Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/81

Rh of tyranny. Our inability to satisfy the demands of our rapacious masters is looked upon as a crime, and in revenge our villages are razed, our very beds and implements of husbandry are taken fromus, some of our people are murdered, and others are carried away captive. What, then, remains to us? We leave our homes, and seek refuge among our brethren in the mountains who are more out of the way of oppression; but even there we are liable every year to be hunted like partridges. Such is our lot; but Allah kereem! is merciful." The village where we stayed the night is an instance of this tyrannical system: the Turks had already exacted from its forty houses no less than £120, and still demanded £6 more as the amount of their annual taxation. The inhabitants declared that they had not wherewith to pay the additional sum, and on this account many had already left, and others were preparing to leave for the mountains. I am persuaded, that under a righteous government, the Coords might be made an obedient and useful class of subjects, for even at present, were it not for them, this whole district would be a barren waste.

Oct. 27th.—Seven hours' ride through a rough and barren country, brought us to the foot of Mardeen, situated on one of the boldest summits of Mount Masius, the ascent to which, though rugged and difficult, is covered with vineyards and fruit-trees. On approaching the town from this side, nothing is seen but the citadel perched upon the top of the hill, and a part of the wall, the town itself being built upon a slope facing the south, and commands a view of the seemingly boundless plains of Mesopotamia. Ainsworth well describes it in these words: "The prospect from Mardeen is one of the most striking that can be well conceived, not only from the almost infinite extent of cultivated land that lies stretched out at its feet as on a map, from the numerous villages and hillocks with which they are studded, and which dwindle away in the distance to a mere mole-hill, but also from the vast and almost boundless expanse of nearly level ground, unbroken by trees or rivers, and for the most part sinking gradually from sight to the utmost verge of the horizon, where every thing is indistinct, and here, from the great height at which the spectator is placed, so extremely remote."