Chapter XVIII: Babylon (4)

[181] In the Koran, Sura V., it is written, “O believers! surely wine and games of chance and statues, and divining arrows are an abomination of Satan’s work! Avoid them that ye may prosper.”

[182] _Cf._ _Mishcat-Ul-Masabih, or a Collection of the Most Authentic Traditions Regarding the Actions and Sayings of Mohammed_, Vol. II, pp. 368–370 (trans. from the Original Arabic by Capt. A. N. Mathews, Calcutta, 1809). “The Angel Gabriel did not visit Mohammed as he promised to do one night because of the presence of a puppy, saying to Mohammed ‘we angels do not go into a house in which are pictures or dogs.’” Vol. II, p. 368.

[183] Sismondi, writing of the Eastern story-tellers, among whom are women as well as men, informs us they sometimes “excite terror or pity, but they more frequently picture to their audience those brilliant and fantastic visions which are the patrimony of the eastern imagination.... The physicians frequently recommend them to their patients in order to soothe pain, to calm agitation or to produce sleep after long watchfulness; and these story-tellers, accustomed to sickness, modulate their voices, soften their tones and gently suspend them as sleep steals over the sufferers.” _Historical View of the Literature of Southern Europe_, Vol. I, p. 62 (Bohn Edition).

[184] The Sheik-ul-Islam issued a vigorous fetwa against it in which he declared that its use “was contrary to the Koran” and that “smoking was a hideous and abominable practice of the Giaours, which no true Believer should adopt.”

[185] “The Eastern nations are generally so addicted to both that they say ‘a dish of coffee and a pipe of tobacco are a complete entertainment’; and the Persians have a proverb that coffee without tobacco is meat without salt.” Sale, _The Koran_, p. 88, “Preliminary Discourse.”

[186] “Most people who have travelled in the Levant are enthusiastic in their praises of the Turkish coffee which they drank out there. There is no reason why coffee prepared in the Turkish style should not become popular here. There is no difficulty about making it. That the coffee may have the delicious flavor it has in the Levant, the beans must be freshly roasted and ground very fine. The water must be boiled in a tin or copper coffee-pot. To supply, say four or five persons with coffee in tiny cups, two or three teaspoonfuls of the powder should be put into the pot while the water is actually boiling therein. Some people do not like sugar in their coffee, but if sugar is required, it should be put into the boiling water and allowed to melt before the coffee is added. Great sweetness is not appreciated by connoisseurs in coffee drinking. When the ground coffee is added to the boiling water, the pot should be taken off the fire and the coffee stirred up in the water with a teaspoon. Then it should be put on the fire again until the froth rises up. It is then poured into the cups. It is better to pour out the coffee slowly, placing the pot on the fire at short intervals, and thus getting more froth for pouring out into the cups, as the taste of the coffee is supposed to be better with the yellowish froth on the surface. It is on account of this idea that greedy people in Turkey choose those cups that have the most froth when coffee is handed round on a tray, leaving those with less to the others who are waiting their turn to be served.” Halil Halid’s _Diary of a Turk_, p. 244 (London, 1903).

[187] In marked contrast to this wildly lyrical praise of the fragrant and delicious beverage made from the Arabian berry, is the denunciation which was hurled against it by the orthodox followers of Islam who declared it to be a menace to public morals and one of the four ministers of the Devil--the other three being wine, opium, and tobacco. “During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries coffee-drinkers were persecuted more rigorously in Constantinople than wine-bibbers have ever been in England or America. Their most unrelenting enemy was the bloody Murad IV--himself a drunkard--who forbade the use of coffee under pain of death. He and his nephew, Mehmed IV, after him used to patrol the city in disguise, à la Harun-al-Rashid, in order to detect and punish for themselves any violation of the law.... A personage no more straitlaced than Charles II caused a court to hand down the following decision: ‘The Retayling of Coffe may be an innocente Trayde; but as it is used to nourisshe Sedition, spredde Lyes, and scandalyse Greate Mene, it may also be a common Nuissaunce.’” _Constantinople Old and New_, p. 24 (by H. G. Dwight, New York, 1915).

[188] _The Beauties of the Bosphorus_, p. 127 (London, 1839).

[189] _Cf._ his _Origin of Cultivated Plants_, p. 439 _et seq._ (New York; _Géographie Botanique Raisonnée_ (Paris, 1885).

[190] _Historical Sketches_, Vol. I, p. 116, 117 (by Cardinal Newman, London, 1901).

[191] _Cf._ _Discovery in Greek Lands_, p. 57 _et seq._ (by F. H. Marshall, Cambridge, 1920). See also _A Century of Archæological Discoveries_, p. 166 ff. (by A. Michaelis, New York, 1908).

Nothing impressed us more during our journey through Anatolia than the utter destruction of those superb cities of which a Roman author once wrote,

_Magnificas Asiæ perreximus urbes._

Of many of these even the sites were unknown until they were recently discovered by the archæologists of Europe. The site of the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus was not identified until 1869, although this celebrated structure was once classed as one of the seven wonders of the world. Nowhere in Asia Minor does one find anything to compare with the stately temples of Pæstum, Girgenti, and Segesta which, with the exception of the wonderful monuments in Athens, are the most remarkable and best preserved groups of ancient Greek architecture in existence.

[192] The region through which they marched was described in the graphic language of an old chronicler as _Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam, sterilem, inamœnam_.

[193] _The History of the Crusades_, Vol. 1. p. 126 (New York, n. d.).

[194] Ibid., p. 257.

[195] Ibid., p. 258.

[196] Called by Cicero _Tauri-Pylæ_.

[197] As legend has it, Charlemagne sleeps in Odenberg, in Hesse, where crowned and armed and girt with his trusty sword, _La Joyeuse_, he awaits the advent of Anti-Christ when he will awake and deliver Christendom.

Bonaparte, it is supposed in certain parts of France, will again return to restore the country to its pristine glory. When Louis Napoleon submitted the plebiscite to the countrymen, many gave their vote under the impression that it was in support of his famous uncle.

[198] _Lares et Penates_ or _Cilicia and Its Governors_, p. 79 (by W. B. Barker, London, 1853).

[199] Barker, _op. cit._, p. 82.

[200] The legend about people sleeping preternatural lengths of time has an honored place in the folklore of many nations in both the East and the West. We have already noted the traditions concerning the long sleeps of Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and other distinguished characters. But many other instances might be enumerated showing the prevalence of similar tales in many lands from the sleepers of Sardis, mentioned by Aristotle, to Rip Van Winkle, immortalized by Washington Irving.

[201] _Cf._ Strabo, XIV, 5; and Arrian’s _Anabasis of Alexander_, II, 5. For an account of Asurbanipal, in the light of recent Assyrian discoveries, see _Graven in the Rock_, Chap. XIV (by S. Kinns, London, 1891).

[202]

_Talk of our souls and realms beyond the grave,_
_The very boys will laugh and say you rave._

[203] _History of Greece_, Vol. X, p. 311 (by W. Mitford, London, 1810).

[204] The Greek word for pinion is _tarsos_.

[205] _Cf._ Josephus, _Antiquities of the Jews_, I. 6; VIII. 7. 2. The Jewish historian was probably misled by the similarity of sounds of the two words and ventured to solve what has always been a riddle to historians and Scripture commentators.

[206] “Oppidum autem Britanni vocant,” says Cæsar, referring to the capital of Cassivellaunus, now London, “cum sylvas impeditas vallo atque fossa munierunt, quo incursiones hostium vitandæ causa convenire consuerunt.” _De Bello Gallico_, Lib. V, Cap. 21.

[207] Strabo, _Geography_, XIV, 51.

[208] J. B. Lightfoot in _Philippians_, Appendix on St. Paul and Seneca, p. 271.

[209] _The Cities of St. Paul, Their Influence on His Life and Thought_, pp. 88, 89 (London, 1907).

[210] _The Heathen World and St. Paul_, p. 20 (by E. H. Plumptre, London, n.d.).

[211] _Acts of the Apostles_, xvii; 6.

[212] In one of his beautiful homilies on the _Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans_, St. John Chrysostom, the greatest of pulpit orators, declares: “I honor Rome for this reason; for, though I could celebrate her praises on many other accounts;--for her greatness, for her beauty, for her power, for her wealth, for her warlike exploits, yet, passing over all these things, I glorify her for this reason, that St. Paul in his lifetime wrote to the Romans, and loved them, and was present among them and conversed with them, and ended his life among them. Wherefore the city is on this account renowned more than all others; on this account I admire her, not on account of her gold, her columns or her other splendid decorations.” _Oeuvres Complètes de Saint Jean Chrysostome_, Tom XVI, p. 308 (Paris, 1871).

[213] _Across Asia Minor on Foot_, pp. 35, 351 (by W. J. Childs, New York, 1917).

[214] The massacre in Constantinople which so horrified the civilized world was, like that in Adana, provoked by the revolutionary activities of the Armenians. After having boldly announced their intention of applying the torch to the city and “reducing it,” as their posted placards phrased it, “to a desert of ashes,” a party of audacious young conspirators proceeded to blow up the Ottoman Imperial Bank, while others of their associates made the Psammatia quarter flow in the blood of helpless inhabitants. During eighteen hours of terror the carnage which the Armenians caused by their use of dynamite and by throwing bombs from the windows upon the Turkish soldiers, who were detailed to suppress the outbreak, rivaled anything recorded in the worst days of the Paris Commune of 1871. _Cf._ _Turquie Agonisante_, p. 174 (by Pierre Loti).

Without pretending to absolve the exasperated Turks for their part in this appalling massacre, I may ask “what would the people of New York do if a foreign mob from the East Side with the red flag at their head were to attempt to blow up the Subtreasury Building and to make the same use of high explosives in their wanton destruction of life and property as did the Armenians in their ghastly work in Constantinople?” The answer will be sufficient attenuation for the conduct of the infuriated Turks on this frightful occasion. And yet, according to the reports flashed through the world at the time, this massacre, like that at Adana and at numberless other places, was laid to the charge of the “unspeakable Turk.” It was the old, old story; the Turk is always guilty, the Armenian never.

[215] _A Wandering Scholar in the Levant_, pp. 147–150 (London, 1896).

[216] Pierre Loti tells of a French consul in Asia Minor who barely escaped assassination at the hands of an Armenian agitator who, when questioned regarding his attempt on the life of the functionary, coolly replied: “I did this in order that the Turks might be accused of it and in the hope that the French would rise up against them after the murder of their consul.” _Les Massacres d’Arménie_, p. 50 (Paris, 1918).

[217] _The Diary of a Turk_, p. 130.

[218] D. G. Hogarth, _op. cit._, p. 77.

[219] Ibid., 65.

[220] Halil Halid’s _Diary of a Turk_, p. 129 (London, 1903). “Alors,” declares Pierre Loti, “comme des lions exaspérés ils se dechaînent contre ceux que, depuis des siècles, on leur a denoncés comme les plus dangereux responsables de tous les malheurs de la patrie.... Hélas! oui, les Turcs ont massacré! Je pretends toutefois que le recit de leur tueries a toujours été follement exagéré et les details enlaidis à plaisir; je pretends aussi--et personne là-bas n’osera me contredire--que la beaucoup plus lourde part des crimes commis revient aux Kurdes dont je n’ai jamais pris la defense.” _Op. cit._, p. 22–24.

[221] Commenting on this subject Professor, now Sir William Ramsay, writes, “Lord Salisbury protests in the strongest terms that Britain has never entertained any schemes of acquisition in Asia Minor. There is, however, probably no Russian or German or Frenchman who believes him.... The protestations that Britain entertains no designs in Asia Minor merely make people abroad all the more sure that a British statesman’s word can never be trusted.” And, referring to her creation of a new consular department to aid her in compassing her designs, he observes “as a piece of statesmanship, crafty and unscrupulous, but able, it was a master-stroke; though I think no one among us will ever look back to it without blushing for the jockeying by which it was effected.” _Impressions of Turkey During Twelve Years Wanderings_, pp. 142–144 (London, 1897).

In the light of recent events how significant--almost prophetic--are these words of Sir William on British policy and diplomacy regarding Turkey!

[222]

_Where men once dwelt, a dreary lake is seen,_
_And coots and bitterns haunt the waters green._
_Metamorphoses_, VIII, 24, 25.

[223] Count Marcellinus, one of the first ministers of Justinian, vividly describes, in a single sentence, the frightful depredations of Attila when this dreadful “Scourge of God” _Pene totam Europam, invasis excisique civitatibus atque castellis, conrasit_. This sentence perfectly describes the depredations of Timur and Jenghiz Khan during their terror-inspiring careers in Western Asia. Of Jenghiz Khan the Arabian traveler, Ibn Batuta, writes that he “came into the countries of Islamism and destroyed them.” The same authority says that after destroying such great cities as Bokhara and Samarcand “he killed the inhabitants, taking prisoners the youth only and leaving the country quite desolate. He then passed over the Gihon and took possession of all Khorasan and Irak, destroying the cities and slaughtering the inhabitants.” His son, Hulaku, laid Bagdad in ruins, whence he proceeded with his followers to Syria, continuing his depredations “until divine Providence put an end to his career.” _The Travels of Ibn Batuta_, pp. 87, 88, 89 (trans. by S. Lee, London, 1829).

The English historian, Marshman, writing of the elder Mongol conqueror, declares: “From the Caspian to the Indus, more than one thousand miles in extent, the whole country was laid waste with fire and sword by the ruthless barbarians who followed Jenghiz Khan. It was the greatest calamity which had befallen the human race since the Deluge and five centuries have been barely sufficient to repair that desolation.” _History of India from Remote Antiquity to the Accession of the Mogul Dynasty_, Vol. I, p. 49 (London, 1842).

“Well might the Mussulman and Christian world shrink down upon its knees in the presence of such a terrible visitation. ‘We pray God,’ writes Ibin al Athir, ‘that He will send to Islam and to the Mussulmans someone who can protect them, for they are the victims of the most terrible calamity, the men killed, their goods pillaged, their children carried off, their wives reduced to slavery or put to death, the country in fact, laid waste.’ Juveni says that in the country traversed by the Mongols, only a thousandth part of the population remained and where there were previously one hundred thousand inhabitants there remained but a hundred. ‘If nothing interferes with the growth of the population in Khorasan and Irak Ajem from now to the day of resurrection,’ he adds, ‘it will not be the tenths of what it was before the conquest.’” _History of the Mongols_, Part III, p. i (by H. Howorth, London, 1888).

Jenghiz Khan and “his followers tramped over the fairest portions of the earth with the faggot and the sword in their hands, forestalling the day of doom and crumbling into ruin many old civilizations. His creed was to sweep away all cities as the haunts of slaves and of luxury, that his herds might freely feed upon grass whose green was free from dusty feet. It does make one hide one’s face in terror to read that from 1211 to 1223 eighteen million four hundred and seventy thousand human beings perished in China and Tangut alone at the hands of Jenghiz and his followers; a fearful hecatomb which haunts the memory until one forgets the other features of the story.” Howorth, _op. cit._, Part I, p. 113.

[224] Pliny in his _Historia Naturalis_, II, 86, writes: _Maximus terræ memoria mortalium extitit motus, Tiberii Cæsaria principatu_; XII _urbibus Asiæ una nocte prostatis_.

[225] _History of Greece From Its Conquests by the Romans to the Present Time, B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864_, Vol. I, p. 224 (by George Finlay, Oxford, 1877).

[226] I do not ignore the atrocities which the Turks, especially during the last few decades, are alleged to have committed in Armenia and elsewhere. But until reliable testimony as to the Ottoman side of the question is forthcoming it is only fair to the accused for one to suspend judgment.

[227] _Mahomet et le Coran_, p. vii (Paris, 1865).

[228] “Neque in hoc me falli opinor cum hodieque non paucos ex nostris, alioquin non indoctos, Mahumeticarum rerum tam rudes videam, ut Mahumetanos Idolatras, Lunæque ac Mahumeti adoratores existiment, aliasque de Agarenica secta ejusque Auctore neptias effutiant.” _Alcorani Textus Universus_, Tom. I, p. 6 (Patavii, 1698).

Padre Lodovico Marracci, who was a religious of the order of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, was the confessor of Pope Innocent XII. It was in obedience to the command of this Pontiff that he published his great work on the Koran on which he spent forty of the best years in his life. It embraces three folio volumes with the text of the Koran in Arabic, accompanied by a Latin translation and copious notes, and is notable as being the most successful of the earlier attempts to make the Koran and Mohammedanism known to the Christian world.

[229] _Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammed_, Vol. II, p. 181 (Berlin, 1862).

[230]

_A mil Franceis fait bien oerchier la vile,_
_Les sinagoges et les mahumeries:_
_A mailz de fer, à ouignèes qu ’il tindrent,_
_Fruissent Mahum e trestutes les ydles._
Lai CCXCVI.

[231]

_A. I. josdi s’ala d’ un fort vin enivrer;_
_De la taverne issi; quant il s’en volt aler,_
_En une place vit. I. fumier reverser;_
_Mahomes si colcha, ne s’en volt trestorner:_
_Là l’estranglèrent porc, si com j’oï conter;_
_Por ce ne volt juis de char de porc goster._
Vv. 5547 _et seq._ (Paris, 1860).

[232] Porcorum verum esum, justa prorsus ratione, contemnunt qui morsibus eorum dominum consumserunt. _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades_, Tom. IV, p. 130 (Paris, 1879).

[233] “As a sample of the controversial works of the theologians of the Reformed Church on this subject,” Mr. R. B. Smith in his interesting work on _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, p. 79 (London, 1876), calls attention to “the following modest title-page of a ponderous work written in 1666: Anti-Christus Mahometes: ubi non solum per Sanctam Scripturam, ac Reformatorum testimonia, verum etiam per omnes alios probandi modos et genera, plene, fuse, imvicte solideque demonstratur Mahometem esse unum illum verum, magnum de quo in Sacris fit mentio, Antichristum.”

[234] _Mohammedanism_, p. 12 (New York, 1916).

[235] _Historia Orientalis_, _Dedicatio_, p. 5 (by J. H. Hottinger, Zurich, 1660).

[236] “Quod vero dissimulandum non est, licet quidam docte, satis solideque scripserint, nonnulli ex rerum Sarracenicarum ignorantia, vera plerumque omittentes, ficta ac fabulosa in medium protulerunt, quæ Mahumetanis risus excitarent eosque in errore suo obstinatiores efficerent.” _Alcorani Textus Universus_, Tom. I, p. 1 (Patavii, 1698).

[237] Referring to the widespread errors concerning Mohammed and his teachings the eminent Orientalist, Adrian Reland, wrote more than two centuries ago: “Quotidie magis magisque experior mundum decipi velle et præconceptis opinionibus regi”--I daily become more and more convinced that the world wishes to be deceived and is governed by preconceived opinions. _De Religione Mohammedica_, p. xxii (Utrecht, 1705). Is there not still room for improvement in this respect?

[238] “Mohammed litt an einer Krankheit, welche in jener ausgepragten Form, wie bei ihm, in unseren Gegenden bisweilen bei Frauen, aber selten bei Mannern vorkommt, Mann hat ihr verschiedene Namen gegeben; Schönlein heisst sie _hysteria muscularis_.” _Op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 207.

[239] “Nulla porro falsa doctrina eat quæ non aliqua vera intermisceat.” _Quæst_, Evang. II. 40.

[240] _Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschicte_, Vol. I, p. 748 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1884).

“It can be readily understood how the sight of the Muslim trader at prayer, his frequent prostrations, his absorbed and silent worship of the Unseen, would impress the heathen African, endowed with that strong sense of the mysterious such as generally accompanies a low stage of civilization. Curiosity would naturally prompt inquiry and the knowledge of Islam thus imparted might sometimes win over a convert who might have turned aside had it been offered unsought, as a free gift.” _The Preaching of Islam_, p. 418 (by T. W. Arnold, London, 1913).

This view was emphasized by good old Father Marracci more than two centuries ago when he wrote: “Si ethnicus humani intellectus captum excedentia, vel naturali conditioni et imbecilitati dificillima, si non impossibilia, ... cum Alcoranica doctrina comparaverit, statim ab his refugiet et ad illa obviis ulnis accurret.” _Op. cit._, Tom. II, p. 9.

[241] _Cf._ J. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, _op. cit._, p. x.

[242] _De Heresibus Liber, Patrologia Græca_, Vol. XVIV, Col. 763 _et seq._ (Migne Edition).

[243] “Summa vero hujus hæresis intentio est ut Christus Dominus ut neque Deus neque Dei Filius esse credatur; sed licet magnus Deoque dilectus homo tamen purus et vir quidem sapiens et propheta maximus. Quæ quidem olim diaboli machinatione concepta primo per Arium seminata deinde per istum Satanam, scilicet Machumet, provecta, per Antichristum vero ex toto secundum diabolicam intentionem complebitur.” _Petri Venerabilis Opera Omnia_, col. 655, _Patrologia Latina_, Vol. Tom. CLXXXIX (Migne Edition).

[244] “Seminator di scandalo e di scisma.” Inferno, XXVIII, 35.

[245] C. Snouck Hurgronje, _Mohammedanism_, p. 129, _et seq._ (New York, 1916).

[246] The duty of the imam “is to stand in front of the congregation, facing the Kibleh or Mecca-pointing niche, at the appointed hours of devotion, that is ordinarily, as every one knows, five times a day, when he recites aloud the public prayers, marks time for the various devotional postures, and, in a word, acts as fugleman to the worshipers ranged behind him, from whom, however, he is distinguished by no special dress, caste or character! _Primus inter pares_; but nothing more. The Khatib, or preacher, usually reads out of an old, well-thumbed manuscript sermon book, or, though much more rarely, delivers _extempore_ the Friday discourse, a short performance, seldom exceeding ten minutes in duration.... Once outside the mosque, the imam, the khatib, or whoever else may have officiated during the prayers, is a house-mason, a green-grocer, or pipe-maker, or anything else, as before.” _Essays on Eastern Questions_, p. 91, _et seq._ (by W. G. Palgrave, London, 1872).

[247] _Op. cit._, p. 82.

[248] The word “mosque” is derived from the Arabic _masjid_ which signifies a place of worship.

[249] For a full description of Beith Allah--house of God--and the holy Kaaba, “Navel of the World,” as the Arabian geographer, Ibn Haukal, calls it, see Sir Richard Burton’s _A Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca_, Chaps. XXIV, XXV.

[250] _Cf._ _Aspects of Islam_, p. 199 _et seq._ (by D. B. MacDonald, New York, 1911).

[251] _Bibliothèque Orientale_, Tom. II, p. 81 (by Barthèlemy d’Herbelot, The Hague, 1777).

[252] D’Herbelot, _op. cit._, Tom. II, p. 106.

[253] D’Herbelot, _op. cit._, Tom. II, p. 351.

[254] _Op. cit._, p. 122, _et seq._

[255] _Mohammed and Islam_, p. 45 (by Ignaz Goldziher, trans, by K. C. Seelye, New Haven, 1917).

[256] _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, p. 334. _et seq._ (by R. B. Smith. London, 1876).

[257] _Studies in a Mosque_, p. 169 (London, 1893).

[258] “The spiritual energy of Islam is not, as has been so often maintained, commensurate with its political power. On the contrary, the loss of political power and worldly prosperity has served to bring to the front the finer spiritual qualities which are the truest incentives to missionary work. Islam has learned the uses of adversity and so far from a decline in worldly prosperity being a presage of the decay of this faith, it is significant that those very Muslim countries that have been longest under Christian rule show themselves most active in the work of proselyting. The Indian and Malay Mohammedans display a zeal and enthusiasm for the spread of the faith, which one looks for in vain in Turkey and Morocco.” T. W. Arnold, _op. cit._, p. 426, 427.

[259] According to Dr. Hubert Jansen’s painstaking _Verbreitung des Islams_, the number of Mohammedans in the world in 1897 was 259,680,672.

[260] “Si les Mussulmans et les Chrétiens me prâtaient l’oreille, je ferais cesser leur divergence, et ils diviendraient frères à l’extérieur et à l’intérieur.” _Rappel à l’Intelligent, Avis à Indifferent_, p. 105 (Paris, 1858).

[261] An American writer, referring to the Italian campaign in Tripoli, asks: “Is there rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash away the stain on Italy’s fair name made deep and black by ruthless massacre?” G. F. Herrick in _Christian and Mohammedan_, p. 236 (New York, 1912).

And an English author writing of the British war on the Gold Coast declares: “Our ‘prestige’ serves as an excuse for committing what we should condemn as crimes in any other nation. It is an entity that has juggled us into the belief that to destroy what we cannot retain is the prerogative not of barbarism, but of civilization and Christianity.... Truly this war will be a _damnosa hereditas_ to posterity, alike whether we accept or disclaim the fearful responsibilities in which it has involved us.” R. B. Smith, _op. cit._, p. 258.

[262] “Aggredior vos non, ut nostri sæpe faciunt, armis sed verbis; non vi, sed ratione; non odio, sed amore.” Peter the Venerable, _op. cit._, col. 673. “I attack you, not as our people often do with arms, but with words; not by force but by reason; not in hate but in love.” These are the words with which Peter the Venerable opens his first book against Mussulmans and shows what should be the attitude of the missionary that would have a hearing with a people who are as proud and sensitive as are the followers of Mohammed.

[263] For a helpful map, indicating the course of the Royal Road, the reader is referred to the third volume of Rawlinson’s _Five Great Monarchies_ (New York, 1881). Much light is also thrown on this interesting subject by Rennell’s valuable work, _The Geographical System of Herodotus_, Vol. I, Sec. 13 (London, 1830).

It is well, in reference to this subject, to recollect that the ordinary policy of the Asiatic monarchies was not that of holding immense continuous areas of territory, but the comparatively simpler one of safeguarding the great highways of communication. “It is important to remember this in connection with rapid conquest like that of Alexander. To conquer the Achæmenian empire did not mean the effective occupation of all the area within its extreme frontiers--that would have been a task exceeding one man’s lifetime--but the conquest of its cultivated districts and the holding of the roads which connected them.” _Cf._ _The House of Seleucus_, Vol. I, p. 22 (by E. R. Bevan, London, 1902).

[264] _Mishkab_ V, 6. Hughes’ _Dictionary of Islam_, p. 635 (London, 1885).

[265] _Mohammedanism_, p. 85 (New York, 1916).

[266] _Missionary Review_, 1889, p. 302.

[267] _Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah_, p. 299 (by Richard F. Burton, Boston, 1858).

[268] “But for the earthquakes which have here and there rent the walls and caused the roofs to fall in nothing would be missing except the woodwork carried off by the builders of more recent cities. The removal of the basalts and other hard materials drawn from the quarries of the district would have been too troublesome and expensive.” _The Earth and Its Inhabitants_, Vol. IV, p. 285 (New York, 1885).

[269] “Nel far le mercanzie, non si contano, ma si pesano casse intere di denari; e non si fa mai compra o vendita dove non corran quaranta, cinquanta, ottanta o centomila que piu a minuto non si parla e sarebbe vergogna.” _Viaggi di Pietro della Valle_, Vol. I, p. 331 (Brighton, 1843).

When one remembers the purchasing power of money in the time of the illustrious patrician compared with what it is now, the sums mentioned were indeed considerable.

[270] _Op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 353.

[271] _The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies_, Vol. I, p. 48 (pub. by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1885). “Merchants come thither”--Ormuz--“from India with ships loaded with spicery and precious stones, pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephants’ teeth and many other wares, which they sell to the merchants of Hormos”--Ormuz--“and which these in turn carry all over the world to dispose of again. In fact ’tis a city of immense trade.” _The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East_, Vol. I, p. 107 (trans. by H. Yule, London, 1903).

[272] _Hakluyt’s Voyages_, Vol. V, p. 446 (Glasgow, 1904).

[273] “Mettendo attorno al campo della carovana ... molte sentinelle che tutta la notte scorrevano intorno e gridavano, (secondo la lors usanza) agli amici que stessero all ’erta ed ai nemici che non si accostassero.” _Op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 353.

[274] _See_ Vol. I, p. 7.

[275] “Vivendi licentia, inquies, illos allicit. Ita puto: sed aliquid aliud est quod illos sub boni verique specie decipiat. Habet nimirum hæc superstitio quidquid plausibile ac probabile in Christiana Religione reperitur et quæ naturæ legi ac lumini consèntanea videntur. Mysteria illa fidei nostræ quæ primo aspectu inchedibilia et impossibiblia apparent, et præcipue quæ nimis ardua humanæ naturæ consentur, penitus excludit.” _Op. cit._ Tom. I, p. 4.

[276] _Dictionnaire Philosophique_, s. v. “Mahometanisme.”

[277] _Mankind and the Church_, p. 289 (by G. A. Lefroy, London, 1907).

[278] “A certain solidarity characterizes not only family relations but all Moslem society. There are no paupers; almsgiving is not a mere theoretical obligation but an essential religious duty really discharged. It may be replied that there are many beggars. There are and the spectacle is very unpleasant; but from the beggars’ point of view, could they, given their misfortunes, have a better life? If one has twisted limbs or any incurable malady, including laziness, is it not more healthy, interesting and lucrative to sit begging at street-corners than to be the inmate of a charitable institution? One thing is certain--Moslem beggars never starve.” _Turkey in Europe_, p. 176 (by Sir Charles Eliot, London, 1908).

[279] Lieutenant Wood, the gallant explorer of the Oxus, referring to this subject, writes: “Often ... have I observed that the Mohammedans, both old and young, however worn out by fatigue or suffering from hunger and thirst, have postponed all thought of self-indulgence to their duty to their God.

It is not with them the mere force of habit; it is the strong impression on their minds that the duty of prayer is so important that no circumstance can excuse its omission.” _Journey to the Source of the Oxus_, p. 93 (London, 1872).

[280] These good reports about Mohammedans are not of recent date. Read what Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, a Dominican missionary among them in the thirteenth century, has to say of them: “Quis enim non obstupescat si diligenter consideret quanta ... devotio in oratione, misericordia ad pauperes, reverencia ad nomen Dei et prophetas et loca sancta, gravitas in moribus, affabilitas ad extraneos, concordia et amor ad suos.” _Peregrinatores Medii Ævi Quatuor_, p. 131 (by J. C. M. Laurent, Leipsic, 1864).

[281] Regarding the Armenian’s capacity for business, Mr. Curzon has wittily remarked, that, while “it takes four Turks to cheat one Frank, two Franks to cheat one Greek and two Greeks to cheat one Jew, it takes six Jews to cheat one Armenian.” _Researches in the Highlands of Turkey_, Vol. I, p. 8 (by H. F. Tozer, London, 1869).

According to Dr. Schliemann, however, the palm for business ability must be awarded to the Greeks from the island of Lesbos. “The Lesbian Greeks,” he tells us, “have the reputation of being the shrewdest merchants in the world; as a proof it is alleged that in cities the commerce of which is in the hands of Lesbians not a Jew is to be found.” _Troja_, p. 324.

[282] The learned Benedictine, Father Parisot, has recently collected the vocabulary of this interesting dialect which is threatened with early extinction.

[283] This peculiarity is explained by the fact that when the Jews and Moors were expelled from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century tens of thousands of Jews migrated to Salonica and Constantinople where Spanish is still spoken by large numbers of their descendants.

[284] A like superstition attaches to nearly all similar remains of antiquity not only in Syria but in Egypt as well. Some are reputed to have special virtues for those suffering from tic-douloureux or from rheumatism for which affections they are said by Orientals to possess even greater curative properties than their famous panacea--the bezoar stone.

[285] Ibn Butlan, a noted Arabian physician, and a Christian, of Bagdad, who visited Aleppo in the middle of the eleventh century thus refers to this curious tradition: “In the lower part of the castle is a cave where he”--Abraham--“concealed his flocks. When he milked these, the people used to come for their milk crying ‘_Halaba ya la_’?--Milked yet or not?--asking thus one of the other, and hence the city came to be called Halab--Milked.” _Cf._ G. le Strange’s _Palestine Under the Moslems_, p. 363 (London, 1890).

[286] _The Hittites_, p. 12 (London, 1903).

[287] Genesis xxiii.

[288] Ezekiel xvi: 3.

[289] Kings ii: 12.

[290] St. Jerome in the beginning of his commentary on the gospel of St. Matthew, pertinently observes in this connection: “Notandum est ... nullam sanctarum assumi mulierum sed eas quas Scriptura reprehendit: ut que propter peccatores venerat, de peccatoribus nascens, omnium peccata deleret. Unde et in consequentibus Ruth Moabitis ponitur et Bethsabee uxor Uriæ.”

[291] _Travels in Syria and the Holy Land_, p. 147 (London, 1822).

[292] _Cf._ _The Language of the Hittites_ in _The Times Literary Supplement_, p. 180 (London, April 3, 1919).

[293] When the speech of the Hittites ceased to be a living tongue cannot even be surmised. St. Paul heard it in Lystra of Lycaonia, but how much later it may have continued to be spoken in certain other parts of Asia Minor cannot now be determined. As a people they doubtless long survived and, although they were gradually absorbed by neighboring races, “it is believed that some of them still exist, with their early distinctive characteristics, among the hills of the anti-Taurus range.”

We are likewise in ignorance as to when the languages of Egypt and Babylonia gave place to those of their conquerors. According to Sayce “the Egyptian hieroglyphics were still written and read in the time of Decius, the cuneiform characters of Babylon were employed in the age of Domitian.” _The Ancient Empires of the East_, p. ix (New York, 1886).

[294] According to recent investigations this was probably what is now known as the Wady el ’Arish and not the Nile, as usually supposed.

[295] Genesis xii: 5.

[296] Sayce’s _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, p. 410 (London, 1898). Lucius Ampelius writing in his _Liber Memorialis_, Cap. II, of the origin of the constellations, refers to a more extraordinary legend in connection with the Euphrates. “_Pisces ideo pisces quia bello Gigantum Venus perturbata in piscem se transfiguravit. Nam dicitur et in Euphrate fluvio ovum piscis in ora flumimis columba adsedisse dies plurimos et exclusisse deam benignam et misericordem hominibus ad bonam vitam. Utrique memoriæ causa pisces inter sidera locati._”

[297] For an interesting report on the excavations made at Djerabis on behalf of the British Museum, see the beautifully illustrated monograph _Carchemish_ (by D. G. Hogarth, London, 1915).

[298] It is to this legend that is due the Mussulman name--Nimroud Dagh--the Mountain of Nimrod--of the elevation on which stands the citadel of Urfa.

[299] In the “Testament of St. Ephrem,” as given by Assemani, occurs the words “Benedicta civitas, ... Edessa sapientum mater, quæ ex vivo Filii ore benedictionem per ejus discipulum accepit. Illa igitur benedictio in ea maneat donec Sanctus apparuerit.” _Bibliotheca Orientalis_, Tom. I, p. 141 (Rome, 1719).

[300] _Cf._ _Histoire Politique, Religieuse et Littéraire d’ Edesse jusque à la Première Croisade_, p. 81 (by R. Duval, Paris, 1892).

[301] _Ecclesiastical History_, Bk. I, Chap. XIII.

[302] An ancient manuscript in the British Museum contains a service book of Saxon times, in which the letter of Our Lord to Abgar follows the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed. At the end of the letter, which is in the Latin version of Rufinus, occurs the words: “Sive in domu tua, sive in civitate tua, sive in omni loco nemo inimicorum tuorum dominabit. Et insidias diaboli ne timeas et carmina inimicorum tuorum destruuntur (sic), et omnes inimici tui expellentur a te: sive a grandine, sive a tonitrua (sic) non noceberis, et ab omni periculo liberaberis: sive in mare, sive in terra, sive in die, sive in nocte, sive in locis obscuris. Si quis hanc epistolam secum habuerit, securus ambulet in pace.” _Cf._ _Ancient Syriac Documents Relative to the Earliest Establishment of Christianity in Edessa and the Neighboring Countries, from the Year after Our Lord’s Ascension to the Beginning of the Fourth Century, Discovered, Edited, Translated and Annotated by the late W. Cureton_, p. 154 (London, 1864). See also _The Book of Cerne_, p. 205, _et seq._ (by the erudite Benedictine, Dom. A. B. Kuypers, Cambridge, England, 1902).

[303] For a critical discussion of the “Legend of Abgar” see _Les Origines de l’Eglise d’Edesse et La Légende d’ Abgar_ (by the learned Sulpician, L. J. Tixeront, Paris, 1888).

“The practice of keeping this letter as a philactery prevailed in England till the last century.... ‘The common people’ there have had it in their houses in many places in a frame with a picture before it and they generally with much honesty and devotion regard it as the word of God and the genuine epistle of Christ.’... I have a recollection of having seen the same thing in cottages in Shropshire.” Cureton, _op. cit._, p. 155.

[304] In the province of Osrhoene, about a day’s journey from Edessa, was a celebrated mart called Batne, where the Indians and the Seres came to trade with the Edessenes and rich merchants from other cities at an annual fair which was held in this place in the month of September. Here, Ammianus Marcellinus informs us “magna promiscuæ fortunæ convenit multitudo ad commercanda quæ Indi et Seres aliaque plurima vehi terra marique consueta.” _Rerum Gestarum_, Lib. XIV, Cap. III, 3.

For an illuminating map showing the importance of Edessa as a trade center during Roman times, see V. Chapot’s _La Frontière de L’Euphrate de Pompée à la Conquête Arabe_, facing p. 402 (Paris, 1907).

[305] L. J. Tixeront, _op. cit._, p. 7, _et seq._

[306] _Cf._ _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Record and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia_, p. 200 (by T. G. Pinches, London, 1908).

[307] Genesis xi: 31.

[308] Ibid., 17.

[309] Purgatorio, XXVII, 94–108. Dante but follows the teaching of the Angelic Doctor who, writing on the active and the contemplative life, declares: “Istæ duæ vitæ significantur per duas uxores Jacob: activa quidem per Liam, contemplativa vero per Rachelem; et per duas mulieres quæ Dominum hospitio receperunt: contemplativa quidem per Mariam, activa vero per Martham.” _Summ. Theol._ Pars II, 2dæ, Q CLXXIX, Art. i.

[310] _Cf._ _The Book of the Bee_, p. 95–97, from the Syriac of _Mar Solomon, Bishop of Basra_ (trans. by E. A. W. Budge, Oxford, 1886).

[311] Students of history will remember that the Emperor Carcacalla was assassinated at Haran by one of his soldiers while on a visit to the temple of the Moon. The Roman general Crassus suffered a crushing defeat at the same place and was treacherously slain in the vicinity while in a conference with a Persian satrap.

[312] “Quæ jam a Mithradati regni temporibus, ne Oriens a Persis occuparetur, viribus restitit maximis.” Lib. XXV, Cap. IX.

[313] _Cf._ Assemani, _op. cit._, Tom. III, Part II, p. 927, _et seq._

Nisibis, “la grand metropole nestorienne, vit naïtre dans ses murs la première Université théologique, les premiers cours publics de théologie. Ce phenomene qui excitait l’admiration et étonnement du _quæstor sacri palatii_ de Justinien ne peut que nous donner une idée avantageuse de la culture du clerge nestorien a cette époque de son histoire.” _Le Christianisme dan l’Empire Perse sous la Dynastie Sassanide, (224–632)_, p. 301 (by J. Labourt, Paris, 1904).

[314] Dion Cassius, _History of Rome_, Bk. I, XVIII, 26.

[315] Genesis xxxv: 8.

[316] “In such circumstances,” writes one who knew the desert well, “the mind is influenced through the body. Though your mouth glows and your skin is parched with heat, yet you feel no languor, the effect of humid heat; your lungs are lightened, your sight brightens, your memory recovers its tone and your spirits become exuberant; your fancy and imagination are powerfully aroused and the wildness and sublimity of the scenes around you stir up all the energies of your soul--whether for exertion, danger or strife. Your _morale_ improves; you become frank and cordial, hospitable and single-minded: the hypocritical politeness and the slavery of civilization are left behind you in the city.... All feel their hearts dilate and their pulses beat strong as they look down from their dromedaries upon the glorious desert. Where do we hear of a traveler being disappointed by it? It is another illustration of the ancient truth that Nature returns to man, however unworthily he has treated her. And believe me, when once your tastes have conformed to the tranquillity of such travel, you will suffer real pain in returning to the turmoil of civilization. You will anticipate the bustle and confusion of artificial life, its luxury and its false pleasures with repugnance. Depressed in spirits you will for a time after your return feel incapable of bodily or mental exertion. The air of cities will suffocate you and the care-worn and cadaverous countenances of citizens will haunt you like a vision of judgment.” _Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah_, Vol. I, pp. 150, 151 (by Richard F. Burton, London, 1893).

[317] _A celeritate Tigris incipit vocari. Ita appellant Medi sagittam._ Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, VI, XXVII.

[318] We have seen in a previous chapter how unfounded is this statement.

[319] _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, Vol. I, p. 60 (trans. by H. Yule, London, 1903).

[320] _Geschichte der Ilchaner_, Vol. I, p. 191 (Darmstadt, 1842).

[321] Acts of the Apostles, ii: 9, 11.

[322] See map III of Heussi and Mulert’s _Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte_ for the extensive territory occupied by the Nestorian Church during its greatest development.

[323] The dwelling of the Patriarch, as described by a noted traveler of the last century, “is solidly built of hewn-stone and stands on the very edge of a precipice overhanging a ravine through which winds a branch of the Zab. A dark vaulted passage led us into a room scarcely better lighted by a small window closed by a greased sheet of coarse paper. The tattered remains of a felt carpet, spread in a corner, was the whole of its furniture. The garments of the Patriarch were hardly less worn and ragged. Even the miserable allowance of 300 piastres, about £2 10s., which the Porte had promised to pay him monthly on his return to the mountains was long in arrears, and he was supported entirely by the contributions of his faithful but poverty-stricken flock. Kochanes was, moreover, still a heap of ruins.” _Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert_, p. 363 (by A. H. Layard, New York, 1856).

[324] “La progression des Chrétians a été la suivante; en 1750, zéro; en 1856, de 30,000 a 40,000; en 1900, 66,000. Tout donne à espérer que le retour définitif des Nestoriens à la foi portera bientot et définitivement ce nombre, si ce n’est deja un fait accomplit, a 140,000.” _Les Missions Catholiques Francaises au XIXe Siècle_, p. 271 (Paris, 1900).

[325] For the dogmatic definitions of the Church at the General Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon against the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches see Denzinger’s _Enchiridion_, pp. 52, 65.

[326] The word Copt is apparently derived from the middle part of the Greek word _Aigyptos_ which means Egyptian. It is, however, always used to indicate a member of the Egyptian Monophysite Church.

[327] Melchite is a Græco-Syriac word which signifies imperial. It was given at the outbreak of the Monophysite schism to those Christians in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt who accepted the decrees of Chalcedon and remained loyal to the Emperor in Constantinople and to the Catholic Church. The name is now applied to the Uniates of these lands.

[328] _Cf._ _Verfassung und gegenwärtiger Bestand Sämtilicler Kirchen des Orients_, p. 384 (by I. Silbernagl, Regensburg, 1904).

[329] _The Orthodox Eastern Church_, p. 19 (by A. Fortescue, London, 1908).

[330] Fortescue, _op. cit._, p. 15.

[331] Not having a hierarchy, the Protestants in Turkey do not constitute a _Millet_. The Porte has consequently organized them, consisting chiefly of a small number of converted Armenians, and Syrians, into a special group under the Minister of Police.

[332] Among Orientals a common designation of Franks, which, since the time of the Crusades, has been applied to all the inhabitants of Western Europe.

[333] _Paradiso_, VI, I, 2.

[334] Addressing once a company of bishops Constantine declared: “You are bishops whose jurisdiction is within the Church; I also am a bishop ordained by God to overlook whatever is external to the Church.” Eusebius, _The Life of Constantine_, IV, 24.

[335] Fortescue, _op. cit._, p. 28.

[336] _The Churches Separated from Rome_, p. 151 (by L. Duchesne, New York, 1907).

“For three centuries after the foundation of New Rome,” writes Freeman, “Latin remained the tongue of government, law and warfare; and down to the last days of the Empire survivals of its use in that character still lingered on.... But Greek was from the beginning the tongue of literature and religion; and, even under Justinian himself, it began to creep into use as an alternative language of the law of Rome.--Gradually the Greek tongue displaced Latin for all purposes, but not till it had received a large infusion of Latin technical terms.... Save this technical Latin infusion the tongue of Constantinople was thoroughly Greek. The strange spectacle was there to be seen of an Emperor of the Romans, a Patriarch of New Rome, a Roman Senate and People glorying in the Roman name, and deriving their whole political existence from a Roman source, but in whose eyes the speech of Ennius and Tacitus and Claudian was simply the despised idiom of Western heretics and barbarians.” _Historical Essays_, Third Series, pp. 248, 249 (London, 1879).

[337] How great was their exasperation at the Pope’s action is evinced by the language they addressed to Luitprand, Archbishop of Cremona, when, in 968, he went on an embassy to Constantinople. “But,” they indignantly declare, “the mad and silly Pope does not know that St. Constantine transferred the imperial scepter, all the senate and the whole Roman army hither, and that at Rome he left only vile creatures such as fishermen, pastrycooks, bird-catchers, bastards, plebeians and slaves.” _Cf._ Fortescue, _op. cit._, p. 94.

[338] _Cf._ _Le Schisme Oriental du XI Siècle_, p. 275 (by L. Brehier, Paris, 1899).

[339] Now that the crash had come “one asks oneself what else the Legates could have done. They had waited long enough, and, if ever a man clearly showed that he wanted schism, it was Cerularius. He had already excommunicated the Pope by taking his name off the diptychs. We should note that this is the only sentence that the Roman Church pronounced against the Eastern Communion. She has never excommunicated it as such nor the other patriarchs. If they lost her communion it was because they too, following Cerularius’ example, struck the Pope’s name from their diptychs.” Fortescue, _op. cit._, p. 185.

[340] Although Innocent III, preacher of the Crusade, promptly excommunicated the Crusaders for their perfidy and treachery, the Greeks, nevertheless, persisted in declaring that His Holiness was the real cause of their misfortunes.

[341] According to the custom that subsequently prevailed it was the Grand Vizier who, in the Sultan’s name, gave the _berat_ to the newly appointed Patriarch. As to bishops-elect it was obligatory that they should receive their _berat_ from the government before their consecration.

[342] Thus, during the seventy-five years between 1625 and 1700, there were no fewer than 50 patriarchs whose average tenure of office was a year and a half. Compare this with the long reign--seventy-two years--of Gregory XVI, Pius IX, and Leo XIII whose average tenure of office was twenty-four years--just thirty-six times as long as that of the unfortunate Patriarchs in question.

[343] _Hom. II in Ephesios._

[344] “The Holy Father,” as Mgr. Duchesne beautifully declares, “has put all his heart into it; I might almost say, he had put only his heart into it.” _Op. cit._, p. 41.

[345] “Eo vel magis quod non ingenti discrimine seiunguntur: imo, si pauca excipias, sic cetera consentimus, ut in ipsis catholici nominis vindiciis non raro ex doctrina, ex more, ex ritibus, quibus orientales utuntur, testimonia atque argumenta promanus.”

[346] Inferno XXVIII, 35.

[347] _Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church_, pp. 2, 30 (London, 1861).

The testimony of Professor H. Gelzer, likewise a Protestant, is almost the same as that of Dean Stanley. Writing of the monastic establishments of the Orthodox Church he pertinently inquires: “While the Catholic Orders as teaching and nursing bodies have become an important element in the civilization of the nineteenth century, what have Athos, Sinai, Patmos or Megaspilion been doing? The Greeks often bitterly complain of the mighty progress of Catholic propaganda, but they must themselves admit that the best schools and hospitals in Turkey belong to the Catholic Orders.” _Von Heiligen Berge und aus Makendonien_, p. 2 (Leipsig, 1904).

[348] _Das Testament Leos_ XIII, in _Reden und Aufsätze_, Vol. II, p. 279 (Geissen, 1904).

[349] Fortescue, _op. cit._, p. 432, 433.

[350] Psalms, xliv: 10, “Neque aliud fortasse mirabilius est,” declares the Sovereign Pontiff, “ad catholicitatis notam in Ecclesia Dei illustrandam, quam singulare quod ei præbent obsequium dispares cæremoniarum formæ nobilesque vestustatis linguæ, ex ipsa Apostolorum et Patrum consuetudine nobiliares; fere ad imitationem obsequii lectissimi quod Christi divino Ecclesiæ auctori, exhibitum est nascenti, quum Magi ex varii Orientis plagis devecti venerunt ... adorare eum.”

[351] St. Paul to the Ephesians, iv: 13.

[352] St. John’s Gospel, xvii: 20, 21.

[353] Jonah, iv: 11. Those “that knew not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left,” is supposed to refer to young children.

[354] Genesis x: 11.

[355] iii: 19.

[356] ii: 13–15.

[357] _Anabasis_, Bk. III, Chap. 4. _Cf._ also _Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand_, p. 139 _et seq._ (by W. F. Ainsworth, London, 1844).

[358] _Charon_, 23.

[359] Even Cicero, declares: “Et apud Herodotum, patrem historiæ ... sunt innumerabiles fabulæ.” _De Legisbus_ Lib. I, Cap. I.

[360] Arabian writers, it is true, had agreed “during nine hundred years, in identifying the mounds on the east bank of the Tigris opposite Mosul with the ruins of Nineveh” but their views were so far from meeting with general acceptance that so late as 1843 the great French explorer, Botta, was convinced when he uncovered the wonderful palace of Sargon II, King of Assyria, B. C. 721–705, that the site of Nineveh was occupied by the ruins of Khorsabad. But the noted English investigator, Layard, “contrary to the teachings of Arabian and Syrian historians and local tradition,” was equally positive that “the ruins of Nineveh were buried under the mound of Nimroud,” which is twenty miles to the south of the actual site of the famous Assyrian capital which was so long the rival and eventually the conqueror of Babylon. _Cf._ _By Nile and Tigris_, Vol. II, p. 8 _et seq._, 15, 16 (by E. A. Wallis Budge, London, 1920).

[361] _The Buried City of the East: Nineveh_, Preface (London, 1851).

[362] _Nineveh and Its Palaces. The Discoveries of Botta and Layard Applied to the Elucidation of Holy Writ_, p. 1 _et seq._ (by J. Bonomi, London, 1852).

[363] “At the end of the seventeenth century, B.C., Asurbanipal’s sculptors at Nineveh were representing horses which the frieze of the Parthenon can hardly equal, and lions which no sculptor has ever surpassed in careful observations and truthful delineation.” _The Ancient History of the Near East_, p. 536 (by H. R. Hall, London, 1913).

[364] vi: 1.

[365] See his _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_, pp. 342–345 (London, 1853); _cf._ also _Hormuzd Rassam’s Asshur and the Land of the Nimrod_, p. 31 (New York, 1897), which gives an account of the discovery of more tablets, among which were the famed Deluge tablets.