THE SCENE OF THE NARRATIVE.
NESTORIANS.--THEIR COUNTRY.--FRONTISPIECE.--LAKE.--PLAIN.--FORDING THE
SHAHER.--MISSION PREMISES IN OROOMIAH.
We will now glance at the scene of the events to be narrated, as it may
not be familiar to every reader. To write of woman in Persia would
embrace the whole empire as the field of inquiry; for the existence of
woman is coextensive with the population. But "Woman and her Saviour in
Persia" confines our attention to those who have been taught the truth
as it is in Jesus; for when Christ sent forth Paul to preach his gospel
to the Gentiles, it was that they might receive forgiveness of sins,
and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in him;
and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Our
theme, then, confines us to the Nestorians, who number about one
hundred thousand souls. About two thirds of these live in Turkey; but
the following pages relate principally to those residing in Persia, and
hence the title of the volume.
This people inhabit, along with Koords and other races, the territory
extending from the western shore of the Lake of Oroomiah to the eastern
bank of the Tigris. It includes the Persian province of Oroomiah, and
both the eastern and western slope of Central Koordistan. The most
inaccessible recesses of the Koordish Mountains have been their refuge
for centuries. The whole region extends across four degrees of
longitude, with a varying breadth of from one to two degrees of
latitude. Attention will be called especially to the city of Oroomiah
and the villages around it. The plain of that name is seventy-five
miles long and from twelve to twenty miles in width, containing more
than a thousand square miles. It is dotted with perhaps three hundred
villages, the population varying, according to the size of the village,
from less than one hundred to more than a thousand inhabitants.
The frontispiece gives a view of this plain, from the roof of the
mission premises at Seir, one thousand feet above the city. The lofty
Wolf mountain appears on the right, and the high range west of the
narrowest part of the lake on the left. The lake itself is seen beyond
the plain at the foot of the mountains which rise abruptly from its
eastern shore. The distance makes it seem much narrower than it is, for
while one hundred miles in length, it is not far from thirty miles in
breadth. Its surface is forty-one hundred feet above the sea, and four
hundred feet below the city of Oroomiah. No living thing exists in its
waters, which are both salt and bituminous.
The plain is more crowded with villages than here represented, and each
one is made conspicuous by its grove of trees, as well as its houses.
The city appears prominent at the foot of the hill, though six miles
distant from the spectator. It is in the same latitude with Richmond,
Virginia, and contains about thirty-five thousand souls. The plain
slopes up very gradually from the lake, and Mount Seir rises, behind
our point of view, two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four feet
above the city. Farther west, the summits of Central Koordistan rise,
range above range, to the height of seventeen thousand feet.
We pass down from Seir to the city by a carriage road, now by the side
of vineyards, and now near fields of wheat and clover, diversified by
orchards and gardens of cucumbers. All of these, and indeed the whole
plain, owes its fertility to canals, led out from the rivers which
descend from the mountains. Willow, poplar, and sycamore trees line
these watercourses. All kinds of fruit trees abound, while the rich
verdure of the plain contrasts strikingly with the bare declivities
that overlook it from every side. The villages on either hand are
clusters of mud houses crowded together for greater security, and every
tree in their groves has to be watered as regularly as the fields and
gardens.
Before reaching the city we must ford the Shaher, a river that, though
frequently all drained off into the fields in summer, is very deep in
early spring, when fatal accidents sometimes occur. It was here that,
in May, 1846, Miss Fiske narrowly escaped a watery grave. On her way to
Seir, with Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard, the horse lay down in the middle of
the river, leaving her to be swept off by the rapid current. Mr.
Stoddard hastened to the rescue; but the moment his steed was loose, he
rushed to attack the horse of Mrs. Stoddard, and, as Miss Fiske rose to
the surface, she caught a glimpse of Mr. Stoddard looking back on the
battle, and his wife held between the combatants by her riding habit,
which had caught on the saddle; but while she looked the dress gave
way, and Mrs. Stoddard was safe. She herself had sufficient presence of
mind not to breathe under water, and, on coming up for the fifth time,
floated into shallow water near the opposite shore, forty rods below
the ford, just as Mr. Stoddard reached the same point.
From the river, beautiful orchards line the road on both sides to the
city gate, of which a representation is given on page 154; and about
one eighth of a mile inside of that, where the Nestorian and Moslem
sections of the city join each other, stand the mission premises, built
of sun-dried bricks, like the houses around them.
They occupy a little more than an acre, in the form of a parallelogram;
and if, for the sake of clearness, we compare it to a window, the
bottom of the lower sash is represented by a long, earthen-roofed
structure, half of it a dwelling house, once the home of Dr. Grant, but
now the dwelling of Dr. Wright. It is the building on the left of the
engraving at page 131, and the round object occupying the nearest
window in the second story is a clock, the gift of a well-known
merchant of Boston, brother of one of our deceased missionaries. Let
our lower sash be filled by two large panes in modern style, and these
are represented by two courts surrounded by pavements, and shaded by
large sycamore trees. In the engraving just referred to, the spectator
stands in one of these courts, looking over a low wall into the other.
For the top of the lower sash, we have another building, extending
across the premises. The left half of this appearing on page 131,
behind the trees, and on the opposite page represented without them,
was the first home of Dr. Perkins, and is now the Female Seminary; but
repeated additions and modifications have been required to transform a
building, originally erected for a private residence, into a structure
suitable for such a school.
Miss Fiske first taught in one room of a building to the right, which
does not appear in the engraving, though a part of it is seen on page
131; then, as the school grew larger, another room was added, and when
those quarters became too strait, this building was remodelled for its
use.
[Illustration: Female seminary at Oboomiah]
As we shall have a good deal to do with the Seminary in these pages,
let us become familiar with its home. Between the central door and the
one on the left, those three windows belong to a large room once used
as a chapel, but since then as a guest room for the accommodation of
the women whom we shall see coming here to learn of Jesus. In this
room, Nestorian converts first partook of the Lord's supper with the
missionaries. The left of the three windows directly over these, with
the rose-bush in it, belongs to Miss Fiske's private room, and the
other two to her sitting room. This the pupils have named "The Bethel,"
and it is so connected that the teacher can step into recitation room,
dining room, or kitchen, as occasion requires. The last named apartment
is on the rear of the building. The largest recitation room, by a
curious necessity, is in the form of a carpenter's wooden square, with
the teacher's desk in the angle between the two compartments. One of
these is on the back side of the building, out of sight; the other,
extending across the end, is represented in front by the window at the
extreme left.
Over the central door is, first, the steward's room, and then closets
over that; for one of the results of the successive alterations and
additions is, that parts of the building are two, and other parts
three, stories high. Miss Rice's room is directly over the door on the
left hand, as the steward's is here. The three windows in the second
story, to the right of the two central closets, open into the dining
room, and one of the girls' rooms occupies the corner beyond. On the
lower floor, going from the central door to the right, is first a
closet, and then a large guest room for visitors; and underneath the
whole is the cellar where the boys' school was first taught, that has
since grown into the Male Seminary at Seir.
The rooms of the pupils are mostly in the rear. These are large enough
to accommodate six or eight occupants, as the Oriental style of living
does not require so much furniture as ours. In each room is a member of
the senior class, who exercises a kind supervision over her younger
companions. Every room has two or more closets, designed especially,
but not exclusively, for devotion; and some sleep in the recitation
rooms, as such a use of them at night does not interfere with other
uses during the day.
But we had almost forgotten our imaginary window, the upper sash of
which remains to be described. In that we have only one pane,
representing a large court, with the chapel on one side, and the wash
rooms and other outbuildings of the Seminary on the other. This court
is more garden-like than the other two, has fewer trees, and a long
arbor, covered with grape vines, forms a covered walk in the middle of
it. It was in this arbor that the tables were spread for the collation
in 1850, to be described hereafter. This court is invaluable as a place
for out-door exercise, where the pupils may enjoy the fresh air, free
from the annoyances and exposures of the streets in an Oriental city.
A stream is led through all these courts in a channel lined with stone.
Its murmuring waters are a pleasant sound at early dawn, when they
mingle sweetly with the morning song of birds. Here many Nestorian
women come to fill their earthen pitchers, as the water is not carried
through the courts of Christian houses. The mission premises belonged
to Mohammedans; and here, in the shade of the tall sycamores, Mrs.
Grant used to sit, with her children, and talk with the women who came
for water. Her successors find time to continue the same practice, and
as the natives let down their pitchers (Gen. xxiv. 18), and now and
then one is broken (Eccles. xii. 6), realize that they live in a Bible
land, and seek to make its daughters feel the power of Bible truth.
The Seminary is outwardly very humble, and would contrast very
unfavorably with the stately edifices of similar institutions at home.
But we shall see that the Saviour has not disdained to honor it with
his presence, and its earthen floors and mud walls[1] have witnessed
many a gracious visit of the Holy Spirit. Though the glory of Lebanon
has not come unto it, yet has God himself beautified the place and made
it glorious. [Footnote 1: The pilasters in the engraving are made of
brick, and not only support the large timbers of the roof, but, by
their greater projection, protect the softer material of the wall from
the weather. The whole is plastered outside with a mixture of lime and
clay, that requires frequent renewal.]