Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/69

Rh rested awhile at a khan, before beginning the most fatiguing part of our journey, which still lay before us.

We then began the ascent of the Taurus, winding our way now through valleys, and now over the sloping sides of precipices, in continual danger of being precipitated from the narrow foot-path into the deep gorges below. The mountains here as well as for miles around are almost barren, having been stripped of their wood to supply fuel for the mines at Arghana Maaden; but still the scenery is grand and even beautiful, and the traveller can hardly help feeling as he traverses these majestic heights, how insignificant man is, and how infinite must be the power of Him Who created these gigantic masses of earth, enriched them with never ending stores of wealth, fashioned them at His pleasure, and fixed them so that they cannot be moved by a power less than almighty.

On reaching the summit of the Taurus, we commenced the difficult descent to Arghana Maaden, a small town situated on two sides of a deep gorge, and so shut in by the encompassing hills that our entrance into it was as sudden as it was welcome. We had travelled for thirteen hours over a toilsome road in heat and cold, and Mrs. Badger, who had hitherto borne up against fatigue, fainted as soon as she left the saddle.

There are at Arghana Maaden 150 Moslem, 200 Greek, and 190 Armenian families. The Greeks have a church, four priests, and a school in the town, which is the only place on our road where we found this people speak their own native language; those we had met with hitherto spoke Turkish, which they write in Greek characters. They are reckoned within the diocese of Kabban Maaden. The Armenians, who also have a church here, are under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Arabkir.8 As might have been expected, they knew nothing of the English Church, and had only heard of us as being Lutherans.

Most of the inhabitants of the place are engaged in working the copper mines in the vicinity, which are generally let by government to a company of native merchants, who are supplied with fuel, and receive ten twelfths of a penny for every pound of metal which they remit to the refiners at Tocât. There being scarcely any wood left in the vicinity, the poor Coords are obliged to bring it from a distance of seven days' journey for a