Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/80

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Oct. 26th.—The pasha having ordered the gates to be opened to us at an early hour, we left Diarbekir at 2, accompanied by ten horsemen, and after twice crossing the Tigris over two good stone bridges, we pursued our journey through the plain beyond till we reached the Geok Soo. Here the country begins to be hilly, and continues so as far as Mardeen. We rested an hour on the road, and finally put up at the Coordish village of Khaniki Djori at 3

We had now fairly entered upon the Coordish district, as nearly all the villages from Diarbekir to Mosul are inhabited by this race. So many and grievous were the complaints of these peasants against the cruelty and oppression of their Turkish rulers, that the stand which they made a few years after under Bedr Khan Beg, the Emeer of Jezeerah, is not a matter of surprise. I frequently inquired why so many of their countrymen became rebels, and they uniformly replied in language to this effect: "What can we do? If we descend into the plains, build us villages, plant vineyards, grow corn and barley, and till the barren soil, we are so overwhelmed with taxation and impositions of every kind, that our labour, though blessed of, is of no profit to ourselves. We continue poor and wretched, and are subjected to the most unheard