University of California. 
 
 IS LI K HER, 
 
 ' in CulloRO, New York. 
 
 MICHAEL REESE, 
 
 
-^ 
 
^ 
 
 V.VA - 
 
 ^ ' 
 
NARRATIVE 
 
 or A 
 
 j 
 
 VISIT TO THE SYRIAN [JACOBITE] CHURCH 
 OF MESOPOTAMIA; 
 
 WITH STATEMENTS AND REFLECTIONS 
 
 UPON THB PRESENT 
 
 STATE OF CHRISTIANITY IN TURKEY, 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND PBOSPECTS 
 
 EASTERN CHURCHES. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, M. A. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 DANA AND COMPANY 
 381 BROAD WAT. 
 
 1856. 
 
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO., 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 
 of New- York. 
 
 
J 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS little book is introductory to a series which the author has long 
 had in contemplation, and which, if sufficient encouragement is given to 
 the undertaking, will in due time appear, according as the pressure of 
 other cares may allow him to finish them. Their sole object and design 
 is to set forth the Eastern Churches in their real character, to show their 
 wants, their condition and their prospects, with a view to engaging a 
 deeper interest and sympathy in their behalf. He addresses himself to 
 Churchmen, for they alone will fully appreciate the considerations which 
 he has to present. To them, and to them only does he believe the work 
 of restoring and strengthening those Churches to be committed, and they 
 alone are able to perform it. 
 
 As a specimen of the character of the works which he has thus under- 
 taken, and to supply information on a point upon which some will expect 
 to meet with it in this volume, the following is subjoined from a treatise on 
 the Doctrines, Ministry, Worship, Ritual, Usages and Religious Condition 
 of the Syrian Church, which is partly ready for the press. 
 
 After speaking of the Worship of the Syrian Church, the work pro- 
 ceeds : 
 
 We pass now from the outer shell of the externals of religion to speak 
 of its kernel ; from the forms of public worship we turn to doctrine. 
 And here the first object which attracts attention is the difference by 
 which the Syrians are separated from the great body of the Christian 
 Church, which has made them a distinct people for more than a thousand 
 years. I allude to their doctrine concerning the nature of Christ. What 
 they are in common reputation is evident from the names they bear. 
 They are most commonly called Jacobites 1 or Jacobite Syrians, from 
 
 1) This term is sometimes applied by Western writers to the whole body of the 
 Monophyeites, including the Armenians, Copts and Abyssinians ai well as the Syri- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Jacobus Baradaeus, who, in the sixth century, revived their declining 
 Church, and with almost incredible zeal and success spread it throughout 
 the regions of Syria and Mesopotamia. Sometimes they are called Eu- 
 tycheans, from Eutyches, the principal founder and propagator of the M o- 
 nophysite doctrine, who was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon, 
 A. D. 451. Sometimes they are called Monophysi tes ; and sometimes, 
 distinctively, Syrian Monophysites. All these terms are intended to im- 
 ply that they hold the doctrine of one nature in Christ. Our present 
 business is to define their exact position. The subject is one of great im- 
 portance, inasmuch as it is the principal thing which separates them from 
 other branches of the Church of Christ. 
 
 First, then, they are not properly called Eutycheans, both because 
 they do not hold the doctrine of Eutyches, and because they condemn 
 and anathematize the heretic himself. Not only do they positively de- 
 clare this in all their conversations, but every Bishop, at his consecration, 
 pronounces a form of anathema upon Eutyches. 
 
 Secondly, the term Jacobite ( Yacoubi) is, indeed, common among 
 themselves, although it is disliked by their most learned men, who re- 
 gard their Church as the ancient Church of Antioch. Their Patriarch 
 styles himself the successor of St. Peter, in that see, and calls the Greek 
 Bishop who claims it, a Metropolitan. The Greek Papal Patriarch, the 
 head of those who have seceded from the Greek Church in Syria, also 
 lays claim to the same title, so that there are no less than three prelates 
 who style themselves Patriarch of Antioch. The question, however, 
 properly lies between the Greek and the Syrian, as they alone can claim 
 in the right of succession from St. Peter. The papal pretender has no 
 other title than that he has been recognized, and, indeed, created, by the 
 Patriarch of Rome, called the Pope. Not only is he unable to show a 
 succession extending beyond a few generations, but the act by which he 
 is created, is a palpable usurpation on the part of the Patriarch of Rome 
 and in direct violation of ancient Canons. 1 The Greek and Syrian Pa- 
 triarchs, however, claim in due and regular succession from the Apostles. 
 The Syrians, therefore, discard the name of Jacobites, as not properly 
 applicable to their Church, although in common conversation the laity 
 frequently use it. They acknowledge Jacobus Baradaeus (Yacoub Bar- 
 dani) as the reviver and strengthener of their Church, but not as its 
 founder. They do not esteem him a saint above other holy men of old, 
 
 1) See the fourth and sixth Canons of the First Council of Nice, A. D 325; the 
 econd of the Pint Council of Constantinople, A. D 381 ; the eighth of Ephcsus ; the 
 first of Chalcedon confirming the Canons of preceding Council*. Several other Can- 
 ons of the same Councils bear upon the subject. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 nor have they any day set apart in honor of his memory. The Patriarch 
 once rebuked me for calling his people Jacobites, and said it was a term 
 given to them by their enemies. I have often heard it, however, among 
 the laity, especially as used to distinguish themselves from the seceding 
 party, and the firmans and other documents issued by Government gene- 
 rally, not always, contain it. 1 The Latins do their utmost to fix it upon 
 them, while they call the seceding party Syrian Catholics. Both terms 
 seem to me unjust, the first because they themselves discard it, and be- 
 cause there seems to be no more propriety in calling them from the name 
 of Jacobus Baradaeus, than there would be in calling ourselves Parker- 
 ites ; the second because the Catholicity of the seceders consists primari- 
 ly in their acknowledgment of Papal supremacy. In these pages I call 
 the first Syrians, which is the name (Syriani) by which they are common- 
 ly known in the East. The seceders I call Syrian Papists, or Papal 
 Syrians, not from the desire to convey any reproach thereby, but because 
 it indicates most precisely the leading difference between them and the 
 Church from which they have seceded. A Roman Catholic writer says, 
 that the Eastern Christians recognize in this the only difference between 
 themselves and the Church of Rome. " As for you [Roman] Catholics, 
 they [the Armenians, Nestorians and Jacobites,] used to say to us, 
 ' only one question divides us obedience to the same chief. Prove to us 
 the necessity of this and a reunion will be effected.' " 2 Nothing could 
 more clearly show the nature of Roman Catholic operations among the 
 Eastern Churches, and well might the people understand that that was 
 the only difference which is the only difference insisted upon. There is 
 no other term than Papist, then, which gives an exact idea of an East- 
 ern Christian who has seceded from his own Church to that of Rome. 
 I adopt it, therefore, simply as the most appropriate. 
 
 Thirdly, as to the term Munophy sites, it seems to me clearly that the 
 justice of it must depend upon the real belief of the Syrians. Monophy- 
 
 1) This, however, has been brought about by the Latins in their controversies 
 with the Syrians, before the Porte. 
 
 2) Corrcspondance et Memoires d>un Voyageur en Orient. Par Eugene Borc,I. 343. 
 It does not appear from the author's pages that he ever questioned the truth of this 
 remark, or gave these Christians to understand that it was farther necessary, in order 
 to become " Catholics," that they should recognize the Councils which they reject, 
 and receive the faith of the Universal Chuich. And this is in exact accordance with 
 the teachings of Latin emissaries wherever, throughout the Turkish Empire, the pres- 
 ent writer has witnessed any thing of their operations. The question of Papal su- 
 premacy is every where thrust forward and made all in all, and the Eastern Christians 
 universally understand by the word Catoleck simply and solely one who acknowledges 
 the fope, Such, however, we must call Papists. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 sitism is the name universally appropriated to the doctrine of Eutyches, 
 which the Syrians do not hold ; in this sense, therefore, they are not Mo- 
 nophysites, and I think it must create both confusion and needless preju- 
 dice to call them so. 
 
 We proceed now to show what their real doctrine is. And, 
 1. They do not hold the doctrine of the absorption of the human 
 into the divine nature, in Christ. This was the heresy of Eutyches 
 which was condemned by the Fourth General Council. The Syrians re- 
 ject this doctrine altogether, not only in their words, but in their standards, 
 and every Bishop, at his consecration, is required to denounce and anathe- 
 matize it. 
 
 2. They do not hold to the mingling or confusion of the two natures 
 in Christ, but discard the doctrine and speak most strongly and unequivo- 
 cally against it, as do also their ancient writers, Bar Hebraeus for example. 
 Thus I have frequently heard them use such comparisons as these that 
 the two natures are not mingled, as we say that wine and water are 
 mingled ; nor does the one pervade the other, as we say that leaven dif- 
 fuses itself through the lump. 
 
 3. To speak affirmatively, they distinctly and clearly hold that there 
 are two natures in Christ, the divine and the human, and that these two 
 natures are in the incarnation brought together in one, not mingled, nor 
 confounded, but united. But, 
 
 4. They say that the result of this union is most properly described 
 as one nature. Up to this point they seem to agree with us, but 
 here, in words at least, they differ. They do not, however, deny the truth 
 of our 'own doctrine that the two are united in one person but admit 
 it. Yet they say, this is not enough, for it does not sufficiently express a 
 real and indivisible union. To the whole ^of our second Article those to 
 whom I have shown it, cordially agree, but they think it stops short of the 
 full expression, and that it would more exactly describe their own doctrine 
 i f the word nature were substituted for, or added to, the word person. ,Thus 
 they say that " the two whole and perfect natures were joined together in 
 one nature " as well as in one person . What now do they mean by this ? 
 
 5. And here I will say that I have never been able to discover the 
 slightest difference between their meaning of the word nature, when 
 used to express the result of the union of the two natures in Christ, and 
 our meaning of the word person, when BO used. I will not positively 
 affirm that there is no difference, (for this is a subject on which I feel 
 extremely diffident of my own judgment,) but I do say that I cannot 
 comprehend the difference, if it exists. After discussions almost innume- 
 rable with their Patriarch, Bishops and other clergy, (for it IB a matter to 
 
PREFACE. VJi 
 
 which they frequently recur,) it does seem to me that what they wish to 
 assert by the oneness of nature in Christ, is precisely what we assert by 
 the oneness of person. Why, then, do they use a different term? Be- 
 cause they imagine that the word person implies only an outward pres- 
 ence, as used by us, while the words one nature, with them, imply an 
 inward and real union, by which the one Christ is spoken of as a single 
 individual, from whom, as from one, all his words and actions proceed. 
 Thus they say, (to illustrate this union,) it was the same Christ who per- 
 formed miracles, and who ate and drank, in both actions the same in- 
 dividual Christ. Yet they acknowledge that some actions belong to him 
 as divine, others belong to him as human. For example, they assert, it 
 was Christ in his humanity who suffered upon the Cross ; but to guard, 
 again, against the notion of a separation of natures, they add, the Christ 
 who suffered upon the Cross was divine, for he forgave the penitent thief 
 and promised him Paradise, and the Scriptures also say that God gave 
 his only begotten Son to die for us. They say, moreover, that generally 
 the actions of Christ are to be affirmed of him as one, one by the indi- 
 visible union of the two natures. Thus they use illustrations like these, 
 which I have recorded from their own lips : It was Christ who asked 
 where Lazarus lay ; it was also Christ who raised him from the dead. It 
 was Christ who was sleeping in the storm ; it was also Christ, who calm- 
 ed its rage. In each case appear by different acts his humanity and his 
 divinity. He inquired and he slept as man ; he raised the dead and allayed 
 the tempest as God ; for this he did, not as an instrument, like the Apos- 
 tles, but in his own power. Yet both the one and the other belong to the 
 single individual Christ. They condemn Eutyches for confounding these 
 two natures, and Nestorius for separating them, and they refer to the 
 writings of Cyril of Alexandria, especially his Twelve Letters against 
 Nestorius, as giving a true exposition of their doctrine. 
 
 They think that their mode of stating the union of the two natures is 
 necessary, in order to guard against the doctrine of their existing dis- 
 tinctly in the same person, or under the same outward presence, for so 
 they declare they understand the word person as here used. They sup- 
 posed our doctrine, or rather the Latin, for of us they had known nothing, 
 to be nearly the same with that of Nestorius, viz., that the two natures 
 act separately and independently of each other, as in two individuals. 
 They were, therefore, agreeably surprised with the definition of our sec- 
 ond Article, which declares that " the two natures were joined together in 
 one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ ;" only they thought 
 that the word person (jVJiJof)> as use ^ by the Latins, denoted alone the 
 
Vili PREFACE, 
 
 outward and visible appearance, and that to say merely that the two 
 natures are in one person, meant only that they coexist under one out- 
 ward presence. The statement, therefore, of our Article, that they are 
 joined together, and never to be divided, and that of this union is one 
 Christ, seemed to present to them a new view of the Western faith, as 
 recognizing, under the outward presence, the very union of natures which 
 they wish to affirm by calling the result nature instead of person. They 
 seemed never to have looked upon the one person of the Western Creed 
 as the result of the union of the two natures, but only as the external 
 form which inclosed or contained them. In other words, they were not 
 aware of our asserting an actual joining together of the two natures, but 
 only of their coexistence under one presence. Nor were they at first 
 willing to take this view of the Western Creed, when I pressed it upon 
 them, for it led at once to the conclusion that they had been separated 
 from the great body of the Christian Church for so many centuries cause- 
 lessly. On the contrary they at first endeavored to show that there must 
 be a difference, as this alone would justify their separation, but finally in 
 every instance they came to the conclusion, that if there was any, it was 
 too subtil to be apprehended. Thus, I was once called upon to act as 
 arbitrator between a Syrian Papal Bishop and two Syrian Bishops, who 
 met for a discussion of this subject the nature of Christ. The conference 
 continued for three successive days, and at the conclusion the two Syrian 
 Bishops unanimously declared that they saw no real difference between the 
 Syrian and Western belief that it was a mere logomachy and that they 
 were ready to assent to and affirm the Western tenet as their own, and to 
 enter into intercommunion, so far as this was concerned, with the Western 
 Church. No other difficulty, they thought, remained with regard to the 
 Church of England and our own ; but as for the Latin, they could not 
 acknowledge the Supremacy of the Pope. This is only one case out of 
 perhaps fifty which I have been acquainted with, all which seemed to 
 reach the same conclusion. I say, then, that there is great reason to 
 believe that the Syrians do not in reality differ from us on the nature of 
 Christ ; and I may add, that the voice of history, to any one who will 
 carefully consider the circumstances attending the separation in Syria sub- 
 sequent to the Fourth General Council, must, I think, speak the same lan- 
 guage. [Upon the historical argument, however, I cannot here enter.] 1 But, 
 6. The Syrian Church rejects and condemns the Fourth Ecumeni- 
 cal Council, and also Leo, the Bishop of Rome, whose Epistle was ap- 
 proved by the Council. Every Syrian Bishop, at his consecration, is 
 
 1) This nrgumont is given in the work from which th prMont pxtract is taken. 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 required to anathematize both him and the Council. They also defend 
 Dioscorus, who was condemned by the Council, but not Eutyches, as I 
 have said, nor his heresy. These they reject as strongly and clearly as 
 the Council itself. Why, then, do they not receive the Council nor its 
 Decrees ? The reason, they say, is because it acted unjustly and violently 
 towards Dioscorus, who, they affirm, did not hold the heresy of Eutyches ; 
 and they condemn Leo because, as they say, he was the principal insti- 
 gator of the proceeding against Dioscorus. Yet they do not pretend to 
 defend Dioscorus in his violent and intemperate proceedings at the Pseudo- 
 Council of Ephesus, A. D. 449. They do not approve of that Council 
 nor the object of Dioscorus in obtaining it, which was to effect a reversal 
 of the sentence against Eutyches, passed by the Council convened in Con- 
 stantinople the preceding year. They do not agree with Dioscorus in 
 his defence of Eutyches, but they affirm that he did not hold the same 
 doctrine with Eutyches, and that the action of the Council of Chalcedon 
 against him was excessively severe and unjust, since not for clear heresy, 
 but for a mere act of imprudence, which they also acknowledge him 
 to have been guilty of, he was condemned and deposed by a General 
 Council. 
 
 The Syrian rejection of the Council, therefore, does not imply a dere- 
 liction from the faith, but rather (may we not hope ?) a mere dissatisfac- 
 tion with the Synod for certain alleged improprieties in its action, while 
 they agree with the Synod in the main object of its proceedings and in 
 the main action itself, which was the condemnation of Eutyches. The 
 Syrian Bishops before referred to, entirely approved the declaration of faith 
 put forth by the Council, and were willing, after reading it, (they had 
 never seen it or heard of it before,) to declare their assent to it, and also 
 to recognize the Council, with a single salvo concerning the treatment of 
 Dioscorus. The Syrians, I may add, receive, without any exception, the 
 first three General Councils of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, and the 
 several minor Councils approved by the Council of Chalcedon. They 
 have also, and use daily, the Nicene Creed, and acknowledge the Apos- 
 tolical Constitutions and Canons. What more can we ask 1 
 
 But I must conclude. On such a subject as this my every feeling 
 prompts me to speak with diffidence and caution. I have no wish for 
 hurried or forced amalgamations. I have no desire to depart one step 
 from the position the truly Catholic position which our Church main- 
 tains. But is there nothing in all this to inspire hope 1 May we not 
 with brighter confidence look forward to the day when strifes shall be 
 healed, and when the mystical Body of our Blessed Saviour, now rent. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 distracted, torn, shall be again united in all its parts, and growing up into 
 Him in all things, shall make its increase to the edifying of itself in love? 1 
 Come, oh come, that glorious day, when animosities shall cease and faith 
 shall revive, when the love of many that has waxed cold shall burn again, 
 and truth, pure as she came from the Apostles' hands, shall unite us once 
 more in the " Apostles' doctrine and fellowship."* Amen and Amen. 
 
 1) Eph. iv. 15, 16. V) Acts. ii. 42. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Passage to Trebizond. Credentials. Unity of the Church. Trans- 
 lations of the Prayer Book. Their Utility. Increase of Steam 
 Navigation. Its Moral Consequences. The Conservative Influ- 
 ence of Mohammedanism on Christianity. Increase of Infidelity. 
 Our Duty. Trebizond. Bouyouroultous. Ecclesiastics. 
 Turkish Reform. Mohammedan Bigotry. The Greeks. Rela- 
 tions of the Clergy to Improvement. Their proper Position. 
 Greek and Roman Churches Compared. Means of a peaceful 
 Reformation, 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Departure from Trebizond. Greek Bishop. Timidity of the Clergy. 
 Monastery of St. Mary. Monasteries in Turkey. Their State. 
 Decline of Monasticism. Character of the Monks. Religious 
 Retreats. Mountain Scenery. Parting from the Bishop. Local 
 Associations. The Ancient Population. Remnants of Christian- 
 ity. Mussulman Descendants from Christians. Languages. 
 Natural Bridge. Mountain Passage. Company at a Khan. 
 Gumush Khaneh. Its Christians. Posting. Routes. Change 
 of Route, . : : . . 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Road. The Osmanlees and the Turks. Sunset Scene. The 
 Ayan's Palace. Reception. Lesson on Hospitality. Repose in 
 a Village. Kara Hissar. Its Ancient Citadel. Preparations for 
 a Journey. The Plain of Ashkar. Ancient Remains. The 
 Greek Population of the Interior. Face of the Country. The 
 Day's Stage. The Armenians. Their Dispersion. National 
 Character. Their Church. Its Changes. Its present State. 
 Its Necessities, . . . .37 
 
XII CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Ayan of Edrenes. The Church of Edrenes. Churches in Tur- 
 key. Contrast with Mosqu Armenian Churches described. 
 Altars. The Font. Women's Place. Paintings. The design 
 of Pictures in Eastern Churches. The Greek. The Armenian. 
 Origin of Picture Worship in them. Present State. Their 
 Testimony upon the Subject. The Greek. The Armenian. 
 The Syrian. The Nestoiian. Bearing of the Testimony upon 
 the subject of Picture Worship. Importance of studying the East- 
 ern Churches for the sake of their Testimony. The Steadfast- 
 ness of the Eastern Christians in maintaining their Confession of 
 Christianity. The Cause. Their low Estimate of it practically. 
 Our Duty to them, ........ 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Departure from Edrenes. Armenian Monastery. The Road. 
 Kurdish Tents. The Occupants. Kurdish Chief. His Recep- 
 tion, His Life. Presents in the East. Eastern Character. 
 Famine. Espionage. Emigrants. Turkish Policy. The Road. 
 Dangers. How to be met, 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Conflict with the Post-Master at Sivas. Departure from Sivas. 
 Escape of the Guide. The Escort. Day's March over an infest- 
 ed District. Hassan Tchelebi. The Kizzelbashes. Travelling 
 by Night. Reflections. The Euphrates. Evils resulting from 
 Changes of Rulers. Kharpout. First Sight of the Syrians. Ar- 
 menian Monasteries. Syrian Bishop. The Syrian Population of 
 Kharpout, 71 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Village of Merizah. Population of Syrians Change of Cli- 
 mate. Day of Preparation. Kharpout. The Town. Churches. 
 Fortress. The Syrian Church of Kharpout. The Court. 
 The Interior. Pictures. Miracles. The Altar. The Bishop's 
 Chair. The Font. The Books. Origin of the Church. Its 
 History. The Priest. Journey resumed. Place of Pilgrimage. 
 Fish. Incident with a Christian. Argana Maden. Passage 
 of the Taurus. Famine. Dangers. Preparations. New Com- 
 panion. The Tatar. The Monastery. Report concerning it. 
 Death Abroad, 82 
 
CONTENTS. Xiii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Departure from Argana. Our Company. The Desert by Night. 
 Meeting with Kurds. Hostile Preparations. The Event. 
 Repose on the Grass. Famine. First Impressions. Scenes from 
 the Famine. Causes of it. A Feast. Hard Drinking. Hard- 
 ness of Heart. Outrage upon the Christians. Mussulman Big- 
 otry. Justice in Turkey, 93 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Respect for Franks. Interposition in behalf of Eastern Christians. 
 Greek Hospitality. Visits from Ecclesiastics. Relations of 
 the Native Papal Christians with Rome. Meeting with an old 
 Friend. False Reports and true Reports. Our Company. Kurd- 
 ish Village. Escort. Kurdish Bey. Polite Robbery. A use- 
 ful Lesson. Loose Friends. Delays. Present State of Mardin. 
 Decay. Reaction of Reform, 105 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Preparation for the Desert. A sad Tale. - Arab Village. Scene at 
 Evening. Our Company. The Desert at Night. Nisibin, site 
 of ancient Nisibis. Its present State. Guard. Route over the 
 Desert. The Orphan. Moral Effects of the Famine. Indiffer- 
 ence of the Governors. Journey by Night. Depredations on the 
 Villagers. Search for Water. Salt Lake. The Heat, . .116 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Encampment at Night. Boar Chase. Repast. Night March. 
 Search for Water. The Sinjar Mountains. Conflagration. 
 Sudden Departure. The Gazelle. Robber's Watch Height. 
 Camel caught. Road lost. Peasants. Their Timidity. Its 
 Cause. Abou Maria. Retrospect. Last Day. Reception in 
 a Sheikh's Tent. Reach the Tigris. A Nap. The City, . 125 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The English Church at Mossoul. State of the Christians. Divi- 
 sions. State of Learning. The Nestorian and Chaldean 
 Churches. History of their Separation. Subjection of the latter 
 to the Pope. The Nature of Romish Innovations, . . . 135 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X1I1. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Tomb of Daniel. The Population of Mossoul. Syrian Villages 
 near Mossoul. Localities of the Syrian Population. Reflections 
 on my Work. Opposition of Papists. Their Treatment of us. 
 Need of a distinctive Presentation of the Church. Departure from 
 Mossoul. Self-Denial in the Missionary Work. The Pasha of 
 Mossoul. His Expedition against the Arabs. Preparation for 
 the Journey. The Plain of Nineveh. The Tomb of the Prophet. 
 The Fast of Nineveh in the Nestorian and Chaldean Churches. 
 Telkef. Monasteries of Raban Hormisd and St. Matthew. 
 El Kosh, Birthplace of Nahum, the Prophet. Comparison of 
 Christians and Mohammedans. Yezidees. Arab Village. Ar- 
 rival at Zakho, 147 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Zakho. Its District. Taxes. Evils of the Farming System. Call 
 from the Agha. A young Syrian. Bankers. Presents. Guard. 
 Provincial Quarrels. Bridge over the Khabour. Fording a 
 River by Night. Chaldean Village. Reception at Night. 
 Sleeping on Roofs. Hadid. Bitouna. The Province of Jezireh. 
 Its Government compared with that of Mossoul. Harvest. 
 Chaldean and Nestorian Villages. Town of Jezireh. Reshid Pa- 
 sha and his Wars. Attack on Jezireh. Crossing the Tigris on a 
 Raft. A Chaldean Host and Hostess. Description of Jezireh. 
 Chaldean Bishop. Chaldean and Nestorian Population of the 
 Province. Nestorian Bishop. Syrian Bishop. Papal Proselyt- 
 ism, . 162 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Troubles in the Tour Dagh. Change of Route. The Churches of 
 Jezireh. The Chaldean Church. Conversation with the Priest. 
 His Idea of the English Church. Romish Falsehoods. The 
 Church. Its Interior. Quarrel in the Church-yard. The Syri- 
 an Church Its School. On the Mode of Circulating the Holy 
 
 Scriptures. Evening Prayers. Talk in the Evening on Oppres- 
 sion and Proselytism. Departure from Jezireh. Death of a Mis- 
 sionary in the Desert. Kargo. Haznaour. The Syrians of the 
 Desert. The Bigamist. His Excommunication. Tediousness of 
 Travelling over a Desert. The Church of St. James at Nisibis. 
 Dara. Its Ancient State. Survey of its Ruin Its Inhabitants. 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Road to Kherin. Ancient Tombs. Reception at Kherin. 
 The Value of Selfish Friendship. Departure. Sight of Der Za- 
 fran. Its Position. Arrival at its Gate, . . . . .174 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Reception at Der Zafran. Interview with the Patriarch. Bishop 
 Matthew. Second Interview. Abyssinian Monk. Syrian Mon- 
 asteries. Schools. Hours of Prayers. Fasts. Clerical Celibacy. 
 Sunday Service. Picture Worship. Compline. Vespers, . 194 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Visit to Mardin. The Road. Church of Mar Behnam. Altars. 
 Baptistry. Churches of Mar Shimon and Mar Michael. Legend 
 of Mar Michael. Mar Behnam, his Conversion and Fate. 
 Population of Mardin. The Governor. Dialogue on Fasting. 
 Conversation on the Procession of the Holy Ghost. The Syrian 
 Patriarchs. Their Number. " Church Annals." Passages from 
 them. Topics of Conversation at the Monastery. Misrepre- 
 sentations of the Western Reformed Churches. Their Source. 
 Character and Object of Romish Efforts among the Eastern Church- 
 es. Our Position with relation to them. The Church of Eng- 
 land. How misunderstood. Confounded with Errors which she 
 rejects. Her Proper Mission. The Library of Der Zafran. The 
 Chapel of St. Peter. Altar Stone from an Ancient Church at 
 Antioch. The Bell. Conversations on the Nature of Christ. 
 Visitors. Character of Discussions at the Monastery. Our true 
 Position. Differences. Our Duty, 214 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Leaving. Change of Route. Farewell to the Patriarch. Ride to 
 Mardin. Illness. Let^rs. Popish Intrigues. Continued Ill- 
 ness. Transfer of Jezireh to the Pashalic of Mossoul. Romish 
 Arguments. Syrian Generosity. Intrigue Defeated. New Ser- 
 vant. Fever and Ague. Mussulmans at Church. The Cross, 
 how regarded by Mohammedans. Use of the Sign of it among 
 the Christians, 232 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First day's Journey. Visit to the Patriarch Elect. Regulations con- 
 cerning the building of Churches in Turkey. English Churches. 
 The Patriarch Elect. Pigeon Houses. Diarbekir. The 
 Church of St. Mary. Visitors. Fever and Ague on Horseback. 
 Sleeping in the Field. A Kind Mussulman. Trouble at the 
 Ferry. A hospitable Kizzilbash. Visions of Home. Warren 
 Hastings. C. J. Rich- Sivas, 243 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Leave Sivas. Armenian Monastery. Entrance to Tocat. 
 Trouble with a Post-master. Expense of Travelling in Tur- 
 key. Henry Martyn. His Grave. Mussulmans of Tocat. The 
 Mosques and Medressehs. Mecca. The Armenians of Tocat. 
 Their Church. Other Christians. The Jews. Serious-minded 
 Christians. Evil of the Church Services being unintelligible. 
 Objections to translations for Public Use. Turkish ' Honesty. 
 Effects of Disease. Leave Tocat. Guard-House, . . .255 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 Amasieh. Incident at a Mosque. Medresseh. Mosque of Bay- 
 azid. Mussulman School. The Christians. Population of the 
 Oriental Christians. Leave Amasieh. Ladik. Singular Sights. 
 How to act in Doubts. Interposition of Providence. Last 
 Stage. Arrival at Samsoun. Steamer. Kindness of new 
 Friends. Constantinople. Quarantine. Obligations to Dr. John 
 Davy. Narrow Escape. The End, 265 
 
NARRATIVE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Passage to' Trebizond. Credentials. Unity of the Church. Transla- 
 tions of the Prayer Book. Their Utility. Increase of Steam Naviga- 
 tion. Its Moral Consequences. The Conservative Influence of 
 Mohammedanism on Christianity. Increase of Infidelity. Our Duty. 
 Trebizond. Bouyouroultous. Ecclesiastics. Turkish Reform. 
 Mohammedan Bigotry. The Greeks. Relations of the Clergy to 
 Improvement. Their proper Position. Greek and Roman Churches 
 Compared. Means of a peaceful Reformation. 
 
 I LEFT Constantinople on the 7th of May, 1841, in the 
 Austrian steamer Metternich, Capt. Clicien. On account 
 of delay in visiting a steamer which had run upon the rocks 
 near Amastra, a small town on the shore, we did not reach 
 Sinope till the 9th. On the evening of the same day we 
 touched at Samsoun, and arrived at Trebizond on the 10th. 
 
 I had supplied myself with proper translations of the cre- 
 dentials which I had received from my own Diocesan, the 
 Right Reverend Benjamin T. Onderdonk, D. D., Bishop of 
 New- York, and from the Presiding Bishop, the Right Rev- 
 erend Alexander V. Griswold, D. D. By the first I was com- 
 mended to the Bishops and clergy of the countries in which 
 I was to travel, and by the second was faithfully instructed 
 
 2 
 
14 VISIT TO THE 
 
 as to the rules and principles which should govern me in my 
 intercourse with the Eastern Christians. " In the intercourse 
 or correspondence which may be allowed you with the 
 Bishops and other ecclesiastical authorities, be careful to 
 state explicitly what are our views," &c., " that we would 
 scrupulously avoid all offensive intrusion within the jurisdic- 
 tion of our Episcopal brethren, nor would we intermeddle 
 in their Church affairs. Our great desire is to commence 
 and to promote a friendly intercourse between the tvro 
 branches [Eastern and Western] of the one Catholic and 
 Apostolic Church ; to impart to our brethren in that country 
 any knowledge of the Scriptures and of the doctrines of 
 Christ, which, through the Lord's goodness, we may have 
 obtained, and gladly to receive any such light from them. 
 We would unite hand in hand with them, in the great and 
 noble work of extending the Redeemer's Kingdom, and 
 saving the souls of men." 
 
 Thus wrote the venerable Presiding Bishop, now gone 
 to his rest. May his words of wisdom sink deep into our 
 hearts, and be as a light and beacon to our path ! The reader 
 will see, as we advance, that my constant aim has been to 
 act in the spirit of this paternal counsel, which my own 
 humble experience has taught me to be the words of truth 
 and soberness. 
 
 Hardly less animating was the language of another, now 
 holding high office in the Church, 1 with which he cheered 
 the hour of my departure from my native land. "But who 
 realizes this truth [of the Church's unity] in its just magni- 
 tude? Isolated in little and often hostile clusters, the 
 Bishops of the one Church Catholic are known only as offi- 
 cers of their distinct communions, many almost as the winds 
 of heaven or the climes they blow upon Yet they are 
 
 1 The Right Reverend W. R. Whittinghnm, D. D., Bishop of Mary- 
 land. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 15 
 
 one as a tree is one with its thousands of leaves of divers 
 magnitudes and colors, and many branches, some crooked 
 and some dead, yet all parts of the same one tree, and all, as 
 parts of it, still one with each other. The original mission, 
 as in the tree the sap vessel from the root, is still propa- 
 gated in the various branches, and though in some little 
 or no vital juice may flow, connects them with the Fountain 
 and makes them one in Him. 
 
 ONE IN HIM ! There is the life and power of the truth 
 which I rejoice that we are beginning in some faint degree 
 to realize. One in Him, our invisible and ascended Head ! 
 His word made us one. His word, whether we will or no, 
 
 still keeps us one Let us go, then, to seek Him and point 
 
 Him out to those among the walks concealed. Their loss is 
 ours ; for while they make no returns of love and zeal to 
 the common stock, we suffer by its want. Our faith dwin- 
 dles by their ignorance and deadness. The props of our 
 common home and shelter rot and fall away by their negli- 
 gence and corruption." 
 
 With these animating counsels I took my departure. I 
 had also with rne a few copies of the Arabic translation of the 
 Prayer Book, intending thereby, when occasion offered, to 
 make known the doctrines, ritual and worship of my Church. 
 And I may here say that I found it of the greatest service for 
 the purpose, presenting as it does in a single view the 
 order of our Ministry, the administration of the Sacraments, 
 the Fasts and Festivals, and the daily Service of the Church. 1 
 
 1 This translation was prepared and published at the expense of the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and is one of the many no- 
 ble monuments of their zeal for the cause of the Church and the truth. 
 Other translations, in most of the Eastern languages, are rapidly follow- 
 ing. The good which they are calculated to accomplish, in setting forth 
 the Church in its true character, in correcting the gross misrepresenta- 
 tions and slanders which have been circulated with regard to it, in pre- 
 senting a branch of the Universal Church Primitive in its Doctrines, its 
 
16 VISIT TO THE 
 
 In my passage to Trebizond I was much struck with the 
 increase of steam navigation in these countries since 1836. 
 There was then only one steamer to Trebizond ; there are 
 now four, while new lines have connected the capital with 
 Greece, Malta, Italy, Austria, France, England, Egypt and 
 Syria, to and from all which countries the traveller can go 
 and come the whole way by steam, and the Atlantic packets 
 extend the line unbroken to the continent of America. 
 
 The moral consequences of this linking together of the 
 Eastern and Western World, no human conception can 
 fully calculate. The Ottomans behold in it an example of 
 European activity and industry of which they had no idea. 
 They must awake to an imitation of it, or the commerce and 
 resources of their country will pass into other hands. The 
 Christian population are already awake. They see in it a 
 new bond of union with the nations of Europe. The ties 
 of a common religion are beginning to be felt. An earnest 
 desire for European protection every where prevails. East- 
 ern Christians are now wishing for their nations what in- 
 dividuals have long sought for themselves, the aid and 
 oversight of foreign Christian powers. The events of the 
 late war with Egypt, the ease and celerity with which the 
 power of a Pasha, whose name has been as terrible in the 
 East as Napoleon's once was in Europe, was destroyed by 
 a few ships and a fragment of an army from abroad, have 
 produced a deep and even an extravagant impression of 
 European skill and power. They have created a new de- 
 Ministry, and its Rites, yet pure and uncorrupted, and in imparting 
 sound and valuable religious instruction, can hardly be estimated too 
 highly. They are the first step towards a better understanding, a deeper 
 interest, and a holier influence. The good which they have already done, 
 under my own observation, is an ample return for all the labor and ex- 
 pense of preparing them. The Society is preparing translations into the 
 following Oriental languages Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Am hark, or mod- 
 em Ethiopian, and Armenian. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 17 
 
 sire to have that skill and power enlisted in their behalf. 
 The course of things is onward. European nations will 
 become more and more deeply interested in the East by the 
 increase of their trade, the colonizing of their people in the 
 marts of Turkey, and the visits of their men of science and 
 religion to those countries. Gradually, by the gentle pro- 
 gress of civilization and the arts, or more quickly by the 
 shock of some sudden rupture springing out of the compli- 
 cated relations of the states of Europe with the great Mo- 
 hammedan power of the East, Christianity will be freed 
 from her bondage of centuries, and the light of the West 
 will break in upon the Oriental World. Then will the 
 Churches of the East, remaining still in their present un- 
 prepared state, convulsed by the sudden blaze of free in- 
 quiry and unregulated knowledge, fall into pieces, of which 
 Infidelity will seize a part, Popery a part, Protestantism a 
 part, and a part will remain, the only surviving relic of the 
 ancient Church of Christ in the East. The work of Mo- 
 hammedanism is but imperfectly understood. Its influence 
 is not altogether destructive ; it is in a measure preserva- 
 tive. While it degrades Christianity, it preserves it from 
 unbelief and schism. The Church of Rome has found in 
 it the greatest opponent of her designs upon the Eastern 
 Churches. The Turkish government has always looked 
 with disfavor upon the attempts to seduce its subjects to a 
 foreign ecclesiastical allegiance, and now secession is abso- 
 lutely prohibited. 1 In like manner, the spirit of Moham- 
 medanism is averse to the free introduction of foreign sci- 
 
 1 About eight years ago the Armenian Patriarch obtained from the 
 Porte a firman, requiring that every Christian should remain in the com- 
 munion to which he belonged. The design of the firman was to prevent 
 secessions from the Armenian Church to the Latin, but in a very recent 
 instance, within my own knowledge, another community of Christians 
 have availed themselves of its provisions, to force back certain of their 
 members who had seceded to Rome. 
 
18 VISIT TO THE 
 
 ence, and thus, it has prevented those inroads of infidelity 
 which commonly follow upon a merely secular civilization. 
 The truth of this remark will be apparent if we look at those 
 portions of the Eastern Churches which are already deliv- 
 ered from the sway of Islamism, or which, from their posi- 
 tion, have felt something of the influence of the West upon 
 them. Among the Christians of Constantinople infidelity 
 has made and is still making rapid strides, while in the free 
 kingdom of Greece its progress is truly alarming. Both 
 there and here it is directly traceable to a European origin. 
 It is the result of that fondness for Frank manners, the 
 fashions and frivolities of Western life, and still more that 
 corrupt literature which flows in through the growing know- 
 ledge of the French. If we are under no other obligations 
 to the Eastern Christians, we are bound at least to cleanse 
 the streams which are pouring in upon them from our 
 Western world. If we-are not ready to furnish them with 
 a sound religious literature, we are at least obliged to pro- 
 vide an antidote against those corrupting works which go 
 from us to them. 1 
 
 1 Another cause of unbelief among the Eastern Christians is less di- 
 rect, but equally effectual, and I fear even more pernicious in its effects 
 than the other. It is, alas ! in the Churches themselves. It is the igno- 
 rance, and, in some instances, the wickedness of the clergy, together with 
 the low state of religion, both among clergy and people. " Why should 
 I go to Church ]" said a Greek to me the other day ; " the priests rob me 
 of my money. I can get nothing from them without a fee." He was a 
 poor and ignorant man, but he had learned to look upon the whole busi- 
 ness of public worship as a mercen^y system, supported by the clergy for 
 no better end than to sustain their 'own influence, and extort money from 
 the people. This kind of practical infidelity is perhaps more deeply seated 
 and more widely spread, than even the clergy themselves suppose. In a 
 more enlightened mind, that is, in one better instructed in human know- 
 ledge, it takes another form. The man, feeling himself above the super- 
 stitions so common among the multitude, and seeing them but too often 
 patronized by the clergy ; observing, too, the haste and thoughtlessness, 
 and sometimes the indecorum with which the public services of religion 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 19 
 
 But the highest argument for a deep and hearty interest 
 in their behalf is that to which I have already alluded. They 
 are unprepared for the light which is dawning upon them. 
 Religious truth does not keep pace with the progress of civ- 
 ilization and the influx of secular knowledge. And if the 
 time shall ever come, which seems indeed to be rapidly ap- 
 proaching, when the opposing power of Mohammedanism 
 shall be removed, and the flood-gates of the mighty stream 
 which is now rolling on from the West shall be lifted up, it 
 will be too late to stem or guide the torrent which will burst 
 in upon them. Eastern Christianity has not (with sorrow 
 we say it) energy and life sufficient to purify the flood of 
 corrupting influences which such a revolution would bring 
 upon it. It will be broken by the force of its irruption, or 
 it will sink beneath it 
 
 It is not, then, by keeping aloof from the Eastern 
 Churches, as some would seem to argue, but by a wise and 
 active interference in their behalf, that we are to save them 
 from schism and ruin. No one would deprecate more ear- 
 nestly than I the adoption of a system either for openly sub- 
 verting or secretly undermining these venerable structures 
 of ancient days, but it is our duty as faithful servants of 
 Christ, as members of a true branch of His Holy Church, 
 to save them with God's blessing from the destruction which 
 is hanging over them, to re-kindle in them the light which 
 has become dim, and to strengthen the things which remain, 
 that are ready to die. 1 
 
 are performed ; at the same time firmly believing with all the national fer- 
 vor of a Greek, that ao Church is better than his own, beholding no spe- 
 cimen of one purer or more devout, and conceiving of Protestantism as 
 a system which degrades both the ministry and the sacraments of the 
 Church, comes at length to look upon all religion with contempt, as a mer- 
 cenary priestcraft or an empty form, unfit to hold the sway over free and 
 cultivated minds, 
 
 1 Rev. 3 : 2. 
 
20 VISIT TO THE 
 
 I spent one day at Trebizond under the hospitable roof of 
 the Rev. Mr. Johnston, a Presbyterian missionary of the 
 American Board. I am also indebted to the English Con- 
 sul, Mr. Suter, for his kindness in procuring for me a bou- 
 youroultou, or provincial firman, from the Pasha of Trebizond, 
 the sameOsman whom I have described in a former journey. 1 
 These bouyouroultous are available only for the province in 
 which they are given, and the first duty of a traveller is to 
 obtain one when he comes to the seat of a Pasha. They 
 are worth more in the interior than a firman of the Sultan, 
 for the people and the inferior governors think more of their 
 Pasha than of the royal government at Constantinople, 
 whose sway and influence they feel only remotely and in- 
 directly. A Turk's patriotism or loyalty is generally con- 
 fined to the village or province to which he belongs. It is 
 rather a love of home than a love of country. Of patriotism 
 in the last sense he has hardly any idea, and his language 
 has no word to express it. The best, if not the chief use of 
 a royal firman in Turkey, is as a means of obtaining the 
 bouyouroultous or passports of the Pashas. They dare not 
 refuse protection when they see the royal cipher. 
 
 Trebizond is the seat of a Greek Archbishop and an Ar- 
 menian Vartabed. 2 At the time of my visit, there was a 
 conspiracy to remove the latter, and a Committee had gone 
 to Constantinople to intercede with the Patriarch for the pur- 
 pose. The charge against him was that he had been guilty 
 of mal-administration, especially in oppressing the poor, but 
 it was said that others were secretly opposed to him on 
 
 1 Narrative of a Tour, &c., Vol. I. p. 153, Am. Ed. 
 
 2 The Vartabeds among the Armenians are the unmarried priests, 
 from whom the Bishops are taken. They are almost precisely the same 
 with the Chor-episcopi (Xwpeirunroiroi) or Country Bishops of antiquity. 
 They are properly Presiding Presbyters, occupying the seats of Bishops, 
 but performing no offices distinctively Episcopal. They are sometimes over 
 single churches, and sometimes over districts. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 21 
 
 account of his opposition to the education of the peo- 
 pie. 
 
 The Mussulmans of Trebizond are of the old school, and 
 virulently opposed to all innovation. Though only three 
 days distant from Constantinople, no serious attempts at re- 
 form had been made among them. The rulers said it would 
 produce an insurrection ; others said that the rulers them- 
 selves were opposed to it. The famous Khatti Sherif, 
 which was hailed in Europe as the Magna Charta of Tur- 
 key, had hardly been heard of in Trebizond, and the new 
 system of taxation, which was intended to relieve the peo- 
 ple from illegal exactions, had never been introduced there. 
 This was in a place only three days' sail from Constantinople. 
 One may judge from it what has been the success of reform 
 in more distant provinces. 
 
 One or two recent instances of Mohammedan bigotry 
 were related to me by credible witnesses. The Greek pop- 
 ulation had undertaken to erect a Church on the site of an 
 old one in a conspicuous situation, and had obtained a fir- 
 man for the purpose. The Turks, offended, as it was said, 
 at its prominence and elevation, took advantage of its being 
 a foot or two larger than the dimensions prescribed in the 
 firman, and razed it to the ground. The same population, 
 animated by a laudable desire for improvement, had erected 
 another building which they intended to make a Seminary 
 for Instruction of a high order. The Turks pretended that 
 it overlooked their houses, and pulled down the upper story 
 of it. Perhaps there was some truth in the reason which 
 they gave, and the jealousy, universal among Orientals, of 
 strangers looking into their domestic quarters, may really 
 have been one motive for the outrage. But in both cases, 
 there was evident that radical hatred of the Christians, that 
 jealousy of any improvement among them, that remorseless 
 readiness to persecute them upon the slightest provocation, 
 which is still and ever will be a feature of Mohammedan 
 
 2* 
 
VISIT TO THE 
 
 character. Just in proportion that we see it cease in partic- 
 ular instances, we see the character ceasing to be Moham- 
 medan. Where the religion has its full influence, as among 
 the religious orders, this spirit is in general as rife as it has 
 been since the early ages of Islamism, although its develop- 
 ments towards Franks are less bold and annoying than for- 
 merly, a change which has arisen not from the decline of 
 bigotry, but from the decline of Turkish power, and conse- 
 quently the superior protection that Franks enjoy from the 
 representatives of^their own governments. 
 
 It was pleasant to see the Greeks of Trebizond, though 
 but a small community, and laboring under the immense 
 disadvantages to which I have alluded, still alive to improve- 
 ment. This is in every situation one of the best traits in 
 their character, and one that affords high encouragement to 
 hope and effort in their behalf. As a people they have no 
 prejudices against education, but the most earnest and ar- 
 dent desire for it. The difficulty lies higher up among 
 the clergy, and there indeed it is serious and urgent. I 
 will not at present go into a subject which will draw me too 
 far from the course of my narrative, but I may say that it is 
 altogether a narrow and partial view of it, to suppose that 
 the apparent indifference of the Greek clergy to the improve- 
 ment of their people, arises solely from their opposition to 
 light and knowledge. This, is doubtless true of some, while 
 of others it is the very opposite of truth. 1 Many other 
 causes combine to produce the same result. The too gen- 
 eral ignorance of the clergy, especially of the priests to whom 
 the care of the people is most immediately committed; the 
 influence of Mohammedanism in depressing the energy of 
 
 1 The late Patriarch, for instance, was a man of just and elevated 
 views with regard to the education both of the clergy and laity. He had 
 in hand, at the time of his death in 1842, extensive plans of usefulness, 
 which might have resulted in great and lasting good, if his own career 
 had not been suddenly terminated. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 23 
 
 the clergy and intimidating them into inaction, the want of 
 unity and mutual confidence among the Bishops, are all 
 powerful causes of the supineness which prevails. At the 
 same time it must be acknowledged that there appears in 
 some an evident unwillingness that the people should be in- 
 structed, especially in religious things a fear that it may 
 tend to depreciate the influence of the clergy and a con- 
 sciousness that it might strike a blow at the corruptions of 
 the Church, which are patronized more for their lucrative- 
 ness than for any serious attachment to them. The policy 
 is a suicidal one; for while the clergy sleep or oppose, 
 knowledge is coming in, mere secular knowledge unregu- 
 lated by religious teaching; the people learn more and more 
 to look upon the clergy with contempt ; infidelity increases ; 
 the priests regard the new learning with aversion, thinking 
 it to be the cause of the evil, which nevertheless their own 
 exertions, the proper exercise of the duties of their office, 
 might have prevented, and the people look upon them for 
 their opposition, as the foes of learning, the abettors of igno- 
 rance and superstition. The greatest benefit that- could 
 now be bestowed on the Greek Church, would be to con- 
 vince the clergy of their error, to show them the fatal conse- 
 quences of the course which they are pursuing, and to lead 
 them to some active effort for the religious instruction of the 
 people. Many will doubt whether this can be accomplish- 
 ed, whether many of them are not too strongly wedded to 
 their system to abandon it for one which will lead them 
 into a path that can only end in the removal of the existing 
 corruptions, in a thorough change of the spirit and practice 
 of the Church. But it must come to this, that the clergy 
 must take the lead in reforming abuses, or at least put 
 themselves into a line which will ultimately bring them to 
 it; or they must expect to see the evil consequences of their 
 neglect, in a widely spreading unbelief on the one hand, 
 and a deadly schism on the other. There is no other alter- 
 
24 VISIT TO THE 
 
 native. Knowledge will come, is coming. It will increase 
 more and more. No human power can prevent it ; and if 
 they will not regulate it, correct it by sound religious teach- 
 ing, it will overthrow them. It will be in the East as it 
 was in the West, contentions and divisions in the Church, 
 separations from it, the formation of names and sects. 
 
 But there is good reason to hope that an evil so great in 
 itself may be prevented. The Greek Church is not as was 
 the Church of Rome at the time of the Reformation. It 
 does not hold the same errors ; it is not pervaded by the 
 same abuses, or to the same extent. It has not the doctrine 
 of the Infallibility of the Church, or of the Papal supremacy, 
 or of Transubstantiation in a defined and settled sense, or 
 of Purgatory, or of the Mass in the Romish sense, or ofln- 
 dulgencies, or of supererogatory works. It has not the prac- 
 tices of Communion in one kind, or of Private Masses, or of 
 Clerical Celibacy, nor the ceremonies of Processions, Adora- 
 tion of the Host, elevating it and carrying it about, 1 which 
 in the Latin Church are the adjuncts if not the consequen- 
 ces of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. It does not re- 
 ceive the Apocryphal books as canonical, nor deny the pos- 
 sibility of Absolution without the intervention of the 
 Priest, nor determine the number of the Sacraments as sev- 
 en ordained by Christ, nor declare the good intention of the 
 clergy necessary to a valid and efficacious administration 
 of them, nor prohibit the reading of the Holy Scriptures to 
 the people, although unauthorized, and, as it was believed, 
 
 1 There is a procession in the Greek Church, during the service of 
 the Holy Eucharist, in which the paten and cup are carried round in 
 the church by the priest and deacon, but it is done before the consecration 
 of the bread and wine ; and there is an elevation of the sacred elements 
 after consecration, which is done by the deacon, simply as an act of invita- 
 tion to the people, and is accompanied with the words, " Draw near with 
 faith and godly fear." Both are easily distinguishable from the Romish 
 customs to which I allude. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 25 
 
 sectarian translations have been, and are prohibited, and 
 there certainly are individuals who would restrict the read- 
 ing of the Scriptures to the original version of the New 
 Testament, and the Septuagint. 
 
 We may hope, then, that the Greek Church will rise 
 from its depressed condition, without the necessity of a vio- 
 lent reformation. It certainly may so rise, if the clergy do 
 not set themselves in opposition to knowledge, and a purer 
 practice, if they do not commit themselves to floating abuses, 
 and gather them up and weave them into a system, and 
 fasten them by creeds and canons upon the Church, as 
 Rome has done with her corruptions. It is encouraging to 
 know that there are many, even among the higher clergy, 
 who long for better things, and their influence will be the 
 more felt, the work of restoration will be sooner and better 
 done, if we of the West do not by our hasty zeal hurry it 
 into a rank and premature growth. If there has been on the 
 one hand much of painful opposition, there has been on the 
 other as much of injudicious action. Let us not be high- 
 minded, but fear. 
 
VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Departure from Trebizond, Greek Bishop. Timidity of the Clergy. 
 Monastery of St. Mary. Monasteries in Turkey. Their State. De- 
 cline of Monasticism. Character of the Monks. Religious Retreats. 
 Mountain Scenery. Parting from the Bishop. Local Associations. 
 The Ancient Population. Remnants of Christianity. Mussulman 
 Descendants from Christians. Languages. Natural Bridge. Moun- 
 tain Passage. Company at a Khan, Gumush Khaneh. Its Chris- 
 tians. Posting. Routes. Change of Route. 
 
 I LEFT Trebizond on the 12th of May, and reached Jev- 
 izlik, a small hamlet on the road, in six hours. On the 
 way we overtook a Greek Bishop, mounted on a slow-paced 
 horse, and preceded by a servant carrying his silver-headed 
 staff. His white beard and venerable appearance attracted 
 my attention, and I entered into conversation with him. 
 From my dress he seemed at a loss to determine who I was, 
 and answered my salutation with evident shyness. When I 
 told him that I was a Christian, he began to speak more 
 freely, and at length run on with all the garrulity of age. 
 He had supposed that I might be a Mussulman, and hence 
 the timidity of his first greeting. I have often witnessed 
 the same among the clergy of the interior, and have as often 
 been grieved by it as a sign and token of their state of 
 bondage. True, they are generally ignorant, and so far as 
 personal qualities are concerned, one can seldom find much 
 pleasure in their society. But who can forget that they are 
 the representatives of Christianity, and that they are what 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 27 
 
 they are for their religion's sake? Who can avoid a feeling 
 of indignation and sorrow when he sees their servile and 
 cringing demeanor of indignation at the tyranny which 
 has reduced them to such a condition, and sorrow at the 
 low estate of Christ's holy Church in the land of its captiv- 
 ity ? Alas ! when shall the day of its rising and shining re- 
 turn? 
 
 I soon proposed to leave the aged Bishop, because he 
 rode too slow for us. But he demurred, and said that he 
 would exert himself a little for the sake of our company. I 
 soon found that he was the Superior of St. Mary, a monas- 
 tery a few miles south of Jevizlik. He had been absent 
 some time in Russia and was just returning. I afterwards 
 learned that he was returning from exile, having been ban- 
 ished by the late Patriarch, and now restored by his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 St. Mary's is only one of three monasteries in this vicin- 
 ity, and I remember having heard of another near Trebi- 
 zorid. St. Mary's has fifteen monks ; a year or two before, it 
 had about forty ; another, called Hedrilez, has twelve ; and a 
 third, called Khavan, has, I believe, none. All these monas- 
 teries are immediately subject to the Patriarch at Constanti- 
 nople, and of course independent of the Archbishop of Trebi- 
 zond. The same rule, so far as I have observed, holds with 
 regard to all the monasteries, Greek, Syrian, or Armenian, in 
 the Empire. They are independent of the Bishop of the Dio- 
 cese, excepting when he himself is resident in one of them, 
 and in this case he is the Superior. The number of monas- 
 teries in the Empire is greatly diminished in late centuries, 
 and seems to be still diminishing. The causes have been 
 war, famine, civil oppression, the increasing poverty and 
 decreasing population of the Christians. There is also 
 much less zeal than formerly for the monastic life. There 
 are fewer disposed to enter it, and the people are less dis- 
 posed to sustain them in it. This arises chiefly from the 
 
28 VISIT TO THE 
 
 decline of learning and piety. The monasteries are no 
 longer the chief seats of knowledge, and the fame of their 
 sanctity has departed. The people are alienated by the 
 idle and sometimes by the wicked lives of the monks. But 
 this picture is not universally, I am inclined to believe not 
 generally, true. Some of the monasteries are in better re- 
 pute both for piety and learning, though none of them are 
 distinguished in the latter particular. The monks are often 
 simple-minded and innocent men, but almost always narrow 
 in their views, their thoughts and their feelings, grasping 
 no wide range even of theological knowledge, and pro- 
 foundly ignorant of the world. They say their prayers, till 
 their grounds, eat, drink, and sleep. A few of the monas- 
 teries have a great reputation for sanctity, not from the 
 character of their inmates, but from the possession of some 
 relic which makes them places of vast resort. These and 
 a few others are rich. Some of them have valuable endow- 
 ments of lands, which are looked upon as the patrimony of 
 the Church, and a considerable portion of the revenues of 
 the Patriarchs come from them. Thus the Greek Patri- 
 arch of Constantinople receives from the monasteries of 
 Wallachia alone, the sum of 1,500,000 piastres, or about 
 ,15,000, annually. 
 
 There seem to have been in former times favorite local- 
 ities, chosen either from the nature of the country, on ac- 
 count of the abundance of a neighboring population, or for 
 some religious association, where monasteries were erected 
 in great number and where the lonely ascetic built his retired 
 cell. Such is the country south of Trebizond. Abounding 
 in the gifts of nature, covered with the wildest and sub- 
 limest scenery, presenting here and there lofty heights inter- 
 spersed with fruitful vallies, it was once the abode of hundreds 
 of those who had retired from the world to seek in contem- 
 plation and prayer, and secret toil, a nearer access to God. 
 The traveller still descries here and there, besides the distant 
 
SYRIAN CHU1CC1I. j-iO 
 
 monasteries whose place alone is visible, marked by some 
 towering height, solitary chapels perched on rugged points 
 of rock and looking.like the retreats of world-forsaking her- 
 mits. We noticed three of this description during our first 
 day's ride, and the Bishop pointed out to us a mountain-peak 
 covered with snow, behind which, he said, was the monas- 
 tery of St. Mary. The others lay, one to the north, and the 
 other to the southwest from Jevizlik. 
 
 Turning short to the right when we reached this hamlet, 
 we entered the valley of the Yer Keupru (Earth Bridge). 
 There are two roads, one leading to the left over the barren 
 heights of Kara Kaban, the other to the right through the 
 valley, one the summer, the other the winter road. As the 
 mountains were not yet open, we chose the latter, which soon 
 led us amidst scenes of great natural beauty. The forest 
 trees were putting on their new dress; and the rays of the 
 sun darting through their thick foliage revealed to the eye 
 their fresh and lively green. Sometimes the lofty over- 
 topping mountains could be descried through the openings 
 in the woods, and at others we plunged into cool and shaded 
 thickets, enlivened by the music of numberless rills gushing 
 from the mountain side. 
 
 Our venerable friend, the Bishop, parted from us at Je- 
 vizlik, where our roads separated. I felt for a moment an 
 emotion of sadness as I thought of the different ways before 
 us. Ere nightfall he would be reposing in the quiet of his 
 monastery ; while I was just starting upon a long and tedious 
 journey, little knowing the things that should befall me, or 
 whether I should ever return. Basil, my Greek servant and 
 the only companion of my journey, begged the good man to 
 remember us in his prayers. He promised to do so, and 
 commenced his kind offices by giving us his benediction as 
 we parted. 
 
 We spent the night at the little village of Campanos, or 
 perhaps it was only a cluster of Khans, for we arrived too 
 
30 VISIT TO THE 
 
 late and left too early to survey the place. More than arises 
 from the beauty of Nature's scenery is the interest which 
 this region excites in the traveller's mind from its association 
 with the famous retreat of Xenophon, and the romantic dukes 
 of the Comneni driven from the imperial throne of Constan- 
 tinople, and founding a new monarchy on the farther shores 
 of the Euxine. Hardly less is the interest which one feels 
 in it as an ancient home of the Greeks. After enjoying all 
 the day the thought of winding through the same vallies by 
 which the leader of the Ten Thousand conducted his gal- 
 lant band, 1 I could not but inquire within myself, as we sat 
 down upon our carpets at night before a roaring fire in a 
 smoke-blackened khan, whether the two or three rough fel- 
 lows who were preparing our coffee or waiting to partake of 
 it, were veritable descendants of the Greeks of former days. 
 My interest in them was a little dampened by our guide's 
 coming in and announcing that one of the children who had 
 been employed to lead about the horses, according to the 
 eastern custom after a journey, had run away with the bri- 
 dle. I told his father, who was one of the men present, of 
 his misdemeanor, and saw with surprise the coolness with 
 which he received the information of his youthful son's de- 
 linquency. He thought it strange, very strange, that the 
 boy should carry away the bridle, but really he did not be- 
 lieve that we could find him if we should hunt for him. 
 
 It was some consolation for the loss of the bridle to 
 know that the thief and the thief's father were Mussulmans, 
 for though dishonesty does not look well in any one, it 
 always grieves me most to see it in a Christian. It is a 
 common saying among the Persians, that it is right, lauda- 
 
 1 The identity of the route with that of the Ten Thousand was first 
 suggested to me some years ago by James Brant, Esq., H. B. M. Consul 
 at Erzroum, who well paid, th;it ns the army of Xenophon passed in win- 
 ter, it could only be by this road, which is the only one by which Trapo- 
 zus (Trebizond) is accessible at that season. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 31 
 
 ble, and religious to cheat a Frank, because that in this 
 way an unbeliever is injured and advantage comes to a fol- 
 lower of the true faith. Whether it was by some such 
 logic as this, that the Mussulman at Campanos satisfied his 
 conscience for the possession of our bridle, I do not know, 
 but as he appeared sufficiently intelligent in other things, 
 I gave him a cup of coffee instead of driving him away, and 
 gradually drew from him all that he knew about the coun- 
 try. The people, he said, are not of the Laz race, although 
 they are often called by that name. This appellation prop- 
 erly belongs only to a distinct people farther to the East, 
 who have a language peculiar to themselves, and are heathen. 
 Their tongue is not understood by the people hereabouts, 
 whose language is Greek and their religion Christianity or 
 Mohammedanism. The majority in this immediate vicinity 
 are Christians, but we may judge from their having the 
 same language with the Mussulmans, that the latter also 
 are descendants of the ancient Greeks. The change in 
 their religion is owing doubtless to the persecutions which 
 the Christians formerly endured from the Mohammedans, to 
 escape which some abandoned their faith and embraced the 
 religion of their masters. The same is true of the Mussul- 
 mans in many other parts of the country; they are descend- 
 ed from a Christian ancestry, who forsook their religion in 
 times of persecution. Mussulmans of this sort often retain 
 not only a traditional recollection of their ancestors, but 
 even a respect for the religion of their fathers, which they 
 sometimes carry so far as to practise its rites. Thus the 
 Mussulmans of Mesopotamia, many of them, acknowledge 
 themselves to be descendants of the old Assyrian or Chal- 
 dean Christians, and retain to this day a reverence for the 
 ancient faith. 1 
 
 1 There is also a district east of Trebizond, where there are one thou- 
 sand families of Mussulmans, who are descendants of Armenians, and still 
 speak their language. 
 
32 VISIT TO THE 
 
 The mass of the population between Trebizond and 
 Gumush Khaneh, appear to be of the same sort, descend- 
 ants of the Greek stock, though now divided into Mussul- 
 mans and Christians. The effect of persecution is singu- 
 larly visible in some parts of the region, where those who 
 profess to be Mussulmans, adhere in secret to the religion 
 of their fathers. There are several hundreds of this de- 
 scription in the city of Trebizond, where they are commonly 
 called Croomlees^ from the district whence most of them 
 come. Though classed as Mussulmans and practising cir- 
 cumcision, they baptize their children, receive the sacra- 
 ment of the Eucharist, and entertain priests in their houses. 
 All this, however, they do secretly, while in public they 
 wear the white turban of the Turks, and call themselves Mus- 
 sulmans. Their demeanor, by which they are most readily 
 known, is said to be even more timid than that of the Chris- 
 tians, living, as they do, in constant fear of detection and 
 punishment. Their prevarication in openly professing Is- 
 lamism, while they secretly deny it, is not to be so severely 
 condemned as such an act would be among us, for if, on 
 the one hand, it is, in any circumstances, a fearful sin to 
 hold the faith of Christianity and yet not to confess Christ 
 before men ; it is, on the other, matter for wonder, that 
 Christians so destitute of instruction should retain, at an 
 imminent hazard, even the least vestige of their religion. 
 Besides, the priests who administer to them the Sacrament, 
 allow them to remain in this state of delusion, and there- 
 fore their own sin, we may hope, is less, if, indeed, they 
 have any consciousness of it. Are there none among our- 
 selves who, denying, as they now do in their lives, the Lord 
 that bought them, would, in such an hour of temptation, 
 fall entirely away ? It is not for me to judge, but it were 
 well for such to reflect, whether at the last shall receive 
 the greater condemnation, the unenlightened Christian on 
 the shore of the Euxine, or the worldly-minded Christian 
 on the heaven-illumined soil of England or America. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 33 
 
 It was for a time doubtful who was our host, for there 
 were several of the villagers present, all eager to render 
 their services. But when the coffee was ready, and each had 
 had a thimble full of it, after the fashion of the Turks, they 
 suddenly lost all interest in us, and retired, one by one, un- 
 til we were left alone with the master of the khan, who 
 proved to be our informant, the father of the young thief. 
 He had no sooner told us that he himself was of the Greek 
 race and his language Greek, than Basil began to try him 
 in that tongue. But their communication was of little avail, 
 for while one spoke the language of Constantinople and the 
 other of Campanos, they only understood each other imper- 
 fectly. The latter pronounced strangely, and used words 
 occasionally which were neither Greek nor Turkish they 
 may have been Laz. They soon gave it up in despair, and 
 returned to Turkish. 
 
 Our road the next morning still wound amidst moun- 
 tain scenery of the most magnificent description. Rocks 
 piled upon rocks, and crowned with lofty pinnacles, met the 
 eye on every side. Again and again I gazed long and doubt- 
 fully, to discover whether^some solitary column, rising above 
 the highest point of a mountain, was the remnant of an old 
 castle, or a playful work of nature. We ascended for more 
 than two hours across tumbling streams and through hard- 
 wood forests, until we reached a height where other moun- 
 tains, still covered with their wintry mantle, appeared in the 
 distance, and the cold snow-wind came howling by. From 
 this we descended more rapidly than we had gone up, too 
 rapidly, indeed, for ease or comfort, the descent resembling 
 in some places a flight of stairs. As our poor horses 
 smelled their way and dropped their feet from step to step, 
 we had abundant time to look down the steep declivities 
 close at our side, and calculate the consequences of a sin- 
 gle stumble in performing the manoeuvre. One of them 
 gave out, and we committed him to the care of the first 
 
34 VISIT TO THE 
 
 peasant that we met, with instructions to leave him at our 
 last night's lodging-place. To reward the man for his ser- 
 vice our guide told him that he might ride when he was 
 tired, an arrangement from which he was likely to derive 
 but little benefit, as the animal would hardly go with lead- 
 ing. The guide himself, however, had no better alterna- 
 tive, as he was compelled to go all the rest of the way to 
 Gumush Khaneh, twenty-five miles, on foot. 
 
 We got through the operation of going down stairs in 
 safety, arid pursued our way to Zohana, a cluster of khans, 
 where after much ado w e obtained a breakfast of coarse bread 
 and yo-oort. 1 The place was abandoned by all but a few 
 old stragglers, who lingered there until the route over the 
 mountains should be opened, when this valley road, being 
 somewhat longer, is deserted for the summer. We wished 
 to have stopped here, but as the winter stock of fuel was ex- 
 hausted, and we were drenched to the skin by a shower of 
 rain which we had encountered in the mountains, we were 
 compelled to move on to Adaseue, two hours farther on our 
 way. Here, instead of a group of khans, was only one, 
 and that was crowded by a throng of hungry men and horses 
 driven in by a fresh shower of rain, in the midst of which 
 we arrived. There was nothing to eat, but fortunately 
 there was a little fuel left, with which we made a fire, and 
 then seated ourselves to dry. The rest of the company, 
 who seemed never to have thought of so simple a way of ac- 
 complishing the object, took advantage of it when it was 
 made, with all the alacrity with which men avail themselves 
 of a new idea. To finish our breakfast begun at Zohana, 
 we prepared our coffee, and, as is usual on such occasions, 
 every one who thought himself respectable enough drew 
 near to partake of it. My custom at such times is to be lib- 
 
 1 I write the word as it is pronounced ; the thing is sour curd made 
 from milk a wholesome and refreshing food for travellers. 
 
-N KIAN CHURCH. 35 
 
 oral, as the gift of a cup of coffee in a company of this sort 
 is a sure way to make friends, and entitles one to the privi- 
 lege of asking questions. But, unfortunately, the number of 
 those who thought themselves respectable was very great, 
 and our coffee-pot held only two Turkish cups full, one of 
 which Basil brought to me, and the other, which I supposed 
 was going to a Mollah opposite, he poured down his own 
 throat, in consideration of his having, as he afterwards said, 
 the first right after his master. Before the mighty coffee- 
 pot could be replenished the fire had gone out, and there 
 was no more wood. The expectant company waited till 
 they saw the apparatus going back into the saddle-bags, 
 when they arose and dispersed as silently and solemnly as 
 they came. We made no friends at the khan, and instead of 
 the showers of "God give you prosperity," and " May your 
 journey be propitious," which would have followed a cup of 
 the favorite beverage, we mounted our horses and rode away 
 in a dead silence. 
 
 The rest of the way to Gumush Khaneh was along the 
 side of a stream of the same name. We lodged at a khan 
 on the road and reached the town the next morning. 
 About three hours from the place we passed a monastery 
 situated in the hills above the route we were travelling, and 
 was told by the people that there is another fifteen hours to 
 the S. W. We saw also two more chapels like those before 
 described, and discovered some real ruins of old fortresses 
 perched on almost inaccessible heights. 
 
 Gumush Khaneh looked better than at my first visit in 
 1837. The gardens below the town were gay with all the 
 luxuriance of an early vegetation. Among the trees I no- 
 ticed the pear, the apple, the almond and the walnut, and 
 the lilac among its flowers. 
 
 I had nothing to detain me in the place but the tardiness 
 of the Governor in providing horses, which he said were 
 always ready, but which, in our case, did not make their 
 
36 VISIT TO THE 
 
 appearance till the next morning, and then were taken by 
 force from some poor villages near the town. For being 
 always ready in this remarkable manner he proposed to 
 charge treble for the horses, which I consented to do if he 
 would find it in the post-order. l 
 
 There are four Greek churches and one Armenian in 
 Gumush Khaneh, but no Bishop resident. The place 
 belongs to the diocese of Trebizond. Most of the Christians 
 are miners, and as the mines have nearly failed, numerous 
 families are reduced to a state of utter destitution. 
 
 1 Post-orders (menzil emri) are given to travellers in Turkey, who 
 choose to travel with post-horses. Those issued at Constantinople bear 
 the Sultan's cipher, and specify the number of horses that the traveller re- 
 quires, and sometimes the post-rates, which were formerly fixed, but now 
 vary from one to two and a half piastres, in different parts of the empire. 
 The traveller pays in advance at each post-house from one to two and a 
 half piastres (two pence to five pence sterling) for each horse per hour, the 
 hour being a measure of distance, about three miles. 
 
HVRIAN CHUKCH. 37 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Road. The Osmanbesand the Turks. Sunset Scene. The Ayan's 
 Palace. Reception. Lesson on Hospitality. Repose in a Village. 
 Kara Hissar. Its Ancient Citadel. Preparations for a Journey. 
 The Plain of Ashkar. Ancient Remains. The Greek Population of 
 the Interior. Face of the Country. The Day's Stage. The Arme- 
 nians. Their Dispersion. National Character. Their Church. Its 
 Changes. Its present State. Its Necessities. 
 
 FROM Gumush Khaneh we crossed the mountains to the 
 south of the town. The road was hardly yet open. Heavy 
 drifts of snow were lying in the hollows, and in one or two 
 instances we were compelled to go half a mile out of our 
 way in order to get round them. The view from the heights 
 sometimes revealed to us prospects of richly wooded vallies, 
 and at others we passed under towering rocks where the 
 eagle sat upon his aerie, and watched us with his fierce 
 glancing eye as we went silently on our way. Thence we 
 descended to the village of Keklit through vallies and along 
 hill-sides covered with pine and spruce. Keklit itself is on 
 one of those beautiful plains which abound in Turkey, where 
 every thing that nature can give of rich and well-watered 
 soils is found, and nothing seems wanting to make it the 
 abode of perfect happiness but a moral beauty, whose ab- 
 sence is more deeply felt where nature has been so lavish 
 of her gifts. 
 
 From Keklit to Sheiran the road lies over an undulating 
 country, much of it covered with oak shrubbery. We were 
 
 3 
 
38 VISIT TO THE 
 
 advised at Keklit to take a guard on account of a recent 
 robbery on the road, and did so ; but instead of meeting 
 with blood-thirsty men, we were regaled all the way with 
 the songs of myriads of nightingales. I thought I could see 
 as we advanced westward the gradual change, which is 
 more evident at long distances, from the rough and original 
 Turkish character which prevails in the Eastern provinces, 
 to the more humane traits of the Mussulmans of Asia Minor. 
 The contrast in this respect between Erzroum and Tocat 
 is very striking, but whether it arises from a radical differ- 
 ence of races, or from those farther West being more affected 
 by the somewhat civilizing influence of the capital, I cannot 
 say. Certain it is that the races are different, and that of 
 the Osmanlees appears to be superior to any other. The 
 contempt which they have for the Turkish races to the East 
 shows their own sense of this superiority. 
 
 At sunset on the second day we found ourselves about 
 eighty miles from Gumush Khaneh, in the midst of a fine low- 
 land country and near the habitation of the Ay an, or governor, 
 of the district. Our guide told us that he had from fifty to 
 sixty villages under his control, and spoke so largely of his 
 hospitality that I determined to partake of it. His house 
 was a prominent object in all the country around, standing 
 alone upon an eminence in the midst of the vale, and looking 
 like a palace in comparison with the log-cabins which we 
 had every where seen since leaving Gumush Khaneh. The 
 day was declining, the herds were coming in over the lea, 
 the boys and girls about the villages were letting loose the 
 lambs that had been kept in confinement at home, now to 
 meet their dams and to receive their evening repast. It 
 was pleasant to see how every little one went bleating about 
 till it found its mother, and how every mother seemed grate- 
 ful and happy when she recognized her young. And then 
 what capering and frolicking and shouts of laughter, when 
 the youngsters of the village attempted to separate them for 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 39 
 
 the purpose of returning the lambs to the fold and driving 
 back the flock to the pasture. Nothing was to be heard 
 besides their merry laugh and the distant baying of dogs. 
 The air was calm and still, and the smoke went straight up 
 from the chimney of the Ayan's palace, giving promise of 
 good cheer within. It was that quiet repose of nature which 
 sinks so gently into the traveller's heart, and repays him at 
 sweet eventide for the toil and labor of the day. How 
 often have troubled feelings been soothed and loneliness 
 cheered by sights and sounds like these ! And what stores 
 of pleasant pictures have been treasured up to beguile 
 weary hours with grateful recollections of the past ! 
 
 We approached the Ayan's house, rode up the little hill 
 on which it stood, and stopped before the door, The build- 
 ing was not so imposing at close view as it had been in the 
 distance. The walls were of earth, after the fashion of the 
 houses in Persia, and the only opening in them was the door 
 before which we stood. I sent in Basil with my sela?n, and 
 a respectful request for a night's lodging. He soon returned 
 with the information that the house was full. The guide whis- 
 pered that such an excuse was never made when the guests 
 were acceptable, but that doubtless the Ayan had no particu- 
 lar desire to accommodate strangers and Christians. Basil 
 added that the answer was conveyed to him in a very angry 
 and unbecoming manner. I did not like the tone of it, and 
 still less the act which almost immediately followed. While 
 we were considering what was to be done, a young man 
 came out, whom, from the style of his dress, I took to be 
 the Ayan's scribe. He stood at the door and began to 
 abuse the guide for bringing guests to the house. The 
 poor fellow did not answer a word, and I undertook to re- 
 ply for him by a lecture on hospitality. The young man 
 listened in silence, and I went on to tell him that the lan- 
 guage which he had used was dangerous for the Ayan, that 
 
40 VISIT TO THE 
 
 I had in my pocket a bouyouroultou from his master the 
 Pasha of Trebizond, with which I could compel him to ad- 
 mit me if I pleased. At this the young man lowered his 
 tone, and humbly protested that the house was full, that if I 
 pleased I might enter and examine every room. I told him 
 that I had no wish to intrude, and that if he had given me a 
 civil answer in the first place, I should have gone on my way 
 without saying a word. He then went in and immediately 
 returned with a bit of paper with the Ayan's seal upon it. 
 This he gave to the guide, telling him that by showing it in 
 the next village, we should receive every thing that we needed 
 for man and beast. As night had now set in, and the guide 
 did not know the road, I asked for a servant from the Ayan 
 to show us the way. The young man demurred, but I in- 
 sisted upon it, and told him that if he gave me any more 
 trouble, I would report the matter to the Pasha. This 
 brought him again to terms, and he ordered a servant to ac- 
 company us. 
 
 It was now quite dark ; the evening was chilly ; we had 
 been in the saddle ten hours without dismounting, and had 
 been drenched by one of those afternoon showers which are 
 of almost daily occurrence at this season, and which pour 
 like a torrent upon the traveller. Our way was over a low 
 meadow ground, cold and damp, and the village, which the 
 young man had said was close by, proved to be nearly an 
 hour distant. I attempted to beguile the way by talking 
 with the servant about his master, and I was not a little 
 surprised and amused to find that the young man whom I 
 had taken for a scribe, was the Ayan himself. Perhaps I 
 should have been more sparing of my advice if I had known 
 it at the moment, but as he was a very young man, and evi- 
 dently had not yet learned good manners, doubtless it was 
 best that he should hear the whole, and his age at least gives 
 hope of improvement. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 41 
 
 Every body was abed when we reached the village. We 
 called up the kiahya 1 and showed him the seal. He began to 
 protest that there was no fodder for the horses, no accommo- 
 dation for us, and seemed inclined to push us on to the next 
 village. But this would not do, for I was now stiff with cold, 
 the night was dark, and the guide having left the post-road 
 to reach the Ayan's house, did not know how to regain it. I 
 told the kiahya, therefore, that if he would make no trouble, 
 I would not use the seal, but would pay him fairly for every 
 thing which he might bring us. This simple proposal 
 changed at once the aspect of things. The village, only a 
 moment before entirely destitute, was by the magical sound 
 of money converted suddenly into a granary of barley and 
 straw ; there was a nice room ready for us, wood for a fire, 
 and plenty to eat. The gruff, sleepy kiahya became all 
 activity and cheerfulness. Even his wife rose at the sound, 
 and recommenced the culinary operations but just now sus- 
 pended. A fire was soon blazing in the apartment, carpets 
 were spread, and master and servant and guide were 
 stretching themselves to dry. I would not suffer the Ayan's 
 boy to go back, but made him sit down and partake of our 
 cheer. His master would repent, he said, of having sent 
 him, for he had not another like him to present the pipe 
 and play the fiddle. According to his report the Ayan spent 
 a great part of his time in hunting. Two noble hounds 
 had accompanied us from the house, and were now com- 
 fortably crouched at his side looking over their paws at the 
 fire. The host's reception verified his promises, and my re- 
 quital the next morning verified mine. He;iwas a Mussul- 
 man, and his green turban marked his descent from Moham- 
 med. Yet we conversed kindly and parted fair friends, 
 with many wishes that we might meet again. It is some- 
 
 1 A village officer, part of whose business it is to provide lodgings for 
 travellers. 
 
42 VISIT TO THE 
 
 thing to conquer the prejudices of a Mussulman, and to 
 make him think better of Christianity by making him think 
 well of a Christian. 
 
 The approach to Kara Hissar, fifty miles from Sheiran, is 
 one of extraordinary beauty. The town stands on an ele- 
 vated ridge or neck, extending from the mountains on the 
 right, and terminating in a tall, solitary rock on the left of 
 the town. For miles Eastward the slope is covered with the 
 richest gardens abounding in every kind of fruit suited to 
 the climate the apple, the pear, the peach, the walnut, the 
 mulberry, and plums of various sorts. The town contains 
 about 1000 houses, inhabited chiefly by Mussulmans, but the 
 Armenians and Greeks are sufficiently numerous to have 
 each a Church. On the summit of the rock, which on one 
 side towers above the town, and on the other lords it over 
 the valley below, stands the ancient fortress which gives the 
 place its name. It is evidently one of those old structures 
 supposed to belong to the middle ages, and which were erect- 
 ed by the Genoese when their trade penetrated the far East, 
 and lines of fortresses were built for the Security of traffic. 
 I found in one part of it the remains of a Church, and in 
 others wells and cisterns, intended evidently to supply it with 
 water. The old wells were nearly gone, but the gateway 
 remained, and over it was the device of the two-headed 
 eagle. In another part was a subterranean room, called by 
 the people the Dungeon. 
 
 When I left Gumush Khaneh I had intended to strike 
 down from Keklit to the Euphrates, but the country to the 
 South of Keklit was infested with predatory Kurds who had 
 risen in rebellion, and had ravaged the country to the very 
 gates of Erzingan. I was therefore compelled to turn off 
 Westward to Kara Hissar. Here I made another attempt 
 to go Southward, but was again defeated, the Governor of 
 Kara Hissar declaring that he would afford me no aid for 
 such a journey. He advised me rather to go direct to 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 43 
 
 Sivas, though that route also was accounted dangerous. 
 But here he was very prompt and kind in providing every 
 security in his power for my journey. He ordered a Ka- 
 vass 1 to attend me to Edrenes, the first town on the road, 
 and gave me a letter to the Ayan of that place, requiring 
 him to furnish two armed men to conduct me to Zara, the 
 first town in the Pashalik of Sivas. To this he added 
 another letter addressed to a Kurdish chief under his juris- 
 diction, living in the mountains six hours beyond Edrens, 
 directing him to provide two men more, to accompany me 
 with the others as far as Zara. 
 
 We started on the 18th about noon, and arrived that day 
 at Gheuz Keui, (Eye village,) on the border of the great 
 plain of Ashkar, five hours from Kara Hissar. The next 
 morning we crossed the plain to Edrenes, which lies on the 
 opposite side. This plain is another of those broad levels 
 extending among the hills, which give support to a large 
 population, and are the sources of plenty and wealth to the 
 neighboring districts. That of Ashkar is twenty miles in 
 length, and is marked by no less than seventy-five villages, 
 under the government of the Ayan of Edrenes, who is sub- 
 ject to the Mutselim 2 of Kara Hissar, who is subject in his 
 turn to the Pasha of Trebizond, who is subject again to the 
 Sultan. Below this long line of officers are the Aghas, or 
 chiefs of villages, who have also under them, Kiahyas, or 
 chiefs of quarters, and even these have their deputies. The 
 plain of Ashkar seems to take its name from a place East of 
 Edrenes, where the people say once stood a great city. I 
 had not time to visit it, but from their description of the re- 
 mains, I judged it to be another of the Genoese fortresses, 
 an outpost probably of the great route above. The people 
 
 1 An officer attending upon Turkish Pashas and Governors, and 
 European Ambassadors at the Porte, and Consuls. 
 
 2 Governor of a city and its dependencies. He is generally below 
 the rank of Pasha. 
 
44 VISIT TO THK 
 
 said that there were massive ruins still to be seen, and graves 
 sixty asheun long. 1 The place is still occupied by a few 
 poor families. In Gheuz Keui there were ten Greek fam- 
 ilies ; but not so many more in the whole district. The 
 Greek population almost entirely ceases South of the lati- 
 tude of Erzroum, and East of the longitude of Tocat. It is 
 confined for the most part to Asia Minor and the coast of 
 the Black Sea, wfiere were also its ancient homes. There 
 is only one Greek Bishop beyond the same limits, and he 
 resides at Ergin on the Euphrates, in Western Kurdistan, 
 and sometimes at Kabban Maden, on the road from Tocat to 
 Diarbekir. His jurisdiction extends over all the country 
 from Kara Hissar to Bagdad, and from Kaisariyeh (Caesarea 
 in Cappadocia) to the borders of Persia, and I presume 
 that in the whole of his diocese there are not 5000 Greeks. 
 The inhabitants of the plains of Ashkar are chiefly Ar- 
 menian, and those of Edrenes exclusively so. Here they 
 have a Church, and a population of about 500 souls; and, 
 probably, their whole population, upon the plain alone, is not 
 less than 4,000. This singularly industrious and frugal 
 people are to be found in all parts of the empire ; from the 
 Caucasus to the Nile, and from the Danube to the Persian 
 Gulf; and every where they are the same, with those varia- 
 tions only which differences of occupation, of climate, and 
 of local government, tend to produce. Simple and indus- 
 trious ; quietly bearing the yoke which the Greeks are so 
 restive under ; given to the honest and useful arts of life, 
 seeking gain wherever they are, and, for the most part, care- 
 fully preserving it ; docile and sober-minded; they are much 
 more akin to the Turks, both in character and manners, 
 than any other of the Christian races. Driven out from 
 their patrimony, or enticed from their ancient lands by the 
 
 1 An asheun is about 30 inches. The graves would then be 150 
 feet! 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 45 
 
 desire of gain, they are to be seen in almost every district 
 and every city ; in Asia Minor, in Kurdistan, in Mesopota- 
 mia, in Syria, in Egypt, in Turkey in Europe, in the pro- 
 vinces North of the Danube, and beyond the boundaries of 
 the empire, in Austria, Russia, Persia, and Hindostan. 
 Every where in Turkey they are the great producers, whether 
 they till the soil or engage in traffic. They are the bone 
 and sinew of the land at once its most useful and most 
 peaceful citizens. Were they removed from Turkey, the 
 wealth and productive power of the country would be in- 
 calculably diminished. 1 
 
 No less interesting are they in their ecclesiastical cha- 
 racter, by which I mean their moral dispositions, and the 
 state and character of their Church. Separated from the 
 Greek Communion by their rejection of the Fourth Ecumen- 
 ical Council, they have retained in some respects practices 
 peculiarly primitive; while by their commingling with so 
 many different nations, they have, in other respects, singu- 
 larly departed from their own ancient standards. 2 No com- 
 munion of Eastern Christians has been so much affected by 
 changes from without ; and in none has so large a schism 
 been created, unless we are to except the Chaldean Church 
 of Mesopotamia, which has almost entirely acknowledged 
 allegiance to the Pope. But the whole number of members 
 in this Church does not much exceed one-third of the Ar- 
 
 1 Their character and habits are thoroughly Oriental, but in their in- 
 dustry and spirit of acquisition, they present rather a contrast than a re- 
 semblance to the Turks. 
 
 2 One instance of an ancient custom of the Eastern Churches, which 
 no other has retained, is the observance of the Nativity and the Epiphany 
 of our Saviour on the same day, the 6th of January. An instance of de- 
 parture from the ancient standards is seen in the practice of counting 
 seven sacraments, which is common among their clergy, whereas their 
 Church does not recognize seven, and for one at least, extreme unction, 
 has no rite or service whatever. 
 
 3* 
 
46 VISIT TO THE 
 
 menians who acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. 1 
 The schism is greater in the Chaldean Church in its ratio, 
 but less in its aggregate. 
 
 The peculiar docility of the Armenians, and their disposi- 
 tion to learn, lays them open to influences from without, and 
 makes it more easy to inculcate either good or evil among 
 them than among any other body of Eastern Christians. 
 They have also received from Rome most of their religious 
 literature for many years past, and this has gradually in- 
 fused the taint of Romish theology, so that many of their 
 clergy speak in the language of Rome, without understand- 
 ing that they contravene the standards and practices of their 
 own Church. 2 The antidote were as easily applied as the 
 poison. What they most need is a sound religious literature, 
 presenting doctrine in a primitive manner, and not after the 
 speculative and scholastic modes which prevail among us ; 
 recognizing thoroughly the primitive institutions of the 
 Church, and turning them to their proper use ; not condemn- 
 ing practices which are ancient, but relieving them of their 
 abuses ; cheerfully inculcating duties which are now per- 
 formed, but restoring to them their religious sense and life ; 
 making what is perfunctorily done, by the blessing of God a 
 living means of grace ; setting forth the duties of the Chris- 
 tian life, its interior graces, its self-denial and its perfect 
 obedience. Such a work were worthy of our labors and 
 our prayers but who is there to perform it ? It is needed 
 to save the Armenians from schism, to strengthen the things 
 that remain, to build them up in their most holy faith. 
 
 1 " The Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory," a Roman Catholic 
 publication, under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Bishop in Bal- 
 timore (U. S. A.), states the number of Chaldeans conjecturally at 15,000 
 and the number of Papal Armenians at 40,000. 
 
 2 Most of the doctrinal and religious books which have an allowed cir- 
 culation among the Armenians are from the Armenian presses of Venice 
 and Vienna. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Ayan ofEdrenes. The Church of Edrenes. Churches in Turkey. 
 Contrast with Mosques. Armenian Churches described. Altars. 
 The Font. Women's Place. Paintings. The design of Pictures in 
 Eastern Churches. The Greek. The Armenian. Origin of Picture 
 Worship in them. Present State. Their Testimony upon the Sub- 
 ject. The Greek. The Armenian. The Syrian. The Nestoiian 
 Bearing of the Testimony upon the subject of Picture Worship. Im- 
 portance of studying the Eastern Churches for the sake of their Testi- 
 mony. The Steadfastness of the Eastern Christians in maintaining 
 their Confession of Christianity. The Cause. Their low Estimate of 
 it practically. Our Duty to them. 
 
 THE Ayan of Edrenes was in bed when we arrived early 
 on the morning of the 19th of May. He repaid us, how- 
 ever, for the delay by a good breakfast after he arose. He 
 was himself so much like an Armenian that I could hardly 
 believe he was not one, until I reflected that it was a thing 
 unheard of under Mussulman rule, for a Christian to be 
 Governor of such a district. His servants told me that he 
 was a genuine Mohammedan, but I must still think he was 
 descended from a Christian stock. His looks, his manners, 
 his whole appearance was Armenian. He received us very 
 kindly and even deferentially. I thought that perhaps his 
 constant intercourse with Christians (for his was the only 
 Mussulman family in Edrenes, and very few of the people 
 of the district are of that religion) might have given him 
 something of their temper. He interested himself in my 
 affairs, and while he was making arrangements for my de- 
 
48 VISIT TO THE 
 
 parture, I went out to see the Church. Unfortunately a 
 Mussulman servant accompanied me. When I reached the 
 door no one was there, and the people in sight disappeared 
 at our appearance. There was no one to unlock the door, and 
 the key was not to be found. We inquired at the neigh- 
 boring houses, but every body evaded our questions. At 
 length I bethought me of a secret spring, and told them that 
 I was a Christian and had only come to see the Church. 
 The key was instantly produced, and a priest made his ap- 
 pearance from one of the houses. The poor people had 
 been frightened at the sight of the servant, and thought we 
 had come with some evil intent towards their sanctuary. 
 The priest, who had the same timid and cringing demean- 
 or that is so common among the clergy of the interior, 
 conducted us to the Church, a plain building of humble 
 exterior, and, like all the Churches I have seen in the East, 1 
 without steeple or tower. Within, it had all the parts usual- 
 ly seen in an Eastern Church, the porch, the nave and the 
 sanctuary. On the roof of the porch was a thick plank 
 hung between two upright posts. This is the bell, which is 
 beaten with mallets to call the people to Church. I was 
 surprised to see it in so conspicuous a situation. It is gen- 
 erally in the Church yard, if there is one. Within the 
 Church there are three altars, as there always are in an 
 Armenian Church. In the present instance, as is often the 
 case, especially in the country, only one is used, namely, the 
 middle or great altar. The others were in a neglected and 
 disrobed state. The three stand in a line at the East end 
 of the Church. Near the Northern altar was the baptismal 
 font, a rude stone hollowed to the depth of a foot, and sup- 
 ported by as rude a pedestal of stone and mortar. The 
 
 1 Excepting one or two in monasteries, which had low towers. Sev- 
 eral of the mosques which were formerly Christian Churches have towers 
 still standing, which would seem to show that before the days of Moham- 
 medanism, such appendages were not uncommon. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 49 
 
 Armenian Churches in the cities have generally a chapel on 
 each side of the main building, entered by a door from the 
 chancel of the Church. In each of these chapels is an 
 altar, and in the Northern one the baptismal font, generally 
 on the Northern side of the chapel. There are often one 
 or two altars in the porch also, or in adjoining chapels at 
 that end. On feast days in the great Churches, and espe- 
 cially on the day of the Saint for whom the Church is named, 
 the Holy Eucharist is celebrated at all the altars, (some- 
 times six or seven in number,) and at all at the same time. 
 The pavement on which the great altar stands is elevated 
 from one to three feet above the chancel-floor, and this last 
 is generally a few inches higher than the nave, and separated 
 from it by a heavy rail. Not only the Bishop and clergy 
 but the lay-superintendent of the Church and other con- 
 siderable laymen sit within the rail, and oftentimes, at great 
 festivals, the chancel is crowded with people. 1 
 
 The Church at Edrenes had most of the parts which I 
 have described. A large curtain hanging to the floor con- 
 cealed the great altar, and without it, but within the chan- 
 cel, stood two forms, one for the reading of the Gospel and 
 the other for the Lessons and Responses. At the Western 
 end of the Church was the females' division, screened from 
 the rest of the nave by a paling of lattice-work. Almost 
 always, in the East, this division (which so far as I have ob- 
 served is every where found among the Eastern Christians) 
 is at this end of the Church ; but in a few Churches I have 
 seen it at the sides. The custom of separating males and 
 females in public worship is in accordance with the habits 
 of the East, and, under existing circumstances, I have no 
 doubt it is best. The females' place is sometimes on the 
 lower floor, and sometimes (especially in city Churches) in 
 
 1 But the presence of any part of the congregation here the Arme- 
 nians themselves acknowledge to be an irregularity. 
 
50 VISIT TO THE 
 
 a gallery above. In only one instance have I seen a Church 
 exclusively for females. 1 
 
 The Church of Edrenes contained a dozen pictures in a 
 very rude style, hanging in different parts of the edifice. 
 The priest was unable to inform me whom or what most of 
 them were intended to represent, and from this I inferred that 
 no great use is made of them. It is not to be supposed that 
 whenever paintings ^are found in an Eastern Church, they are 
 necessarily intended for worship. They are often no more 
 than portraits of Saints and scenes from Scripture, repre- 
 sentations of martyrdoms, and such like, which are hung in 
 the Church to adorn the edifice, and are placed in an ele- 
 vated position, as if with the express design to avoid the 
 danger of their being worshipped. The distinction between 
 the Greek and Armenian Churches in this respect is very 
 remarkable. While in the former the walls are almost cov- 
 ered with paintings, and these paintings are almost exclusive- 
 ly representations of persons, (which alone are ever wor- 
 shipped, for no one would dream of worshipping a picture of 
 the crucifixion or the resurrection for instance, or any mere 
 representation of events,) and moreover these are hung low 
 and are expressly prepared for worship by having attached 
 to them fac similes in miniature intended to receive the kisses 
 of the people, and thus save the more costly originals from 
 injury ; in the Armenian Churches the pictures are few, and 
 most frequently they are representations of events. These 
 are hung high in the Church, often nearer the ceiling than 
 the floor, and are not worshipped. Such was probably the 
 ancient condition of the Armenian Church, that is, the same 
 use of pictures that is known among us, merely as decora- 
 tions of the Church, and instructive representations of events 
 which live in the history of Christianity. But when the 
 
 1 Connected with the Armenian Patriarchate in Constantinople are 
 three Churches, two for males, and one exclusively for females. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 51 
 
 practice of some portions of the Armenians became cor- 
 rupt, (which has been chiefly through the influence of Rome,) 
 and pictures began to be used for worship, 1 those already in 
 the Churches were not turned to this purpose, (being, as 
 representations of events, unfit therefor,) but others were 
 brought in, chiefly pictures of the Virgin, which were 
 placed, as the custom still is, not in the nave of the Church, 
 but in the porch or at the door, thus as it were indicating 
 their extraneous character and the modern origin of the use 
 of them. Accordingly it sometimes happens, in remote 
 Churches in the interior, that the traveller will find no pic- 
 tures of this latter description, and consequently none that 
 are worshipped, the evil never having entered there; while 
 in others he will see. besides the ancient paintings, a single 
 portrait of the Saviour or the Virgin, before which no lights 
 are burned nor any worship paid. 2 
 
 The Eastern Churches, indeed, when rightly viewed, 
 present one of the strongest arguments against picture-wor- 
 ship. Its establishment in the Greek Church is matter of 
 history, and we know it to have been as late as A. D. 787. 3 
 
 1 This would seem to have been later than the 12th century, when, as 
 Nicctas Choniates writes, the worship was forbidden among the Armeni- 
 ans. The passage is quoted in Palmer's Treatise on the Church, (P. IV. 
 Ch. X. Sect, iv.) to which I am indebted for it. It reads as follows : 
 
 A-pHEviotS -yap Kal'AXa^aroTj iiriaris f] TMV ayiwv CIKOVMV irpoaKVvriais d:r>jy(5jOi> 
 
 ra. ' For the adoration of images is forbidden alike by the Armenians 
 and the Germans.' Among the Armenians it has arisen chiefly within 
 the last century, and almost entirely, I believe, within the last 150 years. 
 
 2 In Constantinople the pictures in the porch have lamps burning be- 
 fore them, and such of the worshippers as please buy tapers at the door, 
 which they light at the lamp and attach to a frame in front of the picture. 
 But all do not practise it. 
 
 3 By the deutero-Nicene Council, under the Empress Irene. This 
 Council is recognized by the Greeks as the 7th General Council, but was 
 formally rejected by a large part of the Western Church, including that of 
 England, in the Council of Francfort on the Maine, A. D. 794. 
 
52 VISIT TO THE 
 
 In the other Eastern Churches, which were separated from 
 the Greek Church abou-t the middle of the fifth century 
 and three hundred years before the deutero-Nicene Coun- 
 cil, in which of course they had no participation, things 
 remain theoretically very nearly the same as at the time of 
 their separation. Picture-worship has never been formally 
 recognized among them; it has never been established by 
 Councils or Canons, and so far as it is practised, it is a false 
 appendage, an unauthorized usage, a comparatively modern 
 corruption, gradually and partially introduced according to 
 the relative proximity (locally) of these Churches to the 
 Greek and Latin communions, and according to the active 
 efforts at inculcating it which have been made from with- 
 out. Thus, in the Armenian Church it has prevailed 
 more extensively than in either of the others, Syrian or 
 Nestorian ; and in the Armenian Church, it prevails most 
 where the members of that Church are nearest to the Greek 
 and Latin Churches, and most affected by intercourse with 
 them, as, for example, at Constantinople. Hence arises 
 the difference between the Armenian Churches on the sea- 
 board and in some parts of the interior, especially those 
 parts which are least connected with the capital. The fact 
 that there are constantly to be found in Constantinople 
 some 40,000 Armenians from the interior, who come for 
 purposes of gain, and after a time return to their homes, is 
 enough to show how wide an influence the Church in the 
 metropolis must exert upon almost every part of the coun- 
 try. Yet there are numerous districts from which few, if 
 any, of the people resort to the capital, and those will al- 
 ways be found the most free from picture-worship and other 
 modern corruptions. 
 
 The Syrian Church has still less of connection with 
 Constantinople. Its Patriarch does not reside there. The 
 source of ecclesiastical rule and influence in it is not in the 
 capital. It is separated both by space and language from 
 
SViUAN CHURCH. 53 
 
 the western parts of Turkey. The evil influences that it 
 has received have come to it chiefly through Syria. Its 
 practice, therefore, is purer than that of the Armenians, 
 and very much purer than that of the Greeks. This is true 
 of morals as well as of worship, for the influence of the 
 capital is at present every way deleterious. But our atten- 
 tion is now confined to the use of pictures. I shall have 
 occasion hereafter to speak more particularly of it in rela- 
 tion to the Syrian Church. Suffice it at present to say, 
 that in some few places, and, so far as my observation has 
 extended, uniformly those which have been most affected 
 by intercourse with the capital, picture-worship is known, 
 but this in a more limited degree than among either Greeks 
 or Armenians, more limited both as to the number of those 
 who practise it and the extent to which it is carried. I can- 
 not, for example, recall an instance in a Syrian Church, 
 though I will not positively affirm there is none, in which 
 lights are kept burning before a picture during the intervals 
 of service. But this practice is, I believe, universal among 
 the Greeks, and not uncommon among the Armenians. 
 And as to the number of those who practise picture-wor- 
 ship, the distinction between the three Churches is equally 
 marked. Among the Greeks one seldom enters a church 
 without kissing one or more pictures, and bowing and 
 crossing himself before them. In the Armenian Churches 
 many enter and depart without taking any notice of the pic- 
 tures, where there are any. In the Syrian Church I have 
 never seen one perform this sort of devotion either on en- 
 tering or departing, although I would not deny that instances 
 of the kind may in some places be seen. 
 
 If we go one step farther into the interior we shall find 
 the climax of our argument a Christian community among 
 whom not a trace of picture-worship is to be found. The 
 Nestorians of Kurdistan have remained in a remarkable 
 manner secluded from all other Churches since the early 
 
54 VISIT TO THE 
 
 ages of Christianity. No Christians practising picture- 
 worship have ever penetrated, until these latter days, into 
 the stern recesses of their mountain homes. They remain, 
 in point of religious usages, the same that they were 
 fifteen centuries ago; while in point of intellectual activ- 
 ity and learning, little or nothing has survived. We 
 might conceive of corruption creeping in, in an age of 
 ignorance, but not of its creeping out. If it had ever been 
 in, the ignorance which has so long enveloped the Nesto- 
 rian Church would have preserved and strengthened it, or 
 at least it would have remained, amidst the extinction of 
 learning, in a stagnant and unchanging state, like flies pre- 
 served in amber. Had there been life, and movement, and 
 theological inquiry, subtle reasoning might have marshalled 
 in the error. But ignorance is obstinate, and stands upon 
 custom and tradition and established usage. It preserves 
 error, or if it gives birth, it is only to creatures of darkness. 
 It djes not originate reform. Hence it is impossible that 
 the Nestorian Church should have lost the use of picture- 
 worship if it had ever existed, besides that history has 
 recorded no such change. The time has never been when 
 it was in vogue. The universal testimony of the Nestorians 
 is, that their Church was never defiled by it, and no one, 
 I believe, pretends that it has ever been known among 
 them. The testimony which their Church bears, is the 
 testimony of the earliest ages, since which they have been 
 shut up in their mountain fastnesses, unchanging within 
 and unchanged from without. Interesting as it is in itself, 
 it is of the greater value as showing the ancient practice of 
 the Church, and combined with the evidence from the other 
 Eastern communions, it presents a solid and immovable 
 argument against the antiquity and lawfulness of picture- 
 worship. I quote it, moreover, as one instance out of 
 many, which shows the importance of studying the Oriental 
 Churches ecclesiastically, for the evidence which they pre- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 55 
 
 sent concerning ancient forms and practices. It will 
 generally be found that where any corruption has been 
 introduced among them since the rise and prevalence of 
 Mohammedanism, it is either the progress of changes which 
 began before, or it has been introduced from without. One 
 may even venture to affirm, that if the Greek Church had 
 been subjected to the sway of Islamism at as early a date 
 as the Syrian, picture-worship would never have been es- 
 tablished by an Eastern Council, nor would the other great 
 delinquency of that Church, the idolatrous worship of 
 the Blessed Virgin, have ever come into existence. They 
 are both the results of a freedom protracted after the age of 
 purity had departed, when the life of primitive holiness had 
 declined, and the ears of many had been turned away from 
 the truth and turned unto fables. 1 The course of that 
 Church from the seventh century onward was one of dete- 
 rioration, until the fall of Constantinople in the fifteenth 
 century sealed the fate of the Eastern Empire and placed 
 the Church in a state of fixedness. This event occurred at 
 a time when the Greek Church seemed nearly prepared for 
 the adoption of errors w^hich would have determined its 
 character for centuries. Had its independence survived 
 another hundred years, it would have had its Reformation 
 and its Council of Trent. Mohammedanism had at least 
 this beneficent effect for which, under the guidance of 
 the Great Head of the Church, it may have been intended 
 of saving the Mother Church of the East from commit- 
 ting itself by the decisions of a Council to manifold and 
 grievous errors. This happy result was realized at a much 
 earlier date among the other portions of the Eastern Church 
 which were severed from Catholic communion about the 
 middle of the fifth century, and fell under the sway of Mo- 
 hammedanism within two centuries afterwards. It is to 
 
 1 2 Tim. 4: 4. 
 
56 VISIT TO THB 
 
 them, therefore, that we are to look for the truest exhibi- 
 tions of primitive usage and discipline. Nor are we to 
 be turned aside from surveying them by any suspicion of 
 their heterodoxy in that matter of faith upon which they 
 separated from the Orthodox Communion. Even admitting 
 that they hold a heresy with regard to the nature of Christ, 
 (which I do not,) this surely does not invalidate their 
 testimony upon any other point, since in nothing else does 
 it appear that they have departed from the faith or practice 
 of the ancient Church. As we proceed we shall find that 
 this testimony is of great importance and value. 
 
 I was struck at Edrenes with the demeanor of the 
 people towards me after they once found that I was a Chris- 
 tian. Till that moment most of them avoided me, and ran 
 away when I called them. But as soon as they learned my real 
 character, they became very communicative and clung to 
 me, as if my presence conferred a favor. 1 have often 
 observed this feeling among the Christian peasantry of the 
 interior, The voice of sympathy and kindness is so strange 
 to them, that when they hear it from the lips of a foreigner, 
 whom, because he is a Frank, they imagine to be respectable 
 and powerful, they seem as if they could never have enough 
 of it. They feel a kind of security in his presence, a 
 pleasure mingled with surprise at meeting with one who is 
 a Christian and yet free from the bondage and oppression 
 which in their minds are inseparably associated with the 
 profession of their religion. Why is it that these poor, op- 
 pressed men, uninstructed as they are in the faith and duties 
 of Christianity, do not seek a relief from their burdens by 
 embracing the religion of their masters? I believe that the 
 true reason is to be found in the preservation among them 
 of one of the ancient traits of Christianity, viz., the value 
 which they put upon Baptism as the introduction to the 
 Christian covenant, to the privileges and hopes of the Gos- 
 pel, the belief which they have that they were made Chris- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 57 
 
 tians in this Holy Sacrament, that they were sealed and con- 
 firmed in the faith of Christianity almost from the hour of 
 their birth. Mingled with this is another feeling not un- 
 common among them, and derived like the other from the 
 ancient Church : I mean a fearful, though, in their unin- 
 structed state, a vague view of the horrid consequences of 
 apostacy and excommunication. They think that the state 
 of no man, Mohammedan or Pagan, is so dreadful as his 
 who forsakes the faith of Christianity ; that for him there 
 remains only a certain fearful looking for of judgment and 
 fiery indignation. 1 
 
 These feelings are sufficient to make them contented 
 with their religion; but the sanctifying influences of that 
 religion are so benumbed, that it does not make them con- 
 tented with their lot. Hence it is that they (I speak of the 
 peasantry of the interior) are generally unhappy, grumbling 
 and repining at their state, instead of bearing it with holy 
 fortitude, cringing and despondent, selfish and inhospitable. 
 They deserve, however, our pity more than our blame, our 
 sympathy rather than our scorn. The reason why they are 
 thus degraded in character is that they have persevered in 
 the faith of their fathers. It is because they are Christians 
 
 1 Heb. 10: 27. I may here add that in Constantinople, where infi- 
 delity and neglect of the ordinances of religion abound, this fear of aposta- 
 cy prevails less than in the interior, and consequently conversions to Mo- 
 hammedanism are not unknown, though by no means common. In 
 every instance which has come to my knowledge, the motive was notori- 
 ously a mercenary one. But, on the other hand, I may say that I have 
 also in mind cases of a very different character cases in which Christians 
 have been accused before Mohammedan magistrates of having promised 
 to become Mussulmans, and have shown either the falseness of the accu- 
 sation or their penitence by submitting to repeated torture and finally 
 to death rather than abjure their religion. There have been at least two 
 instances of this kind in Constantinople within six years, one of them the 
 last year (1843). Both the sufferers were young men and Armenians. 
 The first case was in 1838. 
 
58 VISIT TO THE 
 
 that they are so ground to the dust, for no one can fail to 
 observe how different in general is the treatment of the 
 Mohammedan peasantry, though they also suffer severely. 
 It is because they are Christians, that they have endured the 
 weight of oppression for centuries, and it is this oppression 
 which has gradually destroyed in them manliness and 
 energy of character. Never was there a people to whom, 
 even for the life that now is, the joys and consolations, the 
 strength and peace of religion were more necessary ; never 
 was there one who seemed as a body more destitute of these 
 legitimate blessings of Christianity. And yet I would not 
 deny that there are some among them who suffer with a 
 higher sense of the dignity of their calling as confessors for 
 Christ, who rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer 
 shame for his name, and who are sustained by the cheering 
 hope that, if they are faithful unto death, their reward will 
 be great in heaven. I believe, I know, that there are men 
 of this character among them. Let us not then despise 
 these little ones, though they be as babes in Christ; but 
 let us rather pray for them that their faith fail not. Let us 
 strengthen them by our timely sympathy. Let us impart to 
 them of our fulness. Let us make known to them, by 
 legitimate modes and efforts, the true nature of the faith 
 in which they stand. Let us restore to them, if the Lord 
 will deign so far to bless our means, the joy and hope, the 
 fulness and strength of the Gospel. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 59 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Departure from Edrenes. Armenian Monastery. The Road. Kurdish 
 Tents. The Occupants. Kurdish Chief. His Reception. His Life. 
 Presents in the East. Eastern Character. Famine. Espionage. 
 Emigrants. Turkish Policy. The Road. Dangers. How to be met. 
 
 FROM the Church I returned to the Ayan's house, and 
 found every thing ready for my departure. He had provided 
 for me two stout mountaineers, who, with their guns slung 
 upon their backs, trudged smartly on before us as we started. 
 I had requested that they might be mounted, but no horses 
 were to be had, and the event proved that it was unnecessary, 
 for they kept in advance of us most of the day. Shortly 
 after leaving Edrenes, we passed near a place called Sis, 
 where we observed some more ancient fortifications. Close 
 by is an Armenian monastery, which time would not allow 
 me to visit. For a while we travelled among the hills along 
 the base of Reuse Dagh, or Bald Mountain, so called from 
 its barren summit, where the Kurds in summer pasture their 
 flocks. It is one of three mountains on the South side of 
 the plain, and gives rise to theKizzil Irmak, or Red River, 
 the largest and longest stream of Asia Minor. We then 
 plunged into interminable pine forests, and soon after came 
 upon a group of Kurdish tents pitched in a little green nook 
 at the foot of the mountain. The Kavass, instead of avoid- 
 ing them, led the way directly towards them, and dismounted 
 before the principal tent. We followed his example, just as 
 the old man, the Patriarch of the tribe, came out to meet us. 
 
60 VISIT TO THE 
 
 He was evidently alarmed at the sight of the Kavass, but 
 recovered himself sufficiently to bid us welcome. We 
 entered his tent and seated ourselves on the carpet, while 
 the old woman, his wife, hastened to bring out her rustic 
 fare of cream and milk and bread and yo-6ort, and spread 
 them before us. His son, a man of thirty-five, of noble 
 stature, but of most malign and ferocious aspect, led about 
 the horses, and his daughters hid themselves behind the 
 family chattels with which the tent was crowded, and kept 
 up an incessant tittering whenever any of us caught sight of 
 their brown faces or bright black eyes. The old man 
 himself sat near us, and his eye involuntarily glanced at our 
 weapons and at our luggage with that quick and wild expres- 
 sion of cupidity which always marks a predatory Kurd. 
 But he put a restraint on himself and endeavored to appear 
 as if he were taking no notice of our property. He uttered 
 some extravagant eulogiums upon the Sultan and the Pasha, 
 and declared his own fidelity to them in the most obsequious 
 terms, forgetful apparently that it was only a year ago that 
 the Pasha marched an army against him and forced him into 
 submission. The presence of the Kavass gave him an oppor- 
 tunity of showing his new-born loyalty, which he did not 
 fail to express by the most earnest protestations. That 
 worthy officer, however, gave him little credit for his 
 asseverations, for we had no sooner mounted and rode away 
 from the tents than he began to relate how this was one of 
 the most notorious characters of a murderous band of Kurds, 
 and that he would throw off his allegiance to-morrow if he 
 dared. 
 
 In the afternoon we emerged from the woods, and soon 
 reached the solitary dwelling of Pasha Oglou, (son of a 
 Pasha,) the Kurdish chief to whom the Governor of Kara 
 Hissar had commended me. He was ruler of the country 
 under the Governor, and had been stationed in this wild 
 region to keep hie refractory brethren in order. Though 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 61 
 
 an old and tried friend of the Government, he was a Kurd 
 throughout, free, generous, open, wild, with no idea of the 
 value of human life and no fear for his own. This, however, 
 is not the character of Kurds in general, but only of the 
 better sort, the Kurdish gentlemen. The lower classes, and 
 especially the nomadic Kurds, are mean, treacherous, and 
 often cowardly pilferers. Pasha Oglou received us in his 
 solitary habitation with all his hearty Kurdish hospitality, 
 and set before us his delicious Kurdish dishes, kaimak 1 and 
 honey, mulberries stewed in honey, and other luxuries of a 
 rural life. In the evening he regaled us with stories of the 
 mountaineers, and talked of his management of them, in the 
 same manner that a fearless hunter might talk of chasing 
 tigers and taming wild boars. He had an evident relish for 
 the amusement, and was about going into the mountains to 
 spend the summer months among his unruly subjects. He 
 seemed to know their habits' and their manners perfectly, 
 and depended upon his own superior possession of them, for 
 inspiring awe and obedience. When I hinted that his life 
 might be in danger among such lawless men, he intimated 
 in reply that it would give him sincere pleasure to have 
 them try him. The prospect of a little excitement appeared 
 to give him unmingled gratification, and he laughed heartily 
 at the thought of it. All this time the fire was burning 
 brightly on the hearth of an enormous chimney at one end 
 of the apartment where we were seated, the chief with some 
 of his followers, occupying one side, and myself with the 
 Kavass the other. We had no light but the merry blaze of 
 the fire, which threw its beams around on hardy and sun- 
 browned men, the blackened roof, the armor on the wall, 
 and penetrated deep into the recesses of the stable which 
 formed more than half the apartment. We slept where we 
 
 1 Coagulated cream, produced by simmering fresh milk over a slo\y 
 fire. 
 
 4 
 
62 VISIT TO THE 
 
 sat, excepting the chief, who retired to his family apartments 
 in another building. As the evening stole on, one after 
 another stretched themselves upon the carpet, arid fell asleep, 
 and when all but myself had sunk into slumber I seized the 
 opportunity to make some hasty notes of the adventures of 
 the day, and after commending myself to the care of Him 
 who ' compasseth our path and our lying down, and is ac- 
 quainted with all our ways,' 1 I laid my head upon my 
 saddle, which served the double purpose of a seat by day and 
 a pillow by night, and joined the general slumber! 
 
 Early the next morning I bade adieu to the chief, after 
 putting into his hand enough to remunerate him for his hos- 
 pitality. He drew back with an expression of anger when 
 I proffered it, and asked what it meant. I saw that I had 
 mistaken my man, and instantly changing my purpose, re- 
 quested him to divide it among his servants who had waited 
 upon me. He accepted it at once, and his face, which wore 
 a terrible frown, cleared up as suddenly as it had clouded. 
 Whether he put any part of it in his own pocket after I had 
 gone, it would perhaps be wrong to conjecture, but such 
 practices are not uncommon among Eastern gentry, who 
 would feel it the height of insult to appear to accept pay for 
 their hospitality. I have often found it best to carry presents 
 for such casuists, and count as recompense what they re^ 
 ceived as a memento. Sometimes they could go so far as 
 to ask for a present, and this when the object of their re- 
 quest was worth ten times all the services they had rendered. 
 In this way I have often parted with the necessaries of my 
 voyage for the sake of avoiding offence, and at other times 
 have kept them concealed lest they should be asked for. 
 This polite kind of robbery is especially common among the 
 Kurds, who cannot overcome their native desire for the goods 
 of others, even when they do not feel at liberty to take them 
 by force. 
 
 1 Ps. 139 : 3 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 63 
 
 We reached Zara, a large village of about 500 houses, 
 early in the day. On the road, which lay first among the 
 hills and afterwards through a valley, we crossed the Kizzil 
 Irmak twice, or rather a branch of it, for the main ri\er 
 comes in opposite Zara. A brother of Pasha Oglou accom- 
 panied us on our journey. He was a noble young Kurd of 
 the better sort, and proved himself a very pleasant and cheer- 
 ful companion. It is refreshing to the spirit of a Western 
 man, especially perhaps to an American, to see among the 
 oppressed races of Turkey, one who talks freely and ani- 
 matedly as if he had nobody to fear. It is like a cup of cold 
 water in the dreary, monotonous wilderness of minds and 
 hearts trodden down, crushed, and seared by oppression. I 
 never met with such a one that my spirits were not exhil- 
 arated, and that I did not feel the contrast with the silent and 
 sombre mood that pervades the interior of Turkey. Humani- 
 ty there presents itself to the mind under such images as a 
 carcass going to decay in the desert, or a mighty ship rotting 
 in the still ocean ; and I always felt a sensible relief when 
 my journey led me away from it for a time, to mingle in the 
 wild and free life of the Kurds. " Happily in the present in- 
 stance we had nothing to fear from those other traits which 
 generally accompany this vvildness and freedom, for we were 
 well guarded by the presence of four armed men, two of 
 whom, the Kavass and the young Kurd, f were representatives 
 of the governors of the country. Without them the journey 
 might have been difficult, for we met with several bands of 
 ruffian-looking fellows whom one would not wish to meet 
 alone. 
 
 Arrived at Zara, we found the little town almost deserted. 
 Of its 2500 inhabitants not a hundred seemed to have re- 
 mained. We rode through its silent streets, meeting here 
 and there a small group of men who gave us no salutation, 
 and looked at us in gloomy silence when we inquired for 
 lodgings. We asked for the Agha of the place. Some one 
 
64 VISIT TO THE 
 
 replied that he had abandoned his office and fled. We in- 
 quired for the Kiahya; he too had disappeared. At length 
 we found the Kiahya's deputy, but as soon as we came in 
 sight of him, he attempted to run away from us. One of 
 our party pursued after and caught him, but neither promises 
 nor threats could prevail upon him to listen to us. His only 
 reply was, " There is nothing to eat." The shops were shut 
 in the street. We passed a blacksmith's cell which was open. 
 The implements of his trade were lying about and his ham- 
 mer was upon the anvil, but no one was there. We knocked 
 at the doors of several of the most respectable looking dwell- 
 ings, but no one answered. We attempted to enter, but they 
 were locked. At length a female voice inquired from a lat- 
 tice, what we wanted. We replied, " Rest and food." The 
 voice answered, " We have nothing to eat." After travers- 
 ing the whole town, and inquiring of the few stragglers that 
 we met skulking along the walls or attempting to run away 
 at our approach, we came to an Armenian house where the 
 door was open. Without any ado we walked in and seated 
 ourselves. When the host appeared, I told him that we were 
 hungry and must have something to eat. He replied that 
 they had nothing for themselves, that the town was depopu- 
 lated by famine, and most of the inhabitants had fled for their 
 lives. I told him to bring us what he could find and he 
 should not go unrewarded. After some hours' delay, he 
 succeeded in obtaining for us a comfortable breakfast. The 
 ravenous people gathered around us and seemed ready to 
 seize it by force. The more respectable invited themselves 
 to partake with us. As we threw down morsels of bone 
 that we had gnawed, the greedy multitude scrambled for them 
 and gnawed them again like dogs. We made a light repast, 
 and distributed the remainder among the expecting crowd. 
 
 At Zara I dismissed my guard, the Kavass, the Kurdish 
 Bey, and the two mountaineers of Edrenes. They had 
 served me for nothing, but it would have been quite out of 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 65 
 
 order not to have given them in presents more than I would 
 have stipulated to give them in wages. However, they had 
 served me well, and had proved themselves pleasant com- 
 panions, and I would rather hear the hearty benedictions of a 
 man who feels that he is amply rewarded, than the sullen 
 farewell which commonly follows a niggardly recompense. 
 Our last act of intercourse was to prepare letters for Pasha 
 Oglou and the Ayan of Edrenes, informing them of my 
 safe arrival at Zara, the first town in the Pashalik of Sivas. 
 For this purpose we called in the Imam of the place, the 
 only one in the village competent to perform the duty. He 
 had remained at his post in spite of the famine, and while 
 all other business was suspended, still gathered the starving 
 inhabitants to their five diurnal prayers.' He wrote in my 
 name, and I afterwards sealed the letters with my Turkish 
 seal, which I always carried with me for such purposes. 
 The Ayan of Edrenes had been instructed to send back to 
 Kara Hissar information of my having passed beyond the 
 border of the province of Trebizond, which information 
 must be certified under my own seal. It would then be- 
 come the duty of the Governor of Kara Hissar to forward 
 the intelligence to the Pasha at Trebizond, who, in his turn, 
 must forward it to Constantinople. Beyond Zara the Pasha 
 of the province of Sivas would be responsible ; and thus, 
 from one province to another, the Turkish government 
 laways have it in their power to trace a traveller from 
 
 1 The Imam is the minister of Mohammedanism, and his duties are 
 not unlike those of the Christian Priest. He conducts the services of the 
 congregation, whence his name of Imam, or leader ; performs the rites of 
 circumcision, marriage and burial ; instructs the children of the congrega- 
 tion, and visits at their houses. The Five Hours of Prayer, viz., at Day- 
 dawn, Noon, two and a half hours before Sunset, Sunset, and one and a 
 half hours after Sunset, are evidently imitated from the ancient hours of 
 the Church, which were first five, and afterwards increased to seven. 
 
66 VISIT TO THE 
 
 one end of the empire to the other ; a provision as beneficial 
 for the traveller as for themselves, since he can thereby con- 
 sole himself with the prospect of being heard of if he should 
 suddenly disappear. It is, or was, the duty of the provincial 
 authorities to send their reports of travellers monthly to Con- 
 stantinople. In some parts of the country this was strictly 
 attended to ; in others it was almost entirely neglected. 
 
 We had time, before the day closed, to leave Zara, and 
 reach Yarasa, a village four hours distant from Z., and con- 
 taining about sixty families, Mussulman and Armenian. 
 The Armenian population in this district is large, and it is 
 one of the principal foyers from which the capital is supplied 
 with servants and laborers. The next morning we passed 
 a village called Godin, where most of the men wore the 
 dress used by the porters in Constantinople. It seemed as 
 if I had seen them all before, and perhaps it was not far 
 from the truth, for they had all served in the city, and had 
 returned home to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Thirty 
 of their young men were just about starting for Constanti- 
 nople in a body, with the expectation of spending a few 
 years in the business which their fathers had found so pro- 
 fitable. The old men were, altogether, a fine-looking race, 
 and evidently well to do in the world. They did not receive 
 me, however, with all the hospitality that I could wish ; and 
 I had to reproach them with the fact, that they had gained 
 handfuls of piastres from me at Constantinople, and now 
 would not give me the poor pittance of a breakfast, which I 
 was willing to pay for. Their inhospitality arose from the 
 fear that I might consider the breakfast as thrown into the 
 account of former payments ; and that fear was increased 
 by the circumstance that I had fallen into company with a 
 Kavass who had overtaken us on the road, and now appear- 
 ed in the character of an escort, to the poor villagers. This 
 class of people are not in the habit of paying much for food 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 67 
 
 and lodgings, unless it be in cuffs and blows, a currency but 
 too well known in Turkey. The Christians suffer more in 
 this way than the Mohammedans, and hence they appear, at 
 first sight, more inhospitable. The approach of a Kavass 
 or a Tartar is a signal to close their hearts, and to assume a 
 gloomy and sullen silence, or to retreat out of sight. The 
 poor Kiahya's office at such times is no sinecure, for he has 
 to bear the threats and blows of the great man in behalf of 
 the whole community. I took care, however, that nothing 
 of the kind should be administered on the presenfoccasion, 
 and finally succeeded in obtaining a breakfast through the 
 gentler mercies of the women, who were here, as ever, more 
 ready to listen to and relieve the wants of others. The circum- 
 stance of my having come from Constantinople served rather 
 to excite than to dampen their interest,for they had innumera . 
 b!e questions to ask about their fathers, husbands, brothers, 
 and sons who were absent, and seemed deeply disappointed 
 when they found I had nothing to tell them. They did not 
 consider that though a man could hardly go from Godin 
 without carrying news of every body in the place, it was 
 quite possible for one to come from Constantinople without 
 taking commands for Godin. 
 
 We found the whole country, from Zara to Sivas, a dis- 
 tance of thirty-six miles, suffering from the effects of famine. 
 There had been no rain the preceding year, and all the 
 grain which should have been preserved for seed had been 
 consumed by the famishing inhabitants. This year the 
 rains were abundant, but they fell upon uncultivated soil. 
 The people had no grain to put into the ground. Their 
 means had been spent in providing for their families and 
 their cattle, and the price of wheat had increased ten-fold. 
 The peasants of Godin had fared better, as their gains in the 
 capital had enabled them to support themselves during 
 the scarcity, and they were now rejoicing in the prospect of 
 a luxurious harvest. But the other villages, and Zara es- 
 
OS VISIT TO THE 
 
 pecially, seemed likely to become entirely depopulated. 
 The people were abroad in the fields collecting weeds and 
 herbs for food. Their wan and haggard appearance was 
 enough of itself to show that they had suffered severely. 
 
 Such instances as this prove most clearly the improvi- 
 dent spirit both of people and Government in Turkey. 
 Why were not the waters of the Kizzil Irmak, which 
 flow close by the famishing villages, and through a plain 
 country, turned off to irrigate the thirsty land 1 Or why 
 did not the Government supply the peasants with the 
 means of purchasing seed, or, at least, relieve them from 
 their taxes that they might purchase for themselves ? No 
 one could answer these simple questions. No measures 
 had been taken to avert or remedy the evil. The people 
 sat down in despair as soon as the windows of heaven were 
 closed, and the Government looked quietly on, while the 
 peasants were starving for want of bread or flying to other 
 regions. The consequence will be, that those who remain 
 will be taxed more heavily to supply the deficiency of the 
 retreating population. This will bring new distresses and 
 new flights, until the smiling country is left a wasted desert. 
 Such may not be the fate of this particular district, where 
 the richness of the soil may attract new settlers, but it has 
 been the fate of other portions of the country hardly less 
 favored in climate and productions, and the evil has fallen 
 upon them under precisely similar circumstances. 
 
 Most of our way from Zara to Sivas was over a rich 
 meadow bordering the Kizzil Irmak. We passed several 
 villages and saw wild-fowl in abundance, geese, ducks, and 
 plovers, which seemed never to have been molested in their 
 quiet retreats. Basil made two attempts to shoot a goose 
 with his pistols, but although the game allowed itself to be 
 approached almost near enough to be caught in the old- 
 fashioned way of putting salt on its tail, the exploit was not 
 successful, and we might have felt in our own persons the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 69 
 
 evil effects of the famine, if there had not been two little 
 lakes near Yarasa, which, to console us for the loss of our 
 fowl, supplied us with an excellent dinner of fish. The 
 only drawback was that the salt which was wanting to catch 
 the first, was not present to season the latter. 
 
 The Kavass who had overtaken us on the road, belonged 
 to the Pasha of Sivas, and had been to collect taxes from 
 some of the Kurds of Reuse Dagh who fell within his prov- 
 ince. If his own story was true, it had proved an unprofit- 
 able business, for the Kurds had received him in a very cool 
 manner, and when he spoke of taxes, had pointed their 
 guns at him and bade him decamp, which he confessed he 
 thought it prudent to do. He expressed great surprise at 
 our having come safe through the land, but consoled us with 
 the assurance that the danger was nothing compared with 
 that which lay before us; that a part of the road was so be- 
 set with robbers as to be absolutely impassable, and that for 
 the rest of it we had about an even chance of life and 
 death. I suspected at the moment that he was trying to 
 beguile the tediousness of his own journey by imposing 
 upon our credulity or our fears, but when we reached Sivas 
 his stories proved only a faithful narrative of the rumors 
 that were prevailing there. 
 
 These stories for a time tried my courage, or rather my 
 faith. Slavish fear asked whether it were worth while to 
 run the risk when all the probability was that I should not 
 be able to reach Mesopotamia. Faith answered ' You 
 cannot turn back without a trial.' So I determined to go 
 forward. Report said that most of the country between 
 Sivas and the Taurus, a distance of four or five days' jour- 
 ney, was infested by Kurds, who had come up from their 
 winter quarters, and were feeding their flocks on the high 
 lands south of Sivas. Direful tales of robberies and mur- 
 ders were rife, and travelling was almost entirely suspend- 
 ed. As is common in such cases, the truth was doubtless 
 
 4* 
 
70 VISIT TO THE 
 
 multiplied many fold. To learn the real state of things, I 
 applied to the Pasha for information and advice. He told 
 me that it was very true that the country was in a bad con- 
 dition, that he had stationed soldiers at several villages 
 along the road, and that the people in other places had 
 been ordered to turn out and accompany travellers, that I 
 could avail myself of the same means of defence as were 
 provided for others, but he would give me no advice on the 
 subject, that I knew my own business, and whether it was 
 of sufficient importance to justify me in incurring the dan- 
 ger. I asked for a bouyouroultou, but he was unwilling to 
 give me one, thinking perhaps that it would increase his re- 
 sponsibility for my safe conduct. But I insisted upon hav- 
 ing it, and obtained it. It was, however, of little import- 
 ance, for he took care to word it so carefully that it amount- 
 ed to nothing more than an order for the regular escort from 
 village to village. 
 
 One is often at a loss how to act under such circum- 
 stances. The safest rule is to think little of danger, for 
 that is a mere contingency, and is in the hands of God. 
 He can as easily carry us through great dangers as through 
 a path where none appear. And when we remember the 
 numberless casualties to which we are liable under the 
 best apparent circumstances, it should matter little whether 
 greater ones appear or not. They are all equally within the 
 control of Him who ruleth all. The only question is, What 
 is His will 1 and in determining that, the least place is to be 
 given to personal risks and hazards. What is His will 
 without them, is, we may safely conclude, at least in matters 
 of great moment, His will notwithstanding them. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 71 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Conflict with the Post-Master at Sivas. Departure from Sivas. Escape 
 of the Guide. The Escort. Day's March over an infested Dis- 
 trict. Hassan Tchelebi. The Kizzelbashes. Travelling by Night 
 Reflections. The Euphrates. Evils resulting from Changes of Ru- 
 lers. Kharpout. First Sight of the Syrians. Armenian Monasteries. 
 Syrian Bishop. The Syrian Population of Kharpout. 
 
 BESIDES the conflict with myself which I had at Sivas, 
 I had another with the post-master which was still harder 
 to bear. He thought to take advantage of the state of the 
 roads to charge me an exorbitant price for horses. I 
 referred the matter to the Pasha, and sent with my servant 
 the royal post-order. The Pasha had not yet left his harem, 
 for it was at an early hour ; our sumpter horse was laden, 
 our guard was at the door, and we were ready to mount. 
 The Pasha's Deputy (Kiahya Bey) sent for the post-master 
 and read the order in his ears, filling it up with such exple- 
 tives as " You son of a dog," "Ass," and others unmentiona- 
 ble. The poor post-master stood trembling till the reading 
 was finished, made his apology, returned to the post-house, 
 quietly received his regular dues, and asked me for apresenfj 
 I told him that I expected soon to pass that way again, and 
 if he behaved himself with propriety at our next meeting I 
 would not forget him, but that under present circumstances 
 I could show him no favor. I was glad to see him com- 
 pletely humbled, for he was one of those Mussulmans who 
 seem to think that they are never doing a better service 
 
72 VISIT TO THE 
 
 than when they are abusing a Christian. I should not have 
 persevered against him if I had not thought that he needed 
 the lesson. From the moment of my arrival he had treated 
 me with marked indignity, and had gone out of his way to 
 insult and revile me. The only reason was, that he had an 
 evil Mussulman temper, and felt free to exercise it on a 
 Christian. I observed that it was only native Christians 
 and myself who suffered in this way, while to Turks he was 
 civil and sociable. The first word which he uttered when 
 I dismounted before the post-house and asked a servant to 
 procure a bed for me, were, " Lie on the floor ; that is the 
 place for you." I soon found that he was one of those wild 
 beasts in the shape of men that are sometimes met with 
 among the Turks, who are sensible to nothing but harshness 
 and severity, and I determined, when the opportunity offer- 
 ed, to teach him to treat a Christian with respect. It may 
 present a melancholy view of human nature, but so it is ; 
 men of this stamp in the East are more easily affected by 
 fear than by love ; their respect is more easily excited by 
 severity than by kindness. The post-master, instead of re- 
 senting the course I had taken, seemed to see in it some- 
 thing which commanded his admiration. He became at 
 once very docile and attentive, held my stirrup when I 
 mounted, and bade me farewell with the most profound obei- 
 sance. Had I not succeeded in conquering him, he would 
 have been ready to trample me under his feet. 
 
 The effect upon the poor Christians who had assembled 
 to take their morning cup of coffee in the post-house, was 
 very perceptible. They were evidently astonished at the 
 sight of a Christian overcoming a Turk, and when I rose to 
 depart, rose themselves in a body and remained standing 
 till I had mounted. This was the most painful part of the 
 scene to me. I would rather they should have rejoiced 
 over me as a brother. 
 
 We left Sivas on the 23d of May, and travelling South 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 73 
 
 along the great route from Constantinople to Bagdad, reach- 
 ed the village of Delikli Tash (Cavernous Rock, so called 
 from holes in the rock on which it stands,) before evening. 
 Here the Ayan of the village gave us a house for the night, 
 which, like most of the houses in the village, consisted of a 
 family apartment and a stable. I was sitting by the fire, and 
 one of the guard who was stationed in my room for the 
 night, was saying his prayers, when suddenly the outer door 
 opened and the postillion went out with his horses. The 
 guard suspected his design, but, like a true Mussulman, 
 would not allow his prayers to be interrupted by any sublu- 
 nary concern. But as soon as he had ended, he sprang to 
 his feet and darted out of the house. We had hardly recov- 
 ered from our amazement at his sudden departure, before he 
 returned leading back all the horses but one, on which the 
 postillion had succeeded in making his escape. I soon 
 found that the plot had been concerted beforehand, and 
 that the postillion had thrown out sundry intimations of his 
 determination not to proceed beyond Delikli Tash, for fear 
 of the Kurds. Fortunately, in the darkness of the night, he 
 missed his way in going out of the village, and the guard 
 overtaking him just as he was gaining the main road, wrested 
 the rope with which he led the horses from his hand, and 
 left him to escape with the one on which he rode. The 
 Ayan supplied me with a substitute, and provided me with 
 a strong guard of mounted men, each armed with a sword, 
 gun and pistols, and some of them carrying spears. The 
 country between Delikli Tash and Alaja Khan, is a high ta- 
 ble-land, whither the Kurds resort in summer to feed their 
 flocks. When I last passed it, in March, 1838, it was cover- 
 ed deep with snow. Now it was one broad sweep of ver- 
 dure, in some parts undulating, in others stretching away as 
 far as the eye could reach, but lonely and desolate from the 
 want of trees and cultivation, and still more perhaps from 
 the gloomy associations connected with it. We travelled 
 
74 VISIT TO THE 
 
 on in close array and in perfect silence. When we reached 
 what was accounted the most dangerous part, scouts were 
 sent out in different directions, and special care was taken 
 to survey the country from every little eminence that pre- 
 sented itself. The guards tied the ends of their long taper- 
 ing sleeves together behind their backs, thus baring the arm 
 nearly to the shoulder. Guns were unslung, and every man 
 looked to his flint and priming. How much of this was 
 done with particular reference to myself and the present 
 expected at the next village, 1 am unable to say, and there- 
 fore will not magnify the danger beyond what it really was, 
 although all their precautions and manner seemed to say 
 that it was, in their estimation, very great. It certainly im- 
 parts a singular interest to a day's journey, to be on the 
 lookout every moment for nine hours, with the thought that 
 at any moment a body of murderous Kurds may appear rush- 
 ing upon you from the brow of a little hill to the right, or 
 from out a valley to the left. However we met with nothing 
 of the kind, nor saw any thing to confirm our fears, except- 
 ing in a few instances a Kurd watching us from some low 
 height, and when he saw himself discovered, suddenly dis- 
 appearing. This was enough to show that they were at 
 their old business, and the result would doubtless have been 
 different had our number or means of defence been less. 
 The predatory habits of the Kurds are such that one trav- 
 eller may pass at one hour without seeing any signs of 
 them, while at the next a poor passenger, less strongly pro- 
 tected, may be stripped from head to foot, if nothing worse 
 befalls him. 
 
 We rested at Alaja Khan that night with the Governor of 
 the village, a pleasant old Turk, who puzzled himself to dis- 
 cover the machinery of a lead pencil, by which the ink, as 
 he called it, flowed out upon the paper as soon as the pa- 
 per was touched. 
 
 The next morning we renewed our guard, and marched 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 75 
 
 to Hassan Tchelebi, and thence continued, after a repast 
 from the Governor, who bears the same name with his village, 
 which name has descended from father to son since the days 
 of Sultan Mourad, who for some favor done him, conferred the 
 title of Tchelebi (or gentleman) upon the Ayan then ruling 
 and made the government of the village hereditary in his 
 family. This man is one of a people who inhabit the coun- 
 try from Delikli Tash to Kabban Maden, about whom 
 strange things are told. They are Mussulmans, but are 
 supposed not to be Turks. Certain it is the Turks regard 
 them with great aversion, and say that they have abominable 
 practices which show them not to be true Mussulmans. 
 They call them Kizzil Bash (Redhead), and as this is the 
 nickname commonly applied to the Persians, my first con- 
 jecture was that they are descendants of some colony of 
 Persians brought hither by a Turkish Sultan. We know 
 that such colonies were sometimes formed, and this would 
 account sufficiently for the aversion which the Turks have 
 for them. 1 I could learn nothing from themselves, as they 
 constantly professed that they were Mussulmans and nothing 
 else. A traveller might pass through their country without 
 noticing any thing peculiar in their appearance or manners, 
 unless it might be their rudeness and inhospitality. They 
 leave their villages in summer and live in tents, and it is re- 
 ported that the Pashas are obliged to rule them tenderly for 
 fear of their escaping to the mountains. 
 
 The Hassan Tchelebi whom I saw when I passed through 
 the village in 1838, was dead, and his son, a man with a 
 beard already grizzled, ruled in his stead. The whole pop- 
 ulation were in their tents about an hour distant from their 
 village. The new Hassan Tchelebi appeared to great ad- 
 vantage, from having spent ten years at Constantinople, the 
 effect of which was very perceptible in the superiority of his 
 
 1 The hostility of Turks and Persians is notorious. 
 
76 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Turkish over the common jargon of the interior, and in his 
 peculiar adroitness in asking for presents. Another Hassan 
 Tchelebi, the heir apparent, about four years old, came in 
 to peep at us over his father's shoulder. 
 
 Hassan gave us two footmen to accompany us through the 
 valley which extends most of the way from his village to 
 Hekim Khan. We had had several alarms during the day, 
 though most of the people whom we met were Turcomans, 
 who had come up from the parts about Aintab and Karama- 
 nia to pasture their flocks on the green hills of the upland 
 country. The Kurds about Delikli Tash were from the 
 same quarter. 
 
 We saw nothing to attract our attention on the way to 
 Hekim Khan, (a small town of about 30 Armenian and 150 
 Mussulman houses,) but a multitude of wild flowers, among 
 others the yellow rose, on the stony side of the valley, and 
 almond bushes, whose fruit was bitter. 
 
 We slept at Hekim Khan in the same coffee-shop in which 
 I had breakfasted four years before. Every thing appeared 
 as if I had left it but yesterday, even to the ship upon the 
 wall, which some village artist, or perchance some lazy trav- 
 eller, detained for an hour, had drawn upon the wall. 
 
 We sought in vain to obtain a mounted escort for the 
 dreary mountains beyond Hekim Khan, and two stout foot- 
 men were all the pedestrians that could be had. Four hours, 
 over hills covered with oak shrubbery and wild almond trees, 
 brought us to the populous district of Argaoun, and four 
 more, over a hilly but more fertile country, to the Kizzil 
 Bash village of Suleimanieh. Here we were detained till 
 four P. M. for horses, but my anxiety to reach Kharpout on 
 the morrow determined me to push on to the Euphrates. 
 We travelled till midnight across a low country of dry hills 
 of red and white, with fertile valleys between. As night 
 set in, we secured the baggage and galloped away in the 
 light of the moon. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 77 
 
 The district of Argaoun contains some 62 villages. We 
 passed a large one where the governor of the district resides, 
 about an hour from Suleimanieh. The Kurdish population is 
 confined to the mountains beyond, and though riot, like their 
 brethren of Aintab, nomadic, are given to the same bad prac- 
 tices. A day or two before we passed, they had robbed a 
 poor postillion returning with his horses, and left him noth- 
 ing but his skin to travel home in, while the horses, being 
 the property of Government, they allowed to go as they 
 came. 
 
 The low country between Suleimanieh and the Euphra- 
 tes has no Kurdish population, and affords no pasturage for 
 the nomades. We passed over it therefore without a guard, 
 and reached the post-house on the bank of the Euphrates 
 just as night was turning its middle point. The river was 
 rolling its dark waters below, and its rushing sound harmo- 
 nized solemnly, though not unaptly, with the train of my 
 thoughts. As we had rode along at full speed, my mind had 
 been filled with the quiet beauty and the stillness of the 
 scene. The moon looking so calmly upon the earth, which 
 seemed (as if bound by her influence) resting for a brief 
 while from its din and toil ; the sense of the presence of God 
 which at that hour, more than any other, pervades the soul ; 
 the sight of his power in the calm, bright orbs above, and 
 the feeling of being alone with Him in the midst of his cre- 
 ation which presses in upon the mind with a vividness that 
 is seldom realized when the sun is shining and the world is 
 abroad all this disposed the mind to reflection, solemn, 
 calm, and quiet, like the scene around. Happy if at such 
 times one can see in the same hand which has spread the 
 heavens, and put their orbs in motion, and sustains and 
 guides them in their courses, the hand which supports him, 
 the Being whom he serves, the wisdom, the power, and the 
 goodness which are his security and strength. Happy if he 
 can bring home to himself from such a Being, the promise 
 
78 VISIT TO THE 
 
 that not a hair of his head is unnumbered amidst the im- 
 mensity of created things. Happy if in such an hour he 
 can see his path to be one of self-denying duty, and his pur- 
 poses, though compassed with infirmities, yet resting in God. 
 In my own mind, the thoughts and the consolation which 
 they brought with them, were associated with the prospect 
 immediately before me. On the morrow I hoped to reach 
 Kharpout, where was the first remnant of the venerable 
 Church to which I was going. My work seemed about to 
 begin, and the thoughts of my moonlight ride opened sources 
 of courage and comfort which failed me not in the lonely 
 trials of many a coming day. They were interrupted only 
 when we reined in our horses on the brink of the steep and 
 difficult descent which led down to the Euphrates. 
 
 I was up again at early dawn, and, embarked with horses 
 and luggage in the ferry-boat, was crossing the deep and 
 rapid stream of the old river, which here rolls its tide 
 through a narrow pass between high overhanging cliffs. 
 The passage is effected by letting the boat drift upward in 
 an eddy until it strikes the mid-current, when it is carried 
 rapidly down, the men the meantime plying their oars, until 
 it strikes the eddy on the opposite side, when it is again car- 
 ried safely to the landing-place. Ascending the bank, the 
 traveller finds himself in the town of Kabban Maden, fa- 
 mous for its silver mine. When I was here in 1838, the 
 whole country, from near Mossoul to within a few hours of 
 the Black Sea, was subjected to a single Pasha resident at 
 Kharpout. Now it was divided into three parts, the East- 
 ernmost of which, including Mardin, had been annexed to 
 the pashalik of Mossoul, and the Northernmost, called the 
 pashalik of Sivas, had been erected into a separate province, 
 extending Southward as far as Argaoun. Kabban Maden, 
 with the district of Argaoun, had been placed under an- 
 other Pasha subordinate to the Pasha of Kharpout, and the 
 province of Diarbekir, under a Pasha of its own, remained, 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 79 
 
 as before, subject to the Mushir 1 of Kharpout. These 
 changes show how little dependence can be placed upon the 
 divisions of provinces, or Sanjaks, which are given in some 
 of the maps. While I was in the country, another change 
 took place, transferring the district of Jezireh, North of the 
 Tigris, from Diarbekir to Mossoul. Such changes as these, 
 and still more the frequent change of rulers, is enough of 
 itself to retard the progress of civilization, and reduce the 
 country to poverty and misery. Works begun by one Pasha 
 are neglected by his successor; the system of government 
 is changed, at least in its details, by every new incumbent, 
 and the people are hardly free from the extortions of one 
 ruler before another, with an empty pocket and a heavy 
 hand, enters to begin the same system of oppression, which 
 is always most severe at the commencement of the new 
 government. Pashas, expecting to retain their place but a 
 few months or years, are tempted to use all their opportu- 
 nities for extortion, and this is repeated anew with every 
 change. The rulers feel but little interest in the welfare of 
 their provinces, and have no encouragement, even if they 
 are so disposed, to commence improvements which they 
 cannot hope to finish. Among all the causes of degradation 
 and decay which prevail in the interior of Turkey, this is 
 perhaps the most prominent, and the evil is aggravated, if 
 not perpetuated, by the recurrence of similar changes in 
 the heads of the administration in the capital. It is one of 
 many corruptions which seem too deeply inwrought ever to 
 be eradicated, and which throw a gloomy shade over the 
 prospects of Mohammedan domination in Turkey. 
 
 I was three hours in making my way through the deep 
 gorge in which the town of Kabban Maden lies, and three 
 more over the hills to the plain of Kharpout, one of the 
 richest and most productive districts in the whole Turkish 
 
 1 Mushir a Pasha of the highest rank. 
 
80 VISIT TO THE 
 
 territory, abounding in villages, chiefly Armenian, well 
 watered and under thorough cultivation. At the Armenian 
 village of Arpaout, where I stopped for breakfast, I began 
 to make inquiries for the Syrians. The people informed 
 me that there were about one hundred families of them in 
 the town of Kharpout, and a village inhabited by them on 
 the plain. I observed that the Armenians did not know 
 them under the name which I used, Syriani; but called 
 them ASSOURI, which struck me the more at the moment 
 from its resemblance to our English name Assyrians, from 
 whom they claim their origin, being sons, as they say, of 
 Assour, (Asshur,) who " out of the land of Shinar went 
 forth, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and 
 Calah, and Resin between Nineveh and Calah : the same is 
 a great city." 1 
 
 From Arpaout I crossed a part of the plain and a low 
 range of hills, to Merizah, a village situated in another por- 
 tion of the great plain, and distinguished as the residence of 
 the Pasha of Kharpout. About three miles from the village 
 we passed a large Armenian monastery, lying near the road 
 on the left. There is another in the same part of the plain, 
 one hour Southwest from Merizah, a third about the same 
 distance South of West, and a fourth about four hours to 
 the Southeast, and near the little lake of Gheuljuk. All 
 these are Armenian monasteries, and the fact of their exist- 
 ence is enough to show that the Christian population of the 
 province must be very large, and probably has been long 
 established there. In some of the villages, Syrians are 
 mixed with the Armenians, and worship in their Churches 
 with them. There is also a Syrian Bishop of Kharpout, 
 resident in one of the villages of Kurdistan, to the East, 
 and (a fact not without significance in speaking of an 
 Eastern Bishop) he is a widower. 
 
 1 Genesis 10: 11,12. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 81 
 
 I was at first surprised to find so large a population of 
 Syrians so far separated from the mass of their community 
 in Mesopotamia and Syria, for there are none to be found 
 South of this till you reach Diarbekir, nearly a hundred 
 miles distant from Kharpout. But when I afterwards 
 learned the extent of their population in Kurdistan, I saw 
 that those of Kharpout were only a continuation of that 
 population from the East, and not, as I had at first sup- 
 posed, emigrants from the South. 
 
82 VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Village of Merizah. Population of Syrians Change of Climate. 
 Day of Preparation. Kharpout. The Town. Churches. For- 
 tress. The Syrian Church of Kharpout. The Court. The Interior. 
 Pictures. Miracles. The Altar. The Bishop's Chair. The 
 Font. The Books. Origin of the Church. Its History. The Priest. 
 Journey resumed. Place of Pilgrimage. Fish. Incident with a 
 Christian. Argana Maden. Passage of the Taurus. Famine. 
 Dangers. Preparations. New Companion. The Tartar. The 
 Monastery. Report concerning it. Death Abroad. 
 
 THE village of Merizah is an unimportant place in itself, 
 but is worthy of being mentioned again as the seat of 
 government of a large province. The Pasha of Kharpout 
 has his residence here. The place was selected by a 
 former Pasha on account of its situation in a district capa- 
 ble of sustaining a large army. It was here too that his 
 successor, Hafiz Pasha, collected his forces previous to his 
 expedition into Syria, which ended in the defeat of the 
 Turkish army at Nezib. I stopped a day at Merizah for 
 the purpose of making inquiries about the Syrians of the 
 district. I had learned from their Patriarch in 1838, that 
 there were about 800 families of them in the town and 
 vicinity of Kharpout, but subsequent information led me to 
 believe that there were not more than 600. Perhaps it 
 would be difficult to ascertain the exact number, nor is it 
 a matter of much importance. 
 
 The first day I could obtain no horses for visiting the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. *<J 
 
 town, which lies at the top of a mountain overlooking the 
 plain, and is only one hour North of Merizah. I would 
 gladly have walked, but the heat, which even at this early 
 season was oppressive, prevented me. We had come sud- 
 denly from the cool region of the North into this district 
 infested with fevers and burning with heat. The very fer- 
 tility which makes it so attractive, arises in part from a 
 cause which makes it unhealthy. The vast plain is inter- 
 sected by rivulets in every direction, which are turned off 
 at short intervals to water the ground. I thought it most 
 prudent to avoid the heat, which we now felt for the first 
 time in our journey, and therefore spent the day at the post- 
 house. 
 
 It was Friday, and the 28th of the month. Many faith- 
 ful ones had promised to remember me on the weekly fast 
 of the Church, and it was some compensation for the 
 disappointment of not visiting the town, that I had such a 
 day for rest and solemn preparation. It seemed appropriate 
 that this of all days should immediately precede my first 
 labors in the enterprise which I had in view, and that it 
 should be so spent. I sat by the side of a fountain in front 
 of the post-house listening to the gurgling of its waters, 
 while my thoughts were carried away to the captives of 
 Judah, who sat down by the waters of Babylon and wept 
 when they remembered Zion. How naturally and rapidly 
 my mind reverted to the Church, the daughter of Zion, 
 which sitteth captive in the land of my pilgrimage, and 
 knoweth not the time of her deliverance. "If I forget thee, 
 O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I 
 do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of 
 my mouth; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth." * 
 
 The next morning I succeeded in obtaining^ horses, and 
 went to the town, which is situated, as I have said, on the 
 
 1 Ps. 137 : 5, 6 ; in the Psalms for the 28th day. 
 
84 VISIT TO THE 
 
 top of a lofty rock, and contains about 2000 inhabitants. I 
 soon found out some Greek friends from European Turkey, 
 who had called upon me the preceding day, and went with 
 them to the Syrian Church. On the way they told me that 
 they had once requested the use of the Church for worship 
 on the great festivals, and it had been granted, but after a 
 short time the order was revoked, on the ground that the 
 Greeks might some day rise and claim the Church for their 
 own. 
 
 To the East of the town of Kharpout, on a pinnacle of 
 the rock on which the town is built, stands the ancient for- 
 ress. Its walls are nearly in ruin, and no inscription that 
 I could discover, excepting one on the Eastern tower, ap- 
 parently in Arabic, but too high up for my eyes to decipher, 
 remains to tell when it was built or who were the builders. 
 I did not stay long to examine it, for the church lies under 
 the Eastern face of this pinnacle,un a humble, secret nook, 
 looking down upon a deep ravine below. We knocked at 
 the outer gate. It was opened by a child. As we entered, 
 a middle-aged woman made her appearance, and, recogniz- 
 ing my companions, saluted us cordially. We had entered 
 a little court, on one side of which was the Church, and 
 on the other sides the priests' houses. The woman, who 
 was the wife of one of the two priests belonging to the 
 Church, made no answer to our request to see the interior, 
 but produced the keys, and, with some little show of hesita- 
 tion, opened the low, heavy door. We stooped to enter by 
 the humble portal, while the woman, leading the way 
 through a dark passage, opened another massive door which 
 admitted us into the nave of the Church. One might have 
 thought he was going into a dungeon, so dark and dismal 
 was it, of rather, shall I say, into some Christian tem- 
 ple of early days, when the persecuted followers of Christ 
 worshipped in secret places for fear of their enemies? Ex- 
 cept a faint glimmering from a small window of stained 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 85 
 
 glass above the altar, hardly a ray of light . found its way 
 into the interior. We lighted candles and began to explore. 
 On the east side was the altar, and at the opposite extremity 
 a gallery for the women. Ey the light of our candles we 
 discovered pictures in different parts of the Church, 
 rude paintings, one representing the crucifixion, another 
 the baptism of Christ, a third the Virgin Mary, with little 
 silver arms and legs, and pieces of money attached to it as 
 thank-offerings for cures supposed to have been performed 
 by her intercession. 1 An old priest, who presently made 
 his appearance from the dark passage, assured us that the 
 Church was celebrated for its miraculous cures, and in 
 proof thereof showed us a chain with a collar for the neck. 
 When any one becomes mad, he is brought to the Church, 
 and, being confined with this chain, is placed before the 
 reading desk in front of the chancel. Prayers are then 
 said over him by the priest, and continued until the collar 
 unclasps itself and falls to the ground, and the man stands 
 up before them all, restored and in his right mind ! 
 
 The altar itself was of the plainest description, and the 
 vessels and vestments belonging to it, poor and soiled. It 
 was so far from the wall that one might walk behind, and 
 on each side of it was a little cell, or oratory, where the 
 eucharistic service is said in silence. Each was lighted by 
 a dungeon crevice in the wall. On the north side of the 
 altar, between it and the oratory on that side, stood the 
 Bishop's chair and staff; and on the south side the baptis- 
 mal font of stone. Within the font lay a dirty phial con- 
 taining the meiron used in chrism. In front of the Bishop's 
 chair and against the chancel rail stood another desk where 
 the lessons and some other parts of the service are read. 
 
 1 This is the only picture of the kind that I have ever seen in a Syrian 
 Church, and I presume in this instance it was placed there by the Greeks 
 when they were allowed to worship there, and had never been taken 
 down. 
 
86 VISIT TO THE 
 
 That without the chancel is for the reading of the Gospel. 
 Upon it lay a copy of the New Testament in Syriac. I 
 was surprised to find on opening it that it was printed, the 
 Church books among the Syrians being ordinarily in manu- 
 script. On looking farther I discovered that it was of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society's edition, and great was 
 my surprise to see it in its curious Oriental dress, for the 
 covers had been overlaid with plates of silver on which 
 were embossed figures of Christ and other devices. It is 
 customary among the Orientals to honor their sacred books 
 in this way. Another copy of the New Testament was in 
 MS. and bore the date 1892, referring, doubtless, to the 
 Alexandrian era, which is still in use among the Syrians. 
 That era is 311 years older than our own. The volume 
 was therefore written in 1581 A.D., or 263 years ago. 
 
 On the altar lay the Liturgy, a service for Communion, 
 and another small volume containing the services for Bap- 
 tism, Matrimony, and Burial. A large folio lay upon one of 
 the reading desks, in which was contained the order of 
 services for all the Sundays and great festivals in the year, 
 and another containing the services for week days, which 
 are read through once every week, each day of the week 
 having its own service. 
 
 The priest informed me that the Church was built origin- 
 ally by the Apostle Adi, or Thaddeus, and that it was 
 afterwards enriched by the munificence of the pious to an 
 incredible degree, its vaulted ceiling being lined with plates 
 of gold. When Timourleng invaded these countries, so went 
 on the story of the priest, he discovered the Church from 
 the summit of a rock which rises (like that on which the 
 citadel stands) on the opposite side of the ravine, to the 
 East. The robber chieftain sent and pillaged it, carrying 
 away all its vessels and stores of silver and gold. He then 
 filled it with straw and attempted to set it on fire, but he 
 succeeded only in blackening its walls. I found no inscrip- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 87 
 
 tions about the Church, (the priest said they were all obi iter- 
 ated by the fire,) excepting one in Syriac on a slab in the 
 pavement, and this was hardly legible. It was doubtless a 
 grave-stone ; the priest knew not of whom, but the woman 
 said it covered the remains of one Helena, who erected the 
 present building on the site of the Church built by the 
 Apostle. 
 
 I endeavored to converse with the old man, but he was 
 slow to communicate, and answered my inquiries evasively 
 When I told him that I hoped soon to see his Patriarch, he 
 unbended a little, and replied, " Say to him, I kiss his 
 hand." He assured me that there were no more than 45 
 Syrian families in the town, and a few in four of the villages, 
 in all about 150 Syrian families in the district of Kharpout. 
 Such statements, however, are not to be depended upon, as 
 the poor oppressed Christians throughout the interior almost 
 uniformly, through fear, make their numbers to appear as 
 small as possible. He told me farther, that the Armenians 
 and Syrians live together on terms of the closest intimacy, 
 and go to each other's Churches, but do not intermarry. 
 Their common language in the district is Turkish, in which 
 language it is that the Athour of the Syriac and Arabic is 
 converted into Asour, and the Athouri of the Arabic, 
 (Syriac, Othoroyo,) into Asouri, the common name of the 
 Syrians. 
 
 Immediately on my return to the post-house I mounted 
 again and pursued my journey. Four hours over the plain, 
 and nearly as many more over a tedious range of mountains, 
 brought us to the Lake Gheuljuk, a beautiful sheet of water 
 reposing among the mountains. At its southern extremity 
 is an island with a Church upon it, to which the people go 
 in pilgrimage once a year. They told me a sad tale of a 
 party of sixty who were drowned by the swamping of a boat 
 in going to it the year before. 
 
 We passed round the southern head of the lake, and 
 
88 VISIT TO THE 
 
 purchased a few fish from some poor Christians that were 
 drawing a net to the shore. They proved a savory morsel 
 to us, and saved us from going to bed supperless at the 
 miserable khan where we spent the night. 
 
 A little incident had occurred during the day which 
 pleased me much, and to show that traits worthy of a Chris- 
 tain people are to be seen even where our holy religion has 
 lost something of its life and power, I will relate it. While 
 travelling over the plain of Kharpout, we passed a young 
 Armenian, who was trudging along on foot in the same 
 direction with ourselves. He saluted us civilly, and I 
 entered into conversation with him. When he saw that I 
 was a Christian, he became communicative and told me all 
 his story. A few months before, he had had a difference 
 with another Armenian, a young man and a cousin, living in 
 the same village. His cousin, in his anger, had brought 
 several charges against him, and endeavored to put him 
 into prison. Not succeeding in this, they parted enemies, 
 and his cousin soon after left the village. Lately news had 
 reached his home, that the young man had been unfortu- 
 nate, and for some trifling offence had been thrown into 
 prison. His cousin immediately set himself to work and 
 collected money enough to obtain his release. "I thought 
 I ought not," he said, " to remember what he did against 
 me, for we were always good friends, and he did it in a 
 moment of passion." He told the whole story in so simple 
 and unpretending a manner, taking equal blame to himself 
 for their quarrel, that I did not doubt he told the truth. 
 He had come two days on foot, and had two more to travel 
 before he could reach his place of destination. He footed 
 it so bravely over the hills that he kept in sight of us most 
 of the day. As night came on, we halted in a meadow 
 where a herd of horses, belonging to the post-house which 
 we had last left, were feeding, under the care of two or 
 three ostlers. We managed to change some of our jaded 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 89 
 
 animals for fresh ones, and as we had to cross the Taurus 
 before we could obtain others, I took the precaution to add 
 two or three led-horses to our retinue, to take the place of 
 any that might happen to break down on the mountains. 
 As we were on the point of resuming our inarch, the young 
 Armenian overtook us. Seeing that* he was faint with 
 fatigue, and knowing that the country was not safe for a 
 solitary traveller, I requested him to mount one of the led- 
 horses and accompany us to the khan where we expected 
 to spend the night. This little show of attention to a poor 
 rayah roused the ire of the postillion a brutal Mussulman, 
 as destitute of feeling as the horse which he bestrode. He 
 poured out a volley of execrations on the head of the 
 astounded Armenian, who, fearing to resist or reply, began to 
 slink away. I thought it was time to interpose, and riding 
 up to the postillion I told him that I too was a Giaour, (a 
 word with which he had plentifully interlarded his speech,) 
 and that I would not suffer any fellow Giaour to be abused for 
 his religion, (if the man had been a Mussulman, the fellow 
 would have been the first to give him a ride,) and finally, that 
 while he was in my service, which was till we reached the 
 next post, I should take every insult offered to a Christian 
 as an insult to me, and deal with him accordingly. The 
 man made no reply, and the Armenian, who had probably 
 never heard such language from a Christian to a Mussulman 
 before, came back at my bidding and mounted the horse 
 with a half-reluctant air, as if he feared that the enraged 
 postillion might find an oppportunity for wreaking his 
 vengeance upon him at some future day. 
 
 The night was dark, gloomy, and cold, and as we start- 
 ed, we heard the cry of a hungry wolf near by, which, 
 pinched with hunger, was filling the air with his dismal 
 howl. Right glad were we when we drew up after an 
 hour's ride, before the door of the khan, which was to be 
 our resting-place for the night. 
 
90 VISIT TO THE 
 
 The next day we crossed the Taurus, in about eight 
 hours, to Argana. The pretty town of Argana Maden lies 
 half way upon the road, in a gorge of the mountains through 
 which the Tigris pours its discolored waters It is cele- 
 brated for its copper-mines, which I judged to be in a pros- 
 perous state, from the fact, that it was one of the very few 
 towns in Turkey which seemed to be upon the increase. 
 New buildings were going up, and the whole wore an air 
 of newness and neatness, which afforded a delightful con- 
 trast to the faded and decaying appearance of most Turkish 
 towns. Here we parted with our Armenian friend, who 
 had reached the end of his journey. Whether he was suc- 
 cessful in the object of it I never heard. 
 
 The passage of the Taurus, which three years ago filled 
 me with impressions of the awful and sublime, was now 
 tame and uninteresting. Whether it was the familiarity of 
 the scenes, or the want of certain stirring incidents which 
 added to the impression in the first instance, I will not pre- 
 tend to say, but certain it was, that the mountains which 
 seemed before to abound in the picturesque and the grand, 
 now appeared destitute of both, a mere tedious succession 
 of ups and downs. It was some relief when we reached the 
 last height and looked down on the far-spreading plains of 
 Diarbekir, stretching off in the distance like the sea in a 
 calm, and descried to the S. E. the well-known range of 
 the dark Karajah. 
 
 Arrived at Argana, lying upon the steep slope beneath a 
 lofty peak, whose top is crowned with the remains of an an- 
 cient fortress, the same sights met my eyes which I had 
 witnessed in Sivas ; here, however, aggravated in degree. 
 Half naked and famishing children, driven from their homes 
 by hunger, clustered around the door of the little cafe 
 where I had taken lodgings, their pallid faces and shrivelled 
 limbs showing too plainly the extent of their sufferings. 
 Some were so reduced by famine that the muscular parts 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 91 
 
 of the body, as the thigh and calf of the leg, had quite 
 gone, and they appeared like walking skeletons more than 
 human beings. But these were only faint touches of the 
 picture which I was to see at Diarbekir in all its frightful 
 reality, 
 
 I was detained two days at Argana for the want of 
 horses, and falling into company with an Armenian of Con- 
 stantinople, on his way to Bagdad, we determined, for 
 mutual security, to join forces. We had heard nothing of 
 the Kurds since we left Kaban Maden, but frightful stories 
 were rife at Argana of their depredations upon the desert 
 between that place and Diarbekir. On account of the 
 heat, we thought it best to travel by night, and we flattered 
 ourselves that in this way we should be more likely to 
 escape observation. The governor furnished us with a 
 guard, and several poor people of the country, who were 
 waiting for an escort, joined our company, besides a fat 
 Tatar, who endeavored to make it appear that his going 
 with us was intended for our protection instead of his own, 
 He talked so largely about it that we began to suspect him of 
 being an arrant coward. If the truth were told, however, there 
 was probably no one of us who would not have avoided the 
 twelve hours' journey over the desert, if he could. For my 
 own part, I am free to confess, that the prospect of such a 
 journey always excites a peculiar train of sensations, or, in 
 other words, that I never enter upon it without secretly 
 wishing it were over. I have never seen the time, however, 
 when, however pressing the danger might appear, there was 
 not consolation and strength in the thought that the line of 
 duty lay straight through it. 
 
 There is a monastery near Argana, on the height above 
 the town, which I would have visited, but the intenseness 
 of the heat, which I did not care to encounter in any thing 
 aside from my work, deterred me. The monastery belongs 
 to the Armenians, and is called Asdvatzatzin, or the Mon- 
 
92 VISIT TO THE 
 
 astery of the Blessed Virgin. It is said to be rich, and the 
 monks were described to me as leading an easy and com- 
 fortable life, far above (at least in point of local position) 
 the cares and tumults of the world. I was told that they 
 have a rich and beautiful Church, and a library well-stocked 
 with books. An Englishman had died in the monastery 
 only a few weeks before I passed, and I afterwards saw in 
 Diarbekir a part of his property, which had been sold in 
 the bazars by his servant. The thoughts of thus dying 
 away from one's kindred are not pleasant to the mortal 
 sense, but they will sometimes force themselves upon the 
 mind of the lonely traveller, and recall bright visions of 
 home and all who are loved there ; and the many, many 
 leagues that he is away from it. Happy, then, if Faith can 
 point him to a better home, and gather around it brighter 
 visions, and check his love of earth by the hope of its rest 
 and its reward ! 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Departure from Argana. Our Company. The Desert by Night. Meet- 
 ing with Kurds. Hostile Preparations. The Event. Repose on the 
 Grass. Famine. First Impressions. Scenes from the Famine. 
 Causes of it. A Feast. Hard Drinking. Hardness of Heart. Out- 
 rage upon the Christians. Mussulman Bigotry. Justice in Turkey. 
 
 WE started a little before sunset on the 31st of May. 
 Our party, as we wound our way down from the steep rock 
 of Argana to the plain, presented a very imposing array. 
 The Armenian's and my own were five in number. Then 
 came the Tatar, with his guide ; and after him followed a 
 little troop of men, some on foot, and some on donkeys. 
 These, however, being chiefly peasants, who had no other 
 means of defence than a stout cudgel, added little to our 
 available force. Upon counting our arms there were found 
 eight pistols, three swords, and a gun. The last-mentioned 
 implement was in the hands of a Kurd, who talked so know- 
 ingly of the predatory habits of his brethren, that some sus- 
 pected him of having had a little practice himself. He was 
 one of two men who formed my body-guard, and being, for 
 the present at least, as sent by the Governor, a trusty fel- 
 low, his supposed experience was regarded by most of the 
 party as an important recommendation. He was a fine stout 
 man, in the full dress of his countrymen, frank and sociable, 
 and, more than all, he was the captain of our forces. 
 
 We did not emerge from the hills until twilight was gone, 
 and the moon was shining in full lustre upon the wide- 
 
94 VISIT TO THE 
 
 spread plain. By this time, too, the songs and mirth, and 
 busy hum of voices, with which the march commenced, had 
 subsided, and we moved along in gloomy silence, each one 
 occupied with his own thoughts. After proceeding in this 
 manner a few hours, the Tatar, who was a few rods in ad- 
 vance, came back, and reported that a strong party were ad- 
 vancing towards us from the left. As the guides knew of 
 no road in that direction, the circumstance seemed a little 
 suspicious. At least so thought our captain, who imme- 
 diately ordered us to fall into close order, prepare our arms, 
 and keep a strict silence. He then unslung his gun, and 
 took the lead on foot. A few moments of confusion follow- 
 ed, each one being apparently animated by a desire to march 
 in the centre of the body, which occasioned considerable 
 difficulty in forming our van. At length our ranks were 
 formed, two marching abreast, and the baggage horses in the 
 centre. Pistols were taken out, swords displayed, every 
 man's flint and priming examined; and then followed a dead 
 pause. My Armenian friend found his courage sinking, and 
 applied himself to a large gourd, which he had taken care to 
 fill with the choice wine of Argana. When he had drunk 
 he smacked his lips, and declared himself a braver man. 
 Others begged for a drop of the courage-giving liquid, but 
 my worthy friend had emptied the vessel at a draught. I 
 will only add that the wine was obtained for him by a Mus- 
 sulman, who brought it to the cafe under his cloak, and 
 begged the physician, for such he was, to let no one know 
 from whom he had it. 1 
 
 The party who had created all this alarm and perturba- 
 tion, were now in full view, and only a few rods in advance. 
 They were seven men, well mounted, and our captain re- 
 ported, in a whisper, that they were Kurds, and robbers. 
 
 1 The Koran will explain the cause of his timidity, that remarkable 
 book being " total abstinence" in its precepts, so far as relates to wine. 
 
SYRIAN CIIURCH. 95 
 
 Just then we discovered that two of our party, whom we had 
 taken to be Kurdish peasants, were missing. We began to 
 suspect foul play ; and this, coupled with the ominous intel- 
 ligence from the front, cast a deeper gloom over the party. 
 What if the missing men had stolen round and communi- 
 cated with the enemy ! They must have learned our real 
 weakness, which we fain hoped the darkness of the night 
 would conceal. They would also learn the rich prey which 
 awaited them, for we were come from Constantinople, and 
 had nine horse-loads, eight of which belonged to the phy- 
 sician. But there was no time to remedy the evil, for just 
 as we discovered it, an order came from the captain that no 
 one should fire until he gave the word, and had fired himself. 
 This was whispered back from rank to rank, until it reached 
 my ears. I was in the rear rank, with a travelling compan- 
 ion of the physician, who complained bitterly that his friend 
 had left him none of the wine. Before us were the servants, 
 the baggage-horses, and the men on foot ; in front of them 
 were the Tatar and the physician, occupying, notwithstand- 
 ing the bravery of their wine and big words, the safest place 
 in the company. The van before them was formed of two 
 or three ranks of armed footmen, and at the head of all 
 marched the captain. As he uttered his last command he 
 cocked his gun. The die seemed cast. I uttered a short 
 prayer, and awaited the result with more quietness as the 
 danger came nearer. All this passed in a shorter time than 
 I have taken to relate it. We could now discover that the 
 enemy had dismounted. They approached, and slowly 
 crossing our path, moved along to a little hillock on our 
 right, which they ascended. No hail was given, nor word 
 spoken. On the top of the hillock they halted, and turning 
 full upon us, one of them mounted his horse. The others 
 stood by, ready to spring into their saddles, and we fully ex- 
 pected they would do so, and the whole body come rushing 
 down upon us like the whirlwind, after the manner of the 
 
96 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Kurds. At this moment our captain ordered us to open our 
 ranks, so as to display our numbers, which we did ; but 
 so as to cover our baggage, by keeping between it and the 
 enemy. The trick seemed to succeed ; the party kept their 
 places, and leisurely surveyed us for a few moments, when 
 they suddenly disappeared behind the hillock. The captain 
 thought that they might move round, and attack us in the 
 rear ; and two of our company, of whom I was one, were or- 
 dered to fall back, and keep a good look-out. For a few 
 minutes we remained in anxious suspense, when the enemy 
 no more appearing, our fears gradually subsided, and we 
 went on our way ; every one of us, I believe, a relieved and 
 happier man. One or two even attempted to get up a song 
 in triumph or defiance, but it soon quavered, trembled, and 
 died away ; we were not yet ready for that. In the mean 
 while our captain quietly returned his gun to its sling, and 
 resumed his place in the company the only one who seem- 
 ed not to have been considerably agitated. 
 
 At midnight we had accomplished half the journey, and 
 concluded, after some discussion, to stop and rest. At the 
 spot stood a khan, which had been built by Hafiz Pasha, 
 whose plan it was to make the desert an inhabited place. It 
 had been neglected by his successor, and was now partly in 
 ruins. We did not choose to enter it, but, disposing our- 
 selves upon the grass, unloaded our horses, and, tying 
 their feet, let them loose to graze. We then set a guard, 
 and each one lying down by his baggage, we soon fell 
 asleep. After half an hour I awoke, and on looking round 
 for the guard, found that they were all wrapped in deep 
 slumber. What a prey for the Kurds ! I thought of it for 
 a moment, and then falling back went to sleep again. Hap- 
 pily no one molested us. We woke at day-break, loaded our 
 horses, and proceeded to the city. 
 
 I had heard of the famine at Diarbekir from the worthy 
 Governor of Gumush Khaneh, but I did not expect to behold 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 97 
 
 such scenes as met my eyes as soon as I had entered the 
 city. We had just passed the Constantinople gate, and were 
 slowly making our way through the crowded streets, when 
 my horse suddenly started at something lying before him in 
 the road. On looking down I saw a human being stretched 
 upon his back with his face upturned to the hot sun. His 
 eye met mine, and such a look of misery and despair my eye 
 never encountered. Before I could stop, or make any in- 
 quiry, we were hurried by, and the crowd closed in behind 
 us. I put a question to the guide, but he answered only by 
 that peculiar " don't know and don't care" shrug of the 
 shoulders which the traveller is often obliged to take for an 
 answer in Turkey. Before we reached our lodgings, we 
 passed four or five others in the same situation. Some had 
 covered their faces, but we could see by the quivering of 
 their limbs, and the short, quick breathing which agitated the 
 thin garments upon their breasts, that they were in the ago- 
 nies of death. Of the others I cannot now recal, the ex- 
 pression, for the sight was becoming familiar, with every re- 
 currence ; but the look of that first created a new image in 
 my mind, which can never be effaced. It was a first, fresh 
 impression. The picture is as vivid as if I saw it but yes- 
 terday. I see it now those glassy eyes, that ghastly death- 
 struck look, that expression of mingled suffering, despair, and 
 supplication. May I never look upon the like again ! 
 
 As soon as we had settled ourselves in our lodgings, I 
 went out to survey the scene more extensively. I needed 
 not to go far, the dying and dead were all around some 
 lying in the middle of the streets liable to be trod upon by 
 every passing horse, some at the gates of the rich, some in the 
 outlets of the city, but most of all in the principal thorough- 
 fares and bazars. All around, men were buying and selling ; 
 here a cook-shop sending forth its savory odors, and there 
 a bake-house with its store of fresh bread displayed abroad ; 
 
98 VISIT TO THE 
 
 here a butcher's stall, and there a seller of vegetables, fruits, 
 water, sherbets, even the luxuries of life; and these poor 
 emaciated wretches lying in the midst of all, pining, sink- 
 ing, dying of utter starvation! Who would believe it? 
 At one corner might be seen one, a squalid child, stretching 
 out its shrivelled fingers to seize a bone thrown out for the 
 dogs ; there another actually consuming some offal which it 
 had found in the streets. There, under the eaves of a house, 
 lies a man of powerful frame, but reduced to the dimensions 
 of a skeleton, who has resigned himself to his fate and has 
 covered up his face to die. See how his breast heaves and 
 his limbs tremble in his last agony. Here is a mother with 
 one infant at the breast, and another a year or two older at 
 her knee. What puny, emaciated things! They hardly 
 seem like human beings. And she who gave them birth, 
 how piteous and wo-begone she looks, and what a suppli- 
 cating eye she raises as I pass ! Who can resist such an 
 appeal ? And yet the busy throng move on, heedless of the 
 misery in their very paths. They seem not even to notice 
 the forlorn sufferers, much less to pity them. They would 
 be more merciful to brutes ; what can have steeled their 
 hearts against men of flesh and blood like themselves ? Here 
 passes a Christian priest. Surely the minister of Him who 
 taught us to love even our enemies, to do good to all men, to 
 do to others as we would that others should do to us, will 
 look with compassion upon these dying wretches. But no ; 
 he appears not to see them or hear their cry. A body ap- 
 parently lifeless lies before him in his very path. He must 
 step aside to avoid it. He does so, and passes on. Near 
 by lies a woman. She has rested her head upon a stone, 
 but in her agony her head has moved back and hangs over 
 the stone, which is beneath her neck. In this position she 
 is uttering the most heart-piercing cry for mercy. The 
 priest, as he passes, turns his head, for a moment, in that 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 99 
 
 direction. Who could avoid hearing such unearthly cries? 
 He will stop and speak to her. No; he has gone by without 
 deigning a second glance. 
 
 "What is the reason of all this ?" I said to a very respecta- 
 ble Mohammedan with whom I was walking. He had heard 
 of our arrival from Constantinople, and having called upon 
 us to hear the news, went out with me to the bath. 
 
 "They'are Kurds," he replied. 
 
 " But they are Mussulmans also, men of your own faith ; 
 why do you not take care of them ?" 
 
 " Let the dogs die !" was the horridly inhuman answeT. 
 " We have had trouble enough with them. We should like 
 to see them all, the whole race of them, dying in the same 
 way." 
 
 The reader must understand that the Kurds of the 
 province of Diarbekir have always been discontented and 
 dangerous subjects, and that this feeling has increased 
 since the late Sultan attempted to subdue them and intro- 
 duce among them his new military system. They were 
 taken by force from their villages and enlisted in the army. 
 I remember having seen, during my first visit to the city, 
 about two hundred of their young men driven in like cattle, 
 their aged parents following, weeping and wringing their 
 hands. The Kurds have a vague, undefined horror of 
 the Nizamijedid, or " new order," and doubtless it has been 
 a great misfortune to them. They have seen their villages 
 invaded by recruiting officers, and their children wrested 
 from them and forced into the army. The novelty of the 
 thing has made the calamity seem more grievous. It was 
 no wonder, therefore, that on the defeat of the Turkish army 
 at Nezib in 1839, they arose to wreak their vengeance 
 upon their oppressors, little reflecting that the anarchy 
 which then existed must soon pass away, and that by such 
 acts they were only laying up a long account against them- 
 
I no 
 
 VISIT TO THE 
 
 selves, which they must settle when order returned. The 
 Mussulmans of the city have contracted a strong aversion 
 to the Kurds, or rather have strengthened that which has 
 long existed. During the last two years the rains failed, 
 and the crops were consequently cut off. The Kurds, driven 
 from their homes by hunger, were compelled to fly to the 
 town, and here no one was found who would have pity 
 upon them. They died by hundreds in the streets, twenty 
 or thirty dying daily. When the spring returned, many 
 contrived to live on herbs and berries which they found in 
 the fields, but still, at the time of my visit, from five to ten 
 expired daily in the streets. The famine had been so severe, 
 that they ate the most offensive things, such as dead cats 
 and dogs, and even human flesh. How beings, in the shape 
 of humanity, could stand by and see such events passing 
 before their very eyes, without raising a finger to relieve 
 them, I am at a loss to imagine. I had it from very re- 
 spectable authority, that between four and five thousand 
 had thus perished in the streets of Diarbekir all of them 
 Kurds. Some of the depopulated villages contained Ar- 
 menians, but these had been cared for by their own people. 
 Thus, at the house where I tarried, whenever the voice of a 
 beggar was heard at the gate, if it was in Armenian, or 
 asked alms " in the name of Christ" a servant was imme- 
 diately sent out with money or provisions. If it was in 
 Kurdish, no one took any notice of it. I was astonished at 
 the hard-heartedness of the Christians. On the evening fol- 
 lowing that of my arrival, I was invited to dine at the house 
 of a wealthy Christian merchant, where I met with several 
 ecclesiastics of different ranks. The dinner was served in 
 the open air, at ten o'clock, P. M., at the special request (as 
 to the time) of my Armenian friend and myself, the fashion- 
 able hour being six o'clock, Turkish time, which would 
 be, according to our computation, at this season, about one 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 101 
 
 hour after midnight. 1 As we were to start early on the 
 morrow, we begged our host to show us Constantinople 
 civility, and give us our dinner at sunset; but this was so 
 exceedingly vulgar that he could not be brought to consent 
 to it. With great difficulty we obtained a compromise, and 
 the dinner was served at ten. The rich of Diarbekir are 
 well-known for the luxuriousness and richness of their ta- 
 bles, for the excellence of their liquors, and, I am sorry 
 to add, their very free use of them. On the present 
 occasion we assembled soon after sunset, from which time 
 till ten o'clock there was an incessant round of pipes, na- 
 ghilehs,* coffee, and wine. The table was spread with a 
 dozen different kinds of dried fruit, intended as a provo- 
 cative to the appetite. Interspersed among them were 
 goblets and vases filled with the rosy liquid. These, how- 
 ever, were only for show. By the side of the table stood 
 buckets filled with iced water, and in them stood the vessels 
 from which, ever and anon, the servants filled the glasses of 
 the guests. Now and then one would perambulate with a 
 smaller vessel and a waiter of cups, each holding hardly 
 more than a large thimble-full of rakkee, 3 which he 
 would administer to those who preferred such potent li- 
 quor. Think of such a ceremony continuing for six or 
 even three hours. But the Diarbekirlees are said to be ac- 
 customed to it, of which we had very good evidence on 
 the present occasion, for the quantity of wine and rakkee 
 which was sipped without producing any visible effect, ex- 
 cept perhaps to render the conversation a grain livelier, was 
 astonishing, almost incredible. For nearly three hours it 
 seemed to be the only employment of two or three servants 
 
 1 The Turks, like all the Orientals, begin their day at sunset ; that is 
 to say, sunset is with them twelve o'clock. The hour varies, of course, 
 with the changes of the sun. 
 
 8 Turkish water-pipe. 
 
 3 Turkish brandy, distilled from the juice of the grape. 
 
102 VISIT TO THE 
 
 to fill the wine-cups of seven or eight guests. How a party 
 of men continuing in this way till one o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, could find after all capacity for dinner, or physical power 
 to eat it, I was at a loss to conceive. Upon the whole, I did 
 not like this specimen of Diarbekir society, far exceeding, 
 as it did, some rather trying specimens which I had witness- 
 ed during my former visit. Least of all was I satisfied with 
 the evident want of discernment in supposing that any other 
 than a man of Diarbekir could stand such a preface to his 
 dinner. My good friends (for in every other respect they 
 seemed to be very respectable and worthy persons) were 
 disposed to treat me as if I had undergone the same training 
 with themselves, and possessed the same capability. In a 
 word, they seemed bent upon my pursuing a course by which 
 I should inevitably have lost my dinner, and been unfit for 
 travelling on the morrow. It is the height of incivility to be 
 backward^on such occasions, for, like all Orientals, the people 
 of Diarbekir judge of the pleasure which a guest takes in 
 their entertainment by the quantity which he eats and drinks, 
 and it is always easier to comply than to resist their tor- 
 menting importunities. But after carefully considering the 
 matter, and balancing between the impropriety and the in- 
 convenience of excess on the one hand, and the danger of 
 offending my host on the other, I decided in favor of the 
 latter, and by the aid of a young Greek friend present, who 
 declared that it was not the custom of Franks to drink so 
 immoderately, I was enabled to keep my resolution. 
 
 The dinner, when it came, was in the best style of 
 Oriental profusion and display. I will not describe it, for I 
 have wandered already far enough from my object in allud- 
 ing to it at all which was, to say that I introduced the 
 subject of the poor starving wretches in the streets, in the 
 hope that the clergy at least would second my appeal. But 
 the result was that I found no sympathy from any quarter. 
 Neither clergy nor laity could be convinced that it was their 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 103 
 
 duty to attend to any other than their own poor, and as for 
 the Kurds, I evidently lowered myself in the estimation of 
 the company by pleading for them. 
 
 And yet these Christian men had sorrows of their own, 
 to which they were tremblingly alive. Many was the 
 doleful tale which they poured into my ears of their 
 recent persecution. While they were following the ex- 
 ample of the Mohammedans in refusing even a cup of 
 cold water to perishing men, the Mussulmans, impelled by 
 some sudden burst of fanaticism, rose upon them and 
 threatened to destroy every Christian in the city. They 
 were seized and beaten in the streets. Some had their 
 bones broken. Others escaped and hid themselves in secret 
 places. Shops were broken open and plundered. Even 
 Churches were wantonly entered and desecrated by the 
 ruthless mob, and several Christians were murdered under 
 their own roofs in cold blood. Men of note were hunted 
 down like wild beasts, and some of them died of very fear. 
 For several days there was a period of awful suspense. Not 
 a Christian was to be seen in the streets. Every one lay 
 hid in his lurking-place, fearing lest every moment might 
 be his last. Unfortunately there were but a very few sol- 
 diers in the city, and these, in their semi-Frank dresses, 
 were as much the objects of indignation as the Christians 
 themselves. " You are the men," it was said to them, 
 " who are sent hither to make us all Giaours." The Pasha, 
 after a few fruitless attempts, declared himself unable to 
 suppress the mob. At length he hit upon an expedient 
 which succeeded admirably. He caused a report to be cir- 
 culated in the city that Mohammed Pasha of Mossoul had 
 been sent for, and was marching upon the city with a large 
 force. The trick was successful. The infuriated Mussul- 
 mans shrunk back at the name of the terrible Pasha of 
 Mossoul, and the Christians, half-dead with fear, began to 
 creep forth from their hiding-places. I could discover no 
 
104 VISIT TO THE 
 
 other cause for this infamous outrage than sheer Moham- 
 medan bigotry, in which the Mussulmans of Diarbekir are 
 said to abound. While it continued, nearly twenty Chris- 
 tians fell a sacrifice to their fury. Among them was a very 
 respectable Syrian merchant, who entertained me during 
 my first visit for three days. When the affair came to be 
 investigated, it was found that the principal leaders were 
 among the most respectable Mussulmans of the city. One 
 of them was no less a personage than the Kadi himself. 
 
 The Government at Constantinople acted on the occa- 
 sion in a manner very creditable to itself. Peremptory orders 
 were sent to Diarbekir that the Christians should be pro- 
 tected, and the offenders subjected to the punishment which 
 their crimes deserved. Accordingly the authors of the out- 
 rage, about twenty in number, were seized and sent off on 
 foot, under a strong escort, to the Pasha of Kharpout, to 
 whom the province of Diarbekir is subject, but whether 
 they ever received the reward which their flagitious conduct 
 merited, I am unable to say. It is not an uncommon thing 
 for such culprits in Turkey to escape unpunished, espe- 
 cially if they are Mussulmans, and the offence is committed 
 against Christians. There is little of equal justice in the 
 land, least of all in the provinces, and the Christians are 
 generally the greatest sufferers. Their testimony is not 
 taken against Mussulmans, while they are themselves sub- 
 ject to be harassed without cause, and are commonly the 
 first objects of oppression. I know that there are excep- 
 tions to this statement, but I speak of the general order of 
 things. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 105 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Respect for Franks. Interposition in behalf of Eastern Christians. 
 Greek Hospitality. Visits from Ecclesiastics. Relations of the Na- 
 tive Papal Christians with Rome. Meeting with an old Friend. False 
 Reports and true Reports. Our Company. Kurdish Village. Es- 
 cort. Kurdish Bey. Polite Robbery. A useful Lesson. Loose 
 Friends. Delays. Present State of Mardin. Decay. Reaction of 
 Reform. 
 
 THERE was one fact connected with the melancholy out- 
 rage upon the Christians of Diarbekir, related in the last 
 chapter, which, if correctly reported to me, as I believe it 
 to have been, is worthy of mention, as showing the respect 
 and even fear with which Europeans were at that time 
 regarded in some of the worst parts of Turkey. While the 
 commotion was at its height and the native Christians were 
 secreting themselves from the rage of their enemies, and 
 Turkish soldiers were flying from the indignation which 
 their half-Frank garbs brought upon them, several European, 
 the people said English, travellers were in the city, and went 
 freely about in their European dresses and hats, no one 
 venturing to molest them. One or two years before, the 
 same experiment under the same circumstances might have 
 been hazardous. But the events of the last year in Syria, 
 commencing with the bombarding of Beyrout, and ending 
 with the reduction of Acre and the retreat of a Pasha whose 
 very name had always been supposed sufficient to strike 
 terror into the hearts of his enemies, have created a deep 
 
106 VISIT TO THE 
 
 and even extravagant impression of the skill and' power of 
 Europeans. It was a feeling of joy and hope to the Chris- 
 tians, of awe and respect to the Mussulmans. The former 
 often ask why this power has never been exerted in their 
 behalf. Perhaps it may yet be. The train of events seems 
 fast verging towards it. But such an interposition ought 
 not to be desired, excepting conditionally. The Christians 
 themselves are not yet prepared for it. They are not yet 
 ready to appreciate and improve the new state into which it 
 would introduce them, a state of greater freedom, of new 
 responsibilities and privileges, which they only can use 
 aright whose character is elevated to an equality with and a 
 fitness for them. Let me not be misunderstood. No 
 Christian man can look upon the present state of the East- 
 ern Churches and reflect upon their long bondage of centu- 
 ries, and see them still trodden down by the feet of Infidels, 
 and not sigh for their relief. But let us not ruin the end by 
 premature and over-hasty means. It would be vain to say 
 that our Eastern brethren are fairly prepared to govern 
 themselves ; and as to ecclesiastical freedom, desirable as it 
 is in itself, it might, if vouchsafed at the present moment, 
 bring in an endless train of evils, and those evils the very 
 ones which would most mar, if not wholly prevent, the great 
 blessings of religious liberty. Many there are who would 
 abandon their Churches forthwith, if they were now let loose 
 from the strong hand of power. Ruptures and schisms 
 without end would arise. Sects of seceders innumerable 
 would spring up. Men of extravagant zeal and little know- 
 ledge would commence a destructive warfare upon the 
 Churches in which they were baptized. Infidels would join 
 with schismatics in overturning the foundations of the tem- 
 ple, and the Churches themselves, harassed by oppositions 
 and embittered by misrepresentations, would be led to defend 
 errors which now exist without a positive sanction, and to 
 establish by decrees corruptions which are now floating 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 107 
 
 without order, without system, in the ignorant habits and 
 practices of the people. Let philanthropists, then, of every 
 class, beware. The evil cannot be successfully removed by 
 the application of political remedies until the Churches are 
 elevated in themselves by the gradual revival of sound doc- 
 trine and the restoration of primitive piety. They are the 
 philanthropists whom the times demand, who are aiming at 
 these ends, circumspectly, prudently, carefully. 
 
 Let no one say that the enslaved state of the Churches 
 prevents all advancement. The case is not so bad as that. 
 There is present and active progress, as much perhaps 
 as can awaken hope without exciting fears, perhaps I 
 might say, more, for there are some who feel that there is 
 already reason to fear. 
 
 I ought not to quit Diarbekir 1 without acknowledging 
 my obligations to a very kind Greek friend, who received me 
 into his house and showed me every attention in his power. 
 It was a luxury which I had not known for several weeks, 
 to go to bed in a civilized manner, for neither expedition nor 
 the object of my journey, which required me to be as much 
 as possible among the people, would allow me to avail myself 
 of such appendages of comfort as a tent, bed, and other 
 commodities usually esteemed necessary for an Eastern 
 traveller. My friend's hospitality left me nothing to desire, 
 excepting that the profusion and richness of his " good 
 creatures" made more painful the contrast of misery and 
 starvation in the streets. 
 
 Most of the visitors at the house were ecclesiastics. 
 Some of them were men of grave and seemly manners, with 
 whom it was a pleasure to converse. One in particular, a 
 native Papal Bishop, who like myself was a stranger in the 
 city, quite won my love by his quiet and unostentatious 
 
 1 For a description of the city I must refer the reader to the Narra- 
 tive of my first jonrney, Vol. II. pp. 294-299. 
 
108 VISIT TO THE 
 
 manners and the simple dignity of his conversation. He 
 was one of those, of whom there are not a few among the 
 native Papal Christians of the East, who understand well the 
 relations in which they stand to Rome, and make a broad 
 distinction between a bare acknowledgment of the primacy 
 of the Pope, beyond which many do not go, and an unreserved 
 submission to whatever emanates from Rome. He spoke 
 freely of the conduct of a certain agent of the Pope, an 
 Italian or French Bishop, whom he evidently knew only as 
 a Bishop of the Europeans residing in the country, though, 
 to my own knowledge, he put himself forth as having juris- 
 diction over all the native Churches subject to the Pope. 
 Native Bishops acknowledging the Pope have often found 
 this disposition to domineer, on the part of Latin emissaries, 
 one of the greatest grievances of their situation. They little 
 dreamed when they entered upon their allegiance, that they 
 should ever be cramped in the exercise of their Episcopal 
 office by the interference of men, sometimes their inferiors 
 in ministerial rank, professing to act under the commands 
 of the Pope. Contests and misunderstandings have not un- 
 frequently risen, although the general policy of Rome has 
 been of a character peculiarly adapted to prevent suspicion. 
 
 We left Diarbekir on the 3d of June, and on the after- 
 noon of the 4th reached Mardin, nearly 60 miles distant, by 
 the same route which I followed in 1838. At Argana I had 
 met a Tatar coming from Bagdad, who gave a most terrific 
 account of the state of the country between Mardin arid 
 Mossoul. The Governor of Jezireh was at war with the 
 Pasha of Mossoul, and the Yezidees of the Sinjar moun- 
 tains, those old plunderers of the desert, were in rebellion. 
 This was the substance of the story, garnished with so many 
 particulars of robberies, murders, and hair-breadth escapes, 
 as gave an air of veracity to the whole. Accordingly we 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 109 
 
 Ind left Diarbekir with the expectation of meeting with even 
 greater difficulties and dangers than I had been led to anti- 
 cipate from the monstrous stories which I heard at Sivas. 
 Before we were out of sight of the city, however, we were 
 met by another Tatar, who had come from the same city 
 over the same route. The account which he gave was not 
 exactly opposite to the other, but very near to opposite. The 
 Bey of Jezireh was not at war with the Pasha of Mossoul, 
 nor were the Yezidees in rebellion. Travelling in the de- 
 sert, however, was very unsafe, and he recommended that 
 I should not attempt it without a strong guard. This Tatar 
 was an old acquaintance, had been with me in two journeys 
 in the interior, and was, I knew, a trustworthy man. I had 
 never known a Mussulman for whom I had formed so strong 
 an attachment. He had always seemed to me more like an 
 inquirer into the truth of Christianity, than a hard-hearted 
 infidel. Often had we conversed together seriously and sin- 
 cerely about his religion and mine, and he was almost the 
 only Mussulman that I ever saw, who believed Christianity 
 more pure and elevating in its moral influence than Moham- 
 medism. I was almost as glad to see him as if he were a 
 brother. His honest, open face did me good, and I will 
 confess the meeting relieved me of some anxiety, and so 
 tended to make tho rest of my journey to Mossoul more 
 agreeable. Our party, however, was nnt a small one, for 
 several Mussulmans from Diarbekir had watched our de- 
 parture, and knowing that I had an order for guards, had 
 joined themselves to us. One of them was, or pretended to 
 be, a Turkish officer, who carried a bottle of brandy at his 
 side, with which he was wont to arouse his sleeping courage. 
 Another was a quiet old Mussulman of a very different stamp. 
 He looked npon the dereliction of his brother in the faith 
 with a displeased eye, and kept himself aloof from his so- 
 ciety. Indeed, he was a pest to us all, for his courage, when 
 aroused, was rather of the stormy sort, and breeded quarrels. 
 
 6 
 
110 VISIT TO TUB 
 
 He fell out with one and another, until he had not a friend 
 left in the company; so he was permitted to ride by himself, 
 and finding no superior object to pick a quarrel with, he 
 every now and then fell out with his horse. The poor beast 
 followed the example of his betters, and did all in his power 
 to get rid of him. At length he fairly succeeded, and 
 stretched the superior brute, his master, upon the grass. 
 There was not one who was disposed to aid in catching the 
 quadruped and forcing him into such uncongenial society 
 again. Who would wish to make even a beast companion 
 to a drunkard? 
 
 We stopped the first night at Khanik, where we bought 
 a lamb and roasted it whole, but the villagers stole it during 
 the night and sent us off without a breakfast. A ride of 
 two and a half hours brought us to the village of Avgour, 
 or as it is sometimes called, AH Bey Keui. All the people 
 are Kurds, and, until of late years, they were all robbers by 
 profession. It is said that their nature has not changed, 
 and that they have only suspended business from prudential 
 motives, since they lost their chief by a sudden and violent 
 death. The physician who was with me was at that time 
 in attendance on the Pasha who ordered the execution, and 
 I learned from his account that the act was not precisely 
 as I have formerly reported it. 1 It was even more sudden 
 and summary. The Pasha arrived with a strong body of 
 soldiers, and almost immediately ordered the chief to be 
 seized and shot, which was done before he had time to 
 escape, or even to suspect any design against himself. 
 The people at once fled to the mountains, and returned, 
 after the Pasha had departed, more peaceful and loyal men. 
 The chief had left a young wife of fifteen or sixteen, who 
 had now become the wife of a very young man, and he, in 
 right of his marriage, chief of the village. We rode up to 
 
 1 Narrative, &c.. Vol. II. p. 292. 
 
SYRIAN CHUKCH. Ill 
 
 his house, the same where I had formerly spent a night, 
 and found him sitting in the shade before the door. He 
 was thin, and slightly made, and beardless as a boy, but 
 erect in form, and dignified in his manners. He said little, 
 bat was very observant, and his quiet, serious, searching 
 look was not at all calculated to put one at his ease with 
 him. He seemed as if he wished to find out who and what 
 you were, yet doubted and suspected every thing that you 
 said. We endeavored to engage him in pleasant conversa- 
 tion, but he looked and answered with the same serious and 
 retiring manner, as if he suspected some design in it. At 
 length we opened our business, and told him we wished 
 for guards to Mardin. He consulted for a moment with 
 half a dozen old men who had come in and seated them- 
 selves at his side, and then answered that no guard was 
 needed. The physician replied very plainly that we would 
 not leave without one, and that the chief himself must be 
 of the party. At this he started back and hesitated, but 
 the physician followed him up and promptly rejected every 
 other arrangement, throwing out sundry hints of serious 
 consequences to himself if he refused, and alluding to the 
 bouyouroultou of the Pasha of Diarbekir, which we had 
 been careful to obtain. The young man, finding that he 
 could not escape, ordered his horse to be brought, and re- 
 tiring into the house, soon appeared again, armed with pis- 
 tols, sword, and spear. He then ordered two of the old men 
 to accompany him, and we all mounted and proceeded on 
 our way. I was not a little astonished at the boldness and 
 success of the physician's expedient, but it soon appeared 
 that it was planned and suggested to him by the quiet old 
 Mussulman in our company, who, while the little con- 
 troversy was going on, sat still and said not a word. He 
 well knew that the presence of the young chief would be a 
 greater security than twenty horsemen, but as he himself 
 lived in Diarbekir, and was often going to and fro, he did 
 
112 VISIT TO THE 
 
 not wish to have his own agency in the matter known to 
 the chief, who might some day find an opportunity of re- 
 paying him for the trouble which he had given him. 
 
 Under this powerful escort we continued our journey 
 free from alarm or fears, though \ve met with several parties 
 of Kurds, whom, from their appearance, we would not have 
 wished to meet alone. They all knew Ali Bey, the young 
 chief, and seemed to have a great reverence for him. He 
 always had something to say to them in Kurdish, with which 
 they appeared satisfied, and went on their way. Ali Bey 
 maintained the same imperturbable manner throughout the 
 journey, eyeing one and another of us constantly, but say- 
 ing nothing. Once, however, I detected him in close con- 
 versation with my servant, with his eye fixed on me. Short- 
 ly after, Basil rode up and reported that the Bey had been 
 inquiring into the contents of our baggage, and had asked 
 particularly whether I had any more such handkerchiefs as 
 1 wore about my head, and whether I had a watch. The 
 poor boy was quite alarmed by the import of the questions, 
 but I took them to be, as they doubtless were, only indica- 
 tions of that almost childish cupidity for pretty things which 
 is universal among the Kurds. The youthful Bey was only 
 thinking of begging a present. 
 
 When we reached the height two hours from Mardin, 
 we came to a halt by the cold spring which gushes from the 
 rock, and which every traveller who has quenched his thirst at 
 it on a hot summer's day, will long remember. Here we were 
 to take leave of our guards, the rest of the way to the city 
 being by them reported perfectly safe. As we sat together 
 by the spring, our Kurdish friends began, in a civil way, to 
 ask for one little article and another, and before we parted 
 from them, every tobacco-bag in the company had been 
 emptied, my handkerchief had gone, and many other articles 
 had changed owners. They took them without any thanks, 
 while their eyes began to glisten with desire, excited rather 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 113 
 
 than allayed by what they received. There was no reason 
 to fear them, because we were stronger than they ; but their 
 cupidity growing every moment more exacting and less res- 
 pectful, we thought it best to leave them without ceremony, 
 and bidding them a hasty adieu, rode away. The old Mus- 
 sulman had quietly taken himself off as soon as he heard 
 their requests frr property, and was now considerably in 
 advance. As soon as we came up with him, he gave us a 
 gentle lecture for our imprudence, and said we should not 
 have parted with a single article, (we had given them a 
 handsome present in money for their services,) it was only a 
 genteel way of robbing us, and to yield to it was only tempt- 
 ing them to proceed to less civil measures. I laid up the 
 lesson, in my heart, for I knew that the old man spoke the 
 truth. A Kurd is not the only Eastern in whom a gift ex- 
 cites cupidity instead of gratitude. I am sorry to say, it is 
 a common infirmity of Eastern character, and great as is the 
 allowance to be made for it, at least in the case of Chris- 
 tians, indignant even as we may be at the infidel tyranny 
 which has crushed manliness of sentiment and disinterested 
 feeling, we cannot, as practical men, forget the fact, or neg- 
 lect to estimate it in our plans and efforts. 
 
 All our companions from Diarbekir had come with us 
 for the sake of protection, knowing that we had it in our 
 power to obtain guards ; but when we parted from the 
 Kurds, there was nothing more to be gained from us, and 
 every man made the best of his way to the city, leaving us 
 to follow as rapidly as the physician's heavy baggage would 
 allow. There was still a good deal of alarm among us with 
 regard to the six miles of desolate country which lay be- 
 tween us and Mardin, and we thought our good friends who 
 had had the benefit of our assistance thus far, might have 
 given us theirs now that we had only each other to depend 
 upon. But they unfortunately reasoned in another manner, 
 somewhat thus : " There being no more guards, the best ex- 
 
114 VISIT TO THE 
 
 pedient (that is, for ourselves) is to hurry on as rapidly as 
 possible to the city." They all abandoned us, therefore, even 
 to the quiet old Mussulman. How perfectly Eastern again ! 
 We fared, however, none the worse for being left alone. 
 As soon as our old friends saw us safely arrived in the city, 
 those of them who intended to prosecute their journey to 
 Mossoul began to court our society again, and inquire when 
 we intended to leave. 
 
 I need not detail all the reasons which led me to depart 
 somewhat from my original intention, and proceed immediate- 
 ly to Mossoul. The reader has little interest in knowing 
 them. One was arid it was enough that the season was 
 already far advanced, and everyday was increasing the dan- 
 ger of crossing the desert. If I was to visit Mossoul, the 
 sooner the better. The people at the post-house, however, 
 did not seem to have the same sense of the value of time. 
 We were detained three whole days for horses, and 
 kept on the alert by messages sent every few hours to the 
 house to inform us that they were ready, and would speedily 
 be at the gate. This would continue from day-break 
 till about 9 A. M., when it was too late to start ; and again 
 from 4 P. M. till sunset, after which we couFd not pass the 
 city-gates. When we complained, there was always some 
 plausible reason ready, and when we did not complain, 
 the next morning or evening would pass without any mes- 
 sage. ' 
 
 Mardin had been transferred from the pashalik of Khar- 
 pout to that of Mossoul, since my last visit ; the Governor 
 that formerly ruled it, a son-in-law of Hafiz Pasha, had died 
 on the field of Nezib, or, as others told me, of grief and mor- 
 tification at the defeat ; one other Governor had been put to 
 death by the mob ; a third had been deposed ; and a fourth 
 had just entered upon his office. By famine and bad gov- 
 ernment the town had decayed ; houses then standing were 
 now in ruin ; the population had diminished ; filth, and all 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 115 
 
 other signs of neglect and decay, had increased. I had be- 
 fore thought well of the place ; it now struck me most un- 
 favorably. Then all was contentment and peace ; now all 
 was complaint and fear. Many of the Christians had fled 
 from oppression or starvation. The new Governor had just 
 had a personal combat with his predecessor, in which, in- 
 stead of appealing to arms, they settled their differences with 
 their pipe-sticks. In a word, three years before, under the 
 reforming rule of Hafiz Pasha, Mardin was following fast in 
 the rapid progress towards European civilization which Sul- 
 tan Mahmoud created, in appearance at least, all over the 
 Empire. But that active and innovating spirit has departed, 
 and Mardin, like many other cities, has felt the reaction. 
 At the time of my former visit perfect security reigned ; 
 now stories of midnight robberies and murders were current 
 among the people ; and it was not thought altogether safe 
 for foreigners to sojourn there long 
 
116 VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Preparation for the Desert. A sad Tale. Arab Village. Scene at 
 Evening. Our Company. The Desert at Night. Nisibin.site of an- 
 cient Nisibis Its present State. GaarJ. Roure over the Desert. 
 The Orphan. Moral Ejects of the Famine. Indifference of the Gov- 
 ernors. Journey by Night. Depredations on the Villagers. Search 
 for Water. Salt Lake. The Heat. 
 
 WE prepared ourselves for the desert with about thirty 
 pounds of bread, a goat-skin of water, and large felts to 
 shield us from the sun when we halted by day. Weary of 
 waiting for post-horses, we engaged the jaded animals of a 
 muleteer who had just arrived from Mossoul. We were to 
 dep:irt before daylight, and of course did not depart till after 
 sunrise. If we had told our muleteer we should leave at 
 midnight, we might have started at the time actually 
 app )inted. It is always necessary, in Eistern travelling, to 
 pred ite in this way. 
 
 The horses with which we travelled had brought from 
 Mossoul a Turkish Bey and his harem. They were from 
 Bagdad, on their way to Cc nstantinrple. At present I had 
 hardly the curiosity to inquire who they were, but a few weeks 
 gave me an interest in them which has never ceased. On 
 my return from Mossoul, while Bitting one day in my room 
 in the Monastery of Z ifran, near Mardin, a woman entered, 
 dressed in the style of a Turkish female of Constantinople. 
 Her appearance at once attracted my attention, for I had 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 117 
 
 never seen the yashmak 1 south of the Euxine. After a very 
 respectful obeisance, she spoke in the pure and sweet Turk- 
 ish of the Capital. She said that she was a Syrian by birth, 
 
 of the village of , near Jezireh, that she had been 
 
 taken captive six or seven years before, by Rahvandouz Bey, 
 in his sack and pillage of the country north of the Tigris. 
 By him she had been sold at Mossoul or Bagdad, and had 
 finally come into the hands of Ali Pasha, in whose palace 
 she had served as a maiden of the harem several years, and 
 was finally released when the Pasha heard that a firman had 
 been issued for the recovery of all the Christians taken 
 captive by the Kurdish Bey. Among them, besides herself, 
 was a young sister often years, who had been sold to a Bey 
 of Bagdad, and had now become an inmate of his harem. 
 The Bey was the same whose horses I had taken from Mar- 
 din. As 1 was now going to the capital, the good woman 
 begged that I would interpose for the release of her sister, 
 saying, with many tears, that she was her only surviving 
 relation, and that if she could not come back to her, she 
 would herself go to Constantinople for the sake of being near 
 her. I did not forget the commission, but my efforts were 
 unsuccessful. The girl had been induced to profess Mo- 
 hammedanism, and had become the wife of the Bey and a 
 mother, After this change no firman could be obtained for 
 her release, nor was there any hope that she would accept 
 it if it could have been effected. What has become of the 
 elder sister, I know not. I sent her intelligence of my want 
 of success. Whether she is still mourning the loss of her 
 nearest and dearest relative, or has sought her out among 
 the thousands of the great city, I have never heard ; but the 
 incident of her sudden appearance before me at the monas- 
 tery, and her message of sadness, have remained in my 
 
 1 Turkish veil, worn by the Turkish and Armenian women of Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
118 VISIT TO THE 
 
 memory among a long array of similar tales of distress which 
 I have heard at different times in Turkey, and which ofte.i 
 come back to remind me how many hearts in this broad 
 world pine in secret, and how many sorrows remain untold 
 in the history of our race. 
 
 At 8 A. M. the heat was so great that we were obliged 
 to stop at Kherin, a Mussulman village three hours from 
 Mardin. Along the road the peasants were reaping their 
 barley, and in one place we passed a field of melons just 
 transplanted, which covered about ten acres. At Kherin, 
 which, when I passed three years before, was entirely 
 deserted, I now found a thriving village of fifty families, all 
 of which, with the exception of a solitary Chaldean, were 
 Arabs. The women, as is common in the villages, were 
 uncovered, and most of them were ornamented with a line 
 of blue spots from one corner of the mouth to the other, 
 passing over the chin. 
 
 As the day declined, the little village, which had been 
 quiet under the noontide heat, presented a lively and bust- 
 ling scene. The herds were driven in from abroad. The 
 women, with their faces bare, and displaying the tin and 
 bead bracelets on their wrists, were running to and fro, some 
 engaged in culinary preparations for the evening meal, some 
 bringing water from the village well, and some tending the 
 babies. The old men were assembling on the roofs, where 
 each family was spreading its beds for the night, for even at 
 this early season (the 8th of June) it was more comforta- 
 ble there than within doors. The houses were all of sun- 
 baked earth, the roof consisting of timber covered with oak- 
 boughs, straw, and earth, in successive layers. Out of doors 
 was the oven, lined with burnt clay and heated with straw 
 and sheep's dung; the baking being effected by plastering 
 the thin cakes of dough upon the rounded roof and sides 
 within. 
 
 We did not stop to partake of the good cheer which the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 119 
 
 din of preparation promised, but packed up the remnants of 
 a lamb which we had roasted, and started about an hour 
 before sunset. Our company was now a large one. A few 
 had come with us from the city, and others, who had been 
 watching our departure for several days, followed us as 
 soon as we passed the gates. Among the company was a 
 Mussulman family, who inarched a very little in our rear, 
 closely attended by the master in person ; and when we 
 stopped, always encamped a few rods away from us. 
 
 Still and quiet we pursued our way over the desert, 
 saw the sun go down into the plain just as it sinks into the 
 calm ocean, and the daylight go silently out. Hour after 
 hour stole by, and still we went on, on, on, with a measured, 
 sober tread, over the boundless level. Several times 
 we lost our way, and great was our astonishment when we 
 came to a village that we thought was far behind us. 
 Many leagues distant towards the Tigris, the plain was all 
 on fire, the flames of which now rose and writhed and soar- 
 ed, and now gave place to a dark cloud of smoke, rising and 
 rolling away in endless convolutions. 
 
 As the day broke, we found ourselves near Nisibin, 
 where we halted till night came round again. This little 
 village, the site of the famous city where James of hallowed 
 memory lived, and the school of Christian sages attracted 
 students from the distant East, is now a den of thieves. 
 Kurds, Arabs, Christians, Jews, the offscouring of the cities 
 and refugees from justice, have all taken shelter in Nisibin. 
 Its great attraction is that it is free from taxes, (an exemp- 
 tion established by Hafiz Pasha, for the sake of enticing 
 settlers,) and is too unhealthy for an honest man to live in. 
 Such a spectacle of filth and ugliness as its one hundred 
 and fifty houses presented, I thought I had never seen, even 
 in the miserable villages of Turkey. Close by our tent lay 
 a dead man, swollen and rotting in the hot sun, and there, 
 to all appearance, he was to lie, like the carcass of a 
 
120 VISIT TO THE 
 
 horse, till the dogs devoured him. The villagers were pass- 
 ing to and fro, but no one noticed him. Where he lay 
 when we arrived, he lay when we left. 
 
 We wished to have started at evening, but our guards 
 were not ready till three hours after sunset. They came at 
 last, fifteen stout men, armed with spear, and gun, and 
 sword, and with them an unarmed guide, a black, fierce- 
 looking Arab, that spoke hardly a word to the end of the 
 journey. We had come thus far from Mardin alone, but 
 the rest of the way was accounted dangerous. A quarrel 
 had arisen between the Bey of Jezireh and certain soldiers 
 of the Pasha, which compelled us to avoid the road, which lay 
 in part through the country of the former, and strike for Mos- 
 soul, straight through the desert, where there was no path, 
 nor water, nor signs of life. This would carry us into rather 
 a dangerous proximity to the Yezidees of Sinjar, whose old 
 habits of plunder it could hardly be hoped, were entirely 
 abolished and forgotten in four years of professed but very 
 doubtful loyalty. 1 There was also a report that a famous 
 Arab chief, Soufouk Bey, had been plundering in that part 
 of the desert, and might at any moment appear in our path. 
 I suppose it was reports of this kind which chilled the 
 courage of our party, for, when we started, not a man of all 
 who had accompanied us from Kherin made his appearance, 
 and, like the Pilgrim, we went on our way, and saw them 
 no more. 
 
 We were destined, however, to have female society in 
 our rude journey over the desert. One of our guards, who 
 bore only a spear, had, in the place of other accoutrements, 
 a Kurdish girl of 16, whom he carried behind him on his 
 horse. He had found her in Nisibin perishing with famine, 
 
 1 These inveterate robbers of the desert were subdued in their own 
 mountains by Hafiz Pasha, during the summer of 1837. See Narrative 
 of a Tour, &c., II. p. 266. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 121 
 
 and was now taking her to Mossoul to make her his wife. 
 I was disposed to believe him, for lie treated her with kind- 
 ness all the way, and gave her the best morsel to eat, and 
 spake gently to her when she was weary. She had no friend 
 but him in the wide world. Father and mother, brothers 
 and sisters were all gone ; and he, a stranger, had taken her 
 to him, to protect arid comfort her. Sweet everywhere in 
 this sorrowing world is it to see the kindlier sympathies of 
 man's nature in exercise, but nowhere more sweet than in 
 the desert, and among rude and barbarous men. The girl, 
 too, was modest and well-looking. She rode apart from the 
 company with her companion, and carefully concealed her 
 face from the gaze of others. I thought it was also a re- 
 deeming trait in the rough character of our guards, that 
 they did not attempt to intrude upon their comrade, but left 
 him with his charge to pursue their way as they pleased. 
 
 It was one dreadful feature of the famine that had lately 
 depopulated the villages, that it dissolved the ties of nature, 
 kindred and morality. Parents sold their daughters for a 
 morsel of food, and girls who had lost their parents sold 
 themselves for nothing to any body who would support them. 
 During the whole of these distressing scenes, the Turkish 
 Governors seem never to have dreamed that they had any 
 interest or concern in relieving the wants of their starving 
 people. I thought of appealing to the fat Pasha of Diarbe- 
 kir, a monster of a man, whose circumference was equal to 
 his longitude, but everyone told me that it would be useless, 
 so I desisted. In fact, the Turks seemed to think it a good 
 opportunity to get rid of bad subjects, and it was vain to 
 urge the claims of humanity against their peculiar views of 
 state policy. 
 
 After a sleepless day at Nisibin, we travelled all night over 
 the desert, crossing before midnight three little streams, from 
 one of which we frightened a herd of wild hogs, that scam- 
 pered away in the dark, while into another we only escaped, 
 
J22 
 
 VISIT TO THE 
 
 by the superior instinct of our horses, from plunging our- 
 selves. Before 1 A. M. we judged by the baying of dogs 
 that we were passing near some village, and soon after, we 
 came upon a field of barley, ready for the sickle. Here our 
 guide ordered a halt, arid every man excepting myself dis- 
 mounted, and coolly taking off his horse's bridle, let him 
 loose into the barley. I pleaded, remonstrated, and, as one 
 must sometimes do with Easterns, stormed, in vain. The 
 guards coolly replied that the horses would not eat enough 
 to make the difference perceptible. I remained some time 
 upon my horse, heartily wishing that the dogs would come 
 after us. But their barking sounded no nearer, and at last 
 ceased, when the guards quietly laid themselves down and 
 went to sleep. Seeing resistance useless, I dismounted also, 
 and gave my horse to the muleteer, who quickly set him to 
 work with the others. According to our contract, he was to 
 provide fodder, and he would not allow me to dictate to him 
 the mode of doing it. I laid down upon the ground, but 
 was so vexed that I could not sleep ; so I consoled myself as 
 well as I could, with eating bread and cheese. After an 
 hour I walked over the ground. There was hardly a stalk 
 of barley left standing. Thirty hungry horses had been em- 
 ployed upon it for an hour. What had not been consumed, 
 was trodden down. I thought of the dismay of the poor 
 villagers when they should come to look after their harvest ; 
 and yet a kind Providence, that watches over all, had per- 
 mitted us to come and destroy the hard-earned produce of 
 their toil. I called up the guards, and pointed to the very 
 "perceptible difference" that we had made in the appear- 
 ance of the field. The only conclusion which they drew from 
 it was that their horses had had enough. I had thought 
 that they would be frightened when they saw what they had 
 done, but they appeared so cool about it that I began to 
 suspect that the villagers who owned the field were Chris- 
 tians. There are pome Syrians in this part of the desert. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 123 
 
 We were following no path, and were therefore obliged 
 to trust solely to the sagacity of the guide. I know not 
 how he calculated, but I kept my eye ever and anon upon 
 the stars, fixing the cardinal points by the polar constella- 
 tion. Judging from that faithful monitor, whose presence, 
 with that of all his sister constellations, has often in the long 
 weary nights been to me society, our course was by no 
 means straight forward. Without any imaginable cause, 
 our guide led us hither and thither, to the right and the 
 left, the north and the south. Perhaps he was asleep. I 
 told him we were wrong, but he was the guide and could 
 do as he pleased. When morning broke, he looked round 
 after the tels, or mounds, 1 and professed to guide us by 
 them. His business was to lead us to water, but he 
 went to sleep, and his horse went on, and continued for 
 some time to perform the duties of his master before 
 we discovered under what guidance we were. He, the 
 master, was evidently bewildered, and kept us wandering 
 to and fro with the hope of finding water somewhere. 
 At length he brought us to a lake, whose waters were saline 
 and undrinkable. The water had receded, and left a strong 
 mineral deposit on the shore. All around were tracks of 
 wild hogs, and a few birds were there. All the rest was 
 barren, cheerless desert, covered with dry, yellow, prickly 
 shrubs, scorched and baked by the sun. We stopped here 
 two hours, for no other purpose that I could discover, but 
 to look at the lake and wish that we could drink of it. 
 When we approached it, the guide declared it was the very 
 water he was looking for, which agreeable announcement 
 had induced the muleteer to throw off his loads, and when 
 this was done, it was hard to persuade him that we were 
 
 1 The desert is dotted in different places with these singular mounds, 
 which appear to be artificial. 
 
124 VISIT TO THE 
 
 not encamped for some hours. But the terrible heat, which 
 seemed to come down with tenfold intensity upon the light 
 soil and white deposit about the lake, and the impatience 
 of the horses for the water which they could not drink, 
 sickened us all of the thought of staying there till evening. 
 Indeed, it was only a little less evil to move than to stay, 
 for the sun poured such merciless rays upon us that it was 
 hard to bear them any where. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Encampment at Night. Boar Chase. Repast. Night March. Search 
 for Water. The Sinjar Mountains. Conflagration. Sudden Depart- 
 ure. The Gazelle.'. Robber's Watch Height Camel caught. Road 
 lost. Peasants. Their Timidity. Its Cause. Abou Maria. Ret- 
 rospect. Last Day. Reception in a Skeikh's Tent. Reach the Ti- 
 gris. A Nap. The City. 
 
 WE left our encampment by the lake, and after various 
 meanderings and turnings, came at length, perfectly exhaust- 
 ed, to a little pool of water which the rushes had kept from 
 drying up. It was all that remained of the spring rains, and a 
 fc\v more days would have sufficed for its disappearance. We 
 sat by it for a time after quenching our thirst, and felt it to 
 be a real luxury to repose in the green fresh grass on the 
 edge of it. We were loth to leave it, but our way was J^ng, 
 and we were compelled to travel yet farther in order rightly 
 to divide our stages. So we started again, and in about an 
 hour came to the water which the guide had been in quest 
 of, and which was a little stream running down from 
 H:iznaour on the road from Nisibin to Mossoul. It ran in a 
 deep gully which it had worn in the soil, and, though narrow 
 and insignificant in appearance, was not easily approached 
 with our heavy baggage horses nor easily forded. We suc- 
 ceeded, however, in crossing it, and in two and a quarter 
 hours more, came to a green spot where there seemed to be 
 both grass and water. The one necessity was as great as the 
 other, for the muleteer, reckoning upon finding grass, had 
 
120 TISIT TO THE 
 
 laid in only a small stock of barley, while the guards had 
 none at all. We thought it best, therefore, to encamp for 
 the night. The day was far spent, and most of the party 
 were weary with our long march. Still another circumstance 
 helped us to form the same resolution. Just before we reached 
 the place, we started up a herd of swine, some twenty in 
 number, with nearly as many young. In a moment, the 
 whole party, excepting only the Kurdish girl, her lover and 
 myself, started off in pursuit. It was a brisk and stirring 
 scene. The Mussulmans were intent only upon adventure, 
 but our party had the nobler purpose of getting a dinner. 
 The hogs, however, had the advantage of the jaded horses, 
 and being themselves very fleet of foot, they soon outran 
 them. Our party were about abandoning the chase, when 
 they saw that several of the young ones were left behind, 
 and were running off in another direction. This renewed 
 the sport, and at length, with much ado, they succeeded in 
 killing two and taking another alive. The little things ran 
 and turned with a celerity that quite surprised me, who had 
 never seen any others of the race than their quiet and sober 
 brethren of the sty. They proved, however, to be real pigs, 
 and we promised ourselves the luxury of fresh pork in the 
 desert. But here a difficulty arose. The guard, being 
 Mussulmans, would not touch the unclean creatures with 
 one of their fingers. We next applied to the muleteer, but 
 he was of the same faith, and quietly turned away, saying, 
 " What have I to do with pigs ?" We were thus left to our 
 own resources, and with the aid of our servants, completed 
 the task. The question then arose, how they were to be 
 cooked. We begged the guards to lend us a ramrod for a 
 spit, but even this they refused. So we were compelled to 
 put the meat on the fire, and let it roast as it might. The 
 guards looked at us with half-averted eyes as we partook of 
 the delicious morsels. One of the party confessed that he 
 had drunk wine, " but never," he said, " have I committed 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 127 
 
 the abomination of eating a pig." Some Armenians, though 
 Christians, are of the same opinion, 1 but my companion, the 
 physician, was not one of them, nor did his fellow-traveller 
 or his servant seem inclined to the Mohammedan dogma, 
 though they also were Armenians. Basil was a Greek, and 
 knew of no cause for scruple upon the subject. So we all 
 ate heartily, although the meat, for want of salt, seemed very 
 fresh, and we had nothing to supply the place of vegetables 
 but a crust of our dry bread and a bit of cheese. 
 
 The little pig that we took alive was tied by the hind- 
 leg, and let loose into the reeds, from which he would ever 
 and anon, at short intervals, make an attack upon our en- 
 campment, grunting and running headlong into the midst 
 of us, and biting right and left. I interceded for his re- 
 lease, that he might go in search of his mother, but the 
 Mussulmans thought it best to slaughter the unclean crea- 
 ture ; whereupon the physician showed his dexterity by un- 
 sheathing his sword, creeping up to the pig, and striking his 
 head off at a blow. 
 
 By this time the whole herd had appeared again in the 
 distance, and we set the guard to watch their movements. 
 They wandered about as if in quest of their lost ones, and 
 a straggler from the herd came so near that one of the 
 guard took a long shot at him without effect. The mon- 
 strous animal turned leisurely round, and went back to his 
 comrades. As soon as the darkness set in we began to 
 load our horses. The place of our encampment afforded 
 but little water, and we almost drained the reeds dry before 
 we departed. We had a long march before us ere we could 
 
 1 This is particularly true of the Armenians of Cappadocia, and, as 
 Emong the Syrians, who hold the same, it is doubtless a Judaizing opin- 
 ion received from Apostolic ages. The Syrians positively prohibit the 
 use of swine's flesh, and I have known their Patriarch to threaten with 
 ecclesiastical discipline some who had violated the law. It is singular, if 
 the Nestorians are of the Ten Tribes, that they have no such scruples. 
 
138 
 
 VISIT TO THE 
 
 reach water again, and some of the party were affected with 
 serious apprehensions that the hogs which, as long as we 
 could see them, had heen gradually approaching us, would 
 come upon us in the night and wreak their vengeance for 
 the slaughter of their young ones, whose blood had stained 
 the grass around us, while one of them lay dead at our side. 
 We, therefore, started about midnight, and although nothing 
 was said about hogs as the motive for departure, I have no 
 doubt that some of us were considerably relieved at the 
 thought of escaping an encounter with twenty enraged an- 
 imals as large and powerful as bears, and much more fero- 
 cious. 
 
 It was Ihe night of the lOth-llth of June, and within 
 a few days of the summer solstice, yet the air, which had 
 been so oppressive during the day, was now cool and re- 
 freshing, and towards morning even uncomfortable. There 
 must have been a change of 50 in the temperature, within 
 twelve hours. At two or three o'clock P. M. it was al- 
 most too hot for flesh arid blood to endure; before midnight 
 it began to be cool, and near morning, cold. The heat was 
 not altogether in the direct rays of the sun, but as much 
 perhaps in the powerful reflection from the light arid soil 
 of the desert. To-day (June "llth) it was somewhat mod- 
 erated by a strong wind. Moreover, we had now reached 
 higher ground lying out from the Sinjar, and were close at 
 the foot of those formidable mountains. Our guide had 
 again mistaken his course, and during the night had been 
 travelling in a direction due south. At day-dawn we rec- 
 tified our mistake, and continued until we encamped at two 
 P. M., making a march of fourteen hours, during which we 
 did not alight or stop. The heat, though less than yester- 
 day, was sufficiently intense to be very uncomfortable, and 
 man and horse were ready to drop with fatigue and thirst. 
 Scouts were sent out in every direction in search of water, 
 but returned unsuccessful. We ascended every mound and 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 129 
 
 went down into every hollow in vain. All around was one 
 broad, sterile plain, scorched and seared by the rays of the 
 burning sun. Some of the party wished to stop for repose, 
 but I would not listen to the suggestion, for fear that if our 
 horses once laid down, they would never rise again. I rode 
 for vard with one of the guard in the direction prescribed, 
 and, after some hours' search, succeeded in rinding a little 
 water in a ditch overgrown with reeds. It was warm and 
 muddy, and full of insects, but nevertheless it was water, 
 and we hastened back to give the news to our famishing 
 friends. They received it with exultation, and the poor 
 beasts, as if aware of what was in store for them, readily 
 obeyed their drivers, and started off at a new pace. We 
 were soon at the spot, and, without waiting for precedence, 
 every man and horse went down on his knees to drink. 
 But little of the water which had filled the ditch was left, 
 and this little was fast evaporating in the heat. There was 
 barely enough to satisfy our present necessity. Had we 
 come a day or two later, we should have found none. One 
 heart at least was gfateful for the God-send. It was as 
 timely a blessing as if it had been brought by miracle from 
 the flinty rock. 
 
 We were now close to the foot of the mountains and 
 near the barley-fields of the Yezidees. Above us could be 
 descried several villages, and a building which, the guard 
 informed me, was a place of pilgrimage. The heights were 
 covered with the vine, the fig, and other fruit-trees, whose 
 dark green foliage presented a strong contrast with the sun- 
 burnt hue of the desert. Water abounds in the mountains, 
 and we had determined, if the desert failed us, to ascend to 
 the nearest village for a supply. Happily we were saved the 
 necessity, We quenched our thirst among the reeds, and 
 ordered our servants to light a fire and prepare coffee. For 
 this purpose they cleared a spot of the dry herbage, and 
 proceeded with all due caution lest the fire should commu- 
 
130 VISIT TO THE 
 
 nicate to the desert. But our precautions proved in vain. 
 A spark in some way caught the adjoining shrubbery and 
 burst into a blaze. In an instant all was commotion. Our 
 tents were pulled down, and every man seizing one of the 
 felts of which they were composed, or a carpet, or a horse- 
 cloth, began to beat the fire in. We were twenty active 
 men, working with all our might; when the alarm was 
 given the fire was not more than a yard or two broad ; on 
 one side too was a ditch it could not pass ; and yet with the 
 greatest ado we succeeded in quelling it. It spread with 
 the quickness of lightning, and a very few minutes would 
 have sufficed to carry it into the ripe grain. " If it reaches 
 the barley," exclaimed the guard, " the Yezidees will come 
 upon us and kill every man of us." This was a very anima- 
 ting consideration. Another, still more pressing, was, that 
 before it reached the barley, it would consume our own 
 baggage. And yet there was one man Mussulman enough 
 to sit still and say, " It is God's work ; I will not interfere 
 with it." His fatalism would soon have been put to the 
 test, for if the fire had advanced a few yards farther, he 
 would have been excited to activity or burnt where he sat. 
 
 The great smoke which rolled off from the burning 
 brushwood alarmed us so much with the fear of alarming 
 the Yezidees, that though we had hardly composed ourselves 
 to rest, we thought it best, with the advice of the guard, to 
 mount and away. Our horses were speedily laden, and we 
 were soon marching again in the heat of the day. On the 
 road, one of the guard found a young gazelle, which was 
 sleeping on the desert. As we came to it, it turned up- 
 wards its deep black eyes, and bleated as if expecting its 
 mother. It was too young to run away, arid I carried it 
 before me on the saddle, having spread under it my cloak 
 for a bed. Its soft look and timid voice so won upon me 
 among the barbarous sights and sounds of the desert, that I 
 determined, if possible, to save it and carry it back to be the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 131 
 
 companion of a little boy in Constantinople. But he was 
 not destined to receive the present. We stopped at sunset 
 and lighted our fires in a little dell, where we found a spring 
 of delicious water, which, collecting in a basin hollowed in 
 the rock, and overflowing its brim, glided off into the valley. 
 Here we stopped two hours, and when we mounted again I 
 asked after the gazelle. The guards had killed, cooked, and 
 eaten it, and now alleged in excuse that it could not have 
 lived without milk, and we had none to give it. I was 
 compelled to be content, and we went on our way. 
 
 About one hour before we reached this valley, we had 
 passed a lofty mound on the left, standing out like a solitary 
 sentinel guarding the approach to the heights. On the top 
 was an enclosure, intended, as the guards said, to secrete 
 watchmen or robbers. In former days, when the hills were 
 independent of foreign sway, news of an enemy or booty 
 moving over the desert, used to be given by signal from this 
 mound, and was afterwards repeated from summit to sum- 
 mit along the heights. Then came the mustering and the 
 foray, the sudden attack upon the caravan, as if of men 
 rising out of the desert, the skirmish, the plundering, and 
 the return. We looked up to the stone wall which formed 
 the enclosure. All was silent and deserted. We blessed 
 ourselves that the former times had gone by. 
 
 The valley[supplied no grass. The water from the rock 
 gave life only to tall green rushes. Our horses had eaten 
 nothing since yesternight, excepting a small allowance of 
 barley, which in Turkey takes the place of oats, a grain 
 little known. We were forced, therefore, to resume our 
 march, although we had travelled eighteen hours with only 
 one brief interval of rest. During the day, one of the party 
 had caught a camel that had been let loose apparently from 
 the Pasha's camp, which had lately passed this way on its 
 route to the Euphrates. The animal still showed marks of 
 hard usage, but had sufficiently recovered his health and 
 
132 VISIT TO THE 
 
 spirits to be very refractory and turbulent. As we left the 
 valley, he broke loose from his keeper and started for the 
 desert. The guide must needs join with the others in pur- 
 suing him, whereby we lost our way, which was of far more 
 importance than the camel, and wandered about in the dark 
 until we struck a road going to Tel Afar, an Arab village 
 south of our route. We had intended to reach Kassi Keu- 
 pru, on the main road from Mossoul to Nisibin, but having 
 found a beaten track, we were loth to leave it. After three 
 hours' ride, we found to our great joy both grass and water, 
 and stopped till morning. 
 
 At early dawn we were on horse again, and keeping the 
 Tel Afar road, the sight of a cultivated country, with wheat 
 fields and reapers, soon greeted our eyes. I should rather ex- 
 cept thelatter, for as soon as they saw us they left their sheaves 
 and fled. I was ready at the moment to pour a lamentation over 
 their misery. Poor peasants : how sad and insecure their 
 state ! They reap their fields with trembling, and fly at the 
 sound of the passing traveller. They know no peace. The 
 hand of civil power oppresses them, or the robber of the 
 desert wrests from them their hard-earned pittance. But 
 wait a little, and you will hear another tale. Six months 
 later and this same villagers depopulated, and its inhabitants 
 carried away by force, on account of their crimes. They 
 are found to be leagued with the Arab plunderers of the 
 desert, and their walled village is the mart where the ill-got 
 gains are bought and sold. By order of government they 
 are broken up and dispersed like a gang of thieves. Their 
 fear when we approached, was it indeed the terror of therp- 
 pressed innocent, or the trembling of conscious guilt ? 
 From our appearance they might take us to be Pasha's 
 men, (as in truth three-fourths of the party were,) and 
 these are the very last people they would wish to meet 
 with. 
 
 We did not visit their village, but, leaving it to the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 133 
 
 right, went off over the hills to Abou Maria, a small village 
 only one hour distant from Kassi Ketipru. Here we were 
 kindly received by the Sheikh, or head-man, who killed a 
 lamb in honor of our arrival, and set it before us stewed in 
 onions, with a dish of rich yo-oort for dessert. 
 
 This was the fifth day since we left Mardin, and our 
 journey had been at least more pleasant than we had anti- 
 cipated. The heat, though severe, had often been moderated 
 by refreshing winds, and the nights had been deliciously 
 cool. We had suffered chiefly from want of sleep, (I had 
 not slept an hour for four days,) and this, with the glare of 
 the sun upon the desert, had rendered me almost blind. My 
 face, too, had literally baked ; so that it cracked open, and 
 the blood oozed out of the fissures. To-day there was 
 no wind, and the air was as the heat of a furnace. We 
 hung upon our horses like wilted leaves, and as we travelled 
 on through the noontide hours, drooping and exhausted, no 
 one had strength or spirit to speak. Silently and sadly, 
 therefore, we rode up to the Sheikh's tent, (for he with all 
 his people had abandoned their houses, and were living in 
 tents,) and dismounted before his selamlik. 1 Here, too, we 
 sought in vain for sleep. The Sheikh, and half the people 
 in the village, must be entertained, and when they were 
 gone, the fleas, whose nature it is to commence their antics 
 as soon as the traveller lies still to rest, would not give us a 
 moment's repose. 
 
 At sunset we mounted again, cheered by the thought 
 that it was our last stage. The Sheikh conducted us half 
 an hour upon our road, and departed with a handsome pre- 
 sent, slipped into his hand and received as if it were una- 
 wares. Nothing occurred to interrupt our journey, except- 
 ing a hurricane of wind and rain, with lightning, which 
 
 1 That part of a house or tent devoted to men, in distinction from the 
 harem or place of the women. 
 
 7 
 
134 VISIT TO THE 
 
 compelled us to dismount and hold our horses by the bridle 
 for two long hours. The scene was most terrific and sub- 
 lime. Now we were involved in thick darkness, and anon, 
 in the twinkling of an eye, the heavens and the desert were 
 lighted up with a blaze of glory, which as suddenly disappear- 
 ed, leaving us again in utter obscurity. I had my baggage 
 horse placed to windward, and sat down under my own 
 horse's belly till the storm had passed. It continued two 
 hours, and then subsided. The pale moon began at length 
 to creep out from the thick clouds by which she had been 
 completely hidden, and to shed her light upon the ragged 
 masses of vapor which sped by her with the rapidity of 
 the whirlwind. At daybreak we were upon the banks of 
 the Tigris, an hour or two distant from Mossoul. I 
 could withstand it no longer, but dismounted, threw myself 
 upon the ground, laid my head upon a stone, and for 
 one sweet hour slept profoundly. When I awoke, the sun 
 was up, and its rays were playing upon the breast of the 
 stream. Most of the party had mounted and gone forward 
 on their way. The physician was still asleep, and the old 
 muleteer watching beside us, half asleep himself. We 
 roused the doctor, mounted, overtook our party, and went 
 with them to the city. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 135 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The English Church at Mossoul. State of the Christians. Divisions. 
 State of Learning. The Nestorian and Chaldean Churches. History 
 of their Separation. Subjection of the latter to the Pope. The Na- 
 ture of Romish Innovations. 
 
 As soon as we entered the city, I went at once to the 
 British Consulate, and on opening the gate, was greeted by 
 the Vice-Consul himself. I had written to him early in 
 the spring, promising to be in Mossoul, Deo volente, by 
 the middle of June. It was now the thirteenth, and though 
 my journey had been interrupted and hindered, and I had 
 been driven out of my way, I was here true to my word. 
 It was Sunday morning, and every thing within wore that 
 quiet, Sabath-like appearance which I had always associated 
 with the holy day. How refreshing to turn from the 
 sterile desert, the noontide heat, the rude faces of my 
 Arab guard, to such a scene as this ! How glad was I to 
 doff my soiled and stained travelling gear, and be once 
 more a Frank among Franks ! A few hours' repose were 
 allowed me, and then we gathered in the library, and, 
 though hardly exceeding the two or three who may claim 
 the promise, we offered our worship in the faith that our 
 blessed Lord was in the midst of us. Above us floated the 
 cross of England, high waving over dome and minaret, 
 giving at once all the protection that human strength can 
 afford, and showing far and wide the badge of the faith in 
 which we worshipped. 
 
136 VISIT TO THE 
 
 This is thy glory, England. In hoc signovinces. What 
 are the conquests of thine arms if they carry not with them 
 the conquest of thy faith ? Better far that thy sun go down 
 in darkness, than that thou be disobedient to Him whose 
 sign thou bearest. Bind, then, thy strength to the cross. 
 Wherever the arts of peace or the voice of war lead thee, 
 bear this thy sacred sign with thee. Let it sanctify thy 
 victories. Let it guide thy sway. Gather under it thy 
 children wandering in all lands. Lift it high where idola- 
 try and superstition reign. So shall there be to thee a 
 memorial unto many generations. So shall thy name and 
 thy power be linked with what is enduring and immortal. 
 All else will perish ; be true to thy sign. 
 
 When the flag of England was first raised upon the 
 consulate at Mossoul, the whole city were gathered upon 
 their roofs to witness the sight, and remained there most of 
 the day gazing upon the novel spectacle. The Christians 
 were filled with wonder and admiration at the appearance 
 of the cross floating in mid air, while the Mussulmans, 
 enraged at the sight, went to the Pasha and complained 
 that it was soaring above the crescent on a mosque that 
 stood close by. Great was the joy of the Christians when 
 they saw the emblem of their faith thus exalted, and much 
 they wondered at the power which could elevate it in the 
 very midst of Mohammedanism. For many a long age of 
 oppression their eyes or the eyes of their fathers had not 
 been cheered by such a sight; the cross had humbled itself 
 before the crescent ; their religion had been associated in 
 their minds with degradation and captivity ; when suddenly 
 they behold its despised badge unfurling and floating on 
 the sky triumphantly, in the face of its enemies. Is it to 
 be wondered that from morning till evening they sat gazing 
 upon that joyous emblem, and can it be doubted, that when 
 the sun went down they slept with a new sense of security 
 and peace ? 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 137 
 
 The state of the Christians in Mossoul is not essentially 
 different from what it was at the time of my first visit. 1 
 Their number has rather diminished than increased. Time 
 was when their twelve Churches were crowded with wor- 
 shippers. Half of them are now shut and the grass is grow- 
 ing at the door-stone. The Syrians have four, the Church 
 of St. Thomas, which is the Bishop's Church, the Church of 
 Mahoudeni, and two Churches of St. Mary. Of these, two 
 only are occupied, and these two are divided between the 
 two parties, Syrians and Syrian Papists. The walls, which 
 were built by royal order in 1837, were thrown down by 
 royal order in 1838, and by royal order built again a few 
 months after. They now stand in the middle of each 
 Church, a dividing wall between the two parties, who wor- 
 ship as enemies under the same roof where their fathers 
 assembled in peace and love. Then no foreign intruder 
 had entered their peaceful fold. Now they are divided, torn, 
 weakened, preying upon and devouring each other. When 
 they worship it is no longer before one altar, but with a wall 
 between them, as if jealous of each other's sacrifice. Their 
 two Bishops grew up together as brothers, read together, 
 talked together, prayed together. Now they are leaders of 
 hostile bands. The Syrian Papists are seceders from the 
 Syrians, and though we must acknowledge that they have 
 gained thereby, in that they no longer reject the Council of 
 Chalcedon and receive the orthodox phraseology respecting 
 the nature of Christ, yet the act of allegiance to a foreign 
 Bishop is itself a violation of ancient Canons on their part, 2 
 
 1 See Narrative of a Tour, &c. Vol. II. Chaps. XIX. XX. and XXI. 
 
 1 It is even a violation of the Canons of the Council whose decrees 
 of faith they have received in centra-distinction from the Syrians, who 
 reject them. " Let not a Bishop go into another city not belonging to his 
 jurisdiction, to ordain any one, or to constitute Priests or Deacons for 
 places subject to another Bishop," &c. Can. 22 of the Council of Antioch, 
 A. D. 341, confirmed by the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, Can. 1. 
 
138 VISIT TO THE 
 
 and of unwarranted usurpation on the part of their sedu- 
 cers. 
 
 The two Churches of the Syrians have six priests, all of 
 them from the lower walks of life, and none of them trained 
 for the priestly office. Two were weavers, two tailors, one 
 a farmer, and one a carpenter. From these occupations 
 they entered almost at once the sacred ministry. Their 
 Bishop, only a few years before his consecration, was labor- 
 ing as a cotton-printer. It is easy to suppose that the man 
 of God thus entering the holy office, cannot be very 
 thoroughly furnished for his work. .And so it is to a very 
 great, a very lamentable degree, in all the Eastern Churches. 
 One might now search in vain among the Syrians for the 
 schools of Nisibis, or Edessa, or for a James of Saruj, a James 
 of Nisibis, a John of Dara, or an Ephrem. The present 
 Patriarch has shown a laudable desire for the education of 
 his people, and has labored to establish a school in every 
 town and village under his jurisdiction. But the difficulty 
 has been to find either teachers or books. From the state 
 of the clergy, one may safely infer the state of the people. 
 And as for books, a modern literature is wholly wanting, 
 and the ancient literature is in a very decayed condition. 
 Copies of the Syrian Fathers are rare, and the ability to 
 multiply them by the expensive process of transcription is 
 gone. The people are too poor to buy them. The price of 
 a book of 200 pages, which a Syrian deacon had transcribed 
 for an English clergyman, was $25 ; and the price of a copy 
 of the Bible, at the same rate, would be, I suppose, not less 
 than seventy-five or a hundred dollars. It is no matter of 
 wonder, therefore, that hardly any books besides those con- 
 taining the offices of the Church, are ever transcribed. 
 
 Next comes the Want of teachers. There is only here and 
 there a man, even among the priests, who understands the 
 ancient language in which the Church books are written, 
 and although I know every one who is considered a learned 
 
8YR1AN CHURCH. ioy 
 
 man among them, I can enumerate only three or four who 
 are good scholars in Syriac. 
 
 Add to this the utter destitution of all branches of know- 
 ledge, art, science and literature, whose rich treasures have 
 been opened upon the Western World since the revival of 
 learning, and you behold a want deeper than that of the 
 darkest ages of Europe. Then learning still shed its light 
 in cloistered retreats, while there is not now to be found in 
 town or village, in church or monastery, among the Syrians, 
 a Christian sage who is thorough master of his own Bar 
 Ibri, or is working out the rich products of his own mind. 
 
 Under such circumstances the schools of the Patriarch 
 have succeeded but poorly. The best of them are in 
 Mossoul, where they have enjoyed the patronage of a wealthy 
 Armenian, the banker of the Pasha. One of these is under 
 the direction of a friend of mine, a Syrian deacon, who is 
 esteemed one of the best Syriac scholars in the nation ; and 
 yet the schools present no higher advantages than learning 
 to read the Syriac character without understanding it, an 
 equivalent knowledge of Arabic, which is better understood 
 because it is the common tongue of the people, and pen- 
 manship. Grammar, geography, arithmetic, the natural 
 sciences, history, mathematics, philosophy, the useful arts, 
 polite literature, ecclesiastical and even scholastic learn- 
 ing are well nigh unheard of and unknown. Nay more, the 
 fountains of religious knowledge are shut up, and its fertiliz- 
 ing streams cut off. A child is taught to say the Creed and 
 the Lord's Prayer, and even these he does not always under- 
 stand, while the vast field of religious faith and duty is left 
 untrod. What a deplorable deficiency ! What a truly aw- 
 ful destitution ! 
 
 There are in Mossoul three divisions of Christians, 
 Chaldeans , Syrians, and Syrian Papists. The first and last 
 are adherents of the Pope, and together are more numerous 
 than the Syrians, who are ecclesiastically called Yacobi, or 
 
140 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Jacobites, 1 but the justice of the title may be doubted. The 
 Chaldeans are the old Syro-Chaldean Church, deriving its 
 succession from the Metropolitans of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. 
 This Church generally embraced the cause of Nestorius, and 
 so continued until about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 when the oneness of the Church was broken by a dispute 
 about the succession to the Patriarchate, and two Patriarchs 
 were eventually created. One of them, whose successors 
 hold the name of Mar Shimon, obtained jurisdiction over 
 the Syro-Chaldeans, or Nestorians, of Kurdistan and the 
 neighboring district of Ourmiah, in Persia. The other, 
 whose successors assumed the official title of Mar Elias, 
 obtained the old Patriarchal see of Alkosh, near Mcssoul, 
 and held jurisdiction over the Nestorians of Mesopotamia 
 and the southern borders of Kurdistan. Things remained 
 in this state, the two Churches still one in faith though under 
 distinct heads, until about sixty years ago, when the last 
 Patriarch of Al Kosh was induced by violence and bribes to 
 acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. The way was 
 thus opened for the gradual subjection of nearly the entire 
 Church of Mar Elias to the sway of Rome. I had always 
 supposed that the work had been completed, and that now 
 there remained none of this Church who still adhered to 
 their old faith and rejected the papal supremacy. I had been 
 so informed by every one, in my former journey through the 
 country, and I conveyed the impression to others in the 
 Narrative of my Tour. 2 But I was myself the first to dis- 
 cover the error, for on my return from Mossoul, the present 
 year, I took the route north of the Tigris, where I found a 
 large remnant of Nestorians of the Church of Mar Elias who 
 still retain their former faith and have not come under the 
 
 1 Followers of Jacobus Baradaeus, (Yacoub Bardani,) who revived 
 their Church in the 6th century. 
 3 Vol. II. 229, Am. Ed. 
 
ttYKIAN tin K> M. 141 
 
 Papal jurisdiction. Later investigations have also shown 
 that there are still others in the^province of Bahdinan, North 
 of Mossoul. These are quite distinct from the Nestorians 
 of the Church of Mar Shimon, which still adheres entirely 
 (excepting a few seceders in the district of Salmas, in Persia) 
 to the old position which it has maintained since the separa- 
 tion of the 16th century. There are, then, the Nestorian 
 Church of Mar Shimon, (sometimes called Chaldean;) the 
 Chaldean Church of Mar Elias, (sometimes called Papal 
 Chaldean;) and a remnant of the latter who have never 
 acknowledged the Pope, and still remain Nestorians. 1 These 
 last are without a Patriarchal head, but have a Bishop of 
 their own who resides in the mountains not far from Jezireh. 
 Upon the demise of the late Patriarch, Mar Elias, who 
 had held the office more than half a century, and died in 
 1838, at the age (as was commonly reported) of 120 years, 
 the office should have descended in regular succession to 
 his nephew, who was living at Al Kosh, and whose baptis- 
 mal name was Elias. 2 But the Pope had otherwise ordered, 
 and the office was conferred upon another Bishop, who 
 was a native of Salmas, in Persia, and had never been con- 
 nected with the Church of Mar Elias until he was elevated 
 to its Patriarchate. He was one of the few seceders from 
 the Church of Mar Shimon, and had been educated at 
 Rome, under the eye of the Propaganda. Immediately 
 upon the death of the Patriarch he was declared his suc- 
 cessor by virtue of an order from the Pope, and entered 
 upon the duties of the office. He is now the only acting 
 
 1 Some English writers speak of the Church of Mar Shimon as Chal- 
 dean, and that of Mar Elias as Papal Chaldean. I do not dispute the 
 justness of the distinction, but prefer to use the terms common in the coun- 
 try, and call the former Nestorian, and the latter Chaldean.' 
 
 2 Both in the Nestorian and the Chaldean Church, the Patriarchate 
 has been for ages hereditary, descending from uncle to nephew, the Pa- 
 triarch himself being confined to a state of celibacy. 
 
 7* 
 
 # 
 
142 VISIT TO THK 
 
 Patriarch, although the regular successor, Bishop Elias, has 
 never ceased to claim the dignity. Another act of unjusti- 
 fiable interference on the part of the Pope has been the 
 change of the official title of the Patriarch. Until now the 
 name of Elias has descended from age to age, the hon- 
 ored appellation of each succeeding Patriarch. It is now 
 removed, and the present incumbent is dignified with the 
 title of Mar Nicolas. 
 
 These several acts of unwarranted usurpation (for less 
 they cannot be called), are as contrary to the relations which 
 the late Patriarch had wished to maintain with the Pope as 
 they are to ancient canons. He was induced to the alle- 
 giance by violence. His firman of investiture was taken 
 away from him secretly, and withheld until he would sub- 
 mit. He was alternately threatened and promised. At a 
 later date he was imprisoned and his life put in jeopardy by 
 the intrigues of his enemies ; and finally, in his old age he 
 was conveyed from his see to Bagdad, and kept in the 
 house of the Vicar Apostolic, that he might there end his 
 days, and the change in the succession be more easily ac- 
 complished. And yet the Patriarch never acknowledged 
 the Pope as anything more than the first Bishop in Chris- 
 tendom, and never conceded to him the right to interfere 
 in the internal jurisdiction of his Church. Had he done so, 
 it could not have been valid against the authority of ecu- 
 menical Canons acknowledged by both parties, and without 
 the consent of the other Bishops of the Nestorian Church, 
 which to this day has never been obtained. On the whole, 
 the history of this secession forms one of the darkest pages 
 in the great drama of papal usurpations, and shows but too 
 clearly that the ancient spirit of Rome can still manifest 
 itself where there is nothing to check its natural and appro- 
 priate development. 
 
 The acting Patriarch, Mar Nicolas, was absent from 
 Mossoul, on a visit to his own country, so that I had no op- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 143 
 
 portunity to judge of him from personal acquaintance. By 
 some of the native Christians, he was represented as devoted 
 to pleasure ; by others, as concealing under this guise an 
 active and intriguing spirit. He had lately received .500 
 from the Lyons Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 
 and some were ready to predict that the money would never 
 come out of his pocket for any purposes but his own enjoy- 
 ment. These things were chiefly said by Chaldeans, and 
 some allowance is to be made for the fact, that many of 
 them were offended at what they called the obtrusion of a 
 foreigner upon them. Great differences of opinion were 
 prevailing as to the legality of the act and the right of the 
 Pope to require their submission. Some were ready to 
 sanction any thing that came from Rome; others acknow- 
 ledged the primacy of the successor of St. Peter, but pro- 
 tested against the corruptions of the Latin Church ; while 
 others still rejected the connection altogether. " I de- 
 nounce him," cried one in the bitterness of his zeal against 
 the Pope ; " what business of his to send his minions to 
 break up the ancient order of our Church, and require us 
 to bow to his pleasure ? Who gave him authority or do- 
 minion over us? For one, I will none of him." 
 
 Had the Church of Rome been truly primitive and Catho- 
 lic, there might have been nothing in this change that we 
 should not have rejoiced in. It were truly a noble design 
 to restore the Nestorian Church to the communion from 
 which it has been so long an alien. It were worthy of 
 Christian men to seek these early wanderers, and, by gath- 
 ering them again within the fold, to heal the first abiding 
 breach in the ranks of the Christian army. It were a glo- 
 rious deed, the brightest triumph in the course of ages. 
 But has it so been 1 The Roman Church began with no 
 offer of Catholic union, but with tyranny and usurpation. 
 Her thought was not to extend the faith or obey the com- 
 mand of Christ, but to aggrandize the Pope. She spoke 
 
144 VISIT TO THE 
 
 not first of the council of Ephesus, but of the supremacy of 
 St. Peter. She addressed them not as those who might 
 prove to be brethren, but got possession of the title-deeds 
 of their Patriarch, and forced him to submission to escape 
 ruin. Her first and last demand was Acknowledge the 
 Pope. This point gained, the wedge was in. Always ad- 
 vancing, never retreating, sometimes by promise and some- 
 times by threat, she has succeeded in subjecting the Chal- 
 dean Church to her unlawful sway. 
 
 And how has she used her power? Has she trained the 
 Chaldeans in the primitive faith? Has she filled them with 
 knowledge? Has she made them upon the whole a more 
 Catholic and purer Church? They have been taught to re- 
 ceive the Third Ecumenical Council, and this we acknow- 
 ledge in itself is well. But even this teaching has beer 
 confined to a few, who give to it no very intelligent assent, 
 while the mass of the people know of no change from their 
 former position except that they now acknowledge the Pope. 
 Beyond this, the Chaldean Church has been made less 
 Catholic by making it less primitive. The effort has been 
 to introduce corruptions unknown before. The use of holy 
 water and the rosary, and a multitude of other ceremonies, 
 what effect could they have but to turn away the minds of 
 the Chaldeans from the great truths of Christianity in which 
 they were already but too imperfectly instructed, and render 
 them satisfied with an unspiritual and pharisaical service? 
 There have been introduced among them vain and idle 
 superstitions, whose only result has been to debase the pu- 
 rity and simplicity of their worship. They have been taught 
 to pay adoration to pictures and images, and to convert their 
 ancient reverence for the Saints into the idolatrous worship 
 of the Blessed Virgin. The following is only a specimen of 
 the means resorted to, to degrade their religion and assimi- 
 late them to the Church of Rome. For several years past, 
 there have been brought to Mossoul, pictures of the Virgin, 
 
SYRIAN C11UKUH. 145 
 
 printed on calico, and intended to be hung about the neck. 
 Those who wear them are taught, that the man dying with 
 one of them upon him will be rescued from Purgatory, and 
 conveyed to Paradise on the following Saturday, and if he 
 dies on Saturday he will go immediately to Heaven. There 
 are intelligent Roman Catholics even who know such things 
 as these to be wicked superstitions, and who will lament as 
 well as we that they should be introduced among a simple 
 and credulous people, to degrade their religion and endan- 
 ger their souls; 1 for what could be a more effectual patron- 
 age of sin, than to teach that, whatever may have been the 
 character of the life, the wearing of this boasted charm will 
 save the soul 1 
 
 It is implied in what I have just said, that the doctrine 
 of Purgatory is taught, a doctrine formerly unknown to 
 the Chaldeans, destitute of all title to Catholicity, [and 
 among uninstructed men, like the Chaldeans, destructive to 
 the self-denying duties of religion. It is unnecessary to 
 enlarge the list. The Chaldeans, as a body, are as igno- 
 rant of the Catholic verities, as destitute of an educated 
 clergy, and of sound religious instruction, as they were 
 before their union with Rome, while their worship has lost 
 its former purity, and their minds are degraded by idle 
 superstitions. Over these things we mourn. We grieve to 
 see a Christian Church thus acting towards a wandering 
 sister, and we wait with patience and hope for the day when 
 some other more faithful member of Christ's body shall seek 
 a restoration of unity in the spirit of primitive times. 
 
 1 A Roman Catholic gentleman, with whom I fell in company in my 
 travels, said to me one day, " I am a member of the Church of Rome, but 
 I must say that I am grieved to see the means resorted to by our priests 
 to extend the sway of our Church in these countries." He was alluding 
 to such means as these. I must add that the pictures were sent from 
 Rome. 
 
146 VISIT TO THE 
 
 NOTE. In what I have said in this chapter, I do not 
 wish to be understood as expressing a final judgment upon 
 the question whether the Nestorian Church of the present 
 day is guilty of heresy. All the evidence which I have re- 
 ceived goes to show that it is not, but I will not pretend to 
 form a judgment on so important a point without maturer 
 investigation. One thing, however, seems clear, which is, 
 that they ought not to be received to communion while the 
 matter remains doubtful. Neither are they to be denounced 
 as heretics. The subject demands inquiry, and, if it can 
 be attained, an authoritative decision. The ^argument of 
 Palmer 1 appears insufficient. It is a begging of the ques- 
 tion to say that they have " never forsaken their errors." 
 The very question is, whether they hold the errors imputed 
 to them. If they " have never been restored to the com- 
 munion of the Catholic Church," it may be that they seek 
 a restoration. I am inclined to believe that they do. If 
 they have " never acknowledged the errors of their found- 
 ers," and " anathematize the synods of Ephesus and Chal- 
 cedon," it may be, as Nestorians have often declared to me, 
 that they do not believe that Nestorius and his coadjutors 
 held the error imputed to them, and that, therefore, the 
 j jdgment of the Council against them was unjust and ir- 
 regular. Supposing them to be wrong in all this, it proves 
 them to be in " error of fact," but not in " heresy." 2 
 
 1 Treatise on the Church of Christ, Part I. Chap. XIV. 
 
 2 Ib. Part I. Chap. V. Sec. III. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 14? 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Tomb of Daniel. The Population of Mossoul. Syrian Villages 
 near Mossoul. Localities of the Syrian Population. Reflections on 
 my work. Opposition of Papists. Their Treatment of us. Need of 
 a distinctive Presentation of the Church. Departure from Mossoul. 
 Self-Denial in the Missionary Work. The Pasha of Mossoul. His 
 Expedition against the Arabs. Preparation for the Journey. The 
 Plain of Nineveh. The Tomb of the Prophet. The Fast of Nineveh 
 in the Nestorian and Chaldean Churches. Telkef. Monasteries of 
 Raban Hormisd and St. Matthew. El Kosh, Birthplace of Nahum,the 
 Prophet. Comparison of Christians and Mohammedans. Yezidees. 
 Arab Village. Arrival at Zakho. 
 
 FROM the Christians let us turn, for a moment, to the 
 Mohammedans. Just before my arrival in the city, a great 
 stir had been excited by the supposed discovery of the grave 
 of the Prophet Daniel. A Mussulman, in his dream, had 
 been informed by an apparition, that there was a prophet 
 lying buried in the midst of the city, whose spirit was un- 
 easy at the dishonor done to his tomb. The sleeper in- 
 quired the place of his burial, and was conducted by the 
 ghost to an open square in the city, where the people were 
 accustomed to throw their rubbish. Here the spot was 
 pointed out, and the apparition vanished. The next day 
 the Mussulman published his dream, the people collected at 
 the spot, and on digging, came to something like a coffin. 
 Information was given to the Pasha, and he was requested 
 to send to Constantinople and obtain a firman for building 
 
148 VISIT TO THK 
 
 a tomb over the remains of the prophet. He replied that 
 he thought the evidence insufficient, and required that they 
 should first open the coffin, and see whether there were, 
 indeed, the remains of a man within. The coffin accord- 
 ingly was opened, and they found nothing. In the mean- 
 time, many others began to dream about the matter, and 
 he who first had the honor of a revelation on the subject 
 dreamed again, and saw the prophet standing before him, 
 who informed him that, on account of the unbelief of the 
 Pasha, he had conveyed himself away from this wicked city, 
 and would not return. The search was then given up. 
 The tornb was believed to be Daniel's, on the strength of 
 three or four letters, which together made his name. One 
 who saw them, told me that they were in the Hebrew char- 
 acter, but were not in juxtaposition, being evidently a part 
 of an inscription which had been obliterated by time. The 
 Christians were, at first, jealous of this Mussulman honor to 
 an Old Testament saint ; but some among them had heard 
 that the prophet Daniel was buried at Susa, and that his 
 tomb is seen there to this day. So they laughed in their 
 sleeve, at the Mussulmans, and let them go on hunting for 
 their prophet. 
 
 But let us return to the Christians. The Syrian popula- 
 tion of Mossoul and its district is not large. There may 
 be in the city 4000, of whom at least 1500 are Papal Syr- 
 ians. There are also about 2000 Chaldeans, making in all 
 a Christian population of about 6000. The Mussulmans 
 probably exceed 12,000, and the whole population, includ- 
 ing Jews and a few others, may be reckoned at 20,000 a 
 great reduction, indeed, from the immense population, some 
 120,000, which was once crowded within its walls. Fa- 
 mine, the plague, and oppression, have destroyed or scat- 
 tered thousands. The Syrian villages of Mossoul are, 1, 
 Karagosh, containing ten Syrian and one hundred Papal 
 
SYRIAN CliUUCH. 149 
 
 Syrian families, besides the monastery of Mar Behnam, 
 now deserted, and nine Churches, one a ruin, and the other 
 eight divided equally between the Syrians and the Syrian 
 Papists ; 2, Batoli, formerly a Bishop's see, now contain- 
 ing a hundred and seventy Syrian and thirty Syrian Papal 
 families and two Churches, of which each party holds one ; 
 3, the villages of Bahshika and Bahzan, at the foot of the 
 mountain on which the monastery of St. Matthew stands ; 
 they contain together sixty or seventy families, all Syrian, 
 excepting one, a Syrian Papal Priest who had lately been 
 sent thither as a missionary, by the French consular agent 
 at Mossoul ; 4, Kop, a small village on the other side of the 
 mountain, containing thirty families, all Syrian. These are 
 all the Syrians in the district of Mossoul, of whom I could 
 learn. To the South there are none, excepting a few at Bag- 
 dad, who have removed thither from other places. My old 
 host, Mutrari Isai,the Syrian Papal Bishop of Mossoul, was 
 now absent in Bagdad, having gone thither, as was report- 
 ed, to build a Church for his sect. There are probably no 
 more than four or five Syrian families in that city. The mass 
 of their population is to be sought for to the West of Mossoul, 
 in the mountains of Tour and Kurdistan, and to the South, 
 in the districts of Aleppo and Damascus. 
 
 On Sunday, June 20th, I read morning prayers at the 
 Consulate, and administered the Sacrament of Holy Com- 
 munion to the family. The objects of my visit were now 
 accomplished, and I prepared to leave on the 22d. The 
 day before, I had made the following record in my journal. 
 " The weak has now closed, and my work at Mossoul is 
 nearly completed. The few days of my sojourn here have 
 been the most interesting of my life. Great events have 
 transpired, of which the issue is still in the hand of God. 
 That issue, I doubt not, will be for his glory, whatever may 
 be the designs of men. For the humble part which I have 
 been permitted to bear, I offer my fervent thanksgivings. 
 
150 V1SJT TO THE 
 
 For the wisdom which, I trust, has guided me, for the faith 
 which has sustained me, and for the success which has 
 crowned my labors, I render all the praise to Him from 
 whom I have received all. In his strength I will still pur- 
 sue my way. Without counsel, I will look to Him for 
 guidance. Deprived of human companionship, my fellow- 
 ship shall be with the Father and with the Son. Called 
 through paths of danger, I will walk under the shadow of 
 the Almighty. Oppressed by noontide heats, I will comfort 
 myself in His love who is 10 me as the shadow of a great 
 rock in a weary land. Thus, divine grace assisting me, I 
 will go through this work. Hope tells me that I shall be 
 spared to finish it, and Faith assures me that its issue will 
 be unspeakably glorious for the Church of the living God." 
 I should have been glad to have added that the work 
 had been without opposition, but in truth my Syrian Papal 
 friends did all in their power to injure it. Most of their 
 priests called upon me, but it seemed to be with no good 
 intention, for they went away and fabricated all manner of 
 evil reports against me. One testified that he saw me 
 recording the names of all the Syrians in the city, and was 
 present when the principal Syrian ecclesiastic put his seal to 
 a paper delivering over the whole Syrian Church to the Eng- 
 lish. Prodigious excitement prevailed. The falsehood just 
 mentioned and some other idle reports were put together 
 in a letter and sent to the French Consul at Bagdad, to be 
 by him despatched to the French Ambassador at Constanti- 
 nople. The principal actor in the business was a papal 
 Syrian, the Mossoul agent of the Consul aforesaid. He 
 was sent for, and made to understand so clearly the foolish 
 nature of the reports with which he had filled his despatches, 
 that he became exceedingly ashamed and alarmed at his 
 own credulity, and promised to send off another letter to 
 contradict the former. Whether he did so or not is a mat- 
 ter of little importance to any body but himself, as he is the 
 
SYRIAN CI1UKCU. 151 
 
 only one likely to suffer from his own folly. It might be 
 amusing to others to see a whole train of diplomatic agents 
 set on fire by an idle story, but it could hardly be agreeable 
 to himself to have it discovered that he had, through over- 
 haste and youthful zeal, led his employers into a race for a 
 jack-o'lantern. He and his advisers might have ventured 
 to reflect that it was possible for a man to be doing good to 
 others without doing injury to them, and that it was possible 
 for good to be done from higher than political and worldly 
 ends. And, on the other hand, those who protect them 
 must not be surprised if they are sometimes frightened by 
 the bugbear which their own emissaries have created. I 
 refer to the Latin priests, who seem to think that their de- 
 signs among the Eastern Christians cannot be accomplished 
 without traducing the English 1 Church and nation. My 
 meaning will be made clear as we advance. I will only 
 add here, that most of the stories which are so diligently 
 circulated by Papal missionaries, would have no tendency 
 to injure us if our ecclesiastical character were better 
 known. But when the Eastern Christians are suffered to 
 believe that the " English," in the comprehensive sense in 
 which I have just used the word, are, as a body and alto- 
 gether, destitute of the Episcopacy, reject Infant Baptism, 
 &/c., we must expect to suffer in the estimation of the Ori- 
 ental Communions. They regard these things as essential 
 parts in the fabric of Christianity. For us, therefore, the 
 first condition of usefulness, under God, is to make our- 
 selves known in our true and distinctive character. 
 
 I cannot leave Mossoul, without expressing my obliga- 
 tion to the excellent Consul and his lady, for the kindness 
 which made my brief sojourn a season of delightful repose 
 
 1 I have here and elsewhere in the course of my narrative, used the 
 term " English" as it is commonly used in the interior of Turkey to wit, 
 as including both English and Americans without distinction. 
 
152 VISIT TO THE 
 
 from the toil and fatigue of my journey. The comfort and 
 sweet charities of a Christian home, after so many weeks 
 of lonely wandering and consorting with rude men, were 
 like water in the desert to the thirsty traveller, refreshing at 
 the moment, and ever after fondly remembered. It is when 
 deprived of our blessings, that we best estimate them, and 
 it is when they come again after an absence, that we most 
 enjoy them. I have found, however, that pleasant as are 
 the good things of earth, and grateful as is the possession of 
 them when Providence places them in our way, they are by 
 no means necessary to happiness. On the contrary, the 
 most calm and quiet enjoyment of life on which I can look 
 back, has been when most completely divested of them. 
 Those hours return most gratefully to the memory, as hav- 
 ing been the most pure in their sources of pleasure ; the 
 most peaceful; the most chastened, subdued, and simple in 
 their faith and hope. Alone with God ; human dependence 
 forsaken ; all persons and things valued on earth, out of 
 sight; thrown upon the consolations of duty; feeling the 
 nearer presence of heavenly things, more realized, more 
 esteemed as they come in to fill the void that earth has left ; 
 all this is the foundation of a peace to which, in after life, 
 the mind recurs as the most wise, the most satisfying, and 
 the most profitable of the experiences of life. Would that 
 we who serve Christ and the Church, might so learn this 
 that we should not shrink from a higher style of duty than 
 the world pursues, but be truly more primitive in the self- 
 sacrificing nature of our obedience. Then might we hope 
 for conquests also primitive, whether among the heathen, 
 or in the promotion of knowledge, piety, and unity among 
 the dissevered members of the body of Christ, or in the 
 gathering and saving of the scattered sheep of our own 
 folds. Our reward, though small, is equal to our labor. 
 The more we carry of our ease and comfort into the battle- 
 field, the more effeminate will be our efforts, the more meagre 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. [53 
 
 our victories. The cross, and nothing but the cross on 
 earth, the crown, and nothing but the crown in prospect 
 would that there were some of us who would enter the strife 
 with such watchwords as these ; free from every thing that 
 would trammel them in God's service ; prepared by holy 
 discipline and freedom from earthly care, for posts of dan- 
 ger and toil ; with nothing left to sacrifice but their own 
 bodies, and these presented " a living sacrifice, holy, accep- 
 table to God. 1 " 
 
 By friends at Mossoul I was well supplied with letters 
 for Governors and ecclesiastics on the route, as well as to 
 the Patriarch at Mardin. The Pasha was then absent on an 
 expedition of which no one knew the object. He had been 
 heard from, marching towards the Euphrates, and there was 
 a vague report abroad, that he was going against the Pasha 
 of Damascus. The whole design appeared afterwards to be, 
 to punish some of the refractory Arabs of the desert, an ex- 
 pedition in which, at this season, he was likely to lose more 
 men of his own, than to kill of the fast-flying denizens of 
 the desert. It shows, however, the bold and energetic char- 
 acter of the man. His Divan Effendisi (Chancellor) was 
 ruling in his absence, and from him I received a letter to 
 the Governor of Zakho, the last town in the pashalic of 
 Mossoul, North of the river, directing him to show me 
 every needed attention, and to forward me on my way to Je- 
 zireh. He also appointed a Mehmandar (Hospitaller) to 
 accompany me as far as Zakho. 
 
 Every thing being ready, I took leave of my friends at 
 the Consulate and several of the clergy who had come to 
 bid me farewell, and rode out of the city late in the after- 
 noon. We crossed the ruined bridge to the East, and then 
 pursued our way over the plain of Nineveh, and afterwards 
 over a low, uneven country, to the village of Batana, four 
 
 1 Rom. xii. 1. 
 
154 VISIT TO THE 
 
 hours from Mossoul. The whole plain of Nineveh, which 
 is about four miles long and a mile broad, seems hardly 
 large enough to have been the site of that great city in 
 which there were " more than 120,000 persons who could 
 not discern between their right hand and their left," 1 which 
 was " an exceeding great city of three days' journey," 2 un- 
 less we suppose it to have extended over the hills to the East 
 and North. Some of my Syrian friends, to whom I pro- 
 posed the difficulty, suggested that the three days' journey 
 might mean that it required so much time to go through 
 every part of the city, and that Jonah's " entering into the 
 city a day's journey," 3 meant that he travelled about in its 
 streets a whole day, proclaiming the awful message intrusted 
 to him. 4 The plain is now waste and desolate, according to 
 the prediction of Zephaniah: " He will make Nineveh a 
 desolation, and dry like a wilderness. . . . How is she be- 
 come a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in." (Zeph. 
 iii. 13, 15.) Excepting a few fields of grain near the river, 
 it seemed to be entirely barren, and the only signs of life 
 
 1 Jonah iv. 13. 
 
 2 Ibid. iii. 3. " Whose merchants were multiplied above the stars of 
 heaven, and whose crowned ones were as the locusts." Nah. iii. 16, 17. 
 
 3 Jonah iii. 4. 
 
 4 This explanation may have been taken from their own Mar 
 Ephrem, who says (Commen. in Jon. in Zoe.) that the three days' journey 
 is not to be understood of the circumference of the city, but of the time 
 necessary for the preaching of Jonah to pervade it. If applied, however, 
 to the circumference, the account agrees very well with that of Diodorus 
 Siculus (1. II.) who describes it to be 480 stadia, or nearly 60 miles, 
 which is three days' journey for a caravan, the common mode of com- 
 puting distance in the East. Gibbon, therefore, might have spared his 
 sneer at the scriptural account. (Decline and Fall, Chap. 46.) The 
 only difficulty is in finding a place for so large a city in the plain opposite 
 Mossoul. The difficulty, however, is removed by supposing the city to 
 have extended to both banks of the river, like Bagdad, and this will also 
 reconcile the account of those ancient writers (chiefly Mussulman) who 
 describe Nineveh as standing on the right hank. See also Nahum ii. 8. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 155 
 
 were five or six miserable looking peasants who were reaping 
 the grain. On a mound near the centre of the plain stands 
 the tomb of the Prophet Jonah, and around it is gathered a 
 little hamlet, called also from his name, Nebbi Yonan. l How 
 little could the proud inhabitants of the great city have 
 dreamed that the only relics of their glory should one day 
 be a few scattered fragments of buildings covered by the 
 soil, that the only monument to mark its site should be the 
 tomb of the prophet who denounced its woes, and its only 
 population a few poor families gathered about his burial 
 place. The tomb is in the hands of the Mussulmans, by 
 whom the prophet is greatly revered. They say of him that 
 he remained forty days in the belly of a fish, and that this 
 occurred after he had left Nineveh, whence he fled in shame 
 and confusion, on account of the non-fulfilment of his pro- 
 phecy. 2 
 
 The city was destroyed 600 years before Christ, and of 
 course has no place in the records of the Church, excepting 
 to give its name to a Metropolitan and an Episcopal see of 
 the Chaldeans. This was also removed about A. D. 820, 
 and the see was united to that of Adiabene, or Assyria, by 
 the Catholicos, Joshua Bar Nun. 3 There is still a fast ob- 
 served both in the Nestorian and the Syrian Churches, 
 which is called the Fast of Nineveh, and which is supposed 
 by the people, and even by the ecclesiastics, to be commemo- 
 rative of the great fast of their ancestors, at the time when 
 Nineveh was to be overthrown. But according to Asseman, 4 
 it was first instituted by Sabarjesus, Catholicos of Seleucia, 
 at the close of the 6th century, and the original object of it 
 
 1 Prophet Jonah. 
 
 2 The prayer of the prophet, which they report him to have made 
 while in the fish's belly, is given in the Koran, and is esteemed by the 
 Mussulman Doctors as possessing peculiar sanctity and efficacy. 
 
 3 Ass. Bib. Or. III. 344. 
 
 4 Ibid. II. 413, 426 
 
156 VISIT TO THE 
 
 was to invoke God for the cessation of the plague, which 
 was then ravaging the land. It was afterwards ordained to 
 be perpetually observed, and the name of Nineveh was given 
 to it, as descriptive both of the occasion on which it was 
 established and the severity with which it was to be kept. 
 If this is a true account of its origin, which I should be in- 
 clined to doubt if it were not supported by respectable tes- 
 timony from ancient writers, we must suppose that it was 
 adopted by the Syrians on account of their being involved 
 in the same calamity, and that they, like the Nestorians, 
 thought it worthy of being perpetually observed. The fast 
 occurs about two weeks before the Great Fast of Easter, 
 and continues three days, during which time some of the 
 people, and still more of the clergy, neither eat nor drink. 
 
 Three hours from Mossoul we passed Telkef, a large 
 Chaldean village, containing apparently a thousand houses. 
 Some of the people reported that it formerly held 3000 fam- 
 ilies, but it is now partly in ruins. Several large Churches 
 were visible, more conspicuous in size and position than 
 they commonly are in Turkey. The country around, as it 
 is throughout this region, was destitute of trees, and the 
 soil dry and parched from the summer heat. On our right 
 was the mountain of Makloub, with the monastery of St. 
 Matthew (now uninhabited, but formerly the seat of the 
 Syrian Patriarchs, and still nominally the residence of the 
 Muphrians) in view. In front of us rose the dark range of 
 mountains, on which stands the monastery of Raban Hor- 
 misd, 1 the patriarchal seat of the Chaldeans. At the foot of 
 the mountain lies Alkosh, or Elkosh, the birth-place of the 
 
 1 Built by the Monk (Raban) John Hermes, or Hormisda, a native 
 of Persia, about A. D. 630. The monastery of St. Matthew is more an- 
 cient. In 629 certain privileges were granted to it by Athanasius, Pa- 
 triarch of Antioch. Its Metropolitan was allowed to have the first place 
 after the Muphrian, whose seat was in the same year established at Tek- 
 rit.. on th Tigris, below Mossoul. A*8. Eib Or. II. 419 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 157 
 
 Prophet Nahum, whose tomb is still seen there. It was he 
 who predicted the downfall of Nineveh, long after the 
 preaching of Jonah, and one hundred years before its de- 
 struction, during the interval between the overthrow of the 
 monarchies of Israel and Judah. We can imagine what 
 hope and comfort his predictions must have given to the 
 captive tribes of Israel, when they heard the words of his 
 sublime and glowing prophecy, in the land of their conquer- 
 ors. Others, however, have supposed that he was born at 
 Elkosh, a small village in Galilee, of which St. Jerome re- 
 lates that he saw the ruins, and that his tomb was afterwards 
 seen at Bethogabra, a village near Emmaus. But the ac- 
 count which I have given, appears to have the best claims to 
 belief, as it has been from ancient times, and is still the 
 universal tradition of both Jews and Christians in the land 
 of Assyria. The title of the prophecy is " The burden of 
 Nineveh The book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite." 1 
 At dark we reached the village of Batana. The people, 
 who were Chaldeans, received me kindly, spread a bed for 
 me on the roof of a house, and provided an excellent dinner. 
 Half of the houses in the village were in ruins and unin- 
 habited. Their .occupants had fled to seek in other districts 
 a more secure and quiet home. The people said that the 
 cause of it was oppression, and complained bitterly of the 
 taxes which they were compelled to bear. I liked the ap- 
 pearance of these Chaldeans and of all that I saw, more 
 than of most other Christians in Turkey. They seemed to 
 have more of manliness and natural intelligence than the 
 peasantry of Asia Minor, which, however, I attribute not so 
 much to any intellectual or moral superiority as to the fact 
 that, until within the last ten or twelve years, the peasantry 
 of Assyria have been less subject to tyranny and extortion. 
 This, I believe, is every where the cause of the low estate of 
 
 1 Nahum, i. 1 
 8 
 
158 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Christianity in Turkey; and accordingly it will be found that 
 the degradation of the Christians is in exact proportion to 
 the civil oppressions which they suffer. Thus the Nestori- 
 ans of Kurdistan, who have hitherto been free, are superior 
 in point of character to the Christians of European Turkey, 
 and these are superior to the Chaldeans, who in their turn 
 are superior to the Christians of Asia Minor ; and the de- 
 grees of oppression which these different bodies have suffered 
 have been generally in the same proportion. The Nesto- 
 riansofthe Mountains have been independent of all foreign 
 rule; the Christians of European Turkey, composing, as 
 they do, the majority of the population in that country, 
 have always been able to maintain a position nearly equal 
 to that of their Mohammedan masters, while the Chaldeans, 
 though more oppressed in the main, have been in a far better 
 condition (both on account of the strength of their popula- 
 tion and on account of the milder prejudices of Mussulmans 
 in those parts) than the crushed and down-trodden Chris- 
 tians of Asia Minor. If things continue as they now are, 
 the Chaldeans will become as completely degraded as the 
 latter, and the Nestorians, who have recently come under 
 Mohammedan sway, will gradually lose those manly qual- 
 ities which have hitherto distinguished them. In order to 
 effect a just comparison of the relative influences of Moham- 
 medanism and Christianity upon a people, the two should be 
 placed in a state of civil equality. In such a condition, I, 
 for one, would cheerfully stake the whole character of our 
 religion upon the result. But as things now are, nothing 
 can be more unjust than the hasty judgments of some of our 
 Western travellers,~who seeing in certain parfs that Moham- 
 medans are really superior to Christians in dignity of char- 
 acter, in hospitality, and other social virtues, rashly infer that 
 their religion is as beneficent as Christianity. It is true, 
 indeed, that, in its present low estate, the influences of our 
 holy religion in the East are in a great measure lost through 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 159 
 
 want of instruction ; but even this is owing mainly to the ty- 
 rannical sway of Islam ism, which at once degrades the mind 
 and cuts off the means of improvement. 
 
 June 23. We started again at day dawn. My guard 
 consisted of only four men. The number was an indica- 
 tion of the strong-handed government which rules the pro- 
 vince of Mossoul. Were the same government more atten- 
 tive to the wants of the people, and more limited in. its 
 exactions, it would be a model of good rule for such a coun- 
 try, where severity is necessary to curb the lawless spirit of 
 the people and secure safety. We passed Teleskof, a third 
 and large Chaldean village, one hour from Batana, and in 
 two hours more we reached Hatara, a village of the Yezi- 
 dees. They appeared to be one of the most flourishing com- 
 munities that I had seen in my journey. The men were 
 stout and well-looking, and the women had an erect and open 
 bearing, and a free, bold gait, which struck me at once from 
 its contrast with the Christians, who were evidently fright- 
 ened at the appearance of men from the Pasha, and whose 
 women, though, like the Yezidee females, open-faced, were 
 less comely, and more timid in their demeanor. The men 
 of Hatara wore dark-colored turbans of striped cloth, and 
 the women had a covering upon their head, which came 
 under their chin, and another bound round the forehead. 
 They treated us with the greatest kindness, and, at the same 
 time, with an appearance of ease and cheerfulness which was 
 the more pleasing, because uncommon. The men sat and 
 talked with us, while the women busied themselves in pre- 
 paring for us a nice breakfast of bread and milk, eggs and 
 yo-oort, and other products of their rural toil, for which 
 they seemed to think themselves amply repaid by a taste of 
 my Turkish coffee. I did not, however, depart without 
 remunerating them for their hospitality with something more 
 substantial, which they received with many expressions of 
 thanks and wishes for a good journey. I was altogether 
 
160 VISIT TO THE 
 
 well pleased with my interview with these reputed devil- 
 worshippers. 1 Their houses also were better built than 
 those in the villages which I had passed, being thatched and 
 more regular in their construction. On the outskirts of the 
 village was their burying-ground, in which I noticed two 
 large tombs of a peculiar form and appearance. 
 
 Our next stage was to Faidah, two and a half hours from 
 Hatara. Here the people were Arabs, living in their tents 
 about a quarter of a mile from the village, and a more poor 
 and miserable population I have seldom seen, even in Tur- 
 key. They were dirty, their tents were thronged with ver- 
 min, and their children were running about in the hot sun 
 entirely naked. Nevertheless they treated me well, and 
 in particular showed one very acceptable specimen of good 
 manners in not intruding upon me all the day, by which I 
 had an opportunity to sleep. The Tigris was visible from 
 the tents, about one hour distant to the Southwest, and 
 beyond it a range of hills running parallel with its course. 
 We had arrived before 9 A. M., when the heat was not yet 
 intense, but towards noon it increased, and a sirocco from 
 the Southeast was blowing upon us all the day, like the 
 hot air of a furnace. 
 
 At nine o'clock, Eastern time, that is, three hours before 
 sunset, we mounted again, and came in four hours to Man- 
 dan, a Kurdish village, where the people, taking us to be 
 Pasha's men, were at first disposed to give us a sullen re- 
 ception. But on learning that I was a Frank, they treated 
 us hospitably, gave us a good supper and lodgings till mid- 
 pight, when we started again upon our last stage to Zakho. 
 My Mehmandar, Reshid Agha, had left us at Faidah, and 
 taken two of ihe men with him, leaving only one, who told 
 us as we left the yijjage, that Reshid and his two compan- 
 
 1 I have given some account of the jreligion of the Yezidees in my 
 JNarrative of a Tour, &c., Vol. II. p. 317, m. Ed. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 161 
 
 ions would follow immediately. But when we reached 
 Mandan, we were informed that he had made a diversion to 
 collect the Pasha's taxes, and would overtake us at Zakho. 
 Fortunately there was no need of his protection, for we 
 made our way unmolested to Zakho. Four hours from 
 Mandan, and just as day was dawning, on the morning of 
 the 24th, we left the low country over which we had been 
 travelling, and entered a mountain range where we toiled 
 slowly on for two weary hours, and then descended to 
 another plain beyond, where Zakho stands on an island in 
 the Khabour. 
 
162 VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Zakho. Its District. Taxes. Evils of the Farming System. Call from 
 the Agha. A young Syrian. Bankers. Presents. Guard. Provin- 
 cial Quarrels. Bridge over the Khabour. Fording a River by Night. 
 Chaldean Village. Reception at Night. Sleeping on Roofs. Ha- 
 did. Bitouna. The Province of Jezireh. Its Government compared 
 with that of Mossoul. Harvest. Chaldean and Nestorian Villages. 
 Town of Jezireh. Reshid Pasha and his Wars. Attack on Jezireh. 
 Crossing the Tigris on a Raft. A Chaldean Host and Hostess. De- 
 scription of Jezireh. Chaldean Bishop. Chaldean and Nestorian Pop- 
 ulation of the Province. Nestorian Bishop. Syrian Bishop. Papal 
 Proselytism. 
 
 ZAKHO, a place famous in the later history of these 
 countries, stands, as I have said, upon an island in the 
 Khabour. The entrance is by a narrow bridge at the head 
 of the island, which is the only means of communication 
 with the town, and at the same head of the island is the old 
 citadel, which was once a stronghold, but is now in a ruin- 
 ous and dilapidated condition. The whole town, indeed, is 
 in a similar state, and the people say is only a remnant of 
 what it once was. There are not more than one hun- 
 dred families in the place, and of these only five were Sy- 
 rian. A part of the remainder were Jews. The town, 
 however, is the head of a district which is said to contain 
 three hundred villages, but many of these are heaps of ruins. 
 The Governor, one Ibrahim Agha, farms the district for 
 300,000 piastres, (about 13,000 Spanish dollars, or ,2,775,) 
 which he replaces with interest, in his own pocket, by such 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 163 
 
 means as he pleases. This is the curse of the farming sys- 
 tem. The district of Zakho, with a nominal tax of 13,000 
 dollars, is doubtless paying one of eighteen or twenty thou- 
 sand. The town and the whole region afford a sad demon- 
 stration of the evil of the system, which is gradually reduc- 
 ing the productive power of the country, diminishing popu- 
 lation, repressing agriculture, and rendering every year the 
 burdens more onerous to the people as they come to be 
 borne (without being themselves diminished) by a con- 
 stantly decreasing population. The Pasha will expect the 
 Governor to give as much this year as he did last, and the 
 Governor is compelled to press each year harder to obtain 
 the amount and his own gains. A policy more surely end- 
 ing in ruin could not be devised, 
 
 Ibrahim Agha called upon me at my lodgings, which 
 were, as to their ruinous state, a miniature of his own at the 
 castle. The whole front of the room in which I sat had 
 fallen down, and left an uninterrupted view of a cattle-yard 
 without. The Agha was barefooted, according to the ap- 
 proved fashion of summer-dress in this country, and his 
 shirt and drawers had no pantaloons over them. At the 
 same time his head was bound about with an enormous 
 turban, fold upon fold of coarse muslin. He sat half an 
 hour, while I endeavored to instruct him in the rudiments 
 of geography from a large map which I had before me. 
 But he could get no idea of its meaning, and was totally 
 confounded at seeing Constantinople only three feet distant 
 from Mossoul. He could not discover the art of contract- 
 ing towns and cities into points, or making seas and rivers 
 flow on paper. He evidently thought it some species of 
 magic, and looked from the map at me with a ludicrous air 
 of bewilderment and suspicion. 
 
 Another of my visitors was a very gayly dressed Syrian, 
 an agent of the Pasha's banker at Mossoul. He was here 
 to collect his master's debts out of the revenues of the prov- 
 
164 VISIT TO THE 
 
 ince, and I confess his handsome dress prepossessed me 
 against him when I thought of the miserable beings from 
 whom the means of luxury came. But this was no fault of 
 his, excepting as he was the instrument of collecting the 
 exactions of others. The bankers prey upon the Pashas, 
 the Pashas prey upon the rulers of districts, and these last 
 prey upon the people. 
 
 The young Syrian, however, was profuse in his atten- 
 tions to me. He had already heard of my visit to the city, 
 and gave me some proof of it by telling me what I had been 
 doing. He had heard it from his master, the banker, who 
 had been one of my best friends, and who, notwithstanding 
 the nature of his business, was kind-hearted, intelligent, and 
 generous. He had himself been supporting two respectable 
 schools among the Syrians, and had entered with great 
 readiness into all my plans for their welfare. He was an 
 Armenian from Constantinople, but unfortunately one of 
 those whose faith has become unsettled by skeptical views. 
 He used to say to me, " These people are orphans. No 
 one looks after them, no one cares for them. They are 
 reduced by oppression and impoverished by extortion. Do 
 them good. They can make you no return ; but your re- 
 ward will be in Heaven, if there is one" With much 
 intelligence and shrewd knowledge of the world, Agha S. 
 betrayed a singular complication of motive. He seemed to 
 take great pleasure in doing good, while he was a doubter 
 on all the great points of religion, and quite denied the 
 overruling providence of God. He had no very favorable 
 opinion of the sincerity of men, and yet he was befriending 
 the Syrians with much zeal. In the same breath he would 
 abuse them as miserable fellows, and propose some import- 
 ant measure for their welfare. All this made me suspect 
 that he was acting under instructions, as he was the agent 
 of an eminent banker in Constantinople, whose zeal for 
 education had led him to establish in the metropolis a semi- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 165 
 
 nary of a high order for the benefit of Armenian youth, 
 which he was supporting entirely from his private purse. 
 He too was another eminent instance of an honest, upright, 
 and benevolent banker, but he has since fallen under the 
 charge of fraud, from the Pasha of Mossoul, (who probably 
 took this way of settling accounts with him,) and has been 
 banished from the city. 1 
 
 The young Syrian at Zakho did all in his power to 
 make me acquainted with the town, and then inquired what 
 further he could do for me. I begged him to procure for 
 me horses that I might get away out of the town, for every 
 body appeared very miserable in it, and it was only with 
 great difficulty that I could obtain a single article of food. 
 The danger of starvation appeared so imminent that I de- 
 termined to fly from Zakho, and seek for something to eat in 
 the villages. The Syrian hired mules for me, as there was 
 no post-house in the place, and when I. departed accompa- 
 nied me out of the town on a noble, spirited horse, which, 
 besides himself, was the only well-looking creature that I 
 met in Zakho. Upon our parting, I gave my Syrian friend 
 a present, in acknowledgment of his kindness. He re- 
 ceived it with great apparent reluctance, saying that he was 
 ready to serve me to any extent, for the good I had done to 
 his people. I had taken care, before leaving, to send a small 
 present to the Agha in return for his call, by the hand of my 
 servant. The custom on such occasions is for the receiver 
 to reward the bearer ; but Basil returned, saying, that the 
 Agha looked so miserable in his turnbling-down castle that 
 he would not receive the ten piastres which he proffered to 
 him. Ibrahim Agha gave me a guard of three men to go 
 as far as a river two hours from Zakho, which forms the 
 boundary between this district and that of Jezireh. On 
 
 1 Since this was written, the Pasha has died, and the banker has re- 
 turned to Constantinople. 
 
 8* 
 
166 VISIT TO THE 
 
 account of a misunderstanding between the Bey of Jezireh 
 and the Pasha of Mossoul, the Agha gave strict injunctions 
 that his men should not enter the territory of the former. 
 And yet all these rulers are alike subjects of the Sultan, 
 and their hostile districts are different provinces of his 
 Empire. 
 
 On going out of the town by the same way that we had 
 entered, we were compelled to go up along the Easterly 
 bank of the river in order to find a bridge to convey us 
 over the stream. We came to one about ten minutes' ride 
 above Zakho. It was a solid and handsome stone structure 
 worthy of a better looking town. The river is here about a 
 hundred or a hundred and fifty feet wide. After passing 
 the bridge, we resumed our course Westward, adown the 
 right bank of the swift-rolling stream. In two hours we 
 reached the river before mentioned, which is a tributary of 
 the Khabour. Here wfe found neither bridge nor ferry 
 boat. The guards advised me to wait till morning at a vil- 
 lage of tents close by, but my anxiety to proceed made me 
 determine to attempt the ford. Fortunately it was not 
 entirely dark. A young moon descending in the West was 
 shedding its feeble light over the stream. The chief of the 
 village and two stout lads accompanied us as guides. The 
 latter stripped themselves upon the bank of the river. One 
 took my mule, and the other the animal which carried my 
 luggage, while I mounted a strong horse which had been 
 brought from the village. Thus prepared, we plunged into 
 the river, the village chief leading the way. The stream at 
 this point was deep and rapid in two of the four branches 
 into which it was divided. The others were very shallow. 
 The people say that in spring time it is impassable. The 
 horses plunged about upon the rocky bottom, and for a time 
 it seemed doubtful whether some of the weaker animals 
 would be able to stand up against the torrent. The quiet 
 light of the moon and the perfect silence of the company 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 167 
 
 struck me in contrast with the rush and bluster of the 
 stream, and made the scene for a moment singularly im- 
 pressive. The silver light twinkling upon the fretting wa- 
 ter, seemed to be wooing it to calmness and peace. So do 
 the still small voice and the gentle influences from Heaven 
 fall upon the troubled stream of human life, and seek to 
 win it to quietness and trust. Would that we might heed 
 them, and in these days of strife and opposition, learn in 
 patience to possess our souls ! 
 
 We crossed the river in safety, and having taken leave 
 of our village guides, pursued our way for about an hour to 
 the Chaldean village of Tel Kabin, in the district of Jezi- 
 reh. The men from Zakho had consented, with some per- 
 suasion and demur, to accompany me hither, rather than 
 leave me to find my way alone. When we arrived, the 
 whole village was drowned in sleep. The guard shouted, 
 and instantly every roof was bristling with men, and a hun- 
 dred dogs began to bark furiously. 
 
 A strong voice demanded, " What do you want ?" 
 
 " Lodgings," cried the men of Zakho. 
 
 " We have none," was the stern reply. 
 
 " There is a Batyos 1 with us," answered the guard. 
 
 In an instant the scene changed. The word passed 
 from mouth to mouth. Several shouted a hearty welcome. 
 Some descended from the roofs, all armed, as I observed, 
 with guns. Some took the horses, others helped me to 
 alight, and three or four almost took me upon their shoul- 
 ders, and carried me up to the roof. The chief spread a 
 carpet and seated me upon it. The young men brought up 
 the baggage and stowed it nicely about me, while some 
 twenty gathered round in their shirts and sat down to talk. 
 They provided me with such food as the hour permitted, 
 
 1 A title given to official personages, and sometimes to Frank trav- 
 ellers. 
 
168 VISIT TO THE 
 
 and we sat talking until one after another had stolen away 
 to his bed on some adjacent roof, and I remained alone with 
 the chief. This fashion of sleeping upon roofs is a great 
 luxury in a country where the air is balmy and dry, to say 
 nothing of the deliverance from vermin, which swarm in 
 the apartments below. A friend of mine used to inclose 
 himself in a bag and draw up the strings of it about his 
 neck, and he recommended it to me as an effectual security 
 against fleas, lice, and other specimens of entomology 
 which abound in the interior. But I could never bring 
 myself to forego the use of arms and legs in a country 
 where they are sometimes necessary upon a sudden. Better 
 " to bear the ills we have, than fly to others that we know 
 not of." The fact of a man's being ready sacked would be 
 temptation enough in some parts of Turkey for the people 
 to throw him into a river. 
 
 Our meal and our talk done, we lay down and slept 
 quietly till morning, when the villagers sent me away with 
 two men on foot, who, they said, would conduct me to the 
 village of Hadid, an hour distant, where I could find horses 
 for them. There were no horses at Hadid, a Mussulman 
 village, and we went to another, called Bitouna, a few 
 minutes' ride to the East, wheret he Agha resided. He re- 
 ceived us well, and gave us a good breakfast to begin the 
 day with, but he laughed at the idea of travelling with 
 guards in the well-governed district of Jezireh. " Put 
 your gold on your head and go your way," he said; "no- 
 body will injure you." He gave us, however, a man to show 
 us the road, who turned out to be a beggar that had left his 
 wallet to come with us. He was so slow in his .motions that 
 I soon sent him back to his profession, and we travelled the 
 rest of the way alone. The merry Agha of Bitouna was right ; 
 there was no need of guards. The peasants were scattered all 
 over the country, reaping their grain. Women and men were 
 all at work, and seemed happy and cheerful in their labor. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 169 
 
 The products of their fields were wheat and barley, with 
 here and there a patch of Indian corn, not planted in hills, 
 but growing in single stalks. We passed also two fields 
 covered with the tobacco plant. Last year there had been 
 a scarcity in the region, but this year the crops were extra- 
 ordinarily abundant. The whole land appeared to be re- 
 joicing in the fruits of its toil. I marked at once the strik- 
 ing difference between the districts of Mossoul and Jezireh. 
 There every thing wore an aspect of gloom and decay. 
 The villages were half ruined, and the people timid and 
 heart-broken. Here every thing seemed thriving and pros- 
 perous, the people comparatively contented, and the land 
 yielding its increase to their willing toil. The sight con- 
 vinced me that it is possible to combine here the two great 
 features of government which the country requires, severity 
 and justice. The Pasha of Mossoul is severe, but his rule 
 is too exacting and oppressive upon the property of his sub- 
 jects. The Bey of Jezireh is both severe and ordinarily 
 just. 1 At least he does not oppress his people with burdens 
 which they cannot bear, and they in return boast of that 
 sternness of judgment which makes the province as quiet 
 and peaceful as any country in Europe. It is only a few 
 years since it was governed by rebellious chiefs, and the 
 whole land was a den of robbers. Now, as my good friend 
 of Bitouna said, one might put gold on his head, and go 
 where he pleased. 
 
 The whole land from Zakho to within about three hours 
 of Jezireh, a distance of about 35 or 40 miles, is an exten- 
 sive plain country, and evidently bears a considerable popu- 
 lation. One of the Christian villages I have already men- 
 
 1 I say this, not forgetting his horrid character as a persecutor of the 
 Christians, for he is the same Bedr Khan Bey who led the Kurds in the 
 massacre of the Nestorians in 1843. He is a bigoted and ferocious Mus- 
 sulman, but I have never heard any well-grounded complaints of exaction 
 upon the property of his subjects. 
 
170 VISIT TO THE 
 
 tinned. Two others are Takyan and Ghirkeh Badrou, the 
 former Chaldean, the latter half Chaldean and half Nesto- 
 rian. These last were the first of whom I heard as belong- 
 ing still to the ancient Nestorian Church of Mar Elias, not 
 having, with the great body of that Church, acknowledged 
 allegiance to the Pope. 
 
 The heat was not extreme until the middle of the day, 
 when we began to suffer from the rays of the sun. But we 
 had fortunately entered upon a more hilly and rugged coun- 
 try, which continued till we reached Jezireh. We first 
 espied the town from the summit of a ridge about an hour 
 distant, whence it appeared lying below us on a" strip of plain 
 between the river Tigris, which now burst full in view, and 
 a range of hills beyond. 
 
 On descending to the river, we found in front of the 
 town, the remains of a handsome stone bridge, which had 
 been destroyed by the inhabitants in the wars with Reshid 
 Pasha, in 1835 6. This distinguished chief, who still lives 
 in the memory of the people, and whose name is still heard 
 in the songs of the Kurds, was deputed by the Sultan to 
 bring all these provinces, Mardin, Jebel Tour, Jezireh, and 
 Zakho, into subjection. They were then held by Kurdish and 
 Arab Beys, who owned no authority above their own. On 
 approaching Jezireh from the opposite side of the river, and 
 finding the communication cut off, the Pasha planted his 
 cannon and battered it into submission. The terror of the 
 Kurds when they heard the roar of this new engine, was well 
 described to me by a chief of their own. " I am ready," he 
 said, " to meet any man with a good sword, or to try a shot 
 with him at a proper distance ; but I must confess that when 
 I heard the sound of those bellowing machines, and saw 
 them throwing their huge balls to a distance whence we 
 could send nothing in return, I felt very much inclined to 
 get behind a stone." The stone bridge had been replaced 
 by one of boats, like those at Bagdad and Mossoul, but this 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 171. 
 
 was now drawn up on one side for repairs. We were there- 
 fore compelled to trust to rafts made, like those on the Zab 
 and Tigris, of inflated goat-skins, supporting a platform of 
 osier work. That to which we committed ourselves was 
 small and rickety, and the current, which here comes round 
 a bend, was rapid and furious, rushing and boiling in eddies. 
 It seemed a hazardous task, as the little raft plunged into 
 the current, and was carried violently down, and then rush- 
 ed up again, turning and twisting in the eddies, as if it were 
 going down in a young Maelstrom ; but we got safely over. 
 The postilion from Zakho was prudent enough to keep the 
 horses on the other side. I sat upon the bank where we 
 landed, for an hour, broiling in the hot sun, while the ser- 
 vant went to deliver my letter for the Bey, and find a lodg- 
 ing-place. The Bey was absent in the mountains, but his 
 deputy read the letter, and ordered lodgings to be provided 
 in the house of a Chaldean, who, finding me to be a Chris- 
 tian, gave me a truly Christian reception, and treated me 
 with the same kindness as if I had been an invited guest. 
 He was a young man lately married, and it was pleasant to 
 see his sprightly little wife moving actively about in her 
 household duties, and doing every thing in her power to 
 make me comfortable. She wore no veil. Her fair and 
 youthful face was beaming with good-humor and happiness. 
 She conversed freely with her husband, and, like a modest 
 matron, made him the medium of communication with her 
 guest. I was attracted by the scene, which brought faintly 
 to my mind images of home and social delights, and the 
 converse of friends gliding softly into my mind like the 
 recollections of a dream, and almost making me doubt, by 
 their pleasantness, whether they had ever been real. I was 
 beguiled to spend the rest of the day with them, although 
 my intention had been otherwise when I reached the town. I 
 felt, moreover, the need of repose from the heat of the sun, 
 and hoped to make a few inquiries in the town. Above all, 
 
172 VISIT TO THE 
 
 there was no post-establishment in the place, and I could 
 obtain no horses for my journey through the Tour moun- 
 tains. 
 
 After an hour's repose I went abroad to see the town, 
 my host accompanying me as guide. I had already been 
 struck by its ruinous appearance on entering, and the im- 
 pression was not removed by a closer survey. It was in 
 truth a melancholy mass of ruins, amidst which a house 
 was here and there left standing, rather than a town with 
 here and there a ruined building. There was a low wall 
 around it, and on the river-side a citadel in ruins, where I 
 observed nothing worthy of note excepting the figures of 
 two lions over the gateway. The town contains 200 
 families, of which 50 are Chaldean and Syrian Papists, (the 
 two forming one community and worshipping in the same 
 Church,) 12 Syrian, and a solitary Armenian, who worships 
 with the Syrians. There is a Chaldean Bishop who came 
 a year ago from Bagdad, and had now been absent two and 
 a half months. His flock asked me whether I knew what 
 had become of him. From the description I judged him to 
 be the same that 1 had seen at Diabekir, and thought it not 
 improper to inform his people where their Bishop was. 
 They seemed relieved by the information. There are 15 
 Chaldean villages in the district of which Jezireh is the 
 capital, and others partly Chaldean. Some of them are 
 large, containing 100 families or more, others are insigni- 
 ficant. The whole Chaldean population of Jezireh may be 
 reckoned at 1000 families, or about 5000 souls. 
 
 There are also in the same district about the same number 
 of Nestorian villages, and probably about the same popula- 
 tion. These, as I have said, are a remnant of the Church 
 of Mar Elias, who have not yet learned to call themselves 
 Catoleek. The people informed me that they have a Patri- 
 arch of their own at a place called Kilisseh 1 in Jebel Judi, 
 
 1 The Turkish for Church, a corruption of the Greek, ' 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 173 
 
 two hours from Jezireh ; but from the description, I judged 
 him to be the old Nestorian Bishop, formerly Bishop of 
 Jezireh, who retired into the mountains upon the defection 
 of his Church, and is the only Bishop of the Church of Mar 
 Elias who has not acknowledged the Pope. 
 
 Jezireh is also the see of a Syrian Bishop, who is now 
 resident at Azik in the Tour Mountains, six and a half 
 hours from the town. The district contains, so far as I 
 could learn, 13 Syrian villages, but I have some reason to 
 believe that the number was understated. I was told, more- 
 over, that the last year a Papal Syrian priest from Bagdad 
 had gone among these villages, and succeeded in making 
 seven of them Catoleek, not by preaching to them the Catho- 
 lic faith, but by showing them the temporal advantages of 
 acknowledging the Pope. This, says a Syrian Bishop to 
 me, is not Catoleek (Catholic) but Keutnluk. 1 I believe, 
 however, that the story is exaggerated, so far as regards the 
 success of the mission, although it is true that such a mis- 
 sion was undertaken. It is not a rare thing for the poor 
 uninstructed people hereabout to allow themselves to be 
 called Catoleek for a trifling compensation, and to turn back 
 again as soon as the money is exhausted. If it is melan- 
 choly to see men thus disposing of their religion by sale and 
 barter, how much greater is their sin who, better taught as 
 they are, can use such means for extending their boasted 
 and exclusive Catholicity. If it is the Catholic faith which 
 they sell, is this faith a gift to be purchased with money ? 
 If it is, as I believe, the name only, with a temporal advan- 
 tage attached to it, it is still an awful trifling with a sacred 
 thing. In either case, and with no evil feelings, we desire 
 that they may repent of this their wickedness, and pray 
 God if perhaps the thought of their heart may be forgiven 
 them. Acts viii. 18-24. 
 
 1 Keutuluk a Turkish word, meaning vileness, badness. 
 
174 VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Troubles in the Tour Dagh. Change of Roitfe. The Churches of Je- 
 zireh. The Chaldean Church. Conversation with the Priest. His 
 Idea of the English Church. Romish Falsehoods. The Church. Its 
 Interior. Quarrel in the Church-yard. The Syrian Church Its 
 School. On the Mode of Circulating the Holy Scriptures. Evening 
 Prayers. Talk in the Evening on Oppression and Proselytism. De- 
 parture from Jezireh. Death of a Missionary in the Desert. Kargo. 
 Haznaour. The Syrians of the Desert. The Bigamist. His Ex- 
 communication. Tediousness of Travelling over a Desert. The 
 Church of St. James at Nisibis. Dara. Its Ancient State. Survey of 
 its Ruins Its Inhabitants. Road to Kherin. Ancient Tombs. Re- 
 ception at Kherin. The Value of Selfish Friendship. Departure. 
 Sight of Der Zafran. Its Position. Arrival at its Gate. 
 
 JUNE 26. Intended to have left to day, but morning 
 came, and there were no horses. I thought the Deputy Gov- 
 ernor had been inattentive to my wants, and instead of a 
 present which I had prepared for him, I sent him the Sul- 
 tan's firman. It had the desired effect of making him active. 
 He sent hither and thither for horses, but none were to be 
 had. There were many in the town, and two caravans were 
 ready to depart, but none of the muleteers were willing to 
 take the mountain road. I had come to Jezireh with no 
 other purpose than that of going through the length of Tour 
 Dagh, which would carry me through the heart of the Syri- 
 an country. But a story was abroad that the Kurds, who 
 inhabit a part of the range, were in rebellion against the 
 Pasha of Mossoul. Some had been taken prisoners by the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 175 
 
 Governor of Mardin, and the whole population were in an 
 excited and dangerous state. But this I thought an insuffi- 
 cient obstacle, partly because I did not believe the story, 
 and partly because the object seemed an important one. I 
 offered, therefore, a considerable sum in addition to the 
 regular price for horses, to any one who would accompany 
 me. One at length came and made a bargain, and went 
 away to bring the animals, but I never saw him again. 
 The Governor offered to send to the villages and seize 
 horses, and compel some one to accompany me. But this 
 I did riot like. It was worse than sacrificing my own wishes. 
 I sacrificed them, therefore, and immediately formed an- 
 other and better plan for accomplishing the same object 
 at a later day. The story~afterwards proved true, and for a 
 wonder the circumstances attending the rebellion were of a 
 more aggravated character than the rumor itself. It is 
 often hard to submit, and sometimes we can see no way in 
 which the disappointment can be otherwise than an injury ; 
 but as events develope themselves, we behold what we most 
 deprecated to have been really the best for ourselves and 
 for the glory of God. 
 
 I was occupied most of the day in these negotiations, 
 acting through others, as the heat was too great to allow of 
 my going abroad. Three hours before sunset the business 
 was settled, and I went out with my host to see the Churches. 
 There are two in the town, one Syrian, and one Chaldean- 
 We went to the last mentioned first. My host finding the 
 Church door locked, went to the house of the priest, which 
 was close by, for the key, and I followed him in. The 
 priest, a man of about thirty-five, was sitting in an outer 
 apartment looking upon the court, on the side opposite to 
 the house. He was nearly undressed, on account of the 
 heat, and sat reading an Arabic book when we entered. 
 Another in Arabic and a third in Chaldaic lay by his side 
 
176 VISIT TO THE 
 
 My host, who had never heard of the New World, an- 
 nounced me as an Englishman, upon which the priest re- 
 ceived me with marked coldness and incivility. Not appear- 
 ing to notice it, I took a seat by his side and soon succeeded 
 in leading him into conversation. I was not long in learn- 
 ing that he had a strong and deep-rooted prejudice against 
 the English, and that this was a part of his Catholicism. 
 We began to discuss differences. He commenced by saying 
 that in England priests were made by laymen, that the great 
 men gave them the priestly office and took it away at pleas- 
 ure. I corrected him, and described the order of the min- 
 istry in the English Church. My host who stood by, broke 
 in with an exclamation of pleasure when I said that we had 
 the same three orders which they acknowledged, and that, 
 as among themselves, only the first order could ordain the 
 other two. But the priest promptly declared that he would 
 not believe it. 
 
 " And why will you not believe it?" I asked, " What do 
 you know of the Church of England ?" 
 
 "It is all written in this book," he said, slapping with 
 his hand the volume he was reading. 
 
 "And pray where did that book come from? I see it is 
 printed." 
 
 " It came from Rome," he replied, " and therefore must 
 be true." I told him that I was a priest myself, that a 
 Bishop's hands had twice been laid upon me, and that on 
 this subject I might claim to know as much as the Pope 
 himself. Upon this he relaxed a little, and began to show 
 me some attention, and very soon we were upon as good 
 terms as if he had been civil from the beginning. I confess, 
 however, that the incident did not tend to increase my 
 respect for the Catoleck-ism imported from Rome. Had 
 the book been a faithful announcement of the great truths 
 of our Saviour's nature and person, it would have afforded 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 177 
 
 me unmingled gratification, come from whatever quarter it 
 might. I was not surprised, however, to find it of another 
 character, for the same slanders are most diligently propa- 
 gated every where among the Eastern Churches. I have 
 met them at every point from Bagdad to Constantinople, 
 and have found them invariably to have come from the same 
 source. Why is it that the Church of Rome deems it ne- 
 cessary to the accomplishment of her own designs that she 
 should thus speak evil of the Church of England? What 
 has it to do with the progress of Catholicism, or with those 
 great truths and duties of religion which every real Catholic 
 must wish to see disseminated and insisted upon among the 
 Eastern Christians? These questions we shall answer here- 
 after, and if the explanation shows that the cause of Rome 
 favors only ecclesiastical and political ambition, while it 
 is adverse to Catholic truth and unity, it may at least serve 
 to teach us our own duty, and stimulate us to the perform- 
 ance of it. 
 
 The Chaldean Priest led the way to the Church, and 
 showed me its different parts. The outer door opened upon 
 a court, on one side of which was the Church, a low, plain 
 building, with a very ancient and decayed appearance. The 
 interior was in keeping with the outside. The altar and 
 every thing about it was old, dirty, and neglected, excepting 
 one large picture of the Virgin, and other smaller ones of 
 the same Saint. These being, like the Priest's book, im- 
 portations from Rome, were as new and fresh as the Catoleek- 
 ism of the Church. My host devoutly crossed and bowed 
 himself before it. What would his ancestors 150 years 
 back, have thought of it, could they have beheld the act ? 
 The Bishop's seat was a rude low stool, and before the altar, 
 a little in advance of it, was a stone post on which the Gos- 
 ,pel is read. The farther part of the Church was hidden by 
 a broken lattice, behind which the women assemble. Be- 
 tween this and the altar, the whole space was clear, as it 
 
178 VISIT TO THE 
 
 always is in Oriental Churches, a custom arising doubtless 
 from Oriental habits and not from religious considerations. 
 In those parts of the service where sitting is allowed, the 
 congregation sit upon the ground, on their carpets, or on 
 the straw matting with which the best Churches are covered. 
 In some Churches, I have seen parts of the floor rented to 
 families, who spread their carpets there and let them remain 
 as long as they have possession. 
 
 While we were in the building a body of muleteers, who 
 had been to my lodgings in search of me, and not finding 
 me there, had traced me to the Church, came into the court 
 and offered their services for my journey. I retired a little 
 from the Church, and selecting the best-looking among them, 
 made a bargain with him on the spot. We then returned to 
 the Church, and the muleteer whom I had engaged came 
 back with me and remained in the court. Presently a loud 
 noise was heard, and on going out, I found the muleteer in 
 the hands of half a dozen men who were carrying him off by 
 force. It was some time before I could learn the cause of 
 the uproar, during which a few blows were given and re- 
 ceived. It turned out at last that the muleteer had been 
 engaged by another party, and learning afterwards that a 
 Frank was in the place, he had come and made a second and 
 better bargain with me. As soon as I ascertained the cause 
 of the turmoil, I stopped it at once by telling the muleteer 
 that I would not have him, and then gave them, one and all, 
 a rebuke for quarreling in the Church-yard. They were all, 
 or nearly all, Christians. I felt mortified at the occurrence, 
 although I was innocently and very unwillingly the occasion 
 of it, and apologized to the Priest for it. Instead of being 
 offended, he commended me for my mildness, and so we 
 parted better friends than we met. 
 
 From the Chaldean Church I went to the Syrian, which 
 I found, in respect to uncleanliness and decay, in much the 
 same condition. The court was large, and there were one 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 179 
 
 or two low buildings upon it, intended for the priests and 
 servants of the Church. Under the piazza, a priest was 
 teaching six or seven boys, one of whom was reading the 
 Gospel in Syriac, which I observed was printed, and on ex- 
 amining, found it to be of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society's edition. The way in which this edition was put 
 into circulation among the Syrians is worthy of mention, as 
 showing the importance of quiet and conservative measures, 
 and the superior excellence of reorganizing the Eastern 
 Communions as regularly organized Christian Churches. 
 The reader will pardon the digression for the sake of illus- 
 trating a principle. The books were sent by an agent of the 
 Society, a worthy clergyman of the Church of England, to 
 the Patriarch, by whom they were duly examined. Finding 
 no errors in them, excepting some harmless mistakes of the 
 press, he ordered them to be circulated. They are now to 
 be found in schools and Churches and private houses, going 
 freely wherever they list, read, studied, and rejoiced in, re- 
 lieving the long dearth of the Word of God. Had the mode 
 of distribution been different, the Result would have been dif- 
 ferent also. The Patriarch, thinking the surreptitious mode of 
 their circulation sufficient reason for suspecting their char- 
 acter and design, might have condemned them without ex- 
 amination, as I know has been done in other cases. In this, 
 according to the rules of his Church, he would have been 
 justified, not that his Church prohibits or restricts the reading 
 of the Holy Scriptures, but that as head of the family he has 
 authority to prevent his children from eating pernicious or 
 suspected food. Whatever we may think of such an ecclesias- 
 tical censorship, it is, if we cannot view it higher, the part 
 of prudence to remember that it exists, and to act accord- 
 ingly. "I am sorry," said an Eastern Patriarch, " that they 
 will give themselves the trouble of printing and circulating, 
 and us of collecting and burning their unauthorized books." 
 The remark, which seemed to be said soberly and in earnest, 
 
180 VISIT TO THE 
 
 contains matter for grave reflection, especially when we re- 
 member that the result alluded to has been verified even in 
 the case of translations of the Bible. A serious examina- 
 tion may give rise to the question, whether, if there has been 
 any sin in burning these translations, it does not rest in part 
 upon those who adopt a mode of circulation which may lead 
 to this result. It is not enough to say that it is our duty to 
 make known the word of God, whether men will receive it 
 or n<^ This may be true, and it may be true farther that 
 men are bound to receive it; but it does not follow that they 
 are bound to receive any version of it which it pleases me 
 or another man to set forth. We do not acknowledge such 
 a rule to be binding upon ourselves, and we cannot with 
 justice enforce it upon others. Nor is it a sufficient plea 
 that the Eastern Christians are destitute of modern versions 
 of the Scriptures, and that, therefore, they should receive 
 what we give them with gratitude. They cannot formally 
 accept what has never been formally offered, nor is it proba- 
 ble that they would be predisposed to accept, or even ex- 
 amine, what has been made, printed, published, and circula- 
 ted without their knowledge or consent. Neither is it to be 
 taken for granted that these translations have been prohibited 
 or burned as the word of God. Horrible thought ! Happy 
 am I in saying that there is not one, I believe, of the hun- 
 dreds of Eastern clergy with whom I have associated and 
 conversed, who would not shrink from it with a shudder of 
 disgust and terror. There is a manifest difference between 
 the Word of God in itself considered, and a version of the 
 Bible known to be unauthorized, and because unauthorized, 
 believed to be sectarian. If we were to consult our own 
 feelings, there is perhaps no book which we would be more 
 ready to burn, none certainly which we would more gladly 
 see withdrawn from circulation, than a translation of the Bible 
 which contained, or which we believed to contain, an abuse 
 or perversion of the true Word of God. The more strongly 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 181 
 
 we held the Anglican, which is also the Oriental principle t 
 that " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to 
 salvation." the more dangerous would appear to us any 
 falsifying thereof, and the more diligently to be striven 
 against. I must, therefore, enter my earnest protest against 
 the use which has been made of the prohibition, and, in some 
 few cases, (confined, I believe, to the Greeks,) of the burn- 
 ing of missionary translations of the Bible. It is an extrava- 
 gant inference from the facts, though one which I have seen 
 repeatedly made by missionaries and travellers, that the 
 Eastern clergy are opposed to true religion and the Word of 
 God. The inference might be proved true, or the contrary, 
 by other evidence, (I think the latter when speaking of them 
 as a body,) but it is not deducible from the facts now stated. 
 The threat, therefore, of an English missionary to an East- 
 ern Bishop, that " if he burned these translations, he should 
 himself burn in hell," was unjustifiable in the extreme, to 
 say nothing of its impropriety on other grounds. 
 
 I must again beg the reader's pardon for this long di- 
 gression in the Syrian Church-yard of Jezireh. I noticed 
 that in both these Churches there was a sculptured lion on 
 each side of the main entrance, in the walls of the building, 
 and that this entrance was not, as is most common in East- 
 ern Churches, at the west end, opposite the altar, but on the 
 north or south side, midway of the building. Within, 
 there was little worthy of note; the three altars as usual, 
 a picture of the Virgin, rude and torn, another of the cru- 
 cifixion, and others on religious subjects. The people were 
 already gathered at the door for prayers. Most of the men 
 followed me into the Church, and explained every thing ex- 
 cepting some Syriac inscriptions on the walls, of which they 
 even said they did not know the language. Among them 
 was the solitary Armenian, who told me that formerly, when 
 there were several families of his nation in Jezireh, they 
 used to have a priest of their own, and occupied one of the 
 
 9 
 
182 VISIT TO THE 
 
 small chambers on the court, for a chapel, but that now, 
 being the only one left, he worshipped with his brethren the^ 
 Syrians. There are only twelve Syrian families in the town. 
 Judging from the number waiting before the door for eve- 
 ning prayers, nearly the whole male population must have been 
 at Church. It was a pleasant sight to behold them, just as 
 the labors of the day were closed, assembling to render 
 thanks for its mercies and to beg protection for the night. 
 Even though they understand little of the language of the 
 service, the mere act of gathering thus, day by day, at early 
 dawn and eventide, must have a good and hallowing influ- 
 ence. It must remind them constantly of their brotherhood 
 It must soften asperities, heal or prevent animosities, and 
 tend to preserve the remembrance and love of their faith. 
 Even upon myself, a stranger to them, it never failed to 
 have a subduing and hallowing effect. The associations of 
 morning and evening, the first thoughts raised to God and 
 the last hour spent with Him, gave to these sacred duties a 
 peculiar impressiveness and propriety. 
 
 In the evening, a little company of Chaldeans and Syr- 
 ians came and sat with me upon the roof. We talked of 
 oppressions and conversions first of their rulers, and then 
 of themselves. They all agreed that they had never known 
 of conversions to Popery, but from mercenary motives. In- 
 deed, without any such testimony, the fact is plain ; for 
 what can people wholly uninstructed understand of the dif- 
 ferences between the Church of Rome and themselves. 
 The stories which they told of their own oppressions and 
 sufferings, were simple and touching. They told me of the 
 incursion of Ravandouz Bey some years ago, and of the 
 great number of Christian females and boys which he car- 
 ried away captive and sold. Among them was the wife of 
 the Syrian priest of Jezireh, who was carried to Bagdad, 
 where she was forced to become the wife of a Mussulman, 
 by whom she had two children. She was afterwards res- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 cued, and had just found her way back to her husband, 
 leaving behind her her Mohammedan offspring. The good 
 priest received her with joy as one from the dead. Two 
 sisters of my fair hostess had been taken in the same way, 
 and she had lately heard that both were dead. Between 
 thirty and forty from this neighborhood were still in bond- 
 age, compelled to serve the pleasure of their Mohammedan 
 masters. They begged me to do something for their relief, 
 and I readily promised to do all in my power, a promise 
 which I have since labored to fulfil. 
 
 I left Jezireh on the morning of the 27th of June, and 
 travelled three hours to a little Kurdish village, where the 
 people had neither bread nor any thing else to eat, or if they 
 had, they would not give them to us. Their houses were 
 too dirty to enter, so I lay under a mulberry tree for several 
 hours, and at last rose and went away in the heat of the day. 
 1 shall always remember the mulberry tree and its grateful 
 shade, though it was old and decayed ; for a tree of any 
 kind, excepting in cultivated gardens, is a luxury rarely to 
 be found in these sun-burnt regions. We passed by two 
 other villages during the day, and saw several in the distance. 
 The inhabitants were complaining of poverty and famine, 
 although their corn, wheat, and barley fields were waving 
 with a luxuriant harvest. I had heard at Jezireh that a 
 party of Franks were on the road, and that one of them was 
 sick at a village not far from the town. I had, therefore, 
 left the route which I had proposed pursuing, along the base 
 of the Tour Dagh, and travelled direct towards Nisibin, in 
 the hope of meeting them and rendering some assistance. 
 I saw nothing of them during the day, and it was only when 
 I reached Haznaour the next morning, that I learned they 
 had taken a road farther to the East, so that we had passed 
 within a few miles of each other without meeting. I ascer- 
 tained afterwards at Mardin, that they were American mis- 
 
184 VISIT TO THE 
 
 sionaries with their wives, on their way to Mossoul, and that 
 one of them had died on the road, and it was only after my 
 arrival in Constantinople, in August, that I learned the name 
 of the deceased, the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, and heard that his 
 wife, with their new-born child, had died soon after reaching 
 Mossoul. The melancholy event gave rise to many sad 
 reflections, and was perhaps one of many experiences which 
 have conjoined to settle the conviction in my mind that it is 
 inexpedient for married females to engage as missionary 
 pioneers in such lands as Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. 
 
 I travelled four hours farther after leaving the mulberry 
 tree, and stopped at Kargo, a Kurdish village on the border 
 of the Great Desert, where the Kiahya gave us a good dinner, 
 to make amends for our long abstinence, and put us to bed 
 out of doors, with a man to watch over us all night. In the 
 morning the watchman was found among the sleepers, but 
 nobody had molested us. We rose, and pursued our way 
 to Ilaznaour, six and a half hours distant, where we arrived 
 at 10 A. M. Here are twenty Syrian families, which form 
 the largest population of that nation in any one place on the 
 desert, excepting Kennek, two hours north of Haznaour, 
 which is purely Syrian, has fifty families and a Church, the 
 only one in all the plain. There are other villages, exclu- 
 sively Syrian, on the edge of the desert, under the mountains 
 of Tour, and most, if not all, of them have Churches. Be- 
 sides these, there are scattered over the plain between Sin- 
 jar and the Tour, about forty villages in which there is a 
 mingled population of Syrians and Mussulmans, but one and 
 all destitute of a Church. They sometimes come up to 
 Kennek to worship. A Syrian of Ilaznaour remarked that 
 they needed a Church in some central spot where the scat- 
 tered population of the desert might go up to worship. I 
 recommended to him to rebuild St. James at Nisibin, and 
 the man jumped at the thought. Many a long year, I fear, 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 185 
 
 will pass before this venerable relic of ancient days shall 
 put on robes of newness and beauty. 1 
 
 The principal Syrian at Haznaour was one Marghas, 
 the Deputy of the Ayan, or Governor. He came and sat 
 with me most of the day, and told me his history. He had 
 formerly lived in the mountains, where he had married and 
 brought up children. But his union was not a happy one. 
 His wife had ruined his peace by her boisterous temper, 
 which he endured as long as he could, but finding it grew 
 worse as she grew older, he had no other remedy than to 
 separate. He sought for a divorce from the Church, but 
 the Syrians allowing of this extreme resort only in the 
 case to which it is confined by the Saviour, 1 he failed in 
 his request. His next expedient was to take to himself a 
 second wife, to supply the place of the first. He had thus 
 been guilty of bigamy, and accordingly had been publicly 
 excommunicated by his Bishop, and driven out of the 
 mountains. As I was now on my way to the monastery, he 
 begged me to intercede for him with the Patriarch, that 
 this terrible curse might be removed. "I am now out of 
 the Church;" he said, "I am a heathen, and if I die so, 
 what will become of me?" I was glad to see this sense of 
 his state, but said to him that there was no hope that the 
 Patriarch would restore him while he remained in his sin, 
 as I knew His Holiness to be severe and exact in discipline, 
 and that to intercede for him in this state, would make me 
 a partaker of his guilt. He replied with much emotion, 
 that he would submit to the Patriarch's decision, whatever 
 it might be, as better than to remain an outcast from his 
 people, and on this condition I promised to speak to the 
 Patriarch about it. I took occasion, however, to set before 
 
 1 I have described the present Church in the Narrative of a Tour, 
 &c.,Vol. II. Chap. 22. 
 9 Matt. v. 32 ; xix. 9. 
 
186 VISIT TO THE 
 
 him the enormity of his offence "and the need of hearty 
 repentance, to all which he gave, apparently, a frank and 
 cordial assent. I afterwards mentioned the circumstances 
 to one of the Bishops in the monastery, who said that the 
 sentence had been approved by the Patriarch, and several 
 attempts had been made to obtain a reversal, without effect. 
 The man, he added, was rich and powerful, and the offence 
 was notorious; it was necessary, in such a case, not to 
 weaken the bonds of discipline ; if the man was truly peni- 
 tent, he knew very well that he had only to abandon his 
 unlawful connexion, and corne and make confession, and 
 pray, and fast, and mourn for his sin, in order to be re- 
 stored. Such being the case, I thought it best to follow 
 his advice, and say nothing to the Patriarch about it. The 
 man had been informed of the terms of restoration, and 
 any intercession of mine would therefore be irregular and 
 improper. 
 
 I left Haznaour three hours before sunset, but our 
 horses were already so worn out that we were six hours 
 in going the four which lay between that place and 
 Nisibin, so that we did not arrive till half past ten in the 
 evening. The moon was up, and by its light we kept sight 
 of the new barracks at Nisibin, which first appeared while 
 we were still about nine miles distant. For several hours 
 they were the only object in prospect, and the slow motion 
 of our horses gave us a good opportunity of judging of the 1 
 tediousness of travelling over a plain with such an object 
 in view. There it stands, so prominent and alone that the 
 eye of the traveller cannot avoid resting upon it. An hour 
 passes, and still it stands as before, as prominent, solitary, 
 and apparently as distant. The slowness of your approach 
 makes the change in its distinctness so gradual as to be 
 almost imperceptible, and when you are within a mile of it, 
 it seems nearly the same as when you were nine miles off. 
 But dragging one foot after another has the effect, however 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 187 
 
 imperceptible at the time, of diminishing distance, and so 
 at length we reached Nisibin. A grateful and even a tri- 
 umphant feeling shot through my heart when I thought of 
 all which had passed since I left it. And then came the 
 old ruin of St. James looming up in the moonlight, and I 
 thought of the faith which was once professed here, and of 
 the prayers which had been offered, and how that faith 
 might again rise from its ruins, and those prayers go up 
 again like incense, when the sway of the oppressor shall be 
 broken. As we sat under the wall of the Governor's house, 
 where we took up our lodgings for the night, my servant 
 said, "You might know that there was no true faith in the 
 place because no storks build here." His opinion was 
 that they were only to be found among Christians. I re- 
 counted to him what Nisibin had been, and he thought 
 the storks might have remained there as on hallowed 
 ground. 
 
 We snatched a few hours repose, and started again at 
 dawn. Instead of taking the main road to Mardin, we 
 struck off to the right, for the purpose of visiting Dara, 
 which lies on the border of the desert under the mountains. 
 We reached it in five hours and a half, without molestation, 
 although the road was supposed to be dangerous on account 
 of the rebellious Kurds, who inhabit this part of the moun- 
 tain. I went directly to the Governor's house, and after a 
 short repose, went out to survey the ruins. The town was 
 famous in its day, and still lives in history as one of the 
 strong places of the Romans. Procopius describes it as 
 fourteen miles from Nisibis, and four days' journey from the 
 Tigris. We had travelled this distance in twenty-six hours, 
 while the estimated distance is twenty-three hours. It was 
 fortified by Anastasius, about A. D. 505, and afterwards im- 
 proved by Justinian. It had two walls, distant from each 
 other fifty paces. The inner wall was sixty feet high, and 
 its towers one hundred feet. The outer wall was lower, 
 
188 
 
 VISIT TO THE 
 
 but more solid, and here each tower was protected by a 
 quadrangular bulwark. The soil on every side but the S. E. 
 was hard and rocky, and on this side a third wall was ad- 
 vanced in the shape of a crescent. The present position of 
 the town shows the truth of this description. It lies in a 
 basin formed by the hills which rise around it on every side 
 excepting that which looks upon the desert to the S. E., 
 where the hills open, and the soil is soft and yielding. The 
 crescent wall was then advanced to protect this opening, as 
 the only point at which the place was exposed to danger. 1 
 
 Thus defended, Dara continued for sixty years to main- 
 tain the hopes of its builders, and to excite the jealousy cf 
 the Persians. It was finally taken by Khosroes, king of Per- 
 sia, A. D. 579, after five months' strife, and then only be- 
 cause it had been left, without troops and provisions, to de- 
 pend upon the unaided courage of the inhabitants. 
 
 The present remains indicate the strength and import- 
 ance of the place. On entering from the desert is a frag- 
 ment of a wall, which I judged to be one hundred feet, 
 high. It is straight across the opening, and I imagined 
 might have been a part of the ancient inner wall. Close by 
 is a circular building in ruins, now occupied as a mill, 
 which may probably have been a tower. Beyond, as you 
 pass the opening, the ruins appear, filling the level of the 
 basin and the sides of the hills. They consist chiefly of 
 rectangular and oblong blocks of rough-hewn stone, which 
 lie disjointed and scattered in every direction. In the 
 midst of the basin flows a stream, which pours itself out 
 
 1 For a good description of Dara, its rise, its strength, and its fall, 
 see Gibbon, Dec. and Fall, Chaps. XL., XLVI. D'Anville (Gib. in Zoc.) 
 doubts the accuracy ofProcopius's estimate of the distance between Dara 
 and Nisibis, but, according to our rate and time of travelling, Procopius 
 was correct. The distance which he gives to the Tigris, is also exact, if 
 we estimate a day's journey at 20 miles ; 23 hours being about seventy 
 miles. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 189 
 
 through the opening, and is lost in the desert. In one 
 place there is a bridge over it, where you see the round 
 arches of the Romans, but although small, it appears, from 
 the size of the arches, to have been made for a much larger 
 stream than the little rivulet over which it now affords a pas- 
 sage. On the left of the bridge, as you enter, is a small 
 round tower, which the inhabitants say was formerly a part 
 of a Church, and is still used as such by the Christian inhabit- 
 ants, who are altogether about twenty-five families, Syrians 
 and Armenians. Here, as elsewhere where the population 
 is scanty and poor, they all worship together under the same 
 roof. Beyond the bridge, and in the middle of the basin, 
 rises a lofty square tower like those attached to the ancient 
 Churches, (now mosques,) of Diarbekir. l It stands at the 
 corner of a building of which the walls are almost entire. 
 Tradition says that it was anciently one of the principal 
 Churches. Its two parts are still distinct, the court and the 
 ancient Narthex, or porch, without, and the nave within. 
 It is riot in the form of a cross, but square, as are most of 
 the Churches in the East. Its walls are all bare, as if it 
 had been desolated by fire, but a part of a Cufic inscrip- 
 tion is still to be seen near the door. As I stood beneath 
 its roofless walls, in the place of its sanctuary, under the 
 shade of a wild tree which has been suffered to grow there, 
 and my thoughts ran back to John of Dara, and the worship- 
 pers who had thronged its courts and bowed before its 
 altar, I could well appreciate the feelings of an English 
 friend who had visited the Church a year before, and, as one 
 who accompanied him informed me, stood and wept when 
 he beheld its desolation. Farther on are the walls of an- 
 other Church of the same description, whose interior is filled 
 
 1 For a description of one of these mosques, see Narrative of a Tour, 
 Vol. II. Chap. 24, (p. 298 Am. Ed.) There is a mosque of the same 
 kind in Constantinople. 
 
 9* 
 
190 VISIT TO THE 
 
 with wild fig trees, and I was told that there were two or three 
 others, which I did not visit. 
 
 Beyond that last mentioned, the bottom of the basin, or 
 valley, terminates, and you begin to ascend the hill-side 
 opposite the opening. On this hill stands the Mussulman 
 quarter, a miserable hamlet of about twenty-five houses, built 
 of stones and fragments from the ancient town. To the 
 right, or Eastward, ascends a ravine, down which the stream 
 before-mentioned flows. Across the ravine is a large wall 
 which is a part of the wall of the town, or the facade of 
 some vast building, for I could not spare time to examine 
 it. On the hill-side, just before entering the Mussulman 
 quarter, are ten cisterns in a row, cut out of the solid rock, 
 and arched with masonry of tile and mortar. Each cistern is 
 about 150 feet long, 75 feet deep, and 15 or 20 feet broad. 
 Some of them are still perfect, and have the arches entire. 
 Others are partly or wholly ruined. They seem evidently 
 intended to supply the city with water in case the stream 
 from the hills should be cut off. 
 
 The Christian quarter is below, near the bridge, on the 
 left as you enter, the little Church before mentioned stand- 
 ing in the midst of it. Here also is another ruin which 
 is perhaps the most curious in the place. It is now called 
 the Dungeon. It consists of two subterranean apartments 
 of great length and height, opening into each other. We 
 descended by a dark stair way and surveyed the place with 
 a torch, conducted by the Kiahya of the quarter. I noticed 
 little to record excepting the size and solidity of the struc- 
 ture and the great height of the arches, which are, as in the 
 cisterns, of the round Roman form. From one of the 
 apartments is a subterranean passage of unknown extent, 
 but which may perhaps have led to some other apartments. 
 There were also recesses in the walls, which seemed to be 
 intended for seats. The people say that treasure has been 
 found here, but I was disposed to regard the whole as a part 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 191 
 
 of some royal Scrdab, 1 or summer apartments. Immediate- 
 ly over these apartments, are traces of a large building with 
 a portion of a wall still standing, which the people call the 
 Palace. I noticed upon the wall an inscription, which was 
 either too far up or too indistinct to be made out. 
 
 These are the principal remains which I saw, besides 
 many traces of foundations and fragments of wall. On 
 every side are huge blocks of stone, some of them from 
 eight to ten feet long, by three and four feet in the other di- 
 mensions. These lie scattered aJl about, as if they had 
 been thrown down by the hand of violence or the shock of 
 an earthquake. The Governor gave me a most kind recep- 
 tion, and sent a man with me to survey the ruins. As soon 
 as we returned to the house, I mounted. My wish had been 
 to reach the monastery by striking across the mountains 
 North of the town, but the Governor told me that they were 
 impassable on account of the bad state of the Kurds, and I 
 contented myself with the road to Kherin, leading along the 
 base of the hills, with the desert on the left. This, the 
 Governor said, I might or might not get over in safety. As 
 we emerged from the town, which we did by going over the 
 hills which form the Westerly barrier, instead of going 
 round by the opening, we continued to pass for half an 
 hour, subterranean chambers and graves cut out of the 
 rock. Here was, then, the burying-place of the city, appa- 
 rently without the walls. The chambers, which were small 
 apartments with single low doors, were evidently tombs, but 
 nothing remained within. Beyond these, and after we had 
 come down into the desert, we passed several places where 
 the rocks were cut down and levelled so as to form appa- 
 rently foundations for buildings, which may have been 
 
 1 Serdab a suite of apartments below the surface of the earth, in- 
 tended for summer residence. The houses in Bagdad and Mossoul are 
 generally provided with them. 
 
192 VISIT TO THE 
 
 country-houses looking out upon the desert, at that time, 
 perhaps, a cultivated field. Our road lay over the uneven 
 ground which runs into the plain, and although our horses, 
 bad at the best, were now tired and broken down, we suc- 
 ceeded in putting them into a gallop, and scampered over the 
 ground as if the Kurds were upon us. I make it a rule in 
 such countries to have my baggage so light and well packed 
 that a horse can run with it even more easily than with a 
 rider. In two hours we had passed the dangerous ground, 
 and were on the main road from Nisibin to Kherin, which 
 soon brought us to the latter village, where my old host re- 
 ceived me with hearty greetings, and provided me with a bed 
 upon his roof. All the villagers were old acquaintances, but 
 some of them took advantage of our familiarity to carry off 
 the crupper to my saddle and several other little articles in 
 the night. In the morning every body was innocent, and I 
 was fain to get away with the useful lesson, not to be on too 
 good terms with people who do not understand kindness 
 except as affording them an opportunity to take advantage 
 of it for their own profit. 
 
 June 30. We left at a quarter past five, and instead of 
 the road to Mardin, took another less beaten, which led to 
 the Northeast, towards the hills where Zafran was visible. 
 As we rode along, my thoughts were filled, as they had been 
 during our gallop yesterday, with contemplations of the pros- 
 pect before me, and many a prayer went up for blessings 
 upon my work. After crossing the plain we entered a valley, 
 or gorge, and wound our way up among the hills by a rocky 
 path, until we came again in sight of the monastery, stand- 
 ing in a commanding position on an eminence, surrounded, 
 at some distance, by lofty and precipitous crags towering far 
 above it and enclosing it on every side, except that towards 
 the desert, where the view opened and disclosed an exten- 
 sive prospect beyond. The hill sides below the crags and 
 around the monastery were covered with cultivation. Vine- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 193 
 
 yards, orchards and fields appeared all around, and nearer 
 the monastery a garden, spread out in terraces on the de- 
 clivity, covered with vegetable plats and fruit trees, and 
 watered by a stream issuing from the hills behind. The 
 front of the monastery was towards the desert, but our mode 
 of approach brought us to the rear, and then led us around 
 its walls till we came to the front, which presented no open- 
 ing through its whole extent but a low iron-sheathed door. 
 Our guide advanced, pushed it open, and we rode in under 
 a dark arched way, and dismounted in the court at a quarter 
 past eight, just three hours from Kherin. 
 
194 
 
 VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Reception at Der Zafran. Interview with the Patriarch. Bishop Mat- 
 thew. Second Interview. Abyssinian Monk. Syrian Monasteries. 
 Schools. Hours of Prayers. Fasts. Clerical Celibacy. Sunday Ser- 
 vice. Picture Worship. Compline- Vespers. 
 
 THE old porter growled as the guide pushed open the 
 heavy door of Der Zafran, and told him that a guest had 
 arrived. "Why do you bring your guests here?" was the 
 first salutation which I had at the venerable monastery of 
 the Syrian Patriarchs. I did not mind it, for I had heard 
 of gruff old porters before, but made my way quietly into 
 the court, and directing the old man to hold my horse while 
 I dismounted, asked if Mar Elias was at the monastery. 
 The old man began to guess his mistake, and became offi- 
 cious and loquacious at once. Yes, Mar Elias was there, 
 and Mar John, and several other Mars of whom I never 
 heard afterwards. I was then guided through a narrow 
 passage into another court, around which stood the principal 
 buildings of the monastery. The court was paved with 
 large slabs, some of which were dislodged from their places, 
 and others had disappeared altogether. The buildings about 
 the court presented rather a ruinous appearance, but I sup- 
 posed it to be only the venerable aspect of age. A portico 
 of arches supported by stone pillars, ran round three sides 
 of the court, and underneath this portico was a wooden 
 frame sustaining a platform about three feet high, on which 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 195 
 
 a carpet and cushions were arranged. Here I took my 
 seat, and calling a servant, requested him to announce to 
 the Patriarch that a Frank had arrived, and wished permis- 
 sion to see him. He soon returned, and immediately con- 
 ducted me up a flight of stairs to the terrace above the por- 
 tico, and across this to an apartment on the opposite side. 
 He opened the door, and I immediately recognized the 
 venerable face and beard which I had seen more than three 
 years before in Constantinople. The Patriarch was sitting 
 at the farther end of a long apartment, but change of dress 
 and travel had so completely altered my appearance, that 
 he did not at first recognize me. I advanced, dropped on 
 one knee and kissed his hand, after which, rising and re- 
 treating a few paces, I drew forth the packet from Mossoul, 
 approached and presented it. The Patriarch beckoned me 
 to a seat opposite, and when he had read the address on the 
 envelope, looketl towards me, and laying his hand on his 
 heart, bade me welcome. He then opened the packet, and 
 was soon absorbed in reading the epistles. I could perceive 
 no change in his countenance as he read, although I knew 
 the letters contained much which might draw a sigh even 
 from the heart of a stranger. He preserved through the 
 whole the same calm and placid serenity with which he 
 began, and when he had finished, which was not till half an 
 hour had elapsed, he folded them again, and thrust them un- 
 der his carpet amidst a multitude of other epistles and papers. 
 I thought he looked even more hale and cheerful than when 
 I saw him in Constantinople, and he immediately entered 
 into pleasant conversation. As soon as propriety allowed, I 
 asked leave to retire, and the Patriarch sent a servant to 
 prepare a room for me, which proved to be one of the little 
 chambers of the monks close to his own. Soon after I en- 
 tered it, the Patriarch sent in a delicious breakfast of eggs, 
 cream, milk, and fruits. When this was finished, I sent for 
 one of the fraternity who was the barber of the monastery, 
 
196 
 
 VISIT TO THE 
 
 and submitted my beard, of a week's growth, to his hand- 
 ling. Though somewhat of the rudest, it was very kindly 
 intended. His razor was a piece of iron, thrust longitu- 
 dinally into a stick for a handle, and kept in its place by a 
 bit of cord bound round the wood close to the blade. Its 
 mode of operation seemed to be rather by pulling out than 
 cutting off. During the exercise of its office, I shed many 
 involuntary tears, but felt bound to submit when I heard 
 that the Patriarch and all the brotherhood were shaved with 
 the same. After this, I laid down, and weary with the fa- 
 tigues of my journey, in which, for a week, from heat by day 
 and fleas by night, I had hardly slept at all, reposed quietly 
 till evening. 
 
 I was no sooner awake than Mutran Mattai, (Bishop 
 Matthew,) one of the residents of the monastery, came in. 
 He is an assistant of the Patriarch, and performs the Epis- 
 copal duties of Mardin and the adjacent villages. /The Pa- 
 triarch usually has two or three such assistants resident with 
 him, who relieve him of many of his minor cares. Bishop 
 Matthew on this occasion gave me a long account of Der 
 Zafran, a building which has been famous for ages as the 
 residence of the Syrian Patriarchs. It is now, he said, 
 1043 years since the place was purchased from the Greeks 
 by Mar Ananias, Bishop of Jezireh. It was then a fortress, 
 but the old Church, in which the monks still worship, was 
 standing at that time. Mar Ananias converted the whole 
 into a monastery, extended the walls, and erected cells for 
 the monks. An outer wall enclosed the whole ground, 
 which is now improved as a garden, and covers several acres, 
 and the monastery itself was of twice the extent that it now 
 is. The old Church and the monastery took the name of its 
 founder, and hence we often see it called in history, the 
 Monastery of St. Ananias. At the same time it received 
 the appellation of Zafran from a singular circumstance, 
 which the Bishop related as follows : A Persian merchant 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 197 
 
 of great wealth loaded a large caravan with the article called 
 Zafran, (Anglice, Saffron,) and intrusting it to one of his 
 servants, told him to travel with it until he found a man rich 
 enough to buy the whole ; and if he did not succeed in 
 finding such a person, to return with it unsold. The ser- 
 vant departed, and travelling hither and thither for several 
 months, sought in vain for a purchaser. At length chance 
 led him to the spot where Mar Ananias was engaged in 
 building his monastery. The servant offered his article, 
 and when Mar Ananias heard of the vain boast of the Per- 
 sian, he bought the whole, and to show his indifference to 
 riches, mixed it with the mortar employed in the building. 
 If he had endowed it with the same sum, it would have been 
 better for the present generation. Nevertheless the monas- 
 tery hence took the name of Dcr Zafran, 1 by which it is 
 commonly known at the. present day. It has been twice oc- 
 cupied by the Kurds, who held it at one time forty years, and 
 at another ten. It was only about five years ago that it was 
 rescued the second time. While it was in their hands it 
 went rapidly to decay, and when it was restored, was little 
 better than a ruin. The Patriarch repaired it so far as his 
 means would allow, but it is still in a very dilapidated con- 
 dition. The buildings round the inner court, are the Church 
 of St. Ananias, and the Chapel of St. Mary, on the East, and 
 on the other sides the kitchen, servants' apartments, and two 
 ranges of cells. These last are small vaulted rooms, some 
 20 feet by 10. In the upper story, which looks upon the ter- 
 race, are the Chapel of St. Peter, the Patriarch's apartment, 
 and another range of cells. The terrace, or gallery, is faced by 
 a heavy balustrade of stone, and the whole building is of the 
 same, a light yellow porous stone, roughly hewn. The Church 
 of St. Ananias is the only part of the building which has any 
 pretensions to architectural ornament. In this there is some 
 sculptured work upon the cornices, and around the old Ro- 
 
 1 Literally, Saffron Monastery. 
 
198 VISIT TO THE 
 
 man windows. On .the outer court, which I first entered, 
 are the porter's, gardener's, and shepherd's apartments, the 
 sheepfolds, granary, and stable. 
 
 Being now fairly introduced to the monastery, I will spare 
 the reader the long detail of all that occurred there during 
 the two weeks of my stay, and present only a few sketches 
 of scenes and events which will show the life that I led. 
 The evening of my arrival, the Patriarch sent for me, and I 
 spent an hour with him in conversation. The next day I 
 made a more formal visit, and discussed with him many mat- 
 ters of interest relating to my mission. He gave me a long 
 account of the state of his Church, and told me that the 
 last autumn a messenger had arrived from India with letters 
 from the Malabar Christians, 1 requesting that a Metropolitan 
 might be sent to them to preserve their Episcopal succes. 
 sion. 
 
 The Patriarch made particular inquiries with regard to 
 the Church in England and the United States, and especially 
 about the constitution of its ministry, seeking to ascertain 
 whether it had the three Apostolic Orders, and whether the 
 power of ordination was vested exclusively in the Bishops. 
 My explanation, which he afterwards confirmed by an ex- 
 amination of the Prayer Book, was entirely satisfactory, and 
 seemed to afford him unmingled gratification. He said that 
 he regarded these three orders as essential to a right con- 
 stitution of the ministry, and that they must be derived from 
 the Apostles in regular succession. All other orders, such 
 as Archbishops, Archdeacons (Ckor-cpiscopi), Subdeacons, 
 &c., were merely subdivisions of these, for the sake of con- 
 venience in the government of the Church. We talked also 
 of liturgies, and he showed me a volume somewhat larger 
 than our Prayer Book, which he said was intended to be 
 used by the worshipper in private. No Church, he affirmed, 
 
 9 The Syrian Church of Hindustan, visited and described by Buchan- 
 an. See his Researches. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 199 
 
 was so rich in liturgical forms as the Syrian, and he spoke 
 with glowing eyes of Ephrem and James, and other worthies 
 of ancient days. Another work that he showed me, was a 
 large folio volume of Church Annals, which, he said, had 
 been kept from the earliest ages by the Patriarchs. It was 
 formerly written in Syriac, but a copy was afterwards made 
 in Karshoni, 1 or Syro-Arabic, in which language it had ever 
 since been written. The original, he said, was still exist- 
 ing in Syria, besides which, this which he showed me was 
 the only copy in the world. It is always kept by the Patri- 
 arch, and the records are made as the events occur. He 
 opened it and read from it a history of persecutions endured 
 by the Monophysites after the Council of Chalcedon. I 
 saw that he had reference to the difference between us, for 
 I had already shown him a copy of the Arabic translation of 
 the Prayer Book in which the Second Article 2 had arrested 
 his attention, but before we could enter upon the subject 
 we were interrupted by persons on business, and I retired. 
 
 The same day arrived a monk from Abyssinia. Four 
 years had passed since he left his country, and in the mean 
 time he had been a wanderer in Egypt and Syria. He had 
 brought no letters from his Church, and the Patriarch hesi- 
 tated for a time to receive him, saying that the practice of 
 the Churches from time immemorial, had been, that when a 
 Christian went into a foreign country, he carried with him 
 commendatory epistles from his Bishop, or the Patriarch. 
 He finally, however, suffered him to occupy a room in the 
 monastery, but could not be persuaded to look upon him 
 with complacency. " How do I know," he said, " but that 
 he has been excommunicated, or has committed some great 
 sin, or how can I be sure that he is a Christian at all ?" 3 
 
 1 Arabic written in Syriac characters. Such books are common 
 among the Syrians, and are the most easily read by them. 
 
 2 Of the Word, or Son of God, which was made very man. 
 
 3 To show that the Patriarch reasoned wisely, I may say that since 
 
200 VISIT TO THE 
 
 The monk was black, but well-featured. He came into my 
 room in the afternoon and spent an hour with me, but I was 
 soon weary of him. He seemed to be a compound of self- 
 conceit and nonsense, having gathered a smattering of va- 
 rious small things in his travels, which he appeared to 
 imagine made him the possessor of all knowledge. For 
 example, he began to edify the monks and others who had 
 gathered around me, with an account of the English Church. 
 The English, he said, are divided into three classes, Church- 
 men, Lutherans, and Free Masons. I denied it, and he 
 said he knew better than I. He proceeded, " Neither of 
 these use the sign of the cross." I instanced Baptism in 
 the English Church, and he said I was mistaken. I told 
 him that I was a priest, and had never baptized without it. 
 He said he knew better than I; whereupon I gave him up 
 as impracticable. He then turned to my servant, and find- 
 ing that he was a Greek, began upon the nature of Christ. 
 Basil replied that all that he knew was that there are three, 
 the Father, the Son, and St. Mary ! The Syrians all start, 
 ed up with astonishment at this exposition of doctrine, and 
 exclaimed, " Do you put St. Mary in the place of the Blessed 
 Spirit?" I put some questions to Basil, and found that he 
 did not so much as know that there was any Holy Ghost. I 
 was surprised at his ignorance, having often conversed in a 
 serious manner with him on the journey ; but it had never 
 entered my mind to suspect that he was ignorant of the 
 prime articles of the Christian faith. He could repeat his 
 Creed word for word, but being in the ancient language, he 
 understood nothing of it. And yet this servant was devout 
 in his way. He said his prayers every night, and when at 
 
 my visit to the monastery, a man, without letters commendatory, but pro- 
 fessing to be a Christian, came and spent several days there, and at the 
 end of this time ran away in the night, taking with him all the sacred 
 vessels from the altar of St. Annnins. It was afterwards ascertained that 
 he was a Mussulman. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 201 
 
 home went to Church, kissed the pictures, confessed, re- 
 ceived the Sacrament and was content. What a dreadful 
 responsibility that of the priest who is the blind leader of 
 such blind men ! The monk, finding that he was no fit sub- 
 ject for theological discussion, fell to disputing with the 
 Syrians, whether the sign of the cross should be made with 
 the thumb and forefinger, as they make it, or with the 
 thumb alone, as the Abyssinians practice. All his efforts to 
 raise a discussion, were unavailing. The Syrians would 
 not acknowledge that it was of any importance whether it 
 was made in the one way or the other ; and the monk, smi- 
 ling complacently at having silenced us all, left the room. 
 The Patriarch was seriously offended when he afterwards 
 heard from a servant who was present, that the Abyssinian 
 had been disputing with me about religious matters, and 
 wished to know how he had ventured to take such liberties 
 as he did in the discussion. 
 
 Bishop Matthew came in twice during the day, and I 
 had with him much conversation of a more profitable char- 
 acter upon the state of his Church. In the evening he 
 gave me a list of all the Bishoprics, with the names of the 
 present incumbents, from which I learned that there were 
 only twelve with dioceses, and less than twenty in all. How 
 different this from the ancient glory of the Church, when 
 they had one hundred and fifty-nine l Bishops in these re- 
 gions ! Of the twenty-one monasteries, where Bishops were 
 formerly resident, only two are now occupied at all, and one 
 of these is the Patriarchal monastery of Zafran. The other 
 is the monastery of St. Mary Magdalen, at Jerusalem. Sev- 
 eral of the present Bishops, however, reside in monasteries 
 which are not included in the ancient list, and, besides 
 these, there is an immense number deserted or in ruins, 
 and a few in the hands of the Papists. Formerly the 
 
 * 
 1 The number given by Asseman, on the authority of ancient writers. 
 
202 VISIT TO THE 
 
 % 
 
 mountains of Tour l were filled with monasteries, like 
 Mount Athos in Greece. There were also a few nun- 
 neries. The ruins of one are to be seen not far from Der 
 Zafran ; but at the present day, nuns are, I believe, entirely 
 unknown among the Syrians. 
 
 There were, at the time of my visit, twenty-five monks 
 belonging to the monastery of Zafran, but only five of them 
 were resident; the rest were scattered in the villages, per- 
 forming the duties of priests in vacant parishes. Of the five 
 remaining, one only was a priest, the rest deacons and lay 
 brethren. They were all employed in teaching. Each of 
 the five had a class of five boys, (twenty-five in all,) who had 
 been gathered from different and some of them from dis- 
 tant places, for instruction. They were taught and main- 
 tained at the. expense of the monastery. The origin of the 
 school was in this manner: When the Patriarch was in 
 Constantinople in 1838, the Armenian Patriarch expostu- 
 lated with him on the state of the nation, and among other 
 things said to him, that a people without schools must in- 
 evitably decline. The remark sunk deep into the mind of 
 the Patriarch, and was never forgotten. On his journey 
 home, he visited most of the places where Syrians are to be 
 found, and in every place established a school. They are 
 of course on a very humble scale. That in the monastery, 
 which was intended to be of a higher order than the others, 
 provides instruction in ancient Syriac, Arabic, and penman- 
 ship, but the first is very imperfectly taught from want of 
 good teachers and text-books, and the whole is not suffi- 
 cient to supply the first rudiments of knowledge. Neither 
 of the languages is taught grammatically. The pupil first 
 
 1 I will here say that the names Jebel Tour, and Tour Dagh, com- 
 monly given to these mountains, both imply a tautology. Jebel (Arabic), 
 Da?h (Turkish), and Tour (Syriac), each mean in their respective lan- 
 guages, Mountain. The old and proper name is Tour Abdin, or Moun- 
 tain of Recluses. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 203 
 
 learns to repeat the words, which in plain Arabic compo- 
 sition he understands, because it is the vernacular tongue, 
 but in Syriac he knows nothing of. He repeats them by 
 rote, as a parrot talks, and in some instances afterwards 
 learns a little of the meaning; but, in general, his own 
 language is an unknown tongue to him. He is thus ena- 
 bled to join in the services of his Church, and can repeat 
 the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Trisagion, and some other 
 portions of the services, from memory. 
 
 The time which the monks do not spend in instruction 
 is set apart for devotion. For this purpose, the Seven Hours 
 of Prayer are observed, viz. Matins, at dawn; the Third 
 Hour ; the Sixth Hour, at noon ; the Ninth Hour, three 
 hours before sunset; the Vespers, at sundown; the Comp- 
 line, or Evening Service, two hours after sundown ; and the 
 Vigils, at midnight. These hours are regulated (excepting 
 the Sixth, which is always at noon, and the Vigils, which 
 are always at midnight,) by the rising and setting of the 
 sun. Thus, the day beginning at sunset, the Third Hour 
 is the fifteenth from that time, or three o'clock A. M. East- 
 ern time. At this season, the sun set about half past seven 
 of our time, and half past seven in the morning is twelve 
 o'clock. The Third Hour was therefore half past ten 
 A. M., and on this account, the Prayers for that hour were 
 said at Noon. The arrangement of the Prayers was based 
 upon an equal division of the. day and night, which occurs, 
 however, only at the equinoxes, when the Third, the Sixth, 
 and the Ninth Hours are nine A. M., noon, and three P. M., 
 respectively. The custom in the monastery was to combine 
 the Matins with the Services of the Church, which occur 
 at the same hour, and the Prayers of the Ninth Hour with 
 the Evening Service, occurring at ten o'clock, or two hours 
 before sunset. The Prayers for the Sixth Hour and Sunset 
 were said at the door of the Church, under the piazza ; the 
 Compline in the little Chapel of St. Mary, and the Midnight 
 
204 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Prayers by every monk in his room. There was something 
 in the associations of the hour which rendered these last pe- 
 culiarly impressive to me. In the dead of night, when no 
 sound was heard and all nature was sleeping around, here 
 and there, from the door of each cell, a light began to 
 twinkle, and presently, where each light appeared, the voice 
 of prayer began to rise, solemn and slow. It seemed as if 
 it possessed more power at this silent season. There was 
 no sound of earth to interrupt it ; the mind had rested from 
 the cares of the day, and there were no moving objects or 
 glaring sunlight to distract it. It seemed as if it must be 
 more concentrated upon itself, more easily turned to Heaven, 
 more free and pure in its aspirations. I thought of the com- 
 ing of the bridegroom. " While the bridegroom tarried, 
 they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a 
 cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh ; go ye out to 
 meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their 
 lamps." 1 I remembered too the words of the Saviour, 
 " Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the 
 hour wherein the Son of man cometh." 2 " Take heed, 
 watch and pray ; for ye know not when the time is. For 
 the Son of man is as one taking a far journey, who left his 
 house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man 
 his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye, 
 therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house 
 will come, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, 
 or in the morning : lest if he come suddenly, he find you 
 sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." 3 
 Friday, July 2. The whole convent is at present keep- 
 ing the Fast of the Twelve Apostles, which began on Mon- 
 day and continues thirteen days. Upon due consideration, 
 I have felt it to be my duty not to join in the observance, 
 my own Church not being in communion with the Syrian, 
 
 1 Mat. xxv. 5, 6, 7. 8 Mat. xxv. 13. 3 Mark xiii. 33-37. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 205 
 
 and it being no design of mine to act as if such communion 
 were existing. Were it otherwise, there would seem to be 
 no reason for doubt, inasmuch as such conformity accords 
 with ancient usage and with Apostolical precepts. As it is, 
 it seems plainly the course of duty to adhere to the customs 
 of the Church to which I belong ; and I find, on conversing 
 with the monks, that they regard it as a matter of course 
 that I should do so. I have determined, therefore, to keep 
 the regular fasts of my Church, as it has been my custom to 
 do, and to go no farther. As to the general propriety and 
 duty of fasting, there can be no question ; and the Church 
 has wisely guarded against its neglect, by appointing times 
 and seasons for it, which are all most appropriate to the 
 duty. The duty being plain, no better mode of its observ- 
 ance can be devised, than to adopt the days appointed by 
 the Church, especially when we reflect that by acting oth- 
 erwise, we not only " offend against the common order" of 
 the Church ; (the lawfulness of which in the sight of God 
 may well be doubted,) but are almost sure to neglect the 
 duty altogether. Would we but rightly perform it, we 
 should find that it would add new vigor to our faith, give 
 new power to prayer, and increase within us all the graces 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 These thoughts were suggested by the return of the weekly 
 fast. As I am seldom alone in my own room, the Patriarch 
 had given me, for my private use, the key of the Chapel of 
 St. Peter, in which no services are at present performed. 
 There I have spent a considerable portion of the day. May 
 the prayers offered in weakness, descend in blessings upon 
 this desolated heritage, and upon my own fondly remembered 
 Zion, which 
 
 In distance, ever true, I love, 
 And at her altars pray once more to stand. 
 
 During the day, one of the monks came in and opened a 
 10 
 
206 VISIT TO THE 
 
 conversation on the marriage of our clergy. I contented 
 myself with stating the grounds upon which we hold the 
 marriage of a Bishop to be lawful, (to which, being based on 
 Scripture and primitive evidence, he had nothing to object,) 
 without feeling called upon to attack the different institu- 
 tions of his own Church in this particular. I said, more- 
 over, that if I were a clergyman of the Syrian Church, I 
 should feel in duty bound to obey its laws, as do those of 
 its own clergy and even of its Bishops, who are convinced 
 that it would be better for the Church if the present restric- 
 tion did not exist. 1 I thought it, however, perfectly con- 
 sistent with Christian unity, that there should be, in this and 
 other respects, different customs in different branches of the 
 Church of Christ. Even the Church of Rome follows the 
 same principle, and notwithstanding the absolute prohibition 
 of marriage to her own clergy, had not insisted upon the 
 same as a term of communion with the Eastern Churches. 2 
 He assented to the truth of the remark, and I on the other 
 hand could not hesitate to condemn the conduct of a Priest 
 of his communion who had lately been deposed for marry- 
 
 1 As I shall discuss this subject at length hereafter. I will here merely 
 add that in the Syrian Church, Priests are allowed to be married, but 
 Bishops not. A priest may, however, become a Bishop after the death of 
 his wife. Priests are generally married men, and such are always pre- 
 ferred for parochial cures. 
 
 2 The Chaldeans, the Papal Syrians, and other Eastern Christians in 
 communion with the Church of Rome, still retain married priests. It 
 ought, however, to be added that the whole influence of that Church is 
 exened to bring about a conformity with its own practice. The matter 
 is kept in reserve until union is effected, and then gradually brought for- 
 ward and inculcated, though never insisted on as essential to union. The 
 effort has succeeded in some parts where Papal influence is strong ; for 
 example, among the Papal Syrians of Aleppo. In this, as in other re- 
 spects, the Church of Rome is content to disseminate her own peculiari- 
 tir<, while, in more essential matters, she leaves the Eastern Christians of 
 her ommunion in ignorance and degradation. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 207 
 
 ing a second time. If he were opposed to the law he ought 
 not to have entered a state in which it might be imposed 
 upon himself. 
 
 Bishop Matthew came in for a short time in the evening, 
 having been abroad all day superintending the reapers in the 
 fields. It seems that besides the produce of its own lands, 
 the monastery receives from all the villages between Jezireh 
 and Mardin, contributions of grain, rice and other produc- 
 tions. It has also a few villages which are fiefs of the 
 monastery. Besides all this, the villagers bring in presents 
 of fruits, sheep, and every thing which their labor provides. 
 There is also a considerable revenue accruing from the an- 
 nual sale of the meiron, used in baptism, which can be pre- 
 pared only by the hands of the Patriarch. Yet the monastery 
 is far from being rich, what it receives barely sufficing for its 
 own support. Its revenues had suffered considerably during 
 the recent famine. 
 
 Sunday, July 4. I was present this morning at the 
 services in the Church of St. Ananias, which commenced 
 soon after day-dawn. The Patriarch himself was the prin- 
 cipal officiator, and besides him were one priest, two dea- 
 cons, and five or six afsalto, or singers, who were all boys. 
 The patriarch wore a cope of richly embroidered stuff, with 
 a capacious hood of the same, which last was drawn over 
 the head in certain parts of the service, but. most of the 
 time was thrown back upon the shoulders. The idea of it 
 is said to be taken from that of Moses covering his face 
 when he communed with God in the mount. Besides this 
 was a broad scarf richly decorated, hanging from the neck 
 nearly to the ground in front, with a hole by which it is 
 passed over the head. This was all of his dress which was 
 visible. The large turbaned cap which he usually wore, 
 was laid aside, and nothing remained upon his head but the 
 close black cap checkered with white, which is worn by the 
 
208 . VISIT TO THE 
 
 monks. Seven candles were burning upon the altar, on 
 which, besides the chalice and paten, were several small 
 metallic plates used in the service, which, with the lights, 
 were arranged upon the steps ascending from the altar. 
 Pictures were hanging in different parts of the Church, but 
 all of them in an elevated position, evidently not designed 
 for worship, nor were any of them so used. No candles 
 were lighted before them, nor did any one appear to notice 
 them, excepting my servant Basil, who entered with me, 
 and after seeking in vain for some one that was familiar to 
 him, placed himself, at length, before a portrait which may 
 have been intended for the Virgin, and continued for a 
 quarter of an hour bowing and crossing himself before it, 
 while the congregation occasionally turned upon him an 
 astonished and wondering look. The congregation consist- 
 ed only of the inmates of the monastery and a few women 
 from the city, who had come to spend the day at the monas- 
 tery. As there was no separate place for females in the 
 Church, they stood behind the rest of the congregation, 
 near the door, Iremarked, throughout, the great attentiveness 
 and solemnity of the congregation, which struck me the 
 more from its being often wanting in Eastern Churches. 
 Every one, as he entered, bowed thrice towards the altar 
 and thrice crossed himself in honor of the Holy Trinity. 
 The priest's garment resembled that of the Patriarch, but 
 was not so richly decorated. Those of the deacons were 
 of a plain white material, embroidered in a simple manner, 
 and each deacon wore a scarf, which was hung only from 
 one shoulder, in the same manner that it is worn by dea- 
 cons in the Greek and Armenian Churches, this mode of 
 wearing it being regarded as the distinguishing mark of 
 their order. The singers were clothed in white garments, 
 and stood upon the right of the altar, as you look towards it. 
 One of them carried cymbals, and two others circular instru- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 209 
 
 ments of metal, with small bells attached, and elevated by a 
 long staff passing through the centre. These instruments 
 were played in certain parts of the service, especially at the 
 moment of Invocation. The deacons stood during the ser- 
 vice, one on each side of the Patriarch, and a little behind 
 him, each holding a crosier of ebony, crested by a handle 
 of alabaster. The communion service was preceded by the 
 morning prayers and reading the Gospel, after which the 
 veil was lowered for a short time, while the Holy Table was 
 preparing. The whole service that followed, struck me 
 from its resemblance to the ancient forms, especially as de- 
 scribed by Bingham. Incense was used, and Prayer was 
 offered for the Church Militant, for Apostles, Martyrs, 
 Confessors, Patriarchs, Bishops, and all Saints. It is at this 
 part of the service that commemoration is made of the dead 
 lately departed, when it is requested by friends. The only 
 requisition necessary is that he have died in the Communion 
 of the Church. How far the practice is removed from any 
 recognition of Purgatory, will appear in another place. The 
 elements were raised after consecration, the Patriarch turn- 
 ing to the congregation, but there was no bowing to them 
 by the people, the act being simply an invitation or call to 
 partake. There was no procession with them. During the 
 service, the congregation bowed two or three times, and the 
 sign of the cross was made some five or six times. The 
 same sign was made over the elements in consecration, 
 which was done by means of a small silver cross that the 
 Patriarch held in his hand. The Sacrament was adminis- 
 tered to two or three of the clergy, at the proper time of 
 receiving it ; and to those of the congregation who were to 
 partake, after the service was ended. The same is the cus- 
 tom in the Greek Church, and originated in a day when the 
 number of communicants was so great as to render it incon- 
 venient to administer to all during the service. I noticed 
 moreover this difference that it was given to the clergy 
 
210 VISIT TO THE 
 
 from the chalice with a spoon, 1 -while to the people were 
 given, with the hand, morsels of the consecrated bread which 
 had been dipped in the wine, and which the people received 
 from the hand of the Patriarch into their mouths. This 
 also was perceptible, that the clergy received within the 
 veil, which was lowered for the purpose, and that the form 
 of words accompanying the delivery, were not said to the 
 lay-communicants. All that remained in the chalice after 
 the clergy had partaken, was carefully eaten and drunk by 
 the Patriarch, the morsels for the people having been at the 
 time of consecration laid upon one of the little plates which 
 stood upon the altar. This, when the service was ended, 
 the Patriarch took in one hand, while with the other he put 
 one of the pieces into the mouth of each of the communi- 
 cants, who received it standing stooping for the purpose. 
 The congregation were in the mean time retiring, all hav- 
 ing first approached and kissed the hand of the Patriarch ; 
 the Bishops, (two being present, but taking no part in the 
 service, the office of the Patriarch on the occasion being 
 that of the Bishop,) the priest, and deacons successively. 
 The deacons kissed the hands of the Patriarch, Bishops and 
 Priests, the Priests of the Patriarch and Bishops, and the 
 Bishops of the Patriarch. The departure from the order of 
 the service, in delivering the elements to the lay-communi- 
 cants while the congregation were retiring, struck me un- 
 pleasantly, as seeming to infringe upon one design of the 
 ordinance, as the Sacrament of Communion and Christian 
 Fellowship. I was pleased, however, with the slow and 
 deliberate manner in which the whole service was perform- 
 ed, so different from the irreverent hurry often visible in 
 others of the Eastern Churches, and sometimes in the Sy- 
 rian. 
 
 1 In the Syrian, as in the Greek and Armenian Churches, the bread 
 and wine are mixed. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 211 
 
 After the service was ended, and while the worshippers 
 were retiring, the women from the city, some holding their 
 children in their arms, knelt on the steps before the altar, 
 while the Patriarch, having divested himself of his cope, 
 threw it over them, and blessed them. 
 
 After we had retired, the Patriarch invited me to his 
 apartment, where we conversed for half an hour. I asked 
 him how frequently it was the custom among them to re- 
 ceive the communion. He said once in two or three weeks 
 it ought to be received, and the longest time for which it 
 ought on any account to be omitted, was forty days. It 
 ought, he said, to be received frequently, in order that the 
 communicant might be able to remember his sins, and make 
 a thorough and minute confession of them before God. 
 With regard to the service of Communion, he said that they 
 had changed nothing from the earliest ages, and that he 
 did not believe there were any forms more ancient than 
 their own, existing. With regard to pictures, he said that it 
 was unlawful to worship them, and that the only use of them 
 which could be tolerated, was as ornaments of the Church, 
 and to bring to mind the scenes and persons which they 
 represented. I inquired whether his meaning might be 
 illustrated by the use which we make of the portraits of 
 departed friends, and he replied that it was precisely what 
 he would say of the pictures of Christ and the Saints. He 
 blamed the free use that the Greeks, and even his brethren, 
 the Armenians, make of them, and thought the tendency 
 of such reverence extremely dangerous. 
 
 During our conversation, he put into my handsome of 
 the little cakes used in the Sacrament. It was a small 
 round cake about two inches in diameter, and half an inch 
 thick, impressed with twelve crosses, and pierced in five 
 places, the former representing the number of the Apostles, 
 and the latter the five wounds of Christ. It is creased so 
 as to be broken into twelve pieces, each piece bearing a 
 
212 VISIT TO THE 
 
 mark of the cross and intended for one communicant. In 
 this way it is known at once how many cakes are necessary 
 for the number who are to communicate. I should ha've 
 before remarked, that on the uppermost part of the altar in 
 the Church, was a small vessel containing the elements 
 which had formerly been consecrated, intended, after a 
 very ancient custom, of which we see traces in Justin Mar- 
 tyr, (A. D. 140,) to be carried to the sick in case of 
 emergency. 1 
 
 In the evening of the same day, I witnessed the com- 
 pline service, one and a half hours after sunset. It was 
 held in the chapel of St. Mary, adjoining the Church of 
 St. Ananias, on the East side of the court. The apartment 
 is small and has no altar, being designed rather as a recep- 
 tacle for dead than a place of worship for the living. 
 The founder of the monastery, and the Patriarchs and 
 Bishops who have died in it, are all buried here. Their 
 tombs are in alcoves, along the sides of the chapel. Be- 
 fore each alcove a curtain was drawn, and a lamp burn- 
 ing. I have never witnessed a more affecting scene than 
 that which followed the remnant of an ancient Church 
 (for so it seemed) gathered at the tombs of their fathers, 
 and chanting in plaintive tones, their evening prayers. 
 The dimness which prevailed in the apartment, the sub- 
 dued manner of the worshippers, and the mournful accents 
 of the chant, all combined to form a scene which moved 
 me even to tears. At the close, the Bishop who conducted 
 the devotions, went round the room, bearing a censer, and 
 slightl^drawing aside each curtain, cried aloud. This was 
 repeateu three times. The fourth, the priest and deacons 
 present joined the procession, and all moved in solemn 
 march around the tomb. The services continued about 
 half an hour. The dimissory was pronounced by a deacon, 
 and all present, after saluting each other, retired. 
 
 1 1st Apol. $$ 85, 87. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 213 
 
 The next day I attended vespers, which were said out 
 of doors, under the piazza, in front of the Chapel of St. 
 Mary. There was here a niche in the wall, precisely like 
 that for the Imam in a mosque, and intended, like that, to 
 direct the prayers of the worshipper, although towards a 
 different quarter. The early Christians prayed towards the 
 East, and the Kibleh of the Mohammedans is doubtless one 
 of their numerous imitations of Christianity. The prayers 
 were said in part by the Patriarch, and in part by the whole 
 congregation. A portion was responsive, and a portion utter- 
 ed in silence. The service commenced with an act of 
 reverence to the Deity, the worshippers bowing, prostrating, 
 and crossing themselves. The same acts were several times 
 repeated in the course of the prayers, but the prayers were 
 offered standing. Incense was also used in the service, and 
 the whole was closed with the dimissory by the deacon. 
 At the end of the service, before the congregation retired, 
 the kiss of peace was given, a Bishop present kissing the 
 hand of the Patriarch, the Priests that of the Patriarch and 
 Bishop, the Deacons of the Patriarch, Bishop and Priests, 
 and the people the hands of all the Clergy and of each other. 
 It was a pleasant sight, just as the sun was going down, to 
 behold this little congregation exchanging the ancient token 
 of love, and preparing to go to their rest in charity, peace, 
 and good-will. 
 
 10* 
 
214 VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Visit to Mardin. The Road. Church of Mar Behnam. Altars. Bap- 
 tistry. Churches of Mar Shimon and Mar Michael. Legend of Mar 
 Michael. Mar Behnam, his Conversion and Fate. Population of 
 Mardin. The Governor. Dialogue on Fasting. Conversation on 
 the Procession of the Holy Ghost. The Syrian Patriarchs. Their 
 Number. " Church Annals." Passages from them. Topics of Con- 
 versation at the Monastery. Misrepresentations of the Western Re- 
 formed Churches. Their Source. Character and Object of Romish 
 Efforts among the Eastern Churches. Our Position with relation to 
 them. The Church of England. How Misunderstood. Confounded 
 with Errors which she rejects. Her Proper Mission. The Library of 
 Der Zafran. The Chapel of St. Peter. Altar Stone from an Ancient 
 Church at Antioch. The Bell. Conversations on the Nature of Christ. 
 Visitors. Character of Discussions at the Monastery. Our true 
 Position. Differences. Our Duty. 
 
 JULY 7. Visited the city with Bishop Matthew. The 
 Bishop rode on a mule, and a little boy by his side carried 
 his Episcopal staff. We were an hour in reaching the 
 town, which stands nearly on a level with the monastery, 
 and therefore the road to it, though winding among the 
 mountains, is not difficult. About a quarter of an hour from 
 the monastery, we passed through a Syrian village, called 
 Kaleh Mara, from a fortress on the top of a lofty crag near 
 by, which tradition says was destroyed by Timourleng, 
 whose name is still famous throughout these parts of the 
 East. In the city we alighted at the Church of Mar Beh- 
 nam, the largest Syrian Church in the town. It has no 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 215 
 
 less than five altars, one of which is exclusively for females. 
 The Syrian Churches have generally three, and where there 
 are priests sufficient, the service of the Holy Communion is 
 performed at all together. The practice is obviously a de- 
 parture from ancient custom, which allowed but one altar 
 in a Church, but its design seems to have been to accom- 
 modate the large number of persons attending theCommunion 
 that all might witness the worship and all partake. 
 
 The Baptistry in Mar Behnam is placed, as I have 
 generally found it in the Syrian Churches, on the South 
 side near the chancel, in a kind of latticed closet. The 
 font was a plain stone on a pedestal about three feet 
 high, arid the basin of sufficient size to receive an infant. 
 As usual, too, it was not clean and in good order. Some 
 priests' garments were lying in the font, on removing which 
 I found a nest of young rats nestled in the folds. 
 
 I afterwards visited the Churches of Mar Shimon and 
 Mar Michael, the former within the town, close upon the 
 walls, the latter just without the city. All these Churches 
 have legends connected with them, commemorating the 
 wonderful deeds of their founders, and these are sometimes 
 illustrated by pictures preserved in the Churches. Mar 
 Mi4hael, for example, was the son of a Pagan prince of 
 Iconium. He had been sent away from the court in dis- 
 grace, mounted on a mule which was suffered to take its 
 own course, and came to Mardin, where he met with a holy 
 man, Mar Yououf (St. Joseph), by whom he was converted 
 to Christianity. His sister, wishing to follow him, and 
 being prevented, was at her own desire half transformed 
 into a fish, by which means she was enabled to swim across 
 the pond or river which confined her, and come to Mardin, 
 where she embraced the new faith of her brother, who had 
 founded a Church. Her tomb is still shown in the Church, 
 and also a picture representing Mar Yousouf, the young 
 prince, and his sister, the latter half fish and half woman. 
 Of Mar Behnam, whose name is celebrated among the 
 
216 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Syrians, it is said that he was a son of one Senkharib, king 
 of Nineveh ; that riding one day with forty horsemen, who 
 constantly attended him, he pursued a gazelle as far as the 
 mountain on which Mar Mattai stands, and up it to the spot 
 where the monastery now is. Here the gazelle suddenly dis- 
 appeared in a cave. On entering, the prince beheld an aged 
 hermit, but no gazelle. On inquiring where the gazelle had 
 gone, the hermit told him to sit down and listen to him. 
 During their conversation, the hermit, whose name was 
 Mar Mattai, gave him much instruction concerning Chris- 
 tianity, and discovered to him that he possessed miraculous 
 power. The young man promised to believe and embrace 
 the new religion, if he could heal his sister, who was suffer- 
 ing from a disease that was regarded as incurable. The old 
 man promised to perform the act, and appointed a spot whi- 
 ther the princess should be brought. Behnam then retired, 
 and at the appointed time repaired with his sister and the 
 forty horsemen to the place named by the hermit, where they 
 found the old man waiting for them. When all was ready 
 Mar Mattai struck his staff upon the ground, and a stream 
 of water instantly burst forth. In this he ordered the prin- 
 cess to wash. She obeyed, and was made whole. Behnam 
 and his companions instantly believed and were baptized. 
 His sister also embraced the faith which had wrought so 
 wonderful a cure upon her. They then returned with joy to 
 the city, and the hermit retired to his cave. 
 
 The change in the faith of Behnam was not long con- 
 cealed from the king, who employed every means to persuade 
 his son to abandon his supposed delusion. Behnam was in- 
 exorable, and with great "zeal exhorted his father to forsake 
 himself the errors of paganism. The father then resorted to 
 torture, and when this proved ineffectual, he ordered his son to 
 be put to death. The son found some means of escape, and 
 fled with his sister and the forty horsemen to a place now 
 called Karagosh, about five hours E. of Mossoul, where he was 
 overtaken by his father, who ordered him and his company 
 
SYRIAN CHUKCH. 217 
 
 to be instantly put to death. Before the command could be 
 obeyed, the earth suddenly opened and swallowed them up. 
 The enraged tyrant remained mute with astonishment, and 
 repaired to his palace to mourn too late the loss of his chil- 
 dren. It was not long before he was attacked with the same 
 disease which had afflicted his daughter. After trying every 
 remedy in vain, he was prevailed upon by the entreaties of his 
 wife, to resort to the miraculous power of the old hermit, 
 who performed upon him the same miraculous cure which 
 he had performed upon his daughter, and with the same 
 happy result of a change in his faith. He now mourned 
 afresh for the fate of his children, and determined, since he 
 could not restore them to life, to do all in his power in hon- 
 or of their memory. He, therefore, caused the earth to be 
 opened where they were swallowed up, and the bodies to be 
 taken out. They were then honorably interred near by, and 
 a monastery, bearing the name of the son, erected on the spot. 
 The monastery yet stands, and is one of the most famous in 
 Syrian history. Near by are seen the graves of the martyrs, 
 and the burial place of the king is seen at the door of the 
 monastery. I relate these stories as they were told me by 
 the Syrians, and as illustrative of one feature in the present 
 condition of their Church. I do not take it upon myself to 
 say how much of truth is mingled with such legends. 
 
 In the Church of Mar Behnam, in Mardin, is a pic- 
 ture representing the first meeting between the prince 
 and Mar Mattai, besides a great variety of others on differ- 
 ent subjects, all done in the rudest style of the art, though 
 esteemed ornaments by the people. Most of the Syrian 
 Churches are more or less decorated in this way, and have 
 a picture of some kind, or a simple cross of wood or metal, 
 over the altar. 
 
 The present population of Mardin, exclusive of the Mus- 
 sulmans, consists of 500 Papal Armenian families, 454 Sy- 
 rian, 200 Papal Syrian, and 40 Chaldean. The population 
 had considerably diminished since my former visit, and the 
 
218 VISIT TO THE 
 
 prosperity of the town evidently declined, owing, as it would 
 seem, to the combined evils of oppression and famine. The 
 late governor had been a tyrant, but the new one bore a 
 different character, and I every where heard his coming 
 hailed with joy. His good reputation induced me to call 
 upon him, and I found him a man, judging from his con- 
 versation, of a very extraordinary character for a Mussul- 
 man ruler. He had not, he said, wished for office, and 
 would not have accepted it, had it not been for the misera- 
 ble, oppressed people about him. He should be happy if he 
 could do any thing for their relief. He considered, he said, 
 the most even justice to the people to be the highest pros- 
 perity of government, and oppression to be the ruin of the 
 ruler as well as of the ruled. Many other like sentiments 
 he uttered, which I was willing to believe sincere, both 
 from the universal reputation for integrity which Kurd Mo- 
 hammed Bey enjoys, and from the frankness and plainness 
 with which they were uttered, which had all the apparent 
 freedom and open-heartedness of a Kurdish gentleman. I 
 took occasion to commend the poor Christians to his par- 
 ticular attention. For the purpose of urging this plea, I 
 had preceded my visit by a handsome present, which my 
 servant had great difficulty in inducing him to accept, and 
 when I came in, he had thrown it down on the floor. 
 " There was no need," he said, " of coming to me in that 
 manner; I am not of that sort," alluding to the universal 
 custom in the East a custom as old as the Patriarchs of 
 making favor by means of a present. It was thus that Jacob 
 approached his brother Esau, whom he was afraid to meet: 
 " I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, 
 and afterward I will see his face : peradventure he will ac- 
 cept of me. 1 A Syrian priest had accompanied me, and was 
 sitting by my side. The Governor inquired kindly of the 
 health and welfare of the Patriarch, and said that he in- 
 
 1 Genesis xxxii. 20. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. '2 1 9 
 
 tended making a visit to the monastery. The priest replied, 
 that the Patriarch was intending to invite him, but had de- 
 ferred it on account of the fast. "Why do you fast?" 
 said the Governor, in a good-humored manner ; " can you 
 prove to me out of the Gospel that Jesus ever prescribed 
 it?" The Priest was at a loss for an authority, and I quoted 
 that of Mark ii. 19, 20: "And Jesus said unto them, Can 
 the children of the bride-chamber fast while the bride- 
 groom is with them ? As long as they have the bridegroom 
 with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when 
 the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then 
 shall they fast in those days." The Governor was satisfied 
 with the authority, if indeed he had any other object in put- 
 ting the question than to fathom the priest's learning. He 
 treated him, however, with great civility, although his 
 cringing and awe-struck demeanor was little calculated to 
 inspire respect. 
 
 At sundown I returned with the Bishop to the monas- 
 tery. The next two days were spent in inquiries and duties 
 which need not be detailed here. I cannot omit, however, 
 one conversation with the Patriarch upon the vexed question 
 of the Procession. The doctrine of the English Church on 
 the subject is contained in the Nicene 1 and Athanasian 2 
 Creeds, is incidentally asserted in the Articles, 3 and is im- 
 plied in other places 4 in the Prayer Book. I shall have 
 
 1 " And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who 
 proceedeth from the Father AND THE SON." 
 
 2 " The Holy Ghost is of the Father AND THE SON ; neither made, 
 nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." [This Creed is not retained 
 in the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 the United States.] 
 
 a " The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father AND THE SON," &c. 
 Art. 5. 
 
 4 "O God, the Holy Ghost proceeding from tJie Father AND THE SON, 
 &c. The Litany : 
 
 " Teach us to know the Father, Son 
 
*220 VISIT TO THE 
 
 more to say of it at another time. At present I will only 
 allude to the manner in which the Patriarch spoke of it. 
 He commenced with a long metaphysical argument intended 
 to prove that the Holy Ghost could not proceed both from 
 the Father and the Son, 1 without involving the difficulty of 
 two persons in the Holy Spirit. I replied that, according to 
 the Anglican belief, it did not seem necessary to assert that 
 the Procession from the Father and from the Son was the 
 same ; that the procession from the Father might be in his 
 sense of the term, and that from the Son in the character of 
 a messenger. The Patriarch answered that this was the 
 
 " And Thee, OF BOTH, to be but One." 
 
 And so in the original Latin, " Te UTRIUSQUE Spiritum."* The Veni 
 Creator Spiritus, in the Forms for the Ordering of Priests and the Con- 
 secration of Bishops. So also the other form : 
 
 " Come, Holy Ghost, Eternal God, 
 
 " Proceeding from above, 
 
 " BOTH from the Father AND THE SON," &c. 
 
 1 All the Eastern Churches receive the Nicene Creed in what they 
 affirm to be its original form, that is, without the words, and the Son. 
 By the Eastern Churches I mean the Greek, the Armenian, the Syrian, 
 the Nestorian, the Coptic, and the Abyssinian. In all of them the Creed 
 
 reads substantially thus : " I believe in the Holy Ghost who 
 
 proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together." 
 &c. 
 
 * This, however, implies nothing with regard to Procession. The 
 Eastern Christians freely acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is both of the 
 Father and the Son. They only deny that He proceeds from both. He 
 is of the Father, they say, by procession, and of the Son by mission ; 
 giving to procession a definite and limited meaning, viz., that of issuing ; 
 and to mission that of being sent as a messenger. Thus they commonly 
 express their belief, in these words : " Proceeding from the Father, and 
 sent by the Son." They allow, however, procession from the Son in a 
 different sense from that of the procession from the Father. The latter 
 is hypostatical or personal ; the former external or official. After an ad- 
 mission of this kind it is difficult to see what matter for controversy re- 
 mains. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. V."J I 
 
 doctrine of Scripture and the belief of his own Church, that 
 if it was also the belief of the Western Church, there was 
 on this point no difference between us, but he still thought 
 it would be safer to use the language of the Evangelist, 
 ' proceeding from the Father, and sent by the Son.' 1 " We 
 cannot," he added, " improve upon the Gospel." I quoted 
 the passages which bear upon the procession from the Son, 2 
 and stated what had appeared to me, upon careful examina- 
 tion, to be the opinions of Anglican Divines. 3 I said, 
 moreover, that the doctrine of the twofold procession was 
 plainly a doctrine of the Western Church, but that I was 
 not aware that the particular mode of interpretation was 
 prescribed by the Church, or that any could be taken as 
 authoritative. Upon the historical argument I admitted my 
 own private conviction to be that the words, and the Son, 
 were not in the Creed as framed by the Council of Nice, 
 A. D. 325, and the First Council of Constantinople, A. D. 
 381 ; and that the form approved by the Council of Ephe- 
 sus, A. D. 431, was the same as is now held by the Greek 
 and other Eastern Churches. This I said was my private 
 opinion upon a simple historical question which had not 
 
 been judged by iny own Church A servant now 
 
 came in with the dinner, and I engaged with the Patriarch 
 to pursue the subject at another time. 
 
 July 10. To-day the Patriarch was engaged all the 
 morning in the rural occupation of superintending the 
 threshing and winnowing of the wheat. In the afternoon I 
 called upon him, and commenced the conversation by asking 
 the whole number of Patriarchs in the line which he repre- 
 sented. He sent for the Annals, and turning to the list of 
 
 1 The Patriarch alluded to the passage in John xv. 26 ; " But when 
 the Comforter is come, whom / will send unto you from the Father, even 
 the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the FATHER," &c. 
 
 8 E. g. John xv. 26 ; Gal. iv. 6 ; 1 Pet. i. 11. 
 
 3 See, for example, Burnet on the Articles, Art. V. 
 
222 VISIT TO THE 
 
 the Patriarchs, counted 141, including St. Peter at the be- 
 ginning, and himself at the end. I asked to what age the 
 book reached back. The Patriarch replied, " To Adam," 
 It struck me that if it had been kept m the way of annals 
 from that time, it must be indeed an interesting book. I 
 requested him, therefore, to turn to the first page. He began 
 to read an account of the Creajtion, but soon stopped, say- 
 ing, " All this was taken from the Bible." He then turned 
 into the middle of the book, and read two or three pages 
 relative to the times preceding the Council of Nice. The 
 passage contained several curious facts, which I did not re- 
 member having seen in any history of the period. It con- 
 firmed the story of the awful death of Arius, and narrated a 
 deception practised by him upon the Emperor. Arius having 
 written a statement of his belief, put the paper in his bosom, 
 and when called upon to testify his assent to a form drawn up 
 by the Emperor, laid his hand apparently on his heart, but 
 really upon the paper there concealed, and said, " This is 
 my belief." 
 
 We then turned to other matters. After conversing for 
 a time, and seeing that he was evidently wearied from his 
 labors abroad, I left him to his repose, but the old man rose 
 with me and went to the field to look after his harvest. 
 
 Time would fail me to record even a small portion of 
 the conversations which I had in the monastery with the 
 Patriarch, Bishops, and monks, although, if I could relate 
 them, they might furnish additional illustrations of the 
 comparative purity of the Syrian Church, and the unusual 
 strictness of discipline which it still preserves. Upon the 
 great point of difference the Fourth General Council as 
 well as upon matters of a practical character, they were long 
 and animated, but free from any bitterness and asperity. 
 Another and not less frequent topic was the gross misrepre- 
 sentations respecting the Anglican Church, which had 
 reached even this quiet retreat. Who would think of going 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 223 
 
 to the old monastery of Zafran to hear such stories as that in 
 England priests are not ordained, but are created by the sove- 
 reign, or that the Sacrament of Holy Communion is given to 
 the people only once in thirty years, or that when it is given, 
 the priest says a few words, and all the people rush to the 
 table, and each snatches a portion for himself? These, 
 and many others such like, have been diligently circulated, 
 not only in Mesopotamia, but all over the East. I have met 
 them every where, and in every instance where I have been 
 able to trace them, have found them to have come from Pa- 
 pal emissaries. I was not, therefore, surprised to hear of 
 them in the Patriarchal monastery of Zafran. The object 
 in circulating them has manifestly been to keep the Eastern 
 Christians aloof from the influences of a pure faith and 
 worship, while the jjreat end of Romish labors has been to 
 introduce the peculiar errors of the Church of Rome, and 
 to degrade Christianity by superstitions before unheard of. 
 In the Mesopotamian Churches the utmost jealousy has 
 been shown of the simple and highly spiritual character of 
 the ancient worship, and the effort has chiefly been to hang 
 upon it idle ceremonies and superstitious observances, for 
 the purpose of counteracting its native tendencies. Its sup- 
 posed resemblance to Anglicanism, which is in truth no 
 more nor less than its resemblance to primitive Christianity, 
 lias been watched with the most sensitive suspicion, and 
 wherever converts have been made to Popery, the first ob- 
 ject has been to corrupt their religion by introducing such 
 things as holy water, and rosaries, and bowing to images, 
 and wearing pictures, and every expedient that could be de- 
 vised, to turn men's minds from the doctrines, at once pure 
 and primitive, of a living faith and a self-denying obedience. 
 When we thus see minds left in all their former ignorance, 
 and thence plunged to a deeper depth in what that ignorance 
 will inevitably make a dangerous and soul-destroying super- 
 stition, there can be no doubt of the aim and tendency of 
 
224 VISIT TO THE 
 
 such efforts. Whatever may be the faith of the Church of 
 Rome, or however different may be the face in which she 
 appears in other lands, among the Christians of the East 
 these have been her labors. Hence it is that we can have 
 no affinity with her ; hence she is our enemy, and hence too 
 our labors must be to assume the ground of genuine Catholi- 
 cism seeking to preserve the things that remain and are 
 ready to die, to infuse the life and vigor of youth into forms 
 which breathe the spirit and power of ancient days, to stand 
 upon the undoubted doctrines of the primitive faith, and to 
 effect their re-establishment wherever they have been weak- 
 ened or lost, to instruct in what is both pure and Apostolic, 
 to restore a right appreciation of the Holy Sacraments and 
 the self-crucifying duties of a holy life. If the Church of 
 England, or our own, has been misunderstood, it is because 
 she has not been rightly known, because she is mingled, in 
 the conceptions of Eastern Christians, with the peculiarities 
 of those with whom she has no connexion ; now represented 
 as rejecting the divinity of our Saviour, now as having dis- 
 carded infant baptism, and now as destitute of a duly or- 
 ganized ministry. And so it must remain until she herself 
 will make herself known as a Church essentially sound and 
 primitive, as possessing all the credentials and marks of the 
 Church of Christ, in her faith, her sacraments, her ministry, 
 and her worship ; as discarding errors which she does not 
 hold, and as seeking a return to unity upon ancient and 
 scriptural grounds. Until she does this, the first step in her 
 high and holy mission will not have been taken. 
 
 I was a week at the monastery before I found a leisure 
 hour for visiting the library. I had heard much of its value, 
 and expected to find it a rich repository of Syriac literature. 
 What was my surprise to find that it consisted of no more 
 than fifty volumes piled together on a shelf in a low, dark 
 room, and covered thick with dust. Most of them were 
 works in Arabic, written in the Syriac character and the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 greater part were injured by time, neglect, and rats. There 
 were a few books of European origin, the most valuable of 
 which was a Biblia Polyglotta, (published in London in 
 1756, and containing the Hebrew, Septuagint, Arabic, 
 Syriac, and Vulgate versions, with Latin translations of the 
 first four, and the Targurn, with a Latin translation,) and 
 Edmund Castell's Lexicon Heptaglotton, published in 1786. 
 There were also a few copies of the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society's edition of the Scriptures in Arabic and 
 Syriac, and these, with the others, were all the remains of the 
 celebrated library of Der Zafran. The Bishop who accom- 
 panied me, told me that the rest were destroyed by the 
 Kurds during their occupation of the monastery. They 
 used them, he said, for wadding to their guns, and for culi- 
 nary and other purposes. 
 
 July II. 1 The Fast of the Apostles closed yesterday, 
 and to-day is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The 
 morning services were in the chapel of St. Peter, which had 
 not till now been open for public worship, since my arrival. 
 The altar in this Church is differently placed from any other 
 that I have seen. It is against the wall, on the east side, 
 beneath no alcove or canopy, and concealed only by a low 
 curtain in front, hanging from a horizontal wire passing 
 from one side to the other, which curtain is open during 
 most of the service. Above the altar is a stone set into the 
 wall, and upon this stone is a simple cross engraved, with 
 an inscription in Strangheli. The stone is said to have 
 been brought from the Church in Antioch in which St. Pe- 
 ter himself ministered. The words of the inscription are 
 
 1 The date is after our computation of time, but with the Syrians it 
 was the 29th of June, their reckoning being that generally used among 
 the Eastern Christians, which falls at present 12 days behind ours. The 
 Feast of St. Peter is also on the 29th June in the English and American 
 Churches, and indeed in most others, including the Greek, the Latin, and 
 the Armenian. 
 
226 VISIT TO THE 
 
 those which the Saviour addressed to the Apostles : " Upon 
 this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." ' They seem to have reference to 
 the Cross as the sign of Christ, the Son of the living God. 
 The Patriarch officiated again, and the services were sub- 
 stantially the same as on the last Sunday. At the close, a 
 considerable number received the Holy Sacrament. 
 
 In the same Church, in a little recess near the door, is 
 a plank suspended from above, which is beaten by two mal- 
 lets to call the monks to prayers. Formerly there was a 
 bell in the little turret which rises above the Church of St. 
 Ananias, but it has been in some way lost or destroyed. 
 
 When the services were ended, I went with the Bishops 
 to the room of the Patriarch, where the company immedi- 
 ately broke their fast by a slight repast of bread and cheese, 
 the custom of the Syrians being to continue fasting until 
 the Sacrament has been received. We then conversed for 
 half an hour upon the doctrine of their Church the one 
 nature of Christ which separates them from the commun- 
 ion of other Churches. In the after part of the day, I re- 
 sumed the conversation with Bishop Matthew, and the next 
 day had a long conference with the Patriarch on the same 
 subject. I will not here record it, as I shall have occasion 
 to allude to it again when I come to speak of the doctrines 
 and worship of the Syrian Church. 2 The view there given 
 is the result of almost innumerable conversations with Patri- 
 arch, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, at different times and in 
 different places. It is a simple endeavor to show the real po- 
 sition of the Syrian Church, without " extenuating aught or 
 setting down aught in malice." If it presents the question in 
 
 1 St. Mat. xvi. 18. 
 
 8 As the work to which I here allude is not likely to make its appear- 
 ance for some time to come, I have thought it best to give the substance 
 of my views on this important topic in the preface to the present volume. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 227 
 
 a more hopeful view than that in which it has hitherto been 
 contemplated, it is, supposing the view to be just, matter for 
 congratulation and thanksgiving to Almighty God. To 
 Him Jet us address our fervent supplications that He will, in 
 his own good time, heal the breach which remains, and re- 
 store to the distracted Church of Christ its long-lost unity. 
 
 July 12. The Feast continues another day, in honor 
 of the Holy Apostles. A large number of Syrians, men, 
 women and children, have come from the city to spend it in 
 idleness and rejoicing. It is amusing to see how entirely 
 they make themselves at home. One of the monks acts as 
 steward, and provides lodgings for the visiters, who go about 
 as freely as in their own homes, the women pursuing their culi- 
 nary occupations, washing their linen, and taking care of the 
 babies, the children scampering about, screaming and play- 
 ing, and the men smoking their pipes, talking, and lounging 
 in little knots with as much freedom as if every person had 
 a fee-simple in the monastery. Indeed this is nearly true, 
 for it belongs to the nation, and all join in supporting it. It 
 seems to be an asylum not only for the religious class, but 
 also for the maim, the blind, the insane, and the destitute, 
 of all which there are some within its walls. The Patri- 
 arch and all the nation wish to see it enlarged and its for- 
 mer grandeur restored, but they are too poor to furnish the 
 means. The two years' famine has exhausted their re- 
 sources, and compelled them to wait for better days. It 
 was the design of the Patriarch to make it include a college 
 for instruction in theology, to which candidates selected from 
 the schools might resort to prepare for the holy office of the 
 ministry, but many long years, I fear, will pass before the 
 design is carried into execution. 
 
 My work at the monastery was now done, and I began 
 to prepare for leaving. For two weeks I had received kind 
 and unremitted attention from every one within its walls, 
 from the Patriarch down to the old porter who growled at 
 
228 VISIT TO THE 
 
 me when I entered the gate. Differences plainly discussed, 
 had given no check to hospitality, nor did they seem to de- 
 tract at all from the interest with which my visit was re- 
 garded. They may at times have made our intercourse a 
 little more piquant, but in no instance did they produce any 
 change of treatment towards myself, or diminish the con- 
 fidence which was placed in me. On the contrary, it was 
 no sooner ascertained that I had a Church to defend, and 
 that that Church had a ministry and a worship, the Three 
 Orders, a Creed, a Liturgy, Feasts and Fasts, than I was at 
 once admitted to the full privileges of a Christian man, and 
 listened to with a respect and deference that I could not 
 otherwise have gained. These things are regarded as im- 
 portant by Eastern Christians, because they never heard 
 or dreamed of a Church without them. They have known 
 them from their fathers ; they have traced them back 
 through their unbroken line of Bishops and Patriarchs, 
 through their venerable liturgy, which they claim to be of 
 Apostolic origin, through all the history of the past, which 
 they have never known to be without them. They are to 
 them as the walls are to a house, or a portrait to the original. 
 They are that in which the form and features of Christian- 
 ity are expressed and preserved, through which its blessings 
 are conveyed -to man. How can it be otherwise with them, 
 when they have never known these blessings to be conveyed 
 in any other channels, or imagined it possible that they could 
 be conveyed in any other? I say, then, that it was an ad- 
 vantage to me to appear in the character of one whose 
 Church had all the valid and essential features of a Church 
 of Christ; whose priesthood, testified in proper credentials 
 bearing the seal and signature of his Bishop, could not be 
 questioned, and who coming from a Church which possessed 
 all the well-known marks of ancient and authentic origin, 
 could not but be regarded as every way entitled to speak of 
 the true faith, and of the practical interests and duties of 
 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 229 
 
 religion. I was, therefore, met as one standing upon equal 
 ground, a position which it is important to secure, and 
 which the primitive character of my Church has always 
 enabled me to maintain. This character is our passport 
 and our guarantee, and both he who holds it to be of no 
 importance, and he who believes that our Church (when 
 judged, as she can alone be by strangers, through her ac- 
 credited standards) is deficient in any essential feature 
 thereof, are alike unqualified to be her representatives 
 abroad. I say this from no uncharitable spirit, but with 
 a deep-seated conviction, confirmed by experience, that our 
 proper lot is to maintain among the Eastern Christians, the 
 essentially primitive character of our Church, and to pre- 
 sent her to them in that character alone. This is the first 
 condition of our usefulness, and every missionary operation 
 which does not respect it, will be " as the morning cloud and 
 as the early dew, as the chaff that is driven with the whirl- 
 wind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." 
 I will freely acknowledge that sometimes when I have thus 
 presented our Church to members of the Oriental Com- 
 munions, the picture would have seemed to them more com- 
 plete if some things that are wanting in it still formed apart 
 of its shade and coloring ; for example, unction in baptism, 
 the sign of the cross in consecrating the Eucharist, and 
 especially prayers for the faithful dead. But I have never 
 found real cause for regretting the absence of these and such 
 like ancient usages. Those which are merely rites I have 
 ever found to be acknowledged as not essential to the true 
 character of a Church. Besides, there is not an exact uni- 
 formity with regard to them among the Eastern Christians 
 themselves. For instance, the custom of mixing water with 
 the wine in the Lord's Supper, which has the sanction of the 
 most venerable antiquity, prevails among the Syrians, but 
 not among the Armenians, and yet the two Churches are in 
 full communion. Prayers for the faithful dead present a 
 
 11 
 
230 VISIT TO THE 
 
 more serious subject ; but excepting those portions of the 
 Eastern Churches by which they are abused for purposes of 
 gain, I have never found a disposition to insist upon them as 
 really essential, and the reasons for our discontinuing them 
 have always appeared satisfactory excepting to those to whom 
 it would be perhaps an advantage if they would discontinue 
 them also. Those by whom they are not abused, seem to 
 regard the want of them among us as a deficiency in itself, 
 but justifiable by the reasons which prevailed at the time they 
 were removed. Nor have I ever seen such a one disposed 
 to consider their restoration as a matter of indispensable 
 necessity, inasmuch as a general commemoration of ihe 
 faithful departed is preserved in the service of the Holy 
 Communion, the order for Burial, and some of the Festivals, 
 especially that of All Saints. This is sufficient to save us 
 from the reproach of forgetting those who, though passed 
 away, belong with us to the Household of God, 1 the Family 
 in Heaven and Earth ; 2 and more than this, it may safely be 
 affirmed, was not the original intention of prayers for them. 
 The position of our Church, then, when judged by the clear 
 voice of her standards, is one in which, on the whole, I have 
 ever found reason to rejoice. It is cne in which she appears 
 as chiefly intent upon a unity of faith, and yet as wanting 
 nothing which is essential to her character as a branch of 
 the Church Universal. It is one in which we must feel com- 
 pelled to stand upon the sure basis of what is evidently ne- 
 cessary to Christian communion, one in which we have 
 little temptation to form alliances upon incidental resem- 
 blances in things of minor importance. one in which it is 
 most needful for their own good that we should appear to the 
 Eastern Churches, one in which \vc may sustain the exalted 
 character of seeking a restoration of unity on truly primitive 
 grounds. May we have grace to understand and improve 
 
 1 Eph. ii. 19. Eph.iii. 15. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 231 
 
 our advantages, turning neither to the right hand nor to the 
 left ; presenting the Church in her pure faith and her unsul- 
 lied worship to eyes which will not fail, the more single their 
 vision becomes, to be attracted by the one and love the 
 other. There is no Church on earth which has the power 
 for good among the Eastern Christians which the Church of 
 England and the sister Church in the United Slates possess. 
 May we use it as an inestimable treasure, as a precious talent 
 for which 'we must give account! 
 
 NOTE. I must not be understood in this chapter as 
 speaking on the point of the immediate practicability of 
 union with the Eastern Churches. That is a great point by 
 itself. In my judgment it cannot be determined by any data 
 that we now possess. And besides, it is a question whether, 
 supposing that no difficulty in matters of faith remained, a 
 union were practicable under existing circumstances. We 
 must remember that Mohammedanism, with all its chains 
 bound around and enslaving Christianity, still survives. We 
 must remember, too, that our Eastern brethren are hardly 
 in a state duly to appreciate and earnestly to long for the 
 blessings of unity. Let us not desire the thing without its 
 spirit. Let us not strive to bring about a merely formal 
 connexion, but to base it upon a true union of heart, a 
 union which cannot be thoroughly effected unless both they 
 and we are replenished with the graces of the Spirit, and are 
 alive to the truth and knowledge of God's Holy Word. Let 
 there be no hasty and unauthorized amalgamations, but let our 
 first, great effort be to revive, with the divine blessing, in the 
 hearts of our brethren and in our own, a juster appreciation 
 of the true faith and a life of holiness and love. So shall 
 there be a sure preparation for the glorious fabric of Christian 
 Union, and so shall our fabric rise not on the shifting sands 
 of human opinion and devices, but upon the Everlasting 
 Rock of our Salvation, Christ Jesus, our Lord. 
 
VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Leaving. Change of Route. Farewell to the Patriarch. Ride to 
 Mardin. Illness. Letters. Popish Intrigues. Continued Illness. 
 Transfer of Jezireh to the Pashalic of Mossoul. Romish Arguments. 
 Syrian Generosity. Intrigue Defeated. New Servant. Fever and 
 Ague. Mussulmans at Church. The Cross,how regarded by Moham- 
 medans. Use of the Sign of it among the Christians. 
 
 MY intention had been to go back from the monastery to 
 Jezireh by the mountain road, and continue homeward by Sert 
 and Bitlis. But a Providence, at the time inscrutable, but after- 
 wards most plainly merciful, frustrated the design. The 
 Kurds were now up in arms, and the road from the monas- 
 tery was cut off, so that a villager lately coming from a 
 neighboring district was obliged to make a detour of a day 
 or two to avoid them. This alone might not have deterred 
 me, but as the object of my journey was rather to learn the 
 state of the Church and the spirit of the clergy than to in- 
 vestigate the social and civil condition of the people, and as 
 I had learned most that I wished to know about the moun- 
 tains, from intelligent persons who had visited and resided 
 in them, the object of the journey did not seem sufficient to 
 incur any considerable risk in going thither myself. Other 
 reasons, which I need not mention, made it important for me 
 to turn my face in a different direction ; which I according- 
 ly did. The Pasha of Mossoul had heard of the rebellion 
 among the Kurds, and was now approaching rapidly from 
 the Euphrates. His fires could be seen over the desert, 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 233 
 
 wherever he pitched his camp, for the next night the spot 
 would show a vast sea of flame rolling and raging in every 
 direction. 
 
 I had intended to leave on the 12th, but my business not 
 being completed, I remained till the 13th, and was then de- 
 tained another day by a severe cold which I had caught in 
 the night. On the 14th I was no better, and with difficulty 
 mustered sufficient resolution to prepare for my journey. 
 But there was no alternative. The result of my visit was 
 such as to require the utmost expedition in my movements, 
 and I determined, at all events, to reach Mardin, and then 
 shape my plans as Providence might permit. In the course 
 of the morning I had a farewell interview with the Pa- 
 triarch, but was too unwell to say much. Fortunately little 
 remained to be said. He accompanied me down stairs and 
 to the outer gate, where stood the old porter, now as full of 
 benedictions as he had before been of complaints. Nearly 
 every person in the monastery came down to bid me fare- 
 well, and when I mounted, the Patriarch gave me his blessing 
 and his prayers. Bishop Matthew could not leave rne thus, 
 but accompanied me to the city. On the road my troubles 
 were increased by a stroke of the sun, for it was now high 
 noon ; and when I reached the city, my brain was disordered, 
 and both body and mind in a state of extreme suffering. 
 Bishop Matthew took me to his house adjoining the Church 
 of Mar Behnain, and there made me as comfortable as cir- 
 cumstances would allow. I had ordered horses to be in 
 readiness immediately upon my arrival, and nothing but 
 utter physical inability prevented me from mounting. But 
 it was now quite out of the question ; I could hardly raise 
 myself from the ground. Hoping that a few hours rest 
 might relieve me, I ordered the horses to be brought at day- 
 break, and determined to spend the night ; or rather spent 
 it there in spite of my determination to the contrary. 
 
 The next morning my head was somewhat relieved, but 
 
234 VISIT TO THE 
 
 otherwise I was more unfit for travelling than before. I had 
 nothing to do but to submit, and, without knowing what God 
 would bring out of the delay, leave the future to him and 
 hope for the best. To my short-sighted wisdom it seemed 
 only an evil which endangered the best interests of my work, 
 but all my anxiety was overcome by a last resort the calm 
 and deep conviction that it would in some way unknown to 
 me, and which I could not by any stretch of imagination 
 conceive, work for good. 
 
 The next day, to my great surprise, letters from Con- 
 stantinople reached me. I had given orders that none 
 should be sent, as I was to be constantly moving about, and 
 the danger of losing them great. They were brought by 
 the young Tafar whom I had met near Diabekir. He was 
 on his way to Mossoul, and expected to find me there, but 
 hearing that there was a Frank in the city, he sent the let- 
 ters to me, with the message that if they did not belong to 
 me, I would return them within a quarter of an hour. I 
 saw him some months afterwards at Constantinople, when he 
 told me that at the time he was riding post-haste to convey to 
 the Pasha of Mossoul the news that the district of Jezireh 
 had been given to him. Another Tatar was only a few 
 hours behind him, and the trial was which should first con- 
 vey the news to the Pasha, and obtain the expected bak- 
 shish (present). He had stopped at Mardin only to change 
 horses, and was just mounting, when he heard that there was 
 Frank in the city, which induced him to send the letters at 
 a venture, not knowing whether the said Frank was myself 
 or some other person. He was himself too tired and too 
 much encumbered with his travelling dress to come to me 
 speedily, and therefore sent them by the hands of a messen- 
 ger. Had the information which induced him to send them 
 been delayed for a minute or two, the letters would have 
 gone to Mossoul. When I opened them I found that they 
 contained news which it was of the first importance I should 
 
SYRIAN CHUUCH. 235 
 
 receive before leaving Mardin. I was now as glad for hav- 
 ing been detained, as I had only the day before been tried 
 by the very same delay. Had I left when I intended, I 
 should probably have passed the Tatar in the night, or met 
 him so far upon the road that it would have been difficult 
 to turn back. I immediately acted upon the information 
 contained in the letters, and then began again to hope that 
 I might now be permitted to pursue my journey. 
 
 But another still more urgent cause for delay was in pros- 
 pect. Letters soon arrived from Mossoul which showed that 
 a plot had been formed to ruin every thing which I had ac- 
 complished, and these very letters were intended to embitter 
 the mind of the Patriarch against me. They contained the 
 most extravagant misrepresentations of my object and of my 
 Church, conveyed in so insidious a manner that it seemed 
 to me they could hardly have failed to accomplish their pur- 
 pose if I had been absent. They were addressed to Bishop 
 Matthew, who was requested to lay them before the Patri- 
 arch. But Bishop Matthew thought it his first duty to 
 bring them to me, saying, as he opened them, " 'As ye 
 would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.' 
 It is not right that you should be injured by secret foes, 
 If, as I believe, the statements contained in these letters are 
 false, you can easily refute them ; and were the case reversed, 
 I should expect so much justice to be done me, as to make 
 them known to me." It proved to be, as the letters fully 
 showed, a machination of the Papists. The whole history of 
 the affair was detailed, and authorities given, so that there 
 could be no mistake about the origin of the plot. The read- 
 ing of the letters excited me so much, that though burning 
 and parched with fever, and unable to sit up, I entered into 
 a long conversation on the subject, which occupied us all 
 the rest of the day and evening. I succeeded in showing 
 him by the clearest proofs, that the whole story was a false- 
 hood, and could have arisen only from a deadly hostility to 
 
236 VISIT TO THE 
 
 my Church. I told him, moreover, that I must be satisfied 
 as to the result of the plot before I left, and for this purpose 
 would return to the monastery as soon as I was able. But 
 I was in no state to do this at present. A profuse perspira- 
 tion had relieved me of my cold, but left me with a severe 
 billious attack, from which I could not hope to escape so 
 easily. Bishop Matthew, who had remained with me, gave 
 me a decoction of prunes and tamarinds, from which I re- 
 ceived immediate relief. But a strong fever prevailed during 
 the day, accompanied with great weakness and slight shiv- 
 ering. The Bishop tended me assiduously, and for a week 
 after never left my side, excepting at the hours of prayer, 
 when he would repair to the Church, and immediately after 
 the close of the service return to me again. To his kind 
 and skilful attention I was doubtless indebted for being 
 saved from a protracted illness of one kind, but he could 
 not save me from another which immediately followed, and 
 which was destined to be my companion all the way to Con- 
 stantinople. My servant was also prostrated by the same 
 disorder the fever and ague and lay during its attacks 
 complaining, and groaning, and crying for home. The 
 Bishop himself next followed, and had it not been for a 
 faithful Syrian servant whom the Patriarch had given me, 
 we should have fared but poorly in the emergency. My 
 letters from home, full of kindness and good news, proved a 
 refreshing cordial to my spirits. I read and re-read them 
 till I had them almost by heart. 
 
 Three days after my arrival, there came four Latin 
 Priests from Aleppo, who reported that they were going 
 to Mossoul and Bagdad, to look after the " Freemasons" 
 who had passed. The Freemasons were the American 
 missionaries, and these men were sent out upon their traces 
 as soon as they had left Aleppo, and had dogged them thus 
 far upon their journey. About the same time came a fir- 
 man from Constantinople, transferring the rich district of 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 237 
 
 Jezireh to the Pasha of Mossoul. The young Tatar had 
 succeeded in being the first to carry the good news to the 
 Pasha, who was now lying with his army before Dara, 
 contemplating an attack upon the Kurds in the mountains. 
 He afterwards sent forward a party to explore the passes, 
 and soon after despatched a force of 1500 men, who finally 
 succeeded in reducing the Kurds to submission. The 
 arrival of the firman was announced by a salute from the 
 guns of the town, which consisted of five or six small can- 
 nons stationed near the Mossoul gate. 
 
 The next day a letter from Azik came, from which I 
 learned that the Chaldean Bishop of the district had offered, 
 through the aid of the French Consul at Bagdad, to rescue 
 from bondage the friends of all the Syrians who would ac- 
 knowledge the Pope. The Syrian priest of Azik, who had 
 a daughter in captivity, had been himself to Bagdad to inter- 
 cede for her release. When he applied to the French 
 Consul for the purpose, he was told that if he accepted the 
 terms, he should have his daughter. The priest expostulated 
 and implored, but in vain. The Consul must have the 
 "pound of flesh." After two months of unsuccessful en- 
 treaty on his part, and unsuccessful endeavors to convert 
 him on the other, he replied, " Though my daughter were 
 not only in captivity, but condemned to death, I would not 
 consent to such terms for her release," and returned sad 
 and broken hearted to his native place. 1 While these 
 things were going on, the Syrian Patriarch was obtaining 
 a firman for the relief of the Christians from unjust taxa- 
 tion, and with a liberality worthy of the man, interceded 
 for them without distinction. He was successful, and Syr- 
 ians, Syrian Papists, Chaldeans, and Armenian Papists alike 
 enjoyed the beneficial effects of its operation. It may be 
 said that France does not protect any others than her co- 
 
 1 He is now a Bishop. 
 11* 
 
238 VISIT TO THE 
 
 religionists in the East. It were well, then, that this 
 should be understood, for her claims to protect, before the 
 Porte, cover all the Eastern Churches. But it does not 
 follow that this protection can be lawfully made an instru- 
 ment of proselytism, as has been done for hundreds of years, 
 especially when there is so much to render it apparent that 
 this proselytism arises not from any regard to the interests 
 of religion, but from a desire to extend political influence. 
 
 July 18. The letters from Mossoul were sent to the 
 Patriarch with a verbal message from myself. The mes- 
 senger, who was a man of rank and influence in the Church, 
 returned before evening with the kindest compliments from 
 the Patriarch to myself, and a special message, to the effect 
 that the letters from Mossoul were in themselves of no 
 weight whatever, since he had understood the origin of 
 them from previous information. As to the substance of 
 them, he considered it utterly frivolous, that his own course 
 was taken and he should not swerve from it. He wished 
 me to have my mind perfectly at ease on this matter, and to 
 depart in peace. He sent many regrets for my indisposi- 
 tion, and such kindly expressions of personal regard that 
 my heart filled at once, and I could not answer a word. 
 Who that has not experienced it, can tell the power of kind- 
 ness under such circumstances? It is great anywhere, in 
 one's own home, among one's familiar friends, in health and 
 prosperity. But where so great as in a land of strangers, 
 alone, in sickness and persecution? 
 
 The next day, one of the priests of St. Simon's was bu- 
 ried, who had died after a short illness. All the clergy 
 were present, and with them the Patriarch, who had come 
 from the monastery, partly for this purpose, and partly, as 
 he said, to see me. After the service he came and sat with 
 me half an hour. Before leaving, he said to me at greater 
 length what he had said by the messenger yesterday, and 
 when he left, bade me again a kind farewell. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 239 
 
 I now began to hope again that I might be allowed to 
 depart, but I was detained yet two days, one by the severity 
 of my illness, and one by the want of horses. On the third 
 day I finally bade adieu to my Syrian friends, who had done 
 every thing for me that their limited means and knowledge 
 allowed. From one in particular, I parted with deep regret. 
 Bishop Matthew had been for a week my physician, my 
 nurse, and my companion. He was seldom away from my 
 side, and when present, tended me with all the solicitude 
 and kindness of a father. My servant had recovered from 
 his attack of fever and ague, but the remedy had left him in 
 so weak a state, that he was of no use to me for the remain- 
 der of the journey. My new servant Michael, who was a 
 Syrian by birth, and had been for some years an inmate of 
 the monastery, was a strong and active young man, fearless 
 in danger, and ready for any duty at a moment's warning. 
 He was invaluable to me, and more than supplied all the 
 deficiencies of the other. 
 
 My assaults of fever and ague had now become daily, 
 and I had every reason to expect that they would accompany 
 me all the way to Constantinople. My head too, though 
 relieved when I sat still, began to throb with pain as soon 
 as I assumed any quick movement, and was so sensitive to 
 the sun, that the Jeast exposure almost drove me mad. All 
 this was somewhat discouraging, especially when the fever 
 and ague were upon me ; for worse than all its effects on the 
 body, is its dispiriting influence on the mind. But I had 
 gained all the benefit that could be expected at Mardin, and 
 I was unwilling any longer to be a burden to my Syrian 
 friends. There was no other hope but in reaching Con- 
 stantinople, where I should find proper medical attendance 
 and be in the midst of skilful friends. Whether I should 
 ever reach it, seemed, in my present state, extremely doubt- 
 ful, for, besides the troubles already mentioned, I h'ad a. 
 iore subtle disorder, which I supposed I had contracted 
 
240 VISIT TO THE 
 
 from the hard living and noxious air of the desert, and which 
 might, with very little warning, end my days. It was a 
 comfort, however, to reflect that I was not necessary to any 
 good purpose, that better and abler men than I could be 
 raised up to take my place, and that if I fell, it would be as 
 best became me with my harness on. In sober thought, it 
 seemed hardly probable that I should escape unharmed from 
 the scorching sunbeams, the sleepless nights, the bad food, 
 and the incessant fatigue of the journey ; but I knew of 
 nothing better to do, and therefore made the best of the 
 worst, hoped against hope, sought counsel at a source which 
 has never failed me in such extremities, and started on my 
 journey with a cheerful if not a joyous heart. 
 
 A scene occurred at the Church the evening before I 
 left, with which I will close my reminiscences of Mardin. 
 Several Mussulman women came in immediately after pray- 
 ers, with their children in their arms, which they presented 
 to the priest, and kneeling themselves in humble attitude, 
 had prayers read over them. They then left a small charity 
 for the Church, and departed in a reverent and becoming 
 manner. The priest assured me that Mussulmans some- 
 times join in the worship, and go through all the acts of 
 devotion with the same regularity as the Christians, kneel- 
 ing, bowing, and prostrating themselves, but never making 
 the sign of the cross, which is considered as the distinctive 
 and peculiar badge of a Christian. The Mussulmans hold 
 the error of the Docetae, and believe, as the Koran declares, 
 that Jesus was crucified only in appearance. If one argues 
 upon the plain declarations of the Gospel, they say that our 
 books are corrupted ; and if you attempt to prove their au- 
 thenticity, they reply that the Koran has revealed the contrary, 
 and this is a final argument with them. The cross, then, 
 is to the Mohammedan a stone of stumbling and rock of 
 offence, and being so, it is not a little to be wondered at 
 that the Christians have so universally retained it. " Ad 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 241 
 
 omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exi- 
 tum, ad vestitum et calciatum, ad lavacra, ad mcnsas, ad 
 lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, qvacunque nos conversatio 
 exercet, frontem crucis signaculo terimus." 1 This is now 
 as true as it was in the days of Tertullian, though the sign 
 is not made upon the forehead simply, nor is it used in so 
 simple a manner as then. The idea of some miraculous 
 power and efficacy is very commonly attached to it, al- 
 though the idea itself is obviously based upon the primary 
 notion of its being a profession of faith in Christ. The 
 Eastern Christians often make it with little thought of its 
 original use, and vainly dispute upon the proper mode of 
 making it. 2 Yet as a mark of distinction between them- 
 selves and the Mohammedans, it is interesting to observe 
 how universally they have retained it, and how freely they 
 use it, and the very remembrance of its being a mark of 
 distinction, has helped to preserve more of a sense of its 
 original design than they might otherwise have retained. 
 Its use, in itself, certainly is not to be regretted ; 3 although 
 
 1 At every going forward or movement, at every entrance and egress, 
 in putting on clothes and sandals, in washing, at meals, at candle lighting, 
 at lying down, at seating ourselves, whatever business occupies us, we 
 mark the forehead with the sign of the Cross. TertuL de Cor. Mil. c. 3. 
 
 2 There are two points of dispute concerning it : First, as to the num- 
 ber of fingers with which it is to he made ; second, as to the order in 
 which the parts of the body are to be touched. Thus the Greeks make 
 it with three fingers, as indicating their belief in the Holy Trinity, and in 
 making it, touch first the forehead, then the breast, then the right shoulder, 
 then the left. The Nestorians make it in the same manner with the 
 Greeks. The Armenians, with three fingers also, but touching the left 
 breast before the right. The Syrians, with the thumb and forefinger, 
 and in the same order with the Armenians. 
 
 3 " I must confess that there is something affecting in this simple 
 outward expression, as practised by the Nestorians. . . May it not be 
 that the abuse of such symbols by the votaries of the Roman See, has 
 carried us Protestants to the other extreme, when we utterly condemn 
 the simple memento of the cross I" The Nestorians, by Dr. Grant, p. 68. 
 
242 VISIT TO THE 
 
 we could well wish that it might be used oftentimes with 
 more reverence, and often with a more just sense of the 
 meaning which it conveys, " By this sign I declare myself 
 to be a follower of Christ, and my trust to be in His blessed 
 passion and death. To Him I look for deliverance from 
 all my enemies, and for direction in all my doings, and in 
 token of this faith and trust, I do sign myself with the sign 
 of the cross." 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 First day's Journey. Visit to the Patriarch Elect. Regulations concern* 
 ing the building of Churches in Turkey. English Churches. The 
 Patriarch Elect. Pigeon Houses. Diarbekir. The Church of St. 
 Mary. Visitors. Fever and Ague on Horseback. Sleeping in the 
 Field. A Kind Mussulman. Trouble at the Ferry. A hospitable 
 Kizzilbash. Visions of Home. Warren Hastings. C. J. Rich. Si- 
 
 MY first day's ride brought me to Khanik, ten hours on 
 my way, somewhat fatigued, but grateful that I was so much 
 nearer home. Our rate of travelling was the slowest walk, 
 and we stopped occasionally to rest. At Khanik, for want of 
 better accommodations, I lodged under a tree, and at five 
 P. M. went through my regular process of fever and ague. 
 The time for it was well arranged, as I could ordinarily ac- 
 complish my day's journey before that hour, and have a 
 whole night to recruit in. My object was, if possible, to 
 reach Samsoun the sixth of August, knowing that the 
 steamer would pass that day, and if I were an hour too 
 late, I must wait there a week. To accomplish this, it was 
 necessary to travel a good stage every day, for fifteen days. 
 1 had no temptation to stop on the road while strength re- 
 mained to travel, but the contrary every way. Both my 
 health and my engagements required me to be in Constan- 
 tinople at the earliest possible moment, and it was some- 
 thing to have such an object of interest as the reaching 
 Samsoun on a certain day. The uncertainty of finding 
 
244 VISIT TO THE 
 
 post-horses immediately on my arrival at each post-house, 
 added not a little to the impulse to do the best with my lit- 
 tle strength. The first day's journey seemed to have im- 
 proved me, for my fever was lighter than usual, and I started 
 the next morning with fresh courage. 
 
 In two and a half hours we passed a small village which 
 was deserted when I last came by, but was now beginning 
 to be occupied again by the peasants, whom the famine had 
 scattered, and immediately struck off to the Tigris, about 
 two hours distant. We forded it where it was only three 
 feet deep, and an hour after reached Kabbi Keui, a large 
 Syrian village where the Muphrian 1 now resides. He had 
 been driven from his diocese by Bedr Khan Bey, who 
 wished to kill him for some complaint which he had pre- 
 ferred against the Bey before the Pasha of Diarbekir. His 
 diocese is Mediad, an important district in the Tour moun- 
 tains, and his seat at the monastery of Mar Gabriel, seven- 
 teen hours from Jezireh. The monastery, he said, had been 
 rifled by the Bey, and was now deserted. I met him at the 
 Church, which was a new and handsome building lately 
 erected by the villagers themselves. I will say here, in or- 
 der to correct some wrong impressions which are enter- 
 tained with regard to the Mohammedan law on this subject, 
 that it forbids the building of Churches on new sites, but 
 allows the repairing of old ones, or their re-erection on the 
 old sites, and also the erection of chapels under the name 
 of Ibadet Khanch, (Prayer Houses,) as a part of a private 
 dwelling. Under cover of this last provision, chapels are 
 sometimes erected, and in process of time converted into 
 Churches. For this purpose nothing more is necessary 
 than to present a petition for a firman to repair the build- 
 ing, taking care to speak of it as if it were already a 
 Church instead of a chapel. The Turks, into whose hands 
 
 1 Patriarch Elect of the Syrian Church. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 245 
 
 the business comes at the Porte, barely know where the 
 building is, without knowing what it is. Petitions for re- 
 pairing Churches are brought in every day, and this passes 
 as one of them. The necessary fees are paid and a firman 
 is granted for the repair of such a Church. The old Ibadet 
 Khanch is pulled down, and a Church of larger dimensions 
 is erected on the spot. In some instances, however, the 
 fraud is detected by the Mussulman neighbors, and I know 
 at the present moment two Churches in Constantinople 
 which have been closed by the Turks on account of a pro- 
 ceeding of this kind. The native Papists have procured 
 firmans for the erection of chapels wherever any of their 
 people are to be found, and in several places they have 
 already been built. One that I have seen was large and 
 commodious, and had all the appearance of a Church, ex- 
 cepting that it formed a part of the Episcopal residence. 
 The Porte acted doubtless in conformity with the laws of 
 the Empire in refusing a firman for the English Church at 
 Jerusalem, unless, as I have heard it reported, that Church 
 is built upon the site of an old one, in which case a firman 
 ought to have been granted upon proper evidence of the 
 fact. An attempt was made some years ago to erect an 
 English Church in the village of Boujah, near Smyrna, but 
 no firman having been procured, the work was stopped ere 
 it had risen above the foundation. The English Church in 
 Smyrna is under the roof of the Consulate, and that in Con- 
 stantinople is the Embassy Chapel, erected upon ground 
 belonging to the British Government. I know not whether 
 there are any other English Churches in the Empire, unless 
 it be one at Alexandria in Egypt. It were certainly to be 
 desired that they were to be found at other points, for exam- 
 ple at Beyrout, Bagdad, and Erzroum ; for these, if for no 
 other reasons : 1, for the benefit of English travellers arid 
 residents; 2, that the reproach of having no religion be- 
 cause we are not seen to have any public worship, may be 
 
246 VISIT TO THE 
 
 taken away ; and 3, for the beneficent influence which they 
 would exert upon the Eastern Christians, (especially if the 
 services, or sermons, were sometimes in the languages of 
 the country). A worship uncorrupted by superstitious 
 usages, yet not devoid of solemn and decent ceremonies, 
 the propriety and'orderly demeanor of the worshippers, the 
 services in a language understood by the people, and espe- 
 cially the instructive character of the liturgy, interspersed 
 with its Psalms and Lessons from Holy Writ, could not 
 fail to exert a most healthful influence, while they presented 
 a living example more powerful than words. 
 
 The Muphrian, Abdul Ahad, was a middle-aged man, 
 with a troubled and care-worn expression that made him 
 appear older than he really was. He sat with me an hour 
 in the portico of the Church, while I reposed upon a bed 
 which they had spread for me, and gave me an excellent 
 breakfast of young pigeons, which refreshed and revived me 
 a little, so that I was able to sit up and converse with him. 
 What I had to say, made his eye sparkle with joy, and drove 
 the sorrowful expression from his features. " I will give 
 you my prayers," he said ; " it is all that I have to give." 
 He had been two years absent from his Diocese, and said 
 that he could never return while Bedr Khan Bey lived. 1 
 
 The village itself was of most singular construction and 
 appearance. Most of the houses were very high, and the 
 whole of the upper part above the first story was given to 
 
 1 He has since returned, and, I am grieved to add, has recently been 
 put to death, by order of this Kurdish chief. He had been sent for by 
 the Bey, and on the road was met by ten armed Kurds, (one of them a 
 near relation of Bedr Khan Bey,) who immediately shot him down, ripped 
 him open, and took out his heart, which they carried away, probably as a 
 token to the Bey of his death. This infamous man, to conceal his own 
 agency in the crime, immediately charged it upon the Syrians themselves, 
 and fined the Syrian village nearest to the place of the murder, 15,000 
 piastres, (about $600,) for having murdered their own Bishop ! 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 247 
 
 pigeons, which are kept for the sake of their dung, which 
 is sold in the city, and used for the rich fruit-gardens near 
 the town. Thousands of pigeons filled the air, and at short 
 intervals we heard the sharp report of a gun which, the 
 people said, belonged to some sportsmen from the town, who 
 come here and cruelly deprive them of the fruit of their la- 
 bors. 1 Both here and in Persia the manure of pigeons is 
 esteemed the best for the culture of melons, and in both 
 countries the quality of the fruit fully bears out the recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 Anxious to reach the city at an early hour, that I might 
 gain strength for the long stage before me on the morrow, I 
 bade adieu to the Muphrian, and with some difficulty was 
 put upon my horse, where 1 had nothing to do but to hold 
 on. In this way we started, and soon crossing the bridge, 
 which brought us again to the right-hand side of the Tigris, 
 reached the city in an hour from Kabbi Keui. 
 
 The Patriarch had given me a letter to Diarbekir, which 
 proved, when it came to be delivered, to contain an order 
 that his own apartments at the Church of St. Mary should 
 be opened for my reception. This same Church is a cu- 
 riosity in its kind, being apparently one of the oldest that I 
 visited. It does not differ materially, however, from the 
 common description, excepting that its court and out-build- 
 ings are larger, and the latter more numerous than I have 
 seen elsewhere. By its side is the little chapel of St. James, 
 and on one side of the court is an apartment where the 
 Patriarch resides when he is in the city. This was thrown 
 open for me, and every attention that my state required or 
 kindness could suggest, was shown to me. Many of the 
 Priests, Deacons, and principal men came to see me. They 
 have no Bishop resident, the city being a part of the diocese 
 
 1 I asked, " Why do you not complain of them 1" The reply was, 
 " They are Mussulmans what can we do 1" 
 
248 VISIT TO THE 
 
 of the Patriarch. I was pleased with the appearance of 
 several of the clergy, some of whom I had never before seen. 
 They, and also the merchants, seemed more intelligent and 
 sensible men than most that I had seen at Mardin, and with 
 some of them it was a real pleasure to converse A few 
 Papal Syrians, who were old acquaintances, also called, so 
 that my time passed agreeably until the ague came, true to 
 its hour. I could see that these diurnal attacks, combined 
 with the fatigue of travelling, were bringing me into a very 
 bad condition, but there was no relief but patience. My 
 friends at D. gave me a drink made of liquorice, which 
 they said was a wholesome refrigerant, and supplied me 
 with a large quantity of the root for my use on the road. I 
 had a comfortable night's sleep after the fever had gone, 
 and rose a brighter man in the morning. 
 
 The next day (July 24) we came to Argana, over the te- 
 dious plain. Here, for the first time, the fit seized me on 
 the road, and the suffering which it cost me was dreadful 
 beyond description. How much easier, I thought, it would 
 be to die. There was no village to which we could turn 
 aside, nothing to do but to press on to Argana, which we 
 reached after dark. I had foreseen that we should not 
 reach our lodgings before the ague came, and had attempted 
 to force a march so as to arrive earlier. But any motion 
 quicker than a walk brought on immediately the effects of 
 the sun-stroke, and sent such excruciating pains through my 
 head as made me almost curl with torture. At Argana the 
 guide, instead of entering the town, conducted me along a 
 path below it until we had quite passed it, and were in the 
 country beyond. Here, however, was the post-house, or 
 rather its occupants, out of doors at pasture. We had no 
 alternative but to content ourselves with the same accommo- 
 dations, and sleep upon the ground, a necessity which under 
 other circumstances would have been the greatest luxury 
 no fleas, no dirt, the air pure and sweet, your canopy the 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 249 
 
 broad heavens. Besides the nature of the lodgings, there 
 was nothing to eat; but this also was no great deprivation, 
 for had there been, it would have been yo-oort, which all 
 my native friends had strictly charged me not to touch. 
 Indeed, my first and last concern was to repose, The fever, 
 as well as the ague, had passed, and had left me in so weak 
 a state that any couch was comfortable. My cloak was soon 
 spread, with my saddle for a pillow, and before my servants 
 had finished their duty of arranging and securing the bag- 
 gage, I was fast asleep. 
 
 The next morning I arose fresh and bright, with an ap- 
 petite sharpened by twenty-four hours abstinence, but which 
 there was no means of relieving until we reached Argana 
 Maden, four hours on our road. Here we obtained a break- 
 fast, a most unsatisfactory one however, as the only articles 
 which the market afforded were eggs, milk, and yo-oort, all 
 which had been proscribed by my good friends at Mardin. 
 We spent the whole day in going over the Taurus, and did 
 not stop again until we reached a village upon the plain of 
 Kharpout, having rode thirty miles without dismounting. 
 The day's tribulation came on close by the little lake of 
 Gheuljuk. I had determined not to endure again what I did 
 yesterday, but to throw myself upon the ground as soon as 
 the fit seized me, and lie there until it was over. Fortunate- 
 ly, however, it was somewhat lighter, and I found myself, 
 though still suffering intensely, able to keep my horse. We 
 stopped at the first village on the plain, where we obtained 
 admission to a Mussulman house, an excellent dinner, and a 
 comfortable bed. The master made every effort to please 
 me, and declined all reward for it, an instance of human- 
 ity which deserves, at least, a record. He even waited upon 
 me in person, requested me to make out my own bill of fare 
 for such articles as I could eat, and attended himself to see 
 it executed, which was done in a style that did honor to his 
 hospitality. 
 
250 VISIT TO THE 
 
 July 26. We started at dawn and rode to Merizah, 
 where we changed horses and breakfasted. To keep up 
 with the plan of my journey, it was necessary to reach Kab- 
 ban Maden to-day, which we accomplished by another ride 
 of thirty miles, making about forty for the day. When I 
 came to dismount at the ferry of Kabban Maden, I found 
 myself unable to walk, or even to stand without difficulty. 
 From some cause, at the time unknown, my feet and legs 
 had gradually swollen, until they became unmanageable and 
 almost without sense or life. The attack of fever had pass- 
 ed on the road, but as soon as I touched the ground I began 
 to feel the most excruciating pains in my back, from which 
 I could find no relief but by lying down and suffering the 
 men to carry me into the boat, like a bale of goods, and lay 
 me down among the cattle. When we reached the opposite 
 side, I was' taken out and conveyed to the post-house near 
 by, where I was laid upon a bench in the coffee-shop. Sev- 
 eral old Mussulmans gathered round me, and began to pre- 
 scribe. One wished to tie a string on my wrist, and say a 
 prayer or incantation over it ; but I rejected the remedy, 
 although he pronounced it to be a sovereign one. Another 
 advised me to be kneaded, and feeling within myself that 
 this would be agreeable, I submitted to it. They then 
 turned me over on my face, and Michael, taking off his 
 shoes, mounted upon my back, and jumped up and down 
 upon me, to my great delight and relief. The operation, 
 rude as it was, had the desired effect, for until then I could 
 not stir without putting myself into an agony of pain. It 
 was followed up by several men kneading me with their fists, 
 after which I fell into a quiet sleep, which lasted four hours. 
 When I awoke, day had opened, and it was time to mount. 
 Upon attempting to rise, I found that though the pain was 
 not entirely gone, I was able to stand and walk. There 
 was no profit in remaining there, and I had no doubt that I 
 could find physicians of the same sort at every stopping- 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 251 
 
 place. So I made a present to the practitioner who had re- 
 commended the kneading, bade them adieu, and mounted. 
 
 I came before night to a pasturage-ground of the people 
 of Argaoun, where I found the villagers of Suleimanieh 
 scattered over the country, feeding their flocks, and among 
 them the post-master with his horses. He had a tent close 
 by, to which he invited me for the night, and when he saw 
 my condition, treated me kindly. Thus it is that in the 
 rudest state man feels for his fellow, and we never reach so 
 low a grade of humanity that we do not find at least some 
 who retain the nobler traits of our nature. He was indeed 
 very kind, and put himself to much trouble on my account, 
 and gave me the best of every thing that he had, and tended 
 me during the fever attack with unceasing assiduity. I have 
 had to record some harsher reflections, but it gives me more 
 pleasure to record those which speak well for my kind. My 
 host was one of the Kizzilbashes, of whom I had always 
 been taught to think ill. I shall hereafter think better of 
 his whole race for his sake. One little incident reminded 
 me of home, and brought to my mind such a throng of teem- 
 ing recollections that I could not withstand them, but gave 
 myself up to the pleasing illusions which they created. One 
 of the dishes which he set before me was veritable apple- 
 sauce, just such as might have come from the hand of a tidy 
 New-England country dame. How many sweet visions 
 grew out of that apple-sauce, and recollections of days gone 
 by, when with my gun and dog I used to ramble in the 
 woods and over the farms, and repose at night in some rude 
 cottage, where the matron would bring out her best stores of 
 tea, and dough-nuts, and apple-sauce, and when the board 
 was cleared, would sit down to talk about my old grandfather, 
 " the Squire," as his name went among the country folk, 
 and tell me stories of the youthful days of " the young 
 Squire," my father, which I should never have heard from 
 his own honored lips. How little the good woman thought 
 
252 VISIT TO THE 
 
 that these recollections should come back to regale me in 
 hours of lonely sickness, in a Kizzilbash's tent, on an Asiatic 
 upland. Bless the old dame! had she ever heard of Asia or 
 a Kizzilbash ? 
 
 The next day we pushed on to Hassan Tchelebi, a stage 
 of thirty-six miles, which, with an unusually severe attack of 
 fever and ague on horseback, completely exhausted me. I rode 
 up at once to the Agha's tent, and without asking permission 
 or waiting for invitation, was taken from my horse and laid 
 upon the carpet within. The Agha was my old acquaintance, 
 but an hour or two passed before I could muster strength to 
 give him the selam. He did not seem to recognize me, so 
 much had illness and travel " changed my countenance," 
 and to save myself the trouble of talking with him, I made 
 no effort to revive his recollection. 
 
 The next day we proceeded with an escort to Kangal, 
 twelve hours, and the day following, to Ulash, where I met with 
 a most inhospitable reception from Christians, after I had for 
 the most part been treated with kindness by Mussulmans. 
 The villagers were Armenians, and had evidently fallen from 
 the prosperous condition in which I found them three years 
 before. Then they received me kindly, perhaps because I 
 had a Tatar with me ; now I entreated in vain for a place to 
 lay my head. I had travelled a long stage, and was in great 
 distress, but they met all my entreaties with that cringing, 
 sulky manner which seems inwrought by oppression and ill- 
 usage into the character of many of the Christians in the 
 interior. I begged and promised and remonstrated in vain, 
 until Michael stepped up to the kiahya. of the village, and 
 told him that if he did not instantly give me a house, he 
 would flog him on the spot. This mode of appeal had at 
 once the desired effect, and in less than five minutes, I was 
 lying upon my carpet in a comfortable apartment. Strange 
 to tell, it had other good effects, for the people at once be- 
 came civil and treated me with much respect ; so inseparably 
 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 253 
 
 are violence and power associated in their minds. He who 
 can threaten and bluster and frighten them, must be some 
 great man, and instead of being hurt by his threats, they 
 think the better of him for it, and begin to serve him with 
 reverence and even with cheerfulness. I have often thought 
 of the character of Warren Hastings as an admirable speci- 
 men of an Oriental ruler ; and sure I am that if those who 
 persecuted him at home, could have understood the country 
 and people whom he had to govern, they would have seen 
 that what would have been blameworthy and indeed imprac- 
 ticable in England, was the foundation of his success in 
 India. They misjudged him by judging only with English 
 feelings, and applying an English standard where it was 
 inapplicable. Though he had faults, his system was in the 
 main right, and hence it was that those who knew India by 
 a long residence, were his most ardent admirers. Another, 
 in a narrower sphere, but more estimable in a moral point of 
 view, was Claudius James Rich, Esq., 1 whose name is still 
 and will be long remembered by the people of Mesopotamia, 
 Profuse and ostentatious, yet wisely so; endowed with a large 
 and noble spirit of liberality, yet firm, vigorous and decided ; 
 prompt and bold in action, yet humane and just ; he exhibited 
 those very qualities which are best fitted to work upon an 
 Oriental mind. He was admired, feared and beloved. The 
 people still talk of what seemed to them his almost regal 
 expenditure, his princely generosity, and " his acts and all 
 that he did," with an enthusiasm which shows how deep was 
 the impression that he created. 
 
 July 31. We left before day, and rode six hours to 
 Sivas in the cool of the morning. To keep up with my plan, 
 I ought to have reached the city last evening, and according- 
 ly we had to-day's journey still before us. But as no 
 horses were ready at Sivas, we were compelled to remain 
 
 1 Late British Resident at Bagdad. 
 13 
 
254 VISIT TO THE 
 
 and lose the day. The post-master with whom I had the 
 conflict on my journey Southward, was absent, but the 
 keeper of the cafe attached to the post-house, who was 
 himself a Mussulman, and a descendant of Mohammed, 
 assured me that there had been a visible improvement in 
 his manners since that memorable occasion. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 255 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Leave Sivas. Armenian Monastery. Entrance to Tocat. Trouble 
 with a Post-master. Expense of Travelling in Turkey. Henry Mar- 
 tyn. His Grave. Mussulmans of Tocat. The Mosques and Medres- 
 sehs. Mecca. The Armenians of Tocat. Their Church. Other 
 Christians. The Jews. Serious-minded Christians. Evil of the 
 Church Services being unintelligible. Objections to translations for 
 Public Use. Turkish Honesty. Effects of Disease. Leave Tocat. 
 Guard-House. 
 
 AUG. 1. I did not obtain horses till this morning, and 
 how I was to reach Samsoun in time for the steamer was 
 exceedingly problematical. One whole day had been cut 
 out of the fifteen, and there was left just one day's stage 
 more than I felt myself able to perform before the 6th. 
 However I took heart of hope, and determined to do the 
 best in my power. We left Sivas with a small guard, and 
 came before night to a small village, where the Mussulmans 
 treated me well, gave me a good supper, and made a rous- 
 ing fire for my comfort. About a quarter of an hour from 
 the city, we passed a large Armenian monastery called 
 Surp Nishan, Holy Cross, where there is a Bishop resident. 
 It is a place of great resort for the Christians on Sundays 
 and other festivals. I was struck with the neatness of 
 every thing around it, which, with the rich green fields and 
 waving grain on every side, betokened ease and abundance. 
 The buildings, too, were apparently new and extensive, 
 presenting altogether a spectacle which struck me the more 
 
256 VISIT TO THE 
 
 from the contrast with the pictures of decay and ruin that 
 generally prevail in Turkey. 
 
 The next day we reached Tocat. Both the approaches 
 to the city from the South are romantic in the extreme. 
 The one is called the Winter, the other the Summer road. 
 I had once come in by the former, but we now took the lat- 
 ter, which is more difficult, and in the winter hardly passable. 
 It led us through extensive forests and greenwood shades, 
 by rivulets gushing from the mountains, and along wire- 
 drawn paths, down, down, down, until we seemed to be going 
 into the bowels of the earth. There must have been three 
 hours or more of this descent before we reached the town. 
 It is the same in the other road, where the traveller descends 
 ten miles, almost without interruption, through a deep and 
 narrow ravine, amidst a succession of beautiful scenes 
 which the windings of the path gradually reveal, until he 
 emerges, through vineyards and gardens, into the city. I 
 remember that, travelling this road in the month of March, 
 the whole country from Sivas to Hassan Tchelebi, excepting 
 the plain of Ulash, was covered deep with snow. The snow 
 was lying in drifts in the streets of Sivas, and our course 
 north- of the city towards Tocat, was interrupted by fre- 
 quent patches, sometimes extending for miles. Yet when 
 we reached Tocat, every thing wore the appearance of 
 advanced spring. Trees were putting forth their leaves 
 and even their blossoms, the town was dry, and the air was 
 warm and genial. 
 
 It was now August, and some of the fruits were ripe, 
 especially the large and luscious pears, the like of which I 
 have never seen in Turkey. I could not resist the tempta- 
 tion to taste them, especially as the good people told me 
 that it would do no harm. At the post-house I had the 
 misfortune to hold another altercation with a post-master. 
 He of Tocat might have been brother to him of Sivas. I 
 had been fortunate enough to arrive before the ague came 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 257 
 
 on. When I felt it approaching, I asked for a bed. The 
 post-master, in a most insolent tone, told me to lie on the 
 boards. I instantly rose upon my feet, and gave him a lec- 
 ture five minutes long, telling him before them all, that if 
 he was brute enough to treat me thus, I was not brute 
 enough to bear it ; and if he did not instantly change his 
 manners, I would have him punished, if there was any power 
 in the Sultan's firman which I carried. He said not a word, 
 but the bed was immediately provided. When I rose again, 
 after three or four hours, he came to inquire after my health, 
 and from that moment became very obsequious in his atten- 
 tions. His new friendship, however, did not prevent him 
 from quietly cheating me the next morning by making me 
 pay for two hours more than the stage that his horses were 
 to travel. 1 
 
 One cannot pass by Tocat without being reminded of 
 the man whose remains repose there in the hope of a joyful 
 resurrection, and whose example has done so much to awa- 
 ken a lively zeal in behalf of the pagan nations, both in Eng- 
 land and America. On a former occasion one of my first 
 visits was to the humble grave of HENRY MARTYN, which 
 lies in one of the Armenian cemeteries, on the East side of 
 the town, and quite beyond the limits of its population. It 
 is a lowly grave, even among the thousands which surround 
 it, and one who was not in search of it, might pass it with- 
 out observing it. The stone which covers it is in no way 
 distinguished from the others around it, excepting by the 
 
 1 In Turkey the stages are marked by hours, and the post-rates are 
 generally two piastres a horse per hour, the hour being the distance that a 
 man walks in that time, or about three miles. The piastre is about four 
 cents, or twopence sterling. The rate, then, is about fourpence for three 
 miles. A single traveller generally needs, in long journies, one horse for 
 himself, one for his servant, one for his baggage, and one for the guide, 
 the expense of which will be about fivepence a mile, and his other ex- 
 penses, for food, lodging, &c., may be reckoned at a dollar (Spanish) per 
 diem. 
 
258 VISIT TO THE 
 
 inscription, and perhaps the more than ordinary meanness 
 of its dimensions, being only about three and a half feet 
 long, by one broad. It lies flat upon the ground after the 
 manner of the Armenian grave stones, and bears the follow- 
 ing inscription: 
 
 REV. VIR. 
 
 GUG. MARTINO 
 
 SACER. AC Miss. ANGLO 
 
 QUEM IN PATR. REDI. 
 DOMINUS. 
 
 me BERISAE AD SB. voc. 
 
 FIUM D. FIDEL. G. SER. 
 
 A. D. MDCCCXII. 
 HUNG LAP. CONSAC. 
 
 C. I. R. 
 A.D. MDCCCXIII.' 
 
 The burying-ground lies upon the slope of the hill 
 which bounds the town on the East, and looks down upon 
 the city. At the foot of the hill are extensive gardens; far- 
 ther to the right is a glimpse of the river, which runs through 
 the valley on the Northern side of the town, while in the 
 distance on all sides are the mountain heights which inclose 
 the city. I made inquiries, but could learn nothing more of 
 the sickness and death of the missionary than has already 
 been given to the public. One, I remember, an old man, 
 
 1 The whole form, without abbreviation, I suppose to be as follows: 
 Reverendo viro, Guglielemo Martina, Sacerdoti ac Missionario Anglo, 
 quern in Patriam redientem, Dominus, hie Berisae, ad suam beatudincm 
 vocavit, pium, doctum, fidclemque aervum, A. D. MDCCCXII. Unur 
 lapidem consrcravit (consacramf) C. I. R. A. D. MDCCCXIII. There 
 is a mistake in the Christian name, which should be Henrico. Berisa is 
 the ancient name of Tocat, and C. /. R. is Claudius James Rich, Esq., 
 Late British Resident at Bagdad. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 259 
 
 reported him to be the son of a Prince, who was returning 
 to his own land. How little he knew of the bright gem of 
 learning and piety that was mouldering beneath that hum- 
 ble stone ! 
 
 The remembrance of Martyn's labors for the Mussul- 
 mans of Persia, ga r :e an uncommon interest to my inquiries 
 among the Mohammedans of Tocat, among whom he died. 
 I found them for the most part unusually free from preju- 
 dices, although there were some who repelled my advances 
 with insolence and scorn. For three days I went freely 
 among them, visited their mosques and Medressehs (colleges), 
 and conversed with them about their religion without re- 
 straint or hinderance. They seemed to me, in general, as 
 free, affable, and frank as I have ever found Mussulmans to 
 be in Turkey. A student from one of the Medressehs went 
 with me to the mosques, and conducted me into one at the 
 hour of prayers, without appearing at all aware of any im- 
 propriety in the act. Most of the buildings were of mean 
 appearance, some of them ruined, and none of them very 
 large or beautiful. The largest of the Medressehs contained 
 only sixteen students, and all of them were miserably provided 
 with teachers and means of instruction. I remember among 
 my acquaintances, one who had performed the pilgrimage 
 to Mecca, and entertained me with the most marvellous 
 stories of the pilgrimage and the holy city. There were, he 
 said, exactly 70,009 pilgrims present every year. The city 
 itself was the centre of the earth, which he supposed, in 
 common with Mussulmans generally, to be a great plain. 
 The days and nights were always equal there, and the tem- 
 perature, always the same. This last, however, he thought 
 no great recommendation, as when he was there, it was al- 
 most too hot to live. The Mussulmans of Tocat are about 
 5009 families, and are chiefly Osmanlees. 
 
 The Christians are Armenians, Papal Armenians, and 
 Greeks ; and there a few Jews, who have a synagogue. The 
 
260 VISIT TO THE 
 
 Armenians reported the number of their Churches to me to 
 be seven, but I visited only one, which was a new building, 
 very neat in construction and arrangement. The simplicity 
 of the interior almost made me imagine myself in a Church 
 of our own. There were a few paintings, evidently intended 
 for decoration only, and placed too high to be used for any 
 other purpose. 
 
 The Armenians of Tocat had a Vartabed resident, and 
 two monasteries in the neighborhood of the city. They are 
 altogether the most important part of the Christian com- 
 munity and by far the most numerous, for while they have 
 1200 families, the Greeks have only 110, and the Papal 
 Armenians 100. The Greeks have a Church, and the 
 Romish Armenians an Ibadet-khaneh, or Chapel, connected 
 with their Episcopal residence. The Jews, who are alto- 
 gether no more than 25 families, have a Synagogue in an 
 obscure lane, where I knocked loud and long at a little iron 
 door before I could gain admittance. At length it was 
 opened by a young Jew, who thinking me a Mussulman, 
 demurred at first, and made all manner of excuses, which 
 soon vanished when I told him who I was. The synagogue 
 was a small room, capable of holding about 100 persons, but 
 exceedingly dingy and filthy. The people had nothing to 
 show, or would show nothing but a small book of Hebrew 
 Prayers, with one in it for Charles X. of France. It was 
 printed at Paris in the reign of that monarch. The stench 
 of the place, and the odor diffused by a little body of their 
 people, who followed me in, soon made me glad to escape. 
 Here, as every where in the East, the quarter of this despised 
 and outcast race is low and close and miserable, and they, 
 as every where, filthy and cringing and knavish. 
 
 With some of the Christians whom I met I was exceed- 
 ingly pleased, and especially with one of the Armenian 
 Priests, who appeared, from his conversation, to be an humble 
 and truly religious man. It is pleasant to meet with such, 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 261 
 
 especially in the interior. Often there is also a serious and 
 devout appearance among the people, which shows that they 
 too are sincere in their worship. I have noticed sometimes, 
 when the Gospel has been read in a language understood by 
 the people, how they have remained in perfect silence, drink- 
 ing in every word, while the rest of the services were as 
 unintelligible to them as to me. From this it arises, in good 
 part, that the Eastern congregations, especially in the capi- 
 tal, are sometimes inattentive and noisy. This evil it will 
 be difficult to remedy until the congregation become intel- 
 ligent worshippers; and how this is to be brought about in 
 any short space of time, it seems equally difficult to say, un- 
 less it be by having translations of the services in modern 
 tongues for the use of the people, while the priest still con- 
 tinues to minister in the ancient language. The clergy, for 
 the most part, are opposed to any translation of the offices 
 for their own use, and with some good reason. The modern 
 tongue is generally corrupt and vulgar, besides that it is 
 ever-varying and has no fixed standard. 1 They esteem it a 
 degradation to put the services into it for the use of the 
 sanctuary, besides that no translation could long remain a 
 standard. They have, too, a very natural prejudice in favor 
 of the old language, as the ancient tongue of their nation. 
 It is, after all, the distinctive language of their race, which 
 is preserved only in the standards of the Church, and would 
 soon pass away if those standards were changed. It is the 
 language in which their fathers worshipped from the begin- 
 ning, and its forms have all the sanctity of age and venerated 
 associations. It is their national bond, and they hope that 
 by preserving it, its use in common life may one day be re- 
 
 1 I mean by this double mode of expression, that while there is no 
 classical standard of the modern tongue, which is universally received 
 as such, the language changes differently in different places, being cor- 
 rupted in one place by Kurdish, in another by Turkish, and in another by 
 Arabic. 
 
 12* 
 
262 VISIT TO THE 
 
 stored. Besides, the modern dialect is, in many places, not 
 a corruption of the ancient tongue, but some Mussulman 
 language, which has wholly displaced the national. Thus, 
 in large provinces of Asia Minor, the Greeks have lost their 
 Greek altogether and speak only Turkish ; so also of the 
 Armenians in some places. 1 The Syrians in many parts 
 know only Arabic. It is almost too much to ask that they 
 should abandon their own ancient language in the only place 
 where it is retained, and introduce a Mussulman dialect in 
 its stead. At least, there is no probability of their being 
 induced to do so. The best course, therefore, is to revive 
 as much as possible the knowledge of the ancient tongue, 
 and in the mean time to introduce translations of the Church 
 services for common use among the people. 
 
 At Tocat, during my first visit, I noticed a little inci- 
 dent which struck me, at the moment, as a singular proof of 
 the honesty of the people, or of the terror inspired by govern- 
 ment. Two Tatars arrived from Erzroum with several loads 
 of specie, destined for the Royal Treasury. The horses 
 were unladen in the post-yard, and the bags containing the 
 money were thrown down in the middle of the yard. There 
 they remained one day and two nights. Hundreds of per- 
 sons were in the yard during this time. The yard opened 
 upon the street, and there was free access by day and night. 
 No one dreamed of their being insecure ; no one guarded 
 them. On going out at midnight, I observed that every 
 body was abed, the gates were open, and the bags lying un- 
 
 1 I have heard an intelligent Greek of Konieh (Iconium) read a page 
 of Greek with the greatest fluency, when he was not able to tell the 
 meaning of a single word. This arises from the fact that in those dis- 
 tricts the reading of the ancient language is preserved in the Churches, 
 while the meaning of it is entirely lost. In other regions, where a mo- 
 dern dialect of the ancient tongue is spoken, the case is hardly much bet- 
 ter, both on account of the difference between the two, and because of 
 the rapidity and indistinctness with which the services are read. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 263 
 
 molested within twelve feet of the public street. Such an 
 incident I imagine to be of rare occurrence in our Western 
 World, but whether it is because we have less respect for 
 the powers that be, or are a less honest race, I will not 
 venture to say. The Turks, generally, in the interior, 
 have a sort of dogged indifference to gain, lawful or unlaw- 
 ful, which sometimes stands them instead of more active 
 virtues, but I doubt whether such things as this can be 
 traced to any positive moral principle. 
 
 I spent the night at Tocat, and left on the morning of 
 the 3d of August. I speak now of my second visit, during 
 which, all that I saw of the town was in riding through it ; 
 and of the people, at the coffee-house where I alighted. The 
 observations which I have recorded, were made in March,, 
 1838, when I spent some days in the town. I had now but 
 three days in which to reach Samsoun, if I would be there on 
 the morning of the 6th. My disease had been gaining upon 
 me throughout the journey, and had brought on a dropsical 
 swelling which had pervaded all my limbs and almost de- 
 stroyed their sensation. My legs and feet especially were 
 so distended that I could hardly use them at all. For sev- 
 eral days all my efforts at walking were to go from the 
 place where I lay at night to the door of the house, there 
 to mount my horse, and again, when the day's stage was 
 over, from the door where I dismounted to the place within 
 where my bed was spread. Besides this, I probably did 
 not walk six rods during all the journey from Diarbekir to 
 Samsoun. 
 
 We reached Turkhal in eight hours from Tocat, and 
 pushed on to a guard-house in the mountains, two or three 
 hours beyond, which I reached more dead than alive. The 
 only eatable to be found there was fresh beans, of which 
 the guards cooked us a large pot full, and set us to work 
 upon them without bread, salt, or any accompaniment what- 
 ever. J^ate in the evening my fever subsided, and I did 
 
264 VISIT TO THE 
 
 ample justice to the beans, thankful that I had met with 
 something besides milk and yo-oort, two articles that had 
 haunted me all the way, and would have been very welcome 
 if they had not been forbidden. 
 
 Close by this guard-house there is a gallows, from the 
 cross-beam of which project upwards long sharp irons for 
 transfixing the bodies of robbers caught in the mountains. 
 The guard said that they had authority to execute a man in this 
 way as soon as he was caught, without judge, jury, or any 
 form of law. I was glad to hear that they had found no oppor- 
 tunity for exercising their office of late years. Near by was 
 a small kioshk, or summer-house, which they reported to have 
 been made by a retired Tatar for the accommodation of 
 travellers. The whole scene, as I had seen it in 1838, struck 
 me as exceedingly romantic ; the little guard-house nestled 
 in a wild gorge of the mountains, and overshaded by an 
 old weather-beaten oak, upon which hung the arms of the 
 guards, and beneath it seats arranged for the traveller, 
 the rough mountain sides, the kioshk and the gibbet, gave 
 an air of wildness and terror to the scene, which made it 
 seem more like the haunt of brigands than the abode of these 
 rude justices of the peace. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Amasieh. Incident at a Mosque. Medresseh. Mosque of Bayazid. 
 Mussulman School. The Christians. Population of the Oriental 
 Christians. Leave Amasieh. Ladik. Singular Sights. How to act 
 in Doubts. Interposition of Providence. Last Stage. Arrival at Sam- 
 soun. Steamer. Kindness of new Friends. Constantinople. Quar- 
 antine. Obligations to Dr. John Davy. Narrow Escape. The End. 
 
 WE left the guard-house at day-break, and after a short 
 but hard day's journey over the mountains and through the 
 valleys, reached Amasieh, a beautiful town on the banks of 
 the Yeshil Irmak, (Green River,) which here rolls its tide 
 between lofty crags, near whose summit, on the left side of 
 the river, are apartments cut out of the solid rock, said to be 
 the summer-houses of ancient princes ; but I never surveyed 
 them. My business now was to get to the post-house before 
 the ague came on, in which happily I succeeded. The post- 
 master, unlike those ofTocat and Sivas, was most prodigal 
 of his attentions, and endeavored to make me comfortable 
 and contented. I will not stay to describe Amasieh, al- 
 though I had formerly spent a day or two in the place, but 
 will add here an incident which belongs more properly to my 
 narrative. I was wandering about the town on the 25th of 
 March, 1838, looking at the mosques and medressehs, which I 
 found no difficulty in entering, when we came upon an old and 
 decayed building which I supposed to be a mosque. Without 
 were several turbehs, or tombs, which belong, it is said, to 
 
266 VISIT TO THE 
 
 members of the royal family, Amasieh having once been an 
 abode of the Turkish Sultans. 
 
 The building itself is a good specimen of the Saracenic 
 architecture, which is still preserved in some of the old 
 mosques of Turkey. The flight of steps leading up to it, 
 was covered with women, whom I at once saw to be Armen- 
 ians. They were covered, not like the women of Constan- 
 tinople, with the close yashmak and ferejee, 1 but with a 
 white robe depending from the top of the head, and by the 
 aid of the hand brought together so as to conceal the per- 
 son and most of the features. As the place was retired, 
 several of them had thrown aside their robe, but hastily re- 
 placed it when they perceived our approach. The women 
 of Amasieh are noted for their beauty, and there were 
 among these some of great loveliness. We were almost 
 among them before they discovered us, for their faces were 
 generally turned to the door of the building, while we ap- 
 proached from behind. There was a great fluster and some 
 confusion when they discovered us. Robes were hastily 
 adjusted; faces that were turned about to see who was com- 
 ing, were as suddenly turned away, and all were in a moment 
 hidden by the jealous veil, except those which belonged to 
 some of the younger ones, and which seemed to retire slowly 
 and reluctantly behind their shroud. Still one eye remained 
 disclosed, and with this they felt themselves at liberty to look 
 at us freely. I saw at the first glance, that they were Armen- 
 ians, for there was no mistaking the fair and lovely features 
 with which the females of this race who live in cities are 
 endowed. But I was quite at a loss to imagine why they 
 had gathered themselves upon the steps of a mosque, and 
 were so evidently intent upon something within. We 
 mounted the steps, and were about to enter, omitting to put 
 off our shoes till we had crossed the threshold. The 
 
 1 Yashmak and feregee the veil and cloak of Constantinople. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 267 
 
 women at once perceived it, and supposing that we did not 
 intend to put them off at all, several of them uttered sup- 
 pressed exclamations of indignation. We entered the build- 
 ing and were at once in the body of the mosque, for such it 
 was. A Turkish woman sat near the door, who said that 
 she 'was left in attendance there while her husband was ab- 
 sent at his meal. She informed me farther that the build- 
 ing had formerly been a Christian Church, but many ages 
 since had been converted into a mosque. Indeed, the tombs 
 and appearance of the building would indicate as much. 
 But the Christians, it would seem, had never forgotten their 
 ancient sanctuary, and still assembled on holy days, of which 
 this was one, at the door of the mosque ; farther they were 
 not allowed to intrude. I had noticed that some of the 
 women appeared to be engaged in devotion, and not un- 
 likely the Church was the resting-place of some Christian 
 Saint. I was almost ready to believe it when I saw in one 
 corner of the building an opening into a tomb ; but the old 
 woman assured me that it was the tomb of a Sultan. It 
 was dark and without ornament of any kind. I entered 
 and found that it contained several graves rudely made of 
 brick and mortar. Garments of various kinds were spread 
 upon them, to gather the sanctity of those who slept below, 
 and give them a healing efficacy. It is not uncommon for 
 Mussulmans thus to use the graves of Christian Saints, for 
 which they have a great veneration. Such persons were, in 
 the true sense of the word, Mussulmans, or " men devoted 
 to God," and hence it was that Mohammed himself gave 
 peculiar privileges to monks and monasteries, which they 
 have ever retained. They are exempted from taxes, are 
 allowed to receive revenues, and even to amass riches with 
 impunity. Their privileges have sometimes been violated 
 by rapacious Pashas, but generally they are respected. 
 
 At one side of the tomb just mentioned, was another 
 opening, leading to a vault below. I wished to enter it, but 
 
268 VISIT TO THE 
 
 my guide, who was a Mussulman, and like myself, a stran- 
 ger, refused to descend into such an ugly looking place, 
 and I attempted the descent alone ; not, however, without 
 some vague apprehension that I might be unable to get out 
 after I got in, and not knowing exactly where and at what 
 distance from the opening I should come to the bottom. I 
 had advanced, however, only two or three steps, when I 
 caught the voice of one apparently in prayer, proceeding 
 from the vault. I stopped and strained my eyes, to discover, 
 if possible, whence it came, but every thing beneath was 
 merged in thick darkness. Not wishing to disturb what 
 was evidently an act of devotion, I returned and remained 
 at the entrance. Presently a woman, also a Mussulman, 
 came out, her lips still moving inarticulately in prayer. 
 From her we learned that there was nothing to be seen be- 
 low, and we very soon retired from the building. As we 
 lifted the heavy cloth screen which covered the doorway, 
 the woman who sat by, said, pointing to the group of Chris- 
 tians without, " Let none of them come in ; it is sin." I 
 then understood that it was counted unlawful for a Christian 
 to enter this, an ancient sanctuary of his religion; and that 
 in my own case it would not have been permitted, had not 
 my Turkish travelling dress, without my intending or 
 dreaming of it, acted as a disguise. I know not how others 
 may feel at the sight of such scenes, but I could not avoid, 
 on the present occasion, a burst of deep sympathy for the 
 poor Christians, thus driven, as it were, from the sanctuary 
 where their fathers worshipped, and vainly sighing to re- 
 enter its courts. I knew not with what feeling they had 
 gathered there, whether it was of reverence for a place of 
 their ancient worship, or for some Saint supposed to be re- 
 posing in its vaults. Without stopping to analyze or inquire 
 into the nature of their coming, I felt myself wounded by 
 the contumelies which they endured, for these they bore only 
 because they were Christians. 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 269 
 
 Near this Church (for we will call it by its right name, 
 and the day may come when it will return to its rightful 
 owners,) is a doorway with stone posts, on which is a part 
 of a Greek inscription, but too much obliterated to draw 
 any meaning from what remains. I entered it, and found 
 within a small and poor Medresseh, in the court of which half 
 a dozen lazy students were lounging. In other parts of the 
 town are remains of Mussulman institutions, which in the 
 time of the old Sultans were doubtless in better keeping 
 than at present. One of them is a Hospital for the Insane, 
 said to have been founded by Mohammed II., the conqueror 
 of Constantinople. It is now deserted. On the bank of the 
 river is the mosque of Bayazid, which is not inferior to some 
 of the imperial mosques at Constantinople. It is spacious 
 within, having two domes supported by heavy masses of 
 brick or stone work, and has in front a beautiful court, look- 
 ing upon the river. Its Medresseh, like those of all the royal 
 mosques which I have seen out of Constantinople, is small, 
 furnishing accommodations for less than twenty students ; 
 but the institution is better endowed, and the instruction, 
 therefore, more complete than in most of the Medressehs of 
 the interior. One of the other mosques appeared to have 
 been erected on a liberal scale, but is now in ruins, and no 
 other has risen to take its place. I visited also some of the 
 Mussulman schools, but saw nothing in them more than is 
 usually found in these poor abodes of learning, a few boys 
 sitting upon the floor, see-sawing over the Koran, every one 
 reading at the utmost pitch of his voice, and all together, 
 the teacher sitting in one corner, superintending the Babel 
 before him ; now chiding one boy for not see-sawing with 
 sufficient alertness, and now bawling out a correction to 
 another, whi<^i any one who thought it belonged to him was 
 at liberty to appropriate. On the wall hung a small rod 
 with a string attached, the latter being intended to be wound 
 round the ankles, which are then raised by a boy at each 
 
270 VISIT TO THE 
 
 end of the rod, while another, or the master himself, applies 
 a smaller rod to the soles of the feet thus displayed. The 
 custom may seem a strange one, but so doubtless would 
 ours to an Oriental, who should see the same sort of punish- 
 ment applied to the palms of the hands. 
 
 These and other observations, which it is unnecessary 
 now to record, v ere made at a time when my attention was 
 particularly turned to the Mussulmans. I would fain at my 
 second visit have prosecuted some inquiries of the same kind 
 with regard to the Christians, but there was little profit in 
 tarrying for the purpose, when I was unable to go beyond 
 the threshold of the post-house where I was domiciled for 
 the night. I had formerly estimated the population of the 
 town at 3000 families, of which perhaps 500 are Armenians 
 and 15 Greeks. The former have three Churches, and the 
 Greeks one, which would seem to show that the Christian 
 population was anciently much larger than at present. The 
 place was formerly the seat of a Greek Bishop, but is now 
 attached to the diocese of Sinope. In those days, the 
 Church which I visited may have been the Metropolitan 
 Church, and the Medresseh near by, a school or college of 
 the same. Now nothing remains but a few scattered fami- 
 lies, with their priest, and asingle Church, which is more than 
 large enough for their wants. The Greek population has 
 gradually faded from the interior, and excepting in the dis- 
 tricts of Iconium and Caesarea, is chiefly to be found about 
 the shores of the Levant. The only Greek Bishop South of 
 Trebizond and East of the great road from Samsoun to Di- 
 arbekir, is at Ergin, in the valley of the Euphrates, and the 
 Greeks residing beyond the same limits amount to but a few 
 hundred families. The centre of population, as well as of 
 ecclesiastical influence and authority, is Constantinople, 
 from which you have, on the North, the regions of European 
 Turkey, together with Moldavia and Wallachia; on the 
 East and Southeast, the still nume rous population of Asia 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 271 
 
 Minor, the country of the Seven Churches; on the South 
 and Southwest, the Islands of the Archipelago and the little 
 kingdom of Greece. In all these countries the Greek 
 Church predominates. Farther East, North of Kurdistan, 
 the Armenians are the most numerous; in Mesopotamia, 
 the Syrians and Chaldeans; and in Kurdistan itself, the 
 Nestorians in the Easterly parts, and the Syrians and Arme- 
 nians in the Westerly. If we estimate this whole population 
 of Christians, together with those of Syria, Egypt, and Abys- 
 sinia, at 15,000,000, we shall exceed rather than fall below 
 the truth. 
 
 This is the whole population of the Oriental Christians. 
 Of these there are connected with the Roman See about 
 200,000, one half of whom are Maronites. The remainder 
 are divided ecclesiastically into Greeks, Armenians, Abys- 
 sinians, Syrians, Copts, and Nestorians. Of these, the Ar- 
 menians, Syrians, Copts, and Abyssinians are called Mono- 
 phy sites, and though differing much in rites and usages, 
 are in full communion with each other. The Nesto- 
 rians stand apart, in practice perhaps the most pure and 
 primitive of all. The Greeks alone, however, are clear- 
 ly orthodox in the great doctrines respecting the nature 
 of Christ, but they acknowledge the 7th Council, by which 
 the worship of pictures was established, and have more cor- 
 rupt practices and innovations than any other body of Eastern 
 Christians. It is important, in speaking of the Oriental 
 Communions, to make these distinctions ; for what is true 
 of one is not always true of the others, and much confusion 
 and error have arisen from an indiscriminate mode of speak- 
 ing. By the use of general terms, some have been blamed 
 for what they do not hold, and others praised where they do 
 not deserve it. The Eastern Churches are far from being a 
 body at one with itself, and supposing our own position to be 
 a true one, we hold, in some respects, a distinct and different 
 position towards each member of the body. 
 
272 VISIT TO THE 
 
 We left Amasieh on the morning of the 5th, and reached 
 Ladik about noon. The road through the pine-forests was 
 easy and pleasant at this season, reminding me, by way of 
 contrast, of a former journey, when we spent a whole day in 
 going the same distance. Ladik is a Casabah, or small 
 town, containing about two hundred families, of which only 
 five are Christian. It has a bazar, a khan, and, strange to 
 see in such a place, a handsome mosque with two minarets, 
 erected by a Pasha, and afterwards repaired and improved 
 by a Sultan. The houses are built of rough timber, much 
 after the manner of the log-houses in the Western parts of 
 the United States, and the roofs, strange to tell, were cov- 
 ered with wooden shingles. A still more novel sight for a 
 Turkish town were the wooden fences around the neigh- 
 boring fields and the premises of some of the houses, and 
 these were made of bars in the style of a New-England farm. 
 I had never seen such sights in Turkey, and they awakened 
 emotions which might perhaps at that moment as well have 
 slept. Sick and alone, the sight of any thing that told of 
 home brought such a train of sweet remembrances as made 
 the present hard to bear. It was, however, no inconsidera- 
 ble consolation that I was near my journey's end, but how 
 to reach Samsoun before to-morrow morning, when th e 
 steamer would pass, it was impossible to tell. There were 
 still eighteen hours, or about fifty-four miles, between me 
 and the harbor. In what remained of the day, I could not 
 accomplish more than eighteen miles, and if my daily attack 
 came on, it would entirely incapacitate me for travelling by 
 night. I could not ride at more than a caravan's rate at the 
 best, about three miles an hour, and I was already quite 
 exhausted by the ride from Amasieh. But I had a strong 
 presentiment that I should reach Samsoun in time, although 
 to the eye of sober reason it seemed utterly impossible. 
 There is no better maxim than that of the Germans " Do 
 the duty which lies nearest thee." In the spirit of this rule 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 273 
 
 I mounted my horse at Ladik, because it was the next thing 
 to be done, and rode all the way through the hard-wood 
 forests to CaVak, a miserable little village of about thirty 
 houses, built in the same style with Ladik. Here I waited 
 patiently for the ague to commence, for that was the next 
 thing to be done, when, to my great surprise, the hour came 
 and went without any appearance of it. It had never failed 
 before of coming each day at its appointed hour, and had 
 been increasing in severity from the beginning. I was 
 astonished and thankful beyond measure, for I could not 
 but count it a gracious interposition of Providence, to save 
 me from the danger of another week's sickness without 
 medical relief. I waited two hours, and then with a bound- 
 ing heart ordered my horses. The excitement of the mo- 
 ment or the temporary relief from the disorder which had 
 been preying upon me day after day, gave me new strength, 
 and for the first time since leaving Mardin, we broke into a 
 trot, and scoured the hills at a good round pace. Never 
 shall I forget how sweetly the moon seemed to shine that 
 night, or what grateful emotions filled my breast, as we 
 rode in its tranquil light over hill and dale, through pine 
 woods and cultivated fields. We reached Samsoun early in 
 the morning, and I had just time to put myself in order for 
 more civilized society, when the gallant steamer made her 
 appearance in the offing, and fired her gun as a signal for 
 passengers to come on board. With walking and carrying 
 I reached the boat, and a few minutes' rowing brought us 
 to the steamer, where the first whom I met was the worthy 
 captain whom I had left at Trebizond three months before. 
 Disease and the hot sun of Mesopotamia had made me al- 
 most a stranger, and it was with some ado that I could 
 establish my identity. I am indebted to him for the same 
 kind attentions as on my former passage, and have to ac- 
 knowledge my obligations to some of my fellow-passengers, 
 and especially to two ladies whose interest in one, till then 
 
274 VISIT TO THE 
 
 unknown to them, relieved for a few days my hours of sick- 
 ness, and whose advice was both timely and beneficial. 
 Thus in every situation woman is found the same tender- 
 hearted and compassionate being, ever ready to alleviate 
 distress, ever attentive to the claims of humanity, adorning 
 virtue while she practices its self-forgetting precepts, and 
 blessing as much by the gentleness with which she relieves 
 suffering, as by the good which her friendly interposition 
 accomplishes, thus fulfilling her high and holy destiny as at 
 once the ornament and the benefactress of the race. 
 
 We entered the Bosphorus on the morning of the 9th of 
 August, one day after the time when I had promised my friends 
 in Mardin that I would be there, God willing. The delay 
 was owing to the steamer's taking a vessel in tow for some 
 250 miles, by which we lost twenty-four hours. At length 
 we cast anchor in the harbor of Constantinople, and I was 
 hoping in a few minutes to be among old friends and in the 
 bosom of my own family, when an order came that we 
 should go into quarantine for a single case of supposed 
 plague in a village six hours distant from Trebizond, which 
 was reported in our bill of health. There was no remedy 
 but patience, so we retraced our course to the quarantine 
 ground on the Bosphorus. As we landed on the quay, we 
 were drawn up in a line, and every man required to strike 
 first his left breast, then his right breast, and then his thighs, 
 to see if he was sound. It was only with extreme difficulty 
 that I could perform this operation. This and my wretched 
 appearance made me an object of suspicion, and my good 
 friend, Capt. C. was compelled solemnly to asseverate that 
 to the best of his belief I had not the plague. I found still 
 greater advantage in making myself known to the Director, 
 in whom I recognized an old acquaintance. His family 
 had received some important services from American offi- 
 cers on the coast of Africa, which had made him a great 
 " friend of our nation." He repaid it now by taking me 
 
SYRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 275 
 
 under his special care, and giving me one of the best rooms 
 in the old cavalry barracks which served as a lazaretto. 
 Opposite me was an English gentleman, who had gone to 
 Trebizond for the pleasure of the excursion, and had now to 
 pay for it by ten days' imprisonment. 1 am indebted to him 
 for the agreeable society which made my own confinement 
 more tolerable, but my chief acknowledgments are due to 
 Dr. John Davy, (brother of Sir Humphrey Davy, par no- 
 bile fratrum,) who with great kindness visited me repeat- 
 edly in my prison, and administered to me with perfect skill 
 and success. The daily attacks had been suspended only 
 for a single day, as if to enable me to reach Samsoun, after 
 which they recommenced their regular course and never 
 again failed until they were arrested by the skill of the phy- 
 sician. Another medical friend was of opinion that the 
 single day's cessation, by saving me from a week's detention 
 in the interior, saved my life. However that may be, and I 
 mention it only as an instance of events most important to 
 ourselves turning upon causes apparently the most trivial, I 
 owe, under God, a gradual and eventually complete restora- 
 tion to the excellent friend whose benevolence and kindness 
 prompted him to render his services. Would that the same 
 noble dispositions which had induced him, at the call of his 
 Government, to offer his aid for the amelioration of the 
 wretched hospitals and quarantines of Turkey, had met 
 with men capable of appreciating and desiring such im- 
 provements, instead of encountering a short-sighted and bar- 
 barous policy which looks only at immediate ends and tem- 
 porary expedients. 
 
 At the end of nine days we were released, and a few days 
 afterwards it was ascertained that the case of plague for 
 which we had been confined, was no plague at all, a dis- 
 covery which would have been a valuable one, if it had been 
 more timely. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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