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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44417 ***
+
+Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. No
+attempt has been made to correct or normalize the spelling of
+non-English words. Some illustrations have been moved from
+mid-paragraph for ease of reading. (etext transcriber's note)
+
+
+
+
+               THE CRADLE OF MANKIND
+
+                     AGENTS
+
+     AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+     64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+     AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
+     205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
+
+     CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
+     ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO
+
+     INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
+     MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
+     309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
+     INDIAN BANK BUILDINGS, MADRAS
+
+[Illustration: THE RIVER OF EDEN.
+
+(THE ZAB ENTERING THE TYARI GORGES).
+
+The view down stream from the mouth of the Ori valley, a little above
+Tal. The distant snow peak is Ghara Dagh on the southern side of Tkhuma.
+
+No. 1]
+
+
+
+
+                             THE CRADLE OF
+                                MANKIND
+
+                       LIFE IN EASTERN KURDISTAN
+
+                                   BY
+
+           THE REV. W. A. WIGRAM. B.D. (Camb.) D.D. (Lambeth)
+             AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH"
+
+                                  AND
+
+                         SIR EDGAR T. A. WIGRAM
+                       AUTHOR OF "NORTHERN SPAIN"
+
+              ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY
+                         SIR EDGAR T. A. WIGRAM
+
+                            SECOND EDITION.
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                          A. & C. BLACK, LTD.,
+                  4, 5 & 6, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1.
+                                  1922
+
+                  _First Edition published May, 1914._
+             _Second Edition, with two additional Chapters,
+                        published Autumn, 1922._
+
+_The truth is, that ye ken naething about our hill country, or Hielands
+as we ca' them. They're a kind of wild world by themselves, full of
+heights and howes, caverns, lochs, rivers and mountains, that it would
+tire the very deevil's wings to flee to the tap of them. And the folk
+are clean anither set frae the likes of huz; there's nae bailie-courts
+amang them--nae magistrates that dinna bear the sword in vain. Never
+another law hae they but the length of their dirks; the broad-sword's
+pursuer, and the target is defender, and the stoutest head bears langest
+out._
+
+SIR WALTER SCOTT ("Rob Roy")
+
+
+
+
+NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
+
+
+The first sixteen chapters of this book were given to the public in the
+spring of the year 1914. Since that date the country has acquired an
+additional interest for Englishmen, owing to the British acceptance of a
+"mandate" for its supervision and also to the picturesque and heroic
+part played in the Great War by the "Assyrian" mountaineers.
+
+While no attempt has been made to tell the full tale of "England in
+Irak," it has been thought well to take the opportunity given by the
+appearance of a second edition, and to bring the story of the Assyrian
+nation up to the date of writing; and the facts which the two concluding
+chapters record have been collected and verified during a prolonged
+personal intercourse with the principal actors on the spot.
+
+1922.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+It requires at least four persons to compound a salad sauce, say the
+Spaniards. The requisite incompatibilities can never co-exist in one. A
+spendthrift should squander the oil, and a miser dole out the vinegar. A
+wise man should dispense the salt, and a madman should do the stirring.
+
+Similarly, it has been stated that it takes two people at least to write
+a book of travel; a newcomer to give the first impressions and an old
+resident to reveal the true inwardness of things.
+
+Though the quality of the ingredients must remain of more importance
+than the proportions, the authors of the present volume hope that at
+least the latter are correct. One of the writers has spent but three
+months in the country, the other has lived there for ten years. One was
+quite ignorant of the East, and spoke no word of any Oriental language;
+the other had become so intimate with the tribesmen of his own locality,
+that they had even begun to tell him of their superstitions--the last
+secret that they ever disclose.
+
+And the country itself possesses most intense and varied interest. It
+contains some of the grandest scenery, and some of the most venerable
+monuments in the world. It is the very _fons et origo_ of our
+Indo-European ancestors. Its traditions connect it with the Garden of
+Eden, with Noah, and with Abraham. Its folk-lore preserves the old
+Nature-worship which originated in the brains of the Ape-man. Its
+history records the very dawn of civilization, and the rise and fall of
+the earliest of the great empires. The every-day life of its present
+inhabitants is to this hour the life of the Patriarchs, the life of
+Europe in the Dark Ages, the life of the Highlands of Scotland in the
+days of Stewart Kings.
+
+It is not an accessible country, even when judged by half-civilized
+standards. It is visited on sufferance only, even by its nominal rulers
+themselves. Fortune has given to the authors the opportunity of
+travelling through it, and of residing in it, and they have ventured to
+set down in these chapters the impressions it has left upon their minds.
+
+The opportunity of residence in this country, it may be stated, came to
+one of the authors through his membership of the "Archbishop of
+Canterbury's Assyrian Mission." This Mission (which consists of five or
+six clergy of the Church of England) has been maintained in the district
+in question, by successive Archbishops, for a period of about
+twenty-five years. It exists at the request of the Patriarch and other
+authorities of the "Nestorian" or "Assyrian" Church, and it works with
+the object of educating the clergy and laity of that body, without
+disturbing them in their membership of their own ancient and interesting
+communion.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP. PAGE
+
+I. BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY      1
+(ALEPPO AND URFA)
+
+II. A LAND OF DUST AND ASHES          24
+(DIARBEKR AND MARDIN)
+
+III.  THE MARCHES OF ANCIENT ROME     47
+(DARA AND NISIBIN)
+
+IV.  THE BURDEN OF NEWER NINEVEH      69
+(MOSUL)
+
+V. THE TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL            87
+(SHEIKH ADI)
+
+VI. THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS      111
+(RABBAN HORMIZD, BAVIAN, AND AKRA)
+
+VII. AN ORIENTAL VICH IAN VOHR       134
+(THE SHEIKH OF BARZAN)
+
+VIII. A MASTER OF MISRULE            158
+(NERI AND JILU)
+
+IX. THE DEBATABLE LAND               176
+(GAWAR, MERGAWAR, AND TERGAWAR)
+
+X. TWIGS OF A WITHERED EMPIRE        196
+(URMI)
+
+XI. A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH    221
+(URMI TO VAN)
+
+XII. A SLOUGH OF DISCONTENT          235
+(VAN)
+
+XIII. THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN       262
+(QUDSHANIS)
+
+XIV. THE GREAT CAÑONS                284
+(TYARI AND TKHUMA)
+
+XV. INTRUDERS IN A PANDEMONIUM       311
+(AMADIA AND BOHTAN)
+
+XVI. GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES          339
+(MOSUL TO BAGHDAD)
+
+XVII. OUR SMALLEST ALLY              359
+
+XVIII. DEAD SEA FRUIT                392
+
+GLOSSARY                             417
+
+INDEX                                421
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+PRINTED SEPARATELY
+
+1. THE RIVER OF EDEN                  _Frontispiece_
+
+                                       _Facing Page_
+
+2.MOSUL                                          33
+
+3. SHEIKH ADI                                    48
+
+4. THE "PICTURE ROCKS" OF BAVIAN                 81
+
+5. AKRA                                          96
+
+6. ORAMAR                                       129
+
+7. THE HERIKI VALLEY                            144
+
+8. THE MOUNTAINS OF TKHUMA AND JILU             176
+
+9. THE CITADEL ROCK, VAN                        209
+
+10. THE QUDSHANIS MOUNTAINS                     224
+
+11. CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA, QUDSHANIS           257
+
+12. A MOUNTAIN BRIDGE                           272
+
+13. THE GORGE OF THE ZAB, TYARI                 305
+
+14. TRAVELLING IN LOWER TKHUMA                  320
+
+15. CHAL                                        353
+
+16. ENTRANCE TO AMADIA                          368
+
+IN THE TEXT
+
+17. THE MOUNTAINS OF DIZ AND TAL,
+    FROM THE PASS ABOVE QUDSHANIS               366
+
+18. A BIT OF THE ROAD BETWEEN TAL AND JULAMERK  372
+
+PLANS IN THE TEXT
+
+GREAT GRANARY OF DARAS                           51
+
+CHURCH OF ST. JAMES AT NISIBIS                   59
+
+THE YEZIDI TEMPLE AT SHEIKH ADI                  95
+
+CHURCH OF MAR B'ISHU                            185
+
+QUDSHANIS: CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA               273
+
+TEMPLE OF ISHTAR'I BABYLON                      355
+
+MAP of EASTERN KURDISTAN
+with inset of mesopotamia            (insert at end)
+
+
+
+
+THE CRADLE OF MANKIND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY (ALEPPO AND URFA)
+
+
+The belated Jinn who emerged out of Suleiman's Brass Bottle into
+twentieth-century London found there, amid much that was strange to him,
+some beings of his own kin. These were the railway locomotives,
+obviously Jann like himself, but yet more oppressively treated; bound by
+spells of appalling potency to labours more arduous and wearisome than
+Suleiman had ever conceived.
+
+And truly his blunder was plausible: for if Jann be extinct nowadays
+(which one doubts after visiting Asia), then assuredly cylinders and
+boilers are charged with the might of the Jann. They are set to work
+regularly now instead of rarely and spasmodically; and though they raise
+less dust and clamour their net output is considerably more. The slaves
+of the Lamp and the Ring developed intense explosive energy, but their
+effective radius was limited. They could rear Aladdin's palace in a
+night, or transport him to Africa in a twinkling; but these more
+domesticated Titans are capable of transmogrifying whole communities,
+and advancing the clock of progress five hundred years at a span.
+
+And now the modern Magrabis, the busy Western magicians, have let slip
+these formidable Efrits against the City of Al Raschid himself: and one
+fine morning his descendants will awake from the slumber of centuries to
+find themselves environed by a new heaven and a new earth.
+
+The Baghdad railway has started. It has penetrated inland to Aleppo.
+"That great river, the river Euphrates," is bitted with its girders and
+caissons. One more stride will carry it to Mosul across a country so
+open and even that it needs but the bedding of the sleepers; and a
+journey which now takes a fortnight will be accomplished in a ten-hour
+run. What is now a mere stagnant backwater will thus be suddenly scoured
+out by one of the main channels of the world's commerce; and who can
+venture to calculate the changes which will follow? Western reform will
+not convert the East any more than Alexander's conquests converted it;
+but it may evolve unintentionally some new sort of Frankenstein's Man.
+
+But meanwhile the East waits unconscious. It takes no thought for the
+morrow. The shadow of coming events is perceived indeed, but not
+understood. As it was in the days of Noë, so in most things, it still
+continues: and the traveller of this generation may still find east of
+Aleppo those manners and customs unaltered, which the next may find
+clean swept away. Thus it is possible that some interest may attach to a
+desultory description of life as it is for the moment still enjoyed, or
+endured, in those regions; and which better ordered communities may
+perhaps find rather _bizarre_.
+
+Aleppo, the present railhead, is a large Oriental city, lying pooled in
+a shallow depression round the great castle which dominates its roofs.
+It is beginning to show signs of Westernization; and the quarter nearest
+the railway station is blossoming with boulevards and hotels. But it is
+the returning, and not the outgoing, traveller who will be most struck
+by these symptoms. The latter will only be consumed with wonder that
+such a crude and guileless imitation should be thought to pass muster as
+the real thing. Outwardly the place is being refurbished, and the new
+"Frank" houses flaunt themselves as bravely as their compeers around the
+_Soko_ at Tangier; but within they are full of all Oriental uncleanness
+and discomfort, for the Turk is quite satisfied as soon as he gets
+veneered.
+
+The major part of the town consists of narrow crooked and ill-paved
+streets, overhung on each side by toppling wooden oriels, which almost
+engage with each other like cogs across the road; and amid this maze of
+grimy alleys lurk the mosques, the only noteworthy buildings, whose
+minarets show up prominently from a distance, but afford little guidance
+near at hand.
+
+The great castle which dominates Aleppo occupies the flat summit of an
+immense mound, not much smaller than that of Corfe Castle, which is
+piled conspicuously upon a gentle eminence just within the confines of
+the city. The core of this mound may be natural, but the bulk of it is
+artificial; for it was originally one of the great High Places of that
+Baal worship which flourished pre-eminently in Northern Syria, and which
+has left us similar monuments of its dominion in the neighbouring mounds
+at Homs and Baalbek. The base of this mound is encircled by a deep dry
+moat, and its sloping sides are revetted with masonry; while its crest
+is crowned by the towers and walls which form the _enceinte_ of the
+citadel, and access is provided at one end only through a most
+magnificent gate. The citadel owes its present form to Saladin, who is
+said to have employed as his workmen the captive Crusaders whom he had
+taken at the battle of Tiberias. There are some Western features in the
+building which give colour to this supposition; but the place was a
+notable stronghold long previous to Saladin's day.
+
+Aleppo was one of the few fortresses that made a respectable defence
+against the Moslems at the time of their first irruption. None of the
+great frontier towns to the eastward,--Edessa, Amida and Dara--so much
+as stood a real siege. Such was the bitterness of party strife, both
+civil and religious, within the Byzantine Empire at that period, that
+the Arab invaders were welcomed rather than resisted in these lands.
+
+The citadel of Aleppo, however, was defended by a certain Youkinna, till
+even the redoubtable Caled, "the Sword of Allah," began to despair of
+success. Only the direct command of the Khalif Omar had induced him to
+persevere with the leaguer when a valiant slave named Dames volunteered
+to attempt a _coup de main_. Caled approved his design; and to favour
+its execution withdrew his forces to a distance. Thus Youkinna, rather
+too readily, assumed that the siege was raised. The sentinels relaxed
+their vigilance, and the garrison had taken to carousing, when Dames
+with thirty companions crept up in the darkness to the walls. With the
+stalwart slave as their base they built up a human ladder, each man in
+succession clambering on to the shoulders of those below. The man on the
+seventh tier gripped the battlements, and scrambled over them, and then,
+letting down his turban, hauled up his associates one by one. Cutting
+down the few guards they encountered the Moslems then made for the
+gateway, and succeeded in gaining possession of it ere the garrison was
+fully aroused. Here they maintained themselves till daybreak when Caled
+arrived to relieve them, and Youkinna thereupon surrendered, seeing that
+further resistance was vain.
+
+Aleppo accepted its fate and has since remained Mohammedan. The
+Byzantines did indeed temporarily recover it little more than three
+hundred years later, when the waning power of the Abbasside Khalifs
+enabled Nicephorus and Zimisces to push their armies almost to Baghdad.
+But this was a transitory conquest; a plundering raid rather than an
+occupation. The Greeks and Romans had always been alien intruders, and
+now their Asiatic provinces had reverted to Asia for good.
+
+Another equally transitory raid left a more enduring impression--not
+indeed upon Aleppo in particular, but upon Mesopotamia at large. For in
+the year 1400 the country was visited by that most destructive of all
+conquerors, the terrible Timour the Tartar. He signalized his capture of
+Aleppo, as usual, by the erection of a gigantic pyramid of human heads;
+and (as was not unusual) he solaced himself while the pile was being
+reared by discussing theological problems with the learned doctors of
+the town. Poor wretches! they must have felt rather like a regiment of
+philosophers paraded for an interview with the Theban Sphinx; especially
+when their dangerous questioner opened proceedings with the bland
+inquiry, "Which are the true martyrs,--those who die fighting for me, or
+for my foes?" But fortunately they had an Oedipus among them who parried
+the thrust by quoting the words of the Prophet, "All who die fighting
+for conscience' sake are martyrs, no matter under what ensign they
+fall."
+
+The conquests of Timour may be regarded as closing the history of
+Mesopotamia; that first and most striking chapter in the history of the
+civilization of the world. Here mankind had first emerged from
+barbarism, and constructed the city of Babylon. Here had arisen the
+successive great empires that had their seats at Carchemish, at Nineveh,
+at Persepolis, at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and at Antioch; and here after
+aeons of conquest and re-conquest there could yet arise the splendours
+of Baghdad. Invincibly fertile and populous the land still seemed able
+to revive after each successive devastation; but at last its power of
+recuperation was exhausted; and after Timour's day there is no more left
+to tell. Other conquerors had destroyed and rebuilt; but the Tartars
+were only destroyers. They razed the cities to the dust; they massacred
+every living creature; they demolished even the irrigation works that
+gave fertility to the fields. And the desert which spreads to this day
+over all the plains to the eastward is, far more truly than his
+mausoleum at Samarcand, the monument of Timour the Lame.
+
+Yet Aleppo itself was near enough to the sea to recover even from this
+disaster; and within 150 years of Timour's conquest it was once more one
+of the chief marts of the East. Hither came the London Turkey merchants,
+among them the "Master of the Tiger." Hither, with the Venetians, came
+Othello, to have his memorable encounter with the "heathen Turk." John
+Verney was trading here in the middle of the seventeenth century, and
+describes it as "the most famous city in all the Grand Seignior's
+dominions for the confluence of merchants of all nations." Among the
+commodities dealt with he enumerates the "oak galls for dyers" which are
+still a valuable harvest in the Kurdistan mountains; but he makes no
+mention of the liquorice, which is now the most important of all.
+
+Aleppo owes its prosperity chiefly to the Arabs; for though, under the
+name of Berea, it was well known both to the Greeks and Romans, it never
+appears in their days to have been a particularly important place. No
+doubt it profited by the decline of Antioch, which had been the second
+city in the Byzantine Empire. The new direct railway line to Iskanderun
+harbour will henceforth augment its importance; and when the completion
+of the Baghdad railway links it up with Constantinople and India it may
+even attain the position once held by Antioch itself.
+
+Our own business at Aleppo was confined to the hire of a carriage to
+convey us and our baggage and our fortunes across the desert to Mosul.
+This was a subject which involved us in some three days' delicate
+diplomacy; and eventually we closed with a contractor who offered to
+take us through at the price of nine pounds for a nominal fortnight's
+journey,[1] with two mejidies (about seven shillings) extra for every
+day that we chose to call a halt.
+
+The carriage in which we proposed to achieve our _hegira_ consisted of a
+sort of four-wheeled coster's barrow, endowed with flea-like agility by
+a perfect cat's-cradle of springs. It had a seat in front for the
+driver, and a shelf behind on which our baggage could be corded; but
+there were no seats for the passengers, and accordingly we spread our
+sleeping bags upon a thick litter of straw. Most of the springs and many
+of the spokes had been broken and the fractures had been swathed in
+string. This required great quantities of string. Finally the tarpaulin
+tilt which enclosed the body of the vehicle (and which was ostensibly
+designed for shelter) proved useful for fielding the cargo whenever it
+got skied by the jolts. Such a carriage is known as "an _araba_," or
+alternatively as an _yaili_--a name which is probably onomatopoeic,
+for it is about the "slithiest" thing that runs on wheels.[2]
+
+This equipage was drawn by four scraggy ponies; not that it weighed
+anything worth mentioning, but because the roads were bad. Two of the
+beasts were harnessed to the pole, and two tacked on by traces outside,
+like the team of a Homeric chariot. They could seldom be induced to
+trot, and generally our rate of progress fell even below the minimum
+that is ordinarily expected of "hollow jades of Asia"; for we cannot
+have averaged more than twenty miles a day. Our driver was a lank, dank,
+hook-nosed creature who reminded us irresistibly of Ikey Moses in the
+old Ally Sloper cartoons, and who looked as if he had been shipwrecked
+on a desert island a great many times and always in the same suit. He
+grumbled much at the amount of our baggage, and a great deal more
+because we insisted that he should carry a good supply of fodder; but we
+think that he--or at all events his horses--must eventually have felt
+grateful to us for not having given way.
+
+The road, as it issues from Aleppo, rises gradually on to a heathy
+upland somewhat similar to Salisbury Plain. Here it soon becomes a mere
+wheel track--a good enough path to lead to a moorland farmstead, but a
+poor sort of thing to confide in for a journey of 200 miles. At every
+two or three leagues its stages are marked off by villages; generally
+forlorn little groups of one-storied flat-roofed stone hovels, but
+sometimes a more pretentious affair where the houses rise to two stories
+and which (on the strength of such superiority) feels justified in
+calling itself a town. Often even the meanest of these were formerly
+towns indeed, and instead of being called El Bab or Membij, were known
+by such high-sounding names as Bambyce and Hierapolis.[3] The hummocks
+and hollows which mark the foundations of their ancient edifices form a
+wide margin all around the outskirts, and the surface is strewn for acre
+on acre with dislocated fragments of columns and great squared blocks of
+stone. At one point where we made a short halt, we were able to decipher
+a few tags of Latin inscriptions;--_cos_, _divi_, _cæsar_ and a few
+other similar words. They were deeply, but rudely incised, as though cut
+in sheer idleness by some unoccupied soldier. A householder who saw us
+examining them led us to the door of his hut where he showed us another
+inscription. In this case the lettering was Arabic, and we could read no
+more than the name of Allah:--a fact which caused great consternation to
+our householder, for he had been using it as a threshold.
+
+We halted each night at some village _khan_, the Turkish synonym for the
+better known Persian word _caravanserai_, which forms the common house
+of entertainment both for man and beast. A typical _khan_ consists of a
+great square courtyard full of foul dust in dry weather and of fouler
+mud in wet. Often have we felt inclined to bless the hard frost at night
+in winter time, which has enabled us next morning to walk to our
+carriage on the top of the mud instead of wading through. The courtyard
+is enclosed by a range of miserable hovels--the sort of shanties which
+might perhaps pass muster as tool sheds in allotment gardens, those
+"lodges in gardens of cucumbers," which Isaiah considered the nadir of
+dilapidation. Some of these take rank as stables and others as guest
+chambers. In point of comfort and cleanliness there is little to choose
+between them; but occasionally the guest chambers are on an upper story,
+and then the humans are somewhat better off than the brutes. Let us
+assume, not to be too sanguine, that our room will be on the ground
+floor; and, not to be too despondent, that we shall get a room to
+ourselves.
+
+Such a room will be about 9 feet square, and will boast a ramshackle
+door and (perhaps) a shuttered window. Its floor will be about six
+inches below the level of the yard--we mean the mud. It will be
+furnished, like the Prophet's chamber, with "a bed, a stool, and a
+candlestick;" _videlicet_--with a rush mat or a rough plank bedstead, a
+small table (this only occasionally), and a paraffin lamp upon the wall.
+For a small additional fee the _Khanji_[4] will bring us a charcoal
+brazier; but (not wishing to be asphyxiated) we must leave this to burn
+outside until the blue flames subside. Here we are at liberty to make
+our own beds, and to cook and eat such provisions as we may have brought
+with us. The room is never swept, and prudent travellers will often take
+the precaution of bringing their own carpet with them. The regular
+charge for such an apartment is five piastres (10_d._) a night.
+
+Our fellow guests are mostly Kurds or Arabs, with Syrians and Armenians
+rather more sparsely intermixed. They may be told apart by their
+languages, or less certainly by their dress; for the Arabs are the only
+folk hereabouts who adhere very scrupulously to their own distinctive
+costume. This consists of a gown, generally of some striped or plain
+soft-coloured material, reaching almost to the feet, and girt about the
+waist with a bright coloured sash. A V-shaped opening from neck to waist
+shows an embroidered shirt-front under, and over all is worn an _abba_
+or Arab cloak. The _abba_ is generally of woollen fabric, either dark
+brown, or boldly striped with black and white or brown and white in
+broad and narrow stripes arranged alternately. For winter wear it is
+often made of sheepskin, worn woolly side out during wet weather, and
+woolly side in during dry. On their heads they wear a bright coloured
+head cloth, either of silk or cotton, which is kept in position by a
+double coil of soft black rope forming a sort of wreath. They usually
+wear their hair long.
+
+The Kurds also in the plain villages often wear an Arab type of costume;
+but the muleteers and other travellers are clad in a nondescript garb
+which seems based upon a Turkish original. The typical Turkish trousers
+are made from a piece of stuff whose width is equal to the length of the
+leg from waist to ankle. This is folded to form a square, sewn up the
+sides, and furnished with a cord run round the top to gird in at the
+waist. A couple of holes for the feet are cut at the two bottom corners,
+and the garment is then complete. This of course leaves an immense
+amount of slack between the legs, and superior tailors get rid of this
+to some extent by a certain amount of shaping; but a very sufficient
+surplus is always allowed to remain. Above this is worn a waistcoat,
+with a coloured sash and a kind of zouave jacket. The waistcoat, the
+lappets of the jacket, and the pockets of the trousers are often adorned
+with braiding; and the rough frieze of which the dress is composed is
+generally blue, black or brown. Sheepskin jackets are often worn in
+winter time.
+
+On their heads they wear sometimes an Arab head cloth, sometimes a
+Turkish fez, sometimes the conical felt cap of the Kurds and Syrians,
+either with or without a turban. In cold weather they swathe the ends of
+their turbans about their faces, muffling themselves up to the eyes and
+making themselves look even more complete ruffians than they did before.
+
+The officials and well-to-do classes wear what they consider to be
+European costume, but always top it off with a fez.
+
+One of the first impressions which besets a traveller in these parts is
+the reality of the curse of Babel. For a curse it is most emphatically,
+though some of our home-bred cranks would appear to regard it as a
+blessing; and it is devoutly to be wished that all those crack-brained
+politicians who are seeking to promote the revival of Erse and Gælic and
+Cymric might be awarded some practical experience of the realization of
+their dreams. The Swiss boasted that he had three native languages; but
+the inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey are provided with at least six. Arabic
+is dominant on the plains; Syriac and Kurdish in the mountains; Armenian
+on the plateaus to the northward; and Greek in western Asia Minor.
+Turkish, except in Anatolia, is only the official language; but we
+suppose it deserves recognition along with the other five. Naturally
+each of these main stems branches off into dialects by the score; and if
+these are to be reckoned separately the Turkish Empire is still as
+polyglot as that of Nebuchadnezzar himself.
+
+No one of course speaks all the languages; but no one can get on at all
+comfortably without speaking a minimum of two. That number will probably
+enable him at least to find an interpreter in most of the villages which
+favour the four remaining tongues.
+
+The nationalities are as diverse as the languages, and are interwoven
+together in the most bewildering entanglement; not by separate districts
+dovetailed into one another like the pieces of a jig-saw puzzle, but by
+tiny fragmentary communities dispersed like different grains shaken up
+vigorously in a bag. The village is the largest unit; and where one
+village is Syrian, the next may be Kurdish, the next Armenian, the next
+Yezidi; all out of sympathy with each other and all resolutely refusing
+to mix. Here and there in the medley one may find occasionally a
+specimen which has no affinity whatever with any neighbouring
+nationality. Membij, for example, is a village of Circassians, fugitives
+from the Russian occupation who were given an asylum here by the Sultan
+Abdul Hamid. We have sometimes wondered whether this extraordinary
+mixture may not be the fruit of the policy adopted by the ancient
+Assyrians, who were wont to disperse their captive nations through all
+the length and breadth of their domain; but the same thing is seen in
+the European provinces of Turkey where Assyrians and Persians never
+penetrated, and where Serbs, Bulgars, Greeks and Roumanians form an
+equally tangled skein.
+
+English critics talk glibly enough of Turkey being an Asiatic Power, and
+being capable of regenerating herself by concentrating her energies in
+Asia. They seem to be under the delusion that Turkey in Asia is mainly
+inhabited by Turks! As a matter of fact (except as aforesaid, in
+Anatolia) one may live for years in Asiatic Turkey without so much as
+meeting a single Turk. Even the official classes are largely Circassians
+and Arnauts; and the bulk of the population are Arabs and Armenians and
+Syrians and Greeks and Kurds, all of whom are profoundly disaffected and
+only acquiesce in Turkish rule because they will on no account support
+each other in usurping its place.
+
+The problem of Asiatic Turkey, like the problem of Thrace and Macedonia,
+is simply that none of the component races can be trusted to govern the
+rest, and that all are so inextricably intermingled that it is
+impossible to parcel them out into distinct homogeneous States. We must
+own some sympathy with the Turks, the old conquering race, who once
+fully vindicated their hegemony. But their day is now past: their
+natural force abated. And though they still hold the tiller (thanks to
+the dissensions among their crew) they have no longer the strength to
+keep the ship under control. Their empire is too great for their
+shrunken numbers to govern, and they find themselves choked by the
+subject races with whom they have failed to assimilate.
+
+On the third day after leaving Aleppo we reached the banks of the
+Euphrates; here a broad and rapid river, divided into three or four
+channels by a string of flat sandy islets. The right bank, from which we
+descended, is formed by a range of chalky hills breaking off into cliffs
+here and there; but the left bank is lower and flatter with an edging of
+conglomerate rock; and under each bank is a wide foreshore of greyish
+sand, which is of course all covered whenever the river is high. Its
+waters must have been singularly shrunken when Xenophon forded it at
+Thapsacus, a hundred miles lower down, and found it no more than breast
+deep; for here it is quite unfordable and can only be crossed by
+ferries.
+
+The ferry boats are big spoon-shaped craft with low square bows and high
+pointed sterns. They are built of very rough planking, which looks as if
+it could not possibly be watertight, and some very vigorous caulking
+must have been employed to attain that end. They are steered by a huge
+flimsy paddle, formed of two or three poles roughly lashed together and
+pivoted upon the stern post; and what motive power is required is
+supplied by an iron-shod punt-pole. A crew of two men, one to steer and
+one to punt, work these unwieldy arks from a small half-deck at the
+stern.
+
+Our carriage was backed into one of the boats over the bows, to the
+accompaniment of an infinity of yelling, and sundry mules and camels
+were disposed as packing round the sides. Then away we drifted,
+broadside on, down the rapid stream; wriggled into a back eddy under the
+lee of one of the islands; and eventually stranded safely about half a
+mile down upon the further shore. The boats had to be towed up stream a
+mile or more before they were able to recross; and we were lucky to have
+found them on the right bank, for the process of getting them over might
+well have meant an hour's delay.
+
+The point where we crossed the river is unmarked by any village, but a
+considerable town named Birijik lies about thirty miles up stream.
+
+A lordlier city once dominated these solitary reaches; for fifteen miles
+nearer lies the little village of Jerablus, and all around Jerablus lie
+the mighty mounds which cover the ruins of Carchemish, and among which
+the gangs of workmen employed by the British Museum are now engaged in
+recovering the long hidden secrets of the ancient Hittite kings.
+Carchemish was the capital of the Hittites, that most ancient and most
+mysterious of all the great nations which once held dominion over
+northern Syria. Their history is still a sealed book to us; for though
+we have recovered many of their inscriptions, we have as yet found no
+key to their decipherment. All that we know of them at present has been
+gleaned from the records of Egypt and Assyria. We are still awaiting the
+day when another Rosetta Stone shall unlock for us the secrets of a
+people, whose capital was already a dead city when Nebuchadnezzar
+defeated Pharaoh Necho under its walls 600 years before Christ.
+
+But though the Hittites have vanished utterly for so many thousand
+years, we may still trace their influence in the handiwork of the
+natives to this day. The villages which border the Euphrates--and a few
+others nearer Aleppo--are entirely distinct in character from all those
+in the districts around. The houses are not square and flat-roofed like
+those in ordinary villages; but circular conical buildings, of a shape
+between a beehive and a sugar-loaf, built of sun-dried mud, and packed
+tightly together within a walled enclosure, looking exactly like the
+haycocks in a crowded rick-yard in England. Houses of precisely this
+shape are represented on the Egyptian bas-reliefs recording the conquest
+of the _Khati_ by the Pharaoh Rameses II; and there can be little doubt
+that the type has persisted continuously down to the present time. It
+may even perhaps be argued with a certain amount of plausibility that
+the men who build such villages are remotely of Hittite blood!
+
+The villages in Asiatic Turkey are ordinarily the property of some
+landowner; and the system of tenure is worth mentioning, for it must
+date from Patriarchal times. The Government claims as revenue an eighth
+of all the produce;[5] and the remaining seven-eighths is divided
+equally between the village owner and the cultivators. The villagers
+have also to pay to the Government an eighth of the value of the fodder
+computed to have been consumed by their flocks and herds; and have
+further to deliver the Government eighth free of charge at the
+tax-farmers' storehouses. By law this obligation is restricted to one
+hour's journey--_i.e._ there is supposed to be a storehouse in every
+village--but in practice they have often to carry it three or four times
+as far. They have also to pay a land tax of about 5 per cent. They keep
+all the straw as their perquisite; and it is the landlord's duty to
+provide them with the seed grain.
+
+This sounds as if the landlord got the lion's share of the profits. And
+if he be miserly he does; but most of them interpret their signoral
+duties in a more liberal spirit. The landlord is expected to keep a
+guest house in his village, and a man in charge of it. Here anyone, be
+he villager or traveller, can get a free meal and free lodging. One big
+man in this district is reputed to expend food to the value of £1000
+annually in such hospitality, including corn to the value of £400 in
+bread alone. Moreover, the landlord acts as a sort of savings bank to
+his villagers. If any of them is in distress and applies to him, he will
+relieve him. He will never think of sparing as long as his barns hold
+anything. He lives simply, as they do; and he holds that "Allah will
+provide."
+
+All payments should be considered as being made in kind, not in money;
+for coin is scarce in Turkey, and not very generally used.[6] Even if
+it were more plentiful it is but a fluctuating security; for the coins
+in common use are the silver ones, and these are never current at their
+face value.[7] The gold £1 Turkish, nominally worth 100 piastres,
+fetched at the time of our visit from 102 piastres at Mosul to 114 at
+Aleppo; and the value of Mejidies (nominally 20 piastres), and of 5
+piastre-pieces, varied also in different degrees. This is not all the
+fault of the Government; for while home trade and industry must be
+sorely hampered by such eccentricities, the Constantinople banks (which
+are run by European syndicates) are not altogether displeased. They can
+make a profit on the deal, for they hold most of the bullion: and when
+any particular coin has much appreciated anywhere, they can unload their
+stock of it at that particular place.
+
+Eastward from the Euphrates our track leads over rather lower country,
+an open undulating heathland which melts gradually into alluvial plain.
+Here and there, dispersed about the surface, are wide patches of stony
+ground; and where the track chances to skirt them it is usually found
+that many of the stones have been piled up into little pillars, five or
+six one upon the other making a column about two feet high. Each patch
+will contain twenty or thirty of these little pillars. They are set up
+by casual wayfarers as a sort of votive memorial, just as the Patriarch
+Jacob set up his pillar at Bethel.
+
+A similar habit prevails in the mountain districts; but there it is more
+customary to insert the votive stone in the forked branch of a tree.
+Cairns also are frequently seen at the sides of the paths in the
+mountains; but these are generally erected to mark the site of some
+murder, and it is usual for each passer-by to add his stone to the pile.
+If you were a friend of the victim you deposit your offering gently; if
+you were his enemy you hurl it on vindictively. Thus the pile grows
+apace any way, and it is to be presumed that his _manes_ are appeased.
+
+Near the village of Seruj we reach the outskirts of the great plain of
+Mesopotamia. Its levels stretch away southward as far as the eye can
+see. But our track edges still to the left and presently enters the hill
+country, the first and lowest undulations of the great mountain range
+towards the north.
+
+It must have been on some of these spurs that the wrecks of Crassus'
+army found refuge after their great defeat by the Parthians in the year
+53 B.C. Carrhae, which gave its name to the battle, lay in the midst of
+the plains some twenty-five miles to the southward, and the actual scene
+of the fighting was some distance further south still: but the beaten
+troops made for the mountains, their only asylum from their pursuers;
+and here the last cohorts were surrounded and forced to lay down their
+arms.
+
+Carrhae was a place of ill-omen for the Romans, for only 300 years later
+another similar disaster befell them upon the same ground. Here in the
+year 260 the Emperor Valerian was defeated and captured by Sapor I, the
+King of the Sassanid Persians, who had by this time inherited the
+Arascid Parthians' domains. Roman accounts assert that the hapless
+Emperor was flayed alive; but the Persians more credibly relate that he
+was kept a prisoner, and employed in building the great bridge across
+the Karun river at Shushter.[8] Both accounts agree that after his death
+his skin was stuffed, and preserved as a grim trophy in the Palace at
+Seleucia Ctesiphon.
+
+A short distance within the hills our track struck the great metalled
+road that runs from Birijik to Urfa. It is a road which, as far as it
+goes, might be called good in any country: but only the Urfa half of it
+is completed; it comes to an untimely end not far from the point where
+we struck at, which was somewhere about a third of the way to Birijik.
+The remaining section, however, served us admirably, and we trundled
+along it in fine style for the last three hours of our day's journey,
+threading a winding rocky valley which debouched at the back of the
+town.
+
+Oriental cities as a rule are rather a disappointment to sightseers.
+Picturesque they are indeed, but in such a squalid fashion that much of
+their charm is blighted. They are a mere agglomeration of hovels, with a
+few fine features here and there. We have even heard it said of
+Constantinople itself that, having seen the approach to the Golden Horn,
+the traveller had better take his departure; for that every nearer
+inspection brings a fresh disillusionment in its train. Urfa, however,
+may rank as one of the exceptions. It is beyond question the most
+picturesque city in Mesopotamia. And, being built chiefly of stone, it
+has some dignity in its dilapidation, and wears its tattered finery with
+an aristocratic air.
+
+Urfa lies just at the foot of the hills, half enclosed by two bold
+limestone promontories. The upper part of the town is pooled in the bay
+between them, and the lower and larger portion is split out into the
+plain. It is almost surrounded by its ancient walls, which are largely
+of Roman workmanship; and its mosques and minarets and all its prominent
+buildings are constructed almost entirely of a rich golden-brown stone.
+The streets are of course mere alleys, narrow and tortuous; but retain
+here and there many traces of architectural ornamentation; and among and
+around the houses grow cypresses and other trees. The principal mosque,
+once a Christian cathedral, is an old Byzantine basilica, and above it
+rises conspicuously a noble octagonal tower. The present Armenian church
+is also of great antiquity, though hardly of the First Century, which is
+what the Armenians claim.[9]
+
+The promontory to the west of the town is crowned by the ancient
+citadel; now a mere shell, but imposing from its situation, and
+surmounted by two lofty Roman columns formerly a portion of a temple
+portico.[10] Towards the town the hill is precipitous, but on the
+further side the slope is gradual; and accordingly the whole of this
+face, together with the two return ends, is defended by one of the most
+magnificent dry moats that exists anywhere in the world. It is hewn out
+of solid rock, with sides that are absolutely vertical; and may measure
+even now about thirty feet deep and not less than thirty feet wide.
+Formerly it could be crossed at two or three places by narrow wooden
+drawbridges; and the posterns to which they gave access can still be
+seen in the walls. At what epoch this moat was constructed we did not
+feel competent to determine. The walls are partly Saracenic, partly
+Roman, and partly Sassanian; they are now extremely ruinous and of no
+very formidable height.[11]
+
+Urfa in classical days was known by the name of Edessa, and was the
+capital city of that king Abgarus of Osroëne, whose Epistle to our Lord
+is included among the Apocryphal Gospels. This tale is something more
+than a legend, for it dates from the beginning of the fourth century;
+and is related by the historians Eusebius and Moses of Khorene, who both
+profess to have derived their authority from contemporary documents
+which they had themselves inspected among the royal archives at Edessa.
+They tell us how the king was afflicted with leprosy, and how he sought
+in vain to be cured by the physicians and sorcerers of his own land. How
+at length he heard report of the miracles that were being wrought in
+Judaea by Jesus the Prophet of Galilee; and how he dispatched
+ambassadors to Him, entreating Him to come and heal his disease and to
+instruct his people, offering Him at the same time a secure asylum from
+the hatred of the unbelieving Jews. These ambassadors were the "certain
+Greeks"[12] who are mentioned in St. John's Gospel as having been
+introduced to our Lord by Philip on the day of His triumphant entry into
+Jerusalem; and they brought back to Abgarus a verbal message (or some
+say an actual letter dictated by our Lord to Thomas) promising that one
+of His Apostles should be sent to Edessa in due time.
+
+Accordingly soon after the Ascension the Apostle Thaddeus was sent by
+Thomas to preach the Word in Osroëne. He came and healed Abgarus of his
+leprosy; and the king and all his people thereupon embraced the
+Faith.[13] Thaddeus himself passed onwards to Armenia and Eastern
+Mesopotamia, where he founded the Parthian or Assyrian, now called the
+"Nestorian," Church.
+
+We may at least say of this legend that it is nearly as well
+authenticated as that which attributes the foundation of the Church of
+Rome to Peter; and far better than those which claim Spain for James the
+Great, or Britain for Joseph of Arimathea. The stories have this much in
+their favour--that at all events they are not mutually contradictory.
+Peter and James are conceded to the West; while Eastern tradition
+contents itself with Thomas and Thaddeus and Bartholomew. One would
+expect only the illustrious names in any mere fabricated tales.
+
+At least it is historically certain that the Gospel was brought to
+Edessa almost within the Apostolic ages; and that Edessa formed the main
+distributing centre for the preachers who evangelized the East.
+
+Osroëne in Abgarus' days formed a sort of buffer state between the
+Parthian and Roman Empires; and a little later it experienced the usual
+fate of buffer states, and was absorbed by the Empire of Rome. Under its
+new suzerains Edessa took rank as an important frontier fortress, and
+stood many a siege in the long-drawn wars between the kings of the
+Sassanid Persians and the Emperors of Byzantine Rome. Moreover it was a
+great educational centre, the seat of a famous university, which was
+eventually suppressed by the Byzantine Emperor Zeno in the year 489 on
+the ground that it was tainted by the heresy of Nestorianism.
+
+But Edessa has acquired one peculiar interest in the eyes of Western
+historians from the fact that it was the easternmost conquest that was
+ever achieved by the Crusades. When Godfrey de Bouillon reached Antioch
+in the year 1097 his brother Baldwin was in command of one of the
+divisional armies that sallied forth to raid the country round about.
+Many of the Crusading chieftains won themselves little principalities in
+the course of these plundering expeditions; but Baldwin had better luck
+than any, though it does not appear that it was any better deserved. He
+penetrated eastward to Edessa; and found that city governed by a petty
+Christian kinglet, who welcomed the Crusaders effusively and adopted
+Baldwin as his successor. How far such welcome and adoption were
+voluntary we have no means of ascertaining. Probably the poor Christian
+Emir felt that he could not help himself. At any rate, he was killed
+soon after in an insurrection (not without suspicion of Baldwin's
+connivance), and the latter reigned in his room.
+
+Upon Godfrey's death in 1100, Baldwin became King of Jerusalem, and made
+over his principality to his cousin Baldwin du Bourg. He, too, succeeded
+to Jerusalem in his turn in 1118; and the next Count of Edessa was
+Jocelyn, a fine old fighter, whose exploits made his name a terror to
+every Paynim in the land. Neither Baldwin II nor Jocelyn were altogether
+in luck's way. Both were taken captive near Edessa by Balak the Prince
+of Aleppo, and confined together in the strong castle of Khortbert.
+Jocelyn succeeded in escaping, and presently had the satisfaction of
+slaying Balak in battle with his own hand: but Baldwin remained a
+prisoner for a period of seven years.
+
+Jocelyn died in 1132, leaving his feeble-spirited son to succeed
+him,[14] and thereafter the fortunes of the Crusaders began very rapidly
+to wane. Their first invasion had been happily timed; for the last great
+Seljuk Sultan, Malek Shah, had died two or three years previously, and
+had left his empire to be disputed among his four sons. Thus for a time
+there had been no single great ruler to unite the Moslems against the
+Christians. But now a new power was being built up by Zanghi the Atabek
+at Mosul; and under him, and his successors Noureddin and Saladin, it
+grew more formidable every year. Zanghi--Sanguin, as the Crusaders
+called him--laid siege to Edessa in 1144, and Milicent the queen regent
+of Jerusalem found herself powerless to send aid. Zanghi breached the
+walls by undermining one of the towers; the stormers overtook the flying
+garrison before they could enter the citadel; and an indiscriminate
+massacre brought the Christian dominion to an end.
+
+There are still a good number of Christians both Armenian and Syrian at
+Urfa, and the Syrian Monastery of Rabban Ephrem stands conspicuously at
+the head of the bay. Rabban Ephrem was a handsome young monk, a refugee
+from Nisibis when that city was ceded to Persia. He came to Urfa in
+search of an eligible hermitage, and encountered there (so says the
+legend) a damsel with roguish eyes.
+
+"Oh damsel, why dost thou look upon me?" demanded the scandalized
+solitary. "Man should keep his eyes fixed on the ground; for it is
+written that out of it he was taken."
+
+"Verily it is as thou sayest;" responded the damsel demurely. "Wherefore
+woman may look upon man freely, for it is written that woman was taken
+out of man."
+
+"Lo! here is wisdom indeed," exclaimed the anchorite in amazement. "If
+the women of Urfa are so wise, how wise must the men be! Of a surety I
+will make my abode here, and gather wisdom at the fountain head."
+
+So Rabban Ephrem settled down at Urfa, probably in one of the rock-cut
+cells in the hill fronting the castle. But as he was misguided enough to
+exclude all the women from his monastery, we fear it is only too
+probable that he did not get as much wisdom as he hoped.
+
+But the real patron saint of Urfa is no other than the Patriarch
+Abraham; for the Moslems all believe implicitly that Urfa is Ur of the
+Chaldees.[15] They have here Abraham's cradle, and his tomb (which they
+never allow Christians to look upon); and they have the Pool of Abraham
+also, which is the principal sight in all their town.
+
+Abraham's Pool is a great stone tank which is fed by a never-failing
+spring. Along one side rise the domes and minarets of Abraham's Mosque
+(which is also inviolable by Christians) and the steps by which pious
+Moslems descend into the Pool to bathe. In the pool live Abraham's carp.
+The water is positively thick with them. No one is permitted to catch
+them so long as they remain in their Sanctuary; but they venture at
+their own proper peril into the stream which flows out from one end. It
+is considered a pious act to feed them; and the great fat gluttons
+follow us as we walk along the margin, with their heads bobbing out of
+the water, begging for handfuls of boiled maize. When we throw them
+_largesse_ there is such a rush for it that many of them got hoisted
+bodily out of their element on their fellows' backs; and it must be
+regretfully added that they often gorge themselves so immoderately that
+they float away gasping, belly uppermost, as though they were in an
+apoplectic fit.
+
+Abraham's interest in the pool is explained by a delicious legend. He
+had refused to worship fire when ordered to do so by Nimrod; and the
+mighty conqueror was so exasperated that he hurled him with his own
+hands from the summit of the citadel rock into a burning fiery furnace
+which he had kindled for his reception at the bottom. The Patriarch
+dropped unhurt, though it was a long cast even for Nimrod; and the
+fountain sprang up at the touch of his feet and extinguished the fiery
+furnace.
+
+If this explanation should appear to be not quite sufficiently coherent,
+we can only admit that primitive Paganism tells a much more plausible
+tale. The pool belonged of old to Derceto (Dagon, Atergatis), the
+ancient Syrian fish-goddess. They are lineal descendants of her carp
+that inhabit its waters to this day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A LAND OF DUST AND ASHES
+
+(DIARBEKR AND MARDIN)
+
+
+Due east and west, from the Gulf of Iskanderun almost to the heel of the
+Caspian, there stretches a range of lofty mountains--a sort of natural
+bulwark, fencing off the high rugged plateau of Asia Minor on the north
+from the low level plain of Mesopotamia on the south. At its western
+extremity this range is known as the Taurus, but further east it appears
+now to possess no generic name; yet it well deserves so much
+distinction, for it is here that the peaks attain their highest
+altitude, and hold in their wild recesses some of the grandest scenery
+in the world.
+
+The hills which we entered near Urfa are the first outposts of these
+mountains, but at this point of their line the outposts are very far
+advanced. We must push on for two or three days across a broad
+undulating upland before we find ourselves approaching the foot of the
+main chain itself. On the whole it is a dull enough journey; for though
+the snow summits rise nobly on the horizon ahead of us, the heathlands
+immediately round us are as barren as land can be. There are a few
+sordid Kurdish villages at four or five hours intervals, but apart from
+these there is nothing for the eye to rest on; and our own little party,
+crawling slowly across the landscape, seem to be the only living
+creatures except the ubiquitous hooded crows.
+
+During the second day, however, we became aware of another feature,
+which, if it adds no beauty, at least lends interest to the scene. A
+layer of higher ground is thrust across the plateau. It radiates out
+into long flat tongues; and its steep escarpments are littered all over
+with the big black boulders that have fallen from the bristly fringe
+along the upper edge. These boulders are covered with a grey-green
+lichen, and mottled with patches of moss of a warmer and richer green;
+but no other kind of vegetation seems able to flourish among them, and
+the prevailing tone of the landscape is a gloomy bilious grey. To those
+who have seen it before such a picture needs no commentary. A vast
+outpouring of volcanic scoriæ has covered the whole countryside.
+
+As we pursue our way further the signs become yet more pronounced. The
+Acropolis of the little town of Severek is perched, like Bamborough
+Castle, on a platform of basalt rock. Not far off at the village of
+Kainak is an isolated cone--once doubtless a miniature crater: and we
+remember that Diarbekr is built of basalt also--Diarbekr, two days'
+journey away. Whence came this prodigious outflow of seventy miles in
+diameter, and of four thousand square miles in area--as large as the
+county of York?
+
+A full day's journey ahead of us, all along the eastern horizon, lies a
+huge squat bun-shaped mountain, just over 6000 feet high. This is Karaja
+Dagh, the great extinct volcano, the outermost of that group of
+volcanoes which lie to the north of Mesopotamia, in Armenia and eastern
+Kurdistan. This region must have been the scene, at some remote
+geological epoch, of some of the greatest eruptions that have ever
+occurred on this globe. The five huge craters which produced them (not
+to mention a host of smaller ones)[16] are ranged diagonally athwart the
+country in a line some 300 miles long. At the north-eastern end is
+Alageuz, 150 miles south of the Caucasus. Then come Ararat, Sipan, and
+Nimrud; with Karaja at the south-western end. The biggest of all perhaps
+was Nimrud, a mountain but little higher than Karaja, but possessing the
+third largest crater that is known to exist in the world. Karaja would
+seem to consist of a group of associated craters; something like the
+Puy de Dome mountains, but infinitely grander in scale.
+
+It is held by many commentators that the site of the Garden of Eden was
+near modern Van and Bitlis, round about the head waters of the
+Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, and the Zab. If so, then the Garden
+of Eden now lies buried beneath the lava of these volcanoes; and where
+could we find fitter antitypes of the Cherubim with the flaming swords?
+
+Karaja juts out towards the plains like a huge cape, isolated from the
+mountains; and our road slowly heaves itself upward to find a way over
+its tail. As a road it is incredibly villainous, for it takes the basalt
+boulders _au naturel_, and hardly an attempt has been made anywhereto
+form a surface at all.[17] Round our left sweep the desolate fields of
+broken and disintegrating lava. On our right they rise, terrace on
+terrace, toward the mountain from which they flowed. And as we leave the
+mountain behind, and continue our way to the eastward, the aspect of the
+country changes little: it is still lava that surrounds us on every
+side.
+
+At length, two full days beyond Severek, we descry a city ahead of us. A
+city notable for its size, and yet more for its menacing aspect:--a grim
+black row of massive towers and curtains, with the slender stems of a
+dozen minarets shooting up into the sky behind the ramparts like reeds
+behind a dyke of stone. The snow peaks on our left stretch beyond it,
+and fade off gradually into the distance; and as we draw nearer we
+perceive that on our right the town is guarded by the deep ravine of the
+Tigris. Such is Diarbekr--Black Amida; whose classical name is not yet
+disused entirely, and which owes its inseparable epithet to the basalt
+of which it is built.
+
+The city crowns a bold rocky bluff overhanging the gorge of the Tigris,
+which flows some 300 feet beneath it in a broad and sandy bed. The river
+is here wide and deep, and its modern name--_Shat_, the
+Arrow--testifies the rapidity of its current; but a little below the
+city its course is checked by a bridge and a weir. In the severe winter
+of 1910-11 it was frozen over so hard at this point that the caravans of
+camels were able to cross it on the ice. The river covers the eastern
+face of the city; and the ground falls fairly steeply along the southern
+face also. But toward the remaining two faces the approaches are over
+level ground.
+
+We possess many cities in Europe which are still entirely encircled by
+Roman or mediæval ramparts. Such are Carcassonne, Aigues Mortes, Avila,
+Lugo, and Rothenburg; and we may add Constantinople, though in this case
+the circuit is incomplete. But, having seen all these examples, we feel
+bound to put it on record that the basalt walls of Diarbekr are
+distinctly the finest of all. The walls are some forty feet high and
+about five miles in circuit, and are strengthened at frequent intervals
+by eighty massive towers. Most of these are semicircular, but some are
+semioctagonal. They are spaced about three and a half diameters apart,
+and project boldly from the curtain walls between. The line traced by
+the walls is irregular, skirting the edges of the hollows; and at each
+salient angle is a huge circular bastion. The gateways are somewhat
+insignificant, being mere holes in the walls flanked by a tower on
+either side: and this is characteristic of most Roman fortifications,
+the gateways of Lugo (for instance) being very similar in design.[18]
+
+The curtain walls are from ten to fifteen feet thick; thinner along the
+river front, where the precipitous basalt cliffs rendered assault almost
+impracticable; and thicker along the other three sides. These sides are
+further protected by a moat cut in the solid rock, but neither so deep
+nor so wide as the giant moat at Urfa. Along the inner edge of this
+moat, some paces from the base of the ramparts, is a low breastwork of
+masonry as at Constantinople and Carcassonne. A loopholed and vaulted
+gallery is carried along the top of the ramparts, and above this were
+the battlements, so that the defenders had a double banquette.[19] The
+towers are vaulted internally, and have double banquettes also; and the
+garrison could reach their stations by a double staircase at every
+tower. The citadel is at the north east corner overhanging the gorge of
+the river, and in the midst of it is a huge mass of masonry, once the
+mount of the demolished keep.
+
+The walls are beyond all doubt, in the main, of Roman construction;
+though some Saracenic additions have since been incorporated in the
+work. They are built of squared black basalt, which has weathered
+externally to a dull yellow tone owing to the lichen which has
+overspread the surface. Possibly this process was assisted by the fact
+that some twenty years ago it was deemed a good idea to whitewash them,
+in order to give a distinguished welcome to a specially prominent Pasha!
+But fortunately the traces of this sacrilege are almost obliterated now.
+
+The houses in the town for the most part are a set of squalid hovels,
+intersected in all directions by a maze of narrow crooked streets. Our
+carriage fairly stuck in one of these alleys as we were attempting to
+pass through it; and for some minutes it seemed problematical whether we
+should be able to wriggle free. Yet not all the houses are mean; and in
+the quarter near the citadel, the residence of the chief officials, a
+very considerable number are solidly constructed of stone. Some few of
+these are genuinely old, and possess a good deal of interest. They are
+often built in two colours, with alternate horizontal bands of black
+basalt and yellow marble, resembling not a little the black and white
+marble buildings of Pistoia. It is curious how this taste for coloured
+ornamentation seems inherent in the dwellers in volcanic districts,
+where materials of different colours are always readily available. The
+same trait is very conspicuous in the volcanic districts of Auvergne.
+The most notable example at Diarbekr is a big mansion in the main
+thoroughfare. A house very similar in type to the old palaces of Spain
+and Italy; bare, square and prison-like outside, and entered by a single
+great doorway; but with graceful arcaded porticoes surrounding the
+_patio_ within. Once, no doubt, it was indeed a palace, the abode of
+some prominent magnate: but now it is only a _khan_; and a _khan_ so
+notoriously filthy that even our _Arabaji_ shrank from an encounter with
+its fleas.
+
+The principal Mosque is also of peculiar interest, and presents an
+architectural problem which has never been quite fully solved. Two sides
+of its courtyard are formed by the façades of an ancient palace--a
+palace of regal dimensions, and constructed in a style that is
+admittedly unique. One of these façades is in two stories, with a
+pointed arcade below and square-headed windows over; the other has now
+but one story which consists of a pointed arcade.[20] These are not
+quite Romanesque in style, but more Romanesque than Oriental. They are
+rather like primitive versions of the Otto Heinrichs Bau at Heidelberg
+Schloss. But the building to which they are nearest akin is Diocletian's
+famous palace at Spalatro; albeit they are far less massive, and far
+more fantastically ornate. The theory most generally adopted concerning
+them is that they formed part of the palace of the Armenian king,
+Tiridates; and this theory is strongly supported by their resemblance to
+the palace at Spalatro, for Diocletian and Tiridates were contemporaries
+and close allies.
+
+Amida was one of the great fortresses that guarded the southern frontier
+of the Roman Empire. Northward, in Asia Minor, _Pax Romana_ had a fairly
+long innings; but Parthia and Persia to the southward were at no time
+definitely subdued. The hold of the Romans on Mesopotamia was indeed in
+some sort analogous to the hold of the Austrians on Italy previous to
+1860. They regarded it as within their "Sphere of Influence," and
+sometimes they judged it expedient to "assert their interests" by
+invading it. But generally they found that enterprise was a bit beyond
+their capacity; their real "Scientific Frontier" lay along the mountains
+in the north. And here they, too, maintained their four great
+fortresses; not ranged in a square like the famous Austrian
+Quadrilateral, but _en échelon_ one behind the other along the southern
+slopes of the hills. Nisibis and Daras were in the forefront; Amida and
+Edessa withheld in reserve behind them. And though thus in the second
+rank, Amida got its full share of fighting when the kings of
+resuscitated Persia began to make invasions in their turn.
+
+Amida's defences were perfected, and its arsenal formed, by Constantius;
+and it was Constantius' great opponent Sapor II who undertook its first
+memorable siege. The great Sassanid Shah invaded the Roman territory
+with a huge army of 100,000 men in the year 360. He had at first
+intended to ignore the fortresses and to scour the hinterland for
+plunder; but as he rode past the walls of Amida an arrow struck his
+helmet, and he turned upon the place like an angry bull. His summons was
+answered by a volley from the _balistæ_ which slew the only son of his
+chief auxiliary, Grumbates the king of the Chionites; and Sapor swore to
+the bereaved father that he would not rest till he had taken the city in
+revenge.
+
+For seventy-three days he pressed his assaults with the utmost fury and
+persistence. He brought up battering rams and huge wooden towers
+constructed for him by Roman deserters; and on one occasion he succeeded
+in surprising one of the towers upon the river frontage, but the seventy
+picked archers who occupied it were overwhelmed by the garrison and
+slain. At last he breached the walls; and though some of the garrison
+(including the historian Ammianus) cut their way through his lines on
+the further side, and thus succeeded in escaping, the rest, with all the
+inhabitants, were massacred in the ensuing storm.
+
+Yet Amida had at least performed the duty which is ordinarily expected
+of a fortress. It had held back the tide of invasion for the period of a
+whole campaign. Sapor had lost a third of his army; and the season was
+too far advanced for any further operations. He retreated again into
+Persia, and abandoned the city that he had won.
+
+An even more notable siege occurred in the year 502. King Kobad, the
+father of the yet mightier Chosroes I. invested the city that autumn;
+assailing it from the western side (as Sapor had done before him), and
+employing similar siege engines to those of his predecessor's days.[21]
+The garrison caught the blows of his rams on reed mattresses lowered
+from the ramparts, and greased the drawbridges of his wooden towers so
+effectively that the stormers could not cross. Also they employed
+"winged words" of such singular virulence and pungency as to scandalize
+even their own historian.[22] He felt obliged to draw the line at
+"Lime-house," though boiling oil and firebrands were fair. "If the
+bishop had still been alive he would never have permitted it;" and
+indeed when the women took to stripping themselves on the ramparts, and
+taunting the besiegers with their inability to sack the place, we may
+grant that any bishop would have had good cause to protest!
+
+Kobad next "cast a mount" against the walls in the manner of Sargon and
+Sennacherib; a huge incline of earth and brushwood to give his men
+access to the parapet. The besieged breached their own wall under it,
+and secretly drew away the core; propping the cavity with balks of
+timber, and then filling it with combustibles. When the assault began
+they fired their mine; and an hour or two later the mound collapsed
+beneath the feet of the attacking columns, precipitating the luckless
+stormers into the blazing furnace below.[23]
+
+Three months had passed in vain assaults, and Kobad had made no
+progress. His thinly clad Persians were suffering terribly from the
+winter cold; and the Great King swallowed his dignity and offered to
+raise the siege for half a crown! But success had made the defenders
+more insolent than ever, and they scorned even this show of homage. They
+retaliated by sending him a bill for the vegetables which his army had
+consumed out of their gardens. This was too much for Kobad, and he
+resolved to fight to a finish. Three days later the laugh was on his
+side.
+
+One night a party of Persians were pursuing a certain Kutrigo who had
+sallied from a privy postern to make a raid on their camp. As they
+neared the walls they received no challenge, and not an arrow was shot
+at them. That particular tower was manned by the "Sleepless" monks of
+Anzetene; and it chanced that "a certain man" (in the most friendly
+spirit) had given them a good supper and wine to drink, so that they
+were all in deep slumber. The Persians seized their opportunity and made
+themselves masters of the tower. The garrison were aroused and hurried
+up to expel them, endeavouring to cut away the vaulted floor under their
+feet. The Persians planted their scaling ladders and swarmed to the help
+of their comrades; and for thirty-six hours continuously the fight raged
+furiously on the wall. Peter of Amkhoro, a man of gigantic stature and
+clad in complete armour, held the banquette on one side against the
+utmost efforts of the Persians: but in the opposite direction they
+pushed on from tower to tower till at last they gained one of the
+gateways. The army poured in irresistibly, and the massacre began.
+
+Kobad allowed his army three full days to sack the city, and at the end
+of that time 80,000 corpses were carried out through the north gate that
+the king might enter at the south. Even so the Persians' vengeance was
+not sated, and they demanded leave from their king to execute one tenth
+of the survivors to appease the _manes_ of their own dead comrades.[24]
+They bore these wretched victims outside the city walls, and killed
+them "in all sorts of ways."
+
+[Illustration: MOSUL.
+
+View from the bridge, looking up stream. The Tomb of Cassim is one of
+the more distant buildings near the water-side.]
+
+Kobad pillaged the city thoroughly, sending his booty away on rafts down
+the Tigris to Ctesiphon; and when he himself departed, he left a certain
+Glon to hold the fortress with a garrison of 3000 men. This seems a
+small enough force to man such an extent of rampart: yet at first it
+proved amply sufficient; and when the Roman general Patricius attempted
+to regain the city he was repulsed completely and ignominiously, though
+the Romans were much more skilled than the Persians in the conduct of a
+siege. But Amida was not yet at the end of its agony: and what all the
+emperor's horses and all the emperor's men had so conspicuously failed
+to accomplish was reserved for the grim persistence of an irregular
+partisan.
+
+Farzman was an active local Sheikh who had espoused the cause of the
+Romans, and who had made his name a terror to the Persians by a
+multitude of daring deeds. He was only in command of 500 horse; and any
+attempt to form a regular siege of such a first-class fortress would of
+course have been ridiculous. But an adroitly handled cavalry force can
+do a good deal in the way of "containing" an Oriental city. In the
+winter of 1911 Shuja ed Dowleh, the Agha of Maragha, nearly reduced
+Tabriz, with all its 300,000 inhabitants, with an equally puny band.
+
+Farzman knew full well that the Persians in Amida could not have had
+time to replenish their magazines. He quietly cut off communication with
+the surrounding villages, and suppressed the daily market that was held
+without the walls. Glon very naturally grew restive; and listened
+greedily to a certain Gadono, a prominent local sportsman, who told him
+that he had located Farzman's camp in the course of his hunting
+excursions, and would enable him to take it by surprise. Accordingly
+Glon sallied out with all his available cavalry. But the wily Gadono had
+been in communication with Farzman. The "surprise" had been all arranged
+beforehand; and Glon and his party were wiped out.
+
+This signal miscarriage of their "aggressive defence" profoundly
+disconcerted the Persians. Glon's son, now in chief command, kept
+breathing out threatenings and slaughter; but he no longer had any
+cavalry, and his infantry was barely sufficient to man the ramparts and
+overawe the citizens within. He shut up all the able-bodied inhabitants,
+to the number of 10,000, in the Stadium; and calculated by this measure
+to free his own hands for the defence. But, struggle as he might, he
+could not snap the line which held him:--Farzman had hooked a salmon
+with a trout rod, but he played it in masterly style.
+
+Then came days of horror unutterable. The prisoners in the Stadium were
+left without any food whatever. They ate their boots, and their belts,
+and finally preyed on each other; and when the wretched survivors were
+let loose as no longer worth guarding, they crawled out of their prison
+"like men risen from the dead." By this time the city itself was almost
+in equal extremity. Many of the living skeletons from the Stadium were
+enticed into the houses by the starving women and there killed and
+devoured. The garrison were so reduced by hunger that they could
+scarcely carry their weapons; and the Persian commandant sent to Farzman
+to say that he was willing to capitulate.
+
+Farzman granted easy terms. They might go off on rafts down the Tigris,
+taking all their property with them, as many as elected to go. And he
+himself, on their departure, took possession of that ghastly charnel
+house; and assisted by the new bishop, Thomas (the same who was later to
+build Daras), set to work to import new inhabitants, and nurse the dead
+city back to life.
+
+Diarbekr in 1895 was one of the centres of the Armenian massacres, and
+as many as 2500 perished in this place alone. Little enough was heard
+about it at the time in England, where attention was almost monopolized
+by yet more monstrous holocausts; but what passed then as a mere local
+incident wears a very different aspect when we visit the actual spot
+where it was enacted--when we see the doors still splintered and patched
+in the houses which were stormed by the rioters, the photographs of the
+luckless victims still treasured in the albums of their surviving
+friends and relatives, and the ghastly bald patch in the midst of the
+city where the Armenian quarter was razed to the ground and has never
+been re-erected to this day.
+
+The massacre was undoubtedly prompted by the Government of
+Constantinople; but their agents were the fanatical Kurds who swarm in
+the slums of Diarbekr, and who flocked in eagerly from the surrounding
+villages to take a hand in the work of slaughter and to share in the
+plunder which followed. That the massacre was political and not
+religious was proved by the fact that the Syrian Christians (who are
+also numerous in Diarbekr) did not suffer to anything like the same
+extent as their Armenian co-religionists. The crowd of refugees who
+sought sanctuary in the Jacobite cathedral were not molested, and only
+isolated individuals fell victims to the fury of the mob. That the
+outbreak wore a mask of fanaticism was a thing inevitable in the Orient.
+The perpetrators were the Kurdish riff-raff; and on this point
+Mohammedan _badmashes_ are alike all over the world. Only religious zeal
+can excite their passions dangerously; and when their passions are
+dangerously excited they always find expression in religious zeal.[25]
+But the very fact that a distinction was made between Armenians and
+Syrians, is alone sufficient to indicate that in this instance the mob
+was under some sort of control.
+
+The hatred of the Turks for the Armenians is due to the fact that the
+Armenians are the only one of their subject nations of whom the Turks
+are afraid. The Arabs and Kurds are their co-religionists, and have no
+national cohesion. The Nestorian and Jacobite Syrians are either too few
+to be dangerous, or too thoroughly tamed by long subjection to have any
+desire to rebel. But the Armenians are numerous and imbued with national
+aspirations; and though the majority of them are inoffensive
+cultivators, they include a considerable number of intelligent and
+capable men. A small percentage too are active political propagandists,
+who continue to work persistently to overthrow the present régime. Under
+equal political conditions the Armenians would soon secure dominance:
+and this would be a subversal which the Turks could never endure. So
+when the Armenians grow restive the Turks resolve to "take precautions."
+They cannot cope with them in cleverness, but in physical force they
+can.
+
+Will there be further massacres? It is an ever-present danger. The Turks
+do not wish it--it makes trouble with the European Embassies; and, after
+all, slaughtering the Armenians is killing the goose that lays the
+golden eggs. The Kurdish chiefs do not wish it either, for they too
+stand to lose pecuniarily: but beneath them seethes the fanatical mob,
+easily roused by hot-headed agitators, a sort of open powder magazine
+which any stray firebrand may ignite. "I will give you full warning if I
+can," said a friendly Vali to a gentleman of our acquaintance; "but I
+can only tell you that I see no danger just now. There is talk of
+course--there is always talk; and so long as the talk reaches our ears
+it is not likely to go further. When you see little groups whispering
+together outside the mosques, and breaking up whenever a Christian
+passes within earshot--that is the real danger-signal, and you can see
+that as well as I."
+
+There was plenty of "talk" at Diarbekr; and we frequently heard the
+children (no doubt in imitation of their elders) invoking curses on us
+as we passed along the streets. The tension must have become greater
+since: for the Moslems will have been touched in the raw at the result
+of the Balkan fighting, and are prone to avenge their discomfiture on
+any Christian who is ready to hand. Moreover the Constitution had not
+altogether improved matters: for it was inaugurated by a general amnesty
+whereby all exiles and prisoners had been released. Some were certainly
+innocent sufferers, but a large number would have been much better kept
+in durance; and Diarbekr was consequently growing anxious at the
+intrigues of Abdul Reshek Agha, grandson and heir to Bedr Khan Beg of
+Massacre memory,[26] who had just got reinstated in his ancestral
+stronghold in Bohtan. He was credited with an ambition to establish
+himself under the ægis of the Russians, as Shah of United Kurdistan: and
+though a "United Kurdistan" is a sufficiently Utopian conception, such
+an attempt might well begin with an Armenian massacre, and bring Russian
+intervention in its train.
+
+The old régime used to deal with such dangers tactfully, if not
+altogether discreetly, according to our insular ideas. And this may be
+exemplified by the case of another Bedr Khan Beg, a scion of the same
+family--a tale which, if not _vero_, is so _ben trovato_ that we cannot
+refrain from quoting it; and which at least shows the sort of methods
+with which the Government was credited, and in which its liege subjects
+were quite disposed to acquiesce.
+
+The Sultan, in an expansive mood, had recalled Bedr Khan Beg from exile,
+and proposed to re-invest him with part of his ancestral domain. That
+gratified gentleman blossomed out luxuriantly under such sympathetic
+usage, and began asking for all sorts of powers and privileges, and
+reviving a whole host of dormant claims. The Government grew rather
+uneasy, but showed no signs of displeasure. It granted each demand in
+turn; escorted him with high distinction on board a warship; and
+dispatched him to Trebizond en route for his satrapy.
+
+Two days later the ship was back at its anchorage. Perhaps it had
+forgotten something. Perhaps it needed some repairs to its engines. But
+it seemed in no hurry to start again; and it presently transpired that
+Bedr Khan Beg was no longer on board. He had not been seen to land; and
+the ship could have touched at no harbour. There is often some apparent
+inconsequence in the movements of Government ships. "_Et quaesitum est
+a_ Toad-in-the-hole _ubi est ille_ Bedr Khan Beg?" "_Non est inventus._"
+
+The Young Turks have adopted a self-denying ordinance with regard to
+such expedients; but they have hardly attempted to touch that cancer of
+Ottoman rule--the chronic corruption of the Administration. Turkey
+enjoys an admirable code of laws, and a revenue system which should be
+the envy of our own fiscal extremists; but it has also evolved along
+with them that other modern panacea, a multiplicity of jobs. Every
+single official, be he Old Turk or Young Turk, Arnaut or Armenian, is
+frankly "on the make." His post entitles him nominally to a starvation
+salary: yet he pays for it with a bribe, and he knows it is well worth
+paying for, since the incidental pickings will enable him to "make his
+pile."
+
+The present officials did not reprobate their predecessors' conduct in
+this: they only envied their opportunities. If they had been allowed a
+chance of getting a look in themselves, they would have been quite
+content with things as they were. But the Old Gang had packed the
+Government so artfully that nothing but a revolution could oust them;
+and so in due course the inevitable revolution happened. But the methods
+of administration remain essentially the same.
+
+Internal development of the empire is hardly ever attempted. The
+standing instructions appear to be "Thou shalt do nothing at all." The
+central Government is quite content if open revolt is avoided; and if
+the taxes are gathered regularly enough to pay the officials' salaries,
+and to maintain the standing army. Abdul Hamid even attempted to
+dispense with paying the army; and this ill-judged bit of economy was
+the primary cause of his overthrow. An army is an institution which
+cannot be prudently starved.
+
+Of course all this systematized corruption involves huge losses to the
+Government. The officials, for a consideration, will always allow their
+friends to "make a bit;" and will often undervalue their property for
+assessment by as much as 90 per cent. The Kurds are favoured at the
+expense of the Christians because their support has to be courted,
+although in the development of the country they are much the least
+valuable asset. Yet even the Kurds are not reconciled by such means to
+the paying of their taxes. Not so much because the taxes are heavy as
+because they are unremunerative. They see no return for their money: no
+roads, no education, no irrigation works. They are paying not taxes but
+tribute, like the old vassal kings under Assyria; and consequently they
+are always ripe for revolt, if they see any prospect of obtaining
+external aid to enable them to revolt successfully; again like the
+vassal kings under Assyria, who knew well that they would get flayed
+alive if they failed.
+
+The best one can say of the administration of justice is that it
+probably is not quite as corrupt as it appears to be. The judge takes
+bribes from both sides with a view to remaining unbiased; and, if he is
+scrupulous, restores his bribe to the loser. In criminal cases, however,
+one must make allowance for a further principle. Among ourselves
+criminal acts are regarded as an offence against the State, and it is
+the State's duty to exact the penalty. But the Turks are inclined to
+regard such acts merely as an offence against the individual. The State
+does no more than recognize the right of the injured party (or his
+representative) to take his own revenge--if he can.[27] It will only
+itself occasionally condescend to act as his representative, if he
+chances to be an influential person, or if some influential outsider
+(say the British Consul) may be thereby obliged. Such a point of view is
+very primitive, and inevitably leads to much injustice; but we cannot
+hope to see this remedied until the Turk has digested our own Western
+principles, and he has not made digestion easier by electing to swallow
+them whole.
+
+With regard to the Kurds[28] we desire to speak as charitably as we are
+able; and we may find warrant for this in the words of Mar Ephrem, the
+Syrian Bishop of Urmi, who, writing to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
+could say no worse of them than that they were _wakshi_ folk. _Wakshi_
+means merely "uneducated;" but it is only fair to add that it is a term
+of much greater opprobrium than seems quite reasonable in a country
+where not one man in a hundred is able to read or write.
+
+The lack of education which the bishop laments is akin to that "weakness
+in arithmetic" which caused the Irishman to be hanged. They are apt to
+have more sheep in their villages than they can legitimately account
+for. They are a pastoral race, leaving agriculture almost exclusively to
+the Syrians and Yezidis; but we fear that their "pastoral" ideals are
+hardly those of Corydon or Meliboeus. Rather are they the modern
+representatives of those Elliots and Maxwells and Johnstones who used to
+practise "the faithful herdman's art" upon our own border; and it might
+well be said to them (as was said to the chief of another great family
+whose enormities have since culminated in the acquisition of a
+dukedom)--
+
+    _Had everye honeste man his awin kye,_
+    _A right puir clan thy name wad be!_
+
+Such doings are hardly criminal according to their own code of morals;
+and if they confined themselves to cattle raiding, or even to an
+occasional clean murder, we should be able to think of them more kindly.
+But we fear that yet darker deeds must sometimes be reckoned against
+them; deeds like those of Edom o' Gordon, or Black Adam of Cheviot, or
+like that which drew Hepburn's vengeance on Bertram of Mitford tower. It
+is highly interesting, no doubt, to find Donald Bean Lean in the flesh
+still practising his old avocations in the highlands of Asia Minor; but
+if we could also find there "the kindly gallows of Crieff," we do not
+hesitate to avow that our state would be the more gracious.
+
+There is a British Vice-Consulate at Diarbekr, but at the date of our
+visit it was vacant. It is one of those posts which our Government is
+apt to suppress whenever retrenchment seems advisable. Certainly the
+Vice-Consul must lead a dull enough life; and the British trade, which
+is the ostensible cause of his appointment, is a very nebulous entity.
+Yet the mere presence of a European constitutes a very real protection
+of the subject races in such an environment; and we owe at least this
+much recognition of our treaty obligations towards them.[29]
+
+Our national prestige in the East rests chiefly on our dominance in
+India; and this is reflected in the fact that our Indian consulates in
+the south are much better maintained than those in the north, which are
+controlled from Europe. Our prestige too is a waning quantity. We are
+living, as it were, on the capital accumulated for us by such men as
+Stratford Canning; and it must be confessed that latterly our policy has
+not been that of a Great Power. We seem content to preserve barbarism in
+Mesopotamia in order to make our position in India easier; and to
+discourage the Baghdad railway because it will make our frontier harder
+to defend. That our military men should take this view is excusable.
+They know our present unpreparedness; and some day it might even be
+their duty to destroy that railway, because forces at their disposal
+will not otherwise be adequate for defence. But from a national
+standpoint such a dog-in-the-manger policy must eventually bring its own
+punishment. Our most straightforward, and in the end our wisest, course
+would be to promote all developments, and to shoulder manfully the
+obligations which they entail.
+
+We resumed our journey from Diarbekr across a lava-covered country by
+perhaps the bumpiest bit of road between Aleppo and Mosul. We and all
+our possessions were kept bouncing about in our _araba_ like so many dry
+peas in a pod. The springs of a second carriage that was travelling
+with us burst, and had to be spliced with string. Presently our own pole
+broke off short at the socket, and had to be lashed up with string
+likewise. By some miraculous dispensation the splice held out to Mardin.
+
+These accidents and repairs delayed us, and nightfall caught us still on
+the moorland. Our driver went astray off the almost invisible pathway,
+and after a while was reduced to hunting for it with matches. We fished
+out a portable candle-lamp, which gave somewhat more illumination; but
+which scarcely seemed adequate for the next undertaking that awaited
+us--the fording of a fairly wide river, running strongly, about axle
+deep. Good luck, however, attended us, and we at length got safely to
+our _khan_.
+
+Next morning we were clear of the volcanic district and pursued our way
+up a winding and fertile valley, which was threaded (for a marvel) by a
+very presentable road. But over the _col_ at the head there was no road
+whatever, and our horses had to scramble up a mountain side, rugged with
+earth-fast boulders and the roots of stunted trees. But this was the
+last of our obstacles. The road now revived intermittently; and though
+but half finished and hilly, it held on to the end of our stage. Towards
+evening we climbed the long zigzag ascent to the top of a 3000 feet
+mountain, and, crossing the ridge, wheeled immediately into the streets
+of the city of Mardin.
+
+Mardin occupies a superb situation at the summit of one of the eminences
+which are ranged like a wall along the northern border of the
+Mesopotamian plain. All trace of an intervening plateau has here been
+completely eliminated; and from the foot of the declivity the ground
+stretches away to the southward in one illimitable level. The furthest
+identified landmark, a huge _tel_ rising conspicuously in the far
+distance, was pointed out to us as Tel Kokab nearly eighty miles away.
+
+These mountains are the Jebel Tur, the Mount Athos of the extreme east.
+They are a wild and barren district, containing very few villages, but
+thickly studded with ancient Christian monasteries; some of which date
+back to the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries, and most of which are
+still occupied by small companies of Syrian monks.[30] Mardin is
+situated at the western extremity of this region; and the northern and
+eastern boundaries are formed by a loop of the Tigris, which flows
+behind the upland from Diarbekr to Jezire ibn Omar and issues there on
+to Mosul plain.
+
+The hill on which the city stands is of a form which is not uncommon
+among the Kurdistan highlands, It rises from the plain in a single steep
+slope, unbroken almost from base to summit; but it culminates in a
+cresting of precipitous rock, so even and vertical that it looks like an
+artificial wall. Immediately behind the city this cresting forms an
+isolated knoll, cut off at the back and ends as abruptly as along the
+front, and thus forming an immense table with a perfectly level top.
+Many of the hills adjoining are of similar conformation; and another,
+almost a replica of it, may be seen in the mountains further eastward,
+forming the site of the town of Amadia.
+
+Amadia is built entirely on the level top, and the encircling line of
+precipice serves it instead of a rampart: but at Mardin the space on the
+summit is only sufficient for the citadel, and the town lies just at the
+foot of the precipice, sprawling down the southern slope of the hill.
+The houses look forth across the plain, each over the roof of its
+neighbour; and as even the lowest rank must be fully 1500 feet above
+plain level, they form a conspicuous assemblage visible for scores of
+miles away.
+
+The town is some two miles in length and perhaps half a mile in width,
+and is reputed to contain about 80,000 inhabitants. It is built of a
+warm-coloured stone similar to that employed at Urfa; and, like Urfa, is
+largely composed of good substantial buildings, which can sustain a
+certain amount of dilapidation without lapsing altogether into squalor.
+The streets are narrow and tortuous, and run for the most part
+longitudinally; thus it is evident that the cliff which overhangs them
+cannot (like the Amadia cliff) be in the habit of dropping fragments
+down the slope beneath it; otherwise the lanes would run vertically,
+and be a good deal wider than they are! Some of the principal mosques
+possess considerable architectural pretensions, with Arabesque
+stalactite corbelling inserted in the coves over the doorways, and a
+certain amount of good carving introduced here and there on the facades.
+They are generally covered with fluted domes--a rather unusual feature,
+but one which is very conducive to the general effectiveness of the
+design.
+
+Mardin is a walled city, but its walls were never very formidable and
+are now mostly ruinous. They consist but of broken fragments even on the
+citadel rock. The place was no Roman fortalice like Urfa or Diarbekr,
+and the part that it played in history was not of any great note. For
+some time it was the capital city of a petty dynasty of little
+independent Sultans; and the tomb of one of the most powerful of these
+forms a graceful adjunct to one of the chief mosques. One unique
+distinction, however, belongs to its rock-perched citadel. This is said
+to have held out successfully against the invincible Timour himself.
+
+Mardin is in these days best known to us as the residence of the
+Patriarch of the Jacobites--Mar Ignatius, the modern inheritor of the
+throne of Antioch, that earliest of all Metropolitan sees. He resides at
+Deir el Za'aferan, the "Monastery of the Yellow Rocks," which is
+situated about five miles eastward upon the southern slope of the
+mountains, in a position very similar to that of the town itself but on
+a separate hill. Deir el Za'aferan is a very ancient foundation dating
+from the fifth or sixth century; and certain fragments of its original
+structure still survive to this day, incorporated in the existing
+buildings. They are of pronouncedly classical character, and display a
+strong similarity to the admittedly Roman work in the Church of St.
+James at Nisibin: but the major part of the monastery is of much more
+modern construction; for it has been almost constantly occupied ever
+since the date of its erection, and subjected to many vicissitudes,
+being frequently ruined and rebuilt.
+
+The Syrian "Jacobite" Christians are a poor remnant now, but they were
+once the dominant Church in that group of old Roman provinces that we
+style loosely, "Syria and Palestine," but which Romans called "The
+Orient," _Praefactura Orientalis_.
+
+Syriac (_i.e._ Aramaic) was the vernacular of these lands, whose capital
+for both ecclesiastical and political matters was Antioch. Their use of
+a separate language gave a national tinge to their Christianity; and
+they resented the Greek uniformity which the Emperor of Constantinople
+for political reasons sought to impose upon them. They fought this
+battle on the doctrinal field, refusing to accept the "Constantinopolitan"
+council of Chalcedon, and finding in that refusal a rallying-point for
+their own desire for independence.
+
+For some time, it seemed probable that the emperor would seek to
+reconcile the discontented provinces by abandoning the council to which
+they objected; this policy, however, was rejected by Justinian
+(527-565), with the result that these "Monophysite"[31] malcontents
+organized themselves on a footing of separation from the Greek Church,
+but they remained in fellowship with the Churches of Armenia and Egypt;
+and the bulk of the Christian population of these provinces was in
+sympathy with them.
+
+Thus, when the Mohammedan invasions of the seventh century commenced,
+the Arabs found that the bulk of the provincials were disposed to
+receive them as deliverers rather than as foes. In return, they
+recognized these Monophysites as the dominant Christian _millet_ of
+these provinces, and so they remained for centuries.
+
+Their nickname of "Jacobite" has nothing whatever to do with the "White
+Rose Society," but was given them during the sixth century. Justinian
+attempted to force them into "Orthodoxy" by imprisoning their bishops,
+so as to prevent the ordination of any clergy but those of whom he
+approved. While in prison, the bishops consecrated a certain monk
+Jacobus Baradaeus, to the episcopate, and gave him a "roving
+commission." For thirty-five years he wandered from place to place in a
+beggar's horse-cloth (_bara'da_), and reorganized the whole separatist
+hierarchy.
+
+Their Patriarch claims to be a true representative of the original
+Patriarchate of Antioch. In the days of their oppression, he was
+naturally not permitted to reside there, and shifted his quarters from
+monastery to monastery, till he settled at last at Deir el Za'aferan.
+The Greeks have of course a Patriarch of the see, though they have to
+admit the existence of gaps in his line of ancestry, and a Latin
+claimant of the same was established in the time of the Crusades. These
+reside now at Damascus and Beyrout respectively.
+
+The Jacobite Church comprises about a quarter of a million adherents in
+Asiatic Turkey with--we believe--twelve bishops; and there are about the
+same number under British rule in Malabar.
+
+Neither they nor their eastern neighbours the "Nestorians" hold now (if
+they ever did) the peculiar heresies which their names suggest, and
+which their enemies credited them with teaching. Each has now come to
+teach, and perhaps has always taught, all the doctrine that their
+Orthodox opponents sought to guard at the councils which these
+Separatists nevertheless continue to repudiate. The old division
+continues; but more as a matter of convenience than of principle, and
+the more intelligent bishops on both sides admit that all real
+differences have disappeared.
+
+Yet no fusion is likely at present, for the rank and file are
+unreconciled, and fortify their mutual suspicion with all sorts of
+groundless ideas. "Is it really true," asked an old Jebel Tur monk in
+all simplicity, "that the Nestorians wash their altar with asses' blood
+before they celebrate the Eucharist?"
+
+The Nestorian deacon who attended us, and who heard this amazing
+aspersion, could hardly be restrained from falling on the inquirer there
+and then!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MARCHES OF ANCIENT ROME
+
+(DARA AND NISIBIN)
+
+
+From the eastern gate of Mardin the road decants itself plainwards in a
+skein of curves and zigzags--a vertical descent of 2000 feet, spinning
+out its gradients to a length of five or six miles. It is not at all a
+bad road. One could easily bicycle down it--and perhaps even bicycle up
+it if in specially strenuous mood. But it is, as it were, the swan-song
+of the modern Ottoman Telfords, and as soon as it reaches the level it
+reverts into a sheaf of footpaths. Henceforth to the end of our journey
+we saw no more metalled roads.
+
+We had now, too, a further reminder of the fact that we were quitting
+civilization, for a couple of _zaptiehs_ rode with us to escort us over
+the stage to Nisibin. Hitherto such protection had been deemed needless:
+but in these remoter districts the Government prefers to have some
+tangible assurance of a European traveller's safety, seeing that it is
+liable to be held responsible if he is unfortunate enough to come to
+grief. Thus that modest intruder finds himself passed on from city to
+city with all the pomp and circumstance of an armed cavalry escort; and
+afflicted at every stage with the consciousness that he is passing
+current at a face value vastly in excess of his intrinsic worth.
+
+The _zaptiehs_ are a sort of military police, analogous to the Spanish
+Civil Guard or the Royal Irish Constabulary; though we fear that these
+two _corps d'elite_ would not be likely to feel gratified at a
+suggestion that such deplorable ragamuffins should "march through
+Coventry" with them. Personally, for the most part, they are
+good-humoured and obliging fellows; accepting rough weather and hard
+lodging with the utmost philosophy. Also they rather welcome the chance
+of a little escort duty. It is a pleasant change from the monotony of
+garrison life; and there is a tip to look forward to finally, though
+this must be "under the rose." "You have not mentioned that you've given
+us a present?" said one of our fellows with engaging _naïveté_ when we
+asked him to carry back a letter--"Because it isn't allowed!"
+
+But though Western civilization extends thus far no longer, there is not
+wanting tangible evidence to prove that it was here long ago. In the
+midst of one of the first plain villages there rises, like a lofty
+_aiguille_, the angle of a Roman watch tower. It seems impossible that
+such a slender fragment should be able to withstand wind and weather
+much longer; but hitherto the huge square blocks have stood firm though
+all support has fallen away. A Roman church (or more probably a Roman
+house converted into a church) stands in another village; and at the end
+of a short day's journey we turned aside to visit some yet more striking
+remains.
+
+The mountains at this point ravel out on to the plain in a line of
+gently sloping spurs, and from between two of these issues a broad and
+shallow but never-failing stream. The spurs immediately westward of it
+are conspicuously gashed across with wide deep transverse trenches; and
+as we draw nearer we perceive that the ridge on each side of the river
+is crested with a ruined rampart, and that the hollow enclosed between
+them is a regular sugar bowl of huge disjointed stones. Here and there
+out of the chaos rises the fragment of a mighty tower or a massive
+skeleton archway, and presently we can descry a few wretched Kurdish
+hovels half hidden among the débris of the great devastated city.
+
+Such is now the fortress of Daras, once the Metz or Belfort of its age.
+
+[Illustration: SHEIKH ADI.
+
+The upper end of the buildings showing the forecourt and entrance
+gateway: and (apparently) "the Proprietor," seated on the wall above.]
+
+In the year 503, after the disastrous campaign which witnessed the fall
+of Amida and the failure to recapture Nisibis, the Emperor Anastasius
+took his generals severely to task "for that they did not prosper nor
+succeed in the war according to his will under the Lord." The
+unfortunate generals protested that they could not reasonably expect to
+defeat a potentate who was manifestly commissioned by Providence to
+chastise the backsliding Romans--especially when he had such a large
+army. But they closed their jeremiads with one eminently practical
+suggestion viz.--that it was quite hopeless to attack Nisibis unless
+they had a strong base of operations close by. This notion appealed to
+Anastasius--a great believer in fortification, and the builder of the
+famous "Long Walls," the Byzantine Lines of Tchatalja. After some
+consideration he fixed upon Daras as the site of his new fortress; and
+(as it was church property) he bought it honestly, and commissioned
+Thomas, the Bishop of Amida, to undertake the contemplated work. The
+commander of the covering army was one Felicissimus, of whom it is
+significantly chronicled that "he was not at all covetous;" but all the
+engineering work seems to have been supervised by the bishop. Anastasius
+supplied him with money freely, and engaged that neither he nor his
+successors should demand any accounts of the expenditure--which seems
+rather an extreme test even of a bishop's integrity. He specially
+stipulated, however, that none of the workmen should be defrauded of
+their wages, having ascertained (no doubt by a system of trial and
+error) that "cities (on the frontier) got built quicker that way." It is
+worthy of remark that a day's wage at that time was 4 _keratin_
+(2_d._)[32] and that the services of an ass were rated as precisely
+equivalent to a man's. Upon these principles the work progressed
+rapidly, and the city was finished in three years; Kobad being engaged
+upon his eastern frontier, and quite unaware of what was going on.
+
+"Is she not fair, my daughter of a year?" cried Coeur de Lion proudly
+as he gazed on Chateau Gaillard: and to build Chateau Gaillard in one
+year was certainly a fine achievement, yet it was as nothing in
+comparison to the building of Daras in three. It gives us a great idea
+of the resources of the Byzantine Empire that Anastasius, an
+undistinguished, albeit a conscientious, ruler should have been able to
+bequeath to us so superb a monument of his power. Dara is very similar
+in site, as it is accidentally similar in name, to another Roman
+foundation, the town of Daroca in Aragon. It lies pooled in a cup-like
+depression between the two rims of high ground which are crested with
+its formidable ramparts; and through the midst of it flows the little
+river, which cannot be diverted anywhere and thus ensures a constant
+water-supply. At either end of the depression the ramparts stoop from
+their opposing heights and join hands with each other across the stream.
+At these points the water is admitted and discharged through cunningly
+contrived water-gates consisting of several small arches, once defended
+by metal grilles the mortices for which may still be seen. Formerly no
+doubt these arches could be closed by sluices. Thus a wide and deep
+inundation could be formed without the walls at the upper gate, which
+would provide additional protection; and a similar reservoir could be
+collected within the walls at the lower gate, and discharged to
+overwhelm any battering engines that might be advanced against the city
+from the plain.
+
+The walls which crown the flanking heights are of singularly massive
+construction, and defended by a deep wide moat cut out of the solid
+rock. As at Diarbekr and Urfa (and in Spain at Lugo and Astorga) they
+are strengthened at frequent intervals by solid projecting round towers.
+
+Within the city itself are some even more notable monuments. The
+builders of the fortress did not rely exclusively on the river for their
+water-supply, but provided a huge underground cistern, fed by a
+rock-hewn conduit and capable of storing nearly five million gallons at
+need. This cistern consists of ten parallel vaulted tunnels, each about
+150 feet long and 13 to 14 feet wide, with an internal height of 40 feet
+from the floor to the crown of the vault. The division walls of this
+structure are thickly encrusted with lime deposit, thus proving
+conclusively the purpose for which it was designed.
+
+[Illustration: CROSS SECTION
+
+_GREAT GRANARY OF DARAS_]
+
+A little distance away is a sort of square platform of masonry, rising a
+few feet above the general level of the ground. We penetrated into it by
+a dark and narrow passage, and groping our way gingerly down a steep
+descent by the light of a couple of candles we found ourselves at last
+in a titanic cellar, 60 feet long and 50 wide, divided by a massive
+arcade into two naves, and roofed by a double barrel vault 50 feet above
+the level of the floor. This is doubtless the Great Granary mentioned
+by Zachariah of Mitylene; but (being underground) it is of course now
+deemed to have been a dungeon, and is known locally as "the Big
+Oubliette." The prodigious size of the stones employed in building it,
+and the extreme solidity of the masonry, made us think of the famous
+cisterns at Constantinople as very inferior structures indeed.[33]
+
+The use of such very large stones is a notable feature of Dara and gives
+a more grandiose character to ruins magnificent in themselves. Two
+average sized blocks on the ramparts, which still lay conveniently _in
+situ_, afforded ample area for the accommodation of a camp bed; and each
+of the two taken separately must have weighed not much short of a ton.
+Even the houses appear to have been built of stones as large as those
+used in the fortifications. It would seem that they were employed in
+sheer bravado, as was undoubtedly the case with the yet bigger stones of
+Baalbec. Now all lie scattered at random over the whole area of the
+city, and it puzzles us not a little to conceive how such singularly
+solid buildings can have been so utterly overthrown. Earthquakes or
+battering rams might have demolished them; but then one would expect to
+find the débris lying in heaps as it fell. The stones might have been
+removed to construct new houses and enclosures; but then they would be
+disposed in some sort of regular lines. Did some Timour deliberately
+give order that no stone should be left upon another? Even he might have
+been daunted at such an undertaking, when the removal of each several
+block could employ a file of men for a day.
+
+It is ever a futile task to prop a falling empire by the construction of
+prodigious defences; but at least Daras filled the gap long enough to
+witness the dawn of a more prosperous day. In the year 529--twenty-five
+years after the building of the city--Belisarius faced the Persian army
+on the flat ground just outside the lower water-gate. Perozes, the
+Persian commander, led a host of 40,000 soldiers; and the young Roman
+general had but 25,000, a motley agglomeration of Goths, Huns, and
+Heruls--for at this period it was the Romans' custom to impress their
+Gothic captives to fight against the Persians, and their Persian
+captives to fight against the Goths. Belisarius distrusted his army; and
+with very sufficient reason. So great had been the decay of Roman
+"virtue" that over a generation had elapsed since last they had won a
+victory in the field! He drew up his troops behind a strong line of
+entrenchments, so close under the walls of the city that they
+constituted rather an outwork of the permanent fortifications than
+regular field works of the orthodox type. Indeed, but that he had some
+scope for counter attack, he seemed rather preparing for a siege than
+for a battle. Remarkably timid tactics for a general who was soon to
+prove himself the most dashing commander of his age!
+
+The Persians must have been pretty confident to venture upon attacking
+such a position. But Perozes felt no doubt of the issue, and sent in an
+arrogant message to the city ordering the baths to be made ready for his
+use that night. His troops attacked the Roman left so strongly as
+actually to force the trenches; but, disordered by their success, they
+offered an opening to the Herul cavalry, and a furious charge drove them
+back in complete disarray. Thus, freed from anxiety for his left,
+Belisarius was able to employ his whole reserve in a decisive charge on
+the flank of the Persian left who were endeavouring to envelop his
+right. This wing, the flower of the Persian army, was cut off and
+annihilated; but Belisarius, true to his prudent tactics, would not
+trust his raw troops in a prolonged pursuit. Perozes was thus enabled to
+carry off most of his wounded; cunningly inviting the citizens of
+Nisibis to come for the plunder of Daras, and thus obtaining the use of
+enough wagons to convey his maimed soldiers away.
+
+We outspanned our caravan for the night on the very site of Belisarius'
+entrenchments just outside the lower water-gate; for the city enclosure
+itself is so cumbered with its own ruins that it is actually impossible
+to take wheeled vehicles inside. We might have carried our baggage in;
+and the Armenian priest of the village (for there are about fifteen
+Armenian families living there) offered us the use of his house most
+pressingly, representing that our so honouring him would "increase his
+name" among the Kurds. But on this occasion we judged it better to keep
+all our possessions together, and stay ourselves to watch over their
+safety; and so (as already hinted) we spread our beds on the ramparts,
+just high enough up to avoid the mists which might be expected to rise
+from the stream. It proved rather a draughty lodging, but this fact did
+not trouble us greatly; and we slept undisturbed until the morning star
+was high enough to give warning of the coming of the sun.
+
+There is a side-show attached to Dara which is scarcely less interesting
+than itself; and as soon as we found ourselves in full possession of
+breakfast and daylight (two events which were practically
+contemporaneous) we decided that, before continuing our journey, we
+would turn back a mile or so westward to visit the tombs and caves.
+These make those conspicuous scars which had already attracted our
+attention as we approached the city--the wide deep transverse gashes
+which are scored across the neighbouring hill sides.
+
+The rock-cut moat of the city could supply but a small part of the
+material required for all the buildings, and accordingly shoulder after
+shoulder of the hills to the westward has been pierced with quarries for
+more stone. When the masons had finished their job these quarries were
+promptly appropriated by a flourishing colony of hermits,[34] who
+honeycombed all the exposed faces with hundreds of cells and tombs. The
+cells are mostly cut into the vertical faces; the standard pattern
+having a round-arched recess for a porch, with a seat on either side of
+it, and a small square-headed doorway in the middle admitting to a cell
+about eight feet square. One of the seats in the porch is often hollowed
+out to form a grave for the occupant of the hermitage or sometimes this
+niche has been cut out in the floor or wall of his cell. Other graves
+are above the quarries, sunk vertically into the horizontal surfaces.
+These have an oblong opening, and widen out below beehive-wise so as to
+form two or more tombs. The opening was covered in with a gable-shaped
+sarcophagus lid, and many of these are lying about though none are
+actually in position. No doubt they have been removed by searchers after
+buried treasure.
+
+The biggest of all the caves must have served as the anchorites' church.
+It has an elaborately carved doorway with bas-relief panels over it
+representing apparently the Nativity and the Descent into Hades. The
+interior is irregularly quadrilateral, and must measure about
+thirty-five feet across. It has a flat ceiling, and is partly surrounded
+by a gallery, about eight feet wide and eight feet below the ceiling,
+supported on a range of rock-cut corbelled arches. There is nothing to
+indicate the position of the altar, and the eastern side is occupied by
+the doorway; but the altar may have stood in the centre of the floor.
+The level of the floor itself is also a matter for conjecture, as at
+present it is deeply covered with débris. The place is now used as a
+sheep shelter, and is known as the _khan_ or "Inn." It is lit by a
+single small window immediately over the door.
+
+There is interest enough at Dara to occupy an archæologist for weeks
+together--for months if he sees fit to excavate--but we had to resume
+our journey, and we knew that if we wanted more archæologizing we should
+have no difficulty whatever in finding opportunity on the road. About
+three hours eastward of Dara stands another Roman fortalice--a big
+square castle standing in lonely grandeur amid the desolate plain. The
+walls are now sadly shattered, excepting the great round bastion which
+is planted at one of the angles; and within the ruined enclosure is
+hutted a squalid community of miserable half-naked Kurds. This is
+doubtless the castle between Nisibis and Daras which Justinian ordered
+to be built in the first year of his reign. It was not auspiciously
+founded, for Kobad's army descended upon the builders before the work
+was completed, and the Romans were crushingly defeated, leaving most of
+their commanders[35] on the field. The future course of the war was,
+however, more favourably influenced by the fact that a certain junior
+general, of the name of Belisarius, escaped.
+
+Another three hours of slow progress, and we find ourselves approaching
+another township. The first indication of its neighbourhood is the
+apparition of a cobble-paved causeway, which gradually consolidates
+itself out of the dust of the desert, and holds its course steadily
+onward in a straight undeviating line. Probably it too is Roman, and if
+so the Romans were the last people who troubled to repair it; for it is
+so appallingly bumpy, and so frequently intersected by irrigation
+ditches, that the vehicles tactfully ignore it and keep to the unpaved
+ground. It leads us at length to a village which is somewhat larger than
+Dara, but which lacks all Dara's evidences of bygone wealth and
+grandeur. This place boasts a _khan_ and a market, and is the seat of a
+local governor. But if it has not fallen so low as its neighbour, it has
+fallen infinitely farther: for this wretched hamlet is Nisibis, once the
+impregnable fortress which marked the furthest limit of the power of
+Imperial Rome.
+
+Nisibis was won for Rome by the conquering arm of Lucullus. It was known
+then as Antioch in Mygdonia, because its fertile fields and shady groves
+irresistibly reminded the Graecian colonists of their lovely Antioch of
+Daphne. What a satire on Plutarch's explanation are the grim wastes
+which now environ it, and the barren hummocks of drift sand which have
+covered its ruins like a shroud! The Romans fortified the city with a
+triple rampart and a deep moat, and esteemed it (as it often proved
+itself) the principal bulwark of the east. They maintained a strong
+garrison in it; and the inhabitants, living in a state of constant
+warfare with the Parthians and Sassanid Persians, made almost as
+reliable soldiers as the regular legionaries themselves.
+
+When Sapor II made war on Constantius it was Nisibis that checked his
+invasions. Between the years 338 and 350 it sustained no fewer than
+three sieges, and on each of those three occasions it repulsed the
+invader from its walls. The last siege was also the greatest. Sapor
+advanced to the attack at the head of an enormous army drawn from all
+parts of Persia and India, and pressed his assaults most vehemently for
+a period of over three months. The garrison was ably commanded by Count
+Lucilianus, but the soul of the defence was the celebrated bishop St.
+James of Nisibis; and Sapor, finding that he could make no impression by
+ordinary methods, conceived the idea of raising an enormous dam to
+obstruct the Jag-jag river (the ancient Mygdonius) and so flooding the
+place out. As the city lies in a slight depression this Gargantuan
+scheme was just feasible; and Sapor did actually contrive to create such
+an inundation that he could launch a fleet upon it and assail the
+defenders of the walls on level terms. The combined effect of the flood
+and the floating batteries opened a breach 150 feet wide, and the Great
+King ordered an immediate assault: but the attacking columns were bogged
+in the deep mud, and environed by invisible pot-holes; and to cap all,
+the elephants stampeded and trampled them underfoot by scores. At
+nightfall the Persians drew off, and the breach was repaired before
+morning. Sapor had lost 20,000 soldiers and broke up the siege in
+despair. Legend asserts that his retreat was much expedited by a
+prodigious plague of flies which descended on the Persian camp in
+response to the sainted bishop's orisons: but a sceptic might argue that
+when you have an Oriental army, with its usual disregard of every
+possible sanitary precaution, encamping in a marsh for three months
+during the height of a Mesopotamian summer, it needs no miraculous
+interference to account for something phenomenal in the way of flies!
+
+Alas! all these efforts were wasted. Thirteen years later the Emperor
+Julian was killed in his famous expedition against Ctesiphon. Jovian, in
+order to extricate the army, was compelled to sign an ignominious
+treaty; and one of the chief conditions that Sapor insisted upon was
+that Nisibis should be ceded into his hands. The inhabitants implored
+the emperor's pity. Let him but give them leave to defend themselves,
+they would ask for no external aid. But Jovian was cowed by defeat, and
+afraid of offending the conqueror: and the townsfolk, well aware that
+they could expect no mercy from a potentate whom they had thrice
+discomfited, withdrew with all their possessions and left an empty city
+in the Persians' hands.
+
+Nisibis under its new masters proved as impregnable a fortress as ever;
+but it won a new title to fame while under Sassanian rule. In the year
+489 the Monophysite Emperor Zeno suppressed the great College of Edessa
+on the ground that it was tainted with Nestorianism. The Christian
+bishop of Nisibis was at that time a certain Bar Soma; a prelate of the
+type which asserted itself more prominently in the Middle Ages, in such
+men as Henry Despenser the martial bishop of Norwich, or Carillo the
+turbulent primate of Toledo. Bar Soma was a personage of some
+consequence at the Persian Court, and in fact seems to have held a
+position somewhat akin to Warden of the Marches. He had himself been a
+scholar at Edessa, and had remained on intimate terms with most of the
+professors; and he conceived the idea of re-establishing the college in
+his own cathedral town.
+
+The college thus refounded prospered exceedingly, and remained for many
+generations the most important educational centre in the East. It
+boasted about 1000 students (for Oriental students pack close), and
+though its course was primarily theological, yet it did much to keep
+alive profane knowledge as well. Thus it forms a not unimportant link
+between ancient and modern learning. The wisdom of the Greeks, which it
+received from Edessa, it handed on in its turn to Baghdad and Cordova
+and Salamanca; and perhaps even Oxford and Cambridge and Paris and Padua
+may owe to the college of Nisibis more than they are quite aware.
+
+There may well be good booty at Nisibin for an archæologist with a turn
+for excavation, for the mounds and hillocks which encircle it are
+manifestly piled on ancient walls. But there is little enough above
+ground--a bridge which is so badly battered that the carts prefer
+fording the river; a fragment or two of old walling; and a group of five
+monolithic columns, about two-fifths buried in débris, which are known
+as the columns of weighing, and which probably formed part of the
+peristyle of the forum. There remains, however, one special monument of
+even more interest to the ecclesiologist than to the antiquarian--the
+Church of St. James of Nisibis, one of the oldest Christian edifices in
+the world.
+
+[Illustration: _CHURCH OF SAINT JAMES AT NISIBIS_]
+
+Few indeed are the Christian churches of earlier date than the fifth
+century. Even the famous basilicas at Ravenna and Parenzo were only
+erected in the sixth. With the possible exception of Sta. Pudentiana at
+Rome there is no fourth-century church remaining in Europe, and even in
+Asia and Africa the examples may be counted on the fingers of the hand.
+But the date of St. James' church at Nisibis cannot possibly be later
+than the year 363, when the city was ceded to the Persians; and as it
+was built to receive the tomb of the saint (who died shortly after 350),
+it may be not improbably regarded as the citizens' thank-offering for
+their deliverance from the great siege.
+
+The church was originally triple, dedicated no doubt to the Holy
+Trinity, and consisting of three square _cellæ_ placed side by side.
+Each _cella_ measured about twenty-five feet in width, and had a small
+semicircular recess in the centre of the eastern wall. A pair of arched
+openings, each about four feet wide, gave access from _cella_ to
+_cella_; and a wider archway in each of the western walls opened into a
+triple narthex, furnished with three double doorways which opened into a
+courtyard.
+
+The central _cella_ is almost perfect as high as the cornice; but is
+roofed with a modern dome and pendentives, and has nothing to indicate
+conclusively the form of the original roof. The northern _cella_ has
+been more damaged and restored; but still retains the narthex doorways
+(now blocked) which the central narthex has lost. The southern _cella_,
+with its narthex, has been entirely destroyed.
+
+The side openings are spanned by heavy stone lintels, as also are the
+doorways in the narthex; but the western arches, and these over the
+apses, are open. Around them all internally runs a bold and richly
+carved architrave, which is also continued intermediately as a string
+along the walls. The foliage and mouldings throughout are thoroughly
+classical in feeling, and the work has all been executed in very
+finished style.
+
+The tomb of St. James is in a tiny crypt under the altar in the centre
+of the central _cella_. It consists of a stone sarcophagus covered with
+a heavy ridged lid; and it is highly probable that his bones have never
+been disturbed.
+
+The central _cella_ is still used for Christian worship, and has
+probably been so used continuously ever since the church was built. The
+northern _cella_, however, is not at present used. The Christians who
+live at Nisibin are Jacobites, and their Qasha inhabits a sort of little
+prophet's chamber built up against the northern wall of the church.
+
+A change had to be made in our personnel for the ensuing section of the
+journey. The _zaptiehs_ who had accompanied us from Mardin had reached
+the end of their beat, and we had to apply for a fresh escort to carry
+us on to Mosul. One of our two new protectors had travelled with "Rabbi
+Mr. Wigram" before and "knew him to be virtuous and generous," so
+relations promised to be harmonious. They were instructed to call for us
+at the _khan_ at daybreak, "as soon as there was light enough to
+distinguish between a black thread and a white." They turned up fairly
+punctually; but it then transpired that two of our horses needed
+shoeing, and that the drivers (of course) had not considered it
+necessary to attend to the matter until it was time to start. Thus the
+day was quite two hours old when we forded the Jag-jag river, and bumped
+off along the causeway which leads from the end of the bridge.
+
+Eastward from Nisibin to Mosul--a distance of 120 miles as the crow
+flies--lies a stretch of unmitigated desert which is known by the
+expressive name of the _Chôl_. For a journey of four or five days
+(according to the conditions of travelling) you pass no permanent human
+habitation, and the same monotonous level lies before you at every
+stage. You must carry your own provisions with you, your own shelter for
+your nightly bivouacs, and (if you are prudent) your own furnace for
+boiling the water. Even that water itself is only found at rare
+intervals in stagnant muddy puddles or intermittent and starveling
+streams.
+
+The _Chôl_ is no sandy desert like the Obi or the Sahara. It is rather
+what the Spaniards would call a _dehesa_ or _despoblada_--a waste which
+might be made fertile by the expenditure of a little pains. It is
+covered with sparse grass and stunted shrubs, and thistles which are by
+no means stunted; and a little desultory cultivation which is carried on
+along the outskirts proves that, with the re-establishment of
+irrigation, it might again be converted into one of the granaries of the
+world. Once it supported an immense population, for it was the home of
+the ancient Assyrians; and though the nucleus of that nation was
+concentrated at Nineveh and the adjacent townships, yet there must have
+been thousands of surrounding villages to supply food for the crowded
+cities and recruits for the mighty armies which dominated the whole
+Eastern world.
+
+They have left some trace of their handiwork, for the whole extent of
+the desert is studded with gigantic _tels_ spaced six or seven miles
+apart--huge mounds of earth as big as Silbury Hill. What purpose these
+can have originally served is a matter of much conjecture. Possibly they
+were sepulchral tumuli, possibly the mounts of village castles, possibly
+high places for the performance of sacrificial rites; but in any case it
+is evident that they cannot have been erected without a vast amount of
+human labour, and that the whole of the present population would not
+suffice to raise one. Now they serve chiefly as landmarks by which the
+faintly marked road can steer its course towards the horizon; and in
+several instances they still form burial places, possibly from some
+vague feeling that they must have been sacred long ago.
+
+The more direct southerly road from the Euphrates ferry to Mosul
+traverses this desolate region for a journey of fully ten days; but the
+three or four days extra entailed by the divergence through Diarbekr
+bring with them their own compensation in the shape of greater interest
+on the way. Moreover the _Chôl_ has its dangers. In summer it is a
+veritable furnace, and tall awe-inspiring dust devils stalk about it
+like wandering Jann. But the chief terror of travellers is the "Poison
+Wind" or _Sâm_, a faint invisible eddy of scorching air, which will pick
+out a single man or beast from the midst of a caravan and strike him
+down instantly senseless, sometimes even killing him on the spot.
+
+At the other end of the scale the district is not exempt from blizzards.
+In the extraordinarily severe winter of 1910-1911 the northern part of
+the _Chôl_ was visited by a prodigious snowstorm--a most unusual
+phenomenon--and many parties of Arabs were positively snowed under in
+their encampments and perished of cold and hunger before they were able
+to extricate themselves.[36] A wandering Kurd related to us how he had
+stumbled on such a camp after the visitation was over. His suspicion
+that something was amiss was first aroused by the fact that he
+encountered no challenge either from man or dog. When he came to the
+tents he found them full of dead bodies. The only living creatures among
+them were one old woman and a mare. Feeling sure that the old woman must
+die in any case he only brought the mare away with him; "but she died
+too," he said plaintively, "before I could get her to my camp."
+
+More than one carriage load of travellers perished on the road in that
+catastrophe; but our only discomfort on this occasion was a steady
+downpour of rain. We were told that we ought to feel grateful for
+it--that at least it would ensure us against any shortage of water. But
+no one can be expected to feel very grateful for five successive rainy
+bivouacs: and even our _zaptiehs_ grumbled a little--three wet days they
+were prepared for, but no one ever expected to get more! Our horses were
+the principal sufferers, for the wheels bit deep into the sodden ground
+and picked up huge dollops of loam which festooned themselves around the
+felloes. We walked many miles to relieve them; but it was like walking
+over wet plough-land in England, and we were obliged to pause every few
+paces in order to disburden ourselves of the lumps which had balled on
+our feet. Stiff European boots are not nearly so good for such work as
+the flexible brogues of the natives; and the spongy pads of the camels
+are apparently the best things of all.
+
+Some of the wild life of the desert showed itself in a herd of gazelle,
+which cantered across our pathway a mile or so ahead. We roused, too, a
+flock of herons, several sheldrake, a wild goose or two, and an
+occasional covey of larks. After dark we became aware of the jackals,
+which began whining dolefully around us; and on one occasion at
+nightfall, loping along the skyline just over our bivouac, we espied a
+solitary wolf. Human beings were a very great rarity, despite the fact
+that we were following a recognized highway, and for two consecutive
+days the only sign of their neighbourhood was a solitary black Arab tent
+which we spied some four miles to the right. Twice, however, we
+encountered a caravan of camels--about seventy strong in one instance,
+and about thirty in the other. Camels are preferred to mules on the
+plains as they carry much heavier burdens. Moreover one man (with a
+donkey) can look after seven or eight camels, whereas a caravan of mules
+requires about a man apiece.
+
+Our choice of camping-grounds was dictated each night by the presence of
+water; for despite the steady downpour very little remained upon the
+surface, and the rain apparently soaks through immediately into the
+underlying strata, as on the _Causses_ of Auvergne. The water was always
+muddy and sometimes bitter; but as we invariably boiled it, and kept the
+beasts away from it till we had filled our kettles, we believe that we
+swallowed nothing worse than sterilized mud. We used to spread our beds
+on the lee edge of our waterproof ground sheets, and draw the outer edge
+over us as an additional protection. But the rain sometimes penetrated
+everything, and in the morning we would find great pockets of water
+between the double thicknesses of the waterproof sheets. Decidedly
+camping-out is an amusement to be practised in the summer when the
+nights are short, for nights in the open are very tedious. You turn in
+about seven-thirty, and awake (thinking it nearly dawn) to find that it
+is eleven. You wake again about two; and then at gradually diminishing
+intervals, till at last you are rejoiced to find it five-thirty--breakfast
+time. Once in the middle of the night we were disturbed by one of
+the horses breaking picket; and the owner arose and gave chase, with
+frequent ejaculations of _Mashallah_! (Praise God!)--hardly the sort of
+comment that one would expect from a British dragoon!
+
+In the afternoon of the fourth day the _zaptiehs_ began to hold out
+hopes to us of lodging that night under shelter; for a big
+semi-permanent Arab encampment was generally to be found at this stage.
+And sure enough a little later we were able to make out some eight or
+nine big black tents, grouped around the remains of a ruined village
+with the wreck of a castle on its _tel_. Several such ruined villages
+are found here and there about the desert, but the inhabitants have long
+since been badgered out of them by Turkish tax-collectors and Arab
+raiders. The Arabs, though delightful hosts and most romantic features
+in a landscape, are not desirable neighbours. They submit to no control
+whatever; and, only a few months before, they had pillaged a Government
+caravan, which was conveying a big pumping engine to Mosul, and carried
+off all the gun-metal bearings under the delusion that they were
+gold![37]
+
+We dispatched a _zaptieh_ ahead of us to announce our approach and to
+bespeak hospitality; but dusk had already fallen before we ourselves
+arrived. The jaded horses had heavy work to drag the carriages forward;
+and we walking on in front of them, reached the outskirts of the camp a
+considerable distance ahead. Here, however, we were met by our returning
+_zaptieh_, who would not hear of our proceeding further. The _Sheikh
+Birader Effendi_ (Milord Brother Esquire) had already caused him great
+scandal by walking so much and so needlessly when he had hired a
+carriage to ride in; and now he insisted that we should fatally
+compromise our dignity if we did not drive up like gentlemen to our
+entertainer's tent door.
+
+We drove the last 200 yards accordingly, and dismounted at one of the
+largest tents; where we were courteously welcomed by Sheikh Ahmed Agha,
+a fine-looking elderly Arab of medium height and active build, with a
+pointed grizzled beard and a nose like the beak of an eagle. He shook
+hands with us _à la Franga_, and led us into his tent, where he made us
+sit down opposite to him on mattresses spread on the ground.
+
+The tent was some forty yards long and twelve yards wide; about twelve
+feet high at the ridge and three to four feet at the eaves. It was
+supported upon a row of seven central poles, and the guy ropes were
+exceedingly long, the pegs being three dozen yards beyond the overhang
+of the eaves. The space between the eaves and the ground was filled up
+partly by hanging cloths, and partly by piles of dried thistles, which
+come in useful as fuel. The tent cloth was of black goats' hair, very
+loosely woven like coarse English sacking. We could see daylight through
+it everywhere; particularly at the (horizontal) seams, where it gaped
+like an old umbrella. The smoke oozed freely through it; and next
+morning every tent in the camp was veiled in a sort of blue nimbus, the
+combined effect of smoke and evaporation. Such a texture can afford but
+indifferent protection against rain, but is needed chiefly as a shelter
+from the sun.
+
+At the further end of the tent were about a dozen shackled camels, which
+we could hardly see in the darkness, but heard grunting and gurgling all
+night. Next the camels were four or five mares tethered to a manger.
+White mares and flea-bitten greys are most in demand in this country, as
+they are considered to feel the heat less than bays or browns. Black
+horses are reputed unlucky, and may consequently often be bought cheap.
+
+Next, in the centre of the tent, sat the Sheikh; with his back against
+one of the poles, and the fire burning on the ground before him: and
+opposite him, with our backs against the next pole, sat we. Behind us
+was a reed partition shutting off the women's quarters, and with them
+(to judge by the sounds) lived the poultry and the sheep. A sort of
+enclosed yard, hedged in with piles of dried thistles, had been formed
+for their special benefit outside their end of the tent.
+
+There was no light except the fire and our own imported candle. When the
+inmates wanted a blaze they threw on an armful of thistles; but their
+principal fuel consisted of cakes of dried camels' dung which an old
+fire tender built up in the form of a hollow cone. Our _zaptiehs_ and
+several of the Sheikh's tribesmen sat with us; and two small boys, his
+grandsons, cuddled themselves up against his knees. The Sheikh of course
+spoke only Arabic, and we had to converse through an interpreter; but
+one of the _zaptiehs_ was a great chatterbox, so the conversation did
+not flag. The women naturally did not show, but (like Sarah, Abraham's
+wife) they were by no means inattentive listeners; and the Sheikh got
+frequently prompted by a shrill "Ask him so and so!" from behind the
+screen.
+
+From time to time we were served with tiny cups of black coffee
+containing about a tablespoonful each; and our supper consisted of a
+dish of fried eggs and dates. We have been told by a travelled Syrian
+(though we will not vouch for his authority), that an uninvited guest
+should be cautious when he is offered coffee by an Arab chief. He may
+accept the first two cups--that is just conventional politeness--but the
+offer of a third is a hint that he had better be going, and if he is too
+obtuse to take it, the next hint may be given with a gun! We, however,
+drank several cups and experienced no resentment; and our night in the
+black tents of Kedar was one of the pleasantest on the road.
+
+We made a late start the next morning, for it would have been
+discourteous to hurry; and apparently Arabs, when camping, are not
+particularly early birds. Our host bade us farewell at his tent door,
+and accepted with great amiability the trifling present which we offered
+to him in recognition of his hospitality. Any suggestion of payment
+would of course have been an insult; but a present is often expected,
+and always well received.
+
+It was a brighter morning; and the _zaptiehs_ hazarded an opinion that
+"Allah would be merciful." Far to the north we could see once more the
+mountains of Kurdistan, with gleams of sun sparkling on their
+snow-fields; and nearer to us on the southward lay the long barren
+ridges of the Sinjar. But this promise of better things was of very
+short duration, and before mid-day the rain had recommenced.
+
+At nightfall we reached our last camping-ground, overlooking the river
+Tigris; and here we underwent our last drenching--the longest and
+heaviest of all. We lay dozing under our waterproofs listening to the
+patter of the raindrops, and fondly hoping that the dawn might bring us
+just five minutes respite to enable us to pack up and stow away in the
+dry. But at last we started up desperately--bundled our beds on to the
+carriages--and dashed away dripping and reckless without even waiting
+for food. We knew that just twelve miles ahead we should find real
+houses with roofs to them--that an hour would bring us to cultivated
+fields again, and two hours within sight of Mosul. We passed through the
+city gate with as much relief as the snail and the tortoise must have
+felt when they entered Noah's Ark at the tail of the procession; and
+descended joyfully from that weary _araba_ in which we had been cooped
+up like Bajazets for a journey of seventeen days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BURDEN OF NEWER NINEVEH
+
+(MOSUL)
+
+
+There are more pleasant places in the world than the city of Mosul. Hot,
+white, and dusty, it lies on a rather "hummocky" site along the right
+(or western) bank of the Tigris, looking across to where the mounds of
+Nebi Yunus and Koyunjik mark the site of Nineveh.
+
+It boasts a population of about eighty thousand souls, of whom perhaps a
+fourth are Christians, and five thousand Jews: and the whole is
+surrounded by a wall and moat which enclose rather more than a square
+mile of ground--an area about equal to the city of London.
+
+The wall may follow old lines, but is itself no more than a century old.
+It is rapidly splitting to pieces owing to the poorness of its
+construction, a process much assisted both by private citizens and by
+the Government, both of whom wish to make use of its stones. Probably,
+the foundations are shaky, for the whole town suffers from that failing;
+and every minaret in the place has a conspicuous kink in it, except the
+principal one, which has two.
+
+The town does not now fill up its walls, a large quarter at the northern
+end having been so devastated by plague about three hundred years ago
+that it was abandoned. This area now remains empty, and there is in
+consequence a certain amount of "overflow" beyond the walls at the
+southern end of the town, where stands the Government serai with the
+barracks of the troops in its neighbourhood.
+
+Mosul is not a seaport, though the Government of his Britannic Majesty
+would seem to be invincibly ignorant on this point. When the Consulate
+was re-established here a few years ago, the gentleman appointed asked
+for a grant for the furnishing of his reception-room, but was refused,
+on the ground that his only guests would be "a few old sea captains"; to
+this day his successors are required to make an annual return of the
+British shipping that has discharged cargo here, though nothing except a
+"_keleg_" (the local type of raft, of which we shall hear more) ever
+comes within three hundred miles of the place!
+
+Mosul boasts one vice that is at least unusual in the land, for it is a
+smoky town. A pall hangs over much of the city, from the kilns where the
+local marble is burnt into lime. Nearly the whole city is built in what
+is known as _jess_ construction. This is a primitive type of building,
+the walls of all houses being formed with rough blocks of stone,
+"balled" in lime cement, and so put together. The roof is domed in the
+same way, but to save material the spandrils are usually filled in with
+large earthenware pots, which may or may not stand the weight put upon
+them. As a style, it is deceptive, for it looks solid, enduring, and
+weather-proof, and yet is none of the three: a house built in it seldom
+stands for eighty years, the thrust of the dome normally bringing the
+walls down by the end of that period.
+
+The construction, which cracks freely, has a way of absorbing much of
+the rain that falls upon it, so that a house is seldom really dry in
+winter; and the cement has a delightful trick (which is appreciated
+during a Mosul summer) of storing up heat during the day and gradually
+releasing it during the night.
+
+The town is composed, like most Oriental cities, of a maze of winding
+featureless lanes, all of the same white cement, and rarely of a width
+that forbids a cat to jump across from one roof to the opposite; they
+are innocent of lamps, or rather were so till the late Nazim Pasha (then
+Vali of Baghdad, and superintendent of this province also) visited the
+place; when paraffin lamps were put up in his honour, and now stand
+unlighted on their brackets. The pavement is of large cobble-stones,
+worn smooth by many generations of slippers and bare feet; and the whole
+town is, of course, innocent of drains. Hence, in the rainy season it
+is well to put a portable bridge across the street if you propose to
+visit your neighbour, or to wear wooden pattens some six inches in
+height.
+
+Only the doorways break the blank walls in the street fronts of the
+houses, but the courtyards within are undeniably picturesque, and are of
+a plan that is at least ancient, for it is identical with that found in
+the cities of ancient Assyria, unearthed by the German excavator of
+to-day. An entry, carefully constructed so as to prevent the passer-by
+from seeing within even when the door is open, conducts into a
+courtyard, surrounded by a two-storied cloister, carried on monolithic
+pillars of the local grey alabaster. The court is usually paved, and the
+house-front often cased, with the same material. A deep open recess at
+one side provides a summer lounge. A water conduit usually runs through
+the court itself, and the central part is often used as a garden.
+
+The house of a rich man invariably has its _serdab_, or underground
+summer-parlour, where you may get any coolness that is going in the
+fierce summer heats. The thermometer then goes up regularly to 120°, and
+seldom sinks below 95° by night or day--a fact attested by a certain
+British Consul, who tried the experiment of hatching out a sitting of
+eggs, left uncovered in a disused (and perhaps rather specially hot)
+room of his Consulate.
+
+Resident Europeans say that the _serdab_ may be cool, but that, unless
+very well seasoned, you are apt to pay for the use of it by a dose of
+the country fever.
+
+Hot winds blow in from the desert which comes up to the very walls, and
+the dust from the kilns and pounding-yards (where mules drag rude
+rollers over the lime to grind it to powder) flies on their wings all
+over the city; so that, from this cause, and from the glare of the white
+walls ophthalmia is even more prevalent here than in most Oriental
+cities, and lung disease of various kinds abounds. Another local plague
+is the famous "button," which is found from Aleppo to Baghdad, and is
+believed to go back to the days of Job. This is sometimes called "the
+date," from its appearance, and is no more than a painless, but very
+unsightly, boil; which refuses to heal for twelve months and leaves a
+permanent scar behind. The infection is believed to be carried by flies,
+and the disease certainly manifests itself, as a rule, on the face or
+hands, while those who shave are particularly liable to it. Local
+scandal tells of a certain German Consul who despised all precautions
+and slept on the roof of his house without curtains, and (the night
+being hot) without pyjamas also; an imprudence for which he paid the
+penalty in thirty fine "buttons" scattered all over his consular person!
+
+Thermantidotes, ice supplies, and all other luxuries of English life in
+India are unknown in Mosul, though an enterprising Christian resident in
+the town did once introduce an ice-machine. This was certainly welcomed
+by the Vali, as the only sign of the new régime that he had found in
+Mosul (it was shortly after the revolution), and as the only token of
+progress of any sort that he could note as a result of the fifty years
+that had elapsed since he had formerly been in the place as a very
+junior civil officer.
+
+There was strong conservative opposition to the introduction even of
+such a mild instalment of progress; though perhaps it might have been
+mollified, had the pioneer been a little more liberal with his
+distribution of _bakhshish_! As it was weird accusations circulated
+against the new engine; it smelt so abominable that the whole
+neighbourhood of the factory was unhealthy (as though one stink more or
+less could make any difference in Mosul); it turned out its ice red-hot,
+and materially increased the heat that it was proposing to alleviate;
+and it was an impious interference with the decrees and arrangements of
+Allah. The ice-merchant, however, had not been born in Mosul, and bred
+in America, without learning a thing or two; and he craftily put the
+general commanding the garrison on the free-list for ice. He calculated
+that, after the first week or so, a gentleman, who did not keep the law
+about total abstinence too strictly, would not tolerate any interference
+with the coolness of his drinks. That expedient worked admirably, and
+all interference was summarily squashed, for so long as the machine
+continued to work at all. That, however, was not many weeks, for no
+machinery that is not absolutely and completely "fool-proof" can stand
+the handling it gets from an Arab, and in Mosul the simplest repair may
+necessitate months of delay. There will be no market for machinery in
+the interior of Turkey, until good repair shops can be provided as well.
+
+As capital of the province Mosul is the residence of a Vali, but the
+town is administered under him by an "administrative council of
+reputable citizens," who are popularly believed to be the most corrupt
+gang of the sort in all Turkey. And we devoutly hope that the imputation
+is true, for any clique which is more corrupt than they are must be
+black indeed. Their leader is one Haji Ahmed, "son of the soap-seller,"
+ibn Sabonji; a large landed proprietor who has accumulated his estate by
+the simple process of ordering any unhappy Naboth whose land bordered on
+his own to sell to him at any price that his big neighbour cared to
+name. If the small man consented, well and good; if not, then an
+accusation against him, accompanied with a trifle of _bakhshish_ to the
+investigating judge, secured that the imprudent Naboth should live
+untried in the town prison till such time as he should see reason.
+
+This worthy has had ups and downs in his life, and once fell very foul
+of a Vali, who was seized with natural zeal to check the plundering of
+the public purse when he found that Sabonji Pasha had laid hands on
+certain funds that he had intended to appropriate himself! Thus that
+distinguished member of the town council was pilloried; _i.e._ was put
+on a donkey with his face blackened and turned to the tail, and so led
+round the town; being thereafter put into the cesspool of the Government
+"_Serai_" to pass the night. "_Iyba_" (shame) such as this would end the
+career of most men, but Sabonji has some unusual gifts, and intrigue and
+bribery soon brought him into power again.
+
+The fact that one of the finest and largest houses in the town was built
+by one of the smaller legal officials, nominally out of fifteen months'
+saving of a salary which, when paid, amounted to sixty pounds per annum,
+may perhaps be evidence of what "pickings" amount to in the trade of
+law; and the story of a recent episode (occurring in the year of grace
+1910) in the career of a prominent and highly respected citizen of the
+town will speak more clearly than long descriptions.
+
+Seyyid Ullah was the principal burglar of Mosul, having inherited a
+practice in that profession from his father, as naturally as son may
+follow sire in the medical business in England. Housebreaking was what
+he specialized in, and the usual mode of procedure was to dig through
+the wall of a house with pickaxes from the street; it having been found,
+by experience, that this was less laborious than breaking down an
+iron-bound door. Of course, arrangements had to be made that the police
+should be well away on the other side of the town (if they were not
+engaged, as sometimes happened, in securing the ends of the street
+against any interruption), but there was seldom any difficulty about
+that. It was an understood thing, seemingly, that you must not interfere
+with the trade by which a man earned his bread; and Seyyid Ullah was
+only held to have over-stepped his legitimate rights once--when he cut
+off a woman's hands! Even then, it was admitted in extenuation that
+there really was no other way of getting her gold bangles.
+
+Having, acquired a competence in his profession, Seyyid Ullah retired as
+he grew older; but, like other energetic gentlemen, found that he really
+needed something to do. For this reason, he took to smuggling tobacco, a
+profitable occupation, but one that brought him into collision with the
+Government in a way that mere burglary had never done--for tobacco is a
+Government monopoly. So one night a caravan of mules on their way to his
+house were attacked by the guards of the "Regie," and not only were the
+loads lost, but there was a dead policeman to explain. He had died of a
+Mannlicher bullet; and there was only one rifle of that type in
+Mosul--the property of Seyyid Ullah; who notoriously allowed nobody else
+to handle it. Moreover the bullet had apparently come from a roof where
+that poor man was standing at the time.
+
+Some unscrupulous enemy put all these coincidences before the
+Government, with the result that Seyyid Ullah was arrested, and even
+ordered into gaol. Not that he entered it, for gaol is not for such as
+he; he merely sat in the coffee-shop outside, and when that enemy who
+had given the information went past on his way to market, he was mobbed
+and hustled by the Seyyid's followers, till a formal petition had to be
+sent in to the Vali that he should be requested to go inside. Of course
+they gave him the best room, with a window looking over the street; and
+the governor of the prison used to give him his company to dinner and
+pass the time over a backgammon board; but he complained that the damp
+was bad for his rheumatism.
+
+At last the worthy man was tried; and acquitted without a stain upon his
+character. The court held (so far as foreign residents could understand)
+that the policeman had been guilty of contributory negligence, in that
+he got in the way of a bullet that was travelling about on its lawful
+occasions; and that all facts about the make of the rifle, and so on,
+were irrelevant details.
+
+A free man again, Seyyid Ullah came at once to call upon the British
+Consul, to explain that he quite understood that his release from the
+machinations of his enemies was due solely to the influence of his
+Excellency the Bey; and that he was more than ready to undertake any job
+the Consul desired, in the way of removing any objectionable person, for
+he must own that the expenses incidental to his acquittal had made a sad
+hole in his savings!
+
+Some time previous to this, there had been great complaining among the
+merchants of Mosul over the depredations of a certain gang of thieves,
+all of whom were well known to the police, and who were plundering
+peaceful citizens apparently at their own sweet will.
+
+Authority, though most unwilling, was prodded into some sort of
+activity, and that particular gang was arrested and stowed in gaol. The
+robberies, however, did not diminish a whit; and after a while the
+governor of the prison pointed out this fact to the Vali. Evidently
+"those poor men" had been wrongly arrested after all, and ought in
+fairness to be released--seeing that they had never been tried. This
+seemed reasonable, but there was the usual delay before doing anything,
+and in those few days the true explanation came to light. The honourable
+the governor of the prison was in the habit of letting the gang in
+question out of the gaol every night, "to go and sleep at their own
+houses." They returned again before dawn, thus getting the most
+satisfactory alibi any man could desire; while, in consideration of his
+complacency, the governor was taking half their plunder! It is true that
+this official was dismissed from his post in consequence, but apparently
+he received no further penalty of any sort.
+
+This may, perhaps, sound a "tough yarn"; yet we may find a fairly recent
+parallel for it in England. The memoirs of William Hickey record an even
+worse scandal of one of the London bailiffs in the latter half of the
+eighteenth century. Our boasted superiority to this sort of thing is of
+very recent date, and perhaps will not be of very long duration.
+
+The Governor-General or Vali, who ruled this city of confusion and
+corruption, was perhaps as good a man as could have been selected for a
+job where his powerlessness to effect any real improvement would have
+broken the heart of anyone who still had any enthusiasms or delusions
+left.
+
+Tahir Pasha was an Albanian by blood, though he had grown grey in the
+Sultan's service, and had certainly never seen his own mountains since
+boyhood. Still, "once an Arnaut, always an Arnaut," and, as a general
+rule, men of that very striking race are the best possible Ottoman
+officials; particularly in places where their duty is (or is supposed to
+be) the preservation of an even balance between the various Christian
+and Mussulman races.
+
+It is impossible for an Arnaut to despise all Christians just because of
+their religion; for a large proportion of his own race are of that
+creed, and it is an axiom that every Arnaut is congenitally superior to
+every other specimen of manhood. That being so, he may despise all his
+subjects equally (and very probably does so), but at least he does not
+despise any one set specially, and there is always a chance of his doing
+some justice among them.
+
+And this Tahir Pasha did, to the limits of his not very extensive power.
+He had no great belief in Reform, or for that matter in anything else
+(except the straightness of certain English gentlemen whom he knew, and
+in the genius of his favourite hero, Admiral Nelson): and he held
+shrewdly that "you cannot build very high, when your bricks are made of
+wet mud"--and of Mosul slime at that he might have added, though he did
+not say so in words. Still, under his rule nobody's lot was intolerable
+if it was impossible for anybody to be really comfortable; and he had
+absolutely nothing to learn in the art of keeping a simmering province
+from boiling over, when the Government had no force to back its orders,
+and did not wish to have any open row. He was an elderly man, tall and
+portly; with a "short" face, framed in a close-cropped, white beard, and
+a shrewd and humorous expression. Nature had given him a most attractive
+manner; and by virtue of it he had survived two revolutions in the
+country, being the only man of his rank to do so. When things went
+amiss, "he sat on the stile and continued to smile," and almost always
+found that the method softened the heart of the most furious of cows.
+
+Further, he was singularly cleanhanded, as Ottoman officials go. Even
+those who declared that he took bribes in his youth admitted that he
+refused them in his old age--"unless they were very big," they added.
+Well, for the bribes, what is an official to do, whose salary, is in the
+first place, wholly inadequate; and in the second, not paid? When he did
+not need them, he ceased to take them. "How otherwise? I liked him, I
+confess," as Browning put it, of a character that much resembled the old
+Albanian; whose name (by the way) is, being interpreted, "Innocent," and
+who had the reputation throughout his province of never sending a
+petitioner away dissatisfied, and yet of never making a promise that it
+was inconvenient to keep.
+
+Moreover, there were times when Tahir Pasha could insist on justice; and
+the fact is rare in Turkey. In 1910 a particularly dastardly murder was
+committed in Mosul, the murderer being a Christian by race, a member of
+the "Chaldaean" or "Uniat Nestorian" Church; while the victim was of
+the older and independent Nestorian body.[38] The murderer was, most
+deservedly, sentenced to death; but that does not at all necessarily
+imply execution in Turkey. To begin with, Ottoman law lays it down that
+in a murder case the next of kin of the victim has the right to require
+the remission of the death sentence if he desires it. This is no doubt a
+relic of the days when every man could avenge or forgo his own quarrels
+as he chose; but in practice, it works out very inconveniently for the
+man in question, who, in addition to losing his own nearest relative,
+has to undergo a lot of "peaceable persuasion" from the murderer's
+relations, till he chooses to exercise the right. In this case, however,
+the next of kin, also a Nestorian, stood firm, and claimed his legal
+revenge.
+
+On this the murderer showed the real depth of his Christianity by
+sending word to Tahir Pasha that if his life were spared he would turn
+Moslem. Whether the Mollahs were desirous of obtaining so doubtful a
+convert does not appear, but at least the Pasha was not eager.
+
+"Of course, I am bound to be glad that he proposes to turn Moslem," he
+said grimly. "It may even be better for him in the next world. Still,
+his head has got to come off in this."
+
+But now a third difficulty arose, from the fact that the lawful
+executioner refused to act. Like Koko in "The Mikado," this _Monsieur de
+Strasbourg_ declared that he "had never cut off a gentleman's head in
+his life, and did not know how it was done." Under these circumstances,
+there was nothing for it but to call for a volunteer; and another
+relative of the murdered man generously offered to do his best, if they
+would lend him a sabre. "You had better do your best," said some
+official, "for if you fetch the head off with one chop you shall have
+thirty pounds, but if it takes a second blow you go to prison for five
+years!" Under this stimulus the amateur executioner did his part to
+admiration, and took the head off finely.
+
+Even so there was an afterpiece to the play, for many folk made the
+conduct of this murderer a ground for a most unfair attack on the
+Patriarch of the Chaldaean Church, saying, "Now we see what sort of
+Christian Mar Immanuel trains." The retort that his Grace made, if not
+exactly scrupulous, was at least effective. Ignoring the offer to turn
+Moslem altogether, he declared, "Pupil of mine? He certainly was, and I
+am proud of him. He is a Christian martyr, for he would not have been
+executed if it had not been for that wicked Nestorian heretic!" And he
+cited in proof of his saintliness the "miraculous" light above the
+grave.
+
+The light was there certainly, a form of phosphorescence that is seen at
+times above a fresh grave in that dry air, and which is usually taken as
+a proof of the sanctity of the occupant. We suppose that we may be
+thankful that this rather doubtful character was not enrolled among the
+saints.
+
+It will be inferred from the foregoing incident that religion in Mosul
+is of a somewhat militant type. It is in fact one of the most fanatical
+towns in the empire; and was surely the only place where men wept openly
+in the streets on hearing of the deposition of Abdul Hamid, and
+exclaimed, "Now is the pillar of Islam fallen."
+
+The establishment of a British Consulate there, after a long
+interregnum, was either the cause or excuse for an outbreak. Certain
+Dervishes fastened on the fact that the flagstaff on the Consulate was
+higher than the crescent on the dome of a certain tomb, called the tomb
+of Cassim, where a descendant of the Prophet was interred. It was, of
+course, intolerable that the accursed red-cross flag should flaunt
+itself above the crescent, and a mob assembled at the Consul's gates,
+shouting under the leadership of a Dervish of some fame, "O Fatima,
+Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, will you not avenge the shame of your
+descendant?"
+
+Rather strangely it had never occurred to them to resent the fact that a
+Christian Church had been standing higher than the tomb for centuries;
+yet the Consulate was in fact an empty monastery, rented from the
+authorities of the "Jacobite" Church by its present occupier.
+
+Of course, the British official respects the monastic churches, which
+number two; and they are used for service on certain festal days.
+
+As for the tomb which caused the _emeute_; if Fatima, or somebody else,
+does not see to it soon, it will disappear into the Tigris, on the bank
+of which river it stands. The current is eating into the bank under its
+foundations, and the whole fabric is leaning over dangerously. Its fall
+would be a loss, for it is a fine specimen of Arab architecture; and
+besides, the British Consul would be blamed. Obviously, the cause of the
+disaster will be Cassim's desire to be rid of such bad company.
+
+As a city Mosul is singularly well be-bishoped. No fewer than three
+Roman Catholic prelates exercise jurisdiction in it over their various
+flocks; and there is, in addition, at least one "Jacobite" bishop; one
+Nestorian (who is at present in exile on the charge that his presence is
+a cause of disturbance to other people), and sundry Armenian, Greek, and
+Anglican Christians who render obedience to none of the resident bishops
+at all. The facts will bear a word of explanation; particularly as the
+existence of more than one Roman Catholic bishop in one diocese seems
+strangely contradictory to the discipline of that Church elsewhere.
+
+In the days of the Byzantine Empire the attempt to enforce Greek
+uniformity on all nations resulted in various national stocks (Syrian,
+Armenian, and Egyptian, for instance) adopting any "heresy" that chanced
+to be on the tapis, as a protest against what they regarded as "Greek
+dictation." While the dispute, both doctrinal and national, was still
+being fought out, the great Mussulman invasions began; and the
+nationalities in question cheerfully accepted the Mohammedan rule, which
+gave to them a religious freedom which the Greek Christian Empire had
+denied. The Arab, and the Turk who followed him, were perfectly willing
+to see their Christian subjects divided as much as they liked; and
+recognized the Armenian, Syrian, Chaldaean, and Coptic nations as
+"_millets_" in their empire; a "_millet_" being the technical term for a
+subject nation of Christians, organized (as they always were) in a
+church, under their own hierarchy of Patriarch, bishops, and clergy.
+Thus these various national churches, all called heretical by both
+Greeks and Latins, continued to exist under Turkish rule.
+
+[Illustration: THE "PICTURE ROCKS" OF BAVIAN.
+
+No. 4]
+
+In the later days of the Turkish Empire Roman Catholic missions brought
+education to these Christians; and the Roman Church allowed such
+portions of these old national churches as could be brought to submit to
+papal supremacy, to retain their own hierarchy, and their ancient
+services, expurgated to some extent. All these "Uniat" or "reconciled"
+bodies are, of course, subject to the Pope, but their members do not,
+normally, communicate with one another. Historically, one rejoices at
+the preservation of so many ancient rites and bodies, and the method was
+sound policy also from the point of view of the proselytizing agents of
+the Roman Church; for both Nestorian and Jacobite might both be brought
+to acknowledge the supremacy of a distant Pope, if that Pope's agents
+had somewhat to give in the way of protection or education, but neither
+could ever be brought to associate with "that other" whose tenets his
+church existed to repudiate.
+
+Thus, with sound prudence, rules about diocesan jurisdiction that hold
+elsewhere are dropped in the Middle East; and Mosul boasts at least
+three Roman Catholic bishops, namely, a Chaldaean or "Nestorian
+Uniat"[39] Patriarch, with several bishops under him; a Syrian Catholic
+or "Jacobite Uniat"[39a] bishop, subordinate to the Patriarch of that
+church at Beyrout; and an "Apostolic Delegate," or Papal Legate, who
+exercises a general superintendence over all Roman Catholic bishops in
+Mesopotamia, but has direct spiritual jurisdiction over only the handful
+of Frenchmen who reside actually in Mosul, and any other "Christian of
+the Latin rite" who may chance to come that way.
+
+There is also a strong colony of Jews in the city, still living in their
+ancient quarter; where they have lived, they say (with every appearance
+of truth), since Sargon of Assyria brought their ancestors from captured
+Samaria in the eighth century B.C. Like all of their kind they are
+traders, for the place is a centre of local trade. Still, most of the
+wares in the market, other than raw material like wool and oak-galls,
+come originally from Manchester or Reading; and one doubts if it would
+still be possible to find in Mosul any of that fine "muslin" which has
+carried the name of the city over all the world.
+
+One branch of the local export trade to which we may refer is that in
+liquorice, a plant that grows wild freely on the plain. The fact that
+European merchants were anxious to buy it caused much wonderment; but
+presently the real explanation got known and was accepted by everybody.
+"King George of England likes nothing so much as sucking liquorice; and
+he has sent twenty-five millions of English sovereigns to secure a
+supply that shall last him all his life."
+
+On the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to Mosul, lies Nineveh, and the
+one place is approached from the other by a bridge that is thoroughly
+characteristic of Turkey; it goes, that is to say, some two-thirds of
+the way over the river, crossing just that part of the bed which is dry
+for most of the year. As the real channel is approached, the bridge
+stops abruptly, and a series of pontoon-like barges takes the place of
+it. This bridge of boats is itself removed in flood-time, and the
+traveller may then, given good luck, get over in the course of an hour,
+with the help of a very clumsy ferry-boat. Bridges, it may be said, are
+regarded in Turkey rather as natural impediments to travel than as
+assistants to it; and the fact that "there are bridges on that road" is
+always made an excuse for asking twice the usual fare for a carriage.
+
+The bridge of boats at Mosul is civic property; and is hired out
+annually to anyone who will farm it, for a very substantial sum. The
+lessee is expected to keep the whole bridge in order, and charges a toll
+on every man or animal that crosses the bridge.
+
+Nominally the rent of the bridge is spent, of course, upon the needs of
+the city, and is handed over to the administrative council for that end.
+Still, when a city has no pavements or lamps or drainage, or any of the
+numerous unnecessary things that the West indulges in because it has
+more money than it knows what to do with, after all it has no needs.
+
+A city, too, is composed of citizens, argue the councillors; and what is
+spent for the needs of worthy citizens is, in a sense, spent for the
+benefit of the city; and what citizens can be worthier than those who
+toil daily at the administrative council for the benefit of their
+fellows? So the bridge rent is spent on those worthy objects; and as yet
+nobody has raised any other objection than that he was himself left out
+of the sharing of the plunder. What the narrow-minded Western calls
+corruption will not cease till public opinion condemns it; and what
+passes for public opinion in Turkish provinces now can imagine no other
+way of getting anything done.
+
+Musing thus on problems of municipal reform we cross the bridge and ride
+over the mile or so of flat foreshore, that now separates the river from
+the walls of Nineveh. Once the Tigris washed the base of Koyunjik, the
+site of Sennacherib's palace, and formed an impregnable barrier against
+all assaults from that side, but the day dawned at last of which an old
+prophecy had spoken, when the river joined the besiegers, and betrayed
+the city to its foes. A great flood swept away the walls, leaving wide
+breaches all along the frontage; and as the waters subsided, lo the
+river had cut a new channel, and the whole of the side which it had
+guarded lay completely open to attack.
+
+Wherefore King Sardanapalus (who was not Assurbanipal, but a successor
+of his named Sinsariskun) gathered together all his treasure and his
+wives and his children, and died as a king should die, in the flames of
+his own palace.
+
+Nineveh fell in the year 608 B.C., overthrown by Cyaxares, the king of
+the Medes, and his better known ally, Nabopolassar, the father of
+Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. She had been hard pressed more than
+once before, but had triumphed eventually over each successive peril.
+The ultimate explanation of this final overthrow was indeed nothing more
+or less than the exhaustion caused by generations of conquest. There
+were no true Assyrians left--only a half-bred race, the fruit of
+incessant inter-marriages; and when they succumbed, they had no power of
+recuperation. "Nineveh is laid waste, who shall bemoan her? Her people
+is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them."
+
+There is but little above ground at Nineveh now. The long walls remain,
+looking much like derelict railway embankments; and the great moat,
+fifty yards in width, and twenty feet deep, into which the waters of the
+river Khozr could be turned at will, still girdles the city round. Sunk
+as it is in conglomerate rock, this moat is a monument of patient
+labour. Of the two great mounds where the King's palaces stood, Koyunjik
+and Nebi Yunus, the former and larger has probably yielded the last of
+its important secrets to the British Museum. It is well, however, to
+remember that the same was said of Karnak, in Egypt, and the richest of
+all finds have come to light there since then. You can never be sure
+that you have got all that is in a mound, till, _more fossorum
+Germanicorum_, you have passed the whole of it through a fine sieve.
+
+Still, the search has been fairly thorough. The excavators however, left
+one of the great human-headed bulls above ground; and it may be of
+interest to record that this monument (which was presumably the property
+of the British Museum) first generously parted with its head to mend a
+mill; and was subsequently sold for the sum of three shillings and six
+pence by the Vali of Mosul (not worthy old Tahir Pasha, but his
+predecessor), and burnt into lime by its purchaser.
+
+The second mound, Nebi Yunus--alas, one can but gnash one's teeth in
+envy and anger when one knows that the favourite palace of Esarhaddon
+lies beneath it--that king whose smaller house elsewhere has yielded the
+finest specimens of Assyrian art yet known. And this, his _chef
+d'oeuvre_, cannot be examined, because of the mosque of Nebi Yunus
+(Jonah the Prophet) that stands in the midst of the Turkoman village
+that crowns it. The Prophet will be very angry if you disturb him, say
+the Mussulmans, and will take vengeance dire![40] If it were indeed
+Jonah that lies there, there might be something in the argument; for the
+Prophet is known to have had a temper. But it is not he. After all,
+seeing that his prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh was not
+fulfilled, the top of the mound that covers the ruins of the city is
+perhaps the one spot of earth where it is quite impossible for him to be
+buried! As a matter of fact, the mosque is an old Nestorian church, once
+the cathedral of that body in the days when their independent
+patriarchate was in Mosul; and the occupant of the tomb is John the
+Lame, a worthy Patriarch of the thirteenth century, who now gets
+compensation for a life of hardship in his posthumous honours as Jewish
+Prophet and Mussulman Saint.
+
+Mar John the Lame was a friend to knowledge and learning in his life;
+and it must be a real annoyance to the good old man to think that his
+corpse has been made into an obstacle to both of them now that he has
+done with it!
+
+Only one of the treasures of the palace has ever come to light, viz. a
+pair of bronze oxen, found in the process of cleaning out the well in
+the court of the mosque. These "idols" were promptly melted down; and
+they now, in the form of a window grating, keep thieves from a
+gentleman's house in Mosul.
+
+The old order is changing in Mosul as elsewhere; or will change when the
+Baghdad Railway comes and brings light and sanitation into its
+picturesque corruption. The domination of the present governing clique
+will go, and one hopes that something better will take its place. Will
+whatever happens to come be a real improvement on the open bribery of
+Sabonji, and the humorous tolerance of Tahir Pasha? Some things will
+mend. The small merchant, for instance, will no longer be made to buy
+his stock from the local member of the administrative council; and
+warned that if he dares to import for himself from Aleppo, that caravan,
+at any rate, will not pass the Shammar Arabs. The youthful heroes of
+that tribe will no longer be told by the old men "in the good old days
+of our fathers, a young fellow had to kill his lion before he thought
+himself man enough to take a wife. Now you must, at any rate, rob a
+caravan." All that will be to the good. Still, the experience of towns
+like Beyrout and Smyrna suggests that, after all, the known evils of the
+East may be preferable to the unknown crop that will spring from a
+confusion of East and West.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL
+
+(SHEIKH ADI)
+
+
+We have long been partial to pilgrimage. Partly because we love all old
+habits. Because "it was so our fathers did in the days of old;" and
+because, quite apart from that intrinsically "excellent reason," we have
+yet another reason which may well be thought "good enough." We have
+found that the original promoters of that pastime were people of
+singular discrimination, and endowed with a positive genius for
+exploiting attractive resorts. The shrines to which they sent their
+penitents are so many realms of delight to the vagrant pleasure-seeker;
+and who could pick out for himself a more ideal holiday paradise than
+Lourdes or Monserrat or Covadonga or Rocamadour?
+
+We have ranged in quest of palms and scallop shells through the length
+and breadth of Christendom, from the Holy Sepulchre in the east to
+Santiago de Compostela in the west; and nowhere have we been
+disappointed of receiving our temporal reward. Yet we feel it is rather
+hard measure to be grudged all ulterior benefits--to be told that,
+having roamed "without intention," our spiritual profits are _nil_.
+
+However, such disqualification affords us some compensating latitude. If
+our gain be exclusively temporal we can run but little spiritual risk.
+The less respectable shrines may prove just as eligible as the orthodox,
+and we can visit Mecca and Benares with as much immunity as Rome.
+_Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo_; and a call on the witch
+of Endor will at least assure us a thrill. In which dangerous frame of
+mind it becomes an overwhelming attraction to a professed patron of
+pilgrimages, to find himself within easy visiting distance of the only
+temple extant which is specifically and avowedly dedicated to the Author
+of Evil Himself.
+
+Nearly every form of religion which has yet been known to man seems at
+some time or other to have struck root in the soil of Mesopotamia; and
+there are but few of the number that have left no stumps or fossils to
+remind us of the days when they were yet flourishing in their pride.
+Some have bequeathed us the ruins of their temples, their sacrificial
+ash heaps, their votive tablets, or the images of their gods. Some
+survive but in fragments of fantastic folk-lore, still lingering on
+ineradicably as the parasites of more modern creeds. But one of the
+oldest and weirdest of all is still a living reality--the religion of
+the Yezidis or "Devil-worshippers" who congregate principally in the
+_vilayet_ of Mosul.
+
+"Devil-worshippers" they are indeed; for they themselves do not scruple
+to admit that the Being whom they seek to propitiate is actually
+identical with the _Sheitan_ of the Christians and Moslems and Jews.
+But, fortunately for the morals of the neighbourhood, their homage stops
+short of imitation. Theirs is a religion of Faith, and not of Works.
+They are under no obligation to make evil their good according to the
+boast of Milton's Satan; but only to "respect the great place" of their
+Divinity, and see to it that he is "sometime honoured for his burning
+throne."
+
+Thus, though they are accused of many enormities,[41] it does not appear
+that they are actually worse in theory, or half so vicious in practice,
+as many of the most blameless of their "true-believing" neighbours: and
+"good Christian men who are stable in the faith" may adventure
+themselves into their Vale of Devils with no more material misgivings
+than worthy Sir John Mandeville of old.
+
+The Yezidis form one of the recognized _millets_, or subject religious
+sects, existing in the Turkish Empire. But recognition in their case by
+no means implies toleration. They are universally abhorred as
+outcasts--almost as "untouchables"--like the _cagots_ of the Pyrenees,
+or the lowest _pariahs_ of Hindustan. A Christian is a "dog" to a
+Moslem, and a Jew ranks many octaves lower; but there is no room on the
+chromatic scale to show the position of a Yezidi: he is the sort of
+human being that is less regarded than a beast.
+
+A Yezidi crossed our path some five or six miles from Mosul. He gave us
+a very wide berth, keeping quite a hundred yards away. But it chanced
+that his line lay to windward; and our escort rode at him furiously,
+fairly bellowing with indignation. How dared he have the effrontery to
+intrude his unclean carcass "betwixt the wind and our nobility?"
+
+And presently another Yezidi actually tacked himself on to our party,
+following us (at a very humble distance) for two or three hours along
+the road. "It would be a good deed to kill the dog," was our _zaptieh's_
+muttered comment; "but while he is under the _Effendi's_ shadow, I
+suppose I must let him alone!"
+
+Yet withal there is a spice of fear in the contempt which is felt for
+the Yezidis. They are "ower sibb" to the Devil to be quite safe subjects
+for abuse. They seem to be regarded in much the same light as witches
+used to be by our own seventeenth-century ancestors. It is virtue to
+revile and maltreat them: and by daylight, with a sufficient mob to back
+you, you may feel secure from their resentment. But it is another matter
+altogether to pass their door alone after dark!
+
+The Yezidis form a considerable community numbering in all some 150,000;
+for about 500 villages own allegiance to their _Mira_,[42] and there are
+many detached colonies residing in alien towns. These villages are
+widely distributed--isolated for the most part singly among the
+surrounding Kurds and Christians. Some are as far west as Aleppo; some
+as far north as Tiflis (where all the town scavengers are Yezidis); some
+as far east as Teheran. Their nucleus is in the Sinjar mountains, in the
+desert south-west of Mosul; where they are secured from invasion by the
+barricades of rock, and the waterless wastes which environ them. But the
+central shrine of their faith, the Jerusalem of their vows and
+offerings, is the cryptic Temple of Sheikh Adi, hidden just within the
+fringe of the northern mountains which overlook the great Mosul plain.
+
+It was late on an autumn evening that we neared the last stage of our
+journey thither. We had quitted the plains about mid-day; and our course
+had lain for some miles along a sparsely cultivated valley, tucked in
+behind the outermost ripple which the mountains fling down upon the
+wold. On our right lay this barbican ridge, from the crest of which one
+might look forth across all the plain of Tigris; while on our left the
+hills rose higher, more rugged and more precipitous--a second, but still
+a subordinate, breastwork of the lordly Oberland behind.
+
+Here and there the solitude was punctuated by a squalid Kurdish village
+whose inhabitants were thriftily using the tents which had served for
+their camps all the summer, to hood in their stacks of fodder against
+the expected winter snows. And one of these--Ain Sufni "Shipwell,"--perched
+on a traverse of high ground which is piled right across the valley
+is pointed out by Yezidi tradition as being the building place of the
+Ark. Here the main valley still trends forward; but, as we descended
+from the village, our guides doubled back to the left and dived into a
+masked ravine which had hitherto lurked invisible behind a shoulder of
+the heights.
+
+Wide should be the gate and broad the way which leadeth to--the shrine
+of MELEK TAÜS; but the glen in question is shaggy and narrow and
+tortuous, tangled with clumps of tamarisk, and cumbered with water-worn
+boulders the jetsam of the winter floods. Since noon the sky had been
+overcast, and now a dreary drizzle had smudged all the landscape into a
+grey monochrome. Our jaded beasts sprawled and stumbled disheartedly
+over the wet and slippery stones.
+
+Soon our path began edging up towards a _col_ in the ridge to the right
+of us, where a little Kurdish village hung limply over the saddle, and a
+curtain of lowering clouds trailed its ragged fringe across the gap. But
+just as we started the ascent, we perceived that the true end of the
+valley lay round an elbow in the opposite direction; and at its head,
+conspicuous against the dark hillside above the trees which lay matted
+in the hollow, rose the tall pale cone of a remote and isolated
+building--the "Great Mascot" of the Yezidis.[43]
+
+How effectively the stage was set for that last mile of our Black
+pilgrimage! Not the least detail seemed lacking to enhance the eeriness
+of the scene. The dusk was rapidly lowering, the gorge grew narrower and
+deeper; and the gnarled boughs which overhung the pathway turned the
+twilight almost into night. A sodden carpet of fallen leaves muffled the
+clatter of the horse-hoofs; and no sound was heard but the bubbling of
+the rivulet, and the steady plash of the bloated raindrops that had
+gathered on the twigs of the trees. High overhead on our right towered
+the wan gaunt walls of the Satanic monastery: but not a voice nor a
+glimmer of light bespoke the presence of any inmates; and as we stumbled
+up the broken stairs, between crumbling walls and under ruinous arches,
+we felt like Sintram in his goblin valley or Childe Roland approaching
+the Dark Tower.
+
+By the time we had reached the further angle of the building we had
+risen to the level of its terraces; and as we wheeled into the little
+fore-court, the general uncanniness of our surroundings received its
+finishing touch. The gates stood closed before us, and nowhere was there
+a sign of any living creature--but in every niche and crevice there
+flickered a tiny fairy lamp! The wandering tourist in County Wicklow who
+was taken to task by an infuriated landlord for trespassing in the
+"Devil's Glen," pleaded in extenuation that he "had never expected to
+meet the proprietor;" but to us at this particular juncture, the
+apparition of "The Proprietor" would have seemed the most natural event
+in the world!
+
+Our retinue appeared less affected. Perhaps they were not so
+impressionable; or more probably they confided in our superior magic,
+and argued _a La Española_ that we "knew a point more than the Fiend."
+Our henchman strode boldly to the gates and hammered upon them lustily.
+For some time he woke only the echoes: and when at length a voice
+answered, the owner thereof was evidently none too anxious to open. In
+this land it is rarely an angel that one entertains unaware after
+dark![44] The magic word _Ingiliz_, however, proved a veritable "Open
+Sesame." "_Ingiliz!_" repeated the unseen janitor in a tone of delighted
+amazement. In a minute the gates creaked open; and a couple of priests
+in dirty white gaberdines with scarlet turbans and sashes, grinning all
+over their bearded faces, were amiably beckoning us in.
+
+There is indeed good sound policy in the readiness with which the
+subject races of Turkey are disposed to welcome a European visitor. His
+presence under their roof will certainly secure them from raiding for
+that one night at any rate; and the suspicion that they have influential
+foreign friends will "increase their name" permanently among their
+truculent neighbours, and serve as a sort of protection for several
+weeks to come.
+
+A steep and crazy stone staircase turned down just inside the gateway;
+but our long-suffering mountain-bred beasts tripped down it as neatly as
+rope-dancers. Through a door on our right, as we passed, we caught a
+glimpse of the interior of a big vaulted guard room, where a party of
+Yezidi men and women were grouped around a blazing bonfire. The ruddy
+glare of the flames and the murky smoke-wreaths eddying overhead,
+suggested forcibly that these minions of Lucifer were sampling a model
+Inferno; but we slipped past their Malebolge unobserved. Our conductors
+led us along the lower terrace, and assigned us lodgings in a tower
+abutting on the wall of the temple--the chamber (as they informed us)
+which was always reserved for the use of the High Priest of their sect,
+Ali Beg himself, whenever he paid one of his periodical visits to his
+tribal shrine.
+
+It was a good-sized lofty room, roofed with a pointed stone vault: but
+it boasted no window; and apparently no chimney, for the fire that was
+lit for our benefit soon filled all the space above the level of the
+door lintel with a dense and suffocating smoke. To us as we squatted on
+the floor this was no particular hardship; but a hand raised overhead
+reached into a warm smoky stratum, and if we rose to cross the room we
+had to bend double under pain of asphyxiation. The Yezidis seem more
+callous to smoke even than the Kurds and Syrians. The latter do
+generally provide a hole in the roof above the fire.
+
+The young prior of the monastery, a nephew of Ali Beg, played the part
+of host. He had been preferred to his post by his uncle, to whom he pays
+a fixed composition (equivalent to £120 _per annum_) for the privilege
+of receiving the offerings of the faithful whom he entertains at the
+shrine. The entertainment which he provided for us consisted of the
+local pancake bread and a big dish of lentils; on which we supped very
+composedly, albeit we had no "long spoons." Then followed coffee served
+in a brazen jug with a gigantic spout like the beak of a toucan: and,
+after a cigarette or two, our host took leave of us; while we and our
+_posse comitatus_ disposed ourselves to sleep on the floor.
+
+Our earliest thought the next morning was to inspect the Diabolical
+Temple; for the Yezidis, unlike their Mohammedan neighbours, are quite
+willing to exhibit their shrine. The sun was rising brightly as we
+emerged into the daylight; and the wakening glen in its rich autumn
+colouring looked a very different place from the gloomy gully up which
+we had crept the night before.
+
+There is no village at Sheikh Adi. The place consists simply of the
+temple and its appurtenances, forming, in fact, a monastery, though it
+is not actually so called. The buildings hang along the steep brae-side
+which forms the left bank of the river; the uppermost tier being notched
+deeply into the slope, and the lower terraced out boldly above the
+margin of the burn. The temple rises in the centre of the upper tier,
+conspicuous for the fluted spires which form the roofs of the
+sanctuaries. These fluted conical spires are a distinguishing
+characteristic of Yezidi architecture, and their appearance, on any
+building is strong _primâ facie_ evidence of Yezidi origin.
+
+All above and around the monastery the hillside is spangled with scores
+of rude little oratories, mostly in a ruinous condition. These were
+erected sometimes by individual worshippers and sometimes by
+communities. The founder of such a chapel is thought to acquire singular
+merit; and it is held that, at his death, his chantry will be
+transported with him to paradise and serve as his heavenly mansion in
+the life to come. A lamp is lit in each of them by the temple priests at
+sundown, and at the same time other lamps are lit all over the temple,
+thus forming the necromantic illumination which so startled us the
+previous night. They only continue burning for about half an hour; but
+we chanced to arrive just in time to get the full effect.
+
+Within the main gateway of the monastery a flight of eight or ten steps
+leads down into a little sunken quadrangle; and the opposite side of
+this is occupied by the façade of the temple--a plain square wall of
+ashlar, unpierced by any window, but having a small arched doorway
+placed near the corner on the left. Many of the stones in this façade
+have queer cabalistic patterns, rudely incised in the surface so as to
+leave the device in low relief. The priests insist that these are all
+meaningless--mere bits of fanciful ornament introduced by the Christian
+builders:[45] but though it is likely enough that the original meaning
+of them is forgotten, it is manifestly absurd to pretend either that
+they never had any, or that none is attributed to them now. There are no
+Christian symbols among them; and the devices which recur most
+frequently represent a hatchet and a comb:[46] but the most ominous and
+the most prominent of all is the famous Snake, which is carved in relief
+on the door jamb, and which receives the peculiar attention of being
+kept carefully blacked.
+
+[Illustration: THE YEZIDI TEMPLE AT SHEIKH ADI]
+
+Three or four Yezidi worshippers were making their round of the
+quadrangle, prostrating themselves before certain niches and at several
+other recognized points. They devoutly kissed the threshold of the door,
+and several of the stones in the walls (by no means always the carved
+ones), but we did not see any of them pay particular homage to the
+snake.
+
+The priests were prepared for our visit, and were waiting at the door to
+receive us. They at once admitted us to the temple, first begging us to
+remove our shoes. This action is to be regarded as mere politeness, not
+as "bowing down in the house of Rimmon;" for it is customary to remove
+the shoes in Turkey, even when only entering a room.[47]
+
+The body of the temple consists of twin naves, divided longitudinally by
+a pointed arcade, and roofed with two pointed barrel vaults. The general
+effect of the architecture is very similar to that of a rude early
+thirteenth-century church in the mountain districts of England. The
+naves lie due east and west; and possibly this Orientation was
+intentional, for certain traces of sun worship do survive in the Yezidi
+creed. But more probably the lines of the building were dictated by the
+nature of the site, for the longer axis would naturally run parallel
+with stream and hill. Moreover any significance that might be attached
+to the arrangement is altogether discounted by the fact that the
+sanctuary is placed, not at the eastern end, but in the centre of the
+northern side. This is a plan which is frequently followed in the more
+easterly Christian churches; and which indicates that the builders
+adopted as their model, not the Roman basilica, but the Persian Audience
+Hall.
+
+[Illustration: AKRA.
+
+From the south-west. The figures are those of Rabban Werda and others of
+our suite.
+
+No. 5]
+
+The floor of the southern nave is three steps lower than that of the
+northern; and at its western end is a square tank of running water, sunk
+below the level of the floor. Ceremonial ablutions have a prominent
+place in the ritual of Yezidi worship. There is a second tiny tank in
+the quadrangle: and a third (evidently fed by the overflow of the tank
+in the nave) just under the south-western angle of the temple, on the
+level of the lower terrace. A dwarf wall between the arcade pillars
+fences off the central bays of the upper nave, thus enclosing a sort of
+presbytery in front of the opening to the sanctuary.
+
+At the eastern end we turned to the left through a door in the northern
+wall, and entered the square chamber under the smaller and more easterly
+of the two conical spires. From this we passed back into the sanctuary
+itself; a larger square chamber, situated under the larger spire, and
+thus, placed practically in the centre of the northern nave wall.[48] A
+low doorway, closed with an iron grille, opens from the nave into this
+sanctuary; and immediately behind the opening stands a sort of ark,
+rather smaller than the shrine of St. Alban, and completely shrouded in
+red drapery. We were led up to it, but bidden not to touch it: so we
+stood round solemnly, and gazed.
+
+"What is in it?" we asked our interpreter, the Syrian Deacon, Werda--a
+man of some education, who is generally superior to the superstitions of
+his race. But in this Domdaniel of Sorcery even his assurance was
+wavering--"I will tell you later," he replied nervously. "I cannot say
+it in this place." It was not till we were safe again in the quadrangle
+that he approached us with much circumspection, and confided to us in
+an awestruck whisper, "the King of the Peacocks is in that big chest!"
+
+_Melek Taüs_, "the King of the Peacocks," is the Yezidi euphemism for
+Sheitan; who of course must never be referred to by the latter
+disparaging name.[49] His image in the form of a peacock is regarded as
+the Yezidi Palladium; and it was his principal image which was kept in
+that red-draped shrine.
+
+There are seven images or _s[=a]nj[=a]ks_[50] in the charge of the
+Yezidi priesthood. One is always kept at Sheikh Adi; and the rest go on
+circuit in the villages, to be exhibited to the faithful, and to receive
+the temple tithes.[51] Their progress is somewhat precarious; for the
+Kurds (when they can) like to capture them, thus combining pleasure and
+profit with a parade of religious zeal. It is probably one of these
+_sanjaks_ which is now in the British Museum; and, "if he had guessed
+that King George would like it," Mar Shimun "would have been delighted
+to make him a present of another," which was known to have been straying
+about Tyari a year or two before. The Kurds themselves roundly assert
+that they carried off the actual headquarters image when they looted the
+temple in 1892; but the priests contend that it had been already placed
+in hiding, and that the plunderers found only a dummy. The Kurds would
+of course say they took it, even if they did not; and the priests would
+equally of course deny it, even if they did. Both alternatives are
+equally probable; and the image has always been secreted so jealously
+that any identification is impossible.[52] There is therefore nothing to
+prevent us from believing whichever we choose.
+
+But although _Melek Taüs_ no doubt is the dominant guardian of Sheikh
+Adi, we feel that behind his presentment there broods an older tutelary
+shade. For when we quitted the larger sanctuary, and passed back again
+into the more eastern one, "Rabbi Mr. Wigram" headed at once for a small
+door in a corner, from whence a steep stone staircase plunged down into
+the bowels of the rock. A priest had planted himself in front of that
+door, making himself as broad as possible, and valiantly trying to mask
+it; and when he found concealment impossible, he pointedly bowed us
+away. They had shown us the shrine of _Melek Taüs_; but here was
+something which they could not show us. Here was one secret of Sheikh
+Adi which must be kept inviolate still.
+
+What would they have said, we wonder, had they been told that one of
+their visitors had already actually penetrated into that Holy of Holies?
+Would they have hailed him as a prophet? Would they have murdered him
+for sacrilege? Or would they have compromised matters by flatly refusing
+to believe? We discreetly kept our own counsel; but the thing had been
+done notwithstanding. And the story of how it happened needs a few
+explanatory remarks.
+
+In the year 1892 there came a new _Vali_ to Mosul--a sanguine and active
+"Reformer" whose name was Osman Bey. He had set out from Constantinople
+equipped with a Radical "Program" and his programme (as is usual with
+programmes) was planned on an extensive scale. He had to do just three
+things--to cure the Arabs of Nomadism; to make the Kurds pay their
+taxes; and finally to induce the Yezidis to discard their heathenish
+superstition. The first problem floored him promptly, for the Arabs
+decamped to the desert; and the Kurdish chiefs eyed him pretty blankly
+when he proceeded to propound Problem II. But when he got to "thirdly
+and lastly," and invited their co-operation, the worthy fellows cheered
+up amazingly and found things looked feasible after all. Taxation was
+much less intolerable when viewed in relation to its context, for the
+"Peaceable Persuasion" of the Yezidis would leave them a profit on the
+deal.
+
+Accordingly all through the _vilayet_ the unhappy Yezidis were attacked
+and plundered; their women were carried into captivity, their men were
+tortured and slain. And while the Government troops were ravaging the
+plain villages, Sheikh Adi itself (hitherto immune from such
+visitations) was completely ransacked by the Kurds. It was not till
+after sixteen years that the poor proscribed Yezidis were reinstated.
+Until the general amnesty at the revolution they remained in exile from
+their shrine. Consequently when "Rabbi Mr. Wigram" visited the place in
+1907 he found it only tenanted by the Moslem Mollah in charge.
+
+The Mollah allowed him to go anywhere, scoffing valiantly at Yezidi
+superstitions; and through that gloomy doorway the investigator
+accordingly went. But afterwards the sceptic admitted that _down there_
+he had never ventured; and had never in the least expected to see his
+visitor come up again alive!
+
+Unfortunately at the time the searcher failed to realize the unique
+nature of his opportunity and consequently did not push his explorations
+as thoroughly as he otherwise would. It was very dark down the
+staircase, and he was only provided with matches. But it seemed to him
+that he had penetrated into a vast natural cavern, teeming with rills of
+trickling water--the birthplace of the sacred spring, which feeds the
+temple tanks, and forms the main source of the rivulet which flows down
+the glen below.
+
+And here, perhaps, we have the key to the time-honoured sanctity of
+Sheikh Adi. It was primarily a seat of that fountain worship which is
+one of the earliest of all known cults. _Melek Taüs_ himself was but a
+later accretion, though now he has usurped pre-eminence; and even yet
+his worshippers are half-conscious of a god behind their god. Sacred
+fountains by the dozen, and sacred trees by the score, may still be met
+with in these outlandish regions. But in Christian and Moslem villages
+they are reverenced somewhat shamefacedly. Among the followers of a
+lower religion the old superstition has retained a firmer hold.
+
+The Yezidis possess no systematized religion woven by some great teacher
+into one harmonious whole. They make shift instead with a bewildering
+agglomeration of superstitions pieced together into an amazing
+patchwork. The central article of their creed is that propitiation of
+the Evil Principle which was originally the conception of the Persian
+dualists; but with this is incorporated the world-old Nature worship of
+trees and fountains and fire and of all the host of heaven; upon it are
+grafted innumerable later doctrines derived from the Jews the Christians
+and the Moslems; and apparently it was by the Gnostics that the whole
+medley was finally moulded into something approaching its present form.
+
+Their reverence for _Sheikh Shams-ed-din_, the sun, is evinced by the
+fact that they daily kiss the ground at the spot where his rays first
+rest; that they adore him at rising and setting, and sacrifice white
+oxen at his shrine. A somewhat similar homage is also paid to the moon;
+and they always bury their dead facing towards the north star. Their
+reverence for fountains of water appears in their ceremonial
+lustrations, including the baptism of their children in the temple tank
+at Sheikh Adi. Fire they so far honour that they deem it impiety to spit
+into it; and perhaps a survival of serpent worship may be traced in the
+famous black snake.
+
+From the Persians they borrowed the conception of a good and an evil
+principle; and probably also their belief in the transmigration of
+souls. From the Jews they learned to identify Ahriman, the evil
+principle, with Satan; to practise circumcision, and blood offerings,
+and other points of the Mosaic ritual;[53] and to reverence the writings
+of the Old Testament, which they consider equally authoritative with the
+New Testament and the Koran. They share our Christian belief in the
+divinity of the Founder of our religion, albeit they consider _Melek
+Taüs_ a greater divinity than Him. They respect the Sign of the Cross;
+but perhaps not exclusively as a Christian symbol, for the use of that
+sign was established even in pre-Christian days. Other tenets they have
+borrowed from Islam; for they regard Mohammed as a prophet, and Mecca
+as a holy place; and texts from the Koran are engraved on the walls of
+their temple. Moreover they hold that their sacred spring is derived
+from the well Zemzem, whose waters Sheikh Adi miraculously conducted to
+their present fount.
+
+Many points of this weird belief have no doubt been adopted piecemeal,
+in the hope of obtaining toleration from their Mohammedan lords. But if
+such was their hope it was futile. Their admitted reverence for Sheitan
+constitutes an abomination which neither Moslem nor Christian can
+condone. Thus their lot has been always oppression and often the
+bitterest persecution. How can such a strange compound superstition have
+inspired them with their heroic fortitude?
+
+If the truth of a creed can be gauged by the number and constancy of its
+martyrs, then the place we should yield to the Yezidis must be one of
+the highest of all. Small as their sect has always been, they can count
+their martyrs by hundreds of thousands. And seldom indeed has any Yezidi
+of full age been known to abjure his religion, either under stress of
+torment or through fear of death. The massacre of 1892 was but the
+latest (and one of the mildest) of a long list of similar inflictions.
+Less than fifty years previously all the Yezidis of the Sheikhan were
+driven from their villages by a great irruption of Kurds under the Beg
+of Rowandiz, and fled for refuge to Mosul. The flooded Tigris cut them
+off; and so many thousands were massacred by their pursuers upon the
+site of Nineveh that the principal mound over Sennacherib's palace
+acquired the ominous name of Kouyunjik--"the shambles of the sheep." The
+tale of earlier massacres runs back to the very dawn of their history.
+Even Sinjar has not always proved a sanctuary, though there they have
+been less hard pressed.
+
+But still the sect lives on; and (what is stranger yet) it occasionally
+attracts proselytes! Why a Christian should turn Moslem, we can
+understand--at least he ensures worldly advancement. But what
+conceivable benefit can he look to acquire by turning Yezidi? Unless
+indeed he is tired of life, and has a conscientious objection to
+suicide.
+
+One peculiar privilege, however, has recently been conceded to the
+Yezidis. They have gained that exemption from military service which
+Kurds and Christians earnestly desire. This was done not exactly in
+kindness to them, but more for the comfort of the army. For, about a
+dozen times a day, every Moslem is accustomed to "take refuge with Allah
+from Sheitan the stoned:" and a Yezidi who hears such blasphemy has a
+choice of just two alternatives; either he may kill the blasphemer, or
+he may commit suicide himself!
+
+Mohammed in the Koran draws a very emphatic distinction between those
+unbelievers who are "men of a book," and those who are not; between the
+Christians and Jews, who follow a written revelation; and the idolaters,
+who follow tradition alone. The former may be admitted to tribute; but
+the latter are expressly condemned to extermination.
+
+Now the Yezidis also are in fact "men of a book;" though this would not
+probably be considered much extenuation for "worshipping Sheitan." But
+for a very long period they guarded their book so jealously as actually
+to invite the pains and penalties of being supposed to have none. Two
+sacred books, however, they have; the _Kitab el Aswad_, or Black
+Book,[54] dating from about the tenth century; and the _Kitab el Jilwa_,
+or Book of Enlightenment, which dates from about the thirteenth; and
+from these we are able to gather some of the principal articles of their
+creed.
+
+The Yezidis believe in a Supreme Being--Yazdan, "the Most High." But to
+Him they pay no worship. He is the Lord of Heaven, and takes no account
+of earth. From His name in all probability they derive their own
+appellation of Yezidis; though the Moslems (or at least the Shiites)
+declare that they inherit it from Yezid ibn Mo'awiya, the murderer of
+Hosein, and see in it an additional argument for persecuting them.[55]
+
+From _Yazdan_ emanated seven Great Spirits, of whom _Melek Taüs_ was the
+first and most powerful. To him was committed the creation of the world;
+and the governance of it for 10,000 years, of which 4000 still remain to
+run. _Melek Taüs_ is an evil and a fallen spirit; but not fallen beyond
+redemption. He is a sort of celestial Absalom--vicious, tyrannical,
+rebellious; but secure of ultimate pardon and rehabilitation. "Shall
+there not at length come a time when the Chief of the Archangels shall
+be restored to his first pre-eminence? And will he not then be mindful
+of the poor Yezidis, who alone of all mankind never cursed him in his
+disgrace?"
+
+There is something distinctly quaint in this picture of a reclaimed
+Satan, still cherishing a faint grudge against those who denounced him
+in his unregenerate days.
+
+_Melek Isa_ (Jesus) is the second of the Great Spirits; and He too shall
+reign for 10,000 years when _Melek Taüs'_ reign is done. The story of
+His incarnation and passion is accepted as told in the Christian
+scriptures; but it is held that this, His first, coming was premature
+and that so He failed to break the power of evil. He did not, however,
+die upon the Cross, _Melek Taüs_ snatched Him away, leaving only a
+phantom in His room.[56]
+
+The Yezidis render to _Melek Isa_ a sort of secondary worship. His reign
+is not yet; and being good He is not so formidable as evil. Thus at
+their great feast they sacrifice one sheep to Him, while to _Melek Taüs_
+they sacrifice seven. _Melek Isa_ is merciful, slow to anger, and of
+great kindness, but _Melek Taüs_ is a jealous and exacting god.
+
+Sheikh Adi is a semi-mythical personage who may be described as the
+Yezidi Prophet. He is sometimes identified with Mar Adai (St. Thaddeus)
+the Apostle of the Christians; but there seems some historical evidence
+that he lived in the tenth century, and that he was originally a Magian
+who had fled from Aleppo when the Magian cult was suppressed. He was
+probably the author or compiler of the sacred books; and is said to have
+been the first who taught disciples. According to some traditions he is
+considered almost divine; and at the Last Day he will carry all the
+Yezidis to heaven in a tray on his head, and pass them through
+unquestioned. But according to another legend he was a mere mortal, who
+had in life bitter experience of the devilment of his peculiar deity.
+For while he was gone on pilgrimage to Mecca, _Melek Taüs_ personated
+him among his disciples; dwelling with them, instructing them, and at
+last ascending visibly to Heaven. Thus when poor Sheikh Adi returned he
+was promptly slain as an impostor; and then _Melek Taüs_, reappearing,
+confessed the trick that he had played, and gave orders that the
+ill-used devotee was henceforth to be honoured as a saint.
+
+The Yezidis have a regular hierarchy of seven orders of priesthood. They
+hold a great annual feast at Sheikh Adi in October; which is continued
+for eight days, and is attended by all the faithful who can come. Layard
+was present on two such occasions, and shared in the feasting and
+merry-making; but no unbeliever has ever been permitted to witness the
+rites and ceremonies enacted within the temple itself. Pilgrimage to
+Sheikh Adi is incumbent on every Yezidi; but he is not commanded to
+pray; and he leaves that duty to his priests. Fasting can also be
+performed by deputy; and a group of Yezidis will select one of their
+number to do all their fasting for them, confessing to him the acts
+which need expiation, and paying him a capitation fee for carrying out
+the corresponding penances.
+
+The Yezidis understand the nature of an oath, but the oath must be
+properly administered; and, lest any of the sect should appear as
+witnesses in our own courts of justice, it may be convenient to state
+exactly how the thing is done. A circle is drawn round the man to whom
+the oath is propounded, and he is told "All within that circle is the
+property of _Melek Taüs_. Now answer falsely if you dare!" One would
+have thought that to the Father of Lies falsehood would be the one thing
+most pleasing. But apparently when you are put to your purgation it is
+most emphatically otherwise. So we may conclude that the Prince of
+Darkness is really a gentleman after all.
+
+The distinctive costume of the men consists of white tunic, trousers and
+jacket, with a scarlet turban and sash. The women wear the same costume,
+except that the tunic is longer and reaches nearly to the ankle; and
+they also have an oblong red mantle, draped from the left shoulder under
+the right arm.
+
+We quitted Sheikh Adi in the course of the forenoon, the young prior
+accompanying us to the monastery gate in order to bid us farewell. He
+would accept no payment for our entertainment, representing that it was
+the custom of the monastery to keep open house for its visitors;[57] but
+"out of love for us he could not refuse" the gift that we proffered
+instead. We followed a very steep and rugged pathway, clambering out of
+the glen up the hillside immediately opposite; and from the notch at the
+summit we got our last view of that unhallowed Hoodoo House, and saw
+once more to the southward the ocean-like levels of Mosul.
+
+Being now so deeply entered in devilry we had resolved to top off our
+orgy by paying our respects to the Satanic Pontiff, Ali Beg the _Mira_
+of the Yezidis, whose home lay close to our road. A descent even rougher
+than the ascent led us down to the terrace of heath land from which the
+mountains arise; and here, on a sort of cape jutting out over the lower
+plain country, we came upon the _Mira's_ castle--a large defensible
+house with a walled courtyard. A beautifully clear little river issues
+from a spring just above it, and girdles the base of the hill on which
+the "castle" stands; and along the banks of the stream lies the Yezidi
+village of Baadri, one of their principal settlements in the district of
+Sheikhan.
+
+The castle seemed pretty well garrisoned; for plenty of men were in
+evidence when we dismounted in the courtyard. But it is only constructed
+of _jess_ work; and the cracks which showed conspicuously in the walls
+of the _Mira's_ reception room suggested that repairs were getting a bit
+overdue.
+
+This _diwan khana_ is a good-sized vaulted chamber; and its whitewashed
+walls were scrawled all over with rough pencil drawings of steam-boats
+and locomotives; as though the _Mira's_ visitors had been trying to
+explain to him the nature of these monstrosities, neither of which can
+be seen within a journey of ten days. The room was empty when we
+entered, but the _Mira_ appeared almost immediately, and seated us
+beside him on the dais at the end.
+
+The High Priest of the Devil is a pronounced Anglophil,[58] a fact which
+will doubtless be deemed significant by our country's continental
+friends. He is also on terms of traditional amity with Mar Shimun, the
+Catholicos of the "Nestorian" Christians; for though the Christians
+abhor the "Devil Worshippers" most piously, both _millets_ are driven
+into sympathy by the common oppression of the Kurds.
+
+Ali Beg was rather a big man, as men go in the mountain districts;
+probably about six feet high, and about forty-five years of age. He wore
+a dark brown _abba_ with gold embroidery round the collar; but we could
+make out but little of his features, as he kept his face closely muffled
+in the folds of his red Yezidi turban. This, however, was not to be
+attributed to any desire to imitate the veiled prophet of Khorassan, but
+only to the fact that he had a bad cold; an indisposition which had
+prevented his intended journey to Mosul. His manner was melancholy and
+depressed, as befitted the chieftain of a persecuted people; but perhaps
+this also, more prosaically, may be partly attributed to the cold.
+
+He was attended by a Yezidi Sheikh, a very handsome man with a long
+black beard, wearing a white turban, and a gown and _abba_ of soft
+dove-coloured brown. The _Sheikhs_ are the second order of the Yezidi
+hierarchy; the _Cawwals_ or priests forming the third order, and _Pirs_,
+_Kuchaks_, _Fakirs_ and _Mollas_ being entrusted with various minor
+rites.
+
+The _Mira_ is virtually the Khalif of his _millet_; absolute both
+temporally and spiritually--a sort of combination of emperor and pope.
+No one dreams of questioning any order of his, or of breathing any
+complaint of him to the Government. The _Mira_ can do no wrong. All his
+followers' goods are at his disposal. If he claims a woman, she is
+yielded to him; if he kills a man, nobody objects. Nay, the very fact of
+the _Mira_ having killed him confers on the victim such holiness that he
+becomes automatically secure of immediate admission to paradise; and
+under such desirable conditions who has any cause to object? The office
+of _Mira_ is hereditary, as such offices are in this country; for the
+idea of sanctity running in families is common both among Christians and
+Kurds. Mar Shimun among the former, and the Sheikhs of Barzan and Neri
+among the latter, may be quoted as parallel cases; and the practice has
+at least a respectable precedent in the house of Aaron among the
+Jews.[59]
+
+Ali Beg is dead since our visit. Dead, by what (for a _Mira_ of the
+Yezidis) may be fairly described as "natural death;" for he was just
+"murdered by his successor" like any old Irish king. That the succession
+should be allowed to go out of the family would be a thing blasphemous
+to hint at; but that the rightful heir should seek to accelerate his
+accession is only a part of the game. It is a sporting game too; for if
+the adventurer fails, he dies himself by torture for sacrilege the most
+monstrous. But if he succeeds he is _Mira_, with all the _Mira's_
+immunities. His predecessor is promoted to paradise, and he reigns
+absolute in his room.
+
+Wherefore, as might well be expected, the _Mira_ is wont to take
+precautions; and keeps his potential successors rather studiously at
+arm's length. But the heir (in this case his nephew)[60] had this time
+taken precautions also; and had escaped across the Russian frontier,
+there to watch and bide his time. In the summer which followed our visit
+he stole back again from his exile; and fortune favoured his enterprise,
+for the _Mira_ fell by his hand. So now there is another _Mira_, the
+legitimate ruler of all the Yezidis; and no one will question his
+authority--until the end of his reign.
+
+All unsuspicious of the coming tragedy we bade farewell to Ali Beg at
+the door of his _diwan khana_; having duly tasted of his hospitality,
+and assured each other of our mutual good will. One of his _Leichtach_
+escorted us to a point about a mile from the castle, and thence we soon
+gained the pathway by which we were to return to Mosul.
+
+We finished this nefarious excursion by lodging in a Yezidi village; for
+the whole stage was rather too far to be accomplished in a single day.
+And the normal state of relations between "True Believers" and "Devil
+Worshippers" was disclosed to us rather instructively when we began
+inquiring for bread. Our host denied categorically that there was so
+much as a crumb in the village--until (with a good deal of trouble) we
+convinced him that we proposed to pay! Apparently it is quite unusual
+for anyone to pay anything to a Yezidi. It is a "work of supererogation"
+and consequently of the nature of sin. The sight of our money produced
+lots of things; but our sulky host was quite spoiled by it. He proceeded
+to take offence with us because we did not invite him to dine![61] Thus
+Yezidis would seem by nature to be as wicked as workhouse orphans, and
+no doubt a little barbarity is essential to keep them in hand.
+
+The fruit of our three days' transgression was revealed to us a little
+later, when we found that two of our followers (Moslems too, to make the
+crime more heinous) had been obviously indulging in _raki_[62] to
+celebrate their return to Mosul. "It is all your fault _Effendim_" they
+pleaded when we began to scold them. "It was you who betrayed our
+innocence into the abode of _Sheitan_. And lo, this thing has befallen
+us. We have touched pitch and are defiled."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS (RABBAN HORMIZD, BAVIAN, AND AKRA)
+
+
+One may go to Aleppo by train, and by carriage one may get on to Mosul;
+but he who would penetrate further must adopt more primitive means.
+Nothing that runs upon wheels can enter the Kurdistan highlands. And the
+"heir of all the ages," travelling there in A.D. 1900, finds himself no
+better off than his forerunners of B.C. 1100, whose Great King recorded
+amazedly on slabs of imperishable granite the fact that "I,
+Tiglath-Pileser, was obliged to go on foot!"
+
+Accordingly our _Dramatis Personae_ had to be radically recast at Mosul.
+We were escorted by two fresh _zaptiehs_; our baggage was corded on pack
+mules; and for our own riding we had saddle horses--or perhaps more
+accurately ponies, for they stood about fourteen hands high.
+
+Our attendants deserve a paragraph to themselves; for they are
+representatives of a nation which we have hitherto scarcely mentioned,
+but of whom in the remaining chapters we shall have a great deal to
+tell. Aziz and Yukhanan were Syrians who had come down from their
+mountain villages to await our arrival at Mosul. They were about
+twenty-five years of age, attired in the costume of the highlands, and
+imbued with true highland contempt for the dwellers in cities and
+plains. Outwardly there is little to distinguish them from the Kurds
+among whom they are domiciled; but the fact of their speaking a
+different language proves that they must ultimately be derived from a
+totally different stock; for Kurdish is akin to Persian, and is
+consequently an Aryan language; but Syriac is Semitic, and is the
+nearest modern equivalent of that Aramaic which was spoken in Palestine
+during the lifetime of our Lord. Their own traditions aver (and in many
+cases their physiognomy affords strong support to the contention)[63]
+that they are the lineal descendants of the ancient Assyrians. Some will
+quite glibly assert that their family ancestor was Nebuchadnezzar; and
+if it be true (as the Welsh maintain) that blood feuds are a most
+valuable factor in ensuring the preservation of genealogies, then
+certainly these fellows have had every reason for keeping their
+pedigrees up to date.
+
+In religion both men were Christians, and, what is more, _Shamashas_
+(Deacons): members of the ancient East Syrian, often called the
+Nestorian Church. But Syrian Deacons (though properly ordained) are not
+necessarily engaged exclusively in the performance of clerical duties;
+albeit they will always have received some sort of educational training,
+and (as in the present instances) will probably be able to read and
+write.
+
+The regular mountain costume consists of a sort of zouave jacket, worn
+open over a loose shirt; and very wide trousers, girt tightly around a
+rather slim waist. The point of junction between these two garments is
+masked by a broad sash. The material of which they are composed is
+generally a coarse Isabella-coloured fabric, striped at rather wide
+intervals with a narrow red or blue line. Green is less frequently seen,
+because it is the colour of the false prophet, but when the grounding is
+purple it is sometimes trimmed with green. The stripes are disposed
+vertically on the jacket and trousers, and horizontally on the sleeves;
+but the suit is often such a mass of patches that but little of the
+original survives. The head-dress is a conical felt cap,[64] which is
+often bound round with a turban. The front half of the head is shaved;
+and Tyari men wear their back hair plaited into two small pigtails, one
+on either side. The sash is generally garnished with a knife or pistol
+when the men are at home in the mountains; and often, slung across the
+shoulder, they carry an antiquated gun.
+
+The Kurds wear a similar costume, but a much more extensive arsenal; and
+the weapons with which they are furnished are usually of more modern
+type. This forms the main tangible distinction by which it is possible
+to tell a Kurd from a Syrian: but somehow a certain ruffianly swagger is
+the truest hall-mark of a Kurd.
+
+The third man who had joined our party was a certain _Rabban_ Werda
+(Friar Rose) who acted as our chief lieutenant. He too, like the others,
+was a deacon, but he was more usually addressed as _Rabban_; for he was
+one of a queer religious order which still survives in eastern
+Christendom, and which corresponds to one of the aspects assumed by
+monasticism in the west. _Rabbans_--and _Rabbantas_--(for there are a
+few women also in the order)--have bound themselves not to marry, not to
+use a razor,[65] and not to eat flesh meat. But they do not live in
+communities, nor obey any definite rule; and, except in the three
+particulars mentioned, they lead much the same life as other men. It is
+from the ranks of the _Rabbans_ that the Syrian episcopate is recruited;
+for, by old tradition, _Abunas_ or bishops must be celibate, though the
+_Qashas_ or priests are always married men.
+
+_Rabban_ Werda in personal appearance was the image of the immortal
+Sancho Panza; and he wore, with his gorgeous purple trousers, a European
+frock-coat and a fez. But his worth is not to be gauged by his rather
+uninspiring exterior. Though his views of our twentieth century may have
+sometimes a tinge of artlessness, in his own mediæval environment he is
+as intelligent and reliable a henchman as anyone need desire.
+
+For the journey into the mountains does indeed carry us back to
+mediævalism; or at least to the Highlands of Scotland as they existed
+two hundred years ago. And the sensations of Bailie Nicol Jarvie on his
+trip to the glens of the Lennox may be easily recaptured by a modern
+tourist in the Highlands of Hakkiari to-day.
+
+We crossed the pontoon bridge at Mosul, and the broad alluvial levels
+which have silted up the ancient channel of the Tigris; and had soon
+ascended once more on to that wide rolling wold which stretches to the
+snow-capped mountains that lie along the horizon to the north. On our
+right we left the vast enclosure which marks the site of the city of
+Semiramis; and the mounds which cover those mighty ramparts which the
+old Assyrian conquerors once kept festooned with the skins of captive
+kings. But we have many a mile to travel before we are really clear of
+the site of ancient Nineveh, for the space comprised within the walls
+was only its inner nucleus; and without was a great Garden City of
+mansions and parks and orchards, analogous to the present garden city
+which environs the town of Van. Greater Nineveh may well have embraced
+the outlying palaces of Khorsabad, and the temples of Nimrud; and this
+would easily account for the "great city of three days' journey,"
+(_i.e._ of about sixty miles in circumference) of which the Prophet
+speaks.[66]
+
+The annihilation of this huge metropolis is one of the most astounding
+cataclysms in all the world's history. We possess its most intimate
+records almost up to the hour of its agony: and those records tell only
+of continual conquests, and of the building of palaces by its kings.
+Then falls a sudden great silence. For fifty years we hear nothing. And
+when fresh records take up the story, these are written in another
+language, and in another character, and tell of cities and peoples which
+have hardly been even named before. Nineveh had vanished utterly; and
+within two hundred years of its fall Xenophon's army marched across the
+very site of it without so much as dreaming of giving its ruins a name.
+
+[Illustration: THE GORGE OF THE ZAB, TYARI
+
+One of the reaches near Tal
+
+page 284]
+
+Other armies than Xenophon's have marched and fought over its ruins.
+Here, in B.C. 331, Alexander the Great encountered the great army of
+Darius at the little village of Gaugamela in the angle between the
+Tigris and the Zab. This was that great "decisive battle of the world"
+which was to decide the Empire of Asia, and Alexander's signal victory
+laid the whole of Persia at his feet. Gaugamela is about equidistant
+between Nineveh and Arbela, which lies about twenty miles from the
+battlefield on the further side of the Zab river. But all Darius'
+baggage and treasure were parked around Arbela; and as the pursuers
+poured headlong towards the place where they would find the plunder, it
+is Arbela and not Nineveh which has given its name to that day.
+
+Here too in A.D. 627, upon the very site of Nineveh, was fought the last
+battle in the long duel between the Sassanid Persians and the Byzantine
+Romans. Five years previously the Emperor Heraclius, driven within the
+very walls of Constantinople, had sallied from his last refuge, and had
+created in northern Syria the army with which he made his last throw.
+For five years he had marched and fought among the mountains of Armenia,
+striking right and left with unerring judgment and with unvarying
+success, at the armies which hemmed him round. At last Chosroës, brought
+to bay in his turn, mustered his troops for the final struggle, and met
+him on the site of Nineveh with an army of (it is said) 500,000 men. The
+Persians fought with desperation, and "it was easier to kill than to
+break them," but once more the skill and good fortune of the
+warrior-emperor triumphed; and he himself with his own hand slew
+Rhazates the Persian Commander,[67] in single combat between the armies
+before the battle was joined. The power of Chosroës was crushed: but the
+Romans were as much exhausted by the long-drawn struggle as the
+Persians; and, within a few years, both empires alike succumbed to the
+onslaught of the Mohammedans.[68]
+
+In a bird's-eye view from the mountains this country seems all one dead
+level, with the solitary height of Jebel Maklub rising like an island in
+the midst. But, to the wayfarer actually traversing it, it is a range of
+hills and hollows, with marshy valleys[69] intervening between sparsely
+cultivated downs. A few good-sized villages are passed, the largest
+being Tel Keif and Tel Uskof--each, as their names imply, grouped round
+the base of an ancient _tel_: and after a long day's journey (performed
+at the pace of the mules, which is rather slower than walking) we reach
+the township of Alkosh, placed just at the foot of the hills.
+
+A glance at the map would suggest that it is by no means easy to
+determine the precise point where the plains end and where the mountains
+begin. But actually there is no such uncertainty. The breastwork range
+of the mountains rears itself up like a wall above the minor
+inequalities of the plateau, and the heights stretch away right and left
+continuously as though they were toeing a line. Of all the countries of
+Europe, Spain is the land which is nearest in sympathy with the Orient;
+and the sudden uplift of the Cantabrian mountains above the basin of the
+Duero is an excellent reproduction of the rise of the Kurdistan ranges
+above the plain of Mosul.
+
+Alkosh, at the foot of the steeps, is just an unmitigated sun trap; and
+the town seems positively sizzling under the blaze that is poured on it
+from the south. It is a mean little hole; but its synagogue boasts a
+notable shrine in the tomb of the prophet Nahum, who of course also
+holds local brevet rank (like Jonah) as a Mussulman saint. Commentators
+generally assert that the Elkosh of Nahum was in Palestine; but local
+tradition adheres unshakenly to the claims of the Assyrian Alkosh, and
+the Jews make an annual pilgrimage in order to visit this shrine. After
+all there is much to be urged for it. Nahum was "of the children of the
+captivity," and he certainly knew his Nineveh better than most dwellers
+in Palestine can have done.
+
+It was a weird and striking effect that we witnessed from it next
+morning. The clouds lay low and horizontal above the plain beneath us;
+and many of them seemed to have sunk on to the ground, and looked
+exactly like lakes under the level rays of the rising sun. As his orb
+rose higher they lifted, and dispersed into wreaths of vapour. How well
+might such an effect have inspired the words of the Prophet, "Nineveh is
+of old as a pool of water: yet they shall flee away!"
+
+Some three miles east of Alkosh lies a great recess in the
+mountains--hardly so much a valley as a deep pocket among the cliffs.
+And at the end of this pocket is ensconced one of the most interesting
+Christian relics in these regions--the ancient monastery of Rabban
+Hormizd, the Scetis of the uttermost east. Rabban Hormizd is no western
+monastery; it is a typical Oriental Laura: a rookery of independent
+hermits rather than a community of monks. And to speak of it as a
+"rookery" is hardly so descriptive as to call it a warren of
+sand-martins; for the anchorites' cells are all caves, some natural and
+some artificial, burrowed into the escarpments of a great natural
+_cirque_.
+
+Rabban Hormizd, the original and eponymous hermit, established himself
+here in the eighth century; and the fame of his singular sanctity soon
+drew hundreds of other eremites to the neighbourhood of his lonely
+retreat. Here he lived praying, fasting, and macerating himself after
+the manner of the Great St. Anthony; and wrestling mightily with the
+devils who notoriously frequent such desert spots. He was evidently a
+believer in "close action," for the adjoining pocket is known as the
+Vale of Devils; and, appropriately enough, a little village of
+"Devil-Worshippers" is situated at the mouth of it to this day.
+
+But perhaps in the eyes of Rabban Hormizd even the very devils
+themselves were not so foul an abomination as the great rival monastery
+on Jebel Maklub,[70] which rises conspicuous in the midst of Mosul plain
+in full sight of his cell. For Rabban Hormizd was a "Nestorian," while
+the monks of Sheikh Mattai were "Jacobites;" their monastery being still
+the abode of their _Maphrian_, the second dignitary in their church.
+Both sects are equally obnoxious to the intermediate orthodox; but they
+are even more obnoxious to each other, for they draw towards opposite
+poles.
+
+His zeal against the monks of Sheikh Mattai roused Rabban Hormizd to the
+great deed of his lifetime. He actually quitted his cell (for the only
+occasion on record) and started on a lone-hand raid against his
+adversaries' stronghold. The monks of Sheikh Mattai received him
+hospitably, and gave him lodging in their monastery. But at dead of
+night he arose and groped his way to their library, where the works of
+"the accursed Cyril" stood stored like cordite shells. By virtue of his
+prayers he summoned up a miraculous spring in the centre of the floor,
+and carefully washed every line of writing off every page of their
+books! Then leaving them a collection of nice clean leaves free from
+every taint of heresy, he departed joyfully to his hermitage and
+thereafter stirred from it no more.
+
+This scandalous transaction was of course accounted to him for
+righteousness; and indeed Oriental religious controversies continue to
+be conducted on very similar lines to this day!
+
+The monastery of Rabban Hormizd has always been kept going ever since
+the date of its foundation; but now it is only the _Succursale_ of the
+big modern monastery established on the plains below it, and there are
+but some four or five monks still left in the old mother house. They are
+Uniat Nestorians who have submitted themselves to the Papacy, and are
+consequently not at all in charity with the independent Nestorian church
+from which they have seceded. Hearing that we were going to Tyari, the
+home of the independent Nestorians, they inquired artlessly "Pray, do
+you know anything of a deacon there? one Werda, a _very_ wicked
+person--a tall man with a red beard?" (Our deacon is short and rotund,
+and his beard is black).
+
+"I am _Shamasha_ Werda," replied that worthy with a twinkle.
+
+"Oh! but we don't think you can be the man we mean!" protested our hosts
+in some consternation.
+
+"Oh, yes! I am," persisted the delighted deacon.[71]
+
+Despite this _contretemps_, however, we got on with our hosts very
+amicably. They fed us with tea and cake, and wine from their own
+vineyard; and finished by conducting us over their monastery and showing
+us all the sights.
+
+The place must be a furnace in summer time, for the _cirque_ faces due
+southward; the tawny precipices are completely destitute of vegetation,
+and must radiate the heat mercilessly all round that breathless pit. In
+the caves would lurk such coolness as was going; but the lack of water
+must have been a sore trial in summer. Hermits, however, are generally
+credited with requiring a very moderate supply.
+
+The cells lie some way up the ramp, and are reached by a steep zigzag
+pathway. How many of them there may be we do not pretend to guess; but
+we think we may safely say hundreds; for they extend laterally for
+several hundred yards along the concave sweep of the corrie, and (like
+the port-holes of an old line-of-battle ship) they are ranged up in tier
+above tier. They are not of any uniform pattern, like the older
+hermitages at Dara; and some few (probably those which have been most
+recently occupied) are furnished with windows and doors. A series of
+narrow pathways and rude rock staircases strings the whole assortment
+together, and by these the solitaries were enabled to assemble at their
+church.
+
+Here and there the main pathway is barred by the erection of a rude
+arched gateway: but the only real building is the church, which is
+terraced out on a buttress of rock. This church is comparatively modern,
+dating from about 1500; but behind it, jammed against the face of the
+cliff, is another and much older church erected in the ninth or tenth
+century, and adorned with some nice bits of carving somewhat similar to
+the Runic work of our own land. Behind this again, excavated in the rock
+itself, is the veritable cell of Rabban Hormizd--a chamber some eight
+feet square, and approached by a sort of winding rabbit burrow. The
+original door and window of this cell are now closed, the church having
+been built up against it; and the grave of the hermit is placed in one
+of the walls, at a spot which is situated immediately behind the altar.
+
+The church of Rabban Hormizd is very much "Lord of Name," that is it
+enjoys great repute as a place of pilgrimage; and the virtue for which
+it is chiefly celebrated is the healing of the insane, or (as they are
+more commonly called in this country) the "possessed." The lunatic
+(often quite willing) is solemnly conducted to the church, and is
+tethered up in it for the night with a ponderous iron chain and collar
+affixed to a staple in the wall.[72] By morning (unless he is very mad
+indeed) he will usually profess himself cured. Quite a number of other
+mountain churches can boast a similar reputation, but their methods of
+treatment (as will be hereafter related) are often more drastic still.
+
+We rejoined our caravan at the mouth of the gorge, and pursued our way
+steadily eastward along the foot of the mountains; passing first the
+village of Baadri, dominated by Ali Beg's castle, and then rejoining the
+road which we had followed previously on our visit to the Yezidi shrine.
+Some two hours beyond Ain Sufni, we reached the river Gomel, a fairly
+large mountain stream; and here we swung round to the left, perhaps half
+a mile up the river, in order to get a passing glimpse of the famous
+"Picture Rocks" of Bavian.[73]
+
+The Gomel emerges from the mountains by a flat-bottomed winding valley
+shut in on either hand by vertical walls of rock; and along the cliffs
+on the right bank a little above the point of exit, hangs that
+marvellous gallery of "pictures" so well known to Assyriologists. The
+principal bas-relief is a huge square panel, graven on the face of a
+rock bastion which immediately overhangs the stream. It comprises four
+gigantic figures; now wofully battered and weather-beaten, but awesome
+beyond all telling in the loneliness of that desolate glen. Some dozen
+smaller panels are ranged above it, along an upper story of the cliff;
+and at its foot two great detached stone tables lie half submerged in
+the waters of the stream. The design of the big panel is self-repeating,
+each half being mirrored by the other; and this circumstance is of great
+assistance in deciphering the details of the work. For, some thousand
+years after the carvings were executed, a party of mis-begotten hermits
+came to settle down in the valley, and burrowed a set of cells for
+themselves along the face of the cliff. Two or three of these vandals
+chose to excavate immediately behind the great panel, and cut out their
+windows in the middle of it, quite regardless of the "idols" outside.
+With fortunate carelessness, however, they did not do their damage
+symmetrically, and the portions destroyed upon one side remain on the
+other intact. The subject is King Sennacherib making an offering to the
+goddess Ishtar; and the inscription records the destruction of Babylon,
+which had rebelled against him at the commencement of his reign, and
+which he took and razed to the ground.
+
+The panels on the cliff above are all identical with each other. They
+have semi-circular heads, and are carved with the figure of the king. Of
+the two great slabs in the water, one bears on its face three
+figures--apparently the god Bel and two worshippers--and is carved on
+one of the angles into a small human-headed bull. The second is so much
+eroded that it is impossible to distinguish the design.
+
+It seems that the cliffs of the Gomel were one of the principal quarries
+which supplied the materials for constructing the ancient palaces of
+Nineveh. Most of the great slabs were quarried from the upper beds of
+the limestone, and were brought down to the river bank, at the foot of
+the principal bas-relief, by a broad inclined way which can still be
+distinctly traced. Down this they could be lowered on rollers, and would
+then be safely deposited upon the spit of sand and shingle piled up
+under the bank by the river; for this work would be done in summer, at a
+time when the waters were low. The gravel beneath the slab would then be
+dug away in sections; and, bit by bit, there would be inserted under it
+a wicker-framed raft or _keleg_ supported on inflated skins. Given a
+sufficiency of skins such a raft can be made to float anything, and in
+autumn, when the river rose again, the slab would be floated down to the
+Tigris, and landed under the walls of Nineveh near the palace for which
+it was destined. The two slabs now lying in the water were evidently
+intended to be transported in this manner, but for some cause (which we
+can now only guess at) they were eventually abandoned unshipped.
+Possibly they were mis-handled and damaged. Possibly the building of the
+palace was interrupted by the assassination of Sennacherib, and was
+never resumed subsequently when Esarhaddon had quelled Sharezer's
+revolt.
+
+It is conceivable that the great panel also would eventually have been
+cut from the rock behind it, lowered on to the spit beneath, and
+dispatched in similar fashion; but it is perhaps more likely that this
+was always intended to remain as a permanent monument in its present
+site. The smaller panels along the crest of the cliff do not look as if
+they had been destined for removal. They were probably carved for mere
+"swank," to give dignity to the royal quarries; or to keep the carvers'
+hands in, at a time when contract work was slack.
+
+The handling and moving of the ponderous blocks habitually employed by
+the ancients would tax even modern constructors, with all the resources
+of machinery and steam power which nowadays they have at command. But
+the Assyrians (like the Romans after them) could avail themselves of a
+limitless amount of dirt-cheap labour. The hordes of captives taken in
+their wars had to be used somehow; and no one raised any objection if
+they were rather rapidly used up. Men cost less than oxen or asses, and
+their strength could be applied more effectively. They could be drilled
+to keep step, and to give their tugs in unison. Moreover the old
+Oriental task-masters possessed an asset which we have lost--a supreme
+scorn for being unduly hurried. They could well afford to spend a
+generation or so on buildings which were designed to endure for
+centuries, and which might have endured for millennia if only they had
+been left alone.
+
+But even their works of utility have been no more spared by posterity
+than the tablets which recorded their learning, or the palaces which
+were the trophies of their pride. And such a work also had its source at
+the quarries in the Gomel valley; one of those splendid irrigating
+channels which used to feed the desert with the waters of life.[74] Its
+course can be traced for some distance alongside the banks of the river;
+where for yards upon yards the ample conduit is hewn through spurs of
+solid rock. Werda had seen further remains of it far away on the plains
+to the southward; "and the villagers were carrying off the stone facing
+of the embankments to use in building their huts." It was "only the work
+of infidels," and consequently fair loot for anyone. Now European
+engineers are labouring to re-establish what might have been so easily
+preserved.
+
+The "Pictures of Bavian" are at least exempt from the fate which has
+befallen most pictures. They are fixed for ever immovably in the
+position for which they were designed. They are like some forgotten "Old
+Master" which still hangs tarnished and ill-lit above the altar where it
+was dedicated; and which shows there far more nobly than when restored
+and exhibited in a brand-new gilded frame on a glaring gallery wall.
+There are far finer Assyrian sculptures in the Louvre and the British
+Museum than the grim, gaunt, battered sentinels that keep watch over the
+Gomel vale. But ranged along a Bloomsbury corridor they are obviously
+mere graven images; while enthroned amid the solitudes of their own
+eerie mountains they seem to be the very gods themselves.
+
+There are several similar bas-reliefs scattered here and there about the
+mountains--some fairly well preserved like those at Malthaiyah between
+Dohuk and Alkosh, some now almost obliterated like that by the gate of
+Amadia. The great king seems to have delighted in setting his seal upon
+any conspicuous point that was reached by his conquering armies: and to
+this day that instinct re-asserts itself in the behaviour of Private
+Atkins, who delights to carve the badge of his regiment upon any
+conspicuous precipice in Afghanistan.
+
+A caravan moves but slowly, but it generally wants to keep moving, and
+the novice who is travelling with it finds that he is allowed few
+lengthy halts. The old stagers always seem thinking of some point a
+little way ahead which they would much prefer to have behind them.
+Sometimes it is a bad bit of road which can only be traversed in broad
+daylight; sometimes a river which may suddenly be rendered unfordable by
+the intervention of an unforeseen spate. On this stage the unknown
+factor was the conduct of the Khozr river, a much more considerable
+stream than the Gomel, which lay some four hours further east; and whose
+behaviour on the present occasion was more problematical than usual
+because the dark clouds to the northward might imply heavy rain in the
+hills.
+
+"Rabbi Mr. Wigram" had lively recollections of his last experiences with
+the Khozr. He had been kept for three days on the banks of it, waiting
+for the floods to subside. And he had forded it at last "in his birthday
+suit," with the water over his horse's withers, and his clothes slung
+over his shoulders to keep them out of the wet. We are wont to deride
+the rustic who _expectat dum defluat amnis_; but our derision only
+shows our own ignorance as much as his expectancy showed his. The rustic
+was quite well acquainted with the behaviour of his own mountain rivers,
+and knew that when they were in spate there was simply nothing else to
+be done.
+
+And our chances of passing the Khozr were rendered additionally dubious
+by the fact that none of our party knew the right road to take for the
+fords. The _zaptiehs_ had never been in this district and could offer us
+no assistance. The _Rabbi Effendi_ had approached the river from a
+different direction, and that some years before. We caught a guide in
+one of the villages; but as his first step was to ask the way himself at
+the very next village that we came to, we grew distrustful of his
+capacity and dismissed him again to his home. Few of the inhabitants
+ever stray beyond the bounds of their own village, and on a more
+extended excursion they are often hopelessly at sea.
+
+Thus thrown on our own resources we took a bee-line across the moorland,
+steering our course by the light of nature and by a very small scale
+map. And fortune so far favoured us that we found the river in its very
+mildest mood; and though we had struck it at none of the recognized
+fording-places, there was no difficulty in getting across.
+
+But safe on the further bank our perplexities recommenced again. The
+dusk was falling rapidly, and we needed a lodging for the night. By now
+we should have been at Khalilka, a prosperous and desirable village,
+which is part of the private estate of the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, and
+which on that account enjoys immunity from taxes and conscription and
+raids.[75] But of course in missing the fords we had also missed
+Khalilka, and not knowing whether it were above or below us, were
+uncertain which way to turn. However, it was tolerably obvious that if
+we followed the river either way we should presently find a village of
+some sort; and a little distance down the left bank we alighted upon a
+straggling hamlet of miserable Kurdish hovels, which we unanimously
+accepted as being "Hobson's choice."
+
+Of course no _khan_ is to be looked for in any of these outlying
+villages, and it is customary for the traveller to quarter himself upon
+the _rais_ or head man. He will obtain fire and shelter, and liberty to
+eat his own provisions, and possibly (if he is fortunate) will be able
+to purchase bread. Such entertainment should be requited, if mine host
+is poor, in money; if he is a person of importance, by some kind of
+trifling gift. Hospitality is hardly ever refused even to the humblest
+wayfarer, and public opinion quite backs a man who enforces it if it is
+denied.
+
+In the present case the only shelter available was the veranda of the
+_rais'_ house; which afforded us a roof certainly, but no outer
+wall--only a wattle hurdle about five feet high. Here, however, we
+kindled a fire, and packed ourselves in pretty comfortably; though the
+night was made constantly hideous by the howling of the village dogs.
+Their uproar was not unjustified, for (as we were informed next morning)
+a scavenging pack of "you-eë-yahs" had been prowling round the hamlet
+all night. A "you-eë-yah" is a sort of hyæna which haunts the
+neighbourhood of villages, and gives intimation of its presence by
+incessantly howling out its own name. It is known alternatively as a
+_Ghul_ or _Sheitan_ because it is addicted to digging up and devouring
+the corpses buried in the graveyards; a foul and stealthy brute, but not
+dangerous to man. We had heard the howls all night intermittently
+between the volleys of barking, but had thought it was only the village
+cats taking their share in the row.
+
+Next day the road was easier to follow; not because it was marked more
+clearly, but because its direction was defined by a string of Mohammedan
+cemeteries which were dotted across the moorland at intervals of three
+or four miles. These are small square walled enclosures, generally with
+a _santon's_ tomb in the middle, and with tall slender Moslem
+head-stones marking some of the principal graves. The country was open
+and undulating, but everywhere barren and pebbly; one can hardly as yet
+call it stony, as that more emphatic word will be urgently needed later
+on. Here and there were traces of villages; but these were all abandoned
+and ruined, with nothing left but foundations, or a fragment or two of
+broken wall. The only inhabited villages stood high on the hills
+overlooking us, generally with an Agha's castle planted somewhat
+aggressively in the midst.
+
+There is something unnatural in this desertion, for the land might
+obviously be cultivated, and within the walls of the cemeteries there
+stand many well-grown trees.[76] But the key to the flight of the
+inhabitants is not the parsimony of nature:
+
+    _Rookhope stands in a pleasant place_
+    _If the false thieves wad let it be._
+
+And this essential condition is very conspicuously lacking in the
+country between Bavian and Akra, not to mention several districts
+further north; for across this ground twice a year pass that horde of
+human locusts, the wandering Heriki tribesmen; and one skinning every
+six months is more than any village can survive.
+
+The Heriki are a large tribe of Kurdish nomads who possess no permanent
+domicile. They encamp in winter on the plain of Mosul, and in summer on
+the loftier and cooler plateau of Urmi; and with all their flocks and
+herds and their other possessions, they migrate every spring from Mosul
+to Urmi, and every autumn from Urmi to Mosul. It is not a good thing for
+a village to lie in the track of the Heriki, for everything that is not
+too hot or too heavy they annex and carry away. They "lift" the sheep
+and cattle first; then the rugs and kettles and pitchers and the scanty
+household plenishing; and they leave their hapless entertainers with
+nothing but bare walls and rags.
+
+We had learned something of their thoroughness at our last night's
+lodgings on the Khozr; for in the veranda of the _rais'_ house we had
+found three or four large bales, securely corded up in pieces of carpet,
+and had casually asked what they were. Our poor host replied
+despondently that he was "warehousing" them for the Heriki. They would
+call upon him and claim them when next they passed that way. No; they
+paid him nothing for "warehousing," but he had to be responsible for
+them; and he had to restore four-fold if any of the contents were lost.
+
+"And what is in them?" we asked. The poor wretch grew even more
+dejected. "Oh, it is all my own property; my own rugs and cooking pots,"
+he replied. "That is to say part of it mine, and part the property of
+the other villagers, which the Heriki took from us when they plundered
+the village last time!"
+
+So complete was the reign of terror which the impudent scoundrels had
+established, and so powerless was the Government to keep their
+depredations in check, that they could actually dragoon their victims
+into keeping their own plunder till they called for it, and go off for
+six months quite confident that their orders would be implicitly obeyed!
+
+Our day's stage ended at Akra; a considerable mountain township and the
+seat of a Turkish _kaimakam_, a departmental governor, subordinate in
+the present instance to the _Vali_ of the province of Mosul. Akra
+displays itself most imposingly to a traveller approaching from the
+westward, and indeed forms a striking spectacle from whatever point it
+is viewed. Behind it a group of steep-pitched ridges are gabled out from
+the main mountain chain like a range of gigantic dormers, and drop down
+in rugged hipped ends to the level plain far below. Their crests are
+hacked and indented like the "dissipated saw" of the Bab Ballads, and
+the intervening gorges are half choked with the avalanches of boulders
+which have cascaded down their flanks. The lower portions of these
+gorges are filled with trees which grow in the terraced garden plots
+alongside the little rivulets, but the upper slopes are all bare and
+tawny like broken craters of half-baked clinker brick.
+
+[Illustration: ORAMAR.
+
+Looking northward across the gorge towards the crags of Supa Durig
+between Jilu and Baz.
+
+No. 6]
+
+One of the most prominent of these ridges breaks down into a sort of
+saddle, and surges up again into a rocky knoll before its final descent
+to the plain; and across this saddle are hung the houses of Akra, with
+the ruined fragments of its ancient citadel crowning the highest
+point of the rocky ridge above. The bulk of the town overflows into the
+ravine on the western side, where the houses are ranged round the sweep
+of the hollow like the stepped seats of an amphitheatre. So steep are
+the slopes on which they lie that the roof of each house serves as a
+front yard to its next door neighbour, or perhaps one should say to its
+neighbour on the next story; and the streets are all so narrow that they
+are quite undiscernible from a distance, though one of them is in fact
+wide enough to accommodate a rudimentary bazaar.
+
+Akra does not boast a _khan_, but our _zaptiehs_ had already decided for
+us at what house we were to spend the evening. We were to put up with
+the _malmudir_, the departmental treasurer;[77] and one of our escort
+had already spurred ahead to inform that worthy functionary of the treat
+that was in store for him. This seemed rather an arbitrary proceeding,
+but the _malmudir_ quite acquiesced in it. We met him at the entrance to
+the town, walking out to make us welcome; a young and pleasant looking
+man, who greeted us in French very hospitably, and guided us up the
+steep stepped streets to his house on the saddle above.
+
+None of the houses in Akra can be called in any way palatial, and
+probably the _malmudir's_ lodging was a typical residence of the better
+class. He occupied a single apartment on the first floor, the big
+landing outside serving as his kitchen and servant's room, and the
+ground floor consisting only of an entrance hall and lumber room. The
+furniture of his living room (as usual) consisted only of carpets and
+cushions. The windows were set very low down, so that one could see out
+of them comfortably when squatting on the floor; and above them were
+square recesses which served as receptacles for books.
+
+He gave us a capital supper, consisting of fried eggs, rissoles wrapped
+in cabbage, and a curry of meat and fruit. This was served in several
+dishes on one large tray, round which we all sat cross-legged straying
+from dish to dish with our wooden spoons. We had only one tumbler
+between the three of us, which we all used in turn; and the meal was
+concluded with the usual tiny cups of coffee.[78]
+
+Meanwhile he poured out his woes to us: woes with which we could
+heartily sympathize, and which afforded an instructive commentary upon
+the progress of Turkish "Reform." He himself was a native of Aleppo, a
+Syrian Catholic Christian. He had been duly trained for his post in the
+Government offices at Constantinople; and had received his present
+appointment in pursuance of that great Principle which was first
+enunciated at the Revolution, recognizing that Christians and Moslems
+should possess equal standing in the State. This admirable theory worked
+fairly in Constantinople itself, and even at the more accessible
+provincial capitals such as Smyrna and Aleppo; but alas for its
+practical efficacy in such out-of-the-way districts as Mosul! It would
+take at least a generation for reform to filter through here! Here all
+the administrative offices had been long since cornered by the
+invincibly corrupt "Old Gang;" a set of pig-headed reactionaries whose
+dead weight nothing could shift. What use was it to tell them that
+Christians and Moslems were equal, when the Koran expressly stated that
+they were emphatically not? Why should they use the powers that were
+their inalienable birthright to make true believers obey a Christian
+dog?
+
+Accordingly the poor _malmudir_ found himself cold-shouldered and
+thwarted at every turn by the officials who were nominally his
+colleagues; by the _cadi_, or judge of the district; by the _binbashi_
+who controlled the police. They persistently refused to support him in
+carrying out his own duties, particularly if the defaulters whom he
+wished to bring to book chanced to be their own private friends; and
+their continual snubbing of him had infected even his own subordinates
+who obeyed him grudgingly and reluctantly. The _kaimakam_, his immediate
+chief, had indeed always shown himself friendly; but even with his
+support he felt he could make no headway; and, though still but new to
+his office, he was already sick of the job. Indeed he had already
+written twice to the _Vali_ begging to be transferred to Beirut or
+Aleppo, but as yet he had received no answer. This however, we privately
+thought, was not surprising; for Tahir Pasha never answers anybody; and
+every official in his _vilayet_ would like to be transferred to Beirut
+or Aleppo if he could!
+
+Of course it is not at all improbable that centuries of subjection have
+left the Christians in Turkey constitutionally unfit for positions of
+authority: that, for all their superior intelligence, they are at
+present as incapable of governing Turks and Kurds and Arabs as the
+Bengali Babus are of governing Pathans and Sikhs. But even if the power
+is latent in them, it is bound at first to be exercised in the face of
+intense resentment; and this fact will long constitute a formidable
+obstacle to any constitutional reform.
+
+It seemed that the _malmudir's_ welcome to us was to some extent
+accounted for by the distinction which European visitors would confer
+upon him in the eyes of his carping colleagues. He was earnest with us
+to remain as his guests for a second day in order that he might exhibit
+us; but from this we begged to excuse ourselves as we could not spare
+the time. However, _faute de mieux_, we might at least call on the
+_kaimakam_, and thither our host conducted us as soon as we had finished
+our coffee.
+
+The _kaimakam_ resided in the Government House, a dilapidated two-story
+building disposed around a forlorn courtyard and generally resembling a
+_khan_. It was picturesque enough in a slummy way, and the groups of
+soldiers snoozing under the lanterns in the deep entrance archway would
+merit yet higher commendation. But there was little enough of
+traditional "Oriental glamour" about the dirty white-washed walls; and
+the governor's official audience hall resembled an ill-kept village
+school-room. Conversation turned on the Italian war; a subject on which
+all parties were profoundly ignorant; for we had heard nothing since
+leaving Europe, and the _kaimakam_ nothing but what Government channels
+allowed to filter through. The Government does not encourage the
+dissemination of inauspicious news; and herein no doubt they act
+prudently, for such news might easily excite the Kurds to break out in
+reprisals against the nearest Christians. But it is certainly somewhat
+amazing to discover how thoroughly authentic intelligence can be
+stifled. They had heard of nothing but Turkish victories: have very
+likely heard nothing else to this day.[79]
+
+Two or three of the prominent residents dropped in to chat while we were
+sitting there; but the resident whom we would most have wished to see
+was unfortunately not among them. For among the inhabitants of Akra is
+an old gentleman of the bluest blood in Asia--the last living descendant
+of the Khalif Harun al Raschid the hero of the Arabian Nights. Akra
+formed a part of the Abbassides' ancestral principality before they
+attained to the Khalifate; and when their dynasty was overthrown by the
+Seljuk Sultans in 1050, it was to their ancient patrimony that they
+retired again. Now even this last possession has also slipped through
+their fingers; and the poor old survivor, though his social status is
+impregnable, lives on, as a private citizen of Akra, in very reduced
+circumstances indeed.
+
+Our final impressions of Akra were gleaned in the bazaar, and induce us
+to rank it more highly as a centre of sport than of business. "Rabbi Mr.
+Wigram" had needed some trifling repair to his boots, and had
+accordingly sent them overnight to a cobbler. But when the boots were
+returned next morning, the part that needed repair had been ignored
+completely, and the repairer had only displayed his forethought by
+appropriating the English nails.
+
+Akra, however, in this respect had certainly shown more enterprize than
+Mosul; for the _Sheikh Birader Effendi_ had previously tried his fortune
+there. He had the prescience to allow three days for the job; but when
+the boots were demanded on the morning of the fourth day they had not
+even lost their nails. Friday (it was explained) had been the Mohammedan
+Sabbath, and Saturday the Jewish, and Sunday the Christian; and no doubt
+a Bank Holiday on Monday was only averted by the fact of the boots being
+prematurely reclaimed.[80]
+
+The second incident at Akra was of a still more farcical character. A
+Kurd had come in from the mountains in order to purchase a mule, and
+after a good deal of chaffering had traded off a pistol in exchange. The
+seller had promptly proceeded to test the purchase money by the rather
+drastic method of firing a bullet through his leg; and, on the accident
+being reported to us, we had deemed it our duty to go and volunteer
+"first aid." The patient, however, was quite content with his own
+remedies, and not at all anxious to experiment in new-fangled treatment
+_a la Franga_. He was plugging the hole himself with a mixture of butter
+and cow dung which he was poking in with a stick! Probably this dressing
+possesses some kind of antiseptic qualities; for it is much favoured in
+the mountains, and somehow does not seem to prevent the wounds healing.
+But perhaps the cure results not by virtue, but in spite, of the remedy,
+for with these tough-fibred mountaineers "first intention" will hardly
+be denied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AN ORIENTAL VICH IAN VOHR
+
+(THE SHEIKH OF BARZAN)
+
+
+"It is real rough travelling in the mountains," says the Mosul resident
+casually; and the traveller just arrived from Europe hears that innocent
+observation with dismay. He has undergone a fortnight of _arabas_ and
+_khans_ and _chóls_ and _zaptiehs_, and lo! that purgatorial experience
+is dismissed as a holiday jaunt. It is therefore with some misgiving
+that he enters those formidable mountains where he has been promised
+enlightenment as to what "real rough travelling" means.
+
+Let it be recorded for his consolation that he will learn the worst at
+the outset. If he is not daunted at Akra he may quite fairly count on
+winning through. The ascent from that town to the top of the pass behind
+it is as nasty a bit of climbing as any in all Hakkiari, and he who
+achieves it with credit may pass as a graduated mountaineer. The path is
+not so nerve-shaking in appearance as some of the dizzy goat-tracks that
+have to be encountered beyond it; but it is an epitome of every trial
+which can be ordinarily presented in concrete form. It is steep and
+rugged and rotten. It traverses slabs of sloping rock, and sheets of
+slippery scree. Its surface is pitted like honeycomb with holes about
+twelve inches deep and six or eight inches in diameter; and if any
+better traps could be devised for tripping unwary pedestrians, or
+breaking the legs of horses, no doubt they would be provided to make the
+entanglement complete. Our _katarjis_ admit that it is bad, but regard
+the badness as incorrigible. "Her nainsell didna mak ta road" (a fact
+that is quite self-evident), and "if shentlemans are seeking ta Red
+Gregarach" what better going can they expect?
+
+From the summit of the pass (full three thousand feet above the plain)
+we descend into a fertile valley, well watered by a mountain rivulet,
+and feathery with lofty pampas reed; and an equal ascent on the further
+side brings us to the top of a second range of mountains, from which we
+can take our first survey of the wild land whither we are bound.
+
+Beneath us lies the Zab valley, a chaos of hummocks and hollows all
+flung together confusedly like the waves of a choppy sea; and the broad
+bright ribbon of the river, almost equal in volume to the Tigris, picks
+out a devious passage through a maze of interlacing bluffs. The opposite
+side of the chasm is defined by a bold escarpment, scarred by the tracks
+of winter torrents and buttressed by jagged limestone fins. And above
+this, along the horizon, tower the great snow peaks of the Hakkiari
+Oberland--the _rigidus Niphates_ of Horace; the spot where (according to
+Milton) Satan first planted his feet when he alighted on the new-made
+world.
+
+An iron-bound untamable fastness--a regular Brigands' Paradise--it is
+known as the Ashiret country, that is to say, "the Country of the
+Clans." And the inhabitants (to do them justice) are quite ready to
+exploit its capabilities. Though nominally Turkish subjects they are
+actually semi-independent; half borderers of the type of Johnny
+Armstrong, half highlanders of the type of Rob Roy. Here the Sultan's
+decrees are worth little without a visible backing of bayonets; and
+every individual filibuster does that which is right--or more accurately
+that which is expedient--in his own eyes. Such authority as exists
+anywhere is for the most part in the hands of the tribal chieftains: and
+the suzerainty of the Stamboul Government is just about as effective as
+the suzerainty of the old kings of Scotland on the north side of
+Stirling Bridge.
+
+There are three degrees of security for a traveller in Asiatic Turkey.
+There are districts where he is safe: there are districts where a
+_zaptieh_ can keep him safe: and there are districts where a _zaptieh_
+can't. Our knights-errant brought us down loyally to the village of Biri
+Kupra, a ramshackle Kurdish hamlet which stands at the foot of the pass.
+They escorted us on the next morning as far as the banks of the
+river--but when we reached the ferry their responsibility came to an
+end. Across they could not follow us. It was the Sheikh of Barzan's
+country. And the _Hukumet_ felt some delicacy about parading their
+officials in his domain. No doubt he would receive them
+graciously--under favour and without prejudice; but there was no earthly
+use in pretending that _zaptiehs_ could protect us there.
+
+It is rather an adventure for a native to travel in the Ashiret country.
+Supposing that he is at all worth robbing, he should sound his way
+carefully as he goes. But Europeans enjoy more security. The tribesmen
+have made the discovery that if a European is molested there is almost
+inevitably a row. His ambassador prods up the _Hukumet_, and the
+_Hukumet_ sends an expedition; and "a mort o' troops" march through the
+country, and live at free quarters in the villages, and imprison a
+number of people who are probably not at all to blame. Thus, though the
+original aggressor is generally the last person to be directly
+incommoded, he incurs quite a lot of unpopularity for "breeding such a
+function" in the land. Even the most reckless marauder will think twice
+before pulling his trigger upon a convoy that is travelling under the
+protection of a European hat: and thus the wearer of the hat aforesaid
+finds that every native who is travelling in his direction will tack
+himself on to his party and "walk under his shadow" as far as their ways
+coincide.
+
+We ourselves in the present instance had no cause for any disquietude;
+for the Sheikh of Barzan is not only one of the most powerful but one of
+the most respectable of the mountain chieftains, and is pleased to
+regard all Englishmen as his particular friends.
+
+The Zab, at the point where we struck it, is a broad, deep, rapid,
+river; and fording is out of the question either for man or beast. The
+Sheikh usually maintains a horse ferry, of the type we used on the
+Euphrates; but this was temporally _hors de combat_, being reported to
+have sprung a leak. We found it beached on the further shore, and it
+certainly seemed to us that a little human ingenuity and two or three
+gallons of tar were all that it needed to make it seaworthy; but all
+parties seemed quite content to put up for a time with the _keleg_--a
+little wattle hurdle buoyed up on four inflated skins.
+
+The _keleg_ could only carry two passengers at a time, or alternatively
+a very small cargo; and the beasts had all to be unloaded, and induced
+(most reluctantly) to swim. Thus it took a long time to transport us;
+but presently we were all loaded up again and proceeded about an hour's
+march up a little lateral valley, till we reached the village of Barzan
+at the foot of the great flanking hill.
+
+Barzan is rather larger than an average Kurdish village, but boasts no
+distinguishing feature to suggest its importance in the land. Most of
+even the less powerful chiefs are housed in defensible "castles"; but
+the Sheikh of Barzan "dwells among his own people," and his palace is
+just an agglomeration of several ordinary houses joined in one. It
+possesses no outer door at all (or none that we have ever discovered),
+and we entered it by the simple process of stepping on to the roof, and
+walking across to the summer reception room, a rude _belvedere_ on the
+farther side. The Sheikh, it appeared, was absent. He had gone on a
+visit to Amadia, and was expected back the day after to-morrow; but as
+we were journeying westward we should certainly meet him next day.
+Meanwhile we were made warmly welcome by his old major-domo the
+Imaum[81] (an old friend of some of our party), by his young mollah or
+domestic chaplain, and by several truculent-looking _duinhewassels_ who
+formed part of his regular following.
+
+We could not, of course, be allowed to pass by the house without eating;
+but we specially begged of our hosts that (as we were anxious to push
+forward) they would only give us such food as they could quickly and
+easily prepare. And we hold it a genuine proof of their friendliness
+that they actually did as we asked them, bringing eggs, bread, honey,
+and tea. A big man, who wishes to do you honour formally, would consent
+to no such curtailment. He would probably keep you waiting for hours
+while he killed and dressed a sheep.
+
+When we arose to depart the imaum and mollah went with us to a certain
+tree beyond the village in order to "pour us on our road." All important
+houses in these parts have some recognized point on the approach to
+them, whither the owner proceeds to welcome and dismiss his guests. It
+is recorded that on one occasion only (in order to meet the British
+Consul) the Sheikh rode out in person as far as this statutory tree.
+
+Our hosts had provided us with an armed escort--a "Boy of the Belt" in a
+red turban, indicating that he belonged to the Sheikh's personal
+body-guard. And under his guidance we proceeded for a day and a half up
+the valley, a journey somewhat comparable to the progress of a beetle
+across the ridges and furrows of a ploughed field. The hills are too
+stony for cultivation; but here and there a fan of good soil has spread
+itself out from the mouth of one of the gullies, and has been terraced
+into grain plots by the inhabitants of the village hard by. These
+villages (judged by local standards) may be called fairly
+prosperous-looking, for the Sheikh is a merciful over-lord: but the
+"roads" are consistently villainous; the "Far Cry" was an asset at
+Lochow!
+
+In our eyes the first of these symptoms is the one to determine our
+sympathies. We can forgive much in this country to a chieftain who does
+(as a rule) honestly exert himself to keep order; who has realized that
+it pays him better to protect his vassals than to oppress them; and who
+can be trusted to administer some sort of "Jeddart Justice" in fairly
+equable fashion to Kurd and Christian alike. But by Turkish officials
+generally we fear he is less appreciated. The Old Turks hate him with an
+A because he is Able, and the Young because he is Autocratic: and we
+cannot pretend to deny that he is sometimes "a bit of a handful," and
+that his methods of administration are rather ingenuously Draconian.
+
+As recently as in 1909 he was at open war with the Government, and in
+this particular quarrel he was not very greatly to blame. The chief
+sinners were Sabonji Pasha and some of the corrupt gang who were running
+the administration at Mosul. They coveted some of the Sheikh's villages,
+and the Sheikh refused to part.[82] Accordingly they trumped up a charge
+that he was conspiring against the _Hukumet_; a charge which could
+readily be made plausible, for there is not a chief in the province but
+lets his tongue loose against the Government at times. The true test of
+serious disaffection, however, is the courting of Russian assistance;
+and the prominent Russophiles hereabouts are the Sheikh's particular
+_bêtes noirs_.
+
+At any rate the charge won credence. The Sheikh's friends were arrested
+and imprisoned. An army was marched into his territory; his villages
+were seized and occupied, and his wives carried off to Mosul. The Sheikh
+himself for some months was a homeless fugitive in the mountains; and it
+was then that he reaped the fruit of his good treatment of his
+villagers, for not a man, Christian or Moslem, ever dreamt of betraying
+him to his foes. Then, too, we first made his acquaintance, disguised in
+mean raiment and attended by a single follower, lurking in some of the
+Christian villages just beyond the limits of his domain.
+
+But the scoring was not all on one side. Vich Ian Vohr boasted that the
+race of Ivor would seldom take the field with fewer than five hundred
+claymores; and the Sheikh of Barzan can muster certainly five thousand,
+and possibly twice that force. These levies were no more discommoded by
+the destruction of their "base of operations" than a swarm of the local
+red hornets whose nest has been demolished by a stone. Three of the
+seven regiments mobilized against them were captured _en bloc_ among the
+crags, with arms, ammunition, and artillery; and no commensurate losses
+were ever inflicted on the mountaineers.[83] Mosul was denuded of troops
+in order to maintain the struggle and the inhabitants were in a frenzy
+of terror lest the ubiquitous highlanders should swoop on the
+defenceless town. But that the Sheikh shrank from a step which would be
+bound to make the breach irreparable, it is indeed highly probable that
+these would have proved no empty fears. He is said to have declared
+roundly that if matters went much farther he intended to capture the
+place and make it over to the British Vice-Consul! That gentleman was by
+no means desirous of receiving so inconvenient a gift!
+
+A peace was concluded at last; and the Sheikh was pleased to attribute
+it very largely to the friendly offices of the British; though really
+the principal factor was the intervention of a level-headed _Vali_ at
+Mosul.[84] We did little more than insist that the Sheikh's wives ought
+to be set at liberty and treated with fitting distinction; and that,
+when the "conspiracy" of which he was accused had been officially
+admitted to be non-existent, there was no longer any valid reason for
+keeping the "conspirators" in jail. But the Sheikh is "easy with them
+that have shown themselves easy with him," and those who take the
+trouble to "'gree wi' Rob" are usually gainers on the deal.
+
+We traversed one of the battlefields in the course of our journey
+westward: a crater-like hollow in the wilderness, environed by steep
+stony hills. Here one of the Government regiments encountered the Sheikh
+and his army; for the Sheikh was present in person, though he left the
+actual conduct of operations to a certain Abd-'l-Kadr who acted as his
+"chief of the host." It was the first regular pitched battle, and the
+tribesmen were somewhat awed at the prospect of engaging the _Hukumet_;
+for which cause, in order to inspirit them, the Sheikh himself fired the
+first shot. In Kurdistan the firing of a gun constitutes an appeal for
+assistance; and the Sheikh, with fine dramatic instinct, fired his gun
+straight towards heaven, appealing to Allah Himself. The event of the
+day--the capture of the entire regiment, with three pieces of mountain
+artillery--was thus a prodigious enhancement of his Holiness's[85]
+personal prestige. Not only had he scored a valuable point in his
+secular and temporal capacity, but he was held to have signally
+vindicated his spiritual pre-eminence as well.
+
+The Sheikh, in the eyes of his followers, is not merely a great tribal
+chieftain. They believe in his hereditary sanctity: and his clansmen are
+also his devotees. This fact is strikingly exemplified by an incident
+which had occurred a little earlier, and which was related to us by Mar
+Shimun, the Patriarch of the Assyrian Christians, who himself inspires
+equal veneration among his own adherents.[86] A column in pursuit of the
+Sheikh caught a small boy who had dropped behind the party, and demanded
+of him with menaces which way the fugitives had gone. But the child was
+as staunch as steel. "By the Holy Name of the Sheikh I will not tell!"
+he answered. And that was all they could get out of him either by
+coaxing or threats. The Turkish Captain was fortunately a kind-hearted
+fellow, and did not ill-use his small captive; but he did not omit, in
+releasing him, to draw a moral from his pluck. "We shall not make much
+of this war," he observed, with a smile to his officers. "You can judge
+from this example with what sort of folk we have to deal. This child is
+in my power utterly. None would call me to account if I killed him. And
+yet, knowing this, he defies me; and swears by his Sheikh as by a god!"
+
+It was on the evening of the second day after we had quitted Barzan that
+we drew near to the hamlet of Suryi, planted in the re-entering angle
+formed by the confluence of the Oramar river with the Zab. It is a mean
+little place, consisting of some twenty cabins which spill themselves
+down the face of a steep brae a little way back from the river; and at
+the top of the bank stands the castle of the village Agha--a rudely
+built fortified residence like a second-rate border peel tower. It was
+here that we looked to meet the Sheikh, for it is a recognized
+halting-point between Amadia and Barzan; and, crossing the Oramar river,
+we bent our way towards the tower.
+
+It was about five o'clock in the evening that we reached the first house
+in the village, and the crowd of men and horses which was grouped around
+the castle was a proof that the Sheikh, "with his tail on," had already
+arrived from Amadia. News of our approach had preceded us; and we were
+met by an embassage from his Holiness bearing an invitation (or should
+we say "command" under the circumstances?) to partake of his hospitality
+for the night. We dismounted at the castle door amid a throng of wild
+retainers, and at the top of the rude stone staircase we were greeted by
+the Sheikh in person; who led us into the "_belai_"[87] (or
+_belvedere_), which served him as his temporary audience hall, and
+motioned us to seats on a mattress spread immediately opposite his own.
+
+It was a prodigious condescension from so great a man that he should
+have come to the stair head to meet us. Most great chiefs will contrive
+to be absent from the room when European guests are admitted, that they
+may not have to rise to receive them, and so seem to admit inferiority.
+But presently the Sheikh vouchsafed us a still greater honour--one that
+perfectly staggered his followers--by even condescending to sup with us.
+To think that a man of his holiness should actually eat with two
+_giaours_!
+
+Abdul Selim, Sheikh of Barzan, is quite a young man of about
+twenty-eight years of age. Like most mountaineers he is of medium
+height, with a slight and active figure and a grave but pleasant face.
+He was dressed in a white fez and turban, white shirt and trousers, a
+black gown trimmed with red, and a green cloak over all. His retinue
+consisted of between thirty and forty retainers--"Boys of the Belt,"
+distinguished by their red turbans, and positively festooned with
+bandoliers. Many of these fellows must have been carrying quite two
+hundred rounds of ball cartridge, and their rifles--Sniders and
+Martinis--were piled around the walls of the _belai_. All showed most
+obsequious deference towards their young chieftain; and it may give some
+adequate conception of the reverence which they entertain for him to
+record the fact that he himself, in his own proper person, is a _ziaret_
+or place of pilgrimage "within the meaning of the Act." By his own
+immediate followers his commands are obeyed instantly and without
+question; and we have not the least doubt that had he ordered us to be
+shot, instead of entertaining us graciously, the sentence would have
+been executed unhesitatingly, Europeans though we were.
+
+An instructive example of their diligence occurred shortly after our
+visit. A long-standing feud between the Christians of Tkhuma and some of
+their Kurdish neighbours had recently blazed into activity; and the
+latter, rather unsportingly, were endeavouring to persuade their
+co-religionists to join them in a _jehad_ or "holy war." A _jehad_ is an
+ugly business: and we were much relieved when the Sheikh of Barzan
+interfered strongly to quash it; refusing himself to sanction it, and
+prohibiting his vassals from joining in. He was moved to this action, we
+verily believe, partly by a wish to oblige us, and partly by his own
+prejudices in favour of law and order; for he had no particular cause to
+show favour to the Tkhuma _maliks_, since they had refused to shelter
+him when he was a fugitive in the war.
+
+Deprived of the Sheikh's countenance the _jehad_ proved a rather damp
+squib. But for a moment it seemed just possible that some of his vassals
+would break out in spite of him. And scenting insubordination in a
+certain Tettu Agha, who was about the biggest recalcitrant, the Sheikh
+dispatched one of his henchmen in order to emphasize his commands. The
+envoy entered the Agha's castle and was duly received in audience. He
+delivered his chieftain's message, but the Agha proved sullen and
+obstinate. He reiterated his remonstrances, but the Agha refused to give
+way.
+
+"The Sheikh's word must not be broken," concluded the plenipotentiary.
+"The Sheikh has sent me to you to tell you to stop at home."
+
+"And what do I care if he has?" retorted the Agha mutinously. "Let the
+Sheikh send his orders to others. I don't intend to obey."
+
+The Sheikh's man sprang to his feet, and flung himself upon the rebel. A
+minute later he burst from the room, brandishing a dripping dagger, and
+leaving Tettu Agha dead on his own dais.
+
+"The Sheikh's word shall not be broken," he proclaimed.
+
+This incident was generally regarded as going a little far perhaps; but
+no one thought of protesting. The lamented Tettu had never been exactly
+popular; and what else could he expect, anyway, if he "wadna do what
+M'Callum More bade"?
+
+[Illustration: THE HERIKI VALLEY.
+
+The mountain at the head of the valley is a shoulder of Sat Dagh. The
+terrace fields of a mountain village appear in the lower corner.
+
+No. 7]
+
+The very rooms in which we were sitting, sipping tea and smoking
+cigarettes with his Holiness, had been the scene of what Major Dugald
+Dalgetty would call "a very pretty little _camisado_" during the
+progress of the late campaign. The castle, as a frontier post, was a
+position of some importance; and it was a shrewd loss to the Sheikh when
+the Agha whom he had placed in charge of it betrayed his trust to his
+foes. The Agha was fully aware that his _seigneur_ might feel sore about
+it. He kept the place strongly garrisoned, and posted around it a double
+line of sentries and watch-dogs. The approaches on two sides are barred
+by the rivers, unfordable and icy cold in winter; and on the third side
+rise precipitous mountains, barely climbable even by day. But one night
+in a winter blizzard, when the very dogs had crept away to seek shelter,
+the Sheikh's men seized their opportunity and wormed their way up to the
+fort. The howling of the tempest drowned the noise of their picks as
+they cautiously loosened stone after stone from the walling; and at
+length they formed an opening large enough for one man to creep through
+at a time. When the next morning broke the treacherous Agha lay dead,
+with every man of his garrison around him: and the gentleman who was
+acting as host to the Sheikh and ourselves this evening had been there
+and then appointed successor. Presumably he was a "sure man."
+
+Our supper consisted of bowls of whey, and of rice with pieces of
+chicken. The Sheikh and eight or ten of his principal henchmen ate with
+us, all helping themselves out of the common dishes with wooden ladles
+and spoons. They all ate extremely sparingly; but this was probably out
+of etiquette, the Sheikh himself setting the example because he was
+feeling indisposed. Upon another occasion, when the Sheikh came to call
+upon us, his four attendants were credited with having consumed a whole
+sheep![88]
+
+To his own men the Sheikh spoke but rarely, though pleasantly and often
+smilingly; and they never seemed to speak to him unless they had been
+first addressed. With us (as he spoke only Kurdish) he had to converse
+through an interpreter; and the matters debated for the most part
+concerned the petty politics of the countryside. He bewailed the
+universal lawlessness, which, he said (we fear rather inaccurately), was
+as bad for Kurds as for Christians; and observed that it was strange
+that neither England nor Russia seemed capable of bringing in reform.
+"You have gone to India," he protested, "and you stay there, though you
+are not wanted. Why cannot you come to us who do want you? You would be
+welcomed everywhere here."
+
+Such feelings are well-nigh universal among all the more reputable
+chieftains. They would appreciate any strong Government, no matter of
+what nation or creed. The only folk really content with the present
+condition of Asiatic Turkey are those who have merited hanging: and we
+grant that this class would poll strong.
+
+Hearing that we were returning to England within a few months at the
+latest, the Sheikh volunteered to accompany us--of course with an
+adequate "tail." He would call on the Archbishop of Canterbury and get
+him to establish schools in his villages; and then he would go on to see
+King George at Windsor, with whose aid he made no question he could
+arrange for the settlement of Kurdistan. Alas! We could hold out no
+hopes. But the suggestion was made in dead earnest; and we fear that
+when we did start homewards we were careful not to let the Sheikh know.
+
+Finally he desired to consult us medicinally. He was troubled with an
+affection of the eyes[89]--in point of fact trachoma--and begged us to
+give him some medicine which was capable of affording relief. We could
+do nothing for him at the time; but shortly afterwards we were able to
+bring up an English doctor from the C.M.S. hospital at Mosul and let the
+Sheikh have the benefit of his professional skill.
+
+It then transpired that in the interval he had consulted a native
+practitioner; a wandering Yezidi medicine-man who had recently drifted
+to Barzan. The Yezidi had diagnosed the watering of the eyes as due to
+an excess of moisture behind the eye-balls, and had proposed running a
+red-hot skewer through the Sheikh's head from temple to temple, in order
+to dry up the "superfluous moisture" at the fountain head! This
+horrifying suggestion was both made and received quite seriously. But
+the Sheikh, very reasonably, had elected to consult the English doctor
+first. We did not feel much surprised at his Holiness's reluctance to
+submit to this treatment: but we did feel some admiration for the heroic
+assurance of the Yezidi doctor in proposing it. Being pierced through
+the temples with a red-hot skewer would not be a pleasant way of dying;
+but it would be luxury compared with the sort of devices which the
+Sheikh's followers might be expected to practise on the operator, by way
+of obtaining consolation for the patient's untimely decease.
+
+The Sheikh was, we fear, rather crestfallen to find that the English
+doctor also wished to operate; and stipulated that he should first see
+the operation practised on one of his train (who had nothing the matter
+with him at all). The _vile corpus_ was quite willing; but unfortunately
+the doctor jibbed at it, and eventually decided to prescribe a slower
+and less certain treatment. We hope that this will prove adequate: but
+we should have felt sorely tempted to perform a sham operation on the
+volunteer, in order to overcome the Sheikh's reluctance to submit
+himself to the real one.
+
+There was no room for us to lodge that night in the Agha's castle. The
+place was already more than full with the Sheikh's train and the Agha's
+household. Accordingly his Holiness presently dismissed us, coming again
+to the stair-head to do so, and sending a gentleman cateran to guide us
+to a house in the village which he had ordered to be reserved for our
+use. Here he came next morning to see us a little before daybreak, to
+make his _adieux_ on departure, and to return (as he phrased it) the
+call which we had made on him the night before. This was, however, only
+a formal call, and lasted a very few minutes. He was anxious to start
+his day's journey, and soon rode off towards the Oramar ferry with his
+picturesque ruffians in his train.
+
+We did not start for another hour. We had first to consume the breakfast
+which our host the Agha had brought down for us; and, moreover, as all
+the Sheikh's train had got to be transported across the river, it would
+obviously be at least an hour before the ferry was available for our
+use. Furthermore the Agha could urge that we had no cause whatever to
+hurry. We were bound for the little village of Erdil, reported only a
+three hours' journey; and we had much better wait "till the sun had got
+into the valley" and had warmed up the frosty air a little so as to make
+riding more pleasant. In the alternative he suggested that we had better
+not go at all, because the road was infamous, and riding absolutely
+impossible. "Horses couldn't go, and mules couldn't go, and Englishmen
+couldn't walk." But we were pledged to visit Erdil, so we over-ruled
+this objection. Moreover, we felt it highly impolitic to admit that
+there was any place in existence where "Englishmen couldn't walk."
+
+Erdil is a tiny derelict Christian village situated in the Oramar valley
+a little above its confluence with the Zab. All the surrounding villages
+are inhabited by Kurds and Moslems; and as from year's end to year's end
+it is hardly ever visited by any outside Christian, Rabban Werda had
+begged us earnestly at least to give it a call. Moreover we might make
+discoveries. Erdil was reputed to possess some "old books" which it was
+willing to show to Rabbi Dr. Wigram, and had sent us one Ibrahim, an
+Erdilite, who promised to lead us to the _cache_. "Old books," in
+ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, are apt to prove not worth the
+seeking. But a scholar would never forgive himself for missing the
+hundredth chance.
+
+The Oramar river is a noble stream, not inferior to the Zab in volume,
+gushing forth from a grim rocky portal which notches the Zab's mountain
+wall. We were assured that no European had ever yet traversed its
+gorges; and the assertion is certainly corroborated by the fact that the
+best map of these regions leaves this corner perfectly blank. In view of
+the repute of the road we felt half inclined for an instant to leave our
+animals at Suryi, and call again for them on returning. But we thought
+this would be too great a temptation for even a friendly Agha, and
+finally resolved to take them along.
+
+Crossing the Oramar by the ferry, and keeping up the left bank of the
+river, we entered almost immediately a magnificent rocky ravine. On
+either hand rose gaunt and tawny precipices fully two thousand feet in
+altitude, scored all over their upper faces with the lines of the
+contorted strata, and thinly clothed near the bases with gnarled and
+stunted oak scrub. A deep, green, rapid river filled the whole of the
+narrow invert, and this channel was thickly cumbered by a selection of
+some of the very largest boulders that we have ever seen. Apparently
+there are many deep pockets just behind the faces of the precipices; and
+the water collecting in these, splits away the outer wall when it
+freezes, and sheds the gigantic fragments into the chasm. Not a few of
+these fallen masses must have been as big as the Marble Arch.
+
+The pathway did not belie the report we had heard of it at Suryi. It
+scrambled along the steep bank above the river; narrow, broken, and half
+strangled among blocks of fallen stone. Three times that morning we had
+to unload the mules, hand the packs across the obstructions, and load
+again on the further side. Our red-turbanned cateran, who still led us,
+would pause now and then in the pathway, indicating the landscape at
+large with a flourish of his arm like a showman, and regarding us with a
+triumphant grin. But whether he wished to express his admiration of the
+romantic scenery, or his appreciation of its defensive capabilities, or
+merely to apprise us that Erdil lay absolutely on the summit of
+everything--as in fact it did--we were not quite able to decide.
+
+This gorge was a few months later the scene of a notable exploit,
+achieved by the Sheikh of Barzan at the expense of those _hostes humani
+generis_ the Heriki Kurds. This horde of wandering robbers, the bane of
+all settled communities, are wont (as already related) to migrate each
+spring and autumn to and fro between Mosul and Urmi. They can travel by
+several routes; but all routes converge upon one point--the "Bridge of
+Rocks" over the Zab a little above Suryi. Here the Zab, as it issues
+from the mountains, is throttled (like the Wharfe at Bolton) into a
+narrow crack between shelving slabs of rock. The slabs are deeply
+undercut, and the depth of the crack must be considerable; for at one
+point, where a big rock table rises in mid current, the great river can
+be crossed in two strides!
+
+Here the Heriki always pass over, at a point where the width of the
+river is about twenty-five feet. They build a bridge for themselves
+every spring, and it lasts till the next winter floods. This is the sole
+piece of honest and useful work which is ever achieved by those
+incorrigible plunderers; and out of it accordingly a remorseless Nemesis
+has fashioned "a whip to scourge them." Here the Government posts its
+troops when it wishes to collect their taxes; and if they have injured
+any of the Sheikh of Barzan's villages, he exacts compensation here.
+
+Now the previous autumn, on their downward journey, the Heriki had
+lifted two or three thousand sheep belonging to some Christian villages.
+The villagers appealed to the English, and the English to the
+Government; but of course there was not the least chance of obtaining
+any redress. The following spring, however, when the Heriki were nearly
+due again, we received a visit from the Sheikh of Barzan, who himself
+(though he did not say so) seemed to have a crow to pick with the tribe.
+"See here, Effendim," he argued; "the _Hukumet_ can never get those
+sheep for you. We know they haven't got troops enough to get their own
+taxes this year. Now supposing it were suggested to the _Vali_ that _I_
+should be appointed to collect those taxes. Perhaps it is even possible
+I might get back some of the sheep."
+
+The Effendi shrugged his shoulders, and did not think much would come of
+it; but the astute old _Vali_ of Mosul saw the humour of the notion at
+once. It was quite true he had given up hope of getting the Heriki's
+taxes. He even anticipated difficulty in getting the Sheikh of Barzan's.
+This scheme would lubricate the bearings most admirably in both
+directions: and the Sheikh was appointed tax-collector _pro hac vice_ by
+return of post.
+
+The Heriki came down to their bridge, rejoicing to find it unoccupied.
+They crossed, and pushed on to Suryi, and the Sheikh broke down the
+bridge behind. They entered the Oramar valley; and a few miles up they
+found the "Boys of the Belt" barring it, with the Sheikh's _Ban_ and
+_arrière Ban_ posted on the crags around them; and received a polite
+demand-note from his Holiness the _Fermier Général_ requesting immediate
+payment of taxes, sheep, _and costs_.
+
+Even a Government regiment could hardly have got so much without
+fighting; but the Sheikh had thrown his net so deftly that his captives
+could not even kick. There was nothing for it but to pay, and look
+pleasant, and this the Heriki chiefs did with what grace they could. We
+confess that we doubt grievously whether any large percentage of sheep
+got back to their original owners; but all the country was jubilant to
+see the original biters so badly bit.
+
+We held our course up the valley for about three hours--and a bittock;
+and at this point Ibrahim the Erdilite cheerfully observed that we were
+just half way. As he had previously assured us that the total distance
+was three hours we were provoked to "pour cold words on him." All sorts
+of things get "poured" in Syriac: you "pour" your guest into bed; you
+"pour" your enemy into prison;[90] you "pour a howl" at a man when you
+shout at him from a distance; and to "pour cold words" upon him is to
+"give him a bit of your mind." However, we could not blame poor Ibrahim
+very severely for a fault which he shares with all his nation--a total
+inability to conceive any measurement of time.
+
+Soon after we bore to the right and entered a tributary valley; a
+narrower gorge, dark and chilly, where the pools still lay hard frozen
+all along the shadier side. The path rose more steeply now with a spiral
+twist to the right like the final turn of a corkscrew. We were rising on
+to the top of the precipice which had overshadowed our morning's march.
+The last pitch was the steepest of any; but here the ground was less
+rugged, and a few sketchy outlines of terraces tried to pose as
+cultivated fields. At last we emerged on a tiny plateau, a sprocket on
+the slope of the mountain, and beheld the dozen rough stone cabins which
+compose the village of Erdil.
+
+Erdil is not the remotest spot on earth; for beyond it we could descry
+another and yet remoter Kurdish village some five hours further up the
+vale. But it is at least the remotest spot we are ever likely to get to.
+A site for an eagle's eyrie rather than for an abode of man. Thrust out
+on a little green tongue between two abysmal valleys it commands a
+superb panorama of the mountains which lie to the northward; range
+succeeding to range in seven successive _sierras_ till they culminate in
+the snowy crests of Sat and Jilu, no less than fourteen thousand feet
+high. And in all that craggy wilderness there was scarcely a vestige of
+habitation. No wonder the villagers were excited by the advent of
+visitors from the world beyond.
+
+The populace poured out to greet us. They conducted us to the house of
+the village _rais_ or head man. They installed us in his one room in the
+seat of honour by the fireplace; and thronged in eagerly after us, men,
+women, and children to kiss our hands. They were by no means an
+ill-looking crowd, and many of the girls were quite well favoured; dark
+haired, but fair complexioned; sturdy and deeply bronzed. The men wore
+the usual mountain dress;[91] and the women were clad in figured blue
+smocks and turbans, girt at the waist with blue sashes, and wearing
+their long open sleeves knotted together behind them in order to keep
+the ends out of the way. The usual full dress of the mountain women
+consists of a smock reaching from the neck to about midway between knee
+and ankle; and a jacket of the same length worn over it, folded across
+in front, and slit up as high as the waist on either side. The whole is
+girt round with a sash; and on their heads they wear kerchiefs, or (in
+the Tkhuma district) little round caps edged with silver coins. Their
+hair is worn down their backs, plaited in three, four, or five long
+pigtails, with a six-inch horse-hair tassel worked in at the end of each
+plait. The smocks are usually of some figured material, but striped
+stuff is commoner for the jackets; and the colours which they chiefly
+favour are Indian red or indigo blue. Usually they go barefoot in their
+villages, but when they are on a journey they wear a sort of brogue like
+the men.[92]
+
+The _rais'_ house was a typical sample of the ordinary mountain cabin;
+walled with rough stone rubble, and floored with beaten earth. The low,
+flat, smoke-blackened ceiling was formed with unsquared poplar stems,
+upon which was spread a bed of brushwood[93] roofed over with a thick
+layer of mud. The mud of course cracks in dry weather and the roof
+becomes very leaky; but it can be quickly consolidated with the little
+stone roller which is kept on the roof for the purpose, and thus be made
+once more watertight as soon as the rains return. The _tanura_, or
+fireplace, is a beehive-shaped hole dug out in the centre of the
+floor,[94] and the smoke finds an exit (eventually) through a hole in
+the roof above. There are no windows whatever, and the doorway is a very
+low one; and thus in most cases the smoke-hole serves the inmates for
+skylight as well.
+
+Poor Erdil! Forgotten and isolated, and steeped in poverty and
+ignorance, it supplies an apt illustration of the conditions of life
+which prevail among the Kurdish-owned Christian villages in the
+mountains. Conditions which were commoner still before the advent of the
+Archbishop's Mission, and which are still all too common in certain
+outlying districts like Bohtan. Indeed, in many respects Erdil deserves
+to be congratulated. Politically, as the inhabitants themselves
+admitted, they have no great cause to complain. Their owner is the Agha
+of Suryi; and consequently their over-lord is the Sheikh of Barzan, who
+is nicknamed "the Sheikh of the Christians," because he treats his
+Christian vassals so well. His tolerance secures them from persecution,
+and his vigorous rule from raiding; and they gave him the same
+testimonial that was given in old days to King Brian Boru in Ireland,
+that you "might safely leave a gold bracelet on a bush by the road in
+his domain."
+
+But religiously they were left destitute. Their Patriarch seemed to have
+forgotten them. All the surrounding villages were Moslem, and their
+nearest co-religionists were a long day's journey away. They had their
+church and their service books, and a parson's glebe and cottage; but
+thirty years had elapsed since last they had a priest of their own in
+the village, and it was but seldom that even a wandering deacon had
+visited them during all that time. For thirty years they had no one to
+celebrate their services, no one to marry them, no one to baptize their
+children, no one to bury their dead; and one of the first requests that
+they proffered to "Rabbi Mr. Wigram" was that he would at least recite
+the Church of England burial service over the graves of those who had
+died within the last few years. Surely it is no small credit to them
+that under such circumstances they remained even nominally Christian;
+and we feel some satisfaction in recording that a little time after our
+visit their Patriarch found himself able to send them the priest whom
+they desired.
+
+The "old books" which they had promised to show us proved (as we had
+more than half expected) to be only the usual Church Service books.[95]
+They had kept them jealously hidden in an underground cave in a
+vineyard; knowing vaguely that they were somehow sacred, but otherwise
+quite ignorant of their contents, for, of course, not a man in the
+village could read. The cave must have been quite a dry one, for the
+books had not suffered in any way; and we cannot doubt that on our
+departure they were again committed to the _cache_.
+
+The church was a well-built stone edifice, dating possibly from the
+sixteenth century; and though disused for so long a period, it was kept
+clean and in good repair. Within it that Sunday evening we recited our
+English Evensong; the villagers standing round reverently and joining in
+the Amens, the only word they could understand. The "_Sheikh Birader
+Effendi_" must confess that this strange little service was to him one
+of the most impressive in which he has ever shared.
+
+The wild rough life of the villagers was reflected in the supper that
+they provided for us. Where else might one dine on ibex collops and
+bread made of acorn meal? The latter sounds somewhat unpalatable, but
+was in fact not at all bad eating. The queer little oaks which grow in
+Kurdistan bear very large acorns almost as big as small walnuts; and
+these are not nearly so bitter as English acorns but rather like
+chestnuts in taste. Often they are roasted and eaten as we eat chestnuts
+in England; but generally they are ground to meal for breadmaking, and
+mixed with an equal proportion of barley meal. The natives grow a little
+wheat likewise, so wheaten bread is not quite unknown to them; but of
+this, as is to be expected, they get only a very small supply.
+
+It was while we were breakfasting next morning that Erdil produced its
+final originality in the way of diet. Some hunters had come in
+overnight, and had brought with them the carcass of a boar. They had cut
+him up for convenience of transport; but his huge hoofs (as big as a
+cow's) and his bristly iron-grey hide proved that he must have been a
+truly formidable monster: and for five piastres (ten pence) they sold us
+a big chunk of the meat. His hide was the most valuable part of him, and
+for this they hoped to obtain as much as two mejidies (eight shillings),
+since it made such excellent shoes. It seemed little short of a crime to
+allow so magnificent a pelt to be so ignominiously disposed of; but we
+did not see, if we purchased it, how we were to carry it away.
+
+Mindful of the difficulties we had found in bringing our beasts up to
+Erdil, we determined in taking them down again to try and lighten their
+loads. Our own personal belongings were consigned to two stalwart
+porters, who undertook to guide us by a short cut, practicable only for
+pedestrians; while our beasts were to make the long circuit and meet us
+at the mouth of the gorge.
+
+A few weeks later, on the Flushing packet, the steward eyed that baggage
+dubiously, and opined we should need "two strong porters" to carry it up
+to the train. At his words there arose in our minds a vision of two
+grizzled Syrians carrying all that baggage on their shoulders, for three
+hours, with scarcely a breather, across the face of a precipice which
+would have made the steward's hair stand on end! As a matter of fact
+each load (though it certainly looked overwhelming) totalled up to about
+sixty pounds, which is the load of a porter on the Alps.
+
+Half an hour we ascended gradually and slantingly along the face of the
+mountain; and then the ground vanished from under us with a suddenness
+which took away our breath. The cliff broke away from our toes sheer
+down to the river beneath us, a drop (to compute it by guesswork) of
+something like two thousand feet. It was a grand, if somewhat a dizzy,
+spectacle; but our guides never checked for an instant. They skipped
+over the lip of the precipice, and went tripping along a ledge on the
+face of it, as if they considered such travelling the most ordinary
+thing in the world. This then was the real "three hours' route" which
+led from Erdil to Suryi, the path where "horses couldn't go, and mules
+couldn't go, and Englishmen couldn't walk."
+
+With regard to the horses and mules we endorse the description most
+cordially; but for ordinary capable pedestrians it was not so very
+terrible after all. True, it looked rather a fly-on-the-wall business
+when seen from a little distance; but the ledges, if narrow, were firm,
+and there was generally plenty of hand hold. Moreover the rocks
+themselves, though they had looked absolutely vertical when seen from
+below the previous morning, all proved to be more or less sloping and
+not quite destitute of brushwood; so it is possible one might have
+recovered oneself even had one slipped from the path. The worst bits
+were at the beginning and end of our traverse, where the track led over
+steeply tilted slabs. Here our European nailed boots refused to bite on
+the surface, and the porters in their hempen brogues got across much
+more happily than we. These hempen brogues are almost universally worn
+by the hillmen, and are admirable footwear for rock work; but they need
+patching every evening to be ready for the journey next day. Even
+English boots, however, cannot long stand this sort of travelling. Let
+them be made ever so strongly they are cut to pieces in three months.
+
+Half way across the face of the precipice, while pausing to rest a few
+minutes, we were able by means of our glasses to see our horses coming
+on behind. They were then just turning into the main valley, having
+accomplished about half their journey; and though we had given them an
+hour's start at Erdil, we had fully two hours to wait for them at the
+mouth of the Oramar gorge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A MASTER OF MISRULE
+
+(NERI AND JILU)
+
+
+The valley in which Barzan lies is a great fold in the earth's surface,
+running due east and west from Jezireh on the Tigris past Amadia to the
+mountains on the Persian frontier; a distance of about 120 miles. It
+forms a sort of huge natural moat to the mountain citadel of Hakkiari;
+and the counterscarp is represented by the series of lower parallel
+ridges which rise behind Akra, Sheikh Adi and Rabban Hormizd,
+overlooking Mosul plain.
+
+This great trench appears continuous, but is, in fact, occupied
+successively by four distinct rivers which break into it from the
+northern mountains, run for some little distance along it, and then
+break out again towards the south. The Zab takes possession at about
+mid-distance and runs eastward for thirty-five miles or so, its section
+thus roughly coinciding with the jurisdiction of his Holiness of Barzan:
+and the extreme eastern section is occupied by the Neri river, which
+descends from the Persian mountains to unite its waters with the Zab.
+
+Our road does not get any easier as we enter the Neri valley. All travel
+in fact is impossible anywhere in the neighbourhood of the stream. The
+track keeps high up on the slope of the Sat range, crossing one
+tributary gorge after another, and the incessant ascents and descents
+are formidably rugged and steep. The path is exceedingly narrow, and the
+slope not far short of precipitous: and the traveller feels rather as if
+he were riding along the gutter of a steep-pitched roof.
+
+We had companions on the way; for the Heriki Kurds were in the act of
+conducting their usual migration from Mosul plain to the upland pasture
+of Tergawar.[96] Thus we were constantly passing their large flocks of
+sheep, and parties of their well-armed men-folk; a feat that was
+sometimes made ticklish by the exceeding narrowness of the road. As far
+as we were concerned, they were harmless companions enough. The "Boy of
+the Belt" whom the Sheikh of Barzan had sent with us was ample security
+against any attempt being made on our mightinesses; and they seemed as
+pleasant and jolly a set of brigands as a man need wish to meet. It is
+true that we had a slight misunderstanding with one particular shepherd;
+but that was misapprehension pure and simple, and brought about no evil
+results. The lad was so picturesque an object as he strode up the pass
+in front of his sheep, clad in his rough cloak with long gun, shepherd's
+crook, and pipe all complete, that we begged him to do us the favour of
+standing still for a moment, in order that we might secure his portrait.
+Our friend, however, was new to the camera, and (very pardonably)
+thought that it was a lethal weapon. He fled like a hare to the cover of
+the nearest rocks, and prepared to shoot us thence; nor could any
+blandishments make him relax his attitude of suspicion. Recent events
+had made him distrustful of anything that looked Governmental.
+
+If, however, the Heriki were just friendly travelling companions for us,
+they were regarded much in the light of an annual migration of wolves by
+all the villages on the road. These were all standing to arms till the
+danger should have passed--the sheep penned in folds close to the
+houses, the women all within doors, and the men with guns in hand, much
+inclined to shoot at the stranger first and ask whether he did not mean
+mischief after. A little _yourt_[97] that we purchased at one place was
+only handed out to us through one loop-hole while the master of the
+house kept us covered with a gun from another. Albeit when we had duly
+handed over coin of the realm in payment, that gentleman became
+effusively friendly and apologetic--through his closed and barred door.
+
+Really, these precautions were not uncalled for. The Heriki carry off
+everything that happens to fall in their way, as incidents already
+recorded to testify, and "stealis and reifis" with as much impunity as
+the "common thiefis of Liddisdail" in old Sir R. Maitland's day.
+
+    _They plainly throw the country rydis,_
+    _I trow the mekil deil thame gydis!_
+          _Quhair thay onset,_
+          _Ay in thair gait,_
+    _Thair is na yet nor dor thame bydis._
+
+Poor fellows, they were rather out of humour too, because things had not
+been going quite well with them. Hitherto, it had been easy to avoid all
+the attentions of the tax-collector by a proper timing of their
+migrations, coupled with a little _bakhshish_ to officials; and at the
+worst they could always go over the border to Persia out of the
+jurisdiction. Now, however, their condition had greatly deteriorated.
+Persia had gone so much farther off owing to recent changes, and Ottoman
+officials were to be found even in the summer pastures which had been
+free of them before. Thus does a "rectification of frontier," such as
+Turkey was then carrying out at the expense of Persia,[98] bring
+unmerited trouble upon quiet folk.
+
+We stayed for one night in the village of Sat, which gives its name to
+the whole range. The place is Christian (Nestorian), but its inhabitants
+have a name for quarrelsomeness and love of intrigue that makes them a
+proverb among their not very peaceful nation. Such at least is the
+description given of their character by their own Patriarch, who is, we
+suppose, the highest authority possible on such a matter; and we give
+the legend illustrative of the fact, as current among the nation and
+recounted to us by his Grace himself.
+
+A woman of Sat was once on a journey, near to a Nestorian village
+unnamed, when she met an old acquaintance on the road outside. This was
+no less a person than Satana himself, who was sitting on a stone,
+weeping bitterly.
+
+"O Brother, what is your trouble?" said the sympathizing lady.
+
+"I am broken-hearted," sobbed the poor fiend; "I have been trying to sow
+strife in this village for seven years and have not raised a single
+quarrel in that time; I must give it up."
+
+"Cheer up! let me try my hand;" said the lady; and the couple went
+together to the village, where they found a bridal party just leaving
+the church. What measures were taken by the woman history (prudently)
+sayeth not; but within half an hour bride and bridegroom were pulling
+one another's hair, and the friends of each were taking part in a very
+pretty fight.
+
+"Now you can stay here and be happy," said the woman of Sat to her
+friend.
+
+"Thank you," said Satana, "But while you are here, I really think my
+presence would be superfluous."
+
+One is completely outside the power of the Government in the Barzan-Neri
+district, but not quite out of touch with its officials notwithstanding.
+In one of the remotest of villages, in a deep gorge running up into the
+Sat range, and called Bi-Kar, we actually found a Government mudir. It
+is true that he had no power; and any collecting of taxes that took
+place in the neighbourhood was done by wholly unauthorized agencies; but
+there he was, presumably as a testimony to the existence of the
+_Hukumet_.
+
+Like most Ottoman officials, he was delightfully courteous to the chance
+visitor; and in this case perhaps the welcome was not mere politeness,
+but real joy in speaking to an educated man once more. For years in that
+remote glen, he had enjoyed no conversation with any but policemen and
+Kurds. His story was typical of those of a good many of the young
+Ottoman official class. Educated at Stamboul, in the college for
+Government servants, he had (like most of the younger men of his day)
+been attracted by the "Young Turk" propaganda, and its hopes for a
+reformed and revived Ottoman Empire. Something brought his reforming
+sympathies to light; and a prompt order from Abdul Hamid dispatched him
+to this corner of the earth, with a black mark against his name, and no
+chance of promotion, or any sort of career.
+
+Three years passed in that exile, and then the revolution gave him some
+hope of a change. But the years that had elapsed since then had only
+been evidence that he was forgotten by the new régime as thoroughly as
+the old one could have wished; and here was he, an educated and capable
+man, settling down while still under thirty as a soured, disappointed
+minor official. He was one of the many tragedies of Ottoman rule.
+
+Laboriously enough, we pushed on for three days' travel, a daily ascent
+and descent of 3000 feet marking our progress. The tracks were always
+feasible enough for mules, though as viewed from a distance they had a
+painfully dizzy aspect; and the deep gorges between each pair of ridges
+were places of marvellous beauty. The valley of Heriki lives in our
+memory as perhaps the most exquisite of all. We descended the crags and
+steep slopes of the mountain side--coming down 2000 feet in half an hour
+on foot, though of course the animals might take four times as long--to
+a glen that was one garden, thick with walnut and poplar trees,
+interspersed with figs and with vines trained from tree to tree, all in
+the glory of their best foliage. Trees flourished here luxuriantly from
+the soil and climate, and were respected for the one reason that makes a
+Kurd respect anything; for the whole glen is one great cemetery. As its
+name implies, it is the original home of the nomad tribe with whom we
+had just been journeying. From this spot there set out the five
+eponymous ancestors of the five septs that make the tribe to-day; and
+hither every man of name and fame is borne for burial among the great
+ones of his house. There is much romance about this most turbulent of
+nomad tribes; and it is not diminished by the fact that (if legend tells
+true) they were Christians once; in the days when Nestorian bishops,
+nomad like their flocks, had for diocese "the tents of the Kurds." One
+relic of their ancient Christianity they are said to bear with them
+still (we follow the account given by old Nestorian priests), namely,
+the head of a Christian martyr, one of the several saints George of
+Eastern legend. This is the palladium of their tribe, and is borne about
+in a chest either by the principal chief among them, or by some holy
+mollah in the clan.
+
+A three days journey from Barzan takes the traveller to the domain of
+the great rival of the chief of that ilk, viz. the Sheikh of Shamsdin,
+who has his palace at Neri. This man is at least as powerful as his
+neighbour; and indeed Obeid-Allah of Shamsdin, grandfather of the
+present Sheikh, had thoughts of carving out for himself a separate
+principality, a buffer between Turkey and Persia. He was able to invade
+the latter country in force, and to besiege the city of Urmi for some
+weeks in the early "seventies." He failed, however (though the success
+of the Sheikh of Koweit in an analogous scheme shows that it was not
+impossible under favourable circumstances); and he and his son
+Abd-l-Kadr were removed to Constantinople as state prisoners, while his
+second son, Saddik or Zadok, was left as head of the tribe. Shrewder
+than his father, Saddik was content with the reality of power, and
+accumulated wealth by tobacco smuggling on the most magnificent scale.
+His caravans went down to Persia, often 100 mules strong, in open
+defiance of the "Regie" officials; and a large portion of the proceeds
+was invested in rifles, smuggled from Russia to Urmi. If the troops in
+Trans-Caucasia were not much libelled, many of them came from their
+barracks, in exchange for _vodka_!
+
+A _kaimakam_, and an inspector of the "_Regie_" (the Governmentally
+recognized tobacco monopoly) both reside at Neri; and are generously
+provided with apartments in the fine house built by the Sheikh out of
+the profits of the industry which their official duty is to stop. But
+both of these domestic animals are most gratifyingly tame.
+
+Not all of the Sheikh's income went in rifles, or even in _bakhshish_.
+He once wrote politely to the author, asking for a recommendation to an
+English bank, as he had some savings to deposit with them. The writer
+named a bank or two; and knowing that his Holiness expected ten to
+fifteen per cent. on money ready at call, did not think much would
+follow. But eventually some thousands of pounds did actually find their
+way to Lombard Street; for this prince of tobacco smugglers was in very
+solvent circumstances indeed! A Kurdish brigand chief with a large
+banking account in England sounds a wildly impossible conception. Yet
+William Hickey records how another wholesale smuggler hailed a
+homeward-bound China clipper in mid channel, and purchased all her
+skipper's private stock of tea with a cheque for £800, which was
+accepted without the least demur. So such things were certainly done in
+the England of 1770!
+
+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.
+
+Sheikh Saddik was a ruffian, but a fine and strong character withal. His
+son and successor, Taha, has inherited all his ruffianism without the
+stronger qualities. At the age of nineteen years he weighed precisely
+that number of stone; and when a day's journey was unavoidable, it took
+two sturdy mules, with specially padded saddles, to bear his gross
+carcass along the way. He has the bad taste to wear European clothes (or
+what he takes to be such, corduroy trousers and butcher boots), and
+presents a strong family resemblance to the "Claimant." His younger
+brother, Sheikh Musa, once fell foul of the British military Consul from
+Van, in a way that has since been vigorously impressed on his memory.
+The officer in question, accompanied by the writer, arrived at this
+place in the spring of 1909; and the party was of course entertained as
+guests of the house in the absence of the master. We had arrived at
+noon, and had sent the horses out to pasture and rest, when one of the
+_katarjis_ came running up with tidings much resembling those of the
+servants of Job, and in much the same state of mind as that of those
+unfortunates. The Sabaeans, represented by the personal servants of the
+Sheikh, had come down on the animals as they were feeding, and
+disregarding all protests had carried off every one!
+
+There was of course a tremendous storm, for a deadlier insult to guest
+and British Consul could hardly be imagined; and the tame _kaimakam_ was
+required to procure the instant return of the stolen property. He, poor
+man, was grievously perplexed between his fear of the Consul on the one
+hand, and his fear of his proprietor on the other. Between the two, he
+collapsed in something very like tears, ejaculating "What can I do? They
+were the Sheikh's men who took them." He did send out his two
+_zaptiehs_, with a consular kavass, to bring back the beasts; but as
+soon as they were outside the village, those two worthies sat themselves
+on the ground and informed the kavass that, _kaimakam_ or no _kaimakam_,
+they were not going to do anything against the Sheikh's followers if
+they knew it!
+
+The animals were returned that evening; and it came out that Sheikh Musa
+had suddenly conceived the idea that he would give a picnic to his
+womenkind; wherefore the order "bring horses" had been issued, and
+obedience to it was expected.
+
+"There are no horses, your Greatness," the servants had said.
+
+"No horses? There are horses!" pointing to the meadow where the Consul's
+animals were at grass.
+
+"But those are the Consul's, your Greatness."
+
+"The Consul's! Am I Sheikh, or am I not?"
+
+So the horses were brought; and it is to be hoped that the trouble that
+followed, and the fine that had to be paid, was a salutary lesson to
+everybody.
+
+Of late years, a family quarrel has rather diminished the power of
+Sheikh Taha. His uncle Abd-l-Kadr, son of Obeid-Ullah, returned from
+Constantinople with the claim to be (what he is by all laws of
+primogeniture) the Head of the House. Fighting followed between the two;
+a proceeding which would not have done much harm to anyone had the
+Kurds only fought among themselves. Naturally, however, the poor serfs
+of Christians (whose allegiance both parties claimed) suffered as those
+do suffer who have the misfortune to find themselves between the upper
+and nether millstones.
+
+Both Sheikhs were arrested, but a compromise was arranged. Abd-l-Kadr
+agreed to accept a liberal allowance from the family funds; and to live
+in Stamboul, the city he knew, rather than set up as a savage chief in
+Kurdistan.
+
+A day's journey from the Sheikh's house at Neri brings the traveller to
+the land of the Christian "_ashirets_" of Jilu and Baz.
+
+_Ashiret_ is a word that strictly means "tribe" or clan; but as
+descriptive of status it is contrasted with "_rayat_" or subject; and
+means that the bearers of the name pay tribute (when it can be got out
+of them) and not taxes. The Ottoman Government is only now extending its
+power, as a practical thing, into Kurdistan at all. All the Mussulman
+dwellers in the land were until lately "_ashiret_," and much in the same
+position as the Highlanders "beyond the line" in days previous to the
+"forty-five." A fair proportion of the Christian dwellers there,
+happening to have arms, are "_ashiret_" as well.
+
+Those who are unarmed are in the unpleasant position of having to serve
+two masters (both of them abominably bad ones), and are "_rayat_" both
+to the Government, as far as its power goes; and to the Kurdish chiefs,
+as far as they can enforce theirs. The whole position is comprehensible
+to those who live among the people; but to the foreigner, it appears to
+be (and is) the negation of law, order, and all that we mean by good
+government. It is the old life of the highlands of Scotland, complicated
+and worsened immensely by the division between Christianity and Islam.
+
+Still, among the _ashirets_ who carried arms, whether Christian or
+Moslem, the position was by no means intolerable a generation ago.
+Besides it was extremely picturesque. The various tribes fought one
+another freely; and of course the feuds usually, though not always,
+followed the religious and racial line of division.
+
+Still, arms were approximately equal; and the Christians, though
+outnumbered, had strong positions to defend, and were of good fighting
+stock, as men of Assyrian blood should be. So, until Abdul Hamid's day,
+the parties were fairly matched on the whole; and generations of
+"cross-raiding" had evolved an understanding in the matter, capable of
+summary statement as "Take all you like, but do not damage what you
+leave; and do not touch the women." Thus, live-stock were fair loot, and
+so were carpets and other house-furniture, and arms of course. But the
+house must not be burnt, and standing crops and irrigating channels not
+touched, while a gentlemanly brigand would leave the corn-store alone.
+Women were never molested when a village of _ashirets_ was raided, until
+a few years ago. And this was so thoroughly understood that it was not
+necessary even to guard them; a custom which by an interesting parallel
+prevailed on our own Scotch border in the fourteenth century.[100] When,
+however (as sometimes happened), a party of Kurds at feud with other
+Kurds, plundered a Christian village that was "_rayat_" to the chief of
+the other party, girls might be carried off, with the other live stock.
+Even so, however, wives were sacrosanct.
+
+Of late years things have changed for the worse in this respect. Women
+are not always respected now; and the free distribution of rifles among
+the Kurds has done away with all the old equality. This was done, when
+the late Sultan raised the "_Hamidie_" battalions; partly for the
+defence of his throne, partly perhaps with the idea of keeping the
+Christians in subjection. Now when to odds in numbers you add the
+additional handicap implied in the difference between Mauser and
+flint-lock, the position becomes impossible; and the balance has since
+inclined steadily against the Christian tribes.
+
+The fights of old were not usually very deadly, for though a good deal
+of home-made powder was burned, these mountaineers are tough, and hard
+to kill. The writer has known an instance of a Kurd who was shot through
+the body in a tribal skirmish; after which he walked home, and observed
+to his wife, "Beastly nuisance this: here is a brand-new shirt, and two
+holes in it; and it will want washing too!"
+
+Jilu is a curious little mountain canton--a fan of narrow gorges
+descending from the rugged Galiashin range, the highest peak of which,
+Supa Durig, approaches 14,000 feet. Their union forms the Oramar River,
+that considerable tributary of the Zab mentioned in the previous
+chapter. Nothing but "terrace cultivation" is possible on the bare rocky
+slopes; and the earth that composes the fields has usually to be carried
+to the spot where the terrace wall has been built to retain it, in
+baskets on men's backs. A spot has to be chosen which is reasonably safe
+from avalanches; else the poor farmer may find, some spring morning,
+that not only his crop, but his whole field, has been swept away in the
+night.
+
+Men of Jilu have a harder life than even the average mountaineer of
+Kurdistan; and hence it is, no doubt, that they have developed the
+_wanderlust_, which is far more strongly marked in them than in most of
+their fellow countrymen. They wander everywhere in search of work,
+though they always drift back to this strange little canton at the end.
+Starting with nothing but the clothes they stand up in, and very ragged
+clothes too, they apparently never starve, and occasionally bring back a
+fortune. Men are to be found in Jilu who helped to build the forts of
+Port Arthur; and who corrected the writer on certain points connected
+with that fortress when the siege was being discussed in the patriarch's
+_diwan_. Who served guns on board the American battleships off Cuba; or
+have (goodness alone knows how) found some charitable person to give
+them a university education in America. One of these wanderers brought
+back £3000; or, to be accurate, brought it to within a few days' journey
+of his home, when his luck deserted him at last, for he met a party of
+Kurds, and the robbers made the haul of their wicked lives. It was the
+cruellest trick of fortune; but he owned to have made the money in one
+very doubtful trade that these fellows practise; and we could not avoid
+the feeling that the thief by violence had as good a right to the spoil
+as had the thief by fraud.
+
+The trade in question is this. Jilu men have made the discovery that
+folk in Europe and America have much sympathy with an ancient and
+struggling church, and are willing to give considerable sums to assist
+it. So they collect for "schools and orphanages." Men go by the dozen to
+gather in money, nominally for these objects; but actually spend it on
+their own needs alone. American police know the trick well, and indeed
+have invented the term "fake-priest" as descriptive of this branch of
+the great profession of roguery.
+
+One can feel some sympathy with the rascals who thus answer the old
+question "why did Allah create fools, if not for the profit of wise
+men?" They are in absolute and utter poverty; and they know that by
+going to foreign parts, and there "slinging a yarn" that they would not
+expect their own people to take seriously, they can gather sums that
+mean wealth to them. It is a great temptation; and it will continue till
+such time as charity and common sense begin to run in double harness,
+and charitable folk at home refuse to extend to these Orientals the
+trust they would never repose in one of their own countrymen.
+
+Further, tried by their own standards, these Orientals are not cheating.
+An Eastern does not understand the administration of a Trust. What you
+give, you give; and may Allah reward you for your charity. But, when you
+have given it, it is yours no longer; and why should you complain if its
+owner finds that he needs it for something different to his original
+intent. You gave it for a school? Well, he really meant to use it for a
+school then; but afterwards he found that he needed it for his own
+family. It is his; why not? Narrow-minded man, why use the ugly word
+thief?
+
+So, while sympathizing with these rascals, we advise no man to give
+them money; or even to trust the interesting documents they produce,
+sealed with the patriarchal seal. Forgery is singularly easy in a land
+where the seal is the sole signature, and any seal-cutter can copy it
+from an impression.
+
+So the "_Jiluayi_" wander; reproducing to-day in all details the seller
+of relics who rode to Canterbury with Chaucer. One enterprising member
+of the fraternity made a considerable sum by selling in four Russian
+villages the four feet of the ass on which our Lord rode into Jerusalem;
+and only got into trouble when the temptation to supply the demand of a
+fifth village for another foot overpowered his prudence. Another, in
+India, suffered even worse things. He had gathered about £300 from
+various places; mainly by his absolute refusal to go away from anywhere
+till something was given him. But in Malabar he was arrested as a
+Russian spy, and dragged before a zealous native magistrate. Knowing, by
+experience at home, the danger of telling the truth to any official, and
+particularly of owning to the possession of money, he declared that he
+was a very poor man and had not a penny in the world; thus sticking to
+the lie, when the truth would probably have secured his safety. The
+magistrate handed him over to the police to be searched, and they of
+course found the gold upon him, and appropriated the whole. Then they
+reproduced their victim in court, saying that as far as they could
+ascertain he had spoken the truth, and that he really had no money. On
+this, he was discharged.
+
+The central shrine and cathedral of the district of Jilu is the ancient
+church of Mar Zeia, a building remarkable enough to merit a word of
+description to itself. In structure it is not very different from any
+other mountain church; being a mere rectangular box of stone, with a
+roof vaulted within and flat without, and arranged according to the
+usual type of Nestorian building, which we must describe later. It is
+its contents that are unique.
+
+For centuries, Jilu men who have gone "to countries" (or foreign parts
+generally) have made a practice of giving gifts to this shrine on their
+return; and it, unlike other churches, has never been plundered by any
+foe, for a reason that will presently appear.
+
+The consequence is that the building contains such a collection of _ex
+voto_ offerings as can hardly be matched in the world, reaching back for
+one is afraid to say how long. The most modern feature is a grand
+collection of American clocks, alarm and otherwise, that hang on a cord,
+touching one another, all across the church. Bells, usually of small
+size (for half a mule load or 125 lbs. is the strict limit of weight
+that can be transported in one mass), are hung everywhere; long strings
+of them decorating the curtain that veils the sanctuary. Vestments for
+the priests, of Russian cut and make, hang all along the walls; while
+ostrich eggs and coral speak of the connexion with Malabar. Finally,
+away at the back, and covered thick with dust, stand rows of "China
+jars," said to have been brought back thence when this Nestorian church
+had its bishops at Pekin and Singan in the eighth century, and which
+connoisseurs would probably think cheap at their weight in gold.
+
+Strangest perhaps of all, if genuine, is the charm that has preserved
+all these treasures from the spoiler. A _zaptieh_ had accompanied us
+from the seat of government at Neri, and had entered the church with us,
+reverently removing hat and shoes at the door. He now approached the
+young bishop who was showing us his treasures, and said "My Lord, you
+will allow me to see the handkerchief of Mohammed the Prophet?" "By all
+means," said the bishop; and going to a recess in the wall, he produced
+thence a bundle of silk wrappings, which were removed one after the
+other, revealing a piece of plain linen, inscribed with Arabic
+characters. This either is, or is supposed to be, a _firman_ of
+protection for this church, issued by the Prophet himself, and written
+on his own napkin. Whether it is, whether it can be, genuine is not for
+us to say.[101] This is certain at least; that every Kurd believes in
+its genuineness: and the _zaptieh_ bowed before it with the utmost
+reverence, placed it on his forehead and eyes for a moment, and finally
+returned it, with an offering to the shrine which represented about a
+week's pay. Genuine or not, the fact of its existence has saved this
+church and its contents from plunder many a time and oft, and will
+probably continue to do so; though it must be owned that at one terrible
+outbreak of Moslem fanaticism in the year 1847, not even reverence for
+the name of the Prophet saved a similar document in the hands of the
+Patriarchial family from destruction, the members of the family from
+slaughter, or an even wealthier church from plunder.
+
+We were the guests of the Bishop of Jilu, Mar Sergius, in his very
+primitive palace; and as we had arrived at noon, spent a good deal of
+the afternoon "holding _Diwan_" in his reception room--sitting that is
+in the seat of honour on a low _diwan_, while all the village came to
+us, and talked of anything and everything that occurred to them. Many of
+course desired medicine, for any Englishman is a doctor by hereditary
+right; and always carries with him good "English salt," which is
+quinine, as well as other drugs.
+
+So, "distribute medicines manfully" is the rule for the traveller here,
+whether you chance to know anything about the trade or not. Fever you
+can recognize at any rate, or the patient will recognize it for you; and
+if you have not the ghost of a notion what the disease is, look doubly
+wise and administer something harmless and bitter. The nastier the drug,
+the more it will stimulate the faith of the sufferer, and that, after
+all, is the essential thing. Speaking generally, you will cure more
+efficiently when you do not know what the trouble is, than when you do.
+Only remember certain rules. First, that to give mild aperients to an
+Oriental is a sinful waste of good drugs; and diminishes faith in
+foreign medicines, which is worse. Second, if you go by book at all,
+give three times the "book dose" to an Assyrian, and five times the
+amount to a Kurd; for then you may produce some sort of effect. This
+instruction was given to the writer by men of experience when he was new
+to the country, and it staggered him for the moment, but he was
+reassured. "Yes," said a worthy member of the Syrian nation, "it is
+very difficult to poison a Kurd at all; and if you succeed, it does not
+much matter."
+
+Still, we own that we have once known an Oriental suffer from an
+overdose. He had applied to a Syrian friend for an aperient; and the
+friend (who called himself _hakim_ on the strength of three months spent
+as bottle-washer in an American Mission dispensary) had given him "a
+strong medicine." Both parties were startled at the result; and as the
+writer turned up opportunely next day, he was called in as a consultant,
+and found the victim in a very reduced state indeed after a night spent
+upon the rack!
+
+"What did you give him?" he asked the _hakim_.
+
+"Croton oil," said he.
+
+"And how much?"
+
+"Oh, not much; only a teaspoonful."
+
+(N.B. half a minim is the maximum allowed by the British
+Pharmacopoeia!)
+
+Persian tea-spoons are not as big as English, so perhaps he had not
+given much more than thirty times the full dose. The consultant gave it
+as his opinion that as the patient had survived twenty-four hours, he
+would recover; and the event justified his wisdom.
+
+There was one case brought to us that afternoon, however, that was quite
+beyond our skill. A man came with a tale of woe expressed in a mountain
+dialect that we could not follow; and the bishop had to be impressed as
+interpreter. He heard, and collapsed in a fit of laughter, gasping out,
+"He wants a medicine to quiet his wife's tongue, Rabbi."
+
+"Tell him I am not a worker of miracles, my lord," said we.
+
+The most important subject of local politics that came up for discussion
+was an attempt recently made by a reforming local governor to take a
+census of the men of Jilu. A Government official had come among them
+with papers and ink, and proceeded to write down all their names. When
+they asked what it was all about, he explained that it was the elections
+to the _Mejlis-i-Mebussan_, the Turkish Parliament; and that if their
+names were written down properly they should have a member all to
+themselves, who should be a man of Jilu, and should live in
+Constantinople and draw a fine salary, just for sitting in the capital
+and representing their grievances to the Sultan.
+
+The idea seemed a good one, and folk gave in their names freely, till
+the census was nearly finished. But then it occurred to them that
+perhaps they had been hasty, and that these lists might be used for
+other things than the election of an M.P. What if they were a basis for
+taxation? or even worse, for the drafting of their young men to the
+army? The result was that a "strong deputation" went after the
+Government mudir (who, by the way, was an Armenian), confiscated all his
+papers and burnt them. He was disposed to think that he was fortunate in
+that he had not been himself thrown on to the pile.
+
+A casually minded Government took no notice of the little incident,
+which after all only concerned an Armenian underling.[102] Had it been a
+real Turkish official, there would probably have been trouble for every
+one concerned; and a good many more besides.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE DEBATABLE LAND (GAWAR, TERGAWAR, MERGAWAR)
+
+
+Jilu, take it all round, is the most savage bit of primæval chaos in all
+the "_ashiret_" districts of Kurdistan; yet a short journey beyond it
+brings us to a district which is in a much more advanced stage of
+geological development, the strange plain of Gawar. Starting in the
+morning from one of the glens which lie absolutely under the peaks and
+crags of Galiashin, our caravan has to traverse one of the grandest,
+narrowest, and rockiest gorges even in this land of wild ravines--the
+magnificent gorge of Ishtazin. And yet by the evening, after crossing a
+range that much resembles our own Sussex downs on a large scale, we are
+camping on an absolutely level plain of great extent--the "_Gawar_."
+
+This word, presumably Kurdish, appears to mean a level plain surrounded
+by mountains; and it is used, singly and in combination, more than once
+in the neighbourhood. But our new camping-place is "_the_ Gawar" _par
+excellence_, "The Level." It is the bed of an ancient lake, and so has a
+general family resemblance to the "morfa" of Tremadoc in North Wales,
+though the hills surrounding it are considerably higher than Snowdon;
+and the change from mountain to plain is so abrupt and obvious that one
+can say definitely to a few yards where one leaves the one and enters on
+the other. The point is further emphasized, by an old pebble beach.
+
+[Illustration: THE MOUNTAINS OF TKHUMA AND JILU.
+
+From the top of the "Staircase" pass immediately above Amadia. The
+mountain in the centre is Ghara Dagh on the southern side of Tkhuma. To
+the left is Galiashin, the dominant peak of Jilu; and Sat Dagh further
+off upon the right. The crags in the middle distance rise up out of the
+Zab Gorge.
+
+No. 8]
+
+The plain measures about sixteen miles by ten, and is in form an oval
+with pointed ends, the long axis running nearly north and south. It is
+absolutely treeless, save for a few poplars round the villages that are
+scattered over its face. Though but little of the plain is cultivated
+it is all magnificently fertile; for the black alluvial soil grows
+anything that will endure the long winter and deep snow natural at an
+elevation of six thousand feet; and the corn and melons of Gawar are
+famous throughout the land.
+
+A considerable river, the Nihila or Nile, wanders down the centre and is
+joined by several others from the high mountains at the sides. This
+river on leaving the plain flows northward through a deep and fine gorge
+to join the Albak; and their united streams constitute the Zab.
+
+Being thus a dead level, Gawar looks as easy a place to cross as well
+can be. We see our destination before us perhaps twelve miles away, and
+nothing seems to be necessary but to make a bee-line for it. In reality
+few things are more difficult than crossing this or a similar plain,
+unless you know the way or have a guide who knows it. The river is
+bordered with wide swamps; and such fords as exist upon it (and they are
+not many) can only be approached from certain directions: while the
+stranger is constantly liable to stumble (like the luckless Duke of
+Monmouth) on "rhines" or irrigating channels; the muddy bottoms of which
+are unfordable for animals, except at certain points known only to the
+villagers around.
+
+A fertile level like this should swarm with villages and carry a large
+population; but of the villages that once were here (almost all of which
+were Nestorian Christian) many are now absolutely deserted, and others
+have become Kurdish and so do little work in the world. This has been
+brought to pass, not by the villagers abandoning their Christianity--for
+that is so rare a thing as to be almost unknown--but by what foreign
+residents characterize as "the hermit crab Act."
+
+This process is as follows. Given a village of Christians, with Kurds in
+the neighbourhood: a party of Kurds (men who have probably made their
+own village too hot to hold them, or who have quarrelled with their
+chief) come and settle at free quarters in the place as "guests." The
+villagers cannot turn them out; for the intruders are armed, and they
+are not; and stingless worker bees can hardly expel sting-bearing
+drones. If they appeal to the Government for redress, the official is
+bribed by the intruders to do nothing (the _bakhshish_ being extorted
+from the villagers); and the answer is made "have not these Mussulmans
+the right to reside where they like?" If any man does head an attempt to
+evict them, a "dead set" is made at him till he is worried into leaving
+the village and his land; and this the Kurds immediately appropriate,
+forcing the other villagers to work it for them without pay. The village
+mill is usually one of the first places taken, and a liberal percentage
+of the corn goes as a fee for the grinding of it. Meantime, what the
+presence of these fellows means for the "_rayats_" in the way of petty
+oppression, and what the consequences are to the girls of the village,
+anyone who has some knowledge of human nature can be left to guess for
+himself.
+
+If the plan prospers other Kurds join; and the leader of the gang
+presently builds him a small hold, or kala (again with the forced labour
+of the villagers), and at length the bulk of the Christians are worried
+out of the country. Only a few are kept, as serfs, to till for their new
+masters the land that they and their fathers once owned; and what was a
+Christian village has become Kurd.
+
+If ever one sees a Kurdish village which has good fields, and signs of
+good cultivation, one can be sure that it was originally Christian, and
+that it has gone through this process.
+
+Apart from the brutality of the proceeding, the matter illustrates the
+impossibility of the Turk as a modern governor, unless he is most
+radically reformed and supervised. One presumes that what the Government
+wants is a set of peaceable, tax-paying subjects. Yet here, not one
+village, but scores of villages, inhabited by peaceable _rayats_ who do
+pay their taxes and ask for nothing better than to be left alone under
+Ottoman rule; are allowed to be emptied, and filled up by Kurds who let
+the land go to waste, who never pay taxes at all, and can be trusted
+_not_ to fight for the Turk in any real emergency.
+
+However, the officials of the day benefit by the _bahkshish_ that the
+Kurds pay them. And here we touch the real root of the matter. The Turk
+is not deliberately aiming at the extirpation of his Christian subjects.
+He has no deeper policy in his mind than just to go on _eskissi gibi_,
+"in the same old way," and let the officials fill their pockets in
+peace. As a man he has many virtues; and there never was an Englishman
+yet who dealt with him, and did not come to like him: but as a governor
+he is execrable; in that he is too lazy to see that things go well, and
+allows an unspeakably corrupt Civil Service to ruin the land as it
+likes. Will he ever do the one thing that can save him, and allow
+himself to be administered by some European Power, as Egypt has been?
+Perhaps a quotation from "Odysseus," shrewdest of European observers of
+Turkey, can give the answer. "'This country is just one big dish of
+soup,' said the _Vali_, 'and nobody has any real use for soup except to
+eat it. We eat in the old-fashioned way, with big spoons; you want to
+come along with gimlets and bore holes in the bottom of it, and suck.
+Then you propose that eating with spoons shall be abolished as old
+fashioned, because you know that we have no gimlets, and don't
+understand sucking.'"[103]
+
+A level plain like Gawar, with a Government headquarters and garrison at
+its town of Diza, ought to be as easily controlled a _kaimakamlik_ as
+one could wish. And so it is normally; though an Albanian _kaimakam_,
+Haidar Beg, did rouse rather a storm when he put a recalcitrant Kurdish
+chief on a donkey, face to the tail, and rode him in that fashion all
+round Diza town. Still he had the place in order; "Not a dog barked
+without leave when Haidar ruled," is the local saying to this day.
+
+Some time after his departure, however, the district was the scene of
+one of the very few attacks on a British Consul that have taken place in
+the land. Lawless as the country is, the foreign resident is generally
+safe; because such trouble follows for everybody if he is interfered
+with. In twelve years, the writer has only known five deliberate attacks
+on Europeans (though plenty were planned and did not come off); and
+only one of the five had fatal consequences,--at least to the European.
+Three of these attacks were on British Consuls--"for the fellows will go
+wandering into such dangerous places, just to make maps," as a harassed
+Ottoman official explained.
+
+In this case the British Consul, accompanied by the writer, had reached
+the plain of Gawar from Neri. They were "escorted" by a _zaptieh_
+provided by the Sheikh of that place and belonging to his tribe; and as
+it was just subsequent to the incident of the stolen horses, escort and
+travellers were not on the very best of terms. _Zaptieh_ and muleteers
+declared that they would stop, early in the afternoon, at a Kurdish
+village called Alikhan, at the entry into Gawar plain; while the
+Englishmen had ordered that a push should be made for Diza. The
+_zaptieh_ waxed so insolent in the dispute that he was summarily
+dismissed. He dashed off in a fury to the village, and called on the men
+of the place to come out and plunder the Franks as they passed. These
+poured out like bees at the call, and a scuffle resulted in which the
+baggage mule of the party was captured with the bulk of its load. Only
+the maps and photographic negatives were salved: and the two Englishmen
+and their kavass were pursued by the crowd for about half an hour, deep
+into the swamps towards Diza; while the _zaptieh_ (apparently the only
+man who had a gun) kept firing steadily on them till his cartridges gave
+out. Perhaps the most discreditable side to the whole affair was that he
+failed to hit even one of the party in that period; but it was a Turkish
+Government rifle that he was using; so that probably, under the
+circumstances, the target was the safest place. The Consul's Serbian
+kavass begged most earnestly for permission to try "just one shot" in
+answer; but the Consul knew too well what the result of that one shot
+might be, and did not wish to kill.
+
+We must add that prompt redress was given on this occasion. Soldiers
+were dispatched to the guilty village from Diza without delay. The
+stolen goods were restored; and the two muleteers brought in as
+prisoners. But the _zaptieh_, the principal culprit, had escaped.
+
+The _kaimakam_ had a taste for melodrama, and had the prisoners brought
+before him immediately. He called upon the Consul for his statement, and
+then demanded of the prisoners what they had got to say.
+
+These worthies at once paraded an arm (said to be broken) and a black
+eye (the genuineness of which was past question), and poured out a flood
+of eloquence. They had marched all day, and were very weary; and had
+begged of the Consul to let the exhausted beasts feed for one little
+half-hour before pushing further on. This he had refused, with oaths and
+vile abuse; beating deponent the while till his arm was broken, and he
+lay helpless on the grass. Assault on the Consul? Before Allah there had
+been no such thing. How could they lift a hand against his greatness?
+Had not the _zaptieh_ fired shots? Nay, he had but interceded with the
+Bey in all humility; and the Bey had turned on him and deponent (raising
+his head painfully from the grass) saw the _zaptieh_ flying for dear
+life, while the Consul pursued him, firing shots at him from a revolver!
+
+It was a fine coherent tale, and well told; but the witness's dramatic
+instinct carried him away in the course of it, and he gesticulated
+freely with the "broken" arm.
+
+The _kaimakam_ rose with the majesty natural to one who combines the
+offices of judge and jury, and delivered the judgment of the court. "The
+English do not tell lies; but ye are liars and the sons of liars. Bring
+fetters, and hale these scoundrels to the dungeon forthwith." Fetters of
+pantomimic magnitude were brought accordingly; but while they were being
+put on, the _kaimakam_ marred the grandeur of the proceedings by
+suggesting to the Consul that as he had now two captives on whom he
+could wreak his vengeance, perhaps he might be disposed to pardon the
+third, who would be hard to catch!
+
+He was somewhat disappointed on finding that the impracticable
+Englishman was willing to pardon the two who had been caught; but
+disposed to insist that the worst criminal must be punished! However,
+the fugitive was caught and imprisoned later.
+
+As for the two muleteers, they were released in an hour or so at our
+request; and came to express their hope that the little unpleasantness
+would not cause any diminution of the customary _bahkshish_! It was not
+their fault, really; they had been possessed of the Devil at the time,
+and that was surely excuse enough for poor simple men!
+
+The seat of a governorship of low grade, like a _kaimakamlik_, is always
+a home of oppression in Turkey. "Jack in office" is not an unknown thing
+elsewhere; but he is usually not worse than annoying, and is sometimes
+amusing. In Turkey, however (particularly in the out-of-the-way
+districts), there is nobody to exercise a wholesome discipline on Jack,
+or to care much what he does in small matters.
+
+Further, all the officials at such posts are low down in the scale,
+whether they have been long in the service or not; and so they have
+either no character to lose, or else a fortune to make. An elderly man,
+who has made his money and his name, is sometimes as good a governor as
+the people are in a condition to appreciate; but not so the junior. Thus
+it comes to pass that British Consuls of experience say that they have
+known good _Valis_ fairly often, and even decent _mutaserifs_
+occasionally; but a good _kaimakam_ is a _rara avis_ indeed. We have
+known two in ten years; both of them being Albanians, and both
+gentlemen. But in each case the barbarian was not very far below the
+surface--any more than he is in an Englishman sometimes.
+
+Thus in a small centre like Diza of Gawar, even the European traveller
+may occasionally meet with discourtesy; particularly since the
+Revolution has given the petty official an excuse for saying: "We are
+civilized and constitutional now; therefore we need not treat these
+beastly Franks with any more consideration than our own people."
+
+We have even heard of such things as the commandeering of the beasts of
+an English traveller "for Government service." The act implies that the
+beasts and their owner are marched off with military baggage or
+something equivalent, for an unknown distance and time. The horses
+(which are the owner's livelihood) are usually not released till they
+are broken down with overwork, and are never paid for. "Government does
+not pay."
+
+In the case referred to, the English traveller appealed, of course, to
+the _kaimakam_; and received a courteous apology, and an assurance that
+the soldiers should be ordered to return the animals. But the sergeant
+in charge of the party, while admitting that he had received the order,
+declared that he would see the _kaimakam_ hanged before obeying it; so
+matters did not seem to be appreciably advanced. On the following
+morning, however, the traveller's servant turned up, with the horses,
+and a broad grin.
+
+"Well done, Yukhanan! How did you get them?" said the traveller.
+
+"Why, Rabbi, I found that my enemy Ratu the Kurd was in the town with
+three mules. So I just said to the soldiers, 'there are much better
+beasts down there; and no one will mind if you take them, while there's
+bound to be a row if you take these.'"
+
+So all ended well; though the Englishman, who thought he had carried
+matters with quite a properly high hand, was humiliated on hearing his
+servant observe to the universe at large, "Nevertheless, had Rabbi Mr.
+X. been here, _he_ would have thrashed those soldiers as they deserved
+long before this."[104]
+
+The plain of Gawar is apparently rather a favourite haunt of those whom
+the Oriental will speak of (very rarely, and nervously) as "the Good
+People"--the Jann of the "Arabian Nights." One cave in particular, in
+the hills that border the plain, is notoriously teeming with them; and
+any man who enters there usually comes out mad, if he ever emerges at
+all. Once, a few years ago, a party of thirty Kurds undertook its
+exploration, and went in well armed. They did not penetrate far,
+however, for presently one of the leaders saw, or thought he saw,
+_something_; and superstitious panic being one of the most infectious
+things under the sun, the whole party bolted instantly. Being rather
+ashamed of themselves when they reached the open air, they impressed an
+unfortunate Christian to go and see what it was that they had run away
+from; and when he (not unnaturally) demurred at going alone to
+investigate that which had just put thirty armed men to flight, they
+simply gave him the choice between doing that and being shot
+incontinent.
+
+Under this pressure he entered, and vanished for some hours; at the end
+of which time he crawled out--mad as his predecessors had been. In time,
+however, he recovered more or less, and told a marvellous tale; though
+how far the poor fellow really believed it, and how far he was giving
+his tyrants their money's worth, so to speak, is a problem past our
+solving.
+
+He told how he had followed the cave till it widened out into a spacious
+meadow, down the middle of which meandered the stream that flowed from
+its mouth. On either side of the river stood stately palaces of marble
+(? stalactite formation), and in front of these, on thrones of gold set
+with jewels, sat all the kings of the Jann, attended by their houris and
+their vassals. They summoned the intruder before their _diwan_, and
+sentenced him to instant death for having violated their privacy: but on
+his plea of strong compulsion, he was reprieved and released; though
+awful warnings were uttered against any other profane person who should
+presume to enter this their sanctuary.
+
+Such is the story told to us by the Patriarch of the Nestorian Church; a
+gentleman who is sufficiently educated to smile at the superstitions of
+his fathers--at least during the day, and in European company. And
+anyone who will take magnesium wire and penetrate into the cavern, will
+certainly gain much local _kudos_, and may possibly have an interesting
+experience.
+
+"Will you come with us, your Grace, and see what is really in the cave?"
+we asked of the Patriarch when he had finished his story.
+
+"I will Rabbi--that is if you will go in first;" replied his
+Beatitude.[105]
+
+[Illustration: CHURCH OF MAR B'ISHU]
+
+Two roads lead from Diza of Gawar (the name Diza is a common one) down
+to the plain of Urmi; but we took the more difficult and picturesque,
+leading down the valley of Mar B'Ishu. This is one of the most famous of
+the shrines of the Nestorian Church, commemorating a hermit round whose
+cell a monastery subsequently gathered. The monastery has passed away,
+but a group of three Christian villages fill the valley (a small side
+gorge just off the main road); and here the church still stands, an
+unusually elaborate specimen of Nestorian architecture.
+
+Externally it is like all the mountain churches, a mere cube of masonry;
+though rather larger than usual, for in this case the external
+dimensions are an approximate square of eighty feet. The building has a
+stone vault, the flat mud roof of the country being superimposed as an
+outer covering. It was, however, too great a feat for the mountain
+builders to throw an arch of eighty feet span, twenty feet being as much
+as they could compass; and hence the interior of the building is divided
+into the multitude of separate chapels and vestibules, sacristies and
+baptisteries, as shown on the plan--a plan which may give some idea of
+the building, but can make no claim to accuracy.
+
+Windows are almost unknown in the mountain churches, the sanctuary in
+particular being almost pitch dark at all times; and the door, to avoid
+risk of desecration,[106] is seldom more than three feet in height.
+Close by the church is the cell in the cliff (a small natural cavern)
+that was the hermitage of Mar B'Ishu, the _Rabban_. And here a freakish
+water-drip has formed a stalactite which has a rude resemblance to the
+human figure; and which is accordingly reverenced as a statue of the
+saint formed by angel's hands.
+
+Considered as a work of art, the statue does not do any great credit to
+its supernatural artists; but it is a most exceptional thing to find an
+image of any sort, or of any origin, reverenced by any member of the
+Nestorian Church. No Evangelical has a greater dislike for anything that
+savours of "idolatry." Even pictures are rigorously forbidden in their
+churches; though curtains and the like are employed to as great an
+extent as their means allow. As an "ornament," only the plain cross (in
+wood or metal), with no figure upon it, is permitted; and this, lying on
+a table at the entry of the sanctuary, is kissed by every worshipper as
+he enters the church. No other sacred symbol is ever introduced.
+
+If the Nestorians, however, are "Protestant" enough in some ways to
+satisfy the most rigid of English Evangelicals, they have some other
+customs that would considerably startle those good people; and
+conspicuous among these is their rite of animal sacrifice. This church
+of Mar B'Ishu is one of many in the land which are "Lord of Name"; and
+whither folk bring regularly goats and sheep, and sometimes even oxen,
+that they may be solemnly sacrificed at the church door.
+
+The rite is practically the same as described in Leviticus, except that
+there is no burning of any part of the offering. The animal is brought,
+and its throat cut by the man who brings it; after which the priest
+takes of the blood and "strikes in on the lintel of the door" of the
+church. A solemn feast then takes place on the flesh of the sacrifice,
+the priest having his regular perquisites of hide and shoulder. The
+custom has the look of an Old Testament survival; but as a matter of
+fact, we suspect that it is far older than Moses. We may have here
+essentially the same sacrifices as those which were old in this land in
+the days when Abraham went forth from it; and which Moses merely
+codified in the wilderness some centuries after Abraham had taught them
+to his sons.
+
+Sacrifice, it must be remembered, is not peculiar to these Nestorians.
+Yezidis, as already mentioned, practise similar rites. And every
+Mussulman will do the same at least once in the year; for on the _Korban
+Bairam_ he always sacrifices an animal of some sort, in remembrance of
+Father Abraham's sacrifice, not of Isaac (as Jews and Christians
+erroneously say), but of Ishmael.
+
+At first it seems strange, and contrary to the whole tenor of the New
+Testament, to find Christians still persisting in the sacrifices of the
+old dispensation. But an Oriental has usually a good reason at the back
+of his mind for everything that he does; if only the Western can have
+the patience to find it, and to remember that European lines are not the
+only ones on which the human intellect can work.
+
+In this case, if you ask him why he sacrifices, he is apt to reply, "Why
+not? It was the custom of my fathers of old, and can you show me any
+text that forbids it?"
+
+If you produce texts about "one offering," or any others of the sort, he
+has still a thrust to deliver that it is hard to parry. "Excuse me, but
+is not Saint Paul's example as good as Saint Paul's precept,[107] which
+our fathers do not interpret in the same way as you do. He took the four
+young men, and saw to it that an offering was made for himself and every
+one of them. May we not do what Saint Paul did?"
+
+So the sacrifices continue: openly in this out-of-the-way corner of the
+world; and under the rose in better known parts, like Palestine, more
+frequently than many people believe. Nothing that ever was well
+established in the East has altogether ceased to exist in the hearts of
+men.
+
+The gorge narrows below Mar B'Ishu, passing the only fresh-water lake in
+Kurdistan, which was brought into being a few years ago by a great
+landslip. In the ravine is a curious series of springs charged so
+heavily with iron that the water looks almost blood colour as it wells
+out of the rock, and leaves deep crimson stains on the cliffs. Its taste
+is curiously acrid; and (as might be expected) it is freely used as a
+tonic, and is very good for the purpose.
+
+Local legend declares that it was by this road that the victorious
+Persians brought away the True Cross from Jerusalem, when Chosroës,
+after his capture of that city, sent the relic as a gift to his
+Christian queen, Shirin; and that healing waters sprang up wherever the
+bearers put down their sacred load.
+
+The gorge dies out in the curious fold of the hills that is called
+Mergawar at one point of its length, Tergawar at another, and other
+names at other places. It is not a true valley, for the rivers run
+across it and break through its boundary hills by deep gorges; but it
+forms, on the eastern side of the Hakkiari Mountains, much the same sort
+of moat as is formed on the southern side by the similar valley of
+Amadia.
+
+It provides an easy passage practicable in the depth of winter, from
+Armenia to Kirkuk and Baghdad. And it was probably for this reason that
+the Ottoman Government so coveted the possession of this district; for
+it afforded them the means of moving the Baghdad army corps to the
+Russian frontier, without making the long detour to the west that would
+otherwise be necessitated by the mountains of Kurdistan.
+
+Tergawar has always been a land of war, even when it was not a debatable
+land between Turkey and Persia. Here are several villages of
+Nestorians--as ever a good fighting stock; and these being tolerably
+well armed are chronically at feud with their Kurdish neighbours, a
+small broken clan recognizing no one head, and known as the "Begzadi."
+The principal Christian chief, a man of the name of Bajan, had a
+reputation as a warrior even among those who were men of war from their
+youth. His absolute fearlessness had brought him triumph repeatedly
+against the longest odds, and his enemies even esteemed him
+invulnerable. One day, in the heat of a fight, he forced his way
+single-handed into a house where five Kurds had gathered; and they
+surrendered to him in a body. When their friends chaffed them
+afterwards, saying, "Bajan is a good fighter, no doubt; but still he was
+but one, and you were five"; they simply replied, "Well, what could we
+do? We fired at him, and the bullets flattened on his coat."
+
+Even to this day old men who have served under John Jacob in India will
+say that they have seen him shake the bullets out of his tunic after a
+skirmish.
+
+Tough old Bajan is dead now, we regret to say; but dead in a way
+befitting. He went to help a Kurdish friend in battle, just from sheer
+love of a fight; and a bullet that took him behind the ear and came out
+at his forehead was too much even for his invulnerability.
+
+The Christians of the Tergawar villages (Marwana, Kurana, Balulan, and
+others) were good fighters, as has been said, but fairly good average
+Christians withal; though one owns sorrowfully that fiery old Bajan was
+"not so good a Christian as so good a knight should be." They were
+undeniably rowdy and turbulent, however; quarrelling among themselves
+almost as much as they did with the Kurds! Grazing rights and boundaries
+were usually the _casus belli_; a fruitful cause of bad blood, whether
+among the Dandie Dinmonts of Liddesdale or the borderers of Persia and
+Turkey.
+
+As Christians, they have, of course, their clergy; but these are
+peasants like themselves, living as they do, and hardly better taught.
+The _qashi_ or priests may indeed be able to read the services, and it
+is not the thing for them to take part actually in the tribal battles.
+But this disability does not apply to the deacons (_shamashi_), who in
+the Nestorian Church form a regular grade in the ministry, with regular
+duties of their own, and are not merely candidates for the priesthood.
+These may go out to fight if the case requires it; and more than one
+reverend deacon among them leads the fighting as efficiently as he leads
+the prayers.
+
+One prominent Kurdish Agha, a certain Bedr Khan Beg, takes out his
+Christian village to battle, as readily as his Kurdish one: and the
+village deacon is his second in command.
+
+This Bedr Khan Beg is no relation whatever to his famous (or infamous)
+namesake of Bohtan, of whom we make mention elsewhere. He is a chief of
+the Begzadi Kurds whose prowess and activity have won him much local
+reputation, but who can boast no such formidable following as the
+Sheikhs of Neri or Barzan. For ourselves, we feel bound to speak well of
+him; for did he not once offer, out of pure goodwill, to make
+proclamation in the district that if we or any of our servants had to
+complain of any molestation, "I, Bedr Khan Beg, will hang at least two
+Kurds every time!" It is true that we scrupled to lay ourselves under
+such an obligation to him; but Bedr Khan Beg (like General Robert
+Craufurd) had a reputation of being uncommonly likely to carry out his
+threats.
+
+He adopted a similar expedient with conspicuous success a little later.
+Some citizen of Urmi owed him money, and refused to discharge his just
+debt. Accordingly he published his intention of killing one _Seyyid_ a
+month until such time as he received payment. Urmi _Seyyids_ are mostly
+_Shiahs_, whereas Bedr Khan Beg is a _Sunni_; though it may be doubted
+whether this was a point to which he attached much weight.
+
+The unfortunate _Seyyids_, of course, had no concern in the debt
+whatever; but they are the most influential caste in Urmi. And now, to
+save their own skins, they began to apply pressure to the debtor: which
+was exactly what Bedr Khan Beg had calculated upon all along![108]
+
+Of the two bishops who control the church in this land, one (now dead)
+was a feeble old man, noted only for possessing in his house the
+fiercest fleas in all Mergawar. The other, however, is of a different
+stamp. Not that one counts him as precisely an ideal Prelate, seeing
+that he occasionally has to stop to spell a word in the service, and
+would be put to it to write his own name. However, in Kurdistan you are
+not in the twentieth century, but in the fourteenth--or perhaps the dark
+ages outright--and in those times Mar Dinkha of Tergawar might readily
+be paralleled in England. There was a Bishop Beaumont of Durham who made
+five or six shots at the word _episcopalis_ in the reading of a formal
+document; and finally swore a round oath--said _soit pour dit_--and went
+on. Now we have often heard Mar Dinkha stumble, but we have never heard
+him swear!
+
+There are better precedents for his lack of learning, too, than mediæval
+England can furnish. The "Apostolical Constitutions" (a fourth century
+composition) distinctly contemplate the existence of illiterate bishops
+as a very possible phenomenon. "If the bishop cannot write, he should be
+at least possessed of native shrewdness," says the author of the
+compilation. Is not the age of Nicaea a good time for precedents, O
+purist in matters ecclesiastical? Mar Dinkha would pass the test
+proposed there; and his discipline, if of the roughest, is perhaps for
+that reason the better suited for his flock. Once he came to his friends
+of the Archbishop's Mission with a request for a new pastoral staff. The
+old one (a stout stick of oak) had "become broken" over the back of a
+village _qasha_ (rector) whom he found ploughing on Sunday!
+
+In the year 1903 the chronic trouble among these disorderly elements
+blazed up in a notable conflagration. Grazing quarrels started it, as
+usual; but it must be owned that the hotheads among the Christians did
+their best to aggravate matters. They had a trick of ridiculing the
+differences between _Shiah_ and _Sunni_ among the Mussulmans, by
+labelling one dog "Ali" and another "Mohammed," dressing them up as
+soldier and _mollah_, and then setting them to fight; and this might
+well have angered more peaceable people than their Begzadi neighbours.
+It was not surprising that a confederacy was formed to attack the guilty
+village of Mawana, which was then at open feud with its Christian ally
+of Balulan, and so appeared an easy prey.
+
+If the men of Mawana had gone out of their way to provoke the quarrel,
+at least they fought it out stoutly. Finding how formidable was the
+confederacy against them, they gathered together--some fifty fighters in
+all--and went up in a body to the church of the village. There each and
+all kissed the cross, as a solemn committal of their cause to God, and
+then commenced the fighting. Though outnumbered seven to one they beat
+back four assaults in the course of seven days. "And in that time," as
+they told proudly after, "not any of the houses of our village were
+burnt, save one; and that belonged to a man of the Protestants, who had
+refused to come and kiss the cross with the rest of us." Still, as their
+cartridges ran low, the matter began to look ugly; for if the Kurds
+should ever be able to close, numbers must tell their tale.
+
+On the seventh night of the siege help came unexpectedly. Over the hill
+lay the other Christian village of Balulan, just then at open feud with
+Mawana, and so without immediate concern in this quarrel. Still, as they
+heard of the siege, they began to grow more and more restive. Ablahad,
+the village deacon, at last gathered all the men together, told them
+that now they must forget the feud, and called for volunteers to go down
+with him and help their brethren. Soon he had as many as he wanted, a
+picked band, with all the cartridges they could carry. Old Bajan could
+not give them leave to go, but he carefully and ostentatiously looked
+the other way; and the little party stole out that night to put their
+lives in hazard for their enemies.
+
+The deacon knew his ground; and (strictly enjoining his men to hold
+their fire) he led them straight down upon one of the strongest Kurdish
+pickets. There was a challenge--and no reply. The sentry fired--and the
+startled picket sprang to their feet. It was the chance for which
+Ablahad was waiting! One shattering volley at close quarters disabled
+eight and twenty of the enemy. The Christians were through the leaguer,
+and entered Mawana without losing a man, and with their supply of
+cartridges intact.
+
+Nor was this all their success; for so badly were the besiegers' nerves
+shaken that (thinking the relieving force to be far larger than it
+really was) they raised the siege that night, and departed to their
+homes. "And when men arose in the morning and looked out, thanks be to
+God, the enemy had departed."
+
+Gallant _shamasha_ Ablahad did not live long after his brilliant
+success. About a fortnight later he, with a party of Mawana men, was
+caught in a little isolated village by overwhelming numbers of Kurds.
+The Kurds, to their credit be it said (though fully aware of his recent
+exploit), offered him leave to depart in safety and honour as soon as
+they learned of his presence among their foes. Bedr Khan Beg himself,
+the leader of their party, came forward in person to bring the message
+before the firing began.
+
+"We have no quarrel with you, _shamasha_; nor with Bajan your Lord. And
+we seek for none. Do you go your way," he cried. "But for these men of
+Mawana there is blood between us and them and we must settle it here."
+
+"I thank you for your offer," replied the deacon firmly. "But I am here
+with my friends, and I will see it out with them."
+
+The fight was desperate; but it could have but one ending. The houses
+were fired; and though the defenders cut their way through the walls
+from room to room hoping to escape under cover of the smoke, they had
+finally to choose between suffocation and coming out into the open. And
+there the little band were shot down to the last man.
+
+And so died Ablahad the deacon, surely by as good a death as a man need
+wish to die.
+
+Bedr Khan Beg reported the facts himself to the English in Urmi;
+pointing out that really under the circumstances he could do no
+otherwise than stand by the faith of Islam in the fight; "but you will
+understand that my heart is the same as ever, and there is no breach of
+friendship between me and you."
+
+Picturesque and grand as the fighting days were, they came to an end
+shortly after this episode. In 1906 the Persian Government determined to
+make an effort to reduce the Kurds to order; and some sort of force was
+sent up to the mountains for the purpose, the Christians being called on
+to assist the Persian Government in the work. Unfortunately the Turkish
+authority took this opportunity to intervene, and to secure (as they
+hoped) a border province which they coveted. A small Turkish force was
+sent for the purpose, probably in response to some appeal of the Kurds
+for help; and at its appearance the Persian army fled to Urmi in the
+most absurd panic. As for their allies, the Assyrians of the Tergawar
+villages, whom they had called to arms on their side (and who alone had
+behaved decently on that day of shame), nobody gave a second thought to
+them. So the villages they had defended so long and so gallantly were
+plundered by the Kurds at last, the Turks making no effort to prevent so
+ordinary an incident of war. After the Persian army had fled, it was the
+men of the villages who, under their own leaders and against heavy odds,
+covered the retreat of their women and children.
+
+For some time the Tergawar men were refugees in Urmi plain; and some of
+them were accommodated there in villages built by local notables, who
+were glad of the opportunity of securing that valuable economic factor,
+a good head of labour for their estates. When the Ottoman occupation of
+the border province seemed to be assured, many of them ventured back to
+their homes, and reoccupied some at least of their villages. But with
+the evacuation of the disputed territory by the Ottomans, as a
+consequence of the need of all possible troops in the Balkans, the face
+of events was altered once again. However, in the interval, Urmi had
+become to all intents and purposes Russian territory; and if the
+province is nominally Persian, it is practically under Russian rule. The
+rule of the Muscovite may not be all that one would wish, but at least
+he is not likely to sanction open war between the tribes; and if only
+order is guaranteed, the Christians may hope to be able to live in the
+future more tranquilly, if less picturesquely, than they have done in
+the past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+TWIGS OF A WITHERED EMPIRE
+
+(URMI)
+
+
+On their eastern side the Hakkiari Mountains subside into the plain of
+Urmi, and the journey down to that town from Tergawar is quite a tame
+affair after such wild experiences as are furnished by Jilu and Baz. We
+have merely to cross the last two down-like ridges of mountain, and then
+the country changes, with the startling suddenness induced by
+irrigation, to a fertile crop-covered plain, plentifully chequered with
+trees.
+
+Ten years ago Urmi town was but an overgrown village, crowded with mean
+houses of sun-dried mud brick, and girdled with crumbling mud walls.
+Only occasionally did a gateway of burnt brick, with some pretensions to
+architecture, usher one into the courtyard of some notable; into a
+garden constructed exactly on the lines depicted in the Assyrian
+sculptures, and a house in a state of more or less disrepair. Within the
+walls the city remains thus to this day; though recent changes have
+promoted the growth of a suburb with an air of "underdone Tiflis," where
+Persians have produced a bad imitation of the Russian imitation of
+European style.
+
+By far its most picturesque feature (not excepting even the mosque
+courtyards) is its great Bazaar. This is a good specimen of the usual
+Persian type, which is far more ambitious than the Turkish. It is a maze
+of ill-lit corridors, roofed with domical brick vaults, and lined on
+either side with the booths of the merchants and artificers. It will be
+long ere a visitor's eyesight can accustom itself to the darkness, and
+longer still ere his "bump of locality" can master the intricate
+windings of the passages. He will enter in to explore them joyfully, for
+they are a perfect feast of Oriental _genre_ subjects depicted in the
+richest of subdued harmonious colouring; but if he wishes to emerge
+again, he had better charter a guide!
+
+The alleys are lit only by small holes pierced in the crowns of the
+vaulting; and so solid seem the beams of light that fall athwart the
+dustladen gloom, that the passenger instinctively checks his pace before
+he ventures to breast them.
+
+The townsfolk are mostly Persians; and the typical costume of the lower
+classes consists of rather loose trousers, with a wide-skirted tunic
+coming down as low as the knee and girt at the waist with a sash. Over
+this they usually wear a sleeveless jacket of brown frieze, and the cap
+is of light brown felt, shaped like half a gourd. It is practically the
+same dress that we see represented as Persian on the old Greek
+sculptures. Richer men wear a full-skirted coat of dark blue, with a cap
+of black astrachan.
+
+The working women wear much the same costume as the men, except that the
+tunic is rather longer, and the trousers rather tighter. Also, the
+colour of their garments is usually dull red, while that of the men is
+blue or grey; and they muffle the upper part of the body in a voluminous
+wrapper of indigo blue. The country women, when they have finished their
+marketing, are accustomed to discard their trousers directly they get
+outside the city gate. They then pack their purchases in the legs, and
+march off with them on their necks like a yoke, quite unconscious of the
+least impropriety!
+
+Urmi plain is a proverb for richness in Persia, and its cultivators
+(Christian for the most part) have an hereditary skill in their art.
+They grow some seven and twenty varieties of grape, and the export of
+raisins to Russia is a very large one. The grapes when gathered are
+dipped in a strong solution of lye to keep off wasps, and so exposed to
+dry for a fortnight on earthen floors sloping to the sun. Few things in
+the country are more striking than the mass of purple and golden grapes
+on such a floor, resembling, but far surpassing in richness, one of the
+famous carpets of the land.
+
+The Persian summer is reliable, or such a method would be impossible;
+for anything like a sprinkle of rain during the drying time is ruin for
+the crop of the year.
+
+The frontier line between Persia and Turkey may be uncertain, but at
+least the customs go on; and we found the authorities in that department
+waiting for us where we entered the plain. Our managing servant,
+however, is a master of strategy in these matters; and all the loads
+chanced to be lagging some distance behind, save one that carried the
+indispensable food-box. This was removed at the order of the Government,
+and opened; on which the first things to appear were the tea apparatus
+and the medicine chest. The sight of this last reminded the official
+that he had fever lately; "Could the Englishman spare him a little
+quinine?" Of course we could; and perhaps (as our servant suggested) he
+might like some tea also;[109] the English sahib was sure to want some
+while waiting for the loads to come up. There was a stream handy, and
+the invaluable "primus" stove in the box; so that the customs officer
+and the writer were amicably having tea together under a tree when the
+mules arrived.
+
+"Shall I take down the boxes?" said the wily Dinkha, smoothly.
+
+"_Wallah Effendim_, this English sahib is not a merchant! Pass upon your
+way, and may Allah go with you."
+
+And so, the customs barrier was passed; for politeness seldom fails in
+the East.
+
+On occasions, of course, things do not go so well. We remember the
+despair of an unfortunate American bride who had come out fresh to the
+country, with her husband, as missionaries. A dinner-set of rather good
+china (a wedding present) had preceded her by some weeks, and was
+waiting for her in her new home, where she eagerly unpacked it.
+
+It had been sent out to Trebizond, properly packed in hay and straw; but
+the officials there, being suspicious for some reason, had searched it
+to the very bottom--though of course without finding anything
+contraband. Then, to save themselves trouble, they had just stuffed the
+goods into the case again, without the hay packing; and as there was
+naturally some room to spare at the end, had thrown in some saucepans,
+flat-irons, and the iron weights of a lever weighing-machine, and so
+sent the whole on a three weeks' journey across country. Its condition
+at the end of that experience may be imagined. We believe that one plate
+had survived; and it now adorns, in the character of a monument, the
+lady's drawing-room wall!
+
+Urmi city and plain was the Mecca of one of the noblest of the religious
+faiths and philosophies that man has evolved for himself; for it was the
+birthplace of Zoroaster, and was for centuries a stronghold of the
+fire-worshippers' cult. Their most sacred shrine, Sirsh (now
+Takht-i-Sulieman), is a little to the south; and ruins of the greatest
+of the fire temples still stand there, beside the weird crater-lake of
+Zindan. Not a Zoroastrian, however (as far as we know), is found in this
+district now; though a few still cluster round the Towers of Silence at
+Resht, and there is, of course, an important community of them in
+Bombay. Even there, however, their numbers are disproportionate to their
+influence, and even those small numbers are diminishing.
+
+Once Urmi plain was their principal Holy Place; and even now, every
+village of importance stands on or near one of the great ash heaps
+(often covering acres of ground) that mark the sites where the sacred
+fires were kept perpetually burning. These memorials have fallen on very
+evil days lately; for the present owners of the land have found that
+good wood ash is one of the best of manures for their fields, and the
+heaps are steadily diminishing in consequence. Strange relics are
+uncovered in them at times, and are sold to the foreigner as _antikas_;
+though usually it is impossible to be certain where, or under what
+circumstances, they were found, and they lose much of their historical
+value in consequence. One such discovery suggested grim rites at one
+period, as a part of the Zoroastrian ritual; for several skulls were
+unearthed, the owners of which had been killed by copper nails hammered
+into the brains, and still resting embedded in the bone.
+
+Zoroaster was a reformer rather than a founder of a religion; and the
+sites that became fire-temples after his date (the seventh century
+before Christ) were probably shrines of some kind of worship for ages
+before that period. Thus the explorer can still find near them (and
+often buried under their advancing flanks as they grew in size) the
+tombs of chiefs of the Bronze Age, with spear-heads and sword-blades of
+that metal, and finely worked golden ornaments of a distinctive
+shell-like pattern. These were the tribes, one may suppose, that the
+Assyrians encountered, when (somewhere about 1000 B.C.) they tried to
+extend their empire into this fertile country, and fought a battle on
+the waters of the lake of which a picture still remains among their
+carvings. Their warriors were supported on inflated sheep-skins; a
+precaution that seems hardly necessary in such water, for Lake Urmi is a
+good second in the matter of buoyancy to the Dead Sea itself.
+
+The lake is of a good size, perhaps forty miles by eighty, though at no
+place is it more than about thirty feet in depth. Its saltness is
+remarkable, for the bather sits in deep water much as in an armchair,
+with his head and shoulders emerging. Swimming is difficult, for the
+legs are so apt to kick clean out above the surface; and on landing, any
+scratch or cut on the person makes its presence very noticeable. The
+rash British Consul who once took a header in, as he was accustomed to
+do in ordinary salt water, is not likely soon to forget his experience.
+
+It is, of course, a "dead sea," for there is absolutely nothing living
+in it save a variety of shrimp of low organization. All fish carried
+down into it by the rivers die at once. Still it is an exhilarating
+place for a swim, provided that a bucket of fresh water is available for
+a wash down before attempting to dry. There are rocky promontories on
+the shore at intervals, but, as a rule, the water is very shallow near
+the bank; a fact borne impressively into the consciousness of a member
+of the Royal Geographical Society who was making investigations in this
+land. His boat grounded hopelessly three-quarters of a mile from shore,
+and he had to wade that distance in waist-deep water with a muddy
+bottom; while every time he lifted a foot, a large bubble of
+sulphuretted hydrogen rose to the surface, and burst under his nose!
+
+St. Thomas the Apostle once crossed the lake--on his way to India as
+local tradition has it--but in a fashion less laborious and odoriferous
+than did the scientist. He walked on the water's surface; a smaller
+miracle in this case than some parallels in the lives of the saints, yet
+no small portent all the same. In memory of it all Urmi comes down for a
+solemn and ceremonial bathe in the waters on the anniversary of the
+passage, the fifteenth day of August. Other folk have to cross in boats,
+usually the very clumsiest craft that swim on any sheet of water in the
+world, with masts built after the style of an old-fashioned bear's pole.
+With a strong wind dead astern, they move perhaps two miles an hour, and
+may get over in a day and a night. In any other case the sail is hauled
+down, and they wait for better times; so that the voyage of forty miles
+may last for a week or even more. Latterly, enterprise has risen to a
+steamer, plying between the ports of Urmi and Tabriz, and passing
+through the winding channel that divides the two principal islands of
+the lake, "Sheep Island" and "Donkey Island." With luck, this craft may
+manage the passage (on the rare occasions when the engine does not break
+down and have to be repaired _en route_) in six hours. The regular
+programme, however, is a doleful remark from the engine-room "_Machina
+qizdi_," "The machine has lost its temper"; and a halt that may last
+some hours, or may endure for a day. As for the islands, they are
+uninhabited by man. How the second got its name we know not; but "Sheep
+Island" has some herds of wild sheep, which have been long enough
+isolated to develop some characteristic peculiarities in their very fine
+horns.
+
+Urmi is one of the most ancient centres of Christianity in the land; for
+if local tradition is to be trusted, the Faith was brought here by no
+less a person than one of the "Wise Men," who came from the East to the
+manger at Bethlehem. Oriental story, naturally, has nothing to say to
+their traditional migration to the city of Cologne; though it does
+include the three traditional names, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, as
+those of three of the band of twelve "Magi" who journeyed together to
+Palestine, looking for the fulfilment of the prophecy of that ancient
+initiate of their religion, Balaam the son of Beor. As for the identity
+of the Magian who came back to his home at Urmi, and brought the "Good
+News" with him; do not his revered bones rest to this day in the church
+of St. Mary in the city, and is not that proof enough? Like many another
+Oriental legend, it is at least more ancient, and less improbable, than
+is the story of the "Three Kings" of the city on the Rhine.
+
+Many beautiful traditions or parables gather round the visit of the Magi
+in the East, as in the West; and one of them may be recounted here. "Our
+fathers say" that when Adam went forth from the garden, he took with him
+two things as memorials of his lost Paradise. These were some of the
+spices that grew upon the Tree of Knowledge, and one branch gathered
+from the Tree of Life. They were preserved by his descendants in the
+East, as tokens that the lost inheritance would be given back again some
+day; and when at last the Wise Men knew that He had come, who was to
+restore it, and went forth to do Him homage, those spices were the
+frankincense that they offered at Bethlehem. The branch of the Tree of
+Life they took with them also, and left in Jerusalem; and there those
+who knew not what they did, took it, and used it for the cross-beam of
+the Tree on Calvary.
+
+Originally the church in Urmi, like that in the mountains, was of that
+"East Syrian" communion which its enemies called Nestorian. It is very
+certain, however, that the body did not teach what Nestorius of
+Constantinople was condemned for teaching, in the year 431; and indeed
+it is very doubtful whether either he or anybody else ever did so.
+
+It has since become the prey of foreign missions of various complexions,
+such as Russian Orthodox, French Roman Catholic, and American
+Presbyterian; each of which has been anxious to win the body over to
+what they are convinced is a much better form of Christianity, and could
+not conscientiously be content to leave it in its old independence,
+while recalling it to its own ancient rule. All three have achieved a
+good deal of success, and the "Old Church" is now a small minority; but
+to a member of the Church of England it appears doubtful whether the
+success was worth winning. Do you improve the Oriental Christian by
+taking him out of the Church of his fathers and inducing him to join any
+other body? He has his faults in the Old Church, and plenty of them; and
+there is an element of truth in the accusation so often thrown at him,
+that he is an invertebrate, backboneless creature--Christian, only
+because his fathers were Christian before him. There is no doubt that
+his religion is an external armour of inherited habit and belief; and
+that he is, so to speak, crustaceous rather than vertebrate in his
+spiritual construction. We will assume it as certain that all those who
+make this fact a reproach to him would themselves have become
+Christians, had they been born heathens or Mussulmans. Still, if a
+zealous reformer extracts the lobster from his shell (a feat which can
+be performed, if you disregard the lobster's feelings), even that
+drastic operation does not enable him to develop a backbone. He merely
+develops a fresh armour of habit, that may or may not be superior to the
+old. Further, invertebrate though the Oriental Christian may be (and,
+therefore, of course, of a far lower type than the vertebrate European
+Protestant), he has the peculiar powers of his species; and can endure
+an amount of cutting and hacking, without losing his faith, which would
+altogether destroy the spiritual life of a higher type of Christian. The
+gift of passive endurance may appear small to those who have it not; but
+at least it can claim Gospel approval.
+
+Even those who do not sympathize with "Mission Effort" usually admit
+readily that it has called out a wonderful devotion in those who give
+themselves to it, no matter what the particular form of their
+Christianity may be. It is true, however, in this as in other things,
+that "_corruptio optimi, pessima_"; and there is in Urmi and its
+neighbourhood a good deal of mission work gone bad.
+
+The various European missions (the word includes American in this case)
+are above reproach; none of their members taking more than a sufficient
+maintenance. But there are various small missions (usually managed
+entirely by natives but financed from Europe) which simply exist to
+provide a comfortable living for the native "pastor" who manages them.
+These profess usually to evangelize the Mussulmans, but as a matter of
+fact simply gather small congregations of men already Christian from
+among the relations of the "Missionary."
+
+It would be very much better if the good people who support these would
+put their work under the superintendence of some one of the larger
+missions in the place; and not install the Oriental in a position where
+opportunities for fraud are so easy that even a European might easily
+succumb to them.
+
+As for mission work among Moslems, there is practically none, in this
+province at any rate. Nothing but philanthropic and educational efforts
+are possible at present, so long as the _sheriat_ or "sacred law" is
+recognized by every Moslem as immeasurably superior to any civil
+enactments, and death consequently remains the legal penalty for every
+apostate from Islam.[110] How can the European missionary (himself
+necessarily protected) expect success, when he has to call his converts
+to face daily peril of death which his own European status forbids him
+to share?
+
+There is another point to be remembered. There is no doubt that
+Christianity if preached as the Asiatic faith which it really is, and
+not as the European religion which we have (inevitably and properly)
+made it for ourselves, can do much for the Islamic races. It is equally
+certain that those Islamic races can do much for Christianity. But,
+with all their reverence for Seyidna Isa (our Lord Jesus) Mussulmans
+will never accept Him, even as a superior prophet to their
+Hazrat-i-Mohammed, till they learn to respect the native Christians whom
+they see among them. So it would seem that all mission work must
+necessarily apply itself first to the uplifting of the native
+Christians, and leave the conversion of Islam to the future. Islam
+meanwhile has to face a great problem of its own; viz. will faith in
+their Prophet's teaching survive the impact of modern science, coupled
+with the political subjugation of the last great Moslem Powers? If not,
+what will take its place? For who dare contemplate such a phenomenon as
+a religionless East?
+
+Urmi considers itself a civilized and educated town, and all its
+prominent citizens wear the most correct of _alafranga_ clothes. Even
+the mysteries of the right relation of collar and tie have been mastered
+now, perplexing though the problem is. But behind all this aping of
+modernity one rejoices unfeignedly (if perhaps unrighteously) to find a
+good deal of primitive paganism. That oldest faith of the land, the
+aboriginal tree-worship, still lingers in the villages; and indeed is
+only despised by the townsfolk when the foreigner is within hearing.
+Does not the Sacred Tree of the village of Kerdami--a noble ilex of most
+unusual size--still command more than reverence? A rag from the garments
+of any sufferer from any disease has only to be tied on to one of its
+branches to secure relief infallibly. Once only has any man been known
+to treat it with any disrespect, when a profane villager of Protestant
+sympathies dared to abstract a fallen bough that was still sound enough
+to make a bridge for a wide irrigation cut in his field. Soon, however,
+he had reason to repent his temerity; for first the roof of his outhouse
+fell, and then his buffalo died; then his wife died, and finally his son
+fell ill. In terror at the series of calamities, he restored the bough
+and made a propitiatory offering at one of the neighbouring churches; on
+which the lad recovered. And none has dared to speak against the tree
+since!
+
+Churches at which offerings are made are numerous in the neighbourhood,
+and one of these, Mar Sergius,[111] is particularly famous in the land.
+This saint protects travellers provided that they offer a black lamb to
+him before setting out; but his special _métier_ is the curing of the
+"possessed," or _shidâni_--a name used both of lunatics and epilepts.
+The treatment in this case is that, after solemn prayer and benediction,
+the patient is consigned to a certain cell in the foundations of the
+church, which was once no doubt the abode of an ascetic. It is of
+"beehive" structure, and a regular "little ease" in pattern; for the
+inmate can neither sit, stand, nor lie in any comfort. There the sick
+person remains for a full night, or sometimes for twenty-four hours; and
+the fact is at all events past question, that a very fair proportion of
+those who submit to the discipline come out cured. It is of course a
+case of faith-healing, natural enough in people who have never been
+taught the modern heresy that the age of "miracles" is past; though we
+own that profane Europeans have suggested that as a solitary night in
+that vermin-swarming den might well drive a sane man mad, it is
+therefore conceivable that it might drive a mad person sane!
+
+Inscriptions in the church, by the way, indicate that under certain
+circumstances it is allowable to sleep in the _bait shidâni_ by proxy.
+We have read there the statement that "I, John, the son of Jacob, have
+slept here in the cell, on behalf of my sister Khua, who was unable to
+come. Grant, O Lord Almighty, that by the power of the prayers of Thy
+servant Mar Sergius, it may be profitable to her." Mussulmans are as
+ready to avail themselves of the curative powers of the shrine as are
+Christians; and we have known a party of Heriki make liberal offerings
+to the church, and attend a Christian service in the same, to testify
+their gratitude for the recovery of an epileptic girl.
+
+Many Mussulmans seem to hold that Christianity, whether of an ancient
+or modern type, has marvellous power against disease; and their belief
+received what they regarded as a signal confirmation when the cholera
+visited Urmi in 1905. Mussulmans took, of course, no precautions against
+it; for how could merely boiling the water frustrate the Will of Allah?
+The marvel is that the whole of their quarters of the town were not
+depopulated, when one considers the conditions under which they live. It
+was not unusual, for instance, to see dead bodies washed before burial
+in the conduit of drinking water! One can only assume a relative
+immunity, acquired originally, but transmitted by inheritance, to this
+and similar filth diseases; and the point may be worth study, as
+throwing light on the question whether acquired characteristics can pass
+by inheritance.
+
+Christians, as a general rule, took the precautions that the European
+missionaries advised: with the result that while four thousand
+Mussulmans died in the city alone (the numbers in the villages were
+unknown), only five individual Christians perished; and one of these was
+a Christian scientist who refused to boil his water. Mussulmans held
+that Azrael was showing undue partiality to infidels, and many of them
+even put the Cross over their doors to deceive him! One would like to
+investigate the state of mind that dictated that act! Fancy trying to
+fool the Angel of Death!
+
+There was, of course, a good deal of panic, and every stomach-ache was
+put down as cholera at first. One man even declared that he had seen the
+fatal microbes following the American doctor about, "like little dogs";
+but the general belief was that he had been indulging in strong
+prophylactics!
+
+Almost all the Mussulmans in Urmi itself, and the plain around it, are
+of the _Shiah_ persuasion, as good Persians should be. In consequence
+the celebrations of Mohurram are particularly striking. Long processions
+of mourners parade through the streets, beating their breasts, and
+mourning for the martyrs Hassan and Hosein; while occasional bands of
+devotees rush by in white garments striking at their shaven heads with
+the heavy "Mohurram knives" (which are really short broadswords of old
+Roman pattern), till the blood gushes out upon them. As the heads are
+shaven it is true that a light blow will draw blood, and that therefore
+the ceremony can be made a matter of display and little more. As a fact,
+however, there is no sham about it, for the feast scarcely ever passes
+without one man at any rate actually dying from his self-inflicted
+wounds; at least this was certainly the case before the Russian
+occupation.
+
+Practically Urmi is a Russian town now; and every good _Shiah_ must feel
+that Mohurram, with infidel bayonets to keep the streets clean and
+orderly, has been robbed of its soul if not of its outward pomp. The
+processions still take place of course, and are even more magnificent
+with increasing wealth; but "Ichabod"--where is the old glory? The
+occupation crept in gradually, and came unperceived; but it is there,
+and will continue. First came the purely religious mission, for the
+protection and education of those Christians who wished to become
+members of the Orthodox Church. Then a Consul had to be sent, to protect
+the resident Russian priests and monks. Next, to avert any possible
+peril for the Consul, there must be an escort of Cossacks for him; and
+when the Persian Government is manifestly so feeble that the road cannot
+be kept open even for the Royal Mail, what can Consul and Consul-General
+do but patrol the roads for the public good? And then behold the
+occupation as complete and permanent as that of the English in Egypt. In
+both cases, the result looks as if there had been a deep-laid and
+unscrupulous plan all along. In both cases there has been no such thing;
+but circumstances have pushed the men on the spot into action; and
+authority at home (with more or less of unwillingness) has had to
+acquiesce. Neither Power has been able to avoid the feeling, "_mea res
+agitur, paries cum proximus ardet_." It is all for the best for those
+most concerned, for now there is safety, comfort, wealth, and an even
+law for all; but all the same one's memory turns lovingly to the
+picturesque, dirty, disreputable days of a few years ago!
+
+In those days, a real _Seyyid_ (or even a sham one) had the rights that
+a Descendant of the Prophet ought to have.
+
+[Illustration: THE CITADEL ROCK, VAN.
+
+No. 9]
+
+He lived at free quarters where he chose (on Christian villagers mostly)
+and paraded the streets in a flowing purple robe with a green turban,
+which indicated by its folds and pattern whether the wearer was
+descended from the Prophet by the male or female line.
+
+He was hated by all creeds maybe, but he was feared by all
+notwithstanding; by Moslems for his supposed spiritual rank, by
+Christians for his undoubted worldly power. Woe to the Christian dog who
+presumed to shirk getting off his horse and standing at the salute when
+the _Seyyid_ rode by; it was an unmerited favour that he should be
+allowed to ride a horse at all!
+
+Of course, there are gibes against the clan in plenty: for the more
+grossly superstitious a man is, the more impossible he finds it to keep
+his tongue off the Church which nevertheless he dares not disobey. When
+all else is bound, it is hard if speech is not free!
+
+Thus we are told how Khoja Nazr-ed-din was sent out by his wife one day
+to buy egg-plants for dinner.
+
+"Don't know what they are like," said the Khoja.
+
+"Mudhead," said his wife, "there are lots in the market--fat purple
+things with green heads."
+
+"Oh, I know then," said the khoja; and he came back with a _Seyyid_ in
+full robes.
+
+"Here's the egg-plant, wife. What shall I do with it?" he demanded.
+
+"Rip it open and cut off its head," came the voice from the kitchen,
+"and then put it in the pot."
+
+The khoja, obedient man, did his best to follow instructions, and a very
+dishevelled _Seyyid_ succeeded in escaping into the street.
+
+Khoja[112] Nazr-ed-din is a sort of Oriental Joe Miller, upon whom any
+story can be fathered, from Stamboul to Kandahar. But how completely the
+"Arabian Nights" atmosphere survives in Urmi to this day may be judged
+from the following story, which was told to us as a true one, and which
+the narrator at any rate believed implicitly. Let us call it,
+
+
+THE STORY OF HAJI KAS, AND HOW HIS OWN SON BOUGHT HIM
+
+There lived of late in the city of Urmi a _Seyyid_ of the _Seyyids_,
+whose name was Haji Kas. And he was a rich man and a powerful, who had
+thrice performed the Pilgrimage to Mecca; and who was a friend to the
+governor and the kadi, and had in repute among the mollahs and imaums.
+
+Now it is said by the Poet (upon whom be peace), "if thy neighbour hath
+made the Pilgrimage once, beware of him; if twice remove into the next
+street." And Haji Kas had three times made the Pilgrimage. Wherefore all
+men feared him greatly, for he regarded neither God nor man.
+
+Now there was a certain householder in the city who had a garden which
+Haji Kas coveted; and forasmuch as he would not sell, Haji Kas reviled
+him and persecuted him, and brought false accusation against him before
+the kadi in the courts of law. So that householder went to his house
+sorrowful and sore vexed; and sat him down in an inner chamber, and ate
+not, and covered his face.
+
+Howbeit that householder had a wife, and she was a fair woman and a
+wise; and when she saw her husband sorrowing, she said unto him, "What
+aileth thee, O my lord, that thou eatest nothing and art sad?" And he
+answered, "Because of Haji Kas the _Seyyid_; for he seeketh to take from
+me my garden, and hath brought false accusation against me; and moreover
+the kadi hath eaten bribes at his hand." And the woman laughed, and
+said, "Truly, thou doest ill to fret thyself for such a matter. Leave
+Haji Kas to me. I will give thee vengeance on Haji Kas."
+
+So the woman arose in the morning, and donned her fairest raiment, and
+perfumed herself with musk, and painted her eyes with kohl; and she took
+her veil, and went forth, and came to the street where Haji Kas dwelt.
+And as the _Seyyid_ passed by, she drew aside her veil and ogled him,
+and said, "O Moslem, canst thou tell me the dwelling-place of Haji Kas?"
+And Haji Kas answered, "I am he. What wouldst thou with me?" And she
+drew aside her veil further, and smiled, and said, "Thy servant is a
+woman of Teheran,[113] and married to a man of Urmi. And my husband hath
+gone on a journey, and hath sent me a writing of divorcement. And behold
+my neighbours said unto me, 'Seek not advice of any in this matter, save
+only of the upright Haji Kas.'"
+
+(The narrator dwelt on the flirtation lovingly, and at great length, but
+here we are obliged to curtail it.)
+
+Then Haji Kas lighted down from his horse, and took her by the hand and
+said, "O my lady of beauty, verily in this matter thy neighbours
+counselled thee well." But the woman drew away from him, and veiled
+herself, and answered, "It is not meet that we talk together in the
+street at this time. Come to my house at sundown, and I will give thee
+welcome; and there shalt thou instruct me in all that it behoves me to
+do."
+
+So Haji Kas arose after nightfall, and went secretly to the house that
+the woman had appointed to him; and she opened to him, and set meat and
+drink before him; and while they made merry together, behold, there was
+a knocking at the door. And the woman went softly to hearken; and she
+said, "It is my husband. Lo! he is returned from his journey, and I wist
+not aught of his coming; and I fear that he will do us a mischief, if he
+find us together in the house."
+
+Then said Haji Kas, "I conjure thee, O my lady, that thou show me a way
+of escape." But she answered, "There is no other door. Hide thee in this
+great chest; I only have the key thereof, and when my husband is
+departed then straightway I will set thee free."
+
+So Haji Kas entered the chest, and the woman turned the key upon him.
+And she opened the door to her husband, and said, "A greeting to thee!
+Behold, I have taken Haji Kas in the snare that I have laid." And the
+man said, "Where is he?" And she answered, "He is in that chest. Cord
+it tightly, and we will eat and be merry, and thereafter we will take
+counsel what we shall do with Haji Kas."
+
+And when the morning morrowed, the man arose, and said, "What shall we
+now do with Haji Kas? Come let us open the chest, and I will beat him
+and let him go." But the woman said, "Not so. Call thou hither a porter,
+and lay the chest upon his shoulders, and bid him bear it to the bazaar;
+and let Achmet the salesman cry it for sale to the highest bidder; but
+charge him to sell it unopened; no man shall know what is in it, until
+that it is sold." Then the man did as the woman had bidden him, and the
+porter departed to the bazaar.
+
+And as he was going down he met a water-seller; and the water-seller
+said, "A greeting to thee. Whither goest thou?" And he answered, "I bear
+this chest to the bazaar." Then said the water-seller, "What is in it?"
+And the porter said, "Nay that I know not, for no man may know what is
+in it till it is sold."
+
+Then the water-seller went near and hearkened; and he said, "There is
+some living thing within it. Beware lest it be a jinn. Peradventure it
+will do thee hurt." And the porter dropped the chest, and sprang away
+from it, and cried, "I take refuge with Allah from Satan the stoned."
+
+Then the water-seller answered, "See now this pool of water. It is my
+counsel that thou sink the chest awhile therein."
+
+Now when Haji Kas heard that saying he cried aloud out of the chest,
+saying "See thou do it not, for I am the _Seyyid_, Haji Kas." And the
+porter answered, "Nay, but this is a cunning jinn." And Haji Kas cried,
+"By Allah, I am indeed the _Seyyid_, and if thou let me go I will give
+thee a great reward."
+
+But the porter said, "Not so; for I have been paid my hire and my charge
+is laid upon me. If then I deliver not the chest to Achmet, who will
+henceforth employ me in the bazaar?"
+
+Then Haji Kas spake to the water-seller saying, "I pray thee then,
+friend, that thou will hie thee to the house of my son; and bid him
+haste to the bazaar, and buy the chest of Achmet, how great soever may
+be the price thereof. And let him bear it away unopened, that I be not
+discovered therein."
+
+So the water-seller ran to bear the message, and the porter took the
+chest and bore it to the bazaar.
+
+And Achmet the salesman took the chest and set it on the bench before
+him, and he cried aloud, "O Moslems, I have for sale a chest--a chest
+and all that is in it. What will ye give me for the chest, and for the
+contents of the chest?"
+
+And the merchants said, "What is in the chest?" And Achmet answered,
+"Nay that I know not, for none may know what is in it until that it is
+sold." Then the merchants came together; and one said, "It is a good
+chest. I will give a toman[114] for it." And another said, "I will give
+two tomans." Then came to them the son of Haji Kas, breathless with much
+running, and he cried aloud unto the salesman, saying, "Oh, Achmet, sell
+me the chest for five tomans." And a Jew merchant answered, "I will give
+six tomans"; and the Haji's son said, "I will give thee twelve!"
+
+Then the merchants spake one to another, saying, "Verily we know not
+what is in the chest; but behold the Haji's son knoweth, and it seemeth
+that it is a thing of price. Of a surety it is smuggled tobacco from the
+warehouse of the Sheikh; or maybe hashish, and worth much gold." And
+they that were aforetime backward were now eager to buy.
+
+But though many bid for the chest, yet the Haji's son bid higher, and
+Achmet the salesman sold him the chest for sixty tomans; and he wiped
+his brow, and paid the money and called a porter to bear the chest away.
+
+But the porter who had brought the chest had stood by, listening to the
+bidding; and he laughed till his legs gave way beneath him, and he
+rolled on the ground in his mirth. And while the merchants wondered at
+him, he gat his breath, and sat up, and cried aloud, and said, "By
+Allah, O Moslems, was there ever seen the like? This man hath bought his
+own father for the price of sixty tomans. Haji Kas the _Seyyid_ is in
+that great chest!"
+
+And when the merchants heard that saying, they ran upon the chest and
+brake it open; and Haji Kas sat up, and blinked at them therein. And all
+the merchants laughed till the bazaar rang with their laughter; and they
+held their sides, and the tears ran down their faces, and they rolled on
+the ground whooping, even as the porter had done.
+
+Then Haji Kas arose, and gat him out of the chest; and he and his son
+slank away in shame together. And it came to pass after a few days, that
+he sold his house, and all that appertained to him in that city, and
+departed into another country, and returned to Urmi no more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governors in the old days did not often lift their hands against the
+_Seyyids_; the experience of those who tried to do so, teaching them
+wisdom. Twice the effort was made; but in each instance the privileged
+corporation that had religious sentiment behind it was able to win. Once
+the Vali-Ahd[115] had tried to meet the undoubted difficulty caused by
+the fact that no governor could keep the Kurdish raiders in order, by
+making the biggest brigand of the countryside Governor of Urmi province;
+on the same principle as a certain King of England once made The O'Neill
+Viceroy of Ireland. The Governor, Hassan Beg of the Marku Kurds, was at
+least commendably energetic; and being, like all Kurds, a _Sunni_, he
+despised all _Shiahs_ equally, whether they were _Seyyids_ or not. He
+began operations by blowing a batch of them from guns--a fate which they
+probably richly deserved, but which roused much scandal, for no amount
+of hereditary sanctity will get you to Heaven in little bits! But
+presently one such victim escaped. He bribed the artillery-men; and they
+put him with his arm round the gun's muzzle, instead of with his back to
+it. (The execution took place in the midst of a big parade-ground, so
+that the fraud was not too conspicuous.) Bang went the gun: but the holy
+man stood unharmed. Up went the cry, "A miracle! a miracle!" and the mob
+immediately assaulted the governor's house. He had taken the precaution
+of bringing a garrison of his own tribesmen with him to his new post,
+so the attack failed; but he thought it more prudent to leave the city
+that night and go home. His tenure of the governorship of Urmi had been
+brief; but like the kingship of Roumania was "always a pleasant
+reminiscence."
+
+In the year 1902 another governor, one Mejid-es-Sultaneh, also attempted
+reform. He proposed to clean the streets and have a pure water-supply; a
+scheme which was admirable as far as it went, though an American
+missionary in the town did suggest that "his Excellency had better make
+the streets before he scrapes them." Another aspiration of his,
+expressed in the words that there would never be any real reform in
+Persia, "till one can see a _Seyyid_ hanging on every tree round Urmi,"
+was also a perfectly sound one; but unfortunately he lacked the power to
+execute his admirable ideas. Thus, when Mohurram came round, friction
+began. By immemorial custom a deputation of _Seyyids_ waits on the
+governor at that feast; for then (like the Jews of old) they have the
+right to demand that he "release unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they
+will." Mejid-es-Sultaneh was willing enough to honour custom, but had
+let the college of _Seyyids_ know, unofficially, that there was one man
+whom they were not to ask for. It had cost some trouble to get him into
+the jail, and he was to hang. They accepted at once this challenge to a
+trial of strength, and demanded that man and no other. The governor had
+the whole deputation thrashed and turned out of his house; sending
+orders to the prison to hang the man without more ado.
+
+The _Seyyids_ were naturally furious; and they were able to pull strings
+at Teheran till Mejid-es-Sultaneh was exiled. He only escaped
+confiscation of his property by executing a hurried deed of gift of the
+whole of it, in legally binding form, to an English merchant at Tabriz.
+He trusted absolutely, and justifiably, to that man's verbal promise
+that the income should be paid over to him, and the capital restored if
+ever the original owner were in a position to claim it again.
+
+As for trial, or any pretence of justice, even for a man in this
+position, there was none. Such things are mere empty words to a ruler
+who on another occasion invited a prominent Kurdish chief to a
+conference, swearing on the Koran that, if he came, he should leave
+Tabriz in safety and honour. The Kurd (Jaffar Agha by name) came on that
+assurance. He had his conference and started home, loaded with honours
+and decorations. One hundred yards from the gate of Tabriz he was called
+back for a last word. He returned fearlessly; entered the reception
+room--and was shot dead from behind a grating. So the Shah kept faith
+with a man who trusted to his honour.
+
+Under such rule, government broke down utterly and absolutely in Persia;
+and the Turks took the opportunity of carrying out the aggression
+mentioned in the previous chapter, and occupying the strip of frontier
+they had long coveted. Not content with this, they encouraged a system
+of open raids over the whole district of Urmi, with the avowed intention
+of showing the Persians "you cannot control or bridle these Kurds, and
+so you had better let us do it, for we can." The writer was in Urmi at
+the time; living, as an Englishman does in these lands, in personal
+sanctuary. To shoot an Englishman is too dangerous an amusement
+(fascinating though it admittedly is) for any gentleman to indulge
+in--unless the temptation is very great indeed. The experience was
+interesting; for what one saw was anarchy, apparently with no power of
+redemption. _Vis consili expers_ the Government of Persia had always
+been; and when at last it fell under the weight of its own corruption,
+there was no force left to set up any fresh rule at all. Folk had been
+accustomed to look to the _Hukumet_ for everything; and when it was gone
+they lacked the political instinct to set up anything to take its place.
+
+The strangest rumours circulated: such as the statement that a caravan
+of five hundred camels had arrived in Tabriz from Russia, loaded with
+nothing but _tanzimat_ (reform); or that "Enjuman Effendi" (Monsieur
+Parliament) had been appointed governor of the land by the Shah, and
+that he was a very great man and had very many wives. The collapse of
+the central Government did not, however, affect daily life in the
+villages; except that the raiding bands of Kurds walked about the
+countryside rather more at their ease than was the case normally.
+
+In one instance a party of twelve robbers marked down a village some
+thirty miles from the frontier; looted it, and insolently drove their
+plunder along the high roads to their own home again. They made no
+attempt at concealment or even hurry; and ten miles per diem being about
+the limit that a sheep can be taken comfortably, the process must have
+occupied three days at the least. It is true that the Turkish Governor,
+on hearing of the exploit, did insist on the return of the animals,
+greatly to the disgust of the raiders. However, they did not go quite
+without profit; for finding that the beasts had got to go back, they
+took the precaution of shearing them first!
+
+At the time, we were endeavouring to give the local "Nestorian" clergy a
+week's instruction in matters pastoral and devotional. As part of the
+course, we ordered the whole gathering to write a sermon on the text,
+"As lambs in the midst of wolves." We could not help feeling a profane
+sympathy with the teaching propounded in one of the discourses;--that
+undoubtedly Christians were lambs, as Scripture said; but that what was
+most needful under the circumstances was that they should develop the
+teeth and claws of wolves! The doctrine received practical support from
+an incident that occurred before the week ended, when two of the deacons
+present announced, "By your leave, _Rabbi_, we must go."
+
+"And wherefore, O deacon?"
+
+"Because our village is being attacked by Kurds, _Rabbi_; and it is
+needful for us to go and help beat them."
+
+Leave was given readily enough; but when was a respectable "retreat"
+interrupted by such an incident before?
+
+As for the official who was called Governor of Urmi, he sat in the
+walled town, and did nothing. Once he expressed a general hope that
+things would go better in the near future; because he had hired a
+murderer to assassinate Bedr Ismail Agha, the man who was doing most of
+the raiding at the time. But even the rôle of First Murderer in the
+Government troupe was bungled; a gratuitous bit of mismanagement, for
+there was plenty of talent for the part.
+
+Christian townships in the neighbourhood, finding themselves in daily
+risk of plunder, sent in to complain to his Excellency; and "soldiers"
+were actually ordered to go out and protect them. They started; but
+returned in two hours, stating that they had heard a rumour that there
+were Kurds on the road. They had, of course, never dreamed of doing
+anything to molest the people they were sent out to punish; but in
+compensation, they had robbed all the unfortunate villagers, Christian
+and Mussulman alike, whom they met upon the way coming to seek shelter
+in the town!
+
+When one of the townships in question, Gukhtapa, renewed its request for
+some sort of protection, the governor could only regret his inability to
+afford any assistance "because the soldiers say that they won't go." He
+generously offered to send Kurdish irregulars of another tribe, Marku
+men, who might be persuaded to "sit in the village." "Thank you," said
+the applicants, "but of the two we prefer the robbers who will go away
+again, to the robbers who will sit there indefinitely." They then took
+their own measures for protection; giving hospitality to a party of
+Tergawari Christians, driven from their homes by the Turkish aggression,
+and glad to earn their living by so congenial an occupation as fighting
+for it.
+
+Ultimately, the Ottoman Government sent a "High Commissioner" to settle
+the disputed frontier; and the official who appeared was that genial
+general-utility man of the Empire, Tahir Pasha of Mosul. He settled
+himself quite comfortably in the house of the Ottoman Consul; a
+gentleman who (to give a touch of farce to the tragically comic opera
+that all concerned were playing) was one of the most successful of those
+"Jilu men" referred to in a previous chapter. This genius had
+accumulated quite a fortune by collecting money from the charitable in
+British Columbia for an orphanage in Macedonia (whither he had neither
+been nor meant to go); and had really carried his nefarious trade to a
+point where it became almost respectable, because he had actually
+swindled the Pope! He had got a decoration out of the Holy Father, by
+posing as an important mountain chief, converted to true Catholicism at
+the threshold of the Apostles; and by promising to bring his whole tribe
+to confess the same. One feels that cheating _in excelsis_ in this
+fashion confers a halo of semi-respectability on such a supreme artist;
+and the impression was apparently shared by the Ottoman Government, for
+they had felt that no man could be fitter to represent the Sultan in
+Urmi, and he had been nominated acting Consul accordingly.
+
+The British Consul-General from Tabriz had come over to help in the
+settlement of the frontier dispute, and a rather delicate point arose in
+consequence. The Ottoman Consul was, of course, most desirous to come
+and pay his respects to his esteemed British colleague; but would like
+to be assured first that the warrant for swindling that was out against
+him in British Columbia, would not be executed if he came into a British
+Consulate. He complained sadly that the expenses of entertaining Tahir
+Pasha were ruining him; but unfeeling people pointed out that he had no
+cause to grumble. His money had been given for the sustenance of
+Macedonian orphans; and his Excellency was a Macedonian of sorts, being
+an Albanian, and (as he was over seventy) most likely an orphan as well.
+Thus some of the money was going at last for something that resembled
+the intention of the donors!
+
+It presently appeared that the instructions the worthy old Pasha had
+received were, in brief, to waste all the time possible, and do as
+little else as might be. As these jumped absolutely with his own
+inclination, he fulfilled them _con amore_; while it was hard to say
+whether the British Consul was more annoyed or amused at the
+manoeuvres.
+
+"All Kurds are Turkish subjects, surely," said the Pasha mildly; "a
+treaty says so, somewhere."
+
+"But there are some tribes of Kurds right down on the Indian frontier in
+Beluchistan, Excellency. Do you mean to claim them too?"
+
+"Well, why not? If they raid over your frontier, let the Sultan know;
+and he will send a punitive expedition as soon as possible."
+
+Or there might come a mild protest on the part of the Persian Governor,
+anent the arrival of some two hundred armed Kurds, "to pay their
+respects to Tahir Pasha."
+
+"What is the meaning of this armed invasion of Persian territory, your
+Excellency?"
+
+"Well, well, these Persians are hard to deal with. We let their pilgrims
+go over our frontier to Kerbela in droves, and say nothing; and when a
+few good peaceable fellows come over to pay their respects to the
+Sultan's representative you have these complaints at once. So
+unneighbourly, you know."
+
+To drive a wily old Australian cow may be hard; but it is child's play
+to getting an old Turk to do business when his instructions are to waste
+time.
+
+So the frontier dispute dragged on _ad infinitum_ till the British
+Consul left it to settle itself, and went back to Tabriz. The Russians
+could not allow a country where they had large interests to go to rack
+and ruin through anarchy, and the present practical occupation of
+northern Persia was the result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH (URMI TO VAN)
+
+
+The country between Urmi and Van is easy, as travel goes in Kurdistan;
+and, speaking normally, safe. High hills, rising to as much as 11,000
+feet, cover the country; and one great mountain saddle, the Chokh range,
+has to be crossed. But the hills are rounded, and grass-grown in summer;
+and the valleys wide and fertile, though for the most part uncultivated,
+and carrying a scanty population. A long winter and heavy snowfall are
+natural at such an elevation, and a journey at that time of year is
+always a toilsome experience and may be a dangerous one. It is not
+pleasant, for instance (as once happened here to the writer), to find
+oneself in a position where baggage-horses can get neither forward nor
+back; and where the whole party has the duty of "humping" the loads and
+carrying them for some hours in deep snow.
+
+That too zealous reformer, Mejid-es-Sultaneh, owns much property among
+these lower hills; and this fact is responsible for the development of a
+new type of village, the invention of that English gentleman to whom he
+assigned his property. It will be understood that "a good head of
+labour" is as necessary for a Persian estate now as it was for a
+mediæval manor in England; but conditions may make it difficult to
+maintain that desirable thing. Hence, when the Englishman found himself
+charged with a large depopulated estate, he bethought him of settling
+upon it the dispossessed Christians of Tergawar. They were put there
+upon the usual terms of the Persian village system, which deserves a
+word to itself.
+
+The "Lord of the country-side" who owns the land, assigns a certain
+district to a village. It is his business to provide seed-corn; and in
+this particular case he built the houses as well, though usually that is
+not necessary. The villagers then pay him, instead of a money rent, a
+proportion of the crop, varying from a third to a half of the corn
+grown. Vineyards pay the same proportion; but if you desire to grow
+melons, you must ask leave and pay a special rent; for this is a crop
+that is exhausting for the land, and still more for the water.
+
+A big landlord will often own many villages; and in such cases he places
+a steward in charge of each, to compute the amount of produce due to him
+and to receive his proper share. It is easy to understand from this the
+method by which the "unjust steward" of the parable proposed to defraud
+his lord: neither is it at all difficult to sympathize with that lord's
+"commendation," in a land which still believes implicitly in the policy
+of "setting a thief to catch a thief," and where it is recorded that
+Ahmed the Calamity and Hassan the Pestilence were made captains of the
+watch at Baghdad for no other reason than that "they excelled all men in
+villainy and tricks of cunning."
+
+Both sides profited by the arrangement in the Mejid-es-Sultaneh estate;
+the owner getting a good supply of labour for a previously unproductive
+property, and the villagers a new home in the land.
+
+They were of course in some danger from Kurds; and it was to meet this
+that the new type of village was evolved by the English administrator--a
+type which is much to his credit as an amateur military engineer. In
+ordinary villages the flat-roofed shielings are huddled together without
+plan or defensibility. But in these, a square space of perhaps 2 acres
+was enclosed by a wall of mud brick some twelve feet high, with
+projecting towers at the corners and one good strong gate. Then the
+houses of the village were built against this wall on the inner side;
+their flat roofs forming an excellent "banquette" for the defence of the
+battlemented wall, while the towers provided a flanking fire. The
+central space was left clear, except for the village church, and
+provided ample accommodation for the flocks. The Kurds came and
+reconnoitred, and cursed the inventive and innovating Englishman up hill
+and down dale. Half a dozen men with flint-locks could keep thirty of
+the best of them outside such a place; and we believe that no village
+built on this pattern has ever been seriously attacked.
+
+Normally this district ought to be safe for Europeans; yet it was the
+scene of one of the narrowest escapes that the writer has ever
+experienced. In the summer of 1909, when Urmi plain was in the condition
+of anarchy mentioned in the last chapter, some of the Christian villages
+protected themselves by enlisting parties of exiles who belonged to the
+fighting clans of Tergawar; men who loved a battle for its own sake, and
+who also had a very special personal grudge against the Kurds who were
+most obnoxious to their hosts. Hence it came to pass that when the Kurds
+of a certain district came down to plunder the village of Ardishai, with
+their usual insolent confidence, they met with a most unexpectedly warm
+reception. In fact they walked straight into a well arranged ambush;
+whence they only escaped with the loss of fourteen dead, besides
+wounded; and several captured horses. This was of course a fearful blow
+to their prestige, and they went home "with their faces blackened," and
+feeling that something must be done to wipe off that stain.
+
+The most obvious thing to do was to destroy the whole of the next party
+of travellers that came their way from Urmi district; and, as it
+happened, this was the writer's caravan. A party was detailed for the
+job; and when we reached the village of Umbi, one easy day out from
+Urmi, and asked for hospitality for the night, this party settled there
+also, camping on the roof next to the one we were occupying. We were not
+aware of the fact, and in any case were safe in the village; for any
+attack there would be at once a breach of hospitality, and a crime for
+which it would be too easy to fix responsibility. Our would-be
+murderers, however, made no secret before their hosts as to what their
+errand was; and the men of the village, though naturally interested and
+sympathetic, advised them to push the business no farther. "You see,
+this is an English party;" they argued. "Now we killed just one American
+three years ago and have not heard the last of that trifle yet.[116] You
+had better drop the scheme." Finding, however, that their guests were
+resolute, the hosts were far too good sportsmen to interfere by giving
+any warning to the intended victims; and the gang, who knew they could
+easily catch our slow-moving caravan, allowed us to go on our way next
+day, and followed after at their leisure.
+
+We stopped about noon to call on a small Agha whose hold stood near the
+road; and were sitting at lunch with him under a tree outside the house
+when this party of five well-armed Kurds rode up and dismounted. The
+Agha invited them to join us at our meal; and though we were surprised
+at their refusal, we did not attach any importance to the matter. We
+said farewell, and started on the road. As soon as we were gone,
+however, our host, who had read the signs better, turned at once to his
+new visitors. "Now then, what is your game? Why would you not eat with
+the Englishman? or was it me that you had a grudge against?"
+
+The Kurds were as frank with him as with their hosts of the previous
+night; but he took a different view of the matter.
+
+"No, you don't if you please! I have no special interest in that
+Englishman or any other; but if he is killed on my land it is me that
+the Government will come down on. Take another party; it makes no odds
+to you, and will not cause trouble for other gentlemen."
+
+[Illustration: THE QUDSHANIS MOUNTAINS.
+
+From the village of Shwawutha, the scene of the incident related on p.
+263. The Zab river is just visible at the foot of the glen, and beyond
+it rises the great mass of the Kokobuland Dagh. Qudshanis lies just
+below the snow line, at the head of the lateral valley opposite.
+
+No. 10]
+
+As there was after all no personal feeling in the matter, they agreed to
+that compromise; and we proceeded safely. When we heard the tale later
+we could only be grateful to our host for his consideration; and
+convinced even more in the semi-fatalistic belief that is apt to soak
+into one in a land of "_Kismet_"--the belief that every man is immortal
+till his work is done.
+
+There was an afterpiece to the play; what had very nearly been a tragedy
+developing into something resembling a farce. This is not unusual in the
+East; for the angel, (or devil) charged with looking after the Persian
+and Ottoman empires, has a strong--if grim--sense of humour; and
+mercifully sees to it that the most serious and painful of matters shall
+always have also a ridiculous side. Our kind hosts at Umbi, having
+allowed reasonable time for their guests to carry out their expressed
+intentions, reported them at Urmi as already accomplished; saying that
+the Englishman and his party had been actually killed. "Is it not
+already done sahib?" is what your servant says to you about some order
+that he may, or may not, intend to carry out when convenient; and the
+minds of these gentlemen were working on similar lines. Word was
+accordingly brought to the British Consul, then staying in Urmi, that
+some of the men for whom he was responsible had been murdered. At first
+that official was blankly incredulous. One acquires a large fund of
+scepticism about all rumours in the East, and this was a man of some
+experience. Still, the report grew and grew, and was confirmed again and
+again, and the bald and unconvincing narrative was embellished with
+corroborative detail; till at last somebody with an artistic mind came
+in to declare that he had not only seen our corpses lying on a certain
+pass, but had smelt them as well; and gave the name of the Sheikh whose
+bridle was now adorned by the writer's beard! Even consular scepticism
+broke down under this strain; and a caravan was got ready, and even
+coffins ordered for us so that decent interment might be given to our
+bodies; when a Nestorian _qasha_ turned up opportunely from the
+mountains, and was summoned before the Consul at once.
+
+"Have you heard anything of this reported murder of Mr. Wigram on the
+Jerma pass, on the 25th day of the month?" was the query.
+
+"I have sahib; but I think that on the whole it is not true, because I
+had tea with him at Qudshanis" (well beyond the scene of the supposed
+murder), "on the 30th."
+
+As the road goes north-west towards Van, the traveller gradually enters
+the land of the Armenian Christians, leaving the Assyrian or Nestorian
+land behind. Kurdistan, which is the general though unofficial title for
+the land where the Kurds live, embraces both; and of course any Turk
+will tell you that there is no such land as Armenia or Armenistan. Under
+the old régime, the word was carefully erased from all maps or books
+that entered the country,[117] lest erroneous teaching should be given
+in the Sultan's schools; and much in the same spirit, books on chemistry
+were sometimes barred, because they contained the treasonable formula,
+H_{2}O. The seditiousness of this is perhaps not obvious: but it will be
+clear to the meanest capacity when it is explained that H_{2} means, and
+can only mean, Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey; and if you supply the
+obviously understood symbol = between the 2 and the O, you get the
+appalling doctrine, "Hamid II = Zero," which clearly cannot be allowed
+to pass.
+
+Armenia then, does not exist; though there are districts where Armenians
+are the prevailing type of Christians; and we are now entering one of
+them. Of course there is a certain amount of "interlacing," and isolated
+villages of either form of Christianity are found scattered among the
+districts mainly inhabited by the other.
+
+Bashkala, which will be found upon the map, is the seat of government
+for the district; and this place is inhabited mainly by Jews, who are,
+as always, the financiers and merchants of the land. It is a postal
+centre, principally remarkable for the fact that the post goes to that
+point from Van, for distribution to such centres as Julamerk, Neri, and
+Diza; but only strays on to them, when a _zaptieh_ or policeman happens
+to be going in that direction. Then he takes on the letterbag, provided
+that he does not forget, or that it is not too heavy for him to carry.
+Hence letters and papers sometimes spend some time in that office; and
+we remember the courteous remark of the _mutaserif_[118] of the place,
+who observed to us when we called upon him on the way to Van after a
+winter spent in Qudshanis, "_Effendim_, the papers you used to receive
+during the winter had very good pictures in them." It sounded cool, but
+after all, the poor man had little to read; the papers were none the
+worse for his looking at them, and he never meddled with the letters.
+Also, he always sent them on when he had done with them, and his action
+did not even imply any delay in the forwarding; so it seemed to us that
+there was nothing very much to complain about.
+
+Somewhat to the west of the Urmi-Van road, and up among the highest of
+the mountains, stands one interesting memorial of the past. One
+particular valley runs down from the edge of lake Van to the Tigris; a
+pass open practically all the year round, between the plain of
+Mesopotamia and the Armenian plateau. It should be a highroad for
+commerce; but the Kurds who live in it are too turbulent to allow any
+traveller to pass that way as a rule, and it is very little known in
+consequence. It was a passage of strategic importance, however, in the
+days when Rome held Nisibis as her frontier post on the Persian border;
+and when Armenia was a buffer state of most uncertain loyalty, between
+the Roman and Sassanid Persian empires. Hence it was a road to guard;
+and Roman engineers planted upon it one of the grandest of Roman
+fortresses, which stands to this day practically unruined. Diocletian,
+who fortified this strategic frontier, was probably its builder; and it
+must have been evacuated when Jovian ceded the provinces to Persia some
+fifty years after his day. Since then it has remained derelict, for
+anyone to occupy who cared; and so it stands still--one of the grandest
+Roman relics anywhere.
+
+It is a great square fortress, built after the pattern of their camps,
+with the prætorium as its citadel in the centre of the western side.
+One wall, the northern, has been pulled down to provide material for the
+mediæval Kurdish _kala_ into which the general's quarters have been
+transformed; but this probably embodies much of the old citadel in
+itself. The whole would well repay examination by an expert--provided
+that its present owner could be got to understand the difference between
+antiquarianism and espionage, which is doubtful in the extreme.
+
+A miserable Kurdish village occupies the interior of this grand fort;
+the hovels being built, of course, from the hewn stones of the walls.
+But even these "beggars hutting in the palace" are dimly aware that such
+a place has harboured greater men than they; and tell you that it was
+the work of giants and enchanters--at which one does not wonder.
+
+The writer once visited the spot, in company with the British military
+Consul of Van; being attracted both by the interest of the building
+itself, and also by a story that there was a hoard of ancient documents
+in some unknown tongue in one of the rooms of the castle. The tale is
+quite probably true, though the documents may be of any date; but the
+present owner of the place politely denied all knowledge of them. His
+guest was a marvel of erudition, he declared, but had been misinformed
+in this particular; and so he changed the subject to something that
+interested him more. This was the Consul's Mannlicher rifle, a beautiful
+tool that always excited envy everywhere, and was invaluable as a topic
+of conversation. Our host examined it, dandled it, played with it; and
+finally proposed a fair exchange--that rifle against his newly married
+wife! A deal which the Englishman rather ungallantly declined.
+
+Disappointed in this, the Agha started yet another hare, with a hint
+that if we could oblige him in this, he might find it possible to
+refurbish his own memory in the matter of the documents. He told us a
+long tale of woe, of which the principal feature was that his hereditary
+enemy had recently been building a fine new castle, just in the one spot
+where he least wished to see it. We sympathized, but were not very
+clear what we could do in the matter, till we were enlightened by a
+confidential whisper from our host. "Look here Bey, I know the ways of
+you English, and you're sure to have a little dynamite; you always have.
+Could you not spare me just a few cartridges? I want--_to kill a few
+fish_!"
+
+We were the guests of the Agha for the evening, and ate of course what
+was set before us; next day, however, there was some bargaining to be
+done for the fowl that was to have the honour of providing our supper
+that night. It is always well to buy your fowl in the morning, because
+it saves time at the hour of cooking; and it is easier to drive a
+bargain when you are obviously not dependent on the completion of the
+purchase for getting your next meal. Here the Consul's kavass hit on an
+ingenious expedient. The Consul had a good rook-rifle with him; and the
+kavass, a Serb by nationality, was a very good shot with it. Five
+piastres was the sum demanded for the old cock we had fixed on; two was
+our offer, which is the usual market rate. The kavass produced the rifle
+and made a sporting suggestion. "Look here," he said to the owner, "the
+bird is about eighty yards off. If I bring him down with one shot, will
+you let me have him for two piastres? If I have to spend a second
+cartridge, you shall have the full five." A Kurd has a sport-loving
+soul, and the offer was accepted at once; particularly as their rifles
+do not throw too accurately. The kavass bowled the fowl over neatly; and
+the same trick got us several dinners at a fair rate that journey,
+though naturally it could not be played in the same place twice.
+
+When this frontier province was occupied by the Turks (an event that
+occurred shortly before the revolution), it was strongly garrisoned from
+end to end. But the sufferings of the unhappy soldiers in the ensuing
+winter were terrible. No provision was made for their accommodation; no
+medical stores were provided; and hardly any food. It says much for the
+troops that they did not loot every village in the neighbourhood; but
+the fact is that "Nefer Mustafa" (the Turkish Tommy Atkins) is the most
+easily disciplined and normally one of the kindliest of men. He is not
+the most intelligent of soldiers, but he is the most obedient; and he
+will march and starve, fight or freeze, and die in scores of dysentery
+and cholera, not only without a mutiny, but even without a sense of
+grievance against anybody; though he can hardly be ignorant that the
+rascally minor officials are making their profit out of the stores which
+he does not get. In one particular case, two battalions, amounting to
+perhaps 1200 men in all (the contractors probably drew stores, &c., for
+the 2000 they should have been, but that is a detail), were marched from
+Van to Tergawar late one autumn. There they remained, billeted in the
+deserted villages, till the following spring; when such of them as could
+walk were brought back to Van once more. Four months' peace service in
+that district, without a shot being fired, had brought those 1200 men
+down to 400; of whom a bare half were able to march at all! It was
+simply the work of cold, hunger, fever, and neglect! Things did improve
+with the army under the new régime, or did for a while at any rate; but
+the pre-revolutionary state of things would have been regarded as
+exaggerated for a comic opera but for the tale of human suffering that
+it implied.
+
+The pay of the soldier was nominally one or two piastres a day; but when
+he got this magnificent sum, which was not often, it was paid him in
+_sanads_, Government assignats, not cash. The local treasury, moreover,
+would not cash them (in fact, they were usually payable in some other
+province than that where the poor recipient was quartered), and no shop
+would look at them as payment for goods. Certain merchants made a
+business of buying them, at 1/5th of the face value, and presenting them
+in the proper quarter, when they might perhaps get half the sum due. The
+Government would be debited with the full amount; and the officials got
+the balance. By a final touch, which surely nobody but Ottoman officials
+of the old régime could have conceived, the Government would not receive
+its own bank-notes from its own soldiers in payment of its own taxes!
+Those had to be paid in gold, the Government only accepting silver at a
+heavy premium.
+
+Add to this that the soldier, nominally enlisted for five years with the
+Colours, and seven in the "_Redif_" or Reserve, was never allowed his
+discharge. Greybeards in the ranks were the commonest of sights; and we
+have seen men serving in 1905 who bore the medal granted for the defence
+of Plevna in 1878, and who had never been discharged.
+
+Bashkala, to which we must now return, is two days journey from Van; and
+the road crosses the lofty Chokh range, an obstacle easy enough in
+summer, but uncommonly formidable in winter. At the best of times it is
+impassable to artillery, though a road could be constructed across it
+with a little labour. Half of it has in fact been accomplished, and a
+properly graded track, with wide sweeps and zigzags, goes up part of the
+ascent. Like most Turkish roads, however, it has neither beginning nor
+end, and nobody ever uses it. A little more trouble over the removal of
+the rocks in which it terminates at each end (and which keep it
+inacessible to all beasts of burden) would have made it useful. However,
+when this point had been reached, the official interested in it was
+recalled, or the money ran out, or the _Vali_ wanted the funds for
+something else; and so it remains unfinished and useless to this day. It
+is somehow characteristic of the Arab and Ottoman races (though not of
+all Orientals) that they can form magnificent designs, and can begin and
+work at them for a time. Seldom, however, can they finish them, and
+never can they undertake the toil of maintenance and repair. So
+magnificent monuments and civil works fall into utter decay, and boats
+go to ruin everywhere, for lack of a ha'porth of tar.
+
+One of the gorges of the Chokh range was the scene of a strange episode
+during the Armenian massacres of 1896. A party of Armenians, mostly
+women and children, were endeavouring to escape by this route, in the
+early spring. At that season frequent avalanches descend from the upper
+slopes to the bottom of the defiles, choking them for hundreds of yards
+on end. The streams of course make their way under the snow, winding
+through caverns which no man dare enter; for the water nearly fills the
+tunnel, and the roofs are constantly collapsing as the melting
+proceeds. As the party approached one of these caverns, making their
+way along the track on the hillside above it, they found their pursuers
+close behind. "Let us fall into the hands of God rather than into those
+of the Kurds," said their leader; and wading into the stream, they
+entered the snow-cave. As they did so another avalanche thundered down
+the slope behind them blocking the entrance of their refuge and burying
+them under the snow. "They have gone to their deaths," said the
+pursuers, and halted where they were. But, as a matter of fact, the
+refugees were just within the cavern when the avalanche fell. This
+naturally dammed back the ice-cold torrent for a while, and they were
+able to crawl down the empty bed to the lower end of the passage. Here
+they emerged, hidden from their enemies by the curvature of the valley,
+and so escaped!
+
+It may well be recorded too that at least one man of this district, Agha
+Zohar of Zirnek, sheltered the Armenians who fled to his country for
+refuge in that black time. When the slaughterers came in pursuit, and
+said that it was the order of the Sultan that the Armenian dogs should
+die, he replied proudly that he knew of no order of any Sultan that
+could constrain a gentleman to surrender his guests to the sword! The
+refugees had brought some few cattle with them, and these they offered
+as a reward to their protector. He not only refused to accept them, but
+gave them pasturage with his own herds till it was safe for the men to
+return to their homes.
+
+The best type of Moslem gentleman is unsurpassed in any land.
+
+The half-way house between Bashkala and Van is the city of Khoshab,
+which boasts the one castle of our acquaintance, which really embodies
+the dreams of Gustave Doré. As we give a picture of it, we may spare the
+reader any attempt at a description; but may say that though the main
+part of the architecture is Seljuk in style and date, it presents some
+features that are of European character, and support the local tradition
+that its real designer was a "Frank" of Italian birth--though whether a
+captive or an adventurer is left uncertain. The same tradition says also
+that the castle was built by the illustrious Saladin, the only Kurd
+whom history is able to mention with esteem. The place may perhaps have
+been part of his family property, but as he was born in Egypt, he can
+hardly have dwelt in it himself. Certainly there was a stronghold here
+long before the days of either Saladin or Mohammed, for the masonry of
+the lower courses of one of the great towers cries aloud that it is
+Urartian. It was built, that is, by the men of that ancient kingdom
+whose capital was at Dhuspas, (which is Van), in the days when
+Tiglath-Pileser ruled at Nineveh; and which disputed the sovereignty of
+Asia with the might of Assur itself. That subject, however, belongs to
+another chapter.
+
+In the neighbourhood of Khoshab there is one monument that was probably
+venerable even when the Urartian foundations of that grand castle were
+laid; and that is one of the finest "_ziarets_" that we have seen in
+Kurdistan. A great isolated hill, Boshet Dagh by name, stands up in the
+vicinity; rising to 11,000 feet, and commanding one of the grandest
+views in the country, from Ararat in the north to Shamsdin in the south.
+It is yet so easy of ascent that a horse can easily be ridden the whole
+way up; and it forms an ideal "High Place," like those of the Old
+Testament.
+
+Here, the men of old time (and how old one is afraid to say) constructed
+a Temple of the orthodox Semitic pattern, such as once stood at
+Jerusalem, and still remains at Baalbek. It comprises a court for
+worshippers, where sacrifice can be offered; an outer sanctuary; and an
+inner shrine. All is rudely built of course, but all the essential
+features are there; even to the detail of "ceremonial pillars," like the
+"Jachin and Boaz" of Solomon's temple, which are here represented by a
+round score of rough dwarf columns. What these stood for in the mind of
+their builders it is hard to say. They are a witness, perhaps, of a
+covenant between man and God, like those which Jacob set up at Bethel.
+In any case, there they stand; a token of how thoroughly the most
+primitive form of Semitic religion is a living reality to-day. No
+fossiliferous strata preserve the forms of past ages more thoroughly
+than does the corporate mind of the living East; though it is often
+hard to extract the fossils, and harder to ascertain their true
+significance.
+
+An easy road takes us from Khoshab to Van, down a valley that should
+bear a large population; but where to-day nothing but a chilly wind
+wanders, that makes living unpleasant, and is said to blight wheat.
+"There were Armenian villages here once," said a Nestorian to us, "but
+when the Kurds turned them out, this wind came, and now none can live
+here. It is the breath of the curse of the dispossessed upon their
+oppressors." And so the fertile Havatsor plain lies empty, though
+villages abound upon its borders; and though a prosperous little town
+stands where the road begins to climb the low pass leading over the last
+range to the gardens and orchards of Van.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A SLOUGH OF DISCONTENT
+
+(VAN AND THE ARMENIANS)
+
+
+We enter a new world as we come up from the south to the land which is
+never called Armenia officially, but where the Armenians dwell. The
+great plain of Mesopotamia, the wild gorges of the range of Taurus, are
+left behind; and the traveller emerges on to a lofty plateau, averaging
+6000 feet above the sea, and dotted with the cones of one of the great
+volcanic fields of the world. Sipan and Ararat are both magnificent
+peaks, though the crater of the latter has been weathered away. Nimrud
+Dagh offers the student of eruptive phenomena such a field for his study
+as can hardly be matched in the world; and the lava flows from Mount
+Etna, which are out and away the most magnificent in Europe, are not to
+be compared for a moment with the twenty miles square of "black glacier"
+that have streamed from the fissures of Tendurek Dagh. These mountains,
+as already related, are grouped around the site which tradition has
+assigned to the Garden of Eden; and it is on the peaks of Niphates, the
+Hakkiari mountains to the southward, that Milton has pictured Satan
+alighting to wreak his vengeance on God's new creation Man.
+
+One of these great lava flows, that of Nimrud Dagh, forms the dam that
+holds up the large salt lake of Van; a body of water of about the size
+of the lake of Geneva, but carrying almost as much mineral matter in
+suspension as does the companion lake of Urmi. In this case, however,
+the mineral is not ordinary salt, but borax (bi-borate of sodium, to be
+accurate); so that the water is pleasanter to swim in, and not so
+absolutely fatal to animal life.
+
+At certain seasons of the year the mouths of the rivers that enter the
+lake swarm with fish--a variety of bleak. They run up into fresh water
+to spawn, and in the process are scooped out by the basket-load. Certain
+types of water-snake also haunt the rocky shores.
+
+These are about four feet long, and creamy white in colour (or appear
+so, when seen through some depth of water); and they have the
+characteristic wedge-shaped head that one generally associates with
+poison.
+
+Given better means of transport, and better government, one may yet see
+Lake Van become a health resort and a _bad_; for its waters are
+certainly curative in certain types of skin disease. The writer has
+known an obstinate case of soriasis cured by a summer spent in camp on
+the lake, with regular bathing as part of the day's programme. The
+effect on human hair is also very peculiar; for an English lad with
+ordinary light-brown hair developed, under similar treatment, an aureole
+of the purest gold ever seen on human head. The change seemed permanent
+too, at least as regarded all that was above scalp-level at the time.
+Later growth was unfortunately of the original hue!
+
+This country was formerly the home of one of the great empires of
+ancient history; that of the Urartians, or Khaldians, who could dispute
+the hegemony of Asia with Assur, at the time when the first colonists
+were settling on the seven bare hills that afterwards were Rome. Van
+(Dhuspas as it was then called) was their capital; and their kings had
+their palace on the great limestone ridge that rises, like the vertebrae
+of some huge saurian, 300 feet above the alluvial plain. As a stronghold
+this rock was impregnable, and could turn back even Assur at her
+strongest; and to this day the masses of cyclopean masonry on its crest,
+and the scores of inscribed cuneiform tablets on its precipitous faces,
+bear witness to the might of its former lords. The language in which
+these inscriptions are written is unknown elsewhere (unless it may prove
+to have affinity with the mysterious Hittite, in spite of the difference
+of script); but fortunately a tri-lingual inscription left by Xerxes the
+son of Darius has enabled the records to be deciphered. They do not, as
+a rule, possess as much interest as the Assyrian inscriptions; and are
+usually to the effect that "I, Menuas son of Ishpuinis, set up this
+stone, and invoke the Curse of Cowdray upon the man who throws it down."
+Menuas, and his son Argistis, were the two most powerful monarchs who
+occupied the throne of Dhuspas; and their reigns (B.C. 820 to 760 or
+thereabouts) coincided with a period of decadence in the rival power of
+Assyria. But in 735 B.C. the Empire of Urartu succumbed before Tiglath
+Pileser II; though their then king, Sharduris II, was able to make good
+his defence of this unconquerable citadel.
+
+The plateau of Van is at present the home of the Armenian race; but it
+is very doubtful whether these have any connexion with the aboriginal
+Khaldian inhabitants. Their own traditions absolutely contradict the
+theory; but their modern national writers are apt to claim such descent,
+now that European scientists have made out the meaning of the
+inscriptions. Whatever their blood may be, there the Armenians are now;
+but it is one of the features of that most tangled problem, the Armenian
+question, that members of the race are never more than a minority,
+wherever they are found.
+
+Men of that nationality exist everywhere; and no "shadrach" in a blast
+furnace refuses more obstinately to melt and become assimilated to the
+rest of the iron ore, than they refuse to assimilate themselves to their
+neighbours. They are found elsewhere only in colonies; but even in this
+their original home, massacre, oppression, and the deliberate planting
+of counter-balancing colonies of Kurds in villages whence the original
+owners have been expelled, has reduced them to something less than half
+the present population.
+
+As a people there are few who have a good word for them. They are said
+to be cowardly and treacherous; to be mere money-grubbers, and so on _ad
+nauseam_. The charges vary; but all agree that the objects of them are
+objectionable somehow. They seem, in fact, to be a sort of Dr. Fell of
+nationalities; for every one dislikes them, though often enough they
+cannot tell the reason. Even the writer, who has not the least objection
+to thieves, murderers, and devil-worshippers, and who has a kindly
+feeling for a successful cheat, admits to getting on less well with
+Armenians than with other Orientals.
+
+And yet there is much about them that anyone must admire. They have, in
+fact, much in common with the Jew, who excites much the same feeling
+among many estimable people! Both have the same attachment, alike to
+money and to their own peculiar form of religion. Both have the same
+power of endurance and toughness. And as both have had much the same
+treatment for generations, and both are nations without a country, they
+have developed much the same characteristics. Money and intrigue have
+been their only weapons; and they have naturally come to think these the
+most important of all things. We can have nothing but admiration for
+their devotion to their nation, with which their religion and their
+church is bound up; and they have a high sense of their duty to it, as
+shown by their educational institutions. Men call them a nation of
+cowards; but that charge at least is false. In the massacres of 1895,
+armed men were butchering unarmed; and there was no test of anything but
+passive endurance. Yet how many could have saved their lives by a mere
+verbal acceptance of Islam? We shall have a good deal to say to the
+discredit of the revolutionaries among them, the "_Fedais_;" but at
+least the terror that that very small body could inspire among Turks and
+Kurds in three provinces ought alone to acquit them of any reproach of
+cowardice.
+
+Both as nation and as church they have a long history, for which we may
+refer the reader to such works as Lynch's "Armenia." They have been
+subject to the Ottoman Turks since the year 1365, when the latest of a
+series of Armenian kingdoms finally collapsed. But outlying colonies of
+their nation exist, as is well known, in several lands, notably in
+Persia and India.
+
+Their Christianity dates back to 312 A.D. when the whole people was
+converted by the joint efforts of their king, Tiridates, and Saint
+Gregory the Illuminator. The Greek Church calls them heretical; but
+their heresy is in truth no more than a resolution to maintain the
+independence of their church, which is now the sole expression of their
+nationality, and is prized accordingly. It is true that they refuse to
+accept one of the Councils that most of the world calls "General," viz.
+that of Chalcedon; but they have been at some pains to insert into their
+version of the creed words expressly condemnatory of that peculiar
+"Monophysite" heresy which their rejection of Chalcedon is supposed to
+affirm; and their real cause for disagreeing with that Council was its
+recognition of the Primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
+
+For some time after their conquest the Armenians had nothing particular
+to complain of in their lot as Ottoman subjects. The Turk had no cause
+to fear anybody, for his dominion was unshaken, and it is only when he
+fears that he is oppressive and cruel. Moreover if his method of
+government did suggest the habits of a man who lives on capital rather
+than income, there was still a good deal of capital left, and all was
+comfortable for every one while it lasted. The Armenians were rather the
+favourites among the subject races. They were the _millet-i-zadik_, the
+loyal people, who had no friends outside the empire, and no political
+aspirations, but were content to be Ottoman subjects provided that their
+religious institutions were respected. Any interference with these was
+the last thing that the Turk contemplated; for the Mussulman was, to do
+him justice, the first ruler that was really tolerant in religious
+matters. Armenians were very convenient underlings in all the work of
+governing. "We Turks do not know how to make money, we only know how to
+take it;" and a Turk does not know to this day, and probably never will
+learn, how really to govern a country. His sole conception is to occupy
+the land, and take as much money from his subjects as his needs require.
+His instincts are really those of the nomad; the _rayats_ are his sheep
+and cows,--there to be milked. He does not want to kill them, for he is
+a kindly fellow; and besides, who ever kills his own cattle wantonly?
+But if a sheep exhibits an unpleasant independence of disposition, and
+propagates the blasphemous doctrine that it was created for other things
+than the due provision of milk, wool, and mutton in due season for its
+lawful owner, the shepherd is apt to say it is a vicious beast, and to
+take measures accordingly.
+
+The country that the Turk acquired had of course to be administered
+somehow; but it was not Turks by blood that did the administering. The
+high officials were usually the selected children, taken from their
+Christian parents by the "Janissary" tribute (which provided also the
+_corps d'elite_ of the army). Or else they were European adventurers and
+renegades; or (in the case of many of the very best of them) Albanians.
+The underlings were very largely Armenians, who form most admirable
+subordinates in all Government offices. They were never trusted with any
+high executive posts; but they did all the inferior work, and no
+objection was raised to their filling their own pockets the while.
+
+There were isolated cases of oppression in plenty, as there always will
+be when Armenian and Turk deal with one another; but it was not Turkish
+tyranny that was invariably to blame. We have known of an Armenian
+father, on his death-bed, giving his last charge to his son, as follows:
+"Grigor, these are the last words of your father; and see that you
+honour and obey them, as such words should be honoured."
+
+"I will my Father; on my head and eyes be it," said the youth.
+
+"My son, never pay your taxes until you have been thrashed."
+
+Under these circumstances, it really does not prove brutality in the
+tax-collector, if he sometimes thinks he may as well begin with the
+stick, and so save trouble all round.[119]
+
+The fact is, that to try and get the better of the Government in a
+bargain (or for that matter, of anybody else) is an Armenian's notion
+of sport; and abstractedly, there is as much to be said for it as for
+professional football! Very pretty fencing sometimes results, as the
+following case may show. Educational institutions and church property
+have to be registered in the names of trustees; and, in consideration of
+the fact that they pay no taxes, certain fees are demanded when a new
+name has to be registered. The idea of saving that expense appealed to
+all Armenians; and there was the further consideration that no one of
+them ever feels any confidence in another's honest administration of any
+trust fund. A brilliant idea occurred to some genius. He would secure a
+trustee who was indubitably honest and immortal as well; the property
+should stand in the name of the Patron Saint!
+
+So, in one instance (the thing was done repeatedly) the school attached
+to the church of SS. Peter and Paul was solemnly registered in the names
+of Peter, son of Jonas, fisherman by trade, resident at Capernaum in the
+province of El Kuds (Jerusalem), and Paul, father's name unknown,
+tentmaker by trade, resident at Tarsus in the province of Adana. The
+scheme worked admirably for a while; and when the Ottoman officials
+realized what was being done, and objected to losing their fees, it must
+be owned that they played the game prettily. They sent in a formal
+notification to the Armenian authorities, that they understood that
+these two trustees, Petrus Effendi and Paulus, were now dead; and (so
+far as their information went) that both gentlemen had died intestate.
+If this were so, then in course of law their trust property would revert
+to the "Ministry of Pious Benefactions," whence very little of it would
+ever come out for the use of any Armenians!
+
+There was a terrible scare for a while among those concerned; but
+Turkish good nature came into play, and the matter was dropped, in
+consideration of proper trustees being registered in future--and no
+doubt a decent _bakhshish_ to the officials concerned.
+
+While the nation as a whole was not badly off, individuals were often in
+a position of privilege, owing to some personal claim that they happened
+to have on some official. One of these, which endures to the present
+day, is so remarkable as to deserve special notice.
+
+The house of the Armenian priest of Adeljivas, on Lake Van, is
+officially recognized as having perpetual immunity from all forms of
+taxation. The family legend has it that their ancestor was the personal
+servant of Ali, the nephew of the Prophet, in some warlike expedition
+that he made. The scene of the campaign is said to have been Egypt.
+
+Ali was hit in some skirmish by an arrow, which pierced his heel and
+broke in the wound. The steel could not be found and extracted, and
+signs of mortification set in, so that the doctors gave up hope. Still
+the Khalif, though he thought himself dying, insisted on rising from his
+couch to say his prayers as a good Mussulman should; while his faithful
+Christian servant stood behind him the while. One of the attitudes of
+Moslem prayer involves bowing forward from a kneeling posture till the
+forehead touches the ground. (It is this attitude that makes such a
+headgear as the fez or turban obligatory for a Moslem. The hat is not
+removed in prayer, and yet the forehead must touch the ground.)
+Naturally, a wound on the heel was drawn open by this act, and the
+Armenian saw the arrowhead in the flesh. He, prompt man, dropped on his
+knees, got a good hold of it with his teeth, and pulled! The steel came
+out, but Ali fainted with the pain, and the servant fled, fearing he had
+killed his master. The latter recovered, however, and ordered search to
+be made for his benefactor; and when he had found him, told him to name
+his own reward. Perpetual immunity for all males of his house from all
+taxes was what the practically minded Armenian chose; and Ali granted
+him this boon at once, giving him a piece of his own robe in testimony.
+Each successive Khalif has recognized the act of his great predecessor,
+and in many cases has given a _firman_ declaring the same; and these
+documents are now stored in the house of the present holder of the
+privilege. They naturally form a most interesting collection; ranging,
+as they do, from the great purple and gold parchments, works of art of
+great value to connoisseurs, which were granted by Sulieman the
+Magnificent and Murad the "Father of Clubs," down to the flimsy
+half-sheet of notepaper which bears the seal of Abdul Hamid II.
+
+With them is kept what purports to be the original fragment of the robe
+of Ali; which is a valuable possession in itself, for water in which it
+has been dipped is a specific for most diseases for all faiths. The
+piece of stuff has some unusual qualities certainly, if it is genuine;
+for it is said to have lasted undecayed through some thirteen centuries
+of soaking and drying again. As for the cures it works, they are genuine
+enough, provided that the patient has sufficient faith!
+
+Gradually, however, the comfortable state of things referred to, from
+which both Ottomans and Armenians profited, changed and took a bad turn.
+The Ottoman Government grew worse itself absolutely; and much worse
+relatively to the progress made by other nations in Europe. Turks saw
+one Christian nation after another (Greek, Bulgar, and Serb) slip from
+their control, and grew more and more suspicious of those that remained;
+while these became more and more aware and resentful of their
+sufferings. The old oppression and corruption grew worse; while the old
+laziness and good nature that had tempered things helped less. The
+latter qualities, however, are not quite extinct even yet, as a case
+from the writer's own knowledge may illustrate.
+
+An unfortunate Assyrian _qasha_ was arrested on some charge or other;
+and after he had endured some months of close confinement in a very foul
+prison, was tried and fully acquitted--and then sent back to prison
+again indefinitely, because he could not pay to the jailer the fees he
+had incurred during his avowedly illegal confinement! One must admit
+that the same thing used to happen in England during the eighteenth
+century; but perhaps the English official would not have been as kindly
+as was the Ottoman _Vali_, who replied to the intercession of the writer
+by saying, "Well it is a hard case. Look here, _Effendim_, you can have
+him out any Sunday for service, if you will promise to send him back on
+the Monday!"
+
+That official's successor, by the way, had the idea of doing things more
+in order; and signalized his departure from the old slack ways by
+inviting any folk who had the misfortune to be under sentence of death
+in his province, to come in and be executed without more delay. When the
+order had gone out, he set about inquiring how many he might expect to
+surrender themselves; and found that the number of gentlemen who were
+under sentence of outlawry in his jurisdiction, and liable to death or
+imprisonment for life on arrest, amounted to between seven and eight
+hundred, and included every Kurdish Agha of any note in the
+_vilayet_![120] The decree caused much inconvenience; for naturally
+there was some delicacy felt about coming to pay your respects to the
+new governor under the circumstances.
+
+While the Government got worse, the national self-consciousness of the
+Armenians developed; particularly in the light of the fact that they saw
+how other subject nations, who made sufficient noise, were given their
+independence by Europe. They began demanding reform, and a measure of
+autonomy; requests which it was natural they should make, in light of
+the fact that they could not help being aware that they were far
+cleverer and more adaptable than the Turks, and that nevertheless they
+were treated as an inferior race by them. On the other hand, the Turkish
+feeling was "This country is ours and we mean to rule it. Equality of
+treatment such as these Armenians demand is a sheer impossibility; for
+the reason that the races are not equal. While we have the power, we can
+keep them under; but to put them on an equality means that in a very few
+years we shall be under them." Reform is anathema to the Turk, for he
+knows (even if he cannot put the matter into words) that reform means
+subjection of the Turk to the _ray[=a]t_.
+
+Armenians, and many of the friends of the Armenians, seem unable to
+understand this side of the question. They cried out in horror at the
+steps (certainly sufficiently grim ones) which the Turk took to
+preserve his threatened rule: and not without full cause; for the steps
+referred to were the Armenian massacres. Still, the fact is that if you,
+being in the same field with a bull, choose to wave a red handkerchief,
+it really is no use to explain that any animal of ordinary intelligence
+ought to have known that you only wanted to blow your own nose; and that
+anyhow the creature's prejudice against red is very unreasonable! The
+Turk thinks he has a right to rule; but the only methods he knows are
+those which did not shock the conscience of anybody in the seventeenth
+century, but do shock the European conscience now; and hence his verdict
+was, "The way to get rid of the Armenian question is to get rid of the
+Armenians."
+
+This was how matters stood between the parties in the period 1904-1910
+when the writer was resident in Van. At that time the reforming or
+revolutionary party among the Armenians was known by the generic name of
+the "_Fedais_;"[121] and was divided internally into two parties, the
+"_Armeni_" who were more or less moderate in their views and methods,
+and the "_Tashnak_"[122] society, which advocated open violence.
+
+The line which the Tashnak brotherhood followed was simply this:--to
+provoke open massacre by deeds that they knew must infuriate the Turk;
+in the hope that if only the massacre was horrible enough, European
+intervention would follow. There are perhaps two things that may be said
+in excuse for this appalling line of action. First, that the Tashnakists
+did expose themselves pretty freely to those perils which they were
+deliberately drawing down on their unfortunate fellow countrymen; and
+second, that they had seen success follow the adoption of very similar
+methods in Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria. The headquarters of their
+organization were in the Caucasus, that sink of all that is disorderly
+in the Russian Empire; but they had their local leaders in Turkey, and
+Van was one of their most important centres. Their object was the
+creation of an independent or autonomous Armenia; and they worked on
+parallel, but by no means on friendly, lines with the "Young Turk"
+Party.
+
+As to their methods, Armenian sympathizers were expected to support them
+voluntarily; but blackmail and terrorism were also used
+freely--particularly on the wealthier merchants, who (having something
+to lose) were not merely blind opponents of the Turkish régime. Thus in
+one case a merchant was captured, and simply given the choice between
+paying £100 to the cause, or forfeiting his ears; when he offered £50,
+he was told that in that case only one ear would be taken. Under that
+pressure he paid, and was released; with the warning that immediate
+death would follow any attempt to obtain redress from the Government.
+
+In like fashion, the Bishop of Akhtamar, near Van, was deliberately
+murdered; either for not supporting the movement with church funds,
+or--as some said--for not exerting himself sufficiently to obtain
+redress from the Government for his oppressed flock.
+
+Sometimes, however, they did execute a sort of irregular justice. One
+notorious Kurdish oppressor at least was found shot; and information was
+sent to the Government that this was the justice administered by the
+Tashnakist organization for what that man had done, and that therefore
+if any of the dead man's immediate _rayats_ were charged with it, the
+Government officials would hear more of the matter. Had they confined
+themselves, under the existing circumstances, to this twentieth-century
+version of the _Vehm-gericht_, it would not have been difficult to
+sympathize with them.
+
+Their local organization consisted of a small "inner ring," which had
+not more than a dozen members at most. Next to them came perhaps 600
+"sworn soldiers," who were well armed with Mauser pistols, and had each
+of them taken an oath to fight to the death under the orders of the
+"ring," and never to surrender under any circumstances. Beyond these
+again were "adherents" in indefinite number (perhaps 3000 in all), for
+whom guns had been smuggled in, and stored in secret arsenals; with the
+idea that this force could be called to arms if ever an opportunity of
+open rebellion arrived. If the massacre they courted should begin, these
+arms could of course be of use for defensive purposes.
+
+The guns were a "scratch lot;" the best being Mausers, but the majority
+Russian military rifles. It would seem that discipline in the Caucasus
+was benevolently slack, and that very few questions were asked if a
+soldier sold his rifle for vodka. They had also a good supply of bombs,
+the material for which was transported from the Caucasus, and made up
+locally by a chemist of the band.
+
+In the summer of 1905, the Fedais at large attempted what might be
+called a guerrilla war on a fairly large scale in the district of Mush,
+to the west of Lake Van. They said they were interfering to protect the
+peasants from the troops. The troops said that they had been marched
+down to protect the peasants from the brigands. And the unfortunate
+peasants heartily wished both parties away! In any case, there were some
+300 Tashnakists wandering in the land, having arrived in small parties
+from Russia; and they were levying open war on the Government, which had
+to reinforce the local garrison by some 6000 men to deal with the
+annoyance, and then failed to catch them. One may have one's own opinion
+of the cause and methods of the Fedais; but it must be admitted that
+their claim that Armenians proved themselves to be as good fighting men
+individually as any Turk was well substantiated.
+
+In one case, a party of some twenty of these desperadoes were fairly
+caught by 700 Government troops, regular and irregular, upon an isolated
+and waterless hill. It did seem that these men were cornered, for there
+was not cover for a rat to escape by, and no man can fight against
+thirst. However, the Armenians did not wait for the next day's attack,
+but came down that moonless night, provided with the weapons they
+had--rifles, bombs, and electric torches. Obviously, they had a leader
+with a head on his shoulders, for their plans were regularly laid. They
+advanced in couples; and as soon as a challenge was heard Armenian A
+threw the flashlight from his electric torch on to the sentry, and
+Armenian B threw the bomb at him and annihilated him. The explosion
+roused the camp; but the band of Fedais rushed straight on, flashing
+their lights and throwing their bombs at anything that came in their
+way. Naturally, half trained troops were not going to face Sheitan
+himself in this style. They broke; and the band went through without the
+loss of a man, thanks to an ingenious combination of the tactics of
+Gideon with those of the modern anarchist.
+
+On another occasion the result was not quite so successful, though the
+revolutionaries secured a full price for every man they lost.
+
+Eighteen Fedais, their work done, were endeavouring to leave the
+country, but were forced by sheer hunger to halt near a friendly
+village, while food was provided for them. Somehow, the fact of their
+presence leaked out, and the Kurds of the neighbourhood gathered to the
+prey. The men took refuge in three small caves that stood side by side,
+serving, as is often the case, for sheepfolds. These were hollowed
+artifically in loose conglomerate rock, their roof being formed by a
+comparatively thin shelf of projecting limestone. The Fedais put their
+bombs in readiness at the cave mouths; these forming their sole weapon:
+though the fact that they were carrying some £6000 in gold on their
+persons made them a prize worth winning. One party of Kurds occupied the
+top of the shelf of rock, while the main body prepared for a frontal
+attack. As these rushed up the slope, an Armenian in the central cave
+took up a bomb from the heap that lay ready, and hurled it at the enemy.
+His aim was not too good, however, for the missile hit the edge of the
+rock and exploded; the concussion naturally detonating the whole
+magazine. Of course the six Armenians in that cave were never seen
+again; though the writer was shown some of the coins that were then in
+their waist-belts, and which had in several cases been blown clean into
+the rock, looking as if they had been battered with a hammer on an
+anvil. If the garrison perished, however, their cave was turned for the
+moment into a great cannon. Every Kurd in the path of the explosion was
+killed; and the roof of the cavern, with all the men on it, disappeared
+into space. Thirty-five Kurds missing altogether, besides a number
+wounded, was fair recompense for the loss of six men. The assailants had
+no wish to face the two remaining caves after the reception they got
+from the first one, and the rest of the party effected their retreat
+safely.
+
+Nature aided the Tashnakists, by giving them practically inexpugnable
+strongholds in the land, with ready exits into Persian territory. The
+great crater of Nimrud, some six miles across, was one of their refuges;
+and this is paved for much of its area with a maze of corrugated lava
+whence no man who knows the runs can be dislodged. Here are also hot
+springs, just of a temperature to sit in comfortably, in which some of
+these fellows actually lived for weeks during an Armenian winter, with
+the thermometer far below zero. They had rigged up an ingenious
+arrangement, so that they could lie in the water and sleep with their
+heads above the surface.
+
+Their strangest stronghold, however, was the giant lavaflow of Tendurek.
+Here either the lava has streamed from great horizontal fissures, or
+possibly the whole mountain has been blown away by the discharge of an
+accumulation of energy. Whatever the cause, an area some twenty miles
+square has been covered with a sea of black lava; which has split and
+fissured in every direction as it cooled, and now resembles nothing so
+much as a gigantic black glacier. It is a place where any number of men,
+and any amount of stores, could lie _perdu_ for as long as they wished;
+for there is an abundant supply of water in the crevasses. One edge of
+the field is admittedly in Persian territory, and so cannot be policed,
+even if it were a simple matter to put a cordon round such a place. All
+the guns of the empire might bombard the stronghold to the crack of doom
+without inconveniencing its occupants, except by an occasional lucky
+shot; and the garrison could issue from it at any point to cut up any
+isolated post. It is an absolutely ideal guerrilla stronghold; for men
+can move from end to end of it unseen, while every movement of the
+besieger is conspicuous to them on the bare downs that surround it.
+
+Of course, the game was a superb one for the Tashnakists, or for anyone
+who enjoys gambling against heavy odds with death as the penalty. For
+the unhappy Armenian _rayats_, who wanted to be let alone and given a
+chance to make a living, it was a different story. The revolutionaries
+wanted to do them good, no doubt; but few folk really like being done
+good to. And to like the peculiar Tashnakist method of getting them
+massacred for the assumed benefit of posterity was impossible for human
+nature. "We used to have one set of masters, and Allah knows that they
+were hard enough," was the moan they made; "now we have two, and Allah
+alone knows which is the harder." The revolutionaries came down on them,
+and demanded, at the mouth of a pistol, supplies to enable them to fight
+against the Government. Then they withdrew, and the Government came down
+on the poor _rayats_ in their turn (or in some cases turned the Kurdish
+irregulars loose upon them), for their crime in "resetting" avowed
+rebels against the State. How many deaths took place in the summer of
+1905 in the Mush district was never known; but the estimates of those
+who were in a position to know put the numbers at about 5000.
+
+One party of the Fedais, in the course of their retreat to Persian
+territory entered the city of Van, where their proceedings gave a good
+instance _in petto_, of their whole _modus operandi_.
+
+Entering the "garden city" by night, they encountered one of the police
+patrols; and a skirmish resulted, in which a policeman was shot. Of
+course the troops were called out, and the house in which the rebels had
+been received was attacked and burnt, after another and sharper
+skirmish. Still they effected their retreat from it, and were lost to
+sight for a moment in the walled gardens of the town.
+
+The _Vali_ had now to choose. Should he order a strict search for those
+who were in open war against the Government and had thus outraged his
+authority? It was in his power to do so, and catch and destroy this band
+of a dozen men; but it was not in his power to hold the troops if the
+search, with its attendant street-fighting, once began; and the act
+spelt massacre for an unknown number of peaceful Armenians. On the other
+hand, could he allow those rebels to retire uninjured? What would his
+master the Sultan say to him if he did? And would the troops, one of
+whose comrades had been "murdered by these Armenian dogs," obey him if
+he gave such an order? For twenty-four hours the scales wavered, every
+foreign house and Consulate being packed with terrified Armenian
+refugees. While in the Turkish quarter of the town the panic was hardly
+less, though less conspicuous; for to them every Armenian was a Fedai,
+and every Fedai had his pockets full of bombs.
+
+The twelve Tashnakists themselves were probably the only people
+unconcerned; for they had won their game, though they might have to pay
+the forfeit of their lives, a thing that they had deliberately risked
+throughout. If they were allowed to withdraw, they had at least flaunted
+the Government in its provincial capital, and dictated terms to it
+there. If the attack was made, they could die fighting, and had secured
+the great "massacre advertisement," for which they had been playing
+throughout. The fact is that an opponent who is reckless of his own life
+is very awkward to deal with! All honour is certainly due to the _Vali_
+(that same Tahir Pasha whom we knew in Mosul later), for he decided
+that, come what might, he would not order the massacre of those whom he
+was there to protect. He was able to induce the military commandant to
+withdraw the troops to barracks, and allow the Tashnakists to effect
+their retreat. He risked his career to save his subjects from their own
+friends.
+
+Peace ruled in Van for a year or two after this incident; but the
+importation of rifles and other revolutionary material continued, and
+considerable arsenals were accumulated: the Kurds on the frontier being
+glad enough to earn good pay by asking no questions as to the nature of
+the loads that passed through their territory. Government was vaguely
+aware of what was going on, and was uneasy; particularly as an
+oppressive _Vali_ (successor of the shrewd old Tahir) was actually
+murdered by the Fedais. As this event took place in Russian territory,
+when the man was on a journey to Constantinople, no local disturbance
+was caused by it.
+
+The acting _Vali_ who took his place, one Ali Riza, was quietly at work
+in his house one night in February 1908, when he was informed that an
+Armenian insisted on seeing him on some important business, which he
+would disclose to no underling. After some demur he was admitted, and
+came to the point at once. "See here, _Vali_ Pasha. My name is David;
+and I am come to tell you that I am one of the 'inner ring' of the
+Tashnakist society. For reasons of my own, I mean to disclose everything
+that I know to the Government. Give me a band of men now, and I will
+take them this very night to the house where the rest of the 'ring' are
+to assemble; and to-morrow, I will show you the depôts of rifles and
+cartridges."
+
+The motive for this act of exceptionally black treachery was, of course,
+some quarrel with his comrades. Several versions of this, all coherent
+enough, but all contradictory, circulated in the town during the next
+few days; the most probable being the obvious one that he and his chief
+(the man was second in command of the Van organization) had both fallen
+in love with the same girl. Most agreed, however, that David had somehow
+become aware that sentence of death had been passed on him by "the
+circle"; and hence had declared, "then I will at least have my revenge
+beforehand."
+
+Will it be believed that the _Vali_ was either too fearful, or too
+stupid, to rise to this opportunity? He gave orders to keep the man in
+custody till next day, saying, "then he shall show us the depôts; and if
+his story is true about the guns, we can proceed to arrest the brigands
+themselves." All suggestions that the guns could not be removed without
+some delay, but that the brigands would certainly not continue in that
+night's meeting-place after the discoveries had begun, were unavailing;
+and nothing was done that night. Next day the man redeemed his pledge,
+and there was rare excitement in Van. Rifles by the hundred were
+unearthed from various places; and one realized, in watching the
+searchers, how admirably a mud house lends itself to the making of a
+_cache_. The earth of Van sets into excellent sun-dried brick (in fact
+Urartian forts built of it in 800 B.C., remain to this day), and house
+walls of this material are usually about three feet thick. A hollow
+large enough to contain a score of rifles can easily be excavated in the
+middle third of the thickness, and the place built up again. Once let
+the fresh mud plaster have time to dry, and what tapping or sounding
+will reveal the hollow that exists behind it? Rifles to the number of
+nearly 500, half a million cartridges, and some three hundred packets of
+dynamite, were the spoil of that day.[123]
+
+One must own that the search was conducted as courteously as might be. A
+large proportion of the cartridges were found in a recess of the wall in
+the sanctuary of one specially prominent church; but every care was
+taken not to disturb the adornments of the altar, though irreverent
+conduct would not have been without excuse just then. Similarly, a young
+woman found alone in one of the houses that the searchers entered, was
+not only not molested, but was even allowed to exhaust a most copious
+vocabulary of abuse on the head of the informer. It was strange to see
+the Turkish soldiers knocking civilly at doors which could have been
+sent in by a blow from the butt of a rifle.
+
+The Tashnakists did not part with these cherished treasures without at
+least a snap. The carts taking the plunder to the citadel were attacked
+in the street as they left the Armenian quarter; and a very pretty
+skirmish followed. The combatants took cover in the houses on opposite
+sides of the road, and fired at one another thence, while the prize of
+victory lay on the ground between them. With real politeness to the
+foreigner they selected a battle-ground under the very windows of the
+British Consulate, so that that official and his guests enjoyed a most
+interesting view of the proceedings. As a matter of fact, however, it
+was not courtesy that dictated the choice, but the desire of the Fedais
+to have their right flank covered by the Consulate garden, which was
+necessarily neutral ground. The skirmish lasted for about an hour,
+during which time about twenty-five men (if you count every scratch)
+were killed or wounded; and the battle was finally brought to a close by
+a bullet striking the heap of dynamite that lay exposed in the road.
+Nobody knew whether this was accident or design; but naturally the blow
+detonated all that was there, and a magnificent explosion resulted.
+However, with its usual freakishness, the explosive only excavated a
+huge pit in the roadway, and did no other harm; not even injuring the
+overturned cart that lay by it!
+
+Of course the Tashnakists vowed vengeance on David, who was made a sort
+of hero by the Turks, and granted a liberal pension; perhaps with the
+feeling that he was not likely to draw it for long. Various Mussulman
+officials declared openly that if he should be attacked, they would
+exact a hundred lives for his; and it is believed that the principal
+Tashnakists, hearing of this, ordered that no step should be taken
+against him. However, they were unable to control their followers; and
+after an interval of about six weeks, David was shot down in the street
+by a lad named Tirlamazian, and died a few days later. The assassin
+escaped for a time.
+
+The Turks kept their word: for something over 100 Armenians (mostly
+honest shopkeepers returning from the market) were butchered at once by
+the "black-heads" (_kara-bashlar_, the low class civilian
+population).[124] Again it appeared that the troops, assisted by the
+Mussulman populace, would break into the Armenian quarters of the town,
+and that a most hideous massacre would follow. Both sides stood to arms,
+and for a matter of five weeks the tension was very great; hardly any
+Armenians venturing to leave their quarters. On the other hand, the
+Turks had just as much fear of entering there, for the position was
+eminently defensible. The houses of the garden city were too solidly
+built to be much damaged by field artillery (which was all that was
+available); and standing as they do for the most part in large gardens
+surrounded by mud walls, there was a distinct possibility that the
+troops (if they entered the quarter at all) might be very seriously
+entangled in them. Further, all the Turkish and Kurdish forces had a
+very lively respect for the prowess of the Tashnakists, and an
+exaggerated idea of their numbers.
+
+So the position continued; an anomaly that surely would be possible only
+in Turkey. A force of armed rebels standing at bay in one ward of the
+scattered town, and defying the Government in the other. While all the
+time (for men must eat and Armenians must trade) business was conducted
+pretty much as usual in the market of _Hach Poghan_, which stood
+conveniently on neutral ground at the edge of the two districts. The
+foreign Consuls, by the way, had insisted that food should not be cut
+off from the Armenian quarter, on proper payment for it!
+
+Even in Turkey such a position could not continue indefinitely. As soon
+as a sufficient body of troops, regular and irregular, had been
+accumulated, and resistance was manifestly hopeless, the Armenian
+quarter was formally occupied, and regular search made for arms and
+revolutionaries. Many of the former were found and confiscated; and the
+twelve members of the "ring" endeavoured to effect their escape from the
+town. But this they now found impossible. After some searching, their
+place of concealment was disclosed; and they were marked to ground in
+one of the _kerezes_ or subterranean channels that bring water from the
+mountains to the town.
+
+These _kerezes_ are made by sinking pits at intervals of about fifty
+yards, to a depth of about thirty feet, and tunnelling from one to the
+other. Many of them date back to the Urartian period of history. In this
+case, the troops were able to ascertain that the objects of their search
+were probably in a certain length of channel; but it was difficult to
+devise any means of making sure, or of getting them out. One soldier,
+however, volunteered to be lowered down alone to investigate; a plucky
+act, for it entailed something like a descent into the den of wolves at
+bay. Down he went; and discovered that they had selected exactly the
+right one of the series of pits, for he was lowered into the very midst
+of the gang of Fedais. They seized him, of course, and were about to
+kill him, when he got his word in first. "Look here, you can kill me of
+course, but what good will it do you? When I do not come out, my officer
+will know that you are here, and you can just be smoked out like
+jackals. Your game is up, and you had better surrender to me."
+
+Well, the position was hopeless; and possibly eight and forty hours in a
+dark drain, sitting cramped together with your feet in cold water, and
+the prospect of slow suffocation to follow, has a damping effect on the
+courage of the bravest. Anyhow, these twelve men, maugre their vow never
+to surrender under any circumstances, did surrender to the one; and the
+soldier had the well-earned satisfaction of sending each of the party up
+in turn, in the bight of a rope, to where his comrades were waiting for
+them above ground. They were taken to the town prison, of course, and
+confined there.
+
+Grim tales are told of torture in such places, when it is needful to
+extract information from the prisoner; and deprival of sleep and
+hammering the finger-ends are the reported methods. Still, nothing of
+the kind was inflicted on these men (save that one of them, the lad
+Tirlamazian, was flogged), though it was of course known that they had a
+good deal of important information to give. During their stay in Van
+jail, they had nothing worse than most uncomfortable detention to
+complain of; though confinement in a foul cell, swarming with vermin,
+may become a very fair imitation of torture after a few hours,
+particularly if the prisoner is chained so that he cannot scratch!
+
+Orders were sent, we believe, for the forwarding of at least the chief
+of the Tashnakists, Aram, to Constantinople, under strong guard. Once in
+the clutches of Abdul Hamid his fate would have been a grim one
+indeed. But before the decree was executed, a marvellous transformation
+took place. This was nothing less than the Turkish Revolution of 1908,
+with its consequent amnesty for all political offences. All proceedings
+were dropped, and the prisoners emerged to be greeted as national heroes
+after their confinement.
+
+[Illustration: CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA, QUDSHANIS.
+
+The larger arch opens into the Sanctuary, the veil of which is never
+withdrawn except for the celebration of _Qurbana_. The smaller opens
+into the Sacristy, where is also the font. _Ex voto_ offerings of
+aromatic herbs hang from the tie beams; and the Church is lit only by a
+tiny cruciform loophole at the west end, so that the interior is almost
+pitch dark.
+
+No. 11]
+
+Very soon, however, the real problem of the relations of the Armenian
+and Ottoman began to come up again in a slightly different form.
+
+The Young Turk ideal was an Ottoman Empire; with equal rights no doubt
+for all who were content to become Ottomans, but Ottomanization for all.
+The Tashnakists (who kept up their organization, observing, in answer to
+all protests, that it was as necessary for them as was that of the
+Committee of Union and Progress for others) were Armenians first and
+foremost; and further were anxious to set about the immediate
+realization of a programme that was wildly Radical, not to say
+Socialistic, in its objects. Confiscation of all landed property;
+disendowment and disestablishment of the Church;[125] universal suffrage
+(which was to include female suffrage by the way), and the abolition of
+all religious teaching in schools, were some of the planks of their
+"platform." All authority, save that of the nation, was disowned; even a
+parent was not to exercise any power over his son. In fact all the
+reforms that even a Socialist admits must come in gradually in the West,
+were to be administered _en bloc_ to an astonished East.
+
+Even a schoolmaster's authority was declared anathema according to the
+modern dogmas, and attempts were made to act on this hopeful doctrine.
+Thus, a certain missionary in the town forbade his Armenian pupils to
+smuggle revolvers, and other contraband dear to the heart of every boy,
+into the school premises. Having reason to suspect that the command had
+been disobeyed, he began a search in the boys' boxes; but while in the
+stooping attitude necessary for the purpose, he was vehemently assaulted
+_a posteriori_ with hat-pins by his pupils, and was solemnly forbidden
+by the Tashnakists either to cane or to expel those guilty of this
+_lèse-majesté_. The first punishment was derogatory to the dignity of
+the young rascals as free-born Armenian citizens; the second deprived
+them of their natural Right to a good education. Further, it was
+solemnly argued, "if we do not send our boys to your school what will
+become of you? The funds have been subscribed by the friends of Armenia
+for our teaching, not for your livelihood." To manage a school under
+these conditions was obviously difficult; and to quote John Dryden, "the
+sons of Belial had a glorious time." But at last the absurdity of the
+_impasse_ forced even the Tashnakists to be a little more reasonable.
+
+"We work for those who come a hundred and fifty years hence," said Aram
+proudly to the _Vali_.
+
+"Leave that to Allah," said the more practically minded Turk, "and help
+us Turks to work for to-morrow."
+
+"Well you see, I do not believe in Allah," said the Armenian; who, like
+most of these Fedais, had been so highly educated that it was impossible
+for him to believe that any power could have made so supreme a _chef
+d'oeuvre_ as his magnificent self.
+
+"What? Won't He recognize your importance?" said the Turk shrewdly;
+after which it was not wonderful that they did not part on too friendly
+a footing.
+
+However, the Tashnakists soon found that the attachment of their
+countrymen to the old church that had kept their nation alive through
+the centuries, was so strong that some outward deference must be paid to
+it. Therefore, on the principle that it is well to do thoroughly that
+which you have to do, Aram became a Sunday-school teacher! The spectacle
+of this atheistic revolutionary (who had deliberately planned, and
+executed, murders by the dozen; and was indirectly responsible for
+heaven alone knew how much bloodshed besides), solemnly teaching little
+girls their Catechism, was at least striking, if not particularly
+edifying.
+
+Time went on; and gradually, the utter failure of the effort of the
+"Young Turks" to effect the regeneration of their country became
+manifest. The handicap against them was cruelly heavy. They were
+themselves without experience in working that great crazy combination of
+makeshifts which men call the Ottoman Government. Yet kept going it must
+be; and the only men who had the requisite knowledge were just that
+clique of unspeakably corrupt officials whom it would have been the
+first duty of any good Government to clear away. Further, while the
+great mass of the subjects of the Sultan, of whatever creed; are easily
+governed folk enough, and obey any order that the _Hukumet_ gives,
+within certain limits; yet everywhere in each one of the varied nations
+there was a small, noisy and irreconcilable minority--sets of men who
+could work neither with the Government nor with one another.
+
+There was the blind, fanatical opposition of the mollahs, and those
+Mussulmans whom they influenced. There were the self-styled leaders of
+each separate Christian nation; who usually misrepresented the
+inarticulate _rayats_ most woefully, and were clamouring for the
+immediate introduction of "reforms," that would have provoked a
+conservative reaction in France or America. And, moreover, there were
+very many others of the type that prefers troubled waters, because they
+are the best to fish in. Further, the Young Turks were themselves
+theorizers, and theory ridden. Ottomans and secularists, who wished to
+Ottomanize every one and to disregard religion; and did not realize how
+much the twin principles of religion and nationality went for in the
+land they wished to govern.
+
+Thus they brought upon themselves a needless Albanian revolt, and saw
+much of their prestige vanish in it. They outraged the prejudices of
+every conservative Mussulman by their open disregard of such an
+institution as Ramazan. They offended the very Christians whom they were
+trying to benefit, by the proposal to remove all the distinctive
+privileges of each _millet_, and make them all Ottoman subjects and
+citizens alike. The effect was to make them all as wrathful as the thief
+who found that he was not to be honoured with a higher gallows than his
+companions.
+
+Had time been given them, and had the army continued to back them,
+things might have gone well; for no European proverb holds in Turkey,
+and there it is not the case that "you can do anything with bayonets
+except sit on them." Bayonets enough make a very comfortable seat for
+the Government, or seem to do so. Still, time was not given; and two
+disastrous wars have not left much of the prestige that is the breath of
+life to an Oriental Government.
+
+The Turk has the misfortune to be an anachronism in power. His present
+methods were those of every European Government some five hundred years
+ago; but European consciences have developed in the interval, and his
+has not. Modern civilization, though willing enough to shut its eyes to
+a good deal that is ugly, cannot avoid seeing what the Turk does. He
+happens to occupy lands which must attract the religious and antiquarian
+interest of the world, and which are the nearest unexploited field for
+European capital besides. He is then, and must be, in the limelight.
+Still, you cannot do in the limelight what sentiment will allow you to
+do in the dark; and the trouble is, that the Turk knows no other way of
+doing his business than the habits he learnt when everything was dark.
+You can give an old dog a new collar, but you cannot teach him new
+tricks; and even calling the Government of Turkey "constitutional," has
+not altered its methods. Bribery is more costly now than under the old
+regime, in that you have to insure against risk; but it is not less
+prevalent: and the Turk has been given an excellent additional reason
+for disregarding the advice of foreign Consuls; for what _locus standi_
+have they in a Civilized and Constitutional country like the Ottoman
+Empire? These facts appear to a European resident to be the two
+principal results of the "new régime" after five years. What can Dame
+Europe say or do to the grim old mastiff, who can still bite enough to
+make her very nervous about handling him, and who says "What my enemies
+have left me of the kennel is mine; and while it remains mine I will
+manage it as I like."
+
+     NOTE. It is one of the consolations of life in Turkey that the more
+     tragically serious a thing is in reality, the more certain it is to
+     present a comic aspect in practice.
+
+     A good instance of this was provided for the foreigner in Van,
+     shortly after the proclamation of the Constitution in that city.
+
+     The position of women in the East is a great and important question
+     enough, in all conscience; and on its right solution depends
+     probably the future of those lands; yet the problem presented
+     itself in Van in the guise of a battle between old and young which
+     had all the elements of absurdity in it.
+
+     A caravan load of what professed to be the latest Paris fashion in
+     hats arrived at Van; and the younger female population (who had
+     been previously obliged to veil themselves for several reasons)
+     took to the innovation very kindly. They discovered, however, that
+     by doing so they had roused the wrath of conservative mamma, and of
+     even more conservative grandmamma, who declared that "nobody will
+     ever marry you if you go about with your face naked in that
+     fashion."
+
+     As a matter of fact, the Armenian Pyramus had no more objection to
+     looking on Thisbe's uncovered face than has his European cousin.
+     The real objection lay deeper. Hitherto marriages have been
+     arranged, as is right and proper, between the mothers and
+     grandmothers on each side; and the bridegroom never sees his bride
+     till the knot has been tied. If, however, damsels took to going
+     about "with their faces naked in that fashion," there obviously
+     might be difficulties in getting the consent of the young man to
+     the marriage arranged by his seniors; and it was even possible that
+     young people might take to settling things between themselves. In
+     this case, the rule of grandmamma over the house totters to its
+     very foundations--which is a catastrophe too terrible to be
+     contemplated for an instant. Hence _obsta principiis_ was the
+     order, and the hats were confiscated. Picture the feelings of those
+     scores of damsels who, having acquired European hats for the first
+     time, found themselves deprived of them; and condemned--not to a
+     transparent veil or becoming _mantilla_--but to a thick knitted
+     shawl drawn over the face whenever there was a male animal about.
+
+     Conservatism triumphed on this occasion; but had the new régime
+     been a success, we fancy that feminine youth would have put up a
+     better fight for it. As things were, the old conditions persisted,
+     which had made it none too safe for any young girl to allow her
+     face to be seen in the streets; and they gave way. No doubt the
+     battle will be renewed at a later date, and possibly with better
+     fortune!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN
+
+(QUDSHANIS)
+
+
+Most of us have some recollection of the legend of "Prester John,"
+particularly in the version given in "Ariosto"; the legend of a
+Christian king ruling his people in the midst of infidels; a king who
+was yet a priest and who celebrated Mass regularly; who had a kingdom in
+the midst of wild inaccessible mountains, girdled by cloud and storm;
+and who was tormented by the harpies that came daily and snatched the
+food from his table. We read, too, how he was visited by the wandering
+English knight Astolpho, and how that hero drove away the harpies by the
+blast of his magic horn.
+
+It sounds a staggering statement to make, but it is nevertheless the
+truth, that all these stories told by the Italian poet as legends
+current in his day, are literally the fact in all essentials (or were so
+until very lately), with the Patriarch of the Nestorians in Kurdistan.
+He is the "Bishop-Prince" of a mountain kingdom of Christians; subject
+to the Sultan of course, but still a recognized ruler, and ruler by
+virtue of his Episcopal rank. Even the mountains over which the
+hippogrif bore Astolpho were hardly more inaccessible than those which
+girdle the village of Qudshanis; while a very good imitation of the
+harpies that tormented Prester John are found in the Kurds that ravage
+the land. English visitors are there too, as members of what is known as
+the "Archbishop's Assyrian Mission;"[126] though they, alas, have no
+magic horn with which to drive away the harpies of to-day.
+
+If, however, the old magical power has gone, some prestige attaches to
+the name of the English still; for villages where they reside are not
+raided when all others suffer, for fear that some evil may thereafter
+befall the thief. The writer once spent a night in a little village of
+Nestorians in this immediate district, called Shwawutha; a village whose
+little rock-built church is shown in one of our illustrations.
+Hospitality was given him there, as a matter of course; but in the
+middle of the night he was roused by a Dutch concert of the most
+pronounced description. Men shouted, women screamed, cattle bellowed,
+and sheep bleated; while a shot or so told that something warlike was
+afoot. And soon folk came rushing in to tell him that the Kurds had
+descended on the village, and were engaged at that moment in turning it
+inside out.
+
+Sure enough, when he emerged in somewhat sketchy toilet, he found
+himself in the midst of some five and twenty well armed ruffians. Most
+of them were gathered on the threshing-floors, and threatening the
+villagers with their rifles; while the rest were coolly rounding up the
+sheep for the purpose of driving them away. Deponent had some talk with
+their leader, carefully introducing himself as an Englishman, and laying
+stress on the fact that he was going down from that village to the seat
+of government, to interview the _Vali_ and the British Consul. And
+presently the robber excused himself for a moment and gave an order in
+Kurdish, which was not understood by his interlocutor, but which
+resulted in his men allowing the sheep to remain in their folds. He then
+turned round and explained with all politeness that he and his young men
+were on a peaceful journey, and desired to be the guests of the village
+for the rest of that night. Would the _Effendi_ use his influence with
+the headman to get him to extend hospitality to them? He tactfully
+ignored the fact that you do not usually occupy a village with an armed
+force at two in the morning as a preliminary to asking to be received as
+a guest!
+
+The _Effendi_ told the headman that he had better let it go at that,
+lest worse should befall him; for naturally he had no means whatever of
+controlling these fellows if they should break loose. A meal was
+hurriedly prepared for all the gang, and he sat with their chief till
+unholy hours that night, or morning, exchanging yarns. Eventually he had
+the satisfaction of seeing the marauders depart at daybreak. No harm had
+been done to the place; though had it not been for the "accident" of the
+presence of an Englishman, there would have been a different tale to
+tell.
+
+The village of Qudshanis, which is the residence of the Nestorian or
+Assyrian Patriarch, "Mar Shimun," and the headquarters of his Church,
+has a marvellous situation. It lies on a sloping "alp" of rugged
+pasture, between two mountain torrents which spring from the towering
+snow-fields to the west of it; and which descend in gradually deepening
+gorges, enclosing the tongue-shaped plateau on which the village stands.
+They meet beneath the point of the tongue at the base of a lofty wedge
+of rock; and thence the united stream flows on, joined by others on its
+way, till it falls into the Zab some two hours below the village.
+Nestorian tradition regards the Zab as the Pison, one of the four rivers
+of Paradise; and the Patriarch will occasionally date his official
+letters "from my cell on the River of the Garden of Eden."
+
+The official title of the Church, whose principal bishop resides in this
+romantic, but singularly inaccessible, spot is "the Church of the East."
+This title was given to it originally by those whom we call "the Eastern
+Christians," viz. those of Constantinople and Antioch; and by it they
+meant the Church to the east of them, beyond the frontier of the Roman
+Empire, in what was then the kingdom of the Sassanid Persians. In the
+days of its greatness, this communion extended itself marvellously, in
+just those countries where Christianity finds it hardest to establish a
+footing now. In the year 1300 its bishops were distributed from Damascus
+to Pekin, and from Tartary to Malabar. The "Syrian Christians" of the
+latter land, though they now own a different jurisdiction, still remain
+as a memorial of its missionary zeal in the fifth century; and the
+Singan monument in the very heart of China tells of the presence of
+this "pacific, philosophical, and excellent religion" there also, and
+commemorates the names of sundry of its bishops and clergy. Nay, the
+historic Prester John (for he was an historical figure strange to say)
+was of this Church. A dynasty of Tartar princes of the eleventh century
+were Christians; and the name of their founder, Ung Khan, readily became
+Yukhanan, which is John, in Syriac-speaking mouths. Whether he ever was,
+as a matter of fact, an ordained presbyter is more questionable.
+
+Massacre (particularly the tremendous massacres of Tamerlane about the
+year 1400), oppression, and the proselytism of better protected and
+educated bodies, have reduced this Church now to a few wild tribes of
+mountaineers living in a most inaccessible country; and to a fringe of
+_rayat_ villages, many of whom are little better than serfs to the Kurds
+near whom they live. Yet the Church still exists, guarding its
+independence and its ancient rites, and boasting with legitimate pride
+that it, alone of all peoples, still uses in daily life the language
+that our Lord spoke on earth. Whether the dialects of vernacular Syriac
+that are here in use would have been intelligible in Palestine in the
+first century of this era, may be doubted; but the statement is so far
+true, that the language is unquestionably a variant of the Aramaic
+referred to.
+
+As this Church is a survival of so much that is ancient and that has
+passed away from other lands, it is appropriate that here alone in all
+the world, the "temporal power of the Church" should still survive. It
+is little more than a shadow now, but not a dead thing yet. Mar Shimun
+holds the village of Qudshanis, and the lands that belong to it, by
+grant from the Sultan; and until lately every inhabitant of the place
+was in the happy condition of paying neither rent, rates, nor taxes to
+anyone. Unfortunately the grant was a merely verbal one, made in the
+days when you did not ask your king to sign papers from fear that he
+would "play the Jew" and go back from his given word, and when the
+evidence of the "grey-beards" of a place was enough to prove a fact. Now
+there is a new rule in the land, the rule of forms and pens and ink and
+paper; and this new régime has not recognized the old right. A harmless
+and picturesque survival has gone; taken away in the interests of
+civilization and uniformity, by the same people who were so desirous of
+substituting a Parisian boulevard for the Roman walls of Constantinople,
+and for the same reason.
+
+One other feature of the old rights remains--besides the fact that the
+peacock, the bird of royalty, still walks the patriarchal terrace.[127]
+The wild Christian tribes of Hakkiari, whither no Government of any sort
+has ever extended, still pay tribute to their Patriarch for transmission
+to the Sultan; and not taxes through the tax-collector, like the rest.
+This, again, is based on custom only, and if it were challenged (as it
+will be ere long), the tribes could show no document acknowledging their
+right; for it simply arose from the fact that the Ottoman Government was
+not disposed, or able, to enforce their government practically in this
+wild district. It was easier to give the Patriarch, whom the tribesmen
+did reverence, a few decorations and a small salary, and to set him to
+collect such tribute as he could get the tribesmen to pay. It was an
+acknowledgment of jurisdiction that could be made more effective if ever
+the opportunity should offer.
+
+Westerns, accustomed to correct Western notions of managing Church and
+State, hear with a shock that the patriarchate of this ancient church is
+hereditary in one family; as indeed is the case also with almost all its
+bishoprics. Bishops do not marry (though other clergy are free to do so
+at their will), so the office cannot go from father to son. It does go,
+however, from uncle to nephew, and so keeps in the "Episcopal house".
+
+It is a strange custom; yet it is not so long since it prevailed in at
+least one part of Europe; for fifty years ago it was the established
+order of things in Montenegro. We believe that it was the father of the
+present King Nicholas who first refused to be consecrated bishop, and to
+refrain from marriage, when he acceded to the hereditary chieftainship
+of the "Black Mountain;" though all his predecessors had done so before
+him. If the custom went on so long in Europe, one need not wonder
+overmuch if it still prevails under similar circumstances in a remoter
+land.
+
+The fact is, that among Christians who are still in the wild tribal
+stage of evolution, the Episcopate is much too important a thing in the
+tribe to be allowed out of the House of the Chief. Further, the idea of
+hereditary high priesthood, or family sanctity at any rate, is
+thoroughly congruous to Oriental thought. Among the Kurds, Sheikhship,
+which is hereditary religious chieftainship, is a common thing enough;
+and the Aaronic high-priesthood is at least a respectable precedent to
+refer to! Perhaps the Patriarch's own statement of the case, as made to
+the writer, gives as good a defence for the custom as can be made. "Of
+course, we know that this _Natar-cursiya_ system" (the Syriac name for
+the habit) "is as thoroughly against primitive practice and our own
+canons as a thing can well be. Tell me though, you who know our people
+and circumstances, what other way is open to us? Free election by our
+wild tribesmen? That means a free fight every vacancy. Nomination by the
+Turkish Government? If we were lucky, we might get some feeble old monk,
+who had done no harm to anyone, and never would do any good. We should
+be much more likely, however, to get some supple blackguard, who asked
+for a bishopric as his pay for some dirty job done for a Turkish _Vali_.
+So we have dropped into this hereditary system; and we think that we
+have as good a chance of a good bishop as others have of a good king."
+Really the writer had no reply to make; and could only feel thankful
+that his Holiness had not the knowledge that would have enabled him to
+continue, "and you know, however uncanonical and unprimitive it is, it
+cannot well be more so than nomination by a lay Prime Minister. You
+maintain that custom because it works fairly well. So do we."
+
+One result of an hereditary Episcopate is that the bishop is often
+absurdly young in years. The present holder of the Patriarchate is of
+the mature age of twenty-three, and is in the ninth year of his
+consecration! That a lad of that age (though admittedly maturity comes
+quickly in the East) should take himself very seriously as an
+Archbishop, is too much to be expected. Still he does take himself very
+seriously as the responsible Head of his nation; as the one to whom all
+have the right to turn in their need, and who is bound to help them to
+the limits of his power. Long ago, a poet in this land sketched what an
+ideal king should be; and the main feature of his portrait was that such
+an one should "preserve the souls of the poor," "delivering the poor
+when he crieth" and counting "their blood dear in his sight." That is
+still the ideal of kingship in this land; and this lad (to his credit be
+it said) has loyally endeavoured to live up to it. It would have been
+easy for Mar Shimun to make comfortable terms for his House and himself,
+had he been content to leave his people to look after their own
+interests. On the contrary, he has habitually sacrificed his own ease
+and comfort; and has run serious risks again and again, in order that he
+may try to protect "the sheep whom God has committed to him" either from
+Kurdish raider, or from the worse oppression of the Ottoman minor
+official. The Eastern ruler who rules for his people is a rare
+phenomenon and a high character.
+
+An instance or two of the sort of work this young man has to do, and the
+spirit in which he undertakes it, will give some idea of the conditions
+of his life. The writer has known a case, where an important mountain
+chief brought up an unworthy candidate for priest's orders, only a few
+weeks after the lad had himself been consecrated as Patriarch. The
+request was met with the silence which in the East means refusal. It was
+repeated more urgently, to be met again by a quiet but decided negative.
+
+"But the man is your own cousin my Lord!" said the astonished chief;
+"how can you refuse this to him?"
+
+"_Malik_" (_i.e._, "chief") came the answer, delivered without either
+swagger or fear, "the whole _millet_ is equally 'the cousin' of its
+Patriarch."
+
+On another occasion, he had to undertake a piece of work most eminently
+episcopal in character, but hardly usual in the West, viz. the
+reconciliation of a feud between a Kurdish and a Christian tribe.
+
+Preliminaries were arranged by him between the two chiefs; and it was
+finally agreed that twenty "leading men" from each sept should meet with
+Mar Shimun in a certain valley, where the last points could be settled
+at a personal interview, and peace formally made. The Patriarch was
+prepared, of course, for the fact that every delegate came fully armed;
+but he had not quite expected that each one of the forty should think it
+needful for his dignity to come like Vich Ian Vohr, "with his tail on,"
+accompanied that is by four or five followers, all also armed! Further,
+each side (as was discovered later) had provided an ambush in a
+convenient place, so as not to be taken unawares in the event of
+treachery on the part of the other.
+
+Walking with naked lights in a powder magazine was a safe business
+compared to that conference; and the Patriarch, having got his parties
+in two villages, divided by a stream, spent most of the day going to and
+fro between them, arranging the final details. All was settled at last;
+and "Now," said the Patriarch, "leave your guns here in the shade, and
+come down to the stream and shake hands."
+
+They came as ordered, without their guns. But it was observed that every
+man of the forty came down with his right hand on the hilt of his
+dagger; and when he had to take it away in order to grasp the hand of
+his opposite number, he put his left hand there instead! However, all
+passed off well; though the Armenian servant who handed round the coffee
+that formed the ceremonial hospitality which all had to share, trembled
+so violently that he upset the cups! For a moment it was a question
+whether this would be taken as a joke or a bad omen. Then luckily
+somebody laughed; and a general guffaw saved the situation.
+
+When all were talking in friendly wise, and chaffing one another over
+the episodes of the feud, it was discovered that each party had brought
+down its local lunatic to provide amusement for them during the hours of
+waiting. Some one with a sporting soul suggested forming a ring, and
+putting up a cock-fight between these two unfortunates. Mar Shimun did
+his best to dissuade them; having a well-grounded fear that if the two
+came to blows, each man of the forty would take sides with his own
+idiot, and that the whole feud would be re-opened with a particularly
+sanguinary fight. However, to his relief, though to the disappointment
+of others, the lunatics showed themselves possessed of more sense than
+any of their companions. Each was provided with a thick stick, and told
+that the other had insulted all his ancestry; but they fell to talk
+before proceeding to "lay on load;" and got on together so well that
+they spent the rest of that day in friendly converse. When they finally
+parted, each declared that the other was the most sensible man and the
+best company that he had met in all his life.
+
+In all his work, both spiritual and political, Mar Shimun has had two
+helpers, one of whom is with him still. This is his sister Surma, "Lady
+Surma of the house of Mar Shimun;" a singularly cultivated and
+high-minded woman. She has been thoroughly well educated (_e.g._ she
+speaks English well, and is well read in such authors as Scott,
+Stevenson and C. M. Yonge, besides English devotional theology), she yet
+remains a thorough Oriental, and a devoted member of her own Church. She
+is a recognized authority in all the rites and services,[128] and the
+trusted adviser of her brother (whose senior she is by a couple of
+years) in all the work of his office. Lady Surma is a professed nun
+(_rabbanta_) of the Nestorian Church; but this does not imply a
+cloistered life, for monasticism in this land has developed in a very
+peculiar fashion. The monasteries and nunneries have practically all
+perished, though their endowments (or some of them) are still recognized
+as Church property; but monks and nuns--_rabbans_ and _rabbantas_, still
+continue. Those who feel the "call to the religious life" follow it in
+their own families; living unmarried, abstaining from meat, and devoting
+themselves to good works and the services of the church. They maintain
+themselves by their own labour, and (with the exceptions mentioned)
+follow no special rule. If they marry, for instance, they have departed
+from a high purpose, but have broken no solemn vow. Rather strangely,
+the system has thus fallen back to something very like what "the
+virginal life" was in the early days of the Church, before monastic
+rules were formulated. This has come about without the knowledge or
+intent of its present professors; but the parallel with the conditions
+of _e.g._ third century Africa is amazingly close.[129]
+
+As bishop, Mar Shimun is of course a _rabban_ also, and as such eats no
+meat. This, however, implies no great hardship in Qudshanis, where
+indeed the visitor may be recommended to consult his own comfort by
+following the same rule; for meat is both hard to come by and seldom
+good to eat.[130] The course of generations, however, has evolved quite
+a number of good vegetarian recipes, not indeed for the patriarchal
+table, for there is none, but for the patriarchal tray!
+
+Mar Shimun's other counsellor was an Englishman of most exceptional
+character; the late Doctor William Browne, of the "Archbishop's
+Mission;" who for twenty-five years lived in this remote village as
+adviser and friend of this Church, and of two successive Patriarchs in
+it. In spirit a devoted fifth-century hermit, who somehow was born in
+nineteenth-century England, he applied himself whole-heartedly to the
+care of the Nestorian Church and its members, as their teacher, healer,
+and at times rebuker. He lived their life with them, and now sleeps in
+their midst. Many of the memories of one of the most picturesque and
+romantic of modern lives were lost irrevocably at his accidental death
+in 1910; but one or two which the writer received from him are worth
+inserting, as throwing light both on the conditions under which he
+lived, and on the character of the man himself.
+
+In January and February of the year 1900, the news of the "Black Week"
+in South Africa in the previous December filtered slowly through the
+glens of Kurdistan. Mr. Browne (as he then was) was in his room in the
+village of Qudshanis, when two visitors were announced; deacons of the
+Church both, and good friends of their host. In they came, appearing
+fully armed and equipped for a journey.
+
+"Peace be to you, deacons," said the Englishman, "Are you going on a
+journey at this season?"
+
+"Upon you be peace Rabbi," came the answer; "Could you tell us the way
+to South Africa?"
+
+"To South Africa? Why on earth do you want to go there?"
+
+"Well, Rabbi, we owe a good deal to you English; it seems from what we
+hear that you fellows don't understand fighting behind rocks. Now we do
+know _that_ here in Hakkiari if we know nothing else, and we thought we
+ought to go and help."
+
+They would certainly have been a picturesque reinforcement for Lord
+Roberts; but it came out on inquiry that there really was no way of
+getting to Africa without crossing the ocean, a prospect far more
+dreadful than battling with any number of Boers; and so the volunteers
+returned regretfully to their homes.
+
+The "debt which they owed to the English," by the way, was principally
+the service rendered to their nation by Stratford Canning in 1847; when
+he insisted on the restoration of the children stolen as slaves by the
+Kurds under Bedr Khan Beg, the Mira of Bohtan, who perpetrated a fearful
+massacre of these mountaineers in that year. The return of those who had
+been given up as dead (and who were brought back in some cases from
+Aleppo and Smyrna) made a deep impression on the people, and has never
+been forgotten since.
+
+[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN BRIDGE.
+
+A characteristic example near the village of Alot on the Lesser Zab.
+
+No. 12]
+
+On another occasion, a worthy old _qasha_, or priest, _Qasha_ Tuma by
+name, better known for his straight shooting than for his learning,
+turned up to interview Mr. Browne; assured him of his attachment to the
+English, and asked if there was nothing he could do to serve him.
+
+"Certainly, _Qasha_," said the Englishman; "gather the boys of your
+village and teach a school; I will find you books enough."
+
+[Illustration: QUDSHANIS CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA]
+
+"Nay Rabbi, that is quite beyond me. It is as much as I can do to read
+the services. But, if there was anyone whom you wished shot now, I
+should be delighted to undertake the job!"
+
+Mar Shimun is accustomed to think of himself rather as Chief of his
+nation than as Patriarch of its Church (or to be accurate, not to
+separate those two offices in his mind); but it is as Patriarch
+notwithstanding that he appeals to the imagination of outsiders--Patriarch
+of one of the most interesting and picturesque Churches in the world.
+We give a picture of his Cathedral, which like most of the mountain
+shrines is very small in size, and resembles a border "peel-tower"
+rather than a church of the type we are accustomed to.[131] Orientals
+are not troubled with any desire for pews and either stand through the
+service, or kneel or sit upon the floor during the Lessons and sermon,
+and thus a very small nave will accommodate a very fair congregation.
+Though the Church of Mar Shalitha at Qudshanis measures at the most
+a scant thirty feet square, we have seen a congregation of about 400
+accommodated in it; and that without more crowding than was advisable
+to keep people warm before the dawning of a Kurdistan winter's day.
+Once only, we may mention, have the Christmas day services been
+postponed till after sunrise; and that was on an occasion when a wild
+snowstorm, of the sort known by the expressive name of the "white
+darkness," made it a physical impossibility for any person to win his
+way over the 200 yards that divide the church from the village.
+
+Internally the church is divided into nave and sanctuary; the latter
+being partitioned off by a fairly solid wall, and raised on three steps
+above the nave level. Outside the sanctuary door two solid "tables" of
+masonry carry the book of the Gospels, and the Cross which is kissed by
+every person who enters the building. Curtains and small votive
+offerings form the decorations, the latter being chiefly bunches of
+aromatic herbs, which are suspended from the tie beams; but in these
+matters the Nestorian is of more than evangelical severity, and will
+allow no picture, far less any image, to be brought into the church.
+Even a stained glass window would excite his prejudice, if it contained
+any figures; a fact which is no doubt due to his desire to escape any
+reproach of "idolatry" from his Mohammedan neighbours.[132]
+
+The Liturgy of this Church is one of the oldest used in any part of
+Christendom; for it is practically certain that it existed in something
+like its present form by the year 450, and tradition ascribes it to an
+even earlier date. However, in a land where all services were until very
+lately manuscript and not printed, a certain amount of "fluidity" is
+natural; and indeed at certain services anyone who will bring an anthem
+of his own composition is entitled to have it chanted!
+
+Evening celebrations of the Eucharist (_Qurbana_ is the Syriac name for
+the Rite) are customary on the vigils of the greater festivals; and
+these are performed in a way that suggests a possible and most
+beneficial concordat on that disputed point between the "high" and "low"
+divisions of the Church of England, for all who attend the evening
+celebration in the Nestorian Church do so fasting!
+
+That so ancient a Church as this isolated body should have certain rites
+peculiar to itself, in addition to those that are variants of services
+common to all Christendom, is of course to be expected; and every
+Nestorian attaches great importance to what is known among them as the
+"Succession of the Leaven." Like all Orientals they celebrate the
+Eucharist with leavened bread,[133] and a certain amount of this is
+reserved after each "_Qurbana_" for one purpose, and one only. That
+purpose is neither communion of the sick, nor adoration; but the
+leavening of the dough that is to be baked for the next celebration.
+That baking of the bread, as is general with Orientals, is performed by
+the priest himself, and in the sacristy of the church, at a special
+preliminary office; and the admixture of the reserved crumbs at once
+leavens it, and puts it "into connexion" with that used on the previous
+occasion. And so they hold it is put "into connexion" with that used at
+all previous celebrations also, back to the institution in the upper
+room at Jerusalem. As a matter of history, the fact can be of course
+neither proved nor disproved. As a piece of instructive and interesting
+ceremonial, we imagine that at the least nobody could object to it;
+while many would envy such a possession.
+
+It is at the patriarchal _diwan_ that the real life of Qudshanis finds
+its centre. At this solemn gathering, which is held daily in the course
+of the afternoon, anyone may be present; and anyone may bring forward
+any conceivable business that he wishes to have discussed in public.
+Coffee and tobacco go round, and for picturesqueness the gathering is
+hard to beat. It is composed mostly of mountaineers who look as if they
+had stepped down from the Assyrian sculptures, clad in loose home-spun
+coats and trousers, gay cummerbunds that are wrapped round and round
+their waists, and high felt caps that have been their headgear since
+time immemorial. Below these hang the long, plaited pigtails that form
+the traditional arrangement of their long hair. A bishop, or so, in long
+dark robes, serves as a foil to the many coloured dresses of the men of
+Tyari and Tkhuma; and the wonderfully handsome face of the young
+Patriarch (for good looks are part of the inheritance of the men of his
+family) forms a centre to the whole. He has himself unfortunately
+departed from the tradition of his fathers, and wears semi-European
+dress, which is seldom becoming to the Asiatic. Any visitor at Qudshanis
+is expected to attend the reception; and indeed to be in the place and
+not to be sometimes at the _diwan_ of the Patriarch is a marked act of
+discourtesy and almost a proclamation of disloyalty. As far as the
+writer can make out, something the same line of thought governs the
+Oriental attendance at the services of his church. In attending the
+_Qurbana_, he is attending the _diwan_ of that Great Power to whom he
+certainly does not intend to be openly disloyal.
+
+Absolutely any business may be discussed, or any subject brought forward
+at these gatherings. Who is to be _malik_ of such and such a district;
+what villages stand in need of clergy; what terms of agreement can be
+suggested for the settlement of some grazing dispute. And though these
+questions may be settled _in camera_, the meanest man has his chance of
+making his opinion heard. If there is no special business to talk over,
+other subjects crop up; and a good fund of general information is a
+desirable possession for any Englishman who may be present, for strange
+questions are put before his wisdom. Thus, he may be asked why it is the
+case that some wild animals take so much more killing than do others; or
+invited to pass an opinion as to whether it is really the fact that
+shooting stars are the javelins cast by the Seraphim at the Jann, when
+they see them come up from earth to the lower courts of heaven for the
+purposes of eavesdropping. Once, a worthy old priest started the problem
+whether the angels kept the Fasts of the Church; and this was discussed
+with much learning and in true scholastic style. The theory propounded
+that they could hardly fast because they did not eat was scouted on the
+authority of the text, "Man did eat angels' food;" this proving that
+they certainly ate something! "Then they eat but do not fast" said some;
+but that seemed unlikely, for of all sorts of men known to these
+present, whether Christian, Mussulman, Jew or Devil-worshipper, the only
+folk who did not fast in some way were the American Missionaries, and
+there was a general feeling that this was not quite a conclusive
+precedent![134] Finally the meeting somehow hammered out the very
+sensible conclusion that laws made for fallen creatures like man did
+not necessarily bind unfallen beings; and the matter was left at that.
+
+Occasionally some queer anecdote is related by one of the visitors; and
+one of these sticks in our memory as exemplifying the exceeding
+toughness and callousness of the Kurd. A gentleman of that race was
+riding his mule along one of the mountain paths when he was caught by an
+avalanche, which carried him down some distance, and then (in the
+sportive way that avalanches sometimes have) flung him on one side with
+his leg broken, but with his mule unhurt. He was ill enough off even so;
+for the spot was very lonely, and it was near nightfall. There was frost
+in the air already, and the temperature would be somewhere about zero
+before dawn. But by great good luck another traveller passed, and that
+traveller the victim's own brother. This model of fraternal affection
+rode off with the mule "lest it should get stolen," and left his brother
+in the snow till morning! But the latter was little the worse for his
+experience after all!
+
+This episode was told us, as it happened, on the day after the query why
+some animals were very hard to kill; when we had explained that roughly,
+the lower the animal in the scale of creation, the more cutting and
+hacking he would stand. Hearing of the Kurd's adventures, the Patriarch
+looked across at us and observed drily, "I always thought that Kurds
+were precious low animals, Rabbi, and now I know it."
+
+On the same occasion, a visitor detailed his own experience, when he had
+gone to pay a visit of sympathy to a Kurdish neighbour, who had recently
+lost some near relative. He entered the house, and found all the family
+as he had expected, seated wailing round the fireplace, as proper
+Kurdish custom dictates. They will sit thus, literally in the ashes, for
+some days; keeping up a low keening continuously, though at times some
+one of the party, without the least warning, will spring to his feet and
+shriek. Any visitor who wishes to express sympathy, takes up a shovelful
+of ashes from the hearth and pours it on the heads of the whole circle.
+The Christian, of course, did not neglect this act of courtesy, but
+performed it liberally. However, quite unintentionally, he took up some
+live coals in the shovel, and these, by ill-luck, went down the neck of
+one of the mourners, who at once sprang to his feet with a howl,
+exclaiming "I burn, I burn," and began tearing his clothes off. This,
+however, was quite ordinary behaviour, for wailing and rending of
+garments are habitual on these occasions; so all the family simply sat
+still and wailed in sympathy. The unlucky lad was really painfully,
+though not dangerously, burnt before his friends could be brought to
+understand that his sufferings were physical rather than mental!
+
+As the recognized head of the Christian "_ashirets_" of Tyari and
+Tkhuma, and as the present holder of what all Mussulmans of the district
+recognize as a most ancient and venerable throne, Mar Shimun has a high
+position among the Kurds personally; though that fact does not, of
+course, keep them from plundering his people. In the past, indeed, it
+has not always availed to protect the House of the Patriarch itself from
+outrage; for when Bedr Khan Beg, the formidable Mira of Bohtan, attacked
+these Christian tribes in 1845--and perpetrated a massacre so appalling
+that the years are dated from it to this day--a special attempt was made
+to "extirpate the head of this brood of serpents."
+
+Qudshanis itself was ravaged; the church plundered; and many priceless
+records utterly destroyed. Even a _firman_ said to be signed by the
+Prophet himself, and specially granting toleration to members of this
+body, was destroyed; no doubt as a forgery, because it condemned the
+very thing that its captors were in the act of doing. Whether as a
+matter of fact the document in question was actually Mohammed's own
+dictation and sealing, cannot of course be proved now; but tradition has
+it that he was taught what he knew of Christianity by a monk of this
+body, so the story may be true. It is perhaps more probable that the
+grant in question was made by Omar, who was Khalif at the time that the
+Mussulmans over-ran Persia; and who is known to have made some such
+grant of toleration to the Nestorian Patriarch of his day.
+
+However that may be, it is the fact that every Kurd in the district of
+Hakkiari (a general name for the mountain districts of southern
+Kurdistan) has some reverence for Mar Shimun, as a sort of titular head
+of the land, and as a man of as much hereditary sanctity as a Christian
+can aspire to. Thus, strict Mussulmans will often consider that the
+flesh of animals killed by Christians is not clean enough for a true
+believer to eat. Who can tell if it has been properly made _hallal_ or
+no? If, however, the beast has been killed by one of the patriarchal
+family, the strictest Moslem will not hesitate; particularly if the
+slaughtering has been done with one particular knife that is one of the
+heirlooms of the house.
+
+Many other strange survivals of old days remain in this home of ancient
+semi-royalty and even more ancient patriarchate, but these must suffice.
+There are few spectacles more romantic and more attractive than that of
+this young man whom Providence has called to so difficult a position,
+loyally doing his best, with the help of his devoted sister, to guide
+and preserve those that are entrusted to him; to save them in the perils
+that encompass them, and to make them once more worthy inheritors of
+their own splendid past.
+
+     NOTE. The conclusion of this chapter provides an opportunity for
+     the insertion of a few notes upon the bird and animal life of the
+     mountains of Hakkiari. The subject has some interest of its own;
+     though the fact that every self-respecting man in the country
+     carries a gun prevents the land from ranking as a sportsman's
+     paradise.
+
+     Ibex are fairly common in the southern portions of the range, which
+     are also the more rugged; and moufflon are to be obtained upon the
+     lofty downs of the Armenian plateaux--but not in any great numbers.
+     The former carry very fine heads, and we have seen them with knobs
+     that marked a life of ten or even eleven years, and a measurement,
+     round the curve of the horn, of over four feet.
+
+     Bears are common enough to be a nuisance in the spring--when they
+     do much harm to the flocks--and are usually of the ordinary brown
+     type. Sometimes they are of a greyish colour; and the district of
+     Jilu can boast a variety which is described as "white." The only
+     skin of the type that the writer has seen, however, was light sandy
+     in hue, and it is probably no more than a slight local variant in
+     colour.
+
+     Generally they are hunted in a strictly utilitarian way; the object
+     being not so much as to provide sport as to get rid of a nuisance.
+     All the men of the village who can raise anything that can be fired
+     without bursting go out _en masse_, and beat the hillside till the
+     quarry is roused. When that happens there is as much firing as at
+     an ordinary tribal skirmish; and by the time the skin is brought
+     in, it sometimes has some resemblance to a fishing-net.
+
+     One good man of Qudshanis, however, had a more sporting
+     disposition, and made a practice of hunting the bear in a way that
+     would have delighted the soul of the Emperor Maximilian, with no
+     other weapon than a short stick (some eight inches long, pointed at
+     the ends) and a dagger. His method was to track the bear to his
+     lair, to approach to within arm's length if possible, and then
+     rouse the enemy. It seems that the bear could be trusted to stand
+     at gaze for an instant with open mouth, and the hunter (so said
+     deponent, who was the worthy old steward of the Nestorian
+     Patriarch) then thrust the stick into his mouth, thus propping his
+     jaws apart. The bear was sure to use his paws to get rid of the
+     nuisance, and so laid himself open to just one stab from the
+     dagger. It was certainly a sporting method, and the hunter got many
+     skins and much local _kudos_, the latter being certainly well
+     earned.
+
+     However, as often happens, there came a day when something went
+     wrong. Precisely what happened was not known, for the hunter was,
+     as usual, alone--and he never came back to explain how he had
+     failed.
+
+     As is the case with many half-wild races, Assyrians regard the bear
+     as half-human, or at all events nearer to man than other beasts;
+     and are convinced, among other things, that he understands human
+     speech. In one instance known to the writer, a girl went down to
+     the fruit-orchards one summer evening with the reprehensible
+     purpose of helping herself from trees that did not belong to her
+     family. As she peered up the tree in the dusk, she saw the soles of
+     a pair of feet above her, and called to the supposed boy to throw
+     her down a share of the fruit. She got no answer, and so went on:
+     "Then I'll go and tell Abraham that you are stealing his fruit, and
+     he will come out with a gun and a stick." At that word, a
+     half-grown bear dropped out of the tree beside her, and she
+     perceived that the feet had been his, and not those of a boy. (The
+     resemblance between the footprint of a bear and that of a man, in
+     snow, is remarkably close.) It would be hard to say which party was
+     the most scared, for they ran away in opposite directions; but,
+     naturally, nothing would persuade the girl that the bear had not
+     understood her.
+
+     Wild boar is fairly common in the lower hills, which are
+     forest-clad; but the sportsman must reconcile himself to shooting
+     them, for orthodox "pig-sticking" is out of the question in that
+     land. Some of the Christian tribes (though they keep no domestic
+     swine) will shoot and eat these beasts; and at times play unkind
+     tricks on their Mussulman neighbours, inviting them to a banquet
+     and putting pig before them. Kurds are not too particular under
+     these circumstances, though they will not eat the meat knowingly.
+     Still, if trapped thus, they salve their consciences with the
+     remark: "The Christian had the sin, and I had the good dinner." It
+     is, however, only men of Tkhuma who act thus. The good folk of
+     Tyari might not be above scoring off the enemy in that or any other
+     way, but they will never themselves eat either pork or hare. They
+     do not realize, however, that the rule is not peculiar to that
+     elect people, their own tribe. A good lady of that valley once
+     expressed to the writer her disgust at hearing that Christians were
+     to be enrolled in the army in future. "How can I endure to have my
+     sons set to eat pigs' flesh among the Mussulmans?" Nothing would
+     persuade her that they were not likely to be exposed to that horror
+     at any rate.
+
+     Wolves are numerous, and their packs are at times a positive danger
+     to life, particularly in hard winters. Solitary travellers are
+     known to have been pulled down by them; and the local sheepdog is
+     of necessity a powerful and savage brute, though he has little of
+     the sagacity of a Scotch collie. We have known a case in which a
+     pack of wolves (driven by hunger, of course) actually entered the
+     suburbs of the city of Van, and sent in a crafty old she-wolf as
+     decoy. She brought a pack of rash street-dogs out at her tail, and
+     the ambush was a great and shining success. The wolves got a good
+     meal for once, and the nights in that quarter of the city were more
+     peaceful for some time after. In the same winter (that of 1905-6,
+     which was of exceptional severity) a pack of hunger-driven wolves
+     actually invaded an Armenian village, and remained in possession of
+     it for a matter of an hour. All human beings were driven to take
+     cover in the houses, and every dog in the place was killed, while
+     the middens were cleaned up as they had not been for many a day.
+     The folds could not be entered, nor could the houses--else a grim
+     tragedy would have been enacted--and, after a while, the enemy
+     withdrew, after a strange temporary reversal of the normal
+     condition of things.
+
+     Leopards are still to be found in the mountains, but very rarely.
+     We have, however, seen a cub in captivity, and he was certainly not
+     imported into the land. Lynx and marten are rare now; and the
+     foul-eating "ghoul," which is apparently a type of hyæna, is found
+     on Mosul plain, as mentioned above, in company with the equally
+     disreputable jackal. The lion which, on the evidence of Assyrian
+     sculptures, was once common on the Mesopotamian plain, is extinct
+     now; though old men among the Arabs still look back fondly to the
+     days when a youth was expected to prove his manhood by killing one
+     as a gift to his bride.
+
+     If the lion is extinct, however, another great beast that figures
+     with him as royal game for the King of Nineveh would seem to be not
+     quite exterminated yet. This is the aurochs, which appears
+     repeatedly on the carvings in the British Museum.
+
+     We have never seen this animal in life, but we once saw the head of
+     something of the _genus bos_ on the wall of the house of a Kurdish
+     gentleman of Amadia. Its preservation was deplorable, but it had
+     long fine horns, and its colour had been white originally, as is
+     the case with wild cattle elsewhere, but is very rare with the
+     domestic animal. We observed to our host that his ox had unusually
+     fine horns, but he declared "that is no common ox, _Effendim_; it
+     is one of the wild cattle of the mountains, of which there are very
+     few in these days." We regret to add that seven years later the
+     head had perished altogether, which is a distinct loss; still,
+     there is other evidence that the animal is not entirely extinct as
+     yet.
+
+     Birds are not numerous, but what there are are mostly of the
+     decorative order. The great golden eagle is fairly plentiful in the
+     mountains, and the black one is seen at times. Vultures and kites
+     are common enough; and Haji Laqlaq the stork comes in regularly
+     from his pilgrimage to Mecca in the spring. Magpies are plentiful
+     and are seen in flocks of twenty at a time, in numbers that
+     preclude any superstition attaching to them. They are good
+     scavengers; and the parts that appear as black in their English
+     cousins are seen, on examination, to be of a dark metallic blue and
+     green in these specimens, so that the total effect is really
+     brilliant.
+
+     The "blue jay" too, is really blue in this land; for he does not
+     confine himself to a few blue feathers in his wings, as with us,
+     but does equal honour to both our universities, by appearing with a
+     Cambridge blue body and Oxford blue wings, and thus has a
+     magnificent appearance. Even he is outdone by the kingfisher, who
+     is a large specimen of his kind, and clothes himself entirely in
+     deep metallic blue with a marvellous sheen. That at least is the
+     livery of the fisher on the River Zab. Lower down on the Tigris,
+     the blue is light in colour, though equally metallic in tone, and
+     is set off by a pair of bright russet wings.
+
+     The hoopoe comes in the summer and is, as ever, an attractive and
+     gay neighbour, with his body of bright chestnut, and wings and
+     crest of barred black and white. Nestorians call him "the bird of
+     Solomon," and tell the familiar legend of his crown; but Armenians
+     account for it in a different way. "Their fathers say" that the
+     hoopoe was once a damsel, very pretty, but also very conceited, who
+     would not veil her face as decency dictates, but kept the covering
+     that should have concealed it cocked up on the top of her head, so
+     that all the young men could see her. So she was turned into a
+     hoopoe, and goes about for ever in the same flirty way as of old,
+     with the veil still on the top of her head in the guise of a crest!
+
+     Of all feathered fowl, however, none are more brilliant in colour
+     than the bee-eater and the golden oriol. A gold-coloured body and
+     black wings distinguish the latter; but we have never been able to
+     satisfy ourselves as to how many hues go to the livery of the small
+     and quick-flying bee-eater. Gold, red, green, and blue all form
+     part of it we know; and a flock of them flying in the sun is at
+     least a beautiful sight, though not one that is too welcome to the
+     keeper of hives. If only they would turn their attention to flies
+     of other varieties, one would afford them unstinted praise; as it
+     is, one pardons their iniquities for the sake of their good looks.
+
+
+     Page 275. NOTE. We add a note to make this matter clearer, for the
+     benefit of liturgiologists. Two sorts of leaven are put into the
+     dough to leaven it, and both are called "melka" (King, cf the
+     Spanish title for the Host "Su Majestad.")
+
+     One of these is a portion taken, before consecration, from the loaf
+     prepared for the last celebration, and reserved for this purpose.
+     The other consists of a mere pinch of flour, or of bread reduced
+     once more to the consistency of flour, which is kept in a special
+     vessel in the sanctuary.
+
+     The tradition concerning this is as follows. When the Lord
+     distributed the elements at the first Qurbana in the upper room, he
+     gave a double portion of the bread to St. John. The Apostle
+     consumed one part and reserved one, which he moistened with the
+     blood of Christ on Calvary, and divided, after the Ascension, into
+     twelve portions. One was given to each Apostle when they went forth
+     to preach, that the act of mingling particles of it with the dough
+     to be consecrated at every Eucharist, might connect the bread used
+     on each occasion with that used at the first. This Melka is
+     supplemented as needful, either with pulverised bread from the
+     Qurbana or with fine flour, (our informant was not clear on this
+     point), and is held to contain particles of the original, or at
+     least to have been put into connexion with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE GREAT CAÑONS
+
+(THE NESTORIAN "ASHIRETS" OF HAKKIARI)
+
+
+Qudshanis is probably a spot that is unique on the world's surface; but
+on leaving it for the south, the traveller soon finds himself in a land
+that is fascinating enough, though plenty of parallels might be found
+for it, even in the present orderly world, and numbers in the history of
+every nation in the past. This land is the country of the Nestorian
+"_ashirets_" of Tyari, Tkhuma, Diz, Baz, and a few other wild mountain
+cantons; men who live under the peculiar conditions described in an
+earlier chapter.
+
+It is to be expected that the natural features of a land where so
+primitive a state of things prevails will be rugged; and those of
+Hakkiari are wild and strange enough to merit a special description. The
+mountains are in fact a section of that great Taurus range, which
+extends in a curve from the shores of the Mediterranean to somewhere
+south of Baghdad. At this point they are pierced by a large river, the
+Zab, which rises well to the north of them on the Armenian plateau; and
+with rare determination bores its way clean through the range, till it
+emerges on the Mesopotamian level to the south of it, and so falls into
+the Tigris a little below Mosul. The cleft that it makes in the
+mountains is one of the great _cañons_ of the world, comparable, in the
+opinion of those who have seen all, to the gorges of Yosemite and the
+"great Cañon of Colorado." Midway in its course the peaks of Supa Durig
+and Koka Bulend, the two kings of that wilderness, stand opposite to one
+another. Each is nearly fourteen thousand feet in height above the sea;
+and as a bird flies, their crests are not more than twelve miles apart.
+But the level of the river Zab that flows between them is only 4000 feet
+above the sea at that point, so that the net depth of the gorge is over
+9000 feet.
+
+We presume that this insistence on the part of the river arises from the
+fact that the huge wrinkle of the earth's surface which men call the
+mountains of Taurus is of later date than the elevation of the plateau
+to the north of it; and that consequently, as the rivers were already
+flowing to the south, they steadily gouged away the barrier, as it was
+being slowly heaved up. Or perhaps the Zab may have found some great
+crevasse in the mountains which gave it the opportunity that it needed.
+Whatever the process, the result has been a series of most magnificent
+gorges, with walls falling almost precipitously from the level of
+eternal snow to that of fig-tree, vine, and olive; and side ravines
+which are scarcely inferior to the main gorge in grandeur. So narrow is
+the chasm, and so steep the sides of it, that even at the river level
+avalanches form a very real danger to spring travel, and must often be
+crossed by hundreds in a day's march. Such crossing is not too easy; for
+smooth snow at an angle of 40°, terminated by a drop into a swollen
+torrent, may be dangerous for any caravan to traverse; and many are the
+tales told of the escapes or deaths of mountaineers.
+
+One man of our acquaintance was caught by a descending avalanche and
+swept down the hill by the moving mass. While motion lasted, he was of
+course fairly safe; but he had the wits to remember that the peril must
+come when the foremost part of the great snow-slide was checked on the
+level, and the hinder part, still advancing, squeezed itself together
+like a telescoping railway train. By good luck he was upright when
+motion ceased and he felt the snow consolidating round him. Working his
+body frantically to and fro, he made as it were a little cell for
+himself, so that he remained uncrushed; but he was buried and held a
+prisoner, for his legs and feet were fast. There he remained for three
+days, for a man can breathe through a considerable thickness of even
+compressed snow; and there he was when his friends came out to search
+for his dead body. They probed the snow with stick; and, as it happened,
+poked one down actually into his chamber, so that he was able to catch
+the end of it and hold on. He was extricated but little the worse.
+
+An American missionary in the land had a similar experience in one of
+the side valleys. He and his party made a rash attempt to cross a slope
+of new snow, lying to the depth of perhaps six inches on the smooth
+surface of old hard stuff; and naturally they started an avalanche. The
+whole party of eleven men were borne down a matter of 2000 feet; and the
+marvel was that only one of them perished.
+
+At one particular place an enormous avalanche is an annual event, owing
+to the peculiar configuration of the gorges. The winter fall on a whole
+mountain side is artfully concentrated into one funnel-shaped valley,
+which discharges into the Zab itself; and the snow-slide frequently dams
+the stream for some hours. There is a profitable harvest of great fish
+to be gathered in the dry bed below the dam at that time; though such
+gleaning is of an unusually exciting character. For naturally when the
+dam does go, it goes with a rush; and the point of safety is a good
+distance above the normal level of the current!
+
+The average width of the river in the mountains is perhaps fifty yards,
+and its pace is very great; yet such temporary bridgings are not
+uncommon. The writer has seen a case where an avalanche had not only
+crossed the river, but had then been swirled round by the configuration
+of the rocky slope on the other side, so that it overwhelmed a house
+that had been built in what appeared to be an absolutely safe recess.
+Seven lives were lost on that occasion, though one old man was found
+living after six days burial under the snow, the roof-beams having so
+fallen as to make a protection for his head.
+
+In such a land as this, life is a hard matter; all cultivation is on
+terraces, built as described above, and subject to the constant danger
+of destruction by flood or avalanche.
+
+Barring such accidents the terrace fields are fertile enough, if they
+have a sufficiency of water; but this again has to be supplied them
+artificially by leading the irrigation channels from the main stream
+(often along precipitous faces of rock) and maintaining them carefully
+when built. Millet and rice are the staple crops; the former furnishing
+food both for man and beast, for its long stalks are excellent fodder.
+Its grain is very sustaining as food, as we know from experience, but it
+is not attractive. In fact bread made from it rather suggests that your
+host has run short of flour, and has eked matters out with an equivalent
+weight of sawdust! Even so, however, "it is better to eat millet bread
+and carry a gun, than to be an unarmed _rayat_ under the Ottoman" under
+present conditions.
+
+Roads are of course unknown in the land, and there is no such thing as a
+wheeled vehicle from one end of Hakkiari to the other. Tracks scramble
+up the gorges along the slopes of shale, and climb by what are known as
+_stangi_ over and round projecting noses of precipice. A _stanga_ is a
+built up track; the stones being often held in place, by their own
+weight only, on branches of trees stuck in crevices of the rock, and
+projecting out over the torrent.
+
+Mules can get along these roads fairly well, being to the manner born;
+and sheep and goats do well enough also. But certain villages have a
+happy immunity from the attentions of the raider, owing to the fact that
+no quadruped can be driven along the tracks that lead from them. Such
+cattle as they possess were either born on the land, or were carried up
+in the days of their calfhood on men's backs. As for horses, it is a
+tradition that they cannot be got through the gorges at all, and nobody
+but a mad Englishman ever thinks of attempting such a thing. It has been
+done twice, however; once by the writer, and once by a military Consul
+from Van. Of course the horses were not ridden; and in fact had each of
+them two men to look after their needs, one at the head to lead them,
+and the other at the tail to hold them on to the track when it went
+round sharp corners at a steep angle. This secured that when the poor
+beast slipped at such a place, he did not fall into the river, but onto
+the track; after which a man held his head down to prevent his
+struggling to rise (which would have meant disaster), till all the men
+who could get a hold of him were gathered round. Then came the signal,
+"Are you ready--lift!" and the astonished horse found himself raised
+with a straight hoist upwards, like a baby, and so set on his feet once
+more. Thus they were got through; but they all left their shoes behind!
+
+The bridges which cross the river form quite a feature of the land, and
+show considerable engineering skill; though the crossing of them needs a
+steady head as they are constructed at present. In principle, they are
+true cantilevers. Piers are built at some convenient place, and a long
+"bracket" of poplar trees is built out over the stream from each
+shoreward side. The butts are weighted down with stones, and the
+projecting ends are perhaps forty feet apart. Two long poplars are then
+slung side by side between the ends of the converging brackets, and a
+floor of withy hurdles makes the bridge complete.
+
+As the trunks are very elastic, the whole structure swings considerably
+even if it does remain horizontal. Often, however, it acquires a
+pronounced tilt to one side or the other; and in any case a three-foot
+track without any sort of parapet is narrow for a bridge. By old rule,
+you ought not to look down in crossing such a place, lest the sight of
+the torrent whirling below should unnerve you. In this case, however,
+look down you must, and make the best of the vision of the torrent as
+seen through the withy hurdle floor; for that floor is full of holes and
+other traps and stumbling blocks, and if you trip, disaster follows!
+Even natives sometimes condescend to be led across these places, or even
+to crawl; but animals vary as much as menfolk in their behaviour on such
+occasions. The writer has known a plains-bred horse walk over one of
+these bridges as if to the manner born, without even a man to his tail;
+and has seen a mountain-bred mule jib till he had to be ignominiously
+towed through the river by a combination of tethering and baggage ropes!
+
+One would expect that the useful donkey would be the very best of all
+possible animals for use in this land; but the Assyrians of Tyari have a
+prejudice against him. "He that is Lord of Ears"--his name is quite
+unmentionable,--is _iyba_ for the _ashirets_. _Iyba_ is an institution
+that needs some explaining. The word means "shame;" but the European
+presently gets the impression that it can be extended to cover any
+mortal thing which he orders, and which for any reason the native does
+not want to do. Anyway, the poor donkey is _iyba_, and no mountaineer
+will own one. A legendary man of Tyari dared to do so once; but life was
+made such a burden to him by the jeers of all his kin, that at last he
+hove the unfortunate jackass into the Zab from one of the bridges we
+have been describing, and was free of further reproach. A mule is
+honourable enough, if you are so fortunate as to own one; but it is
+etiquette to address a hybrid beast like that in Kurdish (which is a
+second tongue to all mountaineers); whereas your ox, being a proper and
+biblical sort of animal, is addressed in Syriac, which is a good
+Christian tongue.
+
+So far does prejudice against the ass go, that when the Gospel for Palm
+Sunday has to be read, the priest (who usually translates the text as he
+reads from the "Old Syriac" of the Pshitta into the Vernacular)
+substitutes a word that means "colt" for "ass." One poor rector, who
+determined to be faithful to the text, found that sundry "aggrieved
+parishioners" were complaining of him to the Patriarch for a shameless
+falsification of the sacred Scriptures.
+
+Nor is there a prejudice only against the ass. Few mountaineers will eat
+the hare, or the pig, in that these come under Levitical prohibition.
+And as regards the eating of other animals, we remember this
+conversation with a certain trusted servant and steward, which speaks
+for itself. "Tell me O Rabbi; is the thing really true which they say,
+that the French do eat frogs?"
+
+"It is true, O deacon; and they say that they are good."
+
+"Rabbi; if we had a man who did that in Tkhuma, we should kill him."
+
+Hitherto, there has been no law in the land (as may perhaps be inferred
+from the foregoing paragraph), but tribal custom has ruled; and in
+consequence Hakkiari has been the home of good manners, and of that
+self-respect which comes from a sense of natural superiority to the
+plainsman! This last is strongly developed among them; "The greatest
+nation in all the world," said an _ashiret_ Christian one day, "is the
+English. Next to that comes the Tyari." (One may readily guess that this
+was the speaker's own tribe.) "Third, but a long way behind these, is
+the Russian. There are no other nations."
+
+This sense of congenital superiority brought the writer into rather hot
+water, when in the year 1904 he brought a select party of these wild
+Highlanders down to the city of Van, there to receive at his hand
+instruction that (it was hoped) would "soften their morals and not allow
+them to be ferocious."
+
+They came, they deposited their goods; they ate a meal. And forthwith
+went out into the street and began to thrash all the Armenians they
+could find! There was some sort of excuse urged, "The dogs dared to
+laugh at our long hair, Rabbi." But the real reason, as subsequently
+explained, was the general feeling that the sooner these inferior beings
+learnt to know their place, the better it would be for the comfort of
+everybody!
+
+Next day a complaint came in from an American mission, also established
+in the town. These _ashirets_ had caught the Armenian headmaster of
+their school, and were playing leap-frog over him in the street, greatly
+to the scandal of his pupils, who were, however, all too scared (or
+possibly too appreciative) to attempt a rescue!
+
+Stealing, properly so called, is almost unknown in the mountains. There
+are of course a good many things that are practically held in common,
+and which you take when you need, such as pasturage for instance; but
+theft is very rare and punished with exemplary severity. A father of
+unusually Roman disposition has actually been known to assent to the
+death sentence passed on his son when that young man had so far
+disgraced himself as to steal. It must be owned, however, that death was
+only adjudged in this case because nobody could think of any
+alternative. No prison was available; and yet something must be done
+under the circumstances; so what was there for it but to shoot the man?
+The Patriarch forbade that penalty, and the unworthy mountaineer was
+only banished from his valley.
+
+It is of course clearly understood in Hakkiari--and one hopes that the
+English reader understands it also--that robbery and theft are not at
+all the same thing. Any gentleman may go on the raid. His plunder is his
+lawful property, and his exploit a source of legitimate pride. In fact,
+their code is exactly similar to that of another thorough gentleman,
+Evan Dhu Maccombich; "He that steals a cow from a poor widow is a thief,
+but he that lifts a herd of cattle from the Sassenach is a gentleman
+drover." The good folk of Tyari have been in the habit for generations
+of imitating the heroes of another of Scott's novels in these matters;
+for a tithe of all the plunder got in raids went always to the Church of
+Mart Miriam (Lady Mary, _i.e._ the Blessed Virgin), in the valley of
+Walto. "They paid tithe on every drove they took from the south; and if
+they were something lightly come by, and their confessor knew his
+business, I have known them make the tithe a seventh." Alas, however,
+those days are passing; and though the devotion of the men of Tyari is
+as good as ever, the profits of raids are not what they were.
+
+One case, indeed, is recorded (his Holiness the Patriarch is our
+authority for the tale) when the raiders had some scruples about
+disposing of their spoil. The heroes of the incident were the men of Diz
+valley, who had successfully lifted a cow from some Kurdish neighbours,
+and were proposing that she should furnish a sumptuous Christmas
+banquet. Some scrupulous soul, however, had grave doubts whether the
+beast, having been Mussulman property so lately, was clean enough for a
+religious purpose of that kind.[135]
+
+The worthy rector of Diz rose to the occasion when this religious
+difficulty was put before him. _Rabbi qasha_ exorcised the cow; and so
+was honoured with an invitation to the banquet at which she subsequently
+figured as the _pièce de resistance_!
+
+We have given in a previous chapter the "rules to govern the conduct of
+a gentleman in case of feud;" and the only occasion when these do not
+hold, is when a _Jehad_ is proclaimed by Moslems. When you go to war in
+the name of Allah and religion, you are naturally entitled to commit any
+atrocity you like, and usually do so. The old courtesies, too, were
+further abrogated as the result of the Armenian massacres of 1895. The
+systematic outraging of the women then was part of the Turkish plan, and
+seems to have been the deliberate order of Abdul Hamid. When such acts
+had been once authorized by the Khalif, it was natural that the lower
+type of Kurd should not readily return to the better ways of his fathers
+in more ordinary raids.
+
+Speaking generally, however, feuds are carried on with great lightness
+of heart, much gaiety, and very little malice. The writer has known men
+who were at open feud with one another meet in the household of the
+English Mission (where of course, truce was observed), and chaff one
+another in most friendly wise as they shared tea with the English
+"apostles." In war time even "booby traps" (or something like them) were
+not unknown; and once the men of Tyari rejoiced in a score gained over
+an opponent, who feared to make any attack upon a position held in truth
+by a dozen men and boys, because they suddenly found themselves
+confronted with a formidable battery of artillery which they had not
+credited the Tyari men with possessing at all.
+
+As a matter of fact, the cannon were mere dummies; and were neither more
+nor less than beehives (the local beehive is a long narrow thing, in
+shape much resembling an old-fashioned eel-trap), which had been
+artfully faked for the occasion and plastered all over with black mud!
+
+The heroes of this exploit were so delighted with their score, that they
+set to work to make a cannon of their very own. A hollow poplar trunk
+formed the barrel this time, and it was wrapped round with bands of iron
+on a system not unlike that on which a modern "wire-wound" gun is made
+at Elswick, though the materials were hardly such as Messrs. Armstrong's
+inspector would have approved.
+
+The engine was only meant to bluff their enemies, and did that well on
+at least one occasion; but the temptation to see what it could do got
+too much for its possessors, and they (with the wonderful courage of
+ignorance) charged the thing and fired it! Of course, it burst; but the
+providence that guards schoolboys guarded these boys too, and nobody was
+hurt.
+
+Some years ago, the chances in these feuds and battles were about even;
+and had they continued so the writer could not have found it in his
+heart to advocate the abolition of so ancient and interesting a form of
+sport, nor would any of the combatants have wished it. It is true that
+the Christians had usually to face odds in numbers; but they had strong
+positions to defend, and such a reputation as fighting men, that the
+Kurds themselves admitted that when you went against the men of Tyari
+and Tkhuma, it was well to have odds of five to one in numbers on your
+side. Then, however, each side used old guns of much the same character;
+flint-locks to wit, with home-made powder and bullets. This, as noted
+elsewhere, is not the case now; for the Kurds have been equipped with
+more modern arms. The powder the folk of the mountains manufactured for
+themselves, being able to get sulphur in plenty in their hills, and
+burning their own charcoal. Nitre could always be gathered in some
+caverns where the sheep were folded, but our knowledge of chemistry does
+not enable us to say exactly how. Bullets were easy to come by, for lead
+crops out in thick veins in certain gorges, and can be absolutely cut
+out of the rock in chunks for the purpose. As for the casting, it is
+wonderful what unsuspected uses there are for a thimble! Nobody dreams
+of using it hereabouts as an assistance to sewing; but when set in a
+lump of clay, it makes a very tolerable bullet-mould!
+
+One skilful old priest of our acquaintance earned quite a good income
+by converting muzzle-loaders into "Martinis," which is the general term
+for any sort of breech-loader. He was a very fair smith, and though his
+copies of the Martini lock and breech mechanism might not have passed
+the War Office standard, they were very satisfactory for their owners.
+
+Some artists hope to improve the local brand of gunpowder. One of the
+first questions put to us during our wanderings in the mountain glens
+was, "Rabbi, is it oak charcoal or walnut that you English use for the
+making of your gun-medicine?" "Neither, but willow," said we, that piece
+of unclerical information having somehow stuck in our mind from some old
+"book of useful knowledge." Hence it would appear that the most unlikely
+things come in useful at times, for the answer materially increased our
+prestige.
+
+Many a primitive practice and habit goes on in these mountains, but
+perhaps the most startling to a stranger is the taking of the bath
+_coram publico_; a custom which is common to both Christians and Kurds.
+The _rationale_ of the habit is sound enough. Mud floors get damp and
+unhealthy with the weekly wash, and the much splashing of water that it
+entails; let it then be done in the open, by the spring or river, where
+a fire can be lit to heat the water and for the comfort of the bather.
+
+It is a little disconcerting for the European at first, and seems a
+startling drop back through a good many centuries, when you turn a
+corner in the road suddenly, and find yourself confronted by a group of
+maidens, who have put all their clothes in the big copper to wash, and
+are engaged in performing that office for one another. However, if the
+stranger is embarrassed, they are not. It is not manners to stare of
+course; and they sit still undisturbed till the man has passed, without
+even interrupting their conversation. Good narrow-minded folk at home
+say that they have no sense of decency. That, however, is an absolute
+libel; and it is far more near to the truth to say that it is the sense
+of indecency that is absent, as it was in the Garden of Eden. Layard had
+experience of this custom when he brought men of these tribes down to
+Mosul to work at his excavations. This he did for convenience' sake, in
+that they, having only a mountaineer's superstitions, were immune to
+those of the plain; and did not raise the same difficulties about
+digging in the mounds that the Arabs did. Naturally, his excavators
+brought their wives and daughters to cook for them; and naturally, those
+ladies brought their habits, and took their tubs as they had always done
+at home. When it was represented to them by their employer that they had
+scandalized the decent and respectable city of Mosul by so doing, they
+replied innocently, "But, sahib, if the Mussulmans object, they need not
+look." A Saturday tub in Tyari is a solemn and proper ceremonial. All
+the family go down together, and the washing is carried out, in true
+Homeric style, by the ladies personally. The old women scrub the old
+men, and the damsels the youths. When the men have finished the girls
+take their tubs.
+
+Certainly one poor Englishman had a painful experience, when he, a
+newcomer to the country, took a walk down the valley of Tyari on a
+Saturday afternoon. Turning a corner abruptly, he found a fair maiden
+sitting in all innocence in her bath. The Englishman had been properly
+brought up, so he averted his gaze, and passed by, as far away as the
+narrow limits of the path allowed. However, the damsel had been properly
+brought up too, but in a rather different school; and seeing that it was
+a _qasha_ (Priest), who was passing, she sprang out of her bath and came
+to kiss his hand as politeness dictates. Saint Anthony fled, totally
+misunderstanding her purpose; and the damsel followed after, ejaculating
+plaintively "Rabbi, Rabbi, what have I done that you will not allow me
+to kiss your hand?" It is said that he ultimately covered his eyes with
+his left hand, and extended his right at arm's length for the salute.
+However, a very few weeks' experience gave him perfect indifference to
+the spectacle.
+
+Old chivalrous rules of the obligation of hospitality still hold in the
+mountains; and a conspicuous instance of this was given by one of the
+Nestorian _maliks_ in the January of 1907. As a general rule, no effort
+is made to march troops through these hills, for it is at once toilsome,
+useless and dangerous. In that month, however, a company of infantry
+were sent through the gorge of the Zab, with orders to report at
+Julamerk, a seat of government to the north of it; the object probably
+being to show that the thing could be done.
+
+Being at best but half-trained men of Kurdish blood, and knowing that
+they had been sent where no troops had gone before, they naturally got
+more and more "jumpy" as they penetrated the gorge, and began to see an
+ambush behind every rock. Thus when they met a party of four Tyari men
+descending the road, they opened fire on them and shot down the lot!
+
+This was not, we believe, the cold-blooded murder that it seemed, but a
+pure fit of nerves on the part of undisciplined men. However, having
+done it, they were naturally more frightened than ever at what they had
+done; and fairly ran for it (so far as anyone can run on those roads,
+which is not very fast), to the house of a prominent Christian _malik_
+of Tyari, Ismail of Chumba. They crossed the bridge to his house; and so
+demoralized were they that they did not even secure safety by breaking
+it down behind them, a result that could have been secured by ten
+minutes' work with a pocket-knife. They told the chief that they had
+killed his own clansmen without provocation, and asked him to protect
+them! It says much for mountain chivalry that he recognized the claim of
+the suppliant without hesitation, and promised to do his best, _if_ it
+was in his power to control his own tribesmen under the circumstances.
+
+Those tribesmen gathered very soon for their revenge, and came up the
+valley towards Chumba in force; and then the _malik_ went out and met
+them at the bridge, to urge that the thing had been after all an
+accident, so to speak, and not a butchery, and that it must be judged as
+such. A long and hot discussion followed; the tribesmen saying, with
+some force, that they did not care whether the thing was an accident or
+not; their men were dead, and they would have blood for blood. All
+arguments were tried in vain, till at last the mountaineers summed up,
+"It is no good, _malik_; you have done your best, but we must have our
+revenge, and that is our last word. Stand out of the way."
+
+At that Ismail took his stand on the bridge and used his final argument.
+"If that is your last word, now hear mine. These men are my guests now,
+and have eaten my bread and are in my house. What they did before is
+nothing to me; and if it were my own brother they had killed I would
+guard them now. If you dare to attack, I and mine will defend them; and
+you will have to kill your own chief before you lay hand on any one of
+his guests." At that the avengers held back and hesitated till night
+fell; and under that cover, Malik Ismail and his son Shlimun escorted
+their guests into safety by the tracks over the hills, and led them
+unharmed to Julamerk. The whole was as fine an act of chivalry as these
+days can show.
+
+With their chivalry goes as is often the case with mountaineers, a vein
+of what we can call nothing but school-boyishness. The pure lark of a
+fight appeals to them irresistibly. In the spring of 1912, the men of
+one particular Christian district known as Salabekan contrived to carry
+out a most successful raid against their neighbours over the hill, the
+Kurds of Châl. It was only an episode in a feud that had dragged on for
+many years, but was executed with some skill; the raiders securing 500
+sheep without even waking their late owners! When they were well on
+their way home, however, it occurred to some young hotheads that there
+is really no satisfaction in lifting your enemy's sheep, unless you know
+that he knows who has scored off him!
+
+    _Now Simmy, Simmy of the side,_
+    _Come out and see a Johnstone ride!_
+
+sang the old moss-trooper who had looted Crichton's stable; so,
+agreeably to "the Galliard's" principles, they went back again to the
+village, there to fire shots and shout contumely till the Kurds were
+awakened and came out. Then of course a fight resulted, in which three
+or four men were killed. This excited our wrath; not because we grudged
+them a Kurd or so; still less the sheep that they had fairly earned, and
+which were very likely theirs originally anyhow; but because among the
+Kurdish dead was a policeman (the Agha of Châl being a Government
+_mudir_ among other things), and we feared that a dead policeman would
+take a great deal of explaining! However, it all ended happily, the
+officer not being missed! Still, we thought it only our duty to urge the
+desirability of making up the feud upon Mar Shimun; and asked him if he
+could not use his patriarchal influence in that direction. His Holiness
+quite agreed with us that it was most desirable. "Really, the Christians
+ought to make peace now. They are three corpses and four guns to the
+good!"
+
+With their "larkishness" goes also a boy's touchiness and sensitiveness
+to a slight. The writer once went down through the district of Tkhuma,
+having as companion one of the chiefs of the canton, whose guest he
+naturally was when passing the man's village. A few weeks later he
+returned; to be met at the border of the district by another chief, one
+Yalda, of almost equal influence with his previous host.
+
+"It is my hope that you are going to stay with me this time Rabbi."
+
+As the answer was not given immediately, the gentleman proceeded to
+explain the necessity of the case.
+
+"You see, you stayed with Giwergis when you were here before; and that
+was all right, as you came down with him. This time though, you ought to
+come to me. If you do I shall be very glad to see you; but if you
+don't--well I fear that the only thing for me is to shoot you!"
+
+The invitation was accepted, and no more pleasant host could any man
+have had.
+
+A sad scandal is related of a certain apostle of teetotalism who found
+himself in a mountain village on the day of a wedding feast. He was
+cordially invited to stop and share in the feasting and dancing; and did
+so--to reprove excesses and see that decorum was preserved. In due
+course the governor of the feast invited him to take wine with him, and
+this the total abstainer a little too curtly declined. The mountaineer
+bristled up immediately. Such a refusal was a downright insult. And
+literally at the pistol's mouth the poor guest had to gulp the draught
+down. Nor was that the end of his woes. The other guests were all ripe
+for frolic; and all that afternoon the unhappy man was haunted by a
+procession of rollicking caterans, each equipped with a practicable
+rifle and a large goblet of wine. Of course there was no refusing such
+very insistent hospitality; and over the inevitable _dénouement_ we feel
+ourselves constrained to draw a veil.
+
+The fact is though, that boys with guns in their hands can be dangerous,
+when their feelings are hurt, or when for any reason they are
+frightened; and then they may turn against their best friends. Only once
+in his twenty-five years of residence did Dr. Browne find these
+mountaineers turn really nasty with him, and on that occasion, the men
+concerned were our good friends of Tkhuma; though the blame did not
+really rest on them.
+
+A certain Roman Catholic intriguer in the nation desired to dispose of
+Dr. Browne's influence, and was not particular either as to the methods
+he employed or as to the result of them, whether for the foreigner or
+for his own people. Having ascertained that Dr. Browne was proposing a
+journey into Tkhuma, and having discovered some details of his plans, he
+sent a message down into the district. "See here, that Englishman is
+coming down your way with a companion; and his real intent is to destroy
+your religion. You will see that when he comes he will do this and
+that--things that look quite innocent, but which will be a sign to you
+that I speak truth. Then do you deal with him according to your zeal."
+
+Down came the Englishman with his companion, and did the acts named, to
+find that he had roused a storm. For some days both were kept as
+prisoners in the house of one of the village chiefs; and matters got so
+far that the leading men were actually debating, in the presence of
+their captives, whether they should kill them or not. This question
+occasioned a quarrel, and knives were drawn in the dispute. Then Dr.
+Browne stepped forward, knowing of course what the trouble was about
+(for he spoke the Syriac tongue like a native), but (we are convinced)
+only stirred by the scandal of Christians quarrelling and fighting with
+one another. He, the prisoner in their hands, rebuked them paternally
+for that sin; talked to them generally for their good; and finally
+issued his orders that before proceeding with the discussion the two
+that had drawn knives on one another should exchange the kiss of peace!
+Well, they did. Being slightly ashamed of themselves, they kissed and
+made friends like the children that they are. But after they had done
+that, at the order of the Englishman, it was really impossible to go on
+discussing whether they should kill him; and so the whole incident
+closed!
+
+Courage, coolness and humour are a necessity for the European who would
+wander here; but with them he is practically as safe as in London. Men
+deficient in those qualities may at any time find themselves in an
+awkward position; as befell a certain unfortunate "Frank" who came into
+the land to study Kurdish folk-lore, "without a pass from Roderick Dhu."
+He had disregarded the advice given him, to take some "Nestorian" from
+the house of the Patriarch, who could guarantee his character and
+explain his naturally puzzling proceedings to both Kurd and Christian;
+and took instead an Armenian who knew nothing of the land.
+
+Accompanied by this man, he went down into the land of Tkhuma, which is
+as wild a district of Christian _ashirets_ as any in Hakkiari. It was
+just after harvest, and folk had nothing to do; so a little friendly
+fight was in progress between two Christian villages. Of course the
+foreign traveller was stopped and questioned by armed men, who demanded
+who he was and what he had come for. Had he told the truth, and said
+that he was neutral in the dispute, he might have been as safe as the
+Kenites were, when Sisera was fighting out his quarrel with certain
+Israelitish _ashirets_: but his wretched Armenian was panic-struck, and
+was at some pains to explain that his master had come down in the
+interests of one particular faction, and was the intimate friend of its
+leader. As a matter of fact (though he did not realize it till too
+late), the gentlemen who had stopped him were prominent leaders on the
+other side. Hence, taking the man's own account of himself as true, they
+were much disposed to deal with him as an enemy and a spy.
+
+Fortunately they postponed sentence till they had reported the case to
+Mar Shimun; and the Patriarch ordered that he should be released, that
+his property (which had naturally been confiscated) should be returned
+to him, and that he should be conducted out of the district. They
+obeyed, only retaining one "kodak" as a trophy, and led him to their
+frontier. Still, it was not in human nature to refrain from representing
+that the journey was very dangerous; and that they could not dream of
+letting so honoured a man go without a large escort--and a large fee for
+each member of it, payable in advance.
+
+Thus escorted, the traveller was taken to the border of the Christian
+territory, where as luck would have it, they encountered a party of Châl
+Kurds.
+
+"What have you there?" said the Châl men.
+
+"A Frank of sorts, who says he wants to study your manners and customs,"
+said the Tkhumans.
+
+"Hand him over to us, and he shall have ample opportunity," said the
+Kurds.
+
+So he had; for having been once robbed by the Christians, he was now
+robbed over again by the Kurds, and this time there was no Patriarch to
+appeal to. Thus it was a very tattered and woe-begone traveller who was
+at last delivered at Amadia. He was certainly uninjured personally, save
+in self-esteem; but otherwise nothing was left him but the clothes he
+stood up in, which were not many; and perhaps he was fortunate in
+retaining as much as that!
+
+Amadia is the nearest Government centre to the Tyari and Tkhuma
+districts; and in connexion with it we may here recount an adventure of
+that worthy old _qasha_ Tuma mentioned in the last chapter. His
+reverence had come down to the place, accompanied by a deacon, on some
+business of his own; and both had been promptly arrested. It was not
+for any particular crime, but perhaps in the expectation that some
+reason would turn up if they were kept long enough; perhaps on the
+principle of tribal responsibility for the acts of any individual, for
+the men of Tyari had been doing some raiding about that time!
+
+Government having some experience of the fact that Tyari men are hard to
+catch and harder to hold, a sentry was kept permanently in the cell with
+the pair, and another posted outside it. Still, the _qasha's_
+pocket-knife was not taken from him, but left him for his meals. Of
+course, the cell door had to be opened at times; and on one of these
+occasions the key (which according to local custom was not of metal, but
+a notched slip of wood) was given to the _qasha_ to hold for a moment.
+Instantly he "spaced" the notches with his thumb, which is the usual way
+of measuring anything in this country, and noted the shape of the key.
+Before very long, the sentry contracted the habit of going to sleep in
+the cell; and in those intervals, priest and deacon contrived to get a
+slat of wood out of the roof, and set to work with no other guide than
+the memory of the measure taken, to make a duplicate key. It was soon
+finished; and one morning the sentry's slumber was rudely interrupted,
+by finding both his prisoners at his throat. He was tied up and gagged
+quietly; and then came the exciting moment, when the key was first tried
+in the door. Greatly to the credit of the locksmiths, it fitted; and
+soon the sentry outside the door, who was not more watchful than his
+fellow, was safely locked up beside him in the cell and left to await
+discovery. The priest and deacon were off, on the road to their own
+mountains; with two good Martini rifles, late Government property, as
+compensation for their stay at the Government house!
+
+Wild tribesmen on the one side with a tribesman's virtues and vices,
+attractive mischief-loving boys on another, are all these mountaineers;
+but there are other aspects of their character that show them as capable
+of acting like devoted men. This comes out most markedly in their
+attachment to their own historic Church and their readiness to work on
+its behalf. One good case of this came to the writer's knowledge in the
+village of Rabat, in Tal. Here the brother of the headman of the village
+was murdered by some Kurds; and the crime must have been one of peculiar
+atrocity, for even the leathery Kurdish conscience was so severely
+shocked that the local Aghas decreed that a blood-fine must be paid; and
+a sum of £60 was actually handed over in cash at their order. The
+headman accepted the money, as a sign that the feud was finally closed,
+but declared that he would take no compensation for his brother's death.
+He handed over the whole sum (a far larger amount than he had ever seen
+before or was likely to see again) for the repair of the village church,
+which stood in great need of it. Spurred by this example the whole
+village turned to, and the edifice was pulled down and rebuilt; every
+man, woman and child in the place helping to drag the stones from the
+mountain, tending the kilns where the lime was burnt, or assisting in
+some other way. The land being almost treeless, the fuel for the kilns
+was provided by the sacrifice of many of the walnut trees that grew
+round the village; and be it noted that these were not only valuable
+property in themselves, but also the source of the one luxury allowed to
+these people during their long and rigid Lent. The gift meant that the
+donors would most of them live on millet bread and water, and nothing
+else, for several Lents to come; so it may be understood that those who
+gave a walnut tree gave what cost more than the signing of a cheque. No
+man took a penny for his labour, save a party of artisans from another
+district, under whose directions the whole was carried out;[136] and as
+these guilds of builders have that secret of proportion that a modern
+architect often strives for in vain, the result has been a singularly
+impressive building, vaulted, and proof against everything save wanton
+destruction; a monument for some centuries to come of the devotion of
+the villagers to their church.
+
+True it is that this devotion may take bizarre shapes at times. One
+district was annoyed by the proselytising efforts of some Romish
+teachers, who were seeking (of course quite rightly on their
+principles) to draw away the Nestorians to another obedience, and had
+succeeded with a certain number of them. A zealous deacon of the old
+church, much annoyed at this declension from the ways and faith of the
+fathers, disclosed to the writer a notable scheme for soaking the walls
+of the little Roman chapel with paraffin, and setting light to it during
+service, so as to dispose of chapel and worshippers at once.
+
+In some natural horror, his Rabbi rebuked him, making him recite the
+Sixth Commandment and other appropriate passages of scripture. He
+certainly promised to respect Western prejudices in the matter, and kept
+his word loyally; but incidentally showed that quotation is a game at
+which two can play. "What you say is true no doubt Rabbi. But yet you
+know that these Papists are after all little better than idolaters; and
+it is written that the good King Josiah did bid his people burn the
+idolaters' bones!"
+
+A case that is perhaps even stranger was the sad lot of a Jewish
+village, which was situate, for its sins, in the land of Berwar, just
+within comfortable raiding distance of Tyari territory. Jewish villages
+are rare in the land, but there are a few; mostly claiming descent from
+the "ten tribes" which were settled here by Sargon.
+
+If the descent so claimed be correct, the lot of these poor Hebrews was
+doubly hard; for they were raided on three successive Good Fridays by
+the Tyari men, not because of any feud, but purely out of respect for
+the day! Something had to be done, in the raiders' opinion, to show
+their abhorrence of an act about which they had much the same feelings
+as King Clovis; and much the same uncertainty as to dates.
+
+The episode was mediæval, but the people are mediæval; and even more
+civilized people sometimes use the Jews equally ill. The Tyari men must
+have sung with right good will in those years, the anthem of their
+Easter vigil service: "Woe to the people of the Jews!"
+
+That strange observances, beliefs, and superstitions should linger in
+this corner of Asia, even to a greater extent than in other parts, is
+natural enough. Second sight, however (to take one widespread
+phenomenon), does not seem to be so common a faculty here as is the case
+in Scotland; or it may be simply that the Oriental is more chary of
+speaking of such a matter to a foreigner. Still, we have heard of cases;
+notably that of a Seer whom his fellow tribesmen consulted on all
+matters of importance, and who foretold at the last the disaster that
+would befall them in one special raid. "If you go out to battle now;" he
+said, "you will flee seven ways before the Mussulmans; and though you
+yourself, chief, will be saved by a willow tree, death will be my
+portion." The prophecy was literally fulfilled; the Christians being
+routed in the skirmish, and scattered. The Seer himself (whom the Kurds
+had intended to spare) was killed by a random shot; and the chief took
+to flight, and being pursued, had to save himself by swimming the Zab.
+He was, however, swept away by the current and only escaped by clinging
+to a projecting branch of willow.
+
+[Illustration: THE GORGE OF THE ZAB, TYARI.
+
+One of the reaches near Tal.
+
+No. 13]
+
+One case of this second-sight, or vision, concerned the writer himself
+when making a late autumn visit to Qudshanis from Van in 1907, in
+company with the late Bishop Collins of Gibraltar. We were expected at
+the place; but terribly bad weather made them not only give up hope of
+our arrival, but even hold special services of prayer for our safe
+return to Van. Under these circumstances, a certain deacon of Tkhuma,
+Nwiya[137] by name, who was servant to the Rev. W. H. Browne, came
+rushing in to his master early one morning in great excitement. "They
+are coming, Rabbi; they are coming after all. I saw them in a vision by
+night, and they will be here this day. But I saw them coming up the
+valley, not down it as Mr. Wigram said he would come. The bishop was
+wearing a black hat, and Mr. Wigram a white one." Three hours later, the
+_avant-courier_ we had sent before us actually arrived; and in the
+course of the day the party reached Qudshanis by the route named by the
+deacon (which had been adopted when the more direct route proved
+impassable), the bishop wearing an astrakhan fur cap, and the writer a
+sun-helmet. Any suspicion of confederacy may be ruled out of the
+question without hesitation, for it was a physical impossibility; and
+clairvoyance, or some form of thought transference, seems to be the most
+natural explanation of so strange a coincidence of foreword and fact.
+
+Every nation has, of course, its own superstitions about the mystery of
+birth, as exemplified in the case of our own ancestors by the belief in
+"the changeling." In the case of these Nestorians, the danger that
+menaces the new-born is a sort of fearful night-hag, called the
+_khwarha_, that carries off and destroys the child. To guard against her
+visits, the child must be watched day and night for the first days of
+its life (baptism is usually administered on the eighth day), while an
+onion and a wool-comb must be kept in the same room. The smell of the
+former makes the spirit sneeze and deprives her of power; while the
+latter (which is of iron and so exercises a protective influence of
+itself) entangles her long locks, so that she flees in terror.[138] An
+old man in the household of the Patriarch tells how he was once set to
+take his turn at watching a certain important infant, and was so far
+negligent that he went out of the room to smoke a cigarette. As he did
+so, he saw the terrible _khwarha_ approach, change herself into the form
+of an ibex with very long horns (deponent sayeth not what was her
+appearance previously, which is a pity), and dash into the room. Of
+course the conscience-stricken watcher dashed in after her; but to his
+huge relief found his charge sleeping quietly (a happy effect due no
+doubt to the protective influence of the comb and the onion), so all
+ended well. Still that moment is a remembrance of horror to that old man
+to this day.
+
+Here, as in other districts that we have referred to, the power of
+faith-healing is a very real thing. Recourse is had to any church that
+chances to be "Lord of Name" for that purpose, and the result is quite
+often successful. Certain ordeals have to be gone through at times,
+success in them being an omen of success in the prayer. Thus the church
+of Mar Abd-Ishu, in Tal (once the hermitage of an ascetic of great
+local fame, and situated in a cave high up on an almost inaccessible
+precipice), is a great place of resort for childless couples who desire
+offspring. After prayer, it is the proper thing to pass through "Mar
+Abd-Ishu's passage," which is a natural cleft in the rock, somewhat
+analogous to St. Wilfrid's needle at Ripon.
+
+An easy passage is a sign of the granting of the prayer; but failure
+does not imply (as in the English parallel) a bad private character. It
+only means that the saint expects his fee; and this must be promised him
+before he will grant what is required. As a matter of fact, a slim
+person can usually get through the hole easily, but an adult can only do
+so at one particular angle; and if he is not fortunate enough to hit on
+this, he may have difficulty; for no assistance may be given by the
+unauthorized spectator. A Kurdish chief attempted it once to the
+writer's knowledge, seeing that he desired a son; but he stuck firmly in
+the crevice and could neither get back nor forward! Scared almost out of
+his wits, he jumped at the idea that a gift to the saint might let him
+through; and when small gifts were not accepted, he raised his terms
+till he was offering all his sheep and half his rifles, and still the
+saint held on! He was then told, however, that big bribes were no good;
+but that he must promise exactly what the saint happened to want, and
+that his Holiness was sometimes very capricious. The Kurd had to go
+through a good deal of exercise in guessing what it was that a saint in
+paradise, who had been an ascetic on earth, would be most likely to
+covet; but at last he hit on the right thing (or got into precisely the
+right position), and was released on promising some forty-five piastres,
+or eight shillings. It is pleasing to add that he paid up faithfully,
+and that he subsequently got the son that he desired; so that his
+respect for Christian institutions has much increased.
+
+This shrine, indeed, has a high reputation among all faiths. It has only
+been robbed once, by Kurds; and on that occasion the robbers were
+promptly put to death by their own fellow tribesmen, and the spoil
+returned.
+
+Lunacy meets with a peculiar treatment among the men of Tyari (their
+neighbours declare that all the tribe are mad together, and support that
+statement by various tales at their expense, which it is well not to
+repeat in their vicinity[139]). When all visits to a church of Name
+fail, the patient is absolutely buried alive. He is prepared for burial
+exactly as if he were a corpse, borne to the graveyard on a bier, and
+interred with the full church service. A small opening is left for him
+to breathe through; and at the end of twenty-four hours, he is carefully
+resurrected. The nervous shock has often beneficial results; but
+naturally not always.
+
+It must be owned, too, that the last case in which this treatment was
+tried to the knowledge of the writer produced a good deal of
+ill-feeling, because it was so doubtful whether the man was cured or
+not. He was buried quite properly; and his friends came at the right
+time to disinter him. But as soon as the stones were removed, he sprang
+up, exclaiming, "I am risen! I am risen! it is the Last Day!" Then,
+looking round disgustedly on the men who had come to assist him:
+"Whoever would have expected to see _you_ at the Resurrection of the
+Just?"
+
+Query: is that man still mad? His friends would like to think so. But
+they have an uneasy feeling that he "knows a hawk from a hernshaw when
+the wind is southerly."
+
+If the Tyari men are thus buried prematurely at times, there was an
+ancient custom among them (now extinct for generations), according to
+which they could dispense with burial altogether. Like many uncivilized
+peoples, in all climates, they had a habit of putting the aged out of
+the way of the young when they had no more joy in life; and in their own
+case got rid of them by throwing them down a special one of the numerous
+precipices in their country. The story goes that the habit came to be
+stopped through one particular man, who was carrying up his own father
+to dispose of him in the time-honoured way. As he scaled the mountain,
+he put down his burden to rest for a minute, at one particular tree;
+and as he did so, he heard the old man chuckle.
+
+"And what have you got to laugh at now?" said the son.
+
+"Ah well, I was just remembering"; said the old fellow. "It came to my
+mind how when I was carrying my old father up here, I put him down to
+rest myself just at this same tree; and it seemed to me rather comic.
+Your son, little Yaqub, will do just the same with you when your time
+comes, no doubt."
+
+That set the son, who had hitherto been acting just as custom decreed,
+thinking about things in a new way. He had to admit that he did not like
+the idea of his little son carrying him up in this fashion to throw him
+down a precipice; and perhaps it might be that his own old father did
+not quite like it either! So the end of his cogitations was that he
+carried the old man down again, and faced the horror of refusing to do
+as his fathers had done. Thus the custom fell into disuse.
+
+Good people in England will of course be startled at the idea of such a
+custom ever having prevailed among even "nominal Christians;" in
+blissful ignorance of the fact that our own ancestors acted in very
+similar fashion when they were at a similar stage of development. Human
+nature is much the same all the world over; and we believe that the
+practice of killing off the old people (useless mouths to fill) did not
+die out in Christian Sweden till the fifteenth century. The "family
+clubs" used for dispatching them were usually kept in the churches![140]
+
+     NOTE. One of the quaintest of the stories told at the expense of
+     these "Men of Gotham" was related to the writer by Mar Shimun, who
+     is a singularly good raconteur. It befell once in the time of
+     summer that the sun was hidden by clouds. This is so unusual a
+     phenomenon in that favoured land that the men of Tyari held a
+     solemn meeting to discuss what could be done in the matter; and
+     decided that the day-star had probably got entangled in a cave on
+     the lip of their tremendous gorge, and that if it was not
+     disentangled at once disastrous consequences would follow. A
+     deputation went up accordingly to do their best; and the first man
+     to reach the cave mouth at once stooped and looked into the
+     darkness, where he saw two luminous orbs. "It's all right," he said
+     to his friends; "here is the sun and the moon, too. I will crawl
+     in and let them loose." In he crawled accordingly; but found that
+     unluckily for him the lights were the eyes of a leopard, and it,
+     skilful animal, took off his head with one snap. As he did not come
+     out again, or answer to questions, his companions pulled him out by
+     the heels--when, behold, he had no head on. "Dear, dear," said the
+     leader, "this is very odd. Tell me, some of you, had Yukhanan his
+     head with him when we came up, or did he leave it in the house?" No
+     man was quite sure on that point, so all went down to ask his wife.
+     "O Sinji, wife of Yukhanan, say now. Did your man leave his head
+     down here when we went up the hill this morning, for we cannot find
+     it now?" Sinji searched in the house, but presently came out with
+     the news: "It is not here, anyhow." "Ah, well," said the leader,
+     "he must have dropped it on the way up. The boys will find it and
+     bring it down when they drive home the goats at sunset."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+INTRUDERS IN A PANDEMONIUM
+
+(AMADIA AND BOHTAN)
+
+
+To the south of the Christian cantons of Tkhuma and Salabekan, and
+separated from them by a series of high rocky ridges, lies the long
+trough-like valley of Amadia, which is here known alternatively as the
+Sapna. At its eastern end, as already related, dwell the Sheikhs of
+Barzan and Neri; but the western portion is divided among a group of
+petty Kurdish Aghas, who are of course _ashiret_ in status like their
+neighbours, and who occupy both the main Sapna valley itself, the Ghara
+ranges which form the counterscarp separating it from Mosul plain, and
+the Berwar valley which lies parallel with it to the northward.
+
+These chiefs, of whom the Mira of Berwar and the Agha of Châl are the
+principal, are "small men." None of them can claim a personal following
+of more than a few hundred at most; though one or other may figure
+prominently at times as the head of a confederacy. Their chronic
+condition is that of outlawry for proved acts of violence; and in the
+land of Ghara in particular there does not seem to be a single gentleman
+of name who is not in that enviable condition--or if there is, we never
+heard of him in the course of three years' residence. This fact,
+however, does not in the least affect anyone's comfort, or even the
+friendliness of his relations with the officials of the Government. It
+is rather a _cachet_ of gentility than otherwise.
+
+Bigger men live to east and west of them; namely our old acquaintance
+the Sheikh of Barzan, and the Agha of the Sindigul Kurds, whose name is
+Abdi. When these men have a disagreement with the Government, it is not
+a case of mere outlawry, but of open war; and the Government does not
+always, by any means, get the better of them. Abdi Agha of the
+Sindigulis is perhaps the better off; for he has a stronghold of the
+most magnificent description, to which no Government troops have ever
+penetrated, and which is a fair set-off against the religious prestige
+of his neighbour. This stronghold is the lofty tableland of Tanina; a
+great plateau among the mountains where there are wood and water for the
+whole tribe, and pasture in abundance for all their sheep the whole
+summer through. It can only be approached, the tale goes (for no
+foreigner has ever been allowed to visit its summit), by three easily
+guarded ascents; and when once the tribe are on the top, they can afford
+to laugh at any force the Government of the district can send against
+them. A large force set to blockade the place could not be fed in the
+district, while small detachments guarding the "ports" could be
+overwhelmed in detail. No doubt resolute troops could storm it; but the
+cost would be heavy. The only weakness of the sanctuary appears to lie
+in this; that neither man nor beast can live on the top of it during the
+winter. When the autumn gales and early snows begin, come down they
+must; and in this fact would lie the opportunity of a Government that
+really cared about the enforcement of order.
+
+Throughout the district there are plenty of Christian villages, almost
+entirely of the Nestorian church, though at the western end of it some
+belong to the "Jacobite" body. All of these, however, are _rayat_ or
+feudally subordinate, to the Kurdish chiefs among whom they live, and
+are little better in fact than serfs. The principal town of the land,
+Amadia, is a fully equipped seat of government, with a _kaimakam_, a
+lieutenant of gendarmerie, a district judge, and all complete. But his
+Excellency the Governor knows better than to issue any order that he
+thinks likely to be unpleasant to his neighbours.
+
+Thus these second-rate Aghas are left pretty much to the freedom of
+their own will, and the result is as bad a Government as can well be
+imagined. An important chief, like the Sheikh of Barzan, may at least
+tolerate no other tyrant; and may possibly see that killing off the bees
+is not the best way of getting a permanent supply of honey. But the
+small men have their own feuds with one another; their train of
+dependents that must be supported somehow; and, moreover, a total
+absence of conscience--or even of the enlightened self-interest that is
+sometimes its working substitute.
+
+As for appealing to the Government for redress against the Agha's
+misdoings that is entirely wasted labour; and anyone who does so is apt
+to be given a lesson by the feudal chief, to warn others from doing the
+like.
+
+A description of some of the actual proceedings of two of the chiefs may
+enable the reader who has no knowledge of the ways of Ottoman officials
+in the remoter districts to learn what Turkish rule really means.
+Reshid, the Mira of Berwar, pays so much lip-deference to the
+Government's authority that he does condescend to buy from it the right
+of collecting the taxes from the Christian villages, year by year. This
+right is usually farmed out by the local officials (the fact that this
+is expressly illegal has nothing to do with the matter), the contractor
+paying a fixed sum to the Treasury, and making what he can out of the
+place. Reshid pays a sum of £5 for each village, which the Treasury
+gets; and perhaps another £5 goes in _bakhshish_, to secure that there
+shall be no competition, or that some flaw shall be found in any other
+offer. Then he extracts some £200 from each village.[141]
+
+It is possible that this is not much more than double the real
+assessment; still, even so, one would have thought that it might be
+worth while for the provincial governments to institute a better system;
+for when that is done in some thirty villages, it really represents a
+material loss to a Treasury that is perennially empty. However, you may
+talk to a Turk till you are tired, and represent to him that his system
+is simply robbery, and stupid robbery too; and that with better methods
+he would get ten times as much with one tenth the trouble. You are told
+politely to your face that you are under a misapprehension; though this
+ignorance of the country is of course pardonable in a foreigner. What is
+said or thought privately may perhaps be guessed.
+
+In feuds anything may happen. Thus Mira Reshid has a standing feud, of
+twenty years date now, with the men of Tyari; which is said to have
+commenced with a treacherous murder under trust in the Mussulman's own
+house. It blazed up fiercely in the summer of 1908; and that not without
+excuse from the Kurd's point of view, for some Tyari hot-heads (angry at
+the fact that a proposed reconciliation had not come off) had carried
+out a raid in Berwar territory, and killed Reshid's own brother. That he
+should cut the bullet out of the corpse, and send word to the chief of
+the Lizan valley (whence the raiders had come) that he was keeping it to
+shoot through his heart, was fair enough; but he certainly went beyond
+all ordinary rules in proclaiming a _Jehad_ or holy war of Islam against
+Christianity, on account of what was at the most a mere tribal feud.
+
+However, all the neighbouring tribes of Kurds rallied at that call, and
+he was able to muster 8000 men, armed with modern rifles, against the
+short 1500 flintlocks that was all that the threatened sub-district of
+Lizan could produce. It says much for the reputation of the Tyari
+fighters, that even under those circumstances the Kurds dared no frontal
+attack, and were content to make a long counter-march through the
+mountains, to reach the head of that Lizan valley (a tributary of the
+Zab) which the Christians were defending. Then they marched down it,
+plundering as they went, while the Christians on the hill above saw
+their houses go up in smoke one after the other.
+
+There was little spoil to take, for the sheep and women had been
+prudently sent away to the north; but all the usual courtesies of war
+went by the board that day. Trees were girdled; houses and standing
+crops were burnt; irrigating channels broken down so as to ruin the
+crops in other fields; and the conquerors marched down the valley to
+fulfil an old threat that they would "dance in St. George's Church on
+St. George's day," and thereafter carry fire and sword up the main
+valley of Tyari; which was not directly concerned in the feud.
+
+This last outrage, however, was averted by one daring deed. The church
+in question stands at the foot of the side valley, close by the bridge
+over the Zab that forms the sole passage to the larger threatened
+district. One chief of the Christian mountaineers saw that a band of
+brave men might throw themselves into a house which commanded both, and
+save their brethren, even if they themselves were ruined. He called for
+volunteers who would come down with him and cut across the Kurdish
+advance in the effort to gain that point. He would only take men who
+would put their lives on the hazard, for no quarter is given in _Jehad_.
+He got his party; and the writer must be allowed some pride in the fact
+that one of the members of this forlorn hope was a pupil of his own, a
+member of the "English School," named Saypu. They reached their point
+and prepared for defence; Saypu's last preparation being to take his own
+school-books out of the house (which, as it happened, was his own home)
+and hide them in a hole in the rock. It was the first token of affection
+he had given for them in his life! The little band made good their
+defence; and as they had not to deal with the main body of their enemy,
+they were actually able to carry out a sortie on their foes as they
+retired. Saypu, who had gone into the fight with a borrowed flint-lock,
+came out of it with a breech-loader of his own, the fairly won spoil of
+its late owner! More important than this, however, was the fact that the
+bridge was held. Though the side-valley was burnt from end to end, the
+main one was saved from ravage; and the Christians were able to hold
+their service on the following Sunday in the still undesecrated Church
+of St. George.
+
+Such an open war as this roused even the Ottoman Government to asking
+questions; though to do the officials justice, they would have been glad
+enough to leave the matter alone if only British Embassies and
+Consulates had left them in peace. As it was, they consented to send a
+commissioner to somewhere near the district, with instructions to "do
+_takikat_" in the case. As a matter of etymology, _takikat_ means
+examination or inquiry. As a matter of practice, it means sending an
+official with instructions to waste time, and do nothing elaborately;
+while the Government at headquarters says to the interfering foreigner,
+"you must allow us reasonable space and opportunity for action." After a
+few months, this phrase is altered; and the reply is, "well, after all,
+it happened a long time ago, and we cannot go into the matter now." In
+this case, the commissioner got as far as Amadia, and sent a summons to
+Reshid to come down and explain his conduct. Reshid sent out five pounds
+to the messenger, and the information that he was ill in bed, and the
+gentleman must call again; and this quite satisfied everybody.
+
+This is the sort of procedure that fills a Consul with despair. It is
+hard enough to get a disciplinary or reforming order out of the central
+Government; and when you have got it, what better are you? There is no
+possibility of getting the thing executed. Every Jack-in-office in the
+Ottoman service knows what is meant by a "watery command"--an order
+extracted by foreign pressure which he is meant to disregard. They know
+when the authority means business, and then they answer the rein at
+once; but they also know when it does not, and then they do nothing.
+Foreign influence cannot possibly see to it that there is a Consul in
+every place where oppression can arise. No Power can keep one in every
+mudirate; and nothing short of that would be effective. If Turkey is
+ever to be reformed, it must be by foreigners who have executive as well
+as advisory authority; power, that is, to hang an official who does not
+obey orders, or a chief who breaks the peace. Half a dozen such men
+would have Kurdistan as safe as Hyde Park inside a year, for if there is
+one chance in twenty of trouble ensuing, the Kurd does not raid.
+
+Reshid's only rival in Berwar is the Agha of Châl,[142] an old man who
+is the government _Mudir_ of his district. He is also a _Sufi_ by
+religious profession; and both of these circumstances should make for
+respectability; for the _Mudir_ is put there to keep order, being lowest
+on the scale of local governors, and _Sufis_ are usually supposed to be
+quiet mystics. Many of them are so in fact, and most interesting
+religious philosophers to talk with; but this man is noted for being on
+the whole the most crafty murderer in the country-side. It is of course
+something to rise to eminence in a profession so crowded as that
+peculiar one is locally; but perhaps that is not the most remarkable
+thing about this particular Agha. He is the only man of the writer's
+acquaintance who keeps a really large herd of domestic Jews. Châl
+village is largely populated by men of that race; and they are to all
+intents and purposes the serfs of the Agha--his tame money-spinners. The
+writer was even offered full rights in one of them for the sum of five
+pounds; and if the bargain would have held in more civilized districts
+(and the vendor, to do him justice, did not realize that it would not),
+it might have been as profitable an investment as is ever likely to come
+his way! A Jew of one's very own, bound to put all his financial skill
+at your disposal, and to use it solely for your benefit, would be a most
+valuable property.
+
+There are other chiefs who keep "tame Jews" in this fashion, though not
+on the same scale as does the wise man of Châl. Naturally, you are
+expected to protect your own Hebrew, and to guard him against all other
+oppressors; even as the King of England used to do, when he had absolute
+property in all the Jews in England, and saw to it that their debtors
+did not default. Kurdish Aghas, however, do not always rise to this
+duty; and the writer has known a case, where the unfortunate Israelite,
+who was owned in this fashion by one Agha, was robbed of every penny and
+rag he possessed by that Agha's rival. Poor Ibrahim complained, of
+course, to his natural lord, on the ground that it was _iyba_ to that
+master himself, if his property was robbed in this style. The chief had
+to admit that there was something in the argument; but redress by force
+of arms (the obvious method) was impossible, because the robber was far
+too nearly his equal in strength.
+
+"Your face is blackened my Lord," pleaded the poor Hebrew.
+
+"It is indeed," said the Agha; "but I can't go to war with him
+notwithstanding."
+
+Presently he had a really brilliant inspiration. "Look here Ibrahim; I
+have it! I'll go and rob his Jew myself!"
+
+That being the way the Kurdish mind works, it will be readily understood
+that their unfortunate Christian _rayats_ run considerable peril when
+there happens to be feud between two Aghas. Under those circumstances,
+it is just as satisfactory on the point of honour--and a good deal more
+profitable and less risky--to raid your opponents' unarmed Christian
+villages, than his armed Kurdish ones. Both sides practise this amiable
+habit with great satisfaction to themselves; and the poor _rayats_
+suffer accordingly.
+
+The presence of one powerful Kurdish chief ruling a whole country-side
+is thus a distinct improvement (however tyrannous he may be) on the rule
+of several rivals. He may at least have the sense to realize that it is
+unprofitable to carry the oppression of the _rayats_ too far, lest the
+cattle should be ungrateful enough to die on his hands. A story is told
+of the brother of the notorious Bedr Khan Beg, that on one occasion when
+that great destroyer of Christians was meditating a further massacre, he
+appeared in the _diwan_ in labourer's dress, armed with a shovel.
+
+"_Mashallah._ Why this masquerade?" asked his brother the chief.
+
+"Well brother, it is what we shall have to do, if you go on with your
+game of massacring all Christians. You will leave none to do the work on
+the land."
+
+The acted parable went home, as so often was the case in biblical times;
+and the proposed raid was countermanded.
+
+During the Italian and Bulgarian wars, there was of course much heated
+feeling among Mussulmans, and much wild talk of a massacre of all
+Christians. A Kurd indulging in that sort of swagger in a Christian
+village was countered by an argument which naturally no European would
+have expected, but which we have reason to believe had considerable
+weight in many quarters.
+
+"Of course, you can massacre us," said an old priest, "we are in your
+hands. But then, what will King George do?"
+
+"King George!" said the Kurd contemptuously, "his arm does not reach to
+Kurdistan."
+
+"No, but he has millions of Mussulman _rayats_ in India," said the
+Christian. "If you kill us, think you that he will not take life for
+life from them?"
+
+The Kurd was staggered. At first, he was disinclined to believe it
+possible for any Christian King to have Mussulman _rayats_. But when
+assured on that point, he quite admitted the probability--and more, the
+propriety--of King George retaliating on Mussulmans in India for
+anything their co-religionists might do to Christians in Kurdistan. The
+Oriental is quite philosopher enough to grasp the notion of
+_solidarité_.
+
+Moreover it must be inferred that a Kurd has a ghost of a conscience. He
+does not himself expect to sleep quiet in his grave unless some
+Christian places a rag on it in token of forgiveness. It is a weird
+belief, but is fully accepted on all hands. A noted marauder was lately
+buried near Amadia, and three Tyari men passing his grave after
+nightfall heard awful groans proceeding from it. One, bolder than his
+comrades, went nearer, and found an asthmatic sheep. An unlucky
+discovery, for it utterly ruined the moral.
+
+The character of the country is tamer than that we have just been
+traversing, for it is only in the most rugged and inaccessible gorges
+that the _ashiret_ Christians have been able to maintain their
+independence. In these Berwar and Sapna districts, the wilder ranges
+have been left behind. The valleys are wider, and the hills are usually
+forest clad; the prevailing tree being a small type of oak. Fortunately
+this is a valuable crop in itself, for it produces a very large
+oak-apple; and this is used freely in the dyeing of the local cloth, so
+that the trees have a good chance of preservation. The colours produced
+vary, according to the process, from pale yellow to dark brown; but as
+is always the case with pure vegetable dyes, all are excellent in tone,
+and a most gratifying contrast to the cold hard aniline dyes that
+European science has introduced to ruin the once beautiful carpets of
+this land.
+
+The hills are mostly of limestone, and lie in long parallel ranges, due
+east and west, with steep crags and precipices on the crests, and long
+tree-clad slopes below. They gradually lose their elevation as they
+approach the Mosul plain; but even at the last stand up over that
+endless level with a startling abruptness. The rivers, true to their
+habit in this land of contradictions, burst clean through these ranges
+in their southern course, though they naturally receive tributaries in
+each one of the parallels.
+
+Good coal lies under much of this country; the writer having actually
+seen one six-foot seam that crops out at four several points along a
+line of sixty miles, and is probably continuous in other directions
+also. It is of course quite unworked at present. Turkish political
+economy teaches that for so long as the coal is there, it is safe, and a
+solid national asset. If, however, you dig it up and burn it, it is gone
+and cannot be replaced. Besides, mining concessions, or anything else
+likely to bring in the foreigner, are anathema to the Ottoman and are
+never granted if they can possibly be avoided.
+
+[Illustration: TRAVELLING IN LOWER TKHUMA.
+
+No. 14]
+
+The principal landmark in the Sapna valley is the town of Amadia; a city
+set on a hill indeed--perched on the summit of a great isolated knoll
+which juts out from the mountains behind it like a bastion from the
+curtain of a fortress. The slopes of this knoll are surmounted by a
+cresting of limestone precipice, so even and continuous round the whole
+circuit of the level summit that it looks from a little distance like a
+prodigious artificial wall. The place must have been a notable
+stronghold even in Assyrian days, as a much battered bas-relief on
+the rock face by the main gate testifies: but the ramparts which Nature
+has given it were always sufficient protection; and, except at the two
+entrance gateways, no further defences were required. It is now but a
+group of mean hovels, no more than a rather large village; but it ranks
+in the Sapna valley as the metropolis of the country-side.
+
+Amadia is the only seat of Ottoman Government in the neighbourhood; and
+for this reason it was in its vicinity that a "Station" of the
+Archbishop's Assyrian Mission was established when it was desirable to
+find some centre reasonably accessible for the mountaineers of Tyari and
+Tkhuma. This establishment caused a most natural fluttering of the
+dovecotes in that respectable and old-fashioned neighbourhood. That the
+Kurds should feel eminently disgusted was only to be expected. Good
+respectable brigands as they were, and had been for generations, and
+having a vested interest in the perpetuation of conditions that made
+their ancient trade profitable; what else could they be expected to
+feel, at the advent of a Frank who was not only unraidable personally,
+but whose mere presence made it appreciably more difficult to raid
+others? Formerly if there had ever been questions about the
+appropriation of sheep (which did not happen often), it was always easy
+to persuade the _kaim[=a]k[=a]m_ to do nothing, and report nothing. An
+Englishman, however, was in touch with his Consul, (accursed
+institution), and that Consul with the _Vali_; and _Valis_ have a way of
+not sympathizing with a Kurdish gentleman's necessities, unless you
+purchase that sympathy rather expensively.
+
+Furthermore, there was the Roman Catholic bishop of the district; and he
+also objected (and again most naturally and rightly from his point of
+view) to the coming of an institution that might put backbone into the
+"heretical" church which he was in process of annexing gradually to the
+one true fold. We must own that his lordship's methods of going to work
+in the matter were perhaps a little crude; but the fact is, that it is
+the grossest injustice to judge the modern East by a twentieth-century
+standard. If you choose to go and live in mediæval times (somewhere in
+the thirteenth century let us say), you must not complain if the people
+act in fashion reminiscent of that age. It is best to cultivate a sense
+of historical perspective instead, and enjoy the picturesqueness of
+things.
+
+The bishop in question was not a European himself, but a native of the
+country, and a member of the Chaldæan Church; and there is not the
+slightest reason for thinking that his tutors (the Dominican Fathers of
+Mosul) were aware of his rather mediæval methods. He would not be likely
+to report too definitely to them (if he had any direct correspondence
+with them at all, which is not probable) on the broad principle,
+familiar in that land, that there are things which a Frank can never be
+got to understand, and which for the sake of his peace of mind he had
+better not know! His immediate superior, the Chaldæan Patriarch, may
+have been better informed. He is an Oriental and so of an understanding
+mind; a vigorous mind withal, and not troubled with needless scruples.
+
+It being then desirable to remove the intruding Englishman, his
+lordship's first step was to request the _Vali_ to issue an order to
+that effect, on the ground that the writer's morals were so abominably
+bad, that the Kurds could not tolerate his presence. This attempt
+failed; the _Vali_ taking the line that Kurdish morals were not his
+business, and that in any case he thought that even an Englishman could
+hardly make them worse than they were. We regret to say that his
+Excellency, having given this decision, went to lunch with the British
+Consul in order to share the ribald joke.
+
+Foiled there, his lordship the bishop next appealed to the local Kurds.
+"If you allow that Englishman to settle there" he told them, "he will
+set the Government on to you, every time you go a-raiding; and you will
+never be able to rob a Christian village in peace and safety again." Of
+course the fact was true enough; or rather, it was true that the
+foreigner would do his best to produce that desirable result, as far as
+the narrow limits of his power extended; and it was all to the good that
+the Kurds should believe it. Still, as an Episcopal argument, it was
+odd. However, it is the general feeling of the East, that there is no
+stone too dirty to throw at your enemy; and that if you set a train for
+his destruction, there is never any risk of your getting hoist with your
+own petard. It is, after all, only the mediæval feeling, that it was
+quite fair to call in the devil to do your work, and then cheat him of
+his pay!
+
+Another argument urged upon the Kurds by the bishop was that the coming
+of the English meant annexation in the near future. However, this
+"back-fired" sadly. Many Kurds, after inquiring if the tale was really
+true, exclaimed: "Glory be to Allah! Let us hope the English will be
+quicker about it than they sometimes are." For a very fair proportion of
+the men in every tribe are really sick of the state of no-government
+around them. They are tired of disorder, more than tired of the Turk;
+and have discovered that raiding really does not pay in the long run.
+Good sport it is; but the outgoings are too heavy. No raids will pay for
+the up-keep of a large "following" for ever; and yet if you practise
+raiding, a large following must be kept up. So, unable to establish any
+sort of government other than the tribal themselves, they are disposed
+to welcome almost any change, or the intervention of almost any
+foreigner. Though, of course, however welcome a foreigner might be at
+first, he would be sure to get cordially hated later when the sweets of
+order palled in their turn.
+
+Some Kurdish gentlemen were disposed to welcome the coming of the
+English for other and more personal reasons. Among these was a certain
+Agha Reshid of Ghara (a distinct man from his namesake of Berwar) whose
+fame as a murderer rivalled even that of the Agha of Châl. This
+distinguished man came to visit us one day, sadly scaring our household
+staff by the train that he thought necessary for his dignity; and
+perhaps for his safety also, for both the Government and his private
+enemies had designs upon him.
+
+"Will you receive him, Rabbi?" said the servants, "he is the man who has
+committed fifteen murders himself."
+
+He proved, however, to be, like Lambro, "as mild a mannered man as ever
+scuttled ship or cut a throat;" and after the usual compliments,
+disclosed his real business. "Could we see our way to registering him as
+a British subject?" The fact was, as he explained, that his enemies were
+getting quite troublesome to him now, over the crimes they said he had
+committed; and if we could oblige him in this, then he would be entitled
+to Consular protection, and that would give him a clean slate. As usual,
+in return for that favour he would cheerfully undertake the removal of
+any enemies of ours whom we named.
+
+We could only regret our inability to do him the service asked, and
+explain that there was really nobody whom we wished to have murdered; a
+statement which in the light of our known relations to our neighbours
+was received with an incredulity that was courteous, but quite
+undisguised. In the interests of science, however, we had to put one
+further question. "O Agha, that thing which your enemies say of you
+concerning those fifteen murders; is it true at all?"
+
+"O _Effendim_," he answered coolly; "they were all of them my enemies
+but two. And one of them was a Jew who had looked at my womankind."
+
+We could not come to an understanding, but we parted the best of
+friends.[143]
+
+As for the Christian villagers, they of course welcomed the arrival of
+what promised protection, and refused to believe any disclaimers of
+political power and aims. "Now we shall be able to send out our sheep to
+the far pastures," they proclaimed. To do so previously would have been
+a mere invitation to cattle-raiders, which they would not have been slow
+to accept!
+
+The person who was most to be pitied in the whole matter was the
+unfortunate Governor of Amadia. He had to veil under a decent show of
+politeness the disgust that he must have felt over the advent of a
+nuisance whom he was bound to protect; and a critic whom he could not
+turn out, or altogether disregard. Further, all his Kurdish neighbours
+who desired the removal of the foreigner were sure that the governor
+could do it if he would; and that he would have done so, had he not been
+bribed in a contrary sense.
+
+One can spare some pity for a poor man who finds himself losing his
+popularity with his friends for not doing what he would give his ears to
+do, if only he were able. Constant petitions were made to him to expel
+the foreigner; and when in a weak moment he tried to purchase peace by
+issuing an order to that effect, the impracticable Englishman not only
+refused to obey it, but appealed to his Consul; and so brought down on
+him a sharp reprimand from the _Vali_, and a reminder of the existence
+of the "Capitulations" and foreign privileges under them. Yet how was he
+to get that fact into a Kurd's understanding?
+
+Finding that the poor _kaimákam_ was not to be moved, the neighbours
+thought of taking action themselves. A syndicate of them actually
+suggested a reward of £1000 to anyone who would abate the nuisance by
+removing the foreigner finally and absolutely from this world. Sundry
+gentlemen were willing to undertake the job; so at least local
+informants assured us. Maybe their fears spoke, but the thing has been
+done with British officers since. This syndicate, however, declined to
+produce the money till the job was done; and negotiations broke down on
+that point, leaving the Englishman with the satisfaction of feeling that
+he was at least rated quite decently high. It would have been a blow to
+his natural self-esteem had the price put on his head been a low one;
+but £1000 elevates one into an aristocratic circle, to a fellowship with
+Claude Duval, Ned Kelly the Australian, "the man Charles Stuart" and
+"the Nigger General who almost ruined old Virginny."
+
+Meantime, the British Consul in Mosul felt a little natural anxiety at
+these proposals concerning one of his charges, and communicated with a
+friend on the matter. This friend was that Abdi Agha of the Sindiguli
+Kurds mentioned earlier in this chapter, who was on the most amicable
+terms with all English, because his daughter had just been cured in the
+English hospital in Mosul. The Consul's suggestion ran much as follows.
+"See here my friend; you know those men of Amadia are talking wildly and
+making petitions. Could you, who have influence with them, give them a
+hint that they are knocking their heads against a stone wall? You know
+we none of us want to have trouble; but I shall be obliged to take
+serious notice if they go too far."
+
+"Certainly Bey, on my head and eyes be it," said the obliging Agha; and
+this was the form in which the "hint" arrived. "O you men of Amadia!
+Dogs that you are, I hear that you are barking against my English
+friends. Know now that if you do not cease from this forthwith, I will
+rob every caravan of yours that goes down to Mosul!"
+
+Application had been made at Constantinople for a _firm[=a]n_ for the
+building of a mission house, and this business was proceeding with the
+leisureliness characteristic of Ottoman rule. A curious episode occurred
+during its progress. The British Consul of Mosul, having naturally left
+that oven during the summer, had come up to Amadia; and was there
+staying with the writer on the site of the future house, when a Servian
+gipsy appeared in the land. This was an old woman, who was unable to
+speak any one of the numerous languages current in Kurdistan, and
+communicated with the natives by signs only. The Consul's kavass,
+however, was a Montenegrin, and through him we were able to communicate
+with her. She professed herself a skilled fortune-teller, and
+accordingly, more by way of challenge than anything else, she was asked
+to show her skill. She asked for anything that the Consul had worn, and
+having been given a fragment of an old neck-tie, cut it into shreds,
+strewed these on the surface of some water, and presently, after
+studying the signs, gave her verdict. "You have come up hither about the
+building of a large house on this spot, and there has been a great deal
+of opposition to it. However, you need not be afraid, for you have
+overcome it, and the house will be built and will abide." About six
+weeks later came the news that the issue of the _firm[=a]n_ for the
+purpose was practically secured.
+
+Another curious instance of clairvoyance came to the knowledge of the
+writer in the same village. A child was lost, and after searching for
+it in vain, the parents applied to a certain aged _qashâ_, renowned for
+his skill in _kharashutha_ (magic) of all kinds. His method was to take
+a pebble from a running stream, and grind it to powder with certain
+prayers. Then a long series of names of localities was written on slips
+of paper, and these and the dust together were strewn on a basin of
+water taken from the running stream. Again prayers were recited, ending
+with the invocation, "give a perfect lot;" and the slip of paper that
+first floated to the side was taken. The place it named seemed
+impossible; for it was a pass between two high mountains, very difficult
+of access. Still the parents went up to search; and there sure enough
+was found the dead body of the child, who, in obedience to the
+mysterious law observed in several such cases, had climbed from height
+to height, when lost, till he sank exhausted.
+
+A better position than Amadia for getting unusual knowledge as to the
+ways of life and thought in this remote land could hardly be imagined;
+particularly when, as was the case with us, medical practice was added
+to educational work. This was done partly out of philanthropy, partly
+because nothing is so efficient as dosing to take away prejudice! Weird
+complaints came to us for doctoring, as will readily be understood; and
+possibly the treatment they received would have been considered even
+weirder from a real doctor's point of view.[144] Thus the village idiot
+came up one day to beg for a cure. He knew that he was mad, and he also
+knew the reason; namely that long ago an unscrupulous foe had put a
+donkey's brains into his soup, and he had eaten them unwittingly, and
+had naturally gone crazy.
+
+We thought of setting imagination to cure what imagination had created,
+by solemnly tying our friend down, making a small wound on his stomach,
+and then exhibiting some scrap of raw meat to him as the donkey's brain,
+safely extracted. We have known of similar cases cured by precisely that
+method elsewhere; particularly a girl in Mosul who was persuaded that
+she had swallowed a lizard, which was eating her up internally. She
+fully intended to die of it; but recovered perfectly on being
+chloroformed and being shown, on "coming to" again, a small cut on her
+own person, and a lizard in spirits! However, the patient in this case
+refused to submit to the operation, and perhaps it was as well; for one
+is rather playing with fire in executing such a scheme.
+
+On another occasion, a Kurd came to one of our European staff, with a
+request to have a tooth extracted. The Frank, who had served some
+apprenticeship at that art, did his office deftly; and the Kurd, filled
+with gratitude, offered two mejids (seven shillings) as a fee. This was
+refused, as no fees were taken; and the patient was even more
+astonished. However, he was a Mussulman gentleman, and to receive a
+benefit without making return for it was unthinkable; hence if his next
+proposal was bizarre, at least the kindness was genuine.
+
+"Look here, _Effendim_, you are a Christian, are you not? Well, when I
+get to Paradise, I shall have seventy houris. You will not have any
+where you are going; and I think I may spare you--two!"
+
+An interesting corollary to the above proposition would seem to be that
+the market value of a houri is 3/6 sterling, plus compound interest on
+that sum for say twenty years, which seems cheap.
+
+Perhaps our most remarkable patient, however, was a poor fellow who was
+brought in by a deputation of the men of his village, with a request
+that we would cure him of the evil eye! If he looked at a crock of milk,
+it upset; if at a sheep, the wolf got it; if at a child, it was likely
+enough to tumble into the fire. They were quite fair about the matter,
+fully recognizing that it was the poor fellow's misfortune, not his
+fault. Still, he was such a nuisance to all the neighbours, that it was
+to be hoped that English knowledge would cure him. Unfortunately, we had
+to own that there was nothing in the British Pharmacopoeia that
+professes to deal with this form of trouble; and though we had, as a
+matter of fact, plenty of charms against the evil eye in our possession
+(invocations of the Archangel Gabriel against "that light and vile
+daughter of perdition" with power to send it away "into the desolate
+land, where cocks crow not and foot of beast treads not, there to walk
+up and down in dry places, seeking rest and finding none") yet we felt
+on the whole that it would not be proper to use these, and the
+deputation had to go away disappointed.[145]
+
+Once, on a journey, we have known surgical aid demanded in rather
+menacing fashion. We had halted by a spring, when a party of Kurds, all
+fully armed of course, turned up from the opposite direction, and
+demanded of our servant who and what we might be. Hearing that we were
+English, the leader strode over to us at once, displayed a paralysed
+arm, and observed, "You have got to cure that."
+
+"That is quite beyond our power, we fear," said we, "you must take that
+to the hospital in Mosul."
+
+"Well you know, I think you ought to cure it; because you did it."
+
+"We did it? We never set eyes on you before."
+
+"Well, if it was not you, it was your Consul; but you English are all
+one set. He did it when he was shooting at us."
+
+Our friend was, as we then understood, one of the gang who had, a few
+years previously, attacked a British Consul in this neighbourhood.[146]
+There had been a pretty sharp skirmish, of which this gentleman bore the
+token in a bullet that had cut the sinews of his right arm. The Consul
+gained great _kudos_ in the affair; for he not only beat off his
+assailants, but killed their leader, a man who had the reputation of
+being "proof" against shot and steel. Such reputations are almost as
+common in these regions now as they were in the highlands of Scotland in
+the seventeenth century; but (in spite of the local facilities) the
+possessors of such immunity are not held to have acquired it by direct
+compact with the Evil One, like Claverhouse and Dalziel, but to have
+been born with it in course of nature. Mirza Agha, the Kurd in question,
+certainly did his best to live up to his character; for though he
+received three wounds that would each have been fatal to most men (two
+in the head, and one in the body) he did not die until the fifth day
+after the battle.
+
+This comrade of his was not disposed to take vengeance (as might perhaps
+have been expected) on all and sundry Englishmen for the loss of his
+arm. Having expressed his sense of what was befitting, and provided us
+with an instance of the survival of tribal responsibility, for which as
+students of history we were bound to be grateful to him, he went on his
+way and we saw him no more.
+
+Gradually our relations with our neighbours improved. It is difficult to
+keep up malice against a man who provides good "English salt" (quinine);
+and thus folk became interestingly, but almost inconveniently, friendly.
+What ought one to do, when the wife of a Kurd, who has got into trouble
+with his Agha, asks for your intercession; and all the Christians in the
+neighbourhood, as well as the man's own friends, assure you that the
+object of their prayer is a very good and charitable man, barring the
+fact that he commits murders occasionally? What is the really "fit and
+beautiful" in the following cause matrimonial, when the applicants come
+and throw themselves in the road at your horse's feet, and declare that
+you are welcome to ride over them, but get up they will not, till you
+have promised them redress?
+
+Jevdet, a worthy Kurd of Ghara (outlaw, of course, like every man in
+that happy Alsatia), betrothed his daughter Amin to a neighbour, Tewfik,
+in settlement of a debt owed to the latter.[147] However, Amin rebelled
+and ran away to a worthy old man of Amadia, one Abd-l-Aziz, who is a
+sort of universal uncle to all the neighbourhood, and is at the bottom
+of most local intrigues. Abd-l-Aziz, resourceful man, thought that an
+alliance with the damsel's family would be valuable; so he betrothed her
+at once to a nephew of his own, and reported her to her parents as
+"lost, and I don't know where to find her." Presently, however, Amin,
+being a lady, changed her mind--mollified by the news that Tewfik had
+actually spent the sum of £20 to get possession of her--and got a letter
+through to him somehow, begging him to come like a true lover, and
+rescue her from the consequences of her own actions. Under these
+circumstances Jevdet and Tewfik both came and threw themselves at the
+feet of the writer and the Consul, assured us that they had no hope save
+in Allah and ourselves, and begged for redress!
+
+Yet of all the negotiations in which we were engaged, that which sticks
+most in our memory is the matter of Abdurrahman the Kurd, and the
+difficulty first of getting him into prison and afterwards of getting
+him out. Abdurrahman had the impudence to rob a messenger who was
+bringing down letters to us. He took everything except the letters
+themselves (which was courteous) and allowed the messenger to come
+wading through the winter snow to our house, clad in nothing but the
+envelope.
+
+This was a thing that could not be allowed to pass, and we demanded the
+arrest and imprisonment of the thief, who was known to the robbed man.
+At first the governor professed inability to do anything in the matter,
+and did not see that any duty was incumbent on him. However, an appeal
+to the _Vali_ at Mosul produced an order, and in due course Abdurrahman
+was lodged in the town gaol. "Get him imprisoned here, not at Mosul,
+Rabbi!" had been the advice of one of our servants. "It is no punishment
+to be imprisoned at Mosul; they give bread to the captives there
+_almost every day_." In more primitive Amadia your friends are at
+liberty to supply you; but if they omit that attention, you do not eat.
+
+Abdurrahman had plenty of friends, so he did not fare badly in the
+prison; but when he had been there about a week, we received a message
+from the _kaimakam_. Would we mind saying if our thirst for vengeance
+was glutted yet? For if so, our victim might be released. We sent a
+reply to the effect that it was no case of private vengeance, but of the
+peace of his Majesty the Sultan; and that if, as we presumed,
+Abdurrahman had now served his full sentence, of course he could be
+released.
+
+"Oh no," replied the ever-courteous but bored Governor, "our wisdom was
+labouring under a misapprehension in this. As for the peace of the
+Sultan, his Majesty had not got any; and as for sentence, he had never
+even tried the man yet. In fact, he had been at some pains to explain to
+our victim's relations (a fairly wild sept of Kurds) that it was not his
+fault that their kinsman was in durance, but purely the doing of that
+Englishman, who had insisted on it so."
+
+"Then release him with our blessing," said we. "Ten days in the hole you
+call a prison is more than enough for a trifling indiscretion such as he
+committed."
+
+"Then please," came the message in reply, "would we mind coming up to
+the town to sign a document to that effect?" It had been already
+prepared, and only needed signature, and a man of our wisdom would
+understand that this was necessary, and that in a civilized and
+constitutional land like Turkey, the formalities of law must be
+observed.
+
+It seemed to us that no great formality could be needful for the release
+of a man who had never been tried; but presently we sacrificed a day's
+work, rode up to the citadel and after the usual compliments asked for
+the necessary document.
+
+"Well, for the document--it should be written at once. It was not indeed
+needful that we should sign it, or in fact that any should be written;
+but--well, as we were there--would we take it amiss if the _kaimakam_
+mentioned that he had been suffering sadly from stomach-ache these
+days, and would be grateful if we would prescribe." The rascal had
+calculated, quite correctly, that we should never trouble to come up
+just for his indigestion, but that if we knew that our victim was
+languishing in durance till we appeared, we were pretty certain to do
+so! The ingenuity of the "score" so delighted us, that the only revenge
+we took was to prescribe the nastiest medicine at our disposal; and so
+the document was drawn up, signed, sealed and delivered, and we went off
+home in the belief that the business was done now.
+
+No such thing, however. The policeman, who presently came down to take
+up the medicine informed us that it was impossible to release our
+captive, for the sufficient reason that his Excellency had now been
+examining the case, and had come to the conclusion that he was innocent.
+Had he been guilty, all would have been well; but he thought that it was
+a case of mistaken identity, and proposed to keep poor Abdurrahman till
+the messenger could come down to swear to him. If that messenger came as
+soon as he was summoned (the very last thing he was likely to do) that
+would not mean a delay of more than a fortnight. And then the prisoner
+could be released--if innocent, on the ground that he had done nothing;
+if guilty, as having served his full sentence several times over!
+
+On this, we frankly threw up the game, and sent word to the Governor
+that we were going off on a six weeks' journey, and could not be heard
+of till its close. He might keep his prisoner, or ours, in prison till
+the crack of doom if he liked; or might release him at once.
+
+Naturally, as soon as we were over the hill, he chose the latter
+alternative. Abdurrahman came out again; and he bore so little malice
+that on return we found a message from him awaiting us, to the effect
+that he would never have meddled with the messenger had he known that
+the man belonged to us; and that he would bring us the horns of the
+first ibex he shot that summer as a peace-offering. And so, in fact, he
+did, and we became very good friends.
+
+Spirits of the mountain and plain beset the path of the wayfarer in
+this land, as might be expected. Thus, Mosul plain is haunted by a
+fearful type of vampire, the "_hiblabashi_," a satyr, half-man
+half-goat, who lures travellers from the path, and sucks their
+blood.[148] There is a tomb of one such at Aradin, a village in the
+lower hills, whence there issues at times a terrible gadfly, that
+infects all whom it bites with madness and hydrophobia. Mercifully,
+however, bane and antidote lie, as ever, side by side; for there is a
+sulphurous spring by the side of the tomb, and it has healing virtue for
+those afflicted in this way.
+
+Belief in a vampire was, of course, practically universal at some period
+all the world over; and this is the only thing that the Montenegrin
+kavass mentioned above was ever known to fear, having had practically
+first-hand acquaintance with one.[149] There is, however, another sort
+of spirit that is more peculiar to this land; a type of "brownie" that
+haunts the sheepfolds, where the shepherds have often to keep lonely
+vigil and get into the frame of mind when men see all sorts of strange
+things. In one case, the pixy in question used to come and sit opposite
+to the shepherd by the watchfire, and exactly imitate his every action
+in dead silence. At last this supernatural companion got on to the
+shepherd's nerves. He consulted a wise man, and was given advice that
+shows how recent in date the tale must be. He put a bowl of water on his
+side of the fire, and a bowl of paraffin on the other; and then, when
+the brownie came, he proceeded to soak his own clothes with the water.
+The being, of course, imitated him, and did not perceive the difference
+between water and oil. After a while, the shepherd took a blazing brand
+from the fire and applied it to his clothes, where, of course, it went
+out. The brownie did likewise, and found himself in a blaze; on which he
+jumped up and fled howling, being apparently material enough to feel
+fire. All the other spirits of mountain and river gathered at his call,
+and the shepherd began to fear that he had roused Elfindom in good
+earnest: but the scorched one, with really magnificent fairness,
+declared that after all it was his own doing; and thereafter the
+shepherd was left unmolested of nights.
+
+Still, of all survivals from early ages in this land, whether
+monumental, superstitious, or religious, none is more remarkable than
+the "Sacrifice of Noah." It must be understood that no people here, save
+the Armenians, look on the great cone which we call Ararat, but which is
+locally known as Aghri Dagh, as the spot where the ark rested. The
+biblical term is "the mountains of Ararat" or Urartu, and the term
+includes the whole of the Hakkiari range. A relatively insignificant
+ridge, known as Judi Dagh, is regarded as the authentic spot by all the
+folk in this land; and it must be owned that the identification has
+something to say for itself. It is one of the first ranges that rise
+over the level of the great plain; and if all Mesopotamia (which to its
+inhabitants was the world) were submerged by some great cataclysm, it is
+just the spot where a drifting vessel might strand.
+
+Whatever the facts, the tradition goes back to the year A.D. 300 at
+least. That date is, of course, a thing of yesterday in this country;
+but the tale was of unknown antiquity then, and is firmly rooted in the
+social consciousness now. In consequence, Noah's sacrifice is still
+commemorated year by year on the place where tradition says the ark
+rested--a _ziaret_ which is not the actual summit of the mountain but a
+spot on its ridge. On that day (which, strange to say, is the first day
+of Ilul, or September 14 of our calendar, and not May 27 mentioned in
+the account in Genesis) all faiths and all nations come together,
+letting all feuds sleep on that occasion, to commemorate an event which
+is older than any of their divisions.
+
+Christians of all nations and confessions, Mussulmans of both _Shiah_
+and _Sunni_ type, Sabaeans, Jews, and even the furtive timid Yezidis are
+there, each group bringing a sheep or kid for sacrifice; and for one day
+there is a "truce of God" even in turbulent Kurdistan, and the smoke of
+a hundred offerings goes up once more on the ancient altar. Lower down
+on the hillside, and hard by the Nestorian village of Hasana, men still
+point out Noah's tomb and Noah's vineyard, though this last, strange to
+say, produces no wine now. The grapes from it are used exclusively for
+_nipukhta_ or grape treacle, possibly in memory of the disaster that
+once befell the Patriarch.
+
+Yezidi legend has it that the ark had a narrow escape of foundering
+during its voyage to Judi Dagh, and what would have befallen the race of
+man then? It bumped sadly on mount Sinjar, and sprung a serious leak in
+consequence.[150] Disaster was only averted by the promptitude of the
+Serpent, who wriggled into the hole, coiled himself into a ball on each
+side, and then pulled together tightly like a rivet to caulk the leak.
+There he remained till the voyage was over; whereupon Noah (with rather
+doubtful gratitude) sacrificed and burnt him at once. He must have left
+a brood behind him, to be the ancestors of the present stock; but he
+perished, and he got his revenge, for from his ashes came forth fleas.
+It is at least an unusual thing to find a story of any sort that
+attributes disinterested conduct to a serpent; and this legend can
+claim, at any rate, such support as is given to it by the great
+abundance of the insect referred to in the neighbourhood of this their
+original home.
+
+An American sufferer once assured the writer of his conviction that in
+the course of ages, the very structure of the sandbank on which stands
+the town of Jezireh (just at the foot of Judi Dagh, and on the river
+Tigris) had been metamorphosed; and that it was now composed exclusively
+of flies, fleas, and fever microbes in approximately equal proportions!
+Experience, it must be admitted, makes one disposed to agree with him.
+The town is "more Lord of Fleas than any place in Kurdistan."
+
+    _Fhairshon had a son_
+    _Who married Noah's daughter._
+
+And it is gratifying to find that the memory of this mythical personage
+is still preserved in the land where he wooed his bride. Noah's
+son-in-law (so we are told) was a giant of such prodigious stature that
+his attempt at "spoiling ta' flood by drinking up ta' water" may have
+had some initial success. Of course he could not get inside the ark, but
+he obligingly sat astride of it, and paddled it about with his feet.
+What became of him later the legend sayeth not. No doubt he carried off
+his wife to Scotland with him; and so passed beyond local ken.
+
+Time passed gradually at Amadia, till even the leisurely Ottoman
+processes were complete, and the imperial _firm[=a]n_ for the building
+of an "English house" at that centre was duly issued. All ill-feeling
+with our neighbours had practically died out before that date; and the
+last of it vanished with the document's arrival, every Sanballat and
+Geshem in the neighbourhood coming to call, and to explain how delighted
+he personally had always been to have us there, and how it was only
+"those others" who stirred up bad blood. It is true that one more
+consistent man observed, on the occasion of the public reading of the
+formal charter in the _diwan_ of the governor, "Poor Mohammed Reshid!
+_He_ has to do whatever these Franks tell him"; but he prudently kept
+that remark under his breath.
+
+A solemn festival marked the burying of the hatchet; after which the
+guests, having consumed more than one sheep between them, went home in
+procession with all the spoons of the household in their hats! This
+would have suggested at home that the wearers had dined not only well,
+but too well; but in Kurdistan it expresses no more than an unusual
+satisfaction with the banquet.
+
+     NOTE. Much of the district of Bohtan (a region which lies to the
+     westward of the Sapna valley) is practically unknown to Europeans;
+     being inhabited only by wild tribes of Kurds, with a scattering of
+     Christians mostly of the Nestorian Church, as their _rayats_. It is
+     extremely rugged, and the gorges of the River Bohtan are among the
+     very finest to be found even in that land.
+
+     The following tale of one of its inhabitants is worthy of record,
+     as showing the heroism and fidelity that can be exhibited at times
+     by this downtrodden people.
+
+     The writer was anxious to visit the Nestorian villages of the
+     district and had arranged with the Patriarch that he should do so;
+     but found the scheme vetoed by the British Consul of Van, on the
+     ground that "I have been speaking to the _Vali_ on the matter, and
+     he says that two companies of soldiers would not be enough to
+     guard you there." Under these circumstances he abandoned the
+     journey; but Rabban Werda, a deacon of the Nestorian Church,
+     already mentioned in these pages, then volunteered to go alone into
+     the district and see what he could do for the people there. He
+     volunteered with, of course, full knowledge of the fact that,
+     though there would at all events be questions asked if the
+     Englishman got shot, nobody would trouble about such a trifle as
+     the death of a mere _rayat_ like himself.
+
+     He went and he returned safely; and in the course of his journey he
+     visited a village called Shernakh, where he received hospitality as
+     usual in the house of the Agha, but was surprised to find himself
+     treated with more consideration than is the general lot of a
+     Christian wanderer under the circumstances.
+
+     While he was at supper, one of the Kurdish servants came to him to
+     say: "Sir Priest, if you have finished, the Lady would wish to
+     speak to you." "The Lady?" said the deacon, in natural wonder at
+     the Lady of a Mussulman house asking to see a Christian guest who
+     was not even a Frank doctor. "The Lady. Our Christian Lady," said
+     the Kurd; and in absolute bewilderment the deacon allowed himself
+     to be led to the women's part of the house, and to a private room
+     in it. Here an aged woman rose to greet him, saying: "God has given
+     me my prayer at last, and, after sixty years of captivity, I see a
+     Christian priest before I die."
+
+     Her story was as follows: When a girl in her 'teens she had been
+     carried off from her home as part of the spoil in some raid, like
+     the little maid who waited on Naaman's wife; and had been assigned
+     as a portion of his share to the grandfather of the then Agha of
+     the village. The date was fixed in her mind, by the fact that the
+     first task given her in her captivity was the baking of bread for
+     the Kurds who were going on a great raid against her own
+     kinsfolk--the raid of Bedr Khan Beg in 1845, which is an episode
+     from which men date still.
+
+     Since then, she had been a captive and slave in the Mussulman
+     house, the only Christian in the place. She had begun, as might be
+     expected, as the fag and drudge of all the other servants; but had
+     raised herself by sheer force of character and her own integrity
+     till she was now manager of household and farm: and she had been,
+     by the Kurds' own admission, "a blessing to the house" since the
+     day that she entered it. Further (information again volunteered by
+     the Kurds themselves) she had not only kept her Christianity in her
+     solitude, but in a household where all lived in common nobody had
+     ever known her to neglect her daily prayers or her Friday's fast,
+     or to do needless work on the Sunday.
+
+     One request only she made of the deacon. Finding that he was not
+     the priest she had thought, and therefore was not able to give her
+     the "_qurbana_" she had hoped to receive, she asked him to give her
+     some of the "blessed bread" which her memory told her he would be
+     likely to have with him. This is bread blessed, but not
+     consecrated, at the Eucharist, and often carried with them by
+     Nestorians on a long journey. This he was able to do, and she
+     declared that she would keep it to be her "_viaticum_" when the
+     time of her release should come.
+
+     Surely one may seek through a good many of the "Acta Sanctorum"
+     before finding a nobler confession of Christ than that made by this
+     nameless Nestorian woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES
+
+(MOSUL TO BAGHDAD)
+
+
+The road from Amadia to Mosul is tolerably easy, by comparison, as the
+successive ranges sink gradually toward the Mesopotamian level. We had
+timed our journey craftily; it being now fairly hot in the lowlands; for
+we wished the moon to be full on the night that we emerged from the
+mountains, so that we might travel by her light across the plain to
+Mosul. A journey by day across the Mosul plain is not to be undertaken
+too lightly in summer, when the thermometer registers 120° in the shade.
+By night it is comfortable enough, and the moon makes the journey easy;
+though we own that it is very sleepy work at times. On this occasion the
+writer accomplished a feat that had previously been always beyond him,
+viz. that of sleeping in the saddle as the horse walked on. The nap can
+hardly have been a long one, but he achieved a real dream, and it was
+not terminated by a collapse into the dust.
+
+By day, the heat is very trying, and there is a real danger occasionally
+in that strange phenomenon the "_Sâm_." This is apparently a very small
+whirlwind, akin to those which cause the "dust-devils" common enough in
+the land at all times, but composed of intensely heated air, flavoured
+often with sulphurous fumes. A man struck by it simply collapses, and
+unless prompt attendance can be given him he dies in a few minutes. The
+face is "blackened," and decomposition sets in very speedily. The
+natives not unnaturally refer to it as a "Poison wind."
+
+The phenomenon wanders about in the freakish fashion that we associate
+with the American tornadoes, though it never is dangerous, like them,
+from its mere pace and power. It will take one man out of a straggling
+party, or even a man on horse-back, while leaving his horse and his
+companion on foot unscathed.
+
+A British Consul has told the writer how on one occasion, turning to
+speak to his kavass who was riding a few yards behind him, he suddenly
+felt the hot blast and smelt the sulphurous fumes; while the kavass
+collapsed, and fell from his horse as if he had been shot. Prompt
+attention and stimulants revived the sufferer on that occasion, but it
+was a narrow escape. Had he been alone he would have died past question.
+
+Nobody seems to have investigated the matter scientifically, or to have
+compared it with like phenomena in other lands (such as Scinde for
+instance) where conditions are similar. It is really not surprising that
+the natives should put down the effect to a blow from a malignant
+"Jinn," though one suspects that as a matter of fact the explanation is
+this. Sudden contact with the heated, sulphur-laden blast of the little
+whirlwind just "tips the balance," and induces a stroke of heat-apoplexy
+in cases where the victim is already verging on that condition. Possibly
+the _Sâm_ is a last legacy of the now quiescent volcanoes; for similar
+sulphurous eddies, of a far less violent description, were playing about
+the surface of the sea off the Riviera coastline for some time after the
+great earthquake at San Remo in 1887.
+
+In Mosul the hospitable Consulate received us once more, while the
+_keleg_ that was to take us down the Tigris to Baghdad was in process of
+construction. A _keleg_ is probably one of the most ancient types of
+river craft in the world, and is built in this wise. First, a frame of
+light poles, much like hop-poles, is tied fairly firmly together with
+cord. This may be of any size, but a fair-sized one for a small party is
+perhaps twelve feet square. Next a number of sheep-skins, each taken
+from the animal with the minimum of cutting, and with all apertures
+firmly tied up, are fastened beneath that frame. A _keleg_ of the size
+named requires about 100 skins. These are inflated by the lungs of the
+_kelegji_, through a reed inserted into one of the legs of the skin; and
+the legs also form convenient points for attachment to the frame.
+Finally a few heavy logs, usually poplar or walnut trunks sawn in half,
+are placed side by side on the frame, so as to form a rough floor, and
+the craft is complete in all essentials. In our own particular case some
+further arrangements were made for comfort. A portion of the "deck" was
+properly floored with boards, and this portion covered with a hut made
+of reed mats on a light frame, large enough to contain a bed easily, and
+to serve as living-room during the day.
+
+Such a craft is as buoyant as well can be; this one carrying six men
+with ease, beside a fair amount of luggage. Its method of progress is
+simply to drift down the fairly rapid current of the Tigris as far as is
+required. On reaching the destination, all the wood is sold for what it
+will fetch to the timber merchants, while the skins are deflated and
+packed on a donkey for transport up the river, for there is no means of
+towing the craft back against the stream. A pair of clumsy oars do what
+steering is necessary, and keep the vessel in the main current.
+
+A raft voyage is probably the most absolutely restful mode of travel
+known, if only the wanderer is in no hurry to reach his destination; and
+that of course no genuine traveller ever ought to be. You go on, never
+hasting, never halting (unless a strong wind happens to pin you to one
+bank for a while), and the river must get you to your destination at the
+last. As to dates there is a pleasing uncertainty; but we may say that
+from Mosul to Baghdad the quickest voyage ever known was two days and a
+half, and the longest fourteen.
+
+Naturally, you provision your craft for the voyage before starting,
+getting all that you desire in Mosul; and it may be noted here that for
+cooking purposes the writer has found nothing better than a "Primus"
+stove. Ports of call where you can reprovision are not numerous, but
+they do exist.
+
+For one desiring a rest-cure the method may be recommended confidently.
+You lie on your camp bed under the shade of your grass hut, watching
+the shore slide past your sleepy eyes. If the heat grows too great, your
+servant dashes water over the grass matting, and you are cool. Is fruit
+your desire? He emits a doleful howl, which is answered from the bank,
+and presently a nude cultivator turns up alongside, buoyed up on the
+inflated skin on which he has swum out, and towing a large melon from
+one of the gardens that line the river, which conveniently floats just
+awash. Is a bath desirable? You strip and slide off the edge of your
+_keleg_, taking a sheep-skin to act as buoy, or pillow if you like. You
+swim for as long as you feel inclined, or drift down while the craft
+keeps pace with you. You are in the land of the lotus eaters on a
+_keleg_ voyage--but you had better take a few books to read!
+
+Altogether the writer fully sympathizes with the feeling of a Chaldæan
+bishop, who was scandalized at discovering that a certain Dominican
+Father held himself excused from observing Lent during a voyage of this
+kind "because he was on a journey." "Why, good gracious," said his
+lordship, "he might as well claim exemption from fasting in Paradise!"
+
+It must be owned that there is not much in the way of scenery in this
+portion of the river. If you want that, you must go to the upper reaches
+of the Tigris, and travel from Diarbekr down to Mosul, threading the
+great gorges _en route_.[151] There you will get magnificence, and it
+may be excitement too; for there are rapids in the defile, and _kelegs_
+have been known to be wrecked in them. Mesopotamia does not give you
+mountains. Still, there is one stretch of fair scenery (though not a
+gorge to be compared with the canons of Tyari), where the "Jebel Makdul"
+crosses the river, and a fine stretch of dull red cliff, relieved by a
+wide streak of grey alabaster, lines the bank for some miles. Here
+stands a fine old stronghold, much resembling one of the Rhine castles,
+the "Kalat-el-Bint," or Maiden Castle. Shortly after, you pass a sulphur
+spring, which is not an uncommon thing in the land; still, it is not
+often that you find one so odoriferous as to awake the peaceful
+slumberer in mid-stream!
+
+Somewhat lower, the lesser Zab joins the Tigris, descending from a city
+that we visited at one period of our wanderings in the land, and of
+which we include a picture.
+
+This is Kirkuk, a town which contains, in its present name, one of the
+few memorials of the old Seleucid rulers. It is a contraction of "Karka
+d'Bait Seluk," the "Citadel of the house of Seleucus." As a city, it is
+far older than the kingdoms of Alexander's successors, for it stands on
+one of the largest and most ancient of "tels"; and the traveller may
+"acquire merit" by visiting the mosque where are the tombs of Shadrach
+and Abednego. Meshach, the guide will tell you, is there too, but the
+site of his grave has unfortunately been forgotten.
+
+The mosque of the picture, however, is not that of the tombs, but the
+_tekke_, or hermitage where dwelt the most famous character of modern
+Kirkuk. This was a Kurdish Sheikh of such surpassing sanctity and zeal
+for Islam, that Abdul Hamid used to correspond with him in a private
+cipher; and was accustomed to ask by telegraph for his prayers, whenever
+he was meditating anything exceptionally black.
+
+Normally, the banks of the river are high, or at least appear so in
+autumn. No doubt the river is often bank full in springtime when the
+snows are melting, and its pace is then materially faster. Generally the
+only feature on the shores are the primitive irrigating machines, the
+"_sakkiyehs_," a type that cannot have altered very much since the days
+of Abraham. They consist of nothing but pits sunk in the high bank down
+to water-level, and communicating with the stream, so that there is
+always water in them. A skin bucket is lowered into the pit and dragged
+up again by a cord passing over a pulley; and an ox walking to and fro
+on an inclined plane supplies the motive power.
+
+Two or three days below Mosul the river passes by one point of great
+interest; the mounds of Kala Shargat, once Assur, the sacred city of
+Assyria. These are now being excavated and examined thoroughly by
+German savants of the Deutsche Orientalische Gesellschaft. As seen from
+a little distance, the place has no very exciting appearance. It rather
+resembles a group of exaggerated sandhills, rising at one point into a
+blunt pyramid, the "_Ziggurat_." In spring the plain is covered with
+flowers, but all these have vanished long before autumn, and the colour
+of the whole is that of pale brown paper; the only scrap of green being
+the rather discouraged-looking garden at the side of the house occupied
+by the excavating staff.
+
+Here hospitable and kindly gentlemen receive the traveller most warmly,
+and we have the opportunity of seeing German perseverance at work on a
+most congenial task. Their method is undeniably thorough, and suggests
+unlimited resources. You have a set of mounds before you, covering
+perhaps twenty acres or more, and rising to a height of about eighty
+feet. A light railway is laid down, running well out into the desert;
+and the whole of those mounds, or something like it, goes through a fine
+sieve, and is carried off into the wilderness and dumped. When a
+pavement is reached in this process, that level is cleared absolutely,
+and everything worth preserving is preserved, with careful plans showing
+the position in which it was found. Then that pavement is broken up, and
+progress made to the next level; and so the work is continued till
+virgin soil is reached.
+
+Assur, it would seem, was a shrine long before "Assyria went out of
+Babylon and builded Nineveh." There are unmistakable signs of a Hittite
+occupation before them. It was news to the writer that this people had
+ever penetrated so far to the east and south. When the place fell into
+Assyrian hands it became their great sacred city; so that almost every
+king of whom there is record seems to have felt bound to leave there
+some mark of his reign. Even the latest of the line, Sinsariskun, who
+ruled for a few weeks only before the Medes stormed Nineveh, and who
+perished in the flames of his palace, has done some building here. Hence
+there is a series of at least seven temples on the site; though in each
+case the lines of the original foundation were faithfully followed, and
+are preserved above ground now in the Arabian "_kala_" which occupies
+the ground. This "_kala_," by the way, cost considerable trouble to the
+excavators. Occupying the site it did, it had to come down if the most
+important portion of the work was not to go undone; but it was a
+terrible business to secure that result. The wretched place figured in
+formal reports as a complete modern fortress of the highest strategical
+importance; and permission to dismantle it was only given at last on
+condition of rebuilding it afterwards, exactly as it was before. As this
+cost something under £100, an inference may be drawn as to the character
+of the "fort."
+
+The temple is of the ordinary "Semitic" type, and so follows the same
+general plan as Solomon's at Jerusalem, and the larger one at Baalbek.
+That is to say, there was an inner shrine, or _cella_, into which
+normally none could enter, and a _naos_ before it corresponding to the
+"holy place" at Jerusalem. Outside the temple was a series of
+"concentric" courts, of irregular shape, and probably varying degrees of
+sanctity, each one lower in level than the one within it. One of these
+contained the great altar for sacrifice, and the tank for ablutions. The
+altar was approached (again as at Jerusalem) by a sloping ramp and not
+by steps. "Thou shalt not go up by steps unto Mine altar"--a device
+probably meant to facilitate the leading up of the sacrificial beasts.
+The whole is of mud brick; stone, or even burnt brick being only used
+for ornament; and the tank mentioned was made watertight by a thick
+lining of asphalt, still _in situ_. If the temple has not yielded any
+such sculptures as have been found in the palaces of Nineveh and
+Khorsabad, many minor _antikas_ have come to light there; and perhaps
+the most interesting was a fine model of a flash of lightning, in gold,
+and about a metre in length. This was no doubt the _ex voto_ offering of
+some great man in old days, but no inscription was found to explain it.
+Its discovery caused great excitement in Turkish official circles,
+report having necessarily been sent by the Ottoman commissioner who is
+supposed to superintend the excavation. Stories circulated of the
+finding of a "great treasure of gold"; which was, of course, exactly
+what most people believed the Franks to have been digging for all along.
+Accordingly two regiments were dispatched to the place, one from Mosul
+and one from Baghdad, to receive the treasure and escort it duly to some
+Government headquarters. Naturally, no difficulty was made about the
+surrender; for the Germans were under pledge to put all articles that
+they found in the Museum at Constantinople, and had not the least
+intention of breaking their word. One wonders, however, by how much the
+cost of moving say, 1200 men for ten days' march, exceeded the intrinsic
+value of a thin strip of gold, about thirty-eight inches long!
+
+The temple of Assur and the king's palace there form, as is usual, a
+sort of royal quarter of the city, and stand together at one edge of the
+great mound. They look out over the plain to the "summer temple,"
+whither the images of the gods were solemnly conveyed every year, when
+the heat became too much for their comfort in their regular residence.
+This was a great portico or enclosed garden rather than a temple, and
+was apparently stone built, which is a rarity in this land.
+
+Perhaps the most striking feature of the excavations, after the great
+temple itself, is what the excavators call "the Oriental Pompeii." This
+is the old town, of date similar to the palace; and therefore going back
+to about 1000 B.C., though it was inhabited long after the fall of the
+Assyrian Empire. It is interesting to see how, in every detail of the
+planning of the houses, the arrangements common in Mosul to-day
+reproduce this early period. Perhaps the streets in the older city are
+rather better paved and drained than in the modern one, but that is
+almost the only difference. We will allow, however, that some progress
+has been made in such a matter as the disposal of the bodies of the
+dead. Good folk in Mosul are more than a little casual about this as it
+is; but they do have graveyards. Their ancestors in Assur put the dead
+under the floors of the living rooms, and often with scarce six inches
+between the top of the great pot that served as coffin and the level of
+the room. They may, as suggested, have sealed up that particular room of
+the house; yet even so----!
+
+Bidding farewell to our hospitable hosts we drifted on down stream,
+shooting in the process a few very mild rapids. The behaviour of a
+_keleg_ in such places is perhaps a little startling to a nervous
+person; though as a matter of fact its safety lies in its eccentricity.
+Being composed of nothing but a multitude of separate skins, tied onto a
+very flexible frame, it twists and wriggles and "hogs and sags" in a
+manner most bewildering to the stranger on it, though it always comes
+out well into smooth water at the end. It is however, somewhat startling
+to be awakened at night by what seems a most unusually complicated
+earthquake.
+
+Other _kelegs_ appear as we descend. Even in the present thinly
+populated state of the country, they are fairly numerous, and must have
+been far more so when the "Ten Thousand" marched up the eastern bank of
+this river. Indeed, they must have been so familiar, that it is a matter
+for surprise that the Greeks feared to make use of them, when it was a
+question of how to cross the Tigris with their baggage; particularly as
+they had at least one man in the army who was bred to their use. Still,
+they shrank from the unfamiliar, and preferred to abandon all their
+plunder and take to the hazardous passage of the mountains.
+
+Tekrit, another city of vast antiquity, was reached and passed. This was
+a place of some importance in the ecclesiastical history of the land, as
+having been a stronghold of the Jacobites against the dominant Nestorian
+Church. It also marks a change in the geography, indicated by a change
+of _kelegji_. By law of that ancient brotherhood, the river falls into
+three stretches, and each man must stick to his own portion--Diarbekr to
+Mosul, Mosul to Tekrit, or Tekrit to Baghdad. This custom does somehow
+correspond to some subtle alteration in conditions, though we cannot
+trace how or why. But the fact remains that below that point the cattle
+develop humps, which they do not affect elsewhere; and that the traffic
+on the river is conducted not only in _kelegs_, but also in _ghufas_,
+which are not to be seen higher up.
+
+A _ghufa_ is, if anything, more ancient than a _keleg_, for its type
+dates back to the flood, if not to the times before it; and the
+Babylonian "deluge tablets" seem to picture Shamashnapastim (the
+equivalent of Noah), as navigating a gigantic _ghufa_ of 140 cubits
+diameter. The craft is nothing but a wicker-work coracle of palm
+basket-work, circular in shape, but "pitched within and without with
+pitch" instead of being provided with a hide covering. In size it may be
+anything from the dimensions of a clothes' basket up to twenty or
+twenty-five feet in diameter, according to the size of the palm-spathes
+that form its ribs. It can hardly be capsized, and can carry enormous
+weights; but it is difficult to steer without practice, a novice tending
+to go round and round in a circle of small diameter.[152]
+
+_Ghufas_ are hardly seen above Samarra, which is some fourteen hours
+below Tekrit, for the source of the bitumen with which they are pitched
+is near to the lower city. Samarra is itself historic enough, though it
+only appears in Western history as the scene of the action in which
+Julian fell. As a shrine and _ziaret_ of the _Shiah_ Mussulmans,
+however, it is second in sanctity only to Kerbela itself; for it is the
+burial-place, not indeed of the two grandsons of the Prophet, but of
+many of their comrades who fell beside them on the day of the "battle of
+the ditch"; and a magnificent mosque covers their bones.
+
+To an antiquarian, however, there is something at Samarra of far greater
+interest than anything of either Roman or Mussulman history; for there
+stands the only _ziggurat_ or Babylonian temple tower that has not been
+ruined in the lapse of centuries. By some fortunate freak of fate, the
+great pyramid, with its spiral ascent to the summit, was preserved when
+worship ceased in the temple below. It went on as Zoroastrian
+fire-temple; and subsequently as minaret to the great mosque which
+Harun-l-Rashid built at its foot. That has gone now, and only a square
+of ruinous wall remains; but we owe some gratitude to the Abbassid, who
+was great enough to revere the monument of an older day.
+
+So the monument has been preserved to our own time, and stands still
+with its brick casing practically intact. It must be beyond comparison
+the oldest tower in the world, for Samarra was one of the earliest of
+Babylonian shrines.
+
+This site is, we believe, the one which the German excavators have
+decided to examine next, as soon as their work at Kala Shergat, which is
+now rapidly approaching completion, shall be finally done; and we
+understand that a preliminary survey, and perhaps a little experimental
+digging, has given them the right to hope for a harvest of most
+exceptional richness. One must trust that the proximity of the mosque
+will not hinder their work.
+
+Slowly the last stage of the journey is accomplished, for the river
+current becomes gentler as it approaches the great delta of the two
+rivers. Hereabouts the capital of the country has stood since time
+began, though it has changed its place and name again and again. Date
+groves appear on the shore in place of melon gardens; and flocks of big
+pelicans (called "water-sheep" locally) gather on the sand-banks,
+accompanied by the only type of kingfisher which is quakerishly serious
+in his garb. Both above and below, his cousins flaunt magnificent
+metallic hues; but in the reaches above Baghdad he keeps to a simple
+black and white livery. Finally, "Baghdad's walls of fretted gold" are
+seen in the distance, and the _keleg_ has to be exchanged for a _ghufa_,
+for facility of shooting the bridge of boats.
+
+Baghdad is civilization once more; a town that boasts hotels and
+European shops and costumes, besides being a railway terminus at
+present, to which trains may possibly attain in the future. Also it is a
+steamer port, being the highest point on the river to which the boats of
+Messrs. Lynch, which connect this place with Bassora and the open sea,
+are permitted to ascend.
+
+We may see trains at Baghdad in a few years, but the engineers who are
+constructing the railway keep it enveloped in mystery now, and allow no
+man to approach without an order from the Governor-General of the town.
+One assumes there is good reason for this, though it is not obvious what
+harm anyone could do by looking at the steel sleepers.
+
+Baghdad is considered thoroughly Oriental, and may appear so to the
+traveller who makes his entrance to Mesopotamia this way; but to one
+coming from the interior it has a flavour of new Turkey, semi-reformed,
+and unimproved. The big street that runs right through the town, to stop
+short at the garden wall of the British Consulate, is by way of being a
+parable of young Turkey, that started out with magnificent projects but
+without weighing the difficulties in the way, or its own powers of
+overcoming them. In this particular case, the _Vali_ of the town,
+anxious to set about his improvements, proposed to drive a road through
+the gardens of the British Residency, without with your leave or by your
+leave; regardless of the fact that the street, if desired, could be
+taken with equal ease by another route, where he would have found the
+British authorities ready to co-operate and assist. When the Consul
+protested, the road-makers were told to go on and carry out their
+orders; and only the ominous presence of a sepoy sentry on the top of
+the wall they proposed to demolish made them hold their hands. It was a
+reproduction in little of the British sentry who promenaded the _Pont de
+Jena_ at Paris when Blucher proposed to blow up that offensively named
+structure. To pull down a wall was nothing, but to knock down the sentry
+was a more formidable thing.
+
+It is melancholy, however, and suggests the presence of a malevolent
+demon, when you see high-minded men set on carrying out lofty aims in
+such a way that they must fail, and that their own best friends are
+unable either to save or to help them. That has been the bane of Turkey
+since her revolution, coupled with an invincible ignorance of the truth
+that phrases will not clean pigsties.
+
+Baghdad is the necessary starting-point for a pilgrimage to Babylon; and
+there are facilities for the expedition, in that the place lies only
+just to one side of the road to Kerbela, whither go _Shiah_ pilgrims
+every day in scores. Hence carriages are easily to be got, with relays
+of beasts on the way, and a start in the late afternoon will bring the
+traveller to Babylon in time for breakfast next day.
+
+These conveyances are rude wagonettes, provided with springs in plenty,
+and drawn by four mules or horses harnessed abreast. The seats provided
+are merely hard wooden slats, narrow and uncomfortable, and the European
+is not advised to make use of them. A long cord passed from side to side
+across the carriage, so as to make a sort of hammock on which a camp
+mattress may be placed, is far preferable, and enables one to lie at
+ease all the night through. Whether one will get much sleep is
+questionable. The road is a mere unmetalled track, and the horses go at
+a brisk hand-gallop, taking all irregularities as they come; so that the
+carriage is apt to play "cup and ball" with its contents all the way.
+However, a halt from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M. affords a welcome respite.
+
+Still if the European cannot sleep, the native is of a superior type.
+Our assistant driver passed most of the journey rolled up in a ball
+under the feet of his superior on the box. There, though apparently in
+momentary danger of tumbling off under the wheels, he snored without
+interruption, under conditions that might have kept the Fat Boy wakeful
+and alert, never stirring save at the halts, and perhaps not being
+really roused even then. It is certain that he got off, took the collars
+from one set of animals and put them on to the next; but the act seemed
+absolutely mechanical and somnambulistic, and when it was accomplished
+he rolled into his place again and snored once more.
+
+With the dawn we were making our way through a gap in that great wall
+that so struck the imagination of Herodotus, and which still runs like
+an abandoned railway embankment across the level plain. One must
+question, however, whether the great structure was really (as the
+"Father of History" tells us) built of burnt brick throughout, "laid in
+bitumen, and bonded with reeds at every thirty courses." Faced with that
+material it probably was; but it certainly has the appearance of being
+built, like most of the houses of the town, of unbaked mud.
+
+Germans as hospitable as their compatriots at Assur received us at
+Babylon, and showed what they, working on the same thorough plan as
+their comrades, have uncovered of the greatest city of the ancient
+world.
+
+Three great mounds, or sets of mounds, cover the ruins of Babylon, viz.
+Babil, Kasr (the palace mound), and Amran. It is the centre one of these
+that is now being excavated; though what has been uncovered is little
+but the foundations and basements of buildings, or in many cases nothing
+but the "matrices" from which every single burnt brick has been removed.
+The city has been used as a brick-quarry for centuries, Baghdad and
+various other towns being built almost entirely from this material; and
+it is a rather melancholy reflection that, when the Germans have
+finished their work, it is most probable that every brick they have
+uncovered will follow the others in the course of a few years. No matter
+how deep they bury them, they will be dug up, for good burnt building
+material commands its price in a city like Baghdad. One must get what
+consolation one can from the fact that at least good and accurate plans
+of the whole will be available.
+
+All the buildings of the central mound are uncovered now, presenting to
+the casual visitor the appearance of a mere bewildering maze of
+brickwork, in which it is very easy to get lost, though all is clear
+enough to the expert eyes of the guide. Practically all that has been
+found is of the date of Nebuchadnezzar; for only one building above
+ground is the work of his father, Nabopolassar, and the most systematic
+borings have found nothing below.
+
+At first sight it is strange that a city which was ancient in the days
+of Abraham should have no monuments older than those of a man who came
+very late in her history, and was in fact a sort of Louis XIV of
+Chaldaea; but there is an historical explanation of the fact. Babylon
+was utterly destroyed by Sennacherib of Assyria at about the time Rome
+was in building, it being the intention of that ruler that no man should
+dwell there more. This was his punishment for the series of
+rebellions against his authority, stirred up by that Merodach Baladan of
+Chaldaea, whose ambassadors make one transitory appearance in the Book
+of Kings. The awe which the whole world felt at this destruction of the
+most ancient and venerable of cities is reflected in the words of
+Isaiah: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her
+gods He hath broken unto the ground."
+
+[Illustration: CHAL.
+
+The home of the chartered brigand mentioned on p. 317. A deep gorge is
+interposed immediately beyond the village; and beyond the further hills
+lie the valleys of Lower Tkhuma and Salabekan.]
+
+Of course the king could not attain his end. Men simply would not
+abandon the "Gate of the Gods," the Mother of civilization and culture
+for four thousand years; and Esarhaddon, the successor of Sennacherib,
+had to give permission for the rebuilding. Still, nothing very
+magnificent was attempted, and thus, when Chaldaea rose to empire under
+Nebuchadnezzar, there was nothing ancient and venerable in her capital.
+The King had a _tabula rasa_ for his great building schemes.
+
+And what schemes these were! Really one cannot refuse sympathy to the
+words of pride recorded by the Prophet, when one sees even the ruins in
+their present state. "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?"
+Scarce a brick is found that does not bear his name. Rome's _Via Sacra_
+at its grandest can hardly have rivalled Babylon's Processional Way--a
+road eighty feet wide from kerb to kerb, exclusive of the twenty foot
+pathways on either side; and this paved throughout with slabs of
+alabaster, a yard square and half a yard in thickness, bedded on layer
+after layer of brick laid in bitumen. And the setting of the road was in
+keeping. It was lined from end to end with sculptured bulls and
+griffins, and the great gate of Ishtar spans it midway in its length. It
+runs from the grand temple of Merodach in the south, out to the mount of
+Babil in the north; forming, as it were, the spinal cord of the whole
+city, and passing just under the walls of the royal Palace.
+
+Here the bulk of what has been uncovered consists of suite after suite
+of small rooms, usually in sets of four or six, and probably forming the
+apartments of the multitudinous Court officials. Also, there are long
+ranges of vaulted cellars and store-rooms; where in some cases the
+arches of the roof and door-way have survived for a testimony that the
+Chaldaeans were well acquainted with the principle of the vault. The
+great feature of the Palace, however, is the Hall of Audience--the
+scene, in all probability, of Belshazzar's feast--which happens to be
+the only part where the walls stand up above the original ground level.
+This is a grand hall indeed, measuring 200 feet by 80, and therefore as
+large as the nave of many a cathedral; and one can still trace opposite
+the doorway the apse that was the site of the throne. It is surprising
+to find that Chaldaean builders dared throw a vault across such a space
+as this; yet the total absence of the bases of any internal columns
+(such as would be needed to support a timber roof), unites with the
+extraordinary thickness of the side wall to convince the German
+excavators that such was actually the case. A "wagon vault" of such a
+span would be no mean feat even now; though the Sassanid builders did
+not fear it, as may be seen in the still existing "Arch of Chosroës" on
+the site of ancient Ctesiphon. This great vault, shown in our
+illustration, may still be seen standing near Baghdad, and was in all
+probability a replica of Nebuchadnezzar's hall.
+
+To the north of the Palace was the deep dry moat which bounded both the
+city and the royal quarter; and which the Processional Way crossed, most
+probably by a bridge, though of this no evidence remains. The German
+excavators consider that this moat, or at all events some part of it,
+was the "den of lions" of the King of Babylon. There is evidence in
+parallel instances that such was the case elsewhere.
+
+Of course the great temples of Bel-Merodach, Ishtar, and other gods,
+form a feature of the city, and have been most carefully excavated. They
+were constructed on a plan that seems strange to the Western; for they
+have no precinct, or have lost what they had, and the houses of the
+poorest quarter of the town actually abutted on the walls of the holiest
+of them.
+
+Herodotus speaks of "courts two stadia square," but one cannot reconcile
+this with the facts. In design they seem to have followed the local
+type of house; for they consist of a series of comparatively small
+chambers, built round a small court. The shrine (which has usually an
+"ante-shrine" before it) is no more than an inner chamber at one end of
+this court; and has usually a secret passage behind it, communicating
+with the chambers where the priests lodged, and which it is difficult to
+believe was not intended for the production of "miraculous" oracles.
+Strangest of all perhaps is it to find that, while fine material like
+burnt brick, enamel, alabaster and hewn stone, is lavished on the
+palaces and secular buildings of the city, the temples of the gods are
+without exception built of plain sun-dried mud brick.
+
+[Illustration: TEMPLE OF ISHTAR BABYLON]
+
+This extends even to the altars, which stand on a small pavement just
+without the main doorways, and practically in the street. There is no
+stone anywhere in any of the buildings, save the blocks on which the
+great doors revolved, which were buried out of sight.[153]
+
+There must have been a reason for this choice, and economy can be ruled
+out of court without hesitation. Perhaps it is most probable that
+religious conservatism was the real motive. Men had built their temples,
+like their houses, of unburnt brick for centuries before they learned
+the art of burning it; and when that art had been acquired, the old
+material was still regarded as the proper one for the sacred purpose,
+and preserved accordingly. In like fashion the Jewish altar was for
+centuries composed of unhewn blocks of stone in a brazen frame, because
+the original altars of their patriarchs were unhewn of necessity. As a
+matter of fact, the very rudeness of the material of these temples has
+saved them from destruction when other buildings have perished. It was
+worth nobody's while to transport unbaked brick anywhere, and in
+consequence, now that the dêbris has been removed, the temple walls
+stand up to a far greater height than do those of the palace. One fears,
+however, that this cannot continue, for of course mud needs to be
+sheltered from rain-drip if it is to last; though if that condition be
+secured it is one of the most durable forms of building.
+
+These temples can hardly have been beautiful monuments. Impressive they
+doubtless were, for size and proportion together can hardly fail in
+securing that; but impressive in the fashion of an older world. Built
+just when Greece was feeling her way to the matchless grace of the
+Parthenon, they stood like the elephant among beasts--the memorial of an
+earlier age of evolution, but a sight of awe and wonder to the younger
+races of men.
+
+It is interesting, too, to find that even that younger civilization has
+its monument here among the tombs of the old. Babylon fell before the
+Persian, and her glory passed away. But when the Persian fell before the
+Greek Alexander, that last of the great kings of the East showed himself
+the first of modern rulers also, in that he had dreams of uniting
+ancient East and modern West in one great empire. It was a dream that
+passed with the dreamer; though it has been revived time and again
+since, and noble men will spend and be spent for it even now. Alexander
+had ideas of transplanting the finest flower of Greek culture to his
+new capital in the East--for such he intended Babylon to be. The dramas
+of Æschylus and Sophocles should be performed in ancient and restored
+Babylon; and with that object he ordered the construction of a Greek
+theatre of the best pattern of his day, in the mud brick of Babil.
+Strange parable of his great dreams, and strange exotic too, it stands
+to this day in the suburbs of Babylon; a memorial to all time of that
+first effort of the West to educate and assimilate the East--that East
+which it found so easy to overrun and so impossible to understand.
+
+So "Babylon, the glory of nations, the beauty of the Chaldees'
+excellency," stands now uncovered for an hour, though a short time will
+see her hidden once more, and perhaps finally removed to form the
+material for modern houses.
+
+Meantime, what of the land itself, which was the garden of the earth
+once, and is little but a mixture of swamp and desert now? The waters
+that men taught to make the land fruitful have been only its destruction
+when they were left uncontrolled. Will the great scheme that an English
+engineer has put forward make the land a garden once more? It can, of
+course--on the condition that it is properly managed. For nothing can
+take away the marvellous fertility of the soil; and there will be water
+for irrigation as long as the snow falls on Hakkiari and Ararat to feed
+the Tigris and the Euphrates.
+
+If the work is managed, when finished, by the men who designed and
+executed it, it will do as much for the delta of Mesopotamia as the
+"Barrage" of the Nile has done for its delta, or the dam of Assouan for
+upper Egypt. But the Barrage, when built, stood absolutely useless for
+decades, because those who ruled the country would not trust the
+builders to administer their own work, fearing the power that such a
+position would give them in the land that they were saving. Will those
+men of the same stock who rule in Mesopotamia submit to govern by
+foreign advice, and so save the country? Or will they say (as they have
+always thought hitherto), "We cannot save our rule by compliance. Let
+the land go to ruin, and the people too. At least it is ours, and we
+will rule it to the end."
+
+One who knew the Ottoman better than most has said, "If you want to know
+what a Turk will do under any circumstances, think first what you would
+do yourself; then what he ought to do; then what it is his obvious
+interest to do. After that, you can rule out all those alternatives with
+complete confidence; and that will at least narrow down the field of
+possible choice."
+
+Still, we must hope for the best. May it be an omen that the date-palm
+(Babylon's ancient and beautiful emblem of fertility and life) is now
+springing up anew in every trench of the excavations at Babil--sown
+there by the stones of the dates served out as rations to the native
+staff of labourers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+OUR SMALLEST ALLY
+
+
+Nine years have elapsed since the last chapter was written, and the hope
+with which it ends has been most tragically deferred. Nearer Asia has
+been swept by another of those great cataclysms with which its past
+history has rendered it but too familiar--in this case a back-wash only
+of a yet more worldwide catastrophe, but scarcely less devastating than
+the ravages of Genghis or Timour. Of those mentioned by name in our
+earlier chapters a large proportion have perished. Nay, whole
+communities and nations have been almost completely erased. And some
+brief epilogue is needed to tell of the fate that has befallen them, and
+to arouse some new interest among Englishmen in the future of those
+battered remnants whom their Treaties still pledge them to protect.
+
+The most prominent place in our previous narrative has been given to the
+Assyrian Christians, and especially to the Ashiret mountaineers of
+Hakkiari, who formed the most virile and independent section of that
+tiny nation and Church. And it is but fitting that we should again give
+them precedence in the "Footnote to the History of the Great War" which
+we are now contributing; since, in this obscure corner of the stage upon
+which that portentous drama was enacted, they played perhaps the most
+prominent and assuredly the worthiest part.
+
+The first news of the outbreak of war was brought to Mar Shimun at
+Qudshanis. He had just returned thither from Van, where he had been
+discussing Governmental business with the Vali. The discussions had been
+most amicable; and he had brought back with him a whole crop of promises
+for the redress of grievances--promises which he had accepted with
+becoming gratitude, but at the recognised rate of discount, having had
+ripe experience of the value at which they were apt to be redeemed. And
+he was far from feeling reassured by the startling tidings that now
+reached him; for all knew the sort of justice that the Ottoman reserved
+for his helots whenever the eyes of Europe might chance to be diverted
+elsewhere.
+
+He soon saw an earnest of his misgivings in the sacking of isolated
+Armenian villages, and in renewed outbreaks of the feuds which were
+perpetually simmering on the Persian border between the Begzade Kurds
+and the Assyrians of Mergawar and Tergawar. A general massacre of all
+Christians began to be openly talked about; and when (in November) the
+expected happened, and Turkey entered the lists as a combatant, that
+event was signalised by the pillaging of all the Christian villages near
+Bashkala with the practically open approval of the local Ottoman
+authority.
+
+The first open fighting, however, occurred in neutral Persia--a country
+which should (theoretically) have been out of bounds to both sides. But
+Urmi, though nominally Persian, had for years been practically
+administered by the resident Russian "consul," and the Turks were not
+altogether unjustified in electing to regard it as enemy territory. A
+mixed force of Turks and Kurds swept down from the mountains upon Urmi,
+massacring the wretched Armenians, and driving before them the
+struggling Assyrians from the villages of Mergawar and Tergawar. They
+felt so confident of victory that, when within a mile or two of the
+city, they flung away the reserves of bread that they had brought with
+them, relying on the promise of their leaders that next day they would
+be sacking the bazaars. And, verily, it looked as if they would be; for
+Urmi is only defended by a ruinous mud wall, and its sole effective
+garrison (apart from the Assyrian auxiliaries) was the Russian consular
+guard. But it was now discovered that the consul had also in reserve a
+considerable stock of arms and ammunition, and with these the clansmen
+were rearmed. An opportune Russian reinforcement arrived in the nick of
+time from Tabriz, and the great assault on the morrow was decisively and
+bloodily repulsed. The invaders recoiled to the mountains, where their
+ill-disciplined Kurdish levies dispersed; and soon another defeat of a
+second Kurdish force near Suj Bulak rendered the position at Urmi, at
+all events, temporarily secure.
+
+But the Russian commanders were uneasy. Enver Pasha's invasion of
+Transcaucasia was by now beginning to make headway, and the Russians
+were recalling their detachments in Azerbaijan to meet the threat to
+Batum. They told the American missionaries that the utmost they could
+promise them was not to withdraw without full notice; and even this
+guarded promise proved illusory, for the very next morning brought them
+imperative orders from headquarters directing immediate evacuation. The
+whole Russian force marched off instantly--and in their train some
+10,000 of the Christian population of Urmi, taking with them such scanty
+provision as they were able at the moment to collect. They saved their
+bare lives by their flight, and eventually the greater part of them
+found a miserable asylum at Tiflis; but the hardships of their journey,
+and of their prolonged exile, exacted a terrible toll.
+
+The fate of those who remained proved that the fugitives' forebodings
+had been well grounded. Urmi was abandoned once more to the wretched
+misrule of the Persians; and the man who obtained chief authority was
+that same Mejid es Sultaneh of whom we have already spoken on page 215.
+In those days he had been generally regarded as one of the most
+enlightened and free-thinking of the Persian nobility. His reforming
+tendencies had earned him disgrace and exile; and it had been to the
+generosity of sympathetic English merchants that he had owed the
+preservation of his forfeited estates. But apparently the only lesson
+that he had been capable of learning from adversity was the wisdom of
+truckling to iniquity, and he now reappeared as a pan-Islamic fanatic of
+the most virulent and reactionary type.
+
+The Persian magnates were as much averse to Turkish domination as to
+Russian, and might have been expected to evince some gratitude to their
+Christian neighbours for the prominent share they had taken in repelling
+the recent assault. But apparently they argued in their own minds that
+the very presence of the Christians had in some sort invited the
+invasion; that anyway they had helped the hated Russians, and that a
+general persecution of them would be the best way of conciliating the
+Turks.
+
+So some hundreds of these poor wretches were massacred during the
+winter--driven out in batches of 50 or 60 to one or other of the
+neighbouring villages, and there mercilessly put to death. Among them
+were a batch of 70 from the Christian villages of Gawar, who had been
+impressed to act as porters by the Turks in the recent invasion and had
+given their captors the slip when the invading army took to flight.
+These were marched back towards Gawar and handed over to the
+Kurds--possibly the very men who had impressed them--by whom they were
+all knifed or clubbed to death.
+
+In these massacres perished Mar Dinkha,[154] the Bishop of Mergawar; and
+we, who have laughed at his oddities must not omit to pay our tribute to
+the heroism of the old man's martyrdom. Utterly crippled by his
+injuries, he spent his last hours in prison crawling to and fro to
+comfort his fellow-sufferers--his last moments in bestowing absolution
+upon them as each in turn preceded him to death.
+
+It should be noted by our phil-Islamites that, in nearly every instance,
+all these victims were offered their lives on the sole condition of
+apostasy. With Islam (when free to express itself) it is still "the
+Koran or the sword."
+
+Mercifully the return of spring brought a respite from this reign of
+terror. Enver's invasion of Transcaucasia had been utterly crushed at
+Sara Hamish. The Russian outposts spread south again, and Urmi was
+reoccupied once more.
+
+With the Assyrian tribesmen in the mountains the crisis had not
+developed so rapidly. The Turks themselves were anxious to defer it.
+Indeed, there is no valid reason to doubt that they would have liked to
+evade it altogether. This knot of hardy mountaineers ensconced in their
+rocky fastnesses were far more difficult to eradicate than ten times
+their number of Armenians--poor, spiritless hucksters and husbandmen
+dispersed in open villages and towns. There was little spoil to be won
+from them--many more hard knocks than ha'pence--and the force that would
+be needed to subdue them was wanted rather urgently elsewhere. Moreover,
+if they could only be cajoled into complacency they might prove quite a
+useful asset later as independent witnesses to character. The Armenian
+massacres were now really beginning, and the Turks were inflexibly
+resolved to persist in them to the uttermost. There could come no
+protests from Europe, but perhaps from America there might--and the
+presence of American missionaries in the country rendered it impossible
+for the facts to be altogether hid. It would be but prudent accordingly
+to prepare a line of apology, and to invest with some faint plausibility
+the plea that this monstrous holocaust had been "exaggerated," and that
+such "repressive measures" as had been adopted were really no more than
+were necessary to quell an incipient revolt. Such a plea might gain
+valuable corroboration from the fact that another Christian _millet_,
+living in the same provinces and under the same conditions as the
+Armenians, had nevertheless continued loyal to their suzerains, and had
+seen in the Turks' proceedings no cause of apprehension for themselves.
+On military grounds also the mountaineers were worth conciliating; for,
+if Turkish Armenia were invaded, this little garrison on their flank
+might sensibly hamper the defenders.
+
+Thus, quite high bids were made for what the Turks called Assyrian
+loyalty, and what the Assyrians (clinging fondly to their traditional
+but shadowy independence) preferred to style alliance. Their Patriarch,
+their bishops, and their chiefs were all to be salaried. They were to be
+armed. They were to be allowed absolute freedom for education. And many
+of the Assyrian leaders felt certainly much tempted to clinch the
+bargain, and to adopt what (on the face of things) seemed manifestly the
+safer course.
+
+But the very magnitude of these Greek gifts aroused the distrust of the
+majority. They knew well that Turkish promises were apt to prove so
+much "hot air." The arms and salaries were things that could never be
+expected to materialise. They doubted even the immunity which all these
+lavish promises implied. _Jehad_ had been proclaimed, and they were
+Christians in a Moslem country. Could the Turks guarantee them from the
+attacks of their turbulent Kurdish neighbours--attacks from which they
+had never been wholly exempt even in their most tranquil periods, and to
+which the proclamation of _Jehad_ would now give sanction and cohesion?
+Could they even rest assured that the Turks themselves would not attack
+them as soon as their hands were freed from the embarrassments which now
+beset them? They saw the fate that had overtaken their co-religionists,
+the Armenians and Jacobites; the fate that had befallen their own
+fellow-tribesmen in the outlying districts to the East. Every night
+brought their Patriarch news (for now none dared travel by day) of some
+fresh massacre perpetrated in some of their isolated villages. One night
+came five successive messengers from five different villages; and all
+closed their tidings with the same refrain, "I only am escaped to tell."
+Would it not be better to trust to their own right arms? To the chance
+of help from Russia, to the fainter chance of help from England? These
+nations had always befriended them, and with them their real sympathies
+lay.
+
+Yet the peril was great and obvious. They were in the very jaws of the
+wolf, and who could blame them if they elected to play for safety? They
+could rest assured at all events that England and Russia would not. They
+might argue, with their Yezidi neighbours (and with a good many other
+more enlightened folk in less remote districts than Sheikh Adi) that it
+was safer to offend a good God, who might forgive, than a malignant
+Devil who assuredly would not.
+
+Meanwhile the war was still distant, and no final choice was forced on
+them. Through the winter the nation wavered. But it was significant that
+the Patriarch quitted Qudshanis (which lay on the outskirts of his
+territory, and close to the Turkish garrison at Julamerk), and withdrew
+across the Zab into the rugged mountain fastnesses of Diz. This seemed
+to portend rejection of the Turkish overtures, yet in truth under what
+other conditions could he continue to negotiate with a Government which
+had just inaugurated the Armenian massacres by treacherously kidnapping
+and assassinating their chiefs?
+
+Then, in the spring of 1915, the war took a turn in Russia's favour. The
+Turkish invasion of Transcaucasia was defeated, and the Russian invasion
+of Turkish Armenia began. A Russian army reached Van and relieved the
+Armenians beleaguered there; and a detachment thrust forward to Bashkala
+sent a formal invitation to the Assyrians to throw in their lot with the
+Allies. The invitation was boldly accepted; and the point that seems
+definitely to have turned the scale in favour of acceptance was the
+religious character that had been given to the war by the Turkish
+proclamation of _Jehad_. The Assyrians felt that they were now called to
+play their part on the side of Humanity and Christendom; and as soon as
+the call came definitely they braved all the risks that it involved.
+
+But no doubt it is too much to assert that they were guided entirely by
+this higher motive. They were (as our previous chapters have indicated)
+a nation of fighters with a healthy, carnal appetite for what is
+vulgarly called "a jolly row." And they were probably swayed in the same
+direction by the fact that all their neighbours with whom they had
+long-standing and (in the main) very just causes of quarrel, were ranged
+on the contrary side. The war-song of _Shamasha_ Ephraim was soon in all
+men's mouths in the mountain villages, and some of its spirited lines
+deserve quoting as evincing the ardour with which they entered the war:
+
+    Brothers, up and arm you; 'tis the Turk assails you;
+    Lo, the day is dawning when we march to meet the foe!
+    Quit your flocks and cornfields, grip your trusty rifles,
+    Forth we go to battle in the name of Mar Shimun.
+
+    Stand by one another, clansmen of the nation,
+    Tkhuma by Tyari, and let Baz by Jilu stand.
+    Like a band of brothers, hearts and hands united,
+    Forth we go to battle in the name of Mar Shimun.
+
+    David is our leader, valiant in the combat,
+    He is captain over us to lead us forth to war.
+    Danger shall not daunt us, fear shall flee before us,
+    Forth we go to battle in the name of Mar Shimun.
+
+    Young men of the nation, tribes renowned in story,
+    Mighty men in battle were our fathers' kings of old.
+    Raging through the valleys, storming o'er the mountains,
+    Forth we go to battle in the name of Mar Shimun.
+
+    Nineveh the holy[155] beckons back her children;
+    Know ye not her ancient walls shall be the victor's crown?
+    There alone, Assyrians, shall our race be stablished,
+    Forth we go to battle in the name of Mar Shimun.
+
+Their valour was soon to be tested for scarcely had they committed
+themselves, when the Russians withdrew again northward and left them to
+fight it out alone. A formidable accumulation of enemies was promptly
+mustered against them, and within five weeks of their decision the
+Assyrians were battling for their lives. Mira Reshid[156] the tyrant of
+Berwar, led the confederated Kurds from the westward against Lizan and
+Lower Tyari and with him marched a strong contingent of regular troops
+from Mosul with batteries of mountain guns. Chumba and Upper Tyari were
+attacked by the Artosh Kurds and the regular troops from Julamerk. The
+Agha of Chal[157] brought his forces against Salabekan and Tkhuma; and
+Sutu Agha of Oramar assailed Jilu and Baz. The Christians were
+outnumbered on all sides and were much worse equipped than their
+enemies; for except for a small supply of rifles and ammunition which
+they had obtained from the Russians their arms were all sadly obsolete.
+
+And yet the general result of this great combined attack was failure.
+Qudshanis was pillaged and burned and the Valley of Lizan was occupied.
+So also were the villages in the Sapna and Berwar valleys; but these
+were all open and isolated, and had never been regarded as tenable. The
+attacks on Jilu, Chumba and Salabekan were all three heavily repulsed.
+Thus, after a week's hard fighting the Assyrians had lost only the
+outskirts of their territory on the right (or western) bank of the Zab,
+and had kept all their key fastnesses (on the eastern side of it)
+intact. It was only the first round certainly, but the Turks had been
+foiled for a season; and it was hoped that the Russian operations in
+Armenia might eventually bring them relief.
+
+[Illustration: THE MOUNTAINS OF DIZ AND TAL, FROM THE PASS ABOVE
+QUDSHANIS
+
+Looking across the Zab Gorge, which at this point is about 3,000 feet
+deep]
+
+Then followed a deed as brutal and dastardly as it was
+characteristically Turkish. Hormizd, Mar Shimun's eldest brother, a
+young man of three-and-twenty, had been at Constantinople for his
+education--at the Turkish Government's own invitation--for a period of
+over two years. As soon as Turkey entered the war, he had been arrested
+and placed in confinement, and obviously could have had no personal
+responsibility for any of the events that had occurred subsequently. He
+was now sent under guard to Mosul to be used for the foulest of
+blackmail.
+
+The Vali of that city was no longer worthy old Tahir.[158] With the good
+luck that had generally attended him, and which he had generally
+merited, he had been gathered to his fathers little more than a
+twelve-month before. His successor, Haidar Beg, was a ruffian--a fit
+tool for higher placed ruffians--and this man now sent Mar Shimun the
+message: "Your brother is in my hands, and unless you surrender he
+dies."
+
+The brothers were almost of an age. They had been bound together from
+infancy by ties of the closest affection. It is vain to hope that any
+words of ours can succeed in conveying to our readers the poignancy of
+the trial to which Mar Shimun now found himself subjected. But his
+choice was the choice of Guzman the Good. "My people are in my charge,
+and they are many," he answered; "how can I betray them for the sake of
+one, though that one be my brother?" And, on the receipt of this answer,
+Hormizd was put to death.
+
+[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO AMADIA.
+
+No. 16]
+
+Mar Shimun had made two attempts to obtain further succour from the
+Russians during the five or six weeks' respite which succeeded the first
+attacks. And on the second occasion some reinforcement appears to have
+been sent, but it is not quite known at what period, while it is
+certain that it never arrived. For some years previous to the war common
+rumour had persistently credited the Russians with having secretly
+sapped the allegiance of many prominent chiefs among the Kurds; and as
+soon as war broke out it had been confidently expected that these men
+would turn against Turkey. How far this rumour was justified is perhaps
+known positively to no one; but it is certain that, while hopes of
+plunder and butchery lasted, the Kurds all sided with the Turks. Perhaps
+the Russians may have had some cause to think that the more prosperous
+aspect of their affairs in Asia Minor might now be prompting these
+double traitors to think better of their first bargain. Anyway a party
+of some 400 Cossacks was about this time pushed up from Urmi into
+Oramar. Sutu Agha received them most graciously, and sent two of his own
+sons with them to guide them on their further journey. But secretly he
+betrayed them into an ambush which he had prepared with the assistance
+of the Kurds of Shemsdinan, and in the deep Balanda gorge they were
+exterminated to the last man.
+
+The second assault on the Assyrians was delivered in the middle of
+August; and this time the assailants had the formidable assistance of
+the Kurds of Barzan, who lay to the south of Tkhuma, and formed the
+connecting link between the co-ordinated assaults from Oramar on the
+east and from Berwar on the west. Our friend Sheikh Abdul Selim[159] was
+unhappily no longer their leader. The Government had always looked with
+a jealous eye on the tolerant "Sheikh of the Christians," and a few
+months earlier he had been enticed down to Mosul by the Vali Haidar Beg,
+and there secretly put to death.
+
+It is doubtful perhaps whether, had he still been in power, he would
+have been able to resist the pressure put upon him by the _Hukumet_ (and
+by his own tribesmen) to play his part in an official _Jehad_. After all
+he was a Moslem, and a Turkish vassal, and a consistent contemner of
+Russians, so wherefore should he stand aside? But he might have proved a
+chivalrous, albeit a formidable, enemy, and his influence might have
+alleviated some of the vindictiveness of the campaign.
+
+For this second assault was successful. It was from the southern side
+that the Christian valleys were most assailable; and Tkhuma, Baz, Jilu,
+and Tyari were ravaged from end to end. The churches and houses were
+burned, the fields wasted, the trees cut down, the irrigation channels
+demolished; and the valleys were thus rendered practically uninhabitable
+for years.
+
+It was in this devastation that the famous church of Mar Zeia in
+Jilu[160] was plundered for the first time in its history--maugre that
+notable talisman that had always preserved it previously, the Charter of
+Protection granted to it (as believed) by Mohammed himself. But its fate
+was not quite unavenged. A fierce young Kurdish chieftain, the eldest
+son of Simco Agha of the Shekak Kurds, was the leader of the spoilers;
+and he (like Fanatic Brooke) had boasted that he would not rest till he
+had seen the ruin of every Christian church in the land. As he now stood
+at the door, watching the destruction of that wonderful and weird
+collection of age-old votive offerings, a bullet fired at extreme range
+took him in the head, and he dropped dead on the desecrated threshold.
+
+But though beaten out of their valleys, the Assyrians were not yet done
+with. They now took refuge on their _Yailas_--the upland pastures on the
+laps of the mountains, 10,000 feet above sea-level--whither they had
+always been accustomed to drive their flocks and herds in summer, and
+where a considerable part of the nation used generally to remain
+encamped as long as the cattle were there. It was summer still, and the
+cattle had been driven there as usual: the _Yailas_ were, therefore,
+already well provisioned, and there is always water from the melting
+snows.
+
+These strongholds are only approachable by a few precipitous pathways,
+and the Kurdish attempts to penetrate to them were everywhere easily
+repulsed. Raiding parties of Assyrians were even able to sally down from
+them into the valleys, and carry back small supplies of corn from the
+hidden granaries in the villages. Lack of salt was the chief privation
+that the bulk of the people suffered during their sojourn here, but salt
+is wellnigh a necessity to an Oriental; and their Patriarch, who (as a
+_Rabban_) was prohibited by his vows from eating flesh meat, was obliged
+to live almost entirely upon milk and parched corn.
+
+But if the _Yailas_ were impregnable, there was yet one fatal defect in
+them. It is absolutely and utterly impossible for any creature to live
+there in winter. Autumn was already beginning; and, at these lofty
+altitudes, the first snows may fall as early as October. The Assyrians
+were virtually "treed" (to use an expressive Americanism); and their
+enemies, as fully conscious of the defect in their position as they
+were, were content to form a leaguer round them, and wait till they
+should come down to be killed.
+
+In this almost hopeless position, Mar Shimun determined on making one
+final appeal to the Russians. Accompanied by one of his principal chiefs
+(the _Malik_ Khoshaba of Lizan) and by two other companions, he quitted
+the _Yaila_ of Shina[161] at the head of the Tal and Tkhuma gorges to
+make his way across the mountains and down to Urmi Plain. The whole
+intervening country was thickly beset with enemies; but, travelling
+mostly by night and with experienced guides, the little party succeeded
+in accomplishing their daring journey, and reached the Russian outposts
+near Salmas.
+
+But only to meet disappointment. The local Russian commanders professed
+themselves utterly unable to render the least assistance, and could only
+offer the Patriarch the abjectly despairing counsel that, now he himself
+had escaped, he had better remain in safety, and not sacrifice his life
+uselessly by a vain attempt to return. Mar Shimun indignantly refused to
+rest even one night in safety, and turned back at once to the mountains
+to share his people's doom.
+
+The outlook was now truly terrible, but the Assyrians were determined
+not to perish without one more struggle. They would attempt to break
+the leaguer and force their way down to Urmi Plain. Even for an
+uncumbered army this could hardly be thought a promising enterprise; and
+the tribesmen were but ill-armed and poorly disciplined. Moreover, they
+must endeavour to carry off with them their non-combatants--women and
+children. They would number in all about 25,000 persons, and flocks and
+herds besides. Their route, as all know who have travelled there, lay
+through one of the most rugged and most difficult of the mountain
+districts in Asia; and the paths are seldom wide enough for two men to
+walk on them abreast. It was a desperate expedient, but to stay was
+certain death. Surrender meant massacre, for there was no mercy either
+in Turk or Kurd; and if the worst came to the worst, it was better to
+die fighting. Moreover, they had leaders who knew how to make the most
+even of the slenderest chances; and the plan which they resolved to
+attempt was marked by all the hardihood and ingenuity of desperation.
+
+The bulk of their foes lay to the eastward, blocking all the direct
+tracks to Urmi, and drawing their sustenance from the fertile fields of
+Gawar, where Nuri Beg had just completed a peculiarly atrocious massacre
+of the unarmed Christians of the plain. Therefore they would break out
+westward, where no one would dream of expecting them. They would march
+in two bands, lest their line should be strung out unwieldily--and
+perhaps with a tacit prevision like that of the patriarch Jacob, that if
+one band was caught and overwhelmed the other might have chances of
+escape. They would cross the Zab by the flimsy wooden bridges near the
+mouths of the lateral valleys of Diz and Tal.[162] Then, making a wide
+circuit northward, they would reunite on the further side of Julamerk,
+whence one more long day's march would bring them to Albaq (near
+Bashkala) and the pass that led to Salmas Plain.
+
+And, in the face of all military probability, this daring plan actually
+succeeded. If the Assyrians were but poorly disciplined, the Kurds who
+beleaguered them were no better.
+
+[Illustration: A BIT OF THE ROAD BETWEEN TAL AND JULAMERK
+
+These built-up sections, or "_Stangi_," are a feature of the mountain
+paths]
+
+The pursuers who should have pressed on their tracks, as soon as they
+found that the _Yailas_ had been evacuated, stayed behind to quarrel
+over the division of such sheep as had been abandoned; and the isolated
+detachments that strove to check their progress were surprised by their
+sudden sally and easily brushed aside.
+
+The Patriarch marched with the Tal column, and his march was marked by
+an incident as moving as it is picturesque. His route led him over a
+lofty mountain col near Julamerk,[163] whence for the last time he was
+able to look down upon the little green "alp" that marked the site of
+his own village of Qudshanis; and, as he paused to gaze, one natural
+sigh escaped him: "When shall I ever drink the waters of Qudshanis
+again?" The words were caught by as attentive ears as those of the three
+mighty men who followed the son of Jesse. Without a word to their
+chieftain a small party of devoted warriors broke away from the line of
+march, burst through the Kurdish picket that attempted to bar the path
+against them, and brought back to their beloved Patriarch a pitcher of
+water from the Qudshanis spring.
+
+The columns from Tal and Diz joined hands again at Kotranis, and the
+reunited nation reached Albaq according to plan. Here they had one last
+struggle; for a body of Kurds from Gawar had crossed the Zab by one of
+the higher bridges and cut into their path ahead of them. But the pass
+was carried triumphantly by a detachment under Khoshaba of Lizan; and
+the Assyrians, saved by their own exertions, poured at last into Salmas
+Plain.
+
+It was not a beaten host that arrived--or, at all events, no more beaten
+than that untamable Serbian army which, just at this very same period,
+was being driven from its own country by the combined Austrians and
+Bulgars. They had held their own against great odds as long as
+resistance was possible; and, when forced to retreat under appalling
+difficulties, they had brought away with them not only their women and
+children, but a large proportion of their flocks and herds as well.
+They had indeed suffered heavy losses in the fighting and many women and
+children had succumbed to the hardships of the retreat. But their spirit
+was still unbroken, as they were yet destined amply to prove.
+
+Their irruption over the border of Persia introduced an additional
+complication into a medley of anomalies which was already quite
+complicated enough. Persia was nominally neutral, but too weak to
+enforce her neutrality; and both combatants were still professedly
+respecting a neutrality which their every act ignored.
+
+Azerbaijan is an appanage of the _Vali Ahd_ (the Persian heir-apparent).
+The Governor of Urmi is consequently his nominee, and the Governor's
+Advisory Council are the Moslem notables of the place. But the infamous
+régime which these gentry had established during the previous winter had
+been promptly suppressed by the Russians as soon as they returned in the
+spring. The Governor still held his post--was he not still (nominally)
+Governor? But the only orders he was allowed to issue were those that
+were put into his mouth by the Russian "consul." And, if the Russian
+consul chose to take previous council with anyone, he consulted not the
+Moslem notables, but the despised local Christians, who possessed no
+_locus standi_ in the eyes of the Government at all. How intolerable
+this position must have seemed to a city full of fanatical Moslems will
+be appreciated by those who know the overbearing arrogance with which
+fanatical Moslems are accustomed to treat any Christian helots who may
+be subject to them, and the amount of swagger which an Oriental menial
+is apt to assume to celebrate his emancipation. But, grin as they might
+in secret, they did not dare do so openly in the presence of Russian
+soldiery; and, indeed, though he may be a bully, the Persian is
+generally a coward.
+
+And now to complete their afflictions came this horde of ruffians from
+the mountains--men whom they despised, not merely as Christians, but as
+savages yet of whose physical prowess they were all mortally afraid; men
+who had lost their all, and who (so at least Urmi credited) had been
+accustomed from their cradles to regard robbery and bloodshed as their
+ordinary daily work. Here they were with arms in their hands and Urmi at
+their mercy.
+
+Yet in truth (in the words of Dr. Macdowell of the American Hospital at
+Urmi) the newcomers "behaved much better than anyone could reasonably
+expect." They certainly plundered at first--not, indeed, in the district
+of Salmas where the Patriarch had settled himself, but in the
+neighbourhood of Urmi where there was no controlling hand. But it is
+certain also that the Persians who complained of them had themselves
+been asking for trouble rather importunately. Starving men with arms in
+their hands are apt to grow rather restive when they find conspicuously
+hard bargains being driven at their expense; and, having just saved
+their bare lives by means of their trusty weapons, they are mighty
+suspicious of invitations to surrender those weapons in exchange for a
+little food. Moreover, they had uglier treatment to complain of. Ijlal
+el Mulk, the Persian Governor of Urmi, came suddenly upon a party of
+Assyrians as he turned the sharp, rocky point at the northern end of the
+lake which is known as "Snatch-beard Corner," and promptly loosed his
+guards upon them in sheer panic terror, under the crazy delusion that
+they were an ambuscade. But even events like these were presently
+smoothed over; and, as there were plenty of deserted villages in the
+districts of Urmi and Salmas, the Assyrians found little difficulty in
+gradually suiting themselves with new homes.
+
+Meanwhile they were not quite oblivious of the fact that "there was
+still a war on." Now, for the first time, they began to get adequately
+armed with modern rifles and ammunition from the Russian arsenals. And
+perhaps it deserves to be recorded that they took extremely kindly to
+bombing. Bombs made such noble detonations when used liberally in
+echoing ravines. Surma, the Patriarch's sister (as the only
+non-combatant who carried sufficient authority), was installed in charge
+of the ammunition depot; and, after living for months in a house crammed
+to the doors with high explosives, was amused to overhear a couple of
+her reckless tribesmen lamenting her pitiable "nervousness," because
+she had sternly prohibited their smoking when they came to fetch powder
+from the magazine.
+
+They now grew distinctly assiduous in the payment of a series of return
+calls upon their lately exulting Kurdish enemies. Sutu Agha's stronghold
+at Oramar was captured and sacked; and this victory regained for them
+quite a lot of the plunder of Jilu. Chal fell to a well-planned raid
+under David, the Patriarch's brother; and the summer camps of the nomad
+Heriki[164] yielded quite a rich booty of sheep. These forays were
+conducted in much more gentlemanly fashion than the harrying of the
+Christian valleys in the autumn of 1915. The son of the Agha of Chal for
+instance, was captured at the fall of that fastness, and was at once
+released on a verbal promise that he would arrange an exchange of
+prisoners--a promise which (to the Kurds' credit) was for once loyally
+redeemed. "Grass soon grows over blood that has been shed in fair
+fight"; and if these courtesies were more often reciprocated by the
+Moslems we might entertain some hope of eventual peace in Kurdistan.
+
+These diversions had at least the effect of immobilising a good number
+of Kurdish levies, who might otherwise have caused annoyance on the
+flank of the Russian advance to Erzerum; and the Russians rewarded this
+service by a lavish distribution of decorations which were immensely
+appreciated and universally worn. Mar Shimun himself received a personal
+letter of congratulation from the Tsar, and was welcomed with high
+distinction at Tiflis by the Grand Duke Nicholas.
+
+Thus matters continued prosperous till the autumn of 1917, when the
+outlook again became fearfully overclouded by omens of Russian collapse.
+The munitions of war had never before been so plentiful as they were at
+this period in eastern Asia Minor. The arsenals of England, France, and
+America had been pouring material into the country to equip the armies
+of Russia. But the men for whom it was intended had no longer spirit to
+use it; and an Allied Commission had been despatched in hot haste to the
+Caucasus to try and rake together a few substitutes to replace their
+exhausted protagonist.
+
+There was plenty of fighting spirit still to be found among the
+Assyrians and a certain dour gloomy inveteracy among some Armenian units
+further north. Between these lay the territory of Simco (_i.e._, Ismail)
+Agha of the Shekak Kurds; and the allied liaison officers conceived the
+notion that these three elements might be combined into a coherent line
+of defence.
+
+Simco was the Agha whom we mentioned on page 228 as anxious to acquire a
+British consul's Mannlicher rifle at the price of his newly married
+wife. At Kotur he held a position of high strategic importance; and he
+commanded a considerable following, comprising some 2000 horse. He had
+participated two years previously in the combined attack on the
+Assyrians; but it was thought he would feel no scruples about changing
+sides, if it could be shown that it was worth his while. And certainly
+he had no cause to love the Persians; for his own brother (and
+predecessor in the chieftainship) was that same Jaffar who had been so
+foully assassinated at Tabriz by the ex-Shah when he was _Vali
+Ahd_.[165]
+
+The scheme on the whole was a good one and its advantages were obvious.
+But it had one fatal objection--the connecting link was a Kurd.
+Hanpartsunian, the Armenian leader, was most reluctant to admit him to
+the league; and when Mar Shimun heard the proposal he shared his
+reluctance to the full. But in those days British officers were rather
+inclined to assume that Kurds were "indifferent honest." It is believed
+that after four years' experience of administration in Mesopotamia they
+would now vote this theory obsolete.
+
+Despite their rooted prejudices to the contrary, the Armenian and
+Assyrian chieftains allowed themselves to be over-persuaded, and the
+plan won acquiescence from their followers. Simco embraced it with
+enthusiasm, and swore upon the Koran to keep faith with his Christian
+associates, protesting (somewhat anomalously) that he regarded the
+Assyrian Patriarch as "the Religious Head of Kurdistan."
+
+This ill-assorted alliance was soon to be crucially tested. Some Russian
+assistance had been counted upon, and 250 Russian officers were to have
+undertaken the organisation of the combined force. But the officers
+never arrived; and what Russian force still remained in the district
+gradually melted away to nothing. Russia was no longer only a falling
+wall whose collapse might be averted by buttressing. The very bricks of
+which it was built had disintegrated, and resolved into the mud from
+which they had been made.
+
+It was now February, 1918--not yet quite the darkest hour upon the
+Western Front, but already very nearly so. And in the East the collapse
+of Russia had completely convinced all waverers that Germany and her
+allies had virtually won the war. The all-conquering Mackensen was
+rumoured to be already on his way to assume the command at Mosul, and to
+besom the British out of Mesopotamia; and Ijlal el Mulk plucked up heart
+of grace, and issued a grandiose proclamation ordering the Assyrians to
+lay down their arms.
+
+Mar Shimun wrote a letter of protest to Mukht-i-Shems, the Persian
+Governor of Tabriz, reiterating that his people were merely refugees,
+and carried arms solely for their own protection. But these were facts
+of which the Persians had, of course, been fully aware for two years and
+more. They did not want an apology--only a pretext for falling on their
+unwelcome guests.
+
+Then abruptly the flash-point was reached. For some weeks an explosion
+had manifestly been growing inevitable, but what precisely caused it was
+never known. There was a sudden outbreak at Urmi--two days of sharp
+street fighting--and the Moslems were crushed decisively, and the
+Assyrians remained masters of the town.
+
+Foiled utterly in open warfare, the Persians turned at once to their
+more familiar trade of treachery; and Mukht-i-Shems, the official
+representative of his nation, a Persian nobleman with an English
+education, wrote plainly to Simco Agha to tell him that he might earn
+the gratitude of the Persian Government by the assassination of Mar
+Shimun. The Kurd took the hint promptly. He had already been growing
+uneasy at the conviction that after all he had espoused the losing side;
+and now he wrote to Mar Shimun (who by this time had returned to
+Salmas), requesting that he would meet him at a conference to discuss
+the new situation caused by the Russian debacle.
+
+The trap was cunningly baited. Such a conference seemed not merely
+desirable, but imperative. What could be more natural under the
+circumstances than a meeting between two sworn allies? And Mar Shimun,
+accompanied by his brother David and a few other friends, drove out to
+the Armenian village of Koni Shehr, which was the appointed
+meeting-place.
+
+There were whispers that treachery was intended. An Armenian villager
+was told by a friendly Kurd: "There is no danger for _your_ folk"; and
+on this he at once sent off his son with a warning message, which was
+unhappily disregarded. As the party entered the house where the meeting
+was to be held, David pointed to a group of Kurds upon a neighbouring
+roof, and asked "what those fellows wanted." But the Patriarch had
+seemingly determined that he must "trust all in all, or not at all."
+"They only want to get a good view, I suppose," he answered, and passed
+in.
+
+Simco received him most cordially. The ceremonial hospitality, which
+throughout the East is held to set the seal of inviolability upon the
+guest's person, was duly offered and accepted. The conference proceeded,
+and terminated without the least hint of disagreement; and Simco, with
+marked deference, conducted his guest to the door.
+
+His turning back was the signal. There was a volley from the roof, and
+the Patriarch was shot dead. It was an almost literal repetition of the
+treachery perpetrated upon Simco's own brother by the _Vali Ahd_ eight
+years before. How David escaped is a mystery. He was wounded, but
+friendly Armenians snatched him into one of the adjoining houses and hid
+him till the search was over. In the ensuing confusion only one other
+member of the party was actually killed and the rest succeeded in
+escaping.
+
+The Patriarch's body was treated with the grossest indignity--stripped,
+and flung out into the street. But afterwards it was reverently taken up
+by the Armenians and buried by their priest in the village church. In
+those medieval times to which Benyamin Mar Shimun belonged alike by
+character and training that church would be held to enshrine the relics
+of a martyr.
+
+The almost incredulous fury with which the wild tribesmen learned the
+news of their beloved Patriarch's murder can, perhaps, be barely
+imagined by people less primitive than they. In the first gust of their
+rage they began a massacre of the Kurds in Urmi; but this was quickly
+arrested by the interposition of their chiefs. Polus a younger brother,
+was chosen as the Patriarch's successor; and under David and Khoshaba a
+strong force mustered to avenge his death.
+
+With these two there marched a third leader. And among the many
+disreputable characters who "made good" during war-time, it can surely
+not be easy to find a parallel to Petros of Baz--that knavish exploiter
+of bogus Macedonian orphanages, whose shady antecedents were recounted
+on page 218. With the fruits of his youthful peculations he had acquired
+a prominent position in Urmi, no less than that of Ottoman consul. Thus,
+as soon as the war broke out, he was able to pose as a leader; and from
+the husk of a glib-tongued swindler there now emerged a born Captain of
+_guerilleros_, whose achievements during these later stages were among
+the most remarkable in the war. Like several others of his kidney, he
+has since (we regret to say) reverted. But assuredly, while the ball
+lasted it cannot be denied that this arch-thief showed a singularly
+handsome leg.
+
+Simco's army was thoroughly routed and his castle at Chara captured; but
+he himself unhappily escaped and has since been allowed even by the
+allies of his victim, to reap all the profits of his crime. In his house
+was found the actual letter which he had received from Mukht-i-Shems
+prompting him to the Patriarch's murder. Can it be wondered that the
+wrath of the Assyrians burns yet more hotly against the Persian than it
+does against the Turk?
+
+But the crushing of their false friend did not deminish the number of
+their enemies. The Christians were now threatened on all sides by Turk,
+by Kurd, and by Persian; and in Urmi they had to control a seething
+hostile community considerably more numerous than themselves. The
+British advance from Baghdad had still penetrated no higher than Tekrit,
+250 miles to the southward; and all hope of Russian help was gone. They
+were still well off for munitions; but the bulk of the lavish supplies
+which had been intended for the armament of Russia had fallen into the
+hands of their enemies, and the Turkish armies in Eastern Asia Minor
+were now equipped as no Turkish armies in that district had ever been
+equipped before.
+
+There still remained, however, some scattered contingents of
+Armenians--unhappily divided against themselves by bitter internecine
+dissensions--and with one of these led by a grim fighter named Andranik
+who commanded a personal following of about 5000, there was still some
+chance of effecting a junction. Petros got into communication with him,
+and a plan was concerted to this end.
+
+Had the plan succeeded it is probable, in the light of subsequent
+events, that the Assyrians would have been able to keep their hold upon
+Urmi until the Armistice. But the Turks held the interior lines and Ali
+Ihsan, their commander in this district, was unluckily a General of
+considerable capacity. He flung himself across Petros' path as he
+pressed northward and repulsed his attempt to break through. Petros,
+better as a tactician than as a strategist, unhappily did not renew the
+assault at the moment when perseverance might have earned victory; and
+Ali Ihsan, in the nick of time, was able to turn upon Andranik, and beat
+him back after a long day's desperate fighting in the streets of Khoi.
+
+Nevertheless the Assyrians still continued to present a bold front to
+their enemies; and for three months, under Petros' able leadership, they
+beat back in battle after battle all the attacks that were delivered
+against them both north and south of Urmi. They are said to have fought
+no fewer than fourteen actions in this time. In one of these, at Ushnu,
+they captured nearly 350 Turkish regular soldiers, besides 5 machine
+guns and 2 pieces of field artillery; and with almost unbelievable
+generosity these prisoners were released upon parole.
+
+"But what of your Kurdish prisoners, Saypu?" we asked of the stalwart
+young warrior whose maiden exploit in arms we related on page 315.
+
+"We took no Kurdish prisoners, Rabbi," replied Saypu grimly, "after the
+death of Mar Shimun."
+
+Their humanity is more to their credit, since they knew well the fate of
+their kinsfolk in the outlying villages which they were forced to
+abandon, and might learn thence to what fate they themselves were doomed
+should they fail to make good their defence. Ali Ihsan had now gone
+southward to take over the command at Mosul, and to be defeated by
+General Marshall in the last battle of the war. The Turkish leader in
+the north was now Jevdet Bey, previously Vali of Van, the brutal son of
+kind old Tahir and brother-in-law of Enver Pasha, a man who had already
+earned eternal infamy by his pitiless massacres of the Armenians at Van.
+Now on one occasion he forced the entire population of a village,
+numbering it is said 700, and including all the women and children, to
+dig a deep trench for their own grave along the foot of a lofty mud
+wall. When the trench was finished they were marched into it. The wall
+was thrown down on the top of them; and every soul was buried alive. On
+another occasion a village, which had defended itself to the last
+cartridge, surrendered at last on fair conditions which the Turks
+solemnly confirmed by oaths taken on the Koran. Every male was
+immediately massacred; every female stripped and outraged, and then
+turned adrift naked to crawl to Urmi as she could.
+
+Such incidents are, of course, but samples of hundreds of similar
+atrocities perpetrated by the Turks upon their Christian helots during
+the recent war. Neither is it permissible for any honest chronicler to
+leave them unrecorded, so long as there are any advocates for a policy
+of leaving Christians subject to Turks.
+
+And the cruel mercies of Islam seemed now closing round the Assyrians.
+Their fighting force was steadily dwindling and now their ammunition was
+running out. The end was almost in sight; but once more there came a
+gleam of hope just as the last hope seemed extinguished, and an
+aeroplane appeared over Urmi on July 8th, 1918. It was saluted with a
+hot fusillade, for all, of course, deemed it Turkish. But presently it
+dawned upon someone that the tricoloured circles were not a Turkish
+emblem, and it was wildly welcomed to earth. Captain Pennington of the
+Royal Air Force had flown from Miani in the south over 150 miles of
+unknown and hostile country; and, having escaped his friends' bullets,
+was next nearly suffocated by their embraces, for all, of course, argued
+(Oriental-like) that their final relief was now assured.
+
+But Captain Pennington was no more than the far-advanced scout of a
+woefully weak flying column, consisting of a machine-gun company and a
+squadron of the 14th Hussars; and these had only penetrated as far as
+the village of Sain Kaleh, 100 miles to the south. Yet he bore a message
+of hope. They had escorted thither a first instalment of money,
+munitions, and officers; and if only the Assyrians could gain touch with
+them these supplies might enable them to hold out.
+
+But how could touch be established? Urmi was now menaced by a force of
+two Turkish divisions--the 5th from the north and the 6th from the
+south--and by large irregular levies of Kurds and Persians as well. It
+was agreed that Petros, with the Urmi division of his army, should
+attempt to clear the way to Sain Kaleh; and that the Salmas division
+should hold on to Urmi till his return. It was once more a desperate
+chance; but the Assyrians had only preserved themselves hitherto by
+taking a whole series of desperate chances. Unhappily, on this occasion,
+they could only partly win through.
+
+Petros marched south, and, with his usual skill and daring, defeated the
+6th Division at Suj Bulak, and drove them into the mountains towards
+Rowanduz. But, unfortunately, the 5th Division learned of his departure,
+and seized the opportunity to deliver a vigorous assault upon those who
+had remained behind. The line of the Nazlu River, which the Assyrians
+had sought to hold was forced; and the defeated mountaineers swept back
+in confusion upon Urmi. Panic seized upon that hapless city. Under the
+protection of the Assyrians it had become a sort of asylum of refuge for
+thousands of fugitives who had escaped from previous massacres; and now
+the whole Christian population--Assyrian and Armenian, men, women, and
+children--determined instantly on flight. Harvest had just been
+gathered, so they had food available, and enough beasts and vehicles to
+improvise some kind of transport; and soon the whole mob was trailing
+southward in an agony of terror and despair. Somewhere in that direction
+lay their last faint hope of survival, and, heedless of order or
+discipline, they fled in Petros' wake.
+
+That flight was a ghastly tragedy, comparable perhaps, while it lasted,
+only to that terrible trek of the Calmuck Tartars so graphically
+depicted by De Quincey. Provisions, indeed, were adequate; and, had they
+been unmolested, the fugitives might have won through without very great
+loss or suffering. But their enemies swarmed on their tracks like wolves
+upon a drove of cattle. Even before they cleared the city the bazaar
+ruffians under Mejid es Sultaneh freed from the fear of their recent
+masters, were cutting the throats of the stragglers as they emerged from
+their houses; and hampered by hosts of non-combatants--dispirited and
+without cohesion--that long, slow, straggling convoy formed a fatally
+vulnerable prey. The mountaineers, indeed, suffered less than the
+townsfolk as being more accustomed than they to conditions of trek and
+battle. It was even said, unkindly but plausibly, that the Tyari men
+eventually reached their journey's end not only with all their women,
+but with more sheep than they had at the start. But for all the
+conditions were terrible enough. Men were slaughtered by hundreds; women
+stripped and outraged; girls borne off to Mussulman harems; and many
+who dropped from the ranks were seen to roll themselves in filth and
+ordure in the hope of escaping the violation which they knew was their
+probable fate. It must be within the mark to state that at least 15,000
+persons--a fourth of the whole number--perished in those dreadful days.
+
+The British were no longer at Sain Kaleh. Petros had been a week late at
+his rendezvous, and they had strict orders not to linger in such a
+perilously advanced position. But happily they were not beyond recall,
+and, with Petros' army to back them, they now hurried back to bring aid.
+That handful of well-armed and disciplined men fell like a thunderbolt
+into the midst of the disorderly hordes of the pursuers, and, ignorant
+what force might be following, these scattered before them in dismay.
+There was one instance where seven men equipped with a Lewis gun, and
+led by Captains Savage and Scott-Ollson, dashed at a force of several
+hundred Kurds who were besetting a group of fugitives, and drove them
+off in confusion--a feat that might have earned a lay in the annals of
+the Round Table.
+
+It took three days' sharp fighting to complete the rescue, for the
+fugitives only struggled in by driblets and the Kurds and Persians who
+clung to them were loth to relinquish their prey. But at last the
+Assyrians' purgatory was over. The column was re-formed at Sain Kaleh
+and proceeded by easier stages 200 miles further southward to Hamadan.
+They were blamed for plundering on this march; and, undoubtedly, they
+did plunder wholesale. But what wonder? They were utterly destitute and
+had surely every possible excuse for regarding Persia as an enemy
+country. And be it recorded to their honour that by the admission even
+of their enemies, and though the atrocities that their own women had
+suffered were still fresh in their memories even now no Mussulman woman
+was insulted or maltreated by them.
+
+Early in September they were transferred to the great refugee camp which
+had been prepared for their reception at Baquba on the Diala near
+Baghdad; and here they were established when Turkey sued for peace a few
+weeks later. Not less than two-thirds of their nation must have perished
+in their four years' trial; but, like Sir Hugh Percy, they had "saved
+the bird in their bosom," and assuredly had no cause for shame in the
+plucky part that they had played.
+
+The fate of their neighbours, the Armenians, is already too well known
+to be dwelt upon, but, alas! too little regarded, for us to pass over it
+even here. We have sketched the horrors endured by one small sister
+community--a community whose position was admittedly much more
+defensible, and whose stout-hearted resistance enabled them to avert the
+worst. Multiply those horrors twenty fold to allow for the greater
+numbers of the Armenians. Double them again for the helplessness that
+robbed them of self-defence. And our minds are incapable of grasping the
+scope of a butchery more hideous and widespread than any that has
+horrified Asia since the ravages of the Tartar hordes. "Then there took
+place such wholesale slaughter and unrestrained looting and excessive
+torture and mutilation as is hard to hear spoken of, even generally; how
+think you, then, of the details? There happened things I dare not
+mention, therefore imagine what you will."[166]
+
+Nay, the Tartar massacres after all were mostly perpetrated in hot
+blood, and in days that followed close upon battles; but these
+advisedly, upon unresisting helots, and persistently for months and
+years. In these the blind fury of the fanatic and the blood-lust of the
+Kurdish robber were deliberately manipulated by cool-headed and
+calculating administrators. And even Abdul Hamid's cruelty was not so
+coarse and stupid as that of the low-bred upstarts who now reigned in
+his room.
+
+Talaat Pasha's own letters are extant to prove how he hounded on his
+underlings to the butchery; how he dismissed and disgraced those who
+shrank from the ghastly tasks imposed upon them; nay, even those who
+permitted the slightest alleviation of horrors at which their souls
+sickened; how he insisted repeatedly and categorically that not even
+children must be spared. And Enver and Djemal, his fellow-triumvirs,
+seconded him inexorably in all.
+
+That some Turks did venture on protests we are ready to admit gladly;
+but with the bulk of the nation the crime was actually popular. No
+Mollah raised his voice to denounce it; and there was never the least
+difficulty in finding plenty of willing executioners. The crime was the
+crime of the Ottoman nation and of the Stamboul Caliphate, and the
+criminals are still rejoicing in the success and impunity of their
+crime.
+
+The programme of massacre was identical in practically every district.
+First, the chief local leaders of the Armenians (Parliamentary Deputies
+and so forth) were quietly entrapped and assassinated before their vague
+forebodings had ripened into serious alarm. Then those who had been
+called up for military service (of course, the pick of the nation) were
+disarmed, drafted into labour battalions, and set to road-making and
+other tasks in remote and sparsely populated districts, where they were
+soon worn out with hard work, exposure, and starvation, or shot down at
+leisure in idle sport by their armed guards. Then all the better class
+townsfolk--doctors, teachers, merchants, tradesmen, and artificers--were
+arrested, formed into columns, and marched away from their homes,
+ostensibly for some distant destination. It was arranged that armed
+Kurds (or their own escort) should fall upon them during the journey;
+and all that was known of them subsequently was that they had never
+arrived. The villages and towns were then sacked in detail, and the men
+almost all exterminated, though young and good-looking girls were
+reserved for the Mussulman harems. If any pretext were needed, it was
+generally supplied by demanding the surrender of a stated number of
+rifles, which it was assumed that the villagers were concealing, and
+torture was often applied to extort what they had never possessed.
+
+Then the "Red Massacres" were over, and the "White Massacres" started.
+The victims of these were mostly the miserable women and their
+children--practically all who still survived. These were formed up into
+columns and literally marched to death. With bleeding feet, starving and
+unsheltered, they were driven pitilessly forward--day after day, week
+after week--on a march that was never intended to have any ending till
+the last of them had dropped and died. And such of them as survived to
+cross the Taurus were finally thrust forth into the bleak foodless
+waterless desert; Talaat professing with fiendish effrontery that he was
+thus "colonising Mesopotamia."
+
+Surely if ever assassination was justified it was in the death of this
+monster, and it is the shame of all Europe that it was to an assassin
+that they left the task.
+
+We have said that some Turks protested, and were deprived of their
+offices for protesting. The Vali of Aleppo and the Mutaserif of Mardin
+were two of these. In some towns the Moslem population presented
+petitions against the massacres. In Urfa--even in fanatical Urfa--there
+was one such petition sent in. Diarbekr was true to its grim traditions,
+and here there was no relenting. Here the notables of the city had
+formed a "Committee for the Study of the Armenian Question," and the
+fruit of their "Studies" was a revival of Carrier's infamous _noyades_.
+The clothes of which the victims were stripped before they were flung
+overboard were, with sickening shamelessness, sold openly by their
+executioners in the bazaar.
+
+At Mosul the sword was stayed; we cannot conceive for what reason. But
+perhaps the Arabs, though equally keen robbers, were not found such
+practised butchers as the Kurds.
+
+Jevdet Bey, the Vali of Van, was one of the most relentless murderers;
+and the thoroughness of his methods in the villages of his _Vilayet_
+even caused him to be employed as an expert in redeeming slackness
+elsewhere. But of Van city itself--thanks to its proximity to the
+frontier--he made rather a botched job. Aram, the Tashnakist whom we
+mentioned in an earlier chapter[167] was by accident absent from the
+city when the other two local leaders were assassinated. The Armenians
+took alarm betimes and stood on their defence.
+
+Van was a large sprawling city, and the Armenians formed rather the
+larger half of the population. They had much previous experience of
+massacres and alarms of massacre; and they now drew together
+instinctively in their own quarter of the Garden City, and fortified
+themselves with abattis and barricades. They sent a message to their
+Moslem fellow-citizens that they had no quarrel with them and were only
+defending themselves against the Vali. And the Moslems replied
+sympathetically though they said they would be obliged to fight.
+
+Perhaps it was owing to their lukewarmness that Jevdet, though supported
+by the regular soldiers of the garrison, never ventured to deliver a
+formal assault upon the entrenched quarter; but there was much desultory
+fighting, and most of the city was burned. Jevdet relied principally
+upon blockading his victims, and reducing them by hunger; and, to
+quicken their surrender, he even refrained from massacring the few
+surviving villagers, and drove them into the entrenchments to help in
+consuming supplies. After four weeks' leaguer this scheme was on the
+point of succeeding, when suddenly the despairing Armenians saw their
+enemies preparing to withdraw. The Russians advancing from Sara Hamish
+had approached within striking distance, and next day Van was relieved.
+
+When the Russians withdrew a little later the Armenians, of course, fled
+with them, and took refuge across the border, near Tiflis and Erivan.
+How many of them, we wonder, have survived their later tribulations--war,
+famine, typhus, internecine strife and Bolshevism?
+
+And the motive for all this butchery? The alleged "plot" is merely a
+subterfuge. The Armenians would, no doubt, have welcomed the coming of
+the Russians; what subject race in Turkey would not? But, until the
+Russians arrived, they were no more a menace to the rear of the Turks
+than the citizens of occupied Belgium were to the rear of the Germans.
+There is something, perhaps, in the suggestion that one motive was sheer
+plunder. Many Armenians were wealthy; and the Turks, impoverished by a
+series of wars, were intent on seizing their wealth, never reflecting
+that by the extermination of their cleverest traders, and their best
+artificers and husbandmen, they were only consigning themselves to a
+deeper and more hopeless poverty. There was certainly also a religious
+motive; for, though we can hardly say that the profession of Islam would
+in all cases have secured quarter, yet it is certain that this was made
+an essential condition in the sparing of the few who were spared. And
+what but religious bigotry could have involved the Jacobites in the fate
+of the Armenians? There was no plot to fear from the Jacobites. They had
+neither the cohesion nor the national aspirations of the Armenians.
+Their escapes in previous massacres prove that the Turks could have
+spared them if they wished. And yet this time they were not spared.
+
+But professed infidels like Talaat and Enver are not swayed by religious
+bigotry. It was national and political bigotry that was the ruling
+motive with them. They only consented to the sparing of apostates
+because apostasy in those regions sets the seal upon the abjuration of
+nationality. And in the Ottoman Empire they meant the Turk to reign
+alone. In their extirpation of the Armenians the Young Turks were
+carrying out a deliberate national policy, conceived by the Old Turks
+more than a generation before. And the Young Turks, taking it over, had
+only been waiting their opportunity till the preoccupation of Europe
+should leave their hands untied.
+
+It only remains to add that the Yezidis were not massacred. And, even in
+such a plethora of massacres, it is strange they should have suffered
+such neglect. We can only suppose that _Melek Taüs_, seeing all idle
+hands so desirably occupied, devoted his unaccustomed leisure to taking
+care of his own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+DEAD SEA FRUIT
+
+
+The tale of the British administration of Mesopotamia (or Irak) is the
+familiar one of magnificent work done by men on the spot, which is yet
+hampered by the feebleness and indecision of "statesmen" at home,
+coupled with the activities of newspapers interested mainly in what an
+expert of old time, George III., called "that damnably dirty business,
+party politics." The tale, however--though one that is well worth the
+telling--is too long a one to be put in at the end of a book dealing
+with only a part of the land concerned, and here we must confine
+ourselves to that of which we have personal knowledge--viz., the
+fortunes of the tormented Assyrian nation after they reached "the haven
+where they would be," the protection of the British. General affairs can
+only be touched on so far as they concern this people.
+
+We left the nation established in the huge refugee camp at Baqubah, near
+Baghdad, where they became one of the sights and sensations of
+Mesopotamia. They considered that their troubles were over at last, and,
+indeed, one of their number even broke out into English poetry to
+celebrate the fact, and presented his ode (which he would have been
+better advised to write in Syriac) to the General Officer commanding the
+camp:
+
+    We wish to express our thanks and great wish
+    To all our friends, especially the British;
+    For we are under the protection of the world's greatest monarch,
+    Who to us in this wilderness is like the shadow of the rock.
+
+    All gentlemen from the headquarters,
+    Soldiers, sergeants, corporals, and officers,
+    All sisters and doctors, with bottles number one, two, three,
+    They have from typhoid and relapsing fever made us free!
+
+The idea of the people was that they would very speedily be put back,
+under British protection, in their old homes; and that full compensation
+(and incidentally full revenge) for all past sufferings and losses would
+be assured them. They were the allies of the victors in the war; and
+there was, of course, no limit either to the power or the wealth of
+their British protectors. The inability of European statesmen to make a
+peace at all,[168] and the fact that the British Government, in
+consequence, could not make up its mind what it wanted to do, or could
+do, either with the country at large or with this relatively small
+factor in it, were matters simply outside their mental horizon. "Our own
+country, under British protection," was their simple and intelligible
+demand; a "benevolent" government was all that British authorities could
+promise them in return, and, meantime, there was nothing to do but to
+wait. If you maintain anyone in idleness, you soon produce a pauper with
+all a pauper's vices. Assyrians proved no exception to that rule, and
+paupers they soon became, taking all that was given, and expecting more.
+They declined to do even necessary camp work without payment; and the
+quarrelsomeness and disposition to intrigue that have been their bane
+since the beginning appeared among them again.
+
+One thing, however, they could do which was useful--they could fight. A
+double battalion of infantry, with one mounted company, was raised from
+among them, and put under picked British officers. Such officers, as has
+been shown many a time, can make good soldiers out of far worse material
+than warlike mountaineers; and the mutual regard that is usual in such
+cases soon grew up between the officers and their men. "See that lad
+there?" said one of these officers to the writer. "He sprained his ankle
+on the way down, but he turned up on parade with it next day hideously
+swollen. He only burst out crying when I told him he must not march, and
+went off to a bonesetter, who slashed it all round with a blunt knife
+and rubbed in gunpowder. Then he turned up again, begging to be allowed
+to march with the regiment!"
+
+It is true that some difficulties arose. It had been intended to raise
+two battalions: one of mountaineers, and one of Urmi men. The latter,
+however (owing to the mistaken advice of some foreign friends), demanded
+impossible conditions of service; while the mountain men declared their
+readiness to go anywhere, if only they had British officers to lead
+them. The double battalion was raised, in consequence, of the mountain
+men alone. Then Petros Agha, who was now describing himself as the
+"Commander-in-Chief of the Assyrian Army," demanded as of right that any
+contingent raised should be under his orders, with such British officers
+to assist him as he judged expedient. When this modest demand was
+refused, he began intriguing against the project, till it became
+necessary to shepherd him gently out of the camp, and suggest Baghdad
+(or India) as his residence in future. The force was raised however, and
+the little campaign that became necessary against the Kurds in the
+summer of 1919 gave these hillmen an opportunity of getting as near to
+their own conception of heaven as some of them are ever likely to get,
+for they were given good rifles and good leaders, and a real chance of a
+slap at their hereditary enemies!
+
+Experienced judges were loud in praise of their marching and fighting
+capacities, though admitting that they were "a trifle indiscriminate" at
+times. "Those Assyrians have got into it quick," said the G.O.C. on one
+occasion, noting how quickly the men opened fire in their advance up a
+hill they had been ordered to clear of the enemy. "Oh no, sir," said an
+A.D.C., who had experience of the creature; "I'll bet what you like it's
+a pig they are firing at!" He did them but a small injustice; it was a
+bear and not a boar; but having finished him, they cleared the hill.
+"How did the Assyrians really do in the fighting?" asked a British
+officer of a Subadar of the Gurkhas with whom they were brigaded. "Why
+did you not give us the same mountain sandals that they wear?" came the
+answer. "Then we should have done as well as they did!" Verily, when
+Gurkhas apologise for not doing as well as the irregular, there is no
+fault to find with the fighting capacity of the latter.[169]
+
+Once, it must be admitted, a party of them found civilised campaigning
+too slow, and committed the heinous crime of deserting while on active
+service; but the apology they sent in (in a mixture of Syriac and
+English) went far to redeem their fault. "To the beloved and reverend
+Major Knight, our Commander, peace and love be multiplied," it began.
+"Dear Father, be it known to you that we did not run away because we did
+not wish to kill Kurds, but because we so wished to kill them; and by
+the blessing of God, we have been doing that thing for ten days. Regret
+to report following casualty: soldier, private, one. But we have killed
+a lot more Kurds. Now, dear Father, if you will promise to punish us
+yourself, we will come in. But we fear going to Mosul Gaol."
+
+The Major promised that if they came in he would punish them all right,
+and he did so; but he subsequently squared matters somehow with his
+conscience, and reported that there had been a gratifying absence of
+crime on active service!
+
+The campaign had the effect of clearing what is known as the Sapna area
+of Kurds; and, incidentally, the house of the English Mission at
+Bibaydi, the building of which has been referred to,[170] was fortified
+and occupied by British troops. Those old enemies of the writer who had
+prophesied that "if that house is built we shall see British troops in
+it before our beards are grey," were so delighted at the fulfilment of
+their prophecy, and at the local kudos that it brought them, that they
+entirely forgot their ill-feeling against the Englishman who had caused
+it, and greeted him on a visit as a long-lost friend![171]
+
+Men on the spot now held that the Assyrian problem could be solved at
+once; the nation could be settled in the area that they had helped to
+clear and conquer, where they would be an admirable frontier guard for
+the future state of Irak. Suggestions to this effect were sent home, but
+no answer was returned. Those in authority could neither allow the men
+on the spot to act for themselves, nor could they produce any other
+plan. It was not that they objected (that would at least have been
+positive action of a sort), but they neither could, nor would, say or do
+anything; and so time passed until local circumstances (notably the
+impossibility of keeping British troops dangling in the hills till folk
+in comfortable offices at home had made up what they pleased to call
+their minds) made a withdrawal inevitable, and a promising scheme
+impossible.
+
+By a very unfortunate decision the Assyrian contingent was disbanded
+shortly after this, owing to some breaches of discipline in the corps.
+Men who were at least being kept from idleness were thus returned to
+Baqubah, where a policy of pauperising was sapping all the morale of the
+nation; and where Assyrian and British, tied up together under
+uncomfortable conditions for too long, were rapidly getting on one
+another's nerves, and each showing the other their worst side! About the
+same time, too, the nation was deprived of its titular leader by the
+death of Polus Mar Shimun, their patriarch. Tuberculosis brought on by
+hardship had become worse in the dust-laden air of Baqubah, and a
+removal to the purer air of Sheikh Mattai[172] by Mosul had been too
+late to stop the disease. A flicker of improvement at the last had
+encouraged him as is so often the case, and he returned to his own
+people, but only to die. Meantime Authority, both in Mesopotamia and
+England, was getting very anxious to be rid of the Assyrians--as is
+frequently the case, when a man knows that he has neglected a good
+opportunity of getting a thing done. And it was at this juncture, when
+the nation had no titular head and all were anxious to be rid of an
+incubus, that Agha Petros came forward with a new scheme. Somewhat to
+the north of the area occupied by the British was a stretch of
+relatively fertile land, extending from the plain of Gawar to the town
+of Ushnu, which had once been largely Christian and was now practically
+derelict. To the east it stretched nearly to the Urmi plain; on the west
+it bordered on the Hakkiari mountains. Petros proposed to lead up the
+whole nation, duly armed, and to occupy this "Gawar-Ushnu" area. There
+they would be in a state of practical independence under his rule, and
+those Urmi folk who wished to return to their own homes could do so,
+while Hakkiari would be open to the mountaineers. The fighting men could
+go up first and take seizin[AA?] of the land, and the women and
+non-combatants could follow after a little.
+
+The scheme was not impossible, provided that the people had enough of
+cohesion to unite on any scheme at all, and Petros enough of the
+statesman in him to enable him to execute any. If feasible, it certainly
+had the merit of providing an Anglophile buffer state just where one was
+most wanted; and as such, and as offering some means of getting the
+refugees off the shoulders of the British taxpayer, it was accepted by
+the Mesopotamian authorities, and urged with more or less of authority
+on the nation at large. Under this pressure, the bulk of the nation
+accepted it; though it is to be feared that one of its merits in their
+eyes was its indefiniteness, and the fact that it could be interpreted
+by everybody in his own sense. An Assyrian state with a measure
+(undefined) of British protection was what everyone wanted; but everyone
+also assumed that the area of the supposed state would include his own
+old home. And it is to be feared that Petros Agha[173] got a large
+measure of his support by promises to the effect that everybody should
+have just what he wanted, if only he was willing to come up with his
+true national leader to get it!
+
+Even so the Patriarchal House, and certain sections of the mountaineers
+as well, rejected the scheme, owing to their rooted distrust of Petros
+and all his works. This, however, was disregarded. The "House," left
+leaderless by the death of the Patriarch, and by the fact that Surma
+Khanim (possessor of the best brain in it) had gone to England to put
+the case of her nation before the Government[174] was just then at a
+discount in the nation and had left the camp for Mosul. It was therefore
+ignored. It was assumed that the recalcitrant sections would follow with
+the rest when they found themselves alone; and so preparations were made
+for the breaking-up of the Baqubah camp, and the transfer of its inmates
+to Mindan (north-east of Mosul), which could be the base of the new
+move.
+
+Assyrian ill-luck, however, dogged the scheme throughout. Time was of
+the essence of the plan, if several thousand people had to be got up to
+a high tableland, and there to provide food and shelter for themselves
+before the winter set in, and one cause of delay after another
+supervened. There was a change in the central authority first, for Sir
+Arnold Wilson, acting Chief Commissioner, was not only removed from
+office, but practically dismissed from the service of the King.
+Politicians at home found it convenient to make the good man on the spot
+the scapegoat for the fact that the policy they had approved was more
+expensive than they had anticipated, and were full of virtuous
+indignation because he did not effect in Mesopotamia the drastic
+economies which they could not themselves enforce in England. A new
+Chief Commissioner (Sir Percy Cox) was soon in the field; but the change
+implied delay, and the new man had not (owing perhaps to his home
+instructions) that power of giving a quick decision on a question which
+had been one of the strong points of his predecessor. Sir Percy,
+however, approved the general lines of the policy laid down, and the
+move to Mindan was in full swing when the Arab rising of 1920 put a stop
+to all action. All fighting men and all transport were imperatively
+needed elsewhere, and the Assyrian problem had to wait.
+
+The story of the rising itself does not concern us, though the fighting
+men of the Assyrians were actively engaged in it in support of the
+Government. Men began to ask what new form of lunacy had possessed those
+in authority, that they had disbanded an existing force composed of such
+good material, and so absolutely trustworthy. It is true that some of
+the fighting was pure self-defence, for the Baqubah camp was left to
+look after itself, in the assurance that Assyrians could do so, but in
+forgetfulness of the fact that they had been disarmed! For some time the
+place was in real peril, particularly when a train loaded with rifles
+and ammunition for its defence was derailed some miles from camp.
+
+The force raised in the camp, however, though then armed with a
+"scratch" armament, rescued the train and its contents,[175] and from
+that time forward the camp was in a state of safety. Skirmishes took
+place near it, and after one of these the combatants boasted to their
+British officer of the number of Arabs whom they had accounted for.
+"Oh, rubbish!" said the officer. "I know how many bullets go astray, and
+you need not tell me you hit as many as that." The disgusted
+mountaineers said nothing; but after the next action laid out before a
+rather horrified Englishman a large number of human ears--right ears all
+of them. "Look here, sahib! You can't say we didn't hit those fellows,
+anyhow!" Those who already had been transported to Mindan, though
+outside the real area of the rising, were not entirely deprived of their
+share of the fun. A disorderly tribe of Kurds, the Surchi, thought that
+so good an opportunity of making trouble ought not to be missed, and
+undertook a raid in the Akra district. The Assyrians had the
+satisfaction of sweeping the raiders into the Zab, and of thus restoring
+order in that corner of the world.
+
+While this was being done, steps had been taken in Baqubah camp which
+tended to split up an already divided nation still further. Polus Mar
+Shimun, the Patriarch, had died as stated, and the larger half of the
+nation had been removed, under the leadership of Petros Agha, to Mindan.
+Those who remained took that opportunity of electing and consecrating
+Ishai, son of David d'Mar Shimun and nephew of Polus and Benyamin, to
+the Patriarchate--the new prelate being a child of twelve years old! It
+is true that, according to the old "_natar cursiya_ system"[176] this
+lad was the lawful heir of his departed uncle; but even so the election,
+according to that very tribal custom to which they were appealing, was
+an affair for the whole nation, and not of a minority in it. The
+electing party looked on themselves as the "faithful remnant," who
+remained loyal to the old head of the tribes when the bulk of them had
+gone off after a new leader who was not of the Sacred House; and also
+urged, not too consistently, that the "Mindan seceders" had, in fact,
+knowledge of the proceeding, and made no objection to it. In spite of
+this defence, the step was a disastrous and improper one; a decision
+that, in the opinion of the wiser of the party responsible, would not
+have been taken "had Surma _Khanim_ been here."[177] It divided the
+nation when union was the one necessity, and degraded the Patriarch into
+a mere party leader; while at the same time it gave a fresh lease of
+life to just those ancient anomalies (such as the hereditary
+Patriarchate and the temporal power of the holder of that office) which
+men of experience saw had outlived their usefulness, and for which they
+were seeking to provide a decent euthanasia. However, the thing was done
+and could not be undone, though the British Director of Repatriation
+marked his disapproval of a step which he did not feel entitled to
+forbid, by giving an order that no British officer was to attend the
+consecration ceremony.
+
+The Arab rising flickered out in due course, but the summer had passed
+before the rising did; and when the question of the Assyrian settlement
+came up again, those who knew the country shook their heads over the
+prospect of moving masses of population at such a season of the year.
+October had begun--the month that sees the first snows on the hills--and
+there were signs of an early winter. Warnings to that effect, however,
+were disregarded, and the Assyrian force that was to go up and clear the
+ground under Petros Agha was concentrated at Akra.[178] and made ready
+for its march. It numbered about 5,000 men--mountaineers and Urmi men
+combined--and made an impressive show under a multitude of cross-bearing
+banners. High titles abounded, for Petros as Commander-in-Chief was at
+least liberal in this direction. A "Field-Marshal" served under him,
+sporting crossed batons on his khaki-clad shoulders, with Generals,
+Brigadier-Generals, and Colonels by the score. But if titles were
+plenty, experience was far to seek; and considering what a tremendous
+risk was being run in sending up the force at all, at so late a date as
+the end of October, there was a marvellous casualness shown about the
+whole affair. Those in authority seemed to be only anxious to be rid of
+the people and the problem together, and to act on the assumption that
+if once they could be got over the boundary all would go well, or that
+at least the British Government would not be concerned if it did not.
+Good rifles were provided, with ammunition, some mountain-guns, and
+plenty of mules for transport. There was also a big dump of provisions,
+and medical stores in abundance; but when the Assyrians wanted to leave
+these behind, those who were there to protect these wild people from
+their own folly and ignorance allowed them to do so; and the force moved
+off with not so much as a bandage, with provisions for a short seven
+days, and no means of securing a regular supply after that. In fact,
+these people who were in theory to go up to a land, occupy and colonise
+it, and maintain themselves there for a winter, were allowed to go off
+with the equipment of a raid and nothing else!
+
+The British officers who were to accompany the force "in a purely
+advisory capacity" (three British Lieutenants, to wit) made some
+representations, urging in particular the provision of proper
+pack-saddles for the mountain-guns sent with the force. They were told
+the guns could go on their own carriages, as it would be a stiff pull
+over Akra Dagh, but plain sailing after that! A man who can stand at
+Akra, and think that the rugged ridge behind that town is the only
+obstacle between him and Gawar Plain, has the strangest ideas of the
+land he is sending his subordinates into!
+
+No doubt Petros was to blame. An Assyrian who wants to get to a place
+will tell you that the road is easy, with the gayest defiance of facts;
+and men who will go off with a small raiding party, with no equipment
+save rifles and the clothes they wear, have not the least notion that
+"an army cannot charge in and out again like a troop of hussars." Those
+who directed this "Repatriation" were supposed to know something of that
+most difficult of problems, land transport in country where no
+mechanical means are available; but they did not force the Assyrians to
+benefit by their knowledge.
+
+The frontier was crossed; the Zab, swollen by recent rain, was crossed
+also, though with some difficulty in the face of opposition from the
+local Kurds, of the Barzan and Zibar tribes. These were swept aside,
+however, though in the action Petros rather amused the British officers
+by the fact that he would persist in firing his few guns at the mountain
+landscape at large. "Hadn't you better wait till you have a target of
+some sort to fire at?" they urged. "You won't hurt the rocks, even if
+that is your object." "The noise will impress the Kurds," said Petros,
+and went on wasting his small supply of artillery cartridges. Barzan
+village was stormed and burned, the only remarkable piece of loot
+secured therein being a copy of the Book of Common Prayer. It bore the
+stamp of a Canadian parish--"St. Luke, North Battleford, Saskatchewan.
+_Not to be taken away._" Had the little book been able to speak, it
+might have told of strange adventures.
+
+All this took time, however, and provisions began to fail. While the
+rations lasted, there had been little looting, if any; but when men are
+hungry it takes better discipline than that of such a force as this to
+keep them to their ranks and duty. Also, day after day of pitiless cold
+rain (such as is common in late autumn in this land) began to tell on
+the health and spirits of the Urmi plainsmen, who were quite unused to
+such conditions of travel as these. Many broke down altogether, more
+than 100 died on the way--the mortality among the animals being also
+very heavy--while hundreds abandoned rifles and gear, and turned back to
+the refuge of the British once more. The subsequent comment of the
+British officers on this proceeding was terse and forcible. Stripped of
+some rather unquotable verbiage, it amounts to the statement that a
+Tyari man may be as big a thief as heaven ever made, but at least he
+will leave his head before his rifle! In fact, one of the two wings into
+which the force was divided, that composed of Urmi men, had lost all
+spirit and "go" before they were half-way through the mountains. Had
+they had to face an enemy of any enterprise, they would have been like
+sheep before the butcher.
+
+At this moment news came from the mountaineers of Tyari and Tkhuma
+which, though different enough in character from that current among the
+plainsmen, was at least equally fatal as far as the success of the
+expedition was concerned. These clansmen formed the left, or western, of
+the two columns of advance, and when the defeated Zibari Kurds retired
+in the westerly direction, they had pursued them till they had lost
+touch with their Urmi companions. Now they were in their own mountains,
+free from all control, and well armed; their faces were toward their own
+homes, and also toward the homes of their hereditary enemies.
+
+What did they care for Urmi men and the settlement of Persia, when
+balanced against such a chance of loot and vengeance? Off they went on
+the raid, seeing in every Kurd a foe, in every village lawful prize.
+Nerwa and Rikan were turned out and burned, Tyari men being quite
+reckless of the fact that in all Kurdistan none had been so orderly and
+so loyal to the British as the men of these two districts! Word had gone
+to the Agha of Chal that he was to cut off the retreat of the fleeing
+Zibaris, and he had come out, more or less as an ally of the Assyrians,
+to do so. Either from deliberate treachery, or merely from the
+indiscipline natural in such a force, troops of the Tyari and Tkhuma men
+got round his flank and into his villages, and Chal also went up in
+flame and smoke. A glance at the map will show that their wild career
+had now brought them again to the Zab, and to the district of Berwar.
+Mira Reshid,[179] the biggest brigand in the district, now held this
+land as representing British Authority (having undergone, we hope, a
+change of soul like Petros Agha); and he now gathered his forces and
+held the bridges over the Zab in the name of King George, while a most
+naturally indignant British Political officer was hurrying up from
+Dohuk with such police as he could gather. The mountaineers' wild career
+was now stayed, and like schoolboys who have broken bounds, anticipatory
+of dire consequences, but yet feeling that the "rag" had been worth it,
+they obeyed the angry master's orders, and returned to the plains and
+British authority. The Urmi men, feeling that they could do nothing by
+themselves, had also drifted back; and Petros Agha himself, having
+entirely lost his army, found that he and his "personal staff" could do
+nothing but follow their example. He reported on arrival that he had not
+been able to do what he intended, but he was sure that the Government
+would be pleased, "because the moral effect upon the Kurds was so
+extremely good!"[180]
+
+As it happened Government was anything but pleased; the whole expedition
+had failed, the money spent on it was wasted, the problem that they had
+hoped solved was still on their hands, and the Kurds, whom it was most
+important just then to keep quiet and contented, were all in a state of
+entirely justifiable suspicion and wrath. How could they be expected to
+believe that this was not what Government had intended? Those
+responsible for the arrangements that had broken down so utterly were,
+of course, furious, and planned condign punishment for the guilty
+hillmen; but these were vetoed by the Political authorities, who perhaps
+felt that, whatever the guilt of the men of Tyari, the blame did not
+lie entirely with them! The camp at Mindan was reorganised and set going
+once more, and harassed authority set itself to consider what could be
+done with a problem difficult enough before, and now tangled worse than
+ever. One thing only was clear, that in any case it was hopeless to
+attempt anything till spring; and so refugees and British, each
+extremely cross with the other, settled down for the winter in camp at
+Mindan, with nothing settled but the extreme difficulty of a settlement!
+
+Government fell back on a scheme of "settlement by infiltration," or
+putting the people on the sites of villages that had "gone vacant" in
+time past, either through the war, or by virtue of the general decline
+of population during the later years of the Ottoman Empire. It was, of
+course, not the "enclave" that had once been planned for them and which
+they had been given the opportunity of securing, nor was it "their own
+country" for most of them, and they did not at all like the notion of
+being put where they could go, with Moslem neighbours and sometimes
+Moslem landlords.
+
+Their behaviour towards these was not, it must be owned, altogether
+conciliatory. There were cases of villagers put under a particularly
+good landlord (and a good Moslem gentleman _is_ a gentleman), who
+accepted large advances from him on condition of promising to reap his
+crops at a certain wage-rate in harvest, and then (with true up-to-date
+spirit) struck for a large advance at the last moment! Even then the
+landlord was not anxious to take steps. It was, he said, a point of
+honour with him: he had never put any tenant, of any religion, in the
+law courts yet.
+
+"Neither shall you now, Agha," said the local Political officer; "but
+the Government has its honour, too, and these fellows shall carry out a
+contract to which the Government was a party."
+
+In another case, too, one had to admit that the Christians were asking
+for trouble. It is not neighbourly to kill a pig, cut him up, and put
+the _disjecta membra_ of him in and about the only spring from which
+your Mussulman neighbours have to draw their water!
+
+Delay followed delay, it seeming to be the policy of the Government to
+keep those who were getting on one another's nerves tied together in
+idleness. Home authority said that it would give a "block grant" of
+£500,000 to settle the whole Assyrian problem, but would not allow those
+on the spot to get to work at the plan they had prepared, being
+apparently under the impression that when you are settling people "on
+the land" they can begin farming operations on it at any season. "I am
+willing to tackle Joshua's job," said a harassed official, "and try to
+settle these tribes in a promised land of sorts. Still, unlike Joshua, I
+cannot stop the sun, and the summer is advancing now!"
+
+At last permission was received, and preparations commenced for the
+movement of the people, tribe by tribe, to villages on and about the
+northern border of Irak. The fact that the border was still undefined,
+and the only thing clear to everyone on the spot was that the line
+suggested by the unratified Treaty of Sèvres was unworkable, added yet
+another element of confusion to the problem. One person who was doing
+his efficient best to "queer the whole show" was Petros Agha. When
+inquiry was made into the fiasco of November, 1920, that worthy had got
+off at least as cheaply as he deserved, being acquitted of anything
+worse than incompetence and gross mismanagement. There was nothing to
+show that he intended Tyari and Tkhuma to go off and raid as they did,
+when he assigned to them just that part of his line from which it was
+easiest to do so! Thus, he had not been put into prison with others, and
+was using his freedom to intrigue against any plan of settling his
+people which was not under his control.
+
+His dream now (and how far the man believes in his own dreams is a
+problem beyond our solving) was of an "independent Assyria," a thin
+strip that should stretch between Turkish and Irak territory, from Urmi
+in Persia to Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, the whole to be under
+French protection! This he put forward at the moment when the French
+were deciding that even Cilicia was beyond their power to hold; and he
+perpetually urged all of his nation to have nothing to do with any
+British schemes for their disposal, for was not he, Petros Agha, just
+coming back with boundless supplies of French rifles and French
+napoleons, to lead them back in triumph to their own land once more?
+That at least was the song sung by his agents in Mindan camp in his
+name, and no suggestion as to the desirability of shepherding the man
+out of the country met with any response. In particular, his influence
+was thrown against the most hopeful element in the Government
+scheme--viz., the reconstitution of the Assyrian contingent. The attempt
+to raise an Arab force in Mesopotamia was not looking too promising just
+then, and military men were proposing to collect afresh the force that
+they had so unfortunately thrown away before, and to use the best
+fighting element in Irak in the defence of the land. It was to be as
+numerous a force as the nation could raise, and to be officered by
+British officers.[181] Petros passed the word round (or his agents in
+camp did it for him), that no man who regarded Petros as his leader must
+enlist, and Government would not allow those charged with recruiting for
+the force to stop this counter-Government propaganda! It says something
+for the possibilities of using this nationality in the one way it can be
+really of use, that under these circumstances some 600 men were
+enrolled. On the final removal of Petros (see below) this number went up
+at once to over 2,000. It was only British advice, given for the sake of
+the people, that fixed that limit.
+
+However, the wheels continued to revolve, if slowly, and with a vast
+amount of creaking and of worry to political officers who had the work
+of settling some 10,000 recalcitrant people. This trifling job was
+thrown in as a sort of additional faggot on the top of an already heavy
+load! Arrangements were come to with the Kurds of Berwar for the return
+of the Christians to that district, and to that of Ashitha beyond it, it
+being held that if that country was perhaps not strictly in Irak, at
+least it had never been efficiently in Turkey! The local Kurds, indeed,
+behaved quite unexpectedly well, seeming to regard the presence of their
+old Christian neighbours as a part of the established disorder of
+things, which had a sort of vested right to be restored. One was
+reminded of certain married couples who lead a "cat and dog life" in one
+another's society, but who yet both crave for the accustomed irritation
+if ever it is withdrawn! They recognised the right of the returning
+Christians to their old lands and villages, and even to a half of the
+crops that were in the ground, in places where the land was being
+cultivated by Kurds after the Christians had left it. Sometimes there
+were difficulties to settle, but surprisingly seldom.
+
+In one case, some nomad Kurds who owed no allegiance to anybody had
+developed ambitions to try a more settled life, and had sat them down in
+a little group of villages known as the Halamun district, far away from
+anywhere. These fellows showed no eagerness to clear out and let the
+lawful owners return. It took a visit from the assistant Political
+Officer and a long argument to put matters straight here, and matters at
+one time got so strained that the Kurds began debating whether it would
+not be better to kill the English intruder there and then. This matter
+was solved by the A.P.O. (who quite understood the matter under debate)
+coolly going to bed, and to sleep, in the midst of them, and so leaving
+them to talk the interesting problem over. When he woke up in the
+morning the Kurds were ready with a compromise. They would turn out of
+three of the four villages under debate, but wanted to retain one. This
+was agreed to. So matters went on. A pass through a seemingly impassable
+range is always found as you approach it. Caravan after caravan of
+tribesmen (each caravan perhaps 1,000 strong) was moved in turn from
+Mindan camp and up to the distributing centre at Dohuk, whence they
+could be forwarded, after considerable grumbling, to the destination
+which was marked out for them. Every man, woman, and child received the
+Government grant of 120 rupees at Dohuk, and sometimes there were
+unforeseen claimants. One lady walked in triumphant with a baby that had
+not been there when she left Mindan two days before. She had simply gone
+aside from the caravan as it travelled, produced this infant, and then
+put it on the top of the bundle she was carrying, and so finished the
+day's journey! She wanted the Government to make the usual "capitation
+grant" to this new arrival. Strictly, he (or she) was not entitled to
+it, as not having been on the roll at the time of the departure from
+Mindan! Still, a point was stretched in this case.
+
+The tribesmen were, of course, armed for self-defence, receiving a quota
+of rifles; and a very delicate business it was, in the light of recent
+events, to determine the proportion of guns that would enable them to
+defend themselves, and at the same time not tempt them to go a-raiding
+against their neighbours! This danger was a real one, as may be seen
+from the request of one Tabriz, an Amazonian lady who had led her own
+retainers in person through all the fighting, and who now specially
+demanded two rifles for herself. "Why two, Tabriz?" "One to kill the
+Turkish Agha of Chal, and the other to kill the man who killed my
+brother, and who is now in your gendarmerie!"
+
+In spite of such grateful flashes of humour the business was a weary
+one, hearing the same sort of grumbles from an endless succession of
+people over and over again, and trying to get them to see that, when
+they could not get what they would like, it was better to take what they
+could get! One thought with profound admiration of Moses. We had not 1
+per cent of the mass of people whom he had to manage for forty years;
+and yet--so far as is recorded--he only lost his temper once, and then
+only hit out at the rock instead of his tormentors! Would that we could
+say as much.
+
+Ultimately, the thing got done somehow, and the people put where, given
+honest work and fair luck, they had at least a chance of living. The
+writer, as a reward for his small share in the work, found himself
+identified, not with Moses or Joshua, but with a much humbler Scriptural
+character. A flippant friend declared that he had always wanted to make
+the acquaintance of "that Egyptian" (Acts xxi. 38) "who made an uproar,
+and led out into the wilderness 4,000 men that were murderers," and now
+at last he had done so! The final stage of the work consisted in the
+settlement of the Patriarchal family in the "English Mission House" at
+Bibaydi (the property of the Archbishop of Canterbury), which was
+repaired and made ready for their reception. During the later stages of
+the _volks-wanderung_, they had remained rather in the background,
+seeming to acquiesce in a rather unfortunate manner in their own
+supersession by Petros Agha and his partisans. It was, therefore, a
+satisfaction to see them settled in a place where they could resume
+their proper work for their people; and where the old loyalty has a
+chance of crystallising afresh, though perhaps in a new form, round the
+ancient ecclesiastical throne they represent. The ultimate removal of
+Petros Agha[182] from the land, and the arrangement of working
+understandings with the local Kurds, both help in the same direction,
+and the boy-patriarch shows signs (under the influence of his aunt and
+guardian) of developing on sound lines. Indications that the human boy
+in him is not entirely swamped by his office (the fact that the
+Patriarch has been known to snowball official callers suggests joyous
+visions of what might be at episcopal palaces in England) will probably
+be thought, at least by English folk, absolutely healthy symptoms!
+
+The mountaineers were thus settled in a place where they could live,
+even if they had to fight famine, local diseases, and domestic foes, and
+their settlement provides a centre to which scattered refugees may
+rally. With the Urmi sections, however, it is a different case. It was
+simply impossible for British authority to guarantee protection to these
+folk if they returned to their old home in Persia, and equally
+impossible for the Persian "Government" to protect them when there.
+
+The only effective authority in the Urmi district is the ruffian Simco,
+and the feeling against the return of the expelled Christians is far
+more pronounced in Persia than in Kurdistan. In Kurdistan the war was
+simply a large instance of the feuds that had always been fought out in
+the land since time began. In Persia it was an unprecedented, and
+largely successful, rising of an inferior and subject race! This is a
+thing far harder to forgive. Thus, in Kurdistan the Kurds were ready to
+clear out of "Christian lands" that they had actually occupied and
+tilled; in Persia, the Mussulmans were ploughing the Assyrian village
+sites, and building houses on the vineyards, in their readiness to face
+any loss and labour, if only all trace of the Christians could be
+obliterated.
+
+The British authorities declared that they could not repatriate men of
+Urmi. Every individual would receive a "capitation grant" similar to
+that given to others, and every family would be given lands, in Irak, if
+they would accept them. If they returned to Persia, it must be as
+individual Persian subjects at their own risk. It was a hard saying, but
+one does not see what else they could possibly say.
+
+Even so, the drawing force of their own land was too strong to be
+resisted in many cases. "The earth that bore us lies lightest on our
+bones," and some thousands of Urmi people (there were some 10,000 of
+them in all) sought to return to their own land. Many settled in
+Mesopotamian towns, and found work there, but hardly any accepted the
+lands in Irak that the Government would give. Nothing is harder than
+helping folk! At first there were difficulties about the reception of
+even individuals at the frontier, but this was overcome, and several
+thousand returning refugees drifted to centres like Hamadan and Tabriz
+(where others of their co-nationals had preceded them), there to wait
+and live as they could, till fate should open a way for them to return
+to their own. One must admit with deep regret that, for these people,
+the result of joining the Entente in the war has been the utter
+extinction of a community of Christians who trace back their life to the
+Magi who came to worship at the manger of Bethlehem. Even the life of
+their mountain brethren is not assured. If war, famine, and disease
+shall spare them, and if a British democracy that fought the war to
+secure the safety of small nations shall not make peace at the price of
+handing over a small allied nation to its avowed and bitter enemy, then
+it may, perhaps, be allowed the chance of doing what it desires to do,
+and of continuing to serve England in the only way in which it can
+render service. But that matter is not settled at the date of writing.
+
+The Assyrian settlement then has been, like the Mesopotamian settlement
+of which it is a part--like the whole Peace for that matter--a "botched
+job." A piece of work that might have been finely done has, in fact,
+been just patched up to go on somehow: because the Democracy that was
+going to make the world safe is too tired to finish its work; and
+because it was unwilling or unable to make up its mind as to what it
+wanted at all.
+
+The spectacle is a pitiable one, only redeemed by the magnificent work
+done in Mesopotamia by the officers who now seem likely to meet the
+usual reward of those who serve the British Government well!
+
+Turkey in 1918 was willing to accept absolutely any terms that Britain
+laid down, with thanks to Allah that they were not more severe. "We
+don't even care who governs us now," said a Turk of position to the
+writer (then a prisoner in Turkish hands in Anatolia). "No conceivable
+Government can be as bad as our own, and we only hope that the British
+will take us over." Then, because our "statesmen" did not know what they
+wanted, came delay, delay, delay: till the Turk could gather his forces
+again, and show himself, as usual, a good fighter, but uncivilised and
+uncivilisable; absolutely incapable of recognising that a _rayah_ has
+or can have rights, and equally incapable of seeing anything wrong in
+his habit of dealing with even the suspicion of "treason" by massacring
+every man and ravishing every woman! There may have been some excuse for
+maintaining him in Europe before the war, when to abolish him meant the
+outbreak of one. Now, after it, he has been maintained to be the seed of
+future trouble, by statesmen who proclaimed the "war to abolish war";
+and on their heads rests the guilt of the future massacres that will
+surely arise after the gigantic lesson they have given to the world that
+massacres can be committed with impunity, if only they are big and
+horrible enough!
+
+The war was "to make the world safe for Democracy." Has Democracy shown
+itself capable of dealing with the world? Its weaknesses are, first,
+that it cannot trust its agents. No race on earth has such
+administrators as the British; and the writer, who has been privileged
+to live with some of them and see their working, only hopes some day to
+be able to tell the story of what he has seen, that England may have at
+least the chance of knowing what manner of men they are who serve her in
+despised Mesopotamia. Yet, because one man in a hundred may show himself
+no true sahib, and may fall under temptations that he has never been
+trained to bear, Democracy at home hampers the ninety-nine good men for
+that reason; and will not allow the man on the spot, who knows, to act
+on his own judgment in crises, without delaying reference to those who
+neither know nor can know.
+
+Second, Democracy, as represented by its leaders at home, gives pledges
+lightly, and abandons them. "Its vows are lightly spoken; its faith is
+hard to bind." In the East, decision and firmness come first. A governor
+who has these will always be respected, even if he be cruel as no
+Englishman can be. Let him be just as well, and he is worshipped. But
+how can he be firm and decisive when those at home will not let him act
+for himself, and send him ever-varying orders from Downing Street?
+
+It is this conduct in the British Government; this failure, not in the
+men on the spot, but in those at home, that calls out all the worst
+qualities in Turk and Arab, Armenian and Assyrian. Few people know
+better than the writer how annoying those latter types can be, but they
+can respect and serve a Government that knows its own mind. It is
+because of this evil spirit that we have ourselves evoked that some now
+clamour for the complete evacuation of Mesopotamia.
+
+This is a claim to which in honour we cannot yield. Even apart from the
+guardianship that we have definitely accepted under treaty, we have
+contracted a moral obligation that it is impossible for us to disown. We
+did not make war on the inhabitants of Mesopotamia; we came to free them
+from the domination of the Turk. Having so freed them, we cannot
+honourably leave them till fresh authority has arisen to control the
+disorderly elements that swarm in every quarter of that land. That was
+our pledge to those who have stood by us through good and ill.
+
+We have cast out one unclean spirit; now, if we leave the house empty,
+seven other spirits more wicked than the Turk will enter in, and the
+last state of Mesopotamia will be worse than the first.
+
+_Printed by_ LOWE & BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LTD., _London, N.W. 1_.
+
+
+
+
+GLOSSARY
+
+
+     =Abba.= An Arab cloak. See p. 9.
+
+     =Agha.= "Master." The title of a petty chieftain, chiefly in use
+     among the Kurds.
+
+     =Araba.= A light carriage. See p. 6. The driver is an =Arabaji=.
+
+     =Ashiret.= "Feudatory." See p. 167.
+
+
+     =Baita= (or Bait). A living room (Syriac).
+
+     =Beg= (or Bey). Perhaps equivalent to "Honourable." A title given to
+     Europeans as well as to local chiefs.
+
+     =Belai.= Perhaps equivalent to Belvedere. See p. 142.
+
+     =Binbashi.= Lit. the commander of 1000 men. A "Major" (Turkish),
+     often written Bimbashi, for euphony.
+
+     =Birader.= "Brother" (Kurdish).
+
+
+     =Cadi.= "Judge" or "Magistrate."
+
+     =Capitulations.= The charters defining the privileges of foreign
+     residents in Turkey. Originally granted by the Sultans of the
+     sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and confirmed in their present
+     form in 1870.
+
+     =Chôl.= The desert. See p. 61.
+
+
+     =Dagh.= "Mountain" (Turkish).
+
+     =Deir.= "Monastery" (Syriac).
+
+     =Diwan.= Lit. "Sofa" or "Däis"; hence an "Audience" or "Reception."
+     =Diwan Khana=, "A Reception Room."
+
+
+     =Effendi.= "Sir." A title given especially to Europeans.
+
+
+     =Fedai.= An Armenian terrorist. See p. 245.
+
+     =Firman.= An Imperial rescript.
+
+     =Franga.= "Frank"; i.e. European.
+
+
+     =Giaour.= An "Infidel"; i.e. one who is not a Moslem.
+
+
+     =Haj.= The obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca, which is incumbent upon
+     all strict Moslems. =Haji=, one who has performed the pilgrimage.
+     Shiahs go also on "Haj" to the tomb of Hossein at Kerbela.
+
+     =Hakim.= A physician.
+
+     =Hamidié.= The battalions of irregular soldiers embodied by Abdul
+     Hamid II.
+
+     =Hegira.= The flight of Mohammed from Mecca in 622 A.D.
+
+
+     =Imaum.= Properly one who leads the Responses in the public services
+     in the Mosques. A Moslem divine, learned in the =Sheriat= or Sacred
+     Law.
+
+     =Iyba.= "Shame"; "Infra dig."
+
+
+     =Jebel.= "Mountain" (Arabic).
+
+     =Jehad.= A "Holy War," undertaken for the defence of Islam against
+     unbelievers.
+
+
+     =Kaimakam.= A Turkish district governor of the third rank, inferior
+     to a =Vali= and a =Mutaserif=. =Kaimakamlik=, the district governed by a
+     =Kaimakam=.
+
+     =Kala.= "Castle."
+
+     =Kalima.= The Moslem Confession of Faith.
+
+     =Katar.= "Mule." =Katarji.= A "Muleteer."
+
+     =Kavass.= An armed attendant, usually attached to a foreign
+     Consulate.
+
+     =Keleg.= A raft buoyed on inflated skins. See pp. 137 and 340.
+     =Kelegji=, the man who works it.
+
+     =Khan.= An "Inn" (Turkish). =Khanji=, an "Inn-keeper."
+
+     =Khan.= "Chief" (Persian). A title of respect.
+
+
+     =Malik.= "Chief" (Syriac). Akin to =Melek=, "King." A title in use
+     among the Mountain Syrians as about equivalent to =Agha= among the
+     Kurds.
+
+     =Mar.= "Lord." Fem. =Mart.= (Syriac). A title given by
+     the Syrians to the Saints and Bishops of their Church.
+
+     =Mejidié.= A Turkish silver coin of the value of twenty =piastres=.
+     Equivalent at present rates to about 3s. 9d.
+
+     =Millet.= Any subject religious sect officially recognized as
+     existing in the Ottoman Empire. See pp. 80 and 89.
+
+     =Mira.= "Ruler." A form of =Amir= or =Emir= (Arabic). A title given to
+     the Chief of the Yezidis, and to certain prominent Chiefs among the
+     Kurds.
+
+     =Mohurram.= The ten days' mourning observed by the Shiah Moslems in
+     memory of Hassan and Hosein, the sons of Ali: particularly in
+     memory of the latter, slain by his rival Yezid at Kerbela in 680.
+
+     =Mollah.= A Moslem priest.
+
+     =Mudir.= A Turkish local governor of the fourth and lowest rank;
+     inferior to a =Vali=, a =Mutaserif=, and a =Kaimakam=.
+
+     =Mutaserif.= A Turkish provincial governor of the second rank;
+     inferior to a =Vali.=
+
+
+     =Piastre.= A Turkish coin, worth about 2-1/4d.
+
+     =Pshitta.= The ancient Syriac version of the Holy Scriptures.
+
+
+     =Qasha.= A Christian priest (Syriac).
+
+
+     =Rabban.= Fem. =Rabbanta= (Syriac). A Christian who has adopted certain
+     Monastic obligations. See pp. 113 and 270.
+
+     =Rabbi.= "Teacher" (Syriac). The title usually given by the Syrians
+     to the members of the Archbishop's Assyrian Mission.
+
+     =Rais.= The head man of a village.
+
+     =Ramazan.= The great Moslem Fast, lasting one lunar month; during
+     which time no food may be taken from sunrise to sunset.
+
+     =Rayat.= "Subject" or "Serf"; see p. 167.
+
+     =Regie.= An inter-national trading company, which rents the tobacco
+     monopoly from the Ottoman Government.
+
+
+     =Sam.= The "Poison Wind" of the desert. See pp. 62 and 339.
+
+     =Santon.= A Moslem saint.
+
+     =Serai.= Strictly a "yard" or "quadrangle"; hence a house which is
+     built around a quadrangle: often "Government House."
+
+     =Seyyid.= A descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.
+
+     =Shamasha.= A Christian deacon (Syriac).
+
+     =Sheikh.= Lit. "Elder." A title given especially to Moslem chiefs
+     possessing high religious authority.
+
+     =Sheriat.= The "Sacred Law," as enunciated in the Koran.
+
+     =Shiah.= An important sect among the Moslems, dominant in Persia and
+     India, who maintain that Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, was his
+     legitimate and hereditary successor, and who accordingly repudiate
+     the authority of Ali's three predecessors in the Khalifate, Abu
+     Bekr, Omar, and Othman.
+
+     =Sufi.= A Moslem mystic of somewhat pantheistic sympathies.
+
+     =Sunni.= The Orthodox Moslems, dominant in Turkey, who regard Abu
+     Bekr, Omar, and Othman as being legitimate Khalifs and assign them
+     precedence over Ali.
+
+
+     =Tashnak.= The Armenian Revolutionary Society. See p. 245.
+
+     =Tel.= A prehistoric barrow or tumulus.
+
+
+     =Vali.= A Provincial Governor-General. A Turkish governor of the
+     highest rank.
+
+     =Vilayet.= The province under the jurisdiction of a =Vali=.
+
+
+     =Yezidi.= See chap. iv, pp. 87-110.
+
+
+     =Zaptieh.= A policeman of the Turkish constabulary. See p. 47.
+
+     =Ziaret.= A Moslem place of pilgrimage; usually the tomb of a saint.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+Abbassides, Khalifs at Baghdad, 4, 115-6 _n._, 349;
+  their last living descendant, 132
+
+Abdi Agha (of the Sindiguli Kurds), his stronghold at Tanina, 311-2;
+  his "hint" to the men of Amadia, 325-6
+
+Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey, incidents of his rule, 37, 38;
+  arms the Kurds as _Hamidié_ irregulars, 168;
+  countenances the Armenian Massacres, 232, 292;
+  his deposition deplored in Mosul, 79;
+  his reverence for Sheikh Abd-l-Kadr of Kirkuk, 343;
+  his endorsement of Ali's _Firman_ at Adeljivas, 243;
+  _lèse-majesté_ in the expression, H_{2}O., 226
+
+Abdurrahman the Kurd, his robbery of our messenger, 331;
+  his imprisonment and release, 331-3
+
+Abgarus, King of Osroëne, legend of, 18-9
+
+Ablahad the Deacon, his exploits and death, 192-4
+
+Abraham the Patriarch, claimed as tutelary saint of Urfa, 22-3;
+  teaches his descendants to offer sacrifices, 187
+
+Adeljivas, the Armenian priest of, and his hereditary privilege, 242-3
+
+Akra, 128-33; 401-2
+
+Aleppo, 1-7;
+  origin of name, 22 _n._
+
+Alexander the Great, his victory at Arbela, 115;
+  his design to fix his capital at Babylon, 356-7;
+  his theatre there, _ib._
+
+Ali (the fourth Khalif), his _Firman_ to the family
+   of the Armenian priest at Adeljivas, 242-3
+
+Ali Beg (Mira of the Yezidis), 93;
+  his castle, 106-7;
+  his authority over his followers, 107-8;
+  murdered by his successor, 108-9
+
+Ali Ihsan, Turkish General, 382-3
+
+Ali Riza (_Vali_ of Van), interviewed by David, the Fedai informer, 252;
+  his steps to suppress the Fedais, 252-7
+
+Alkosh, 116-7
+
+Amadia, 43-4, 321-33, 337;
+  _Kai makam_ of, endeavours to expel us from Sapna, 324-5;
+  our dealings with him concerning Abdurrahman the Kurd, 331-3
+
+Amida, _see_ Diarbekr
+
+Anastasius, Emperor, gives orders for the building of Daras, 49
+
+Antioch, 5;
+  seat of Patriarchate, 44-6
+
+Arabs, costume of, 9-10;
+  encampment of, 65-7;
+  unruliness of, 65, 85-6, 99, 399-401
+
+Aram, chief of the Fedais at Van, captured, 256-7;
+  Amnestied, and let loose again, 258-9
+
+Ararat, Aghri Dagh, 25, 335
+
+Archbishop's Assyrian Mission, _see_ Preface;
+  _also_, 153, 262, 271, 321
+
+Armenians, their national characteristics, 237-9;
+  their conquest by the Turks, 238;
+  their condition under the Turks, 35-6, 239-45;
+  their perverseness, 240-1;
+  massacred in 1895 at Urfa, 17 _n._;
+  also at Diarbekr, 34-6;
+  and elsewhere, 244-5;
+  escape their pursuers in the Chokh Mountains, 231-2;
+  sheltered by Zohar Agha, 232;
+  Their revolutionary organizations, 245-7;
+    their outbreaks at Mush and Van in 1905, 247-51;
+    their arsenals betrayed, 252-3;
+    their murder of the informer, 254;
+    their leaders captured, 255-7;
+    and amnestied at the Revolution, 257;
+    impracticability of their Programme of "Reform," 257-9;
+    massacres in the Great War, 360, 363-4, 383, 385, 387-91;
+    resistance of their fighting units, 378, 382
+
+Assur, _see_ Kala Shergat
+
+Assyrian Empire, 39, 122-4;
+  its final fall, 83-4, 114;
+  its conquest of Urmi, 200;
+  of Urartu, 236-7;
+  and of Babylon, 121, 352-3
+
+Assyrian remains, at Nineveh, 69, 83-5, 114;
+  at Bavian, 121-4;
+  at Amadia, 320-1;
+  at Kala Shergat, 343-6
+
+Assyrians, the East Syrian Highlanders supposed
+   to be descended from them, 112, 168;
+  their share in the Great War, 359-387;
+  under British protection at Baqubah, 392-400;
+  difficulties of re-settlement, 400-415, _see also_ East Syrian Christians
+
+Assyrian contingent, formation, 393-4;
+  exploits, 394-5, 399-400;
+  disbandment, 396;
+  re-embodiment, 399;
+  dissolution under Petros Agha, 404-5;
+  re-constitution under Iraq government, 408
+
+Avalanches, 285-6;
+  escapes from, 278, 285-6;
+  Armenian escape through, 231-2
+
+
+B
+
+Babylon, 350-7;
+  destroyed by Sennacherib, 121, 352-3;
+  rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, 352-4;
+  chosen by Alexander the Great as the capital of his empire, 356-7
+
+Babylonian charms, still in use, against the evil eye, etc., 329 _n._
+
+Babylonian remains, at Samarra, 348-9;
+  at Babylon, 350-7
+
+Baghdad, 349-50
+
+Baghdad Railway, progress of, at Aleppo, 1-2;
+  at Mosul, 85;
+  at Baghdad, 349-50
+
+Bajan, Malik of Balulan, his exploits and death, 189
+
+Baldwin I and II, Counts of Edessa in the Crusades, 20-1
+
+Bar Soma, Bishop of Nisibis, founds the University of Nisibis, 58
+
+Baqubah, formation of refugee camp, 386, 392, 396;
+  attacked by revolted Arabs, 399-400
+
+Barzan, the Sheikh of, 134-54;
+  his country, 134-7;
+  his "palace," 137-8;
+  his fair treatment of his subjects, 138, 153-4, 312-3;
+  devotion of his clansmen, 141, 143-5;
+  his war with the Government, 139-41, 143-5;
+  his reception of us at Suryi, 142-3;
+  his quashing of Tettu's _Jehad_, 143-4;
+  his request for medical assistance, 146-7;
+  his "score" off the Heriki Kurds, 149-51;
+  put to death by Turks, 369;
+  storming of Barzan village, 403
+
+Bashkala, 226-7, 231;
+  postal arrangements at, 226-7
+
+Bathing _al fresco_ in the mountain districts, 294-5
+
+Bavian, Assyrian sculptures at, 121-4
+
+Baz, 167, 303 _n._, 366, 370, 381
+
+Bazaar, humours of, at Akra, 132-3;
+  Persian, at Urmi, 196-7
+
+Bedr Khan Beg, Mira of Bohtan, his massacres of
+   the Syrian Christians in 1845, 37, 279, 338;
+  banished to Candia, 37 _n._;
+  reproved by his brother, 318
+
+Bedr Khan Beg, grandson of last, suppressed by the Government, 37
+
+Bedr Khan Beg, of the Begzadi Kurds, his dark and sunny sides, 190, 193-4
+
+Begzadi Kurds, 189
+
+Belisarius wins the battle of Daras, 52-3;
+  his previous escape, 56
+
+Berwar, 311, 319-20;
+  Jewish village raided on Good Fridays by the Tyari Christians, 304;
+  misdeeds of Mira Reshid, 311-16;
+  in the Great War, 366, 369, 404;
+  resettlement in, 409
+
+Bibaydi, building of English Mission House, 321 _et seq._;
+  its conversion into British military post, 395-6;
+  selection as the seat of the Patriarchate, 411
+
+Blood money, awarded in expiation for murder, 303
+
+Blood offerings, practised by Abraham, 187;
+  by the Yezidis at Sheikh Adi, 101, 104;
+  by the Christians at Mar B'Ishu, 187-8;
+  and at Mar Sergius and elsewhere, 205-6;
+  by Moslems at the Feast of Bairam, 187;
+  by all creeds at Noah's Altar on Judi Dagh, 335
+
+Bohtan, _see_ Bedr Khan Beg, tale of the Christian Captive, 337-8
+
+Bridges--at Shuster, said to have been
+   built by the captive Emperor Valerian, 16;
+  at Dara (Roman), 52 _n._;
+  at Nisibis (Roman), 59;
+  at Mosul, 82-3;
+  near Suryi (the "Bridge of Rocks" erected by the Heriki Kurds), 149;
+  in the mountain districts, 288;
+  at Chumba, 296;
+  at Lizan, held against the Kurdish raiders, 315
+
+British Consul (from Van, 1909), affronted by Sheikh Musa of Neri, 165-6;
+  attacked by escort in Gawar, 179-82;
+  entertained by an ingenuous Agha between Urmi and Van, 228-9;
+  (from Tabriz) at Urmi on the frontier commission, 219-20;
+  hears of our murder, and arranges for our funeral, 225-6;
+  (from Mosul) canvasses Abdi Agha in our interest, 325-6;
+  visits us at Amadia, 326, 331;
+  his interview with the Servian prophetess, 326;
+  (from Van, 1902) attacked by Kurds in Sapna, 329-30
+
+British Consulates--at Diarbekr, 40-1;
+  at Mosul, 69-70, 75, 340;
+  its establishment the cause of a mild religious riot, 79-80;
+  at Van, a good point for seeing the fight between
+   the Government troops and the Fedais, 253-4;
+  at Baghdad, 350
+
+British influence, a waning quantity, 40-1;
+  exerted on behalf of the Yezidis, 107;
+  to secure fair usage for the Sheikh of Barzan, 140;
+  and on behalf of the East Syrian Christians, 272;
+  a valuable factor for the prevention of oppression, 41, 263-4, 321, 324
+
+British invasion of Mesopotamia, 379, 382-4, 386-7
+
+Browne, the late Rev. W. H., incidents of his life at Qudshanis, 271-3;
+  his perilous predicament in the hands of the men of Tkhuma, 299-300
+
+
+C
+
+Capital punishment, as carried out at Mosul, 77-9;
+  as left in abeyance at Van, 244
+
+Carchemish, 13
+
+Cave monasteries, at Urfa, 18 _n._;
+  at Dara, 54-5;
+  at Rabban Hormizd, 117-20;
+  at Bavian, 121;
+  at Maragha, 185 _n._
+
+Censorship of books in Turkey, 226
+
+Census taking in the mountains, 174-5
+
+Châl, raided by the Tyari men, 297-8;
+  sacked by Assyrians, 377, 404
+
+Châl, The Agha of: _mudir_, murderer, and Jew farmer, 317;
+  joins coalition against Assyrians, 366;
+  reconciled to British authority, 404;
+  Tabriz' vendetta against him, 410
+
+Chaldæan Christians (Uniat Nestorians), 80-1;
+  in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd, 118-9;
+  proposal to eliminate them in Tal, 303-4;
+  their bishop in Sapna, his medæival methods of controversy, 321-3
+
+Charrae, Crassus' defeat at, 16;
+  Valerian's defeat at, _ib._;
+  its identity with Abraham's Haran, 22 _n._
+
+Chokh Dagh, the road across, 231;
+  escape of Armenian fugitives in its gorges, 231-2
+
+Chôl, the, 61-8
+
+Cholera, at Urmi, 207
+
+Chosroës I., king of the Sassanid Persians, his siege of Edessa, 31 _n._
+
+Chosroës II., king of the Sassanid Persians,
+   his capture of the "True Cross," 188;
+  his defeat by the Emperor Heraclius at Nineveh, 115;
+  his palace at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, 354
+
+Churches--at Dara, in the Cave Monastery, 55;
+  at Deir el Za'aferan, 44;
+  at Erdil, Oramar, 154-5;
+  at Rabat, Tal, rebuilt by the villagers, 302-3;
+  at Rabban Hormizd, 119-20;
+  at Shwawutha, 263, 274 _n._;
+  at Urfa, scene of the Armenian massacre, 17;
+  of Mar Abd' Ishu, Tal, 306-7;
+  of Mar B'Ishu, Gawar, 185-8;
+  of Mar Giwergis, Lizan, 315;
+  of Mar Sergius, Urmi, 205-6;
+  of Mar Shalitha, Qudshanis, 273-6;
+  of Mar Zeia Jilu, 171-3;
+    sack of, 370;
+  of Mart Miriam, Urmi, 202;
+  of Mart Miriam, Walto, 291;
+  of St. James at Nisibin (fourth-century Roman), 59-61;
+  of SS. Peter and Paul at Van, its property registered
+   in the names of the patron saints, 241
+
+Commandeering of our horses by Sheikh Musa at Neri, 165-6;
+  of an English traveller's horses by soldiers at Diza of Gawar, 182-3
+
+Constantius, Emperor, fortifies Amida, 30
+
+Costume, of Arabs and Kurds, 9-10;
+  of the upper official classes, 10;
+  of the Yezidis, 92, 106-8;
+  of Syrian and Kurdish mountaineers, 112-3, 143;
+  of Syrian women, 152;
+  of Persians at Urmi, 197;
+  of Seyyids at Urmi, 209;
+  in Mar Shimun's _Diwan_, 276
+
+Cox, Sir Percy, Chief Commissioner of Mesopotamia, 399, 411 _n._
+
+Crassus, defeated by the Parthians at Charrae, 16
+
+Crusaders, employed as captives to build Aleppo citadel, 3;
+  their capture and loss of Edessa, 20-1
+
+Cyaxares, king of the Medes, captures Nineveh, 83
+
+
+D
+
+Dara, anciently Daras, the building of the city, 48-9;
+  its ruins, 48-52;
+  the battle, 52-3;
+  the ancient quarries, 54-5
+
+David d'Mar Shimun, his leadership during the war, 366, 377, 381;
+  his escape at the murder of the Patriarch, 380;
+  his son elected to the Patriarchate, 400
+
+David, the Armenian informer, betrays the rebel arsenals at Van, 252-3;
+  murdered, 254
+
+Deir el Za'aferan, 44-6
+
+Derceto, worshipped at Edessa, 23
+
+Devil worship, _see_ Yezidis
+
+Dhuspas, _see_ Van
+
+Diarbekr, anciently Amida, its walls and monuments, 26-9;
+  its siege by Sapor, II, 30-1;
+  by Kobad, 31-3;
+  and by Farzman, 33-4;
+  massacre of the Armenians at, 34-5;
+  British Consulate at, 40-1;
+  massacres during the Great War, 389
+
+Diz, the _Qasha_ and the looted cow, 291-2;
+  during the war, 365, 372-4
+
+Diza of Gawar, 179, 180-3, 185
+
+Donkeys, regarded as _infra dig_ by the _Ashirets_, 288-9;
+  their use on _Kelegs_, 348 _n._
+
+
+E
+
+East Syrian Christians (Nestorians), 80-1, 112, 118-9;
+  origin and former importance of their church, 19, 264-5;
+  its present condition, 150-3, 202-4, 265;
+  their patriarch and hierarchy, 264-8, 112-3;
+  their churches, rites and ceremonies, 185-8, 274-6;
+  their constancy to their religion, 154, 177, 337-8
+
+Eden, traditional site of, 26, 235, 264
+
+Edessa, _see_ Urfa
+
+Enver Pasha, invades Trans-Caucasia 361-2;
+  his responsibility for Armenian massacres, 387, 391
+
+Episcopate in the East Syrian Church, hereditary, 266-8
+
+Erdil, 147-57
+
+Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, 122, 353;
+  his palace at Nineveh, Nebi Yunus, 84-5
+
+Euphrates River, crossing of, 12-3
+
+Evil Eye, belief in, and charms against, 328-9
+
+
+F
+
+Farzman, recaptures Amida from the Persians, 33-4
+
+Fasting, as a religious observance, importance of,
+   in an Oriental's eyes, 259, 277-8, 338, 342;
+  the "Rogation of the Ninevites," 85 _n._;
+  strictness of the Nestorian Lent, 303; 405 _n._
+
+Fedais (Armenian Terrorists), their methods and organization, 245-7;
+  their outbreak at Mush, 247-50;
+  their exploits there, 247-9;
+  their strongholds, 249-50;
+  their incursion into Van, 250-1;
+  their arsenals betrayed, 252-4;
+  their leaders captured, 255-6;
+    and amnestied, 257;
+  their proceedings since the Revolution, 257-9
+
+Ferries, across the Euphrates near Birijik, 12-3;
+  across the Tigris at Mosul, 82;
+  across the Zab at Barzan, 136-7
+
+Feuds, general conduct of, 167-9, 292-4;
+  dormant in the "Apostles'" house, 292;
+  composed by the Patriarch's intervention, 268-70, 298;
+  by payment of blood money, 303;
+  feuds between Christians and Kurds in Tergawar, 189-90, 192-4;
+  the author unwittingly involved, 223-5;
+  feuds between the men of Châl and Tkhuma, 143, 297-8;
+  between Reshid Beg and the men of Lizan, 314-5
+
+Fire worship, traces of, 101, 199-200
+
+Fishing, by dynamite, 229;
+  in the river-bed after an avalanche, 286
+
+Fountain worship, traces of, 100, 101
+
+
+G
+
+Gawar, 176-85;
+  oppression of the Christian inhabitants, 177-9;
+  attacked in the marshes by our own escort, 179-82;
+  state of the Government, 182-3;
+  the Cave of the Jann, 183-5;
+  massacres during the war, 362, 372;
+  proposed resettlement of Assyrians in, 397-8, 401-5
+
+German excavators, at Kala Shergat, 343-7;
+  at Babylon, 352-7
+
+Ghara, 311;
+  Reshid Agha wishes to be enrolled as a British subject, 323-4
+
+Ghufas, in use on the lower Tigris, 347-9
+
+Goblins, etc., belief in, 183-4, 333-5
+
+Gregory the Illuminator, Saint, converts the Armenians, 238-9
+
+
+H
+
+Haidar Beg, Vali of Mosul, his murder of Hormizd, 368;
+  of the Sheikh of Barzan, 369
+
+Haji Kas, and how his own son bought him, story of, 210-4
+
+Hakkiari, _see_ Barzan, Jilu, Neri, Oramar, Tkhuma, Tyari, etc.
+
+Hassan and Hosein, sons of Ali, the mourning
+   for them at Urmi (Mohurram), 207-8;
+  tombs of their comrades at Samarra, 348;
+  Pilgrimage to Hosein's tomb at Kerbela, 220, 350-1
+
+Hassan Beg, of the Marku Kurds, Governor of Urmi, 214-5
+
+Heraclius, Emperor, his victory over the Persians at Nineveh, 115
+
+Heriki Kurds, their migrations and depredations, 127-8, 159-60;
+  their original home, 162-3;
+  their tribal palladium, _ib._;
+  their encounter with the Sheikh of Barzan, 149-51;
+  their orisons at the shrine of Mar Sergius, 206;
+  "Hermit Crab Act" (so-called) 177-9;
+  plundered of their sheep by Assyrians during the war, 377
+
+Hermits' cells attached to churches, 206, 275 _n._
+
+Herodotus, inaccuracies in his description of _kelegs_ and _ghufas_, 348 _n._;
+  of the walls of Babylon, 351-2;
+  and of the Babylonian temples, 354-5
+
+High places for worship, 3, 62, 233-4, 343
+
+Hittites, traces of their empire, 13-4, 344
+
+Hormizd d'Mar Shimun, murdered by the Turkish government, 368
+
+Houses, at Diarbekr, 28;
+  at Mosul, 70-1;
+  identical with the plans of the ancient houses at Assur, 346;
+  at Akra, 129, 131;
+  in the mountain districts, 142 _n._, 153
+
+
+I
+
+Inns and lodgings, on the plains, 8-9, 109, 125-6;
+  in the mountains, 152-3, 155
+
+Invulnerability, reputations of, 189, 329-30
+
+Ishtar, Temple of, at Babylon, 354-6
+
+Ismail, Malik of Chumba, protects the
+   Turkish soldiers who seek refuge with him, 296-7
+
+
+J
+
+Jacobites, Monophysite Christians, 44-46;
+  at Deir el Za'aferan, the seat of their Patriarch, _ib._;
+  at Nisibin, 61;
+  at Mosul, 80-1;
+  at Sheikh Mattai, 118;
+  in Sapna, 312;
+  formerly at Tekrit, 347;
+  massacres during the Great War, 364, 391
+
+Jaffar Agha, murdered by the Shah at Tabriz, 216
+
+James of Nisibis, Saint, his defence of Nisibis, 57;
+  his church and tomb, 59-61
+
+Jebel Maklub, 116;
+  monastery of Sheikh Mattai, 118
+
+Jebel Sinjar, 67;
+  Yezidi stronghold, 90, 102, 154 _n._
+
+Jebel Tur, a district full of ancient monasteries, 42-3, 46
+
+Jevdet of Ghara, his difficulties as to the marriage of his daughter, 330-1
+
+Jevdet Bey, Vali of Van, his massacres of Assyrians, 383;
+  and of Armenians, 389, 390
+
+Jews at Mosul, claiming descent from the ten tribes, 81-2;
+  in Berwar, making the same claim, 304;
+  at Bashkala, 226;
+  suspected of ritual murder, 88 _n._;
+  raided by the Tyari Christians on Good Fridays, 304;
+  farmed by the Agha of Châl, 317;
+  and by other Kurdish Aghas, 317-8;
+  their pilgrimage to Nahum's tomb at Alkosh, 116;
+  and to Noah's altar, 335
+
+Jilu, 167-76;
+  wandering habits of the tribesmen, 169-71;
+  their Church of Mar Zeia, 171-3;
+  the _Diwan_ of their bishop, 173-4;
+  troubles of a census taker, 174-5;
+  during the war, 366, 370, 377
+
+Job, said to have dwelt at Urfa, 22 _n._
+
+Jonah the Prophet, his reputed tomb at Nineveh, 84-5;
+  his fast, 85 _n._;
+  his estimate of the size of Nineveh confirmed, 114
+
+Judi Dagh, the traditional resting-place of the Ark, 335-6
+
+Julian, Emperor, defeated by Sapor II, 57-8, 348
+
+Justinian, Emperor, attempts to suppress the Jacobites, 45;
+  his castle between Dara and Nisibin, 56
+
+
+K
+
+Kala Shergat, anciently Assur, excavations, 343-6
+
+Karaja Dagh, 25-6
+
+Kelegs, on the Tigris, 70, 340-2, 347;
+  on the Zab, 136-7;
+  employed for transporting the Assyrian sculptures, 122
+
+Kerbela, 220, 348, 350-1
+
+Khoja Nazr-ed-din and the Seyyid, story of, 209
+
+Khosbaba of Lizan, his leadership during the war, 371, 374, 381
+
+Khoshab Kala, 232-3
+
+Kirkuk, 343
+
+Kobad, king of the Sassanid Persians, captures Amida, 31-3;
+  sends his queen on pilgrimage to the monastery at Dara, 54 _n._;
+  defeats Justinian's army, 55-6
+
+Kouyunjik, _see_ Nineveh, origin of name, 102
+
+Kurds, their origin, 39 _n._; 111;
+  their costume, 9-10, 112-3;
+  their toughness and hardihood, 133, 168-9, 173-4, 278, 329-330;
+  their turbulence and plundering, 39-40, 216-8, 222-4, 263-4;
+  their oppression of Christians, 177-8, 279, 319, 337 _n._;
+    and of Yezidis, 99-100, 102;
+  favoured by the Government to its own detriment, 38-9, 178-9;
+  _see also_ Barzan, Begzadi, Châl, Heriki, Neri, Sapna,
+   Reshid Agha, Zohar Agha, &c.; in the Great War;
+  acquiescence in Assyrian repatriation, 409
+
+
+L
+
+Labaree, the Rev. Benjamin, of the American
+   Mission, murdered, 191 _n._, 224 _n._
+
+Languages of the various tribes, 10, 111-2, 265, 289
+
+Legends, of the Roman columns in Urfa Citadel, 18 _n._;
+  of King Abgarus of Osroëne, 18-9;
+  of Rabban Ephrem of Urfa, 21-2;
+  of Abraham at Urfa, 22-3;
+  of Sheikh Adi and Melek Taüs, 105;
+  of Rabban Hormizd at Sheikh Mattai, 117-8;
+  of the woman of Sat and the Devil, 160-1;
+  of the True Cross, 188;
+  of St. Thomas walking across Lake Urmi, 201;
+  of the Wise Men of the East, 202;
+  of Prester John, 262;
+  of the hoopoe, 283;
+  of the Tyari man and his father, 308-9;
+  of the Tyari men searching for the sun, 309-10;
+  of Noah and the Deluge, 90, 335-7
+
+Liturgy of the East Syrian Christians, 270 _n._, 275-6
+
+Lizan, raided by Mira Reshid of Berwar, 314-5;
+  the defence of the bridge, 315;
+  during the war, 366, 371, 374
+
+Lyke-wake for the dead, 278-9
+
+
+M
+
+Madness, as treated at "Churches of Name," 120, 206;
+  by the Tyari men, 308;
+  and by the Archbishop's Mission, 327-8
+
+Mardin, 42-6
+
+Mar Dinkha, Bishop of Tergawar, 191;
+  his martyrdom; 362
+
+Marku Kurds, 214, 218
+
+Marriage, inadmissible when the best man has been smoking, 277 _n._;
+  marriage problems submitted for our solution at Amadia, 330-1
+
+Mar Sergius, Bishop of Jilu, 172-4
+
+Mar Shimun (Benyamin), Patriarch of the East Syrian Christians, 262, 264;
+  his temporal authority, 262, 265-6, 279-80;
+  his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 262, 266-7, 271, 273-4;
+  his youth, 266-8;
+  his reputation among his people, 141, 268;
+  his interventions as peace-maker 268-70, 298;
+  his _Diwan_, 276-9;
+  his leadership of his people during the Great War, 359-81;
+  his personal heroism, 368, 371;
+  murder by Simko Agha, 380-1
+
+Mar Shimun (Ishai), his election to the Patriarchate, 400;
+  his resettlement at Bibaydi, 411
+
+Mar Shimun (Polus) his election to the Patriarchate, 381;
+  his death, 396-7
+
+Mawana, siege and relief, 192-3.
+
+Massacres, of the Armenians at Urfa, 17 _n._;
+  at Diarbekr, 34-6;
+  in Van _Vilayet_, 231-2, 244-5, 250, 254;
+  of the East Syrian Christians by Bedr Khan Beg, 37, 279;
+  of the Yezidis, 99-100, 102;
+  by Kobad at Amida, 32-3;
+  by Timour in Mesopotamia, 4-5, 265;
+  in the Great War, 360-4, 368, 372, 383-91
+
+Medical treatment, as suggested by a Yedizi _hakim_, 146;
+  as practised by a Syrian _hakim_, 174;
+  and by the Archbishop's Mission, 146-7, 173-4, 327-30, 332-3
+
+Mejid-es-Sultaneh, Governor of Urmi, 215;
+  administration of his estate, 221-3;
+  conduct during the war, 361, 385
+
+Melek Taüs, Satan, the Yezidi deity, 90-106
+
+Mergawar, 188, 360
+
+Mesopotamia, 16, 42, 61-4, 341-9;
+  irrigation scheme, 357-8;
+  British administration of, 373, 392-3, 396-9, 405-8, 412-15
+
+Mindan, refugee camp at, 398, 400, 406, 408-10
+
+Mohammed the Prophet, his reputed _Firman_ to
+   the Church of Mar Zeia, Jilu, 172-3;
+  and to the Patriarchal Church at Qudshanis, 279
+
+Mohammedans, mission work among, 204
+
+Mohurram, at Urmi, 215
+
+Money, in Turkey, 14-5
+
+Mosul, 69-83, 85-6, 340-1;
+  description of city, 69-72;
+  incidents of life in it, 72-83
+
+Murderous attempts upon Europeans, upon the author
+   and the British Consul in Gawar, 179-82;
+  upon the author between Urmi and Van, 223-6;
+  upon the Rev. Benjamin Labaree (American),
+   murdered in 1905, 191 _n._, 224 _n._;
+  upon an Englishman in Hakkiari, 277 _n._;
+  upon Capt. Maunsell, R.A., British Consul at Van in 1902, 329
+
+Mush, Armenian outbreak, 247-50;
+  exploits of the Fedai parties, 247-9
+
+
+N
+
+Nabopolassar, Allied with Cyaxares against Nineveh, 83;
+  begins to rebuild Babylon, 352
+
+Nahum the Prophet, his tomb at Alkosh, 116-7
+
+Nazim Pasha, _Vali_ of Baghdad, at Mosul, 70;
+  makes peace with the Sheikh of Barzan, 140
+
+Nebuchadnezzar, his victory at Carchemish, 13;
+  his rebuilding of Babylon, 352-4;
+  claimed as an ancestor by some Mountain Syrians, 112
+
+Neri, the Sheikh of, 163-7;
+  Sheikh Obeid Allah, 163;
+  Sheikh Saddik, his tobacco smuggling, 163;
+  his banking account in London, 163-4;
+  his oppression of Christians, 164;
+  his judgment concerning the inspired cock, 164-5;
+  Sheikh Taha, 165;
+  his dispute with his uncle Abd-l-Kadr, 166-7;
+  his brother's (Sheikh Musa's) affront to the British Consul, 165-6
+
+Nestorians, _see_ East Syrian Christians
+
+Nimrud Dagh, 25, 235;
+  Fedai stronghold in crater, 249
+
+Nineveh, site of the city, 83-5, 114-5;
+  its size, 114;
+  its fall, 83-4;
+  battles upon the site, 115
+
+Niphates mountains, the modern Hakkiari, 135, 235
+
+Nisibin, anciently Nisibis, 56-61;
+  captured by Lucellus, 56;
+  besieged by Sapor II, 57;
+  ceded to Persia by Jovian, 57-8;
+  Bar Soma's University, 58;
+  Church of St. James, 59-61
+
+Noah, building of the Ark, 90;
+  voyage of the Ark, 335;
+  the Ark rests on Judi Dagh, Noah's Altar, tomb, and vineyard, 335-6;
+  the Ark represented as a _Ghufa_, 347-8
+
+
+O
+
+Old manuscripts, rumours of their existence, 154, 228
+
+Omar, second khalif, supposed to have granted
+   toleration to the Nestorians, 172, 279
+
+Omayyedes, Khalifs at Damascus, 103 _n._, 115-6 _n._
+
+Oramar, 148-57;
+  Agha of, joins coalition against Assyrians, 366;
+  betrays Cossack re-inforcement, 369;
+  his stronghold sacked, 377
+
+Osman Bey, _Vali_ of Mosul, his massacre of the Yezidis, 99-100
+
+Osroëne, _see_ Abgarus
+
+
+P
+
+Persian officials at Urmi, their impotence, 194, 208, 214-8;
+  their attempts to put down the Seyyids, 214-5;
+  and to remedy disorder by assassination, 215-6, 217-8, 378, 380;
+  conduct during the war, 360-2, 375-6, 379-80, 410
+
+Pennington, Capt., R.A.F., his flight from Miani to Urmi, 384
+
+Petros Ello of Baz, his youthful rogueries, 218;
+  his leadership of the Assyrian armies, 381-6;
+  his impracticable pretensions since the armistice, 394, 397-8, 407-8, 411;
+  his futile irruption into Hakkiari, 401-5
+
+Prester John, legend of, 262, 265
+
+Prisons in Turkey, 151, 331-2;
+  easy-going confinement of prisoners, 75, 243-4;
+  rumours of the employment of torture, 256;
+  escape of Qasha Tuma and his deacon, 301-2
+
+
+Q
+
+Qashas (priests), married men, 113;
+  usually non-combatants in fights, 190
+
+Qudshanis, 264-80;
+  site of village, 264, _see also_ Mar Shimun;
+  deserted by Patriarch, 364;
+  burned by Kurds, 366;
+  "Waters of Qudshanis," 374
+
+Qurbana (the Eucharist), among the East Syrian Christians, 275-6, 338;
+  a Jacobite monk's query respecting it, 46
+
+R
+
+Rabat, building of the church, 302-3
+
+Rabban Ephrem of Urfa, legend of, 21-2
+
+Rabban Hormizd, legend of, 117-8
+
+Rabban Hormizd, the Cave Monastery, 117-20
+
+Rabbans and Rabbantas, 113, 270-1
+
+Rabban Werda, 113;
+  at Sheikh Adi, 97-8;
+  at Rabban Hormizd, 118-9;
+  at Bavian, 123;
+  his journey to Bohtan, 337-8
+
+Raids, general theory and practice, 39-40, 167-9, 291, 323;
+  women not molested formerly, 168, 292;
+  raids by the Kurds on Urmi plain, 216-8, 223;
+  at Shwawutha, 263-4;
+  by Mira Reshid on Lizan, 314-6;
+  by the Tkhuma men on Châl, 297-8;
+  by the Diz men, 291-2;
+  by the Tyari men on Berwar, 304;
+  by the Kurds on the Yezidis, 99-100, 102;
+  _see also_ Bedr Khan Beg, Heriki Kurds, etc.
+
+Reshid Agha, of Ghara, his fifteen murders, and his
+   wish to become a British subject, 323-4
+
+Reshid Beg, Mira of Berwar, his brigandage, 311-3;
+  his profits as a tax-gatherer, 313;
+  his _Jehad_ against Lizan, 314-5;
+  his evasion of punishment, 316;
+  joins coalition against Assyrians, 366;
+  recognized as representative of British authority, 404
+
+Revolution in Turkey, general results, 38, 130-1, 257-61
+
+Ritual murder, charged against Jews and Yezidis, 88 _n._
+
+Roads, 16-7, 41-2, 47, 231
+
+Roman remains, near Aleppo, 7-8;
+  at Urfa, 17-8;
+  at Diarbekr, 26-9;
+  at Deir el Za'aferan, 44;
+  near Mardin, 48;
+  at Dara, 48-51, 54-6;
+  at Nisibin, 56-61;
+  between Urmi and Van, 227-8
+
+Rowandiz, Beg of, massacres the Yezidis, 102
+
+Russia, her support courted by Kurdish intriguers, 37, 139;
+  intervenes in the Tergawar frontier dispute, 195;
+  occupies Urmi, 208, 220;
+  the asylum of the Armenian revolutionists, 245-6;
+  evacuates Urmi, 360-1;
+  returns, 362, 375;
+  relieves Van, 365, 390;
+  invites the Assyrians to join in the war, 365;
+  accords them slight support, 366, 368-9, 371, 376-7;
+  collapses, 377-80
+
+
+S
+
+Sabonji Pasha, the "Tammany Boss" of Mosul, 73, 85;
+  foments the war with the Sheikh of Barzan, 139, 140 _n._
+
+Sakkiyehs, on the Tigris banks, 343
+
+Saladin, 21;
+  builds the citadel at Aleppo, 3;
+  owner of Khoshab Kala, 232-3
+
+Salmas, 371-2, 374, 376
+
+Samarra, 348-9
+
+Sapna, eastern portion, _see_ Barzan, 135-8;
+  anarchy in western portion, 311-3;
+  the Chaldaean bishop and his intrigues, 321-3;
+  during the war, 366;
+  re-settlement schemes, 395-6, 411
+
+Sapor I, king of the Sassanid Persians, defeats the Emperor Valerian, 16
+
+Sapor II, king of the Sassanid Persians, captures Amida, 30-1;
+  repulsed at Nisibis, 57;
+  defeats the Emperor Julian, 57-8, 348
+
+Sargon, king of Assyria, leads the ten tribes of Israel captive, 81-2, 304
+
+Sassanian Empire, _see_ Chosroës, Kobad, and Sapor;
+  _also_ Bar Soma
+
+Sassanian remains, at Urfa, 18;
+  at Seleucia Ctesiphon, 354
+
+Sat, tale of the woman of Sat, 160-1;
+  the forgotten _Mudir_, 161-2;
+  the Heriki Valley, 162-3
+
+Savage and Scott-Ollson, Capts., 14th Hussars.
+   Rescue of Assyrian refugees, 386
+
+Second sight, instances of, 304-6, 326-7
+
+Seleucid Empire, 343
+
+Seljuk sultans, 21, 132
+
+Seljukian remains, 232
+
+Sennacherib, king of Assyria, his destruction of Babylon, 121, 352-3;
+  his palace at Nineveh (Koyunjik), 83-4;
+  his quarries at Bavian, 121-4
+
+Serpent worship, traces of, 101
+
+Seyyid Ullah, of Mosul, his burglaries and smuggling, 74-5
+
+Seyyids, at Urmi, their insolence, 208-9;
+  attempts to deal with them by Governors of Urmi, 208-15;
+  and by Bedr Khan Beg, 190-1;
+  _see also_ Khoja Nazr-ed-din, and Haji Kas
+
+Shamashas, deacons, in the East Syrian Church, 112, 190, 192-4
+
+Shamsdin, _see_ Neri
+
+Sheikh Adi, the Yezidi Prophet, 104-5
+
+Sheikh Adi, Yezidi Temple, 90-101
+
+Sheikh Mattai, monastery, 117-8
+
+Shwawutha, raided by Kurds during author's stay there, 263-4;
+  church, 274 _n._
+
+Simko, Agha of the Shekak Kurds, 216, 370;
+  allies himself with the Assyrians and Armenians, 378-9;
+  turns traitor and assassinates Mar Shimun, 380-2;
+  his present predominance at Urmi, 412
+
+Sindiguli Kurds, 311-2
+
+Sinsariskun (Sardanapalus), king of Assyria, his death, 83;
+  his temple at Assur, 344
+
+Sipan Dagh, 25, 335 _n._
+
+Stones, set up as votive monuments, 15, 233;
+  as sepulchral cairns, 15-6
+
+Sun worship, traces of, 101;
+  _see also_ High Places
+
+Superstitions, of Jann, goblins, etc. 183-4, 277, 333-5;
+  of the _Hiblabashi_ or vampire, 333-4;
+  of the _Khwarha_, 306;
+  of unquiet spirits, 319;
+  _see also_ Second sight, Evil eye, and Yezidis
+
+Surma, sister of Mar Shimun, 270-1;
+  installed in charge of magazine, 376-7;
+  her mission to England, 400-1
+
+Suryi, 142-7
+
+
+T
+
+Tahir Pasha, _Vali_ of Mosul, 76-8;
+  on the frontier commission at Urmi, 218-20;
+  _Vali_ at Van during Armenian outbreak, 251;
+  death, 368
+
+Tal, the rebuilding of Rabat Church, 302-3;
+  proposal for eliminating Chaldaean intruders, 303-4;
+  shrine of Mar Abd' Ishu, 306-7;
+  during the war, 371-4
+
+Talaat Pasha, his massacres of Armenians, 387-91
+
+Taxes, 14-5;
+  corrupt assessments, 38-9
+
+Tax-gathering, by the _Malmudir_ at Akra, 129-31;
+  in the mountain districts, 161-3, 175 _n._;
+  by the sheikh of Barzan, 150-1;
+  by Mira Reshid of Berwar, 313-4
+
+Tekrit, 347
+
+Tendurek Dagh, 235;
+  Fedai stronghold, 249-50
+
+Tenure of land, in Turkey, 14;
+  in Persia, 221-2
+
+Tergawar, 188-95;
+  turbulence of the Christian tribesmen, 189-90, 192;
+  their chief, Bajan, 189;
+  their bishop, Mar Dinkha, 191;
+  their defence and relief of Mawana, 192-3;
+  driven from their homes by the Ottoman occupation, 194;
+  enlisted as garrisons by the villages near Urmi, 218, 223;
+  installed in Mejid-es-Sultaneh's villages, 220-3;
+  return to their homes, 194-5;
+  driven out in Great War, 360
+
+Tettu Agha, suppressed by the Sheikh of Barzan, 143-4
+
+Thaddeus, Saint (Mar Adai), the Apostle of the East, 18-9, 104
+
+Thomas, Bishop of Amida, 34;
+  builder of Daras, 49
+
+Thomas, Saint, the Apostle of India, 18-9;
+  legend of his walking across Lake Urmi, 201
+
+"Three Children," the, their burial-place, 343
+
+Tigris River, at Diarbekr, 26-7;
+  at Mosul, 69-70, 82-3, 114;
+  Mosul to Baghdad, 340-9
+
+Timour the Tartar, his ravages in Mesopotamia, 4-5, 265;
+  his repulse from the citadel of Mardin, 44
+
+Tiridates, king of Armenia, his palace at Amida, 29;
+  his conversion to Christianity, 238-9
+
+Tkhuma, 143, 284;
+  fighting reputation of the clansmen, 293;
+  their views on frog-eating, 289;
+  their raid on the Kurds of Châl, 297-8;
+  their readiness to resent a slight, 298;
+  their treatment of a tackless teetotaler, 298-9;
+  and of an intrusive ethnologist, 300-1;
+  the Rev. W.H. Browne in a dangerous predicament among them, 299-300;
+  during the war, 366, 369-71, 404-6
+
+Travelling, on the plains, 6-7, 41-2, 47-8;
+  across the Chôl, 61-4, 339-40;
+  in the mountain districts, 111, 113-4, 124-5,
+   134-6, 138, 147-9, 155-9, 287-8;
+  by _keleg_ down the rivers, 341-2
+
+Tree worship, traces of, 100, 127 _n._, 205
+
+True Cross, a Legend of the, 188
+
+Tuma, Qasha of Tyari, volunteers to kill the Rev. W. H. Browne's enemies, 273;
+  imprisoned at Amadia, and breaks out, 301-2
+
+Turkish officials, their courtesy, 161, 179, 243;
+  their corruption and laziness, 38-9, 73-6, 130-1,
+   178-9, 180-2, 239-40, 313, 315-6;
+  their occasional outbursts of ferocity, 34-6, 244-5;
+  individuals under the thumb of local chiefs, 163, 312;
+  or forgotten in remote corners, 161-2;
+  the prospect under the new _régime_, 38, 130-1, 259-61, 357-8;
+  _see also_ Tahir Pasha, a Sabonji Pasha, and Amadia, _Kaimakam_ of
+
+Turkish soldiers, their ill-treatment by Government, 38, 229-31;
+  their good behaviour, 229-31, 253
+
+Tyari, 284-8;
+  prejudices of the clansmen, 288-90;
+  their _amour propre_, 290;
+  their fighting reputation, 293;
+  their feuds and raids, 273, 290-4;
+  their representatives volunteer to aid the
+   British Army in South Africa, 272;
+  their primitive habits, 294-5;
+  their chivalry, 295-7;
+  their skill in prison breaking, 301-2;
+  their devotional raids on the Jews of Berwar, 304;
+  their reputation of being "all mad together," 308, 309 _n._;
+  their treatment of lunacy, 308;
+  their former method of dealing with old age, 308-9;
+  their exploits in the Great War, 366, 370, 385, 403-6
+
+
+U
+
+Urfa, formerly Edessa, 17-23, 27, 389
+
+Ur of the Chaldees, site of, 22
+
+Urartian remains, at Firek Gol., 123 _n._;
+  at Khoshab, 233;
+  at Van, 236-7, 253
+
+Urartu, ancient empire of, 236-7
+
+Urmi, 196-7, 205-20;
+  vicissitudes during the Great War, 360-2, 369, 371-2, 375-6, 379, 381-5;
+  conditions since the war, 412-3;
+  difficulties with the Urmi Christians, 394, 397, 403-4, 407, 412-3
+
+Urmi, Lake, 200-1
+
+
+V
+
+Valerian, Emperor, defeated by Sapor I, 16
+
+Vampires, belief in, 333-4
+
+Van, anciently Dhuspas, 245-61;
+  capital of the Empire of Urartu, 236-7;
+  Armenian outbreak at, 250-7;
+  its fate during the war, 365, 383, 389-90
+
+Van Lake, 235-6;
+  curative properties of its waters, 236
+
+Volcanic districts in Kurdistan, 24-6, 41-2, 235, 249-50, 340
+
+
+W
+
+War song of the Assyrians, 365-6
+
+Wild animals, 63-4, 126, 155, 280-3
+
+Wilson, Sir Arnold, Acting Chief Commissioner, Mesopotamia, 396 _n._, 398-9
+
+Wise men of the East, legend of the, 202, 413
+
+
+X
+
+Xenophon, his fording of the Euphrates, 12;
+  his march up the banks of the Tigris, 342 _n._, 347;
+  and across the site of Nineveh, 114;
+  his encounters with the Carduchi, 39 _n._
+
+Xerxes, trilingual inscription at Van, 236-7
+
+
+Y
+
+Yailas, defence and evacuation of, 370-4
+
+Yezidis, 87-100;
+  their belief, 88, 98-9, 100-6;
+  their temple at Sheikh Adi, 91-100;
+  their stronghold on Jebel Sinjar, 89-90, 102, 154 _n._;
+  their Mira, 106-9;
+  their ill-repute among their neighbours, 88-9;
+  oppressed, proscribed, and massacred, 99-100, 102, 109;
+  the Yezidi _hakim_ at Barzan, 146;
+  immunity from massacre during the war, 391;
+  proposal to enrol in a contingent, 408 _n._
+
+
+Z
+
+Zab, River, in eastern Sapna, 135-7, 142;
+  at the "Bridge of Rocks," near Suryi, 149;
+  its sources, 177;
+  identified with the Pison, 264;
+  its gorges in Tyari, 284-9;
+  at Lizan bridge, 315;
+  scene of operations in the Great War, 368, 372, 374, 400, 403-4
+
+Zab River, Lesser, 343
+
+Zanghi the Atabek captures Edessa, 21
+
+Zaptiehs, as escort to European travellers, 46-7, 61, 67;
+  their opinion of Yezidis, 89;
+  considered _de trop_ in the Sheikh of Barzan's country, 135-6;
+  refuse to act against the Sheikh of Neri, 166;
+  attempt to shoot us in Gawar, 180-1
+
+Zibari Kurds, 403-4
+
+Ziggurats, at Kala Shergat, 344;
+  at Samarra, 348-9
+
+Zohar Agha of Zirnek, preserves the fugitive Armenians, 232
+
+Zoroaster, the Prophet of the Fire Worshippers, 199-200
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF EASTERN KURDISTAN WITH INSET OF MESOPOTAMIA
+
+SKETCH MAP ACCOMPANYING "THE CRADLE OF MANKIND," BY W. A. WIGRAM, B.D.,
+D.D., AND EDGAR T. A. WIGRAM. (A. & C. BLACK, LTD., LONDON.)]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A NEW VOLUME IN BLACK'S WATER-COLOUR SERIES.
+
+MESOPOTAMIA
+
+By E. CHEESMAN.
+
+Square Demy 8vo. Containing 16 full-page
+illustrations in colour.
+
+Price 2/6 net.
+
+Published by A. & C. BLACK, Ltd., 4, 5 & 6, Soho Sq., London, W.1
+
+Ancient Civilizations Series.
+
+THE STORY OF THE PHARAOHS
+
+By Rev. JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S.
+
+_Containing 32 full-page illustrations from photographs and 49
+illustrations in the text._
+
+=Second Edition.= =Price 10/6 net.= =By Post 11/6=
+
+It seems desirable, in view of the growing interest attaching to the
+Land of the Nile, that its story should be told in a form readily
+accessible to the general public; an attempt has therefore been made to
+recount the History of Egypt within reasonable compass, and in a form
+interesting to the ordinary reader. For the materials employed, recourse
+has been had to the best and most modern authorities.
+
+THE SEA-KINGS OF CRETE
+
+And the Prehistoric Civilization of Greece.
+
+By Rev. JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S.
+
+_Containing 32 full-page illustrations from photographs. Large Crown
+8vo., cloth, gilt top._
+
+=Third Edition.= =Price 10/6 net.= =By Post 11/6=
+
+The writer's aim in this volume has been to present to the general
+reader, in an untechnical and readable form, the result of the various
+explorations, which have recently done so much to enlarge our knowledge
+of the great prehistoric civilization which preceded that of classic
+Greece, and on whose ruins Greek culture, as we know it, arose.
+
+PEEPS AT ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
+
+PEEPS AT ANCIENT EGYPT. PEEPS AT ANCIENT GREECE. PEEPS AT ANCIENT
+ASSYRIA. PEEPS AT ANCIENT ROME.
+
+_Containing 12 full-page illustrations in colour. Large Crown 8vo.
+Picture Cover._
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+=Price 3/= net.= =By Post 3/5=
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+In these volumes the writer's aim has been to put before his readers a
+series of pictures of the varied aspects of life in the great days of
+some of the most interesting countries of the world. The lives of
+ancient people in times of peace and war, the splendours of the royal
+courts, the achievements of the nations in exploration and conquest, and
+the accomplishments of their genius in architecture are all pictured;
+while special stress has been laid on the depiction of child-life and
+its surroundings. The coloured illustrations depict the appearance and
+equipment of the ancient races while those in black and white present
+some specimens of the nation's work in art and building.
+
+EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE
+
+By EDITH A. BROWNE, F.R.G.S.
+
+_Square Demy 8vo. Cloth._ =Price 5/- net. By Post 5/4=
+
+Containing an Illustrated Glossary of Architectural Terms, 48 full page
+reproductions from photographs of famous Buildings, with Historical
+Notes upon each, and Introductory Text.
+
+"The book is excellently produced, and forms a volume at once
+instructive, charming, and full of interest. It must appeal equally to
+the architect, the student, the amateur, and that much quoted
+individual, the man in the street."--_Surveyor._
+
+Published by A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 & 6, Soho Square, London, W. 1.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The direct journey across the desert occupies about ten days, and
+this is the route followed by the Government pack mules which carry
+the mails; but we diverged slightly to the northward in order to visit
+Urfa, Diarbekr, and Mardin.
+
+[2] _Yaili_ is really a Turkish word meaning "springy."
+
+[3] Hierapolis, _alias_ Bambyce, or Bembij, was sacred to the worship
+of Astarte. Here one of the most notable remains is a great underground
+conduit, with deep circular inspection pits descending into it at
+frequent intervals. An American lady inspecting these pits observed
+artlessly that "now she understood where all those columns came from."
+Apparently she imagined that they had been extracted like so many corks!
+
+[4] A _Khanji_ keeps a _khan_ (an inn), just as an _Arabaji_ drives an
+_araba_ (a carriage), or a _Katarji_ a _katar_ (a mule). The _ji_ is
+simply a suffix meaning a worker.
+
+[5] It may be said that the Government revenue is entirely derived from
+the land; and it is at least quaint to observe that the pet ideal of
+our own extremest Radicalism is at present actually realized (of all
+places in the world) in Turkey!
+
+[6] An English cheque in Turkey will often pass from hand to hand like
+a banknote, and may be current for months before it reaches the bank.
+Indeed a cheque is more readily accepted than a banknote. It is more
+familiar to the money-changers. Also, if it gets purloined in the post,
+the loss is more easily recoverable.
+
+[7] Weights and measures are in a similar state of chaos: _e.g._ each
+village has its own "stone" (a real material stone varying in size and
+weight _ad libitum_), and will sell its produce by no other standard.
+
+[8] The bridge is now broken; but enough of it remains to reflect great
+credit on its builder, whether he was actually the Emperor Valerian or
+no.
+
+[9] This church was the scene of one of the most fiendish incidents in
+the terrible Armenian massacres of 1895. Over two thousand refugees of
+all ages and both sexes had crowded into the sacred edifice to seek
+sanctuary from their pursuers. The Moslems thrust through the doors
+and windows fragments of broken furniture and carpets saturated with
+paraffin, and burnt or suffocated every soul.
+
+[10] A legend attaches to these columns which should make a strong
+appeal to anyone with gambling instincts. One of the two is full of
+gold and silver; the other acts as stopper to a prodigious fountain
+of water which is capable of producing another Noachian flood. He who
+pulls down the former will win wealth beyond the dreams of avarice;
+but if he touches the latter he will eliminate mankind. Which is which
+no one can tell, for the two are precisely similar, and consequently
+nobody hitherto has had courage to risk the attempt.
+
+[11] There are many tombs and hermits' cells in the hill which faces
+the castle, similar to the combs and cells of Dara, which will be
+described in chap. iii. One of the tombs near the moat has a door
+formed of a great stone disc running in a groove and socket. Of this
+type in all probability was the tomb of our Lord.
+
+[12] The inhabitants of Osroëne might be quite correctly described as
+"Greeks"; that word being often used in the New Testament as merely
+equivalent to "Gentiles."
+
+[13] "They have continued Christian to this day," writes Eusebius; a
+statement which is not quite accurate, for Paganism was re-established
+later. Yet there were undoubtedly a large number of Christians in
+Edessa in Eusebius' day.
+
+[14] Many of the Crusaders had married Asiatic wives, and the children
+of such ill-assorted marriages were generally a pretty poor lot. This
+fact contributed very sensibly to the fall of the Latin kingdom of
+Jerusalem.
+
+[15] The true Ur of the Chaldees was either Erech or Tel Mugayir in
+Babylonia; but Haran, Abraham's later home, lay a considerable distance
+further north. Local traditions identify it with Harran (Carrhæ)
+about twenty-five miles south of Urfa, the proudest boast of whose
+inhabitants is the possession of Rebekah's Well. Other corroborative
+traditions assert that the Patriarch lost many cattle in fording the
+Euphrates near Birijik; and that the Arabic name of Aleppo (Haleb,
+"milk")was bestowed upon it in compliment to his pedigree cow. Jacob
+was certainly journeying northwards when he fled from Beersheba to
+Bethel; but this fact does not necessarily favour the Urfa tradition,
+for his direct line to Babylonia would cross an impassable desert. The
+Ibrahim of Urfa was perhaps some local hero who has got credited with
+his namesake's deeds. It may be added that a further tradition asserts
+that Urfa was the home of Job.
+
+[16] A multitude of basalt boulders covering quite a considerable
+area lie in the midst of the alluvial levels a little to the east of
+Nisibin. These are, of course, obviously volcanic, but it is not quite
+obvious how they get there: for Karaja and Nimrud, the nearest admitted
+craters, are each a hundred miles away.
+
+[17] It is said that they were cleared away once; and that the
+inhabitants promptly replaced them, lest they should lose the fees that
+accrued to them for helping carriages along the road!
+
+[18] The spacing of the towers also is just about the same as at Lugo
+and Astorga; but the irregular outline of the works is less usual, the
+Romans generally adopting a more formal plan.
+
+[19] The walls of Constantinople had similar double banquettes. In this
+case the walls were double; and the two walls, taken together, must
+have made a stronger defence than the single wall at Amida. But neither
+of the two, taken separately, was quite so formidable in itself.
+
+[20] The whole is built of basalt with yellow marble columns, and
+yellow marble bands here and there.
+
+[21] The science of war has made little progress in these parts since
+the days of the Assyrians. To this day a Kurdish chieftain, when
+besieging his rival's castle, will endeavour to force an entry by
+mining the walls with picks.
+
+[22] Zachariah of Mitylene.
+
+[23] Chosroes employed the same device in his siege of Edessa a little
+later. In this case the mine was fired prematurely and (lest the smoke
+should betray them) the defenders pelted the mound with fireballs
+so that the Persians never suspected that the real danger was under
+ground. Presently the fire got beyond all quenching, and the mound was
+destroyed completely; the smoke of its burning being visible fifty
+miles away. Such counter-strokes were rather dangerous, as sometimes
+the wall itself burst with the heat of the bonfire; but the basalt
+walls of Amida were doubtless pretty well inured.
+
+[24] Kobad's losses had amounted to 50,000, so there were plenty of
+_manes_ to appease.
+
+[25] We may quote a parallel incident which occurred in India soon
+after the Mutiny. An old cultivator was being examined as witness
+with regard to the outbreak in his town. He had heard a great row, he
+explained, but at first he took no notice. He thought it was "only
+the Rajah plundering the bazaar." But soon the riot came nearer, and
+he could distinguish the shouts of "Allah." And at that word he grew
+frightened. It must mean real mischief when the mob invoked the name of
+God!
+
+[26] See pp. 227, 338. Bedr Khan Beg's massacres of the mountain
+Christians occurred in 1843, and are described by Layard in his
+"Nineveh and its Remains." Under pressure from the British Ambassador,
+Bedr Khan and his family were eventually banished to Candia--"a totally
+inadequate punishment."
+
+[27] Or rather, he has now written the Code Napoleon side by side with
+this system, and left authority to take its choice between the two, and
+to apply the code that is least trouble in each case!
+
+[28] The Kurds are a very ancient people, no doubt identical with
+the "Carduchi" who gave so much trouble to the Ten Thousand in the
+Anabasis. Their modern Russian name "Kurdischi" is a transliteration of
+the Greek.
+
+[29] These oppressed nationalities cherish pathetically futile hopes
+of British intervention, recognizing rightly that England is the only
+disinterested power. But the only power ever likely to interfere
+effectively is Russia; and though those who have tried Russian rule
+have found themselves bitterly disillusioned, it must be admitted that
+the Russians preserve better order than the Turks. What the country
+needs is a set of self-sacrificing administrators, with no axe of their
+own to grind, who will devote themselves solely to the good of the
+people. No other nation can furnish such administrators as England: and
+no other nation so obstinately refuses to recognize their worth.
+
+[30] These monasteries have been visited and described by the Rev. O.
+H. Parry and Miss G. Lothian Bell.
+
+[31] _i.e._ "Believers in one nature"; the name was given them because
+they rejected the technical term enforced at Chalcedon, which declared
+that Christ existed "_in two natures_," the Divine and the Human.
+
+[32] It is a remarkable proof of the persistency of Eastern conditions
+that, up to the commencement of the present century, 1 piastre (2_d._)
+was still regarded as the regular day's wage.
+
+[33] The Chronicler also alludes to the baths as a monument fit to rank
+even with the granary and the cistern; but the limited time at our
+disposal did not allow us to identify these. The bridge and the river
+embankments are, however, conspicuous works.
+
+[34] The establishment of this hermit monastery must have followed
+immediately upon the building of the city: for it is written that
+in 526 the Queen of King Kobad, being possessed by a demon, and
+having sought relief in vain from her own magicians, sorcerers, and
+soothsayers (who only succeeded in "introducing more demons into her")
+came hither to consult a certain holy hermit named Moses, and was duly
+healed by his prayers. Kobad was, of course, officially a Zoroastrian
+(and privately, of all incredible things, a Communist); but even to
+this day the mountain Moslems not infrequently go on pilgrimage to
+Christian shrines.
+
+[35] Justinian, it may be noted, had equipped this army with such a
+plethora of commanders that their defeat can hardly cause surprise.
+
+[36] The snowfall on this occasion was even more prodigious in the
+mountains. The valley of Amadia was buried under an _average_ depth of
+fourteen feet, and not a man could stir beyond his own village for a
+period of fully four weeks! Fortunately the villagers had their winter
+stock of provisions and fuel, and so did not suffer like the nomads;
+but the hares and partridges were exterminated, and have only just
+begun to reappear.
+
+[37] The driving belt also formed part of the loot, and this was a
+good, useful bit of leather; so the game was generally voted quite
+worth the candle after all.
+
+[38] See p. 81 for an explanation of these terms.
+
+[39] The terms are not technically correct, but are used for clearness'
+sake.
+
+[39a] The terms are not technically correct, but are used for
+clearness' sake.
+
+[40] Jonah is still a great personage in the district. The Fast which
+he is said to have instituted, now known as the "Rogation of the
+Ninevites," is still observed annually by the members of all religious
+denominations--an extraordinary survival even in this extraordinary
+land.
+
+[41] Thus they are even charged with human sacrifices; and it is said
+that, when a Yezidi falls ill, his relatives seek to propitiate the
+Power of Evil in his favour by murdering a Christian or Kurd. The
+charge is widely believed, but quite unsupported. It reminds one of
+the old accusation of ritual murder which was so often brought against
+the Jews in mediæval Europe; and which, by the way, is still devoutly
+believed by the Syrians--"Surely you would not eat Jews' bread, Rabbi?
+How can you be sure it is not made with the blood of a Christian child?"
+
+[42] This is really the same word as Amir. The title is also given
+occasionally to some of the local Kurdish chiefs.
+
+[43] Mascot means simply a temple, and is used by the Yezidis for
+mosques and churches as well as for their own shrine. Etymologically it
+is no doubt identical with _masjid_, _mezquita_, mosque.
+
+[44] When approaching a village by night it is considered correct to
+give warning, either by sending a messenger ahead, or by firing a gun
+as one draws near, so that the villagers may be prepared for visitors.
+Otherwise it is not at all improbable that the intruders may be saluted
+with a fusillade!
+
+[45] The Yezidis all agree that their temple was built by Christian
+workmen, and the monks at Rabban Hormizd even went so far as to say
+that it was once a Christian church. The former statement is possibly
+true; but the latter highly improbable. Sheikh Adi must have been a
+holy place long before the days either of Christians or Yezidis; and
+that Christian monks may have occupied it for a time in the days of the
+Roman Empire is about the utmost that we can reasonably concede.
+
+[46] A hatchet forms part of the Mira's insignia when he is fully
+arrayed for performing religious rites; and a comb has also certain
+magic properties, as instanced on p. 306.
+
+[47] The Christians always remove their shoes in their churches, in
+addition to uncovering their heads.
+
+[48] Another chamber, now used as an oil store for the temple lamps,
+opens out of the sanctuary to the westward. It is conceivable that
+this may have been the original nave, following the true lines
+of Orientation; and that the naves on the south side were added
+subsequently when larger accommodation was required.
+
+[49] The Yezidis are so careful on this point that they even avoid
+words which are at all similar in sound to Sheitan, such as _shat_ an
+arrow and _keitan_ a thread.
+
+[50] _i.e._ "Standards."
+
+[51] They also act medicinally; the water in which they are washed
+being a great specific against every kind of disease.
+
+[52] When Mrs. Badger visited Sheikh Adi the priest showed her an image
+which they said was that of _Melek Taüs_. But this was almost certainly
+a bronze lamp in the form of a bird, which they produced to appease
+her importunity. We are informed, however, that a later visitor has
+actually seen and photographed one of the _sanjaks_.
+
+[53] These practices, of course, did not originate in the Mosaic
+ritual, and the Yezidis may possibly have borrowed them direct from a
+yet older source.
+
+[54] This owes its name to the fact of its having contained the word,
+Sheitan--now in every instance carefully erased.
+
+[55] It is possible that the Yezidis themselves at one time encouraged
+this misconception; for, so long as the Ommayedes were on the throne,
+Yezid's name may have helped to gain them toleration.
+
+[56] In this legend we meet with the only official explanation to
+account for _Melek Taüs_ being represented as a peacock. When the Marys
+came to the empty tomb and found no body within it, _Melek Taüs_ (says
+the legend) appeared to them as a Dervish and related what he had
+done. To rebuke their doubts, he took a cock which had been killed,
+cooked, and dismembered, and restored it to life in their sight. He
+then vanished; first informing them that henceforth he would choose
+to be worshipped in the form of the most beautiful of birds. The
+representation of Deities under the form of birds was familiar to the
+ancient Babylonians.
+
+[57] The duty of hospitality is incumbent upon all Eastern monasteries;
+and often where the monastery has become extinct this duty has passed
+to the present tenants of its lands.
+
+[58] From the days of "the Great Elchi" onward the English Ambassadors
+have interfered occasionally, and with some success, in favour of the
+persecuted Yezidis; and this fact explains their gratitude towards the
+English race.
+
+[59] "Divine right" is an axiom in the East; and the Khalifate soon
+became hereditary, though at first it was endeavoured to make it
+elective. To this day at Constantinople, though a Sultan may be deposed
+or murdered, it is always a member of the House of Othman who is
+appointed in his room.
+
+[60] Not the same nephew that we had met at Sheikh Adi.
+
+[61] This was really rather a bit of cheek. It would be thought
+presumptuous even in a Kurd.
+
+[62] A coarse local kind of Anise
+
+[63] See, for instance, the head on the title-page--a portrait of
+a Syrian priest, the late Qasha Khoshaba, who might have been a
+reincarnation of Sargon.
+
+[64] These caps are precisely of the shape which we see on Assyrian
+bas-reliefs.
+
+[65] A clean-shaven man in the East is regarded as something
+emasculate, and in order to escape reproach one must wear at least a
+moustache. Laymen often shave the beard and whiskers, but a bishop or
+priest never shaves; and to shave a priest is esteemed as practically
+equivalent to unfrocking him.
+
+[66] Gibbon takes the "six-score thousand persons who could not
+discern between their right hand and their left" as referring only to
+the children, and thus calculates the total population of Nineveh at
+700,000 souls. Taking a line from Mosul we might estimate that about
+150,000 could actually be housed within the walls.
+
+[67] Chosroës had sent him forth with the significant instruction: "If
+you cannot conquer, you can die."
+
+[68] On the same ground in 750 was fought the great battle which
+transferred the Khalifate from the dynasty of the Omayyades to the
+Abbassides. There can be few spots on the earth's surface which have
+seen three such decisive days.
+
+[69] One of these marshy valleys is known locally as the Dungeon of
+Solomon, that potent necromancer having here imprisoned the rebellious
+Jann, by pegging them into the mud.
+
+[70] The monastery of Sheikh Mattai, perched high up on the southern
+slopes of Jebel Maklub, is very similar to Rabban Hormizd in general
+situation, but consists of buildings, not of caves.
+
+[71] Of course he was: though physically (and we hope morally) the
+accuracy of the description was not so striking as might be wished.
+
+[72] A strong chain is advisable; for in one of the Tkhuma churches
+a lunatic who had been similarly tethered succeeded in wrenching the
+staple from the wall. The old priest entering next morning discovered
+him squatting on the altar, having torn up all the service books,
+and set the hangings on fire! He was further anxious to strangle
+the priest, who only just eluded him. Evidently this was a case of
+possession by Apollyon himself.
+
+[73] The nearest village to these sculptures is Hinnis, upon the right
+bank of the river at the point where our road struck it; but they take
+their name from the larger village of Bavian, situated on the left bank
+a little lower down.
+
+[74] There are several remains of reservoirs also, built on the
+southern side of the mountains by the Assyrians, and on the northern by
+the Urartians. In one instance (at Firek Gol, near Van) even the dam is
+still intact, but is no longer watertight.
+
+[75] Abdul Hamid, for all his shortcomings, was apparently a pretty
+good landlord. Khalilka had to pay to him only one-third of its rice
+crop and one-fifth of its other produce; which is a considerably
+smaller proportion than local custom would justify.
+
+[76] These trees are often "sacred trees," from which no one will dare
+to take fuel. For there are still "sacred trees" in this country--as
+there were in the days when the bas-reliefs of Nineveh were carved.
+
+[77] The _malmudir_ of Akra supervises the taxation of about 150
+villages, and about £10,000 in taxes pass annually through his hands.
+His salary is about £120, while that of a _kaimakam_ is £500 to £800,
+according to the importance of his district. These are not exactly
+princely (even when they are paid regularly), but it is, of course,
+possible to increase them by well-recognized, if not quite legitimate,
+means.
+
+[78] We spent the night in equally brotherly fashion, our beds being
+spread out for us side by side on the floor of the room. Our host even
+wished us to take turn and turn about with the hubble-bubble with which
+he solaced his last waking moments; but we pleaded that this was a
+taste which we had not acquired.
+
+[79] The prevalent opinion in Mosul was that the Tripoli, where the
+war was raging, was the Asiatic Tripoli. The comet which was visible
+about this time presaged destruction to the Italians, "because you
+will observe that the tail points towards Italy"--the aforesaid comet
+standing vertically in the north-eastern quarter of the sky.
+
+[80] Tuesday, it may be added, is esteemed inauspicious by Christians,
+because on that day Judas Iscariot made his covenant with the chief
+priests. Wednesday is the Yezidi Sabbath; but apparently anyone may
+work on Thursday. Thursday will probably be early closing day when
+reform is inaugurated in the land.
+
+[81] The Imaum is virtually a sort of parish clerk, leading the
+Responses in the public services at the mosque; and our friend was as
+gravely self-important as any English parish clerk could be.
+
+[82] The Sheikh tried to purchase peace honestly; but his enemies
+outraged even local morality by accepting his bribes, and persisting in
+their machinations.
+
+[83] They were mostly half-trained Kurdish levies, who were not quite
+easy in their consciences at fighting such a Holy Man as the Sheikh,
+and had moreover a pretty shrewd suspicion that they were being
+employed in Sabonji's interests and not the _Hukumet's_. The Sheikh
+used merely to disarm his prisoners, and then release them on parole.
+As he had nowhere to keep them, his only alternative would have been to
+kill them; and this would have meant a war of extermination, which he
+did not wish to provoke.
+
+[84] This was Nazim Pasha, then Vali of Baghdad, who was subsequently
+Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman army in the Balkan War, and was
+assassinated by the partisans of Enver Bey during the negotiations
+for peace. He so entirely exonerated the Sheikh as to award him £1000
+indemnity--on paper: but the Sheikh had suffered heavily from the
+plunder of his villages, and gained nothing but prestige.
+
+[85] The correct title to use in addressing the Sheikh is
+"_Corban_"--"Your Holiness."
+
+[86] The regular oath of a Tyari Christian is: "By the head of Mar
+Shimun."
+
+[87] A "_belai_" forms the top story of many of the mountain houses. It
+is quite open on one side (usually the northern) and forms the general
+family living room during the summer heats. In winter it is used as a
+hay barn, and thus helps to warm the room below.
+
+[88] Except one hoof, to be accurate--such at least was the cook's
+report. Scott points out that the Scotch highlanders also would eat
+prodigious meals when they got the chance, though ordinarily their fare
+was very meagre.
+
+[89] Eye disease is terribly prevalent in all the neighbouring
+provinces. It is originated by dust and want of cleanliness, and
+aggravated by persistent neglect.
+
+[90] In this connexion sometimes the phrase is unpleasantly literal.
+The prison at Akra, for instance, is a regular bottle-shaped dungeon
+like those at Alnwick and Berkeley, and in many Continental keeps.
+
+[91] See p. 112.
+
+[92] It is to be feared that sometimes they adopt other masculine
+habiliments, particularly (for instance) in winter, for convenience in
+getting through deep snow. We went once to rout up a workman who had
+failed to turn up at his job in the morning. He was still in bed, we
+discovered. A fact which did not tend to appease us until he faltered
+out his excuse. "But my wife has gone away to work, Rabbi; and has
+taken my only pair of trousers"--when we fear that the Rabbi's laughter
+brought these confidences to a sudden end.
+
+[93] This brushwood harbours all sorts of vermin, including scorpions
+and serpents, which latter are rather encouraged because they are
+reputed to eat the rest. The proper way to get rid of them is to make
+up a blazing fire, and pile on to it a quantity of sheep's horns or
+goats' horns (cow's horns will not do). This sounds as if it ought to
+get rid of much worse things than serpents!
+
+[94] The _tanura_ serves also as an oven, and when the fire has
+subsided into embers the thin pancakes of dough (the form in which
+bread is usually made in the mountains) are plastered round the hot
+sides of the pit.
+
+[95] Most "old books" have now been ferreted out, and perhaps the only
+earths yet untried are in the Yezidi villages of the Sinjar. These
+villages were formerly Christian; and there is a widespread conviction
+(strenuously denied by the Yezidis) that old Christian books still
+remain there, carefully secreted in certain caves. We have heard from a
+Syrian priest that he himself once actually saw some spread out to dry
+in the sun because they had got damp in a flood. He was at once headed
+off when he tried to look at them; but could see from the title-page
+that one was "The Works of Diodorus," a famous Eastern doctor whose
+writings have been entirely lost.
+
+[96] This journey was actually made in the spring of 1909, and was thus
+earlier in date than the events recorded in the last chapter.
+
+[97] Alternatively _mesta_--curds; the usual form of dairy produce
+hereabouts--identical with Jael's "Butter in a lordly dish."
+
+[98] Turkey has since evacuated the disputed province.
+
+[99] See "Highlands of Asiatic Turkey," by Lord Percy. The victim was
+Mar Gabriel of Urmi.
+
+[100] See the writings of Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, quoted by Milman,
+"Latin Christianity," XIII, xvi. The Italian, however, entirely
+misunderstood the chivalrous practice.
+
+[101] The Prophet himself never left Arabia; and even Omar--a favourite
+legendary hero in these parts--never came north of Jerusalem.
+
+[102] The life of a minor official in Turkey is not a happy one. We
+have recently heard of the experience of a tax-collector in this
+seventh year of upright and constitutional government, who undertook
+the adventurous job of gathering the taxes from Tkhuma and Tyari, (!)
+at a wage of £3 per month. After two months' work he asked for an
+instalment of his salary. "My dear fellow, you shall have it all,"
+said the _Mal-mudir_; "there are no more arrears in these days; you
+take all your salary--subject to the official deductions, of course."
+Accordingly he presented the applicant with a schedule of these
+"deductions" (which amounted to £5 10s. 9d. out of the total of £6),
+and the balance of 9s. 3d. in silver!
+
+[103] From "Turkey in Europe" by "Odysseus"
+
+[104] These truculent ruffians (when they have thoroughly earned a
+thrashing) will often accept it with most edifying docility. We have
+heard the late Dr. Browne, an old gentleman of the mildest manners and
+most fragile appearance, lamenting with the utmost artlessness that he
+had been obliged to thrash his muleteers. Consuls do not approve the
+habit, but have been known to practise it nevertheless.
+
+[105] There is some real danger in exploring these caverns, for if you
+do not often find real _Jann_, you are always liable to stumble on a
+wolf!
+
+We were once exploring a "cave-monastery," near Maragha; one feature
+of which was a long passage, burrowing into the rock, and expanding at
+intervals into cells, like balls threaded on a string.
+
+Down this we crawled, with an antiquarian's eagerness, our guide
+politely allowing us to go first. When we were well in, a voice came
+from behind us: "_Rabbi_, there's a wolf who generally lives down here,
+but I don't know if he's in now!"
+
+[106] _I.e._ by Kurds driving cattle into the building. This outrage is
+exceptional, but not unknown.
+
+[107] Orientals usually attribute the Epistle to the Hebrews to St.
+Paul.
+
+[108] We fear that other episodes in the career of this polite brigand
+are of a far darker hue. He was at least concerned in the murder of an
+American Missionary--the Rev. Benjamin Labaree--in 1905.
+
+[109] Tea is considered a great luxury, and men of moderate means will
+actually ruin themselves by indulging in it. Not so much owing to the
+cost of tea as to that of the sugar, for they use about as much sugar
+as the tea will dissolve.
+
+[110] Owing to Russian influence, this statement now needs some
+qualification as far as Urmi is concerned.
+
+[111] It is a double church really: Mar Sergius and Mar Bacchus:
+these very popular saints in the East, among whose churches that at
+Constantinople is the most famous, were Persian martyrs of the fifth
+century; and the church of Mar Sergius near Urmi claims to mark the
+site of their martyrdom.
+
+[112] The word has been adopted into English, as a relic, probably, of
+Crimean slang; and the "Ancient Society of Codgers" may claim khoja
+Nazr-ed-din as a member of their club. Literally, it means "eunuch" or
+"tutor"; but in common speech implies rather "old fellow."
+
+[113] Persian women have a high reputation for cleverness; a repute
+which is exemplified in the saying that every Moslem, to be happy,
+requires at least four wives. A Persian because of her wit, and a
+Circassian because of her beauty; an Armenian to do the cookery and
+housework, and a Kurdish woman to thrash, as a wholesome example to the
+other three.
+
+[114] At the present price of silver about 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+[115] Heir-Apparent of Persia; Azerbaijan is his hereditary province.
+
+[116] This was the Rev. Benjamin Labaree, of the American Presbyterian
+Mission, Urmi, who was murdered by the _Seyyid_ Nur-ed-din, on account
+of some personal grudge that he had (or fancied he had) against another
+member of that mission. The _Seyyid_ was little better than a madman;
+though, of course, not the less of a holy man or of a dangerous
+scoundrel on that account. It appears (though there is not absolute
+certainty in the matter) that Mr. Labaree was offered life if he would
+renounce Christianity by repeating "the _kalima_," and died as a martyr
+on his refusal.
+
+[117] Even Bibles used to reach their destination with the word Armenia
+neatly obliterated; but we feel there was some excuse for the censor
+who confiscated a batch of hymn books on the ground that "Onward
+Christian Soldiers" was a sort of Armenian _Marseillaise_!
+
+[118] _i.e._ Governor. The rank is intermediate between _kaimakam_ and
+_vali_.
+
+[119] "I'll tell you what it is," cried an irritated British Consul to
+an Armenian petitioner, "if ever we did undertake the administration
+of your country, you fellows would have to pay your taxes." "What!"
+exclaimed that gentleman in dismay, "_every year?_"
+
+[120] The criminals who were not sentenced must have been far more
+numerous. The _Vali_ must have felt like the old Lord of Perugia, who
+had to grant a general amnesty lest he should depopulate the town!
+
+[121] The word "_Fedai_" is Persian, and comes from a root that
+means sacrifice, and implies "one who sacrifices himself for a
+cause." Thus a volunteer in a forlorn hope would be a _Fedai_; and
+the term was originally applied to the devoted Assassins of the "Old
+Man of the Mountain" in crusading days. Ottomans usually called the
+revolutionaries simply "brigands." A third society, the _Huntchak_, was
+worked on the same lines as the _Tashnak_, and was incorporated with it
+later.
+
+[122] _Tashnak_ means a banner.
+
+[123] Some were found in the writer's own residence; a Tashnakist
+having taken service with him for the express purpose of securing a
+good _cache!_ The soldiers were hugely delighted with their haul, and
+gave us some packets of dynamite as mementoes!
+
+[124] Otherwise "Bashi-bazouks." This word of formidable memory means
+merely "rotten-heads," and is barrack slang for a civilian mob.
+
+[125] It may be a novelty to some readers to hear that all varieties
+of Christianity, as well as of Islam, are established and endowed by
+the State in Turkey. Bishops are appointed by the State and are State
+paid in part; and church organizations are recognized, given power, and
+controlled as such. The fallacious assumption implied in the query,
+"_quid Christianis cum regibus?_" does not deceive the Oriental as
+easily as it appears to do the Western.
+
+[126] See the Preface.
+
+[127] Until quite lately his Beatitude maintained a court jester
+also--one Shlimun (Solomon), who died a few years ago. He was an
+amusing scamp, but his sense of humour was sometimes rather _outré_.
+
+[128] The priest has been known to stop in the middle of service, and
+ask her where he is to go on; for they are simple folk, and the Use is
+very complex.
+
+[129] See Benson, "Cyprian," pp. 51-57. The scandals there referred to,
+however, are quite absent from the modern Nestorian Church.
+
+[130] This advice applies even more forcibly to travellers in the
+remoter villages. There almost the only food obtainable is the
+local pancake bread. The sole delicacies are "butter (_i.e._ curds)
+and honey," as they were in the days of Isaiah. Eggs may be got
+occasionally; but the pampered European who lusts for flesh meat had
+better bring it with him in tins. Life is too hard in the mountains to
+yield more than the barest necessaries; and the slaughter of a sheep
+for a banquet is a very exceptional extravagance indeed.
+
+[131] The churches serve as refuges for the women and children whenever
+the villages are raided, and are thus built with an eye to security.
+Often they are planted in almost impregnable sites, like the little
+church of Shwawutha in our illustration.
+
+[132] Attached to the church are a couple of anchorites' cells, and
+within the last twenty-five years one of these was actually inhabited
+by a venerable hermit--the _rabban_ Yonan. The incumbent is entitled to
+reside there still--if he likes.
+
+[133] See additional note, p. 283.
+
+[134] Fasting as a religious observance is most strictly enforced
+among the Syrians. We have known a priest refuse to proceed with a
+marriage service (which, of course, is ranked as a Sacrament) because
+he discovered that the best man had been smoking that morning! It was
+only after thrashing the delinquent that he relented and finished the
+service.
+
+Smoking breaks a fast. And this fact was exemplified in a ludicrous
+sequel to an ugly attack on an Englishman which occurred in these
+parts in 1912. The Englishman had evaded his assailants, and found
+shelter for the night in a village: but it was quite likely he would
+be pursued; and at daybreak next morning every one's nerves were very
+much on edge. The sun's rays had just touched the hill-top opposite,
+and the shadows were rapidly sinking into the valley, when over the
+ridge, running as hard as he could leg it, there swooped a solitary
+Kurd. None could doubt the nature of his tidings; and they watched with
+their hearts in their mouths as he tore down the slope towards them,
+leapt the stream, flung himself on the grass beside it, and--_lit a
+cigarette_.
+
+It was _Ramazan_: and he only wished to reach a spot where the sun had
+not yet risen, in order to enjoy a last smoke!
+
+[135] Tyari men would not have eaten her at all; not for that reason,
+but because they have scruples about touching beef. "Our Fathers did
+not do so."
+
+[136] The Baz men are hereditary builders, and migrate in a body to
+Mosul in winter in order to undertake such work.
+
+[137] _i.e._ "Prophet."
+
+[138] A comb is one of the mystic symbols which are carved on the
+Yezidi temple at Sheikh Adi.
+
+[139] See note at end of chapter.
+
+[140] See Tylor, "Anthropology," ch. xvi.
+
+[141] Reshid's personal reputation may be gleaned from the fact that
+natives travelling in our company have begged us to pocket their
+cash for them while passing through his borders. Even our inviolable
+"shadow" was not quite good enough there!
+
+[142] _Châl_ in Turkish means Thieve!--habitually, and preferably with
+violence. But this, though admirably apposite, is not an accredited
+derivation.
+
+[143] The writer was recounting this anecdote at a meeting after his
+return to England when an old gentleman in the audience was overheard
+to remark, in a scandalized voice: "Tut, tut, tut; why didn't he give
+him in charge?"
+
+[144] There are no coroner's inquests in the mountains; but we never
+killed any one as far as we know.
+
+[145] "Books of remedies" and collections of charms like the one
+referred to are often found among the Nestorians, and the substance
+of them is often of almost incredible antiquity. The writer once
+translated some specimens he had selected to a friend learned in
+Assyriology and found that they were essentially identical with the
+charms on the oldest of the Babylonian tablets. A substratum of the
+oldest faith of the land has survived all the changes of seven thousand
+years.
+
+[146] The incident occurred in 1901 or 1902. The officer concerned was
+Captain Maunsell, R.A., then British Vice-Consul at Van. The English
+"Apostles" do not usually carry arms. It might answer if they could be
+sure of disabling an assailant; for then he would come to be doctored,
+and amicable relations would be re-established. But to kill him would
+start a blood feud, and to miss him would be worst of all. The _vacuus
+viator_ is safer than one who carries such a valuable prize as an
+English gun.
+
+[147] The lady is usually allowed very little choice. We were consulted
+once in a knotty case where a girl had been betrothed to one man by
+her father and another by her mother; and we mildly suggested that she
+might at least be allowed a casting vote. "What can it matter to her,
+Rabbi?" said the Bishop of Berwar who was acting as arbitrator; "one
+husband is as good as another!"
+
+[148] "And satyrs shall dance there" is the final touch in Isaiah's
+picture of the desolation of Babylon. This is doubtless the identical
+beast.
+
+[149] He entirely confirmed Mr. Bram Stoker's evidence that the King of
+the Vampires is Dracula.
+
+[150] Armenians aver that this happened on the summit of Sipan Dagh,
+near Van. Noah, on feeling the bump, ejaculated "_Sipan Allah!_"
+(Praise God!) and this gave its name to the mountain. He must have been
+the only mariner on record to feel delight at such an event.
+
+[151] These were the gorges that drove Xenophon to take to the
+mountains in the Anabasis. He could march up the left bank of the river
+about as high as Jezireh; but there the ravine grew too narrow and
+difficult for troops.
+
+[152] Herodotus seems to have confused the _keleg_ and the _ghufa_ in
+his notes; for both existed, on the evidence of the sculptures, in his
+day. He speaks of "circular craft, covered with skins and caulked with
+bitumen," and made on wooden frames. He adds that at the journey's
+end the wood was sold, and the skins carried back "to Armenia" on the
+back of a donkey that had made the voyage down on the vessel. All his
+details are right, as regards one or other of the two types, save only
+the voyaging donkey. An experienced jackass will jump readily into a
+_ghufa_ and be ferried across, or some way down, the river; but he does
+not, in these days at any rate, come all the way down from Diarbekr to
+Baghdad. However, there is no reason why he should not.
+
+[153] Under these was in each case a small chamber, just large enough
+to contain the miniature image of the "guardian of the threshold" that
+was invariably placed there.
+
+[154] See p. 191.
+
+[155] This is not precisely the epithet that is usually applied to
+Nineveh in Scripture; but a touch of national prejudice changes the
+point of view. The Assyrian Tyrtæus was a refugee from Serai, near Van.
+
+[156] See pp. 311 _et seq._
+
+[157] See p. 317.
+
+[158] See pp. 76-78, 251, etc.
+
+[159] See pp. 136 _et seq._
+
+[160] See pp. 171-73.
+
+[161] The _Yaila_ of Shina lies amid the mountains which are shown in
+the illustration facing p. 176. It would be near the extreme left of
+the picture, facing the precipices of Ghara Dagh.
+
+[162] The Tal gorge debouches upon the Zab from the left, near the
+further end of the reach shown in the frontispiece. See also p. 288.
+
+[163] This must have been a col in the distant mountain range, shown in
+the illustration facing p. 257.
+
+[164] See pp. 127, 159, etc.
+
+[165] See p. 216.
+
+[166] The Kitab ul Fakhri on the Tartar sack of Baghdad.
+
+[167] See pp. 256-69. Firebrand as he was, Aram on this occasion did
+all he could to avert disorder, exhorting the Armenians to suffer
+anything rather than give a pretext for "repression."
+
+[168] The delay was partly owing to the "Sykes-Picot Treaty" which left
+Mosul in the French sphere. The French could not work this treaty, and
+for long would not consent to its abrogation, and the fact tied British
+hands.
+
+[169] A quaint episode marked the campaign. After storming--and
+plundering--a Kurdish village, some exultant mountain warriors came
+to their C.O. to announce that they had secured the most valuable
+loot they could hope to win. They presented to the amused officer
+an enormous MS. tome of Church services! It was a copy of their
+"Khudra"--_i.e._, the collection of the variable parts of the offices
+on all Sundays and ferials of the "circle" (khudra) of the year, an
+enormously enlarged equivalent to the Collects and occasional prayers
+of the Book of Common Prayer. They begged for a mule from the transport
+train to carry this sacred trophy at the head of the column on the
+march, and it gives some idea of the size of the book when we say that
+the mule was actually necessary to carry it, though, as the companion
+volume of the "Gezza" (Treasury, containing the prayers for saints'
+days) was not there, it was not more than half a load for the beast.
+For the rest of the campaign the book was the palladium and standard
+of the corps, and was given a voluntary guard of honour every night.
+Subsequently, it was presented to the Patriarch, and is now in use in
+his church.
+
+[170] Pp. 321 _et seq._
+
+[171] The Ottoman Government had, during the war, some notion of
+hanging the writer "because he had built a house to serve as a British
+fort." He escaped by a clerical error, heartlessly described by Sir
+A. Wilson as "one of those errors of routine inevitable in even the
+best administrations!" His name, in the list of civil prisoners, was
+transliterated one way; on the list of criminals, in another. We hope
+that this posthumous justification of the sentence is as satisfactory
+to the judges as it is to the criminal!
+
+[172] See p. 118.
+
+[173] "Sandy McPherson," said Lord Justice Braxton to the "panel"
+before him, "ye are a vera ingenious chiel, but ye'll be nane the waur
+of a haanging." And one is reminded of this verdict by the character
+of that sporting and alluring rascal, Agha Petros. The man is a good
+fighter, who under other circumstances might have earned high rank; but
+whose lot has been cast in places that have developed that "kink" in
+his nature that will prevent him from ever being chevalier of a higher
+order than that of "Industrie." He declared to the writer--with a
+frankness that does him credit--that he had read the earlier edition of
+this book, and that all said of him therein (see pp. 218-19) was true;
+but he added that he had become a changed man since.
+
+It is certainly the fact that this hawk has since learned to fly at
+higher game, but he still must be classified among "raptores." Alas
+that so many good fellows are rascals!
+
+[174] See note on p. 401.
+
+[175] When the Assyrians made their attack, an officer in the train
+judged it better to get out on the side remote from the action, "lest
+he should see things that it might be his duty to report."
+
+[176] See p. 267.
+
+[177] Surma _Khanim_ spent several months, in the years 1919-20, in
+England, where she was the guest of the "Sisters of Bethany," who have
+an interest in her people of long standing. The object of her visit was
+to put the claims and position of her people before the British Home
+Authorities, and, if possible, before those of Europe at large. She at
+least secured a courteous hearing from British Cabinet Ministers, and
+though she was unable to extract any definite promises from men who did
+not themselves know what they wanted, she left the impression of a very
+striking personality on the minds of those who had been accustomed to
+think of Assyrians as a mere barbarian nuisance.
+
+[178] See illustration facing p. 128.
+
+[179] See pp. 311 _et seq._ Reshid had been "reconciled" the previous
+autumn; his formidable "Castle" at Deir Sherish being razed so flat
+that (as reported by the gleeful Assyrians) "You wouldn't think it had
+ever been there!"
+
+[180] Some of the heroes of this Odyssey retired into Mosul Gaol for
+a while in consequence of it, and were still there at the following
+Easter. Then a pitiful petition was sent in on their behalf (or, at
+least, on behalf of the "Old Churchmen" among them) to the effect:
+"Please let those out for Easter who have been keeping their fast so
+properly in prison. Never mind about the Protestants--_they_ have been
+eating the good prison food and don't matter."
+
+Unfortunately, even this pathetic plea did not move the Gallio who then
+sat in the seat of authority! However, all were released soon after.
+
+Gaol has become, as a result of British rule, quite unpopular in Mosul.
+You can no longer sit in the prison and take your ease there, sending
+out for your food and tobacco, as under the Turk. Instead, you have
+to wear "an unbecoming frock" like the gentleman in the Bab ballads,
+and work on the roads. So "wearing the cap" is disliked in Mosul, the
+more as it is no longer possible, when weary of captivity, to hire a
+substitute to take your place there and make up the tale of captives!
+
+[181] It was proposed to raise some companies of Yezidis for the levy
+also, and they would serve British officers most loyally. However, up
+to the time of writing this has not been done, though they offer good
+military material, and their home in Jebel Sinjar lies conveniently on
+the flank of the one line of advance possible to the one enemy. The
+only difficulty (given separate companies of Yezidis, as of Assyrians)
+seems to lie in the British words of command used throughout the "Mosul
+levy," and which Orientals who know no English pick up with marvellous
+quickness. For any sound resembling "Sheitan" is blasphemy to the ears
+of a Yezidi. How then is it possible to address to them the mystic
+adjuration "'Shun"?
+
+[182] Petros was ill-advised enough to try and blackmail the High
+Commissioner! He claimed present payment of Rs. 38,000, alleged to have
+been spent by him out of his own funds on the expedition to Gawar!
+Failing immediate payment of this, he would denounce Sir P. Cox's
+dealings with his people to the League of Nations, the French Republic,
+and the Pope. To his amazement he was told that he might go to all
+three, and the devil as well if he liked (the connection with the Pope
+was not so obvious to Petros as to the angry A.D.C.), and had better
+begin by leaving the office.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
+
+Selencia=> Seleucia {pg 5}
+
+admittted=> admitted {pg 100}
+
+bridgroom=> bridegroom {pg 161}
+
+left a one=> left alone {pg 178}
+
+France or Amercia=> France or America {pg 259}
+
+inacessible=> inaccessible {pg 264}
+
+callousnesss=> callousness {pg 378}
+
+faily well=> fairly well {pg 287}
+
+is a good as ever=> is as good as ever {pg 291}
+
+mattter=> matter {pg 301}
+
+Hand him over over to us=> Hand him over to us {pg 301}
+
+did not minish=> did not deminish {pg 382}
+
+cavavan=> caravan {pg 409}
+
+deserted by Patriach, 364;=> deserted by Patriarch, 364; {pg 427}
+
+shrin of Mar Abd' Ishu, 306-7;=> shrine of Mar Abd' Ishu, 306-7; {pg
+429}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cradle of Mankind, by 
+W.A. Wigram and Edgar T.A. Wigram
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44417 ***
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