The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 1/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
We bade farewell to our kind friend Mr. Southgate at Therapia on the 30th September as we embarked on board the Austrian steamer "Prince Metternich," and shortly after found ourselves on the troubled waters of the Euxine. At 6 a.m. we reached Sinope, a small sea-port of ancient Paphlagonia, where we remained but half an hour to disembark a few Turkish passengers, and at 1 p.m. we cast anchor in the roadstead of Samsoon. Notwithstanding that this is a place of growing importance, at which the steamers from Constantinople touch in their weekly voyages to Trebizond, such is the neglect of the Turkish government that it cannot boast of a quay or pier, and men and merchandize are landed on the shoulders of porters who wade up to their middle in order to come at the boats. The remains of an old pier are visible on the beach, but like every thing else in this empire, that which begins to decay is left to perish, nor does aught but stern necessity drive the government to attempt any restoration.
Samsoon is situated at the foot of a range of high hills which border the shores of the Black Sea from east to west as far as the eye can reach. It was anciently known as Amisus, a name given to it by a colony of the Miletians who settled here, and who were afterwards joined by emigrants from Cappadocia, and by a band of Athenians who fled hither from the tyranny of Aristion. Nothing however remains of the former attractions which induced Pompey to select it as his favourite residence. On a hill to the west of the town are a few ruins, which have been supposed to point out the site of the ancient acropolis, but this is very doubtful. The modern town is a miserable assemblage of wretched houses, said to contain three hundred and fifty Mohammedan families. A crime committed by a member of the Greek Church some years ago was considered sufficient ground to exclude any Christian from taking up his residence within the town, and the descendants of the citizens of ancient Amisus inhabit the large village of Cadi-kieui, about three hours distant from Samsoon, where they have a church and two priests, one of whom is the village schoolmaster. They are all of the Greek rite, and belong to the diocese of Trebizond.5
A lodging was provided for us in one of the town houses through the kindness of Mr. Richard Stevens, the British Vice-Consul, where we put up for the night. In the meanwhile our Tatar was engaged in making the necessary arrangements, such as hiring horses and mules, and procuring provisions for our departure on the morrow. I had been advised by travellers who had gone over our projected route by no means to go unaccompanied by a Tatar, and now at the outset, as well as during the whole journey, we found the services of old Kushker Oghloo almost indispensable. Had he been a little more conscientious in the fulfilment of his engagement, we should have been spared some few inconveniences and extra expenses which his duplicity and avarice imposed upon us; but my former experience in eastern travelling prevented any disappointment on this score, and on the whole we had much cause to be thankful for the important services which he rendered us. Without his assistance we should often have been obliged to encamp in the open air, more frequently to have put up with scanty food, and repeatedly to have suffered impositions without any possibility of redress. His semi-official character generally ensured respect to our party, and added weight to the imperial firman which we had obtained before leaving Constantinople. It was ludicrous in the extreme to witness his first interviews with several of the pashas on the road. After some preliminary inquiries as to what was going forward at the capital, he was generally asked whether his protégés had a firman. "Boo kadar," said Kushker Oghloo, stretching out his fat arms to their utmost extent, as if to intimate that the document in question was two yards long and adequately stringent in import.[1]
Oct. 3rd.—After breakfasting with the Consul we set off from Samsoon at 10 a.m., our road lying over a hilly country well clothed with wood, particularly the stunted oak and several species of acacia. In about three hours we entered the skirts of a forest, but were soon obliged to leave the caravan route and to take refuge in a miserable Moslem village called Chakal-kieui, as the rain now descended upon us in torrents. Here our accommodations were of the worst description; a sorry beginning to those of our party who had not been accustomed to eastern travelling. The khan of the village being full, and moreover open in every direction to the impending storm, we were obliged one and all to take up our abode in a wretched hovel, about ten feet by twelve, the mud floor of which was covered with piles of wild apples, which grow in the woods around. This fruit is gathered by the villagers and sent in large quantities to Constantinople, where it is used for culinary purposes. Besides the apples, a number of agricultural implements and articles of household furniture of the most rustic description were left to encumber the only room of the poor tenants who had been dislodged for our temporary accommodation. Uncomfortable as we were under these circumstances, the discomfort was nothing compared to what we suffered during the night from the swarms of fleas, which prevented any one of our party from sleeping a wink, until the morning dawn bade us to prepare for our departure.
Oct. 4th.—Left Chakal-kieui at 7 a.m. and in two hours and a half reached Cavak, a Mohammedan village of about forty mud and log huts, with a small mosque, where we exchanged horses at the Menzil-knaneh, or post-house. The road hither led us through a continuation of the forest which we entered yesterday, and was romantic in the extreme. Here and there were patches of tilled ground which had been cleared by the industry of the peasants, whose isolated cottages, perched high up above the valleys, gave a picturesque and lively appearance to the whole.
After resting an hour at Cavak, we pursued our journey over a plain, tolerably cultivated, and then entered again upon a hilly district, with less wood than that which we passed yesterday. At half-past 3 p.m. we reached Ladik, romantically situated at the foot of a range of high hills covered with verdure. Here we were lodged in the house of an Armenian, and fared much better than we did at Chakal-kieui. There are fifteen Armenian families at this place, with a church and priest: the Mohammedan population is reckoned at two thousand souls. Ladik, a name given by the Turks to several other towns in Asia Minor, which were called Laodicea, bespeaks for it an ancient origin; and this conjecture is confirmed by a few relics of ancient architecture still extant, among which is an octagonal building with Doric columns, supposed by Ainsworth to be the ruins of a Greek church. The modern town contains two large and wellbuilt mosques, about twenty smaller ones, and two convents of Derwishes. The minarets of the mosques, rising above the thick trees, reminded us at a distance of some of the village spires of our native land. Would that they were Christian temples!
Most of the Mohammedans here wear the green turban, a sign of their relationship to the arch-impostor, and their being a privileged race accounts for the tolerable degree of comfort and security which seemed to reign throughout the place. The houses are better built, and the streets more cleanly and regular, than in any of the villages which we passed through on our journey. This evening being the first of the Ramadhân fast, we were disturbed throughout the night by the frantic howling and whirling of the Derwishes in a large mosque close by our lodgings.
Oct. 5th.—Left Ladik at 7 a.m. For three hours our road lay over the same hilly country, where we met two foot guards placed here for the protection of travellers. Whether true or false, they strove to persuade us that banditti had been seen lurking in the wood, and that it was necessary that they should escort us through the hills; a baksheesh being more the object of their anxiety than our safety. Until 1 p.m. when we reached the narrow and winding valley of Amâsia, our route lay over an uninteresting and uninhabited tract of country, with an extensive wild of sand on our right. On entering the valley we crossed one of the principal tributaries of the Yeshil Irmak, or ancient Iris, which joins that river about sixty miles to the east. This stream flows through the gorge, which is well cultivated, and abounds in vines, mulberry, and other orchard trees, especially the apple, the fruit of which is reckoned superior to any in Asia Minor. After journeying for three hours through a continued garden, artificially watered by numerous irrigating machines, which are turned by the force of the current, we came in sight of the town, situated on the eastern bank of the river, and hemmed in by lofty precipices. Here the bed of the river is about sixty yards wide, and is spanned by three bridges, two of wood and one of stone, the latter built entirely of the remains of ancient Amasea. Many other relics are still to be seen about the streets, but none worthy of particular notice. The mountain opposite the town rises to the height of five hundred feet, and forms an impregnable rampart along its whole extent. On a projecting peak of this natural barrier are the ruins of an extensive castle, the colossal walls of which are carried over precipices seemingly inaccessible. At sunset the sound of fife and drum announced to a few soldiers, who garrison a small barrack of modern construction within the citadel, that the hour of feasting after fasting had arrived.
Below the castle, on the perpendicular sides of the mountain, are many sepulchral grots, supposed by some to be the tombs of the kings of Pontus, whilst others have referred their original construction to the Zoroastrians of Persia, to which monarchy Amâsia belonged, and formed the capital of the third satrapdom as far back as three hundred years before Christ. The several Greek inscriptions which are to be found over these tombs, but which are so defaced by time as to be illegible, may have been added in after ages by some of those states which took possession of Amâsia after the destruction of the Persian dynasty by Alexander. The following is a correct sketch of one of the principal tombs, which I take the liberty of copying from Ainsworth.
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Strabo, who as is well known was born at Amasea, has left us a faithful description of that city. The natural features of the place remain as they were when he wrote, but the splendid monuments of art which once ornamented his native town have long since disappeared. A French writer suggests the following as a principal cause of this destruction: "To say nothing of the ravages of war and barbarism, there is another species of devastation which goes on from day to day, owing to the general custom prevalent in Anatolia, of constructing the houses with flat mud roofs, which serve as yard, garden, and sleeping apartment, to the inhabitants during the hot season. These being split into a thousand cracks from exposure to the sun, would serve as a poor protection against the rains of winter, if the occupiers did not take the precaution of constantly rolling them with a large cylinder, which unfortunately is not taken from the quarry, but from the ancient edifices and tombs. If we calculate that Amâsia contains about six thousand of these terraces, and that each terrace has its roller, it is easy to conceive what ruin this cause alone has wrought."
Amâsia is governed by a Mutsellim, or deputy governor, appointed by the pasha of Siwâs, to which pashalic it belongs, and may be reckoned one of the most flourishing towns in this district. It contains two large and well-built mosques, besides many smaller ones, the bulk of the population being Mohammedan. The Armenians at Amasia number five hundred families, who possess three churches, and are under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tocât,6 the person at present filling that See being a deposed Patriarch. There are also fifteen families of the Greek rite at Amâsia, who have a church, a priest, and a school. These know no other language than Turkish, which is spoken by all the Christians in this district. I was told that there were three villages in the vicinity inhabited entirely by members of the same community, who as well as those of Amasia belong to the diocese of Sinope.7
The Mutsellim gave us a lodging in a house annexed to one of the Armenian churches, where we were kindly entertained. In one of the lower rooms was a school in which upwards of sixty boys were assembled. On the master's table I observed a number of books and tracts in Armenian and Armeno-Turkish from the press of the American Independents at Smyrna, which had been sent to Mr. Krug, a Swiss mercantile agent, and the only European in Amâsia, to be distributed among the people. On inquiry, I found that the introduction of these works had not received the sanction of the Bishop. The master's idea was, as it was the idea of the three Armenian priests who called upon me, that they contained the teaching of the English Church, and it was some time before I could convince them to the contrary.
In the evening we had a visit from Mr. Krug, accompanied by Yakoob Nuah Oghloo, a young Latin Armenian, and the son of a rich Baghdad merchant, who resides here for the purposes of trade. We received much courtesy and kindness from these gentlemen, which was the more to be appreciated as being shown to perfect strangers. The conversation soon turned upon Church matters, in which both appeared to be alike interested. The young Armenian was strongly prejudiced against the English, because, as he said, they denied the efficacy of the Sacraments, had no Bishops and consequently no valid orders, paid no reverence to saints, despised all pictures, even the emblem of the cross, observed no festivals or fasts; and several other customs and practices he enumerated which no more applied to us than they did to his own communion. I saw at once that he was confounding us with the Independents, some of whose tracts he had read, and that he had no idea of any other English Church than that which he himself had described. Fortunately he read modern Greek remarkably well, and taking out the only copy of our book of Common Prayer in that language which I possessed,—one of the last edition printed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,—I succeeded in proving to him the existence of a Church in England with doctrines, rites, and ceremonies, different from those which he had attributed to her. The youth was delighted in the extreme, and begged so hard for the Greek copy of our ritual that I presented it to him. The distribution of our Prayer Book in the Eastern language is an excellent means of making the native Christians better acquainted with our Church.
Our interview lasted till midnight, but our kind visitors did not suffer us to depart on the morrow without sending us a token of their remembrance in a present of excellent apples and several loaves of Frank bread.
The principal product of Amâsia is silk, of which six hundred bales are annually exported to Europe.
Oct. 6th.—We started from Amâsia at 7 a.m., and continued our journey through the well-cultivated valley, at some distance from the river. When about one hour from the town our muleteers pointed out to us a small ruined building, beneath which he said was a spring of water, believed by the Greeks to have gushed forth miraculously when the corpse of S. Chrysostom was laid upon the spot, as it was being borne in triumph to Constantinople from Comana Pontica, the place of his exile and death.
After leaving the valley, our road lay over uncultivated plains bounded by low hills, sometimes barren and sometimes scantily covered with furze. At 1 p.m., we put up at the Mohammedan village of Ina Bazaar, containing about thirty mud huts and a small mosque. Here we were lodged in the Konagh, or house which the villagers in these districts provide for the accommodation of government officials, or for other travellers, in order not to be subjected to the inconvenience and impositions with which the former never fail to vex them. In this instance the Konagh consisted of an open room with three walls and a roof; and another of smaller dimensions which we shared with our horses and mules.
Oct. 7th.—Left Ina Bazaar at 6 a.m., and travelled over a tolerably level road between low hills scantily covered with wood. In three hours we reached a Derbend, or guard-house, where we rested until our baggage came up. These Derbends are stationed by the pashas of the different provinces in such parts of the road as are considered unsafe, and are garrisoned by from six to ten men. They are for the most part wretched hovels, and the guards themselves equally miserable, being generally irregular soldiers who occasionally receive arms and clothing from the government, but little or no pay. For this they chiefly depend upon the presents which they exact from caravans and travellers who may require their services, and very frequently from those who do not.
Half an hour after leaving the Derbend our road lay for some time along the bed of the Gooroo Soo, a tributary of the Iris, now dry, but in spring a stream thirty yards wide. At half-past 10 we reached another branch of the same river, known anciently as the Scylax, which flows through the plain in which the large village of Toorkhal is situated, and which we reached about noon. Toorkhal contains upwards of 500 Moslem families, two mosques, and a bath, built chiefly of mud. The river flows two hours from the village, but a stream therefrom runs close by, and serves to water the fields in the vicinity by means of irrigating machines, such as are used at Amâsia. Behind the village are the ruins of a castle, apparently of modern construction, though the foundation may be of older date, as Toorkhal seems to occupy the site of the ancient Sebastopolis.
Oct. 8th.—Left Toorkhal at half-past 3 a.m., and travelled with our baggage mules, so that we did not reach Tocât till 1 p.m. The road lay for the most part through an extensive valley between two ranges of hills, those to the right being tolerably covered with wood, those to the left barren and only cultivated near the base and at long intervals. A few miles to our right flowed the river, on the banks of which were several villages. Three hours before entering Tocât we journeyed through the pleasant orchards for which this town is justly celebrated. The town itself covers the bases of three hills which unite towards its centre. The houses are well built, the streets clean and regular, and the bazaar spacious and well supplied with merchandize. A branch of the Iris flows through the town and waters the picturesque vineyards and gardens which fill up the environs. The grapes and pears of Tocât are considered superior to any in this part of the country, but from some opposite property, supposed to exist in the atmosphere, the inhabitants are obliged to send their grapes to Siwâs to be made into wine, as that prepared by themselves is of a very inferior quality.
Tocât was formerly one of the great centres of Asiatic commerce, but since the establishment of steam communication between Constantinople and the shores of the Black Sea, Trebizond and Erzeroom have become the principal caravan route to the Persian and other eastern markets. Some years back it possessed many large calico printing manufactories, but these have well nigh disappeared, the owners here, as in other towns of Turkey, having found it impossible to compete with the cheapness and superiority of British exports, the produce chiefly of our Manchester and Liverpool machinery. The principal trade of the place at the present day is in copper utensils, wrought out of the metal brought from Arghana Maaden in the Taurus, and from hence sent to every part of the empire. I met here an Austrian engineer who was engaged in putting up a machine for purifying the copper ore which was to be worked by the water of the river. The only other Frank at Tocât was a young man from Trieste, who acted as agent to an extensive company established in Austria for trading in leeches. This gentleman informed me that the natives caught them by entering into the pools and streams, having their legs covered with felt stockings to which the leeches adhered, and were thus easily secured.
Tocât is governed by a Moohassel, or collector, appointed by the pasha of Siwâs, who ordered us a lodging at the residence of the Papal Armenian Bishop. The Bishop being absent, we were welcomed by two priests, who had been educated at the Papal Armenian convent in Mount Lebanon, and afterwards went to the Propaganda at Rome. Connected with the episcopal residence is a neat church, large enough to contain six hundred people, which has been built within the last four years, partly by subscriptions raised in this country, but chiefly by contributions from France and Rome, The necessary firman for erecting the church was obtained, it is said, gratuitously; and the same imperial sanction has lately been accorded to the Romanists to erect several new churches in Baghdad, Urfah, and other towns of the empire. This concession on the part of the Turks is in direct contravention of a Mohammedan law, which prohibits the building of any new Christian temples, and only allows the repairing of such as existed at the time of the Mohammedan conquest. This fact also serves to show the great influence exercised by France in behalf of the Latin missions in the east; for while such privileges were being granted to her protégés by the Porte, it refused permission to us, chiefly upon the ground of the law alluded to, to erect a church at Jerusalem. There is reason to believe that such favouritism having become known, the British government finally insisted upon the concession which they had so long solicited in vain.
And this sort of indulgence, which France has demanded and obtained from the Porte, has not been the least cause of the success of the Roman missions in Turkey. I have myself met with numerous instances of village churches belonging to the Jacobites and Nestorians, which were going to ruin, and the people obliged to worship in a private house, because the provincial authorities prevented their restoration unless the necessary firman was first obtained. To procure this a large sum is always demanded, which they were unable to pay; whilst the dissenters to Rome, by applying through their Bishop or Patriarch to the nearest French consul, or to the French ambassador at Constantinople, obtained the requisite sanction without any trouble or delay. It is chiefly in respect of such concessions that Monsieur Boré thus writes: "Les Catholiques n'auraient pas obtenu leur émancipation, si la Porte, affaiblie par la perte de la Grece, rendue à la liberté, et par ses dernières guerres avec la Russie, n'avait craint de's'opposer aux vives réclamations de la France."
The bulk of the population of Tocât is Moslem; the Papal Armenians number 150, and the Armenians 2,000 families, with seven churches and two monasteries in the vicinity of the town. The Greeks are estimated at 1,000 souls, with one church and three priests included within the diocese of the Bishop of Neo-Cesarea.
Oct. 9th.—This being the Lord's day, we went in the afternoon to the Greek church, which was opened for us by one of the three nuns who occupy an adjoining house. Having brought our Bibles and Prayer Books, we read together the Evening Service for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, No sooner did the old clerk perceive that we were performing our devotions, than he lighted two candles and placed them before the altar screen. The service ended, we had an opportunity of explaining to a number of persons who had assembled as spectators, whence we were, and the order of the prayers which we had been offering.
On leaving the church, we engaged the services of an Armenian priest to show us the grave of Henry Martyn, who closed his pious labours at Tocât in the year 1812. It was a singular coincidence that we should have lighted upon the very individual who had performed over his remains the rites of Christian burial. After straying for some time among the tombs of a large cemetery, he pointed out to us a small marble slab, which covers the resting-place of this devoted missionary. I recalled to mind upon the spot the fervent zeal and ardent piety of the departed, and lifted up a secret prayer that God in His mercy would raise up many of a like spirit to labour among the benighted Mohammedans of the east. Amidst all the invidious detractions of the Jesuit, Mons. Boré is reluctantly obliged to record this testimony of our departed brother: "Il était ami du bien, et du ceux qui l'aiment. Il désirait redresser les vices deshommes et les rendre heureux."
The following is a transcript of the stone and epitaph raised, as the concluding initials inform us, by the piety of Mr. Rich, the then British resident at Baghdad. By some inadvertence the name "William" has been substituted for that of "Henry" in the inscription.
_(The_Nestorians_and_their_Rituals_p26).png)
REV · VIR
GUG · MARTINO
SACER · AC · MISS · ANGLO ·
QUEM · IN · PATR · REDI.
DOMINUS
HIC · BERISÆ · AD · SB · VOC ·
PIUM · D · FIDEL · Q · SER ·
A · D · M·DCCCXII·
·
HUNC · LAP · CONSAC ·
C · I · R ·
A · D · M·DCCCXIII·
Whilst we mused over this spot, which must ever be hallowed in the heart of every true member of the Church, Mrs. Badger sought out and planted a row of wild flowers round the tomb. Long may their shadow and perfume deck the grave of this departed follower of Christ!
On leaving the place, I put into the hand of the priest a small present for his trouble, whereupon taking off his turban, and standing at the head of the grave, he offered up a devout prayer for the rest of the soul departed, that with patience and resignation he might wait for and attain perfect consummation and bliss in body and soul in eternal and everlasting glory, at the great day of final retribution.
Tocât, which the Armenians call Evtogia, probably derives its name from the Empress Eudocia, and is situated on the Iris, about six miles from Comana Pontica, with which Ainsworth confounds it. Of this latter city which, like the Comana of Cappadocia, was once so renowned for its heathen hierarchy and its impure Pagan rites, scarcely any thing remains but a good stone bridge, to which the Turks have added an arch composed of fragments of pillars, and other relics of ancient art. It is not improbable, that when the site of the city was changed, the remains of Comana served as materials for the erection of the new city of Eudocia. Several mutilated Latin inscriptions are to be found in the modern Tocât especially near the citadel, the foundations of which are probably coeval with the first building of the town.
There are a few Jewish families at Tocât, with a small synagogue. They are for the most part pedlars and petty traders, and appear to be very poor.
- ↑ This class of men is gradually becoming extinct since the establishment of a bi-monthly post from the capital to the eastern provinces of the empire. In former times they were the confidential couriers of the Porte and of the different Pashas who employed them, and who from them obtained their principal information of the intrigues which were working at the capital and at the distant pashalics.