Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/359

Rh we found that the fame of this chieftain was extolled by the Coords, who regarded him almost in the light of a second Mohammed. From what I gathered from the villagers, it appears that he used to send costly presents to the Moollahs in the different provinces under his jurisdiction, to remit the taxes of such as could not pay them, to distribute largesses to the poor, and to give to any Mussulman who had no means of purchasing arms, a sufficient sum to provide himself with a firelock, sword and shield. The general testimony of the Coords is, that he was a man of inflexible integrity, and had never been known to receive a bribe to pervert the ends of justice. If this is really true, I doubt whether the whole Turkish administration could produce a fellow to him. Let it be observed, however, that all this side of his character was exhibited to his co-religionists, and his bounty was confined to them; towards the Christians his bigotry and intolerance led him to act with fiendish malignity, so that when I passed through Jebel Toor, in 1850, many a Jacobite cursed the memory of the tyrant in execrations long and deep, and blessed the individual and the nation that had taken so large an interest in securing his degradation and exile.

We remained a few hours at Haznaoor, and thence travelling over our old route reached Nisibeen on the day following. To our surprise (such restorations being quite out of date in this empire), we found that the bridge over the Jaghjagha had been repaired, i.e. several arches, which were broken down on our first visit, had been rebuilt, whilst the remainder, which were stopped up with stones and rubbish, had been left in their useless condition, and the river continued to force its way through half the space originally intended for its flow. The village also appeared in a more thriving state, owing to the number of Tai Arabs who were encamped in the vicinity.

According to Ainsworth, it is Colonel Chesney's opinion that the Emperor Trajan obtained the materials for his fleet from the Jebel Toor, and that he descended the Mygdonius, the modern Jaghjagha, into the Khaboor (Chaboras), and thence into the Euphrates. From personal observation, I think there is every reason to believe the wooded mountains of the Toor to be the forest of Nisibis spoken of by Dion Cassius;