with scarcely any means of obtaining a livelihood; their dwellings more fit to harbour wild animals than human beings, and without any other prospect of deliverance nearer than the grave.
Feast of S. Matthias.—The weather being unsettled this morning we decided to defer our departure till the morrow, by which arrangement I had some further opportunities of examining what was worthy of notice in the town and of acquiring additional information, respecting the surrounding districts. During the day I visited the chief synagogue of the Jews, situated in a quarter of the town allotted to this people. It is a large apartment enclosed within a spacious court, round which on the inside runs a wide portico. Every thing in the interior of the building looked wretched beyond description: the walls were broken through in several places, and the floor was covered with filth and rubbish. This also is the work of the infidels: the poor Jews have ceased to meet together for public worship on account of the insults to which they are subjected, and because their synagogue has been so frequently rifled and desecrated by the Mohammedans. There were about twenty rolls of the law in wooden cases put up in different parts of the room, some well written, and all of white sheep skin, and of a modern date. I inquired whether they did not possess any ancient MSS., but was answered in the negative. Ten years ago there were as many as 500 Jewish families in this town, now there are not more than fifty.
Sindôr, a large village to the left of the road on our way to Amedia, is entirely inhabited by Jews; from one source I learned that they numbered there no less than 300 families, while an other informant assured me that it did not now contain more than fifty houses. At Badi, also, there are a few Jews, and in several villages in this district an Israelitish family or two may be found living among the Coords. They all speak the same language as the Nestorians and Chaldeans of these parts, viz., the Fellehi, or vulgar Syriac, nor could I perceive or learn that there was any difference in the dialect of the two people. The Jews hereabouts are very poor and ignorant; only a few among them can read Talmudic, and fewer still know any thing of the biblical Hebrew. On inquiring whether they had any tradition
