TOPOGRAPHY, RACES, RELIGIONS, LANGUAGES AND CUSTOMS. 59 



in the thirteenth century Bar-Hebrseus, a promoter of the 

 Jacobites, wishing to make a thorough distinction between 

 the writing of the Monophysites and that of the Nestoriane, 

 changed the characters and vowel points. The Chaldean p 

 and a were changed into ph and o respectively, and if we 

 refer to Holy Writ, either Hebrew or Greek, we shall find the 

 present Chaldeans keep the old pronunciation in the case ot 

 the words Yegar-sahadutha"^ (heap of witness), Maranathaf 

 (our Lord's coming), Abbaf (father), Talitha§ (damsel), Maria 

 (Lord), Allaha (God), which the Syrians pronounce Yogor- 

 Sohodwotho, Moronotho, Obbo, Tolitho, Morio and Olloho. 



Though I have no doubt that the Nestorians both of the 

 lowland and highland ol Assyi'ia came formerly from the 

 same origin as the Chaldeans of Mossul, Baghdad, and Diar- 

 bekir, socially speaking, they do not stand on the same level, 

 because while the former with few exceptions are rural and 

 of the peasant uneducated class, being, like the Coords their 

 neighbours from remote time, stationary, the latter have 

 always been progressive and cultured. 



As I said before, the so-called Syrians are merely a 

 religious community, and the name has no more to do with 

 a nationality, than that of Wesleyan or Romanist. They 

 are divided into two sects, one follows the tenets of the 

 Roman Catholic Church, and the other, which is the largest 

 section of the two, is named Jacobites, called thus after 

 their great reformer, the celebrated Jacobus Bar-Addaeus, to 

 whom I alluded before. They are almost always found 

 together in Assyria, Upper Mesopotamia, and Syria, but the 

 Monophysite party has some adherents on the coast of 

 Malabar, whom they managed to convert to their faith from 

 the community which was in communion with the Chaldean 

 Church in Mesopotamia, through the intrigue of the Vatican 

 party, and the neglect of the Chaldean hierarchy in Mesopo- 

 tamia, from whence they used in olden times to receive their 

 Prelates. The Syrian Patriarchs of the Jacobites, as well as 

 the Catholics, claim their ecclesiastical succession from the 

 see of Antioch, and they consequently assume the name ot 

 " Ignatius," and oddly enough they both sign their names 

 " Patriarch of the see of Antioch." 



In faith the Jacobites are Monophysites, and with the 

 exception of the difference of their nationality, language. 



* Gen. xxxi, 47. t 1 Cor. xvi, 22. | Mark xiv, 36. 



§ Mark v, 41. 



