri's Hotel 
 does not at all deserve the fine things said of it in " Mur- 
 ray's Handbook." On the contrary, though the charge 
 per day is very high, the whole vtenage is parsimonious, 
 the service supercilious ; the whole thing such an intoler- 
 able trading on its past reputation and the recommendation 
 still published by Murray, that I did \vhat I never did in 
 my life before, I called for my bill, packed my port- 
 manteau, and had myself taken to another hotel. At the 
 Hotel de Byzance, where the charges were less than at 
 Missiri's, we found a well-conducted hotel. 
 
 Whilst staying in Cairo on our outward voyage we had 
 heard that the dancing dervishes were to be seen at a 
 certain hour on Fridays, and resolved to see them on our 
 return from the Pyramids. But, alas ! the fatigue of 
 climbing, together with the heat, quite drove the dancing 
 dervishes out of our heads, and we only remembered 
 them as we arrived at the hotel door on our return, and 
 we were then told that by that time they had just finished 
 their performance. Again we were told that they were 
 going to exhibit in Constantinople, and we again settled 
 to go and see them, but with a like result, we only 
 remembered them just as they had finished. But W. was 
 fortunate enough to come upon an exhibition of them 
 quite unexpectedly on another day, and the following is 
 his description of their performance : — 
 
 " The place where the performance took place was a 
 large round room, the middle of which was enclosed with 
 railings ; above there was a circular gallery. I, however, 
 remained down-stairs, as I could get a better sight from 
 below. 
 
 "At the end of the enclosed circle opposite to the 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 837 
 
 entrance the chief of the dervishes stood, with a carpet 
 in front of him; he was dressed in green, with a tall 
 fawn-coloured hat bound round with green also ; all round 
 the circle stood the performers in loose white dresses, 
 and with a hat of the same colour and shape as the chiefs, 
 but without the green shawl or handkerchief round it. 
 I was not in time to see the very first part of the per- 
 formance, but I suspect that it was very much the same 
 all the way through. When I got in I heard a tom-tom 
 playing, and sometimes also a kind of flute. I believe 
 there were thirteen of the dancers, forming a circle, with 
 one in the middle, all with their heads on one side, and 
 their arms extended, spinning round on their toes as fast 
 as they could go, their long white dresses spreading out 
 round them in a circle. One j^oung fellow I noticed in 
 particular ; he went round much faster than the others, 
 and had his head more on one side ; his eyes were turned 
 up, showing the whites of his eyes, and I think I really 
 never saw anything so absurd in my life. Suddenly the 
 tom-tom ceases and they all immediately cease dancing, 
 and let their white robes coil round them, then they all 
 fold their arms across their chests and march past the 
 chief, each man as he passes the chief bowing low, with his 
 face not turned towards the chief but in the same direc- 
 tion as he is walking, so that when he bows he presents 
 his side to the chief. The chief slightly acknowledges 
 their bow as they go past ; the man in the centre of the 
 circle passes him first, and then when the last man has 
 passed he, the last man, slowly circles ofi" into the centre, 
 unwinding his robes gradually as he goes ; then the tom- 
 tom strikes up and they all begin to turn again slowly 
 unwinding their robes with the circular motion until they 
 get their robes fairly out ; then they spin round faster and 
 faster, the whole circle also gradually going round the 
 room until the last man has reached the place next the 
 thief, then they all stop again and go through the same 
 
 z 
 
338 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 process again. This appeared to me to be done thirteen 
 times, so that every one of them came in his turn into 
 the middle of the circle. When this had been accom- 
 plished they all stopped again and knelt down, all shutting 
 their eyes ; their attendants went round and put their 
 cloaks on each of their shoulders, which being pulled on 
 the chief knelt on his carpet and apparently prayed aloud, 
 all the others having bent with their faces touching the 
 ground; when this prayer was over they all rose, and 
 again defiled past the chief, this time kissing his hand as 
 they passed ; he apparently said something to them, and 
 also kissed them. The chief then walks slowly towards 
 the exit, and when he reaches it turns round in the most 
 solemn manner and bows to the circle of performers, who 
 stand round with their arms crossed on their breasts, and 
 they bow low in return ; the chief having departed they 
 all walk out without any farther ceremony, joining with 
 the lookers-on, and so take their departure." 
 
 My impression was that the dancing dervishes were 
 mere vulgar fanatics. The chaplain tells us that it is not 
 so. There are difi'erent kinds of dervishes, and they bear 
 something like the same relation to Islam which the friars 
 bore to the Church in the middle ages. The ascetic, the 
 enthusiastic, as well as the fanatical minds, among Moham- 
 medan peoples, are to be found in the ranks of the der- 
 vishes. Many of them, it is believed, are very unorthodox, 
 and curious relics of ancient Eastern beliefs are retained 
 among them. The ceremonies which W. saw are supposed 
 to have an astronomical theory as their basis, and the gyra- 
 tions to represent the motions of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 I shall not trouble the reader with our return journey 
 through Europe. We reached home again after an interval 
 of just five months, and owe great gratitude to God that 
 He had brought us through a very adventurous journey 
 with success and safety, and that all things had gone well 
 in home and parish during our absence. 
 
839 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 
 
 Since my return home I have, of course, been frequently 
 asked for opinions on the " Eastern Question." I have 
 replied that a hasty ride across the country does not 
 qualify one to speak with much personal knowledge of 
 the condition of its inhabitants. Nevertheless, when 
 pressed, I have admitted that a traveller whose attention 
 is specially directed to one point, who converses confi- 
 dently on the spot with those who have for years or 
 always lived there, and who used all his opportunities of 
 personal observation, may in the course of four or five 
 months arrive at some reliable conclusions on the broad 
 facts of the question which he has specially studied. The 
 point which I studied was the condition of the Christians 
 under the rule of Turkey and Persia ; and when asked 
 for the conclusions I arrived at on this subject I have 
 stated them in something like the following words. 
 
 The difference of reUgion between the Mussulman and 
 the Christian has drawn a broad line between the two 
 portions of the population. The Mussulman hates the 
 Christian with a fanatical hatred as a Giaour — an infidel. 
 It is a point of conscience not to admit him to an equality 
 of civil rights ; to kill him may involve temporal incon- 
 veniences, but is meritorious in the sight of heaven. It is 
 the old feeling of the Crusader towards the "paynim," or 
 the Spaniard towards the Moor, or the mediaeval Christian 
 or the modern Russian towards the Jew. 
 
 This religious antagonism has kept alive, almost in 
 
 z2 
 
840 CHEISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 their first keenness, the relations of the conquering and 
 the conquered race. The Mussulman despises the Chris- 
 tians as an inferior and subject race, and continues to beat 
 them, or to plunder them, or to ill-treat their women, on 
 occasion, as part of the rights of conquest. The Chris- 
 tian fears the Mussulman, whose oppression he is power- 
 less to resist, and hates him with the hatred produced 
 by the wi'ongs of centuries. The Christians are continually 
 sustaining wrongs in person and property, sometimes at 
 the hands of the local officials, but more commonly by the 
 lawless acts of their neighbours ; the great cause of com- 
 plaint against the authorities is that they fail to give either 
 protection or redress. 
 
 The oppression of our co-religionists in Persia is worse 
 than in Turkey ; the government is worse, the officials 
 are more corrupt, and therefore the condition of the 
 Christians is more hopeless. 
 
 It is very difficult to see how this is to be amended. 
 The impression left on my mind by all I saw and heard 
 was that the central government at Constantinople is far 
 in advance of the people. Its officials have had, more or 
 less, a European education, and seek to govern on nine- 
 teenth century European principles. The Porte would 
 wiUingly place its Christian subjects on the same level of 
 political and social rights as its Mohammedan subjects. 
 But all the endeavours of the Porte to protect its Christian 
 subjects and ameliorate their condition, are in opposition 
 to the religious prejudices, the estabUshed customs, and 
 the strong feelings of the Mussulmans. In Asia Minor, 
 Mesopotamia, and Koordistan, and it is only of those 
 countries that I am speaking, the Mussulmans are the 
 great majority of the people ; and the government of the 
 Porte is not strong enough to enforce its good intentions. 
 
 I can only see two modes of applying a remedy for the 
 oppressions of the Christians in Asia Minor. One is the 
 Russian mode : the destruction of the Turkish empire by 
 
THE EASTERN QUESTION. 341 
 
 conquest, and the substitution for it of a Christian govern- 
 ment powerful enough to control the Mussulman majority 
 by force of arms. The principle of this method is the 
 old Crusading principle. There are manifest objections 
 to it. If there were not, the governments of Europe 
 are not disposed to allow a Crusade against the Turk 
 whose result would be to give a preponderance of power in 
 Europe to a semi-barbarous, absolute, military monarchy, 
 like Russia. I fear that before Russia, if allowed, had 
 completed this method of protecting the Christians of 
 Asia, a general massacre would have left very few Chris- 
 tians to be protected. 
 
 The other mode is the English mode : to use all our 
 influence with the Sultan and the Shah on behalf of their 
 Christian subjects ; to barter every aid we give their 
 governments for concessions to our co-religionists. 
 
 It is a slow method, because it depends so largely upon 
 the production of a change in the temper of a fanatical 
 majority towards an oppressed minority, which must be a 
 gradual operation. 
 
 Two suggestions might be made for the improvement of 
 this mode of procedure. One is to have a larger number 
 of consuls scattered over the country. They are a wonder- 
 ful protection to the Christian population about them, both 
 against acts of popular violence and against official neglect 
 of their wrongs. In the neighbourhood of a consul such 
 things are not successfully hushed up. If the local offi- 
 cials give no redress, the consul brings the matter to the 
 knowledge of his ambassador, the ambassador applies 
 pressure to the Porte, the Porte coerces its local repre- 
 sentative. Few things so much excited my admiration as 
 the way in which the presence of an Englishman of cha- 
 racter, even if he hold no official position, acts as a protec- 
 tion to the people about him. The interests of the Eastern 
 Christians would be materially served by the creation of a 
 few more consulates. At least those which exist might 
 
842 
 
 CHRISTIANS UNDEK THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 be kept filled. Two of those to which the Nestorian 
 Christians especially look for protection were simultaneously 
 vacant at the time of my visit to them, and had been 
 vacant, one for a year and a half, and the other for a still 
 longer period. 
 
 Another way of promoting the interests of these Eastern 
 Christians is not by political but by religious agency. But 
 this view of the question will be better approached in a 
 separate chapter^ 
 
843 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE EASTEEN CHURCHES. 
 
 The ancient British Church derived its Christianity from 
 the East by way of Gaul, and our English Christianity has 
 retained traces of that Eastern origin to the present day. 
 But throughout the mediaeval period our relations were 
 with the Western Church. As the Eastern communities 
 gradually wasted under the Mohammedan conquests and 
 persecutions, and the Western Church grew with the grow- 
 ing population and civilisation of the nations of Europe, 
 the fortunes of Eastern Christianity attracted less and less 
 of our attention. 
 
 The Reformation altered our relations with the Latin 
 Church to those of antagonism ; and the controversy which 
 we have ever since had to maintain with Rome has absorbed 
 us. The Eastern Churches misunderstood the position 
 which we then took up ; and we took no pains to make 
 ourselves understood by, or to cultivate relations with, them. 
 
 But of late years our interest in the fortunes of those 
 communities of Eastern Christians has been awakened, and 
 their attention has been attracted to us. 
 
 The growth of the Anglican Communion, in the United 
 States and in our Colonies, is attaining to such propor- 
 tions as to affect the centre of gravitation of the Christian 
 Church, so long fixed in Rome, and to commence a new 
 era in the history of the Church. The Pan-Anglican Synod 
 — about to hold a second session — is a symptom of the ten- 
 dency towards a systematic confederation (in other words a 
 regular ecclesiastical organisation) of this great communion, 
 to which circumstances are impelling us. This increased 
 and more widely-spread power is naturally bringing with 
 
844 CHRISTIANS UNDEB THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 it wider relations, new duties, increased responsibilities. 
 Among other things the Eastern Churches are beginning 
 to understand our ecclesiastical position, to recognise us 
 as an ancient orthodox branch of the Church of Christ, 
 to see in this powerful AngUcan Communion a natural 
 ally against Rome and a possible protector against the 
 Mohammedan, and to appeal to us for sympathy and aid. 
 
 We, on the other hand, are beginning to see that with 
 the decay of the Mohammedan powers there is springing 
 up the possibility of a great poHtical future for these 
 Eastern Christians. Moreover, a very little study of their 
 history shows us that the existence of those ancient in- 
 dependent portions of the Church is one of the strongest 
 arguments against the pretensions of Rome to universal 
 sovereignty, and that their growth in numbers, energy, 
 and political weight will help to restore the balance of the 
 constitution of the Church, by reducing the comparative 
 preponderance of Rome, and replacing her in her normal 
 position of one among the branches of the Sacred Vine. 
 
 Rome is aware of all this, and is making great exer- 
 tions to win the allegiance of these Eastern churches. 
 Zealous priests and sisters of mercy are labouring with 
 admirable skill and energy throughout the East, ecclesias- 
 tical intrigue and political influence (especially of France) 
 are everywhere at work to further the interests of Rome. 
 
 Therefore the great English religious instinct of opposi- 
 tion to the designs of Rome, and the great political question 
 of the day " the Eastern Question," combine to give us a 
 great and growing interest in the Christianity of the East, 
 and incline us to give a favourable ear to the overtures 
 which are made to us from thence. Let us briefly glance 
 at the actual position of these Eastern communities. 
 
 The bodies of Eastern Christians are — 
 
 The Orthodox Eastern Church, the representative of the 
 Church of the Eastern Roman empire, the centre of whose 
 organisation is the Patriarch of Constantinople. The 
 
THE EASTERN CHURCHES. 346 
 
 Eussian branch of this Church in the reign of Peter the 
 Great established its national independence of the See of 
 Constantinople. Still more recently the Church of the 
 Greek kingdom, that of Bulgaria, and that of Sei*via have, 
 under Russian patronage, asserted a similar independence. 
 
 The Ai-menian Church is the next in importance, number- 
 ing about five millions of a highly intelligent, enterprising, 
 commercial people. Politically they have long since ceased 
 to be a nation, they are divided between the sovereignty 
 of Russia and Turkey. Ecclesiastically, they acknowledge 
 the See of Etchmiadzin as the centre of their organisation. 
 
 The ancient Church of Antioch is represented by a few 
 thousand so-called Jacobites, monophysites in doctrine, 
 under the ecclesiastical rule of a patriarch, who retains the 
 grand historic title of Patriarch of Antioch, but resides at 
 Mardin in Mesopotamia. 
 
 The ancient Church of Alexandria is represented by a 
 few hundred thousand Coptic Christians, who are also 
 monophysites. The ancient Abyssinian Church also exists, 
 though in a state of great ignorance and degradation. 
 
 Lastly, the Assyrian Christians, who have been described 
 in the foregoing pages, are the descendants and representa- 
 tives, as we have shown above, of the ancient Church of 
 the further East. 
 
 At this moment there is a more active and friendly corre- 
 spondence between each of thesebodies (except theAbyssinian 
 Church) and the English Church than at any previous period 
 in the history of Christendom, at least since the first ages. 
 
 Many of our readers will be aware that for several suc- 
 cessive years an annual conference has met at Bonn, in 
 connection with the Old Catholic movement, attended by 
 representatives of the Orthodox Eastern, the Russian, and 
 the English Churches ; the object of the conferences being 
 to examine the questions which keep these several branches 
 of the Church apart, and to search for bases on which 
 intercommunion among them might be restored. 
 
346 OHBISTIANS UNDER THE CEESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 A committee exists in Russia, and we believe a cor- 
 responding committee in England, whose object is the 
 restoration of communion between the two Churches. 
 
 One of the most distinguished prelates of the national 
 Church of Greece, the Archbishop of Syra and Tenos, was 
 in England in 1870, and entered into the most friendly 
 relations with our English Bishops, and the Bishops of 
 that Church have received our English Bishop of Gibraltar 
 with equal cordiality. 
 
 ClergjTnen of our own Church have been admitted to take 
 part in the celebration of Holy Communion by prelates of 
 the Servian Church. 
 
 A committee is sitting in London now to consider a 
 recent communication from the prelates of the Bulgarian 
 Church, which seeks sympathy, information, and counsel. 
 
 A similar committee has been formed to entertain com- 
 munications from the Armenian Church. 
 
 The Patriarch of the Jacobites came to England in 
 1874 to make known to the English Church the condition 
 of his community, and to seek sympathy and assistance. 
 
 The repeated applications of the so-called " Nestorian " 
 Church are related in the preceding pages. 
 
 There are a hundred other indications of the interest 
 which the Churches of the world are beginning to take in 
 the Church of England, and of their inclination to enter 
 into more friendly relations with her. Some approach her as 
 equals, seeking nothing but friendship with her, some of 
 the smaller communities who are poor, ignorant, and 
 oppressed, approach her as suppliants asking the help 
 which one Christian may rightly seek of another, and 
 which one Church may seek of another Church on the 
 same grounds of Christian charity. 
 
 It was long since pointed out that the Church of England 
 afforded a centre round which the several sections of 
 Christendom might one day rally ; it looks as if the move- 
 ment towards this centre were already beginning. 
 
THE EASTERN CHURCHES. 347 
 
 What is our duty under these circumstances ? Surely 
 it is on one hand to continue to hold firmly what we believe 
 to be the Catholic faith ; to seek to win back our own 
 Nonconformists ; and to strengthen the relations between 
 the Anglican Churches; on the other hand, to enter into 
 the friendliest possible relations with all other branches of 
 the Church, to encourage mutual explanations, and pro- 
 mote the general desire for reunion. 
 
 This might be greatly promoted by placing some sound, 
 well-read English clergymen among these various commu- 
 nities to represent the Church of England ; and the fittest 
 position in which to place them would be as chaplains to 
 the various consulates. I know the difficulties — that a 
 late Government struck ofi" the consular chaplains, that 
 the House of Commons would not be hkely to vote stipends, 
 and so on. But it is possible that the Church of England 
 might find them stipends, and the Government might give 
 them recognition. In any case, it seems to me a wise 
 thing to do, and that I only fulfil a duty in saying so. 
 
 But what answer are we to give to these Jacobites and 
 Nestorians, who ask us for material help ? They are in 
 formal heresy ; our branch of the Church, recognising the 
 general councils which they repudiate, cannot enter into 
 communion with them. Can we in conscience help them ? 
 
 Even if we were certain that they would always continue 
 unorthodox, yet surely it is our duty, if it is in our power, to 
 interpose to prevent the Mohammedans from persecuting 
 them to extinction. What they definitely ask is help to edu- 
 cate themselves ; surely, even if they continue unorthodox, 
 it is better that they should be intelligent and well educated, 
 rather than ignorant, superstitious, and degraded ; besides, 
 we have a right to hope that they may abandon their errors. 
 
 The long depression of their separated communities may 
 have produced in them a disposition to listen favour- 
 ably to the teaching of the rest of Christendom, on those 
 points on which they sepai*ated from it ; especially when 
 
348 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 the Church of England, which, like themselves, is divided 
 from the rest of Christendom on so many points of 
 opinion and ritual, assures them that we agree with the 
 rest of Christendom in those great points of doctrine. 
 
 In the case of the Nestorians two successive Archbishops 
 of Canterbury have resolved that it is proper to give them 
 aid,* as the document subjoined will show.* 
 
 The object of the writer's mission to them was to ascer- 
 tain on the spot how this aid could best be given. He found 
 that the people themselves desired help to establish an 
 institution in which their schoolmasters might be trained, 
 
 ♦Appeal on behalf of the Christians of Assyria, commonly called 
 the Nestorians. [Issued by the present Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 dated Jan. 7, 1870.] 
 
 The ancient and once flourishing community, commonly known by 
 the name of Nestorians .... have recently appealed for help to the 
 Church of England. The appeal .... has already been published in 
 full [in the introductory chapter of this book] , but its purport may be 
 succinctly stated in the following quotation from a speech in reference 
 to it by the late Archbishop Longley : — 
 
 "The Nestorians, in this touching letter, say that they feel they 
 are in a state of great ignorance and darkness, and they apply to us to 
 come over and help them — to send some one to instruct and enlighten 
 them. I have reason to believe that they are not at all wedded to 
 Nestorian principles, and that they might easily be led to abandon 
 them. I cannot but hope, tucrefore, that inasmuch as this appeal has 
 been made to us, there may be some weU-disposed people who wUl con- 
 tribute to a mission to those poor Eastern Christians. It is a very 
 modest petition that we should send out two missionaries who might 
 bear comfort and consolation to those who are now really in very great 
 distress. Their position is a very painful one. They are between two 
 hostile forces — the Mohammedan on the one hand, and the Papal on the 
 other — and they are persecuted by both. They appeal to us." 
 
 " The claims of these Assyrian Christians [continues the present 
 Archbishop] upon the liberality of English Churchmen are too obvious 
 to require any lengthened exposition. Isolated from the great body of 
 Christendom, they cannot look, like other Eastern Christians, to power- 
 ful European protectors. With the exception of one alleged theological 
 error upon a cardinal point — which, however, they disclaim, and are 
 professedly ready to repudiate — they have preserved throughout cen- 
 turies of severe persecution the primitive creed and doctrine of the 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church. Among them the Eucharistic cup has 
 never been denied to the laity, nor the right of marriage to the priest- 
 
THE EASTERN CHUBCHES. 849 
 
 and guidance in the establishment of an improved system 
 of education. 
 
 The following extracts from his report to the Archbishop 
 will give a summary of the present educational condition 
 of the people : — 
 
 " Among the mountaineers the present system of educa- 
 tion and the machinery for conducting it are both very 
 defective. The educational course consists in learning to 
 read in Old Syriac. Then the scholars read and learn by rote 
 the Psalter, read the Gospels and Epistles, always in Old 
 Syriac, and then having read them they go back and learn 
 to translate them into Modern Syriac. But probably few 
 children continue long enough under tuition to do more than 
 learn to read and say by rote part of the Psalter. 
 
 " The educational machinery among the mountain tribes 
 is of the simplest ; during the winter months the village 
 priest receives at his own house any children who are sent 
 to him as pupils, and is paid by a present according to the 
 means and liberality of the parents. The higher education 
 is effected as in the middle ages in Europe ; the students 
 resort to some teacher who has acquired a reputation for 
 learning ; e.g. Rabban Yonan is accounted the most learned 
 man of the nation at present ; the patriarch, several of 
 the bishops, and others of the people who have attained to 
 gome degree of education, have been his pupils. 
 
 hood ; there is no superstitious use of imagoes or pictures ; purgatory and 
 indulgences are unknown ; while the reading of the Holy Scriptures by 
 all in the vulgar tongue is, as far as their scanty supply of books enables, 
 diligently practised. 
 
 "To our own communion, brought back, through God's blessing 
 upon the Reformation, to the primitive standard, this ancient body is 
 especially and most reasonably attracted ; and we are anxious that 
 their hopes of obtaining assistance from us may be realised as they 
 
 ought The object is not to make proselytes to the English 
 
 Church, but to aid them in reforming their own Church, where needful, 
 upon a primitive basis and after primitive models, 
 
 (Signed) "A. CANTUAR. 
 
 " Stone House, Jan. 7, 1870." 
 
350 CHRISTIANS TJNBER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 " The education of the Oroomiah Nestorians is almost 
 entirely in the hands of the Americans. In about a score of 
 the larger villages where there is the best opening for schools, 
 and where the people are desirous to have them, the Ameri- 
 cans have (very wisely) stepped in and offered their aid. I 
 beheve they offer to find the teacher and his stipend, if the 
 village will do aJl the rest. The schools are open only in 
 the winter months. The Nestorians, who are alienated from 
 the present American missionaries, are naturally unwilling 
 to leave the education of the children in their hands. 
 
 " There is a considerable desire among them for the 
 estabUshment of schools of their own ; there are a number 
 of men qualified to teach in them, but they want some one 
 to organise and superintend the working of a system of 
 village schools ; and I think that a clergj-man and a trained 
 schoolmaster in the city, and a little help in money, would 
 suffice to create and carry on a system of schools all over the 
 plain, which would do an excellent work among the people. 
 
 " As to the future educational scheme, the Patriarch was 
 very decided in desiring that Old Syriac, the classical and 
 not the vulgar language of the nation, should continue to 
 be used as its vehicle. There is an extensive and fine 
 literature in Old Syriac, and no literature in the modern 
 vulgar tongue. The difference between the two was repre- 
 sented as not sufficient to present any great difficulty. I 
 asked, ' In reading the Psalter, could a person acquainted 
 only with Modern Syriac gather its meaning ? ' * Often ; 
 there would often be only a few words different.' ' How 
 many words ? ' * Perhaps five in a verse of fifteen 
 words.' ' Please read a verse to the servant there ' 
 (having ascertained that he only spoke vulgar Syriac). He 
 read Matthew xxiv. 1, 2, and the servant understood it 
 except one word. In Oroomiah, however, I found the use 
 of Old Syriac deprecated as a great hindrance to education. 
 Books might perhaps be printed in double columns. Old 
 and Modern Syriac. 
 
THE EASTERN CHURCHES. 351 
 
 " All the people with whom I have conversed seem 
 assured that the people will value an improved education, 
 and will send their children in fair numbers and with tol- 
 erable regularity to be educated. They seem agreed that 
 the course to adopt is first to establish a central institution 
 where the teachers may be taught and trained, and then to 
 establish schools in the larger villages. There are already 
 a certain number of Nestorians qualified intellectually to 
 aid as schoolmasters, and only needing some training in 
 the methods of education and school management. In the 
 mountains many of the people are too poor to pay regular 
 school fees, and the schools will need to be considerably 
 subsidised. In Oroomiah the people are more able to pay, 
 the chief men of the villages have been in the habit of 
 contributing towards their maintenance, and the schools in 
 their villages will be more nearly, though far from entirely, 
 self-supporting." 
 
 The Patriarch summoned all the bishops, and many of 
 the clergy and chiefs, to a consultation at Kochanes. 
 The conclusions arrived at were embodied in two docu- 
 ments, one from the bishops only, the other from the 
 people generally, both written in Syriac, which I had the 
 honour at once to forward to the Archbishop. Their sub- 
 stance, I believe, will be found to correspond with a 
 memorandum which I made during the meeting, of which 
 the following is a copy : — 
 
 " The plan which we think best adapted to our wants, 
 and in which we beg his Grace, the Archbishop, to help 
 us with English clergymen to carry out, is as follows : — 
 
 " A training college with a normal school, to be estab- 
 lished in some central place which shall be considered 
 most convenient. 
 
 "It is hoped that in time branch establishments may 
 be planted in various places (e.^., Oroomiah, Asheetha, 
 Mosul), and it is wished to plant one immediately in the 
 important city of Oroomiah. 
 
852 CHRISTIANS UNDER THE CRESCENT IN ASIA. 
 
 " For this purpose we ask for two experienced English 
 clergymen, and one medical man, and two trained school- 
 masters. 
 
 " We are anxious to have a printing press, type, &c., 
 that we may supply school-books to the schools, and other 
 books for the use of the people generally. 
 
 " Lastly, we beg the Church of England out of its 
 abundance to supply our lack of means to accomplish 
 these plans, which will be so great a blessing to our 
 Church and nation." 
 
 The report upon this plan was briefly as follows : — 
 
 " The Nestorian people are a fine race of people, of a 
 natural intelUgence and a moral character, which afford 
 abundant promise that anything which your Grace may be 
 pleased to do to help them to educate and elevate themselves 
 (and then perhaps as a consequence to introduce reforms 
 into their Church) will be received with gratitude, will be 
 met by local effort, and will produce great and good results. 
 
 " I think the plans which they have suggested are suited 
 to their circumstances, and I hope that it will be possible 
 to carry them out without curtailment. I suppose that 
 about £2,000 a year would be barely sufficient for this 
 purpose. I suppose that the two Societies, S.P.G. and 
 S.P.C.K., would probably, at your Grace's request, give 
 JB500 each for some years, and that the remainder could 
 be raised by the usual appeals to the Church." 
 
 The Societies have given ^6250 each for five years ; the 
 Archbishop is appealing to the Church for the remainder 
 of the necessary sum. We will not doubt that English 
 Churchmen will respond to the appeal, and will at last 
 enable the Archbishop to give a suitable reply to the 
 pathetic entreaties for our Christian sympathy, which have 
 been so often made by this decayed but interesting rem- 
 nant of a once great and powerful Church. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE NESTORIAN DIOCESES. 
 
 The following statistics of the Sees under Mar ShLmoonis 
 jurisdiction, with the villages included in them, were 
 obtained in the case of Oroomiah and " the Mattran's 
 country," from the Bishops; in the case of the mountain 
 tribes, from the Priests of the villages, the Maleks, or 
 others who seemed best acquainted with the localities : — 
 
 CENTKAL KOORDISTAN. 
 Diocese of Mab Shimoon, the Patriarch. 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 6.S 
 
 fl CO 
 
 ■S5S 
 
 West o/Asheetha tn the 
 Mosul Pashalic. 
 
 Garfimun 
 
 TcalluU 
 
 Arosh 
 
 Halamoon 
 
 Hor 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 20* 
 12t 
 
 n 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 70 
 30 
 20 
 CO 
 10 
 
 300 
 90 
 60 
 70 
 20 
 fiO 
 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 18 
 
 40 
 12 
 20 
 38 
 35 
 20 
 200 
 
 Tyari Alleita, or Upper 
 Tyari. 
 
 Serspeedho 
 
 Siyadhor 
 
 Koomta 
 
 Chamba d'Be-Ella .... 
 
 Chamba d'N§n<; 
 
 Mezraa 
 
 Mrateetha 
 
 Be-Nahra 
 
 Be-Zrako 
 
 Jemiatha 
 
 Aniad'Aleel^ 
 
 Doora Allaya 
 
 Keshdd'Nahra 
 
 Kalayatha 
 
 Be-Ualyatha 
 
 Mgzraa d'Kalayatha . . 
 
 Chamba d'Melek 
 
 Chamba d'Coordhfty^. . 
 
 Chamba d'Hasso 
 
 Malota d'Melek 
 
 Dadosh 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 'i 
 'i 
 
 'i 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 '6 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 'i 
 '2 
 
 *i 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 "6 
 1 
 
 9( 
 
 
 Tclr6 Rezen 
 
 
 Tyart Tahteitha,or 
 Lower Tyari. 
 
 
 
 
 Minyanlsh 
 
 Merghd 
 
 
 Kurkhe 
 
 
 
 
 Oomra Tahtfiya 
 
 Zerni 
 
 
 Karulihta 
 
 
 Chamba d' Beth So- \ 
 
 28 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 Ko 
 
 27 
 
 
 Be-Marlggo 
 
 Chamba d'Koorkh^. . . . 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 IJe-Aiatha 
 
 8 
 
 Be-Kawol6 
 
 Drawa d'Walto 
 
 Chamba HaUtha 
 
 Zorawa 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 Bawola d'Salabeken ... 
 
 
 ' And more than 50 Deacons. 
 
 t And 5 Deacons. 
 
 2a 
 
 T And 3 Deacon*. 
 
854 
 
 APPK4DIX. 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 
 =1^ 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 u 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 4 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 *i 
 
 88 
 
 6S. 
 =^£ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 '6 
 
 81 
 
 
 IHttrict of Walto. 
 
 Seerta 
 
 Shwawootha 
 
 Jiatha d'Mart Miriam. . 
 
 KhadUna 
 
 Rgshe d'Nahra 
 
 1 
 1 
 s 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 4 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4» 
 
 
 
 
 
 79 
 6 
 60 
 60 
 30 
 
 33 
 
 14 
 35 
 30 
 25 
 
 2 
 14 
 12 
 40 
 10 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 44+6t 
 
 15 
 5 
 7 
 
 
 9 
 
 Be-Khajlj 
 
 Pekhkhen 
 
 Chares 
 
 Berwer Siioeeni. 
 Khardaianes 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 24 
 
 /Vorince of Dez. 
 
 Akh wanes 
 
 Shmooneenes 
 
 Slweend 
 
 Espin 
 
 15 
 5 
 
 
 20 
 
 Koorsen 
 
 Chiri Chara 
 
 7 
 
 Sallen 
 
 Gooranes 
 
 4 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 Karm^ 
 
 Orel 
 
 7 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 Berwer (V Shwawootha. 
 Shwawootha 
 
 
 Be-Shammisha 
 
 32 
 
 Rabban dad'Eshoo 
 
 10 
 
 Derlkki 
 
 Bilvndy6. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Berwer cCKoeh&nes. 
 Kochfines 
 
 12 
 
 Awert 
 
 10 
 
 Nerwa 
 
 Aia.s 
 
 2 
 
 TerkSnes 
 
 
 
 Keegar 
 
 Soreenes 
 
 2^4 
 
 • And 16 Deacons. t The 6 are families temporarily absent. 
 
 Diocese op Mar Seeghees of Jelu. 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 Tehoma. 
 
 Tchoma Gawftya 
 
 Mezraa 
 
 Goundooktha 
 
 Province of Jelu. 
 
 Alsan 
 
 M§dhl 
 
 Nahra 
 
 Zereni 
 
 Aiatha d'Mar Zeyya 
 
 TJinmSd 
 
 Talana 
 
 Be-Bokra 
 
 Nerik 
 
 Ori 
 
 Zfer 
 
 Barpel 
 
 Boo Bawa 
 
 • Many Deacons. 
 
 . 
 
 
 Cm 
 
 
 
 d » 
 
 III 
 
 
 u 
 
 ^fe 
 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 60 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 70 
 
 
 1 
 
 1(1 
 
 240 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 180 
 
 
 1 
 
 1» 
 
 160 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 130 
 
 
 1 
 
 21 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2.5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 10 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 80 
 
 
 T 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 
 Name ot Village. 
 
 Samsikki 
 
 Mathad'OriySy^ .. 
 Uusperan 
 
 Province of Bdz. 
 
 Argeb 
 
 Kojeeja 
 
 Matha Tahteitha ... 
 
 Shwawootha 
 
 Orwantooz 
 
 District of Rikan. 
 
 Heesh 
 
 Merkanish 
 
 Gebba 
 
 Erbesh 
 
 Istip 
 
 t Village ot the Bishop. 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 855 
 
 DiooESB OP Mar Sleewa of Gawar. 
 
 Kame of Village. 
 
 1 m 
 
 
 Boo 
 
 
 
 
 °-^ 
 
 "e 
 
 = z=; 
 
 ^.? 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 'A^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 2* 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 45 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 60 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 It 
 
 30 
 
 1) 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 100 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 200 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 90 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 KoordS 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 7 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 1) 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 23 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 KoordS 
 Des- 
 troyed 
 Des- 
 troyed 
 20 
 
 Frovince of Gawar. 
 
 Be-Rberri 
 
 ZirMnes 
 
 Ooreesha 
 
 Daraw6 
 
 Keiat 
 
 Manoonan 
 
 Kadeeyyan 
 
 Memekkan 
 
 Seen Awa 
 
 Khulkhus 
 
 Karpel 
 
 Gagoran 
 
 Ba-Sherga 
 
 WezeerAwa 
 
 Makeu d'Awa 
 
 PirZalan 
 
 Cardevar 
 
 Zeezan 
 
 PaKlan 
 
 Dara 
 
 Pagel 
 
 Serdesht 
 
 Dizzat 
 
 Derrenaye. 
 
 Mar Be-Heshoo 
 
 lyyel 
 
 Be-Zekt6 
 
 Basan 
 
 Khan&nes. 
 
 Khananes AUeitha . , 
 Khanaues Tahteitha 
 
 Silmooan 
 
 KhaieelaJ 
 
 Province of Albak. 
 
 \l'oz6 
 
 Erjl 
 
 Ates 
 
 Alenjil Awa 
 
 KharalunI 
 
 ShareenesJ 
 
 Ozan 
 
 PoosanJ 
 
 Boorduk 
 
 » The Bishop's residence. t The Bishop's village. 
 
 X The yhristiau inhabitants are Armenian, but they communicate with 
 Nestorians, and Nestorian priests minister to them all the other ordinances ol 
 the Church. 
 
 Alamiyyan 
 
 Kal^es 
 
 Among the Artooshi 
 Koords. 
 
 Gezna 
 
 Parrashin 
 
 Khar&ban 
 
 Barwes 
 
 District of L6wun, 
 
 ErkI 
 
 Khergel 
 
 Matha d'Oomra 
 
 Nevgweezan 
 
 Zarfiues 
 
 Kanoonta 
 
 Bellekken 
 
 Kbandekki 
 
 Billi 
 
 Delra Zengel 
 
 Gohikki 
 
 Noodea. 
 
 MarwAnan 
 
 Ool&ma 
 
 Tcil Geri 
 
 Parkbilan , 
 
 Teall District. 
 
 Ba-Dar^ 
 
 Ba-Iktu 
 
 Be-Koor4y^ 
 
 Be-Azeeza 
 
 Rabbat 
 
 Talflna 
 
 Ar^wun 
 
 Ko 
 
 Irk 
 
 Be-Shooka 
 
 Shiiwreza 
 
 Biyya 
 
 Be-L6tha 
 
 'Ao 
 
 56 43 1,497 
 
 o-u a 
 
 h, on c 
 
 iz;fe 
 
356 appendix. 
 
 Diocese of Mae Khnaneshoo the Metropolitan. 
 
 
 =0 
 
 
 OaJ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 
 lis 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 u 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 100 
 100 
 
 ? 
 
 24 
 
 Kiatuna 
 
 Bibabi 
 
 Bidiwi 
 
 Blltunio 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 Kustaka Matranes i 
 village / 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 Bigardi 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 Surscerl 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 Teis 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 Marduukha 
 
 
 
 ? 
 
 Nerdusha 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 Balkan 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Harvonan 
 
 
 
 40 1 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 ? 
 
 Doira 
 
 KlgPerzan 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 2i 
 
 20 
 5 
 40 
 10 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 Devrl 
 
 Bautour 
 
 Oerganai 
 
 
 
 ? 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 13 
 
 Batontl 
 
 Shaput 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 Sara 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 District 0/ Bradusnai. 
 
 
 
 
 Zerua 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 beriin 
 
 
 
 60 1 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 Jeremah 
 
 Bitcari 
 
 HakI 
 
 Baciulaa ... 
 
 Kordna 
 
 8hikani 
 
 Tuteilkl 
 
 Tulu 
 
 Anbl 
 
 Setiani 
 
 Zaugillan ... 
 
 Kaluga 
 
 Darbant .... 
 
 Salana 
 
 Rusna 
 
 Disgari 
 
 Horana 
 
 Pasta 
 
 Hishmawa . 
 
 Nargi 
 
 Holuthan . . 
 Susnawa ... 
 
 Halbe 
 
 Urtbera 
 
 Hossar 
 
 Kourana 
 
 Gondigmalla 
 Gangachin . 
 Uvasau 
 
 OROOMIAH. 
 Diocese op Mar Johanan. 
 
 « 
 
 . 
 
 
 = " 
 
 51 
 
 l> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 •a 
 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 "A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 43 
 
 
 2; u 3 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 o'.2 
 
 ell 
 
 m 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 44 
 
 IS 
 
 22 
 
 38 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 81 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 126 
 
 88 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 S2 
 
 31 
 
 42 
 
 80 
 
 Karakis 
 
 Aabajalovy 
 
 Ikiaratch 
 
 Chamakey 
 
 Yaghmoraghloz 
 
 Zumalan 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 10 
 
 
 15 
 
 Klzlasok 
 
 Balou 
 
 12 
 50 
 
 
 18 
 
 Bozlovy 
 
 44 
 
 Karagues 
 
 Takalovy 
 
 Chickellui 
 
 Arduk 
 
 
 4 
 
 Kozi 
 
 88 
 
 Nazi 
 
 50 
 26 
 
 
 Badilboo 
 
 Plcnbglovey 
 
 Hahajabut 
 
 Zanaloni 
 
 Armootaghach 
 
 5 
 
 Mamocha 
 
 Goijalouwl 
 
 Abdilakandt 
 
 Shirabut 
 
 15 
 5 
 16 
 33 
 
 Yangegh 
 
 Karajalu 
 
 972 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 857 
 
 Diocese of Mae Johnan. 
 Partially taken out of the above. The repetitions are 
 marked *. 
 
 iJameof Village. 
 
 Sipurghon 
 
 Chaneshan 
 
 Mushawa 
 
 •Mar Nocha 
 
 *Yengijah 
 
 •Karajalu 
 
 *Abajalovey 
 
 •Karakis 
 
 •Ikiaghach 
 
 •Sherabut 
 
 2;S 
 
 ^^ 
 
 150 
 40 
 100 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 *Abadalaka&d . 
 
 *Zumalan 
 
 *Hassar 
 
 *Kozi 
 
 *Geniza 
 
 *Chlchaglonl .. 
 *Takalovey . . . . 
 •Ardah 
 
 
 Diocese of Mak Goeiel. 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 
 ots 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 Ardishal 
 
 s 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 160 
 90 
 32 
 115 
 30 
 
 3 
 60 
 18 
 18 
 30 
 21 
 20 
 25 
 
 7 
 15 
 164 
 37 
 16 
 U 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 20 
 22 
 11 
 44 
 20 
 30 
 
 85 
 38 
 190 
 11 
 10 
 13 
 13 
 30 
 
 Dizzar 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 Takia 
 
 
 54 
 
 Alkai 
 
 Kollarachau 
 
 6 
 
 Baharl 
 
 Gulpashan 
 
 160 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 Elazlui 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 Martaordu 
 
 1 
 
 Meresheari 
 
 Karasaulovey 
 
 24 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 
 Utchevelari 
 
 100 
 
 Kolea . . . 
 
 Digala 
 
 154 
 
 
 Gulfatalechan 
 
 70 
 
 
 60 
 
 Zewick 
 
 108 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 IJardikil 
 
 3 
 
 
 MartayartuUa 
 
 9 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 Uizzaragalabey 
 
 30 
 
 
 84 
 
 Chorlmabat 
 
 Sery 
 
 27 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 Biswagie 
 
 10 
 
 Shimshajian 
 
 18 
 
 Ishnick 
 
 10 
 
 Sarebagalovey 
 
 Surejukk 
 
 Tapa 
 
 Gornawa 
 
 Garnawal Causly 
 
 10 
 15 
 
 Tutrush 
 
 8 
 
 Barhanlo vey 
 
 KaragUoy 
 
 25 
 
 Almalek 
 
 5 
 
858 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 
 ^11 
 
 Xame of Village. 
 
 5 
 
 da 
 
 .11 
 111 
 
 55 &H 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 6 
 6 
 23 
 10 
 12 
 12 
 8 
 4 
 40 
 
 Chopul 
 
 Delmer 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 Carawansara 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 Dourga 
 
 Sanjbalu 
 
 Haralek 
 
 Kozulkobi 
 
 Ajapsher 
 
 g 
 
 Baimkala 
 
 Baranl 
 
 10 
 30 
 8 
 
 Hassaulul 
 
 Orjazawa 
 
 Mametler 
 
 8 
 
 40 
 
 9A 
 
 2.888 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Diocese of Mar Shi- | 
 moon the Patriarch 
 
 Diocese of Mar Serg- •> 
 hees of Jelu / 
 
 
 2,274 
 
 1,650 
 
 Diocese of Mar Slee- 1,^1^^ 1 ior 
 waof Gawar }' 56 , 43 . 1,497 
 
 Name of Village. 
 
 
 Diocese of MarHnan 
 Yeshua the Metro- 
 politan and his Suf- 
 fragans . . . 
 Diocese of Mar Johanan 
 Diocese of Mar Johnan 
 Diocese of Mar Goriel. . 
 
 ^^1 
 
 43 I 86 
 
 23 22 
 2 1 
 
 40 ! 28 
 
 1,067 
 
 972 
 
 290 
 2,888 
 
 I29O 248 10,638 
 
 The European reckoning is five to a family ; but among 
 the Nestorians the married sons of a family often continue 
 to reside in their father's house, and the average number 
 of a family will be more than five. Ainsworth {Travels in 
 Syria, &c.) reckons the number at eight ; I tested the 
 number in several large groups of my visitors, and should 
 be inclined to put it at seven or eight. Taking seven as 
 the number, these 10,638 families would give a population 
 of 74,466, exclusive of the "Chaldean" part of the 
 nation. 
 
 It will interest some to see, in the following summary 
 of the Dedications of the Churches, who are the popular 
 Saints of the Nestorian calendar, and the degree of their 
 popularity. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 859 
 
 There are Churches Dedicated to 
 
 Mar Oewerghls (St. George) 63 
 
 ilart Mariam (St. Mary) 61 
 
 Mar Kuriakus 26 
 
 Mar Yohannan 13 
 
 Mar Moses 2 
 
 Beni Shmooni* 8 
 
 Rabban Yacoub 1 
 
 Sabban Sada 1 
 
 Mar Saba 6 
 
 Mar Shimoon 9 
 
 Mar Sarapion 1 
 
 MarBurur 1 
 
 Mar Isak 1 
 
 Mar Ouraham 3 
 
 Mar Nathaniel 1 
 
 Kadishta 1 
 
 Mar Serghees 5 
 
 Rabban Maraziz 1 
 
 Rabban Barburatu 1 
 
 Mar Marl 1 
 
 Mar Add! 2 
 
 MarShalita 12 
 
 Mar .Mastreena 2 
 
 Mar Tacoub 2 
 
 Mar Hanania 1 
 
 Mar Stepanus 7 
 
 Mar Slewa 4 
 
 » The sons of Shmoona. They are described as seyen in number, who suffered 
 martyrdom with their mother. Their names are given as Yaddat, Machabai, 
 Tirsai, Houroon, Khonsoon, Bachus, Unadou. They are probably the Jewish 
 martyrs recorded in the book of Maccabees. Ruflnus, however, in his Latin 
 Paraphrase on the Book of Josephus, gives Solomona as the name of the mother, 
 and the names of the sons as Maccabseus, Aber, Machlr, Judas, Arhas, Areth, 
 and Jacob. 
 
 t Serp in Armenian^'Saint. 
 
 MarDaond X 
 
 Serpt Zeruanda 2 
 
 Rabban Pithiin 1 
 
 Mar Kanania 1 
 
 Mar Mikael 1 
 
 Mar Aziza 1 
 
 MarAbdishu 1 
 
 MarYusuf 2 
 
 Rabban Bar Somuro 1 
 
 MarThoma 4 
 
 Mar Be-Isu 1 
 
 Mar Karde 1 
 
 MarTalal 1 
 
 Mar Schoona 2 
 
 Mar Isu 1 
 
 MarOdlsu 3 
 
 Mar Heskiel 1 
 
 Mar Yohnan 2 
 
 Mar Daniel 1 
 
 Mar Sor Isu 4 
 
 MarGoriel 3 
 
 Matacha Goriel in Kanania 1 
 
 Mar Zeia 1 
 
 Petrus Poulls (SS. Peter and Paul^ 1 
 
 Mar Aura 1 
 
 ? 16 
 
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