Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/255

Rh square unhewn stone in the centre of the remaining space served as a reading desk, on which was placed a large and beautifully written lectionary, while several other church books were piled one upon another on the damp floor. I next visited the small Armenian chapel close by: it was certainly superior to that of the Nestorians, but still very miserable. There are now only two Armenian families at Amedia, and until lately a priest was stationed here by the Bishop of Van to attend to their spiritual wants; but he has since been recalled. The Nestorians in the town number twenty-two families, and the Chaldeans ten souls. Once a year Mutran Yoosef pays them a visit, when he celebrates mass in the house of Kasha Mendu's brother, one of his proselytes. The priest showed me the cope and other ecclesiastical robes, which the bishop uses on these occasions: they were made of no better material than bright cotton print bordered with tinsel; yet the simple people here regard them as very fine, and argue therefrom the opulence and dignity of the wearer. They were indeed sumptuous when compared with the ragged vestments of poor Kasha Mendu, who was loath to offer them to my inspection. He then showed me the brass chalice and paten used at the celebration of the Holy Communion, and the two candlesticks of the same metal, which are placed upon the altar during that service. The sight of these sacred utensils filled me with mingled emotions: their very existence and continued use was a triumph of the cross over the persecutions which its followers here have endured for ages from the infidel Moslems, while their meanness and baseness bespoke too plainly the abject condition of these unfortunate Christians.

Kasha Mendu then showed me a collection of MSS. which he had saved from the wreck of the Nestorian villages in the valley of the Supna. They amounted in all to about 150 volumes, some of which were very old, and many well written. I succeeded in purchasing nine of these for the Christian Knowledge Society, and was anxious to obtain from him a complete set of the entire Nestorian ritual; but the priest pointed out to me the curse invoked at the end of the remaining books upon all who should buy or sell them for gain, or who were in any way instrumental in alienating them from