contains 120 Jacobite families, most of whom speak Arabic as well as Coordish and the vulgar Syriac. There is an old church in the village divided into two aisles, one of which is in ruins, and notwithstanding all their applications to the Mutsellim at Saoor, and to the pasha of Diarbekir, they have not yet received permission to rebuild it. The interior was dismal and dirty, and my expostulations with them on this head were met with replies such as these: "What can we do? If our patriarch, or if such as you, will not assist us, we must remain as we are."
I then urged upon them and upon their three priests how much they might do themselves; they might at least clean their church, take better care of their rituals, and engage one of the priests to instruct their children. This was bringing strange things to their ears, for they evidently had not the mind to appreciate the value of such advice, as they certainly lacked the energy to follow it. The priests were very illiterate men, and the villagers of course more so; the former could indeed read the Syriac, but did not understand it, and of the latter not more than four could read at all. The worst feature in them was that they appeared quite satisfied with their religious attainments; they recited the prayers in the church, kept the fasts, maintained the heresy of the One Nature, and paid the patriarch his dues; they had not been invaded by Romish missionaries, and their security in this latter respect seemed to them a great source of exultation.
There are here a number of subterranean caves like those noticed at Dereesh, and a large grotto in a cliff opposite the village containing several apartments, said to have been used by hermits for many ages. In the courtyard of the church we observed some remains of Grecian architecture, such as fragments of chapiters and friezes, and the people told me that old silver coins were occasionally picked up in the neighbourhood.
Nov. 30th.—On leaving Killeth at half-past 6 a.m. our road lay for some time through deep valleys of the same chain of mountains, which were covered with wood, especially the stunted oak, and here and there well cultivated. We passed several Coordish villages on our road, and at 5 p.m. reached the large village of Midyât, inhabited exclusively by 450 Jacobite families. Here we found five priests, six churches (four of which are in
