Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/67

Rh of Siwâs number four hundred families and possess two churches.

We paid a visit to the smelting furnaces, of which there are two in the town, one worked by Greeks, which produces daily ten pounds of mixed metal, and the other by Germans and Hungarians, which produces double that quantity. The silver is separated from the lead at a different furnace, worked exclusively by natives, and from this is forwarded to the capital. The whole business is under the superintendence of a Frank overseer.

Oct. 19th.—Six hours after leaving Kabban Maaden, we reached the Armenian village of Arpaoot, where we had hoped to remain for the night; but finding that a troop of Albanians had been quartered upon the poor Christians for the last fifteen days, and were still eating up their scanty provisions like a flight of locusts, we continued our journey for an hour longer, and put up at the Mohammedan village of Pelté. Here we had some difficulty in obtaining a lodging in a filthy hut from which we were driven by swarms of vermin, so we finally spread our carpets for the night under an open shed.

Oct. 20th.—Three hours after leaving Pelté we reached Mezraa, where we were obliged to halt in order to change horses. On our way, we passed the large village of KoolverkKoolvenk [sic], near which is a monastery, both inhabited by Armenians. The pretty plain in which Mezraa is situated reminded us of some country places in our native land; but how different is the condition of the villagers who inhabit those little dwellings, from which the curling smoke is ascending towards an azure sky, and whose labour it is that renders the scene around so gay and beautiful, from the husbandmen of happy England! The heart sickens at the contrast, which only those can enter into who have witnessed the baneful effects of a despotic and infidel government.

Mezraa is situated on the plain immediately below the large town of Kharpoot, which stands upon a rocky hill about two miles distant, and is the residence of a Jacobite Bishop, whose diocese joins that of Urfah, and includes five hundred Syrian families.

Whilst resting at the post-house, we witnessed the entry of a new Pasha into Kharpoot. The number of officials of all ranks from the towns and villages, the large assembly of Coordish