Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/271

Rh The style of building at Asheetha and throughout the Tyari country is very simple, each dwelling generally consisting of a long room serving the inmates for all the purposes for which we require several distinct apartments, and a part of this is in many cases partitioned off as a pen or fold for the sheep, and other cattle. Some few houses have a second story, the lower one being partly under ground, which serves as a warm retreat during the severity of winter. The roofs are all flat, which obliges the residents after a heavy fall of snow to lose no time in removing it. On account of the gnats and mosquitoes which nightly swarm in these regions during the summer, the villagers for the most part retire from their houses and sleep on scaffolds called arzâlé, consisting of a platform supported by four upright poles, and raised from sixteen to twenty feet above the ground. The climate of Tyari is salubrious, although the cold of winter and the heat of summer, especially in the valleys, are excessive. Intermittent fevers are common in these districts, but the people in general attain a good old age.

Dr. Grant has very strongly insisted on the Jewish physiognomy of the Nestorians of central Coordistan. From this opinion I must beg to differ: at Amedia I had frequent opportunities of seeing the two people face to face, and the difference in their features and general complexion appeared to me as great as exists between the descendants of Israel and any of the European races. The heads of the Nestorians are round, in which respect they resemble the Saxon family, whereas the Jews, even in these districts, preserve the high crown and the receding forepart, which distinguish them in every part of the globe. Then, again, light hair and hazel eyes are colours more common than any other among the Nestorians, whilst such are comparatively rare among the Jews, who have black hair and dark eyes wherever I have met with them. A striking difference, moreover, exists in the complexion of the two races, that of the mountain Nestorians being usually a ruddy brown, and that of the Jews, a pale brunette on a smoother skin.

The same author adduces it as a corroborative evidence of the Jewish origin of the Nestorians, that Old Testament names are of constant occurrence among them. I requested Kash' Aurâha, while I was at Asheetha, to write me down promiscu-