maller buildings than those of the Greeks;
they are constructed after the same model, however, being surrounded
with a high blank wall. Their churches are seldom surmounted by a dome,
but are usually in the form of a small barn, with a high pitched roof,
built like the walls of large squared stones. At one end of the church
is a small door, and at the other end a semicircular apsis; the windows
are small apertures like loop-holes. These buildings, though of
very small size, have an imposing appearance from their air of
massive strength. The cells of the Armenian monks look into the
courtyard, which is a remarkable fact in that country, where the rest of
the inhabitants dwell in burrows underground like rabbits, and keep
themselves alive during the long winters of their rigorous climate by
the warmth proceeding from the cattle with whom they live, for fire is
dear in a land too cold for trees to grow. The monasteries of the
various sects of Christians who inhabit the mountains of Koordistaun are
very numerous, and all more or less alike. Perched on the tops of crags,
in these wild regions are to be seen the monastic fastnesses of the
Chaldeans, who of late have been known by the name of Nestorians, the
seat of whose patriarchate is at Julamerk. They have now been almost
exterminated by Beder Khan Bey, a Koordish chief, in revenge for the
cattle which they were alleged to have stolen from the Koordish villages
in their vicinity. The Jacobites, the Sabaeans, and the Christians of St.
John, who inhabit the banks of the Euphrates in the districts of the
ancient Susiana, all have fortified monasteries which are mostly of
great antiquity. From Mount Ararat to Bagdat, the different sects of
Christians still retain the faith of the Redeemer, whom they have
worshipped according to their various forms, some of them for more than
fifteen hundred years; the plague, the famine, and the sword have
passed over them and left them still unscathed, and there is little
doubt but that they will maintain the position which they have held so
long till the now not far distant period arrives when the conquered
empire of the Greeks will again be brought under the dominion of a
Christian emperor.

MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.

PART I.

EGYPT IN 1833.

CHAPTER I.

Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
Fleets--Alexandria--An Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the
Hotel Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Proc