[16] Descendant of the Prophet.
[17] This is the only mode in the East by which any estimate of the population can be attempted. They count the number of houses, and allow one with another, five souls to each house. Some contain many more, and few contain less, so that even thus, it can be but very imperfectly ascertained.
[18] Muleteers.
[19] Patriarch.
[20] This affords us unfeigned joy, as we had heard from one who was with him in Cazan, an account that made us a little anxious about him.
[21] This is the Armenian whose history I gave a little account of before, as the son-in-law of the richest merchant in Baku, who has given up all the prospects of his connection with his father-in-law, which are very considerable, to endure afflictions with the people of God. This young Armenian is another proof of the immense importance of having those to bear testimony to the power of the Spirit’s work in regenerating the soul in the image of him that created it, from among themselves. The people can see in him the contrast between the past and the present man. They have also a knowledge of the peculiar modes of thinking and feeling among those with whom they have been educated, and been in the closest terms of intimacy with from their infancy, that they cannot have with foreigners.
[22] Hillah is a small town on the river Euphrates, a little below the ruins of Babylon. It was built in the year 495 of the Hegira, or 1115 of the Christian era, in a district called by the natives El Aredh Babel; its population does not exceed between 6 and 7000, consisting of Arabs and Jews, there being no Christians, and only such Turks as are employed in the Government. The inhabitants bear a very bad character. The air is salubrious, and the soil extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half the degree of which it is susceptible,—See Mr. Rich’s Memoirs on the Ruins of Babylon.—Editor.
[23] The whole of those who took down the boats died.
[24] The caravan they went by suffered the most complicated misery both from the flood and the plague, and never succeeded in prosecuting the journey.
[25] He died afterwards—he was the one mentioned in my former Journal as having come from Shiraz.