Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/447

Rh the Ordination offices, and at 8 on the following morning, accompanied by Messrs. Clive and Herbert, my servant Habeeb, and two Nestorian guides, we set off on our pedestrian excursion. The Zab was so swollen that it could not be forded, and the wicker bridge which spans the river near Leezan being impassable to beasts of burden, we were obliged to walk, and a wearisome journey it proved. We crossed the bridge just below the Coordish village of Ghemani, and traversed the rugged and precipitous banks of the river, which is here hemmed in by inaccessible mountains. In less than an hour we left the Zab, and commenced the toilsome ascent of the precipice before us. Arrived at the summit, a spectacle of imposing grandeur burst upon our view. Behind us through the gorge of the Zab, we saw the village of Leezan, smiling in all the freshness of spring; beneath us a deep valley clothed with forest wood; and all around mountains upon mountains reared their towering and snowy heads, seeming to claim kindred with the sky. Continuing our journey over a narrow pathway leading along the sloping sides of the valley, we reached the Nestorian village of Mâtha d'Kasra, where we breakfasted on milk and millet-bread, and rested for an hour on the roof of one of the houses. The poor people seemed hardly to possess the necessaries of life, but made us welcome to what little they had to offer. Our route from Mâtha d'Kasra lay through a deep and stony ravine, which here and there was almost choked up with avalanches. At noon we reached Be-Alâtha, thoroughly tired with our day's excursion, and heartily glad that our journey was over. It was with the greatest difficulty that we procured any refreshment; a pot of wild turnips made into soup, with the addition of some vegetable acid, was set before us, and a few loaves of coarse mountain bread. I was too tired to eat, but Messrs. Clive and Herbert, who were good pedestrians, ventured to partake of the unsavoury dish. Our servant Habeeb, however, soon prepared us a more inviting meal, having purchased and slaughtered a sheep for the purpose, and after satisfying our hunger, we stretched ourselves upon one of the flat roofs and awaited the coming of the Patriarch.

Mar Shimoon had not yet made his appearance, but shortly after a group of men, looking like pigmies in the distance, ap-