acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

158 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
to be filching from them an Incident of martial history,
and yet history of that kind is just what the race
lacks most.
An MS. of the thirteenth centiu.y was then brought
for our inspection. The Bishop explained that he
would have shown us an older one only that it was
locked up and the key-bearer away. The throne of
Senekherim I., the king who had exchanged his realm
of Vasburagan for the province of Sebastea, could not
be shown for the same reason. This throne, nine
centuries old, is one of the national relics of the
Armenian people, who regard it with great reverence.
Of more interest to a foreigner, however, was the
Church of St Nishan, a well-preserved stone building
of the eleventh century — plain, solid, somewhat
Norman in the general appearance of the interior,
but with a quantity of Byzantine ornamentation.
In the church was also a Byzantine readingdesk
of wood, held to
be of great age.
There seems to be little doubt that this discreet
bishop is the same Bishop of Sivas whose torture
and death, during the recent atrocities in Asia Minor,
have been lately reported. He is said to have died,
with many of his people, on the road to Mosul. But
first, by way of torture, his bare feet were shod by
nailing to them small iron plates such as native
custom uses for the hoofs of bullocks. Having been
sufiiclently shod he was driven forth to march, and
succumbed on the road—the same road which goes
over the Crooked Bridge of Senekherim's daughter,
and up into the mountains of Terja Dagh. Much
better, one thinks, had he and such of his race who
took refuge in St Nishan's ancient monastery been
killed defending the outer wall.
While I was at Sivas report came of events in
which I found especial interest. Two robberies, both
in the large manner of the past, had been committed
on the road over which I had just come. In
one a party of bullock-cart drivers, returning from
Samstin after having received payment for a con-