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Zaweetha is in the same

the magnificent prospect before us. valley as Asheetha. The stream formed by the eternal snows above the latter village, forces its way to the Zab. On the mountain-sides is the most populous and best cultivated district in Tiyari. The ravine below Asheetha is too narrow to admit of the road being carried along the banks of the torrent; and we were compelled to climb over a mass of rocks, rising to a considerable height above it. Frequently the footing was so insecure that it required the united force of several men to carry the mules along by their ears and tails. We, who were unaccustomed to mountain paths, were obliged to have recourse to the aid of our hands and knees.

I had been expected at Zaweetha; and before we entered the first gardens of the village, a party of girls, bearing baskets of fruit, advanced to meet me. Their hair, neatly plaited and adorned with flowers, fell down their backs. On their heads they wore colored kerchiefs loosely tied, or an embroidered cap. Many were pretty, and the prettiest was Aslani, a liberated slave, who had been for some time under the protection of Mrs. Rassam; she led the party, and welcomed me to Zaweetha. My hand having been kissed by all, they simultaneously threw themselves upon my companion, and saluted him vehemently on both cheeks; such a mode of salutation, in the case of a person of my rank and distinction, not being, unfortunately, considered either respectful or decorous. The girls were followed by the Rais and the principal inhabitants, and I was led by them into the village.

The Rais of Zaweetha had fortunately rendered some service to Beder Khan Bey, and on the invasion of Tiyari his village was spared. It had not even been deserted by its inhabitants, nor had its trees and gardens been injured. It was, consequently, at the time of my visit, one of the most flourishing villages in the mountains. The houses, neat and clean, were still overshadowed by the wide-spreading walnut-tree; every foot of ground which could receive seed, or nourish a plant, was cultivated. Soil had been brought from elsewhere, and

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built up in terraces on the precipitous sides of the mountains. A small pathway among the gardens led us to the house of the 1 Rais.

We were received by Kasha Kana of Lizan, and Kasha Yusuf of Siatha; the first, one of the very few learned priests left among the Nestorian Chaldæans. Our welcome was as unaffected and sincere as it had been at Asheetha. Preparations had been made for our reception, and the women of the chief's family were congregated around huge cauldrons at the door of the house, cooking an entire sheep, with rice and garas. The liver, heart, and other portions of the entrails, were immediately cut into pieces, roasted on ramrods, and brought on these skewers into the room. The fruit, too, melons, pome

granates, and grapes, all of excellent quality, spread on the floor, before us, served to allay our appetites until the breakfast was ready.

Mar Shamoun's letter was read with the usual solemnities by Kasha Kana, and we had to satisfy the numerous inquiries of the company. Their Patriarch was regarded as a prisoner in Mosul, and his return to the mountains was expected with deep anxiety. Everywhere, except in Zaweetha, the churches had been destroyed to their foundations, and the priests put to death. Some of the holy edifices had been rudely rebuilt; but the people were unwilling to use them until they had been consecrated by the Patriarch. There were not priests enough indeed to officiate, nor could others be ordained until Mar Shamoun himself performed the ceremony. These wants had been the cause of great irregularities and confusion in Tiyari; and the Nestorian Chaldeans, who are naturally a religious people, and greatly attached to their churches and ministers, were more alive to them than to any of their misfortunes.

Kasha Kana was making his weekly rounds amongst the villages which had lost their priests. He carried under his arm a bag full of manuscripts, consisting chiefly of rituals and copies of the Scriptures; but he had also one or two volumes on profane

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subjects, which he prized highly; amongst them was a Grammar by Rabba Iohannan bar Zoabee, to which he was chiefly indebted for his learning.* He read to us holding as usual the book upside down a part of the introduction, treating of the philosophy and nature of languages, and illustrated the text by various attempts at the delineation of most marvellous alphabets. A taste for the fine arts seemed to prevail generally in the village, and the walls of the Rais's house were covered with sketches of wild goats and snakes in every variety of posture. The young men were eloquent on the subject of the chase, and related their exploits with the wild animals of the mountains. A cousin of the chief, a handsome youth, very gaily dressed, had shot a bear a few days before, after a hazardous encounter. He brought me the skin, which measured seven feet in length. The two great subjects of complaint I found to be the Kurds and the bears, both equally mischievous; the latter carrying off the fruit both when on the trees and when laid out to dry; and the former the provisions stored for the winter. In some villages in Berwari the inhabitants pretended to be in so much dread of the bears, that they would not venture out alone after dark.

The Rais, finding that I would not accept his hospitality for the night, accompanied us, followed by the principal inhabitants, to the outskirts of the village. His frank and manly bearing, and

*Although few works on other subjects than those connected with theology and the church services now exist amongst the Nestorians, it must be remembered that, at the time of the Arab invasion, the learning of the East was still chiefly to be found with the Chaldæans. We are indebted to them for the preservation of numerous precious fragments of Greek learning, as the Greeks were, many centuries before, to their ancestors, the Chaldees of Babylon, for the records of astronomy and the elements of Eastern science. They had translated at an early period the works of Greek physicians and philosophers, and, at the request of the caliphs, who were the encouragers and patrons of learning, had re-translated them into the Arabic language. The Caliph Al Mamoun sent learned Nestorians into Syria, Armenia, and Egypt to collect manuscripts, and confided for translation to his Chaldæan subjects, amongst other treatises, those of Aristotle and Galen. Alexander Von Humboldt (Cosmos, vol. ii. ch. 5.) admits and commends the influence of the Nestorian Chaldæans on the civilisation of the East.

simple kindness, had made a most favourable impression upon me, and I left him with regret. Kasha Kana, too, fully merited the praise which he received from all who knew him. His appearance was mild and venerable; his beard, white as snow, fell low upon his breast; but his garments were in a very advanced stage of rags. I gave him a few handkerchiefs, some of which were at once gratefully applied to the bettering of his raiment; the remainder being reserved for the embellishment of his parish church. The Kasha is looked up to as the physician, philosopher, and sage of Tiyari, and is treated with great veneration by the people. As we walked through the village, the women left their thresholds, and the boys their sports, to kiss his hand a mark of respect, however, which is invariably shown to the priesthood.

We had been joined by Mirza, a confidential servant of Mar Shamoun, and our party was further increased by several men returning to villages on our road. Yakoub Rais kept every one in good humour by his anecdotes, and the absurdity of his gesticulations. Ionunco, too, dragging his mare over the projecting rocks, down which he continually contrived to tumble, added to the general mirth, and we went laughing through the valley.

From Zaweetha to the Zab, there is almost an unbroken line of cultivation on both sides of the valley. The two villages of Miniyanish and Murghi are buried in groves of walnut-trees, and their peaceful and flourishing appearance deceived me until I wandered amongst their dwellings, and found the same scenes of misery and desolation as at Asheetha. But nature was so beautiful that we almost forgot the havoc of man, and envied the repose of these secluded habitations. In Miniyanish, out of seventy houses, only twelve had risen from their ruins; the families to which the rest belonged having been totally destroyed. Yakoub pointed out a spot where above three hundred persons had been murdered in cold blood; and all our party had some tale of horror to relate. Murghi was not less desolate than Miniyanish, and eight houses alone had been

resought by their owners. We found an old priest, blind and grey, bowed down by age and grief, the solitary survivor of six or eight of his order. He was seated under the shade of a walnut-tree, near a small stream. Some children of the village were feeding him with grapes, and on our approach his daughter ran into the half-ruined cottage, and brought out a basket of fruit and a loaf of garas bread. I endeavoured to glean some information from the old man as to the state of his flock; but his mind wandered to the cruelties of the Kurds, or dwelt upon the misfortunes of his Patriarch, over whose fate he shed many tears. None of our party being able to console the Kasha, I gave some handkerchiefs to his daughter, and we resumed our journey.

Our road lay through the gardens of the villages, and through the forest of gall-bearing oaks which clothe the mountains above the line of cultivation. But it was everywhere equally difficult and precipitous, and we tore our way through the matted boughs of overhanging trees, or the thick foliage of creepers which hung from every branch. Innumerable rills, leading the mountain springs into the terraced fields, crossed our path and rendered our progress still more tedious. We reached Lizan, however, early in the afternoon, descending to the village through scenery of extraordinary beauty and grandeur.

Lizan stands on the river Zab, which is crossed near the village by a rude bridge. I need not weary or distress the reader with a description of desolation and misery, hardly concealed by the most luxuriant vegetation. We rode to the graveyard of a roofless church slowly rising from its ruins—the first edifice in the village to be rebuilt. We spread our carpets amongst the tombs; for as yet there were no habitable houses. The Melek, with a few who had survived the massacre, was living during the day under the trees, and sleeping at night on stages of grass and boughs, raised on high poles, fixed in the very bed of the Zab. By this latter contrivance they succeeded in catching any breeze that might be carried down the narrow ravine of

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