Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/108

72 chiefly on the ground that the Jacobites desired it, and that many lessons therefrom were appointed to be read in our churches. The Arabic edition of our ritual had already fallen into the hands of the Syrians, and several had expressed their surprise that with such high sanction we did not supply them with the means of referring to the books from which the lessons were taken. I do not believe that the bishop himself wrote the libel in question, but he most probably repeated the conversation to some friends of his at Mosul, who from the first viewed our mission as an interference, and from whom several similar misrepresentations which appeared in the same periodical could only have proceeded.

The mention which has been made of the Syrians in India leads me to add a few remarks on the after proceedings of the patriarch towards them. A successor was appointed to replace Mutran Matta in the charge of the diocese by the late Mar Elias, but as he did not accomplish his mission satisfactorily, the present patriarch sent out another to supersede him. There are therefore more than three Jacobite bishops on the Malabar coast, each laying claim to the obedience of the Indo-Syrians, and each countenanced and supported by different parties in the diocese. Confusion and discord must be the natural consequences of such misrule, for which the patriarchs are chiefly to be blamed. Their principal aim is to obtain pecuniary assistance, and if this is not forthcoming the bishop is judged as being unfaithful in the discharge of his office, and another is sent out to succeed him. And when we add to this the general incapacity of the Syrian prelates, we cannot wonder if the state of the Jacobites in India is deplorable in the extreme.

The day following our arrival I paid a visit to the famous Mohammed Pasha of Mosul, surnamed Injé Beirakdâr, whose interference in the Nestorian affairs will be frequently alluded to hereafter. He received me very graciously, and in return for some European curiosities of which I begged his acceptance, he shortly after sent me the present of a horse. Thinking that he ought to treat me as one of the English Oolema, he showed me a Turkish work on geometry which was open before him, and made no little effort to impress me with the idea that he himself was a man of considerable learning. So adroit had he become