either houses or soldiers is very imperfectly known. The probable number of the Nestorian Christians, as nearly as I can ascertain it, with such difficulties encumbering the subject, is about one hundred and forty thousand.

§ 4. LANGUAGE AND LITERATure.

Ancient Language.-To the Christian scholar the language and literature of the Nestorian Christians are objects of much interest. Their ancient language is the Syriac-by some supposed to have been the common language in Palestine in the days of Christ, and the same in which the Saviour himself conversed and preached, and probably not differing much from it.* This language is still the literary language of the Nestorians. Their books are nearly all written in it. They conduct their epistolary correspondence in it; and though a dead language, the best educated of their clergy become able to converse in it with fluency. Their written character differs considerably from that of the Western, or Jacobite Syrians, which is the character best known to European scholars. The former was never, to my knowledge, in type until A. D. 1829, when an edition of the Gospels was printed in it by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It much resembles the Estrangelo,t but has a more round and easy form. The Nestorians have some old books written in the Estrangelo, and they still use that ancient character for capital letters. The common Nestorian character is a very clear and beautiful one, so agreeable to the eye that members of our mission, when incapacitated by ophthalmy to read English without pain, are able to read the Syriac in this character with little inconvenience.

* See an able and interesting article in relation to this language in the Biblical Repository for April, 1831, vol. i. p. 358.

"Estrangelo is the most ancient among the kinds of writing which are found in Syriac books. To this name, indeed, Asseman gives the signification of round, deriving it from the Greek orpoyiλos. But since this form of the letter is by no means round, (a point correctly observed by J. D. Michaelis and Adlerus,) we conclude, along with these men, that the name is of Arabic origin. The Syrians first employed it Carschunice, i. e. in writing Syriac letters; then adopted it, being dederived from scriptura, and evangelium; so that it may signify

scriptura evangelii. This is the large hand which they employed in writing copies of the gospel, opposed to the smaller and more rapidly written letters which Adlerus informs us were used for common purposes at that time."-Hoffman's Syr. Gram. p. 67. See also notes following on the same page.

§ 5. VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES USED BY THE NESTORIANS.

Of the venerable ancient Syriac, once so highly and extensively cultivated, and so rich in its literary treasures, we now find, as of the unfortunate people who use it, little more than its ashes. The number of works at present extant among the Nestorians is very limited, and copies of these are extremely rare. The library of the patriarch, which had often been represented to us as absolutely prodigious, and might appear so to these simple-hearted people, who were acquainted with no method of making books, except the slow motion of the pen, was found by Dr. Grant to consist of not more than sixty volumes, and a part of these are duplicates. And no other collection, to be compared with this, exists among the Nesto-> rians. Three, five, or ten books have been regarded as a liberal supply for a large village or district even.

The few books which the Nestorians possess, however, are objects of deep interest. Among them are found the whole of the Holy Scriptures, with the following exceptions, viz. the epistle of Jude, the second and third epistles of John, the second of Peter, and the Revelation; also the account of the woman taken in adultery in John viii., and the much discussed passage in 1 John V. 7, none of which are found in any of their MS. copies, or seem to have been known to them until introduced by us in the printed editions of the British and Foreign Bible Society; i. e. the Peschito* is the only version of the New Testament with which they seem ever to have been acquainted. They make no objection to these portions of the Scriptures as introduced by us, but readily recognise and acknowledge them as canonical.

The Peschito, the version of the New Testament used by the Nestorians, is an excellent one, being a translation probably from the Greek. Their ecclesiastics regard it as all made directly from the Greek, with the exception of the Gospel of Matthew, which they say was translated from the supposed early Hebrew version. The version of the Old Testament most used by them much resembles the Septuagint.

Ancient Manuscripts.-Among the books of the Nestorians are some very ancient manuscripts. There are copies of the New Testament, for instance, written, some on parchment and some on paper, which date back about six hundred years. Some of these

* Peschito is a Syriac word, meaning pure, simple, or literal. This version of the New Testament is supposed to have been early made from the Greek.

are written in the Estrangelo, and some in the common Nestorian character. The very ancient copies of the Scriptures are regarded by the Nestorians with much veneration, and are used with great care. They are kept wrapped in successive envelopes, and when taken into the hands are reverently kissed, as very hallowed treasures. In the village of Kówsee is a copy of the New Testament which purports to be fifteen hundred years old. A few of the first parchment leaves are gone and their place is supplied by paper, on which that early date is recorded, with how much authority is uncertain. The rubrics, in most ancient copies, moreover, betray a later origin than tradition or their dates would claim for them. I tried to borrow the revered copy here mentioned, to bring with me to America as an object of interest, but the Mohammedan master of the village interposed and forbade its being taken away, apprehending that some dire calamity would befall the inhabitants should so sacred a deposite be removed from among them. And such is the reputation of its antiquity and sanctity that Mohammedans, as well as Nestorians, are sometimes sworn upon that New Testament.

The beauty of Persian manuscripts has long been celebrated. Sir William Jones was so enraptured with them that he almost wished the art of printing had never been invented. And few can inspect them and compare them with printed copies, without participating in a measure of the same feeling, at least till they remember the inestimable blessings, so much richer and higher than all the elegance of caligraphy, which the press is beginning to pour upon Eastern nations. The Persians are able to write with a fineness and distinction that utterly defy imitation with type. I have seen the whole of the Korân written on two strips of fine Chinese paper, three inches wide and perhaps ten feet long-written, not "within and without," but only on one side-which, when rolled up, made a roll a little larger than the finger; and still every letter was fully formed and perfectly legible.

§ 6. ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION.

THERE are properly nine ecclesiastical orders among the Nestorian clergy, though two or three of them are at present little more than nominal. Beginning with the lowest, they are as follows, viz. 1. Hūpo Deeácōn, (sub-deacon,) who properly sweeps and lights the church, as well as takes some part in their devotions. 2. Kâróoya, (reader,) a kind of novice, who regularly joins

with the higher ecclesiastics in reciting the liturgy, and sometimes assists in the menial services of the church. 3. Shamásha, or Deeácōn, (deacon.) 4. Kásha, Kashséesha, or Kána, (priest.) 5. Arka Deeácōn, (archdeacon.) 6. Abóona, Episcopa, or Khalaphá, (bishop.) 7. Metrán, or Metropoléeta, (metropolitan.) 8. Katoléeka, (catholokos,) not a distinct individual, but an order united with that of the patriarch, and one through which he must first pass in ordination. 9. The patriarch. All the orders of the clergy are ordained by the imposition of hands, from the deacon up to the metropolitan inclusive. The patriarch does not receive the imposition of hands at his consecration, as it cannot properly be performed by inferiors. And the subdeacon and reader are not thus set apart, unless they are expected to rise to higher orders. No ecclesiastic of a grade below bishops has power to ordain.

Celibacy of the Episcopal Orders.-The titles for bishop do not occur in the Syriac Scriptures, Kashéesha, priest (elder, presbyter) being always used where the term bishop occurs in the English New Testament.

The canons of the Nestorian church require celibacy in all the episcopal orders of the clergy; i. e. in all from the bishops upward. They also require that from childhood they abstain from the use of all animal food, except fish, eggs, and the productions of the dairy, the latter requisition probably resulting from the former.

Unlike the requisition in the Greek and Armenian churches, all the Nestorian priests are allowed to marry a second time or more, in case of the decease of their wives.

§ 7. DOCTRINAL BELIEF.

IN general, it may be said that the religious belief of the Nestorians is far more simple and scriptural than that of other oriental Christians. They have the deepest abhorrence of all image worship, auricular confession, the doctrine of purgatory, and many other corrupt dogmas and practices of the Papal, Greek, and Armenian churches; while they cherish the highest reverence for the Holy Scriptures, and, in theory at least, exalt them far above all human traditions. Their doctrinal tenets, so far as I have learned them, are, in general quite clearly expressed and correct. On the momentous subject of the divinity of Christ, in relation to which the charge of heresy is so violently thrown upon them by the Papal and other oriental sects, their belief is orthodox and

scriptural. They are, I believe, orthodox on the subject of the Trinity.

They agree with the Greeks and Armenians in relation to the procession of the Holy Spirit, which they believe to be from the Father only, in opposition to the Papists, who hold that the operation proceeds both from the Father and the Son. The Nestorians hold to the perpetual virginity of Mary, though they attach far less importance to that point than other oriental Christians.

§ 8. RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES.

Fasts. The following catalogue of the Nestorian fasts is given by Messrs. Smith and Dwight, with their usual accuracy, as it was furnished them by Mar Yohannan's father:-"It being Friday, we first questioned the priest respecting the fasts of his church. In conjunction with the others who were present, he informed us that they fast every Wednesday and Friday; twenty-five days before Christmas; fifteen days before the feast of St. Mary; three days before the feast of the cross, which occurs twelve days after Christmas; three days before the feast of St. John; three days before the feast of Khodéera Nébhee;* fifty days before Easter, including Easter Sunday, when they eat meat; and fifty days before Pentecost, the observance of which is optional and not regarded by all. We asked, as he finished the list, if there are no more, and he jocosely replied, Why, are not these enough? What of the year remains for us to eat?' In none of their fasts do they eat any animal substance whatever; and in Lent, with the exception of Sundays and festivals, they eat but twice, once after midday, and once after evening prayers, and some eat only the latter meal."†

Festivals. The following statement is from Mar Yohannan: "We keep fifty days as the fast of our Saviour, Jesus Christ; and on the fiftieth day we hold a festival. Further, there is another festival, which we call the festival of Christ's ascension to heaven. And again, the feast of Pentecost. Fifty days, commencing with Pentecost, is the fast of the apostles; and at the close of this fast we keep the feast of the apostles. Again, we keep a fast of fifteen days in the month of August, called the fast of St. Mary. Again, there are the seven weeks' fast of Elias, and the seven weeks' fast of Moses, which some men observe, and some do not observe.

* An epithet applied to Jonah.

Researches in Armenia, vol. ii. p. 208. Parts only of the paragraph on this subject are here quoted.