TOPOGRAPHY, EACES, RELIGIONS, LANGUAGES AND CUSTOMS. 55 



such as Aramaic, in connexion with Hebrew, Chaldee, 

 and Arabic, and Latin with ItaHan, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

 For instance, the Chaldean word Estranghelo is sometimes 

 spelled Stranghilee, ibn, (a son in Arabic), is bin in Hebrew. 

 Emmanuel in Latin and other European languages is Manuel 

 in Portuguese; the sacred words "praise ye tbe Lord," 

 are Halleluiah in Hebrew and Chaldean or Aramaic, and 

 Alleluia in Greek. The word hosanna (save us) is Oshaaiia 

 in Chaldean or Aramean and hoshanna in Hebrew. Even it 

 we adopt the word " Syria " to mean the Biblical " Aram " of 

 the Hebrews, as it is translated in the different European 

 languages, how could this misnomer apply to the country 

 lying on the eastern and northern side of the Tigris, and the 

 Assyrian and Median mountains ? To say nothing about the 

 extensive territory which intervenes between that river and 

 the Euphrates called " Mesopotamia " ! 



All the Turks, Yezeedees, Coords, Persians, and Indians 

 pronounce the Arabic th (as they are used in the English word 

 there) as s, and the dh (as in the word thoii) as z. Moreover 

 if the critics were to study carefully the ethnology and 

 etymology of the different races inhabiting Biblical lands, they 

 would have no difBculty in arriving at a correct conclusion 

 as to the origin of a people. How Dean Maclean manages to 

 make the natives of Western Persia, Assyria, and Mesopo- 

 tamia, " Syrians " is more than I can fathom. If according 

 to his new theory the Nestorians are to be styled " East 

 Syrians," and the Syrian Jacobites " West Syrians," then 

 there must be new names invented for the Chaldeans of 

 Assyria and Mesopotamia, and also for the Syrian Catholics 

 of those countries ; because the former could not be called 

 "East Syrians," as they are not Nestorians, nor the latter 

 be termed " West Syrians," because they are not Jacobites, 

 unless one will be styled "East Syrian Cathohcs," and the 

 the other " West Syrian Catholics," names which I presume 

 would be objected to, lirst by the people themselves, and 

 secondly, by the Ottoman authorities, who would consider 

 such interference strange and uncalled for. The plain ques- 

 tion is how are these people styled officially from time 

 immemorial ? Certainly not East or West Syrians, nor were 

 the Chaldeans, whether Nestorians or Catholics, ever called 

 Syrians. If the Jacobites chose to style themselves " Syrians '' 

 alter they separated themselves from the primitive Cbaldean 

 chm'ch it was their own affair, and they are welcome to 

 adhere to the foreign term which they have assumed. 



