Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/82

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48
THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS.

MARDEEN.

On entering the city walls, we found ourselves amidst a heap of ruins, and it was some time before we could persuade ourselves that the place was not deserted. Preferring to walk through the streets to the house of Agha Moorad, the Armenian banker, who hearing of our arrival had kindly invited us to be his guests, we passed the market-place, where to our horror we saw no less than seven heads, covered with dust, lying upon the ground. On inquiry, I learned that these had been brought in as trophies by Mohammed Pasha's Albanians, from the Omeryân Coords inhabiting Jebel Toor; and the day after I saw a large number of horses, asses, mules, and even cows, laden with all manner of booty taken from the same people, being driven into the town, and amongst these were several