Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/307

Rh the mountain sides with their gay and lively colouring. Deiri, (so called from the church,) is pleasantly situated in a deep ravine, and shaded with a thick grove of fruit trees. The air in the vicinity was perfumed with the fragrance of violets which grow in rich abundance on the hills and valleys around. We found the church deserted, and in a very dilapidated condition: in its internal construction, it resembles that of Mar Gheorghees at Leezan, consisting of three parallel chapels, that on the south side serving for the Baptistery, which appears to be its position in all the Nestorian village churches. Tradition says, that Mar Audishu was erected 366 years before Mohammed, and that it was at one time served by forty-two monks, who resided in the natural caves hard by.

This church is held in great veneration by the Mohammedans of the surrounding districts, who generally respect such places of Christian worship as were built before the advent of the False Prophet. Ismael Agha, the Kiahya of Amedia, told me in a very serious tone, that a Coord of his acquaintance who had become mad, having been bound within the walls for a night, was found in his right mind in the morning following. Kasha Mendu drew forth from under a heap of stones the iron chain and collar used on these occasions, and if the testimony of the Nestorians is to be implicitly received, many wonderful cures have been effected on maniacs by similar treatment.

In the yard of the church I observed the skin of a wild boar which had been killed the day before by a Mohammedan, and had been brought hither by the Nestorians to dry, after which they intended to cut it up into sandals. On inquiring whether the Nestorians ate the flesh, and manifesting myself some disgust at the idea, I was informed that not only did they eat it, but that I also had partaken of some sausages made with the flesh of that identical animal the night preceding. Kasha Mendu told me, however, that his people have taken such licence only within the last few years; the mountain Nestorians, as well as the Jacobites of Jebel Toor, still manifest great abhorrence for swine's flesh, and the same prejudice is not uncommon even at