volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Cream of Wisdom. 239
bought this book from its owner, Jiju, the son of Bendak,
the son of Michael, the priest, the son of George John,
the priest, who copied it. And having made a copy of
it with my own hand, I have sold it to the Royal Library,
that is to say, to the Library of Great Britain, through
the honourable man of learning, Mr. Budge, who hath
come to Mosul enquiring for the antiquities of Nineveh."
Then follows the impression of his episcopal seal with
the words " Eliyi Yuhannan Milos, Metropolitan of the
Chaldeans, 1864."! I corresponded with Mar Milos for
several years, and he helped the British Museum to
acquire many Nestorian manuscripts. In his last letter
to me dated the 24th of lyar, 1899, he says : "My
eyes have become weak and failed ; blessed be the Name
of the Lord nevertheless," and he signed himself "6liya
Milos, Chaldean Metropolitan of Mardin and Nasibhin "
(Nisibis).
Meanwhile the days passed and I had not yet received
Sir WUIiam White's telegram mentioning the dispatch of
the permit for Der. As I was unwilling to sit still in
Mosul I decided to make a little tour through the villages
about Mosul and to visit the famous Monasteries of
Rabban Hormizd and Mar Mattai, and to find out if
it was possible to acquire any manuscripts there. As I
intended to visit the former monastery first, I obtained
letters tp the Prior from Mar Milos and other Nestorian
friends, and letters to the priests in aU the villages where
I expected to find manuscripts. Armed with these and
the good wishes of their writers, I set out for Al-K6sh
at 7 a.m., November 29th, accompanied by Nimrud
Rassam and a very excellent Kurdish muleteer, who was
commonly called " Al-'Askar," or " the soldier." We
rode in a direction almost due north, and passed through
the enclosure of Nineveh and came out at the north
gate. We arrived at the large village of Tall Kef, or
Tall Kipa, or Tall Kepe, at ten o'clock, and we were
1 The manuscript is 18 inches high and 12 inches wide, and is
dated A.Gr. 2120 = a.d. 1809. Its number in the British Museum is
Oriental 4079.