scheme was abandoned and the convent is now tenanted by a solitary monk. Thus besides the Propaganda, where a youth is occasionally sent to be educated, Rabban Hormuzd is the only seminary for supplying the ranks of the Chaldean clergy.
An hour's ride brought us to Alkôsh, celebrated as the burial place of the prophet Nahum, and the seat of the Nestorian patriarchs after they had abandoned Seleucia and Baghdad. This is a large village containing 300 Chaldean families and two churches, one of which is now in ruins. Mutran Yoosef, who styles himself Bishop of Amedia and Bahdinan, generally resides here; but he was absent on a visit to the valley of the Supna where he has succeeded in bringing over many Nestorians to the Church of Rome. Alkôsh, however, is not under his jurisdiction, but together with Mosul and the surrounding villages forms a part of the episcopal diocese of the patriarch.
In 1850 when we again spent a day here, I took up my lodgings in the old residence of the Nestorian patriarchs, where a few of their Chaldean descendants still find a miserable shelter. Though once a rather sumptuous abode, it is now nothing better than a heap of ruins; indeed the entire village is in a very dilapidated condition and the people looked sickly and miserable. Mutran Yoosef, who has succeeded Mar Zeyya in the patriarchate since our last visit, sometimes resides here with his brother, the surgeon and doctor of the village, a tall rough-looking man,—but he was then absent at Mosul.
We next went to the so-called grave of Nahum, who in holy writ is styled "Nahum the Elkoshite,"[1] though it is very doubtful whether this is the site either of the prophet's birth or burial. The building is the property of the Jews: they come on a pilgrimage hither once a year during the month of May from Mosul and the surrounding villages, and generally pass a week here in praying and feasting. A Chaldean who acts as guardian, (for no Jew resides at Alkôsh,) showed us the interior of the edifice, which is nothing more than a plain room, with a flat roof supported by several arches. The tomb occupies nearly the centre of the apartment, and consists of a wooden box, covered with green cloth, and enclosed within an ornamental marble screen. On the tomb I observed several printed copies of
