Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/85

Rh to have been consecrated by S. Peter, at Antioch, and to have continued in the possession of his successors the Syrian Patriarchs, until the present day. The altar-piece consists of three niches, one within the other, on the borders of which the Scripture taken from S. Mark xvi. 13—18, is engraved in bold Estrangheli characters.

We next visited the library, if a dirty cupboard containing about one hundred manuscripts may be so called. Among these I found a portion of the writings of S. Chrysostom, most of the writings of Gregory Bar Hebræus, and the entire works of S. Ephrem in Syriac, besides a compendium of the ante-Nicene Fathers, written in Estrangheli characters, about 1000. It is clear that the residents of the convent make very little use of the library, as most of the books were covered with dust, and scarcely any further care seemed to be taken of them than that of keeping them secure from being read or stolen.

From the several remains of Grecian and Roman architecture which are scattered about the premises, as well as from the unecclesiastical disposition of the interior, I am induced to believe the tradition which ascribes its foundation to one Mar Hananya, of Caphr Tootha, a village in the plain, who is said to have purchased the building fifteen centuries ago while it was yet a castle, and to have converted it into a monastery. As we returned from the convent, we noticed to our left an immense mound, on the summit of which are the remains of an ancient fortress, called Kalaat-ool-Mara, or the woman's castle, which tradition says, was held by a female against Tamerlane, who planted fig trees at its base, and ate of their fruit during his vain attempts to reduce it. It was finally delivered by the following stratagem: during winter, when no leben is made, because the cattle give no milk, the lady had a dish of this sour curd prepared from the milk of a bitch, which she sent to the king. Judging from this that the resources of the castle were inexhaustible, he raised the siege and returned to his own country.

On reaching the city gate, an incident occurred which strikingly illustrates the extent of Mohammedan bigotry. A boy had fallen from a horse and cut a deep gash in his check; whereupon I advised his brother who was standing by, to take