Though its inmates knew that the fanatical population
would gladly stone them, yet they felt it a privilege to labor on
under the care of the Keeper of Israel.
In Persia, no king, no government; so besides this anarchy in the
city, the Koords came down and plundered many villages, burning the
houses and driving the people for shelter to Oroomiah. These strokes
fell most heavily on the Moslems, many of whom were robbers
themselves. The fear of an attack on Seir was at one time so great,
that the ladies were sent off, and the gentlemen remained alone to
guard the mission premises; but both in Seir and the city the houses
of the missionaries were thronged by multitudes seeking relief, and
each approaching footstep announced some new tale of woe.
Mar Shimon, after the death of the king, prudently retired into
Turkey, and his servants were put under bonds to keep the peace. The
Koords, however, drove him back, later in the season, but stripped
of his power to persecute. It may sound like the close of a tale of
fiction to add, that the next time Miss Fiske met the patriarch was
in Gawar, August, 1851, when he rode up to the tents of the
missionaries to inquire after their health, before he went to his
own.
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