the mountaineers, wild men. Though suffering oppres- sion and extortion from the Mohammedans, their circum- stances are tolerable for a people in bondage. The coun- tr3' is fertile, and the industrious among them are sur- rounded with plenty. Their character is bold, generous, kind, and artless. Oppression has not broken their spirit ; they are still brave and restless, and, so far as a subject people can be, independent. The Nestorians of the moun- tains, with all their rudeness and even ferocity, possess the same traits of kindness and generosity. The hun- gry man will divide his last morsel of bread with a stranger, or even with a foe. The Nestorians of the plain, as a matter of calculation, lay in liberal stores for their poor countrymen of Kurdistan, when, pinched with want, they come down in the winter to seek subsistence. In their language, as in Arabic, the missionaries found no word for home ; and there is no need of it, for the thing itself is wanting. The house consists of one large room, and is generally occupied by several gen- erations. In that one room all the work of the family is performed. There thej' eat. and there they sleep. The beds consist of three articles— a thick comforta- ble filled with wool or cotton beneath, a pillow, and one
hea^•y quilt for covering. On rising they " take up theit beds" and \)\\e them on a wooden frame, and spread them down again at night. The room is lighted by an opening in the roof, which also serves for a chimney ; though, of course, in a very imperfect manner, as the in- side of every dwelling that has stood for any length of time bears witness. The upper part of the walls and the under surface of the roof^we can hardly call it ceiling — fairly glitter, as if they had been painted black and varnished, and all articles of clothing, books, and household utensils are saturated with the smell of creosote. The floor, like the walls, is of earth, covered in part with coarse stiaw mats and pieces of carpeting; and the flat roof, of the same material, rests on a layer of sticks, supported by large beams; the mass above, however, often sifts through, and sometimes during a heavy rain assumes the form of a shower of mud. Bad as all this may seem, the houses are still worse in the mountain districts, such as Gawar. There they are half under ground, made of cobble stones laid up against
Nel^toliau House in the Jyari.
the slanting sides of the excavation, and covered by a conical roof with a hole in the centre. They contain, besides the family, aU the implements of husbandry, the cattle, and the flocks. These last occupy " the sides of the house" (1 Sam. xxiv, 3), and stand facing the " de- cana," or raised place in the centre, which is devoted to the family. As wood is scarce in the mountains, and the climate severe, the animal heat of the cattle is a substitute for fuel, except as sun-baked cakes of manure are used once a day for cooking, as is the practice also on the plain. In such houses the buffaloes sometimes break loose and fight furiouslj', and instances are not rare when they knock down the posts on which the roof rests, and thus bury all in one common ruin. The in- fluence of such family arrangements, even in the most favored villages of the plain, on manners and morality need not be told. It is equally evident that in such circumstances personal tidiness is impossible, though few in our favored land have any idea of the extent of such untidiness. The total number of the Nestoriaii Christians, exclusive of the Jacobites or monophysite Syrians, and the Chaldteans or converts to the Eomisli faith, was computed by the American missionaries, in
NESTORIANS
NESTORIAXS
Nestoriaii Woiiuiu and Cliild. 1840, at 140,000; 100,000 in the mountains, and 30,000 or 40,000 in tlie plain. Later travellers would make the llRure a little larger, and it is now generally stated as 150,000.
The patriarch of the Nestorian Church (who is al- ways cho.scn from the same family, and invariably takes the name of Shamun or Simon) resides at Diz, a village in one of the most inaccessible parts of the Kurdish mountains. In early times, as we have seen, the patriarch resided at Selcucia; after A.D.752 at Bagdad; later he cstab- lislied himself at Elkush. Since the quarrel of the rival candidates and the defection of the Chalikc- ans to liome, about the dose of tlic ICth century, the jiatriareh has taken refuge in the mountains. Ho i)rofisses only to wield s])iritualpower,butatnong the mountaineers his word is law, both in matters s])iritual and temporal. Among tlie Xestorians of Orumiah his power is more limited; he seldom
Nestorian Bishop. ^f "^"^^^ *", ^•"^ ,'»'"""-'
them ; and being thus be- yond the reach of the full exercise of his authority, the jioople have become lax in their regard for his spiritual l)rerogatives; still they look up to liim wiih respect and veneration. The patriarch does not receive the imposi- liou of bands at his consecration, since it cannot be per- formed liy liis inferiors; but ail orders of tlic clergy, from the deacon to the metropolitan, are oniained by him with the imposition of liands. l'n<ler the Nestorian patriarcli arc eigliteen bishops, four of whom reside in the prov- ince of Orumiah. A diocese varies in size from a sin- gle village to twenty or thirty. The bishops ordain the inferior clergy, make annual visitations, and superintend I lie diocese. Ik'sides deacons and priests, there are archdeacons, subdeacons, and readers. The oHice of mctran, or metropolitan, is distinct from that of the patriarch, although, it is true, they are often luiitod in tlie same person. The canons of the Nestorian Church require ccHbacy, but oidy of the episcopal orders. They