Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/123

Rh also the Fellehi, or vulgar Syriac, and the Yezeedees near Mosul are familiar with the Coordish, which is the only dialect common to Coords, Nestorians, and Yezeedees in the mountain districts.

The classical Syriac is very little known by the Christians at Mosul. The Jacobites and Chaldeans have each a school where this language is taught, but the instruction conveyed is limited to a bare perusal of the psalter and parts of the church ritual. The Jacobites, however, frequently write the Arabic in Syriac characters, which mode of expression is called Carshooni. The Chaldeans do the same, but to a less extent.

The costume of the male population of Mosul differs little from that of other eastern towns, but the head-dress of the females is somewhat peculiar. It consists of a square padded cap, on the top of which is a circular cushion about two inches deep hid under a gilt-plate. This is fastened to the head and neck with a number of kerchiefs forming a species of turban, which by the younger ladies is decked with pearls and other gems. Frontlets of gold coin, elaborately wrought necklaces, anklets, earrings, and bracelets, are as much the pride of the fair sex here as elsewhere. All this display, however, is reserved for the house, as none go abroad without the hideous chequered blue sheet already described, and a square horse-hair veil, which is tied round the head and descends below the neck most effectually hiding every part of the face. Here, as in all other eastern towns, there is as much vanity in the feeling which leads the husband to provide these decorations, as in the wife who wears them, for they serve as an evidence of his prosperity, and his general importance is increased by every new contribution which he makes to his wife's trinkets. It is said that formerly the wealth of Mosul in gold ornaments alone was immense, but since then the greater part, after going through the crucible, has found its way to Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, in payment for cotton prints.

Before leaving this part of our subject, I shall give a short account of whatever is worthy of note in the vicinity of Mosul, in order that the succeeding narrative of the Nestorian affairs may be interrupted as little as possible with extraneous matter. And instead of wearying the reader with the details of the seve-