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converted to Christianity, as it is supposed in the time of the 
Apostles, they were called Nazarenes, by which name the 
Christians are styled even now by the Moslem inhabitants of 
Asiatic Turkey, but they themselves retain the name of 
their different nationalities, as the case may be, and use the 
language of their nationality in ecclesiastical matters. Now 
there is no person who can be properly called a Turk, an 
Arab, or a Koord who is not a Moslem ; nor is there a Greek, 
Armenian, Syrian, or Chaldean, who is not a Christian. 
Since the conquest of the countries commonly called Turkey 
and Persia by the followers of Mohammed in the seventh 
century of the Christian era, no Christian, Jew, or Gentile, 
dared change his religion and embrace another save Islamism; 
it is therefore certain that all the existing non-Mohammedan 
population of Turkey have descended from Christian, Jew, or 
Yezeedee parents since the promulgation of the dogma “ there 
is no God but one, and Mohammed is his prophet.” 
55. The Yezeedees, who are generally called devil-wor- 
shippers, are doubtless of Assyrian or Chaldean origin, and 
having mixed for so many centuries with Christians and 
Moslems, they have adopted certain ceremonies from both. 
There is no doubt they believe in the power of two deities, the 
good and the evil ; the latter of which, who is inferior to the 
former, and whom we call Satan, they acknowledge to be now 
in disgrace, but at the end of time the good God would be 
reconciled to him, and give him unlimited power; and then, 
woe betide those who had abused him when he was restrained ! 
Both in life and habit they resemble the Koords, and in their 
bravery and daring, even at the present day, when they consist 
of a small number, and dreadfully persecuted, they show they 
valour and spiritedness characteristic of the ancient Assyrians. 
56. The rural Chaldean Christians, whether Roman Catholics 
or Nestorians, come under the same category of physical 
superiority over other nationalities ; and it is a notable fact 
that what Xenophon reported nearly 2,300 years ago, when he 
marched with the 10,000 Greeks through the mountains of 
Assyria, can be repeated now with regard to the bravery of 
the Chaldeans, the timidity of the Armenians, and the treachery 
of the Koords, whom he found occupying the same country as 
they do now. 
57. In my last two expeditions to Mesopotamia I had a great 
desire to make a few excavations at Babylon, but different 
causes prevented me from fulfilling my object until last 
February. I had been suffering from low fever the whole of 
the winter, and though I was not actually laid up I could not 
