TOPOGRAPHY^ EACES, KELIGIONS_, LANGUAGES AND CUSTOMS. G9 



their great pliysical resemblance and monev-making tenclencr. 

 We know from history that Sargon, the King of Assyria, on 

 carrying away the ten tribes captives, placed them in the 

 cities of the Medes, but it has not been known what became 

 of them afterwards. Had they remained as a separate 

 people, there or elsewhere, they would have populated 

 Armenia, Persia, Media, and Central Asia, but in this nine- 

 teenth century not more than about ten thousand families 

 exist ill those parts. The late Dr. Grant of the American 

 Board of Missions, who spent a long time amongst the 

 Chaldeans, was of opinion that the Nestorians of Teearee 

 are a part of the lost ten tribes. I do not elispute that there 

 may be some Israelitish blood in some of the Nestorians, be- 

 cause in the time of their conversion to Christianity there 

 must have been a large number of the chosen race who 

 joined in the belief, and as a matter of course the}^ both 

 amalgamated under one faith anel name. 



It is very sad to visit Armenia, Eastern Asia Minor, and 

 Northern Coordistan, and see what Ezekiel the Prophet (.'alls 

 the " Grarden of God,"* in such a deplorable condition. One 

 has only to visit the Pashalicks of Kharpoot, and Diarbekir, 

 where other Armenian massacres have taken place, and see 

 what a magnificent country it is, and Avhat wealth could be 

 got out of it, if it was only better governed. 



The languages which are spoken in Coordistan anel Asia 

 Minor are Greek, Turkish, Coordish, Armenian, ►Syriac, and 

 Chaldean. Although a large number of Turcomans are to 

 be founel in Asia Minor anel Coorelistan. who speak coarse 

 Turkish, the official transactions in all those districts is 

 carried on in the modern Turkish embellisheel greatly with 

 Arabic and Persian words. 



In the greater part of Assyria, Chaldean is spoken, though 

 in Mesopotamia the common language is Arabic, but each 

 of the eliflferent Christian communities retains its mother 

 tongue in the church services and in corresponelence about 

 ecclesiastical matters; so also in Syria, the Holy Land, and 

 Egypt. The Turkish language is only usee! in official corre- 

 spondence and government transactions. 



The dress of the natives of Biblical lands has undergone a 

 great change in the last fifty years; that is to say, since the 

 government of Ali Pasha of Egypt and his son Ibraheem, 



* Ezekiel xxviii, 13 ; xxxi, 9 ; xxxvi, 35 ; Joel ii, 3. 



