Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/86

52 him to a fountain and give him some water. "What do you mean?" said the fellow, "do you not know that it is Ramadhân?" "What of that?" I answered. "Will you let your brother faint from loss of blood rather than give him the water which Allah has provided for you close by? Take him at least to the fountain, and bathe his wound." In a most surly tone he rejoined: "That you may do; but I would rather see him die in agony than suffer him to break the fast by moistening his lips with water."

During our stay at Mardeen, I had several long interviews with Mutran Matta, a Jacobite Bishop with whom I afterwards became well acquainted at Mosul, and who now resides in the convent of Mar Mattai not far from that town. From him, as well as from many of the Syrians, I learned much of the state of their Church, and of the Jacobite population of Jebel Toor, which is inhabited chiefly by this people. "There our strength lies," said the Bishop; "there the Romanists have not dared to show their faces." So much did they boast of the numbers and flourishing condition of their co-religionists in that hitherto unknown district, that I determined, if possible, to visit it. I had not an opportunity of doing so till 1850, and as I intend in the succeeding chapter to give a general sketch of the present condition of the Jacobites, I shall first lay before the reader the following

Nov. 27th, 1850.—Having been provided with a Kawass, or mounted orderly, through the kindness of Asaad Pasha, of Diarbekir, Mrs. Badger and I left that city at 1 on our way to Jebel Toor. The orchards under the walls displayed all the rich tints of autumn, the grass was just peeping above the ground, and the air was cool and refreshing. After fording the Tigris, some miles above the bridge, we commenced traversing the plains, and in three hours put up for the night at the pretty Armenian village of Saté, where the inhabitants received us kindly, and busied themselves in supplying our wants. The villagers here seemed contented and happy, and extolled the mild rule of the pasha of Diarbekir.

Nov. 28th.—At 7 when we started from Saté, the air