'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎104] (135/450)

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ANCIENT VELLUM MANUSCRIPT. [CH. XVI.
voirs here. One of tlie lulter is Sciid to hold wjitei
enou^li for the whole town for more than two
months. It is ti natural hole oi sandstone, which is
under the town.
I saw some stones dug out at a distance, and I was
curious to find out whether they were taken from any
place indicative of ruins, but I found that it was a
quarry. They dug about six or eight feet to the bed
of sandstone, which they broke up with pickaxes. I
asked the Kiahya, and several other people, ii they
ever found cut stones or any fragments of antiquity
in the neighbourhood in digging or ploughing, but
they all agreed that no vestiges were ever met with.
There are seven ruined churches here, and one in
good repair. For more than twenty-five years there
have been no Nestorians any nearer than Amadia,
or rather beyond Amadia. Two thousand Kharaj
papers* are issued annually for Telkeif, and a
respectable body of musketeers may be raised.
Telkeif is a Vakuf of Nebbi Yunus. It is a great
thoroughfare, and contains a large caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). .
I fortunately procured here a fine copy of the
Gospels and Epistles in Chaldean, on vellum, of the
Alexandrian year 601 f, the oldest manuscript I
have yet seen : also some leaves of an historical work
of the same character, with some writing in Greek
* The Kharaj is a tax upon all the subjects of the Ottoman
empire who are not Mahometans.
•f Vide note, p. 15.