In religion both men were Christians, and, what is more, Shamashas (Deacons): members of the ancient East Syrian, often called the Nestorian Church. But Syrian Deacons (though properly ordained) are not necessarily engaged exclusively in the performance of clerical duties; albeit they will always have received some sort of educational training, and (as in the present instances) will probably be able to read and write.
The regular mountain costume consists of a sort of zouave jacket, worn open over a loose shirt; and very wide trousers, girt tightly around a rather slim waist. The point of junction between these two garments is masked by a broad sash. The material of which they are composed is generally a coarse Isabella-coloured fabric, striped at rather wide intervals with a narrow red or blue line. Green is less frequently seen, because it is the colour of the false prophet, but when the grounding is purple it is sometimes trimmed with green. The stripes are disposed vertically on the jacket and trousers, and horizontally on the sleeves; but the suit is often such a mass of patches that but little of the original survives. The head-dress is a conical felt cap,[64] which is often bound round with a turban. The front half of the head is shaved; and Tyari men wear their back hair plaited into two small pigtails, one on either side. The sash is generally garnished with a knife or pistol when the[{113}] men are at home in the mountains; and often, slung across the shoulder, they carry an antiquated gun.
The Kurds wear a similar costume, but a much more extensive arsenal; and the weapons with which they are furnished are usually of more modern type. This forms the main tangible distinction by which it is possible to tell a Kurd from a Syrian: but somehow a certain ruffianly swagger is the truest hall-mark of a Kurd.
The third man who had joined our party was a certain Rabban Werda (Friar Rose) who acted as our chief lieutenant. He too, like the others, was a deacon, but he was more usually addressed as Rabban; for he was one of a queer religious order which still survives in eastern Christendom, and which corresponds to one of the aspects assumed by monasticism in the west. Rabbans—and Rabbantas—(for there are a few women also in the order)—have bound themselves not to marry, not to use a razor,[65] and not to eat flesh meat. But they do not live in communities, nor obey any definite rule; and, except in the three particulars mentioned, they lead much the same life as other men. It is from the ranks of the Rabbans that the Syrian episcopate is recruited; for, by old tradition, Abunas or bishops must be celibate, though the Qashas or priests are always married men.
Rabban Werda in personal appearance was the image of the immortal Sancho Panza; and he wore, with his gorgeous purple trousers, a European frock-coat and a fez. But his worth is not to be gauged by his rather uninspiring exterior. Though his views of our twentieth century may have sometimes a tinge of artlessness, in his own mediæval environment he is as intelligent and reliable a henchman as anyone need desire.
For the journey into the mountains does indeed carry us back to mediævalism; or at least to the Highlands of Scotland as they existed two hundred years ago. And the[{114}] sensations of Bailie Nicol Jarvie on his trip to the glens of the Lennox may be easily recaptured by a modern tourist in the Highlands of Hakkiari to-day.
We crossed the pontoon bridge at Mosul, and the broad alluvial levels which have silted up the ancient channel of the Tigris; and had soon ascended once more on to that wide rolling wold which stretches to the snow-capped mountains that lie along the horizon to the north. On our right we left the vast enclosure which marks the site of the city of Semiramis; and the mounds which cover those mighty ramparts which the old Assyrian conquerors once kept festooned with the skins of captive kings. But we have many a mile to travel before we are really clear of the site of ancient Nineveh, for the space comprised within the walls was only its inner nucleus; and without was a great Garden City of mansions and parks and orchards, analogous to the present garden city which environs the town of Van. Greater Nineveh may well have embraced the outlying palaces of Khorsabad, and the temples of Nimrud; and this would easily account for the “great city of three days’ journey,” (i.e. of about sixty miles in circumference) of which the Prophet speaks.[66]
The annihilation of this huge metropolis is one of the most astounding cataclysms in all the world’s history. We possess its most intimate records almost up to the hour of its agony: and those records tell only of continual conquests, and of the building of palaces by its kings. Then falls a sudden great silence. For fifty years we hear nothing. And when fresh records take up the story, these are written in another language, and in another character, and tell of cities and peoples which have hardly been even named before. Nineveh had vanished utterly; and within two hundred years of its fall Xenophon’s army marched across the very site of it without so much as dreaming of giving its ruins a name.[{115}]
