volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Tomb of Rabban HSrmizd. 243
or chapel. The altar is in reality the tomb of Rabban
Hormizd, and the Prior seemed gratified when I asked
to be allowed to carry away an envelope full of the
earth from the base of it to keep as an amulet to afford
me protection on my journey home. I visited the two
chambers in the upper church, i.e., the Sanctuary and
the Baptistery, and two modern chapels, which did not
interest me much. I saw the tombs of several of the
Nestorian Patriarchs in the upper church and obtained
copies of the inscriptions upon them ;i and the Prior
pointed out to me the names of C. J. Rich, Mary Rich,
Dr. Bell and Justin Perkins cut on one of the pillars
of the great church. At sunset the Prior announced
that supper was ready, and he led us into a chamber
where there were several priests and monks, and we
all sat down to a long, low, heavy wooden table and ate.
The food consisted of boiled wheat or barley, a little
very coarse bread, and a large bowl of thin vegetable
soup ; as a concession to the weakness of his guests
the Prior ordered a dish of-Sinjar honey as a finish to
the repast, but even with this the meal was not satisfying.
A lengthy service was to be held in the church
that evening which would last several hours, and he
invited me to attend it, but I said that I would rather
retire to my " cell " and read the History of Rabban
Hormizd if he would let me have a manuscript and a
light. He sent for these, and when they arrived he
led me up to my " cell." This was a chamber neair
the upper church, and was in reality a hollow in the
rock with a spacious opening on one side through which
I looked down on a rocky valley with a brawling stream
at the bottom of it. Pointing to this stream the Prior
told me that it had been the means of destroying the
great library of over one thousand manuscripts, Arabic,
Sjnriac, Karshuni,^ and Greek {sic!), which the monastery
once possessed. About 1750 the Hamawand and other
* I have summarized these and their contents in my Book of
Governors, vol. i, p. clxxi.
^ I.e., Arabic written in Syriac letters.
r 2