companion of a little boy in Constantinople. But he was not destined to receive the present. We stopped at sunset and lighted our fires in a little dell, where we found a spring of delicious water, which, collecting in a basin hollowed in the rock, and overflowing its brim, glided off into the valley. Here we stopped two hours, and when we mounted again I asked after the gazelle. The guards had killed, cooked, and eaten it, and now alleged in excuse that it could not have lived without milk, and we had none to give it. I was compelled to be content, and we went on our way.

About one hour before we reached this valley, we had passed a lofty mound on the left, standing out like a solitary sentinel guarding the approach to the heights. On the top was an enclosure, intended, as the guards said, to secrete watchmen or robbers. In former days, when the hills were independent of foreign sway, news of an enemy or booty moving over the desert, used to be given by signal from this mound, and was afterwards repeated from summit to summit along the heights. Then came the mustering and the foray, the sudden attack upon the caravan, as if of men rising out of the desert, the skirmish, the plundering, and the return. We looked up to the stone wall which formed the enclosure. All was silent and deserted. We blessed ourselves that the former times had gone by.

The valley supplied no grass. The water from the rock gave life only to tall green rushes. Our horses had eaten nothing since yesternight, excepting a small allowance of barley, which in Turkey takes the place of oats, a grain little known. We were forced, therefore, to resume our march, although we had travelled eighteen hours with only one brief interval of rest. During the day, one of the party had caught a camel that had been let loose apparently from the Pasha's camp, which had lately passed this way on its route to the Euphrates. The animal still showed marks of hard usage, but had sufficiently recovered his health and

spirits to be very refractory and turbulent. As we left the valley, he broke loose from his keeper and started for the desert. The guide must needs join with the others in pursuing him, whereby we lost our way, which was of far more importance than the camel, and wandered about in the dark until we struck a road going to Tel Afar, an Arab village south of our route. We had intended to reach Kassi Keupru, on the main road from Mossoul to Nisibin, but having found a beaten track, we were loth to leave it. After three hours' ride, we found to our great joy both grass and water, and stopped till morning.

At early dawn we were on horse again, and keeping the Tel Afar road, the sight of a cultivated country, with wheat fields and reapers, soon greeted our eyes. I should rather except the latter, for as soon as they saw us they left their sheaves and fled. I was ready at the moment to pour a lamentation over their misery. Poor peasants: how sad and insecure their state! They reap their fields with trembling, and fly at the sound of the passing traveller. They know no peace. The hand of civil power oppresses them, or the robber of the desert wrests from them their hard-earned pittance. But wait a little, and you will hear another tale. Six months later and this same village is depopulated, and its inhabitants carried away by force, on account of their crimes. They are found to be leagued with the Arab plunderers of the desert, and their walled village is the mart where the ill-got gains are bought and sold. By order of government they are broken up and dispersed like a gang of thieves. Their fear when we approached, was it indeed the terror of the oppressed innocent, or the trembling of conscious guilt? From our appearance they might take us to be Pasha's men, (as in truth three-fourths of the party were,) and these are the very last people they would wish to meet with.

We did not visit their village, but, leaving it to the

right, went off over the hills to Abou Maria, a small village only one hour distant from Kassi Keupru. Here we were kindly received by the Sheikh, or head-man, who killed a lamb in honor of our arrival, and set it before us stewed in onions, with a dish of rich yo-oort for dessert.

This was the fifth day since we left Mardin, and our journey had been at least more pleasant than we had anticipated. The heat, though severe, had often been moderated by refreshing winds, and the nights had been deliciously cool. We had suffered chiefly from want of sleep, (I had not slept an hour for four days,) and this, with the glare of the sun upon the desert, had rendered me almost blind. My face, too, had literally baked; so that it cracked open, and the blood oozed out of the fissures. To-day there was no wind, and the air was as the heat of a furnace. We hung upon our horses like wilted leaves, and as we travelled on through the noontide hours, drooping and exhausted, no one had strength or spirit to speak. Silently and sadly, therefore, we rode up to the Sheikh's tent, (for he with all his people had abandoned their houses, and were living in tents,) and dismounted before his selamlik.' Here, too, we sought in vain for sleep. The Sheikh, and half the people in the village, must be entertained, and when they were gone, the fleas, whose nature it is to commence their antics as soon as the traveller lies still to rest, would not give us a moment's repose.

At sunset we mounted again, cheered by the thought that it was our last stage. The Sheikh conducted us half an hour upon our road, and departed with a handsome present, slipped into his hand and received as if it were unawares. Nothing occurred to interrupt our journey, excepting a hurricane of wind and rain, with lightning, which

1 That part of a house or tent devoted to men, in distinction from the harem or place of the women.

compelled us to dismount and hold our horses by the bridle for two long hours. The scene was most terrific and sublime. Now we were involved in thick darkness, and anon, in the twinkling of an eye, the heavens and the desert were lighted up with a blaze of glory, which as suddenly disappeared, leaving us again in utter obscurity. I had my baggage horse placed to windward, and sat down under my own horse's belly till the storm had passed. It continued two hours, and then subsided. The pale moon began at length to creep out from the thick clouds by which she had been completely hidden, and to shed her light upon the ragged masses of vapor which sped by her with the rapidity of the whirlwind. At daybreak we were upon the banks of the Tigris, an hour or two distant from Mossoul. I could withstand it no longer, but dismounted, threw myself upon the ground, laid my head upon a stone, and for one sweet hour slept profoundly. When I awoke, the sun was up, and its rays were playing upon the breast of the stream. Most of the party had mounted and gone forward on their way. The physician was still asleep, and the old muleteer watching beside us, half asleep himself. We roused the doctor, mounted, overtook our party, and went with them to the city.

CHAPTER XII.

The English Church at Mossoul.-State of the Christians.-Divisions.— State of Learning.-The Nestorian and Chaldean Churches-History of their Separation.—Subjection of the latter to the Pope.-The Nature of Romish Innovations.

As soon as we entered the city, I went at once to the British Consulate, and on opening the gate, was greeted by the Vice-Consul himself. I had written to him early in the spring, promising to be in Mossoul, Deo volente, by the middle of June. It was now the thirteenth, and though my journey had been interrupted and hindered, and I had been driven out of my way, I was here true to my word. It was Sunday morning, and every thing within wore that quiet, Sabath-like appearance which I had always associated with the holy day. How refreshing to turn from the sterile desert, the noontide heat, the rude faces of my Arab guard, to such a scene as this! doff my soiled and stained travelling gear, and be once more a Frank among Franks! A few hours' repose were allowed me, and then we gathered in the library, and, though hardly exceeding the two or three who may claim the promise, we offered our worship in the faith that our blessed Lord was in the midst of us. Above us floated the cross of England, high waving over dome and minaret, giving at once all the protection that human strength can afford, and showing far and wide the badge of the faith in which we worshipped,

How glad was I to