BOATS FOR CROSSING THE RIVER. 5 well built, rising remarkably high behind, sharp bowed, with a small sheer forward. The stern may be six foot out of the water, the bow two. They are nearly flat-bottomed, with a good beam in the after part, pulled by two oars, with two or three men at the lee one, where the greater strength is required. A stern oar directs their motions the crews are all Mussulmans. : These boats are required to be constantly hauled up, when their bottoms are covered with pitch; every night also at sunset they are compelled to cease to ply. Besides these, the natives cross on sheep-skins. One or two are inflated in the manner I have described when speaking of the rafts; on these the person places his stomach, grasping the skin; thus, his whole person above his thighs is out of water, with his legs he paddles as well as he can. It has a singularly ludicrous appearance, and reminded me of ineffectual efforts to mount the skin or of anything circular and buoyant, which slips from under one. I omit to describe the sulphur lake, naphtha pools, &c., as already familiar to the reader. There is a tradition that an original portrait of the Virgin was preserved here, and on one occasion saved the city, which was closely besieged and about to fall into the hands of the besiegers. The Le picture was paralel to the wild and the Mislem commander. seeing no hipe but her vowel be wolitlirochanthes to her b cour if the city was preserved With all the pony ty sal commani amilst the mingled prapers of various creeds, she was carried to the walls in sclemn procession: the enemy retreated in confusion. Mosul was saved an i the Pasta kept his word and built two churches. Thus we have a miracle whose result at least is well authenticated. From Mosul the mound of Koyunjik appears of great size, as Nebbi Yunus appears in one with it: the whole has quite the appearance of an artificial mound, which many other tels have not. From the terrace at Mosul we could see the white top of Layard's encampment, which stood on the summit of the mountain. The tents of the workmen were hid by the formation of the mound. Being soon tired of Mosul, I accompanied Mr. Layard and lived with him in our tents upon the excavated mound. Crossing the Tigris we mounted our horses and rode about two miles for the south of Koyunjik ; passing a small river at a ford; rode along the half of the western face, and then a short desperately steep path brought us to the top of the mound. The plain below was cultivated with care, RESIDENCE WITH MR. LAYARD. and planted with large fields of melons and cucumbers. In the middle of each stood a small hut where people kept watch by night to drive off the wild boars. On arriving at the top, a broken ground lay before you; entrances to excavations; heaps of earth brought up from below; triangles for whipping up basket loads of earth; huts made of boughs. Beneath the first of these lived the Tiyari Nestorian Christians: these did the heavier work below, being stronger men and more accustomed to labour than the lighter built Arabs. They lived together in one or two large huts with their wives. Great numbers of these people come down every year to Mosul to seek employment: they are fine stout men but not tall. Their dress is far from becoming; a little cap with a peak almost as uselessly small as those worn at Madeira, and the half large, half small trousers common in Arabia, that seem the ugliest cut of inexpressibles in the world. The women were tall, handsome, and well made, with large saucer-gazing soft black eyes. I believe at first there were great quarrels between them and the Jebour:* these had gradually been appeased by the admirable management of the head * The Arab workmen employed by Mr. Layard chiefly belong to this tribe. 8 HORRORS OF KOORD ONSLAUGHTS. of the expedition. They are allowed to be a quarrelsome set, and before the massacre by the Koords were arrant freebooters. Their bitter sufferings must, however, call forth all our sympathies. The bloody tiger-like fury with which the Koords fell on them, mangled them, tore them, is among the foulest tales of history. The Sultan, I heard lately, gave a large present to one of their chief assassins, a brute who in cold blood knived and tortured them with his own hand. The Sultan is averse to blood even when justice demands it to flow-there is inconsistency here. Beder Khan Bey, of whom I speak, used to say (he is now in exile at Rhodes or Candia), "Ah, it is very well the Sultan punishing me; but we were wolf and dog they ate me yesterday, I eat them to day." Mr. Layard's book describes many of the horrors of the Koord onslaughts, but paper would fail in describing all,-of maids who threw themselves off bridges and precipices to avoid being the slaves of the hated oppressor, of the firm joy with which many welcomed death when offered as an alternative, with apostasy: "If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee; If the exile on earth is an outcast on high; HATRED OF THE MUSSULMAN TO CHRISTIANS. 9 The deep hatred of the Mussulman to Christians is hardly to be conceived-he despises yet envies them. I have already mentioned the Mussulman law, that the honour, the wives, the wealth, the faith of the Christian, are in his hands. A Christian's testimony is of no avail against a Turk; by this law (now, however, modified) a Christian was a beast who was to be allowed to live for the tribute he could pay. There are various accounts as to the cause of the Nestorian massacre-I mean the ostensible immediate cause. Fanaticism was at the bottom of it, but a refusal to pay a tribute was the spark that kindled the blaze. Then, the Tiyari were much divided among themselves, and it is supposed Koordish gold weakened the force of more than one Tiyari arm. To us, as members of the Reformed Church, those of the Chaldean Church must ever be brother and sister. We ought, and God grant in his mercy we may, to stand forward with the right hand of Christian fellowship. Let not, then, the interest English Protestants took in these, their brothers, die away. Shall we read the reproach of the prophet? shall we read the line of the Scriptures?" Thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them to him" (Nahum, iii. 15),-and not extend |