Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/137

Rh are elaborate inscriptions cut on marble slabs and fixed into the wall. On the eastern face of the large pilaster is a full-length bas-relief portrait of Sarah, the sister of Mar Behnâm, and on the altar-screen opposite, there is a similar representation of the saint himself mounted on a horse, both of which are much defaced. The annexed plan may serve to illustrate the above description.

Twenty yards distant from the convent is the baptistery: this is a plain building, of an oblong form, with a semicircular recess at the eastern end, in which the font is placed. The font is 3 ft. in diameter, and stands about 4 ft. above the ground. A passage through the floor in front of the recess leads into a subterranean chapel containing eight small recesses, evidently intended for tombs, and covered with a neat dome. Among the monumental records, we noticed one in large Armenian characters. A sarcophagus of black marble is pointed out as the burial-place of Mar Behnâm, but the epitaph, which appears to have stood in the wall behind, has been removed. In an adjoining niche, we found a Syriac inscription, of which the following is a translation:—

The chapel is dedicated to the "Forty Martyrs," who suffered martyrdom with Mar Behnâm.

This convent has become the property of the Papal Syrians, while that of Mar Mattai still belongs to the Jacobites. When we first visited it in 1844, it was only tenanted by a few Coords, and the whole building was rapidly falling into decay; since then, however, it has been repaired, and service is now daily performed in the church by a resident priest. According to Syrian martyrology, the father of Mar Behnâm was a Persian king, who slew him and his sister Sarah for having embraced Christianity. Sarah is still regarded as a saint, and the ruins of a monastery dedicated to her memory are still to be seen in an adjoining village, called after her Zara Khatoon, or the Lady Sarah, which is now inhabited by a few Coords.