Saddik was a terrible oppressor of Christians in his early days, and his deliberate murder of one particular bishop, whom he had invited to his house as a guest, shocked even the robust Kurdish conscience.[99] Years brought wisdom, however; and he realized that to massacre or dispossess good cultivators was bad economy. So such as remain are allowed to live, though it must be owned that their condition is but very little removed from serfdom. Among these properties of his is an Archbishop. The second dignitary of the Nestorian Church, the Metropolitan Mar Khanan-Ishu, resides in the Sheikh's country. He lives of course in his own monastic house, and is allowed the use of his own property; but he is practically a prisoner in the hands of "that Great One," maintained much as the Norman adventurers in Italy maintained certain Popes, as the readiest instrument for governing their own subjects.
Both officially and personally, as hereditary Sheikh of Shamsdin, and as an Imaum of eminence, Sheikh Saddik had a great reputation among Moslems, and knotty problems came to him for solution. Thus it was at his "_diwan_" that a perplexed tribesman presented himself one day with a fine cock under his arm, and the query, "What ought to be done with this fowl? It has taken to preaching Christianity!" He was asked for an explanation, and told how three times in his hearing the bird had proclaimed, "_The_ religion is the religion of Jesus." And sure enough when the cock was produced in evidence it immediately repeated at the top of its voice "_Din Din el Seyidna Isa_"; or at least what all present unanimously interpreted as being those words. That it was a miracle none doubted: but was it of Allah, or of Sheitan? If the latter, of course the owner could wring the cock's neck and the incident would be closed. If the former, ought he, a good Mussulman, to obey it and turn Christian?
The Sheikh considered the matter; and gave an answer that at once showed some skill in casuistry, and was as bitter and well merited a gibe at Christian divisions as one could wish. The miracle was declared to be from Allah; and the cock must in no wise be slain, but preserved as an honoured and sacred fowl. However, there were many sects of Christians, and each one claimed that its particular version of Christianity was "_the_ religion of _Seyidna Isa_." The cock had given no evidence as to which was the right one; so, until all Christians should agree together, or till the bird should give another and more explicit oracle, no true believer need do anything. It is an episode that shows many aspects of the Oriental mind.