The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 1/Chapter 24
CHAPTER XXIV.
The principal changes which had taken place among the different Christian communities up to the date of our second arrival at Mosul have already been related in the foregoing narrative. After relinquishing this station for five years the American Independents have lately sent a missionary to the Syrian Jacobites, who has succeeded in proselyting a few individuals from that body. After vainly using every endeavour to induce them not to frequent the religious meetings of the missionary, Mutran Behnâm excommunicated them, and thus the matter remains for the present. It is but just to add that the two American gentlemen who were successively engaged in this work, frequently expressed their anxiety not to create a schism among the Syrians; but a single glance at the doctrines, Church discipline, and ritual order of the latter, compared with the principles of the Independents, will show that this is a chimera. The missionaries have opened a rival chapel and a school, where, if honest men, they will undoubtedly inculcate their own doctrines; and this they desire to do with the approbation of the Bishop of the diocese! Of course none of the recognized ecclesiastical authorities can assent to any such proceedings unless they are convinced of the orthodoxy of the missionaries, or unless they are paid to sanction their operations. Now it is well known that the Bishops and clergy generally are strongly opposed to every form of Protestant dissent, and the missionaries on their part are not likely to bribe them to acquiescence. Thus, then, if the American Independents continue their efforts in these parts, they must form schisms in the ancient communities of the East.
After we had been at Mosul some time, I wrote to apprise Mar Shimoon of our arrival, and received from him the two following epistles:
: ܞ :
"Mar Shimoon, Catholicos and Patriarch of the East unto thee our beloved and elect presbyter George, sendeth greeting, with numberless and endless salutations. Amen.
"Be it known unto you, that the epistle which you sent reached us in safety, and we read it throughout, and understood perfectly all that it contained; thereby we were made acquainted with your arrival at the blessed city of Mosul, and we rejoiced at this with exceeding great joy; for the benevolence and love which you showed towards us, presbyter George, are not wiped out from the tablets of our hearts. For these things we can never recompense you, but we pray that God may reward you thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. Being at a great distance when we heard of your coming, we longed earnestly to come and see you; but weakness prevents us from enjoying this pleasure. Known unto us are the tokens of your affection and sincere goodwill which you manifested towards us when we were with you. And this we beg of you, that you will accept this expression of our gratitude; may your coming again into these parts be doubly blessed, our elect brother, and be a source of delight to all those who rejoice in it. May God perfect your health, fill you with joy, make you happy all the days of your life, increase your years to hundreds. Your wisdom will make up for all imperfections [in this epistle.]
"And also to our lady sister the noble-minded wife of presbyter George, Mar Shimoon, Catholicos and Patriarch of the East, sendeth greeting with endless and unlimited salutation.
"Be it known unto you that we were greatly rejoiced when we heard of your arrival at Mosul; for though we ourselves are weak and sickly, yet your coming has given us real pleasure, and blessed are those who shall see and look upon you. We, indeed, should be over-rejoiced to behold you once more, and to express all our delight; but we are far away. The God of peace be with you, and make you to rejoice evermore, that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life even as you do now. Amen.
"Written on the fourteenth of December, in the year 2161, [a.d. 1849.]"
: ܞ :
"He who is through his ordination high and exalted, and through his investiture with his holy office known unto God and to His Church, our beloved and revered presbyter George, the mirror of the priesthood; may the right hand of the Creator of the world watch over him now and for ever and ever. Amen.
"Mar Shimoon the Catholicos inquires after your welfare, and is greatly desirous to see you, even as Joseph longed to see his brother Benjamin. We were deeply grieved when you left us, and now that you have returned from a far-distant country our joy is as unbounded as Jacob's was when he heard that his son Joseph lived. Indeed we long to see you, but are prevented: 1st, On account of our old age; 2nd, On account of sickness; 3rd, Because of the care and vexation which come upon us from those near and from those at a distance; 4th, From the danger and impracticability of the roads; 5th, On account of our infirmity. Therefore we send Meerza our attendant to inquire after the health of your body, the reverence of your office, the sincerity of your friendship, the sweetness of your words, and the grace of your walk. And this is enough for your wisdom."
A strong desire to see Mar Shimoon once more, and also to obtain from him certain Syriac MSS. required in the compilation of the second volume of this work, induced me to undertake another visit to the mountain Nestorians. Mr. R. Clive, who together with the Hon. Mr. Herbert, had been spending a few days at Mosul, and who intended to travel to Trebizond through central Coordistan, having kindly promised to take a portrait of the Patriarch for me in case he happened to be in their route, I preceded those gentlemen by one day in order to make arrangements for the interview. Accompanied by Kas Michael, and Habeeb an excellent Beyroot servant, I left the Tigris on the 3rd of April, 1850; the weather was now delightfully cool and pleasant, the fields were smiling with abundance, and the air was perfumed with the fragrance of the wild flowers which decked our path with their rich and gaudy colouring. The Khoser being swollen at this season of the year we passed to the east of Koyoonjuk, where the Arabs were still engaged in excavating the relics of ancient Nineveh. Mr. Layard and his party were absent at the time on a visit to the Khaboor, (the Chebar of Ezekiel and the Chaboras of the Romans,) where they expected to find a new treasure of Assyrian remains. "What do you want these stones and sculptures for?" inquired our muleteer. I endeavoured to satisfy his curiosity; but the idea of their historical value was far beyond his comprehension. "And do you wish to persuade me," continued he, "that you are taking so much trouble, and spending so much money, to know who built these palaces, and when and why they were built?" "Such is the truth," I replied; "but what is your idea on the subject." "Why," said he, "I think two things: first, that you wish to learn from the inscriptions where all the treasures of those old kings are hid; and, secondly, that you intend to send the sculptures and images to your subjects in India, who are idolaters as the people who erected these palaces were, and you will make a pretty penny by the trade, for these idols being so ancient will doubtless be held in high veneration by the infidels of Hindostan." Reason and argument are very poor weapons to combat prejudices like these; we can only smile at the simplicity which they indicate, and pass on, as our party did towards Telkèf, where we put up for the night.
It would weary rather than interest the reader were I to describe our present route to Amedia, since it varied little from that taken on our journey to the Tyari in 1843, except that on this occasion we visited several Nestorian villages in the Supna between Daoodia and Amedia, which will be found noted on the map. We reached the latter place in four days' ride from Mosul, and soon forgot before a cheerful fire, and in friendly chattings with oar old friend Kasha Mendu, the discomfort of having travelled for three hours through a drenching rain.
We had not been seated long before the few Nestorians of the town came to visit us: men, women, and children, seemed to rejoice at seeing us again, and anxiously inquired whether we did not now intend to reside in the country, and to leave them no more. I found them still in the same depressed condition as they had been formerly, both temporally and spiritually, but as eager as ever that an English priest should settle among them. The day following being Sunday I went to their little chapel, which has been described in a former chapter, and was present during the afternoon service. Twelve men and two women composed the congregation. On one side of the rude lectern stood Kasha Mendu holding in his hand one half of the open ritual, while a little boy opposite to him supported the other half. In front were two deacons, one with a lighted taper in his hand, which he ever and anon trimmed to enable the rest to see what they were reading. These formed the choir: the priest precented, the deacons and child responded, and the congregation joined in as well as they were able. The prayers and anthems ended, Kasha Mendu first kissed the book of the holy Gospels, the rest followed his example, and then the kiss of peace was passed from one to another. After this all stood with uncovered heads, and bent bodies, to receive the benediction of their pastor, which was pronounced with great fervour. A perfect silence followed, during which the worshippers seemed to be engaged in private prayer; but now and then I heard such ejaculations as these: "Lord, hear us!" "Lord, accept our petitions!" "Lord, bless us!" Before the people dispersed, each came forward to kiss the hand of the priest, and they testified their gratitude for his ministrations by these and similar expressions: "The Lord give thee the kingdom of heaven!" "The Lord reward thee a hundred fold!" "The Lord bless thee now and for ever!"
It was a deeply affecting sight during the prayers to see the priest with uplifted hands, and with his face turned towards the east, standing before his flocks and supplicating God to pardon and to bless them. Scarcely one present, perhaps, knew what he was praying for; but they seemed to realize that it was for their good, and occasionally supported his earnest intercession in their behalf with an audible "Amen," or with the invocation taken from the liturgy: "Give Thy blessing, Lord." Throughout the service the rain dripped from the roof of the miserable room in which these poor people were assembled, and the floor beneath them was literally covered with mud. What a contrast does this spectacle present to the comfortable appurtenances of our modern churches, pews, cushions, fires, &c.
Within the last two or three years, that is to say, since the annual pecuniary grants made to the Eastern Bishops from the Society of Lyons and the Propaganda have been suspended, the Latins and Chaldeans have relaxed their missionary efforts, and have drawn over but few proselytes from among the Nestorians of the Supna; on the other hand many of the later seceders have returned to their community, and now recognize Mar Shimoon as their Patriarch. But the Nestorians have much to struggle against in this district: they are generally very poor, many of their churches are in ruins, and the local authorities will not allow them to rebuild them without a firman from the Sultan, and they have no means of procuring this sanction. Added to this the Coords continue to oppress them in various ways, and seem determined that they shall not prosper.
April 9th.—Started from Amedia at 10 a.m. accompanied by Kasha Mendu's brother as our guide. We had some trouble in getting through the Geli Mezurka on account of the Soolava stream, which was now so swollen, and rushed with such impetuosity down the narrow and rugged gorge, that our mules were more than once in danger of being carried away. The summit of the Tcah Meteenah was still covered with snow, and we were obliged to walk to the small Nestorian village of Hayyis, where we were joined by a priest who had come thither from Doori to conduct the church services of the preceding Sunday. Our course was now more to the east, over a rough and stony road, towards Beit Tannoori, a large Jewish village situated on the banks of the Bedu rivulet, which we forded with great difficulty, and at 5 p.m. reached Doori, where we were kindly received into the house of Mar Yeshua-yau, the Nestorian Bishop of Berwari.
The Episcopal residence consists of one long semi-subterranean apartment and a few outhouses, built in the mouth of a ravine a short distance from the village. Several dried skins and large earthen bins filled with rice, wheat, and butter, a few agricultural implements, cooking utensils, wooden bowls, and rolls of bedding, formed the domestic furniture. The Bishop's sister and two or three other relatives and their children were inmates of the same dwelling, and occupied the upper end of the room, which served as store, nursery, and kitchen, for the whole family. The Bishop himself was at vespers in the church of Mar Kayyoma when we arrived, but he came shortly afterwards and gave us a hearty welcome. He was dressed in a pair of brown woollen shalwar, or wide trowsers, a jacket of the same material, and a felt cap bound round with a small black turban. He was followed by several of his people, who made themselves quite at home in his house, squatted near the fire, smoked their pipes, and took part in the conversation with the greatest freedom. Nevertheless they paid him every token of respect, lighted his pipe, listened attentively whenever be spoke, and seemed to vie with each other who should do his bidding. The Bishop gave me a sad account of his diocese, and complained bitterly of the oppression of the Coords, who have driven away many of his people from their villages, and taken possession of their lands and property. I inquired why he did not represent these proceedings to the Mutsellim of Amedia. "Of what use would that be?" said he; "the governors are all Moslems, and never attend to our grievances, and our persecutors who surround us only vex us the more for having dared to seek redress." I spoke to him about the education of his people, to which the poor man replied, "Come, come; we shall be glad to welcome you, our churches shall be open to you, you may establish schools amongst us, and I will see that my people obey you. Perhaps your coming may free us from the tyranny of the infidels, but as for ourselves we can do nothing; we have barely bread enough to eat, we cannot procure books, we hardly dare worship God in our churches, and what would the Coords say if we were to begin to instruct our children? They have already destroyed by their tyranny more than one-half of the Nestorian population of this district, and they will not be satisfied until they have entirely exterminated us." The old man's eyes filled with tears as he narrated the sufferings of his flock, and every attempt made on our part to console him was in vain. "I shall soon sleep with my fathers," said he, "beneath the shadow of Mar Kayyoma; I shall go down to the grave in sorrow, but if there are good days yet in store for my flock, I pray God to send them upon these [pointing to the Nestorians present], and upon their children." Oh, the withering curse of Islâm!
Besides the village church, there is another at Doori dedicated to Mar Kayyoma, and situated high up in the gorge behind the Bishop's house. This latter consists chiefly of a natural cave so disposed with the addition of masonry as to form three aisles, one of which is used as a vestry. This church is regarded with great veneration by the Nestorians, as being the first Christian temple built in the Berwari district. Notwithstanding the distance from his house and the ruggedness of the road, the aged Bishop walks thither three times a day, early in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, to attend public prayers. Dr. Grant describes the person of Mar Yeshua-yau and his visit to Mar Kayyoma in these words: "The Bishop, who is a most patriarchal personage with a long white beard, was very cordial, and took me into his venerable church, a very ancient structure, made by enlarging a natural cave by means of heavy stone walls in front of the precipitous rock. It stood far up on the side of the mountain, and within it was as dark as midnight. The attentive old Bishop took my hand and guided it to a plain stone cross which lay upon the altar, supposing I would manifest my veneration or devotional feelings, after their own custom, by pressing it to my lips. I must confess that there is something affecting in this simple outward expression as practised by the Nestorians, who mingle with it none of the image worship, or the other corrupt observances of the Roman Catholic Church. 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?"[1]
April 10th.—We left Doori at 8 a.m., and commenced the toilsome ascent of the high mountain range which separated us from the Tyari country. Here a scene indescribably grand was spread out before us, which I cannot depict better than by borrowing the beautiful language of the author just quoted, intermingled as it is with the noble aspirations of a devoted missionary: "The country of the independent Nestorians opened before my enraptured vision like a vast amphitheatre of wild precipitous mountains, broken with deep dark looking defiles and narrow glens, into few of which the eye could penetrate so far as to gain a distinct view of the cheerful smiling villages, which have long been the secure abodes of the main body of the Nestorian Church. Here was the home of a hundred thousand Christians, around whom the arm of Omnipotence had reared the adamantine ramparts, whose lofty snow-capped summits seemed to blend with the skies in the distant horizon. Here, in their munition of rocks, has God preserved, as if for some great end in the economy of His grace, a chosen remnant of His ancient Church, safe from the flames of persecution, and the clangour of war. [How changed is the condition of the poor Nestorians since these lines were written!]
"I retired to a sequestered pinnacle of rock, where I could feast my vision with the sublime spectacle, and pour out my heartfelt gratitude that I had been brought at length, through many perils, to behold a country from which emanated the brightest beams of hope for the long benighted empire of Mohammedan delusion, by whose millions of votaries I was surrounded on every side. My thoughts went back to the days when the Nestorian missionaries were spread abroad throughout the East, and for more than a thousand years continued to plant and sustain the standard of the cross through the remote and barbarous countries of central Asia, Tartary, Mongolia, and China, to the time when, as tradition and history alike testify, the Gospel standard was reared in these mountains by Apostles' hands, for it was not from Nestorians, but from Thomas, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, and others, that this people first received the knowledge of a Saviour.
"I looked at them in their present state, sunk down into the ignorance of semi-barbarism, and the light of vital piety almost extinguished upon their altars, and my heart bled for their condition. But Hope pointed her radiant wand to brighter scenes, when all these glens, and rocks, and vales, shall echo and re-echo to the glad praises of our God, and, like a morning star, these Nestorians shall arise to usher in a glorious and resplendent day. But ere that bright period shall arrive, there is a mighty work to be done,—a conflict with the powers of darkness before the shout of victory. Let us arm this brave hand to the contest.
"Onward to the work! and onward I sped my course down the steep declivity of the mountain, now cautiously climbing over the rocks which obstructed our course, now resting my weary limbs under the inviting shade of a wild pear tree, and anon, mounted on my hardy mule, winding along our narrow zig-zag pathway, over the mountain spurs, and down, far down to the banks of the rolling, noisy, dashing Zab. Here lay one of the large populous villages of the independent Nestorians, which extended amid fertile gardens for more than a mile in length."[2]
This was the village of Leezan, which we reached at 4 p.m., the road thereto, so graphically described by Dr. Grant, having been rendered still more toilsome and dangerous by the rain, which descended in torrents during the day. We were hospitably welcomed by Kash' Audishu, one of the priests who had lived with us for some months at Mosul after the massacre of 1843, and by many of the villagers who had known us under similar circumstances, and now eagerly pressed forward to testify their gratitude. Each had his little tale to relate, as to how he had fared since the general return of the refugees to their homes, and these for the most part were tales of sorrow. The Nestorians are only just beginning to recover from the effects of the Coordish invasion, and the drawback of poverty is increased by the conduct of the tax-gatherers and other Turkish officials, who traverse the country in every direction. The kharâj, or humiliation tax, payable by all Christians in the empire, is now levied from the mountaineers with the greatest severity, and the higher rates are often imposed upon those who have absolutely no means of defraying them.[3] The tax-gatherers, moreover, frequently give the poor people teskerés, or receipts, for the preceding year, (by which artifice they pocket the money themselves,) and should they happen to go into a different district, or another official be appointed to their own, they are generally called upon to produce these vouchers, and forced to pay a second time. The villagers assured me that the proceedings of these officials were vexatious in the extreme. They always come accompanied by several followers, take possession of the best houses during their stay, make the most preposterous demands upon them for luxuries which they never heard of, eat up their stock of provisions, and on leaving, give them a piastre or two, so as to be able to say that they paid for their entertainment, according to the requirements of the Tanzeemât! It is possible, indeed, that conduct such as this may not be sanctioned by the governor of Bash Kala; but no Nestorian would dare to complain of it, lest he should bring down upon himself the vengeance of these Turks, who are for the most part uneducated unprincipled men, promoted to office by the favouritism of the Pashas from amongst their orderlies, pipe-bearers, or coffeemakers. Only very lately, a circumstance occurred which, had not God mercifully thwarted the wicked designs of the conspirators, might have been attended with serious consequences to the Nestorians. It appears that two of these tax-gatherers had been sent by the government to collect the kharâj from the villages of lower Tyari. The subaltern officer entered into a compact with two of his followers to do away with their superior, and to lay the blame upon Mar Shimoon and the Nestorians of the district. Just as the scheme was matured and about to be executed, one of the accomplices disclosed the plot, and thus saved the Christians from what would readily have been construed into a just ground for some fresh act of tyranny and oppression.
Hearing that Mar Shimoon was then at Be-Rawolé, about six hours distant, I despatched a messenger to inform him of our arrival, and requesting him to send me the Ordination services of the Nestorians. We then chatted with the villagers about their hopes and fears, and prospects, till past midnight, and retired to rest thoroughly worn out with the adventures of the day.
April 11th.—To-day we had the pleasure of welcoming Messrs. Clive and Herbert, who reached Leezan about noon, and took up their abode with us in the house of Kash' Audishu. Shortly after, a Nestorian girl came in carrying a satchel on her shoulder, which she laid at my feet, then took my hand and affectionately kissed it. The features and voice were not new to me, but I was puzzled at first to know who it was that addressed me. Some of the by-standers pronounced the name of "Rendi," and I at once recognised in her one of the liberated captive children, whose winning manners had so affected Mrs. Badger when she was first brought from Jezeerah, that she had been taken into our house, and treated as one of the family up to the time of our departure from Mosul. She had heard of my arrival while at Minyanish her native village, and had walked three hours through the snow, carrying with her a present of raisins, walnuts, and eggs, in token of her gratitude. She had grown but little in stature, though now about thirteen years old, but there was the same calmness in her look, the same unaffected simplicity in her carriage, the same attractive sweetness in her voice. Sitting opposite to me, she gazed wistfully into ray face, and seemed to be calling to mind the days of her slavery and subsequent deliverance, until the tears gushed from her eyes. "How is my dear lady," said she, "who was so good to me; who was to me better than a mother? How is the lady of the Consul, your sister, whom the Nestorians will ever bless? The Lord bless them; the Lord give them the kingdom of heaven!" There was something so touching, so simple, so sincere, in this expression of gratitude that I could not answer her … Before we finally left Leezan, she came once more to bid me farewell, and to send her salutations to my sister and Mrs. Badger at Mosul.
In the afternoon a messenger arrived from Mar Shimoon, bringing with him the book which I had asked for, and an earnest request that we would meet him the day following at Be-Alâtha, whither he intended to go from Be-Rawolé. Kas Michael and I spent the greater part of the night in translating the Ordination offices, and at 8 a.m. on the following morning, accompanied by Messrs. Clive and Herbert, my servant Habeeb, and two Nestorian guides, we set off on our pedestrian excursion. The Zab was so swollen that it could not be forded, and the wicker bridge which spans the river near Leezan being impassable to beasts of burden, we were obliged to walk, and a wearisome journey it proved. We crossed the bridge just below the Coordish village of Ghemani, and traversed the rugged and precipitous banks of the river, which is here hemmed in by inaccessible mountains. In less than an hour we left the Zab, and commenced the toilsome ascent of the precipice before us. Arrived at the summit, a spectacle of imposing grandeur burst upon our view. Behind us through the gorge of the Zab, we saw the village of Leezan, smiling in all the freshness of spring; beneath us a deep valley clothed with forest wood; and all around mountains upon mountains reared their towering and snowy heads, seeming to claim kindred with the sky. Continuing our journey over a narrow pathway leading along the sloping sides of the valley, we reached the Nestorian village of Mâtha d'Kasra, where we breakfasted on milk and millet-bread, and rested for an hour on the roof of one of the houses. The poor people seemed hardly to possess the necessaries of life, but made us welcome to what little they had to offer. Our route from Mâtha d'Kasra lay through a deep and stony ravine, which here and there was almost choked up with avalanches. At noon we reached Be-Alâtha, thoroughly tired with our day's excursion, and heartily glad that our journey was over. It was with the greatest difficulty that we procured any refreshment; a pot of wild turnips made into soup, with the addition of some vegetable acid, was set before us, and a few loaves of coarse mountain bread. I was too tired to eat, but Messrs. Clive and Herbert, who were good pedestrians, ventured to partake of the unsavoury dish. Our servant Habeeb, however, soon prepared us a more inviting meal, having purchased and slaughtered a sheep for the purpose, and after satisfying our hunger, we stretched ourselves upon one of the flat roofs and awaited the coming of the Patriarch.
Mar Shimoon had not yet made his appearance, but shortly after a group of men, looking like pigmies in the distance, appeared on the top of the lofty mountains which separate Be-Alâtha from Be-Rawolé. At this signal all the villagers went forth, and proceeded to ascend the snow-clad sides to meet their chief. Arrived at the summit, the people from Be-Rawolé took their departure, and those from Be-Alâtha returned in single file down the steep descent followed by the Patriarch. We also walked some distance to welcome him; the procession stopped, the venerable primate took me in his arms, pressed me to his bosom, and kissed me on both cheeks. Little was said by either, my heart was too full for utterance, and making us walk before him to do us honour, we entered the house prepared for his reception, and seated ourselves by his side in an open court which was crowded with villagers. Mar Shimoon is nothing more than the wreck of his former self, care hangs heavy upon his brow, his face is furrowed with sorrow rather than with age, and his voice bespeaks the deep anguish of his spirit. His people seemed to sympathize in his sufferings; there was no sound of mirth, no demonstration of rejoicing among them; but they listened attentively as he recounted the tale of their past misfortunes, and the part which I had taken to alleviate them. It was while the Patriarch thus addressed his people, that with his permission Mr. Clive took the portrait which forms the frontispiece to the second volume of this work.
I passed several hours in conversation with Mar Shimoon, and inquired narrowly into the condition of his people under their new rulers. I may not reveal all he said, but of this I am convinced that Turkish domination will be a curse, and a heavy curse too, to the Christian mountaineers; and my sincere prayer is that God, in His mercy, will soon break the staff of Mohammedan tyranny and oppression, and free the Nestorians from its baneful slavery. "So let Thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might." (Judges v. 31.)
I spoke to the Patriarch about the education of his people.
"Alas!" said he, "we have not yet rebuilt our churches, most of our books have been destroyed, our fields are uncultivated for lack of cattle and implements of husbandry, the people have hardly enough to eat, and are too full of care to think of such things at present. Moreover I am not master now as I once was; others bear rule, and will be glad when I am no more. Your Bishops sent you to us with offers of assistance, and when you were helping us they took you away, and never replied to the many letters which I addressed to them. This is God's work, and we must submit." All this was too true, and as I was not now commissioned to render him any help, I could only sympathize with him in his trouble, and endeavour to soothe the anguish of his despair.
Towards the evening we retired to a subterranean room where we all slept on the floor with the Patriarch, and early in the morning took our departure. Mar Shimoon accompanied us a short distance, and sent us away with his blessing. We returned by the same route that we had come, and in four hours found ourselves again under the hospitable roof of Kash' Audishu. The day following Messrs. Clive and Herbert started from Leezan intending to travel on foot to Julamerk, the road thither being impassable to mules or horses on account of the snows. Fifteen lusty Nestorians carried their baggage, and we saw them depart in good health and spirits upon their adventurous journey.
April 17th.—It was our intention to have penetrated into Tehoma from Leezan, but finding this impossible, we took leave of our worthy host, and retraced our steps to Zerni, and thence to Akri, a Nestorian village prettily situated on the Zab, from whence we proceeded on the following day to Amedia. Wishing to vary our former route we crossed the Supna and travelled in an easterly direction through two high mountain ranges as far as Kafià, a large Coordish village, where we put up for the night. From this we had a rugged and toilsome journey to Shermen, inhabited exclusively by Nestorians, thence to Shosh, where is a population of two hundred Jewish families, and finally to Goonduk. Here we found a Nestorian church, or convent, as it is sometimes called, dedicated to Mar Abd-Yeshua, and the usual residence of Mar Auraham, who from being a Chaldean had returned to Nestorianism during Mar Shimoon's stay at Mosul, as has been recorded in a former chapter. The Bishop was absent upon a visit to the Mezuriyeh district, but hearing that a priest and nun dwelt in the convent I sought admittance, and the door was opened to me by a little hump-backed woman who demanded a present before she would suffer us to pass. "Are you not ashamed of yourself?" said our guide, "know you not that this is Kasha Gheorghees?" On hearing my name, the nun, for it was she, vainly sought to throw her arms round my neck, but was obliged to rest satisfied with kissing my hand, and ushering us into the interior. I then made inquiries respecting some ancient sculptures which were said to exist in the vicinity, and was conducted by the priest to a large natural cave, not far from the convent, and called by the natives "Guppa d'Mar Yohanan," or the grotto of S. John. To the left of the cave we discovered the object of our search, viz. a rock tablet bearing on its surface the representation of a man in the act of spearing a wild sheep or ibex, and beneath this a procession of six figures standing in various attitudes. The style is not unlike that of the sculptures dug up at Nimrood, but the costume is different, and may be found to belong to a distinct age and people. Mr. Layard has since visited these tablets, and will, I have no doubt, take an exact drawing of them for the benefit of science, and in pursuance of his interesting researches into the history of the Assyrian dynasty.
Ere we returned to the convent it was too late to follow Kas Michael, who had gone on to Akra with all our baggage; so we accepted the proffered hospitality of the priest and nun to pass the night at Mar Abd-Yeshua. Before dark, about twenty of the villagers from Goonduk had assembled at the convent, intending to sleep there so as to be in readiness for service in the church before daylight on the following morning. After vespers I requested the priest to explain to the people what he had been reading, but being unable he begged that I would expound to them some portion of the New Testament. I did so, and their delight was unbounded; they had often heard the same words repeated, and many of them knew them by rote, but their meaning was hidden from them in a dead language. I then made particular inquiries into the number of the Nestorians subject to Mar Auraham, the result of which will be given in the following chapter, and prepared to retire to rest. Having no bedding with me I was provided with two felts by the priest, the nun wrapped her thick veil round my feet, the only other female who had come up with the villagers added a contribution from her dress to keep me from the cold, and I hoped, ay, vainly hoped, that I should get a few hours of refreshing slumber. One after another the men threw themselves on the floor beside me wrapped in their cloaks, and to my surprise the two women also spread their felts close by and were soon drowned in forgetfulness. I had not lain long when I discovered to my horror that my borrowed bedding swarmed with vermin, the same plague seemed to disturb the rest of the company, so that what with their snoring, scratching, and loud dreaming, I did not close my eyes the live-long night. About midnight the priest rose and called the rest to prayers, whereupon the nun protested loudly that it was too early, and bade him go to sleep again. Thinking to get rid of my companions, I seconded his motion, and the sleepers rose one after another; but to my disappointment instead of proceeding to the church, the ritual was opened, the priest and deacons stood round it, the congregation ranged themselves behind the choir, and the service commenced with such a harsh dinning noise that I at once gave up in despair all hope of rest. Before the prayers were ended, my servant and I were on horseback pursuing our onward journey through the plains of Navkoor. In two hours we reached Tâk, under Jebel Makloob, and here heard that our friends had been spending a few days in an adjoining village; so after resting awhile we rode ten miles farther, and joined them in safety at Ba-Sheaka. We remained at Ba-Sheaka for nearly two months, witnessing the religious festivities of the Yezeedees, and making inquiries into their creed, the result of which has already been given in a former chapter, and from thence proceeded to the Jacobite convent of Mar Mattai, or Sheikh Matta, where we spent the summer of 1850, and where the greater part of this volume was written.
- ↑ The Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes, p. 52.
- ↑ The Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes, pp. 53—56.
- ↑ The Kharâj is fixed at three different rates, viz., fifteen, thirty, and sixty piastres, equal to about three, six, and twelve shillings sterling.