Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/259

Rh the walls which had been thrown down by the guns of Mohammed Pasha's army during the late siege. Scarcely a day passes but twenty or thirty Christians, Jews, and Moslems, are seized by order of the governor and forced to work on the fortifications and other buildings, for which they never receive the least remuneration. One poor Jew, who was preparing flax for the loom not far from the house in which I lodged, was driven by a soldier to do service at the  without being allowed time to secure his property. A Nestorian entered the town with our party, carrying a heavy load on his back. On making inquiry I learned that he had been sent to Azekh, beyond Jezeerah, a distance of four days' journey, to purchase tobacco for the Mutsellim. This individual visited me at Kasha Mendu's house in the evening, and on my asking him what sum he had received for his trouble, he replied: "Thanks be to that I executed my errand so as to please the governor; as to payment, I never expected it." Here was a poor man obliged to travel for eight days, maintain himself and his family during that time, and wear out his clothes, without receiving the least compensation. While at Amedia I sent a Christian into the valley below the town to gather wild plants. While thus engaged a soldier accosted him, who had just felled the trunk of a large tree. Pointing to the log he said: "Come, friend, you must carry this up to the governor." "I cannot," replied the Christian, "I am on business." "If you don't, you knave, I will break your head," retorted the other. This threat he would most probably have put into execution, but on hearing that the Christian was engaged for a Baliôs (the name generally given to all Frank travellers in these parts), he left his prey to go in search of some other unfortunate Jew or Christian.

These are a few specimens of the system of tyranny and oppression which is carried on in the distant provinces of the Turkish empire, and which is fast bringing it to ruin. But this is not all; the people here and in the villages around have demands made upon them for money as often as the cupidity of the Mutsellim or Pasha (for it is difficult to know certainly from which of these the orders emanate) dictates, and if the sums are not forthcoming, stripes and confiscation of their property are sure to follow. So again with regard to the produce of the soil: