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 ASSHUR 
 AND THE LAND OF NIMROD 
 
 BEING 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERIES MADE IN 
 
 THE ANCIENT RUINS OF NINEVEH, ASSHUR, SEPHARVAIM, CAUH, 
 
 BABYLON, BORSIPPA, CUTHAH, AND VAN, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF DIFFERENT JOURNEYS IN MESOPOTAMIA, 
 ASSYRIA, ASIA MINOR, AND KOORDISTAN 
 
 HORMUZD RASSAM, 
 
 Author of the " Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, King of 
 
 Abyssinia;" "Biblical Nationalities, Past and Present;" 
 
 "The Garden of Eden and Biblical 
 
 Sages," Etc. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 ROBERT W. ROGERS, PH. D. (Leipzig), D. D., 
 
 Professor in Drew Theological Seminary 
 
 CINCINNATI: CURTS & JENNINGS 
 
 NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
 
 1897
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 BY CURTS & JENNINGS,
 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 ®o tlfc Cooing ilcmorrj 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RIGHT HONORABLE SIR AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD, G.C. B., 
 
 the pioneer of Assyrian explorers, 
 
 wliose friendship of fifty years' standing was as true 
 
 in my youth 
 
 as it proved constant in my advancing years, 
 
 this narrative of my travels, 
 
 and Assyrian and Babylonian discoveries, 
 
 IS 
 
 JIffeEftDnatEla l^ebirafBb.
 
 PREKACK 
 
 In submitting to my readers the following account of my 
 travels in Biblical lands, and of my Assyrian and Babylonian 
 discoveries, I do so with diffidence, feeling that it is an un- 
 worthy sequel to the fascinating and interesting narratives of 
 my late lamented friend, Sir Austen Henry Layard, which are 
 of wide-world reputation. I am emboldened, however, by the 
 fact that it was his fond desire that I should lay before the 
 world the record of my humble contribution to that branch of 
 learning in connection with ancient history, both sacred and 
 profane. 
 
 With the exception of a few lectures I delivered before dif- 
 ferent societies, and a slight mention made of them by Sir Henry 
 in his abridged work, entitled " Nineveh and Babylon/' pub- 
 lished in 1867 by Mr. John Murray, no full account has yet 
 appeared of my different discoveries, though the Illustrated Lon- 
 don Neivs produced, in May, 1856, a few specimens of the bas- 
 reliefs found by me in Assur-bani-pal's palace, with a generous 
 tribute to my success. Beyond these notices, no record has ap- 
 peared anywhere of the share I have had in Assyrian and Baby- 
 lonian discoveries; the consequence was, that not many years 
 afterwards some of my acquisitions were attributed to others, 
 and, actually, the Assyrian legends of the Creation and Deluge 
 tablets, which I found in Nineveh, in Assur-bani-pal's palace, 
 in 1853, were credited to Mr. George Smith's exploration, which 
 he undertook for the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph twenty 
 years afterwards, because, forsooth, he was the first Assyrian 
 scholar who had deciphered them ! Even in the present ninth 
 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in which historical rec- 
 ords ought to be strictly correct, the following appears in a note 
 in Vol. XVII, page 512, referring to Assur-bani-pal's palace: 
 " In this palace is the famous library-chamber from which 
 Layard and George Smith brought the tablets now in the 
 British Museum." Whereas, when I discovered them, the for-
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 mer had ceased his counection with the Assyrian excavations, 
 and the latter could not have been more than nine or ten years 
 of age ! Then in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," Vol. I, under the 
 notice of the palace of Assur-bani-pal II, the author makes the 
 following remark in a note on page 389, about the bas-reliefs 
 containing the lion-hunt series, w^hich I discovered: "These 
 slabs, which were recovered by Colonel Eawlinson, are now in 
 the British Museum. The animals of chase include lions, wild 
 horses, wild asses, stags, and antelopes;" the truth being, that 
 Colonel Rawlinson only selected what he thought were necessary 
 at that time to send to England; but had nothing to do with 
 their recovery or discovery, which he publicly acknowledged in 
 the press soon afterwards. 
 
 It may be considered extraordinary that I allowed such a 
 long time to elapse before I placed before the public the results 
 of my discoveries, seeing that they were made partly as far 
 back as 1853; but when the different unavoidable circumstances 
 which intervened are explained, it will be seen that it was be- 
 yond my power to have my book brought out sooner. 
 
 In the first place, after I discovered Assur-bani-paPs palace 
 at Koyunjik, and the temple of Nebo at Nimroud, with other 
 Assyrian remains, I had to return to England in June, 1854, 
 when my engagement to the Trustees of the British Museum 
 terminated. Soon after my arrival in London a political post 
 was oiFered me at Aden, by Sir James Outram, who had just 
 been appointed the Resident at that settlement before his serv- 
 ices were required at Oude. He had made my acquaintance two 
 years before in London, and knew of my attainments, especially 
 in dealing with the Arabian tribes, and he thought I would be 
 of great help to him in that part of Arabia Felix where political 
 relations between the Aden authorities and the different Arab 
 tribes in the interior were somewhat strained. My services 
 were applied for to the directors of the East India Company, 
 who sanctioned my appointment, and as my presence was ur- 
 gently required by Sir James, I lost no time in getting ready, 
 and I proceeded to Aden to take up the duties assigned to me. 
 
 As I had no artist with me when I discovered Assiir-bani- 
 pal's palace, I was obliged to quit the scenes of my labors with-
 
 PREFACE. vn 
 
 out obtaiuing any drawings of the bas-reliefs ; and when Mr. 
 Boutcher, the indefatigable artist of Mr. Kennet Loftus, the 
 gentleman who succeeded me, was able to draw the different 
 sculptures I had discovered, I was far away in Arabia Felix, 
 busily engaged in my different avocations at Aden. 
 
 On my return to England after an absence of nearly fifteen 
 years, I did not think that, at that distance of time, an account 
 of my former discoveries would prove interesting to general 
 readers, inasmuch as I found that most of my discoveries were 
 lost or given away. 
 
 In 1877, however, I was asked again by the Trustees of the 
 British Museum to undertake another expedition to Nineveh, 
 after the demise of Mr. George Smith, during his unfortunate 
 third expedition to Mesopotamia. I had then been married, 
 and had retired from Her Majesty's Indian service, and in- 
 tended to spend my time quietly in England; but my interest 
 in Assyrian archseology was still as great as when I was young, 
 and consequently I accepted the proffered commission willingly. 
 As the funds then available for the expedition were inadequate 
 for prosecuting extensive operations, I offered to go out without 
 a stipend, provided I should be allowed to carry on my excava- 
 tions in the way I deemed best. 
 
 It will be seen from the contents of my book that I was not 
 unsuccessful in my researches, and the extension afterwards of 
 my archaeological labors southward in Babylonia, and northward 
 in Armenia, proved productive of good results, which added 
 greatly to our knowlege of those great nations of ancient renown. 
 
 After no less than four expeditions to Mesopotamia, my work 
 was brought suddenly to an end, as the Porte, through political 
 pique, refused to renew my firman. Sir Henry Layard had then 
 left Constantinople, and the Right Honorable G. J. Goschen, 
 who was sent to succeed him temporarily by Mr. Gladstone, was 
 not in favor with the Ottoman Court on account of the mandate 
 he took out with him from the then British Government for the 
 surrender by the Sultan of the Port of Dulcigno to the Prince 
 of Montenegro. The Marquis of Dufferin, who was appointed 
 ambassador at Constantinople, afterwards tried earnestly to 
 induce the responsible Turkish minister to change his mind, but
 
 via PREFACE. 
 
 the Porte remained obdurate to the end. I had, therefore, to 
 close the British Museum researches at the end of July, 1882, 
 both in Assyria and Babylonia, and returned to England under a 
 great disappointment, as I had hoped to make further important 
 discoveries in Southern Babylonia, where I was certain a number 
 of ancient ruins existed. Since then excavations have been car- 
 ried on by French and American agents for their respective 
 museums in Southern Babylonia, but under stringent rules and 
 regulations debarring them from exporting any antiquities out 
 of lihe country. The Arabs have managed, however, to steal 
 many tablets from their collections, which were purchased by 
 Baghdad dealers for sale in Europe and America. 
 
 After having come home at the end of 1882, 1 began to write 
 an account of my discoveries and travels, beginning from 1853, 
 especially as I had been urged by different friends to give to the 
 world the benefit of my experiences. On completing my nar- 
 rative, I submitted it to different publishers in London, all of 
 whom declined the responsibility of its publication, and, as I 
 could not afford to have it brought out at my risk, there was 
 nothing for it but to wait for a good opportunity. 
 
 Some time afterward an American friend whom I had met 
 at Mossul, traveling with his amiable wdfe, suggested that I 
 should have my book published in America, and through the 
 kind interest he took in the matter he found a w^ell-known 
 firm in Xew York who undertook the publication of it. 
 
 All references made throughout my narrative for the transla- 
 tion of Assyrian and Babylonian legends and historical matters 
 I owe to the investigations of different decipherers of the cunei- 
 form writing. Unfortunately, I have not made that dead 
 language my study, and consequently I am not competent to 
 give an opinion upon the texts quoted in my book. 
 
 I must here acknowledge with gratitude my obligations to 
 my friend, Mr. Theophilus G. Pinches, of the Assyrian Depart- 
 ment at the British Museum, who, on all occasions, rendered me 
 every assistance in his power in explaining to me the different 
 readings connected with my discoveries. As he is one of the 
 best x\ssyrian scholars, his translations and deductions can not
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 but be looked upon as trustworthy on matters referring to 
 Assyrian and Accadian knowledge. 
 
 It must be remembered that the translations of Assyrian 
 records have been undergoing important changes from time to 
 time since the decipherment of the arrow-headed characters 
 commenced ; and now some of the renderings by such gentle- 
 men as Sir Henry Rawlinson, the Rev. Dr. Hincks, Mr. George 
 Smith, and others, are not considered correct. 
 
 In submitting to my readers my dissent from the opinions 
 of some travelers and historians regarding certain geographical 
 positions, I trust that I shall not be considered dogmatic or ob- 
 trusive. My aim has been to try and lay before the public my 
 opinion, formed on personal knowledge of Biblical landmarks, 
 of what I consider to be the most correct explanation of the 
 subjects mooted, and leave it to the judgment of learned and 
 competent scholars to decide whose views are the most incon- 
 testable. 
 
 lu describing fully my travels and the conduct of my archae- 
 ological work I had one aim in view, and that is to show how 
 easy it is to get on with all the inhabitants of Biblical lands, 
 especially the Arabs, provided they are not treated with unbe- 
 coming hauteur and conceit. I ever found Arabs, Koords, and 
 Turcomans (all of Avhora are, of course, Mohammedans), most 
 tractable people to deal with, and I always found them true, loyal, 
 and most hospitable. Their women, who possess more freedom 
 than their sisters in the harems in the great towns, are always 
 ready to assist and entertain strangers when their men are ab- 
 sent; and though the latter are extremely sensitive as to the 
 honor of their wives and daughters, they do not show the least 
 jealousy in regard to the entertainment of their guests. 
 
 As regards the orthography of Arabic, Koordish, and Turk- 
 ish names, I have always observed the rule of writing them in 
 the English way so as to insure their correct pronunciation ; 
 disregarding doubtful accentuations, since I have found, on 
 several occasions, learned scholars mispronouncing accentuated 
 or circumflexed letters. For instance, the words Beyroot, 
 Kharpoot, Erzeroom, Samsoon, Mahmood, etc., which ought to
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 be written with double o, are spelled either with a u simple or 
 pointed, which I found to be of very little help to those who 
 never heard these words pronounced by the natives of the 
 country. I remember on one occasion, while I was in a court 
 of justice in London, when Aboo-Habba (the Arabic name for 
 the site of Sepharvaim) was alluded to, the first word was pro- 
 nounced by learned lawyers as "Abew." Had the word been 
 written with double o, as "Aboo," they could not have failed to 
 pronounce it properly. It has always been a puzzle to me why 
 people should force themselves to introduce a strange accentua- 
 tion for this class of names when we have in English such words 
 as root, boot, moot, mood, etc. Then there is i in Effendi, 
 Mofti, Madhi, Hajji, Maji, and such like endings, where the 
 double e in the place of the i will give the Oriental word the 
 truest sound. I have heard, again and again, well-educated men 
 make laughable mistakes in pronouncing similar words, as they 
 read them with a, u, or i. The sound of the final i in the 
 above-mentioned words has also an equivalent in English in 
 the double e, as tree, fee, thee, knee, etc. So also the i other 
 than the final letter in the words Mardin, Harim, Hamid, and 
 Al-E-ashid. These ought to be Hareem, Hameed, and Rasheed. 
 
 As there are two sounds for the c or k in Arabic, and other 
 Semitic words, one soft like the c in Canaan, and the other 
 strong like the sound of the ck at the end of knock or block, 
 I have used c for the former and k for the latter. So also in 
 regard to the soft and hard s. For the former I used one s, and 
 for the latter double s. For the guttural h in Arabic I have 
 used double h like those in Mohhammed and Ahhmed. It is 
 so difficult to distinguish between the different articulations of 
 certain Arabic letters which very often prove a stumbling-block 
 to those who do not possess the power of pronouncing them, I 
 will give a few examples to show them : A word with double s 
 like Ssib means to pour out; but the word sib written with 
 one s is to swear ; isslib to crucify, but islib with one s is to 
 plunder. So also with the hard k, Kkalb means heart, and kalb 
 with one k dog; Kkurd means monkey, and with a single k 
 means Coord commonly known as Kurd. 
 
 I must take the opportunity, before I conclude, to acknowl-
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 edge with grateful feeling the kind aid rendered me by my 
 friends, Mr. W. H. Rylands, the secretary of the Society of 
 Biblical Archseology, and the Reverends Henry Jones and 
 M. F. Coates,— the former for plans, and the latter for photo- 
 graphing for me several plates connected with my discoveries. 
 I am also indebted to Messrs. M. A. Mansell & Co. for supply- 
 ing me with a few photographs of the bas-reliefs I discovered 
 in Assur-bani-pal's palace. 
 
 I likewise acknowledge, with gratitude, the aid rendered me 
 by my friend. Professor Robert W. Rogers, of the Drew Theo- 
 logical Seminary, Madison, N. J., in looking over and arranging 
 the manuscript of the work, which has been intrusted to his 
 able and kind care. This he has done without making himself 
 in any way responsible for any view which I have expressed. 
 
 H. RASSAM. 
 
 7 Powis Squabe, Brighton, January, 1897.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THERE is a sense in which the rediscovery of the Assyrians 
 and Babylonians may be said to be as interesting as a ro- 
 mance. These two great peoples were lost to human history. 
 No word which they had spoken, no thought which had swayed 
 their lives, no deed which they had done, had come down directly 
 to us. It was only as the Greek historian, when speaking of the 
 achievements of his own race ; or the Latin, as he recounted the 
 mighty deeds of imperial Rome ; or Hebrew prophet, poet, or 
 historian, dwelling with measured word on his own glorious, 
 history, — it was only as these touched upon the Assyrians, in 
 passing, that we could learn anything of these mighty peoples 
 and the civilizations which they founded and led. This strange 
 absence of direct information had an element of the mysterious 
 in it. Our knowledge of the history of Greece and of Rome 
 had continuity; our knowledge of Assyria and of Babylonia 
 was fragmentary, disjointed, and, at times, conflicting. Even 
 the cities of these great peoples were lost, as Rome and Athens 
 never were. Babylon was buried in a mud-mound ; Nineveh 
 was so thoroughly forgotten that for ages her site was unknown, 
 so that a cultivated Greek, leading home his broken army of 
 ten thousand men, passed right by it, and never knew that be- 
 neath the mud and sand lay the remains of vast palaces. 
 
 This dependence of knowledge upon Greek and Latin and 
 Hebrew no longer obtains. We now know from Assyrian and 
 Babylonian books the main course of that great history, the 
 words and the thoughts of those powerful peoples, and the very 
 daily life of their cities and hamlets. This knowledge has come 
 
 xin
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to us by slow and painful steps. Cities long buried must be 
 dug up, books long unseen must be deciphered and then read. 
 It is a twofold operation. The explorer in the field, directing 
 a force of men, does the primary work ; the patient and quiet 
 scholar in museum and library follows after, and tells what he 
 has found, sets the new discovery in its relation to previous 
 knowledge, and so reconstructs the life of a lost age. 
 
 Among all the earlier explorers and excavators, Mr. Hormuzd 
 Kassam stands forth as a man of distinguished service. He 
 first struck the spade into many a mound almost unknown. 
 He brought to Europe many a long-lost book. It is well that 
 after a long circle of years he has gathered together all his 
 notes and all his memories, to set forth an account of his dis- 
 coveries, and to tell how he made them. This book contains 
 that narrative; but it does not stop there. It tells of long 
 journeys over hills and across deserts in the Semitic Orient. It 
 describes many a conversation with people all too little known. 
 It tells of many an Oriental custom, hoary with age, and full 
 of instruction for the modern student of the Bible. I have read 
 the book in manuscript and in proof, and found much of inter- 
 est and of enlightenment in its story. I commend it for exactly 
 what it is — the record of useful deeds by a capable and patient 
 explorer, and feel sure that many will find light and knowl- 
 edge in it. 
 
 ROBERT W. ROGERS. 
 
 Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Chapter I, 1 
 
 Chapter II, 23 
 
 Chapter III, 52 
 
 Chapter IV, 65 
 
 Chapter V, 87 
 
 Chapter VI, Ill 
 
 Chapter VII, 131 
 
 Chapter VIII, 150 
 
 Chapter IX, 171 
 
 Chapter X, • 184 
 
 Chapter XI, 221 
 
 Chapter XII, 249 
 
 Chapter XIII, 262 
 
 Chapter XIV, 280 
 
 Chapter XV, 292 
 
 Chapter XVI, 804 
 
 Chapter XVII, 317 
 
 Chapter XVIII, 339 
 
 Chapter XIX 364 
 
 Chapter XX, 382 
 
 Chapter XXI, 404 
 
 XV
 
 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait of Author, Frontispiece.. 
 
 Plan of Excavations at Kouyunjik, Between pages 8 and 9 
 
 Obelisk of Assur of Assur-nazir-pal, Face page 10 
 
 Statue of the God Nebo, " 12 
 
 Monolith of Shamshi-Rimmon, " 14 
 
 Assur-bani-pal on Horseback, " 30 
 
 Clay Tablet from Library of Assur-bani-pal, " 32 
 
 Clay Tablet from the same, containing Account of the 
 
 Deluge, " 34 
 
 Plan of North Palace of Kouyunjik, Between pages 36 and 37 
 
 Assur-bani-pal, with his Queen, Face page 38 
 
 Servants and Attendants of same, " 40 
 
 Bronze Strip from Gates of Balawat, " 200 
 
 Clay Prism of Assur-bani-pal, " 218 
 
 Barrel Cylinder of Sennacharib, " 220 
 
 Site of Temple of Assur-bani-pal, " 222 
 
 Plan of Bu-s Nimroud, " 224 
 
 Assyrian Arch at Nimroud, " 226 
 
 Map of Mesopotamia and Assyria, Between pages 228 and 229 
 
 Clay Cylinder of Cyrus (Capture of Babylon), Face page 268 
 
 Site of Ancient Armenian Temple, Toprae-Kalaa, " 376 
 
 Shields and other Objects found at samo, " 378 
 
 Stone Tablet of Sippara, " 402 
 
 Inscription on same (Reverse), " 404 
 
 XV i
 
 ASSHUR AND THE LaND OF NiMROD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The interest in Assyrian dicoveries is, I believe, still as great 
 as when, nearly fifty years ago, the marvelous success of Mr. 
 (afterwards Sir Henry) Layard's expeditions to the two ancient 
 kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia became known. The story was 
 so well told by himself in the interesting works entitled "Nineveh 
 and its Eemains," and "Nineveh and Babylon," that I need not 
 dwell upon their importance to the literary, religious, and scientific 
 world, as they are too universally known to require any praise from 
 me. Suffice it to say that on his return from his second mission 
 to Mesopotamia his valuable discoveries excited so much interest 
 in England that the trustees of the British Museum determined to 
 continue the researches; so they obtained a further grant from 
 Government for that purpose. Mr. Layard had suffered so much 
 from the common fever of the country that he did not care to 
 venture again to that inhospitable clime, and on his declining to 
 go out to the East again I was selected by the trustees to proceed 
 to Mossul to take charge of the excavations under the general 
 control of Colonel (afterwards Sir Henry) Eawlinson. I accepted 
 the honor with much reluctance and grief, as I had always enjoyed 
 traveling with Mr. Layard, and entertained very great pleasure in 
 working under him. 
 
 I was fortunate enough to meet with a companion of the name 
 of Berrington, who was desirous of visiting Assyria and Babylonia, 
 and any one who has traveled on horseback in the lands of the 
 Bible can well appreciate my feeling when I say that there can be 
 nothing more pleasant than to fall in, particularly on such a jour- 
 ney, with a person who is both sociable and agreeable, and I am 
 glad to say that I found these traits to be the characteristics of 
 my friend. We left England at the end of August, 1852, in a 
 Liverpool steamer, bound for Alexandretta, and as she was one of
 
 2 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 those slow trading vessels, it took us Just three weeks to reach that 
 Syrian port. We met there Lord Bury, who had just arrived from 
 Europe in a French steamer, and was going to Jerusalem. I had 
 heard that he was going to India by way of Mossul, Baghdad, and 
 the Persian Gulf; but, on meeting him at the British Consulate, 
 and asking him if he had that intention, he said that he wished, 
 in the first place, to visit the Holy Land, and would come to Mossul 
 afterwards. He did not make his appearance, however, at that 
 town till three months later. 
 
 After having staid a few hours at Alexandretta to hire the 
 requisite number of riding and luggage horses, and to buy the neces- 
 sary provisions to take us to Aleppo, we started on our journey, and 
 reached that place after three days' march. 
 
 When ]\Ir. Layard and I passed through Alexandretta a few 
 months before, we left most of our traveling kit at the British 
 Consulate, so that on the present expedition I brought very few 
 things with me for the journej'^, fully reljdng on what we had left 
 at that port. My disappointment can well be realized, however, 
 when I found that they had been taken by the artist who was 
 sent before me by the British Museum authorities to make draw- 
 ings of the sculptures discovered in Assyria. After the departure 
 of Mr. Layard, there was no help for it but to make sliift till 
 I arrived at Alej)po, where I provided myself with the articles 
 required for the long journeys. 
 
 After spending three days in the purchase of provisions and 
 other necessary articles for the road, and engaging fresh animals 
 to take us to Mossul, as those which brought us from Alexandretta 
 only ply between the latter place and Aleppo, we started for Beera- 
 jeek, where the Euphrates is crossed. To our great dismay we 
 found, on arriving near the ferry, that the annoyance of five days' 
 quarantine was awaiting us on account of the cholera then existing 
 to the west of the Euphrates. We were allowed, however, to 
 remain in our tents on the bank of the river opposite the town 
 of Beerajeek; and as the doctor of the quarantine and other officials 
 paid us daily visits, and made themselves very agreeable, we man- 
 aged to pass the time without feeling the least dull. As soon as 
 we were allowed pratique, we crossed the Euphrates in those anti- 
 quated, flat-bottomed boats which would frighten a person unaccus- 
 tomed to them into the belief that they would go to pieces before 
 they reached the opposite bank. Moreov'Cr, they are generally
 
 JAZEERAH. 6 
 
 ankle-deep with bilge-water; and as they take in as many laden 
 animals as the boat can hold, the unhappy passengers have to keep 
 out of the animals' way by hanging anyhow on the rougli timber 
 which is rudely nailed to the sides of the vessel, No sooner does 
 the boat get into mid-channel than the beasts begin to get restive; 
 and if there should happen to be a vicious horse or mule amongst 
 them, a regular stampede follows. My wonder has always been 
 that, with such a commotion among so many animals, the boat is 
 not capsized, seeing that, besides the animals, which are crowded 
 into a boat about twenty feet in length by ten broad, no less than 
 fifty or sixty men, women, and children are huddled into them 
 pell-mell. Of course the female portion of the native travelers 
 fare the worse, as they are huddled together in the bottom of the 
 boat without any care as to whether they are smeared with bilge- 
 water or not. It was, however, my rule not to allow any passengers 
 into the boat I was in, excepting those who belonged to my party, 
 or any woman who was waiting for an opportunity to cross the 
 river. 
 
 As soon as we arrived at Beerajeek, we hurried on to Mossul 
 by way of Diarbekir, Midhiat, and Jazeerah, crossing the western 
 branch of the Tigris twice below the former place, as we wished 
 to travel along the foot of the Koordistan Mountains. The river 
 being very shallow at this time of the year (the beginning of Oc- 
 tober), this route saved us nearly five hours' ride by avoiding the 
 circuitous course of the stream. 
 
 After our arrival at Jazeerah, other travelers made their ap- 
 pearance; but instead of taking up their abode in the town, as we 
 did, they pitched their tents on the bank of the Tigris near the 
 bridge of boats. Soon afterwards a man came from that quarter 
 to find out who we were, and I was not a little surprised to learn 
 that the camp belonged to Mr. Kennett Loftus, who was attached 
 to the Turco-Persian Boundary Commission, under Colonel (after- 
 wards General Sir Fen wick) Williams, who was proceeding to Mos- 
 sul from Persia to take charge of the British Museum explorations 
 in Assyria. On my going to see him, he was as much surprised 
 as I was when I first heard of his mission, to hear that I had been 
 sent by the trustees of the British Museum to superintend the 
 excavations, as he himself was proceeding thither on the same 
 errand at the direction of Colonel Kawlinson. He told me that 
 the Boundary Commission had been broken up, and that Colonel
 
 4 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Williams had gone to Constantinople, and all his followers were 
 returning to their respective homes; that Colonel Eawlinson had 
 written to him to come down to Mossul to carry on the researches 
 for the British Museum; but now that he knew I had been sent 
 out from the headquarters to carry on the work, he would go on to 
 Baghdad. After spending two days at Jazeerah, we all started 
 together for Mossul, which we reached in five days. 
 
 At Tel-Caif, a large Chaldean village about ten miles from 
 Mossul, I found a considerable number of my Mossul friends and 
 relatives awaiting my arrival, among whom was Mr. Hodder, the 
 artist of the Museum, dressed in the full costume of the country. 
 
 After having crossed the bridge of boats leading from Assyria 
 to Mesopotamia, and reaching the gate of the city, a Moslem 
 butcher of the town, with whom I used to deal, killed a fine ram in 
 front of my house, the flesh of which he said he had vowed to dis- 
 tribute amongst the jjoor for my safe return. We all took up our 
 quarters at the hospitable house of my eldest brother. Christian 
 Eassam, the British vice-consul at Mossul; and his amiable and 
 courteous English wife acted the hostess with her wonted liberality 
 and attention. All English travelers who visited Mossul during her 
 life-time, must have appreciated, I am sure, her kind demeanor 
 and the perfect way she acted the hostess to weary and houseless 
 travelers. There being no hotels or lodging-houses at that time 
 in any of the large towns of Mesopotamia, the unexpected hos- 
 pitality in an English house, coupled with the blessing of sleeping 
 in a comfortable bed, with clean sheets and feather pillows, after 
 a rough journey of twenty or thirty days, was welcomed with more 
 than double enjoyment. 
 
 I learned, after my arrival at Mossul, that the local authorities 
 were excavating at the mound of Nebee-Yonis, and that M. Place, 
 the French consul at Mossul, was carrying on researches for the 
 Louvre, at Khorsabad and in other parts of Assyria. English ex- 
 cavations were also being conducted on a small scale, under my 
 brother's direction, at Koyunjik; but as I had been told that the 
 French had sent some gangs of workmen to excavate in the neigh- 
 borhood of Nimroud, I dispatched some workmen forthwith with 
 an overseer to that mound for fear of our rival taking possession 
 of it. 
 
 A few days before I reached Mossul, an inhabitant of Nebee-
 
 MOSSUL. o 
 
 Yonis,* while digging in his house near the mosque, had come 
 upon an Assyrian nionoHth, which afterwards proved to be one 
 of the huge human-headed hulls, similar to those found at Khors- 
 ahad and Koyunjik. He came immediately to inform my brother 
 of the fact, and as the latter deemed it advisable to send an English- 
 man to make a tentative examination of the ruin, he sent for Mr. 
 Hodder, and asked him to proceed forthwith to the mound with 
 a few workmen, and see what the discovery was, and, if possible, 
 to make a drawing of the monument. On reaching the house, 
 however, Mr. Hodder was not allowed to approach the discovered 
 objects, much less was he permitted to dig there; and, instead of 
 going at once to report the matter to my brother, he went direct 
 to his house, and did not appear again until the next day, when 
 it was too late to do anything, as the local authorities had already 
 got scent of the discover}'', and would not allow any one to carry on 
 the digging. We learned afterwards that M. Place had also heard 
 of the new find, and early the next morning he went to the place 
 to try and examine the ruin; but he likewise had also been pre- 
 vented from digging there. Thinking that he could prevail upon 
 the governor of Mossul, Hilmi Pasha, to assist him in inducing 
 the owner of the old remains to allow further excavations in his 
 house, he went without loss of time to Government House, but 
 found his excellency was too wide awake for him, because, no 
 sooner had Hilmi Pasha heard of the discovery than he began to 
 fill himself wdth the most sanguine expectations of finding a treas- 
 ure-trove, or some other fabulous store of precious metal, by which 
 he would be able to replenish the Imperial exchequer. M. Place 
 was told, therefore, that the Ottoman Government was as much in 
 want of antiquities as the French and English were; whereupon 
 Hilmi Pasha sent then and there the chief of police to the spot, 
 with as many convicts as they could muster, to explore the ruin. 
 The day after my arrival at Mossul I visited our excavations 
 at Koyunjik and those of the Turks at Nebee- Yonis, in company 
 with Messrs. Loftus and Berrington. When we arrived at the 
 latter place we found that there had just been uncovered a human- 
 headed bull, with a gigantic figure of a man adjoining it, holding 
 a lion under his arm; but both without any inscription. The gov- 
 
 * That part of Nineveh adjoining the mound of Koyunjik, supposed 
 to contain the tomb of the prophet Jonah.
 
 6 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 ernor of Mossul was good enough to allow me to take copies of 
 all inscriptions found, for the purpose of sending them to Colonel 
 Eawlinson to decipher. He asked me at the same time to send one 
 of my experienced diggers to work with his men, and show them 
 how the excavations were to he conducted; this answered my pur- 
 pose admirably, as my man brought me daily reports of what was 
 going on. Notwithstanding all their anxiety to discover hidden 
 treasures, the workmen of the Ottoman authorities, being inex- 
 perienced, and hampered with heavy chains as convicts, had some 
 difficulty in making any progress w^th their work; and the first 
 time I went down into their trenches I could not help laughing 
 at the result of their labors. There was no idea of system; there- 
 fore the diggings were most irregvilar, and the tunnels they tried to 
 burrow looked more like the work of those who merely wanted to 
 search for treasure than to uncover an ancient building. The 
 amount of work done by them in one day with four gangs of men 
 I could excavate in a quarter of the time.* 
 
 The Mossul local authorities were not able to carry on the re- 
 search for more than eight or nine months, as they found it rather 
 expensive to dig there, as the village of Nebee-Yonis is owned 
 by different natives, and every inch of ground had to be purchased. 
 Both M. Place and myself were quite willing to take up the work 
 abandoned by the Turks; but as Hilmi Pasha objected to the French 
 digging there, he could not, as a matter of etiquette, allow me to 
 do so. He got over the difficulty of creating jealousy between 
 M. Place and myself by telling us that he could not allow any one 
 to dig there without a special order from the Porte, which, of 
 course, he knew could never be obtained, inasmuch as both the 
 guardians of the shrine of the prophet Jonah and the fanatical 
 portion of the inhabitants would at that time have most unques- 
 tionably opposed our application at Mossul and Constantinople. 
 Moreover, the landlords who might have ventured to sell us their 
 houses, would have asked such enormous prices that it would have 
 
 * To carry on the work I always employed different gangs, each 
 composed of seven men, and set them to excavate some distance from 
 each other, with an overseer to superintend them. The gang, generally 
 speaking, consisted of one digger, one basket-filler, and five basket- 
 carriers. The latter carried the debris away from the trenches or tun- 
 nels; but these were sometimes increased or diminished according to 
 the distance the rubbish had to be carried.
 
 KO YUNJIK AND NIMR OUD. * 
 
 been, at least as far as I was concerned, utterly impossible to accede 
 to their demands with the limited funds placed at my disposal. 
 The consequence was, I gave up at that time all hopes of excavating 
 
 there. 
 
 The only valuable remains the Ottoman authorities found at 
 Nebee-Yonis, besides the human-headed bulls and gigantic figures, 
 were a bronzed lion and an inscribed marble tablet, commonly 
 known as the Nebee-Yonis inscription of Sennacherib, containing 
 the warlike exploits of that monarch. I was fortunately allowed 
 to take a copy of the inscription, and send it to Colonel Eawlinson 
 to decipher. From its reading by different Assyrian scholars, it 
 appears that this tablet gives an official account of the invasion by 
 Sennacherib of Judea, Phoenicia, and Armenia, and of the con- 
 stant warfare between him and the Babylonians and Elamites.* 
 
 In the meantime I contented myself with carrying on my 
 researches at Koyunjik, Nimroud, Kalaa-Shirgat, and other small 
 mounds in Assyria proper, and in that part of Mesopotamia m the 
 vicinity of Mossul. I a\ as to some extent curtailed m my diggings 
 at Koyunjik, because I found, on arriving at Mossul, that M. Place 
 had asked and obtained the permission of Colonel Eawlinson to 
 excavate in the northern portion of the mound; and, although he 
 had not commenced work there when I arrived at Mossul, he was 
 expected to do so erelong. I took the earliest opportunity, how- 
 ever, of placing some workmen to dig at a spot as near as possible 
 to the limit of the French ground, and appointed other gangs to 
 try some sites at Nimroud which had not been thoroughly examined 
 by Mr. Layard. While these explorations were being carried on at 
 Koyunjik and Nimroud, I employed my time in the removal of 
 some sculptures from the Palace of Sennacherib discovered by Mr. 
 Layard which the trustees of the British Museum wished to have 
 sent to England. The most important of these were the bas-reliefs 
 called "The Siege of Lachish." f I also had to select, pack, and 
 send to Baghdad, for the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, some sculp- 
 tures from the Nimroud palaces, which were duplicates of those 
 
 * For translations of these texts of Sennacherib, which refer to the 
 campaigns in Judah, see "Records of the Past," First Series, Vol. XI, 
 p. 45, and also the newest versions by Professor Robert W. Rogers, in 
 "Records of the Past," Second Series, Vol. VI, pp. 80 ff. „ ^ , 
 
 t Translated by Professor Rogers, "Records of the Past, Second 
 Series, Vol. VI, p. 83.
 
 8 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 chosen and forwarded to England by Mr. Layard for the British 
 Museum. 
 
 After a little while our excavations at Koyunjik began to show 
 some signs of interest at the southern end of the mound, about 
 two hundred feet to the northeast of Sennacherib's palace. We 
 first came upon fragments of sculptures, inscribed and painted 
 bricks, ancient pottery, and other Assyrian remains, which were 
 mixed up in utter confusion with debris; but the deeper we went 
 down, the more perfect were the bas-reliefs, though a few only 
 were in perfect condition, and resembled the sculptures found at 
 Nimroud. Amongst these, I found eight bas-reliefs, elegant both 
 in style and finish, — two representing the king sitting in a hand 
 chariot drawn by two officers and two eunuchs, and the head of the 
 shaft being ornamented with a figure-head of a horse; three con- 
 taining warriors with uncovered heads, carrying maces and vessels; 
 the other three slabs had four figures on them, male and female 
 musicians, with eunuchs wearing fish-tail long caps, the whole group 
 bearing Assyrian instruments of music, such as drums, tambourines, 
 dulcimers, and cymbals. The representation of the ministers, who 
 seem to be walking before the king, is remarkable for the splendid 
 style of their dress; and one in particular, who seems to be the 
 chief, is gorgeously dressed, and the ornamentation of his drapery 
 is splendidly delineated. 
 
 After having excavated for about a week, I came to the con- 
 clusion that all the relics we were finding did not properly belong 
 to the place, but that they must have been thrown down there pell- 
 mell from different ancient buildings. The ditch had to be en- 
 larged as we proceeded downwards, until it grew to be nearly three 
 hundred feet in circumference; and we continued to discover an- 
 cient relics to the depth of forty feet from the surface. 
 
 It has been supposed by some that this was a site of a palace or 
 temple; but although a part of the debris had certainly some signs 
 of masonry, I could, nevertheless, find no trace of a wall or foun- 
 dation in the large area I excavated. The late Mr. George Smith 
 asserts that, according to the Assyrian inscriptions, there were at 
 least four temples in the space between the palaces of Sennacherib 
 and Assur-bani-pal, two temples dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess 
 of Nineveh, a temple to IsTebo and Merodach, and a Ziggurat, or 
 temple tower. 
 
 After we had penetrated about fifteen feet downwards, we dis-
 
 y •. 
 
 C
 
 MO UND A T NIMRO VD. » 
 
 covered, lying flat in the trench, a perfect obelisk made of white 
 calcareous stone, with apex of three steps. It measured nine feet 
 six inches in height, and six feet three inches round its square base. 
 It is not a perfect square, two of the sides being wider than the 
 others. On each side there are eight small bas-reliefs, which run 
 continuously round the obelisk; that is to say, the lines of panels 
 do not end on each side as on the black marble obelisk of Shal- 
 maneser II, found by Mr. Layard at Nimroud, in 1840. These 
 panels, with the inscriptions, fill about two-thirds of the upper 
 part of the monument. This relic, which is now in the British 
 Museum, belonged to the reign of Assur-nazir-pal, the father of 
 Shalmaneser II, and represents the various exploits of that mon- 
 arch, who flourished 885-860 B. C. 
 
 Afterwards I found in another locality, about halfway between 
 Sennacherib's palace and that of Assur-bani-pal, which I discovered 
 six months afterwards, the upper part of another obelisk of white 
 calcareous stone, ornamented vath a bas-relief and inscription, and 
 belonging to the same king. Sir Henry Ptawlinson was of opinion 
 that it had been erected at Elassar (the present Kalaa-Shirgat), as 
 the second column of the inscription treats principally of the build- 
 ings belonging to that city; but other Assyrian scholars attribute 
 it to Tiglath-Pileser I, who flourished about 1120 B. C, on account 
 of some expressions which tallj with portions of the long inscrip- 
 tion of that monarch on three terra-cotta cylinders found at Kalaa- 
 Shirgat by Sir Henry Layard and myself. Unfortunately the in- 
 scription on the broken obelisk is very much defaced; but from all 
 that can be made out, it seems that the left-hand column contains 
 an account of the repairs made to the city of Asshur, supposed 
 to be the present Kalaa-Shirgat. 
 
 We also found in the same ditch a statuette of a naked female 
 figure, without either head or legs, with seven lines of inscription 
 on the back showing that Assur-bal-kala, son of Tiglath-Pileser, 
 was the king by whom it was dedicated. This torso is supposed 
 to be that of the goddess Beltis, or Venus of the Assyrians. 
 
 In different parts of the mound at Nimroud I was also fortunate 
 enough to find some valuable monuments of the old iVssyrian 
 grandeur. At the southeast palace I brought to light some new 
 chambers lined with coarse sandstone blocks, and in one of them 
 were found four statues, which have been identified with the 
 Assyrian and Babylonian deity Nebo. Two of the figures have
 
 10 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 twelve lines of inscription round the body, and represent the god 
 with clasped hands; the other two, which hear no inscription, hold 
 a square basin in their hands, as if to receive the blood of the sacri- 
 fice offered to them. These four statues were placed in pairs, at 
 the two corners at one end of the liall, at right angles with one 
 another. Those two bearing inscriptions were so placed as to face 
 each other, looking north and south, while the other statues carry- 
 ing the basins were situated in the same line, at the main wall of 
 the chamber facing the east. The inscription states that they 
 were set up at Calah (the present mound of ISTimroud) for Eimmon- 
 Nirari and his queen, Sammaramat (Semiramis), and Nebo is in- 
 voked as "the inspector of the heavens and the earth," "he who 
 hears from afar," "the sustainer," "lord of lords, who has no equal in 
 power," etc. According to the opinion of some Assyriologists, Nebo 
 was originally worshiped in Babylon; and Pul was the first Assyrian 
 king who introduced this deity into the Assyrian Pantheon. It 
 seems certain that in the earliest ages Nebo was the chief deity 
 worshiped in Babylon, and his temple was at Borsippa, now called 
 Birs-Mmroud. The names of JSTebuchadnezzer, Nebo-polassar, 
 Nabonidus, and others, show that Nebo, or Nabu, the guardian of 
 the Babylonians, in much the same manner as "Allah" (Hebrew, 
 mSx, Alloh — the God of revelation), is used now among the Arabic 
 speaking peoples, and in the same sense as the Greeks used the 
 word Theos. Two of these statues are now in the British Museum, 
 where they are placed between the Nimroud and Koyunjik gal- 
 leries.* 
 
 At the entrance of the hall in which the four statues were 
 found, two other colossal figures of Nebo, measuring about eleven 
 feet in height, were discovered. One of them was broken in pieces, 
 but the other was perfect. They had their arms crossed, apparently 
 in an attitude of meditation, like those in the British Museum; 
 but they bore no inscription. Upon the head of each figure was the 
 horned cap, and their robes were decorated, like other sculptures, 
 with embroidery and fringes. It is a j^ity that I was not able at 
 that time, from want of funds, to send the perfect figure to Eng- 
 land, because, on returning to Nimroud some time ago, I found 
 that it had been very much injured, the features being quite de- 
 
 * I believe that when these statues were set up in the temple they 
 were covered with ffold-loaf, of which the enemy stripped them when 
 the Medo-Babyloniau army destroyed Nineveh.
 
 
 I .' .-v- 
 
 ^^/l"-5J 
 
 i^^^ 
 
 
 
 
 Obelisk of Assltr-xazir-pal, King of Assyria (885-860 B. C), found 
 IN THE Mound at Nimroud.
 
 STONE MONOLITH. 
 
 faced I left the statue covered up »ith earth, as it would have 
 cost us a good deal to remove; but other explorers at some later 
 time Ld uueovered it, and left it to the mercy of the Arabs, who 
 temcd it a sacred duty to throw stones at it; for they looked upon 
 i+ as an "idol of the infidels." , , , i i 
 
 In the adjoining chamber, to which evidently the two colossal 
 fibres of Nebo forLd the entrance, I discovered a stone -o-htt 
 Liar in form to the roek tablets of Bav.an and ^ahr-al-c b 
 rounded at the top, and upon which was represented in high relief 
 1 figure of Shamshi-Eimmon, the son of Shalmaneser^ It was 
 o hard fine limestone, and carved in the same style as that found 
 by Sir Henry Layard in the same mound, at the temple near th 
 pyramid. The latter belonged to Assur-nazir-pa , the builder of 
 tie northwest palace at Nimroud. and grandfather of Shamshi- 
 Eimmon. Both of the stelae are shaped alike, and in appearance 
 t^y almost resemble each other, botii as regards the at itude of 
 the kings which are represented on them, and the usual myt ne 
 Assy^^ian' svmbols with which they are decorated. The one I di - 
 covered is a littie smaller, hut in perfection and relief equals that 
 olnd by Sir Henry Layard. The back and the arched frame are 
 carved with a cuneiform inscription in characters of the archa e 
 type It stood in its original position, when found, upon a ped- 
 estal hewn in one soUd block, with the back fixed hard agamst the 
 wall as if for the purpose of preserving the inscription from injury. 
 To save expense, I had to break ofl the pedestal before it could be 
 removed to send to England. 
 
 Professor A. H. Sayee, one of the most eminent AssjTian 
 scholars, has given a translation of the inscription m the Records 
 
 of the Past." * , , • , ■ „„j ;„ q;,. 
 
 In the center of the Nimroud mound, which is ca led m hu 
 Henry Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon" the Center Pa ace, I dis- 
 covered heaps upon heaps of all kinds of sculptures. Maiiy were 
 defaced and others were in fragments; they had evidently been 
 coUectek there from different parts of the mound, where some por- 
 tion of the old palaces had been found to be faUing to decay Here 
 I also came across some pieces of a large obelisk, made of coarse 
 black basalt; but, although a large ditch was dug round the spot 
 unfortunately I could not find the remainder of the pieces to enable 
 
 ♦ "Records of the Past." Vol. I. p. 9.
 
 12 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Assyrian scholars to determine its history. We have been able to 
 determine, however, from the fragments recovered, that when per- 
 fect it greatly exceeded in size the other two obelisks found at 
 Mmroud and Koyunjik, belonging respectively to the reigns of 
 Shalmaneser and his father, Assur-nazir-pal. This second Nim- 
 roud obelisk belongs also to the reign of Assur-nazir-pal, the 
 builder of the northwest palace. The engraving of the different 
 subjects is better finished than those on the other obelisks; but, 
 like them, it treats of the warlike adventures of that great Assyrian 
 king, who is represented, on the only perfect panel found, standing 
 on a castle, with ministers speaking to him, while other attendants 
 are weighing something like gold bullion outside it. 
 
 During the same expedition to Assyria I visited Kalaa-Shirgat 
 twice for the purpose of examining again its ruins. Although Sir 
 Henry Layard had carried on some excavations in it during his 
 second expedition to Mesopotamia, and had found there very little 
 to reward him for his trouble, yet the mound is so extensive, and 
 the spot is so famous in history, as being the first city built by 
 Asshur when he went forth out of the land of Shinar,* which he 
 had named after him, that both Colonel Eawlinson and myself 
 thought it necessary to try it again. 
 
 M. Place had been digging there before I arrived at Mossul in 
 1852, and it seems that he found nothing to repay him for the 
 expense and trouble he went to. The consequence was, he had 
 never thought of excavating there again until he heard of my in- 
 tention to go to that place myself. This was very unfortunate, 
 because it is a known fact that, whenever the British and French 
 interests clash in foreign lands, there is stire to be jealousy and ill- 
 feeling created; and, although I always avoided such unhappy re- 
 sults, my public duty forced me sometimes to brave it out.f With- 
 out making my object known, I had everything prepared for the 
 
 * Genesis x, 11. 
 
 f As far as I was concerned, I tried all I could to be on good terms 
 with M. Place. As soon as 1 arrived at Mossul, a deputation came to 
 me from his Jeboor workmen, who were excavating at Khorsabad, 
 asking me to employ them. Most of them had formerly worked in 
 Sir Henry Layard's excavations under my superintendence, and, as I 
 considered it a mean and unwise policy to do so, I told them that if 
 they wished to please me, I would rather they remained where they 
 were; and that the more they were faithful to their employer, the more 
 I should be pleased.
 
 ■ 7 !"> 
 
 Statie of the God Xebo.
 
 MOUNDS NEAR MOSSUL. ^^ 
 
 expedition, and only awaited tiie marriage of one of my brothers, 
 which was going to take place shortly. Fortunately, M. Place, 
 thinking that I would not leave Mossul before my brother's wed- 
 ding, dfd not make the necessary haste; but I myself, hearing from 
 a reTiable quarter, the day before the wedding took place, that M. 
 Place had prepared the required number of workmen to take to 
 Kalaa-Shirgat, and that the Bedouin guide from Firhan, the Shaikh 
 of the Shammer Arabs, had actually arrived at Mossul to escort the 
 French party, I gave up all idea of being present at the marriage 
 ceremony, and at once ordered a raft to be made large enough to 
 carry me and the necessary provisions and implements for eight or 
 ten gangs of workmen. ^ . 
 
 Although my explorations were mainly carried on at Koyunjik 
 and Nimroud, I had, nevertheless, a large number of workmen 
 employed upon other mounds in the neighborhood of Mossul; and 
 as I was always in the habit of sending Arab laborers with their 
 provisions and digging plant, no notice was taken of my movements 
 when the raft was being built, nor of the dispatch of some trust- 
 worthy workmen from Koyunjik to Nimroud.* The only men 
 intrusted with the secret of my real intentions were two Arab over- 
 seers, who had worked under me in Sir Henry Layard's time; one of 
 whom was named Mahmood Alfaraj, whose fidelity and praiseworthy 
 conduct I shall have often to notice in the course of my narrative. 
 Making all the haste I could to reach Nimroud by raft, I took Mr. 
 Hodder, the artist, a part of the workmen, and the overseers with 
 me, and the remainder went down by land with my saddle-horse. 
 As'soon as the requisite number of men were selected from Nim- 
 roud to complete the gangs required, Mr. Hodder, my servants, and 
 I started on the raft, and the overseers, with the bulk of the 
 workmen, numbering about ninety, followed us for two days along 
 the eastern bank of the river, until we came to within three miles of 
 the mound of Kalaa-Shirgat. At this point the workmen had to 
 cross the river on the raft to join me, and proceeded to the rum by 
 land. They forded the Zab a little above its junction with the 
 Tigris. This was easily accomplished, because in winter both rivers 
 are very shallow, and can be forded on foot in several places; but 
 as I wanted the workmen to cross the latter river at a certain spot 
 
 * This Assyrian site, where I was carrying on excavations, stands 
 oue-tbird of the way on the eastern side of the Tigris, between Mossul 
 and Kalaa-Shirgat, the latter being situated on the western bank.
 
 14 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 where the hilly banks terminate, and the water is very deep, I 
 found it necessary to let them have the raft to take them across 
 in companies. 
 
 As I mentioned before, the rivers in Ass3Tia and Mesopotamia 
 being very shallow during the winter months, especially in De- 
 cember and January, wdien the rain in the plains is not very heavy, 
 and the mountains at the source of the Euphrates, Tigris, and the 
 two Zabs, are covered with snow, the ijrogress on a river by raft 
 is very slow. ISTevertheless, as I had to take the workmen 
 from Mossul and Nimroud with the provisions and plant necessary 
 for such an expedition, I deemed it expedient to proceed by water 
 to Kalaa-Shirgat rather than by land. The distance between Kalaa- 
 Shirgat and Mossul is about sixty miles; and when the river is high, 
 as it is in spring, a small raft like mine ought to make the voyage 
 in less than twenty-four hours, as one can then travel day and 
 night; but when the water is low, it takes at least three days to go 
 the same distance, especially as it is not easy to guide the raft at 
 night on account of the shoals and dams which impede the passage. 
 On that occasion especially. I was obliged to halt soon after sunset 
 to give the workmen rest, and enable them to have their meals. 
 
 The first evening we halted, after we left Mmroud, a messenger 
 arrived from Mossul bringing me a letter from my brother, the 
 then British vice-consul at Mossul, in which he told me that M. 
 Place had complained oflicially to him about my expedition to 
 Kalaa-Shirgat, which site, he said, belonged to the French, inas- 
 much as he had already carried on some excavations there, and had 
 spent a good deal of money to secure the right of digging in the 
 mound. I certainly could not understand the logic of M. Place's 
 argument, when I knew that if any one had a right to dig there 
 more than others it was ourselves, as Sir Henry Layard was the 
 first who made any discoveries in that mound; nor could I under- 
 stand how M. Place, by obtaining the protection of the chief of the 
 Shammer Arabs, possessed the exclusive privilege of digging there. 
 The place was crown property; and although both the French and 
 ourselves were allowed, by virtue of the firmans granted to our 
 respective Governments, to excavate in any ground belonging to 
 the State, as a matter of etiquette no agent of any national museum 
 attempted to interfere with the operations of the other. To speak 
 for myself, I always refrained from excavating in any place where 
 other agents were conducting their special researches, particularly
 
 M(iX()T.iTir OF SnAMsni-KiMMox II, Kixg of Assyria (824-811 
 B. C), Son of Shalmaneser II.
 
 KALAA-SHIRGAT. 15 
 
 when they had been fortunate enough to come upon ancient remains. 
 On this account, therefore, I did not consider the objection of M. 
 Place about my having gone to Kalaa-Shirgat in any way Justified 
 his interference; hence, I gave no heed to his complaint. The same 
 evening we heard that some workmen of the French had been seen 
 with the Bedouin guide making haste to reach Kalaa-Shirgat, as 
 they wished to be before us in taking possession, which, in their 
 opinion, would give them the right of preventing my digging there 
 altogether, more especially as they had secured the protection of 
 the chief of the Shammer Arabs, which I had not. In fact, I very 
 seldom went on such expeditions under the protection of any chief, 
 as I always had with me a large body of armed faithful Arabs, some 
 of whom were well known in the country, and belonged to influ- 
 ential families. At the same time I kept an open house, and enter- 
 tained any chief or chiefs who wished to visit me. No sooner did 
 my workmen hear of the movements of those of the French than 
 they were seized with inexpressible frenzy, and began, as they are 
 wont to do on such occasions, to sing the war-cry and dance about 
 as if they were demented. Most of them wanted to cross the river 
 then and there, and push on so as to reach Kalaa-Shirgat before our 
 rivals; and others actually tried to swim over to the other side in 
 order to have a free fight with what they called "the intruders." 
 After no end of persuasion, however, I managed to calm them down 
 for the time. 
 
 Unfortunately for us, a strong easterly wind sprang up at night, 
 accompanied with rain, which prevented us from resuming our 
 voyage the next morning, because the rafts, which are composed 
 of inflated sheepskins, and covered over with timber, can not make 
 progress against a head wind. As the storm continued, much to 
 our annoyance we were obliged to remain stationary all the follow- 
 ing day; which also made it very uncomfortable for my poor Arab 
 followers. We had two small tents, only sufficient to give shelter 
 to the servants, the overseers, and about a dozen more men. The 
 consequence was, the majority of the workmen were drenched to 
 the skin. Fortunately both banks of the Tigris were at that time 
 covered with brushwood and tamarisk-trees, of which the workmen 
 made bonfires, and by this means they managed to keep themselves 
 fairly dry and warm. 
 
 We started as early as possible on the following day; and as 
 soon as the Jirnaf Hills were passed, and we were within sight of
 
 16 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the mound of Kalaa-Shirgat, I landed on the Mesopotamia side of 
 the river with Mr. Hodder and our servants. The raft was then 
 sent across the river to bring the workmen over by batches; but I 
 ordered Mahmood Alfaraj, with about a dozen trustworthy Arabs, 
 to cross first, as I wished them to precede us to the mound to take 
 possession of certain good spots, which I described to them, before 
 the employees of the French occupied them. I directed the overseer 
 that, when they arrived there and found that we were the first in 
 the field, to put up a signal on the highest part of the mound, 
 where we had carried on excavations before, in order that I might 
 know from a distance what I was to expect on my arrival. I could 
 not accompany Mahmood Alfaraj and the workmen sent with him 
 to secure possession of the spot, as I had to remain at the river 
 to see the workmen cross over as quickly as possible; but I asked 
 Mr. Hodder to accompany them, in order that he might prevent a 
 row in case our party came in contact with that of the French. 
 
 It took the men nearly two hours to cross, as the current of the 
 river was then very rapid; and every time the raft was rowed over, 
 it had to be dragged up the stream for nearly half a mile, that it 
 might reach the oj^posite landing-place witiiout drifting down the 
 river. An hour after Mr. Hodder and Mahmood Alfaraj left, we 
 were delighted to see the longed-for signal hoisted on the liighest 
 peak of Kalaa-Sliirgot. At the sight of this, the grateful Arabs 
 on both sides of tlie river raised such tremendous cries of applause 
 that the very air seemed to rend with their shouts; and they kept 
 it up until we began to move towards our destination. "We had not 
 gone half the distance before we heard the sound of the war-cry 
 and a great hubbub coming from the mound, wliich convinced us 
 that our men had come into collision with those of the French. 
 The Arabs who were with me at once took to their heels to help , 
 their comrades in the struggle. I tried all I could to quiet them, 
 but to no purpose, as they said they Avere certain that their fellow- 
 laborers were being beaten and slaughtered, and their honor could 
 not allow them to hear the sound of the war-cry and not run to 
 their help. As I found that there was nothing for it but to allow 
 the men to run on, I galloped as fast as my horse would take me, 
 through the jungle, to prevent bloodshed. I fully hoped to reach 
 the scene of the strife before my Arab followers, but they beat 
 me, because they knew which way to go, and took short cuts; 
 and being on foot they managed to thread their way through the 
 
 ^^■I'l-'^l (^'
 
 TERRA-COTTA CYLINDER. 33 
 
 ruary, 1854, I was curious to know what rendering other reputed 
 Assyrian scholars would give it. It happened that at that time 
 the learned French savant, M. Oppert, visited Mossul on his way 
 to Europe from Baghdad, and, of course, he was very much inter- 
 ested in seeing what had been found; and while I was showing him 
 over the Susiana chamber in the palace of Assur-bani-pal, I asked 
 him to tell me what the inscription meant. To my surprise and 
 satisfaction he gave it the same meaning as Sir Henry Eawlinson. 
 
 The adjoining room* to the west of the Susiana chamber, which 
 must have been about sixty feet long, was, with the exception of 
 three sculptures which were in good preservation, found to have 
 been utterly destroyed. Indeed more than two-thirds of it 
 not a trace of the stone wall was visible. The above sculptures, 
 which are in the British Museum, contain a most interesting 
 architectural subject. Two of them represent a view of a country 
 with two rivers, between which there are groups of men, some on 
 foot and others on horseback, who seem to be making all the haste 
 they can to quit the country. Some are running and looking back, 
 either for friends or to see whether they are pursued by the enemy. 
 Above the rivers is represented a large palace or temple, surrounded 
 by three walls with battlements. The pillars of the edifice are 
 resting on the backs of human-headed bulls, with their heads turned 
 like those found at Khorsabad. On the third slab there is to be 
 seen a part of a palace and a bridge having three pointed arches, 
 and very near it stands one of those stelae or *^image of his ma- 
 jesty," with an arched frame on which is portrayed an Assyrian 
 king.f 
 
 While breaking down the brick wall behind these sculptures to 
 enable me to pack them for dispatch to England, we found a large 
 terra-cotta cylinder buried there, but unfortunately it crumbled 
 to pieces as soon as it was exposed to the air. This record was after- 
 wards found to contain the annals of Assur-bani-pal. In another 
 chamber were found mixed with the debris fragments of a similar 
 cylinder, which seemed to be a duplicate copy of the same in- 
 scription.J 
 
 * See Plan 2. 
 
 f This has been identified by Assyrian scholars as a representation 
 of the hanging gardens of Babylon. 
 
 % It was a curious coincidence that twenty-five years afterwards, 
 when I was sent by the trustees of the British Museum to make fur- 
 
 8
 
 34 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 In another long room, southwest of the Susiana room, of the 
 same size as the one I have just described, we found other interest- 
 ing sculptures, representing a large town with many gates situated 
 on the banks of a river, and with a canal running round it.* The 
 greater part of the room, on the northeast extremity of it, was 
 found, like the others, to have been totally destroyed, and there 
 remained only a few bas-reliefs, mostly decayed. It had originally 
 four entrances, all of which were paved with marble and cal- 
 careous stone, most elaborately and beautifully carved with rosettes 
 and the lotus. These two forms of decoration seem to have been 
 very much esteemed by the Assyrians, as we found them used in 
 every piece of ornamentation or embroidery. I sent five specimens 
 of them to the British Museum, and they are now exhibited in the 
 Assyrian basement-room with the collections from the palaces of 
 Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal. The patterns are exceedingly 
 beautiful, and display more richness and elegance than any other 
 form of ornamentation discovered in the ruins of ancient Assyria. 
 
 This kind of pavement was first noticed by Sir Henry Layard 
 in 1845 at Koyunjik, when he was fortunate enough to discover 
 the remains of an Assyrian building.f The very first three cham- 
 bers Sir Ilenry Layard opened in Sennacherib's palace belonged 
 to the reign of Assur-bani-pal, and adjoined the northeast extremity 
 of his grandfather's edifice. This shows that when the Assyrian 
 kings built their palaces they at first paneled them with plain ala- 
 baster or calcareous stone, and afterwards had carved upon the 
 slabs the different battle or hunting scenes as they occurred. This 
 is proved by the fact that, although these chambers resembled in 
 
 ther examination of the palaces at Koyunjik, I found another copy of 
 the same cylinder in almost perfect condition buried in a solid brick 
 wall in the same palace, and within a few yards of the former. 
 
 * These sculptures have been identified as belonging to the history 
 of the siege and capture of Babylon by Assur-bani-pal. 
 
 f "Nineveh and Its Remains," Vol. II, p. 12G. It may be interesting 
 to Assyrian scholars to learn that when I reported to Sir Henry Raw- 
 linson the discovery of Assur-bani-pal's palace, and sent him some 
 copies of inscriptions found therein, he wrote, as far back as the 25th 
 of January, 1854, as follows: "I am delighted at the discovery of the 
 new palace in the northern part of the mound at Koyunjik. It belongs 
 to the son of Esarhaddon, and was no doubt built at the same time 
 as the palace on the extreme southern edge of the mound belonging 
 to the same king."
 
 Clay Tablet from the Libkaky of Asstr-baxi-pal, Kinc; of Assyria (668-626 
 B. C), AT Nineveh. It contalvs tife Assyrian- Accoint of the Dei vge.
 
 BAS-RELIEFS. 35 
 
 style and dimensions those of Sennacherib's palace, they contained 
 the record of the campaign of Assur-bani-pal's, wliich took place 
 about fifty-five years afterwards. The last named king is repre- 
 sented twice on the bas-reliefs found in these halls. 
 
 In another room to the southeast of the lion-hunt saloon, which 
 was very much destroyed, we found some bas-reliefs representing 
 an assault by Assyrian warriors on an encampment; some are setting 
 fire to the tents and carrying off the women captives, while others 
 are in full chase of men riding on camels, who are fleeing for their 
 lives. This has been considered an Arab encampment, because the 
 men wear no head-dress, and are clothed with nothing more than 
 a mere cloth tied round their loins. 
 
 Another fact connected with the style of the architecture at the 
 period of Assur-bani-pal and that of the other Assyrian kings who 
 preceded him, is the entire absence of winged bulls or lions at the 
 grand entrances to their palaces. They are replaced by colossal 
 figures of Ea, hideous monsters, and human figures with lions' heads 
 and eagles' feet. Also the sculptures decorating Assur-bani-pal's 
 northern palace at Koyunjik were on an average two or three feet 
 less in height than those of his grandfather, Sennacherib, which 
 shows that either he contented himself with lower rooms, or that 
 he preferred finishing the remaining space between the sculptures 
 and the ceiling with painted scenes. Then again the palace of 
 Assur-bani-pal must have been only one story high, while that of 
 Sennacherib, judging from the quantity of rubbish we had to re- 
 move before we could uncover the top of the remaining walls, must 
 have been two or three stories. In Assur-bani-pal's palace, on the 
 contrary, we came in many places upon the top of the sculptures 
 before we had cleared away a foot of earth; indeed, in one or two 
 instances, a child might have scratched the ground with his fingers, 
 and touched the top of the sculptures. 
 
 After I had discovered this palace, I could not help wondering 
 how former excavators had missed coming upon some of the walls, 
 which were not more than a foot from the spot where they left 
 off digging, especially in the place near the lion-hunt saloon, where 
 the old trench went through a broken wall and missed the sculp- 
 tures which were still remaining on either side. 
 
 There is no doubt that the main destruction of the palaces was 
 the work of the Sassanians, who occupied the mound before the 
 Arab conquest; and in order to save themselves expense and trouble
 
 36 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 they dug out most of the sculptures, and burnt them for lime to 
 build their more rude habitations with. At the place where I dis- 
 covered the great hall, or courtyard,* there existed the remains 
 of a large building of some well-to-do Sassanian or Arab, which had 
 also been covered over with earth, and made the place appear as if 
 it had never been inhabited. Built into some of the walls of this 
 house I found a great number of pieces of sculpture, which had 
 been brought from the adjacent Mneveh edifices. Since the de- 
 struction of the xVssjTian and Babylonian monarchies these barba- 
 rous people who succeeded them preferred building their houses 
 rudely with mud and stone, and plastering them over with lime, 
 which they obtained from the burnt marble or stone, rather than 
 go to the trouble of following the good example of the Assyrians 
 in using bricks and stone. 
 
 Most unfortunately just at the time when I most needed an 
 artist to draw the numerous sculptures, and copy the various in- 
 scriptions that were being daily discovered, both at Koyunjik and 
 Mmroud, Mr. Hodder fell hopelessly ill, and was compelled to 
 leave Mossul and return home. There was an eminent American 
 doctor at Mossul at the time, who recommended his immediate 
 departure to Europe, as he thought it was the only chance of saving 
 his life. 
 
 It happened, most fortunately, however, that another English 
 artist appeared on the scene, whose services could be spared to do 
 the work. 1 have already mentioned my late friend, Mr. Kennett 
 Loftus, whom I met at Jazeerah on my way out from England in 
 October, 1852. Since that time Mr. Loftus had returned home, 
 and had been sent out again to Baghdad by the "managers of the 
 Assyrian Excavation Fund," who organized themselves in England 
 for the purpose of enlarging the field of operation in Assyria and 
 Babylonia, as they considered that the sum granted by the Treasury 
 to the British j\luseum for archaeological researches in Assyria 
 was quite inadequate for the proper prosecution of the work. As 
 the explorations were then being conducted by me for the trustees 
 in Assyria, Mr. Loftus had to try his luck in Chaldea; but when 
 the tim.e came that the funds available for my undertakings were 
 nearly spent, and I was obliged to abandon the newly-discovered 
 palace and other more or less important ancient sites, both at 
 
 * See Plan 2.
 
 P\j{n OF WE noRT^ PAme KouYunim. 
 
 U 
 
 ;l 
 
 J L= 
 
 r
 
 DISCOVERIES BY ME. LOFTUS. 37 
 
 Koyunjik and Nimroud, Mr. I.oftiis was directed to take up the 
 work where I left it. 
 
 Messrs. Dickenson, of Bond Street, had voluntarily sent out to 
 him an able artist, Mr. Wilhani Boutcher, to assist in making plans 
 and drawings of the different buildings and objects discovered; 
 and as it happened that his services were not at the time urgently 
 required in Southern Mesopotamia, when Mr. Hodder was obliged 
 to return home, Mr. Loftus sent Mr. Boutcher to make drawings 
 of the sculptures which Mr. Hodder was unable to finish, and to 
 take charge of the sites for the "Assyrian Excavation Fund" where 
 I left them. The trustees, after my return to England, resolved 
 to continue the national researches, and as I declined to return to 
 Mossul on account of a political appointment which had been 
 offered to me under the Indian Government, Mr. Loftus was com- 
 missioned to continue the work. He was not so successful as I had 
 been, but following up the work at the northwestern end of the 
 ascending passage, which I had in the first instance discovered, he 
 brought to light the remainder of the passage, and other parts of 
 x\ssur-bani-pal's palace at the western corner of the Quadrangle. 
 It appears, from the addition made to my original plan, that 
 this passage, which was about one hundred and seventy feet long, 
 was a continuation of the one I discovered, — my examination of 
 the ascending passage having been made in a southeasterly direc- 
 tion where the palace was situated, as I could not afford the time 
 and expense of keeping my workmen uncovering the northwesterly 
 end.* 
 
 Indeed, I made this new discovery Just at the time when the 
 public money available for the exploration was nearly exhausted, 
 and I was on the eve of leaving for England; and nothing but the 
 importance of the work with which I was occupied made me post- 
 pone my departure for three months. 
 
 At the western corner of the palace, already mentioned,! which 
 appears to have been the private entrance, Mr. Loftus uncovered 
 a portal and three chambers, in which some very interesting sculp- 
 tures Avere found. The most valuable were a series of bas-reliefs 
 representing the continuation of Assur-bani-pal's favorite sport, 
 the chase of the lion and the wild ass. All the representations 
 depicted show great delicacy of execution, and prove that Assyrian 
 
 * See Plan 2. f Ibid.
 
 38 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 art as regards sculpture was never so highly cultivated, either before 
 or after the reign of that renowned king. No one can help admir- 
 ing the fine spirit in which all the figures, whether of man or beast, 
 are set forth; especially the attitude of the eunuchs laboring under 
 the heavy load of a wounded lion; others carrying a dead hare, asses 
 at full gallop, gazelles in flight, and dogs in hot pursuit of a herd 
 of wild asses. The most valuable discovery in this part of Assur- 
 bani-pal's palace was a representation of the monarch himself 
 lounging on a couch covered with a rug, with his queen sitting 
 on a chair, or throne, drinking with her consort right royally the 
 loving cup, and having before them a table exquisitely orna- 
 mented.* JBehind them stood their attendants, each carrying a 
 towel and busily engaged in fanning their majesties to keep the flies 
 from their faces and cups. The scene is represented in a garden, 
 with the king and queen sitting below an arbor of vines and palms, 
 evidently ready for their dinner, as two attendants are represented 
 bringing some viands in round dishes just like those we found at 
 Nimroud and Koyunjik, with musicians following.f As the vines 
 show bunches of grapes, and the palm is devoid of fruit, it seems 
 probable that the garden must have been in Assyria, because, in 
 that country, palm-trees do not thrive; and although in some parts 
 they grow to a certain height, they never bear proper dates. It 
 may be that the kings of Assyria planted palms in their gardens 
 in memory of their Babylonian conquests, and the fact that the 
 vine is showing fruit, and the plans are represented without, indicate 
 where they are growing, seeing that both bear fruit at the same time 
 of the year in Southern l\Iesopotamia; that is, in July and August. 
 In the same garden there are trees represented, which look like 
 those of the cedar or cypress kind. These trees are now extinct in 
 Mesopotamia. On the trees there are birds represented with a head 
 of a notable chief, supposed to be Teuman, king of Elam, hanging 
 on one of the branches.^ Behind the king there is a stool, on which 
 Assur-bani-pal's bow and arrows are laid. 
 
 During the time we were uncovering the sculptures at Assur- 
 
 * It is customary in the lands of the Bible now to drink a glass or 
 two of alcoholic spirits before dinner, and it may be their Assyrian 
 majesties were doing tlje same on this occasion. 
 
 f See Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 338. 
 
 X This depraved and disgusting exhibition is even now practiced 
 in countries in the East where Christian civilization has not reached.
 
 I -* 
 
 
 % -ftifisil'/x! 
 
 

 
 HAIL AND RAIN STORMS. 
 
 bani-pal's palace, the workmen suffered from excessive cold which 
 continued till the time I left for England in the beginning o May 
 and 1 do not remember ever having before experienced such cold 
 so late in spring in that part of the valley of the Tigris. Snow 
 actually fell as late as the 9th of March, and the ram was so plenti- 
 ful during the year that the Tigris reached almost to the outskirts 
 of the walls of Nineveh. One day, about the beginning of Feb- 
 ruary, when Sir Henry Rawlinson and I endeavored to cross the 
 river from Mossul to Koyunjik we were quite unable to do so from 
 the strength of the current, though we tried to pass up he Khosar 
 which comes down from the Assyrian mountains and runs past 
 Koyunjik before it falls into the Tigris. Our boat could no even 
 make headway in this small stream at tliat time, though during 
 the latter part of summer it is quite dry. 
 
 The storms were also in that spring most terrific. One night 
 while encamping on the mound of Koyunjik, and I was fast asleep m 
 my tent, there was a tremendous storm of hail and ram, and all of a 
 sudden I felt myself going down a pit, with bed, tent, and every- 
 thing else I possessed. My plight at the time can be be ter im- 
 agined than expressed. Taken so by surprise in a very dark mght 
 with rain and hail pouring down in torrents, and I being ingulfed 
 in a pit with a deluge of water rushing down upon me and bringing 
 with it heaps of the debris of the excavations, I could not for some 
 time realize the true state of my position. Indeed, when I first 
 felt myself going down, the fate of Korah passed through my mind 
 and I did not collect my senses until a number o my faithful 
 Arabs came to my rescue, and quickly raised me out of the ditch 
 half-drowned and covered with mud. It appeared that my tent had 
 been pitched over one of the large tunnels dug at the time of Sir 
 Henry Layard's excavations, which had been lost to he sight; and 
 the quantity of rain which had fallen had undermined it; hence my 
 
 ""'In^the beginning of April, 1854, 1 closed all the different works, 
 both at Koyunjik and Nimroud, and having pointed out the im- 
 portant sites to Mr. Boutcher and made over to him the plant of the 
 excavations for the use of Mr. Loftus, I left Mossul May 1st 
 
 Though, as will be seen from the foregoing account, I had not 
 a little trouble and anxiety in the discovery of Assur-bam-pal s 
 palace,my connection with it would well-nigh have been forgotten 
 were it not that I was appointed once more by the trustees of the
 
 40 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 British Museum in 1877 to return to Mesopotamia and resume my 
 researches. Indeed, some writers have even made it appear that 
 it was some one else who enriched the British Museum with the 
 beautiful sculptures and valuable inscriptions unearthed in the 
 palace of the last great king of the Assyrians, the renowned 
 Sardanapalus. Professor George Eawlinson, in alluding to Assur- 
 bani-pal's palace, refers to its sculptures as follows: "These slabs, 
 which were recovered by Colonel Eawlinson, are now in the British 
 Museum. The animals of chase include lions, wild bulls, wild 
 asses, stags, and antelopes." * This seems the more strange when it 
 is remembered that, as far back as April, 1856, his brother, Colonel 
 (afterwards Sir Henry) Eawlinson, in writing to the Athenaeum,t 
 gave me the credit of having discovered the palace; and even if he 
 had not done so, I can not conceive how any one else could claim the 
 honor of having found it, more especially as I was at that time the 
 accredited agent of the British Museum, and in sole local charge of 
 the excavations, without even recounting the round-about way I 
 went to discover it. 
 
 The publisher of the "Illustrated London News," however, A\as 
 generous enough to give a prominent notice of my discoveries when 
 the collection from Assur-bani-pal's palace reached the British 
 Museum in ]\Iay, 1856, though I was thousands of miles away in 
 Arabia Felix. In giving a few illustrations of the antiquities I 
 discovered, the article begins thus: "Another fine collection of 
 Assyrian sculptures has arrived in England, and has been deposited 
 in the British Museum. A portion only of them is now exhibited; 
 but arrangements are in progress to admit the public into the cel- 
 lars, where they must remain until a becoming gallery is provided 
 for them. They consist of about seventy slabs, chiefly selected 
 from the north palace at Koyunjik, discovered in 1854 by Mr. 
 Hormuzd Eassam, the companion and friend of Mr. Layard. It 
 must be not a little gratifying to that pioneer of Assyrian research 
 to find, through his example, an Oriental— generally indifferent 
 to all works of art— so thoroughly interested in the undertaking and 
 impregnated with the English energy to carry his individual labors 
 to a successful conclusion. In 1852, Mr. Eassam was appointed by 
 
 * Rawlinson's "Herodotus," Vol. I, p. 495. note 8. 
 is remembered that, as far back as April, 1856, his brother, Colonel 
 fAthenaeum, No. 1,485, 12th April, 1856.
 
 
 
 'I'M - .^wm 
 
 ,'ff 'l!ltlH.ifl,.« ..rrT ,,, ■ I, 'N. Kflto 
 
 
 /^■'■'^.:m
 
 SITE OF THE NORTHERN PALACE. 41 
 
 the trustees of the British Museum to take charge of the excava- 
 tions at Nineveh, and returned once more to Mossul. The difi&- 
 culties he had to encounter were by no means slight. For several 
 years his predecessor had tunneled through the most promising 
 spots of the Assyrian mounds, and accumulated the works which 
 have astonished and gratified the English nation. If success at- 
 tended the new expedition, the result would have been received 
 as a natural consequence; but if unsuccessful, no amount of energy, 
 perseverance, or labor would have shielded the conductor of the 
 expedition from undeserved blame, more freely bestowed, too, per- 
 haps, because he was a foreigner in an Englishman's position. And 
 yet the discoveries are in a great measure the result of good fortune, 
 which no intelligence can command. The appearance of the 
 mounds is nearly uniform. There are but slight undulations on 
 the surface — sometimes, it is true, indicating the position of the 
 ancient remains beneath, but as often leading the explorer to ex- 
 tensive barren operations. We may likewise rest assured that Mr. 
 Layard had previously profited by every hint which the appearance 
 of the ground afforded. The site of the northern palace, whence 
 these, the finest sculptures, have been procured, was the lowest and 
 the least promising part of the mound. It had been long ago tried 
 by Mr. Layard, who only came upon a drain, and then abandoned 
 the trench. At the commencement of his labors Mr. Eassam cut 
 several trenches there, but, finding no trace of sculpture, considered 
 the excavation of it useless, and removed all his workmen to the 
 southern part and center of Koyunjik, and to the large mound of 
 Nimroud; meanwhile the second French expedition at Khorsabad 
 had discovered scarcely anything but plain mud walls, human- 
 headed bulls, and small metal articles, and M. Place, wishing to 
 possess for the Louvre a collection of smaller and more varied sculp- 
 ture. Sir H. Eawlinson, with liberality which does him honor, trans- 
 ferred to him the whole of the northern portion of Koyunjik. M. 
 Place was prevented by circumstances from availing himself of the 
 offer, and confined his operations to Khorsabad. Mr. Eassam for 
 months unceasingly exerted himself, but found nothing to return 
 the nation for the money it had granted until three months before 
 his appointment ceased, when, almost in despair, he tried once more 
 an old abandoned trench on the north side of the mound. He had 
 not proceeded a yard before he came upon the first of a series of 
 chambers and passages lined with the most exquisite bas-reliefs
 
 42 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 which have yet reached England. With redoubled energy he pros- 
 ecuted his work, and previous to leaving Assyria he had the satis- 
 faction of uncovering what then appeared the whole of the palace 
 of Assur-bani-pal, the grandson of Sennacherib, and to pack 
 and dispatch to England a selection made by Sir Henry Eaw- 
 linson, from the best fruits of Assyrian sculpture. Until the 
 arrival of the slabs in England there was little chance of Mr. Ras- 
 sam's exertions being appreciated, and, now that they have reached 
 us, he is far away on the shores of the Eed Sea. We, therefore, 
 more readily bear testimony to the value of his services, and record 
 our gratification, for his sake, as well as for the nation's, that suc- 
 cess at last rewarded his perseverance and dispelled the anxiety 
 which he must have suffered during so many months of discourag- 
 ing labor." * 
 
 xVs I wished to reach England as quickly as possible, I took the 
 unfrequented route through Northern Mesopotamia, and reached 
 Orfa (the ancient Edessa) in a quick ride of nine days on drome- 
 daries via Nissibeen (the ancient Nisibis), leaving the mountains 
 of Sinjar on the left.f For the first three days we frequently passed 
 encampments of the Shammer Arabs and other petty tribes de- 
 pendent on them. The whole of the Shammer Arabs were at that 
 time in open rebellion against their supreme cliief, Firhan, partly 
 because he tried to keep them from plundering in the Province of 
 Mossul, from whence he was receiving a regular stipend for pro- 
 tecting the high roads, and partly on account of the hatred the tribe 
 entertained against a cousin of the chief, named HaJJir, who had, 
 contrary to Arab rule, treacherously killed a renowned chief while 
 he was their guest4 
 
 Moreover, the Ottoman authorities being just then in great 
 trouble on account of the Turco-Eussian War, had no available 
 troops to punish the refractory Arabs, and on this account their 
 lavages were allowed to go on unchecked. 
 
 According to common practice, when any one wishes to travel 
 
 * Illustrated London News, 24th May, 1856, p. 553. 
 
 f My guide brought with him three dromedaries; the best we 
 mounted together, he riding behind me, and the other two carried my 
 servant, luggage, provisions, bed. and our Bedouin camel-driver, who 
 accompanied his master, my protector. 
 
 X This treacherous chief was afterwards killed by a nephew of the 
 murdered man.
 
 BEDOUIN CUSTOMS. ^^ 
 
 BafclY through an uninhahited district, either in Syria or Mesopo- 
 tamia over which the Turkish Government has really no control, 
 it is necessary to obtain the protection of the chief whose province 
 it is to provide an escort. This generally consists of one known 
 attendant, sometimes only a slave, who has power to escort the 
 traveler through friends and foes without fear of molestation 
 Even a woman, according to Bedouin custom, has the privilege of 
 protecting a traveler, although he is a murderer, while passing 
 throu-h the tribe which was seeking revenge; this protection is not 
 only e'itended to the life of the individual, but also to his property. 
 Thus if a chief of a powerful tribe gives his protection to a traveler, 
 there is no fear of any member of his or any other tribe immediately 
 connected with them molesting him, however great the value of his 
 possession may be. The reason is obvious; because if any one dared 
 to iriure or plunder the person who is traveling under protection 
 both the chief and his tribe would be disgraced forever if they did 
 not retaliate and punish the offender severely, even at the risk ot 
 beincr annihilated. This defense, however, does not hold good in 
 ithe matter of petty tribes at war with each other, or m case the 
 wavfarers meet with a plundering party belonging to a tribe who 
 arc: at open enmity with the escort, or in passing through an en- 
 campment of a tribe when the escort is not himself entitled to the 
 privilege of protecting a traveler. For instance, the Shammer 
 irabs inhabit that part of Mesopotamia lying between the Tigris 
 and Euphrates, and extending for three hundred miles from the 
 foot of the Koordistan Mountains, below Mardeen on the northwest, 
 to the Median wall on the southeast; the Innizza tribe occupy the 
 western side of the Euphrates, extending from the Pashahc ot 
 Aleppo to that of Baghdad, including a part of the district o. 
 Damascus; while the Montifij, or Montifig Arabs, hold the sway of 
 Southern Mesopotamia, extending from the Median wall to Shat-al- 
 Arab, the junction of the Tigris with the Euphrates. So an escort, 
 even if he is a slave, from the principal chief of any of these 
 three most powerful tribes of Mesopotamia and Syria, can pass a 
 traveler anmolested through that part of the country inhabited 
 by his own people. Supposing a traveler has to go from Damascus 
 to Palmyra, and thence to Dair and Mossul, he has to find out, m 
 the first instance, which is the most powerful tribe inhabiting the 
 district between the first-named places from which he will have to 
 obtain a guide. After reaching Palmyra he has to look out lor
 
 44 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 another escort who can safely assert his Arab right of hospitality. 
 Ultimately, when he wishes to cross to Mesopotamia, he has to send 
 to one of the chiefs of the Shammer Arabs, whose province it is to 
 convey the traveler safely to Mossul. It is the duty of the escort, 
 who is generally well acquainted with the state of the country, to 
 recommend the safest route, and the chiefs who are best able to give 
 the necessary protection; and sometimes they even advise the trav- 
 eler to send to a deadly enemy of their own, if they know that he is 
 the only man who can insure the safety of the wayfarer. The trav- 
 eler in that case remains with the clan, or friendly tribe of the last 
 escort, while a messensrer is dispatched for another to take his 
 place. Sometimes the Turkish governor of a district will recom- 
 mend and assist in obtaining the necessary escort when he can not 
 himself supply the traveler with the required guard of soldiers or 
 police. Formerly Turkish soldiers had no power to escort any 
 party through the country of the principal Arab tribes; but now, 
 most of the Bedouins having been brought to some extent under 
 Turkish control, the very uniform of an Ottoman soldier, regular or 
 irregular, is safficient to insure safety. He is only allowed, however, 
 to escort a party on sufferance; because if any disturbance take 
 place, and both the traveler and his Turkish protector are killed, 
 there will be no one whose duty it is to revenge the murder. In 
 these matters I always used my discretion, sometimes employing 
 Arab escorts, at others taking with me an Ottoman guard, and 
 very often going about without either one or the other, as I knew 
 that if we met with a plundering party, neither the stick nor spear 
 of the former, or the rusty arms of the latter, could save me; but 
 most probably one would be killed in my defense, and the other 
 would cut and run and leave me in the lurch. Xor did I ever carry 
 firearms during my travels, as I knew that they could not save me 
 if I was attacked by a band of robbers. The chances would have 
 been that if I had fired, and even not wounded a man, I should meet 
 with the same fate that happened to a large number of Europeans 
 v/ho had used their arms indiscreetly. Notwithstanding I have 
 been traveling among Arab tribes, off and on, for thirty-five years 
 (not counting the four years I was with Sir Henry Layard), it was 
 my fortune never to meet with ouq single misadventure, nor to lose 
 as much as a shilling's worth of anything by day or by night, 
 though I slept alone in my tent, and very often away from my fol- 
 lowers. I was sometimes told in the morning that the chief who
 
 LEAVING MOSSUL. 45 
 
 felt himself morally responsible for my safety kept watch all the 
 night around my tent, for fear of some stray robber entering and 
 stealing some of my belongings. The fact is, wherever I encamped 
 I felt that all the Arabs around me knew who I was, and that no 
 one would attempt to do me any injury for fear of the revenge of 
 my Arab friends, who would be sure to take up my cause, even 
 if it came to a dead fight. 
 
 As I said before, when I left Mossul to return to England, the 
 whole of the Shammer Arabs were at sixes and sevens, and there 
 was no one acknowledged as supreme chief of all the subdivisions 
 of the tribe; so when I wrote to Shaikh Firhan, who was then the 
 chief of all the Shammer Arabs, for an escort, he sent an answer to 
 say that he was very sorry to be unable at that time to insure me 
 a safe passage through the country I wished to traverse, as all the 
 Shammer Arabs were in revolt, and he had no power over them. 
 But as he knew that I was on friendly terms with the. chief of the 
 n)ost powerful clan, called the "Aabda," he advised me to obtain 
 an escort from him. That tribe was, fortunately, encamping within 
 twenty miles from Mossul, and consequently I had no difficulty in 
 communicating with their chief. The shaikh sent me his eldest 
 son, Sirdee, to accompany me as far as Orfa, which is about three 
 hundred miles to the northwest of Mossul. In a straight line the 
 distance can not be more than two hundred and fifty miles, but in 
 consequence of the frequent detours a traveler has to make for the 
 sake of touching at towns or villages for provisions, the route is 
 lengthened by forty or fifty miles. The nights were bitterly cold 
 throughout the whole journey, and at first my poor Bedouin com- 
 panions suffered severely from the excessive cold which was inten- 
 sified by the heat of the day. My Bedouin friend told me that he 
 never rem.embered such severe weather in that part of Mesopotamia, 
 not even in winter. The whole country was covered that year with 
 green pastures and flower-beds till nearly the commencement of 
 summer, owing to the late and great fall of rain during the spring. 
 Wherever we went, there were bitter complaints of the ravages of 
 the Shammer; and when we came to the neighborhood of Orfa we 
 found all the villages deserted, the inhabitants having taken refuge 
 aiound the town, with their herds of kine and flocks of sheep, all 
 huddled together as near the wall as possible. Abd Al-Kareem, 
 half-brother of Firhan, who was considered to be the braver of 
 the two and possessed immense influence among the Shammer on
 
 46 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 account of his aptitude for plunder and his hatred of the Turks, 
 was pillaging right and left, and even children in their cradles held 
 his name in awe. He met with his death in time, for he was 
 seized by treachery, and was hanged at Mossul near the bridge of 
 boats on the Nineveh side of the river. 
 
 Although a few Bedouin marauders had awed all the villagers 
 in the districts of Mossul, Nissibeen, and Orfa, the Turks, never- 
 theless, talked very grandly about their power, and the discomfiture 
 of the Eussians, whom they expected to see reduced to slavery ere 
 three months were over, and the whole of their country added to 
 the European provinces of Turkey! They hated the Eussians; but 
 both the English and French were looked upon with affection and 
 respect, on account of the helping hand they held out to the Mos- 
 lems in the Crimean war. 
 
 When we entered Orfa, my poor escort fell into an unhappy 
 state of mind and great despondency, on account of the rumor they 
 had heard of the intention of the governor of Orfa to arrest 
 them on account of the misdeeds of their Shammer brothers. They 
 knew only too well that it was always the custom with the Ottoman 
 authorities to seize upon any Arabs belonging to a tribe which had 
 been misbehaving itself, and keep them as hostages until a certain 
 amount of plunder had been restored. My Aabda friend seemed 
 much relieved when he was assured by the British consular agent 
 and myself that, as he went into Orfa under my protection, no one 
 would dare to molest him, especially as neither he nor his com- 
 panion had done anything desernng the vengeance of the Orfa 
 Government. They left the next day, and I took care to see that 
 they got safely out of the place without being interfered with by 
 the local authorities. 
 
 It was some time before I could engage a proper muleteer to 
 supply me with the animals required for my journey to Alexandretta 
 via Aleppo, as the Ottoman authorities had seized upon every beast 
 of burden to carry provisions to the seat of war; and although a 
 large number of camel-drivers and muleteers had made their escape, 
 either by stratagem or bribery, they dared not show themselves in 
 the place for fear of being caught and punished. However, after 
 six days' delay, I was able to leave for Aleppo via Beerajeek, with an 
 escort supplied me by the governor of Orfa to conduct me safely 
 through what was thought to be the dangerous route. I found, on 
 leaving the town, that a large caravan, consisting of about one
 
 ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 
 
 47 
 
 hundred men and more than two hundred laden horses, mules, and 
 camels, was waiting to accompany me as far as Aleppo. They felt 
 safe under my protection, as it was understood that I always trav- 
 eled with a proper guard, and was known to most of the semi- 
 dependent Arabs, either through my eldest brother's influence or 
 my intercourse with the various tribes ever since I joined Sir Henry 
 Layard on his two expeditions. 
 
 Soon after my arrival in London in the summer of 1854, the 
 trustees of the British Museum conferred with me about the con- 
 tinuation of the national researches in Mesopotamia, and, as they 
 found that there still remained much to be done, they resolved to 
 carry on the work a little longer. They asked me to go out 
 again for them to Assyria, and I need not say that I accepted their 
 offer with great pleasure, inasmuch as I found that they were very 
 much pleased with my discoveries, and wished the remainder of 
 the palace of Sardanapalus properly excavated. Three or four days 
 after I had accepted the appointment, and was preparing to return 
 to Mossul, I received the ofl'er of a political appointment at Aden, 
 which I deemed myself bound to accept, as Sir James Outram, the 
 then resident there, applied for my services to the Directors of the 
 East India Company, and desired me to go out to him at once, as my 
 services were urgently needed. I was at a loss what to do, as I had 
 engaged myself to proceed again to Mesopotamia; but I thought I 
 could not do better than submit my case to the trustees, and leave 
 it to them to do what they deemed proper. They were good enough 
 to allow me to relinquish my appointment under them. They were 
 glad I was going to have a permanent employ under the Indian 
 Government. Mr. Loftus, whom I have already mentioned, was at 
 the time in Southern IMesopotamia, superintending the excavations 
 on behalf of the "Assyrian Exploration Fund," and as he was com- 
 missioned to carry on the work in my stead, his expenses and those 
 of his artist, Mr. Boutcher, were to be shared equally by the British 
 Museum and the society that sent him out. The result of the un- 
 dertaking I have already related; and when it was finished, the 
 trustees gave up all idea of carrying on further researches in 
 Assyria until the Deluge and Creation tablets I had discovered in 
 Assur-bani-pal's palace were deciphered by the late Mr. George 
 Smith.* This created so much interest in England that the trus- 
 
 * See page 52.
 
 48 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 tees of the British Museum resolved to recommence the explora- 
 tions, and sent Mr. George Smith, and afterwards myself, to con- 
 tinue the work at Koyunjik and Nimroud. As I shall have again 
 to revert to these expeditions, it may be well here to allude briefly 
 to my service under the Indian Government, which intervened 
 between my different engagements in Assyria and Babylonia under 
 the trustees of the British Museum. 
 
 As the mail service between England and Aden was at that time 
 irregular, and the railroad was not yet completed in Egypt, I chose 
 my own mode of reaching that Arabian port. It was at the end 
 of 1854 when I passed through Egypt just at the time when M. 
 Ferdinand de Lesseps was, according to the then current report, 
 using powerful French influence with the Khedive's Government 
 to gain a firm footing for his nation in that country, more espe- 
 cially in order to destroy British preponderance. I went up from 
 Alexandria to Cairo in one of the ISTile steamers, which at that time 
 plied between those two cities. From Cairo to Suez, Indian pas- 
 sengers used to travel in clumsy and rough vehicles, which seemed 
 rather to torture the passengers than render them any comfort. 
 I can not say that I chose an easier mode of traveling; but prefer- 
 ring my independence, and wishing to see as much of the country 
 as possible, I hired two camels, one to ride myself, and the other for 
 my luggage, and reached Suez in three days, putting up at night at 
 the inns built expressly for the convenience of Indian passengers. 
 Fortunately for me, a few days after my arrival at Suez I was able 
 to take my passage in one of the old Indian navy steam-vessels 
 called the "Feroze," returning from thence to Aden, and reached 
 my destination after a most pleasant voyage with very agreeable 
 officers belonging to both the army and naval services of India. 
 
 On my arrival at Aden, I was sorry to find that Sir James Out- 
 ram had left for Oude, where he had been appointed chief com- 
 missioner. Colonel (afterwards Sir William) Coghlan, of the Bom- 
 bay Artillery, had been appointed in his place. After a few days' 
 duties under him I discovered that I had not lost anything by the 
 change of residents, because, although Sir James Outram was my 
 personal friend, I found his successor everything that a subor- 
 dinate could wish for; just, firm, and, withal, courteous and sin- 
 cere. I was not less fortunate in having as assistant resident Col- 
 onel (now Sir) Robert Lambert Playfair, the present consul-general 
 at Algiers, who, by his genial society, coupled with his uprightness
 
 KALAA-SHIRGAT. 17 
 
 trees and bushes, while I, being on horseback, had to go a round- 
 about way to find a proper path without being either hedged in 
 between two trees or falHng lieadlong into a ditch, of which there 
 were not a few. Our rapid march drove in utter confusion from 
 their haunts the wild boar, hares, hyenas, jackals, foxes, and the 
 other wild animals inhabiting that thicket, and disturbed the roost- 
 ing of the francolins, partridges, and quails; and if the statement 
 of the Arabs who flew to the rescue is to be believed, they actually 
 saw a lion turn tail as they rushed through the wood. 
 
 Happily, I arrived at the scene of conflict just in time to pre- 
 vent a serious strife; and the first thing I beheld was the Bedouin 
 Shammer guide lying flat on the ground, with one of my superior 
 workmen sitting on him, and threatening him with immediate de- 
 struction if he dared to move, while Mahmood Alfaraj was keeping 
 the poor French overseer at bay, to prevent him from ascending the 
 mound. I had very great difficulty in keeping the rival . workmen 
 from coming to blows. Mr. Hodder told m.e that he had tried his 
 best to keep the peace, but without success, as the workmen of the 
 French insisted upon occupying our ground, although they had 
 arrived there long after our own men. To prevent any further 
 quarreling, I had to take both the Shammer guide and the French 
 overseer under my protection until perfect peace was restored. I 
 found out afterwards that the employees of M. Place had come to 
 Kalaa-Shirgat without provisions or implements for digging, and 
 I had actually to supply them with the former until their own 
 came down. 
 
 It appeared that, as soon as M. Place had heard of my departure, 
 he sent, under the protection of the Bedouin guide, an overseer 
 with a few workmen to the mound, that they might take possession 
 of the place before I reached it; and although they were mounted, 
 for some reason or other they could not do so in time. The guide 
 was in very low spirits all night, not because he had brought dis- 
 grace upon himself, but from fear that his chief. Shaikh Firhan, 
 would punish him for having acted the part of an enemy towards 
 me by escorting a party who came to Kalaa-Shirgat to oust me. 
 He swore, by all that is sacred, that when he left Mossul he had no 
 idea that he was coming to oppose me, and said that he had there- 
 fore made up his mind to return to Mossul, and leave the French 
 workmen to protect themselves in the best way they could. The 
 overseer also wanted him to return to Mossul to inform his master
 
 18 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 of what had taken place, especially as he himself was in want of 
 provisions, and could not commence work without directions. M. 
 Place was expected to follow in three or four days; but he did not 
 make his appearance, however, till three weeks afterwards, when 
 the expiration of my time of remaining at Kalaa-Shirgat was draw- 
 ing nigh. 
 
 As I only wished to excavate in that part of the mound most 
 likely to furnish valuable antiquities, and where the black sitting 
 statue and the Tiglath-Pileser terra-cotta cylinder had been found 
 by Sir Henry Layard, I told the workmen of the French to dig 
 wherever they liked in the eastern portion of the mound. This 
 they did; but I had also on several occasions to provide them with 
 food, as their provisions were scanty, and they had a good deal of 
 difficulty in obtaining the proper supply from Mossul. 
 
 This was not the first time that my workmen came into col- 
 lision with those of M. Place, because, although I always tried to 
 carry on my explorations a good distance from the French diggings, 
 the rival workmen would somehow or other come in contact. It 
 was left to my lot to go and settle their disputes and bear the annoy- 
 ances, which were of frequent occurrence. 
 
 The mound of Nimroud, in which we have been digging ever 
 since 1845, is about thirty-five miles distant from Khorsabad, the 
 headquarters of the French explorations; and although, as I said 
 before, I always avoided carrying on my excavations anywhere near 
 theirs, nevertheless they would come so near mine as to create a 
 disturbance. Once they came to dig in some mounds not more than 
 one or two miles from Nimroud; and they would have gone so far 
 as to excavate at Nimroud itself, if I had not secured it on my ar- 
 rival at Mossul, when it was reported to me that they were going 
 to dig there. 
 
 On another occasion I had to send a few workmen to a large 
 mound at Shamamag, across the Zab, slightly examined by Sir 
 Henry Layard, but which Sir Henry Kawlinson thought worth 
 trying again. I was too busy at Koyunjik and Nimroud at the time 
 to go there myself, but sent in charge of the men a trustworthy 
 Arab overseer, who was well known in the district; but they had 
 not been at work three days before M. Place went to the place 
 and used his influence with Shaikh Hawwar, the then chief of the 
 Tai Arabs, to have my men turned away, in order that he might 
 take possession of the mound himself. M. Place visited the mound
 
 KALAA-SHIRGAT. 
 
 19 
 
 while my men were working; but as soon as he returned to the 
 encampment of the Tai, some horsemen of that tribe went to the 
 mound, stripped my workmen of their clotlies, and drove them 
 away. Fortunately, there was a native of Mossul, of some influence, 
 staying at the time with Hawwar, who interceded for the workmen 
 and got back their clothes, but they lost all the money they had 
 with them. During the time my workmen were thus shamefully 
 treated and turned adrift, the overseer whom I had sent with them 
 was coming back to me as fast as he was able, to inform me of the 
 French consul's intention to excavate there, otherwise, I do not 
 think that either Hawwar or his Arabs would have molested my 
 men. Indeed, the Shaikh afterwards apologized for what he called 
 the fault of his men, but not until M. Place had abandoned the 
 place from want of success. I did not consider it, however, worth 
 either the time or expense to revisit the mound.* 
 
 M. Place came to Kalaa-Shirgat three days before I quitted that 
 mound to return to Mossul; and we agreed in a most friendly way 
 how the ground was to be apportioned between us, as we both 
 wished to leave some gangs of workmen to go on with the excava- 
 tions. He returned to Mossul direct, and I went and visited our ex- 
 plorations at Mmroud on my way to Koyunjik. Mr. Hodder I had 
 to send back to Mossul soon after my arrival at Kalaa-Shirgat, as 
 the place was too dull for him, and he had scarcely anything to do 
 there. It was not long before M. Place recalled his men with dis- 
 gust, as they found nothing in their excavations save the usual 
 debris of modern buildings, as on a former occasion. 
 
 The mound of Kalaa-Shirgat is of a most extraordinary shape 
 and design. It is not like other Assyrian and Babylonian mounds, 
 which stand boldly and distinctly from the natural hills and arti- 
 ficial ancient sites adjoining them. At first sight the mound looks 
 larger than Koyunjik, Nimroud, Mffer, or any other of the huge 
 mounds that abound in Southern Mesopotamia; but on closer exam- 
 ination it is found that the largest portion, which appears to form 
 part and parcel of the ruin, is neither more nor less than a natural 
 hill to which the ancients had joined their artificial platform. In- 
 deed, a large part of it, which looks like other mounds, consists of a 
 light covering of earth not more than two or three feet in depth, 
 
 * It may be that the irritability which possessed my men at Kalaa- 
 Shirgat was brought about by their remembering the rough handling 
 their comrades had received when they went to Shamamag.
 
 20 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 under wliich is found concrete soil like the substance of the natural 
 hills around. When approaching it from the south or southeast, 
 nothing can be seen of it excepting the pyramid, as the southern 
 limit joins the natural hills; but when viewed from the north or 
 northwest it appears to be a most stupendous structure, because on 
 that side it is almost perpendicular, and rises above the plain to the 
 height of about one hundred feet. Neither Sir Henry Layard nor 
 myself found there any trace of ancient Assyrian building; and 
 although sometimes we came upon remnants of walls which we 
 thought belonged to an early time, we had to change our minds 
 after having thoroughly examined the ruin. We both found frag- 
 ments of bas-reliefs, human-headed bulls and lions, with some few 
 inscriptions on stone and brick. We were also fortunate enough to 
 discover buried in the solid sun-dried brick masonry, about ten 
 feet under ground, the annals of Tiglath-Pileser I recorded on the 
 terra-cotta cylinders, all bearing almost the same text. The first 
 was discovered by Sir Henry Layard at the beginning of 1852; the 
 second, exactly like it, I dug out in the following year during my 
 own mission; and the third I also discovered at the end of the same 
 year, on my second expedition to that ruin. This last cylinder is 
 larger and difTerent in shape and size from the former two; but As- 
 syrian scholars have found that it contains the same account of 
 the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I as the others. It records the exploits 
 of that Assyrian king, who reigned about 1,100 years B. C, and it 
 is one of the oldest Assyrian records 3'et found. 
 
 These three cylinders were found placed about thirty feet apart, 
 at three of the corners of an almost perfectly square platform. 
 They were buried in solid masonry on the same level, and so I fully 
 expected that we should find the fourth in the other corner; but 
 though I dug away and examined the whole structure, I could find 
 no trace of another cyhnder. These were found in an elevation 
 to the west of the pyramid, which evidently contained, in the days 
 of yore, a temple or a small royal edifice, the indication of which is 
 shown by the pieces of human-headed lions and bulls which were 
 scattered in different parts of the mound. Judging from my ex- 
 perience in other localities where ancient Ass}Tian and Babylonian 
 buildings have been found, I do not believe that there is any stand- 
 ing structure left in Kalaa-Shirgat, but that all the ancient palaces 
 or temples that once existed there must have been utterly and in-
 
 ASSYRIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 21 
 
 tentionally destroyed by an euemy, and not burned down, as was 
 the case with the palaces at Khorsabad, Koyunjik, and Nimroud. 
 
 These annals of Tiglath-Pilef^er I have become famous in the 
 history of the decipherment of cuneiform writing, because the text 
 was the one used in 1856 for a test as to the true reading of the 
 arrow-headed characters, and proved a great success in determining 
 sundry doubts that existed among the first Assyrian scholars as to 
 the real rendering of certain words. It was agreed that four As- 
 syrian scholars — namely, Sir Henry Eawlinson, Mr. Fox Talbot, 
 Dr. Hincks, and Dr. Appert — should all translate the inscription 
 simultaneously, but independently of each other; and, with the 
 exception of small minor differences, the translations were the same. 
 Their versions were published in 1857, under the title of the "In- 
 scription of Tiglath-Pileser I, King of Assyria, B. C. 1150," and 
 were submitted to the Eoyal Asiatic Society in that year as a proof 
 of the advance in Assyrian interpretation and the general agreement 
 between the pioneers in the study of cuneiform. The learned Dr. 
 Samuel Birch, the head of the Oriental Department of Antiquities 
 in the British Museum, and president of the Society of Biblical 
 Archaeology, makes the following allusion in his preface to the 
 translation by Sir Henry Eawlinson of this inscription, published 
 in the "Eecords of the Past:" "On the whole, for its extent and his- 
 torical information relating to the early history of Assyria, this in- 
 scription is one of the most important of the series, showing the 
 gradual advance and rise of Assyria, while, as one of the first in- 
 terpreted, it presents considerable literary interest in respect to the 
 details of the progress of Assyrian interpretation. It is also nearly 
 the oldest Assyrian text of any length which has been hitherto 
 discovered, and is very interesting from its account of the con- 
 struction of the temples and palaces made by the king in the early 
 part of his reign." * 
 
 Although Kalaa-Shirgat is only about sixty miles from Mossul, 
 yet it is almost in the desert; and with the exception of a few Arab 
 encampments, belonging to the Jeboor Arabs, which are scattered 
 here and there on both sides of the river Tigris, and are employed in 
 the cultivation of the common food of the Mesopotamian Arabs, 
 called dhirra or millet, not a soul is to be seen further than three 
 
 * See translation by Sayce in "Records of the Past," New Series, 
 Vol. I, pp. 86 ff.
 
 22 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 miles from either bank, excepting Bedouin marauders, and caravans 
 traveling with a proper escort. Consequently, whenever an expe- 
 dition was organized for Kalaa-Shirgat, with the exception of meat 
 and sometimes grain, everything had to be sent from Mossul. The 
 first thing I did, on arriving at that deserted spot, was to have huts 
 built for the workmen and myself, as it is far from pleasant to live 
 in tents in such a place in winter. Formerly wood used to be very 
 plentiful there, both for fuel and building purposes. In spring 
 there was plenty of green food, and so we were well supplied with 
 wild vegetables, including asparagus, mushrooms, and truffles, 
 which the Arabs were quick in finding.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 On my return to Mossul, I labored in vain to find new Assyrian 
 edifices, although my workmen were scouring the country for nearly 
 two hundred miles round; but my great aim was always directed 
 to the examination of the northern corner of the Koyunjik mound, 
 which, in my opinion, had never been thoroughly explored. My 
 difficulty was how to do this without getting into hot water with M. 
 Place. I feared if I did so, and failed, I might displease Colonel 
 Eawlinson, and get into trouble with the trustees of the British 
 Museum. M. Place had, as I have already said, before my arrival 
 at Mossul, asked and obtained the permission of Sir Henry Eaw- 
 linson to excavate at the northern corner of Koyunjik; but I have 
 inever been able to find out why he did not do so for more than 
 a year. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the mound of Koyunjik is 
 private property, and in order to enable any one to excavate in it, 
 the sanction of the owner must be obtained. The firmans granted 
 by different Sultans to both the British and French Goverments 
 were only so far good as to enable the agent of either museum to 
 dig in crown lands; but they did not give him the privilege of dig- 
 ging in private property without the good-will of the landlord. We 
 had, for some years past, been indemnifying the proprietor of 
 Koyunjik for allowing us to excavate in the mound, and I doubt 
 whether he would have liked the French to excavate in his land 
 without his special sanction. He was under great obligation to Sir 
 Henry Layard for assisting him when he met him at Constantinople 
 in August, 1849, the time he was in pecuniary difficulties, and 
 did not know where to turn for help. Moreover, it was an under- 
 stood, and indeed it is an acknowledged etiquette, that no agent of 
 any museum was to intrude in the sites chosen by the other. I was, 
 therefore, the more jealous of ]\[. Place's intention of extending his 
 researches in our field of operation, which he had not the least right 
 to do. Though I was not unsuccessful in my several excavations, 
 as will be seen from my narrative, I was nevertheless longing to 
 examine the northern portion of the mound of Koyunjik, and was 
 determined to do so, come what might, before my return to Eng- 
 
 23
 
 24 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 land. Most fortunately, M. Place never attempted to extend his 
 operations to Koyunjik, because, had he done so, I could not have 
 prevented him, inasmuch as Sir Henry Eawlinson had already ap- 
 portioned him the locality where he was to excavate. But how was 
 I to manage my project without the risk of being found out and 
 stopped by him was the puzzle, as all the workmen knew that that 
 part of Koyunjik was assigned to the French, and there were al- 
 ways spies ready to carry the news to my rival if they saw that I 
 was excavating in his apportioned ground. So I resolved upon an 
 experimental examination of the spot at night, and only waited 
 for a good opportunity and a bright moonlight for my nocturnal 
 adventure. 
 
 Moreover, as the time of my returning home was drawing nigh, 
 I could not afford to lose much time; so, having determined to work 
 out my scheme, I set to it in right good earnest. My most faithful 
 overseer, Mahmood Alfaraj, I had sent to Baghdad, in charge of the 
 British Museum and Crystal Palace sculptures and other antiquities 
 found at the center palace at Koyunjik. But I had another trust- 
 worthy overseer, of the name of Lateef Agha, an Albanian, to whom 
 I gave the charge of the enterprise. I myself selected the requisite 
 number of workmen from among our most tried and faithful Arabs, 
 who could be depended upon for secrecy, in order that they might 
 be ready to commence operations as soon as they were wanted. The 
 hest of the joke was, not one of the men knew where they were 
 wanted to work until they commenced digging. They expected that 
 I was going to take them to Kalaa-Shirgat again, or send them to 
 dig in some distant place which I did not wish my rivals to know 
 about. 
 
 It was on the night of the 20th of December, 1853, that I com- 
 menced to examine the ground in which I was fortunate enough to 
 discover, after three nights' trial, the grand palace of Assur-bani- 
 pal, commonly known by the name of Sardanapalus. When every- 
 thing was ready I went and marked three places, some distance 
 from each other, in which our operations Avere to be commenced. 
 Only a few trenches had been opened there in the time of Sir Henry 
 Layard; but on this occasion I ordered the men to dig transversely, 
 and cut deeper down. I told them they were to stop work at dawn, 
 and return to the same diggings again the next night. The very 
 first night we worked there, one of the gangs came upon indications 
 of an ancient building; but though we found among the rubbish
 
 ASSVR-BANI-PAL. 25 
 
 painted bricks and pieces of marble on wliich there were signs of 
 inscriptions and bas-relief s^, I did not feel sanguine as to the result. 
 The next night the whole number of workmen dug in that spot, 
 and, to the great delight of all, we hit upon a remnant of a marble 
 wall, on examining which I came to the conclusion that it belonged 
 to an Assyrian building which had existed on that spot. The rem- 
 nant of the bas-relief showed that the wall was standing in its orig- 
 inal position, and, though the upper part of it had been destroyed, 
 I was able to judge, from experience, that it had not been brought 
 thither from another building. The lower part of the slab, which 
 contained the feet of Assyrian soldiers and captives, was still fixed 
 in the paved floor with brick and stone masonry, intended to sup- 
 port it at the back. To my great disappointment, after having 
 excavated round the spot a few feet, both the remnant of the bas- 
 relief and the wall came to an end, and there was nothing to be 
 seen save ashes, bones, and other rubbishy evidently the refuse of 
 the barbarous Sassanians who had occupied the spot after the de- 
 struction of Nineveh. This put a damper on my spirits, especially 
 as I had on that day reported to both the British Museum authori- 
 ties and Sir Henry Eawlinson the discovery of what I considered to 
 be a new palace, as I was then fully convinced of its being so. I 
 knew, also, that if I failed to realize my expectations, I should only 
 be found fault with and laughed at for my unrewarded zeal. How- 
 ever, I felt that as I had commenced, so I must go on, even if only 
 to be disappointed. The next night I superintended the work in 
 person, and increased the number of men, placing them in separate 
 gangs around the area, which seemed the most likely place for good 
 results. The remnant of the sculptured wall discovered was on a 
 low level, running upward, and this fact alone was enough to con- 
 vince an experienced eye that the part of the building I had hit 
 upon was an ascending passage leading to the main building. I 
 therefore arranged my gangs to dig in a southeasterly direction, 
 as I was certain that if there was anything remaining it would be 
 found there. The men were made to work on without stopping, 
 one gang assisting the other. My instinct did not deceive me; for 
 one division of the workmen, after three or four hours' hard labor, 
 were rewarded by the first grand discovery of a beautiful bas-relief 
 in a perfect state of preservation, representing the king, who was 
 afterwards identified as Assur-bani-pal, standing in a chariot, about 
 to start on a hunting expedition, and his attendants handing him
 
 26 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the necessary weapons for the chase. More than half of the upper 
 part of the sculpture came into sight in an instant, as it happened 
 that while the men were busily engaged in digging a deep trench 
 inside what was found afterwards to be a long, narrow saloon, about 
 fifteen feet wide, a large part of the bank which was attached to the 
 sculpture fell, and exposed to view that enchanting spectacle. The 
 delight of the workmen was naturally beyond description; for as 
 soon as the word "Sooar" (images) was uttered, it went through the 
 whole party like electricity. They all rushed to see the new dis- 
 covery, and after having gazed on the bas-relief with wonder, they 
 collected together, and began to dance and sing my praises, in the 
 tune of their war-song, with all their might. Indeed, for a mo- 
 ment I did not know which was the most pleasant feeling that pos- 
 sessed me, the joy of my faithful men or the finding of the new 
 palace. 
 
 On this memorable night I was not in the happiest of moods 
 before I was so amply rewarded with the new discovery, as I had 
 heard that the fact of ]ny digging at night had oozed out in the 
 town of Mossul, which fact did not surprise me, seeing that all the 
 families of my night-workmen knew of their being employed clan- 
 destinely somewhere in the neighborhood. Moreover, the other men 
 who were not engaged in the secret nocturnal work, must have seen 
 their fellow-laborers leaving the encampment in the evening, and 
 not returning to their work the next day. The French consul was 
 not the only person I feared would stop me if the news of my dig- 
 ging in what he would call his own ground reached him; but what 
 I dreaded most was that the Ottoman authorities would think that 
 I was digging for treasure, inasmuch as both they and the natives 
 of the place always possessed the absurd idea that we were searching 
 for precious metal, or for a fabulous substance which they called 
 "Elkimia" (alchemy), that transmuted any metal into gold. But 
 when unmistakable success crowned my efforts, and I had no more 
 apprehension of being thwarted, I caused the night-workmen to be 
 changed, and fresh hands appointed in their place to go on with the 
 work during the day; because it was an established rule that when- 
 ever one discovered a new palace, no one else could meddle with it, 
 and thus, in my position as the agent of the British Museum, I 
 had secured it for England. 
 
 As a matter of course, the news of the discovery of a new palace 
 at Koyunjik spread in a few hours like wildfire in the town of
 
 FRENCH EXCA VA TIONS. . 27 
 
 Mossul and its neighborhood, and brought us hundreds of spec- 
 tators to see the new discovery. Very few of them, however, were 
 able to satisfy their curiosity, as it was impossible to allow crowds 
 of people to enter the trenches; not only from fear of their being 
 in the way of the workmen, but they might have injured the sculp- 
 tures and stolen some of the tcrra-cotta inscribed tablets, which 
 began to appear at the bottom of the saloon. M. Place was at that 
 time superintending the French excavations at Khorsabad; and, 
 naturally, as soon as he heard of my discovery, which had been re- 
 ported to him from Mossul, he came post-haste to the spot and pro- 
 tested against my having passed the line of demarkation which sepa- 
 rated the British Museum excavations from the land assigned to 
 him by Sir Henry Eawlinson. But on my explaining matters, and 
 telling him that Sir Henry Eawlinson had no power to give away 
 ground which did not belong to him, and that it was evident, as 
 the owner of the mound was indemnified by us, it was but right 
 that the British nation should benefit by any discovery made in it, 
 he seemed to be quite satisfied with my reasoning, and before we 
 parted he congratulated me on my good fortune, not forgetting, 
 however, to hint that he intended to appeal to a higher authority.* 
 I need not say that I felt much relieved after the first outburst 
 of his anger was over, for which I was fully prepared, seeing that 
 he had been for two years in search of such an important discovery, 
 and through a mere oversight had allowed it to slip out of his hands. 
 The fact is, he could not have valued that part of the mound much, 
 and must have assumed that Sir Henry Eawlinson would not have 
 made it over to him if he thought that it was worth keeping.f 
 
 * The loss of this prize had such a bad effect upon M. Place's mind, 
 that in the work he published in 1866-69 of his researches, entitled 
 "Nineve et I'Assyrie," he quite ignored the fact of my discoveries, but 
 made it appear that Mr. Loftus, and even his artist, Mr. Boutcher, were 
 the successful explorers. 
 
 fAfter Sir Henry Eawlinson visited Mossul from Baghdad, in 
 February, 1854, and selected from the newly-discovered palace a num- 
 ber of bas-reliefs, which he considered to be worth sending to the 
 British Museum, he allowed M. Place to choose between seventy and 
 eighty sculptures from the remainder. Thus a part of the sculptures 
 of the palace of Sardanapalus is now exhibited at the Louvre, and a 
 large number were lost through the mismanagement of French agents. 
 In sending them down to Basra on a raft for shipment in a French 
 vessel, which was waiting for them at that port, the whole number, 
 with another valuable collection from Khorsabad, went down to the
 
 28. ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Before the day was over, we had cleared out all the upper part 
 of the bas-reliefs in the saloon. I found that they were entirely 
 devoted to a representation of the royal lion-hunt, in which the 
 king is shown as the principal actor. Some of the sculptures were 
 missing, and others very much damaged by fire; but, upon the 
 whole, the remaining bas-reliefs were in a very good state of preser- 
 vation. The saloon was about fifty feet long by fifteen feet wide, 
 and although the height of the bas-reliefs was only five feet, the 
 room must have been, originally, at least ten feet high; the other 
 five feet, most probably, were built of sun-dried bricks ornamented 
 in color, with hunting or war scenes. I only found about fifteen 
 inches of the wall existing above the sculptures; and in many places 
 signs of painting still existed. 
 
 The monarch is represented four times on the sculptures of 
 this saloon. In the first, which has been already described, he is 
 seen to have just entered his chariot, and the attendants are hand- 
 ing him the hunting weapons, while the grooms are busily engaged 
 harnessing the horses; in the second scene he is represented in his 
 chariot, at full speed, ciiasing a lion, and discharging an arrow at 
 the animal, which is running away, while a second arrow is seen fly- 
 ing through the air. In the same scene the attendants are repre- 
 sented spearing another lion, which had attacked them behind, with 
 dead and wounded lions lying about. The third scene represents 
 the king with his attendants spearing a lion, which had evidently 
 sprung upon the chariot, and, foiled in his revenge, viciously grasps 
 in liis terrible jaws the chariot wheel. In the fourth, Assur-bani-pal 
 is seen in close combat with a lion, which has sprung upon him, and 
 his majesty boldly thrusts his dagger through the neck of the lion 
 while the attendants use their spears for the same purpose. 
 
 The tires of the king's chariots are bound with sharp, rounded 
 wedges, which look as if they were attached to the wheels for the 
 purpose of cutting through any bone or flesh over which they 
 passed. Xenophon, in his Anabasis, alludes to the Babylonian army 
 
 bottom of the Tigris, below Baghdad. Some efforts were made at the 
 time to recover them, but those who were intrusted with the task did 
 not go the right way to work; and so there they still lie buried in 
 the sand at the bottom of the river. I think that if money and 
 trouble were no object, they could even now be recovered when the 
 Tigris is at its lowest depth in September.
 
 ASSUR-BANI-PAL'S PALACE. 29 
 
 using scythes in their chariots for cutting through anything with 
 which they came in contact, altliough he does not actually say they 
 were attached to the wheels. He refers to them in his account of 
 the approach of the Babylonian army against Cyrus and his Greek 
 auxiliaries as follows: — 
 
 "In front of their line, at considerable intervals from each other, 
 were stationed the chariots called scythed chariots. They had 
 scythes projecting obliquely from the axle-tree, and others under 
 the driver's seat, pointing to the earth, for the purpose of cutting 
 through whatever came in their way; and the design of them was 
 to penetrate and divide the ranks of the Greeks." * 
 
 In other parts of the palace, Assur-bani-pal is represented in 
 nine different attitudes: 
 
 1. The king on foot, leading his horse by the halter, with an 
 attendant leading another horse behind him, while in front there 
 are other attendants exhibiting a dead lion. 
 
 2. King on foot, grasping a lion by the throat with his left 
 hand, while the right is engaged in driving a dagger through its 
 body. 
 
 3. King on horseback, driving his spear into the mouth of a 
 lion who is springing upon him. 
 
 4. King on foot, with a miter-shaped cap on his head, shoot- 
 ing lions. 
 
 5. King trying bows, which are handed to him by an attendant, 
 while another is receiving the one that has been tried, and laying 
 it on a heap with others in front of the monarch. Behind are pages 
 supplying his majesty with arrows. 
 
 6. King in full gallop, shooting at wild asses. The left arm, 
 thumb, and forefinger of his majesty are protected by a scientifi- 
 cally worked leathern guard, and the royal robe is covered with 
 minute ornaments. 
 
 7. King on foot, dragging a lion by the tail with his left hand, 
 while the right (which is defaced in the bas-relief) is evidently 
 raised in the act of striking at the animal. 
 
 8. King mitered and robed, pouring libation on a dead lion as 
 a drink-offering, in front of an altar. 
 
 9. King reclining on a couch in a garden, with a rug over his 
 
 * Xenophon's Anabasis, Book I, chap, vii, sec. 10.
 
 30 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 knees, and his queen sitting opposite him, drinking each other's 
 health.* 
 
 On the other slabs of the same series, there are men leading 
 horses, followed by a large body of warriors in marching order, 
 going toward the king; men leading dogs for the hunt; dead lions; 
 others in the agony of dying, of which several are shown bristling 
 with arrows and vomiting blood. The suffering of one lioness in 
 particular is beautifully portrayed; resting on her forepaws, with 
 outstretched head, she vainly endeavors to gather together her 
 wounded limbs. Cages containing lions for the chase are sculp- 
 tured, with eunuchs standing on other cages, and lifting up the 
 bars to let out the imprisoned lions for the king's hunt, the animals 
 being portrayed in every variety of posture, and carved with sur- 
 prising vigor.f From the representations on these sculptures it is 
 
 * It may not be uninteresting to mention that the mode of living 
 among the Assyrians and Babylonians in primitive days agreed more 
 with the present European usages than with those of Biblical lands! 
 We see these ancient nationalities, as represented on the sculptures, 
 using high chairs and tables, while the Orientals of the present day 
 squat dow-n on the ground to eat their meals. We see also even cooks 
 dressing food on high tables. For the last thirty years, however, 
 there has been so much intercourse between the East and the West 
 that the better classes of the people of Turkey, especially the Chris- 
 tians, have adopted many European customs. One of the most in- 
 teresting bas-reliefs discovered among the Assyrian monuments was 
 a sculpture found by M. Botta in the palace of Sargon, the father of 
 Sennacherib, at Khorsabad, illustrating the well-known European 
 usage of toast-drinking, which shows that the custom was in vogue in 
 Assyria as far back as the eighth century before the Christian era, 
 (A'ide Botta's "Monuments de Nineve," Plates 64 and 65.) 
 
 f It is noteworthy that very eminent artists and lovers of fine arts 
 have admired the animated portraiture of some of the animals dis- 
 played on different sculptures found in Assur-bani-pal's palace; and 
 in Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies" the following allusion is made 
 with reference to the same eulogy: 
 
 "The hunting scenes from the palace of Assur-bani-pal (Sarda- 
 napalus of the Greeks) are the most perfect specimens of Assyrian 
 glyptic art. They are to be seen in the basement-room devoted to 
 Assyrian art in the British Museum. Sir E. Landseer was wont to 
 admire the truthfulness and spirit of these reliefs, more especially of 
 one where hounds are pulling down a wild ass. 
 
 "Professor Rolleston has expressed to me his admiration of a 
 wounded lioness in the same series, where the paralysis of the lower 
 limbs, consequent upon an arrow piercing the spine, is finely rendered." 
 (Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," Vol. I, pp. 512 and 517.)
 
 ASSUR-BANI-PAL'S LIBRARY. 
 
 31 
 
 evident that the Assyrian kings preferred having the lions brought 
 to them to chase, rather than following them in their jungle. 
 There is a very pretty scene representing a park with a triumphal 
 arch, on which the king figures again, pursuing his hunting mania. 
 It may he that this representation is an attempt at a perspective 
 view of the king hunting hons at a distance; and what is supposed 
 to be a triumphal arch, is nothing more than the gate of the park 
 through which the monarch is seen following his favorite sport. 
 These bas-reliefs, which are placed in the basement room at the 
 British Museum, are in a good state of preservation, and there is 
 no doubt that they are the most interesting sculptures yet dis- 
 covered in Assyria, and belong to the period when Assyrian art was 
 at its zenith. 
 
 In the center of the same saloon I discovered the library of 
 Assur-bani-pal, consisting of inscribed terra-cotta tablets of all 
 shapes and sizes; the largest of these, which happened to be in 
 better order, were mostly stamped with seals, and some inscribed 
 with hieroglyphic and Phoenician characters. Amongst these re- 
 cords were found the Chaldean accounts of the Creation and Deluge, 
 which were deciphered by different Assyrian scholars.* 
 
 The sculptures on the northeast wall of the ascending passage, 
 which in the first instance indicated to me the existence of a new 
 palace, were totally destroyed, with the exception of two broken 
 slabs, in which there remained only the lower part of human fig- 
 ures. Three slabs, however, on the opposite side were in a tolerable 
 state of preservation; they were presented afterwards by Colonel 
 Eawlinson to M. Place for the collection in the Louvre. 
 
 After the discovery of the lion-hunt room, I brought as many 
 workmen as I could muster to the northern part of the mound, 
 and placed them to dig in different directions around that spot. 
 From that day forward we continued to discover new chambers 
 and many valuable remains. 
 
 Between the ascending passage and the lion-hunt saloon we 
 found a room about twenty-five feet in length by twenty feet in 
 width, totally destroyed; in some parts even the foundation-stones 
 had been removed. To the southwest of this chamber we came 
 upon another passage about the same length as the lion-hunt saloon, 
 
 * Recent translations of them may be found in Schrader: "The 
 Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament." London, 1885.
 
 32 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 but a little narrower, in which some sculptures were found repre- 
 senting an orchard or park. A lion is here seen crouching among 
 reeds and flowers, which are most exquisitely delineated; hunting 
 dogs in leashes are being led by the keepers, and a tame lion is 
 represented walking by the side of an African eunuch, who wears 
 a cap ornamented with feathers. 
 
 Immediately behind the lion-hunt saloon, on the southwest of 
 the palace, we came upon a room about twenty feet square, con- 
 taining battle-scenes and mythological figures. The majority of 
 the bas-reliefs with which the chamber was paneled were in first- 
 rate condition, and most interesting in character, representing the 
 warlike exploits of Assur-bani-pal in Susiana.* 
 
 The entrance to this chamber was formed by two pairs of 
 colossal figures; one representing a priest, or some other religious 
 dignitary, wearing the horned cap surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and 
 a lion-headed and eagle-footed human figure raising a dagger in 
 one hand and holding a mace in the other. A large recess was 
 found in the southwest wall of this chamber, on either side of 
 which was a bas-relief divided horizontally into two compartments, 
 representing in the upper part a human figure with a lion's head and 
 eagle's feet, while in the lower there was a human-headed lion, 
 with its paws stretched out as if in the act of supplication. At the 
 back of the recess was a sculpture representing a most hideous 
 lion-headed monster, with extended jaws, the tail of a scorpion, 
 and the feet of an eagle; resembling very much those monsters 
 found by Sir Henry Layard at the Nimroud temple near the 
 pyramid.f The best of these sculptures, which is well finished 
 and in a good state of preservation, was the one which exhibits the 
 siege of a city, with two lines of inscription, read "Khamana" by 
 both Sir Henry Rawlinson and M. Oppert, in the infancy of As- 
 syrian study. On this interesting bas-relief, scribes are seen writing 
 down on clay tablets, like those found both at Babylonia and As- 
 syria, the account of the battle. At that time I was quite skeptical 
 as to the true reading of Assyrian, or what is commonly called 
 cuneiform writing; but Sir Henry Eawlinson having read it to me 
 when lie came up to Mossul from Baghdad, in the month of Feb- 
 
 * The best of the sculptures of this chamber were sent to the 
 British Museum; but those found in more or less injured condition 
 were presented to M. I'lace for the Louvre. 
 
 f Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 348.
 
 Clay Tablet from the Libraky of Assur-baxi-pal. Kixg of Assyria (668-626 
 B. C), coxTAiNixG Part of tife Assyriax Accoi'xt of Creatiox.
 
 APPOINTED TO ADEN. 49 
 
 and zealous discharge of his duties, earned the esteem and respect 
 of all who came in contact with him. 
 
 As the allowance I received as political interpreter was found 
 not to be sufficient, the direction of the post-office at Aden was 
 added to my other civil duties, which office I held for three years; 
 and was then raised by the Indian Government, on the recommen- 
 dation of the Resident, to the grade of second Assistant Political 
 Resident, and made a Justice of the Peace for the town and island 
 of Bombay and its Dependencies. I was also appointed judge and 
 magistrate for Aden, and, although I officiated in that capacity 
 for nearly nine years, and during that time settled thousands of 
 civil and criminal cases, it is a great satisfaction to me to remember 
 that there was not one single appeal against any of my decisions. 
 
 After having been at Aden five months, my services were applied 
 for by the Home Government, to purchase in Mesopotamia, and 
 dispatch to the British army, then at war with Russia, mules, horses, 
 and camels. This appointment I was obliged to decline, as I had 
 then entered on my favorite task of reconciling the different Arab 
 tribes around Aden, and felt that my work there was of more im- 
 portance to the interests of the public service than elsewhere. 
 
 When the terrible Indian mutiny was crushed, the Indian Gov- 
 ernment rewarded all public servants for their exertions in sup- 
 pressing the evil or preventing its spread; and I was among the 
 latter, who received the special thanks of the viceroy with a sub- 
 stantial recognition of my services. Although it was rumored over 
 and over again that certain individuals at Aden, both among the 
 native troops and Indian merchants, were disloyal, and were in 
 communication with rebels at Bombay and Kurrachee, I would not, 
 when in charge of the post-office, allow any suspected letter to be 
 detained or opened in my presence, in accordance with the tempo- 
 rary surveillance which had, at that critical time, been established 
 in the Indian post-offices. I felt quite sure that no mischievous 
 or disloyal person at Aden could raise a disturbance without my 
 knowledge, especially among the Arabs, and I knew that I should 
 only have been hated, instead of trusted, had I -attempted to inter- 
 fere with the usual delivery of letters. 
 
 When the momentous quarrel took place between the Emam of 
 Muscat and his brother, Seyid Majid, the Sultan of Zanzibar, in 
 1860, about the sovereignty of the latter dependency, and the Vice- 
 roy of India acted as a mediator, Sir William Coghlan, the Resident 
 
 4
 
 60 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 of Aden, was commissioned by the Bombay Government to settle 
 the dispute; and as it was deemed necessary to have a responsible 
 agent to watch the political affairs at Muscat during the investiga- 
 tion and settlement of the contention, Lord Elphinstone, then gov- 
 ernor of Bombay, selected me to represent the British Government 
 at the court of the Emam. It was at first thought that the whole 
 affair would be settled, in not more than five or six months, but as 
 is usually the case with such intricate matters, it dragged on for 
 more than a year. At last it was ended, and I was allowed to re- 
 turn to my duties at Aden, feeling gratified that both the Bombay 
 Government and Seyid Thawainee, the reigning Emam, with all 
 the British subjects residing in that principality, appreciated my 
 services of Political Agent throughout my residence at Muscat. 
 
 After my return to Aden, the Bombay Govenment made some 
 changes in what were called the Arabic appointments, including 
 those of Aden, j\Iuscat, Bushir, and Zanzibar. At the former place 
 three Assistants were appointed, as that settlement was becoming 
 more important every day. The judicial and political work had 
 more than doubled since the shipping had increased tenfold, and 
 Colonel (now Sir) R. Lambert Playfair having been transferred 
 to Zanzibar as political agent, Sir Bartle Frere, then the governor 
 of Bombay, appointed me as his successor as First Assistant Political 
 Resident. This placed me in charge of the entire political work 
 in the neighborhood of Aden, both on the Arabian and African 
 coasts, and besides my judicial duties, both in civil and criminal 
 suits, I had the charge of the municipality, police, and waterworks. 
 
 As soon as the news reached England of the imprisonment, by 
 Theodore, king of Abyssinia, of Captain Cameron, the British 
 consul of Massawa, and other British subjects, it was considered 
 that no time should be lost in sending a suitable letter from Her 
 Majesty the Queen to the Abyssinian potentate, requesting the 
 release of the captives. It was resolved at the Foreign Office that I 
 should be the bearer of the royal letter; and I was therefore ordered, 
 through the Secretary of State for India, to proceed without loss 
 of time to the court of Theodore, and use every means in my power 
 to obtain the release of the captives. The sad history of that Abys- 
 sinian complication I have already related in my work entitled 
 "British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia," and so I need 
 not say anything about it here. Suffice it to say that, through the 
 interference of irresponsible and meddling persons, both my fellow-
 
 RESIGNATION. ^1 
 
 captives and myself very nearly lost our lives, and it was only 
 through God's mercy, which made King Theodore take a liking to 
 me, that we escaped an ignominious death. Although there was no 
 lack of unscrupulous persons who indulged in misrepresenting cer- 
 tain facts and incidents in order to mislead the public, it is a very 
 great satisfaction to me to be able to say that in all my transactions 
 I have, without one single exception, earned the entire approval of 
 Her Majesty's Governments, whether Liberal or Conservative. 
 
 After the end of the Abyssinian war, I was ordered to England 
 on duty; but as I wished to remain a little longer in this country 
 to recruit my health, when the time came for me to return to my 
 post at Aden I obtained a year's leave of absence. In the mean- 
 time I was married; and as I did not care to take my wife to those 
 regions, I resigned my Aden appointment, and retired from the 
 Indian service in November, 1869.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 In the year 1872 the late Mr. George Smith discovered the 
 lamous Assyrian Creation and Deluge records among the collection 
 of inscribed tablets which had been heaped up at the British Mu- 
 seum, off and on, for more than twenty years. At one time it 
 seemed that no one cared for them; but in reality they were then 
 not as accessible to outsiders as they are now, and, consequently, 
 only Mr. George Smith, who had charge of them, had the chance 
 of examining them. As a matter of course, the reading of those 
 interesting records created an immense sensation, not only in Eng- 
 land, but all over Europe. 
 
 It was stated that the texts of those inscriptions were incom- 
 plete, on account of the fragmentary condition of the tablets; and 
 as a part of them were missing, Mr. George Smith volunteered 
 to go out to Mesopotamia and search for the remainder. All those 
 who were interested in the matter thought it a crying shame that 
 such important records should be allowed to remain buried in the 
 mound of Koyunjik, especially when an agent had only to go 
 thither and reclaim the treasure by the mere stroke of the Arab's 
 spade. 
 
 The trustees of the British Museum had then no funds avail- 
 able for the renewal of the Assyrian explorations; and as there 
 seemed no prospect of any body of gentlemen coming forward to 
 subscribe the funds necessary for sending an expedition similar 
 to that which took place twenty years before, by the formation of 
 the "Assyrian Excavation Fund," the proprietors of the Daily 
 Telegraph undertook the enterprise single-handed, although such 
 an expedition might have cost them thousands of pounds. They 
 thought that as Mr. Smith had deciphered the Creation and Deluge 
 tablets, he was the most fit person to search for the missing por- 
 tions of the inscription; but when Mr. Edwin Arnold, the eminent 
 editor of that journal, consulted me about the expedition, and 
 understood that I had no objection to go to Mesopotamia, it was 
 proposed that I should undertake the work required. I volun- 
 teered to give my services freely, because, though it was nearly 
 twenty years since I had had anything to do with Assyrian dis- 
 coveries, it was impossible for me to lose my interest in the old 
 52
 
 GEORGE SMITH'S EXPLORATIONS. 53 
 
 explorations; more especially as the portion of the records in the 
 British Museum, and on which the public interest was then cen- 
 tered, belonged to my former discoveries, and I knew where to 
 search for the remainder. It w^as found, however, that the pro- 
 prietors of the Daily Telegraph had already committed themselves 
 to the employment of Mr. Smith, and of course they could not break 
 their engagement with him. Mr. Smith endeavored to arrange 
 with me a division of the superintendence; that is to say, he 
 would conduct the explorations at Koyunjik, and I at Nimroud, 
 or vice versa; but I refused, because, not only did my former ex- 
 perience convince me that such an expedition would be a complete 
 failure, but I myself would never dream of undertaking any such 
 half-and-half arrangemeiit. 
 
 So many were the difficulties he encountered that, after all 
 the trouble and heavy expenses undertaken by the proprietors of 
 the Daily Telegraph, Mr. Smith was only able to work two 
 months at Nimroud, and one month at Koyunjik, and the few 
 relies and inscriptions he found w^ere recovered either from the 
 old excavations of Sir Henry Layard or mine. But as his em- 
 ployers were quite content with the work he had done, and for 
 which he had been specially sent out — namely, the discovery of the 
 missing portion of the Deluge tablet, which was found after a few 
 days' search in my abandoned trenches — they resolved to bring the 
 work to a close, and telegraphed to him to stop work and return 
 home. On the 7th of May, 1873, ]\Ir. Smith began his explorations 
 at Koyunjik, and on the 14th he discovered the fragments to 
 which he alludes as follows: "On cleaning one of these inscribed 
 fragments of tablets, I found, to my surprise and gratification, 
 that it contained the greater portion of seventeen lines of inscrip- 
 tion belonging to the first column of the Chaldean account of the 
 Deluge, and fitting into the only place where there was a serious 
 blank in the story. When I had first published the account of this 
 tablet, I had conjectured that there were about fifteen lines want- 
 ing in this part of the story, and now with this portion I was en- 
 abled to make it nearly complete." * 
 
 * Smith's "Assyrian Discoveries," p. 97. It has now been proved 
 by Assyrian scholars that this fragment of the Assyrian account of the 
 Deluge, found by Mr. George Smith, does not belong to the tablet I 
 discovered in 1853. The Daily Telegraph fragment is in the third 
 person, whereas mine is in the first person.
 
 64 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Smith I was asked by the British Museum 
 authorities to undertake the superintendence of the excavations in 
 Assyria. Although I had fully intended, when I retired from the 
 Indian Civil Service, not to separate from my family, nevertheless, 
 when I thought of my former work, I felt I could not refuse an 
 employment in which I took so much interest, and thus I did not 
 hesitate to accept the proffered honor. 
 
 The difficulty that presented itself to me at the outset was the 
 want of a proper firman; because, not only was the one which Mr. 
 Smith had possessed far from satisfactor}^, but its term of one year 
 had nearly run out; and in accordance Avith the conditions to which 
 he had bound himself, it had become worthless in consequence of 
 the excavations not having been commenced within three months 
 from the date of the granting of the permit; and in like manner 
 the engagement would become void if the work had stopped for 
 two months without a legitimate excuse. It was therefore resolved 
 that I should proceed to Constantinople, and obtain, through the 
 assistance of the ambassador, Sir Henry Elliot, the necessary 
 firman; but I was doomed to meet with the same treatment as Mr. 
 Smith experienced at the hands of the very officials whom one 
 would have expected to behave differently, especially to public 
 servants who were sent on important duty. The Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs had written to the ambassador on both occa- 
 sions, recommending both Mr. Smith and myself to his good offices, 
 and requesting him at the same time to render us every assistance 
 in his power to enable us to conduct the national explorations in 
 an efficient manner; but, unfortunately, these red-tape communica- 
 tions proved abortive. If we had been correspondents of some 
 journal or agents of a mercantile concern we should have had a 
 better chance of being treated more civilly. Although I spent my 
 time going backwards and forwards to the British embassy for nearly 
 two months, I could neither obtain one single interview with Sir 
 Henry Elliot, nor receive from him a satisfactory answer. In 
 the first instance I was referred to the secretary of the embassy, 
 then to the first dragoman, then to the second, and lastly to the 
 third, or assistant to the second dragoman, but my communica- 
 tions with all produced the same result; namely, annoyance and 
 vexation of spirit! I thought if I addressed a letter to the ambas- 
 sador, and brought to his excellency's notice the difficult position 
 in which I was placed, it might receive some sort of an answer.
 
 A T CONS TA NTINOPLE. 55 
 
 Accordingly I did this, but no notice was taken of my communi- 
 cation directly or indirectly. This, of course, placed me in a worse 
 predicament than before, as I did not know whether 1 was justified 
 in remaining any longer at Constantinople spending public money 
 fruitlessly, or had better pack up my things and return home. 
 In all my long official experience I never saw public business car- 
 ried on in such a way, to say nothing about the discourteous man- 
 ner in which I was treated in my position as an old public servant, 
 and by the very last person from whom I should have expected 
 such treatment. However, after I had been there nearly two 
 months, our ambassador had to leave Constantinople with his col- 
 leagues in consequence of the termination of that memorable and 
 abortive International Conference that took place at Pera in the 
 beginning of 1877. Had I found, on arriving at the Turkish capi- 
 tal, that the state of public affairs, and the presence of the Con- 
 ference there, interfered in any way with the object of my mis- 
 sion, I should have certainly returned home at once, and waited 
 for a better opportunity. But the researches in Assyria and Meso- 
 potamia did not depend on the settlement of existing political 
 complications, inasmuch as the legitimate work of the embassy 
 was carried on as usual, and the different departments at the Porte 
 went on with their daily routine of work as before. 
 
 On the departure of Sir Henry Elliot, I called on the charge 
 d'affaires, the Honorable Nassue Jocelyn, and asked him to speak 
 to the Grand Vizier, Edham Pasha, about the object of my mis- 
 sion. He did so soon afterwards; but the only answer I received 
 was that His Highness had no power to do anything in the matter, 
 but that "the Sultan alone could give the permission and privi- 
 leges asked for." He suggested, however, that a convention should 
 be entered into between the British Government and the Porte, 
 giving the sole privilege to England of making researches in 
 Turkey, similar to that which had been agreed upon between Ger- 
 many and Greece. As I did not know upon what conditions the 
 German Government were excavating, I hesitated to give an opinion 
 until I ascertained what the points were. Mr. Jocelyn was kind 
 enough to telegraph to Her Majesty's minister at Athens, asking 
 him to let us know what kind of an agreement had been made. 
 We found out afterwards that the conditions were, first, "Greece 
 to retain all objects discovered, with option of giving duplicates to 
 Germany; secondly, Germany to have exclusive right of making
 
 56 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 models of objects found, for five years: and, thirdly, Germany and 
 Greece reserved exclusive right to publish scientific results of ex- 
 cavations." The convention was to be good for ten years.* 
 
 On receiving the above communication, I explained to Mr. 
 Jocelyn that our case was different from that of Germany, because, 
 England had had the privilege of making researches in Assyria 
 and Mesopotamia for more than thirty years under two Sultans, 
 and the British Museum was in possession of the bulk of the an- 
 tiquities found in their excavations in that country, and that what 
 we then wanted was the remainder of the collection. I also pointed 
 out that any portion divided could be of very little use to the 
 Ottoman Museum, but would prove of incalculable advantage to 
 the literary world, because the British Museum authorities could 
 then publish the different texts in a perfect manner. I said, more- 
 over, that it was unlikely that England would consent to such an 
 engagement as that entered into between Germany and Greece, 
 because, not only the British tax-payers would object to their money 
 being spent in such a one-sided arrangement, but that any one 
 might go to the British Museum and copy any object deposited 
 there by merely obtaining leave. And as for the privilege of pub- 
 lishing the results of any excavations without possessing the an- 
 tiquities, I felt sure that the British Museum authorities would 
 not care for such an empty favor, nor would they spend a shilling 
 on such terms. 
 
 I must confess from the time that Sir Henry Elliot treated the 
 mission with indifference, and allowed this public duty to be con- 
 ducted as if the trustees of the British Museum were traders seek- 
 ing to enrich themselves by plundering the poor Turk, and I, their 
 agent, was a mere adventurer hunting for an employment, I 
 thought there was no chance of our gaining the desired object. 
 Had His Excellency taken the necessary steps on my arrival at 
 Constantinople, when the Porte was favorably disposed towards 
 England, everything would have progressed smoothly; but after 
 the breaking up of the Conference, when British interests fell to 
 their lowest ebb, no one could expect that any favor would be 
 shown to England by Ottoman officials. Erom the time the re- 
 
 * It appears tbat Edham Pasha had held the situation as Turkish 
 ambassador both at Athens and Berlin, and had heard of this one-sided 
 convention while there, and thought it was a grand policy to copy in 
 getting us to agree to the same terms.
 
 DELAYS. 
 
 57 
 
 quest was made, through the Department of Public Instruction, 
 I lost all hope of ever obtaining a firman. 
 
 Although different Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Grand 
 Viziers promised to grant what was asked, and the draft of the fir- 
 man was actually made in our own terms, and required only the 
 sanction of His Imperial Majesty, another new minister, named 
 Jevdat Pasha, appeared on the scene. He laughed at the beards 
 of the Grand Vizier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, by ridiculing 
 the whole transaction. This man was the Minister of Public In- 
 struction when that disgraceful permit was forced on Mr. Smith; 
 but since the new constitution of a "Home Department," which was 
 not in existence before, had been established, Jevdat Pasha was 
 the first minister appointed as its head, which was very unfortunate 
 for me. He set up no end of childish pleas; that Turkey had be- 
 come a "constitutional monarchy," and its "Government was re- 
 sponsible to Parliament;" that if they granted any concessions 
 to England, other foreign powers would ask for the same favors. 
 He forgot entirely that the Ottoman Legislature could no more 
 interfere with the prerogatives of the Sultan (which in Turkey 
 are called "sacred") in the granting of firmans, than it could dic- 
 tate to him in the case of other imperial mandates. 
 
 1\ pleased him also to overlook the fact that England was not 
 asking for a new concession, but desired the continuation of favors 
 granted by former Sultans long before the Turkish Ministry of 
 Public Instruction formed its absurd rules under the influence of 
 a Frenchman, who was the curator of the Imperial Ottoman Mu- 
 seum at Constantinople. To the above objections I referred the 
 Minister of the Interior to Article 6 of the "Excavation Eegula- 
 tion" of 1869, wherein it is set forth that if any friendly power 
 desire to carry on researches in Turkey, it would be taken as a 
 special case and an "Iradi-Imperial," that is to say, a firman, be 
 granted for the purpose. Mr. Jocelyn, in his communication with 
 the Porte, appealed to that article; and though the Grand Vizier 
 and the Minister for Foreign Affairs accepted the application, and 
 indorsed it, requiring only the formal sanction of the Sultan, the 
 Minister of the Interior intervened, and prevented its being sent 
 to the palace on the plea that the exemption had been rescinded 
 by a subsequent ordinance of March, 1874. 
 
 On referring to the new regulation to which Jevdat Pasha 
 alluded, no such clause could be found, but I learned afterwards
 
 68 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 that the new Minister of the Interior, for the purpose of delaying 
 the execution of the Iradi, invented the story. One day I was told 
 that it was quite impossible for me to obtain a firman, but that a 
 Vizierial letter would be given to me, which would answer the same 
 purpose; another time I was informed that the Minister of Public 
 Instruction had telegraphed to Baghdad to find out what Mr. 
 George Smith had done with the antiquities obtained there, and 
 that nothing could be done until an answer had been received. I 
 knew that this was only an excuse to put me off; because, one day, 
 an Armenian, the third or assistant dragoman of the embassy, 
 who did not know a word of English, and who was, I believe, dis- 
 missed afterwards for misconduct, informed me that I must go to 
 the :Ministry of Public Instruction, and sign some documents giv- 
 ing security to bind me to certain responsibilities before a permit 
 could be granted. I rephed that when I accepted the agency of 
 the trustees of the British Museum, I did not contemplate pledg- 
 ing myself to the arbitrary rules of the mining regulations, and, 
 sooner than do so, I would resign my appointment, and return 
 home. On finding that it was of no use to remain any longer at 
 Constantinople, as the Porte seemed determined not to grant us any 
 favors, and that the prolongation of my stay there would only entail 
 further worry and expense, I returned to England after having 
 waited three months and a half fruitlessly. 
 
 As I was at the Turkish capital before and after the memo- 
 rable conference in connection with the late Turco-Russian War, 
 and learned from different sources the real feeling of the Ottoman 
 people with regard to the state of affairs in general at that time, I 
 must allude briefly to some of the notable incidents which char- 
 acterized the diplomacy and intrigue where self-interests had to 
 be satisfied. 
 
 For some reason or other it was generally believed at Con- 
 stantinople that Sir Henry Elliot was favorable to the Turks, and 
 Lord Salisbury to the Kussians; and no argument or persuasion 
 could drive these two ideas from the minds of the Moslems till after 
 the war commenced, when the majority of the more acute Oriental 
 diplomatists began to find out their mistake as regards the latter. 
 I used every day to frequent places of resort where groups of in- 
 fluential officials were in the habit of meeting and talking politics; 
 and as they thought that I did not understand Turkish, they used 
 to exchange ideas without any reserve. With few exceptions, every
 
 MOSLEM POLITICS. 69 
 
 one fully believed that if Kussia declared war^ both France and 
 England would help Turkey, as was the case in 1854; and nothing 
 would drive this foolish notion from their minds. Thus, depend- 
 ing on others, they had to suffer for their temerity! It was also 
 unfortunate that these complications began soon after the murder 
 of one Sultan and the deposition of another, when the entire man- 
 agement of the affairs was in the hands of only three or four 
 Viziers. Eussia had been intriguing for years in Bulgaria, Bosnia, 
 and Herzegovina; and, having succeeded in fomenting disorder 
 in all these provinces and enlisting on its side the sympathy of 
 Eoumania, Servia, and Montenegro, she now began to employ her 
 wonted diplomacy at Constantinople, and by sowing the seeds of 
 dissension among the high officials caused one party to clamor for 
 resistance, and thus brought about that deplorable war, which oc- 
 casioned so much misery and woe to millions of both Eussians and 
 Ottoman subjects. It was well known that Lord Sahsbury re- 
 duced the Eussian demands to a trifle; and that had the Turkish 
 Ministry accepted his counsel, or advised the Sultan to do so, the 
 Ottoman European dominions would not have been dismembered, 
 nor the financial affairs of the realm brought to the verge of bank- 
 ruptcv. The most intelligent and respectable among the Turks 
 hoped all along that England would insist upon the conditions 
 being accepted by the Porte which were unanimously agreed to 
 by the members of the Conference, because British prestige was 
 then in the ascendant, and notliing which England demanded 
 would have been refused. 
 
 There were three parties at Constantinople just then, who em- 
 ployed their influence for good or evil; the first, which embraced 
 the majority of the ministers. Christians who sympathized with 
 Eussia, and those who were connected with the press. Greeks and 
 Armenians especially did everything in their power to excite the 
 feeling of the Moslems against making any compromise with Mus- 
 covite demands. They exaggerated the power and resources of 
 Turkey, and made it appear that if once the sword of the Moslems 
 was unsheathed, and the banner of the Prophet unfurled, the whole 
 of the armies of Europe would not be able to withstand their 
 assault. The second party counseled forbearance and conciliation; 
 while the third, which was very small, advocated implicit trust in 
 the friendsliip of England, and full reliance on her wisdom. The 
 Sultan was certainly on the side of moderation; but as he was
 
 60 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 advised that if he submitted to Eussia, and trusted to Lord Sahs- 
 bury (whom they represented falsely to His Imperial Majesty to be 
 hand in glove with Ignatieff), he would lose prestige and cause 
 consternation amongst the Moslems all over the world. 
 
 "When the European members of the Conference came to an 
 ultimate decision that the Porte must accept certain reforms which 
 were agreed to for the better government of Bulgaria, and only 
 waited the assent of the Sultan, the advisers of His Imperial Ma- 
 jesty continued to beguile that august body by submitting the final 
 decision to the "will of the nation." Any one conversant with 
 Turkey must know that such a proposal was a mere artifice, seeing 
 that there is no such a thing as public opinion in the Ottoman 
 dominions; and any assembly which dared to oppose the secret 
 commands of the Porte could be at once dissolved by any official 
 sent from the palace for the purpose. 
 
 In order to show the members of the International Conference 
 the desire of the Porte to treat with equal favor the Moslem and 
 non-Moslem communities, there was summoned to the National 
 Council every kind of dignitary from both the Christian and Jew- 
 ish inhabitants of Constantinople, by which device it was thought 
 the world would be convinced that the long-promised reform was 
 at last to be established. The representative of the native Protest- 
 ant community was the only member who advised conciliation and 
 forbearance; and even Midhat Pasha went so far as to declare that 
 Turkey was not in a position to face such a formidable enemy as 
 Eussia. All those who advised the acceptance of the decision of 
 the Conference were hooted at, and those who preached a holy war 
 and an appeal to arms received deafening applause. The result 
 was a determined refusal of all Eussian demands, and when this 
 decision of the extraordinary Ottoman Assembly was communi- 
 cated to the m^embers of the Conference, and the Porte apparently 
 persisted in its obstinacy, all the foreign delegates threatened to 
 leave the Turkish capital in a body, thinking, as it was supposed, 
 that this v.ould bring the Ottoman ministers to a proper sense of 
 moderation. But it had quite the opposite effect, and it only made 
 the wily Turk still more stubborn than before. Wherever one 
 went, whether in the bazaar, the coffee-shops, or public depart- 
 ments, there was one constant roar of laughter at the threatened 
 departure of all the representatives of the great Powers. The 
 Turk knew quite well that no serious harm was meant by such a
 
 COMPLICATIONS. 61 
 
 menace, seeing that the staffs of the embassies still remained at 
 their posts, with charges d'affaires in full force to carry on the 
 usual work. 
 
 I need not enter into the subsequent history of these compli- 
 cations, and of the war which soon followed between Turkey and 
 Eussia; suffice it to say that, on the return of Sir Henry Elliot to 
 England, it was deemed advisable to send as special ambassador 
 to Constantinople Sir Henry Layard, who then represented Her 
 Majesty in Spain, as he was more conversant than any other diplo- 
 matist with Oriental matters, and knew the ways of the Turks 
 intimately, he having spent a great part of his life in the East, and 
 acted for some time as attache at Constantinople, under the most 
 able and brilliant ambassador England ever had, the late Viscount 
 Stratford de Redcliffe. 
 
 It can well be imagined how delighted I was when I heard of 
 his appointment, as I was certain that he would not be many 
 months at the Turkish capital before he used his influence with 
 the Porte to obtain for me the long-wished for firman, to enable me 
 to resume excavations in Mesopotamia for the trustees of the British 
 Museum. Sir Henry Layard having left England in April, 1877, I 
 followed him, at the request of the trustees, two months afterwards, 
 feeling sure that, through his influence, I should be able to attain 
 the object of my mission. 
 
 Most unfortunately he arrived at Constantinople twelve hours 
 after the war was declared against Turkey by Eussia, the Porte hav- 
 ing most unadvisedly rejected the Protocol which had been drawn 
 up by General Ignatieff and subscribed to by Great Britain with the 
 other great Powers. Had the Turkish ministers delayed their 
 reply to the Eussian ultimatum only one day, until the arrival of Sir 
 Henry Layard, all those who know the politics of the time believe 
 that, through his influence and the weight of his counsel, which 
 was always looked up to by the Porte, that dreadful war would 
 have been averted. But those who were clamoring for war, and 
 those whose interest it was to curtail the power of the Sultan by 
 drawing the sword, used their influence with the court to reject 
 the ultimatum, without even waiting for a few hours of reflection. 
 It was very extraordinary that the Turks, who are always con- 
 sidered to be very dilatory in giving a definite answer to most 
 important matters, should on this occasion be in so much haste 
 to accept the challenge of Eussia when the lives of thousands of
 
 62 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 unfortunate creatures were at stake. But so it was; and the result 
 showed who were the greatest losers by the game. 
 
 On my return to Constantinople at the latter end of June, 1877, 
 I found the Porte deeply engaged with prodigious measures for 
 checking the advance of the Russian army, both in Asiatic and 
 European Turkey, with scarcely any cash in the treasury, and 
 most deficient in ammunition and other war requirements. 
 Under the circumstances, the ambassador had a very delicate 
 task to perform; but as he still took a lively interest in Assyr- 
 ian and Babylonian researches, he did not shrink from employ- 
 ing the weight of his influence in paving the way for obtain- 
 ing the required firman. "Well acquainted with the tardiness 
 of Turkish ofiicials in conducting business, and the cleverness 
 with which they put ofi' an applicant for any boon or assist- 
 ance, he went direct to the fountain-head, the Sultan, and 
 begged of him personally what he wanted. His Majesty most 
 graciously promised what was asked for, and forthwith gave the 
 necessary order to the proper minister to prepare the document. 
 As I had another mission to perform in Armenia and Koordistan 
 of a political nature, which obliged me to hasten my departure 
 from the Turkish capital, I could not wait for the firman, but was 
 assured that it would reach Mossul as soon as I should arrive there. 
 
 I had received orders from Sir Henry Layard, under direction 
 of the Foreign Office, to visit the Christians of those parts of 
 Asiatic Turkey, who were reported to be sufl'ering from persecution 
 and oppression, and to learn from personal intercourse and observa- 
 tion the real state of affairs. There was such an outcry in England 
 during the late Eusso-Turkish War about the maltreatment of the 
 Christians by their Moslem neighbors, and the danger of their being 
 massacred by the so-called ferocious Koords, that every one thought 
 the doom of the poor Armenians and other Christians in Koordis- 
 tan was sealed. The stories were undoubtedly invented by those 
 whose interest it was to create a feeling of alarm and to magnify 
 certain incidents of lawlessness, in order to produce hatred and 
 disgust against those whom they wished to malign. It was the 
 same in Turkey, but there the Christians were represented as the 
 tyrants, and the Moslems, the oppressed. Darweeshes and other 
 religious zealots gave woeful accounts of the suffering and anguish 
 of their co-religionists who fell under the power of the Eussians. 
 They represented to those who were willing to believe their stories
 
 DIARBEKIR. 63 
 
 that Moslem women were enslaved, and the men were made to drive 
 herds of swine, and feed on nothing but their milk! 
 
 Doubtless in out of the way places, where the Ottoman author- 
 ity is merely nominal, the weaker were domineered over by the 
 stronger; and as the Moslems, whether in Armenia, Asia Minor, 
 or Koordistan, have always looked down upon all Christian sects 
 as being the subjugated races^, and themselves as the conquerors, 
 they considered it to be their right to harass and tyrannize over 
 the unbelievers! 
 
 My departure on this mission took place in the hottest part of 
 the summer, during the months of July and August, when very 
 few people would think of attempting the journey. Indeed, I my- 
 self had only traveled once in the heat of summer, when in company 
 with Sir Henry Layard, and then we had to travel at night, and 
 rest in the day. Had I gone to "Wan, the capital of Armenia, 
 through Asia Minor, by way of Trebizond and Erzoroom, the jour- 
 ney could have been made in the day-time without the risk of sun- 
 stroke; for by this route, after leaving the Black Sea in a south- 
 easterly direction, high mountains are ascended, where the exces- 
 sive heat of lower Mesopotamia and SvTia is not felt. But I had 
 to visit Diarbekir, the capital of Turkish Koordistan, first, where 
 serious disturbances had already commenced in the provinces. 
 Formerly the British consul of Erzeroom, in whose jurisdiction 
 Diarbekir was situated, used to visit the place periodically, and 
 sometimes spent the winter months there; but latterly no English 
 consul had gone near the place for a great number of years prior 
 to my visit in 1877. 
 
 As I found that the quickest way of reaching Diarbekir from 
 Constantinople was by Smyrna, Alexandretta, and Aleppo, I took 
 my passage on board one of the French steamers of the "Messageries 
 Maritimes," which took me to Smyrna, where I was transferred to 
 another vessel belonging to the same company, which came from 
 Marseilles, and was going round the Syrian and Egyptian ports 
 and returning to the same French port direct from Alexandria, 
 touching at Sicily. We had to touch, on our way to Alexandretta, 
 at Ehodes and Marsine, where the mails and cargo were delivered 
 and taken in. 
 
 At Alexandretta I found England was represented by ]\Ir. Au- 
 gustine Catoni, the most energetic and influential consular agent 
 in the place. Both he and his estimable wife are always ready to
 
 64 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 make English travelers as comfortable as possible in their hos- 
 pitable house, and no one need fear having any trouble at that 
 port or on the journey to Aleppo, if they trust themselves to the 
 guidance and advice of Mr. Catoni. I found a servant of my late 
 brother awaiting me, and I was glad to engage him to accompany 
 me on my journey. 
 
 I was surprised to see that port so much improved, both as 
 regards its pestiferous atmosphere and malarious marshes, since 
 my last visit in 1854. In those days, with the exception of two 
 or three tumble-down stone houses, the whole place consisted of 
 dirty reed huts surrounded with slimy quagmires, in which was 
 thrown every kind of dirt and rubbish — a sink of filthiness, which 
 even the frogs shunned! But now the worst and greater part of 
 the marshes have been reclaimed, innumerable fine houses and mag- 
 azines have been built, and the former fever and poverty stricken 
 inhabitants are changed into a healthy-looking and thriving popu- 
 lation.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 We left Alexandretta at sunset, on Tuesday, 14th August, 1877, 
 and no sooner had we commenced our journey than the sky became 
 overcast with dense clouds; thunder and lightning overtook us just 
 as we began to ascend the Bailan Mountain. Every effort was made 
 to reach the town before the storm burst upon us, but the night was 
 so dark, and there were so many ravines on our way, that I was 
 each moment afraid of falling headlong into one of them by push- 
 ing forward incautiously. The darkness was so intense that I 
 could scarcely see the head of my horse, and if it had not been for 
 the flashes of lightning which blazed out at intervals and enabled 
 me to see where we were, I doubt if we should have got over our 
 journey safely that night. At one time when on the brink of a 
 steep precipice, which we had to skirt, a flash of lightning illumined 
 both mountain and dale, and saved me and my horse from falling 
 headlong into a deep abyss. Just as we reached the outskirts of 
 the town the storm burst upon lis in right good earnest, and we had 
 only just time to take shelter in Khan-Aljadeed, or new caravan- 
 sary, to escape a thorough drenching. It being the middle of 
 August, no one ever expected at that time of the year to meet with 
 such a storm in these parts, and I therefore never thought of pro- 
 viding myself with the necessary protection against wet. 
 
 I have always had a great objection to taking up my quarters 
 at a khan, and at that time especially, it was not my intention to 
 halt in the town of Bailan, but to go on to the top of the pass, and 
 sleep there. However, being somewhat wet by the unexpected 
 downpour, and not knowing how long the rain would continue, I 
 was compelled to remain in that dirty and uncomfortable inn for 
 the night. It was the more necessary to halt there as the rain 
 had penetrated part of my luggage and bedding, which had to be 
 dried before we could continue our journey. The khan was over- 
 crowded with passengers, and every nook and corner had been 
 taken possession of before my arrival. The courtyard was also 
 crammed to overflowing with riding and baggage animals, horses, 
 mules, and donkeys; and there was no end of hubbub among the 
 muleteers, who were quarreling for the best billet or fodder for 
 
 5 65
 
 66 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 their beasts. As soon as the innkeeper found who I was, he gav-e up 
 to me his own private room; hut with all his good intention I could 
 not sleep from the annoyance of the cats and fleas which infested 
 the place. I could not move a foot without tripping over an empty 
 bottle, or huge box, or a water-pot; and to make matters worse, my 
 own bed was of no use as it had got wet, and my servants had to sit 
 up all night drjdng it, together with my clothes. I was heartily 
 glad to resume the journey early next day, though I must confess 
 my host tried his best to make my short visit agreeable. He cooked 
 me a kind of dinner which could only be recommended for its 
 quantity — certainh', not its quality. His coffee was not as bad as it 
 might have been; but his nargheela^ or hubblebubble, was neither 
 overclean nor sweet. The next morning we went on to Khan 
 Addiarbekirlee, which we reached in four hours' ride; about one 
 hour up to the Pass, and the remainder down the Taurus range of 
 mountains. This place is at the foot of the mountain on the border 
 of the plain of Antioch, along which runs a clear and wholesome 
 stream descending from the mountain above. There is no village 
 or town near, but a few huts have been erected for the convenience 
 of passengers, either by Turcomans or Armenians. 
 
 I found on arriving there, that a Turkish official named Ras- 
 heed Effendi, who came with me in the same steamer from Smyrna, 
 was comfortably settled in my favorite hut built at the edge of the 
 stream, a branch of which ran through it, making the air cool and 
 refreshing. He at once invited me to share the hut with liim, 
 which I was glad to do, as I felt rather tired, and knew that there 
 was no better accommodation in the place. He had intended to 
 depart for the next stage soon after my arrival, but as he found my 
 followers much fatigued on account of the rough night we had had, 
 he did not move until his servant had cooked for me some stewed 
 chicken and pillaw, wliich I thoroughly enjoyed. 
 
 Easheed Effendi was going to Aleppo as Moodeer x\lbakkaya, 
 or Director of the Outstanding Claims of Public Eevenue. In every 
 large or small town in Turkey such an officer is appointed to collect 
 old government claims, because the Porte can not forego the pound 
 of flesh; and for the sake of collecting a few piastres the poor peas- 
 ants and other poverty-stricken individuals are fleeced unmerci- 
 fully. 
 
 I resumed my journey at three o'clock P. M., and reached Ifreen 
 at eight. Here again was my friend, Easheed Effendi, comfortably
 
 IFREEN. 
 
 67 
 
 settled outside the coffee-shop, and ready to receive me with open 
 arms. I found him surrounded by all kinds of beasts of burden, 
 because a large number of muleteers, who were either going to or 
 coming from Aleppo, had halted there for the night, and I could 
 not do otherwise than follow his example. The coffee-shop was 
 quite unfit for any human being to sleep in during the hot months; 
 and to push on to the next station at that time of the night was 
 out of the question. We were pestered all night by the incessant 
 noise the muleteers and their animals made, and also by the swarms 
 of fleas which infested the place. I took care to leave very early 
 the next morning, and reached the large village of Tirmaneen in 
 four hours and a half. 
 
 At Ifreen there is also no village, but the chief of the district, 
 a Turcoman nobleman named Omer x\gha, to whom the place be- 
 longed, built a coffee-shop and a khan for the convenience of way- 
 farers near a large stream of the same name. Later on he improved 
 it by having a comfortable bungalow erected in its place, with six 
 upper rooms and a wide veranda. It was let to an Armenian, who 
 tried to give it a European aspect, by engaging in partnership a. man 
 from Aleppo, half Greek and half Armenian, who went down with 
 his Europeanized family to give luster to the place. But even ivith 
 such an embellishment the thing did not take, because most of the 
 visitors preferred spreading their carpets on the dirty ground out- 
 side the building, to going to the expense of engaging one of the 
 snug chambers. The owner of the Ifreen villa is considered to be 
 the wealthiest man in that part of the world, and is renowned for 
 his liberality and hospitality. He lives about three miles from 
 Ifreen, on the way to Alexandretta, where all his followers have 
 settled, and since he has established himself there, has kept the 
 country clear of all marauders and highway robbers. A few years 
 ago it was not possible to travel from Ifreen to Antioch without the 
 fear of being robbed, and perhaps killed. His only fault is that he 
 is very fond of the prohibited drink; and, being a strict Moham- 
 medan, it is considered very extraordinary that he not only drinks 
 spirituous liquors himself, but insists upon the innkeeper having 
 them for sale, and it was commonly whispered that the building at 
 Ifreen was used more for the retail of aracki than coffee! 
 
 On each journey I usually took up my quarters at every village 
 in the same house I occupied before, because, generally speaking, 
 I chose the nicest and cleanest dwelling in the place before I ven-
 
 68 ASSHUB AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 tured to locate myself in it. I also promised the inmates of the 
 house that I would go to them should I visit that place again. So 
 at Tirmaneen I chose the house of a fine old Turcoman, named 
 Mohammed Zekeriah, who had two wives, the elder, a country- 
 woman of his own, somewhat passe, and the other a pretty young 
 Arab girl. Generally speaking, all good Moslems are bound to pro- 
 vide a separate room for each wife, as it is considered quite improper 
 and illegal for two wives to sleep in the same room. A Moslem may 
 marry four wives, but must not have more than one if he can not 
 provide separate apartments for the second, third, or fourth wife. 
 On a former occasion I was allowed to occupy the room belonging to 
 th^e elder wife, as it is always considered the best and most spacious 
 in the house; but on this occasion I found my room was already 
 occupied by a Turkish official who had preceded me. When, how- 
 ever, the Arab wife saw me she invited me to her own chamber, 
 which I accepted gratefully. As soon as I sat down she brought me 
 some water and mashed melons, with a basket of most delicious 
 fresh figs; the latter of which I enjoyed very much. The figs of 
 this district are small, but extremely luscious; and a person might 
 eat two pounds of them without fear of their disagreeing with him. 
 Their seeds are scarcely perceptible, and the skin is so very thin and 
 delicate that it can not be detached from the pulp; the fig has 
 therefore to be eaten whole. 
 
 On my next visit to the place, I found, to my great sorrow, that 
 my old host had died from heart-disease, and that both his Turco- 
 man and Arab wives had left the place; the former returning to her 
 family, as she was too old to be wooed again; and the latter had 
 been seized upon by an ardent admirer as soon as the prescribed 
 time of her widowhood expired in accordance with Mohammedan 
 law. I was, therefore, compelled to find another suitable lodging; 
 and as I had seen, on a former occasion, when passing through the 
 village, a nice stone house, I went to try my luck there. On enter- 
 ing the courtyard, I was met by a host of women, who gave me 
 anything but a good reception; but as soon as I began to speak to 
 them in Arabic they seemed somewhat reconciled to my presence, 
 and on my telling them that I wished to see the landlord, they sent 
 immediately for him, and asked me to take a seat in the meantime. 
 It was not long before my future host made his appearance, and as 
 soon as he saw me he ordered the best room in the house to be got 
 ready, and before half an hour had passed I was comfortably set-
 
 ARAB CUSTOMS. ^^ 
 
 tied in a nice, clean chamber, all built and paved with hewn, smooth 
 stones, and having regular door and windows, with proper shutters, 
 quite a luxury and an exception to the rule. I found afterwards 
 that my host was the wealthiest and most pious man in the place. 
 He was never known to miss one of the five daily prayers imposed 
 upon good Moslems, and his liberality was famed far and wide. 
 I had not been there two hours before I became aware that he pos- 
 sessed four wives— two Turkomanees, one an Arab, and the fourth a 
 Circassian, who was the youngest of them all. My chamber hap- 
 pened to be near hers, and, as she was suffering from intermittent 
 fever, she kept coming in and out, asking me for a specific remedy. 
 I showed her all the medicines I had; and having recommended 
 one, she insisted upon my tasting it for her. As a matter of course, 
 I did not care to taste either the emetic or quinine; but as she said 
 that she could not take anything unless I tasted it myself first, I had 
 to change my prescription, and gave her pyretic saline instead. She 
 seemed to be the favorite wife, and the most cared for, as she was 
 dressed in finery and attended to like a lady; while the other three 
 were working hard, both in and out of doors. It was very striking 
 to see the contrast between her and the other three wives. She 
 was fair and refined; the others were dark and masculine. It was 
 also very amusing to see the difference in the ideas of dress between 
 an Arab and Koordish, Circassian or a Turcoman wife; a fair aver- 
 age between the two would perhaps be impossible. The Arab will 
 wear no drawers, because it is a disgrace to do so; and the other 
 races must wear them because it is considered a disgrace to appear 
 in public without them. The former do not consider it unbecoming 
 to expose their bare legs, but they think it most improper to show 
 their breast, and will cover it with any dirty rag, sooner than let 
 it be seen, or even take up the lower part of their skirt at the ex- 
 pense of exposing their legs up to the knees to cover it; the latter, 
 on the contrary, do not mind walking about with part of the breast 
 uncovered, though their legs and feet must be quite concealed. 
 
 Although my host had four wives, he had no children; and the 
 want of offspring to possess his wealth was a source of great grief 
 to him. He had been advised to marry a young Circassian, with 
 whom he might be more fortunate, and so he went to Aleppo and 
 married a handsome girl of that race about seventeen years of age. 
 When I was there they had been married more than a year, and 
 his disappointment was still a source of bitter grievance to him.
 
 70 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 On my next visit to the place, about two years afterwards, I 
 was dunifounded to find, on entering the same house, that its 
 occupants were perfect strangers to me; and on looking into the 
 room which I had formerly occupied, I saw that a Turkish Harim 
 had taken possession of it. I was told that my old pious host had 
 died of fever, that three of his wives had gone away, and the fourth, 
 who was the youngest next to the Circassian, had married the old 
 man's nephew, one of the sons of the chief of the village, who in- 
 herited the property, and that they were then living in the same 
 house. His wife recognized me at once; and hoth she and her 
 husband expressed great sorrow that the only decent room in the 
 house had been taken possession of by some Turks, who had arrived 
 there a few minutes before me. While meditating what to do, a 
 young girl who was sitting with the Turkish lady came out, and 
 offered to take me to her father's house, which settled my difficulty; 
 but on entering the courtyard I found, to my great dismay, that it 
 was the chief's residence. "When my fair conductor found I hesi- 
 tated, she said that if I did not care to occupy her father's recep- 
 tion-room, she would lend me her chamber. Xaturally, on enter- 
 ing the guest-chamber and seeing her father sitting there sur- 
 rounded by a host of visitors, I begged to have a room to myself; 
 and in less than a quarter of an hour my young friend prepared 
 her room for me, and undertook to act as my hostess as long as I 
 lived under their roof. She was most particular in her attention, 
 and provided me with everything I required. Her father and some 
 of his guests paid me a long visit in the evening, and seemed to 
 enjoy the tea and biscuits which I gave them. When I first 
 saw the chief, the father of my hostess, I was quite startled, as I 
 thought that my late host, the possessor of the four wives, had 
 come to life again. I found out afterwards that they were 
 brothers, and indeed no twins could have resembled each other 
 more than those two did. Both the families of the chief and his 
 late brother were fair and good-looking. 
 
 As I desired to reach Aleppo early in the morning, we started 
 from Tirmaneen at two A. M., after having partaken of a nice cup 
 of coffee ana milk, which had been prepared for me by my cook, 
 with the assistance of my young hostess and her sister. Of course 
 there was no end of adieus and complimentary exchange of senti- 
 ments on parting; I promising to repeat my visit to them if I re- 
 turned home that way, and they wishing me all prosperity and
 
 SITE OF CARCHEMISR. '^^ 
 
 blessings on my onward journey, and a safe return to them. Five 
 hours' slow march brought us soon after sunrise in sight of the 
 minaret on the famous castle of Aleppo, and I left my followers 
 and hastened on with the Turkish escort to the British consulate, 
 which was reached in two hours' quick pace. 
 
 Mr. Skene, the British consul, with his usual hospitality, invited 
 me to his house during my stay at Aleppo, for the purpose of pro- 
 viding myself with the necessary outfit and provisions for the long 
 journ'ey. Both he and his wife, with their wonted kindness, made 
 every one feel quite at home. All those who knew Mr. Skene in- 
 timately must acknowledge that he was one of the most estimable 
 and hard-working consuls in Turkey. He was proficient in Oriental 
 learning. Every language he knew he spoke fluently; and he was 
 unsurpassed in his knowledge of the character and habits of the 
 different nationalities of Turkey. 
 
 Mr. Skene informed me that he had discovered the real site of 
 Carchemish, the old capital of the Hittites, on the bank of the 
 Euphrates, known to the natives by the name of Yarabolus, about 
 fifteen miles below Beerajeek, and that he had pointed out the 
 place to the late Mr. George Smith.* He thought that some valu- 
 able remains might be found in its ruins, and therefore recom- 
 mended that the British Museum should explore the spot. As I 
 possessed no permission just then to excavate anywhere, and the 
 firman which I was expecting applied only to Mesopotamia, I made 
 up my mind to ask our ambassador at Constantinople to include 
 Yarabolus in the next permit, especially as I was certain that the 
 trustees of the British Museum would not be unwilling to spend 
 a few pounds on the chance of obtaining some historical records 
 from that interesting locality. In the meantime, Mr. Patrick Hen- 
 derson, who soon afterwards succeeded Mr. Skene in the consulate 
 at Aleppo, obtained the necessary permit from the Porte, as he 
 also took a great interest in archaeological researches. So when 
 the ambassador succeeded in including in my second firman the 
 
 * It appears that when Mr. Skene mentioned the ruin to Mr. Smith 
 he ridiculed the idea of its being the site of the ancient Carchemish. 
 as he followed the exploded notion of former travelers and savants, 
 that it was situated at the junction of the Khaboor with the Euphrates, 
 where the present Albissaira is situated. But on visiting the place and 
 seeing the remains, he was forced ultimately to come to the same 
 conclusion.
 
 72 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Pashalic of Aleppo within the range of my archaeological re- 
 searches, and the trustees desired me to see what I could do in 
 that locality, I found that Mr. Henderson had already commenced 
 operations; and as I did not think it either advisable or right to 
 interfere with his work, I refrained from having anything to do 
 with that site. 
 
 Mr. Henderson, whose official duties prevented him from giving 
 his whole time to the superintendence of the excavations, was 
 obliged to carry on the work most of the time through agents. He 
 made some interesting discoveries during the short time he carried 
 on the explorations, of both bas-reliefs and inscriptions in hiero- 
 glyphic characters, which are now in the British Museum. Efforts 
 have been made to read the Hittite inscriptions; but none have yet 
 been deciphered, though both Professor A. H. Sayce, Mr. Hyde 
 Clarke, and others, have tried to fix the value of some of the ideo- 
 graphs. 
 
 I left Aleppo on the afternoon of the 21st of August, and, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the country, was accompanied for about an 
 hour's ride from the town by a number of friends, and the dragoman 
 and the kawasses of the consulate. It is generally considered ad- 
 visable, when going a great distance, to make a short stage the first 
 day after leaving a town, in order that the luggage may be re- 
 adjusted on the animals, and if anything has been forgotten, there 
 is time to obtain it. I followed this course, and only went as far 
 as the village of Hhailan, about two-hours' journey, or seven miles, 
 from Aleppo.* 
 
 "We encamped outside the village near a muddy stream, as no 
 one in his right senses would take up his quarters in the dirty huts 
 at that time of the year, on account of the fleas which infest the 
 place, even in the open thoroughfares. Although it was the hottest 
 time of the year, when the thermometer goes up in the day time 
 to between 85 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit in that part of 
 Syria and Mesopotamia, I found it so chilly at night that I was 
 obliged to use an extra rug on my bed. It was difficult to under- 
 stand what caused the unusual cold that night. I could not make 
 out whether the rivulet had anything to do with it, or it was 
 
 ♦The average rate of traveling on horseback is aoout three miles 
 an hour, but I generally traveled, when the luggage was left behind, 
 at the rate of four miles .Tn hour; so when I mention my arrival at a 
 certain place, the latter calculation is always meant.
 
 AGHBIRHAN. 73 
 
 occasioned at that time of the year in consequence of the heavy rain 
 which fell in the north. The natives of the place told me that they 
 had very seldom felt such a cold night during the summer months. 
 No rain had fallen near the place for more than two months. 
 
 The next day only five hours' journey was made, as far as the 
 Moslem village of Aghbirhan, where the villagers had taken the 
 wise course of encamping outside their huts; and, as a matter of 
 course, I took my quarters in the tent of the chief, because I had 
 intended to remain there only a few hours during the hottest part 
 of the day, and start again in the afternoon. I gladdened the 
 hearts of the shaikh and his family by having a sheep killed on my 
 arrival, and allowed them to appropriate the skin, the head, feet, 
 and all the interior part of the animal — besides the dinner they 
 enjoyed from my kitchen. They told me that they had not tasted 
 meat for months, as the whole village could not afford to kill a 
 sheep among them. They complained of oppression from both the 
 heavy taxation and conscription, consequent on the then existing 
 Turco-Eussian war. Although they said that they had scarcely 
 any young men left to till the ground, and more than half of the 
 fields remained uncultivated, they were called upon to pay the 
 heavy taxes in full, and the chief assured me that not only had he 
 sold everything he possessed to satisfy Government demands, but 
 he had to incur heavy debts at Aleppo to keep out of prison. In 
 the afternoon I made a short stage of two hours and a half, as I 
 intended to commence my journey very early the next day. The 
 difficulty has always been to get my followers to rise early, or to 
 make them get up at the time I appoint: and it is very rare that the 
 muleteers load their animals without grumbling. They begin 
 to show their displeasure by abusing each other, the animals, or 
 themselves, — "Be quiet, thou brute; may the father of him who sold 
 thee be everlastingly burnt!" "Get up, thou lazy rascal; thou art 
 snoring like a donkey;" "May he who brought me up in this avoca- 
 tion never receive God's mercy," etc. The great difficulty was to 
 make a start, because, even after the animals had been laden, the 
 chances were that one or two loads would fall down, or one of the 
 animals go astray in the dark, and an unnecessary loss of time be 
 occasioned through the carelessness of the muleteers. I invariably 
 showed the muleteer the whole of my luggage before I engaged him, 
 in order that he might know what he was expected to carry on each 
 animal. IsTo difficulty was ever made at the outset; but as soon as
 
 74 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the bargain was struck and the loading begun, he would commence 
 to grumble, and declare that the things required double the number 
 of animals. Sometimes a stool, a water-jug, or even a small drink- 
 ing-can, was complained about as being too heavy to place over the 
 luggage, and so disputes and quarrels became the order of the day. 
 Our journey the next day lasted only about six hours, as far as 
 the village of Zamboor; and as the weather was extremely hot, and 
 I knew that it would be far from comfortable to live in tents under 
 a burning sun, I made up my mind this time to take up my quar- 
 ters in the village, even at the risk of being tormented with fleas. 
 When we were within five or six miles of the village, I left the 
 luggage, and hurried on with part of my escort to find a shelter 
 from the heat of the sun; but on coming near the place, I galloped 
 on alone to choose clean and comfortable quarters, leaving my 
 party to follow slowly on. As a matter of course, if I entered the 
 village with the Turkish escort, they would at once take me to the 
 chief's house, whose duty it is to render hospitality to distinguished 
 travelers; and as that functionary has only one spare room in his 
 house, where all wayfarers and the idle villagers resort, it is any- 
 thing but pleasant, after a long and fatiguing journey, to take up 
 one's quarters there, especially as it would be quite impossible to 
 have the proper rest and do any writing while there. Moreover, 
 I knew that, even if I wished to choose any other house in the vil- 
 lage in preference to that of the chief, the chances were that I 
 should not be admitted if the escort was with me. I have therefore, 
 on most occasions, entered a village alone, and, after choosing my 
 quarters, sent to my followers to join me. For this reason, when 
 we came within a mile of the village of Zamboor, I left my party, 
 and, seeing from a distance a house having an upper chamber, I 
 rode straight to it, being certain that if that room could be secured 
 I should be safe from fleas, and enjoy fresh air. To my great dis- 
 appointment the house proved to be that of the chief of the village, 
 who was a Turcoman, and the very upper chamber I had looked 
 forward to was the room I particularly wished to avoid, as it was 
 full of guests, all chatting as loud as they could about the war and 
 its consequences. The chief, whom I found sitting with his guests, 
 invited me to sit down; but having thanked him for his civility, I 
 told him that I was too tired to take my rest in that noisy assembly. 
 On going down stairs, I was met by the good wife of the chief, who 
 asked me why I was going away, and, on explaining to her my rea-
 
 75 
 ZAMBOOR. 
 
 sons she said at once, "Come up with me, and I wi 1 soon have the 
 oom cleared out for you." It d.d not take her long to disperse 
 the assembly, including her husband, over whom she ^eemed to 
 possess a wonderful spell. No sooner was the chamber free of the 
 no y cro^d than she called her two daughters, and ordered one 
 to sweep the room, and the other to fetch water and sprmkle the 
 floor to make it cool; and before many minutes were over I was 
 comfortably settled in my temporary residence. She wasalso good 
 enough to take in my servants, and allow them to prepare my 
 dinner. This obliging family were so pleasant and attentive to all 
 my wants that I always made it a point, after that visit, to take up 
 my quarters in their house when traveling between Beerajeek and 
 Aleppo One of the daughters, a handsome girl of about seventeen 
 years of age, was very rich, and had had a most romantic history, 
 it appeared that she married a very wealthy husbandman with 
 whom she had lived for a year, and at his death had -"^^ 
 his property. After that another man wooed her; but as he did 
 n t bear a good character in the country, her father refused his 
 consent, but she settled the matter by eloping with her lover 
 Before many days were over, however, he killed a man m a fit of 
 .ea lousy, and was obliged to flee the district, and take shelter m 
 some secure place, where he could not be arrested; and so the 
 T^^oman girl wa's obliged to return to her father's house, and 
 remain in an unhappy state of uncertainty. She was a ways dressed 
 n fine silks, and covered from head to foot with silver trinkets, 
 and was the idol of all the bachelors in the neighborhood, who 
 were seeking her, either for her fortune or handsome face 
 
 We left Zamboor soon after midnight on the 24th of August, 
 iust as an eclipse of the moon began to darken our way after a 
 bright moonlight. My host was the first to noiice the phenomenon 
 before we finished loading, by saying, "Behold, the moon is going to 
 be swallowed up." The consequence was that we had to travel lor 
 . nearly an hour and a half before we could see our way properly 
 My kawass and I hurried on to the Euphrates, which was reached 
 about seven o'clock in the morning. As I have already given an 
 account of the clumsy way passengers are taken across the river at 
 Beerajeek, I will pass on and relate how I fared in that Mesopo- 
 tamian town. As there are no hotels in these out-of-the-way places 
 and the khans, or caravausaries, are not fit to live m, I did as 1 
 was recommended, and took up my abode in the Monophysite
 
 76 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Armenian Church on the hill. Most of the Eastern churches in 
 the rural districts have what they call a guest-chamber, in which 
 they receive the respectable class of travelers. Those who go about 
 with their full complement of servants do not require more than 
 the lodging, and, generally speaking, they invite the head eccle- 
 siastic to dine with them, but those who can not afford to have many 
 servants, or others who do not wish their attendants to do any 
 cooking on these occasions, have their meals brought from either 
 the public cooking establishments, or some respectable famih', who 
 are always ready to do what is needful on these occasions for the 
 sake of a little present. As I always travel fully provided with those 
 domestic comforts, which can be carried about without much in- 
 convenience, I invariably had my meals prepared the same as if 
 I were stationary, unless, however, I accepted the hospitality of 
 some native gentlemen, who are in the habit of entertaining 
 strangers; or to whom I was introduced by a friend, or well known, 
 either from personal acquaintance or reputation. 
 
 There is a large community at Beerajeek composed of Arme- 
 nians of every sect, Monophysites, Eoman Catholics, and Protest- 
 ants; and as soon as they heard of my arrival, their principal men 
 called on me, and I returned their visits in the afternoon. The 
 natives of Beerajeek have a peculiar, and not a disagreeable, cus- 
 tom of treating a visitor with fruit and sweetmeats, which civility 
 was accorded to me; and by the time I returned to my quarters 
 I felt that I had eaten fruit enough to last me for the next six 
 months. The Kayim-Makkam, or lieutenant-governor of the place, 
 and the Kadhee, paid me formal visits in the course of the day, 
 which I had to return soon afterwards, as it was my intention to 
 start for Diarbekir that night. 
 
 The Christians spoke very highly of these two functionaries, 
 both as regards their adminstration of justice and friendly feeling 
 towards all classes, whom they always treated on an equal footing. 
 This spoke very well in their favor for keeping things quiet, 
 seeing that the Moslem population of Turkey were very much irri- 
 tated on account of the non-intervention of the European Powers 
 to give a helping hand to the Osmanlees in their struggle against 
 the overwhelming forces of Russia. 
 
 To show how uncertain the administration of justice in Turkey 
 is, the next time I visited Beerajeek, tlie town was governed by 
 two quite opposite characters; the governor was weak and irresolute.
 
 HA WAK. 11 
 
 and the Kadhee ignorant and fanatical. A few days before I ar- 
 rived, a party of Christian wayfarers, who were coming to Beerajeek 
 from Aintab, on ])assing one of the villages below the hills in the 
 province of the former, were met by a number of Turcoman 
 marauders, who plundered them of everything they possessed, and 
 severely wounded one of them. When they proffered their com- 
 plaint to the proper court, they were told by the Kadhee, the presi- 
 dent of it, that unless their evidence was backed by Mohammedan 
 witnesses their complaint could not be entertained, as it was un- 
 lawful to receive the evidence of Christians against Moslems. Al- 
 though that Christian evidence disability had been abrogated by an 
 imperial mandate during the early part of Abd-al-Majeed's benefi- 
 cent reign, nearly forty years before, through the great influence 
 Lord Stratford de Eedeliffe possessed at the Sublime Porte, every 
 now and then a fanatical Kadhee, or wily governor, starts up and 
 lays down the law as it suits his convenience and religious views. 
 
 I left Beerajeek an hour after midnight on the 25th of August. 
 The weather was intensely hot and sultry; and by the time we 
 reached the village of Kanlee-Hoshar, at 8.45 A. M., we had 
 emptied all our water-vessels from excessive thirst. As the people 
 of the village were encamping outside it in tents, I took up my 
 quarters in the largest, whose owner received me with every mark 
 of welcome. But the heat in the black tent was stifling, the ther- 
 mometer rising in its shady part to more than 105 degrees. Being 
 anxious to push on, I resumed my journey at 3.30 P. M., under a 
 scorching sun. I had unfortunately dined on stewed badinjan, 
 which in India is called brinjall, or the forbidden fruit. I suffered 
 from a parching thirst all the evening, not from want of water, 
 but because the more I tried to quench my thirst, the more my 
 mouth and tongue became dry. We reached our halting-place, 
 Hawak, a Moslem village, at nine o'clock, where I staid at the 
 house of Joseph Ballo, who received me very civilly, and placed 
 his whole establishment at my disposal, and, after having refreshed 
 myself with a cup of tea, I went to bed. 
 
 The next day being Sunday, the 2()th of August, I remained 
 stationary, to give myself and followers a little rest. It has always 
 been my rule never to travel or allow any work to be done on the 
 Lord's-day, and it is a remarkable fact that those who were obliged 
 to observe it, whether Christians or Moslems, always appreciated 
 the rule, and felt very pleased to have a day of rest.
 
 78 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 The village of Hawak boasts of some vegetation, with here and 
 there an attempt at kitchen gardening, as there is a good deal of 
 water running in front of it; and after the very arid country we 
 passed through the previous night, together with the oppressive 
 heat, the sight of a little green was very refreshing. My host took 
 me to see the spring from which their water was obtained, and it 
 was delightful to sit there for a few minutes, and enjoy the clear 
 and cool water issuing out of the rock. 
 
 The majority of the inhabitants of Hawak are retired dancing- 
 boys, called Kocher, who had spent the best part of their boyhood 
 in amusing a certain voluptuous class in Turkey and Persia with 
 their fun and exhibitions, which have ever been a disgrace to those 
 countries. 
 
 I spent a very pleasant Sunday in the village, as I kept within 
 doors during the hottest time of the day; and by having the floor 
 of my chamber constantly watered, and the door and windows 
 closed, the heat was brought down at least ten degrees.* As I 
 wished to resume my journey before midnight, I slept for a few 
 hours soon after dinner. \\''e started at eleven P. M., and traveled 
 all night, reaching our halting-place, Joorneyrush, at half-past 
 eight o'clock the next morning. The night was pleasant, quite 
 different from the one spent on the road the day before; and as 
 it was cloudy in the morning, the effect of the burning sun was not 
 felt before we reached our destination. Ibraheem, the head mule- 
 teer, and my butler, Hannah, were laid up on that day with the 
 common complaint of the country, intermittent fever, preceded 
 by a fit of ague. I was told that there was a good deal of sickness 
 in the village; and no wonder, as the people were hard at work in 
 the fields bringing in their harvest. I occupied a small room in the 
 best house in the village, built of gray sandstone; and as a protec- 
 tion against heat, fleas, and flies, I had the floor of my chamber, as 
 usual, saturated with water, and closed the shutters of the windows 
 and door. By this means I managed after breakfast to have three 
 hours' sleep, which prepared me to travel again all night, in order 
 to avoid the heat of the sun. We started at 10.15 P. M., and went 
 
 * Wetting the floor of a' room in the summer months has two advan- 
 tages; first, it makes the fleas lie dormant if the water does not 
 actually kill them; and, secondly, the evaporation causes a good deal of 
 cool air in a dark room.
 
 8WAIRAK. 79 
 
 on until daylight, when I left the luggage and pushed on with 
 my kawass, cook, and one of the escort to Swairak, which place was 
 reached at 6.30 A. M. On entering the town we met some Swaira- 
 kee horsemen, who had volunteered their services to join the Turk- 
 ish army at Erzeroom, then at war with Eussia. The patriotic 
 Moslems of the place, and even some of the well-to-do Christians, 
 assisted in finding their accouterments and the purchase of the 
 horses to carry them to the field of battle; but most of the men 
 who were engaged for war had not the least intention of going 
 further than a day's journey, as they disposed of their animals and 
 arms, and went back after a time, with made-up stories for the 
 satisfaction of those who sent them. This kind of trickery was of 
 common occurrence all over Turkey, as the love of personal benefit 
 was stronger than the desire for the national weal. 
 
 Swairak is a town of some importance, inhabited by Turcomans 
 and Armenians with some few families, a mixture of Arab, Turco- 
 man, and Koordish nationalities. I took up my quarters in the 
 same Armenian Church which I occupied on a former occasion; 
 and on my arrival was visited by a large number of the Christian 
 community, who gave me a woeful account of the ill-treatment 
 they received at the hands of their Moslem townspeople, especially 
 the young ones, who would accost them with insults in the streets. 
 When the place was formerly under the Pashalic of Diarbekir, it 
 was better governed, especially as the seat of the local government 
 was distant only two days' journey; but now it has been transferred 
 to the Pashalic of Kharpoot, a distance of eight days, just because 
 a certain Pasha recommended the transfer to suit his own purposes. 
 After that, the place was badly governed, especially at the time of 
 which I am writing; for the man who had been sent from Kharpoot 
 to act as a temporary Kayim-Makkam was quite unfit for the po- 
 sition, and, having a touch of fanaticism in his character, he paid 
 no attention to the grievances of the Christians. 
 
 An old Armenian priest, who dined with me on a former occa- 
 sion, joined me at my evening meal, and I was shocked to find he 
 was the worse for drink. Although he had a plate before him, in 
 which he was assisted to the food, he would stretch his hand over 
 his plate every now and then to the dish to help himself, saying, 
 that to be helped and made to eat from a separate plate looked like 
 begging. What made matters worse, whenever he found a nice
 
 80 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 piece of meat or vegetable, he would help me with the spoon which 
 he had been using. It will easily be imagined that I was glad when 
 the dinner was over. 
 
 Sarkees EfTendi, the head of the Armenian community, paid 
 me a visit with a member of the Council of State in the course of 
 the day. He is a very intelligent and pleasant man, and it gave 
 me great pleasure to see him again in the evening. He was quite 
 a contrast to the priest. 
 
 The little that could be gleaned of the public opinion in that 
 country showed that both Mohammedans and Christians were very 
 much dissatisfied with British politics. The former thought it 
 very unfriendly of the maternal uncles of the Sultan* to leave 
 the Ottomans to fight their battles with Eussia alone; while the 
 latter considered it a great shame for England to be always sympa- 
 thizing with the Turks against the Russians, and preventing the 
 Muscovites casting oft' from them the hateful rule of Islam. One 
 priest went so far as to say publicly that he doubted the Christianity 
 of the English for wasting their money and energy to bolster up an 
 anti-Christian power; but every one knew that they cared more 
 about money-making than religion; while the Russians, on the other 
 hand, were the friends of all oppressed Christians. I told him that 
 he was very unwise to use such language, because, if it was heard 
 by any Mohammedan, he would only bring misfortune upon his 
 community. 
 
 I slept on the terrace of the Church, and was roused soon after 
 midnight to resume the journey. After traveling about six hours 
 and a half, we rested during the heat of the day at the village of 
 Kainagh, which was reached at 7.30 A. M. Here the villagers 
 were living in tents, and I took up my quarters in the largest one, 
 which belonged to the chief, who, with three members of his family, 
 was suffering from fever. My head muleteer had another attack 
 of fever as soon as we arrived; and so, between the moaning of one 
 and the whining of the others, I had anything but a peaceful time 
 of it. Besides these woeful outbursts, the heat of the tent and the 
 troublesome flies kept me from sleeping, in spite of weariness after 
 the night journey. As I was very much fatigued and in want of 
 sleep, I felt that I was not far from following the example of the 
 
 * They have a notion in Turkey that one of the Sultans, supposed to 
 be Saladin, had married an English wife, and thus the Emperors of the 
 Ottomans are considered to have English blood in their veins!
 
 VALLEY OF THE TIGRIS. 81 
 
 fever-stricken party in tlieir groaning! I tried to soothe the com- 
 plaint of the invalids with pyretic saline, but they were too sick 
 to derive any benefit therefrom. 
 
 The natives of this village have a peculiar way of cooling their 
 water by digging a hole in the ground, about two feet deep, and 
 filling it with water from a muddy stream that runs a short distance 
 from the village; which, in my opinion, causes a great deal of 
 the sickness among the people. It was quite enough to see the 
 state of the water to discover that it was unfit for drinking; and 
 I only wonder that more serious diseases are not engendered by it, 
 knowing that all kinds of filth collect in the pool. I told the 
 villagers that they must not expect to enjoy good health as long 
 as they went on drinking tliat filthy and unwholesome water; but 
 I fear my advice was not attended to, for the mere reason, I suppose, 
 that they learned to do so from their forefathers, and it was con- 
 trary to their filial duty to abandon a custom which had been 
 handed down to them by their ancestors. 
 
 As I wanted to avoid traveling in the heat of the sun, which I 
 knew would be very powerful in the valley of the Tigris, I ordered 
 the loading of our animals soon after nine o'clock P. M., and at 
 9.10 we started and reached the khan of Kara-Bakcha about mid- 
 night.* My cook, escort, kawass, and I, halted for about half an 
 hour near the khan until the luggage arrived, when we again 
 mounted our horses and resumed the journey, crossing the hill of 
 Karrach Dagh, which means in Turkish, rugged mountain, — a 
 very appropriate name for it. The whole descent towards Diar- 
 bekir, which takes two hours to ride over, is covered with large 
 boulders as hard as flint, and my wonder has always been how the 
 poor animals manage to go through it without breaking their hoofs. 
 We had intended to halt at a village called Koosh-Dooghan (Turk- 
 ish, bird hatching), but on reaching the place at seven o'clock, we 
 found that it had been deserted; so my escort had to find another 
 resting-place for us at the village of Wineybirg, about a mile out of 
 our way. I found, to my disappointment, on arriving there, that 
 the natives were living in tents, which fact at once destroyed my 
 hopes of having a few hours' sleep and getting shelter from the 
 flies and heat of the day. My host was a Koord, and right civil 
 
 * Kara Kakcha are two Turkish words meaning black garden, 
 from the nature of the ground around the springs, which are in the 
 vicinity of the khan.
 
 82 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and attentive he and his family were. It has always been my lot 
 to find both Koords and Turcomans most obliging and extremely 
 hospitable; and though, generally speaking, they are most strict 
 in their religion, and considered to be fanatical Moslems, I never 
 on any single occasion had reason to complain of their want of re- 
 spect and attention. 
 
 As soon as the sun M'as set and dinner over, I tried to sleep for 
 a few hours, before we resumed our journey. Although I did not 
 intend to start until one or two in the morning, the muleteers 
 and servants made ready to start before midnight, as they were 
 anxious to reach Diarbekir as early as possible. One of the greatest 
 difficulties a traveler has to contend with on the road, is to induce 
 the muleteers, and even his domestics, to start from their halting- 
 place punctually; but when a town is approached they are always 
 in a great hurry to reach it. On any ordinary day the muleteer 
 drives his baggage animals at the rate of about two and a half 
 miles an hour; but the day he comes near a town he is sure to 
 push on at a furious rate, and accomplish the same distance in a 
 little more than half the time. 
 
 If there is no hotel in a town, and living in a khan is objected 
 to, it is advisable, and indeed most necessary, for a traveler, if he 
 wishes to insure comfortable lodgings, to communicate beforehand 
 through a friend with an influential resident to engage him quar- 
 ters. I therefore followed this rule, and wrote from Aleppo, asking 
 the Eev. Thomas Boyadjian, the head and pastor of the Armenian 
 Protestant community at Diarbekir, to engage me a house to live 
 in during my stay; and to make him more sure of the exact time 
 of my arrival, I sent another letter from Wineybirg, to inform 
 him of my approach. 
 
 As I expected, we reached the suburbs of the town at five 
 o'clock, just at sunrise, on the 28th of August; and as I did not like 
 to disturb Mr. Boyadjian's family at so early an hour, I ordered 
 our baggage to be unloaded, and waited at a fountain near a garden 
 outside the city. I had scarcely been there half an hour, when I 
 learned that Mr. Boyadjian, with Count Pisani (one of the telegraph 
 officials) and other native Christians, had gone on another road 
 in search of me. Fortunately, one of the horsemen, who was fol- 
 lowing them, saw me, and galloped off to tell them I was there. 
 After waiting half an hour longer, my friends joined me, and we 
 all entered the town together. As the house which Mr. Boyadjian
 
 AT DIARBEKIR. 
 
 83 
 
 wished me to occupy was not ready, he kindly invited me to his 
 house, where I was welcomed by his andable English wife, who had 
 left her country to share the life of her estimable husband in that 
 distant land. Happily for me, Mr. Boyadjian was a member of the 
 Council of State, which gave him some standing with the authori- 
 ties; and as I had a very gracious firman, and a strong recommen- 
 dation from the Sublime Porte to different governors-general of 
 the Provinces I had been commissioned to visit, I was able to 
 employ him semi-officially in any important communication that 
 passed between me and the governor-general. It was most fortu- 
 nate that an able and accomplished Ottoman functionary as Abd-ar- 
 Eahman Pasha was at the head of affairs in such a fanatical place as 
 Diarbekir during those days of disorder and confusion. A very 
 bitter feeling then existed among all classes of Moslems against 
 the Christians, on account of the war between Eussia and Turkey, 
 which they supposed had been undertaken by the former power 
 to destroy the Mohammedan rule. 
 
 Soon after our arrival, a large number of the principal residents 
 of Diarbekir, both Christians and Mohammedans, called on me; 
 and one and all gave me a sad account of the state of affairs in the 
 rural districts. The former fixed the blame on the Moslems for 
 their religious hatred of the Christians, and the latter attributed the 
 disorders to the want of proper troops to put down Koordish ex- 
 cesses; but they assured me that both Mohammedans and Chris- 
 tians shared alike in the general insecurity. In consequence of 
 the war, the Ottoman Government had withdrawn all the regular 
 troops from Koordistan, and left the stronger to ill-treat the 
 weaker; thus affairs were going from bad to worse, and at the time 
 I was at Diarbekir the disorders were at their height. 
 
 On my communicating the unhappy state of affairs to the Brit- 
 ish ambassador, who made it known to the Porte, the latter felt 
 bound to remedy the evil, and so they authorized the governor-gen- 
 eral, Abd-ar-Eahhman Pasha, to stop an infantry regiment proceed- 
 ing from Baghdad to the seat of war through Diarbekir for the 
 protection of the well-disposed in the lawless districts. Of course, 
 one regiment was not sufficient to keep order throughout the whole 
 Pashalic; but still it gave the men in authority some power in a 
 large portion of the province where the Koords were becoming 
 more troublesome every day. 
 
 The native ]\Ioslems of the town were always reckoned to be
 
 84 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 great fanatics, and bore intense hatred towards the Christians; so 
 after the war broke out between Russia and Turkey, this animosity 
 was intensified fourfold, and no Christian could go about without 
 being insulted for his religion or nationality. I had to report many 
 disgraceful incidents to the governor-general, who lost no time in 
 having the guilty punished and the law vindicated. But in the 
 Provinces the anarchy, which was accompanied by atrocities, was 
 equally disastrous for law-abiding Moslems as well as Christians. 
 In fact, certain marauding Koordish tribes inhabiting the moun- 
 tains between Diarbekir, BitHs, and Moosh, such as the Eush- 
 kootan. Shaikh Dadan, and Sasoon tribes, were the terror of the 
 neighborhood; and at the time I was traveling in that country there 
 was no bound to their depredations. Though they were plunder- 
 ing and committing fearful ravages all over the country at the time 
 I passed through the disturbed districts, I never met with any of 
 them; but my escort pointed out on several occasions the dangerous 
 neighborhood we were in. Twice we had to pass through the vil- 
 lages of those who were called brigands and rebels, and, as a matter 
 of course, I was advised not to halt in any of the suspected places 
 for fear of a sudden attack. But from all I saw of the people, they 
 did not seem to show any sign of hostility; on the contrary, when 
 passing through one village, where a few days before a caravan had 
 been attacked and some men killed, the chief came out and invited 
 me to have some refreshment; but I was obliged to decline the 
 honor, as I wished to push on as fast as possible. 
 
 Abd-ar-Rahman Pasha had a very difficult task in keeping order 
 at Diarbeldr, on account of the hatred the fanatical Moslems bore 
 to the Christians, and the want of proper police to keep order. 
 EeHgious hatred and jealousy kept up a constant feud between 
 Christians and Moslems, and it required a man with tact and firm- 
 ness to keep things quiet. These qualities happily were possessed 
 by the then governor-general. The same Abd-ar-Rahman Pasha 
 was a few years afterwards made Grand Vizier; but for some reason 
 or other he did not keep that high office long. 
 
 The Moslems of Diarbekir during that troublesome time ac- 
 cused the Christians of sympathizing with the Russians, and did 
 everything in their power to foment a serious quarrel and bring 
 about deplorable results, but their maneuvers did not succeed. One 
 day, after I left Diarbekir, some roughs of the place, during the 
 night, smeared the door of one of the mosques with filth, and the
 
 A CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY. S5 
 
 next morning the fanatics raised a hue and cry against the Chris- 
 tians, whom they accused of being the perpetrators of the disgrace- 
 ful act. As soon as the news reached the ear of Abd-ar-Rahman 
 Pasha, he sent for the heads of the Moslem community, and told 
 them that he expected them to find out the evil-doers from amongst 
 their own people. He said that no one in his right senses would 
 dream of entertaining the absurd idea that any Christian would 
 dare to commit such sacrilege to a Mohammedan place of worship, 
 especially at a time when they were anxious to live at peace with 
 their neighbors, much less to insult the religion of their rulers. 
 There is a very important Protestant community at Diarbekir, 
 which has been reclaimed from the old Armenian Church attached 
 to the American independent form of worship, but neither the 
 Chaldeans nor the S^aians have contributed any share to the estab- 
 lished reform.* Some Armenians, also, have attached themselves 
 to the rites of the English Church, but these are few m number. 
 The whole, or at least the majority, of the Reformed Armenians 
 would prefer the Episcopalian form to that of the Non-conformists; 
 but, for some reason or other, the Sublime Porte refused to sanc- 
 tion the establishment of such a community. With the exception 
 of some isolated cases in different parts of Asiatic Turkey, where 
 the reformed Christians have attached themselves to Episcopalian 
 principles, one and all have adopted that of the Presbyterian, be- 
 cause all the reformation that took place in Koordistan, Syria, and 
 Asia Minor, was originated by American missionaries, belonging 
 either to the Congregational or Presbyterian Churches. It is due 
 to the zeal and diligence of these good and pious American min- 
 isters of Christ, who have done so much towards the regeneration 
 of the corrupt Eastern Churches, that tiie native Protestants bear 
 an honorable name among all classes and creeds, even with their 
 brother Christians from whom they separated. They are considered 
 by the Ottoman authorities to be men of exemplary characters, and 
 on whose word they can always depend. Education, through the 
 instrumentality of the American Board of Missions, has also 
 effected a great change in both male and female proselytes. 
 
 * Whenever the word "Chaldean" is mentioned, it means an ancient 
 Christian community in communion with the Roman Catholic Church; 
 but tlie word "Syrian" means either the Cliristians who are in com- 
 munion witli the Churcli of Rome, or the old Monophysites, called 
 Jacobites, from Jacob bar Addaius.
 
 86 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and the only drawback is that most of the Eeformed Chris- 
 tians are too poor to make any great show before other com- 
 munities. The Eoman Catholics, on the other hand, are al- 
 ways ready to sow the seed of discord wherever they go, and never 
 lose an opportunity of persecuting those who do not agree with 
 them in matters of faith. But their educational system is beyond 
 all praise, and far superior to that of the Americans, both as re- 
 gards higher culture and languages. Moreover, the Latin priests, 
 who are generally at the head of the Vatican missions, are wonder- 
 fully active and vigilant. They are always ready to proclaim their 
 doctrine as the only sure way to salvation, denouncing the other 
 denominations as heretical, and doomed to everlasting torment! 
 It is an extraordinary fact that, though they have repeatedly tried 
 to gain a footing in Armenia proper, they have not been able to 
 make many converts; and, with the exception of a small village 
 near Moosh, called "Seat of the Franks," there is not a sign of the 
 Eoman Catholic doctrine in that country. 
 
 After having spent about ten days at Diarbekir, I left for Wan, 
 visiting, on my way, the districts of Saart, Bitlis, and Moosh. 
 Throughout the journey I heard everywhere the common cry 
 against the ravages of the Koords, and the maladministration of 
 the local authorities. Even admitting that the reports which 
 reached my ears were greatly exaggerated, and allowing a good 
 margin to the woeful stories I heard, no doubt a good deal of misery 
 and suffering was caused from want of proper protection to life 
 and property. The apathy and weakness of the local authori- 
 ties in the rural districts, and the dishonesty of the tax-collectors, 
 were the main cause of the disorder, which has been the bane of 
 Turkey for the last forty or fifty years; and it seems to me that 
 the mismanagement of affairs is always on the increase. The 
 Koords, especially those who are nomad tribes, have never been 
 brought under proper subjection; so when the Ottoman Govern- 
 ment became entangled in a war like that in which she was en- 
 gaged with Eussia in 1877, the weak had to suffer at the hands of 
 the strong, and all those who possessed local power acted as it 
 seemed good in their eyes, because they knew they could do so 
 with impunity.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DuEiNG that memorable war, almost all the tribes in Turkish 
 Koordistan were more or less unruly. They not only refused to 
 pay their proper taxes, but took exception to the law of conscrip- 
 tion; and all those who volunteered to assist in the Jehad, or holy 
 war, against the Russians, considered it to be their right to plunder 
 the villages they passed through, and mulct all wayfarers whom 
 they happened to meet. 
 
 In traveling between Diarbekir and Saart, I saw almost every 
 day crowds of men, women, and children, hurrying from their 
 villages to take shelter in some secure place from the ravages of 
 the lawless Koords. Any one who dared to deny the brigands 
 anything, was sure to lose his life. This kind of lawlessness was 
 not exercised merely over Christians, but also over peaceful Mos- 
 lems; and while I was traveling in the Pashalic of Diarbekir, no less 
 than three Mohammedan chiefs were murdered by the Highland 
 Koords of the Rush-Kootan, Shaikh-Dadan, Sasoon, and Mootkee 
 tribes. Neither the governor-general of Diarbekir nor that of 
 Wan was able to put down Koordish excesses. They had merely 
 to depend upon the assistance of the local police, who, in many 
 instances, proved utterly untrustworthy; and it was generally re- 
 ported that they were at the bottom of the robberies committed, and 
 indirectly encouraged them. I was assured by many Mohammedans 
 that the Circassians in the employ of the Ottoman Government 
 were known to plunder on the highway whenever they found an 
 opportunity of doing so without being detected. It was the com- 
 mon practice of the former to steal horses and cattle, and they 
 always managed to dispose of them to their relatives and friends 
 without much trouble. Their custom was, when a number of them 
 were sent on special duty, to organize themselves into a pilfering 
 party, and proceed to a grazing field where kine, horses, or mules 
 had been left unguarded; and as soon as they found there was no 
 one to give an alarm, they hemmed in a number of animals, and 
 rode off with them. As soon as they were safe out of the district 
 they sent the booty for disposal with two or three of their party 
 to Ras-al-ain, or any other station appointed by the Porte for the 
 
 87
 
 CO ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Circassian emigrants to settle at. If a hue and cry was raised 
 against them before they were safe out of the district in which 
 they had committed the robbery, their pursuers were roughly 
 handled and carried off as prisoners on the pretense of their having 
 attacked the imperial guard in the execution of their duty. The 
 unfortunate people, for fear of the false charge ^eing fastened 
 on them, would forego their property, and feel thankful that they 
 had escaped further pecuniary loss and imprisonment, especially 
 if they were wealth}^; because, if the local authorities discovered 
 that their victims were well-to-do, they would be sure to create 
 all kinds of difficulties, in order, with greater facility, to fleece them 
 of what they possessed. 
 
 One day, when visiting a man in authority in the districts, I 
 met two Koords guarded at the entrance of the Government House, 
 who were heavily chained, and on my asking what crime they had 
 committed, I was told that they had done nothing themselves, 
 but came there merely as complainants. The story of their in- 
 carceration was as follows: A Koordish chief, who was known all 
 over the country as a freebooter, had pillaged the villages of 
 these men, who were also chiefs, but of a lower grade; and as they 
 had no power to protect themselves against his ravages, they went 
 to lay their complaint before the Turkish deputy governor. Xo 
 sooner did the notorious robber hear of their departure to com- 
 plain, than he sent an emissary with a handsome bribe to fore- 
 stall them, and pave the way for further demands. 
 
 As a matter of course, when the oppressed individuals laid 
 their complaint before the authorities, they were told that the 
 chief would be summoned, but they must give personal security 
 that they would prosecute when their opponent arrived; and as 
 they knew no one in the place to stand bail for them, they were 
 detained, and, on the pretense of their escaping, they were put 
 in chains. Now it was their turn to begin to satisfy the rapacity 
 of the governor, and the more they gave, the more they increased 
 the difficulty of extricating themselves from their misfortune. 
 They were most willing to forego their claim, and even to forgive 
 their adversary; but it was of no use, as they were reported to 
 possess immense wealth, and the authorities were bent upon secur- 
 ing more of it. One day they were told that the chief could not 
 be found, and another that he was dangerously ill; but at the 
 same time both sides were being mulcted of their money, because
 
 KOORDISH RULE. 89 
 
 the accused had also been threatened with an immediate arrest, 
 if he did not pay further hush-money to satisfy the cupidity of the 
 authorities. 
 
 Both Abd-ar-llahman Pasha, the governor-general of Diar- 
 bekir, and Hasan Pasha, the governor-general of Wan, were trying 
 all they could to remedy the evil; but with the staff they had at 
 their command, and for want of funds, it was impossible for them 
 to establish the required reform or enforce order in the disturbed 
 districts. 
 
 I was surprised to find that the state of serfdom in that part 
 of Koordistan had never been quite abolished, but, on the con- 
 trary, in some of the inaccessible mountain fastnesses. Christian 
 villages with their inhabitants had been recently bartered for, and 
 sold by their Beys and Aghas as if they were their own slaves. 
 Any man who dared to change his habitation to another village 
 while he was held in a kind of bondage, was sure to meet with his 
 death. I was told by some Koordish chiefs that this old feudal 
 law was submitted to, even by Moslems of the lower class. 
 
 In the lowlands, especially in the plains of Bitlis and Moosh, 
 the Christians complained of the constant arbitrary demands of 
 their Mohammedan neighbors, who were continually exacting 
 whatever they chose; and if their orders were not complied with, 
 they would either punish the poor people by incendiary or night 
 robbery, or set the Koordish brigands to attack them. On asking 
 the Mohammedan villagers about these comjilaints, they did not 
 deny the reported misdeeds, but said, as they were tyrannized 
 over by other more powerful tribes, they considered it right that 
 they should in turn recoup themselves from those who were 
 beneath them. Some went so far as to say that, as the Turkish- 
 authorities oppressed them, they were obliged to turn to their 
 neighbors for contribution! 
 
 Among the Koords and Arabs, with whom life and property 
 have no value, the Tanzeemat,* or regulations, and local councils, 
 
 * The Tanzeemat is derived from the Arabic word Na-dham, which 
 means to put in order or regulation. It was established at the time 
 when the late Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, our indefatigable ambas- 
 sador at Constantinople, prevailed upon the Sublime Porte to insti- 
 tute the first reform in Turliey, about fifty years ago. Everything 
 was conducted on the non-regulation system, which is called in Turkish, 
 Mis-tasna, from the Arabic word, Mistathna, which means exceptional.
 
 90 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 have done more harm than good. Even those semi-civilized people 
 said that the Tanzeemat was of no advantage to them, because 
 it conferred no benefit on the peaceful inhabitants, but had proved 
 a shelter to the wrong-doers and malefactors; and thus a large 
 number of them escaped punishment, from want of proper wit- 
 nesses to convict. For instance, a Christian or a Mohammedan 
 in humble circumstances would always hesitate to give evidence, 
 for fear of being revenged by a relative of the accused party, and 
 although sometimes the native police arrested a robber in the very 
 act, and actually with the stolen articles in his possession, the 
 culprit got off because he was not seen in the act of stealing! 
 As for the local councils, they are more than useless; and both 
 Christians and Moslems admit that the members of these tribunals 
 sit either as dummies, or to hatch up mischief, and enrich them- 
 selves at the expense of the poor and unprotected. Generally 
 speaking, the Kadhees of the districts possess and exercise im- 
 mense power in these institutions; and, being presidents of the 
 local councils, and, with very few exceptions, the most corrupt 
 officials in Mohammedan countries, receive, or indeed exact, bribes 
 without the least compunction. They generally manage to enlist 
 the services of the most servile Christian or Jewish member of the 
 council, to act as go-between to receive the requisite bribes from 
 the victims of either plaintiffs or defendants, and sometimes from 
 both! Of course it would be out of place to employ a Moham- 
 medan member in these nefarious transactions, because, if he were 
 an honest member, he would disdain the idea of being so meanly 
 employed; or, should he be a man of a grasping character, would 
 prefer laboring for his own benefit. 
 
 I have also been informed that most of the highway robberies 
 committed by the semi-independent rural and nomad Arabs and 
 Koords are instigated by members of these local councils; and if 
 there should be any expedition organized by the local authorities 
 for chastising the robbers, due notice of it is given to the offend- 
 ing party, in order that they may be prepared for the attack, or 
 evade it by moving to some other locality. It is very extraordinary 
 that this is the common belief in every town, and even the authori- 
 ties do not scruple to admit the truth of it. The latter complain 
 that they have no more power left them to punish criminals 
 summarily, as they did on former occasions, and thus a large 
 number of guilty people escape punishment by the mere fact
 
 ILL-TREATMENT OF CHRISTIANS. 91 
 
 of their case being defended by their accomplices. The mis- 
 carriage of justice is also realized through the fear of honest 
 witnesses coming forward to tell the whole truth, because, if they 
 did so, they would be in deadly fear of being assassinated by a 
 relative of the criminal. 
 
 On several occasions when Christians complained to me about 
 the difficulty of obtaining justice in their individual cases, when 
 the court that tried them included Christian members, I inquired 
 into the grievances, and was told that the decisions were signed 
 by both Mohammedan and Christian members. On asking the 
 latter why they agreed to the unjust decree, I was coolly told that 
 they were afraid to do otherwise! In the majority of the judicial 
 cases that are settled in the interior of Turkey, the Kadhee draws 
 up the sentence or decree, and, having signed it, hands it over to 
 those members of the court who are of his opinion; or those who 
 are willing to agree to whatever he says; and having done so, the 
 document is passed on to the remainder to do likewise. As in 
 some cases the members of the court can not read or write, and 
 the majority of other councils in the Provinces do not understand 
 Turkish, they sign the sentence or order without even knowing 
 the meaning of it. 
 
 There is no doubt some of the complaints of the Christians 
 against their Moslem persecutors were greatly exaggerated, and 
 in some instances horrible stories were invented to create sym- 
 pathy, and breed hatred against their oppressors; nevertheless, 
 it can not be denied that the Christians in the out-of-the-way 
 places were ill-treated and insulted by their more rude Moham- 
 medan countrymen. It is to the shame of the Government that 
 they allow such an unhappy state of affairs to exist at the large 
 towns in Asia Minor, the so-called Armenia, and Koordistan. 
 
 In consequence of the unsettled state o£ the Province of Diar- 
 bekir, the governor-general supplied me with a large number 
 of police, who, on account of their special duty in the hilly dis- 
 tricts, were mounted on mules with a Yooz-bashee, or captain, 
 to command them. He was one of the finest Ottoman officers I 
 ever met, possessing every good quality required for a gallant 
 soldier. He was famed m the country for his bravery, and liked 
 by both Moslems and Christians. But my muleteers could not 
 endure him, because he used the whip when the animals were 
 slow in their march. At any other time I should have hurried
 
 92 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 on with my escort to the halting-place, but on this occasion, as 
 the chief of the escort could not trust the luggage out of his sight, 
 he continued to drive the baggage animals with his whip. My 
 head muleteer Avas so irritated that he stood still, and called out 
 to the officer: "Hast thou come here to tyrannize over me? I 
 never bargained, when I engaged myself for this unhappy journey, 
 that my animals would be driven like post-horses. Away with thee 
 and thy protection, and may God never prosper thee!" As a 
 matter of course, the captain, who did not understand a word he 
 said, flourished his whip and told the man "not to eat dirt." 
 
 After a quick march of three hours, we reached the Armenian 
 village of Jarrik. I took my quarters at the house of the chief, 
 who behaved very civilly; and as soon as I arrived he had a 
 lamb slaughtered, from which his family prejJared me and my 
 party a savory stew. I invited the captain of the guard and the 
 priest of the village to join in the dinner, which consisted, besides 
 the native cuisine, of a variety of viands from my kitchen and 
 what fruit could be obtained at that time of the year in the 
 village, such as melons, grapes, plums, and apples. The chief 
 told me that not many days before my visit his brother had been 
 shot dead by a band of Koordish robbers, when he was keeping 
 watch at his melon cultivation, and the authorities had no power 
 to bring the culprit to justice. I felt somewhat indisposed at 
 night, and fearing lest I should get worse, were I to sleep in the 
 open air, had my bed made within doors. 
 
 We resumed our journey at two o'clock the next morning, 
 and arrived at the Koordish village of Haidarlee at six A. M. 
 Osman Agha, the chief of the escort, asked me to let him halt 
 there for a few minutes, in order that he might obtain some 
 food for his men, as he thought it would be too long for them 
 to wait until we reached cur halting-place. While waiting there, 
 the chief of the village, who was a Koord, gave me a very sad 
 account of the ravages committed daily by the Koordish brigands 
 in the neighborhood. They spared neither Christians nor Moham- 
 medans. He said that two Moslem Kahias,* or chiefs of villages, 
 not far distant, had been assassinated, and the daughter of another 
 had been murdered, merely because they had tried to protect their 
 
 * In that part of Koordistan the head of a Moslem hamlet is called 
 'Kahia," and the chief of a Christian village is styled "Rayis."
 
 FARKEEN. 93 
 
 property, and that he himself was in daily fear of meeting with 
 the same fate. 
 
 After having waited about half an hour at Haidarlee to enable 
 my escort to have their breakfast, we resumed our journey, and 
 reached the Armenian village of Hosainee about eleven A. M. I 
 took my quarteis at the house of the Eayis, or xVrmenian chief, 
 who, immediately upon my arrival, killed a sheep for my dinner, 
 and acted civilly in every manner possible. Considering that all 
 the country people were suffering from the ravages of the law- 
 less Koords and greedy officials, the village of Hosainee seemed 
 to be in a flourishing condition, and it was a great pleasure to me 
 to see a Christian village, in the midst of anarchy and disorder, 
 making some show of respectability, when even Moslem peasantry 
 were loud in their complaints against the malpractices of their 
 co-religionists. 
 
 In the evening we had a dust-storm, accompanied with thunder 
 and lightning, and a little rain. This was the first rain of the 
 season, which, in that country, as well as Syria and Mesopotamia, 
 begins with a dust-storm, and when it is over the air becomes 
 quite fresh. 
 
 The weather having now become a little cooler, we started 
 from Hosainee at four A. M., on the 13th of September, and 
 reached the historical city of Farkeen at 8.15. Here the governor 
 sent out a guard of honor to meet me, and he himself called soon 
 after my arrival. I found there some very fine old ruins, espe- 
 cially of two churches and a mosque. There is every indication 
 of the Persian kingdom having extended so far in days gone by 
 there being unmistakable remains of their art all over the place. 
 On the wall of the town, lions and the sun are portrayed with 
 Cufic inscriptions below them. The ancient name of the place, 
 I was told, was "Mea-Farkeen."' 
 
 I took up my quarters there at the house of the Syrian 
 Jacobite chief, Bayis Kullo, who, with the principal Christians 
 of the place, came out to meet me on my arrival. They were 
 very oomfortable quarters, and the room I slept in, except those 
 at Aleppo and Diarbekir, was the cleanest I have had since leav- 
 ing Alexandretta. The inhabitants of this town are Koords and 
 Jacobites, and both communities seem to fraternize much more 
 freely than Moslems and Christians in other places. In the course 
 of the day, I was called upon by the leading men of both com-
 
 94 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 munities. They informed me that the Christians of Farkeen 
 enjoyed greater liberty, and had better protection to hfe and 
 property, than other non-Mohammedan sects in the same Pashalic; 
 so much so that during the then existing lawlessness many a 
 well-to-do farmer from the neighboring villages had come there 
 for security. 
 
 We started from Farkeen a little before four o'clock the next 
 morning, and reached the Armenian village of Kairik in about 
 four hours' ride. Here Osman Agha again asked me to halt for a 
 short time, in order that his men might have some breakfast. 
 Having heard that the j\Iotsarif, or governor, of Saart, the capital 
 of the district, was on a visit in a village not far distant, and as 
 it was necessary for me to consult him about some matters con- 
 nected with the existing disturbances, I resolved to spend a few 
 hours here, and go on to Zarggil in the afternoon. But on reach- 
 ing Barsic, after two and a half hours' ride, I met Aakif Bey, the 
 son of the governor, with a guard of honor awaiting my arrival. 
 He told me that his father was staying at the monastery of the 
 Jacobite community, about four miles off, outside Zarggil, and 
 invited me to halt there for the night. In about an hour and a 
 quarter we reached the monastery, where I was welcomed by 
 Solaiman Bey, the governor of Saart, and the dignitaries of the 
 Church. The former, who occupied the best vacant room in the 
 monastery, offered me his room on my arrival, saying that he 
 could manage without it. As a matter of course, I declined his 
 kind offer, and said that I should never think of putting him 
 to any inconvenience. The head ecclesiastic cut the matter short, 
 however, by placing at my disposal one of his furnished rooms; 
 but I accepted the governor's invitation to enjoy his hospitality 
 in the evening. His Excellency's son, and the overseer of the 
 religious endowments, dined with us on the terrace; and as the 
 Turks are fond of good lining, there was no lack of the delicacies 
 of the season and cooling draughts. 
 
 Solaiman Bey was one of the few Ottoman rulers who were 
 liked by both Moslems and Christians, and he had a knack of 
 pleasing one party without offending the other. At the time I 
 visited his district the country was in a state of great disorder; 
 and although he had no troops to check the ravages of the Koords, 
 he managed to keep things quiet. 
 
 Having been informed of the panic existing among the Chris-
 
 A PITIABLE CASE. 
 
 95 
 
 tians at Huzzo, the capital of the Sasoon tribe of the Highland 
 Koords, on account of the murder, in open day, of a wealthy 
 banker, the chief Armenian in the place, I thought it desirable 
 to visit that town, and report to the governor-general alsout the 
 state of affairs. 
 
 We were unable to start early the next morning, being delayed 
 waiting for a supplementary escort, which had been ordered by 
 the Motsarif to augment my guard, on account of the unsettled 
 state of the country. His Excellency sent his son, Aakif Bey, 
 to accompany me to Huzzo, and thus, under the guidance of this 
 officer and Osman Effendi, the chief of the Diarbekir mounted 
 police, we became a formidable party. It was a long and tedious 
 journey of nine hours' ride, as we could not find a suitable halting- 
 place to rest at for an hour or two, and so we were obliged to go 
 on without stopping until three P. M. When we reached our 
 destination the Kadhee, the collector, and some leading men of 
 the place came outside the town to meet us. The former was 
 then acting as Kayim-Makkam. They conducted me in the first 
 instance to the Serai, or palace, to rest for a while, and after 
 having taken a cup of coffee, they conducted me to the house 
 which had been engaged for me; but on seeing that I did not 
 care for it, they transferred me to the house of an Armenian banker, 
 which was certainly the best in the town. It suited my purpose 
 to have quarters there, as I could, with greater facility, inquire fully 
 into the case without creating jealousy. The banker had been lately 
 murdered, and his poor widow met me sobbing. As soon as I en- 
 tered her house she pointed out to me the room where her husband 
 met with his death at the hands of four Koordish ruffians, and 
 showed me the broken chests from which the treasures and jewels of 
 his family, worth about £5,000, had been plundered. She related to 
 me the whole frightful tragedy, which made my heart ache through 
 horror. The poor widow had scarcely recovered from the fright 
 of the diabolical deed, as she was imfortunate enough to witness 
 the dreadful scene of the butchering of her husband and nephew 
 in broad daylight. 
 
 It appears that some chiefs of the Sasoon tribe had been 
 treacherously seized and imprisoned by the Saart authorities for 
 lawlessness, and their relatives had been trying to obtain their 
 release by bribery through the Armenian banker. Months and 
 years had rolled by without their having gained the desired end.
 
 96 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and ultimately two of the prisoners had died in jail from smallpox. 
 The brothers of the deceased Koords, finding themselves bereaved 
 of their relatives and fleeced of their money, determined to re- 
 venge themselves on the banker, who they thought had deceived 
 them. The poor man had done his best; but though he labored 
 by intercession and bribery, he found it difficult to rescue the 
 prisoners. He had been in the habit of keeping an open house, 
 and among the people he received as guests were these very men 
 who now meditated his destruction. One day four of the ruffians 
 presented themselves at the house of the banker, armed to the 
 teeth as the Koords generally are when away from home. They 
 occupied the guest-chamber as on a former occasion, and the next 
 morning while breakfasting with their host they dispatched him 
 with their daggers. A nephew of his, who was standing by, fell 
 upon his uncle to w^ard off the deadly blows, and himself met 
 with the same fate. The wife, hearing the sounds of commotion, 
 rushed to the bloody scene, and no sooner had she entered the 
 room than one of the Koords, who had his gun in his hand, fired 
 at her; but fortunately the bullet missed her, and buried itself 
 in the wall of another room, which was occupied by the governor 
 of the place, who was then sitting on the terrace surrounded with 
 no less than thirty Dhabtias, or police. Both the wife of the 
 banker and the servants of the house called to him for help; but 
 he sat quietly smoking his cigarette,* without making an effort to 
 save the life of his host, although he was staying in his house 
 and receiving his hospitality. 
 
 When a new governor arrives at a town where there is no 
 suitable accommodation for him, he is generally entertained by 
 a respectable inhabitant of the place until a proper abode is pre- 
 pared for him. So in this instance the new governor of Huzzo 
 had taken up his quarters at the banker's house, as it was the 
 best in the place, and had been living there some days before 
 the Koords made their appearance. Consequently it was whis- 
 pered that there was some understanding between the two parties 
 of what was going to happen, because the very fact of four Koords 
 daring to commit such an outrage while the governor of the place 
 was present with a large body of armed police, justified the 
 
 * Since the Crimean War the Turks have changed the cheboolc, or 
 pipe, for cigarettes, and now the former smoking apparatus is very 
 seldom used in any part of Turkey.
 
 HUZZO. 97 
 
 assumption of a connivance on the part of the local authorities. 
 As soon as they had killed the poor banker and his nephew, they 
 coolly called for water to wash their bloodstained hands, and 
 when they had done that, they commenced to plunder the house. 
 They began by breaking open the treasure-chests and jewelry- 
 cases, and filling their bags with what they could find. If all that 
 I heard was true, the worst part of the transaction was that the 
 murderers, being afraid to pass out of the town with their booty 
 for fear of the townspeople, as the deceased was liked by all the 
 Koords of the place, prevailed upon the governor to send a few 
 of the Dhabtias who were with him to pass them through. How 
 far this story is to be believed it is difficult to say, but the Moslems 
 of the town testified to me of the correctness of the main points. 
 When I left the place the case was under investigation by the 
 local authorities at Saart; and, although the indictment against 
 the murderers had been proved, the allegation of the apparent 
 neglect of the governor of Huzzo to render the necessary pro- 
 tection to the banker and his family had not been brought home 
 to the accused. 
 
 The town of Huzzo stands on the top of a valley which over- 
 looks the plain of Saart in one direction, and the salt-pits in the 
 other. In the afternoon I walked to the top of the old castle, 
 and had a view of the country around. It is very curious, though 
 there are fresh-water springs in the valley, yet below a certain 
 depth all the water is saline, and the natives dig wells at different 
 spots, and draw the water, which is condensed into salt for the 
 use of the neighborhood. Lately the authorities tried to place 
 a restriction upon this enterprise and the free sale of the salt, 
 and as the manufacture of it belonged to certain families among 
 the Sasoon Koords, its raojiopoly created great dissatisfaction 
 among the people. 
 
 After having visited the castle, I went over the Armenian 
 church of the Virgin Mary and the old mosque outside the town. 
 The latter, which is in ruins, must have been formerly a mag- 
 nificent building, as it was built very neatly of hewn square stone. 
 The minaret was in a tolerably good state of preservation, and it 
 contained two passages, one for ascending and the other for de- 
 scending, very unlike the generality of minarets in Mohammedan 
 countries. 
 
 Some of the leading men of the place, both Moslems and 
 
 7
 
 98 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Christians, called on me. The commandant of the guard and the 
 Kadhee dined with me, but left soon after dinner, as they knew 
 that I wished to go to rest early, in order to be able to leave for 
 Saart that night. 
 
 We left Huzzo at 3.15 A. M., on the 17th of September, and 
 as the night was dark, and the descent to the lowland very rough, 
 my Armenian hostess sent a servant with a lantern to show me 
 the way until we got safely out of the rugged path. After a 
 march of four hours and a half, we reached the Armenian village 
 of Barsa, where we halted for about three hours under a clump 
 of trees outside for refreshment and rest. The ecclesiastics of the 
 place came out to offer their welcome, and brought me some new- 
 laid eggs and milk, but what I enjoyed most was the delicious 
 cold water from a clear and refreshing spring close by. After 
 traveling two hours and a half longer, we reached one of the trib- 
 utaries of the Tigris, which comes down from Bitlis, called Bas- 
 hoor; and having crossed another river of the name of Kaizaray, 
 we reached Saart at four P. M. About half an hour before I 
 reached the town, the acting Motsarif, the commandant of police, 
 and Khoaja Jaboor bin Shammas Abbosh, the head of the Chal- 
 dean community, and other leading men of the place, came out 
 to meet me. I was conducted straight to Khoaja Jaboor's hos- 
 pitable house, where I was welcomed by all his family. He gave 
 me the best rooms in his house, and as visitors of all nationalities 
 and creeds came to see me, cigarettes, nargelas, and coffee were 
 constantly in requisition. 
 
 Khoaja Jaboor is reckoned the most hospitable man in the 
 Pashalic of Diarbekir, as his father was before him. His house 
 is never known to be without guests, and his generosity is famed 
 far and wide. I was told that he was never known to have less 
 than twenty strangers enjoying his hospitality daily, whether high 
 or low. It is quite a pleasure to speak to him, as he is a thorough 
 gentleman, but somewhat prejudiced against what he called here- 
 tics, — that is to say, non-Eoman Catholic Christians. As for Prot- 
 estants, who are nicknamed in Koordistan and Armenia "Prot," 
 he considered them to be worse than Farmasoon.* 
 
 ♦ Farmasoon, which means Freemasons, are looked upon in Turkey 
 with abhorrence, as they are considered to be Atheists. When I in- 
 formed some of my Moslem and Christian friends that I was myself 
 a Freemason, they were struck with amazement; but on explaining to
 
 SAART. 
 
 99 
 
 Early the next day (18th September) most of the high officials 
 called, and I had to return their visits in the course of the day. 
 Solaiman Bey, the Motsarif, was still absent, settling some dis- 
 putes among the Koordish tribes, and his son, Aakif Bey, who 
 accompanied me to Huzzo and back, was attacked with fever soon 
 after my arrival at Saart, and I had to go and administer to him 
 some quinine. The nights had then become somewhat cooler, 
 but the days kept their usual closeness. A telegram reached this 
 place in the course of the day that the Imperial Ottoman troops 
 had defeated the Russians at Plevna, and that the latter had lost 
 about six thousand soldiers in killed and wounded, with the same 
 number of prisoners. 
 
 Khoaja Jaboor took me to see the miserable church of the 
 Chaldeans, which was not only small and in a dilapidated con- 
 dition, but also dark and gloomy; and even in the daytime they 
 had to light candles to enable the congregation to see. It ap- 
 pears that the necessary funds were collected for building a new 
 place of worship in a different part of the town, but the Moslems 
 had prevented its construction. As soon as the Chaldeans had 
 obtained a firman, and collected material for building it, the 
 Kadhee and other fanatics telegraphed to Constantinople against 
 its erection, on the plea that the spot where the Church was going 
 to be built was either sacred or entailed. Then some other de- 
 vout Christians offered their houses for the purpose, and when 
 everything was ready for commencing the foundations, up started 
 again the same hinderers, and arrested the work. The most dis- 
 creditable part of the business was the fast-and-loose way the Porte 
 acted throughout the whole transaction. On one hand, at the 
 request of the French embassy, they issued the necessary orders 
 for the erection of the new church, and on the other they were 
 ready to listen to any frivolous objection raised by one or two 
 bigots of the place. Indeed, the Ottoman Government went so 
 
 them that no one would be admitted into the craft without believing in 
 God, they were somewhat reconciled; but still, they could not make out 
 why, if there was no harm in the brotherhood, their meetings were 
 kept strictly private. I was told once by an Arab friend that the Far- 
 masoon were so tender-conscienced about their secrecy, that when one 
 of them was found so intoxicated one day that he could not distinguish 
 between his father and mother, as soon as he heard a man whisper in 
 his ear that he wished to know something of the mystery of his craft, 
 he immediately became sober, and Stood as mute as a wall!
 
 100 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 far as to order a court of inquiry to examine into the causes of 
 the dispute, and though the decision given, as I understood, was 
 in favor of the Christians, the matter was still in abeyance when 
 I left Saart. 
 
 From the time of the Mohammedan conquest up to the middle 
 of this century, or soon after the Crimean war, no Christians 
 were allowed to build a new church in any part of the Sultan's 
 dominions; and even if any of the old places of worship were 
 dilapidated they could not be repaired without a special firman. 
 Since the happy influence, however, the late Lord Stratford de 
 Eedcliffe possessed over the Sublime Porte, those restrictions have 
 been taken away; and now, not only are all Christians allowed 
 to keep their churches in thorough repair, but they can, except 
 in out-of-the-way places, build as many as they like, provided 
 they apply for a license to do so. 
 
 A novel incident occurred while I was at Saart, consequent 
 upon a quarrel between my head muleteer, Ali, and a follower 
 of a powerful Koordish chief in the neighborhood, which might 
 have ended seriously had not the acting governor referred the 
 settlement of the matter to me. My man was counting some silver 
 coins which he had received from a tradesman, when a Koord 
 went to him, and asked him to change a lira — Turkish sov- 
 ereign. Ali, who was a hot-headed Moslem, turned round sharply, 
 and said to him, "Have I come here to act as banker, that thou 
 shouldest ask me to change thy gold into silver?" whereupon 
 the Koord called him all kinds of uncomplimentary names, which 
 were, as a matter of course, returned by Ali, with more than five- 
 fold abuse. These maledictions brought the contending parties- 
 to blows, and in an instant each combatant was joined by his 
 sympathizers, the Koords taking the part of their countrymen, 
 and all the muleteers who were in the bazaar going to the assist- 
 ance of their comrade. The police, fearing lest the quarrel might 
 end in a serious riot, arrested the originators of the disturbance, 
 and took them before the acting governor, who, on seeing the 
 press of the multitude, fancied that the whole town was in re- 
 volt. The charge brought by the Koord against my man was 
 that he had blasphemed his religion— a common accusation gen- 
 erally brought forward by a fanatic against an antagonist, espe- 
 cially a Christian, when he has a weak case to support. 
 
 The acting governor, on finding the breaker of the peace to
 
 A CONTENTION SETTLED. 101 
 
 be a protege of a formidable chief, and the accused an employee 
 of a British official, came to the conclusion that the only way 
 to keep out of political trouble, would be to send the case to me 
 for settlement.* I must confess I did not quite relish the honor 
 thus conferred upon me, in having been chosen arbitrator in such 
 an intricate matter, especially at a time when an error of judg- 
 ment one way or the other might have brought about grave con- 
 sequences. However, nothing daunted, I put on a bold face, and 
 went into the matter in right good earnest. The contending 
 parties having been admitted into my presence, I allowed each to 
 tell his own story, and refused the interference of any bystanders, 
 knowing that there were scores of witnesses on both sides ready 
 to swear in the favor of their friend. I first scolded my head 
 muleteer for causing a disturbance about a trifling matter, and then 
 upbraided the Koord for his inhospitality in ill-using a stranger, 
 who ought rather to have received his protection. I made light 
 of the accusation of blasphemy, and tried to convince him that he 
 must have misunderstood Ali, he being too good a Moslem to revile 
 the religion of a brother Mohammedan. But I said, sooner than 
 have a man with such a stain on his character in my employ, I 
 would dismiss him, and leave him to the mercy of the governor- 
 general, to deal with him according to law. I recommended that 
 as my Diarbekir escort were returning to their headquarters, both 
 my muleteer and his accuser should be sent with them for trial. 
 These words acted like magic on the minds of the litigants, be- 
 cause no sooner were they hurried away from my presence than 
 they begged that I should settle the case then and there myself. 
 I sent word to say that I had not come there to hold a court of 
 justice, but if they wished to let bygones be bygones, I was willing 
 to ask the acting governor to pardon them. On such occasions 
 there is always some one to act as a go-between, and as soon as 
 these peacemakers, my host being the foremost among them, had 
 managed to make matters up, the disputants were brought back to 
 me, with a request that I should overlook their faults; they were 
 all smiles, and looked as if no quarrel had ever taken place 
 
 * In the capitulations existing between the European Powers and 
 the Sublime Porte, if any subject or employee of the former commit a 
 crime or misdemeanor, before he can be tried and punished the con- 
 sent of his consul, or any other person representing his Government, 
 must be obtaiued.
 
 102 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 between them. When I saw them in such a happy mood, I told 
 them that if they were willing to seal the settlement of their 
 dispute by an embrace, to show me that they were in earnest, I 
 would forgive them. My head muleteer and the Koord kissed 
 each other most affectionately, and retired, thanking me for having 
 brought their litigation to a satisfactory conclusion. Thus ended 
 a disagreeable quarrel which might have terminated in blood- 
 shed, as both parties were ripe for a fight. 
 
 After having spent three days at Saart, I left for Bitlis on 
 the 20th of September, and in consequence of the rebellion of the 
 IMootkee tribe of Highland Koords, I could not travel through 
 the usual route, which was shorter by one day than the one I 
 was recommended to take by the acting governor. Even going 
 by the longer road, the authorities were obliged to supply me 
 with a strong guard, for fear of an attack by Koordish brigands. 
 Our road lay through a mountainous country, and we had to halt 
 after a ride of four hours and a half, at a village built on an emi- 
 nence, called Koofra, inhabited partly by Koords and partly by 
 Jacobite Christians. My escort were billeted in the houses of the 
 Christian villagers, as they did not dare to enter any of the huts 
 of the Koords, for fear of a row. It has ever been my rule to 
 pay for the forage of my escort, and if they were few in number, 
 I generally allowed them to have their meals with my servants, 
 to save the poor villagers from their exactions. 
 
 The Christians here compl'ained of the oppression of the Otto- 
 man authorities, especially with regard to the tax which is re- 
 ceived in lieu of conscription. Form_erly all the Christians and 
 Jews paid what was called capitation- tax to their Moslem rulers, 
 from which every follower of ]\Iohammed was exempt, as the latter 
 supplied the fighting element, and the former the funds; but since 
 the Crimean war this degrading impost was changed to what is 
 now called "Askariya," or military assessment, — that is to say, in- 
 stead of the Christian subjects of the Porte conforming to the law 
 of conscription, they pay a certain tax in lieu thereof, which, sav- 
 ing the change of name, is the same as the former. The capitation- 
 tax was levied yearly, directly by the authorities, on adults in 
 three degrees: the first paid about fifteen shillings; the second, 
 ten; and the third, five; but priests, paupers, and beggars, and 
 men above sixty years of age, were exempt. As each man was 
 taxed separately, and received a receipt for the same, his sect was
 
 ASSESSMENTS AND TAXES. 103 
 
 not responsible in case he left his native place, or died; but they 
 were bound to give information of his whereabouts if they knew 
 it. The Nazammia, however, is levied on each sect in a lump, 
 according to the number of the male adults of the community, 
 and the assessment is left to their principal men to arrange ac- 
 cording to their discretion. There is no appeal against their de- 
 cision, and any one refusing to pay what is demanded of him 
 can be sent to prison by the committee legally appointed for tliis 
 purpose. Every few years a readjustment is made by the authori- 
 ties in case of deaths or increase in the male members of a com- 
 munity; but in the rural districts, where a good deal of imposition 
 takes place, this rule is not strictly adhered to. Thus, if half 
 of the male population of a village die, or leave the place, the 
 remaining inhabitants have to make up the deficiency. The Chris- 
 tians of Koofra assured me that, though their village did not con- 
 tain more than half of the men who were in existence when the 
 first census was taken, some having died, and others having fled 
 from oppression, they were forced to pay the original impost in 
 full. They had complained several times to the proper authori- 
 ties, but could get no redress. 
 
 When the capitation-tax was suppressed by the Porte, it was 
 intended to place all Moslem and non-Moslem Ottoman subjects 
 on the same footing with regard to the conscription; but the Porte 
 preferred the exemption of the Christians from military service 
 to their embodiment in the Ottoman army. Whether this was 
 done from fear of the Christian soldiers proving troublesome in 
 time of war against any Christian power, or for the sake of replen- 
 ishing their treasury, it is difficult to say. The Christians them- 
 selves protested against the proposed enlistment, and those am- 
 bassadors, who possessed at the time prestige at Constantinople, 
 used their influence with Sultan Abd-al-Majeed's Government to 
 commute the conscription to yearly impost on all adults whose 
 age would make them liable to serve in the army. This exemption 
 was not extended to other non-Moslem communities; and, although 
 the Ottoman Government would never think of drafting them in 
 their army, they were constantly threatened with the enforcement 
 of the conscription, in order that every time they refused to con- 
 form to the existing law they could be made to pay dearly for it. 
 We slept at Koofra on the terrace in bright moonlight, and, 
 the air being cool and pleasant, I enjoyed a comfortable rest. We
 
 104 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 resumed our journey at five o'clock the next morning, and went 
 on without halting until we reached the Koordish village of Shaikh 
 Joomaa at 2.15 P. M. Our journey lay through a thickly-wooded 
 country, by a very rough road, across two liigh mountains. We 
 passed a large number of springs on our way, yielding most de- 
 licious cold water. I took up my quarters under the shade of 
 some thick trees outside the village, and its chief administered 
 to my wants. 
 
 The next day our journey from Shaikh Joomaa to Bitlis, a 
 distance of about five hours and a half, lay through picturesque 
 scenery of both mountains and dales, with rough and difficult 
 passes. After we had got over the disagreeable part of our journey, 
 we came down to a very rich hilly country, studded here and there 
 with innumerable well-to-do Koordish villages, where tobacco and 
 vines grow most luxuriantly. This valley might well be termed a 
 land flowing with milk and honey. It was most pleasant to the 
 eye to see such rich soil taken advantage of by the industrious 
 peasants; the level fields are used for the growth of tobacco, and 
 the slopes of the hills for the cultivation of vines. We met on our 
 way a large cavalcade of gypsies traveling southward seeking for 
 pasture. One woman was carrying the tiniest twin-babies I ever 
 saw. They could not have been more than a week old, and I feel 
 sure that their aggregate weight did not exceed ten pounds. Their 
 mother carried them in her arms, and seemed quite proud of them. 
 It is very singular that the majority of Koordish gypsies are very 
 fair, and some of the girls are extremely pretty and delicately 
 formed. Their religion is supposed to be ]\Iohammedan, but in 
 reality they possess some peculiar belief of their own, like a number 
 of semi-Moslem communities in Turkey, who, for the sake of pleas- 
 ing the governing body, adapt themselves to their mode of worship. 
 
 About a mile before we reached Bitlis^ or just at the end of 
 the valley below the town, we passed a large number of mineral 
 springs, two of which I tasted and found most refreshing. Their 
 flavor reminded me very much of seltzer and Vichy waters. Two 
 other copious springs, which run down higher up the valley, tasted 
 very much of iron, and the rocks through which they passed 
 where actually dyed with rust. The water, notwithstanding, 
 sparkles when it is taken out of the springs and poured out for 
 use. The American missionaries at Bitlis are the only inhab- 
 itants who use it as a beverage. When I found these valuable
 
 BITLIS. 
 
 105 
 
 waters running down the valley to waste, I thought what a pity 
 it was that some speculators did not go there and turn such a 
 gift of nature to good account, and export no less than three kinds 
 of mineral waters to Mesopotamia, Syria, and India, where they 
 would be appreciated. Their export could be easily managed by 
 floating them down to the Tigris by the Bitlis Eiver, which could 
 be made navigable by means of locks as far as Saart, a distance 
 of about seventy miles. 
 
 As I neared the town of Bitlis, the acting Kayim-Makkam, 
 with the members of the Council of State, came out to meet me 
 with a guard of honor. :My friend, Khoaja Jaboor, of Saart, had 
 written to the head of the Armenian community, Awdees Effendi, 
 to receive me, and so I was escorted by my party to his house, 
 situated in the upper part of the town, where I was received most 
 hospitably. The officials of the place staid with me a few min- 
 utes, and then left. Soon afterwards a large number of the lead- 
 ing men of Bitlis called, including the Reverend George S. Knapp, 
 the missionary of the American Board, who has a large and im- 
 portant establishment there. My host's house was strongly built 
 of square smoothly-hewn stones, and indeed most of the houses 
 in the town are built in like fashion, as strong as a castle, because 
 in that country, where life and property are of no value, every one 
 has to protect himself against the attack of the Koords. The 
 town is divided into several quarters by valleys and rivulets at 
 some distance from each other. Half of the population live on one 
 side of the deep and long valley, and half on the other; so, when any 
 one wishes to pay visits to different parts of the town, nearly a whole 
 day is wasted by going over dangerous bridges, and up and down 
 precipitous, so-called roads, partly paved and partly hewn out of 
 the rocks. I always wondered how I and others managed to get 
 safely up and down on horseback without an accident, especially 
 when riding a spirited horse. 
 
 Every one who called on me complained of the devastation 
 caused to the Armenian villages in the neighborhod by the in- 
 roads of the rebellious tribe of the Mootkee Koords. Even in 
 the town itself, where the authorities possessed only nominal power, 
 the Christians were much harrassed by the lawless Koords, who 
 entered the bazaars and plundered the shopkeepers at their will. 
 I had to return the visit of the acting governor and other 
 officials in the evening, because at that time the Moslems were
 
 106 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 keeping Eamadhan, and the most convenient hour with them to 
 transact business, or receive visitors, was at night when they had 
 broken their fast. I was never allowed to go about without an 
 escort for fear of molestation. Indeed, from the time I entered 
 Koordistan, a special guard attended on me day and night, partly 
 for security, and partly to show the natives that I was a distin- 
 guished traveler visiting the different Koordish and Armenian 
 districts under the favorable auspices of the Porte. 
 
 It was curious to see every one, except the Christians, going 
 about armed to the teeth, and I thought how dreadful it would 
 be if any row took place in the town, especially through fanati- 
 cism, when the authorities might not have it in their power to 
 quell the disturbance. Though the Koords possessed anything 
 but a good name in the place, I found them always civil, and 
 whenever I passed any of them, they stood and returned my salu- 
 tation. 
 
 The stories told o^ the evil deeds of the Mootkee Koords were 
 horrible. One large and flourishing Armenian village, called Park- 
 hant, not more than three miles from Bitlis, and containing about 
 one hundred and fifty families, had actually been destroyed by 
 their constant attacks during the weak and tyrannical rule of the 
 former Ka}T.m-Makkam, named Bahran Bey. Though he was 
 well provided during his term of office with efficient force to put 
 down any lawlessness, he did not extend to the poor villagers the 
 protection they needed. Having been plundered on several occa- 
 sions by the ruthless Koords, they applied to the governor of Bitlis 
 for protection, especially as they had heard that a large body of 
 marauders from the same tribe were coming down to sack the 
 place, as they did other villages. The governor sent them a force 
 of police, commanded by a A'ooz-bashee, or captain; but when 
 the brigands appeared on the scene, these braves did not lift a 
 finger to save the Armenian villagers from destruction. After 
 ha^dng killed four men, and wounded several others, the Koords 
 plundered the village, and went off with all the live stock they 
 could find, leaving the peasants without the means of carrying on 
 their usual agricultural pursuits. The consequence was, the vil- 
 lage was deserted, and its inhabitants removed into Bitlis to seek 
 a livelihood. No sooner were the refugees comfortably settled on 
 the hospitality of their fellow-religionists than the Kayim-Makkam 
 sent for their leading men, and demanded the arrears of taxes
 
 AMERICAN MISSION. 107 
 
 which they would have been liable to, had they not been plun- 
 dered and abandoned their village. They pleaded poverty, as the 
 Mootkees had taken all the property they had, and they were 
 obliged to live on the charity of their brother Armenians. The 
 inhuman governor refused to listen to their just plea, and sent 
 them forthwith to prison, although at the time the snow lay thick 
 on the ground and the weather was severely cold. The leading 
 Armenians of Bitlis went to the governor to intercede for the 
 oppressed villagers; but he reprimanded them for their inter- 
 ference, and said the State dues must be made good before he 
 could liberate the defaulters. The pleaders, finding their en- 
 treaties unavailable, volunteered to collect among themselves three 
 thousand piasters, if he would release the poor peasants. He 
 agreed to do so; but no sooner was the money paid than he 
 changed his mind, and imprisoned the men again for the balance. 
 Another serious complaint was that a Koord of Bitlis, having 
 been refused a pair of shoes which he demanded from an Arme- 
 nian shopkeeper, shot him dead. The authorities neglected to 
 arrest the murderer and bring him to justice, on the plea that 
 he could not be found at the time, but had since been drafted 
 among the special constables at Bitlis in defiance of the law. 
 There were other minor complaints in every town and village I 
 visited between Diarbekir and Wan; but as I did not hear both 
 sides of the stories, I could not quite satisfy myself as to the truth 
 of the story. Suffice it to say, that the whole country was in 
 an unhappy state of disorganization, and my wonder was that 
 the Ottoman authorities were able to keep order as they did, with 
 the small armed defense they possessed. 
 
 While at Bitlis I visited the establishment of the American 
 missionaries, and was glad to find it in a flourishing condition, 
 though they had to work among a suspicious and bigoted class. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Knapp had two independent ladies to assist them, 
 the Misses Ely, who came from America to help in the good work 
 at their own expense. It was quite delightful to be in the com- 
 pany of such a godly family, after having been for so long among 
 wild Koords and uneducated Christians. Mr. and Mrs. Knapp 
 had been there for nineteen years, and their presence in the town, 
 coupled with their good name among the Mohammedan popula- 
 tion, had saved the poor native Christians from a good deal of mal- 
 treatment and oppression. This was acknowledged to me by the
 
 108 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Armenians themselves, and even by my host and others who had 
 no love for the tenets of the American Presbyterians. It must 
 be very gratifying for the American Boards of Missions to know 
 that, wherever their missionaries settle, they are looked upon with 
 respect, and their upright dealings and exemplary conduct are 
 held in great reputation everywhere. I do believe that at a 
 Mohammedan court of justice their word would be accepted with- 
 out even an oath. 
 
 Mr. Knapp had a large congregation of reformed Armenians, 
 and on Sunday I went to a service at which he officiated in their 
 language, and though I was not able to understand what he said, 
 I could see that the congregation were very attentive. 
 
 After having spent four days at Bitlis, I left for Moosh on 
 the 26th September, my host and another Armenian magnate of 
 the name of Miksee Karibjan, a member of the Council of State, 
 accompanying me some distance outside the town. After a ride 
 of five hours, we came to a large pond formed by a copious spring, 
 which the natives asserted had no bottom, and communicated with 
 a lake on the Nimrod Dagh — a mountain which begins about 
 ten miles eastward, and stretches from the southern extremity 
 of Lake AYan to Akhlat. I Vv^as told also that the lake on Nim- 
 rod Dagh contained very good fish, which are caught in abun- 
 dance by the natives. There are here some ancient Toorbas, or 
 Mohammedan mausoleums, belonging to the old Tartar conquerors 
 of Armenia, the same as those found at Akhlat. There is also an old 
 khan near the spring, which must have been built by some pious 
 Moslem in days long gone by for the convenience of travelers. 
 Hundreds of these ruined caravansaries are to be seen all over 
 Turkey in isolated places, which show the flourishing condition of 
 Asiatic Turkey when ruled by the Arab and Tartar conquerors. 
 
 We resumed our journey as soon as the luggage rejoined us, 
 about sunset, and as there was no village in the plain of Moosh 
 nearer than four hours' journey, we made a short detour to our 
 left, and halted a little after seven o'clock at Afgood, situated on 
 the hill. The people of the village were half Armenians and half 
 Koords, and I took my quarters with the chief of the former. 
 When he found that I was going to pay for the feeding of my 
 escorts' animals, he tried to cheat me by charging nearly double 
 for the rations he supplied to them; and when I reproached him 
 for his conduct, his only excuse was that he had made a mistake!
 
 MOOSH. ^^^ 
 
 We left xYfgood at half-past five o'clock the next morning,, 
 and descended again to the fertile and well-cultivated plain of 
 Moosh After a ride of four hours, we came to the large Arme- 
 nian village of Khaj-Koy, where I halted at the chief's house for 
 three hours, to breakfast and to inquire about the state ol the 
 country The inhabitants here also complained of Koordish 
 tyranny, which they declared had completely ruined them. Not 
 only Koordish brigands came down, they said, from the mountains 
 to plunder them, but even their Moslem neighbors who lived m 
 the plain harassed them with their arbitrary demands, either on 
 the plea that they were in better circumstances, or that they had 
 been impoverished by their rulers, and wished only to recoup 
 themselves through their neighbor's generosity! We resumed our 
 journey at noon, and reached the town of Moosh m three hours. 
 About a mile distant from the town the commandant of police, 
 with Vartan Agha, one of the Armenian notables, came _ out to 
 meet me, and the latter invited me to take up my quarters m what 
 was once his house, but which hard times had compelled him to 
 sell The Armenian community had purchased it as a residence 
 for their bishop. The prelate being absent, I was entertained 
 at his request, by his friends, and soon after my arrival the head 
 officials and leading men of the place, both Koords and Armenians 
 paid me a visit. Each had his own story to tell, but they all agreed 
 that the then existing state of lawlessness among the Highland 
 Koords required patting down with a strong hand. T^^ops had 
 reached Moosh to march against them; but it appeared that he 
 arrival of the latter had spread as much consternation among the 
 tradespeople as the excesses of the Koords; because the Turkish 
 soldiers were allowed to go into the bazaars and obtain from he 
 Armenian shopkeepers anything they wanted for less than halt the 
 usual price; and in some cases they paid nothing, with the excuse 
 that the things were too dear, or that they themselves had not been 
 paid by their Government. . 
 
 Moosh is a town of some importance, and contains about six- 
 thousand inhabitants, two-thirds Mohammedans, and one-third 
 Armenians. Both Moslems and Christians cried out against the 
 Tanzeemat, which they said had benefited only the unruly. An 
 officer of police told me that since he had been in the service no 
 one had profited bv its rules, except those officials whose aim was 
 to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor. He cited a case
 
 110 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 in point, in which he was the principal witness to prove the ab- 
 surdity of instituting such a law for Koordistan.* He said it 
 came to his knowledge one day that some Koordish brigands in- 
 tended to attack the next morning an Armenian village, a short 
 distance from Moosh, because they could not obtain, by peaceful 
 means, the blackmail they demanded from its chief. Whereupon 
 he collected as many Dhabtias as could be spared from the town 
 duty, and proceeded to the village at night, arriving there at dawn, 
 just in time to see the marauding party beginning their onslaught 
 on the poor inhabitants. On seeing the imperial constabulary 
 entering the village, the brigands decamped; but one of them, who 
 had fired at a man and killed him, was hemmed in by the com- 
 mandant of police and his party. Finding he had no chance of 
 escape, he ran into the nearest hovel and shut the door, threaten- 
 ing to shoot the first man who dared to attempt to take him. The 
 officer, fearing lest any of his men should be shot if they tried 
 to force the door open, warned the robber that if he did not sur- 
 render quietly, he would set the hut on fire. Hearing this, the 
 Koord surrendered without much trouble, and was taken to Moosh 
 for trial. After the preliminary examination was finished, the 
 officer thought that his part of the transaction was over, but not so; 
 the court of inspection (court of the first instance) worried him 
 from day to day with frivolous questions, until they made him 
 regret that he had ever troubled himself to catch the murderer. 
 Ultimately, when days and weeks had been spent in useless ex- 
 amination and cross-examinatiop, the culprit was allowed to run 
 away, after he had satisfied his judges with their due rewards! 
 
 * Though Moosh is considered, in the European sense of the word, 
 to be in Armenia, the natives do not know the country by that name, 
 but call it Koordistan. Some of the better educated Armenians, how- 
 ever, have adopted the word for the sake of aspiring to their former 
 independence, but the Ottoman Government have always refused to 
 recognize the name. They divide the whole range of mountains bor- 
 dering on the Mediterranean— Syria, Euxine, Mesopotamia, and As- 
 syria—into two distinct countries; namely. Koordistan and Anatolia,— 
 Asia Minor. In the former, the general language of the country is 
 Koordish, and in the latter Turkish. The same also with the word 
 Syria, which is not known among the people of the land. The well- 
 educated class, however, have made choice of the modern misnomer 
 of Soorea, but have not succeeded hitherto in calling themselves 
 Sooreans, but merely "Oolad Sooreea," or sons of Syria.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Haying spent two days at Moosh, I left for Wan about eight 
 A. M., on the 28th September; but as my host, Vartan Agha, in- 
 formed me that there were some antiquities with cuneiform in- 
 scriptions at a village called Tirmait, and he was kind enough to 
 offer to accompany me thither, I visited that place first, though it 
 was a little out of the regular Wan road. On coming out of the 
 town of Moosh, I was invited by one of the Moslem notables of 
 the place, who had a garden outside, to partake of some fruit. 
 My companion and I, therefore, halted for a few minutes to enjoy 
 his hospitality. Our entertainer was excessively civil, and, like the 
 majority of Moslems, when they want to do the polite thing, was 
 most affable and courteous. After having spent about half an hour 
 with him, we resumed our journey, and reached our destination 
 soon after two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 The Armenian inhabitants of that village were very poor, but 
 I was told by Vartan Agha that when he first knew the place, 
 about fifteen years before, they were in good circumstances, and 
 their chief, the father of the present one, was so well off that he 
 could entertain a regiment without feeling the cost; but then the 
 present chief was not only a pauper, but heavily in debt. 
 
 In the afternoon the chief of the village, Vartan Agha, and 
 myself, visited the burial ground on an artificial mound, near the 
 village where the Armenian antiquities were found. They con- 
 sisted of pieces of a black basalt block, which must have been 
 formerly an obelisk, the greater part of which lay buried in the 
 ground. The few letters I was able to copy were not sufficient 
 to give us the history of the monument; but I hope that some 
 future traveler will be able to dig the whole of the fragments out, 
 and give us the benefit of his research. The natives of the place 
 had been digging in the field outside the village, and discovered 
 the foundation of an ancient church, which I visited to see if there 
 was any indication of ancient Armenian remains. The style of 
 the ruin showed that it belonged to a much later period than even 
 the fourth century of the Christian era. 
 
 We left Tirmait at three A. M., and went on until we reached 
 
 111
 
 112 ASSRUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the large Armenian village of Liz at 11.30. The Kayim-Makkam 
 of the district, who had been on a visit there, came out with the 
 chief to meet me. As the house of the latter was the best in the 
 village, I was invited to rest in it. I found out, after I had settled 
 myself in comfortable quarters, that the Kayim-Makkam had been 
 Uving there before my arrival, and in order to provide me with 
 the best accommodation in the house, he left it to make room 
 for me. 
 
 Liz is of some consequence, and there is a school in the place, 
 though the natives were extremely poor. The chief, who was 
 greatly interested in the education of his people, took me to see 
 the school, and the boys sang an Armenian hymn for my edifi- 
 cation. Soon after my arrival, a large number of Koordish chiefs 
 from the neighborhood came to see me, and they repeated their 
 visit in the evening. They expressed a bope that I would go and 
 see them; but as they lived some distance out of the way, and I 
 was in a hurry to reach Wan, I declined their civility with thanks. 
 We had a dust-storm, accompanied with rain, in the evening, and 
 the night was very close. 
 
 I had, the next morning, to break my rule of not traveling on 
 a Sunday, as I wished to be at Kopp, the capital of the district, 
 on that day, to confer with the governor and the Bishop of Moosh, 
 who were there. I was obliged to make a short journey of nine 
 miles, and as Vasi Bey, the Kayim-Makkam, was proceeding thither, 
 we traveled together. The rain of the night before had changed 
 the weather completely; so much so that on leaving the village 
 I felt it bitterly cold, and, looking at my thermometer, found it 
 as low as 44 degrees Fahrenheit. We reached Kopp at 7.30 A. M., 
 and A^asi Bey was kind enough to lend me his quarters for the day, 
 and he staid pro tem. with the collector. Kopp is the seat of the 
 Kayim-Makkam, and, being the headquarters of the district, there 
 was more life in it than in other villages that I had passed through 
 since leaving Saart. The bishop had only gone there from Moosh 
 to collect his tithes. He called on me in the afternoon, and gave 
 me a sad account of the existing want of security to life and 
 property all over the country. The Motsarif of Moosh had not 
 arrived, but was expected there the next day; and as I had gone 
 thither for the sole purpose of consulting with him about some 
 important matters regarding the state of affairs at Moosh and 
 Bitlis, I resolved to wait for him.
 
 FROM KOPP TO WAN. 113 
 
 Having been informed by the Bishop of Moosh and the Kayim- 
 Makkam of Kopp that there was a very fine monastery about three 
 miles from the village, in which an old Armenian hermit lived, 
 whose age was said to be more than six-score years, we rode up 
 there in the afternoon with some Koordish chiefs. Certainly the 
 old patriarch looked very aged, and had for some years past lost 
 the use of his legs, but his intellect seemed quite bright. He told 
 me that he remembered well the reigns of both Sultans Abd-el- 
 Hameed and Moostafa; and as these two sovereigns ascended the 
 Ottoman throne in 1774 and 1757 respectively, he must have been 
 at least one hundred and twenty years old when I visited him at 
 the latter end of 1877. As the Abbot said that he quite remem- 
 bered the reign of Sultan Moostafa (III), I calculated that he must 
 have been then ten years old, in order to remember such a re- 
 mote date. 
 
 I met here a very intelligent Armenian doctor, who told me 
 that he had been sent by the Ottoman Government as a public 
 vaccinator, but that, in consequence of prejudice and the state 
 of the country, he had found it difficult to get on. 
 
 On Monday, the 1st of October, Saeed Pasha arrived at Kopp 
 from his tour of inspection, and in the afternoon we met, and had 
 a long talk about the existing state of affairs. Although he ad- 
 mitted that the Christians were oppressed by the Koords, he de- 
 nied the truth of the more grave charges that were made by the 
 Armenians of Moosh and Bitlis against the Koords and the local 
 authorities. 
 
 We resumed our journey early the next morning, and as we 
 had to travel between Kopp and Wan through disturbed districts, 
 caused by the lawlessness of the Haidaranlee Koords, I was sup- 
 plied with a formidable escort, who kept a vigilant watch all the 
 time we were on the way. On passing the Armenian village of 
 Lattar, about seven o'clock A. M., the principal men of the place 
 came out to invite me to halt, as they had some complaints to 
 make about the misconduct of their Koordish neighbors, who were 
 constantly assailing both their life and property. As I was in a 
 hurry to push on, I ordered the servants to proceed with the lug- 
 gage to the end of the stage, and I entered the village to inquire 
 into the alleged grievances. One of the serious complaints was 
 that a married woman, whose husband was away, had been out- 
 raged by two Koords, who had come down from the mountains 
 
 8
 
 114 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the night before; the other, that the son of the village priest had 
 been shot dead by other Koords, because he would not supply 
 them with the corn they demanded. The first story seemed to 
 me difficult to believe, on account of the conflicting statements 
 that were made, and, as far as I could make out then, the case of 
 the murder was not an uncommon crime among the bloodthirsty 
 Koords, with whom the taking of a man's Hfe in a dispute about 
 property is very Httle thought of. The murderer had been ar- 
 rested, and, while remanded for trial, he was allowed to escape, 
 according to former precedents; that is to say, when the local 
 authorities, either from personal motives or political reasons, find 
 it convenient to give facilities to a criminal to get away. 
 
 After having spent about an hour and a half at Lattar, and 
 half an hour on the road for the sake of refreshment, we reached 
 our halting-place, Takshoor, about two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 We passed through very wild country, and scarcely saw any trav- 
 elers on the way, on account of the dread they had of meeting 
 with the Haidaranlee brigands, who infested the country. We 
 traveled in sight of ''Soobhan-Dagh," i. e., the Divim Wonder Moun- 
 tain, all day, and the village of Takshoor stands at the northern 
 foot of it. This mountain vies almost with Ararat in height and 
 grandeur. Its summit is covered with perpetual snow, and is 
 visible from a very great distance. Though the natives of this 
 village are Mohammedans, they complained to me of the evil deeds 
 of the Haidaranlees, who, they said, would not leave them alone. 
 I met here a large number of Bashi-bazooks, who had come from 
 Bayazeed to collect provisions for the Ottoman army engaged in 
 the war with Eussia. Most of them had known me in Mesopo- 
 tamia and other places; and, on seeing me, came to offer their 
 salutations. 
 
 We left Takshoor at four o'clock the next morning, and after 
 two hours' ride we sighted Lake Wan, which looked a magnificent 
 deep blue. We passed a number of encampments of the Haidar- 
 anlee Koords, with whom my Dhabtias would have no communi- 
 cation, as they said they were too treacherous to deal with. I ven- 
 tured to visit one of the tents to have a drink of "doe," or sour 
 milk, which the Koords prepare to perfection, and the people, 
 as far as I was concerned, seemed most civil. After four and a 
 half hours' ride, we reached the Armenian village of Norsheen,
 
 NORSHEEN. 
 
 115 
 
 situated on the edge of the lake. The inhabitants looked miser- 
 ably poor, and their hovels extremely wretched. 
 
 About half an hour before we arrived at the village, we met 
 three men returning from the seat of war, denuded of everything. 
 They told us that a party of Koordish brigands had attacked them 
 on the other side of the village, and plundered them of whatever 
 they possessed. We asked them to return with us to point out the 
 place where they were robbed, in order that we might try and get 
 their property back; but they said they would rather lose it alto- 
 gether, than attempt to retrace their steps, for fear of reprisals. 
 Soon after we left the village, my escort espied some men on the 
 hills, trying to escape behind the rocks, and in an instant they 
 galloped off in all directions in search of them. They only man- 
 aged, however, to arrest one man, who happened to be the leader 
 .of the gang of thieves, and, as he was considered to be a robber, 
 every Dhabtia thought that he was in duty bound to chastise him 
 with the whip and stick. Even my head muleteer, Ali, would have 
 a hand in the summary punishment; and when I scolded him for 
 interfering in matters which did not concern him, he said that 
 a man who plunders innocent travelers was worse than a viper, 
 and he only wished he could hang him then and there! The 
 wretched Koord groaned under his castigation, and called on me 
 for protection. As I thought the poor man might be innocent, 
 I told him that if he sware to me by the divorce that he knew noth- 
 ing of the robbery, I would ask the Dhabtias to let him go. He 
 did so at once; but no sooner had he uttered the word than all 
 the bystanders, including Ali, called out, "Do not believe the thief, 
 sir; let him prove first that he is married."* It then struck me 
 
 * Among the Mohammedans, swearing by the divorce is the most 
 solemn oath that can be taken; because, as soon as a married man 
 utters the word, his wife becomes divorced from him, and she could 
 then marry another man without the trouble of obtaining a legal sepa- 
 ration. It is not necessary, according to Moslem law, for a man to go 
 through the ceremony of obtaining a legal decree for a divorce; he has 
 merely to pronounce the word "Battalak"— that is to say, by divorce— 
 and the deed is done. Should he live with his wife after he utters this 
 word, it would be considered tantamount to living in a state of 
 adultery. When a woman wants to get rid of her husband, she has only 
 to apply to a Kadhee, and prove to him tliat her husband had divorced 
 her by word of mouth before two witnesses, and she would obtain a 
 legal decree.
 
 116 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 that the man might be a bachelor, in which case such an oath 
 would be meaningless. It was found out afterwards that he really 
 had no wife, when he was taken before the proper tribunal, and 
 adjudged to be the ringleader of a band of robbers. 
 
 As a matter of course, our prisoner was handcuffed, and led 
 between two horsemen until we reached our halting-place, Akhsara, 
 at 10.30 A. M., where he was placed under a strong guard. This 
 village, the inhabitants of which are Armenians, boasted of some 
 gardens and vineyards; and at the time I was there every one was 
 busy bringing in his harvest. As usual, I took up my quarter? 
 in the chief's house, which was not over-clean: but my host did 
 his best, and was extremely civil. About midnight I was awakened 
 by a tremendous noise, and, on inquiry, was told that there was 
 a large number of horsemen hovering about the place, who seemed 
 bent on some mischief. I found out in the morning that they 
 had kidnaped a son of the priest of the village, who was keeping 
 v/atch at the threshing-ground. Both father and mother, and other 
 relatives of the youth, were bewailing him. The chief of my guard, 
 having suspected that the boy was taken away for the purpose 
 of being questioned as to my business and movements, kept watch 
 with a large number of his followers round my room all night. 
 When we resumed our journey at a quarter past five o'clock the 
 next morning, I found that my guard was increased by a number 
 of Armenian horsemen, headed by their brave chief, who assured 
 me that he would sooner sacrifice himself than allow any harm to 
 happen to me. I was told that the whole country was overrun by 
 brigands, and, as a matter of course, whenever we ascended a hill, 
 or passed through a valley, I expected to see a ferocious band of 
 Koords confronting us. Fortunately, we reached our halting-place, 
 Ardeesh, the seat of the Kayim-Makkam of the district, at 8.30, 
 without meeting with either friend or foe. About half a mile 
 before we arrived, the governor of the place came out to meet me, 
 and conducted me to the Government House, where he kindly pro- 
 vided me with comfortable quarters. Although he was fasting 
 himself, he had some breakfast cooked for me, and both he and 
 the Kadhee kept me company while I was eating, though they did 
 not touch anything themselves. In the evening he provided me 
 a sumptuoiK dinner, which I was told had been prepared at his 
 harem. Of course, at this meal both he and the Kadhee joined 
 me, as it was then after sunset, when the Mohammedans break
 
 ARDEESH. 
 
 117 
 
 their fast. They cease from eating and drinking as soon as dawn 
 commences, and every good Moslem is bound to partake of some- 
 thing at that time, called "Sihoor," before they begin their fast. 
 In every Mohammedan country the fast of Eamadan is considered 
 obligatory, and neither smoking nor even the taking of snuff is al- 
 lowed. Generally speaking, the month of Ramadan, which is lunar, is 
 passed in feeding well and feasting, because even the poorest among 
 them consider it most essential to have a good meal in the evening, 
 and the well-to-do keep open house for both rich and poor. Those 
 who have no particular business to transact turn night into day, 
 and vice versa; and woe betide a man who asks a devotee to do 
 anything while he is fasting, especially towards sunset! He would 
 get more abuse than blessing. As a matter of course, the fast of 
 Eamadan is kept most rigidly, and when it falls in the summer 
 solstice, when the days are long and the temperature very high, 
 the desire for drink becomes much intensified. 
 
 Ardeesh stands about two miles from the lake, and the town 
 of Wan can just be seen to the northwest of it. Rasheed Effendi, 
 the governor, a native of Eoumalia in European Turkey, was a 
 most enlightened man, and, withal, a very strict Moslem. He 
 assured me that the Armenians were given to much exaggeration, 
 and, although they were sometimes badly treated by the Koords, 
 they themselves were to blame for being too exacting in their deal- 
 ings with those who had always been their superiors. While I was 
 there, the priest of the place was in custody for having seduced 
 a married woman in his parish, whose husband had sued him for 
 adultery, and the case created a great scandal, especially as the 
 priest was a married man himself. 
 
 Having been informed that our next stage, the following day, 
 was a long one, I made up my mind to depart very early in the 
 morning; but, as 1 overslept myself, we did not make a fair start 
 until nearly five o'clock. 
 
 The Kayim-Makkam sent with me one of his superior officers, 
 named Khaleel Effendi, to escort me to Wan. I was glad of his 
 company, as he was full of information, and knew the country 
 well. He pointed out to me two cuneiform inscriptions on a rock 
 about three miles from Ardeesh, called "Ilan-dashlaree," which 
 mean in Turkish, snake stones, or rocks. He informed me the 
 reason they were called by that name was, because the natives have 
 a tradition that there is an old snake or serpent occupying a cavity
 
 118 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 in the roek, which had lived there ever since the Deluge! He showed 
 me the place, and assured me, if I looked steadfastly into the cave, 
 I should see the enemy of mankind moving about; but I failed to 
 notice any living object. All that I could see from a distance was 
 a faint sign of what seemed to me a fossil snake on the rock, and 
 nothing more. 
 
 About eight A. M., I halted for breakfast at a Koordish encamp- 
 ment in the village of Amis. The chief was away at the seat of war 
 at Bayazeed; but his son, a very handsome young man, received me 
 with every civility. He told me that he had been fighting against 
 the Eussians, and had just returned with a number of followers 
 laden with booty of arms and clothes, which they captured from 
 the enemy. It was very amusing to see some sedate Koords 
 wrapped in the gray cloaks of the Muscovites, and others actually 
 wearing the boots which they had brought from the field of battle. 
 As for Eussian arms, they had a large number; and to hear how 
 exultingly the Koords spoke of their \dctories, one would fancy 
 that the whole Eussian army in the Caucasus had been utterly 
 annihilated, and that the Sultan had only to send and proclaim 
 an amnesty, and all the Eussians would submit! 
 
 My host having learned that I took a great interest in antiqui- 
 ties, informed me that he knew of some built into the wall of one 
 of the stone houses in the village, and as he was good enough to 
 volunteer to guide me to the spot, I accepted his offer. It took 
 him, however, a long time to find the exact place, as he had for- 
 gotten in which house he saw the relic; and when he hit upon it, 
 the room was so dark that we had to wait some time before we 
 could get a light to enable us to see our way into the chamber. 
 After having exhausted my patience, I found the object of our 
 search was nothing more than a black basalt stone with a few 
 scratches on it. 
 
 When we returned to the tent, I found that the chief's family, 
 though they were fasting, had prepared me a nice Koordish break- 
 fast, consisting of fresh butter, curded milk, and honey, with the 
 usual thin bread. I had scarcely finished the meal, before a mes- 
 senger arrived, post-haste from the seat of war, bringing a most 
 woeful report of the destruction, by the Eussians, of a large body 
 of Koordish volunteers, among whom was the father of my host 
 and a large number of his followers. My feeling at the time can 
 be more easily imagined than described; for, being most bigoted
 
 ALONG LAKE WAN. 119 
 
 Moslems, who hated even the name of a Christian, it was enough 
 to make their blood boil to see a co-religionist of those who had 
 slaughtered their relatives, sitting among them, and enjoying their 
 hospitality. However, they all kept calm, as if nothing had hap- 
 pened, and the young chief, my host, in particular, continued his 
 civility to the last, and when I arose to depart, he actually held 
 my stirrup to enable me to mount my horse more easily, — the most 
 complimentary attention a Moslem, especially a Koord, could pay 
 to an unbeliever. 
 
 We traveled that day for five hours along the lake, until we 
 lost sight of "Wan altogether, as we had to go round the extreme 
 northeastern corner of the lake to cross a marsh and a river named 
 "Bundmahee," which came down to the lake from the direction 
 of Bayazeed, teeming with fish. There is a bridge over the river 
 very near the lake, which I had to cross. The fish were very tame, 
 and seemed not to mind the passers-by. The water was so thick 
 with them, that they literally hid the bottom of the stream from 
 view. I was told that the natives of the country did not care for 
 them as food, and, as I had nothing to catch them with, I could not 
 make out what kind of fish they were. They looked to me more 
 like trout and carp. They kept a good distance from the lake, 
 probably to avoid the salt water. 
 
 We passed a large quantity of cereals heaped up along the edge 
 of the lake, awaiting transport for the army at Bayazeed. I was told 
 that thousands of boat-loads had gone to waste for want of beasts 
 of burden to carry it away. The authorities found it so difficult 
 to find proper transport that they had to press the wretched peas- 
 ants, both male and female, to carry it to the seat of war on their 
 backs; and many had perished under the burden. It is supposed, 
 by competent authorities, that the Ottoman army would have 
 proved successful in their last bloody contest with Eussia if their 
 commissariat had been more efUcient; or, at all events, they would 
 not have been so disgracefully beaten in Asia ]Minor and lioumalia. 
 The brave Turkish troops had sometimes to feed on nothing but 
 unwholesome biscuits, consisting of sand, sawdust, and other rub- 
 bish, with not more than half of real corn-flour. All the nomad 
 and rural Arabs in the lowlands had volunteered, and supplied 
 camels, mules, and other beasts of burden, as good Moslems, to 
 assist in the jehad (holy) war, to convey corn to the army; but 
 the cameleers and muleteers had suffered so much from want of
 
 120 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 needful protection on the jonrney, and the lack of proper attention 
 on the part of the Ottoman military authorities, that both the 
 owners of the beasts of burden and their drivers swore that they 
 would rather see the Eussians marching into Mesopotamia than 
 contribute any help to save Islam from destruction. Some Arab 
 cameleers, whom I met returning homewards from Asia Minor, 
 told me that they had gone up with a number of comrades in 
 charge of one hundred laden camels, and they were then returning 
 with scarcely one-third of the number. Some had died, and others 
 became disabled from the rough journey and want of proper food. 
 The men themselves had suffered from privation and fever, and a 
 great number of them died from want of care, while others had 
 been murdered by the Koords on the way back. They said that 
 had the commissariat people done their duty properly, the cameleers 
 might have accomplished their task, and returned to their country 
 safely in proper time; but they were so delayed at the seat of war 
 through the mismanagement of the Turkish officials, whose duty 
 it was to receive the supplies that went up for the troops, that they 
 had to leave without a receipt. First, on their arrival they had 
 great difficulty in finding out the proper officer whose duty it was 
 to receive the grain; and, secondly, when they succeeded in doing 
 so, after waiting for some time, they were put off from day to day, 
 until ultimately compelled to collect the remaining camels, and 
 forego the proper voucher. On their way back they were attacked 
 by Koordish marauders, who killed two of their party in what the 
 Arabs called a cowardly way, as they had been fired at without 
 warning. 
 
 "When Arab marauders want to plunder any party, they chal- 
 lenge them to give up their property in a peaceful manner; and 
 even after they refuse to do so, the plunderers never resort to 
 bloodshed, but try merely to rob their victims by means of the 
 cudgel. As long as those who are doomed to be mulcted of their 
 property make no effort to protect themselves with firearms, or 
 any other deadly weapon, there is no fear of loss of life, or even 
 wounds. But the Koords intimidate their victims in the first 
 instance by drawing blood, as it is the case with all highland 
 marauders, and afterwards make a rush for the plunder. For- 
 merly — that is, in the olden time of Arab chivalry — no plunder was 
 considered either legal or meritorious, except it was taken in broad 
 day, in order that those who were going to lose their property
 
 HABIRTH. 121 
 
 might have a chance of protecting themselves. Even now, any 
 robbery committed at night is considered by well-bred Arabs to be 
 low and cowardly. 
 
 Khaleel Effendi and I, with part of my escort, pushed on, after 
 we crossed the bridge of Bnndmahee, to the Armenian village of 
 Mairak, situated on a hill, as we had intended to halt there for 
 the night. We arrived at two P. M., and the chief of the village 
 immediately had a room swept and prepared for me. After hav- 
 ing waited an hour and a half for the luggage, and seeing no 
 signs of it, I took it for granted that the muleteers had mistaken 
 our halting-place, and gone to another village. My host thought 
 that they must have kept to the lower road, and gone on to Jar- 
 rik, another Armenian hamlet, about an hour and a half further; 
 because very few travelers would take the trouble to ascend the 
 hill on which Mairak was situated, when, by following the lower 
 road, they would soon come to another large village, called Jarrik. 
 My escort and I, therefore, remounted our horses, and proceeded 
 thither; but I was not a little concerned to find, on arriving there, 
 that my servants had gone on to another village, called Hadirth, 
 as the chief told them that I had passed. On asking him why he 
 had deceived them, he told me frankly that he was afraid I was 
 a Turkish Pasha v/ith a large retinue, and neither he nor his people 
 cared to have them as guests for fear of extortion; but he begged 
 me to remain, and said he would send and call my people back, 
 as they had not gone far. Sooner than send for them, I preferred 
 following them, though very tired, having been more than twelve 
 hours on horseback, except the short halt at the Koordish en- 
 campment and ]VIairak. We overtook the luggage as it was entering 
 Hadirth at six o'clock, just a little too late to find comfortable 
 lodgings. The result was, that I had to sleep in a dirty room in- 
 fested with fleas, as the whole village was full of invalided soldiers, 
 who were returning home from the seat of war. Indeed, when 
 we first arrived, I thought we should have no room to shelter us 
 for the night, as I was told that the place was overcrowded with 
 soldiers, and there were three or four men in every hut. While 
 I was meditating what to do, a young Koord came out and invited 
 me to his house, in which there were no soldiers billeted. With- 
 out much ado, he turned his harem, out of the only room in the 
 house to accommodate me; and, although I protested, both he 
 and his mother refused to listen to my entreaties that they should
 
 122 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 be allowed to remain where they were. My cook had some diffi- 
 culty in preparing my dinner, as no wood could be found in the 
 village, and the only fuel that could be had was some weeds and 
 dried cow-dung. 
 
 We left Hadirth at four o'clock the next morning (6th Oc- 
 tober), and reached the village of Tarlashay at 6.40. As we were 
 then only three hours' distance from Wan, we halted there for 
 breakfast. We remained five hours there, as my escort wanted 
 to give the Wan authorities notice of my approach. I was recom- 
 mended, both at Bitlis and Moosh, to be the guest of Keork Bey, 
 the head of the Armenian community of Wan; and so he was 
 telegraphed to by my hosts in both towns to do the needful for 
 me. When we arrived within two miles of the city, the brother 
 of Keork Bey, and Khoaja Yeramiah Shahmeer, a former drago- 
 man of the English consul of Diarbckir, came out to meet me. 
 Having reached the outskirts of the town earlier than my escort 
 calculated upon, and fearing lest the governor-general would 
 find fault with them for allowing me to enter the town without 
 the proper honors being paid me, we halted at Keork Bey's garden, 
 which was situated at the extreme end of the northern part of the 
 town, where I was treated with some fruit. I had not been 
 seated in the garden ten minutes, before the Allai-Beyee (com- 
 mandant of police) arrived with a guard of honor, to receive me 
 on behalf of the governor-general. Yoseph Bey Tamir Agha, 
 one of the old nobility, and head of the Moslem community of 
 Wan, accompanied the commandant, and I was informed by the 
 latter that, as His Excellency, Hasan Pasha, wished that I should 
 be comfortably and properly lodged during my stay at Wan, he 
 had asked Yoseph Bey to receive me as his guest. At first I de- 
 murred, giving as my reason that Keork Bey had already been 
 asked to receive me. Einding that the governor-general knew 
 nothing of my former intention, and thinking it would be im- 
 polite to refuse the hospitality of the chief Moslem of the place, 
 who had willingly offered it, I thanked both Hasan Pasha and 
 my future host for their polite invitation. Indeed, I was very 
 glad to be the guest of such a great man as Yoseph Bey, especially 
 at a time when there was so much ill-feehng between the Chris- 
 tians and the Moslems. I kne^\■ that the former would not look 
 on me with suspicion if I was the guest of Yoseph Bey, as I 
 should always try and keep a constant intercourse with the
 
 THE CITY OF WAN. 123 
 
 Armenians of the place, and endeavor, through friendship with all, 
 to create a better feeling between the two parties. I am glad my 
 efforts to bring about a better understandiiig between them were 
 of some avail; and I must say I always found the Moslems more 
 easy to pacify than the Christians. Although the former are con- 
 sidered the most bigoted, I found them, on the whole, more toler- 
 ant than their Christian neighbors. 
 
 I was told by an Armenian gentleman that a few days before 
 my arrival at Wan, the notorious fanatical Koordish chief, Shaikh 
 Obaid Allah, had visited Wan with a number of his followers; 
 and as Yoseph Bey had always an open house, he received him 
 and his retinue as his guests. My informant had an occasion to 
 go one afternoon to see Yoseph Bey on business, and as it was 
 dinner-time, he was asked to join them at that meal. When 
 Shaikh Obaid Allah came to the table and found one of the guests 
 to be an Armenian, he told Yoseph Bey that he could not defile 
 himself by sitting at the same board with an infidel, and asked 
 his host to order the Armenian to leave. This Yoseph Bey re- 
 fused to do, saying that it was not customary for him to turn any 
 one away from his table on account of his faith. Whereupon the 
 Koordish chief swore that either he or the Armenian must leave 
 the table; and when he was told that if he could not eat in com- 
 pany with a Christian, he had better go and find another house, 
 the indignant fanatic left forthwith with all his followers, heaping 
 all manner of maledictions on the head of the corrupt Moslem, 
 for having associated himself with swine-eaters! 
 
 Yoseph Bey's house is built outside the city of Wan, or that 
 part of it which is not surrounded by a wall. The bulk of the 
 inhabitants live in that locality, where many of them can enjoy 
 the luxury of having gardens attached to their houses, and drink 
 pure cold water from the copious springs that are abundant in 
 the eastern part of the valley. The suburbs of the town stretch 
 over five miles to the east and southeast, and about three miles 
 from north to south. All the roads are intersected with water- 
 courses, that irrigate the different gardens according to regulation. 
 My host's house was surrounded by an extensive garden, in the 
 center of which a summer resort, called Koyshk, was built, with a 
 fountain playing inside it, which made it a delightful retreat dur- 
 ing the heat of the day. On my arrival at the hospitable abode 
 of my host, I was ushered into this pleasant nook, and, though my
 
 124 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 entertainer was fasting, I was, nevertheless, at once supplied with 
 a nargeela and coffee. In the evenings we always dined together, 
 in company with some of his relations and friends, but I break- 
 fasted alone until the fast of the Eamadan was over. Besides the 
 Koyshk, to which I could resort whenever the weather was op- 
 pressive, Yoseph Bey provided me with a suite of apartments for 
 the use of myself and followers; and as it was just the season for 
 fruit and vegetables, I feasted on the best of everything. 
 
 The night being pleasant and cool, and the change from the 
 discomfort of sleeping in dirty hovels, infested with all manner of 
 vermin, to an airy and well-furnished apartment, enabled me 
 to have a most delightful night's rest. Early in the morning the 
 metropolitan of Wan, Yeramia Effendi, Keork Bey, whose guest 
 I had intended to be, with the leading xVrraenian gentry of the 
 place, called on me. As soon as they were ushered into my 
 chamber, I was left alone with them, and we remained together for 
 some time. It appears that the governor-general had given orders 
 to my host, that whenever any of the native Christians called on 
 me, he was to leave me alone with them, in order, as I sup- 
 posed, that it might not be said by the Eussophils that the 
 Armenians had no opportunity of acquainting me with their 
 grievances. As a matter of course, they had the same stories to 
 tell as I had heard in other places in Armenia and Koordistan, 
 of the diabolical behavior of the ^loslems towards the Armenians, 
 and they confirmed the charges of burning and plunder by Turkish 
 soldiers of their bazaar, which was wholly the property of the 
 Armenian community. They alleged that, having set different 
 shops on fire, they and their comrades helped themselves liberally 
 under the cloak of keeping guard. The authorities and the Moslem 
 section of the inhabitants, however, declared that the fire originated 
 in one of the Armenian shops, and the troops had only been sent 
 there to protect what was left of the property; and if any pilfering 
 had taken place, the Armenians were as guilty as the rest of the 
 inhabitants. Generally speaking, whenever a fire occurs in a 
 Turkish town, it is caused through mischief or thirst for plunder; 
 and, as a matter of course, during that momentous time, when 
 hatred of race and religion was intensified between Christians and 
 Moslems, through the Kusso-Turkish war, every misfortune was 
 attributed to the enemy. With regard to the pilfering of the 
 soldiery, it was not beyond possibility; because, in such cases, the
 
 THE CITY OF WAN. ^^^ 
 
 temptation to misappropriate certain goods wliicli happen to be 
 scattered about, is not uncommon among a class of inen who are 
 always ready to steal. I was, therefore, not surprised that such 
 an accusation was made against the soldiers. As I was not sent 
 there to hold a court of inquiry, I could not ascertain exactly the 
 real facts; and, although I understood at the time that the Porte 
 had ordered the matter to be sifted, no good result was gained 
 
 ^^ it the afternoon I called on His Excellency, the governor- 
 general, Hasan Pasha, one of the old nobihty of Albania, whom 
 I found most affable and pleasant. He was formerly governor- 
 general of Kharpoot, and, in consequence of his benign rule m 
 that Pashalic, where he was beloved by both Christians and Mos- 
 lems the Porte considered him the most fit man to govern Wan 
 and 'its dependencies during that troublesome time. Of all the 
 Mohammedan nationalities, the Albanians are considered the most 
 tolerant and unprejudiced with regard to the Christians, and 
 doubtless Hasan Pasha possessed not only these good qualities, 
 but was besides meek in his own estimation, and conciliatory. He 
 told me that he had found out from long experience that the 
 people of that part of Koordistan, which is known m Europe as 
 Armenia are very much given to misrepresentations and suspicion, 
 and the Christians, especially, were corrupt; that, though the com- 
 plaints of the latter were in some instances true, yet m the mam 
 they were very much exaggerated. He asserted that their co- 
 religionists on the border of Kussia were constantly trying to 
 foment conspiracy and sedition, and were aiming at becoming 
 acrain a great nation; but he thought it was laughable for people 
 like the Armenians to aspire to such a position among the nations 
 of the world, when they could not even withstand the assaults 
 of the Koords, unless they had the Porte or a foreign Govern- 
 ment to protect them. 
 
 With regard to the secret organization of Eussian agents for 
 the purpose of creating discontent and ill-feeling among the Chris- 
 tians of Turkey against the ruling power, I had been informed of it 
 from other sources. I have even heard that Circassian high com- 
 missioned officers in the Russian army were in the habit of going 
 about among the Mohammedan mountaineers, both in Persia and 
 Turkey, instilling into the mind of the native population the 
 advantage of the Eussian rule over that of the Moslem and English
 
 126 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Powers. They tried to prove to them that the Russian Govern- 
 ment made no difference between a native-born and a subjected 
 race, or between a Christian and Moslem or Jew, in the matter of 
 promotions and honors. With the exception of certain isolated 
 cases, the Turks looked down upon the subjected races; and they 
 would never, if they could, promote any man to great honor in 
 a post of trust, however deserving, unless he was of their nation- 
 ality. 
 
 One of the emissaries was himself a Circassian general, who 
 pointed out his uniform and decorations to those whom he wished 
 to convince of the truth of his statements, and challenged any 
 man who could point out one single case where the British 
 Government conferred such a rank as he held on any Indian sol- 
 dier. I tried to explain to some men the difference between the 
 nationalities that are subject to Russia, and those under the 
 British crown in India, with regard to the religious scruples and 
 strict observance of caste principles; but as there is no such horrid 
 usage in Turkey, I could not make them understand the force of 
 my argument. 
 
 I was glad to find at Wan an establishment of an American 
 mission, which made my stay there most pleasant. As usual, the 
 missionaries were beloved by all parties, and their presence had 
 mitigated, in a great measure, the hatred of the Moslems towards 
 the Christians. Dr. Reynolds especially, by his medical skill and 
 philanthrophy, had endeared himself to high and low, and, be it 
 said to the honor and credit of all the members of the American 
 Board of Missions in Turkey and Persia, that even the enemies 
 of their religion have not a word to say in disparagement of their 
 good work. Their proseMism is confined to the Armenian com- 
 munity, and their object is to instill into them pure Christian 
 worship; and as the Armenians are not very much prejudiced 
 against Protestantism, the Americans do not find it difficult to 
 labor among them successfully. 
 
 Though the better class of the Armenian community are very 
 zealous in promoting education and culture among their people, 
 yet the ignorance which prevails is beyond description, especially 
 in matters of religion. The female portion, above all others, are 
 devoid of any spiritual training, and very few of the lower class 
 understand even the common dogmas of their faith. I was told 
 that hundreds who attend Church do not even know the Lord's
 
 THE ARMENIANS. 127 
 
 Prayer, and to comprehend what the priests say during the Church 
 service is far beyond their intelHgence. Though the leading Ar- 
 menians are doing their best to extend education among all classes, 
 they have not advanced much in the culture of the women in 
 either Armenia or Koordistan. At Wan the native Armenians 
 were increasing their schools, and trying to establish a higher 
 standard of education among the scholars; and for this purpose 
 they had brought over, at very great expense, some superior teach- 
 ers from Constantinople. They had been trying to establish an 
 Armenian university at Wan at the time I was there, but it ap- 
 peared that the influential Moslems of the place, backed by the 
 local authorities, had objected; and though they possessed the 
 ground and the requisite funds, the Porte could not be induced 
 to sanction the proposal. 
 
 Contrary to the common practice in Turkey, the assistant of 
 the governor-general was an Armenian, named Magherdich 
 Aghatonian Elfendi, and a very excellent and good man he was. 
 He managed to get on well with all; but I do not think he cared 
 much for the post, as he knew he was placed there as a puppet. 
 I heard that his predecessor, who was also an Armenian, had been 
 removed on account of his independent spirit, as he would not 
 consent to any measure of which he did not approve. Although 
 Aghatonian Effendi never gave his support to a harsh or unjust 
 act, he always avoided looking minutely into any proceedings of 
 the local authorities wliich were not considered very obnoxious. 
 
 There is no doubt if the Armenians possessed half the pluck 
 of the Greeks, the Koords, or their Christian neighbors, the so- 
 called JSTestorians, they would not submit to the bullying and in- 
 sults which they receive at the hands of their oppressors. They 
 have, however, lately shown more independence; and if foreign 
 intrigue continues, it may be that erelong they will prove a source 
 of serious trouble to their rulers; but I doubt very much whether 
 they will ever attain the exalted position of becoming an inde- 
 pendent nation. Russia must, sooner or later, incorporate the 
 bulk of them among her Eastern possessions, and thus gain nearly 
 three milHons of Christian subjects, who are peaceable, industrious, 
 and orderly. 
 
 One of the most remarkable observances that still exists among 
 the Armenians of Wan and other cities in the so-called Armenia, 
 and Koordistan, and ev^en in some parts of Asia Minor, is the
 
 128 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 seclusion of women, as in the Dark Ages. No respectable woman 
 is allowed to be seen in public; and the men are as particular 
 about hiding their wives as any strict Moslem. Even the common 
 women, let them be as old as great -grandmothers, would never 
 show their face to a stranger without having it covered with a 
 yeshmac, or cloth, reaching over the nose. I was told that this 
 custom is strictly adhered to in their dwellings, where no stranger 
 is admitted; and in some families, even the husband does not 
 possess the privilege of seeing his wife's mouth or nose, except on 
 certain occasions. This unpleasant practice of bandaging the 
 lower part of the face is only obligatory on married women; those 
 unmarried do not cover their mouths, but only hide their faces 
 when they walk out of doors. Among certain nationalities in the 
 East, when a woman attains the age of twenty-five or thirty, she 
 begins to look old; but among the Armenians, who are kept 
 secluded, their good looks begin to fade soon after they are mar- 
 ried, especially after the birth of two or three children. There 
 are very pretty girls to be seen among the Armenians of Wan; but 
 good-looking married women, of some years' standing, are very 
 rare. Of course, the Armenians of Constantinople, Syria, and 
 the country bordering on the Mediterranean and the Euxine, are 
 now more or less Europeanized; and not only have they given 
 up all idea of seclusion, but the higher classes follow all the rules 
 and etiquette of European society. It is to be hoped that, from 
 the spread of education and civilization in those remote parts, the 
 rude and degrading habits which have kept the women of the 
 East almost in a state of bondage will vanish, as has been the case 
 with their more fortunate sisters farther west. 
 
 It seems very strange that all the Christians of Turkey should 
 adopt the strict seclusion of their women, which w^as introduced 
 by the Arab conquerors, while the nomad and rural Arabs, Tur- 
 comans and Koords, who are strict Moslems, have not followed 
 that odious practice. The most respectable women among the 
 latter would not consider it at all improper to receive and con- 
 verse with a man, although a stranger. I have myself been very 
 often entertained by Moslem women of those nationalities when 
 their husbands were away, without the least fear of its being con- 
 sidered improper. Doubtless the strict observance of the harem 
 system began with the spread of the religion of the Koran, when 
 the followers of Mohammed were allowed to possess more than
 
 THE ARMENIANS. ^29 
 
 one wife; and as the Christians, Jews, and other non-Moslem 
 communities were either forced, or they themselves considered 
 it good policy, to imitate their conquerors in large towns where 
 the latter predominated, they have kept to the custom ever since. 
 The practice is, however, fast fading away in the large towns, 
 where the hahits of the West are being introduced; and among 
 the female Mohammedans of Turkey a good many European ideas 
 have been incorporated into their social habits. Even ladies of 
 the highest class in many large cities, especially at Constantinople, 
 do not hesitate to go about in public with their faces uncovered, 
 and frequent places of resort wearing gloves, buttoned high-heeled 
 boots, with parasols of all shades and colors, as a finish to their 
 whimsical attire! 
 
 The Armenians possess, in the valley of Wan, a large number 
 of fine monasteries and churches; and among the latter there are 
 the "Yadee Killisa" darkish words, meaning Seven Churches) 
 and "Karmirwar Mairamana," which are delightfully situated high 
 upon the hills, with a plentiful supply of running water to irri- 
 gate the gardens and cultivated grounds that surround them. In- 
 deed, in the majority of cases, both in Koordistan and Armenia, 
 the Christian places of worship, which have the appearance of 
 opulence, are situated in much finer positions than those of the 
 Mohammedans; and my wonder has always been that, with such 
 bloodthirsty and avaricious Moslem neighbors, they have been 
 allowed to retain them, when, in other parts of Turkey, hundreds 
 of Christian churches have been wrested from their owners by 
 Moslem conquerors, and converted into mosques. It may be that, 
 after the first outburst of Mohammedan fanaticism, when the 
 Christians were allowed more liberty, the arbitrary confiscation 
 of endowed church property had not reached the Highlands; or 
 else, as has lately been the case, all Christian communities in 
 Koordistan were protected by their respective feudal chiefs, to 
 whom they paid certain impost to save themselves from plunder. 
 But since the Porte obtained entire control over the Koordish 
 Provinces, except in a few isolated cases, the whole feudal system 
 has been done away with; and, whether Koords, Armenians, or 
 any other community, they are only accountable for their acts to 
 the common rulers, the Turks, who have it in their power to fleece 
 them all alike, or leave them to their own devices. 
 
 While I was at Wan, the monastery of Yadee Killisa was 
 
 9
 
 130 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD, 
 
 guarded by Turkish police, because it was feared that the refrac- 
 tory Koords would attack the place, as they did other monasteries 
 in the time of the Eusso-Turkish war, and plunder it of its valu- 
 ables. The brigands had already carried off some flocks of sheep 
 belonging to the monastery, and the few that were left had to be 
 guarded within the precincts of the building. 
 
 I found in this church some cuneiform inscriptions, built in 
 ■different parts of the walls, and also on some loose pieces of an 
 obelisk of rough black basalt. Indeed, such fragments of ancient 
 Armenian records are to be met with in every part of the lake 
 valley, especially in churches. With the exception of the inscrip- 
 tions engraved on the rocks, and out of the reach of mischievous 
 hands, all monuments are found in a dilapidated condition, and 
 built in walls, evidently having been brought from other ancient 
 sites. 
 
 There is an artificial mound near the Armenian Church of 
 Dara Killisa, called "Tooprac-Kalaa," the Turkish for earthen 
 castle, which shows an Ass}Tian origin. I visited the mound one 
 day in company of Monsignor Yeramia, and as soon as I set my 
 foot upon the top of it, I was possessed with a great longing to 
 examine its contents; but, unfortunately, I had then no firman 
 to enable me to gratify my desire. Although I asked the governor- 
 general to let me open a few trenches in it, and promised that if 
 I found any ancient remains I would let him have the custody of 
 them until the pleasure of the Porte was known, he was afraid to 
 let me begin without special imperial sanction. But, thanks to 
 Sir Henry Layard, our then ambassador at Constantinople, who 
 managed to include Wan in the firman, and obtained permission for 
 me to explore it for the British Museum. By virtue of this, 
 I was afterwards enabled to excavate the mound, but as I have to 
 revert again to my researches there, I will pass on to other topics.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Aftek spending a fortnight at Wan, I started, on the 22d 
 October, for Mossul, by way of Bash-kalaa, Joolamerk, Teearee, and 
 Boohtan. The weather by that time had become delightfully cool, 
 and, having had a heavy rain the day before, I found the roads, 
 on resuming my journey, somewhat heavy from their muddy state. 
 As usual, the first stage to the Armenian village of Norchokh was 
 a short one, — a little more than three hours. I lodged there in 
 the chief's house, which was considered the best and cleanest in 
 the place; but, as a matter of fact, it was the filthiest and gloomiest 
 abode I ever occupied. Unfortunately, I had not brought with 
 me any tents, because, when I left Aleppo, it was too hot to use 
 them on the road, and I did not like to be troubled with the trans- 
 port of bulky luggage through difficult mountain passes, prefer- 
 ring to use what accommodation could be obtained in the villages 
 I passed through. Moreover, I always found it good pohcy to live 
 with the inhabitants of the villages or camps I visited, as I could 
 then, with greater facility, obtain the information I required. I 
 very seldom was disappointed, nor was 1 ever refused admission 
 into any quarter to which I took a fancy. 
 
 A few days before I set out for Wan, the governor-general 
 had left for the Provinces to make arrangements about the trans- 
 port of provisions to the army at Bayazeed; and, to my surprise, 
 I heard on my arrival at Norchokh that His Excellency was re- 
 turning to Wan, and was expected at that village towards the even- 
 ing. I had not been an hour in the place before Hasan Pasha 
 made his appearance; and as soon as he heard that I was in the 
 village, he came and paid me a visit. We mutually invited each 
 other to dinner; and as he had better accommodation for taking 
 our meal in comfort, I accepted his invitation, on the understand- 
 ing that what my cook had already prepared should go to add to 
 his hospitable board. My cook had dressed three or four courses, 
 among which was the famous Turkish dish called "pillaw;" that 
 is, boiled rice with hot-melted butter poured on it. Generally 
 speaking, the rice is boiled in plain water; but those who wish to 
 have it made rich, cook it with mutton or chicken-broth, and my 
 cook used to garnish it with fried almonds and sultanas, which 
 
 131
 
 132 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 made some of my Turkish guests smack their lips. I certainly 
 never knew a cook dress pillaw to greater perfection than Meek- 
 hael (that is, Michael), and as this is the standing dish all over 
 Turkey, I was never at a loss, on an emergency, to provide my 
 dainty followers with a meal. One officer took such a liking to 
 my pillaw that he would taste notliing else morning, noon, and 
 night, as long as he was certain of having that dish. My cook was 
 also very skillful in dressing another favorite Turkish dish, called 
 "dolma;" that is, any vegetable stuffed with rice and minced 
 mutton, seasoned with onions, pepper, and salt, and boiled in 
 water made acid with either sour grape or lemon juice, or a berry 
 called "simmack." This forced meat is generally stuffed in cu- 
 cumber, marrow, onion, cabbage, or vine-leaves — the latter cover- 
 ing being preferred by the Turks. The way the onion is stuffed, 
 is by having it boiled just enough to allow the separate bulbs to 
 be forced out without breaking, and then stuffed with the pre- 
 pared minced mutton and rice. Though this dish is peculiar to 
 Turkey, it is always liked by those who had never tasted it before. 
 Both pillaw and dolma are easily prepared, and any ordinary 
 European cook could learn without much difficulty how to dress 
 them. 
 
 The village of Norchokh was the dirtiest I ever saw in any part 
 of Turkey; and as its inhabitants keep a large number of buffaloes, 
 which are in almost every hovel, one had to walk ankle-deep in 
 filth in going about the place; and what made it worse was the heavy 
 rain that fell the night before. 
 
 The priest of the place informed me that, some time before, 
 that village, with others in the same district, had been sacked by 
 Koordish crusaders from Southern Koordistan, who were going 
 to join the Turkish army at Bayazeed. There was no limit to their 
 lawlessness, and they had gone so far as to desecrate every Arme- 
 nian church that they passed, among which was that of Norchokh. 
 The wretches not only used these churches as stables, but com- 
 mitted every act of indecency and infamy that could be imagined 
 by a fiendish mind. In one church I was told they had 
 actually outraged a girl on the altar; and in the church of that 
 village, which was shown to me by the priest, I saw excrements 
 of both man and beast in the most sacred part of the edifice. Not 
 satisfied with this diabolical act, they pulled clown the roofing, 
 defaced the walls and pillars, and did every other damage tha\;
 
 CITADEL OF KHOSHAB. 133 
 
 their wicked hands were able to accomplish. Throughout my 
 journey, along the track of those inhuman wretches, I noticed the 
 devastation that had been caused by them in every place through 
 which they passed. A large number of villages were so ruined by 
 them that the inhabitants had to take shelter in other localities. 
 This devastation was not confined to merely Christian habitations, 
 but a number of Mohammedan hamlets shared the same fate. A 
 chief of one of the latter told me that when he upbraided these 
 crusaders with their impiety in plundering Moslem habitations, 
 they told him that he and his co-religionists were as bad as the 
 Christians for tolerating their existence. 
 
 We left jSTorchokh at six A. M., after having bid my friend, 
 Hasan Pasha, good-bye. He was also starting at the same time 
 on his way back to Wan. The weather was cloudy, and it threat- 
 ened to be a wet day; but, fortunately, it cleared up about eight 
 o'clock, and afterwards we had beautiful sunshine. The moun- 
 tains around looked most superb with their peaks covered with 
 snow. We reached the citadel of Khoshab at eleven o'clock; and at 
 12.30 P. M. we arrived at our halting-place, Shooshnamerrick, 
 which is inhabited by Koords. Here I ocupied the best room in 
 the place, which was neither clean nor comfortable, but was better 
 than at my last quarters. The great discomfort I experienced in 
 these villages was from the dirty state of the ceiling, which every 
 now and then sent down showers of unwelcome insects and smut; 
 and when it rained, the annoyance was aggravated by the trickling 
 of slush in every nook and corner of the room. The roofing of the 
 huts being composed of very crooked and shapeless rafters, covered 
 over with coarse branches of trees and loose earth, proves a capital 
 receptacle for vermin; and as the natives do all their cooking in 
 them, besides the constant fires that are kept up during winter, 
 the place looks more like a dirty chimney than a human dwelling. 
 Moreover, as the roofs of all tlie houses are connected with each 
 other on the same level, and easily mounted, they become the resort 
 of dogs and goats, which are continually rambling about on them. 
 The consequence is, every time any of these animals move on the 
 roof, they send down a shower of dirt, fleas, flies, and spiders. I 
 took the precaution, before I left England, to provide myself with 
 tarpaulins, which answered different purposes admirably. They 
 protected my luggage from getting wet when we were on the move; 
 I used them under my bedstead, or carpet on wet ground, to pre-
 
 134 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 vent dampness, and keep down the dust when camping in a sandy 
 soil; and I had also one suspended over my bed when I was un- 
 fortunate enough to stay in a dirty hovel with a low ceiling al- 
 most touching my head. 
 
 The people of the village, though Moslems, complained bitterly 
 of the extortion and malpractices of the Koordish crusaders, who 
 had plundered their habitations of everything worth taking, and 
 pulled down the huts to provide themselves with fuel, I was told 
 that the open lawlessness of these savages had so much frightened 
 the Christians and Mohammedans who happened to be unfortu- 
 nate enough to live in their track, that a large number had deserted 
 their villages when they heard of their approach, and took shelter 
 in out-of-the-way places. But it appears that when these heart- 
 less brigands entered a village and found no one in it, they vented 
 their rage upon the habitations, which they destroyed, and burned 
 up all the cereals they could find, "When I heard of these vicious 
 acts of oppression, I remembered a story told at the time when 
 some of the fanatical Koordish chiefs were troublesome, and Sir 
 Stratford Canning (afterwards the late Lord Stratford de Eed- 
 cliffe) urged upon the Porte to put them doM^n, Ali Pasha, the 
 then Turkish Grand Vizier, told him that the Ottoman Govern- 
 ment were obliged to tolerate their excesses, because they expected 
 them to prove of incalculable assistance to them in any hostile 
 engagement with Eussia. The Turks quite forgot that the defeat 
 of the Sultan's forces by the Egyptian troops under Ibraheem 
 Pasha at Nizib, in 1839, was mainly owing to the treachery and 
 misbehavior of the Koordish contingent that joined them; and that 
 it was quite impossible to rely on their help, as was proved later 
 on at the last engagements near Bayazeed, when a few detachments 
 of them gave the disciplined army in the field more trouble than 
 they were worth. 
 
 We left Shooshnamerrick at 6,30 A, M., and an hour after we 
 left we began to ascend the high mountains that divide the plains 
 of Mahmoodia from Albac, It was intensely cold going up, espe- 
 cially as there was a keen easterly wind blowing. When we had 
 ascended about a thousand feet above the plain of Mahmoodia, we 
 were enveloped in a very thick mist, and by the time we got to the 
 top the air was so rarified that I felt I could scarcely breathe. After 
 we had gone over the "Chokh" Pass (which is about eight thou- 
 sand feet above the level of the sea), and begun to descend to the
 
 BASH-KALAA. 135 
 
 Plain of Albac, the weather became warmer. The mist which 
 enveloped the mountains, and through which I had just passed, 
 changed into heavy clouds, overshadowing the country around; and 
 by ten o'clock it commenced to rain, and continued to do so until 
 the next morning. I had to travel nearly four hours in the rain 
 before we reached Bash-Kalaa, the capital of Albac. Here I was 
 received very civilly by the authorities, and put up in an empty, 
 clean, and convenient house, belonging to a respectable Armenian 
 of Wan, who is a member of the local Council of State. He, with 
 other leading men of the place, including the Jewish Khakham, 
 or Eabbi, called on me in the evening, and gave me the same ac- 
 count of the chronic disorder, oppression, and Koordish lawless- 
 ness. They complained, especially, of the constant raids of the 
 Shikak Koords, who occupied the Persian mountains bordering 
 on the Albac district. These Koords have sometimes lived in 
 Persian and sometimes in Turkish territory, when it answered 
 their purpose to do so; that is, when it suited them to plunder 
 Persian villages they moved to the Ottoman frontier, and when 
 they fell foul of the Turks they returned to their former quarters; 
 and, as a matter of course, wherever they happened to be they 
 managed to get scot free, through the dishonesty and apathy of 
 both the Persian and Ottoman officials. If the Porte complained 
 to the Shah's ministers of the Shikak misconduct, they replied that 
 it was absurd to accuse them of such a deed, when they resided at 
 so great a distance from the district that had been plundered. 
 The Turks likewise gave the same answer when the Persians 
 complained to them of the Shikaks. 
 
 Bash-Kalaa contains a large number of Jewish families, who 
 were formerly in a flourishing condition, but, through oppression 
 and insecurity, have become very destitute, and a large number of 
 them have in consequence been obliged to emigrate to other parts 
 of Turkey. It is very curious that when an Armenian is dissatisfied 
 with his lot he emigrates to Eussia; but a Jew would always prefer 
 living among the Turks than be yoked by Muscovite rule. This 
 shows that there is more toleration towards their co-religionists 
 from Mohammedans than from the Christians of Russia. 
 
 The morning of the 24th of October having dawned with heavy 
 mist, which did not clear up till nine o'clock, a start could not 
 be made before 9.45. We reached Hozee, a Nestorian village, at 
 3.30 P. M., after having halted about half an hour on the road
 
 136 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 for refreshments. I had arranged to go on three hours longer, 
 but finding the weather somewhat gloomy, remained at that vil- 
 lage for the night. 
 
 I had intended, on reaching Bash-Kalaa, to journey to Mossul 
 by way of Gawar; but finding the weather becoming rapidly cold 
 and wintry, I deemed it advisable to push on through Tearee before 
 the roads were closed by the snow, which had begun to fall, and 
 already covered the top of the mountains. In the greater part of 
 the highest mountain range, both in Koordistan and Asia Minor, 
 traveling becomes difficult, and in some parts impossible, from 
 December to March, and it was therefore necessary to make haste 
 and get down to the lowland as early as possible before the winter 
 regularly set in. 
 
 The village of Hozee was in a flourishing condition some time 
 back; but it had suffered a good deal at the time of my visit from 
 the inroads of the Koords, especially those of the Shikak tribe, 
 who were subject to Persia. A few months before, a large number 
 of the villages in Albac had been plundered and destroyed by the 
 Shikak Koords. Most of the people had decamped on hearing 
 of the approach of these ferocious marauders, and on their return 
 they found that even the walls of their hovels had been pulled 
 down by the enemy for revenge. To make matters worse, they 
 had not been even a year in their former habitations, trying to 
 recruit themselves by borrowing and hard work, before they were 
 called upon to pay the usual taxes, and supply transport for pro- 
 visioning the garrison at Bayazeed. When they pleaded poverty 
 and want of beasts of burden, they were told that the money must 
 be found somehow, and if they could not supply the requisite 
 number of animals, they must carry the necessary provisions on 
 their backs, which they did. Some of the peasants were so desti- 
 tute that they were obliged to till the ground by manual labor, 
 and, of course, the poor women had to do their share of the hard 
 work. This is not all; more disgraceful tyrannies followed. A 
 large number of the Shikak refugees, who had crossed the Persian 
 frontier and settled themselves in the Albac district, were billeted 
 upon the wretched peasants. It appeared that Ahmee Agha, the 
 son of the notorious Shikak chief, "Ahmed Khan," had a serious 
 quarrel with his father, which obliged him to remove into Turkey 
 wilh a large number of his followers, wlio, of course, were received 
 gladly by the Ottoman authorities; but instead of the necessary
 
 THE PATRIARCH MAR SHIMOUN. 137 
 
 quarters being provided for them, they were allowed to billet them- 
 selves upon the Christian villages. It is true that, since the dis- 
 affected Shikak refugees settled down in Albac, the inhabitants 
 have had no more fear of further raids from that tribe; neverthe- 
 less, the presence of a part of them, even as friends, has been a per- 
 petual annoyance, besides the losses they sustained by extortion. 
 
 We left Hozee at 5.15 A. M. for Kochanis, the seat of Mar 
 Shimoun, the patriarch of the Xestorian community, as it was 
 most important that I should visit him to find out the cause of 
 the rumored alienation between him and the Turkish authorities. 
 It was also reported that an attack was intended upon him and 
 his people by the Koords, who were only waiting for a good oppor- 
 tunity to march into Tearee. 
 
 The complaint against Mar Shimoun, and against the Nesto- 
 rians generally, was, that they had not rendered any assistance to 
 the State during the war, and had refused to pay their proper taxes 
 for some years. The general belief among both Moslems and Ar- 
 menians was, that Mar Shimoun had rebelled because he had neg- 
 lected to visit "Wan, as he and his predecessor were formerly in the 
 habit of doing. Indeed, I understood that it had already been 
 represented to the Porte that the Nestorians were giving trouble; 
 and that if they were not brought into subjection at once, they 
 would prove formidable adversaries. The Koords, who looked upon 
 the Nestorians as their hereditary enemies, were ready to pounce 
 upon them, not for the sake of the Turks, as there was no love 
 lost between them, but from the mere thirst for revenge and 
 plunder. Fortunately, my visit to Tearee allayed, in a great 
 measure, the misunderstanding which existed between the dif- 
 ferent parties. It had been asserted that Mar Shimoun owed 
 the Ottoman treasury about a million and a half of Turkish 
 piasters for overdue taxes; but this the patriarch denied, alleging 
 that those who imposed the taxes assumed, without any reason, 
 that the Nestorians were very wealthy people; and without ex- 
 amining into the condition of the different tribes, they merely 
 calculated upon a certain amount to be paid yearly, without con- 
 sidering who was to bear the burden. According to their imagi- 
 nation, they added year after year fanciful accumulations of taxes, 
 which thus brought the sum total to that prodigious figure! He 
 affirmed that his people had been paying the proper imposts regu- 
 larly to the Joolamairk local authorities, in whose jurisdiction they
 
 138 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 lived, but that, through their trickery, they had evaded giving the 
 necessary vouchers. It appears that in the majority of cases, when 
 the chiefs of the different Nestorian districts took their taxes to 
 Joolamairk, the money was taken from them, without a proper 
 acknowledgment; and when they thought they had obtained a 
 receipt, they discovered afterwards that the document was a hoax, — 
 either it was merely an ordinary memorandum of account, or a 
 schedule of taxes due. 
 
 Soon after we left Hozee we began to descend into a deep 
 valley, through which ran the Albac River; and after having crossed 
 it, we ascended a high mountain. We then went through the 
 valley of the great Zab, which took us nearly an hour to descend; 
 and when we arrived below the Nestorian village of Razona at 
 noon, my guides told me that the remainder of the road to Kochanis 
 was most difficult and dangerous. They advised me, therefore, 
 to obtain some men from Razona to assist the muleteers in carry- 
 ing the luggage. I was glad afterwards that I followed their ad- 
 vice, because, without the extra men, we should probably have 
 had serious accidents, if not the loss of some of our animals. When 
 we began to ascend the mountain on which Kochanis is situated, 
 we had to wind along a precipitous and sloping path not more 
 than two feet wide; and, to make matters worse, the late rain had 
 made it very slippery. The path grew worse and worse, and 
 when we were half way up it became so steep that I could only 
 manage to keep my seat by bending forward flat against the 
 pommel of the saddle, and holding tight to the mane of the mule. 
 Each animal was supported by two men, one in front at the halter, 
 and the other behind at its tail, the former to drag it up, and the 
 latter to keep it in the right path. We could see some of the 
 natives of Kochanis, who had come out to welcome me, standing 
 on the brink of the precipice above us, looking not bigger than so 
 many babies. I was glad when the top of the mountain was safely 
 reached at four P. M., where I found my old friend, Mshamshama 
 Benyamain (which means in Chaldean, Deacon Benjamin), ready 
 to receive me, with a host of his relatives and followers. I was 
 sorry to hear from him that Mar Shirnoun, his son, was away from 
 home; he had gone to Tayaree for security, because he was afraid 
 that the agitation against him by the Ottoman authorities and 
 the Koords might cause him to be arrested and maltreated. My
 
 KOCHANIS. 139 
 
 venerable friend was good enough to assign me the patriarchal 
 apartments to reside in during my stay there. 
 
 I had become acquainted with Mshamshama Benyamain about 
 thirty-three years before, when he came with liis brother, the late 
 patriarch, to Mossul, to take shelter under my brother's protec- 
 tion from the ravages of the Koords, the followers of the ferocious 
 Bedr-Khan Bey. They had to flee the country during its invasion 
 by that bloodthirsty chief, who mercilessly played havoc with life 
 and property. The poor patriarch's mother was one of the vic- 
 tims, who suffered death after much torture, because she refused 
 to embrace Mohammedanism. 
 
 On my arrival at Kochanis, I sent a messenger to Mar Shimoun, 
 to find out whether he was to meet me there, or in another place; 
 and as he intimated that it would be more convenient for him to 
 see me at the monastery of Mar Ssawa, which I could visit on my 
 way down to Mossul, I left at 9.15 A. M. for that place, after 
 having spent two days at the patriarchal seat. It rained the whole 
 night while I was there, and on the mountains around there was 
 a heavy fall of snow. Aiiev we left Kochanis, we ascended a high 
 mountain, and then descended to the town of Joolamairk, a depth 
 of about one thousand feet. It began to rain soon after we left 
 our last stage, and continued to do so until night. We reached 
 Joolamairk a little before one o'clock in the afternoon. It was 
 raining so heavily when we reached our halting-place that the 
 governor did not know of my arrival until I entered the palace. 
 
 This town was once the seat of that notorious Koordish tyrant, 
 Noor-Allah Bey, who hated and maltreated all Christians with 
 bitter hatred. He was supposed to have caused a large number 
 of European travelers to be killed, by instigating brigands to at- 
 tack them. He dared not execute his diabolical acts openly for 
 fear of the Turkish Wan authorities, but managed to have his vic- 
 tims attacked in out-of-the-way places, and away from his juris- 
 diction. He was contemporary with the other cruel chief, Bedr 
 Khan Bey; but thanks to the energy and influence of Lord Strat- 
 ford de Redcliffe, the Porte sent an expedition against them, de- 
 stroyed their power and removed these two chiefs with their fam- 
 ihes to Constantinople. The former died on the way, and the 
 latter lived to see, with his own eyes, the distinguished way the 
 despised "infidel Franks'" were treated by his suzerain lord.
 
 140 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 The old remains show evident signs that Joolamairk must have 
 been, in the days of yore, a fine and flourishing town; but now, 
 beyond the official quarters, nothing remains but heaps of ruins. 
 The town stands in a deep and picturesque hollow, overlooking the 
 valley of the Zab. It is surrounded by dilapidated citadels, which 
 must have made it quite impregnable in days gone by, when war- 
 fare was carried on with ruder arms. 
 
 The governor allotted me quarters in the Government House, 
 as it was impossible to find decent lodgings while the rain was 
 descending in such torrents. His good wife sent me, soon after 
 my arrival, a dish of biklawa, or backlava, a favorite puff pastry 
 stuffed with almonds, very much relished in Turkey, and she would 
 not allow my cook to prepare any of my victuals, as she under- 
 took to do everything herself. In the evening, the commandant 
 of the troops, the doctor, the Kadhee, and Hasan Bey, the ex- 
 governor of Joolamairk, a cousin to my Wan host, Yoseph Bey, 
 called on me, and staid to dinner with the governor and myself. 
 They were all very bitter against the ISTestorians; and the com- 
 mandant, in particular, was very wroth with Mar Shimoun and 
 his people, whom he called rebels. He said that when he was 
 coming up to Joolamairk from the lowlands, he wished to make 
 a short cut by going through Asheetha, the chief town in Tearee, 
 but was prevented by the ISTestorians, who threatened to fire on 
 him if he entered their countr}'. 
 
 Just as dinner was over, two soldiers (one of whom was cov- 
 ered with bandages) came in a woeful state to complain that, 
 while in the execution of their duty at Diz, they, with other com- 
 rades, had been attacked by a band of Nestorians, who released a 
 certain number of animals they had pressed for the purpose of 
 carrying military stores to the seat of war. Fortunately, Msham- 
 shama Benyamain had sent with me his two cousins, Abishalom 
 and Yohanna, with Mirza, ^lar Shimoun's steward, to escort me 
 as far as Mar Ssawa; and as I knew that this complaint against 
 the Nestorians of Diz was invented to prejudice me against them, 
 I proposed to send one of Mar Shimoun's people with one of the 
 Joolamairk officials, to inquire into the matter. This was agreed 
 to; but, of course, it necessitated the protraction of my stay there 
 longer than I wished. 
 
 The next day it rained hea^'ily again in the morning, but cleared 
 up about ten A. M. In the evening, I dined with the command-
 
 THE VALLEY OF ZAB. 1^1 
 
 ant who gave me a sad account of the mismanagement of the 
 Ottoman commissariat, and the miserable condition of the poor 
 soldiers, from want of proper food and medical comforts. He said 
 neither the Christians nor the Moslems of the country would render 
 any assistance, and he thought that the aim of all was to starve 
 
 them out. 
 
 The messengers who were sent hy the governor and myseit to 
 Diz to inquire into the complaint of the soldiers, who alleged that 
 they had been maltreated by the Nestorians, returned in the course 
 of the day, and reported that the attacking party did not consist 
 of Nestorians, but of Koords, whose mules the soldiers had seized; 
 and while they were trying to make the animals cross the Zab, the 
 owners overtook them, and released them by force. The Nestorians 
 of Diz were too poor to possess even one mule; consequently they 
 had none to lose; but as both Nestorians and Koords dress alike, 
 the soldiers seemed to have mistaken the one for the other. 
 
 We left Joolamairk at nine A. M., on the 31st of October, 
 under a bright sunshine and in mild weather. As soon as we 
 left the town we entered the valley of the Zab, and descended 
 about 1,500 feet until the river was reached, which we crossed 
 on a very rickety bridge. It was not only broken in many parts, 
 but bent on one side to almost one foot in five, dangerous to a 
 traveler who is subject to giddiness. We had to unload the ani- 
 mals, which we sent across swimming, and the luggage was trans- 
 ported on the backs of men we engaged for the purpose. Both 
 banks of the river were so thickly covered with large boulders, 
 that I thought the animals would be dashed to pieces when they 
 tried to set their feet aground. I was truly glad when I crossed, 
 and found both man and beast, with all the luggage, safely landed 
 on the other side of the Zab, in the district of Diz. 
 
 We had intended to push on to the Nestorian town of Derawa; 
 but on reaching Zerawa, at 3.30 P. M., we were told that it was too 
 late to go on, on account of the difficult path that lay in our way; 
 so we were obliged to make shift for the night in that miserable 
 hamlet, especially as it began to rain when we entered it. As there 
 was no room in Zerawa for our luggage animals, nor for those 
 of my guard, we had to send them across the Zab again, through 
 a ford, to the Koordish village opposite us. I wished afterwards 
 that I had crossed too, as I was tormented all night by fleas. 
 That part of the Zab valley is very picturesque and fertile;
 
 142 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and whenever the Nestorians find a foot of good soil to cultivate 
 they turn it to good account. They are certainly miserably poor; 
 and as they live in a country which is wholly mountainous, and a 
 small portion of it fit for tillage, with no pasture to speak of, 
 they can not aspire to much wealth. The only advantage they 
 have is, that they can boast of a beautiful climate, and the com- 
 mon diseases of the plains are unknown to them. 
 
 The 1st of November dawned very gloomy, and about sunrise 
 it began to rain, but cleared up at nine o'clock, which enabled 
 us to start for Derawa soon afterwards. I was obliged to send 
 part of the luggage across the Zab, as I was told by the natives 
 that it would be most troublesome to take it -with me on the left 
 side of the river, the passes being too narrow and dangerous to go 
 through. Six men from the village of Zorawa accompanied me, 
 to carry for me some necessary articles which were not bulky. I 
 found that my informants did not deceive me, but, on the con- 
 trary, the track through which we had to pass was even dangerous 
 for foot passengers. My servants and I had to travel on foot until 
 we reached another ford in the Zab, where my guard and baggage 
 animals recrossed to rejoin me. We had then to ascend and descend 
 other difficult paths, and one pass in particular was so narrow 
 and slippery that our animals could only Just go through it 
 unladen. At last we reached the huts of Derawa, about eleven 
 o'clock, and, after having located part of the Dhabtia in one hovel, 
 and placed the remainder in another, leaving Ahmed Agha, the 
 chief of the escort, to take possession of a third, I settled myself 
 in a fourth with my domestics. 
 
 The village of Derawa is scattered along the left bank of the 
 Zab for nearly two miles, and as it was quite impossible to find 
 a roomy dwelling for us all, we were obliged to take separate quar- 
 ters in different huts. As soon as the Tearees saw the faces of 
 my Turkish guard they began to show signs of displeasure; but 
 when they found who I was, they did everything in their power 
 to satisfy our wants. In the afternoon I took a walk along the 
 river, and was very much struck with the beauty of the scenery. 
 It must be quite delightful there in the summer season, and even 
 so late as the beginning of November the dale afforded a most 
 pleasant retreat. Grapes were just in season, and the verdure 
 was as fresh as if there had been no summer. 
 
 We left Derawa at 9.15 next morning, and as I was told that
 
 NEAR CHAMBA. 143 
 
 our way to Tearee that day was even more difficult for foot pas- 
 sengers and unladen animals than the day before, I engaged men 
 to carry the luggage through the intricate cuttings in the rocks. 
 Besides the hired carriers, a large number of the leading Nestorians 
 of the village insisted upon accompanying me, to conduct me 
 safely out of the dangerous defiles. Indeed, it was a matter of 
 great thankfulness when we got to the end of our journey safe 
 and sound, without any mishap, though, in one place where the 
 animals had to be conducted through a narrow ledge cut in a rock, 
 one of the mules had a narrow escape from tumbling headlong 
 into the deep valley beneath; but two of the muleteers had the 
 presence of mind to seize it by the tail and ears, and keep it quiet 
 until some Nestorians went and assisted in getting it over the 
 slippery part. Of course, they had the advantage of me by wear- 
 ing soft woolen shoes, which have better hold on the hard rock 
 than English boots; but to a man unaccustomed to wearing the 
 former, the risk of the change might prove of great danger. I 
 tried a pair of those mountain shoes, and found them irksome 
 to walk in. Even after we got clear out of the steep and narrow 
 pathways, we had to travel through, up and down paths covered 
 with loose and sharp stones, which had fallen from the heights 
 above; and in two or three places the overhanging rocks looked 
 so ready to fall on us, that I was glad when we had passed them.* 
 We were now traveling in Tearee proper, and when we came 
 within two miles of the Nestorian village of Chamba, Melik 
 Yacoob (that is. King Jacob, in Chaldean) came out to meet me 
 with a number of his people. He invited me to his abode for the 
 night; but as his village was situated on the right side of the Zab, 
 and having another large rapid river running in front of his- 
 house, with tumbled-down bridges, which could not stand heavy 
 weight, much less fit for large animals to walk over, I felt some- 
 what reluctant to cross. The rough state of the banks of the Zab 
 
 * It has always been my wonder how the Koords managed to invade 
 Tearee, which had these natural defenses, and possessed brave and 
 powerful inhabitants, M'hen only one hundred resolute men could have 
 defended the Passes against the rude warfare of the Koords. It has 
 been said that, if it had not been for the treachery of some of the 
 Nestorians, whose districts were spared by Bedr Khan Bey, together 
 with the over-confidence of the Asheethites and Tearees in their 
 strength, all the Moslem tribes of Koordistan. if united together, could 
 not have succeeded in penetrating into their strongholds.
 
 144 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 made it also unsafe for our animals to swim over. The chief, 
 however, suggested that 1 should leave the animals in the huts on 
 the left side of the Zab, and proceed to his hamlet on foot with 
 my followers. To please him, I did as he wished, though I suf- 
 fered severely from pain in the right knee, which came on sud- 
 denly that day, either from rheumatism or climbing up awkward 
 precipices. My Nestorian friends assisted me in every way they 
 could, and even volunteered to carry me on their back to save 
 me from pain; but I declined their kind offer with thanks. After 
 crossing the Zab, we had to walk about five hundred yards before 
 we came to the river Chamba, and I was not a little glad when I 
 entered the hospitable house of my royal host, and took my 
 quarters in the open loft of the first story which is generally found 
 in the dwellings of well-to-do Nestorians. My followers also occu- 
 pied one part of it, and another part was reserved by the Mehk 
 for receiving. his native visitors. 
 
 I was certainly well repaid by crossing; because, not only did 
 I enjoy the pleasant society of my host and other intelligent 
 Nestorians, but my eyes feasted on the romantic wild scenery in 
 that valley of the Chamba, which possessed every variety of ma- 
 jestic landscape, of mountain, dale, and rivulets. To crown the 
 uncommon wild spectacle, we had a very severe thunderstorm 
 towards the evening, which lasted more than one hour. The 
 lightning was so vivid and constant that one might have read a 
 letter during the bright flashes; and as for the thunder, it made 
 the mountains ring from its severity, and caused our dwelling to 
 vibrate under us. 
 
 Thunder and lightning continued all night, and the rain did 
 not cease till sunrise the next morning, after which time it cleared 
 up, and we had a beautiful day. We started for Mar Ssawa at 9.15, 
 and having been told by Melik Yacoob that it would be im- 
 possible to transport our luggage on mules or horses to the mo- 
 nastic village, I deemed it advisable to retain the porters, who 
 came with me from Dairawa, to convey it on their backs, as they 
 did the day before. The track was still so rough and difficult for 
 beasts of burden that I had to walk part of the way to the monas- 
 tery, a distance of about three miles, which I accomplished in an 
 hour and a half. We met a large cavalcade of Nestorian refugees 
 from Lewin, going south to escape the tyranny of both the Turks 
 and the Koords.
 
 MAR SSAWA. 
 
 145 
 
 On reaching Mar Ssawa, I found that Mar Shimoun had not yet 
 arrived, nor was there any news of him. When the patriarch's 
 people understood that 1 had intended to start for Mossul in case 
 he did not come before Monday (that being Saturday), they sent a 
 messenger post-haste to inform him of my arrival, as he was 
 only a short distance thence, on the other side of the mountain. 
 The night being very dark, and the path difficult to thread, a lan- 
 tern was given to the man to enable him to find his way without 
 loss of time. 
 
 There is no village near the monastery, but merely a house 
 attached to it, the residence of Mar Shimoun. The houses of 
 the peasants are scattered over the hills amongst the trees, and 
 not visible until they are approached. There are a few miserable 
 cells attached to the Church for poor wayfarers. I was located, 
 with my Turkish escort and followers, at the Patriarchate, which, 
 barring one room that was left for Mar Shimoun, we wholly oc- 
 cupied. The valley in which Mar Ssawa is situated is thickly 
 wooded, and all the slopes of the hills are richly cultivated. The 
 great Zab runs Just below the monastery, and about a mile further 
 down there is a bridge over the river, for the use of those who wish 
 to cross from Tearee to Asheetha, or vice versa. 
 
 Sunday, 4th, was the most dehghtful day we had since the 
 beginning of October,— a bright sunshine, and mild. Hundreds 
 of Koordish families from the district of Ssalhhia, in Lewin, passed 
 through Mar Ssawa, on their way to the south, fleeing the country 
 from the oppression of the Ottoman authorities. They said that 
 they had been denuded of everything, and even then were not 
 allowed any peace to follow their avocation and industry. With 
 the exception of three or four men, who carried arms and showed 
 a respectable appearance, all the refugees, men, women, and chil- 
 dren, were dressed in rags, and many a poor child had scarcely 
 anything on. Mar Shimoun arrived in the afternoon, and we had 
 a long talk in the evening about different matters, especially re- 
 garding the disagreement existing between him and the Ottoman 
 authorities. He assured me that, as far as he was concerned, he 
 never showed any hostile feeling towards any one, but that the 
 Turks themselves were always trying to accuse him and his people 
 of obstruction, for the sake of a constant drain upon their resources. 
 He even volunteered to prove before the authorities at Joolamairk 
 that thousands and thousands of piasters had been paid to the local 
 
 10
 
 146 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 treasury by different heads of his community, without their re- 
 ceiving a proper acknowledgment. He complained that his people 
 had been hemmed in on all sides by enemies, who would not allow 
 them free passage to the lowlands to obtain the necessary supplies, 
 or to dispose of their produce; the consequence was, they had been 
 in great distress for lack of trade. 
 
 It is very extraordinary that the much-abused Nestorians have 
 had to contend, for hundreds of years, against the antagonism and 
 malignity, not only of their Moslem neighbors, but their Chris- 
 tian brethren of the Eastern and Western Churches. The hatred 
 began with the time that scandalous lie was forged against them, 
 that they did not believe in the Divinity of our Savior, because, 
 forsooth, they had sympathized with Nestorius on account of his 
 unjust treatment by Cyril, and refused to confound the Godhead 
 with the manhood of our Lord, adhering to the belief that Christ 
 is equal to the Father as touching the Godhead, and inferior to the 
 Father as touching his Manhood. It is true that they object to 
 designate the Virgin Mary as the "Mother of God" (that is to say, 
 God the Father), or that Christ had suffered on the cross in his 
 Godhead. I can not see how this confession can make their doc- 
 trine heretical, inasmuch as this belief is shared by the whole 
 Catholic Church, whether Eastern or Western. This agrees with 
 the Athanasian Creed, where we are bound to confess that our 
 Lord Jesus Christ is God and man; "God of the substance of the 
 Father, begotten before the world; and man of the substance of 
 his mother, born in the world." Moreover, it is absurd to sup- 
 pose that the so-called jSTestorians differed from the rest of the 
 Catholic Church in their doctrines regarding the Divinity of our 
 Savior, when it is considered that the Mcene Creed is incorporated 
 in their rituals, and proves above all things that their belief in 
 Christ, as perfect God and perfect man, is most complete. As for 
 the foreign designation given to them by their enemies, as "Nes- 
 torians," it is neither more nor less than an impudent perversion 
 of facts, because those ancient Christians have never had any con- 
 nection, either directly or indirectly, with that Greek prelate, 
 unless it could be proved that the so-called Nestorians were con- 
 verted to Christianity by Nestorius after he was unjustly con- 
 demned. This nickname has so effectually stuck to them, through 
 the ignorance of certain priests, that even the script which they 
 employ is now generally called by scholars the "Nestorian," as if
 
 THE NESTORIAN CHRISTIANS. 147 
 
 these people had no alphabet until Nestoriiis himself invented it 
 for them! To their honor be it said that, of all the Eastern 
 Churches, the so-called Nestorians are the only Christians who have 
 preserved the apostohc worship, and kept clear from superstition 
 and heathenish innovations, which have infected, in a great meas- 
 ure, other Eastern Churches. They are generally designated by 
 those who have had some intercourse with them, as "Protestants 
 of the East," and they well deserve this appellation. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the remaining few Nestorians are 
 wretchedly poor, and do not make a respectable appearance in 
 cities where their talents and industry can be brought prominently 
 before the civilized world. The whole number of that community 
 now occupy the Assyrian mountains and that part of Northwestern 
 Persia adjacent thereto; and, with the exception of a few individ- 
 uals holding ecclesiastical positions, there is no man now who can 
 boast of any standing amongst the gentry of Turkey or the gov- 
 erning body. 
 
 As I intend, hereafter, to give a short resume about the nation- 
 alities and doctrines of the different Christian sects inhabiting 
 Mesopotamia and Koordistan, I must return to the narrative of 
 my journey to Mossul. It is necessary, however, that I should say 
 a few words with reference to the succor the Nestorian hierarchy 
 have been anticipating from their brethren of the Anglican Church, 
 in the matter of education and religious teaching more especially, as 
 the present patriarch inquired from me most particularly about 
 the help which they had long been expecting from the Anglican 
 Church. 
 
 Ever since the late Mar Shimoun, uncle and predecessor of the 
 present patriarch, was visited, in 1840, on the part of the Royal 
 Geographical and Christian Knowledge Societies, by Mr. William 
 F. Ainsworth and my late eldest brother, Mr. C. A. Eassam, the 
 then British vice-consul at Mossul, the Nestorians have looked 
 to England for sympathy and moral support. The late Lord Strat- 
 ford de Eedcliffe, wliile ambassador at Constantinople, had always 
 befriended them, and rendered them every protection in his power 
 against the diabolical treatment of the Koords and Turkish mis- 
 deeds. Moreover, the late patriarch had had further proofs of 
 British benevolence towards his oppressed people by another visit 
 paid him, on the part of the Christian Knowledge and the Propo- 
 gation of the Gospel Societies, by the Reverend George Percy
 
 148 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Badger, and the Reverend J. P. Fletcher, in 1843. He had learned 
 also, through his intercourse with Enghsh divines and his resi- 
 dence with my brother at Mossul, after the massacre of the Tearee 
 Christians by Bedr-Khan Bey, that there was very little difference 
 between their belief and 4;hat of the Reformed English Church; 
 so much so that they did not hesitate to administer to, and receive 
 from, the members of the English Church, the Lord's Supper. 
 They had petitioned the Archbishops of Canterbury, from time to 
 time, ever since 1840, for Christian help and educational assist- 
 ance; and although Archbishop Tait kindly interested him- 
 self in their welfare, and the Societies of the Christian Knowl- 
 edge and Propagation of the Gospel had actually taken the 
 matter in hand, and voted the necessary funds for sending two 
 English clerg}anen, for a specified time, to work amongst them, 
 the whole scheme came to an unhappy end. The two clergymen 
 thus chosen were unable to proceed on account of illness, and a 
 most unfit substitute was selected in their place in the person of 
 an Austrian convert, who carried \\'ith him neither ability nor 
 weight to impress any minister of Christ abroad, ignorant or other- 
 wise, of the importance of the mission, and he had to return to 
 Europe without having done any good. Thus the money which 
 was granted has been sadly wasted, and the antagonists of the 
 Church of England are left to mock at the utter failure of the 
 scheme of the two foremost evangelizing Enghsh societies. It 
 was most unfortunate that the Reverend W. T. Bullock, the worthy 
 and able secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
 in Foreign Parts, died Just at the time when his services and su- 
 perior knowledge in such important matters would have been of 
 much value in that emergency. He took very great interest, from 
 first to last, in rendering a helping hand to those primitive Chris- 
 tian brethren, and he never ceased to labor in the cause of Chris- 
 tianity and humanity until the day of his death. 
 
 Since then the late Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Benson, 
 took up the cause of the Nestorians most warmly, and through his 
 influence and sympathy a mission was organized a few years ago, 
 under the name of "Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Chris- 
 tians;" but, unhappily, the clergymen who were chosen are reck- 
 oned amongst the extreme Ritualists, who disdain to be called 
 "Protestants," and innovators of forms and ceremonies contrary to 
 the Reformed Church of England. "Sisters" were added to the
 
 THE NESTORIANS. 149 
 
 mission, to give it a savor of Popish ceremonies; and last, but not 
 least, it is reported that crucifixes and saints' pictures have been 
 introduced, to the disgust of the Nestorians, who always abhorred 
 the sight of such representations. The Vatican party in Assyria 
 were so impressed with the idea that the archbishop's mission had 
 so far paved the way for their getting a footing amongst the Nes- 
 torians, who have withstood the assaults of corrupt Churches for 
 fourteen centuries, that they labored hard to pervert their simple 
 and apostolical form of worship, and approached their patriarch, 
 Mar Shimoun, with an offer of pecuniary and political advantages, 
 if he and his people would join the "Catholic" Church. It is be- 
 lieved that the patriarch was not altogether averse to the arrange- 
 ment; but as he feared that the Tearees would stoutly oppose his 
 intention, he at last demurred, and refused to meet the Eoman 
 Catholic emissaries. 
 
 The mission of the archbishop has only schools in Persia, 
 where there is a large community of Nestorians, as the Ottoman 
 Government would not sanction such establishments, either in 
 Tearee, or elsewhere. 
 
 There has been a mission established for more than fifty years 
 at Ormi, the most important Nestorian homestead in Persia, by 
 the American Board of Missions; and though their missioners are 
 considered generally most hard-working, industrious, and godly 
 men, and have worked assiduously as faithful ministers of Christ, 
 nevertheless, the Nestorians being strict believers in apostolic 
 succession, Presbyterianism is not palatable to the majority of 
 them.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Having spent two days at Mar Ssawa, I bid Mar Shimoun 
 good-bye, and left for Asheetha at eight A. M., on the 6th of 
 November. As the bridge was not very far, I walked to it, and 
 watched the animals crossing it, this being in better condition than 
 those below Joolamairk and Chamba. Even with its superiority 
 over the other bridges, we could not trust sending the luggage 
 across on the backs of the animals, but had it conveyed by men 
 engaged for the occasion as far as Sarspeedo, inasmuch as the 
 ascent to that village was as bad for beasts of burden as any that 
 we had passed before. We were detained some time at the bridge 
 on account of one of the mules proving obstinate, and refusing 
 to cross, though the muleteers tried different stratagems to induce 
 her to follow her companions. At last we were obliged to send 
 her across swimming, which she did splendidly. 
 
 The Tearee bridges are made of wicker-work, about three feet 
 wide, suspended from side to side on pillars built roughly on high 
 rocks, projecting out of high declivities. The ends of the wicker 
 matting, which are stretched a good distance over the pillars, are 
 covered with huge stones to keep them from shifting. For such a 
 purpose I think a wicker-work bridge answers admirably, because 
 its roughness prevents animals and foot-passengers from slipping; 
 but still I do not think any man in his right senses would cross it 
 riding. 
 
 After having lost about an hour at the bridge, we resumed 
 our journey, and reached Sarspeedo in two hours. The winding 
 path up and down was very bad, and some parts of it almost per- 
 pendicular. At Sarspeedo I was treated to some refreshments, 
 consisting of fruit, fresh butter, honey, and cakes; and as it took 
 a long time for the carriers to bring the luggage up, they having to 
 take a rest every now and then on account of the difficult ascent, I 
 was obliged to wait about two hours until they came up. 
 
 Mar Shimoun sent with me, as escort, Melik Daneeal (King 
 Daniel), the chief of Tearee, and Kasha Dinha, the Archdeacon 
 of Asheetha, — two most estimable and honorable men, worthy of 
 the high position they hold. The former deserves to be made the 
 ruler of all the Xestorians, and the latter their ecclesiastical head. 
 150
 
 ASHEETHA. 151 
 
 I do not mean that Kasha Dinha ought to be made a patriarch, 
 because, to possess that dignity, a man must not have touched ani- 
 mal food all his life, and have vowed celibacy, which my reverend 
 friend could not do, as he was already polluted with the lusts of the 
 flesh! 
 
 As soon as the luggage was received from the carriers and 
 laden on the baggage animals, we resumed our journey, and reached 
 Asheetha in about two hours' ride. When the Asheethites saw us 
 on the heights above the town, all the leading men of the place 
 came out to welcome us, and a large number of men, who had either 
 sei'ved under Sir Henry Layard or myself in the Assyrian explo- 
 rations, amongst whom were women who had been liberated from 
 slavery by my late brother, received me with every mark of Joy 
 and gratitude. I could scarcely recognize any of them, because, 
 when they were liberated thirty-four years before, they were girls 
 between twelve and sixteen years of age, and now they had be- 
 come mothers and grandmothers. They did not hesitate to return 
 the compliment, by saying that I had also grown old and gray- 
 headed. Kasha Dinha was kind enough to receive me in his roomy 
 and clean house, especially as it was the best in the place. In the 
 evening I had more than one hundred visitors, and most of them 
 were interested to know how I fared during my captivity in 
 Abyssinia. 
 
 Asheetha was, before the Koords invaded it and made it a heap 
 of ruins, a most important town in the Nestorian mountains, and 
 contained about one thousand dwellings, which were scattered 
 over the unshapely valley, like all other ISTestorian villages. When 
 I \isited it, in 1877, not even half of it had been brought to its 
 former flourishing condition. Most of the houses are surrounded 
 by their own cultivation, and, as they are situated on different 
 heights and hills, the view from its approaches is most picturesque. 
 
 I had intended to start the next day, but Melik Daneeal and 
 the head men asked me to postpone my departure for a day, in 
 order that they might consult me about different matters. The 
 Asheethites complained to me of the same grievance as that rep- 
 resented by Mar Shimoun, that all the roads to the lowlands had 
 been closed against them, and they were then quite isolated from 
 the outer world, because, whenever tliey tried to go and buy what 
 is necessary, they were plundered and slaughtered. I counseled 
 them to send with me some respectable men to introduce them to
 
 152 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the influential Koordish chiefs, through whose territory I was on 
 the point of passing, and I would try to use my influence ^vith the 
 Koords and the Ottoman authorities at the town of Immaddiah, to 
 obtain them a safe passage. They all agreed that this was the only 
 way to insure them security through their neighbor's country, and 
 they chose five envoys, headed by a priest, called Kasha Georgees, 
 to accompany me. 
 
 I left iisheetha at half -past seven o'clock on the morning of 
 the 8th of November. It was a most delightful day, bright and 
 serene, and everything looked pleasing, both to the eye and feeling. 
 As soon as we crossed the heights above Asheetha, we entered the 
 Koordish district called Upper Barwaree, whose chief was Tatar- 
 Khan-Bey, one of the old nobility of Koordistan, and possessed 
 of immense power in that part of the mountains between the 
 Tearee and Immaddiah. We reached Dairshesh, the capital, and 
 residence of Tatar-Khan-Bey, at 1.45 P. M., after having rested 
 on the way about half an hour for refreshments. Tatar-Khan-Bey 
 was not at home when I arrived, but his people received me very 
 civilly, and when he arrived he did everything id his power to make 
 me comfortable. I introduced to him the Nestorian envoys, and 
 explained to him the object of their mission. He received them 
 with every mark of respect, a condescension which I never expected 
 from a haughty Koordish nobleman, and promised them the pro- 
 tection they needed when they wished to pass through his country. 
 He said he regretted that he could not insure them a safe passage 
 eitJier to Immaddiah or ]\Iossul, as there were too many unruly 
 Koords, especially at the former place, who were not in his juris- 
 diction, but under the imm.ediate control of the Ottoman authori- 
 ties of Immaddiah.* Tatar-Khan-Bey was considered to be a 
 peace-loving and honest Koordish chief, and Just in all his trans- 
 actions. Unlike his predecessors and his Moslem neighbors, he 
 was exact in his dealings, and protected every one alike, whether 
 Mohammedan or Christian, against tyranny and oppression. In 
 his province ever}' one enjoyed peace and quietness, and this praise- 
 worthy trait in his character was vouched for by Christians who 
 live under his rule. It is a pity that such a good man is not prop- 
 
 * I am glad to say that I succeeded in obtaining for the Nestorians 
 a safe passage to Mossul, when they were able to pass and repass to the 
 lowlands of Assyria without any molestation.
 
 IMMADDIAH. 153 
 
 erly rewarded in Turkey, because it was believed that if he had 
 been supported by the Porte, and appointed as the chief ruler of 
 that part of Koordistan, he could have restored order aud tran- 
 quillity in all the disturbed dictricts. 
 
 There was another important personage, named Hasan Effendi, 
 of Circassian extraction, who was beloved in that part of Koordistan 
 that lies between Upper Barwaree and Mossul, where he acted 
 formerly as governor; but as he was honest and hated intrigue, it 
 did not answer the interests of the authorities at Mossul to keep 
 him long in his post. They had him dismissed for no reason what- 
 ever, and he was left for a long time without employ. Soon after- 
 wards, however, Abd-ar-Eahman Pasha, whom I have already men- 
 tioned, was appointed by the Porte governor-general of the Bagh- 
 dad Pashalic, and hearing of Hasan Effendi's good qualities and 
 undeserved dismissal, he made him sub-governor over one of the 
 districts in the Irak. 
 
 On the 29th we left Dairshesh at 6.45 A. M., and after an 
 hour's ride we reached the village of Adden, where it was 
 customary for all travelers to dismount and go on foot 
 through the ravine, on account of tiie sacredness of the place, 
 because it contained the remains of Moslem "martyrs," who 
 fell there in fighting with the Gentiles for '"the true faith." For 
 the sake of not hurting the feelings of the pious Moslems, my fol- 
 lowers and I dismounted, and walked until we passed the mosque. 
 We traveled afterwards through most beautiful country, and 
 reached Immaddiah at five P. M., having been nearly fourteen hours 
 on the road. We had to descend about 1,500 feet by a rough and 
 steep road, before we got below the town, which is built on a 
 conical hill. Part of the road is paved, which shows that some 
 civilized nation had formerly ruled there. Immaddiah is seen from 
 the brow of the mountain when it is approached from the north; 
 but before reaching it a valley has to be crossed and ascended. 
 On entering the town, I was received by the chief officials, and 
 conducted to the Government House, where a suite of apartments 
 was apportioned to me, as there was no house in the place good 
 enough for my reception. The acting Kayim-Makkam would not 
 allow my cook to provide me with dinner, but he himself enter- 
 tained me most hospitably all the time I was there. 
 
 Immaddiah must have been a very important place in olden 
 times, and from the extent of the ruins, which are visible all over
 
 154 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the plateau, there could not have been less than one thousand 
 dwellings during the days of its prosperity; but now it does not 
 contain one-tenth of that number, and the inhabitants are wretch- 
 edly poor. There are a few Nestorian and Jewish families in the 
 place, and the remainder are Koords. I have no doubt that some 
 of the Jews are the descendants of the ten tribes who were carried 
 captive by the king of Assyria in the time of Hoshee, king of 
 Israel. 
 
 The place is considered very unhealthy during summer and 
 autumn, when intermittent fever is very common. Some say that 
 it comes from the malaria caused by the stagnant air, which as- 
 cends from the marshy ground and from the rice and cotton fields 
 that surround it; others attribute the sickness to bad water. I 
 have not been able to convince myself of either cause, as the prom- 
 ontory on which Immaddiah is built is at least eight hundred 
 feet above any cultivated field or swamp, and there is no lack of 
 good water in the place if the inhabitants choose to fetch it from 
 the spring. In the valley which I crossed, there are delightful 
 retreats, shaded by luxuriant groves, with a plentiful supply of 
 good water, whereto the chief ofiicials and opulent natives resort 
 during the hot months. 
 
 I spent Sunday, the 11th of November, at Immaddiah, and left 
 again the next morning at 8.30. My Wan escort returned from 
 thence to their headquarters, as that was the end of the Wan 
 Pashalic. 
 
 There were no mounted Dhabtia at Immaddiah, so the gov- 
 ernor supplied me with the necessary escort of foot police. The 
 weather looked very threatening; but being anxious to push on to 
 Mossul, I risked the discomfort of a wet day. I had intended to 
 go as far as Dawoodia, a distance of about twenty miles, but when 
 we descended to the lowland it began to drizzle, and, by the time 
 we reached the Chaldean village of Aradeen, at twelve, noon, the 
 rain came down in torrents, and I was therefore compelled to halt 
 there on my journey, especially as my escort and followers were 
 drenched to the skin. 
 
 The houses at Aradeen are in better condition than the gener- 
 ality of Koordish dwellings in the neighborhood of Immaddiah; 
 but the village itself was very dirty, so nmch so that the followers 
 found it a hard task to unload the animals without soiling the 
 luggage. I do not think there can be anything more annoying
 
 ARADEEN. ^^^ 
 
 and discomforting than to arrive at a dirty tillage in wet weather. 
 Everything seems to be smeared with mud and dirt, to say noth- 
 ing about the noxious odors which emanate from the filth that 
 surrounds every hut, especially if there are any bufEaloes in the 
 
 place. , 
 
 The common topic in the village was the vehement quarrel 
 which was then raging amongst the Chaldean community at :Mossu1 
 on account of the Tope's memorable Bull, or Encyclical, which 
 presumed upon the prerogative of sovereign powers, and inter- 
 fered with the liberty of the subject. It was therein ordamed that 
 the choice of bishops, archbishops, and patriarchs was to be vested 
 in the Roman Pontiff; and, as a matter of course, his arbitrary man- 
 date created immense hubbub, both in Europe and Asia. Of the 
 Eastern Churches, the Eoman Catholic Armenians and Chaldeans 
 spUt into two factions. One party submitted to the Papal fiat with- 
 out a murmur, like the remainder of the Eastern Churches, which 
 are in communion with Rome; but those who valued the old insti- 
 tutions, and disliked foreign interference in their ecclesiastical 
 matters, kicked against the innovation— hence the Chaldean uproar. 
 The two leagues had already been nicknamed "Yabis" and "Nud- 
 dee;" that is to say, dry and wet— the Anti-Bullites being the 
 former, and those who submitted to the Vatican the latter. The 
 meaning of these two Arabic words is, that one part is obdurate 
 and the other docile. At first the Porte stood firm for its dignity, 
 and supported those who refused to submit to the dictates of 
 Rome; but after a while, through intrigue and pressure from the 
 French and Austrian embassies at Constantinople, it had to give 
 in. and suffered the Anti-Bullites to be persecuted and worried, 
 which conduct compelled all those who were timid and unequal 
 to further annoyances, to return to their former allegiance to the 
 Holy See. The natives of Aradeen had also split regarding the 
 acceptance of the Papal Bull, but as the Chaldeans in the provinces 
 had not quite understood the real quarrel, the majority thought 
 it most wicked and shocking to disobey the mandate of the suc- 
 cessor of Saint Peter. 
 
 The rain continued all night, and did not cease until we left 
 at 7.30 the next morning. We reached Uawoodia in two hours' 
 ride. As I was expected at that village the day before, the governor 
 of the district had prepared me a grand dinner, and waited for 
 me till nearly midnight. Both he and the priest of the Chaldean
 
 156 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 community was therefore disappointed on finding that I wished 
 to push on, and to please them I ahghted at the house of the 
 former, and breakfasted with him. After having spent two hours 
 with them, I resumed my journey, and reached our halting-place, 
 Bugairee-Nuffar, in three hours and a quarter, after having strayed 
 from the right path, and lost about half an hour in finding it. 
 
 We left Bugairee at 7. .30 A, M., on the 14th, and reached the 
 large Koordish village of Badee at 10.15. I was detained to break- 
 fast there by Yehia EflFendi Al-Omaree, one of the old nobility of 
 Mossul, who had large possessions in that neighborhood; and, after 
 having spent about an ho^^r and a half with him, I resumed my 
 journey, and reached the town of Dehouk at 1.45 P. M. There I 
 was received by the Kayim-Makkam, Asian Bey, a liberal Otto- 
 man, who invited me to be his guest at the castle. He was very 
 partial towards the Christians, but hated the Koords; and the latter, 
 as a matter of course, held him in utter abhorrence. He always 
 behaved rudely to them, especially in the matter of fasting and 
 prayer; and on one occasion he insulted the Kadhee of the place 
 so grossly, that if it had not been for the intervention of a powerful 
 chieftain, there might have been a serious row. The governor 
 was very fond of dogs, and one grayhound in particular he allowed 
 to sit beside him on the divan. The Koords, on the contrary, not 
 only hate dogs, but consider them the most unclean animals in 
 existence next to swine, and everything they touch is reckoned 
 defiled. One day, since my visit, while the members of the Council 
 of State had assembled to deliberate upon some public matter, the 
 judge, a venerable old Koord, who was one of the party, upbraided 
 Asian Bey for his impiety in allowing such an unclean animal to 
 sit next to him; whereupon the chief official stroked the back 
 of the dog with his hand, and with the same he rubbed the beard 
 of the sedate old man, saying that the hound was cleaner than his 
 chin. From that day forward, the Kadhee refused to attend any 
 meeting of which the Kayim-Makkam was the president, until 
 they had him dismissed. 
 
 Asian Bey was considered a brave and most daring public 
 servant. While I was staying with him, a report reached him that 
 a band of Koordish brigands had plundered some sheep and cattle 
 in the neighborhood. He immediately pursued them with a num- 
 ber of his followers, and rescued all the booty before they could
 
 TEL-ISKIFF. 
 
 157 
 
 enter their fastness. He never cared about the red-tape system, 
 but punished all evil-doers summarily, as he was certain that if he 
 had to trust to the decision of the judicial authorities, murderers 
 and robbers would escape scot-free. 
 
 I left Dehouk at eight o'clock, and reached the Yezeedee village 
 of Garaipan in about two hours and a half. The treasurer, with 
 mounted and foot Dhabtias, accompanied me thither, and, after 
 having had our breakfast, and spent there about an hour and a 
 half, they left to return to Dehouk, and I pursued my Journey 
 southward. I reached the Chaldean village of Tel-Iskiff at 3.40 
 P. M. As the residents had heard of my approach, all the eccle- 
 siastics came out to meet me with music and chanting; and on 
 entering the village, men, women, and children joined them to 
 welcome me. A large number of relatives, friends, and former 
 followers arrived from Mossul to greet me, and we were all enter- 
 tained by the head ecclesiastic, who was opposed to Eomish inno- 
 vations. They all complained about the conduct of the patriarch. 
 Mar Yoseph Odo, in having sided with the Latin priests to do 
 away with their Church rights, and was persecuting them, with the 
 help of the Ottoman authorities, in order that they might submit 
 unconditionally to the tyranny of Eome. 
 
 The Prior of the monastery of Eabban Hormuzd and Mar 
 Georgees, a Chaldean bishop, came to see me in the evening, with 
 a large number of monks, for the purpose of relating their griev- 
 ances in connection with the existing agitation. They said that 
 the Vatican party left them no peace day and night; and, although 
 the Chaldean adherents of the Papal injunction were a very small 
 section of the community, yet, through bribery and the support 
 of the French Government, the Turkish authorities not only ren- 
 dered the national party no protection, but annoyed them by all 
 manner of means. 
 
 We left Tel-Tskiff at seven o'clock the next morning, the 16th 
 November, and in two hours' ride reached Tel-Kaif, the largest and 
 most important Chaldean village in Assyria. There again I was 
 received with music and chanting from the clerical body, headed 
 by one of the bishops, who had taken the part of the community; 
 and, on entering the village, most of the inhabitants turned out to 
 welcome me, — the women showing their pleasure by ejaculating 
 the common prolation of joy habitual among the women of Bib-
 
 158 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 lical lands, called Tahleel.* I found, on arriving there, that the 
 chief of the village and the bishop had prepared breakfast for me 
 and retinue; I was therefore compelled to accept of their hos- 
 pitality. After having spent about two hours with them, and 
 learned of their grievances, I left for Mossul, which I reached in 
 three hours' ride. Other relatives and friends met me on the way, 
 and by the time I entered the town my party, including a guard 
 of honor, which was sent out by the authorities to escort me, looked 
 quite formidable. I took my charters at my uncle's house, and, 
 according to the usage of the country, as soon as I arrived, visitors 
 began to flock in to Avelcome me back to Mossul, and continued to 
 do so until nearly midnight. 
 
 I had the next day to pay my official visits to the governor 
 of Mossul and other public functionaries, including the French 
 consul, the rejected patriarch of the Chaldeans, the Latin priests, 
 and the metropolitans of the Catholic and Jacobite Syrians. Wher- 
 ever I went, I heard nothing but the subject of the reHgious dis- 
 pute between the contending Chaldeans. 
 
 The other Christians of Mossul, called Spian Jacobites and 
 Syrian CathoUcs, had also been at loggerheads for some years, re- 
 garding the disputed proprietorship of certain churches. At one 
 time the Porte allowed them to divide the places of worship by 
 a partition-wall; another time they supported the Jacobites, and 
 suffered them to take possession of the whole; and ultimately, 
 through the interference of the French embassy at Constantinople, 
 the Catholics were permitted to appropriate the principal church. 
 This last arrangement, now in force, is a great annoyance to the 
 Jacobites, especially to those who lived in the neighborhood of 
 the church possessed by the Eoman Catholics, and have to walk a 
 great distance to seek another place of worship. 
 
 The Roman Catholics in Turkey have always had the pro- 
 tection of the French Government, and the Greeks that of Eussia; 
 but the Jacobites and the Reformed Chaldeans had no one to 
 succor them against oppression and persecution. They resolved, 
 
 * It is supposed that this exclamation of joy is derived from the 
 sacred Aramean word, hallelujah, which means "Praise ye God;" that 
 is to say, when certain females wish to show their pleasure at seeing 
 an individual, or to seal tlieir approval of any ceremony, they give God 
 the praise, by hallooing Halle-le-le-le-le-1! It is not becoming for men 
 to make this vociferation, but only the females.
 
 AFFAIRS AT MOSSUL. 159 
 
 consequently, to petition the British ambassador at the Turkish 
 capital to extend to them his moral aid, especially as it was rumored 
 that the British Government was trying to establish reform in 
 Turkey, since the Porte seemed to shrink from the duty of seeing 
 justice done to Ottoman subjects. The Sultan's Government only 
 eared how to satisfy the behest of foreign Powers. Her Majesty's 
 ambassador did his best to bring the grievances of the Chaldeans 
 and Syrian Jacobites to the notice of the Government; but the 
 Vatican party was too powerful and active to be balked. The con- 
 sequence was, the Latin priests had it their own way, and whatever 
 they dictated, it turned to their advantage. 
 
 As soon as the Chaldeans found that their patriarch had played 
 them false by giving in his submission to the Latin priests, they 
 east him off; and the few bishops and priests who adhered to him. 
 they turned out of their churches. With the exception of a few 
 extreme Papists, all the Chaldeans in the rural districts followed 
 their example, and declared that they would sooner break off all 
 connection with the Church of Eome than submit to its tyrannical 
 interference with their rights. This independence on the part 
 of the Chaldeans did not naturally suit the Latin piiests, who were 
 the originators of the quarrel; and so, through their influence 
 with the French consul at Mossul, and their embassy at Constanti- 
 nople, coupled with the weakness of the authorities, they began to 
 bully and persecute the whole Chaldean community, to compel them 
 to obey the patriarch. According to common report, some of the 
 Anti-Bullit^s were maltreated, beaten, and even wounded by the 
 other small section of the community. One man who was roughly 
 handled and wounded, complained to me that he had petitioned 
 the governor of Mossul three times to have his ease looked into, 
 but no attention was paid to his representations, though the man 
 was dangerously ill from the injuries received. 
 
 On my speaking to the Pasha about the unhappy state of 
 affairs, and the plight the Chaldeans were in, he said that he was 
 bound to support the patriarch's party, and dared not countenance 
 any opposition from those who seceded from their legal religious 
 head. He said, however, that if I could only manage to get the 
 Porte to send him a few words, ordering him to act equally towards 
 all, he would see that no injustice was committed against any one. 
 Even the Mohammedans could not make out how a whole com- 
 munity could be coerced to follow the dictates of any man in hi&
 
 160 ASSHUR AXD THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 religious views, when they do not choose to accept them. They 
 said, supposing a patriarch became a Moslem, would his community 
 be compelled to follow his example? The answer was, No, because 
 according to Mohammedan law, when a man apostatizes he has to 
 leave his party, instead of forcing his former followers to adopt 
 his ideas. 
 
 It was extraordinary that the very patriarch who had the pluck 
 to speak in strong terms at Saint Peter's at Rome, in 1871, against 
 the proposed dogma of infallibility of the Pope during the sitting 
 of the Ecumenical Council, and opposed for six years the Eomish 
 innovations, should ultimately submit. It was said at the time that, 
 through the threat of excommunication, coupled with pecuniary 
 advantages, he bowed the knee to the Holy See. But he died 
 broken-hearted at the advanced age of, I believe, ninety-five, as 
 he failed to induce the Chaldean community, by threat or perse- 
 cution, to embrace his newly-acquired dogma. I was one of those 
 who were present at his death-bed, and heard his last "will and testa- 
 ment read. He forgave all the laymen who opposed him, and 
 prayed for their conversion; but all the bishops, priests, and dea- 
 cons, who still persisted in adhering to the old principles, he ex- 
 communicated as men who were out of the pale of the Holy Cath- 
 olic Church, The most remarkable step he took was to appoint, 
 a few days before his death, a vicar to carry on the temporal duties 
 of the patriarchate after his demise, — an appointment which he 
 had no legal or ecclesiastical power to make; but it suited the de- 
 signs of the Vatican party admirably, and they, as a matter of 
 course, supported it. 
 
 Every one thought that, after the death of the patriarch, the 
 Chaldean community would be at liberty to choose a successor 
 according to their liking; but it was soon proved that Romish influ- 
 ence was a great barrier to their success. Long before the venerable 
 old man breathed his last, the patriarchate was taken possession of 
 by the French consul; and as soon as he expired the newly-ap- 
 pointed vicar was placed in charge of the patriarchate until a 
 successor was elected from among those prelates who accepted the 
 infallibility dogma and acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope 
 in all ecclesiastical matters. 
 
 I tried all I could to reconcile Mar Yoseph Odo with the Chal- 
 dean community, but to no purpose. The former insisted upon the 
 latter licking the dust by humbling themselves to him; and the
 
 AFFAIRS AT MOSSUL. 1^^ 
 
 Chaldeans, on the other hand, adhered to their former resolve, and 
 declared they would have nothing to do with any man who acted 
 as a slave to the Vatican. 
 
 It appeared that, in virtue of an extraordinary order from the 
 Porte to the governor of Mossiil (which was said to have been ob- 
 tained through the influence of the Latin priests at the Turkish 
 capital), the patriarch was allowed to have the entire control of 
 church property, in defiance of law and justice. The Chaldeans 
 protested against the arbitrary proceeding, and, though they ap- 
 pealed to the Porte repeatedly for redress, their prayer was not 
 Ustened to; but, on the contrary, the more they protested, the 
 more the Turkish Government proved intractable. The agent ot 
 the Chaldeans at Constantinople went so far as to go to the Porte 
 with the firman in his hand, in which the Sultan had decreed that no 
 foreign potentate was to be allowed to interfere in the ecclesiastical 
 matters of any Christian community, and that the choice of bishops, 
 metropolitans, and patriarchs, was to be under the sole manage- 
 ment of the different communities, requiring only the approval of 
 His Majestv the Sultan. The Grand Vizier was asked whether 
 the libertv'^of conscience, which had been granted by three suc- 
 cessive SuUans to the Christians, had been abrogated, and foreign 
 priests were to be allowed thenceforward to force their innovations 
 in Turkey at will. The agent was rebuked, and made to understand 
 that the Porte was not going to quarrel with all the Catholic Powers 
 on account of such trifling matters. The British ambassador, as 
 I said before, had also brought the grievances of the Chaldean 
 community to the notice of the Turkish Government; and, although 
 the responsible ministers promised to see justice done, they did not 
 lift a finger to stop the persecution, or allow the Chaldeans to 
 choose even a temporary ecclesiastical head to administer the neces- 
 sary Church ordinances. 
 
 To the surprise of every one, a secret telegram was received 
 one day by the governor of Mossul from the Porte, apprising him 
 of the Imperial favor to permit the Vatican party to elect another 
 patriarch in the place of Monsignor Yoseph Odo. In the mean- 
 time the Latin priests, with the vicar apostolic, convened a meet- 
 ing of the Chaldean prelates who were of their own way of think- 
 ing, and had one of them elected patriarch. The choice fell on 
 Moiisignor Petros Elijah, the metropolitan of Jazeerah, a native 
 of Mossul. A few days after that, the French ambassador obtained 
 
 11
 
 162 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 for him the necessary firman, and sent it to him through the French 
 consulate at Mossul, accompanied by the second-class decoration 
 as a mark of the Sultan's favor, both of which were presented 
 to him publicly, to shame those who looked to the English for help. 
 This move acted as a rebuff to those of the Chaldeans who were 
 relying on British aid and building their hopes on the sympathy 
 of Protestant brethren and Christian succor. 
 
 It had been represented to the Porte by the Eomanists that 
 those of the Chaldeans who disagreed with their patriarch were 
 few in number, and belonged to the lowest class of the community ; 
 and in order to support their disgraceful misrepresentations, they 
 forwarded a petition to the Porte showing their unanimity, and 
 affixing thereto hundreds of feigned seals, which were got up for the 
 occasion. The Anti-Bullites, who were certainly nineteen to one 
 in comparison to the Vatican party, protested against the dis- 
 honesty of the minority, and begged that a court of inquiry might 
 be appointed to investigate the matter; but no notice whatever was 
 taken of the complaint. 
 
 The two bishops who took the part of the community, after 
 much bullying and annoyance, together with the promise of pe- 
 cuniary benefits, returned to their former allegiance, and left the 
 Chaldeans in the lurch. Consequently, they had no prelate to 
 carry on the higher duties of the Church until ]\Ionsignor Elijah 
 Mallous came _ from Malabar, and bravely faced all antagonism 
 and malignity of the Eomish party, in assuming the directorship 
 of the Chaldean hierarchy. 
 
 This prelate, who is the most enlightened and educated among 
 the Chaldean Episcopacy, was sent to Malabar by the late patriarch, 
 Monsignor Yoseph Odo, when he Avas in an open breach with the 
 Vatican, to act as the metropolitan of that branch of the Chaldean 
 Church in Cochin. During the time he was there, he was opposed 
 by all manner of means in his ecclesiastical functions by the Eoman 
 Catholics, whether British or otherwise. As he was very much liked 
 by the natives, he could not easily be got rid of, but his opponents 
 had him excommunicated; and, whether by threats or undue influ- 
 ence with the native authorities, they managed to alienate a large 
 portion of his community from his sacerdotal jurisdiction. He 
 appealed, on several occasions, for Protestant succor; but those 
 who would have assisted him were debarred from doing so, either on
 
 THE CHALDEAN CHURCH. 163 
 
 account of their conuection with the Indian Government or the 
 missionary societies in England.* 
 
 At the time the Chaldean or Assyrian Church was at the zenith 
 of its prosperity, and neither lieresies nor schisms had afflicted 
 the Eastern or Western orthodoxy, it had an important branch 
 on the Malabar coast in Western India, commonly designated 
 Christians of Saint Thomas, because those people claimed their 
 conversion to Christianity through the preaching of that disciple 
 of Christ. The Chaldean patriarch, who was called in the infancy 
 of the Church, "Patriarch of the East," supplied the Malabar Chris- 
 tians with bishops and metropolitans, and kept up a regular pastoral 
 communication with them until the Chaldeans were beset by dis- 
 orders within, and bitter foes without. From that day forward 
 they became unequal to the task of ministering to the spiritual 
 wants of their co-religionists at Malabar, and left the field open 
 to the craft and machinations of the Latin and Jacobite priests, 
 who lost no time in invading the long-coveted region, and who 
 managed, by deceit and undue influence, to have a footing amongst 
 
 them. 
 
 The Jacobites, whose rituals and language are not unlike those 
 of the Chaldeans, found no difficulty to proselytize the Christians 
 of Malabar, inasmuch as they did not, at first, point out to them 
 the difference that existed between their tenets and those of the 
 so-called Nestorians. The Latins, on the other hand, brought the 
 influence of the Portuguese Government to bear upon the con- 
 sciences of those who did not unite themselves to the Monophysite 
 system. Though the Malabarians were altogether neglected by the 
 mother Church, they never ceased writing and sending emissaries 
 to the Chaldean patriarch for bishops; but the fear of offending 
 the Vatican authorities, who had repeatedly warned Monsignor 
 Yoseph Odo against any interference in the spiritual concerns of 
 the Malabar Roman Catholics, debarred him from attending to 
 their request. Ultimately, however, the Malabarians threatened 
 that if he did not comply with their wishes, they would Join the 
 Jacobite Church; whereupon, on the pressure of some of the lead- 
 ing Chaldeans at Mossul, the patriarch dispatched a bishop to 
 Cochin to minister to the wants of the community; but there was 
 
 * See the next page.
 
 164 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 so much opposition and threat of excommunication evinced by 
 the Vatican party, that the said prelate was obhged to return to 
 Mossul without having accomplished the object of his mission. 
 Afterwards, when the patriarch went to Rome and disapproved of 
 the pretensions of the Papal party, he was determined to send 
 another bishop to Malabar; and, as soon as he arrived at Mossul, 
 he chose Mar Elijah Mallous, who also had been at Eome in the 
 time of the Ecumenical Council, and considered the infallibility 
 question to be quite preposterous. Indeed, evangelical truths were 
 so inherent in him that he held all Romish innovations in utter 
 abhorrence, as he believed them to be opposed to the Christian 
 doctrine. 
 
 As soon as this prelate set his foot in Malabar, every cunning 
 and mischievous device was brought to play for the purpose of 
 thwarting him and making his mission abortive; and when the patri- 
 arch was won over by Romish infliience, Mar Elijah was ordered 
 to return to Mossul; but he refused to do so, on account of the 
 affection he had for his flock, with whom he had ingratiated him- 
 self. A section of the community, however, were alienated from 
 him, as I said before, through the intrigues of the Latin priests; but 
 others remained faithful to him to the last; and when he had to 
 proceed to Mossul to assume the spiritual charge of the Chaldean 
 community, they gave him handsome presents, and made him prom- 
 ise that he would return to them as soon as he found a proper man 
 to take his place. On his arrival at Mossul, he took ecclesiastical 
 charge of the discontented flock; but after a time, seeing that the 
 Vatican party were too powerful for him, and there was no chance 
 of the Porte granting him the necessary exequatur, on account of 
 foreign political pressure, he had to submit to the Roman Pontiff. 
 He has now been made the metropolitan of the Chaldeans at Diar- 
 bekir, whose prelate has been translated to the patriarchate of 
 that community. 
 
 Mosheim makes the following mention of the ancient Chris- 
 tians of Malabar, in his Ecclesiastical History: "The Nestorians on 
 the seacoast of India, who are commonly called Christians of 
 Saint Thomas, were cruelly harassed by the Portuguese, to induce 
 them to exchange the religion of their fathers, which was much 
 more simple than the Roman, for the Romish worship. The con- 
 summation of this business was reserved for Alexis de Menezes, 
 Archbishop of Goa, who, near the close of the century, with the
 
 THE MALABAR CHRISTIANS. 165 
 
 aid of the Jesuits, compelled this unhappy and reluctant people, 
 by means of amazing severities, to come under the power of the 
 Eoman Pontiff. These violent proceedings of Menezes and his 
 associates have met the disapprobation of persons distinguished 
 for wisdom and equity in the Eomish community." * 
 
 Gibbon also alludes to those (Christians, as follows: "Accord- 
 ing to the legend of antiquity, the gospel was preached in India 
 by Saint Thomas. At the end of the ninth century his shrine, 
 perhaps in the neighborhod of Madras, was devoutly visited by the 
 ambassadors of Alfred; and their return with a cargo of pearls and 
 spices rewarded the zeal of the English monarch, who entertained 
 the largest projects of trade and discovery. When the Portuguese 
 first opened the navigation of India, the Christians of Saint 
 Thomas had been seated for ages on the coast of Malabar, and the 
 difference of their character and color attested the mixture of a 
 foreign race. In arms, in arts, and possibly in virtue, they excelled 
 the natives of Ilindostan. The husbandmen cultivated the palm- 
 tree, the merchants were enriched by the pepper trade, the soldiers 
 preceded the nairs, or nobles, of Malabar, and their hereditary privi- 
 leges were respected by the gratitude, or the fear, of the king of 
 Cochin and the Zamorin himself. They acknowledged a Gentoo 
 sovereign; but they >vere governed, even in temporal concerns, by 
 the Bishop of Angamala. He still asserted his ancient title of 
 metropolitan of India; but his real Jurisdiction was exercised in 
 fourteen hundred churches, and he was intrusted with the care 
 of two hundred thousand souls. 
 
 "Their religion would have rendered them the finest and most 
 cordial allies of the Portuguese; but the inquisitors soon discerned 
 in the Christians of Saint Thomas the unpardonable guilt of heresy 
 and schism. Instead of owning themselves the subjects of the 
 Eoman Pontiff, the spiritual and temporal monarch of the globe, 
 they adhered, like their ancestors, to the communion of the Nes- 
 torian patriarch; and the bishops whom he ordained at Mossul trav- 
 ersed the dangers of the sea and land to reach their diocese on the 
 coast of Malabar. In their Syriac liturgy, the names of Theodore 
 and Nestorius were piously commemorated. They united their 
 adoration of the two persons of Christ; the title of Mother of God 
 was offensive to their ear; and they measured with scrupulous 
 
 * Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History," Cen. XVI, Book IV, Sec. iii, 
 chap, i, clause 7.
 
 166 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 avarice the honors of the Virgin Mary, whom the superstition of 
 the Latins had almost exalted to the rank of a goddess. When her 
 image was first presented to the disciples of Saint Thomas, they in- 
 dignantly exclaimed, 'We are Christians, not idolaters!' and their 
 simple devotion was content with the veneration of the Cross. 
 Their separation from the Western world had left them in ignorance 
 of the improvements or corruptions of a thousand years; and their 
 conformity with the faith and practice of the fifth century would 
 equally disappoint the prejudices of a Papist or a Protestant. 
 
 ''It was the first care of the ministers of Rome to intercept all 
 correspondence with the Nestorian patriarch, and several of his 
 bishops expired in the prisons of the holy office. The flock, without 
 a shepherd, was assaulted by the power of the Portuguese, the arts 
 of the Jesuits, and the zeal of Alexis de Menezes, Archbishop of 
 Goa, in his personal visitation of the coast of Malabar. The Synod 
 of Diamper, at which he presided, consummated the pious work 
 of the reunion, and rigorously imposed the doctrine and discipline 
 of the Roman Church, without forgetting auricular confession, the 
 strongest engine of ecclesiastical torture. The memory of Theodore 
 and Nestorius was condemned, and Malabar was reduced under the 
 dominion of the Pope, of the primate, and of the Jesuits, who 
 invaded the See of Angamala or Oranganor. Sixty years of servi- 
 tude and hypocrisy were patiently endured; but as soon as the 
 Portuguese Empire was shaken by the courage and industry of 
 the Dutch, the Nestorians asserted with vigor and effect the re- 
 ligion of their fathers. The Jesuits were incapable of defending 
 the power which they had abused; the arm.s of forty thousand 
 Christians where pointed against their falling tyrants, and the 
 Indian archdeacon assumed the character of bishop till a fresh 
 supply of episcopal gifts and Syriac missionaries could be ob- 
 tained from the patriarch of Babylon. Since the expulsion of the 
 Portuguese, the Nestorian creed is freely professed on the coast 
 of Malabar. The trading companies of Holland and England are 
 the friends of toleration; but if oppression be less mortifying than 
 contempt, the Christians of Saint Thomas have reason to complain 
 of the cold and silent indifference of their brethren of Europe." * 
 
 * Gibbon's "Roman Empire," chap, xlvii: "The Christians of St. 
 Thomas." Since all the Chaldeans of Baghdad and Mossul embraced 
 the Papal faith, all the Christians of St. Thomas, excepting those who 
 turned Monophysites, have .joined themselves to the Mother Church.
 
 THE CHRISTIANS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 167 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to give a short account of the ex- 
 isting Christian nationalities of Mesopotamia and Assyria, as well 
 as of their origin, especially as there has been a good deal of dis- 
 cussion and caviling for the last fifty years as to the pretensions 
 of the Assyrian Christian community to the national name of 
 Chaldean. This is the more so, as the doctrinal misnomer of 
 Nestorians has been fastened on them, though they have never had 
 any connection with that harshly-used prelate, either in his na- 
 tionality or spiritual charge. 
 
 With the exception of a few Armenian families at Baghdad, 
 Diarbekir, Orfa, and Mardeen, and some who are attached to the 
 Greek Church at the former place, the whole of the Christian com- 
 munity now inhabiting the country above alluded to are divided 
 into four different sects, having, in my opinion, the same Chaldean 
 or Assyrian origin; but they are now styled Chaldean Nestorians, 
 Chaldean Catholics, Syrian Jacobites, and Syrian Catholics. The 
 Nestorian community occupy the southern part of Koordistan, and 
 in the vicinity of Lake Ormi in Northwestern Persia, bordering 
 on Assyria. The Syrian Jacobites and Syrian Catholics are almost 
 always to be found together, at Baghdad, Mossul, and its immediate 
 vicinity, at Mardeen, Diarbekir, and the Toor Mountains in the 
 extreme southwestern limit of Koordistan. There are also some 
 families of these communities in Syria and Palestine, but they lo 
 not possess much influence. 
 
 The patriarch of the Nestorian Chaldeans is styled "Patriarch 
 of the East," and resides at Kochanis in Joolamairk in Koordistan. 
 The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholics is styled ''Patriarch of 
 Babylon," and resides at Mossul. It is not the case, as some his- 
 torians assert, that the patriarch of the Papal Chaldeans assumes 
 the name of Joseph. Though the late patriarch's name was 
 Joseph (this being his Christian name), yet the two patriarchs 
 before him bore different names; namely, Yohanan and Nicolas 
 Zaia; while the present patriarch is called Awd-Ishu, or "Servant 
 of Jesus." 
 
 The patriarch of the Syrian Jacobites styles himself "Patriarch 
 of the See of Antioch," and assumes the name of his predecessors, 
 "Ignatius." He resides either at Dair (that is, monastery of) 
 Zaafaran, near Mardeen, or at Diarbekir. The patriarch of the 
 Papal S}Tians also styles himself "Patriarch of the See of Antioch," 
 and also assumes the name of his predecessors, "Ignatius." His resi-
 
 168 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 dence is either at Mardeen, overlooking the extensive plains of 
 Mesopotamia, or at Aleppo.* 
 
 The Jacobites belong to that part of the Christian Church, 
 called Monophysite, that followed the doctrine of Eutychus, who 
 flourished in the fifth century, and believed that in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ there is but one nature. Assemani asserts, in order to avoid 
 the appearance of following Eutychus, with whom they profess 
 to have no connection, they cautiously define their doctrine, deny- 
 ing all confusion and interruption of the two natures, and represent 
 the nature of Christ as being indeed one, yet at the same time 
 compound and double. 
 
 The Monophy sites are divided into four branches; namely, 
 Jacobites, Armenians, Copts, and Abyssinians. But, as it is not 
 my intention to touch upon the constitution of the last three men- 
 tioned sects, I will onlv remark that, of all the Monophysites, only 
 these are remaining; namely, Armenians, Copts, and Abyssinians, 
 who have retained the name of their nationalities; whereas, the 
 Jacobites are nicknamed after Jacob Baradeus, the zealous de- 
 fender of their faith, who died at Edessa, in A. D. 578, where he 
 had been bishop.t 
 
 Mosheim gives a graphic and true account of the Jacobite 
 doctrine and constitution, and I can not do better than quote some 
 extracts from his valuable statement. He says: "Many, while care- 
 ful to shun the fault of Nestorius, ran into the opposite extreme. 
 The most noted of these was Eutychus, abbot of a certain convent 
 of monks at Constantinople; from whom originated another sect, 
 directly opposite to that of Nestorius, but equally troublesome and 
 mischievous to' the interests of Christianity; and which, like that, 
 spread with great rapidity throughout the East, and acquired such 
 strength in its progress, that it gave immense trouble, both to the 
 Nestorians and to the Greeks, and became a great and powerful 
 community. In the year 448, Eutychus, now far advanced in years, 
 in order more effectually to put down Nestorius, to whom he was a 
 violent foe, explained the doctrine concerning the person of Christ 
 in the phraseology of the Egyptians, and maintained that there was 
 
 * The present patriarch, Monsignor Behnam Biennee, being a native 
 of Mossul. resides for the present there. 
 
 f The .Jacobites do not lilie to be called by this name, but they style 
 themselves Syrians, which appellation, in my opinion, has neither a 
 legitimate meaning, nor an appropriate sectarianism.
 
 JACOBITE CHRISTIANS. 1^^ 
 
 only one nature in Christ; namely, that of the Word, who became 
 incarnate. Hence he was supposed to deny the humanity of Jesus 
 Christ; and was accused by Eusebius of Doryleum, before a Council 
 called by Flavianus, perhaps in this very year, at Constantinople. 
 And as Eutychus refused to give up his opinions at the bidding 
 of this Council, he was cast out of the Church, and deprived of his 
 office; and he not acquiescing in this decree, appealed to a General 
 Council of the whole Church." * 
 
 Mosheim further remarks that "when the Monophysites were 
 nearly in despair, and very few of their bishops remained, some 
 of them being dead, and others in captivity, an obscure man. 
 Jacobus, surnamed Baradeus, or Zanzalus, to distinguish him from 
 others of the name, restored their fallen state. This indigent monk, 
 a most indefatigable and persevering man, being ordained bishop 
 by a few bishops who were confined in prison, traveled over all the 
 East on foot, constituted a vast number of bishops and presbyters, 
 revived everywhere the depressed spirits of the Monophysites, and 
 was so efficient by his eloquence and his astonishing diligence, 
 that when he died, in the year 578, at Edessa, where he had been 
 bishop, he left his sect in a very flourishing state in Syria, in Meso- 
 potamia, in Armenia, in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, and in other 
 countries. lie extinguished nearly all the dissensions among the 
 Monophysites; and as their churches were so widely dispersed in 
 the East that the Bishop of Antioch could not well govern them 
 all, he associated with him a Maphrian, or primate, of the East, 
 whose residence was at Tagritum, on the borders of Armenia. His 
 efforts were not a little aided in Egypt and the neighboring regions 
 by Theodosius of Alexandria. From this man, as the second 
 father of the sect, all the Monophysites in the East are called 
 
 Jacobites." f 
 
 The present Jacobites still maintain the old heretical formula 
 of attributing to God Almighty the suffering on the cross by add- 
 ing the words, "was crucified for us," to the celebrated hymn which 
 the Greeks call Trisagion, "0 Holy God, Holy Almighty, 
 Holy Eternal." It was introduced in the fifth century by Peter, 
 surnamed Fuller, Bishop of Antioch. 
 
 * Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. VI, Book II, cliap. v, 
 chap. V, section 13. 
 
 t Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. VI, Book II, chap, v, 
 
 section 6.
 
 170 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the eo-called Syrian Jacobites and 
 Syrian Catliolics are not natives of what is known in Europe as 
 Syria, and there are very few families of their sects in that country; 
 whereas the majority of the Christians in Syria are called Maronites, 
 Greeks, and Armenians. The word Syrian, or Syriannee, as it is 
 called in Arabic, is known in the East simply to denote a re- 
 ligious sect, and not natives of any country in particular; for, al- 
 though some modern geographers have tried to define the limits 
 of Syria, yet it is a known fact that neither the Hebrews nor the 
 Greeks knew exactly what constituted the boundary of Syria, or 
 what is really meant by the Syriac language. In the English ver- 
 sion of the Holy Bible, the words Aram and Aramaic are ren- 
 dered Syria and S}Tiac, — words which have no similarity to them, 
 either in sound or sense. It is conjectured by a number of authors 
 that the word Syria is a corruption of Assyria, as it is mentioned 
 by Herodotus that "this people, whom the Greeks call Syrians, are 
 called Assyrians by the Barbarians." * 
 
 * Herodotus, Book VII, chap. Ixiii.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Chaldean community considers itself, and rightly so, the 
 most ancient, and belongs to the oldest Christian Church. As 
 regards their nationality, it is asserted that they are descended from 
 those Chaldeans, or Assyrians, mentioned in Holy Writ, and the 
 list of names, which composed the heads of the Church, shows that 
 their forefathers professed Christianity as early as the first century. 
 
 It can not be denied that Christianity spread in Northern 
 Mesopotamia in the first century of the Christian era, or soon after 
 the ascension of our Lord; and whether Saint Peter, Saint Thomas, 
 or one of the seventy apostles preached to the Chaldeans or x\s- 
 syrians, there is no doubt that the bulk of the inhabitants of 
 Mesopotamia and iVssyria were among the earliest Christians who 
 believed in the Savior. 
 
 I need not say that the origin of the Chaldeans is disputed by 
 those who profess to know a good deal about the history of the Old 
 World, but who, nevertheless, can not show from what stock the 
 present Chaldeans have sprung. They allege that when that part 
 of the Nestorian community embraced the Roman Catholic faith, 
 about two hundred years ago, the Pope of that time bestowed upon 
 them the dignified title of Chaldeans. They can not help, how- 
 ever, extending to them the ancient name of Assyrians, because 
 the land which they now inhabit has been called by that appella- 
 tion. Yet they forget that at one time, especially at the latter 
 end of the Ass}Tian monarchy, Chaldean and Ass}Tian were s}ti- 
 onymous words, and the nation was sometimes known by one name 
 and sometimes by the other, the same as the words English and 
 British are used. 
 
 The late Dr. Grant, a member of the American Board of Mis- 
 sions, well-known for his philanthropy and Christian love to the 
 Nestorians published a work entitled "The Nestorians ; or. The 
 Lost Tribes," wherein he tries to prove that the existing Nestorians 
 are the descendants of "the dispersed of Israel." In this work he 
 speaks of the word Chaldean in the following terms: "Chaldean 
 is a name commonly used to distinguish the Papal, but it is seldom 
 applied to the orthodox Nestorians, and when so applied it is 
 used to express their relation to Abraham, who was from "Ur 
 
 171
 
 172 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 of the Chaldees/' * This remark, on the face of it, contradicts 
 itself, because, if the Nestorians are related to Abraham, who 
 was a Chaldean, surely they themselves must also be of that 
 nationality. 
 
 Then Messrs Smith and Dwight, two American missionaries, in 
 a work they published, entitled "Eesearches in Armenia," make the 
 following comment upon the word Chaldean: "The present Chal- 
 dean Christians are of recent origin. It was in A. D. 1681, that the 
 Nestorian metropolitan of Diarbekir, having quarreled with his 
 patriarch, was first consecrated by the Pope, Patriarch of the 
 Chaldeans. The sect was as new as the office, and created for it. 
 Converts to Popery from the ISTestorian and Jacobite Churches 
 were united in one body, and dignified by the name of the Chal- 
 dean Church. It means no more than Papal Syrians, as we have 
 in other parts Papal Armenians and Papal Greeks." Whether this 
 story is a surmise on their part, or they obtained the information 
 from a reliable source, they do not show. If the latter, it is curi- 
 ous they did not give their authority for such an extraordinary 
 statement, because the Oriental records in the Vatican show that 
 long before the era they quote, when they say the Chaldeans of 
 Diarbekir assumed this name, letters are extant from the Nestorian 
 patriarchs and bishops, who style themselves Chaldeans. It is 
 absurd to suppose that the Eoman Pontiffs could, or would, give 
 a new national name of "Chaldean" to a people w^ho were not living 
 in either Chaldea or Ass}Tia, as if the converted Nestorians, or 
 Jacobites, never had a nationality at all, unless, indeed, Messrs 
 Smith and Dwight supposed that tlie present Chaldeans of Diar- 
 bekir are descendants of Xestorius, or Jacob Baradeus! The fol- 
 lowing quotations from Assemanni, a Syrian historian, show the 
 absurdity of this assertion. 
 
 First, he remarks that Paul V, the seventh Pope before Inno- 
 cent XI (to w^hom, doubtless, :Messrs. Smith and Dwight refer, as 
 having given the name of Chaldean to the Nestorians of Diar- 
 bekir), wrote to Elias, Patriarch of the Chaldeans, who was then 
 a Nestorian, thus: "A great part of the East was infected by this 
 heresy (of Nestoriaus); especially the Chaldeans, who, for this 
 reason, have been called Nestorians." Secondly, in the first page of 
 that volume the same author notices that the Chaldeans, or Assyr- 
 
 * "The Nestorians; or, The Lost Tribes," p. 170.
 
 THE CHALDEANS. 
 
 173 
 
 ians, from that part of the globe which they inhabit, are termed 
 Oriental, and from the heresy they profess, Nestorians.* 
 
 The Keverend G. P. Badger, another writer upon the same 
 subject, says: "When the Latin missionaries had succeeded in 
 forming a schism among the Nestorians of Diarbekir, they wanted 
 a name to distinguish the proselytes. In other instances, the na- 
 tional title of the parent body supplied a ready and unobjection- 
 able appellative. Thus, by prefixing the term 'Catholic,' they 
 adequately, and according to their views appropriately, distinguished 
 the seceders from the Greek, Armenian, and Syrian communities. 
 A difficulty now arose; the new converts styled themselves 'Soor- 
 aye' and 'Nestoraye.' The Eomanists could not call them 'Cath- 
 olic Syrians,' or 'Syrian Catholics,' for this appellation they had 
 already given to their proselytes from the Jacobites, who also 
 called themselves 'Syrians.' They could not term them 'Catholic 
 Nestorians,' as Mr. Justin Perkins, the Independent American 
 missionary does, for this would involve a contradiction. What 
 more natural, then, than that they should have applied to them 
 the title of 'Chaldeans,' to which they had some claims nationally, 
 in virtue of their Assyrian descent." f 
 
 It is a pity that Mr. Badger does not also give his authority 
 for such an assertion. As to the difficulty the Latin missionaries 
 found in giving a name to the Nestorian proselytes, he allows 
 the Armenians, the Greeks, and even the Syrians, to have a name 
 for their nationalities, and yet the poor Nestorians have no nation- 
 ality whatever, not even as much as the slaves who are imported 
 from Circassia or Africa. But that important Chaldean com- 
 
 * "Assemanni," Vol. IV, p. 75, It is amusing to relate that under the 
 head of "Chaldean," in the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is stated on 
 the authority of "P. L. Cornnellau," of Rome, that the Chaldeans were 
 termed thus by Pope Eugenius IV, in A. D. 1447. This is about two 
 hundred and thirty years before the date given by Messrs. Smith 
 and Dwight; whereas it is a linown fact that the Papacy never had 
 any footing in Assyria or Mesopotamia until the sixteenth century. On 
 reading this absurd statement in the Encyclopedia, I wrote to one of my 
 prelate friends at the Vatican to find out who this gentleman named 
 "Cornnellan" was, and whether such a statement, as reported by him, 
 to the editor of the Encyclopedia, existed amongst the records in the 
 Vatican, but he was not able, either to find out who the gentleman 
 was, or wherefrom this information was obtained. 
 
 f "The Nestorians and Their Rituals," Vol. I, p. 180.
 
 174 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 munity at Diarbekir could only boast of the name "Sooraya" and 
 "Nestoraya"' — two Chaldean words, which in that country are 
 applied to rehgious sects; namely. Christian and Nestorian! With 
 regard to the word "Sooraya," if Mr. Badger had examined into 
 the word properly, he would have found that it was used by peas- 
 ants, who spoke nothing else but Chaldean; and as the natives 
 of Diarbekir speak merely Arabic and Turkish, the word "Sooraya" 
 would be foreign to them as much as "Nestoraya." All the 
 Eoman Catholic Chaldean peasantry speak nothing but corrupt 
 Chaldaic, which is commonly known as "Fallaihee,^' or Peasant 
 language; whereas, the respectable Chaldeans, who inhabit the 
 towns, speak the language of the place, Arabic, Turkish, or Per- 
 sian; and Chaldaic is only used in their rituals, as the Latin among 
 the Eoman Catholics. The peasantry do certainly call themselves 
 "Sooraya" and "Msheehaya," but they use those words to dis- 
 tinguish themselves from their Mohammedan neighbors, whom 
 they style "Koordaya" and "Tayaya" — that is to say, a Koord, and 
 the name of an Arab tribe called Tai, who occupy the country at 
 the junction of the great Zab with the Tigris. 
 
 The words "Msheehaya" and "Sooraya" are also applied by 
 the Nestorians to all peoples who profess Christianity; but the 
 peasantry of the Papal Chaldeans use the term "Sooraya" for all 
 Christians, but they limit the word Msheehaya only to Eoman 
 Catholics.* If Sooraya means Syrian, how can the Nestorians 
 be so named, unless they are made to be descendants of Aram, or 
 emigrated from Syria? 
 
 In another place Mr. Badger tries to prove his argument by 
 quoting certain writings of the so-called Nestorians, that the Chal- 
 deans at that time were Gentiles, and the word, therefore, could 
 not be appHed to any Christian Church. He writes: "Whenever 
 the term 'Chaldeans' occurs in the Nestorian rituals, which it does 
 only in two instances, it is not used to designate a Christian com- 
 munity, but the ancient sect, who have been called also "Sabeans," or 
 
 * Msheehaya means Messianite, or Christian; and Sooraya is a 
 corruption of "Syrian," used in a religious sense, inherited most prob- 
 ably from the Oriental fathers, who were known in the time of the 
 Crusades as the peuple des Suriens. the Oriental Christians, Melchites, 
 Jacobites, or Nestorians. "Historians of the Crusaders," Vol. IV, p. 
 593. Gibbon's "Roman Empire," chap Iviii, under the head of Syrians. 
 (Note.)
 
 THE CHALDEANS. 175 
 
 worshipers of the heavenly host, from the Semitic root, tsaba (xai"). 
 Mar Abd-Yeshua uses it in the same sense. Thus he writes: ''Gaw- 
 riel. Bishop of Hormuzd-shir, wrote a work against Manes, and 
 another against the Chaldeans;" and again: "Daniel of Reish Aina, 
 wrote poems against the Marcionites, Manichees, heretics, and 
 Chaldeans." * 
 
 If we take the above as a convincing test to Mr. Badger's 
 theory, we might just as well consider that the Hebrews, to whom 
 Saint Paul addressed his Epistles, were not Christians, because, 
 forsooth, some Catholic divines had written in another place 
 against the doctrine of the unbelieving Hebrews. Then, if we refer 
 to the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we shall find that 
 there were in those days Christian as well as unbelieving Hebrews. 
 Even Saint Paul called himself a Hebrew, though he was then a 
 believer in Christ. Furthermore, the word Chaldean, though a 
 national name, was applied at one time to a certain class of priest- 
 hood, and we ought, therefore, not to allow that such a nation as 
 Chaldean ever existed.f 
 
 Mr. Badger further maintains that "if the modern Nestorians 
 are descendants of the ancient Chaldeans, and may therefore justly 
 lay claim to the title, no valid objection can be urged against the 
 assertion; but in this national acceptation of the term, the Nesto- 
 rian proselytes to Rome, the Jacobites, Sabeans, Yezedees, and 
 many of the Koords of this district, raa}^ with equal right, take 
 to themselves the appellation, there being as much proof to establish 
 their descent from the Chaldeans of old, or rather the Assyrians, 
 as there is in the case of the Nestorians." $ This remark is correct 
 in one sense, and wrong in another; correct as far as the aborigines 
 are concerned, including even the Mohammedans and other semi- 
 pagan nationalities who inhabit Mesopotamia and Assyria; but 
 how can they be forced to call themselves Chaldeans, especially 
 as they are now a mingled race? Since the conquest of that country 
 by the Moslems, all nationalities who believed in Mohammed aban- 
 doned the names of their pagan nationalities, and adopted one 
 nomenclature, which suited the taste of the conquerors. But Mr. 
 Badger is mistaken with regard to the Koords, as they have been 
 
 * "The Nestorians and Their Rituals," Vol. I, p. 178. 
 t Job i, 17; Daniel i. 4; iii, 8; iv, 7; Habak. i. 6-10. 
 t "The Nestorians and Their Ritual," Vol. I, p. 178.
 
 176 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 called by that name from time immemorial; nor could we call the 
 Turcomans Chaldeans, as they might have been Tartar settlers 
 after the conquest of the country by the Turks. 
 
 In Aramaic and Arabic, Assyria is called "Athoor," by which 
 name it has always been known in that country; but by the He- 
 brews it was called Ashur (n^i^x). The th was changed into sh, and 
 it may be that in this sense, and not in its meaning of Syrian, 
 the word "Sooraya" has been corrupted by the Aramean-speaking 
 people.* 
 
 Three ancient Arab historians, Yakoot, Aboo Alfoda, and Ibn 
 Saeed, use the word Athoor first for Mossul and Mesopotamia, 
 the second for Mmroud, and the third for Nineveh proper. 
 The last mentioned author says: "The city of Athoor, which is 
 in ruins, is mentioned in the Old Testament. There dwelt the 
 Assyrian kings who destroyed Jerusalem." 
 
 The followers of ISTestorius did, and very often do, call them- 
 selves Nestorians; but that is merely for the sake of distinguishing 
 themselves from the other sects, just as much as a Wesley an, Cal- 
 vinist, or a Lutheran, if writing upon a religious matter, may not 
 think it improper to say, we Wesleyans, Calvinists, or Lutherans. 
 Surely such words could not be misunderstood to mean national- 
 ities! But why the sectarian name of Nestorian should be forced 
 upon the Chaldeans, in the sense of a nationality, is a mystery! 
 
 Now let us see what ancient historians say with regard to the 
 title of Chaldean, which has been alleged to have been given by a 
 certain Pope to the unfortunate obscure people who are denomi- 
 nationally called "Nestorians." 
 
 Bar Hebraeus, who lived in the thirteenth century, in writing 
 about the Aramean language of the Chaldeans, remarks: "The 
 Orientals, who are the descendants of the Chaldeans, are a wonder- 
 ful people. In their tongue there is no difference between the 
 Pthaha and Zkapa. f Who can these Oriental Chaldeans be but 
 the people of that name, and the only nation in the whole world 
 who use these two vowels in their alphabet! 
 
 In another place the same author remarks, with regard to the 
 
 * A large section of the present Yezeedees, who are considered to 
 be descended from the ancient Assyrians, can not pronounce the "th" 
 in through, but always articulate it as ''s;" so, instead of saying Athoor, 
 they would call it Assoor. 
 
 f Two vowel-points in Chaldean.
 
 THE CHALDEANS. 
 
 177 
 
 Aramean language, under the head of the first "Syriac" letter, 
 "Alep," as follows: "There are three dialects of the Syrian tongue; 
 first, the Aramean, or Syriac, properly so-called, which is the most 
 elegant of all, and used in Mesopotamia and by the inhabitants 
 of Roha, or Edessa, of Haran and the outer Syria; second, the 
 dialect of Palestine, spoken by the inhabitants of Damascus, Mount 
 Libanus, and the inner Syria; third, the Chaldee, or Nabathean 
 dialect, the most unpolished of the three, current in the moun- 
 tainous parts of Assyria and in the villages of Irak and Baby- 
 lonia." * 
 
 Here again, no less than five hundred years ago, a Syrian his- 
 torian mentions the very dialect of the Aramean language, which 
 is now used by the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans do not agree, how- 
 ever, with the Syrians, that their phraseology is "unpolished," but, 
 on the contrary, they consider it the finest of all Aramean dia- 
 lects. 
 
 Assemanni, another Syrian historian, makes reference regard- 
 ing the Chaldean Nestorians, as follows: "The Nestorians are not 
 called by this name in the East (for they regard their doctrines 
 as apostolic); and they never had any connection with the person 
 of Nestorius, but are generally called Chaldaic Christians, because 
 their principal, or head Church, is in the ancient Chaldea." f 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to quote what Xenophon, the 
 eminent Greek historian, wrote regarding the nations who occu- 
 pied the Assyrian and Ivoordistan mountains when he passed 
 through that country with the ten thousand auxiliaries four hun- 
 dred years before Christ. He says: 
 
 "At daybreak, however, they perceived on the other side of 
 the river a body of cavalry, in complete armor, ready to prevent 
 them from crossing, and on the high banks above the cavalry 
 another of foot, prepared to hinder them from entering Armenia. 
 There were Armenians, Mardians, and Chaldeans; mercenary troops 
 of Orontes and Artuchas. The Chaldeans were said to be a free 
 people, and warlike; for arms they had long shields and spears. 
 The high banks on which these forces were drawn up were three 
 or four hundred feet from the river; and the only road that was 
 visible was one that led upward, apparently a work of art. Here 
 
 * Abulphargius, His. Dynst., p. 11. 
 fAssemanni Biblioth. Orient, Vol. Ill, Part II, p. 177. 
 
 12
 
 178 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the Greeks endeavored to cross; but as, on making trial, the water 
 rose above their breasts, and the bed of the river was rough with 
 large and slippery stones, and as it was impossible for them to 
 carry their arms in the water, or, if they attempted to do so, the 
 river swept them away (while, if any of them took their arms on 
 their heads, they became exposed to the arrows and other missiles 
 of the enemy), they, in consequence, retreated, and encamped at 
 the side of the river. 
 
 ''They now perceived the Carduchi assembled in great num- 
 bers under arms on the spot where they themselves had been on 
 the previous night. Hence great despondency was felt by the 
 Greeks, as they knew the difficulty of passing the river, and saw 
 the Carduchi ready to attack them if they attempted to cross." * 
 
 Xenophon also gives the following account of the Chaldeans 
 and Armenians in his Cyropaedia: 
 
 "The next day Cyrus, taking Tigranes with him, and the best 
 of the Median horse, together with as many of his own friends 
 as he thought proper, rode round and surveyed the country, ex- 
 amining where he should build a fortress. Going up to a certain 
 eminence, he asked Tigranes what sort of mountains they were 
 from which the Chaldeans came down to plunder the country. 
 Tigranes pointed them out to him. He then inquired again. *No, 
 indeed,' said he; 'but there are always scouts of the Chaldeans there, 
 who give notice to the rest of whatever they observe,' 'And how 
 do they act,' said he, 'when they receive this notice?' 'They hasten 
 with aid to the eminences, just as each can.' Cyrus gave attention 
 to this account; and, looking round, observed a great part of the 
 Armenian territory lying desert and uncultivated, in consequence 
 of the war. They then retired to the camp; and, after taking 
 supper, went to rest." f 
 
 He says furthermore: "The Chaldeans had each a shield and 
 two Javelins; they are said to be the most warlike of all people in 
 that part of the world. They serve as mercenaries, if any one 
 requires their services, being a warlike people, and poor; for their 
 country is mountainous, and but little of it yields anything profit- 
 able. As Cyrus's men approached the heights, Tigranes, who was 
 riding on with Cyrus, said: 'Cyrus, are you aware that we ourselves 
 
 * Anabasis, Book IV, chap, iii, clauses 3 to 8. 
 
 t Cyropaedia, Book III, chap, ii, clauses 1 and 2.
 
 THE CHALDEANS. ^'^^ 
 
 must very soon come to action, as the Armenians will not stand 
 the attack of the enemy?' Cyrus, telling him tliat he knew it, 
 immediately gave orders to the Persians to hold themselves in 
 readiness, as they would have immediately to press forward, as 
 soon as the flying Armenians drew the enemy down so as to be 
 near them. The Armenians accordingly led on; and such of the 
 Chaldeans as were on the spot when the Armenians approached, 
 raised a shout, and ran upon them; and the Armenians, according 
 to their custom, did not stand their charge. When the Chaldeans, 
 pursuing, saw swordsmen fronting them, and pressing up the^ hill, 
 some of them, coming up close to the enemy, were at once killed; 
 some fled, and some were taken; and the heights were immediately 
 gained. As soon as Cyrus's men were in occupation of the summit, 
 they looked down on the habitations of the Chaldeans, and per- 
 ceived them fleeing from the nearest houses." * 
 
 Both the Armenians and Koords (Carduchi) inhabit the same 
 country now; and why not the Chaldeans? The Armenians 
 speak Armenian, the Koords speak Koordish— that is to say, 
 Median or corrupt Persian— and the Chaldeans, Chaldaic. The two 
 former tribes are acknowledged, without any dispute, to be the 
 descendants of the ancient Armenians and Carduchi, and why 
 not the Chaldeans? Even in our present time the Nestorians are 
 considered very warlike and poor, while the Armenians are just 
 the opposite, as they were in the time of Xenophon; why, then, 
 should the Armenians be called Armenians, but the Chaldeans 
 merely Nestorians? 
 
 All the Armenians profess Christianity, like the Chaldeans; but 
 the Koords are Mohammedans, like the Turks and Arabs. If the 
 Nestorians are denied a national name, the Armenians might just 
 as well be called Monophysites, and the Koords merely Haneefites, 
 as the Nestorians call them. 
 
 Having given some of the testimonies of different historians 
 with regard to certain people inhabiting Assyria and the moun- 
 tainous region above it, who were called Chaldeans and Assyrians, 
 but are now all regarded as belonging to the same nationality, I 
 must add a few facts which, in my opinion, are convincing proofs 
 that the present Chaldeans are the descendants of the ancient 
 nation of that name. 
 
 * Cyropaodia, Book III, chap, ii, clauses 7 to 10.
 
 180 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 First, the Chaldeans speak the very same language that was 
 common in the time of our Savior, and their rituals and Scrip- 
 tures, which are called Peshito, are the same now as were used by 
 their remote forefathers. 
 
 Secondly, the present Chaldeans, with a few exceptions, speak 
 the same dialect used in the Targum and in some parts of Ezra 
 and Daniel, which is called Chaldee. The Nestorians never had 
 any other language but this, and it must therefore be taken for 
 granted that it belongs to their original nationality, and was in- 
 herited by them from their forefathers, the Chaldeans, unless, in- 
 deed, the fanciful critics can show that the Popes of Eome made 
 the Eomanized Nestorians adopt the Chaldee language when they 
 bestowed upon them the national name of "Chaldean!" 
 
 Thirdly, if we trace the history of the Aramean language as far 
 back as the time of Abraham (about two thousand years before the 
 Christian era), we shall find there is less difference between it and 
 that used by the so-called ISTestorians, or Chaldeans, of the present 
 day, than there is between Latin and Italian. 
 
 Most of the names of the twelve patriarchs, which were given 
 to them by their Chaldean mothers, are Aramean, and so are the 
 majority of the other names in the Old Testament, whether they 
 belong to the Hebrew or Gentile nations, even before the Deluge. 
 The most striking testimony to the identity of the Aramean lan- 
 guage as it was spoken by Abraham's family, is in the words Laban 
 used when he entered into a covenant with his son-in-law, Jacob, 
 on his return to Canaan. When Jacob fled and was overtaken by 
 Laban, they entered into an agreement for their future conduct, 
 which they sealed by an oath at a heap of stones erected for the 
 occasion. It was called by Jacob "Galeed," a pure Hebrew word, 
 which means "heap of witness," but Laban gave it the name of 
 "Yagar-Shahadootha," * two pure Chaldee words having the same 
 meaning, as they are understood now by the Chaldeans. 
 
 It is well known that the Aramean language has never been 
 lost. It was spoken in the time of the Assyrian,t Babylonia,^ and 
 Medo-Persian § monarchies. It must have been the common lan- 
 guage of Syria and the Holy Land in the time of our Savior, as 
 it is proved from the Aramaic words he used, — such as Talitha 
 
 * Genesis xxxi. 47. 
 
 1 2 Kings xviii, 26. % Daniel ii, 4. § Ezra iv, 7.
 
 THE CHALDEANS. 181 
 
 Cumi (Damsel, arise), Eppathaha (open), Abba (Father), Simon 
 bar (son of) Jonah, thou art Cephas (corruption of Caipa, stone 
 or rock), and Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani (My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me). There are, besides these, other words in 
 the New Testament which are purely Aramaic, the same as they 
 are written and pronounced now by the Chaldeans, such as Acel- 
 dama (field of blood), Maranatha (the Lord 's coming), Emmanuel 
 (God with us), and Hosanna, or Oshaana (He that saves us). 
 
 Lastly, all the Chaldeans, whether ISTestorians or Papal, still 
 keep strictly the three days' fast of what is called "Baootha dnain- 
 wey" (supplication of Nineveh), which the Chaldeans assert to 
 have been continued from the time the Ninevites repented at the 
 preaching of Jonah. The Syrians, who, as I said before, must 
 have belonged to the same stock as the Chaldeans, also keep this 
 fast, but not with the same devotional observances. 
 
 What greater proof can there be of the origin of a people than 
 their language? And certainly the Chaldeans are as much entitled 
 to be called by that name as the Jews, Armenians, Greeks, and 
 Arabs, who now read and speak the languages of their forefathers. 
 As the Assyrian or Aramaic language became the vernacular dialect 
 of Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Holy Land after the Assyrian 
 conquest, so also, when the Arabians took possession of those 
 countries, they established their language, which has been in use 
 up to the present day. 
 
 Though, as I said before, Arabic is the vernacular language 
 of Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Holy Land, yet each ancient sect 
 uses its national or mother tongue in its rituals and other ecclesi- 
 astical rites; but the Chaldeans in Upper Assyria and Koordistan, 
 as well as the Koords, can only speak their own tongue, Chaldean 
 or Koordish; whereas the official work all over the Ottoman domin- 
 ions is carried on in Turkish. 
 
 The language which is used by the Chaldeans is known in Eu- 
 rope by the name of Syriac, but they themselves call it Chaldean. 
 They apply the word Syriac to the character used by the Syrians 
 or Jacobites. It is true there is very little dissimilarity between the 
 Chaldean and Syriac; but there is a difference in the pronunciation 
 of certain words, the vowel points, and in the formation of the 
 letters, as much as there is between old English and the Eoman 
 characters. 
 
 Formerly, all the so-called Syrians employed the same script,
 
 182 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and pronounced every word as the Chaldeans do now; but in the 
 thirteenth century Bar Hebraeus, a promoter of the Jacobites, wish- 
 ing to make a thorough distinction between the writing of the 
 Monophysites and that of the ISTestorians, changed the characters 
 and the vowel points. 
 
 The Chaldean P and A. are changed by the Syrians into Ph 
 and 0. For instance, what the former pronounce our Lord's word, 
 Eppathaha, the latter would call Ephothoho. Then such words as 
 Maranatha (our Lord 's coming), Abba (Father), Talitha (Damsel), 
 Maria (Lord), Allaha (God), the Syrians pronounce "Moronotho," 
 "Obbo," "Toletho," "Morio," and "Olloho." 
 
 The Chaldeans claim also the acquisition of the famous charter 
 granted by Mohammed for the liberty of all the Christian sects, 
 both in their spiritual as well as secular matters, when his power 
 was felt all over the country, now styled Turkey. In the book 
 entitled ''Biography of the Patriarch of the Chaldeans," the story 
 is told thus: 
 
 In the time of the patriarch, 'Tesho-yao-Gdalaya/' who was 
 elected and consecrated patriarch at El-Madayin,* in the Alexan- 
 drian year 939 (A. D. 628), the Persian monarchy was terminated 
 during the reign of Yezdijird (III), the last of the kings, after 
 which time the kingdom remained in a state of interregnum nine 
 hundred and thirty-five years. At the dissolution of the Persian 
 Empire, the terror of the Arabians began to manifest itself, and 
 when it became obvious to the patriarch that their power was in 
 the ascendant, he deemed it expedient to enter into communica- 
 tion with their leader, ]\Iohammed, before his authority was regu- 
 larly established. AVith his embassage, Mar Yesho-yao dispatched 
 handsome presents, and when Mohammed's supremacy was con- 
 firmed, the said prelate negotiated and obtained the desired charter 
 from "the Prophet," covenanting therein to all the Christians sub- 
 ject to his sway, and that of his successors, all immunities and 
 freedom in the exercise of their religious rights, and the keeping 
 up of the establishments of their monasteries and places of wor- 
 
 * This word means "the cities;" that is to say, Ctesiphon and Seleucia, 
 on the right and left banljs of the Tigris, about twenty miles to the 
 south of Baghdad. The former was situated on the east side of that 
 river, and the latter on the west side; thus the ancients called both, the 
 two, or twin, cities. In after years, the remaining quarter of the Greek 
 colony of Seleucia was called "Cochi."
 
 MOHAMMED'S CHARTER. 183 
 
 ship. This charter was attested by the companions of Mohammed, 
 Ah, Abu-Bekr, Omar, Othman, and others; and it seems that le- 
 gally-attested copies of it were given to different Christian com- 
 munities existing at the time. It v\^as in existence about the middle 
 of this century, in the custody of my family at Mossul; but on 
 being lent by my eldest brother to be copied, it was lost sight of, 
 and notliing was seen of it afterwards.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I HAD hoped, on my arrival at Mossul from Wan, to find the 
 longed-for firman awaiting me, to enable me to commence my 
 explorations in Assyria. As there was no sign of its immediate 
 appearance, and I wished to consult the governor-general of Bagh- 
 dad about some matters in connection with my political mission, 
 I had a raft constructed to convey me down the Tigris to the 
 capital of the Irak. 
 
 On former occasions I had a hut built on board the raft, to 
 protect me from wet or heat; but this time I contented myself 
 with the shelter of a Tukht-rewan, or litter (a kind of palanquin 
 borne by mules), which was intrusted to me by Mr. Eussell to take 
 down to Baghdad, as it belonged to Colonel Nixon, the British 
 consul-general at that place. It had been lent to Mrs. Eussell, to 
 bring her comfortably from Baghdad to Mossul, as it would have 
 been very fatiguing to her to make long marches on horseback, 
 especially during winter. 
 
 I started on the 10th of December, at a quarter to one o'clock 
 in the afternoon; and as it was bright moonlight, and I had two 
 rowers to propel the raft, we went on until wc reached the Awayee,* 
 or dam, about midnight. Here the raft was moored until day- 
 light, as the raftmen did not consider it safe to attempt the descent 
 at night, there being not sufficient water to enable us to pass with 
 safety. 
 
 * Awayee means a roarer, from the great noise it makes. It is an 
 old artificial barrier, which stretches across the river. During winter, 
 when the Tigris is very low, the greater part of the rocks are above 
 water, and only a small channel remains, just wide enough to enable 
 a large raft to descend it. Of course, a raft can never go against the 
 current, either at high or low water, and when a heavily-laden vessel 
 has to pass through it, the burden has to be lightened. Even then the 
 raft goes down the cataract with a tremendous crash, and very often 
 one-fourth of the inflated sheepskins either get torn or burst. This 
 dam is a great drawback to the navigation of the Tigris between Bagh- 
 dad and Mossul, because, unless the steamer possesses very high power, 
 she can not make her way up the cataract when the river is high, and 
 when low it is utterly impossible for any vessel drawing more than 
 three feet of water to pass through some shoals above the great Zab. 
 
 184
 
 THE A WA YEE DAM. 185 
 
 Sir Henry Layard notices this dam and another not far 
 from the mound of Mmroud, in his "Nineveh and Its Remains;" 
 and as his narrative is pecuHarly interesting, I will quote it in 
 full. After giving a description of the mound of Nimroud, and 
 other sites in its vicinity, he says: 
 
 "The river flowed at some distance from them; its waters, 
 swollen by the melting of the snows on the Armenian hills, were 
 broken into a thousand foaming whirlpools by an artificial barrier, 
 buih across the stream. On the eastern bank the soil had been 
 washed away by the current; but a solid mass of masonry still 
 withstood its impetuosity. The Arab who guided my small raft 
 gave himself up to religious ejaculations as we approached this 
 formidable cataract, over which we were carried with some violence. 
 Once safely through the danger, he explained to me that this un- 
 usual change in the quiet face of the river Avas caused by a great 
 dam which had been built by Nimroud,* and that in the autumn, 
 before the winter rains, the huge stones of which it was constructed, 
 squared, and united by clamps of iron, were frequently visible 
 above the surface of the stream.f It was, in fact, one of those 
 monuments of a great people, to be found in all the rivers of Meso- 
 potamia, which were undertaken to insure a constant supply of 
 water to the innumerable canals, spreading like network over the 
 surrounding country, and which, even in the days of Alexander, 
 were looked upon as the works of an ancient nation.^ No wonder 
 
 * This dam is called by the Arabs, either Sukr-el-Nimroud, from 
 the tradition, or El-Awayee, from the noise caused by the breaking of 
 the water over the stones. Large rafts are obliged to unload before 
 crossing it, and accidents frequently happen to those who neglect this 
 precaution. 
 
 t Diodorus Siculus, it will be remembered, states that the stones 
 of the bridge built by Semiramis across the Euphrates were united by 
 similar iron clamps, whilst the interstices were filled up with molten 
 lead. 
 
 % These dams greatly impeded the fleets of the conqueror in their 
 navigation of the rivers of Susiana and Mesopotamia, and he caused 
 many of them to be removed. (Strabo, p. 1051, ed. Oc. 1807.) By Strabo 
 they were believed to have been consti-ucted to prevent the ascent of 
 the rivers by hostile fleets: but their use is evident. Ta vernier mentions, 
 in his Travels (Vol. I. p. 226), this very dam. He says that his raft 
 went over a cascade twenty- six feet high; but he must have greatly 
 exaggerated.
 
 186 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 that the traditions of the present inhabitants of the land should 
 assign them to one of the founders of the human race." * 
 
 We resumed our voyage at six o'clock the next morning, and, 
 after we got clear of the Awayee, we floated down smoothly and 
 passed the mouth of the Great Zab at 7.30. Both banks of the 
 Tigris were teeming with Arab encampments, belonging to the 
 Jeboor and Alboo-Hammad tribes. I was invited to land by those 
 who recognized me, but I could not spare the time to go and see 
 them, especially as my visit would have compelled the ceremony 
 of the slaughter of some sheep for feasting me. 
 
 We passed Kalaa-Shirgat at 7.30 P. M., and as it was too late 
 in the evening, I could not land, though I had intended, if we 
 arrived early enough, to examine the mound for future explora- 
 tions. I was awakened during the night by a bump on a sand-shoal; 
 but we soon got off without any damage through the energy of 
 the raftmen, the Dhabtia, and the Turkish guard. We had a 
 heavy shower of rain in the morning, and it continued drizzling 
 all day. We reached Tikreet about midnight, and, after having 
 changed one of our rowers to accompany us to Baghdad, we re- 
 sumed our voyage, and had not proceeded more than two miles 
 before the raft stranded again. This time it struck so firmly on 
 a sand-bank that my servants had to get into the water, not only 
 to lighten the raft, but to assist in getting it off. The poor fellows 
 did not quite relish the task of leaving their warm bed and getting 
 into the cold stream, which made them shiver for an hour or two 
 afterwards. In the morning the weather was very dull; but towards 
 noon it cleared up, and the remainder of the day was most en- 
 joyable. 
 
 At 11.30 A. M., we reached the town of Sammirra, situated on 
 the left bank of the Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of 
 Baghdad. As its historical repute is well known, it is not my pur- 
 pose to enter into it. There the Eoman army, under Jovian, halted, 
 after having tried in vain to oust the Persians from the Irak. It 
 is now a place of pilgrimage to the Persians and other ]\Ioham- 
 medans of the Sheeite persuasion, as it contains the remains of the 
 last Imam of the race of Ali, and where, according to legend, the 
 Mohdee is hid, awaiting the advent of the second coming of Christ. 
 The dome and minarets of the mosque are embellished with enam- 
 
 * I.ayard's "Nineveh and Its Remains," Vol. I, pp. 7, 8.
 
 A lilil VAL AT BA GHDAD. 1 87 
 
 eled tiles and gilded tops, which were put on at the expense of the 
 late Shah of Persia. The town itself is in a dilapidated condition, 
 and the majority of the houses are neither more nor less than tum- 
 bled-down huts, though the place is considered, by both Sheeas 
 and Soonees, to be holy. 
 
 The next morning we began to pass groves of the date-palms 
 and richly-cultivated fields. The noise of the water-wheels, with 
 which the banks of the river are studded, broke the monotony of 
 the splashes of our oars. It rained a little in the evening, and 
 the night seemed rather chilly for those who were sleeping in 
 the open air. 
 
 On the 15th of December, at five A. M., we reached the suburbs 
 of the city of the Cahfs, and, as it was then scarcely daylight, we 
 moored the raft for about an hour near the Tooroomba, or steam- 
 pump, belonging to the Baghdad authorities, used for the purposes 
 of irrigation. We then floated down about two miles further, and 
 moored at the wharf, where the Mossul rafts are generally broken 
 up. The wooden frame is then sold, and the skins packed up for 
 sending back to jMossuI, to be used for another trip. 
 
 My kawass, one of the Dhabtia, and I, then got into a Goofa, 
 and proceeded, under the bridge of boats, as near as possible to the 
 hospitable house of my cousin, Khoaja Yoseph Shammas, where 
 I was invited to remain a guest as long as I liked.* As soon as I 
 
 * The Goofa is a circular boat, made of wicker-work, and daubed 
 over with bitumen, which is peculiar to Baghdad and Hillah. It is the 
 most primitive vessel existing in the world, because, with the exception 
 of the skins with w^hich Herodotus says it used to be covered, he men- 
 tions the very object thus: "But the greatest wonder of all that I saw 
 in the land, after the city itself, I will now proceed to mention. The 
 boats which come down the river to Babylon are circular, and made of 
 skins. The former, which are of willows, are cut in the country of the 
 Armenians above Assyria, and on these, which serve for hulls, a cov- 
 ering of skins is stretched outside, and tluis the boats are made, 
 without either stern or stem, quite round like a shield. They are then 
 entirely filled with straw, and their cargo is put on board, after which 
 they are suffered to float down the stream. Their chief freight is wine,t 
 stored in casks made of the wood of the palm-tree. They are managed 
 by two men, who stand upright in them, each plying an oar, one pull- 
 ing and the other pushing." (Rawlinson's "Herodotus," Book I, chap. 
 194.) Boats of this style are repi-esented on the Assyrian bas-reliefs, 
 [fin a note on the wine mentioned by Herodotus, Canon George Raw- 
 linson, and his brother. Sir Henry, remark in Rawlinson's "Herodotus,"
 
 188 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 arrived, my good old friend, the ^Nawab Ikbal-ad-Doula, came to 
 see me. Afterwards, he and I called on Colonel Nixon, the British 
 political agent and consul-general, and Dr. Colville, the surgeon 
 of the Eesidency, and then returned to my cousin's to breakfast. 
 Hosts of visitors, both Europeans and natives, called on me in the 
 course of the day. In the evening, I received a telegram from Sir 
 Henry Layard, Her Majesty's ambassador at Constantinople, im- 
 parting to me the cheerful news that the Porte had sanctioned the 
 carrying on of my explorations in Assyria. From that day forward, 
 I longed to return to Mossul, to commence my researches in my 
 old haunts. But as I had gone down to Baghdad for the sole ob- 
 ject of consulting the governor-general about some important mat- 
 ters, and His Excellency was away on a pilgrimage in the neigh- 
 borhood of Ctesiphon, I was obliged to await his return before I 
 retraced my steps northward. It was unfortunate that I arrived 
 at Baghdad just at the time when the Moslems' great feast of 
 Dhahhia (or sacrifice) was being commemorated, and there was 
 nothing doing for five or six days, eitlier in the official or other 
 quarters. 
 
 While I was awaiting an interview with the governor-general, 
 I whiled away my time very pleasantly in visiting friends, acquaint- 
 ances, and high personages, — Ottoman, Indian, and Persian gran- 
 dees. Among the former were the Xawab, Ikbal-ad-Doula, of 
 Cud, and Ahmed Agha, who always showed very friendly feehng 
 towards British residents and travelers. 
 
 The dear old Nawab, in particular, was thoroughly Enghsh in 
 sympathy and good-will, and one has only to make himself known 
 to him, and he will receive a hearty welcome and every mark of 
 hospitality. He is so sensitive as regards British honor and pres- 
 tige that he almost cries when he finds anything like a failure or 
 mismanagement on the part of an English official. He is so keen 
 in his affection that he embraces his friends with tender fond- 
 ness. As for the fair sex, he is always extremely polite and affable 
 
 (Book I, chap. 194), that the grape wine could not have been imported 
 into Babylon. The latter says that "the grape wine is now brought to 
 Baghdad from Kerkuk, but not from Armenia, where the vine does 
 not grow." I am at a loss to understand on what ground Sir Henry 
 Rawlinson builds his conclusions that the vine does not grow in Ar- 
 menia; for it is well known that the vine flourishes, both in the so- 
 called Armenia, in Upper Assyria, and all over Koordistan.]
 
 THE NAWAB IKBAL-AD-I)OULA. 189 
 
 to them, whether young or old, pretty or ugly, European or native. 
 Though he had passed the age of threescore years and ten, he 
 was as hale and active as a man of middle age, and his compre- 
 hension was above mediocrity. He was the most liberal Moslem 
 of the Sheea sect I ever knew, though he adhered strictly to the 
 faith of his forefathers, and never failed to repeat his prayers at 
 the appointed time. He was not only very charitable to the poor, 
 but possessed a feeling of philanthropy which is rare in a man 
 of his persuasion. With regard to liis acuteness, the following two 
 stories told of him will illustrate his ready wit and hatred of 
 fanaticism. 
 
 As he is considered a pious Mohammedan, he was visited one 
 morning by two Moolas of Carballa, the holy city of the Sheeas, 
 where their most adorable martyr, Hosain, is buried, to impart to 
 him some revelation which they asserted had been communicated 
 to them in a dream by Ali, the head of their sect. The fact is, 
 they went to the j^awab on a begging errand, and thought they 
 could beguile him by a plausible religious story of their own con- 
 cocting. They told him that they both had a separate dream, and 
 at the same hour of the night; that no less a personage than Ali 
 himself appeared to them, and told them that if they were in want 
 of funds they had only to apply to the pious Nawab, Ikbal-ad- 
 Doula, who lived at Baghdad, and they would find in liim a ready 
 helper; that he was reputed, both in heaven and earth, for his 
 good deeds and charity; and that no Moslem had ever appealed to 
 his generosity in vain. The ISTawab was too wide-awake to be 
 duped; so, as soon as the two Moolas ended their story, he asked 
 them most gravely if that heavenly vision had appeared to both of 
 them, and at the same time. They, without hesitation, informed 
 him that Ali himself had spoken to them, and it was his message 
 which they had communicated to His Highness. He then asked 
 them if they could inform him of the exact date and hour of the 
 night when his lord, Ali, appeared to them; because, said he, there 
 must be no mistake in such an important holy communication. 
 The Moolas began to think, and, after appealing to each other's 
 memory, they came to the conclusion that Ali had appeared to 
 them on such a night in the ninth hour. For the purpose of being 
 more clear upon the point, the ISTawab asked them again if they 
 were quite sure that their recollection was correct. After having 
 looked at each other with wonderment as to the upshot of the
 
 190 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Nawab's cross-examination, they reiterated their first communi- 
 cation, and adhered to what they had before stated as to the ninth 
 hour of the said night. Whereupon the Nawab said: "It was a 
 very extraordinary fact that our lord, Ali (may the peace of God 
 rest upon him), appeared to me the same night at the tenth hour, 
 and told me tliat two scamps of Moolas would be coming to me 
 from Carballa on a begging errand. 'Do not attend to their sup- 
 plication,' he said, ^but turn them out of your house as vaga- 
 bonds;'" and suiting the action to the word, he caught them by 
 the beards and turned them out. 
 
 The second story was this: Two fanatical Sheeas on one occa- 
 sion paid him a visit, and as it is considered unclean for them to 
 taste anything which had been touched by a Christian, they de- 
 clined drinking coffee from the same tray of which a guest of the 
 Nawab had helped himself, and refused the proffer of a nargeela 
 (water-pipe), of wliich the Christian had already had a few puffs. 
 Whereupon, the Nawab called the waiter to hand him the rejected 
 coffee and nargeela, and, after having tasted both, he handed them 
 himself to the bigots. As a matter of course, they could not 
 insult the Nawab by refusing to accept the coffee and nargeela 
 after he had touched them with his lips, and thus they had to 
 pocket their prejudices and swallow the bitter pill! 
 
 Though the Persians do not possess the caste system of India, 
 yet when they come in contact with either Christians or Jews they 
 show a great repugnance to both. Among the lower class espe- 
 ciall}^ if a Christian or Jew comes in contact with any eatables, 
 or drinkables out of a vessel, they would sooner starve than defile 
 themselves with what they consider to have become polluted by 
 the touch of the "unbelievers." Those of the strict officials who 
 are expected to receive and entertain distinguished European 
 guests keep certain marked cups, plates, and other utensils for 
 the sole use of what they call unclean beings! This detestable 
 prejudice is not alone confined to the Persians in particular, but 
 to all Moslems who adhere to the faith of the Sheeas. Most of 
 the Arabs who inhabit ancient Babylonia belong to that sect; and, 
 if possible, they are more strict than the Persians themselves. They 
 even object to eat from the same dish used by the Turks, because 
 the latter mingle with the Christians and partake of their food. 
 While I was going one day to examine a new mound, the supposed 
 site of Cutha, I was accompanied by two Arabs. One belonged to
 
 PRINCE ABBAS MIRZA KHAN. 191 
 
 the Soonee sect of the Moslems, and the other to that of the 
 Sheea; the former acted as escort, and the latter was the guide. 
 According to usage, my Sheea companion carried his food with 
 him, but I supplied the escort from the provisions I possessed. 
 On arriving at our destination we sat down to breakfast, and, as 
 the latter was full of fun, he would throw some of his eatables on 
 the victuals of the guide, which made liim quite in a frenzy. 
 Most of the higher class, however, whether Persians or Arabs, by 
 mixing with Europeans and Turks, do not hesitate to eat and 
 drink with Christians. I can well understand why the Sheea 
 Moslems consider the food of the Christians unclean, because of 
 their eating swine's flesh; but why they place the Jews in the 
 same category, when they are as particular as the Mohammedans 
 in their food, is more than I can understand. It may be that 
 their prejudice sprang from the same silly idea which influenced 
 the mind of the ignorant Christians in olden times, when they 
 looked upon a Jew as an unclean being. The common notion is 
 amongst Arabs and inhabitants of Mesopotamia that a Jew can 
 be distinguished by his smell, even if he has had twenty baths! 
 During that visit to Baghdad I made the acquaintance of the 
 Prince Abbas Mirza Khan, and his mother. His Highness is half- 
 brother, on the father's side, to the late Shah of Persia. The ex- 
 queen having known my late brother. Christian Eassam, desired 
 to make my acquaintance also; and so one day she sent and invited 
 me to come and see her, which I was glad to do. She always 
 treated me with delicious kalian (Persian, water-pipe) and Eussian 
 tea. As she was a strict Moslema, I was not allowed the privilege 
 to see her face, because she was covered over with the out-door 
 mantle. I understood that she had been in love with the 
 Nawab, Ikbal-ad-Doula, but being unable to get him to recipro- 
 cate her affection, she began to hate him; after which time she 
 never lost an opportunity of abusing him. I believe this was the 
 reason that she was attentive to me, as she wished to prejudice me 
 against my friend, whom she called by every undeserved name 
 under the sun. She was quite at a loss to make out how I could 
 entertain any affection and regard for such a man as Ikbal-ad- 
 Doula; and when I told her that our friendship was of nearly 
 thirty years' standing, she said it was a pity that I did not find 
 out his true character by that time. Every time I went to see 
 that lady, her old hatred of my friend was the topic of conversa-
 
 192 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 tion, and if I had not known the good old Nawab most intimately, 
 I might have been led to beheve him to be anything but what he 
 was — an upright and liberal-minded man.* 
 
 At last Aakif Pasha, the governor-general, returned to Bagh- 
 dad; and the day after his arrival he invited me to go and see 
 him, and I had a satisfactory interview with him. I was never 
 so struck with any Ottoman official as I was with this Albanian 
 nobleman. He is a thorough gentleman, and most courteous; and 
 there are very few high officials under the Government of the 
 Sultan who are so endowed with uprightness and straightforward 
 dealings. Doubtless there is no lack of high-minded men with 
 administrative talent in Turkey, who are competent to rule justly 
 and uncorruptly, if they are only allowed to have their own way; 
 but, unfortunately, the system is rotten to the core, and requires 
 a thorough cleansing. There were in my time a Kadhee (Moslem 
 judge) at Baghdad, and a Mooftee (exponent of Mohammedan 
 law) at Mossul, who were overscrupulous in their legal trans- 
 actions, and abhorred what was mean and underhanded. The 
 latter, who is now dead, was so sensitive in giving unbiased legal 
 opinion, that he invariably refused to accept any fee, though he 
 was an unpaid official, and empowered by law to receive a fixed 
 remuneration for his decisions. He had on several occasions to 
 dissent from the arbitrary proceedings of the local authorities, of 
 whom he was a member; consequently he was disliked by those 
 whose aim it was to enrich themselves at the expense of help- 
 less litigants. • 
 
 On the 19th of December we had such a heavy southeasterly 
 gale blowing, that the bridge of boats had to be disconnected from 
 the opposite bank, and all communication between the eastern 
 and western parts of the town was stopped for nearly two whole 
 days, in consequence of the high waves that were caused by the 
 tempest. No one who has not seen mth his own eyes the swell, 
 could beheve it was possible that such high waves could be created 
 in that narrow river. The most important part of Baghdad, with 
 the Government estabhshments and principal mosques, is situated 
 on the east side of the Tigris; and with the exception of a few 
 respectable residences along the river, occupied by Indian princes 
 
 ♦The poor old Nawab, Ikbal-ad-Doula, died from general debility 
 a few years afterwards.
 
 RETURN TO MOSSUL. 193 
 
 and other notables, the whole suburbs consist of minor houses and 
 mud huts. 
 
 Christmas-day of 1877 dawned with a very heavy rain, which 
 continued, off and on, to the 28th. As the streets of Baghdad con- 
 sist of nothing but soft earth, the mud on these occasions is ankle- 
 deep. No one can believe that the streets of such an important 
 city as Baghdad, which is considered to rank next to none in the 
 Ottoman dominions after Constantinople, are left in that state, 
 instead of being properly paved. It would cost very little 
 to render them proof against wet, by having them paved either 
 with stone or asphalt, seeing that the majority of the streets are 
 not more than eight or ten feet wide. Bitumen is abundant in 
 the neighborhood of Baghdad, and there can be no difficulty in 
 utilizing it and making it stand the hot weather in those regions. 
 
 Having had satisfactory interviews with the governor-general 
 in connection with my mission, I hastened back to Mossul to com- 
 mence my other duty in behalf uf the trustees of the British 
 Museum. I set out on my long journey at eleven o'clock, on the 
 29th of December, 1877. As I wished to proceed as fast as I 
 could, I chose the quickest mode of traveling, though not the 
 easiest, in having recourse to the Government postal service, by 
 which means I was enabled to make long stages at a quick pace, 
 partly galloping, and partly trotting. At each station we changed 
 horses and escort. Though the distance from Baghdad to Mossul 
 via Karkook and Arweel (the ancient Arbela) is only one hun- 
 dred hours, or three hundred miles, I accomplished it in six days, 
 allowing a good margin for detentions and necessary night rest. 
 Some part of the road was rather muddy and difficult to ride 
 through, in consequence of the frost and the heavy rains that fell 
 during that winter. 
 
 Some of the post-horses were first-rate gallopers, and stood the 
 fatigue admirably; but the majority proved unequal to the task 
 and very seldom their riders escaped a few harmless tum- 
 bles. I myself was invariably provided with the best animals 
 that could be had; but one horse which fell to my lot was so 
 vicious that I could not get on it without two men holding him 
 by the ears to keep him quiet. Another horse which I rode was too 
 good for such rough riding. Its owner told me that he had pur- 
 chased it for 4,000 piasters. This sum, equal to £35, is a high price 
 to give for animals employed in the postal service; but the Govern- 
 
 13
 
 194 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 ment contractor was driven to pay this large amount to enable 
 him to fulfill his engagement at that time. Indeed, he was so 
 handsome and easy to ride, that, had it been anywhere near Mossul, 
 I would have purchased it for my own use. 
 
 The worst part of traveling between Baghdad and Mossul in 
 winter, on the eastern side of the Tigris, via Karkook, is the num- 
 ber of rivulets one has to pass; and in some places wayfarers have 
 been carried off their legs, by the sudden rush of water, and 
 drowned. About four miles before we reached a rivulet called 
 Tawook, my escort warned me that if we did not make haste we 
 should be prevented from crossing it, as the heavy clouds which 
 seemed to be emptying themselves higher up over the hills to our 
 right, would swell the stream and impede our passage. My fol- 
 lowers and I, therefore, hastened to the ford, and before we got 
 half through it the torrent overtook us. To my great dismay, I 
 found that we had no less than three rivulets to cross, and, fearing 
 lest we should be hemmed in on all sides by the rapid, we made 
 haste through the foaming channels. As soon as we landed safely 
 on the opposite bank, a distance of about half a mile from side 
 to side, we saw most of the dry land which we had just passed 
 one mass of raging overflow. Unfortunately, my cook's horse was 
 carried off his legs some distance down the river, and had not the 
 rider the presence of mind to disengage himself from the 
 animal and swim ashore, he might have been lost. The cook was 
 riding on the saddle-bag containing my provisions, tied to the 
 back of the animal, which could not be detached. The consequence 
 was that while the horse was being rolled down the stream, he 
 stranded on a shoal, which enabled my escort to get him off. Some 
 donkeys which belonged to other wayfarers were carried down 
 by the raging torrent, a few swam to the shore, and the remainder 
 were borne by the stream helplessly. The storm overtook us just 
 as we got over our difficulty, and by the time we reached our halting- 
 place we were drenched to the skin. Fortunately, I was accom- 
 modated with comfortable quarters in the head postilion's house, 
 and my host did his best to make my stay there, under the cir- 
 cumstances, as pleasant as possible. Both he and my followers 
 were busily engaged all the evening in drying the cook's kit and 
 my wet things, and I was not a little comforted on finding the 
 damage very trifling. 
 
 On leaving Tawook I was warned that our route to Karkook
 
 KARKOOK. 195 
 
 was infested by the Hammawand robbers, who have been for 
 years the pest of the country around. This petty Koordisli tribe, 
 who occupy the country between Solaimania, Karkook, and Ta- 
 wook, has proved a great hindrance to trade and industry for the 
 last twenty-five years; and, though the Ottoman authorities have 
 tried on several occasions to put them down, they failed to do so. 
 Once they surrounded their camp, and, after having seized a 
 number of the men, whom they punished in every manner of in- 
 human torture, they set the soldiery on the poor women to gratify 
 their lust. This diabolical outrage the Hammawand never forgot; 
 and whenever it fell in their power, they retaliated on innocent 
 wayfarers. The Hammawand tribe is very small, but their ranks 
 have been augmented from time to time by deserters from the 
 Turkish army, outlaws, and men who preferred to live by plunder 
 rather than by peaceful means. They were reputed to be good 
 horsemen and expert sharpshooters; and as for their daring, none 
 but a well-organized army could face them. My escort on that 
 occasion did not wish me to travel post-haste, on the plea that 
 their horses could not keep up with me. I told them, if that 
 was the case, they might follow me to Karkook at their leisure; 
 but they said they would not dare leave me to travel alone, for 
 fear of my. being attacked by a party of the Hammawand. Thus 
 they were constrained to keep me company in a sulky mood. The 
 fact was they knew very well that, with all their professed bravery, 
 they could no more protect me against any attack than take me 
 through the camp of the dreaded Hammawand. AH the advantage 
 gained by their presence is to show the peaceful inhabitants that 
 the person they were accompanying was traveling under the aus- 
 pices of the Ottoman Government. When we were in sight of 
 Karkook, we found, to our astonishment, some Dhabtias of my 
 companions' corps stripped of their clothes, and making all the 
 haste they could to the nearest callage. They told us that they 
 had been sent to the neighboring villages on official errands, and 
 were attacked by a band of Hammawand, who dispossessed them 
 of their horses, clothes, and arms, and left them nothing but their 
 trousers to hide their nakedness. My companions could not help 
 laughing when I pointed out to them their fellow Dhabtias, and 
 said, ""What do you think now of your protection?" 
 
 Karkook is a town of some importance, and the largest between 
 Baghdad and Mossul. Its inhabitants are a mixture of Turks,
 
 196 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Koords, and Chaldean Christians. The latter occupy the top of 
 the hill within the citadel, which is the best part of the town. 
 It is the seat of the Chaldean bishop, whose diocese extends from 
 the great Zab to Eowandooz and Solaimania. As soon as I arrived 
 there I was called upon by a number of Mossul merchants and 
 others, who asked me to spend a day or two with them; but as I 
 was in a hurry to push on to Mossul, I thanked them for their 
 civility, and resumed my journey as soon as my rally of horses 
 were changed for fresh ones. 
 
 I passed through Arweel on the 3d of January, and alighted 
 there for an hour for the purpose of changing horses. 
 
 Arweel, or Arbela, is famous in history for having been the 
 battle-scene of one of the greatest wars that had taken place in 
 ancient time between the Eastern and Western Powers. It was 
 the occasion when Alexander the Great defeated the army of 
 the Persians under Darius. It is said that the army of the latter 
 consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand horses clothed 
 in complete armor of steel, seven hundred elephants with towers 
 filled with archers on their backs, and eighteen hundred chariots 
 armed with scythes. The "great king" fled after his defeat, and 
 Alexander became master of the situation, and was able to possess 
 subsequently immense booty, with the Government of the whole 
 of Mesopotamia. 
 
 Arweel is partly built on an extensive artificial mound, which 
 I have very often longed to examine; but I am afraid it will not 
 be easy to induce the Ottoman authorities to allow us to excavate 
 there. If it were left to me and to the natives of the place, I 
 should not have to wait long for gratifying my curiosity. I feel 
 quite sure that there must be some important antiquities to be 
 found there, as the mound shows every sign of Assyrian origin. 
 The natives have never found any ancient remains in their dig- 
 gings for their own purposes. This shows that if there are any 
 ancient buildings existing in the mound, they must be very deep 
 down. They often find, however, small stone cylinders and seals 
 of the Parthian type, but I have never seen any of the Assyrian 
 or Babylonian period. There are several large mounds in that 
 neighborhood between the two Zabs and the river Tigris, which 
 ought, in my opinion, to be thoroughly examined. It is true that 
 some mounds have been tried by both Sir Henry Layard and
 
 KALAK. 
 
 197 
 
 myself in that direction, but there are some which have not yet 
 been thoroughly examined. 
 
 At Arweel we obtained first-rate horses; and after we had started 
 we went on in a good galloping pace as far as the great Zab, a 
 distance of about twenty-five miles, which we accompHshed in a 
 little more than four hours. A great part of the road to the Zab 
 is very rough, and it was difGcult therefore to travel on it fast. 
 It did not take my escort long to get a boat to take us across, es- 
 pecially as the boatmen made sure that they would receive a present 
 besides the tariff demanded from wayfarers. As soon as we crossed 
 and reloaded my luggage, we resumed our Journey as it began 
 to get dusk, intending to halt for the night at the village of 
 Kalak, a distance of about two miles from the ferry; but owing 
 to the intense darkness of the night and the thick shrub-wood 
 we had to pass through, the postilion lost his way, and after a 
 wild-goose chase we reached our destination in about two hours, 
 which ought to have been accompHshed in one-third of the time. 
 I was invited on my arrival to take shelter in the chief's hut; 
 but as I found it too crowded with other guests I moved to the 
 establishment of the Government postal contractor, a native of 
 Mossul, named Abodee Kashmoola, who entertained me till late 
 at night with the political and domestic gossip of the neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 We started from Kalak at half-past five o'clock A. M., on the 
 4th of January, as I wished to push on to Mossul; and after a slow 
 ride of two hours we reached the river Khazzir, which, fortunatelj^, 
 we found fordable. The swelling of this river is quite uncertain, 
 because it sometimes happens that while travelers are within 
 hailing distance a torrent comes down from the mountains, which 
 renders the Khazzir unfordable for some time, and obliges them 
 to seek shelter in a neighboring village until the overflow of the 
 river abates. Having got safely across, we cantered to the Chaldean 
 village of Karamlais, a distance of about seven miles, where I was 
 invited by the chief to have some refreshment. x\fter having spent 
 about an hour with him, we resumed our journey, and reached 
 Mossul a little after noon. My relatives and friends were taken 
 by surprise, as they did not expect me to travel so fast. 
 
 The usual complimentary visits by friends and officials having 
 been gone through on both sides, I took the earliest opportunity
 
 198 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 to call on the governor of Mossul, to find out if he had heard 
 anything about the firman which had been granted by His Imperial 
 Majesty the Sultan for the renewal of the British Museum ex- 
 cavations. I was not a little relieved when he told me that he 
 had received telegraphic orders from Constantinople to allow me 
 to commence my explorations, because, though the firman had been 
 granted, it would take some time before it reached Mossul. The 
 British ambassador, Sir Henry Layard, for the purpose of saving 
 time, had begged this boon from the Porte, and it had been ac- 
 corded him, though it was contrary to rule to allow any one to 
 carry on excavations without the possession of the royal mandate. 
 On hearing this, I hastened to my abode, and made arrangements 
 to begin work the next day. 
 
 No sooner was my intention to recommence my former re- 
 searches in Assyria known, than my old workmen or their 
 children flocked around me for employment. I felt sorry that I 
 could only recognize a few of them, because a large number had 
 died, and some who were still living had grown so old that I could 
 not recollect their faces, as it was nearly twenty-five years since 
 I had parted from them. Amongst the few that I recognized were 
 three Arabs of the Jeboor tribe, who had served under Sir Henry 
 Layard and myself on three different expeditions; one was Mah- 
 mood Alfaraj, whom I had raised to the post of an overseer, and 
 whose fidehty and honesty I have already mentioned. He began 
 his work under Sir Henry Layard in 1845, when he was quite a 
 boy, and, in whatever capacity we employed him, he proved an 
 exceptional barrier against dishonesty and double-dealing. He 
 was a fine-looking man, over the average height, muscular, and 
 yet possessed a philanthropic nature. He had settled himself with 
 his family at a village some distance from Mossul, where he had 
 been carrying on farming; but rather than see me served by 
 strangers, he gave up his farm and re-entered my service. He 
 did not look much older than when I left Mossul in 1854, though 
 he had gone through many trials amongst his people, and had 
 also met with ill-treatment at the hands of the local authorities, 
 who tried to fleece him by their exorbitant demands. Two others 
 who had served Sir Henry Layard and myself faithfully on former 
 occasions had grown rather feeble to be of any use to me in manual 
 labor; but as they possessed great influence with their tribes I
 
 AT MOSSUL. 1^^ 
 
 employed them as sub-overseers on a small pay. I had so many 
 offers for employment that many had to return home disappointed. 
 Most of these came to serve me for the sake of gratifying their 
 wives or their parents, who had either served Sir Henry Layard 
 or myself, or who remembered us when they were children. They 
 did not covet much gain, but they wished to be in my employ for 
 the sake of old associations. Most fortunately, with a little kind- 
 ness and attention, for which the Arabs in general are very grate- 
 ful, I could always save about a fourth, and sometimes as much 
 as one-third, of the regular wages a laborer receives in that country; 
 and when it is considered that I had sometimes to employ about 
 four or five hundred men daily, the saving was most important. 
 When I was excavating at Mossul from October, 1852, to May, 
 1854, and the French Government were at the same time carry- 
 ing on explorations through their agents in that country, they had 
 always to pay twenty-five per cent more to their workmen than 
 I did, as the Arabs preferred working with me for less, rather than 
 lose my employment. When the late Mr. George Smith was ex- 
 cavating on behalf of the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph and 
 the British Museum, he had to pay four piasters (about 8d.) a day 
 as wages, whereas I only allowed 6d. to the first, and 4d. to the 
 second-class laborers. With this economy I was able to employ 
 a larger number of workmen than I could have done had I been 
 obliged to pay high wages. Every now and then I pleased them 
 by presenting them with one or two oxen to feast upon; and as 
 their women sliared in the enjoyment of the viands, which they 
 very seldom did, they always looked upon me as their benefactor. 
 Generally speaking, my workmen excavated by gangs of seven,— 
 a digger, a basket-filler, and five basket-carriers,— that is to say, 
 those men who carried away the debris from the trenches. But 
 on certain occasions, when the rubbish had to be carried far away, 
 the basket-carriers used to be augmented from those gangs who 
 had a shorter distance to dispose of their load. In each separate 
 mound I generally placed Christian overseers, because they knew 
 how to read and write; and if the work became extensive I placed 
 under them one or two Arab sub-overseers. 
 
 Monday, the 7th of January, 1878, saw me busily engaged in 
 the work for which I had been longing some years previously. 
 It was nearly twenty-four years since I had closed my work at
 
 200 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Koyunjik after I discovered Assur-bani-pal's palace, and this morn- 
 ing I was once more placing several gangs of workmen in different 
 parts of the mound for further research. 
 
 My instructions from the Trustees of the British Museum were 
 to try to find as many fragments as possible from the libraries 
 of Assur-bani-pal and Sennacherib, for the completion of the 
 records which were already amongst the national collection in 
 London. Although that was the first object of my mission, I was, 
 nevertheless, more eager to discover some new ancient sites than 
 to confine my whole energy on such a tame undertaking, seeing 
 that in this operation I had only to point out to my overseers 
 where and how to dig, and they must come upon the relics we 
 were in search of. My aim was to discover unknown edifices, and 
 to bring to light some important Assyrian monument for the 
 gratification of the British public, especially those who valued 
 such discoveries either for their Biblical or literary studies. 
 
 As was usually the case on my arrival at Mossul, a number of 
 newsmongers came to inform me of certain sites where ancient 
 remains had been found by the peasantry while digging either for 
 a grave or a foundation of an edifice. Although there was scarcely 
 any mound worth digging within fifty miles of ]\Iossul, either on 
 the left or right bank of the Tigris, which I had not examined, I 
 never lost an opportunity of revisiting those localities which were 
 said to contain antiquities. After having placed a few gangs of 
 workmen in certain spots at Koyunjik and Nimroud, where I 
 fancied our explorations would prove pregnant with good results, 
 I went in quest of new sites for the furtherance of my object. 
 
 A year before I was commissioned by the trustees of the British 
 Museum to renew their explorations in Assyria, a friend at Mossul 
 sent to me to England a present of two pieces of bronze plates, on 
 which there were some figures embossed representing a part of a 
 procession, showing tribute-bearers, with epitaphs in cuneiform 
 characters indicating their purpose. So, on arriving at Mossul, 
 my first object was to find out where those relics were discovered, 
 and I need not say that I was not long in securing all the infor- 
 mation I needed; but there were so many obstacles in the way of 
 my attaining the desired end, on account of the number of graves 
 which were on the mound, that I began to fear I should never 
 be allowed to search for the remainder of the monument. How- 
 ever, I felt that it was well worth the risk of getting into hot
 
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 w* v;''"fe:.
 
 THE SULTAN'S FIRMAN. 201 
 
 water with the authorities, and even with the villagers, if I could 
 only get a sight of the rare monument. 
 
 I found out that the pieces of bronze which were sent to me 
 to England were a part of a long plate which had been discovered 
 by an Arab while digging a grave in the mound of Balawat, about 
 fifteen miles to the east of Mossul. For fear of being detected he 
 had broken it into five or six pieces, and sold them for a small 
 trifle to the dragoman of the French consul, who presented part 
 of them to his ^superior and myself, and the remainder he had 
 intrusted to a French traveler to sell for him at Paris.* 
 
 The first step I took was to go and see the mound, and find 
 out how far I could dig without touching any of the existing 
 graves. I found, to my great relief, that the spot where I wished 
 to excavate was free of any new sepulchral signs; but still I knew 
 if once I began my operations, the villagers, whose graves are scat- 
 tered over the mound, would think that if I were to be allowed 
 to dig there, I should disturb the bones of their ancestors and 
 
 relatives. 
 
 In the firman which is granted to foreign explorers it is par- 
 ticularly ordained that they are not to excavate in a burial-ground; 
 but it does not specify the real meaning of the term. No limit 
 beino- assigned to the number of tombs to constitute a burial- 
 ground, it'^is left to the option of the local authorities to put any 
 construction they like upon the ambiguous prohibition. One or 
 two tombs might be construed, therefore, to mean a cemetery when 
 they want to stop the work altogether; because there is no Assyr- 
 ian or Babylonian mound wherein, some time or other, human 
 remains have not been interred. Amongst the Mohammedans they 
 bury anywhere they like; but generally they choose an artificial 
 mound, or any eminence in a convenient situation. They do not 
 hesitate to desecrate an old burial-ground for their purposes, and 
 very often they have to remove the bones out of old graves to 
 enable them to bury their dead. When the Ottoman Government 
 wishes to dig in a place which has been used by Moslems as a 
 
 * I was informed by the dragoman afterwards, that the pieces of 
 plates which he sent to Paris were misappropriated by the Frenchman 
 who undertook to sell them for him. The dragoman could not get an 
 answer from him, though he had written to him several times to 
 remonstrate. They are now, I believe, in the possession of Mons. 
 Schlumberger.
 
 202 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 burying-ground, they can do so with impunity; but when any one 
 else wants to dig, they become very scrupulous. 
 
 Some years back, when the Ottoman authorities at Constanti- 
 nople wanted a convenient place to erect a building for the mu- 
 nicipality at Pera, they fixed upon a cemetery on the slope of a 
 hill overlooldng the Golden Horn, which they demolished, and 
 then they laid out the grounds for their own purposes. When 
 some of the proprietors of the graves complained, they were told 
 that the bones of the dead were left intact! 
 
 The Arabs of the surrounding villages are called Shabbak, and 
 in their appearance and habit they seem to be Mohammedans, but 
 in reality they abhor Islamism. They adhere more to the Christian 
 faith than that of the followers of Mohammed. They are so afraid 
 of being found out that they exhibit outwardly as much as possi- 
 ble their attachment to the tenets of their faith. In fact, these 
 people are so close as to the reality of their belief, that they keep 
 the formulas of their faith quite secret from their children until 
 they arrive at the mature age of twelve, when everything is ex- 
 plained to them. From all that I could glean from their elders, 
 it seems that they believe in the Divine origin of our Savior, and 
 go so far as to confess that Christ was so perfect God, when he was 
 born, that they style the Virgin Mary the "Mother of God," — a 
 term which was caviled at in the fifth century by the followers 
 of C3Til and ISTestorius. 
 
 As it has been seen from the foregoing remarks, I did not feel 
 quite sanguine as to the success of my adventure amongst a people 
 who would look upon me in a suspicious manner. I had three 
 parties to satisfy besides the biased objections of the local authori- 
 ties; first, the landlords, then the copy-holders, and last, but not 
 least, the proprietors of the graves. However, I put a bold face 
 upon my enterprise, and v/ent into the matter in right good earnest. 
 I first obtained the promise of the owner of the land to raise no 
 objection to my excavating, and I prevailed upon the lessees of 
 the property, who had cultivations in that locality, to allow me 
 to dig a few trenches at the mound. When that was done, I felt 
 that the greatest of all obstacles was to overcome the prejudices 
 of the owners of the graves that lay around the spot where I 
 wished to carry on my explorations. The claimants were so nu- 
 merous that it was quite impossible for me to satisfy them either 
 for love or money. I therefore deemed it indispensable to go
 
 THE MOVND OF BALAWAT. 
 
 203 
 
 straight to the mound and have a tentative examination of the 
 spot, leaving it to future consideration if the villagers wished to 
 raise an objection to my undertaldng. 
 
 I engaged, in the first instance, the services of a gentleman 
 who belonged to a respectable family at Mossul, possessing a great 
 influence at Balawat and its neighborhood, and who himself had 
 obtained, by digging at night-time, some pieces of the copper monu- 
 ment wliich had been presented to me. I then ordered my faith- 
 ful overseer, Mahmood Alfaraj, to choose about twenty trustworthy 
 Jeboors to accompany him and to provide them with the neces- 
 sary implements for our intended digging. I sent them to a Syrian 
 CathoHc village called Karakosh, situated about three miles to 
 the west of Balawat, where I had obtained quarters in a church 
 through the kindness of my friend, the Syrian Catholic prelate, 
 the Monsignor Behnam Bennie, whom I have already mentioned. 
 Though the mound of Balawat was only about ten minutes' walk 
 from the village bearing the same name, I preferred making Kara- 
 kosh my headquarters for the time being, because the mound was 
 really in the leasehold of its inhabitants, and, legally speaking, 
 they had the first right to prevent me from digging if they did 
 not wish me to do so. When everything was arranged, I repaired 
 to the mound with my gaide, Abd- Allah Bey, and the Jeboor work- 
 men, and forthwith I commenced the longed-for operation. We had 
 not been half an hour at work before we were surrounded by a 
 host of Shabbak Arabs, both from Balawat and other neighboring 
 villages, who came to stop our progress. The chief of Karakosh, 
 and some elders who accompanied me to the mound, were the 
 first to bear the brunt of the abuse; the Shabbak peasants telhng 
 them that, instead of bringing the Franks to disturb the graves of 
 the Moslems, they had better take them to dig up the bones of their 
 forefathers. Had I not intervened, they would have come to blows; 
 because the Christians retorted by saying that the land belonged 
 to them, and the sooner they removed the remains of those whom 
 they claimed, and interred them in their domains, the better. My 
 guide and the Jeboor workmen were also ripe for a row; but I 
 calmed them down by telling them it was not their business to inter- 
 fere in the matter, and that I should be very sorry to do what was 
 displeasing to any one. 
 
 I explained to the Balawat villagers that the Christians of 
 Karakosh had nothing to do with that undertaking, which solely
 
 204 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 rested with me; and if they had anything to say against my work, 
 I should be happy to attend to their representations. I declared 
 to them that it was far from my intention to do anytliing to hurt 
 their feelings, or put my hand to any work that might seem ob- 
 noxious to their consciences. On the contrary, I would do nothing 
 without their approval and entire satisfaction. I was glad to find 
 that my contention had calmed them down, and made them listen 
 to reason. I found that their spokesman was their chief, who 
 proved afterwards my staunch supporter; and on my telling him 
 that I would accompany them to their village, where we might dis- 
 cuss the matter amicably, he and his followers became quite satis- 
 fied. It was bitterly cold on that day, with rain and sleet pouring 
 down; so my first duty was to see the poor, half-clad Jeboor work- 
 men properly housed and fed; and as soon as that was done, I 
 commenced my negotiations. 
 
 It happened, most fortunately, that one of the brothers of my 
 guide was residing at Balawat, as he had a farm there, and, of 
 course, it was natural that he should befriend me for the sake of his 
 brother. I therefore chose his house as a rendezvous and my 
 future Balawat headquarters. 
 
 My Shabbak acquaintances were extremely docile in arguing 
 the matter of my research, and we had not been an hour together 
 before we came to terms as to my future proceedings. I first 
 agreed to appoint the two chiefs of the village overseers; and sec- 
 ondly, that I would employ a certain number of the inhabitants 
 of Balawat in the diggings, in order that they might see that none 
 of their graves were disturbed. I gave them permission to stop 
 work as soon as they came near a grave, and also to prevent others 
 from digging. Furthermore, I arranged to have tunnels dug about 
 a fathom below the bottom of the graves; and, should there be 
 any risk of the graves tumbling in, I would erect an arch of masonry 
 to support them. When I thought that I had arranged every- 
 thing satisfactorily to all parties, I found that other men were 
 trpng to create a hubbub in the village. It appeared that the 
 Balawat Shabbaks had been foolish enough to stir up their com- 
 rades in the neighborhood when they first heard of my intended 
 excavations; and therefore when they came to terms with me, the 
 others who were not consulted began to be troublesome. The 
 Balawatees had also sent to excite the inhabitants of Kabarlee, 
 another village of the Shabbaks close by, in order that they might
 
 DIFFIC UL TIES. 205 
 
 join them in stopping me from digging. Those people likewise 
 possessed graves in the same mound, a number of which were very 
 near the place where I wished to excavate. So when the Kabarlees 
 learned that I had arranged matters with the natives of Balawat, 
 they took offense, and swore that they would sooner die on the 
 graves of their relatives than allow me to strike one spade into the 
 mound. The people of Balawat declared, on the other hand, that 
 rather than disappoint me, they would turn up the bones of their 
 forefathers themselves, happen what may. 
 
 It was arranged ultimately between my Balawat supporters and 
 myself that I should return to Karakosh, and leave the Jeboor 
 workmen to go on with the excavations the next morning under 
 the superintendence of my confidential overseer, Mahmood Alfaraj, 
 Abd-Allah Bey, and the chiefs of Balawat. The Kabarlees, how- 
 ever, went on agitating, and during the night a report reached me 
 that they were bent upon carrying their threats into action the 
 next morning, should they find that I commenced work at the 
 mound. As I feared that my Jeboor workmen might get into 
 trouble in case the Balawat and Kabarlee Shabbaks came to blows, 
 I sent and ordered them to proceed to another mound near the 
 village of Karamlais, about five miles to the north of Balawat, 
 where I had had an intention to dig. My workmen had scarcely 
 left Balawat before a large cavalcade from Kabarlee made their 
 appearance, armed to the teeth, and began to abuse the natives of 
 Balawat and upbraid their chiefs and elders for having, for the 
 sake of filthy lucre, consented to allow the Christians to exhume 
 the graves of the Moslems. They swore that they would never 
 consent to such a sacrilegious act, and would defy any one to touch 
 the ground. As a matter of course, when the Balawat people saw 
 the defiant attitude of the Kabarlees they began to arm, and both 
 women and children began to hoot at them for their temerity. 
 As luck would have it, a detachment of irregular cavalry, who 
 were going on special duty towards the Zab, appeared on the scene 
 just at the time. Their commanding officer was a personal friend of 
 mine; and as soon as he found out the cause of the tumult, he dis- 
 persed the Kabarlee rioters to the right about. Had not this 
 friendly succor arrived in an opportune moment, a serious conflict 
 might have taken place between the two contending parties, and 
 I should have been balked in gaining the prize. When the report 
 of this disturbance reached me, I lost all hope of attaining my
 
 206 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 object, as I was afraid that the authorities would hear of the objec- 
 tion raised against my digging at Balawat, and use it as a good 
 excuse to prevent me from carrying on the work. Notwithstand- 
 ing all these disturbances, I did not shirk further trouble, but 
 trusted to the common saying, "JSTothing venture, nothing win." 
 I allowed a few days to pass by, and then carried on my negotiations 
 through other channels. 
 
 After having waited a short time to let the anger of the Sliab- 
 baks cool down, I tried what I could do through my Moslem 
 friends at Mossul, who possessed some power amongst the Kabar- 
 lees. They cheerfully undertook the disagreeable task, and forth- 
 with sent for the elders and chiefs of Balawat and Kabarlee, with 
 whom they had a long consultation. They all came afterwards to 
 inform me of what had passed between them, and I was not a little 
 pleased to find that everything had been arranged to my entire 
 satisfaction. It was settled among us that I should go on with the 
 excavations, taking care at the same time to see that my workmen 
 did not disturb the graves should the relic of which I was in search 
 extend thitherward. I told them that, according to my previous 
 promise, I would take into my employ natives of Balawat and 
 also of Kabarlee who possessed graves on the mound, so that if 
 they came near any tomb, they could at once stop the digging. 
 Tliis I knew would answer my purpose, because I felt confident 
 that when the natives of those villages began to benefit by my 
 work, they themselves would be adverse to stop the excavations, 
 seeing that they must have often disturbed old graves for the pur- 
 pose of interring fresh corpses. Moreover, by having them in my 
 service, there would be no jealousy created, as would have been 
 the case had I merely employed strangers. I was glad to find that 
 the leaders of the former disturbance were amongst those who 
 came to Mossul, and, my friends having secured their good-will, 
 I was insured against further obstinate resistance. I allowed no 
 time to be lost, and having asked them, as a favor to return to 
 their respective villages without delay, I folloAved them the next 
 morning and took my quarters at the house of Hosain Bey, where 
 I had already held my preliminary consultation with the Balawat 
 chiefs. 
 
 In the course of the day I arranged the different gangs, taking 
 care to place amongst them a sufficient number of Jeboor workmen 
 to insure fidelity, and to guard against the risk of damage. Early
 
 DISCOVERIES MADE. 
 
 207 
 
 the next morning I repaired to the mound, foreboding that some- 
 thing would occur to prevent me from attaining the object of 
 my research, as I knew that the graves near the spot where I wished 
 to dig belonged to the natives of Kabarlee, and they were the only 
 people I feared would disappoint me at the last moment. The 
 owners of the graves, however, did not make an appearance as 
 early as I expected, as their village was a good distance from the 
 mound, and by the time they came I had penetrated into the 
 ground far enough to satisfy me that there was no need to ap- 
 proach the proscribed ground, as every indication showed me that 
 what I was searching for would be found away from the graves. 
 This was a great relief to me, because, had the valuable trophy 
 extended towards the tombs of the Shabbak Arabs, amongst which 
 there were some fresh interments, I should have been obliged to 
 abandon the prize, or risk a serious tumult for the benefit of those 
 who were waiting to profit by my failure. 
 
 On that day we came upon some scrolls or paneling of copper- 
 plating, like the pieces which had been presented to me. I had 
 them removed forthwith to my quarters at the village of Balawat; 
 and, to avoid the danger of damage, I sent to Mossul for proper 
 cases for them, which were made to take in the whole length of 
 the plates. The monument was very much corroded and injured 
 from the length of time it had been lying in damp soil. As soon 
 as the relic was exposed to. the air it began to crack, and I had 
 very great difficulty to remove it entire. It was lying on its face 
 and spread like a gigantic hat-rack with the top part rising to 
 within four feet of the surface of the ground, and the lower portion 
 gradually descending to about fifteen feet deep. The plates seemed 
 to have belonged to the covering of a monument, which proved to 
 be a huge gate with double leaves. Its thickness must have been 
 about four inches, as was shown by the bend of the nails that 
 fastened the plates to the wooden frame, a number of which were 
 still attached to the monument. Each leaf had seven panels eight 
 feet long; and, according to the way they were lying, it appeared 
 as if they were used to cover the wooden frame in the shape of 
 belts. All the wood that comprised the monument had rotted 
 away, but from what I saw of the position of several plates I 
 guessed there must have been ornamental cedar or some other 
 wood between them. Each leaf had a thick bronze pivot, which 
 is shown by the bend at the end of the panels in the shape of a
 
 208 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMEOD. 
 
 scroll. These revolved in hard stone sockets, that were found still 
 standing in their former position. The tops of the posts seemed 
 to have been ornamented with copper globules, as I found some in 
 the debris just where the top of the monument was lying. The 
 plates, which are embossed with a variety of subjects, such as 
 battle-scenes, triumphal processions, and religious performances, are 
 divided into two panels surrounded by a border of rosettes. 
 
 After three days' hard work, we managed to uncover about 
 half of the monument, as I was particularly careful in extricating 
 the broken pieces from the clayey debris without much damage. 
 As Sunday intervened, and it was necessary for me to go up to 
 Mossul to see about my other works at Koyunjik, I left the exca- 
 vations in charge of Mahmood x\lfaraj, and rode up to town on 
 Saturday afternoon. I had about five hundred men working in 
 the old trenches at Koyunjik and Nimroud, and I was obliged, 
 therefore, to give fresh directions to the overseers at short intervals 
 to prevent waste of time and labor. 
 
 As a matter of course, as soon as I began to uncover the copper 
 monument, it was necessary that I should leave trustworthy watch- 
 men to see that no one went to the mound at night for the purpose 
 of extracting any piece of the relic, or injuring the remaining por- 
 tion. I arranged that part of the men should consist of Jeboors, 
 and the rest from the Shabbak Arabs; and to protect them from 
 rain and cold, I provided them with a tent and fuel, which they 
 considered a great boon. While I was myself at Balawat every- 
 thing went on all right; but it seemed that on the evening after I 
 went to Mossul, the native watchmen absented themselves, and 
 left the Jeboor workmen alone, on the plea that they could not 
 stand the cold. The weather was really very severe at the time, 
 with snow nearly four inches deep on the ground. The fact was, 
 the Shabbaks did not mind the cold half as much as they feared 
 the nocturnal robbers, of whom there were scores going about, seek- 
 ing victims. As soon as Mahmood Alfaraj heard of the shameful 
 behavior of the Balawat watchmen, he repaired to the mound with 
 the remainder of the Jeboor workmen, and kept his men company 
 until my return. 
 
 While I was spending Sunday quietly at Mossul, the Shabbak 
 workmen were arguing amongst themselves whether it was right 
 to allow their graves to be desecrated for the sake of paltry gain, 
 especially as there was no lack of mischievous men ready to up-
 
 EXCA VA TION EXTENDED. 209 
 
 braid them for their stupidity in allowing me to excavate amongst 
 their dead. They were told that for every piaster they received 
 I was carrying away antiquities worth more than their weight in 
 gold. 
 
 On the following Monday a few of the well-disposed workmen 
 of Balawat went as usual to work, but were obliged to return to 
 their village, as the other party threatened them with violence if 
 they did not stop digging. The Jeboor workmen refused to 
 leave, and, headed by Mahmood Alfaraj, declared that they 
 would sooner perish on the mound than prove false to their 
 trust. They protested that they would not quit their post as long 
 as I was away, and, more than that, they intended to work on until 
 my return; and they kept their word. In the meantime there was 
 a row in the village between the disaffected and my supporters; but 
 the latter being the stronger, the disturbers of the peace had to 
 give way and keep quiet. Ultimately they came to the conclusion 
 that they would try to dissuade me from continuing the excava- 
 tions, or else to allow the other part of the monument to be re- 
 covered, and then to stop the work altogether. 
 
 In the meantime I had placed a number of gangs in different 
 parts of the mound, to see if there were any signs of other ancient 
 remains to be found, and directed them to keep clear of the graves 
 to avoid further trouble. During my absence I never allowed any 
 one to come near tlie spot where the monument was found, as I 
 was afraid that some harm might happen to it, but I placed the 
 workmen to dig in other localities. For fear of any mischief being 
 caused to the object of my search while I was away, I had the 
 remainder of the relic covered over with plenty of earth so as to 
 prevent interlopers from getting at it. 
 
 When the news of the last tumult reached me at Mossul, I 
 was very much concerned, because, not only was I afraid of losing 
 this unique Assyrian trophy if a riot took place, but I was also 
 anxious to avoid any ill-feeling that might be caused in connec- 
 tion with my explorations. I hastened, therefore, the next morn- 
 ing to Balawat in a heavy snowstorm, though I was far from well 
 and was suffering a good deal of agony from sciatica when I left 
 Mossul. I thought the ride would either kill or cure me, and I 
 was not a little relieved to find, on reaching the Christian village 
 of Karakosh, where I dismounted for a little rest, that all pain 
 had left me, and I felt quite well. I had then been riding three 
 
 14
 
 210 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 hours under a heavy fall of snow, with a strong northeasterly wind 
 blowing in my face, which prevented me from holding an um- 
 brella over my head to shelter me. My poor horse tried to turn 
 round several times from facing the inclement weather, and though 
 he often shook the snow off his head, it always resembled a large 
 mop of cotton wool. After having spent about an hour -with the 
 chief of Karakosh I hastened to Balawat, and found my faithful 
 Jeboor workmen busily engaged digging in the eastern corner of 
 the mound, nearly perishing from cold. They had discovered a 
 scientifically-built Assyrian well, which created a great sensation 
 in the place. The night before, they had suffered from severe cold, 
 and could not get any fuel to keep them warm, or even wherewith 
 to cook their dinner. So I took my overseer to the village, and 
 instead of showing that I was angry at what had taken place, I 
 ordered, in a most natural way, some of the Balawat workmen to 
 furnish fuel to those at the mound, and requested others to l\ave 
 lentil soup cooked for my Jeboor laborers; and, as soon as it was 
 ready, I had it sent to the mound, with bread. I was not a little 
 surprised to find there was no murmur raised when I gave this 
 order; but, on the contrary, two of the Shabbak laborers came and 
 told me that they meant to resume work the next morning, what- 
 ever might happen, and assured me they knew many others who 
 would do the same if I remained at Balawat. The next morning 
 I ordered my Jeboor overseer to sound the usual call to the Balawat 
 workmen for marching to the digging, and, to prevent any dis- 
 turbance taking place, I preceded them, taking with me two of 
 the most respected elders of the place, as a sign of reconciliation. 
 Every workman came running as if nothing had taken place, and 
 they all commenced work in a most cheerful spirit. After I had 
 placed the gangs to dig in different spots, I returned to the village 
 to breakfast, and then went back to the mound to superintend the 
 excavations in person. Just as I set my foot on the mound a 
 tobacco-hawker came to sell his merchandise to the Arab workmen, 
 who are proverbially fond of smoking, and to please them I bought 
 the whole lot and distributed it amongst them. This act of gener- 
 osity raised me more than ever in their estimation, and the fact 
 of my having kept silence about the threatened riot of the day 
 before, coupled with their resolve not to work any more for me, 
 made the gift doubly acceptable. 
 
 After two more days' hard work we managed to get out the
 
 AN OLD BUIUAL GROUND. 211 
 
 remainder of the copper monument. I did not feel quite easy until 
 every part of it was deposited safely at Mossul. The work con- 
 tinued at Balawat after that without any interruption for some 
 time, because I made it a rule to go down there as often as my 
 other duties at Koyunjik and Nimroud would allow, and super- 
 intend the excavations myself. It was most necessary that I should 
 do so, especially as when we began to penetrate deep into the 
 mound, an enormous quantity of human bones came to view, and 
 I had to explain to the Shabbak Arabs that those could not have 
 belonged to their believing forefathers from the very way the 
 corpses were laid.* I said, moreover, that we were not doing more 
 than thousands of Moslems did who were in the habit of digging 
 in old burial-grounds for the purpose of making fresh interments; 
 and added that it was incumbent upon us to have the bones re- 
 buried in a decent spot. My Jeboor workmen insisted that the 
 bones they were finding in the diggings belonged to some old 
 heathen nation, and to show them how absurd they were, they 
 pointed out to them the way the corpses had been laid with their 
 heads placed in different directions; whereas, if they had belonged to 
 true believers they would have been directed towards Mecca. The 
 majority of the Shabbak laborers, who did not care a whit whether 
 the old graves belonged to their believing or unbelieving ancestors, 
 joined the Jeboors in ridiculing the qualms of their more capricious 
 fellow-countrymen. They told them that the graves which were 
 found low underground, belonged to the Gentiles who occupied 
 the country in the Dark Ages, and deserved exhuming. The most 
 devout of the workmen, however, to satisfy their consciences, care- 
 fully removed and buried the bones, feeling sure that they were 
 doing an act of charity, whether the bones belonged to true be- 
 lievers or not. I noticed one of the graves to have been dug in 
 the middle of the two leaves of the monument, and before I could 
 remove the relic, we had to extricate the bones from between the 
 bronze plates. I felt very anxious all the time I was superintending 
 this momentous undertaking, especially as there was a large num- 
 ber of idle spectators from different villages in the neighbor- 
 hood, who came expressly to see the wonderful trophy being un- 
 earthed. 
 
 * All true Moslems bury their dead with the head of the corpse 
 facing towards Mecca.
 
 212 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 This monument has been found to belong to the time of Shal- 
 maneser II, the same monarch as that of the black obelisk found 
 by Sir Henry Layard at Nimroud, who reigned from the year 860 
 to 825 B. C* He was the son of Assur-nazir-pal, the builder of 
 the northwest palace at Mmroud. He ruled over Assyria in the 
 time of the divine mission to Nineveh of the prophet Jonah.f 
 
 It seems, from the different representations on the bronzes, that 
 the Assyrian kings in those days acted, on some occasions, as 
 high priests. Their sacrifices were chosen from the kine and sheep, 
 and the mode of slaughter was by stabbing the animal with a 
 dagger through the heart. As most of the scenes had inscrip- 
 tions, and the posts of the trophy contained an account of the 
 conquest of Shalmaneser, Mr. Theophilus Pinches, of the British 
 Museum, has been able to give us a full description of the monu- 
 ment for the Society of Biblical Archaeology. As I shall give a 
 resume of the contents of the same in the Appendix, I will only 
 mention a few interesting subjects in connection with the repousse 
 illustrations. 
 
 The different campaigns of Shalmaneser II seem to have taken 
 place in Southern Babylonia, or Chaldea, Syria, and Armenia; and 
 in all his battles he makes himself the conqueror. Some of the 
 bronze bands represent the Assyrian army leaving home on one 
 panel, and returning in a triumphal march; and if the king should 
 be with them, they conclude with devotional rites. One of the 
 plates represents the king, in company with two priests, in the 
 act of performing his thank-offering on a tripod. One of the priests 
 seems to be bearing a dish full of fruit, and the king is holding 
 in his hand a cup tilted, from which he is about to pour something 
 in the caldron on the altar. Then behind him another priest, fol- 
 lowed by musicians, holds two buckets, which evidently contain 
 some hquid (it may be the blood of the sacrifice) ready to hand 
 over to His Majesty. Behind the musicians a third priest is driving 
 two bullocks towards the altar, and two are bringing four rams 
 for the same purpose. In front of the Idng stands the pillar of 
 incense, another altar, two royal standards, and a stela of a deified 
 Iving set upon a rockery. In the foreground there are two soldiers 
 
 * This Shalmaneser reigned ninety-five years before Shalmaneser 
 IV, who besieged Samaria, and his troops carried away the ten tribes 
 of Israel oaptive under Sargon. (2 Kings xvii, 3.) 
 
 f Jonah iii, 6. '
 
 MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. 213 
 
 throwing pieces of meat into the water as a propitiation to the 
 elements, which are being swallowed up by a crocodile and a 
 hippopotamus. This scene is supposed to be, by Assyrian scholars, 
 on the shore of Lake Wan in Armenia; but the existence of these 
 two animals in a very cold country, and in water which is nearly 
 as salt as the Dead Sea, is against this theory, seeing that these 
 animals can not live in such water and climate.* 
 
 The next interesting scene is where Shalmaneser is represented 
 in the lower panel on horseback, having just crossed a river, and 
 proceeding to offer his thank-offering before a stela of a deified 
 king set upon a rock near an arbor erected on the water's edge. 
 In front of him a lamb and a bullock are driven for a sacrifice, 
 with three men evidently in the act of adoration, the foremost of 
 whom holds in his hands some instrument not unlike the one 
 handled by the same kind of figure represented on the upper panel.f 
 
 On the tier above, there is the representation of a sacrifice, where 
 a bullock is being slaughtered by stabbing with a dagger, and the 
 spot where this rite is taking place is quite incomprehensible, as there 
 is no inscription on it to explain its meaning. It is an oblong 
 inclosure in a rocky place, with pillars and what seem to be the 
 basements of columns, with two men within it, one of whom is 
 handling the same symbol represented on the lower panel just 
 beneath it. Outside the pillars a boy, or may be a eunuch, with a 
 soldier, are walking towards the inclosure in front of the slaugh- 
 tered bullock, the former crossing on an archway. On the top of 
 the glen there is a building, which may be a temple, with a man 
 standing in a ravine as if haranguing the approaching visitors. 
 
 On another band a pontoon bridge is represented, supported on 
 circular boats, like the present Gooffas of Baghdad, on which a 
 chariot carrying the royal standard is crossing, while the king 
 himself is following in another chariot. The horses of both ve- 
 hicles are being led, to avoid accident. 
 
 Another interesting scene is shown by the representation on 
 
 * There is an inscription over this scene, which is read by Mr. 
 Pinches thus: "An image over against the sea of the land of Nairi 
 I set up; victims to my gods I sacrificed." 
 
 f Above this representation, the following is inscribed: "I went 
 down by the springs of the river; I sacrificed victims to the gods; cap- 
 tured and burnt with fire Kulsi the royal city of Mutzuati; set up an 
 image of my Majesty."
 
 214 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the upper band of two boats resembling Venetian gondolas laden 
 with tribute, towed by two men under the brow of a liill on which 
 a palace is situated, supposed to belong to the king of Tyre or 
 Sidon. In each boat there are two men, one steering and the 
 other rowing. These are preceded by a number of men carrying 
 tribute, consisting of gold ingots, silver bullion, large circular and 
 square vessels, and some other small objects, all of them marching 
 towards the king.* On the lower panel the king is represented 
 receiving prisoners, some naked, whose hands are bound behind 
 them; and others with hands free, but bound together by their 
 necks, with the Sidonian city "Khazazi" in flames.f 
 
 The next most notable pictures, in my opinion, are those 
 wherein are shown the mode of grinding eorn,^ roasting, and cool- 
 ing their water in those days. The former is done in the same 
 style now by the Abyssinians and Gallas, and the latter can be 
 seen in almost every respectable house at Mossul and Baghdad. 
 Only the roasting differs from the present practice in Mesopotamia, 
 in having it performed on a table; but as the king is represented 
 on a war expedition, and the table seems to be a folding one, it 
 may be that that was the only way royal dinners were cooked on 
 a march; but the fanning of the charcoal fire is practiced now in 
 Biblical lands as it was formerly. 
 
 The reign of Shalmaneser II was very important, because he 
 was the first king whom we know to have had warlike engagements 
 with the Israelites. He was the one also who destroyed the Syrian 
 league, and on the occasion of that victory the king of Israel, 
 whom the Assyrians call Jaua-apil-Humri (Jehu, son of Omri), 
 submitted and paid tribute. In a severe battle which was fought 
 between the Syrian league and Shalmaneser, Ahab of Israel was 
 said to have sent two thousand chariots and ten thousand footmen 
 against the common enemy, but only to share the discomfiture of 
 the allied forces. 
 
 In the meantime we had discovered, within sixty feet to the 
 
 * The inscription over tliis panel reads thus: "I received the tribute 
 
 of the ships of the Tyrians and Sidonians." 
 
 f The epigraph reads thus: "The battle of Khazazi." 
 
 J The way the Abyssinians grind their corn is by placing the grain 
 
 on a large basaltic stone, and crushing it with another, as it is shown 
 
 on the bronze plate.
 
 MARBLE AND BRICK PLATFORMS. 215 
 
 northwest, another copper monument half the size of the first; but 
 instead of the plates being ornamented like those of the former 
 with double rows of figures, they had only one set on each and 
 the representations were larger. This was found very much in- 
 jured, and as soon as it was exposed to the air, it crumbled to 
 pieces In front of each of these monuments there was a marble 
 platform, with a brick border constructed so coarsely that it looked 
 more like the work of the Sassanians than that of the Assyrians 
 There was another fact connected with these platforms which 
 convinced me that they were not of Assyrian origin, and that is 
 the non-existence of any inscription on the marble pavement of 
 the platforms to indicate their history. It may be that they were 
 originally covered with copper or other metal plating, but why 
 the platforms were partly made of marble and partly of brick - 
 is more than I can explain. The monument stood in front of the 
 narrowest part, and on a level with it; the sockets being fixed a 
 each corner, so that when the two leaves were opened they rested 
 against the sides of the narrow ledge, as far as the widest part. 
 Some Assyrian scholars have supposed that these rehcs were 
 gates of a temple, but I am of a contrary opinion, and consider 
 them to have been mere monuments set up on the mound ot 
 Balawat in commemoration of certain events. In the place where 
 they were discovered no trace of any wall or building was found; 
 and, considering that the trophy itself must have stood at least 
 twenty-four feet high, the huge building could not have vamshed 
 without leaving a trace even of its foundation. Moreover, when 
 we consider that the other monument which was fixed parallel with 
 it, about sixty feet apart, was not half its size, it would have looked 
 unsio-htly whether in the same building, or separately. ^Altlnn 
 the same distance, and forming almost a square with these two 
 platforms, I found two others which must have had other monu- 
 ments in front of them, but no trace of them was seen. About 
 twenty-five feet to the southwest of the large monument, and near 
 the fourth, or western platform, we found a small room paved and 
 walled with small marble slabs, also very unlike the Assyrian mode 
 of building, and having no trace of any inscription on them, ihe 
 walls were not more than four feet high, and contained no doorway. 
 It looked as if it had been built as a store-room, and the entrance 
 
 * In this shape: T
 
 216 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 into it was from the top. In one of the corners of the chamber 
 we found a beautifully-carved ivory figure. 
 
 Other excavations were carried on in different parts of the 
 mound by means of tunnels, but I soon discovered from the nature 
 of the ground and other indications, that we were digging too 
 deep, and I tried therefore to induce my Shabbak workmen and 
 their chiefs to allow three of the tunnels to be thrown open. As 
 soon as I succeeded in my endeavor to gain the desired end, I gave 
 the necessary directions to the Jeboor and Shabbak workmen and 
 their overseers, and went up to Mossul to attend to my other 
 explorations. 
 
 It happened that before that day was over, while one of the 
 Balawat gangs were breaking through a tunnel on the north side 
 of the mound, they came upon the ruins of a temple, at the en- 
 trance of which a marble coffer was found, containing two beauti- 
 fully-inscribed tablets hewn of the same material.* This discovery 
 created immense excitement amongst the workmen and the neigh- 
 boring villages. Early the next morning Mahmood Alfaraj sent 
 to inform me of it, and begged me to hurry down to Balawat again, 
 as a report had spread that a treasure-chest had been discovered, 
 containing a fabulous amount of gold. Other credulous people had 
 been impressed with the idea that the records were the very stone 
 tablets of Moses, on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. 
 These reports made me hurry down to Balawat, as I did not know 
 what the Shabbak workmen might be tempted to do, in case they 
 believed the silly stories. I found, on arriving there, that my 
 faithful Jeboor overseer, fearing lest some injury might be caused 
 to the coffer or the tablets, if the Shabbak workmen proved trouble- 
 some, had covered them with a large quantity of earth, and he and 
 his fellow Jeboors had kept watch over them all night. I found 
 the excitement amongst all the workmen unbounded, and to please 
 them I presented them with a day's wages all round, adding a few 
 more piasters to the Balawat gang of workmen who had discovered 
 the coffer. The distribution of this small present gave great satis- 
 faction, and for a time it made the Shabbak workmen quite con- 
 tented. My object was now to remove the coffer to Mossul as 
 
 * These tablets have been found to contain the name, titles, and 
 conquests of Assur-Nasir-abli (or Assur-Nazir-pal), the father of Shal- 
 maneser II, and it is found, from this inscription, that the mound of 
 Balaw.at was called then Imgur-Bel.
 
 A MARBLE COFFER. 217 
 
 soon as possible, as I did not know what an hour might bring forth, 
 should the ignorant workmen believe the exaggerated reports of 
 those who were jealous of our success. The difficulty to remove 
 this huge block of marble to a distance of about fifteen miles with- 
 out a cart, was more than my wits and engineering skill could 
 accomplish. The wise saying of the preacher, "Cast thy bread 
 upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days," never 
 came truer than in this, my perplexity; because, a few days before 
 the discovery of the coffer, I had presented some of the marble 
 slabs which were found in the mound to the Shabbak and Kara- 
 kosh villagers. The former had chosen and removed the smallest 
 of the slabs to their villages, and left the large ones for the Kara- 
 kosliites, who wanted them for their church. As the latter could 
 not remove them without a cart, they had sent and hired the only 
 one in the country for that purpose. It arrived at the mound just 
 in the nick of time, as I was puzzling my head how to accomplish 
 the immediate removal of the marble coffer to Mossul. I had only 
 to mention the fact of my difficulty to the Karakoshites, and they 
 came most cheerfully to my help. Without much ado, they placed 
 the coffer, then and there, into the cart, and pulled it to Mossul 
 themselves, I acting as their guide. 
 
 I found, on digging out the coffer, that it was placed at the 
 entrance of a room which had been burned down, and proved 
 afterwards to be a temple. At the northwest of this chamber there 
 was an altar ascended by five steps, on which we found an inscribed 
 marble tablet of the same size and shape as the other two which 
 were found in the coffer. The cavity which contained them was 
 large enough to admit a third, and this fact led me to believe 
 that the tablet found on the altar belonged to the same set, and 
 that before the priests had time to return it to its place the temple 
 was burned down, either by accident or by an enemy. We found 
 pieces of other tablets of different sizes mixed up with the debris; 
 but they were so much burned and dilapidated that very few of 
 them were worth bringing to England. 
 
 It happened that in this chamber a large quantity of human 
 bones were found, which made the Shabbak workmen quarrel 
 among themselves. One party wanted to stop digging, and others 
 said that the bones belonged to the ancient Gentiles or some other 
 unbelieving people, and they would therefore not give up worldng 
 when the bones could be easily removed and buried in another spot.
 
 218 ASSRUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Those of the Shabbak idlers who were not benefiting by our ex- 
 cavations sided with those who wanted to stop working, and abused 
 the others who opposed them and wished to go on. This brought 
 the strife to a crisis, because the chiefs who were in my pay took 
 offense at the insolent demeanor of the mischief-makers, and de- 
 clared that if all the workmen went away they would themselves 
 dig on until I came. Their relatives and those who were favorably 
 inclined to my continuing the excavations, drew their swords, and 
 had not Mahmood Alfaraj advised them to leave the settlement 
 of the dispute to me, there would have been a serious bloodshed. 
 The most curious thing was that the man, a native of Kabarlee, 
 who was foremost in the commencement of the work to prevent 
 me from digging, turned now as my champion, and threatened the 
 malcontents with vengeance if they dared to make any more fuss. 
 He was engaged to be married to the daughter of the chief elder 
 of Balawat, who had become my staunch supporter. I had lately 
 been always welcomed to his house, and it was, therefore, only 
 natural that the gallant young man should take my part and that 
 of his future father-in-law, on this occasion. 
 
 A messenger was dispatched to me as usual, to inform me of 
 the disturbance, and I was begged to hasten down to Balawat to 
 prevent a serious outbreak. There were amongst the disaffected, 
 desperate fellows, who were either deserters from the ranks, or 
 those who had been outlawed. They defied the local authorities 
 to get hold of them, and they were consequently independent in 
 their actions. To say the truth, I began to be quite tired of these 
 continual quarrels, and I was determined when I last went down 
 to Balawat not to leave the place until I had closed the excavations 
 altogether. My only reason for continuing the work there after 
 the discovery of the coffer and its contents, was because I knew that 
 if the works were closed, I should never have the chance of digging 
 there again, and thus I was constrained to continue my researches 
 a little longer. Moreover, I was told by a number of Balawat 
 workmen that there were in the mound other ancient remains, and 
 I was in hope that, by continuing my labors there, I might meet 
 with some interesting object. 
 
 On this last occasion I took down my tents, which I caused to be 
 pitched between the village and the mound. I found everything 
 quiet, and the next morning all the workmen followed me to the
 
 Clay Prism of AsssrK-BAxi-i'AL, coxtaixixg the Anxals of 
 
 HIS Reigx (668-626 B. (J. ) The origixal has ten 
 
 sides; is 192 ixcnEs niGrr, axd coxtaixs 
 
 1,303 lines of writixg.
 
 A DISPUTE SETTLED. 219 
 
 mound, and commenced work without a murmur; but when I re- 
 turned t(*my camp to breakfast I heard a loud noise. On looking 
 out of the tent I saw that there was a good deal of running about, 
 and all the workmen were collecting with swords drawn aromid 
 the site of the temple which I wished to have cleared out. I 
 hastened forthwith to the spot, and on the way thither I was met 
 by messengers who were dispatched by the overseer to ask me to 
 go and stop the disturbance, which had been brought about by 
 the workmen, who wanted to discontinue the excavations in the 
 chamber on account of some graves which had been demoHshed 
 by their fellow-laborers. I found on arriving there that all the 
 workmen, excepting the Jeboors, were on the point of coming to 
 blows, and two of the Balawat workmen busily engaged in doing 
 away with a grave in the temple by the help of their daggers. They 
 swore that the first person who interfered with them would be 
 dispatched then and there with those very weapons, and their 
 corpses left to rot with the bones of the infidels about whom they 
 were quarreling. I told the conspirators that they ought to be 
 ashamed of themselves for creating a disturbance about such a 
 trivial matter, and added that if those who were adverse to digging 
 out the remainder of the chamber would swear that the bones 
 belonged to their forefathers, I would stop digging at once. For 
 all I knew the bones might belong to murderers or enemies of 
 their forefathers, which had been rotting there for hundreds of 
 years. This made them laugh, and forthwith they all resumed 
 work. One man, however, refused to do so, and kept abusing the 
 rest for their wickedness and avarice; but on my handing him his 
 day's pay and telling him he had better go home and avoid par- 
 ticipating in our sins, he returned to work quite contented; and 
 from that day forward there were no more disputes and quarrels. 
 I must confess I was very glad when we cleared out the temple 
 and withdrew from Balawat, which was, as its name means, "an 
 affliction" to me! Before I closed my work there for good, I had 
 the Assyrian well cleared out, hoping to find some ancient remains 
 buried in it, but I was doomed to disappointment. We found an 
 aqueduct running round the mound on the same level as the plat- 
 forms, but could find no trace of it either at the temple or near 
 the spot where the gates were discovered. 
 
 The Assyrians and Babylonians seem to have been very par-
 
 220 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 ticular about their purifying and sanitary arrangements; because 
 we find that, in every building or mound, ancient wells and aque- 
 ducts were erected as part and parcel of their domestic plans. 
 In the royal palaces of Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal, or Sar- 
 danapalus at Nineveh, Assur-Nazir-pal (the father of Shalmaneser 
 II) at Nimroud, and Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon, the aqueducts 
 were built under the pavements, and were connected with the main 
 water-courses outside the royal edifices.
 
 Bakuei. CYi.iNDr.i: of Sennacherib, King of Assyiua (,705-681 B. C.)
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DuEiNG the progress of my excavations at Balawat, my other 
 explorations at Koyunjik and Nimroud were conducted under 
 trustworthy overseers, whose primary duty was to search for in- 
 scriptions. At Koyunjik, where I had my headquarters and em- 
 ployed the largest number of hands, my operations were more 
 successful, especially in the palaces of Sennacherib and Assur-bam- 
 pal, and the records we found there proved a welcome addition 
 to the libraries obtained by Sir Henry Layard and myself from 
 Nineveh in 1850 and 1854. In the palace of the last mentioned 
 kincr we discovered, buried in a wall, an almost perfect decagon 
 terra-cotta cylinder, covered with nearly 1,300 Unes of fine cunei- 
 form characters, detailing the conquests and the extension of the 
 sway of Assur-bani-pal. It was by a mere chance that this umque 
 object was discovered; because, generally speaking, we did not 
 waste our time and money in digging out solid brick walls to no 
 purpose. As I was most anxious on this occasion that there should 
 be no chance of losing the smallest piece of any inscribed object, 
 especially as in some broken walls there were found remnants of 
 Assyrian relics, I had given orders that when the workmen came to 
 a broken wall they were to search it thoroughly. One day when 
 I went to Koyunjik to examine the works, and was on the point 
 of starting for Nimroud to see about my other excavations there, 
 I was asked by the overseer superintending the excavations in the 
 palace of Assur-bani-pal, if he was to demolish a small remnant 
 of a brick wall which was left in digging out two chambers, or 
 leave it to be covered over with the debris that came out of the 
 excavations. On seeing that its removal would entail very little 
 expense, I ordered it to be pulled down, and it appears that I had 
 not gone two hours on my way to Nimroud before the digger came 
 upon this valuable object buried in the center of the soUd wall. 
 It is most remarkable that I found a duplicate copy of this cylinder 
 about twenty-five years previously not far from this spot; but the 
 first was rather dilapidated and imperfect, the pieces having been 
 found broken and mixed up with the earth. _ 
 
 I believe that these cvlinders were placed formerly by the king's 
 command in the solid walls to preserve them from fire or any other 
 
 221
 
 222 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 injury. In the palace of Sennacherib, during the removal of the 
 walls of one of the rooms, no less than four cylinders, facsimiles 
 of each other, were found buried in them. 
 
 Formerly, when the reading of the cuneiform characters had not 
 attained the present perfection, Assyrian explorers did not consider 
 it worth the expense to clear out all the accumulated debris from 
 the buried chambers; and so Sir Henry Layai d and I tried, with the 
 little money we had at our disposal, to procure for the British 
 Museum only stone and marble monuments. Not that we ever 
 threw away inscribed objects, and only valued sculptured antiqui- 
 ties; but as we were limited in our expenditure, and had only so 
 many months in wliich to accomplish our missions, we could spare 
 neither money nor time in clearing out all the rubbish from the 
 different chambers we discovered. We could therefore only dig 
 about five or six feet in front of the sculptured-faced walls, so as 
 to allow space for the workmen to pass each other without hin- 
 drance. Since that time, however, there has been so much interest 
 taken in the decipherment of the arrow-headed characters, espe- 
 cially since the Creation and Deluge tablets were read, that the 
 trustees of the British Museum have been most anxious to obtain 
 an additional suppl}' to the already existing collection, and in com- 
 pleting the tablets wliich are considered most interesting to Biblical 
 scholars. Since then I aimed not only to clear out all the chambers 
 of the debris, but actually to break down every wall that seemed 
 likely to contain relics of the past. 
 
 The uncovering of those chambers in the palaces of Sennacherib 
 and Assur-bani-pal entailed a good deal of labor and expense on 
 account of the accumulation of debris which was heaped over them 
 from time to time by different explorers. I had in the first place 
 to see that the earth was removed and thrown in the ravines and 
 other localities where it would not be in the way of future excava- 
 tions. "We had to work hard before we could penetrate the interior 
 of the ruin, but whenever we reached to the bottom of the chambers 
 I was rewarded by the discovery of valuable inscriptions. 
 
 While digging in chamber F in Assur-bani-pal's palace at 
 Koyunjik, we came upon a large sewer below the floor, built partly 
 of molded bricks, representing Assyrian mystic figures, which evi- 
 dently belonged formerly to an ancient building. Unfortunately, 
 I was unable to find a complete set to make a whole bas-relief.
 
 i^
 
 SASSANIAN COINS FOUND. 223 
 
 because in one place we discovered a portion of the head, in an- 
 other the feet, and in another, part of the wings, and so on. 
 
 In the palace we found one day a large number of Sassaman 
 silver coins; and although the whole were not more than one 
 hundred and forty-five, a report spread all over Mossul that a large 
 treasure-trove had been discovered in the ruins, which created a 
 great excitement amongst the Ottoman authorities. The imperial 
 delegate hurried, without loss of time, to the spot with a large force 
 of armed police with fixed bayonets, to guard the fabulous treasure. 
 The disappointment of all can well be imagined when they found 
 that the whole collection of coins was not more than a handful. 
 According to the stipulation of my first firman, I was only allowed 
 to appropriate on the part of the British Museum one-third of the 
 relics, the owner of the mound one-third, and the rest were to 
 be the share of the Ottoman authorities for the Imperial Ottoman 
 Museum at Constantinople. The local authorities, in this instance, 
 wished to appropriate the portion belonging to the landlord, but 
 as the latter had begged me to retain it for him, from fear of losing 
 it altogether, I refused to give it up. The firman did not impose 
 upon me the obligation of making over to the Turkish Govern- 
 ment what is apportioned to the owners of the land where I was 
 carrying on my explorations. The proprietor of Koyunjik was 
 sent for by the authorities, who tried all they could, whether by 
 threats or coaxing, to get him to make over to them his share of 
 the coins; but he doggedly refused to do so, on the plea that he 
 had already agreed with me that I should keep his share. 
 
 Most of the mounds in which ancient remains are found m 
 Assyria and Babylonia belong to private families, and to enable 
 explorers to excavate in them, it is necessary, independently ot 
 the firman, to indemnify the landlords before the work can be 
 commenced. But it had always been the rule with Sir Henry 
 Layard and myself not to enter into a regular agreement with 
 the owners of the land, but merely to reward them with a small 
 present, which we deemed sufficient for the purpose. It is gratify- 
 ing to say that, during our several expeditions, we never expe- 
 rien«ed the least trouble, whether we were successful m our dis- 
 coveries or not, and none of the landlords ever interfered m oiir 
 arrangements, even if we chose to destroy or dig up all their 
 ground, and render it unfit for cultivation. Indeed, a great
 
 224 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 number never troubled themselves to ask for indemnification for 
 any damage done, as they knew that we were sure to compensate 
 them, and punish our employees if they wantonly did any damage 
 to the property or trespassed on any domain without our sanction. 
 
 It was always considered and established as a precedent that 
 we could dig anywhere we liked, as every one understood that we 
 were always ready to give the necessary reward. I have been very 
 often accosted on my travels by men and women who had an arti- 
 ficial mound in their patrimony or neighborhood, to go and ex- 
 amine the old ruins, which they assured me contained antiquities 
 and treasure! Had I consented to follow the red-tape system, I 
 might not only have been imposed upon, and made to pay ex- 
 orbitantly for the pri\'ilege of digging, but I should, most prob- 
 ably, have been prevented altogether from attaining the object 
 of my mission. It was particularly set forth in my firman that, 
 to enable me to excavate in private ground, it would be necessary 
 for me to obtain the sanction of the landlord, — as if I could pos- 
 sibly intrude on any private domain against the wishes of the 
 owners. I was also prohibited from digging in a mound which 
 contained a graveyard, or where the ground was considered sa- 
 cred, — that is to say, all places that contain the remains of holy 
 men, or of any shrine of a saint which is resorted to for devotional 
 purposes. Had tliis clause been strictly adhered to, most of the 
 valuable antiquities would have been now and forever lost to the 
 National Museum. 
 
 Two incidents in coEnection with the landlords which oc- 
 curred, one in Sir Henry Layard's time, and the other during my 
 superintendence (with reference to the Sassanian coins already al- 
 luded to), raised us in the estimation of every one, especially those 
 owners of land who possessed in their property ancient remains. 
 When I rejoined Sir Henry I^ayard at Constantinople in 1849, one 
 of the landlords of Koyunjik happened to be there soliciting some 
 pecuniary assistance from two grandees of Mossul, who held high 
 positions at the Turkish capital; but it appeared he did not meet 
 with success. On finding him in distress, I represented his case 
 to Sir Henry Layard, who immediately gave him a suitable present, 
 which the poor old man never forgot to the day of his death, in 
 the beginning of 1880. On returning to Mossul, he reported in 
 high praise everywhere the kindness and liberality of the English;
 
 TEMPLE OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL. 225 
 
 and as he took care not to say what we gave him, it was thought 
 that we had enriclied him lor life. 
 
 The Arabs are i^roverbially very grateful for any civility and 
 attention they receive, and consider it a sacred duty to trust a 
 friend. As for acts of liberality, they are considered to be as good 
 as prayer and fasting; and to show liow highly they appreciate 
 generosity, they have a common saying that "a liberal man is be- 
 loved of God, though he be a reprobate." It is very difficult for 
 a stranger, unaccustomed to Arab habits and customs, to deal with 
 them in a way that would command implicit trust to either party; 
 because, if a person is too lavish with his money he would either 
 be thought a simpleton, or looked upon with suspicion, and be 
 imposed upon accordingly; but should he, on the other hand, act 
 stingily, he would be held in utter contempt. It is therefore not 
 an easy matter to deal with an Arab when an important matter 
 is to be settled. 
 
 Generally speaking, when I found that the ground which I 
 wished to examine belonged to a private individual, I appointed 
 two farmers to value the rent of the land with the loss of profit 
 on its cultivation while I was making use of it, and paid the land- 
 lord a fair remuneration. I always left the option to the owners 
 of the soil to let me refill the trenches and smooth down the fur- 
 rows caused by my diggings, or allow them a sufficient sum to do 
 the work themselves. Invariably the landlords chose the latter 
 offer, as they could pocket the money and trust to time to do what 
 is necessary. 
 
 In my explorations at Nimroud I discovered not far from the 
 northwest palace a temple built by the same king, Assur-Nazir-pal; 
 but the destructive enemy had so managed to make a thorough 
 wreck of the whole structure, that there was no trace left of the 
 walls.* Even the beautiful enameled tiles, which must have 
 adorned the ceiling, were so thoroughly broken and scattered 
 about in different parts of the ruin, that I could not complete one 
 entire piece to bring to the British Museum, though more than 
 half a dozen baskets were filled of the fragments found amongst 
 the debris. From all I could make out, each tile was shaped Hke 
 a Maltese cross, with a knob in the center bored through for the 
 
 * Plan 4. 
 
 15
 
 226 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 purpose of hanging a lamp to it. Doubtless these tiles were placed 
 in the ceiling between the beams, which gave a grand effect when 
 the numerous lamps were lighted. The only objects that I found 
 whole and standing in their original positions were a marble 
 altar, and what seemed to me a vessel fixed in the floor of the room 
 to receive the blood of the sacrifice. I also found, on the left of the 
 altar, blocks of marble and stone, grooved on the top, wliich ap- 
 peared to have been used as seats for the officiating priests. The 
 marble seats were inscribed with an epitaph, which shows that 
 they were dedicated by the builder of the northwest palace at 
 jSTimroud.* 
 
 I brought one of these seats to the British Museum as a speci- 
 men. Besides these, there were pieces of a very handsome tripod, 
 round and square marble pillars, and about a dozen marble plat- 
 forms of all shapes and sizes. Some of these were inscribed; but 
 most of the characters were so much damaged and defaced that 
 no one has, as yet, been able to decipher them. I believe that 
 these platforms were dedicated to different deities for sacrificial 
 purposes, and it is to be hoped that we shall find out from the 
 dilapidated inscription the real history of that edifice. 
 
 From the position of this structure and other indications, it 
 seemed to have been either part of the temple discovered by Sir 
 Henry Layard near the Pyramid, or an annex to it. I was not 
 able to trace the connection between the two, on account of the 
 utter destruction of the northern limit of the ruin; I could, never- 
 theless, judge from the line it followed towards the Pyramid, that 
 it must have had some sort of connection with it, both ha\dng 
 been founded by the same king of the northwest palace. 
 
 At the southeast corner of the mound of Mmroud I discovered 
 an ascending passage, inclosed by square stone walls, leading to 
 an archway neatly built of kiln-burnt bricks. The whole aspect of 
 the building made it look as if it had been the grand entrance to 
 the roj-al mansions. Besides this and the ruin of the temple, to- 
 gether with a few fragments of inscribed clay and marble tablets, 
 there was nothing discovered, as the mound had been well cut 
 about by Sir Henry Layard and myself in years gone by. The only 
 remaining sculptures of Sir Henry Layard's and my discoveries 
 were about half a dozen bas-reliefs, representing the eagle-headed 
 
 * Assur-Nazir-pal.
 
 Assyrian Arcit, sirowixci Tnn: Ctraxd Ascending Entrance int(i tite 
 Royal Precincts al' Nimroud.
 
 BEST SEASON FOR EXPLORATIONS. 227 
 
 figure and horned priests, a few fragments of defaced sculptures, 
 and the Colossus of Nebo standing in its original position. The 
 latter was very much dilapidated, as the Arabs had been hacking 
 it about with spears and stones, because they looked upon it as 
 the idol of the old Gentile nations. When I discovered this statue, 
 in 1854, 1 had it covered over with earth, as we were short of funds 
 to have it sent to Baghdad for transport to England. It seemed 
 that other explorers after me had it dug out, and left it exposed 
 to the mercy of the Arab passers-by. 
 
 The term of my engagement having come to a close in March, 
 the end of the official year, I began to prepare to start homewards, 
 but as the dispute about the division of the antiquities which I 
 had discovered was still going on between the local authorities at 
 Mossul, the Ministry of Pubhc Instruction at Constantinople, and 
 myself, my departure had to be delayed for some time afterwards. 
 I was also actuated by another reason to prolong my stay at Mossul 
 for a few weeks, and that was my desire to work on at Balawat 
 and Koyunjik when the days were longer and the weather more 
 favorable. 
 
 The best time of the year for explorations in Mesopotamia is 
 from September to November inclusive, and from the beginning 
 of March to the end of May; because, during December, January, 
 and February the days are short, and the weather generally wet; 
 and from June to the end of August the heat of the sun is so 
 powerful that even the Arabs become exhausted from its effects. 
 I always found it, therefore, advantageous, both for economy and 
 rapidity of operations, to lessen the number of workmen in the 
 depth of winter and summer, and increase them in autumn and 
 spring. 
 
 The terms of my firman were so stringent that if it had not 
 been for Sir Henry Layard's influence at Constantinople, and the 
 assistance of my friends at Mossul, it would have been quite im- 
 possible for me to conduct the explorations properly. The Porte 
 promised Sir Henry Layard to send me a Vizierial letter, for the 
 purpose of relieving me from the unnecessary interference of the 
 local authorities; but when it came I found that, if I showed it to 
 the authorities, I should gain no benefit, but, on the contrary, it 
 might cause me serious trouble; because it not only repeated the 
 objectionable clauses in the firman, but added a most injurious ob- 
 ligation upon us; namely, that we were to divide the antiquities
 
 228 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 between the landlords and the Ottoman authorities, a necessity 
 which was not defined in the royal mandate. As the majority of 
 the mounds in Assyria and Babylonia are crown property, it meant 
 that only one-tliird would fall to our lot, and the remainder would 
 be claimed by the Ottoman Government. Moreover, the landlords 
 were quite content, as I generally satisfied theia with small presents; 
 but if they would be instigated, through the interference of the 
 local authorities, to claim the third of what we discovered, we 
 should never be able to come to terms. 
 
 We were to divide all duplicates with the owners of the land 
 and the Ottoman Museum; but should there be single objects found, 
 they were to be valued, and whatever the price might be fixed at, 
 we should be forced to pay it, deducting only one-third for our 
 share. The firman did not specify who was to be the appraiser; 
 and so if the local authorities were allowed any option in the 
 matter, they would undoubtedly appoint their own man, and if 
 he chose to set an exorbitant price upon any antique, we should 
 be called upon to pay two-thirds of the amount, or forego the 
 object altogether. It was also stipulated that an imperial delegate 
 should be appointed to watch the explorations on the part of the 
 Ministry of Public Instruction, and I was to pay, on the part of 
 the British Museum, his salary and expenses. This obnoxious 
 impost was, however, dispensed with afterwards on the represen- 
 tation of Sir Henry Layard. "When this officer was first appointed 
 he began to domineer over both the workmen and overseers, telling 
 them that they must show to the guard (whom he placed to watch 
 the excavations) everything they found; but finding that no one 
 would listen to him, he began to give trouble through the authori- 
 ties. When the Arabs were told that they must take everything 
 to the delegate to be noted down, they said that, as they were the 
 servants of the English, they could only take their orders from 
 those who employed them. I was called upon by the governor of 
 Mossul one day to lodge all the antiquities discovered under the 
 lock and key of the delegate until such time as the antiquities 
 could be divided; but I knew that if I consented to this arbitrary 
 arrangement, I should not only be injuring our influence in the 
 country, but risk the loss of valuable relics. Moreover, I should 
 have had nothing to do but to be at the beck and call of the dele- 
 gate; and when I wished to examine any of the discovered objects, 
 he would create no end of difficulties. On telegraphing to Sir
 
 ^ 
 
 r
 
 ANTIQUITIES PACKED. 229 
 
 Henry Layard regarding this fresh obstacle, he managed to rid 
 me of it. The only controversy that remained when the time of my 
 departure westward approached, was the taking away of the an- 
 tiquities. In communicating with Sir Henry Layard on the matter, 
 it was decided that I should take all the collection with me to 
 Constantinople, and leave it to Mm to settle with the Porte about 
 the division. 
 
 Besides these antiquities, I had to take with me some fine 
 specimens of the old Nimroud colossal bas-rehefs, as a present to the 
 Sultan from the trustees of the British Museum. Sir Henry Layard, 
 in the first instance, asked me to obtain them for him to present 
 to His Imperial Majesty; and on referring the matter to the British 
 Museum, the authorities there sanctioned the outlay. As these 
 sculptures were rather bulky, and I preferred taking them whole 
 rather than having them cut in small pieces for the sake of easy 
 transport, I had them thinned and carried on htters. 
 
 After all the cases of the antiquities were packed, both for the 
 Sultan and the British Museum, for the long land journey, I 
 started with a large cavalcade on the 17th of May, 1878. I chose 
 this time the unfrequented path between Mossul and Nissibeen, 
 via Homaidat and Chilligha, through Northern Mesopotamia. I 
 preferred this route, though unsafe and lacking a supply of water, 
 for two causes: first, there are no rivers to cross; and, secondly, 
 it is shorter by at least fifty miles than the regular caravan high- 
 way on the left side of the Tigris via Jazeerah. This route is 
 not taken advantage of by travelers and the natives of the country, 
 because it is considered 'to be the haunt of Bedouin robbers and 
 devoid of the necessary supplies, especially water; so if any one be 
 plundered and left far away from inhabited parts, he might die 
 in the desert from hunger and thirst. The authorities never en- 
 courage travelers to proceed westward by that route, and they 
 generally show a great objection to supplying an escort to accom- 
 pany a distinguished traveler by any road excepting that through 
 which the imperial post passes. On this occasion, however, the 
 authorities stretched a point, and allowed me ten mounted orderlies 
 of the Alboo-Hammad as far as Nissibeen. The Alboo-Hammad 
 Arabs are a small tribe inhabiting the right bank of the Tigris be- 
 tween Mossul and Kalaa-Shirgat. They all act as police for keep- 
 ing order amongst the nomafl Arabs; but a great number of them 
 are desperate robbers themselves.
 
 230 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 As soon as it was known that I was going to travel westward 
 on the left side of the Tigris, all those who wanted to go to Aleppo, 
 Diarbekir, or Orfa, came and begged me to allow them to accom- 
 pany me for the sake of protection. As I never refused any party 
 to travel with me, provided they agreed to the conditions I im- 
 posed upon them, — namely, to start and halt according to my 
 convenience, — I consented to their joining my party. To my sur- 
 prise, I found the next morning that my caravan was increased 
 by at least one hundred men with as many animals, as it happened 
 that a large number of traders, who were going to Aleppo via 
 Jazeerah, had heard of my intention to proceed through the short 
 route, and wished to profit by the opportunity. 
 
 According to rule, I traveled the first day only two hours and 
 a half, as far as Homaidat, where I found the inhabitants encamp- 
 ing outside the village in a delightful green spot. I had my tents 
 pitched on the slope of the hill, where there was a good deal of 
 pasture. A large number of friends and relatives accompanied 
 me as far as that place, and the next morning they all returned 
 to Mossul. 
 
 We started from Homaidat at 5.15 on the morning of the 
 18th, and had not gone two miles before we saw an Arab grandee 
 making post-haste towards us on a swift dromedary. There is no 
 mistaldng a Bedouin of position for a common Arab, because, while 
 the former generally ride on a well-caparisoned dromedary, whose 
 locomotion is recognized in a moment, the latter either travels 
 on foot or rides an awkward camel. There was a tremendous com- 
 motion amongst the Mossul merchants and muleteers consequent 
 upon the appearance of the young Shaikh, who they feared would 
 levy a heavy blackmail upon their goods. I found afterwards he 
 was Ghatheeth, son of Somair, a well-known brave Shammer chief 
 of the Zaidan clan. Indeed, he had already begun to mulct the 
 traders of some clothes and utensils; and on my sending for him 
 and remonstrating with him on this unbecoming conduct, he dis- 
 avowed all malicious intention with regard to the communication 
 that had passed between him and the party in question. He ad- 
 mitted that he had received some little things from them, but 
 declared they were merely presents and not impost. He promised 
 faithfully that he would keep away from them and attach himself 
 to me until he saw me safely out of that lawless district; and he 
 kept his word right loyally. He accompanied me as far as Chilligha,
 
 FROM KASIK TO CHILLIGA. 231 
 
 the first village on the border of the Nissibeen Province, and then 
 left to return to his encampment, which was not far thence. 
 
 At 10 30 A. M. we arrived at Kasik, and after my escort and 1 
 halted there about an hour to give our horses some green food, we 
 resumed our journey and reached Higua at 2.30 P. M. We found 
 the natives of the village encamping some distance off, and so we 
 halted on the bank of the brackish rivulet bearing the same name, 
 where there was good pasture. The next day we started at 3.30 
 A M and made a short stage as far as Owainat at eight o clock, 
 where'we halted for the day, as I had intended to make a long jour- 
 ney during the night, there being no water the whole way. At 
 Owainat there was a remnant of a brackish stream, with here and 
 there a pool of stagnant water, only fit for washing purposes; but 
 we were obliged to cook our breakfast and dinner of it, and my 
 followers were not over-fastidious about drinking it. 
 
 Though when we left Mossul the cornfields and pasturage were 
 quite parched up, the country from ITomaidat northward was rich 
 with verdure, and many spots were thick with clover, which our 
 horses enjoyed. I deemed it advisable, for the sake of those fol- 
 lowers who had no vessels for carrying water with them, to start 
 at 6 30 P M , and went on until we reached Irmaila about six 
 o'clock on Mokday, the 20th of May, when we halted for the day 
 on the swampy little rivulet below the mound, where there was 
 plenty of green food for our animals. This water was better than 
 any of the streams and pools which we passed since we left Mossul, 
 though it had a stagnant taste. We resumed our journey at four 
 P. M., and reached Chilligha in two and a half hours' ride._ Near 
 the villa<Te we passed a copious stream running towards Smjar, the 
 water of which was very good. I encamped near the chief, Miraan 
 Agha, who invited me on my arrival to his tent, where I had some 
 refreshment and coffee. Firhan Pasha, the Shaikh of all the Sham- 
 mer Arabs, had married off his renowned handsome daughter, at 
 whom all the Arabs laughed because she wore drawers, as she 
 was on her father's side of Koordish descent. I had some labban, 
 or clotted milk, at Calligha, which might be mistaken for cream, 
 and I learned afterwards that Chilligha was famous for this con- 
 coction. As I had an early dinner at Irmaila, and I felt rather 
 tired, I took a cup of tea and went to bed soon after my arrival. 
 We left Chilligha at 3.15 A. M., and went on until we reached, 
 about five o'clock, a patch of green pasture thick with clover,
 
 232 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 where I halted about half an hour with my escort to give our 
 animals some food. As soon as the caravan passed, we resumed 
 our journey, and reached the village called by the Arabs ''Kooboor 
 Albaidha/' and by the Koords "Tirba-spee" (or white tombs), at 
 8.15 A. M. Here I halted with my escort at the chief's tent, 
 where I was very hospitably received. My host tried all he could 
 to induce me to stay long enough to give him time to slaughter 
 a sheep and cook it for me. I thanked liim for his civility, and 
 told him that I was in a hurry to push on. Just as I was starting 
 we saw signs of unusual commotion around the villages lying at the 
 foot of the hills,* which made my host take up his arms and hasten 
 towards the scene of conflict, and immediately hundreds of other 
 Koords began to run towards the same direction. I learned after- 
 wards that a party of Koords, to avenge themselves of some old 
 grievances, had come down from the mountains to plunder and 
 burn every village whose inhabitants were unable to oppose them. 
 While I was going on I could see the deadly strife rampant all 
 along the foot of the mountain, and the sound of firing was heard 
 incessantly. I have no doubt that, by the end of the day, many 
 a man was either killed or wounded, and a number of poor women 
 and children left destitute. It is very melancholy to see that, 
 within a few miles of two important Pashalics, people are allowed 
 to take the law into their hands, just because the authorities do 
 not render the aggrieved party the proper protection, either from 
 their inability to do so, or for the sake of pecuniary advantage. 
 The whole country has gone to rack and ruin through misgovern- 
 ment and apathy, and it is laughable to notice how grandly Ottoman 
 officials talk on European politics, and yet they can not manage 
 the affairs of their country properly. 
 
 After an hour's ride we reached the village of Daggir, where 
 we halted for the rest of the day. I had intended to push on to 
 Tel-Ash-shaaeer, about three miles further, in order that we might 
 be within a short distance of Nissibeen; but my muleteer did not 
 like to pass that delightful spot, where there was a copious river 
 flowing, and its banks thick with pasture. He excused himself by 
 saying that at Tel-Ash-shaaeer there was only indifferent well- 
 water, and no food for the animals. He promised that if I halted 
 at Daggir he would take me into Nissibeen the next day at the 
 
 * Southernmost limit of the Koordistan Mountains.
 
 NISSIBEEN. 233 
 
 same time as if I had not tarried there. Having approved of that 
 arrangement, especially as I found that my followers were longing 
 to halt there, I ordered all the baggage to he unloaded. I had my 
 tent pitched on the left hank of the clear stream, and allotted the 
 opposite side to the traders. 
 
 There is a very large mound near the river on which the vil- 
 lage is built, and had I time I would have tried a trench or two in 
 it. From its summit another much larger mound could be seen 
 standing about five or six miles southward, called "Lailan," which I 
 was told had a wall round it like most of the Assyrian sites of im- 
 portance. I had a great desire to go and examine it, but could not 
 afford the time. I hoped, however, when I should be in that 
 .neighborhood again, to be able to visit it and try it for a short 
 time. 
 
 We had a long and pleasant halt at Daggir, and left that place 
 at 1.30 the next morning. As soon as the day dawned, part of 
 my escort and I pushed on to Nissibeen, which we reached in about 
 five hours' ride, and the luggage arrived about half an hour after 
 us. To avoid living in the town I had my tents pitched outside, 
 near the high road to Aleppo; but it was difficult to find a plot 
 of ground free from the common brier of the country, which grows 
 most luxuriantly around the place as high as four feet. Wherever 
 thorns and briers are found in abundance, it is always a sure sign 
 of poverty and neglect. The governor was away, but the com- 
 missioner of police called on me as soon as I arrived, and tendered 
 me his services. 
 
 Nissibeen has been the scene of many a conflict between the 
 Eomans and Persians; and ultimately, in A. D. 363, the Emperor 
 Jovian was compelled to patch up an ignominious and humiliating 
 treaty, in which he relinquished to the victorious Sapor the five 
 provinces which comprised the limit of ancient Assyria proper on 
 the left side of the Tigris, and all the Roman possessions in Meso- 
 potamia. This did not quite satisfy the ambitious "great king," 
 for he further glutted his vengeance on the brave but helpless 
 citizens by giving them the alternative of exile or servitude. 
 
 Mssibeen, which was formerly one of the most famous cities 
 in Northern Mesopotamia, and the seat of the Nestorian Christian 
 missions and learning, is now a heap of ruins. It can scarcely boast 
 of a single respectable habitation; and since I visited it with Sir 
 Henry Layard, in 1847, it has gone from bad to worse. When
 
 234 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Assyria was the ruling power in those realms, Nissibeen must have 
 been a place of some consequence, both for the richness of its 
 produce and the command it must have had over the highland and 
 lowland tribes. From its high position, the number of its rivers, 
 and the fertility of its soil, the whole province can be cultivated 
 from the Khaboor to the Tigris. Even now, with a little capital 
 and under a good government, one might earn his twenty-five per 
 cent without any dilhculty, if the land is put under a proper tillage. 
 In one part of its northeastern limit bordering on Jazeerah, water- 
 melons grow so luxuriantly that their sweetness is proverbial all 
 over the country. The Arabs make a quantity of syrup from that 
 fruit, and I believe, from the taste I have had of some, that sugar 
 could be easily extracted from it to the extent of forty per cent, 
 which would cost about a farthing a pound; whereas, the present 
 price of sugar in that country, whether loaf or moist, is about four- 
 pence. 
 
 "We left Nissibeen at a quarter past three o'clock in the after- 
 noon of the same day, there being notliing particular to induce 
 me to spend the night there. We then halted, after three hours' 
 ride, at the village of Alkissoor, or Kassir-Sarchakhan (the former 
 being its Arabic, and the latter its Koordish name). I had my tent 
 pitched outside the village, and as soon as we arrived we were 
 swarmed with almost all the female inhabitants of the place, bring- 
 ing for sale milk, labban, bread, and grass for our animals. One 
 pretty Koordish girl insisted upon receiving an extra present (I 
 suppose for the pleasure of looking at her!), and finding we were 
 in want of water, she went and fetched us as much as we needed. 
 
 We left Alkissoor at three A. M., and after my escort and myself 
 losing on the road about one hour and a half, by halting no less 
 than three times to allow the luggage to overtake us, we reached 
 Tel-Armun at twelve, noon. I had my tents pitched in front of 
 Kooch-hissar, a Koordish village, which is situated a distance of 
 about a thousand yards. Tel-Armun is inhabited by Armenians, 
 and I preferred the Moslems' village because its inhabitants 
 were camping outside, where there was good pasture. I had 
 my tent pitched near that of the chief, a venerable old man, 
 who was extremely courteous, and rendered me every assistance 
 I required. Just as I was giving directions to the servants where 
 to pitch my tent, the chief of Tel-Armun came to inform me that 
 the Eeverend Mr. Andrus, the head of the American mission at
 
 TEL-HILL ALLEE. 235 
 
 Mardeen, had come down to meet me, and was awaiting my ar- 
 rival at his house. He had asked me to pay him a visit on my way 
 to Aleppo, and as 1 found I could not spare the time to go up 
 to Mardeen, I wrote and informed him of my inability to do so; 
 but as he knew when I should be passing through that neighbor- 
 hood he came down himself to see me. He was ready to have his 
 breakfast, and I was glad to join him, as I had had no regular meal 
 that morning, and a cup of good tea was most refreshing. Mrs. 
 Andrus was kind enough to send me a hamper for my own use, 
 containing some of her home-made bread and cakes, which proved 
 most acceptable on the journey. After breakfast we repaired to my 
 tent and spent the afternoon together. Soon after dinner, my 
 friend left me, as he knew that I had to go to bed betimes, to enable 
 me to resume my journey early next morning. 
 
 We all overslept ourselves, and so could not start before four 
 o'clock. Our poor animals suffered intensely to-day from the attack 
 of ravenous large flies, which swarm in those regions in spring. 
 The most malignant are found in the lake valley of Antioch, and 
 at the time of the year when they are plentiful, those who do not 
 like to see their dumb animals tortured, and they themselves shaken 
 about like a palm in a hurricane, contrive to travel early in the 
 morning and late in the afternoon, when the heat of the sun is not 
 so great. When the weather gets very hot, the flies increase in 
 fierceness; but when it is cloudy those parasites are dormant, and 
 very seldom rise from the ground. I have seen some animals 
 literally covered with blood from the bites of those flies. Some 
 are large and some small; but the former, which are about four 
 times larger than the ordinary flies, are the most troublesome, es- 
 pecially that species of them which have green heads. I generally 
 carried a green twig when I met with that plague, and beat them 
 off right and left. We passed to-day through most fertile country, 
 but very little of it was inhabited or cultivated. Some of the hay 
 grew as high as a good-sized pony, and, as a matter of course, our 
 animals had plenty to eat. We reached our halting-place, called 
 Tel-hillallee, at 12.30 P. M., and encamped below the mound on 
 the right bank of the river bearing the same name. There was no 
 village there, but merely an encampment of Yezeedees of the Dinna 
 tribe, whose chief came to visit me soon after my arrival, and com- 
 plained of the oppression and extortion of the Ottoman authorities. 
 Here also the women brought us a quantity of rich milk and
 
 236 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 labban, which rejoiced my followers. My escort did not relish the 
 idea of sleeping near the encampment of the "Devil-worshipers," 
 as they looked upon them as a very treacherous people; and being 
 the "followers of Satan," all true behevers considered them to be 
 the natural enemies of "God's worshipers." It was reported that, 
 a few days before, some Bashi-bazooks were "swallowed up" by 
 them, and no trace could be seen of them anywhere. The vegeta- 
 tion here was most luxuriant, and I have no doubt all the muleteers 
 longed to spend two or three days in that delightful spot, espe- 
 cially as time was no object to them, and they had nothing to pay 
 for the feed of their animals. 
 
 "We resumed our journey at 1.45 A. M., and went on until we 
 reached Wairan-Shahr at 10.15, and encamped on the right bank 
 of the stream outside the village. This is a seat of a Kayim- 
 Makkam, whose Sarai, or palace, is situated within the ruins of 
 an ancient city, wholly built of huge, smoothly-hewn black basalt. 
 It is supposed to be the same as Sinna, mentioned by Ptolemy and 
 Assemanni, which was in olden days a Chaldean city. The crosses 
 engraved on the portals of the sepulchers and the architecture of 
 the churches prove beyond doubt that its founders were Christians. 
 The town itself must have been at least three miles in circum- 
 ference, but the principal part of the city, which is built in the 
 shape of a square, lies within a compass of about 2,500 yards. The 
 latter consists of square and round towers, churches and domains 
 of the principal inhabitants, and, being wholly built of black basalt, 
 gives a dismal appearance to the place. The houses were con- 
 structed of the same material, and have semicircular arches; but 
 the most remarkable are the tombs, which are numerous and called 
 by the natives "baths." They are most curious, both as regards 
 their construction and style, and boast more of the physical power 
 of the age than of art. The doors of these sepulchers are hewn of 
 one solid piece of basalt, which revolve upon hinges cut of the same 
 block. These huge doors are so heavy that it requires two strong 
 men to move one, though they are not more than four feet in 
 height. In the center of the town there is a clear and wholesome 
 spring, with others flowing in different parts of the suburbs. The 
 whole aspect of the ruins shows as if the place was destroyed by 
 an earthquake or some other natural convulsion. 
 
 There were a large number of Christians there with a priest, 
 who came from different parts of the neighborhood for the pur-
 
 THE KA YIM-MAKKIM. 287 
 
 poses of trade; not that there was much business done in the place, 
 but their industry depended, in a great measure, upon goods bar- 
 tered for amongst the nomad Koords of the Kara-gaitchee and 
 Millee tribes, who live near Wairan-Shahr. 
 
 The next day, being Sunday, we rested all day, which was a 
 great boon to my followers and myself, as we had not had one clear 
 night's rest ever since we left Mossul. Even the animals seemed 
 to enjoy the long halt, especially as they had there plenty to feed 
 upon, and no lack of good water. 
 
 The Kayim-Makkam of Wairan-Shahr was away at the shrine 
 of Nebbi-Allah-Aioob (that is, the Prophet of God, Job), settling a 
 serious quarrel amongst the neighboring Koords; but his deputy 
 came and paid me a visit in the morning, and apologized that he 
 was not able to supply me with any escort, as every available 
 Dhabtia had been sent on special service. He advised me, however, 
 to apply for the requisite number of men to the Kayim-Makkam, 
 whom I should find on my way not more than two hours' ride 
 thence, and he himself would provide me with a guide to take me 
 thither. 
 
 The muleteers were most dilatory that afternoon in loading 
 their animals, as they wished to spend another night there, on 
 account of the rich pasture; but as I had to visit the Kayim- 
 Makkam of Wairan-Shahr, and could not afford to prolong my 
 stay there, we started at five P. M. My guide and I pushed on to 
 the "holy shrine," which we reached after two and a half hours' 
 rough riding through a rugged path and ugly furrows. The lug- 
 gage did not reach us until ten o'clock, which delay made me very 
 anxious, as I was afraid that some serious mishap had befallen our 
 animals and the antiquities. I was told that it took the muleteers 
 nearly two hours to thread their way with the large cases through 
 the worst part of the road, not more than a couple of miles in 
 length, as they had to support the anmials and litters every foot 
 of ground they passed over. 
 
 I found the Kayim-Makkam of Wairan-Shahr with the governor 
 of Swairak closeted together with a special Turldsh commissioner 
 in the Takia,* consulting about the affairs of the Millee and Kara- 
 
 * A Takia, means a Mohammedan monastery, where there is gen- 
 erally a shrine of a prophet or a saint; and though the Moslems have 
 no monks or any order sworn to celibacy, yet those who are ap-
 
 238 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Gaitchee tribes, amongst whom a bloody contest was being carried 
 on. They had already imprisoned the Millee chief and were en- 
 gaged in sifting through the quarrel of the contending parties. The 
 general belief was that neither one faction nor the other would gain 
 any benefit from the deliberation of the two Ottomans, but each 
 would be fleeced two or three hundred pounds. 
 
 The Kayim-Makkam protested that he had not one spare Dhab- 
 tia to escort me, because a large number had been discharged for 
 want of funds, and the few that remained had been sent on different 
 duties. The Kayim-Makkam of Swairak, however, came to my 
 assistance, and supplied the necessary escort to take me to Orfa. 
 I had a very great difficulty to find a proper camping-ground round 
 the Takia, the whole vicinity being stony and dirty; and in the 
 darkness of the night it was beyond one's power to hit upon a 
 convenient spot. At last we managed to make shift, and both 
 man and beast had to pass the night as uncomfortably as one could 
 imagine. 
 
 We did not start the next morning before five o'clock, as it was 
 found that it would be unsafe to load the baggage animals in that 
 rugged ground before dawn. 
 
 We had a delightful journey this morning, though a part of 
 the road was very stony and trying to the beasts of burden. As 
 the tribe of the Kara-gaitchee was encamping near the highway, 
 and the tent of the chief, Aiwoob Bey, was within a stone's-throw 
 of my path, I thought it good policy to pay him a visit for a few 
 minutes while the baggage animals were threading their way 
 through the rugged path. I found the chief was away; but his 
 family received me very civilly, and tried very hard to induce me 
 to stay and have something to eat. I thanked them for their hos- 
 pitality, and said that I had already breakfasted; but I refreshed 
 myself by a drink of delicious sour milk. The chief possessed an 
 unmarried daughter, whose beauty was the theme of the neighbor- 
 hood and the dream of the roving beaus. She was certainly one of 
 the most elegant and lovely girls I ever set my eyes upon, either 
 in the East or West. At 3.30 P. M. we reached our halting-place, 
 Ooch-Koyu (the three wells in Turkish), and encamped in a rich 
 meadow below the mound to the west of the tillage, near some 
 
 pointed to guard places of sanctity lead the life of a Darweesh. or a 
 recluse. All Takia s are supported by religious offerings, or by en- 
 dowments bequeathed by pious Moslems.
 
 ORFA. 239 
 
 springs, and the natives of the place brought us everything we 
 wanted, and rendered us every assistance possible. There was a 
 good deal of thunder and lightning around us in the afternoon, 
 but very little rain fell where we were. I met a man there who told 
 me that he had been employed for several years at the English 
 post-office at Alexandria, and, as a matter of course, he was amongst 
 the foremost who rendered me active service. 
 
 We departed from Ooch-Koyu at four A. M., and passed a fine, 
 clear spring about 9.30, where there were a large number of mul- 
 berry-trees, and after another hour's ride we halted at Adana, under 
 some apricot-trees to the south of the village. Here also there 
 is a very large spring, called Joolab, which is formed into an ex- 
 tensive and deep pool. The owner of the garden, who was averse 
 at first to allowing me to take my quarters there, became extremely 
 civil after he got acquainted with me. He brought his three chil- 
 dren to see me, and I gave them some sweetmeats, which seemed 
 to please him not a little. We resumed our journey at four P. M., 
 and reached Gog-Teppa (Heavenly Hill, in Turkish) at seven 
 o'clock. We halted there for the night on the right bank of the 
 stream, north of the village. Opposite my tent, and on the other 
 side of the rivulet, there was a beautifully clear spring, dug out 
 of the gravelly soil. 
 
 It had blown a regular hurricane during the night of May 28th, 
 and the wonder was that my tent did not come down. We left 
 Gog-Teppa at three A. M., on the 29th, and reached Orfa, the an- 
 cient Edessa, at five o'clock, just as the sun was rising. I did not 
 enter the town, but went straight to the Jacobite Church of Mar 
 Gaiwargees (St. George, in Aramaic), outside the wall, where I had 
 lodged on a former occasion. I preferred staying outside on ac- 
 count of the bulky antiquities I had with me; because, in the first 
 place, we should have found it difficult to get the litters through 
 the narrow streets; ajid, besides, I knew no one in the place with 
 whom I might sojourn pleasantly. Kas Bolous, the incumbent of 
 the Church, was extremely civil, and left the whole of the establish- 
 ment at my disposal. As he was a member of the local Council of 
 State, I asked him to communicate my arrival to the governor, who 
 in return sent the commissioner of nolice to welcome me. Soon 
 afterwards a large number of the Christian inhabitants of the place 
 came out to visit me, amongst whom was Alias Effendi, the head of 
 the Protestant community. Urfa, or Orfa, commonly styled by the
 
 240 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 ancients Edessa, played a conspicuous part in its primitive exist- 
 ence, both in the political and religious concerns of the Eastern 
 Church; and at one time it was the capital of a small but impor- 
 tant kingdom called Osrhoene. 
 
 Under the very walls of Edessa the Eoman and Persian armies 
 met in the third century of the Christian era, to contest the sov- 
 ereignty of the East, which event proved most disastrous to the 
 former and a great triumph to the latter. The Emperor Valerian 
 was taken prisoner by Sapor, and his whole army had to lay down 
 their arms in despair and disgrace. Orfa is also famous in ecclesi- 
 astical history. In the fifth century of the Christian era the so- 
 called ISTestorians' heresy was defended and promulgated throughout 
 Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Persia. The great champion of that 
 ill-omened dispute and warm supporter of Nestorius was Barsoma, 
 who for forty-five years labored with unremitting zeal to strengthen 
 the iSTestorian doctrine in the Persian Dominions. He was edu- 
 cated in what was called in those days the "Syrian School" at 
 Edessa, and in consequence of the extreme views he held against 
 the accepted dogma of the Catholic Church, he was expelled with 
 all his adherents, and in 435 he became Bishop of jSTisibis. 
 
 Orfa has also been traditionally reputed to be the Ur of the 
 Chaldees, and the birthplace of Abraham. 
 
 As regards the position of Orfa, it is one of the most picturesque 
 towns in Mesopotamia; and had it been under any other Govern- 
 ment but that of the benighted Turk, it would have vied in beauty 
 and wealth with the most flourishing cities in the world. Being 
 situated on an eminence, with copious rivulets running in all 
 directions, and commanding fertile plains stretching far and wide, 
 its produce might prove a source of incalculable riches. Its annual 
 export of cereals to Europe, until lately, when scarcely one-fiftieth 
 part of the land is under tillage, is very great. Nearly ten miles 
 of the land in front of the town is studded with private and public 
 gardens, and in the town of Orfa itself a large number of the houses 
 of the well-to-do inhabitants contain pleasure-gardens. 
 
 I had intended to start from Orfa about ten o'clock in the 
 evening of May 29th; but, having overslept myself, the muleteers 
 did not take the trouble to load till nearly eleven, and so we could 
 not make a move before 12.30 the next morning. In going to Orfa 
 from the southeast and east, the road is flat and tolerably smooth; 
 but in proceeding north to Beerajeek it becomes rough and steep;
 
 BEERAJEEK. 241 
 
 and as we had with us heavy boxes and clumsy htters to move, 
 the muleteers had a difficult job to take them through the ups 
 and downs of the rugged defiles. Fortunately all the cases of 
 antiquities passed through the intricate passes without any damage 
 or mishap. In consequence of some rain that fell the night before, 
 we found the day cool and delightful. We reached our halting- 
 place, Charmarik, at 9.30 A. ]\I., and to avoid the dirty village I 
 encamped on a high hill overlooking the plain. There is a khan 
 there for the use of travelers, but I was told that it was not fit 
 for any human being to rest at. We met on our way to Charmarik 
 hundreds of camels carrying grain to Alexandretta, and others 
 returning with European goods to Orfa to exchange for corn. 
 
 I had the same difficulty in the evening of May 30th to get the 
 muleteers to move, as they preferred enjoying their sleep rather 
 than to get up and load before midnight; but as I disliked traveling 
 in the heat of the day, I invariably accomplished the greater part 
 of my journey at night, as I could then have a long rest in com- 
 fortable quarters. Whenever I wished to travel at night I had my 
 dinner before sunset, and as soon as it got dark I lay down to sleep 
 for three or four hours, and instructed the watchman, who used 
 to be generally my landlord, to awake the muleteers at a certain 
 time to give their animals a feed about half an hour before they 
 began to load; and, in the meantime, they would be preparing the 
 luggage for that purpose. Very often when I awoke, I found the 
 watchman fast asleep, or else protesting that he was quite hoarse 
 from calling upon the muleteers to get up, but that no one would 
 give heed to him. The first thing the muleteers begin to do on 
 being called to get up, is to curse their lot and abuse their subordi- 
 nates. If a traveler wants to have peace he must not mind the 
 grumbling of the muleteers, nor their sulks. It is very rarely that 
 one falls in with a man who does not create difficulties and make 
 mountains of molehills! 
 
 After no lack of scolding and coaxing, we managed to start at 
 12.45 A. M., May 31st; and as soon as the sun rose, my cook, chief 
 escort, and myself, pushed on to Beerajeek, which place we reached 
 at 8.30 A. M.: but the luggage did not arrive till an hour after us. 
 I found, on arriving there, that the place was thronged with hun- 
 dreds of camels, horses, and mules, conveying corn westward; and 
 all the market-places and lanes were strewed with bales of mer- 
 chandise, which were going to Europe or coming from Mesopotamia, 
 
 16
 
 242 ASSRUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 There was scarcely a vacant space to walk through, much less to 
 pass heavily-laden animals. I had therefore to send to the gov- 
 ernor for his assistance, who cordially supplied me with a body of 
 police to clear the way, and enable me to have the antiquities sent 
 across the Euphrates without the risk of damage. Threading one's 
 way through the town was bad enough; but when we came to get 
 into the boats the press was overwhelming. The stubborn camels 
 and mules literally would not go backward or forward; and when the 
 police tried to clear the way, some of the former went down on their 
 foreknees and began to roar, and neither cudgeling nor coaxing 
 would make them move. About half a dozen of the latter fell to 
 kicking right and left, and their pranks completed the confusion. 
 It was a great relief to me when I saw all my belongings safely 
 across without the least mishap. As we had a long journey that 
 morning, and it was anything but smooth sailing to take across 
 huge cases of antiquities with nearly two dozen animals in rickety 
 boats half filled with bilge-water, I made up my mind to halt for 
 the day at the village of Koofla, situated on a hill about a mile 
 from the river. Although I reached Beerajeek at half -past eight 
 o'clock in the morning, we did not quite settle ourselves down be- 
 fore 12.30 P. M. As I wished to start again about midnight, I 
 had my dinner earh', and lay down to sleep for a few hours, after 
 having given the usual direction to the muleteers to prepare to start 
 at a certain hour. 
 
 On June 1st, as usual, I was the first to awake and call every 
 one to get up and do his work; and after no end of scolding and 
 threatening, we managed to make a start at two o'clock A. M. 
 Having been told that by going direct from Koofla to Alexandretta 
 without passing through Aleppo, the muleteers would save a day of 
 the journey, I allowed them to do so, especially as by taking that 
 route they would avoid the craggy ups and downs between Aleppo 
 and the valley of the Orontes. I myself was obliged to proceed 
 to Aleppo to obtain from the authorities there the necessary docu- 
 ments to enable me to embark the antiquities on board the steamer 
 without any interference on the part of the Alexandretta custom- 
 house people. Though there is no custom-house at Aleppo, being 
 situated in the interior, the commissioner of customs resides there, 
 as it is the seat of the governor-general and headquarters of the 
 Province. This inconvenient practice is a great drawback to men
 
 MOOKBOOLA. 243 
 
 of business, because sometimes a week, and even a month, is lost 
 in writing backwards and forwards about a little dispute; but time 
 is no object to our friends, the Turks, and thus they do not consider 
 it a great hardship to make people wait for an indefinite time about 
 a trifling matter! 
 
 As soon as it was daylight my guide and I hurried on to Zam- 
 boor, where I had intended to halt; but finding that my companion 
 could not keep up with me, I left liim and cantered alone to the 
 village, which I reached at 7.30. It may be remembered that I 
 passed through Zamboor on my way out a few months before, and 
 as I was very hospitably entertained by the chief of the village, 
 Shareef Dadda, and his family, I -thought I could not do better 
 than go to them again; but on reaching their house I found the 
 inmates were Armenians instead of Turcomans. I was told that 
 the village had been farmed by a man of the former nationality, 
 and those were his family who had taken possession of the whole 
 house. I also learned that my Turcoman friends had removed to 
 Mookboola, about three miles to the northeast, and as I knew that 
 my luggage would be passing very near there, I proceeded thither 
 to see whether it would be worth my while to spend Sunday at 
 that place, or go on to the river Sajoor, about three miles to the 
 west of Zamboor, where there was abundant pasture for our animals. 
 
 I found, on arriving at Mookboola, that a branch of that river 
 passed near the village, where there was abundance of pasture, and 
 as I was heartily welcomed by my old friend, Fatima, who pressed 
 me to spend my leisure hours with them, I consented to do so. 
 Indeed, before I had made up my mind what to do, she ordered 
 the reception-room to be swept and watered, and sent a horseman 
 to fetch my followers, who had just made their appearance in the 
 far horizon, saying at the same time that they had plenty of pasture 
 and water there as could be found in other places. Neither her 
 husband, Shareef Dada, nor her daughters were at home, as it 
 was harvest-time, and they were all engaged in reaping. They 
 arrived, however, soon afterwards, and ofi'ered me their congratu- 
 lations on my safe return. The married daughter was still living 
 in the unhappy state of uncertainty, and her admirers were still 
 hankering after her future release from the shackles of her ill- 
 omened marriage. 
 
 Sunday, June 2d, I spent quietly at Mookboola, and the animals
 
 244 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 had a good rest and plenty to eat. I dined rather early, and went 
 to bed soon after sunset, as I wished to travel at night. Moostaffa 
 Effendi, the lessee of the village, who was stapng in the house, 
 undertook to awake the muleteers, and he certainly kept liis word. 
 To be more sure of the time he asked me to lend him my watch, 
 as he was able then to call them at the appointed time. We started 
 at 11.30 P. M., and went on until we reached Wakoof, at 7.30 A. M. 
 I went directly to the cliief of the village, Mohammed Agha, who 
 was famed for his hospitality and civility. He gave me a large 
 airy room to rest in during my sojourn there; but I sent the mule- 
 teers to encamp outside the village, as I wished to resume my jour- 
 ney in the afternoon. The Kadhee of Huzzo in Koordistan, whom 
 I met there ten months before, arrived at Wakoof in the after- 
 noon on his way back to Constantinople. He took his quarters 
 outside the village with my followers, and at sunset (seven o'clock) 
 we all started together for Alejopo. The poor Kadhee was in great 
 distress on account of a mule which was stolen from him the night 
 before. He was put to great inconvenience in consequence, as he 
 had to divide its luggage amongst the other beasts of burden, 
 which were already overladen. 
 
 As soon as it was daylight one of my escort, attendant, and I, 
 pushed on to Aleppo, which place we reached at six A. M., but the 
 luggage did not arrive till an hour after us. I was so sleepy at night 
 that I nearly fell off my horse half a dozen times; and on reaching 
 Aleppo I felt extremely fadgued, after a dreary ride of eleven 
 hours. I went to the British consulate at Azeezeyea outside the 
 town, as I had been kindly invited by Mr. Patrick Henderson to 
 stay with him while I remained at Aleppo. He had succeeded Mr. 
 Skene, who had retired from the service, but had not left the place, 
 and was still living in the old consulate. Mr. Henderson had hired 
 the house of the Syrian patriarch, within a stone's-throw of it, as 
 he did not care to disturb his predecessor as long as he remained 
 at Aleppo. 
 
 Her Majesty's Government could not have chosen a more able 
 and competent consul to fill that important post than Mr. Hen- 
 derson. His fame and the reports of his good management of 
 consular affairs had spread far and wide not many days after he 
 assumed his official work. Even in dealing with one of the most 
 obstinate and crooked-ffoing Pashas amongst the Ottomans, who
 
 ALEPPO. 
 
 245 
 
 happened to be the governor-general of Aleppo at that time, he 
 always got the better of him in all his trickery.* 
 
 This Kamil Pasha, who was converted from Judaism to Islam- 
 ism, had acted formerly as governor of a port in Tripoli, in North 
 Africa, from whence he was turned out on the representation of 
 the British ambassador at Constantinople for some irregular pro- 
 ceeding. The consequence was, he had no love for the English, 
 and always tried in every way to create difficulties whenever an 
 English matter required settlement. lie was also removed from 
 Aleppo afterwards, through the instrumentality of the British 
 authorities at the Turkish capital, for his mismanagement of affairs 
 amongst the Zaitoon Christians. This was very unfortunate for 
 me, because his second disgrace made him more bitter than ever 
 against us, and having been afterwards appointed by the Porte 
 Minister of Public Instruction, under whose jurisdiction all ar- 
 chaeological researches in Turkey were placed, he tried every way 
 he could to thwart the British authorities in reference to our ex- 
 plorations; and ultimately he succeeded in stopping altogether the 
 excavations carried on for the British Museum, as I shall show 
 hereafter. 
 
 After having spent three days at Aleppo in trying to obtain 
 the necessary papers to enable me to embark the antiquities at 
 Alexandretta without much bother, I started for that port, thinking 
 that everything was properly arranged; but I was doomed to dis- 
 appointment, for, on arriving at Alexandretta, after three days' 
 march, I found that one of the documents addressed to the assist- 
 ant commissioner of customs at that port contained an ambiguous 
 order with regard to allowing the antiquities to leave the port with- 
 out hindrance. The whole of the billet was couched in favorable 
 terms regarding my personal comfort, as I had the honor of pos- 
 sessing a most courteous firman, but at the end the director of cus- 
 toms was told that he was to do everything "according to rules and 
 regulations." On referring to the customs regulations, the respon- 
 sible officer found it strictly laid down therein, that before any 
 antiquities could be allowed to leave the port of embarkation they 
 must be examined, and the proper duty be charged on their stipu- 
 
 * This unfortunate gentleman ended his life by shooting himself 
 in the Foreign Office in London some years afterwards through dis- 
 appointment.
 
 246 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 lated value. I tried to explain, through Mr. Catoni, the British 
 vice-consul, that it would damage some of the antiquities to have 
 them opened; and, even if I allowed them to be examined, there 
 was no one at Alexandretta who could value them. Nor could I 
 pay any duty on them before I referred the matter to Constanti- 
 nople, and it would take at least three or four days before I could 
 receive an answer. By that time the French steamer, which was 
 expected the next day, would have left, and I should be obliged 
 to remain at Alexandretta for a fortnight, as there was no other 
 company then plying their packets between Syria and Constanti- 
 nople. I furthermore pointed out that a number of the cases be- 
 longed to the Sultan, and, according to the imperial mandate which 
 I possessed, it was plainly specified that, after the antiquities were 
 examined by the imperial delegate "and the necessary permission for 
 this purpose" was granted by him, ^'the customs and local authori- 
 ties shall in no way interfere or raise difficulties in the way of the 
 transport of the antiquities." Tliis permit, which had been in- 
 dorsed by the governor of Mossul, with the firman itself, and which 
 was seen by the Aleppo local authorities, I sent to the director, of 
 customs to inspect; but he said that he was sorry that he could not 
 take any cognizance of it, as he was only responsible to his im- 
 mediate superior, the commissioner of customs at Aleppo. As 
 that officer had plainly instructed him to act "according to rule," 
 he could not do otherwise than observe the regular routine. We 
 agreed ultimately that we should both refer the matter by telegram 
 to the government of Aleppo, the director of customs to address 
 his superior, and I to communicate with the governor-general 
 through Her Majesty's consul, Mr. Henderson. It happened that 
 as soon as the telegram was sent, the communication between 
 Aleppo and Alexandretta was interrupted on account of some acci- 
 dent to the wires, which turned out fortunate for me; because it 
 appeared afterwards that Kamil Pasha, the governor-general of 
 Aleppo, was determined that I should not go away with the an- 
 tiquities without much delay and consequent worry. 
 
 When the French steamer came in the next day from Egypt, 
 and was starting for Constantinople in the evening, and no answer 
 had been received from Aleppo, I began to be uneasy, especially 
 as the director persistently refused to listen to reason. At last I 
 sent to warn him of my resolve to start without the antiquities, 
 and leave the responsibility on him for any damage happening to
 
 ALEXANDRETTA. 247 
 
 them in consequence of the illegal detention. When he received 
 this message he became rather frightened, and so he asked Mr. 
 Catoni to consult with me as to the best way of settling the matter, 
 without getting him into trouble with his superiors. I said as I 
 was going to Constantinople, the only way to arrange the affair 
 satisfactorily to all parties would be for me to give a bond binding 
 myself to take the antiquities straight to the Turkish capital, and 
 before I attempted to land any of tliem, to obtain a release from 
 the customs authorities at that place, and send it to the director 
 of customs at Alexandretta for his satisfaction. To make my en- 
 gagement more binding, Mr. Catoni was good enough to stand 
 security for me, which made it doubly sure to the head of customs 
 at Alexandretta. This arrangement having been concluded, I went 
 on board the steamer with my antiquities, quite rejoicing that I 
 escaped further annoyance, and by nine o'clock on the evening of 
 the 15th of June, 1878, we steamed out of the harbor with fine 
 weather to cheer me up. On arriving at Mersine the next morning, 
 I received a telegram from Mr. Henderson, informing me that the 
 authorities there refused to allow the antiquities to leave Alexan- 
 dretta without being examined. Fortunately for me, they were 
 then safe on board the Messageries Maritimes steamer, "Labour- 
 donnais," and neither the customs authorities nor all the governors- 
 general of Turkey, nor indeed the Sublime Porte itself, could 
 meddle with them. It appears that the steamer had scarcely left 
 her moorings at Alexandretta before telegraphic communication 
 was restored between that port and Aleppo, and the very first mes- 
 sage the director of customs received contained a prohibition to 
 my antiquities being allowed to leave the port without a thorough 
 examination. It must have annoyed Kamil Pasha not a little when 
 he heard of the frustration of his wicked design! 
 
 As those who go from the Egyptian and Syrian ports to Con- 
 stantinople in the steamers of the Messageries Maritimes Company 
 have to change vessels at Smyrna, both the antiquities and myself 
 had to be transferred on board the "Provence," one of the steamers 
 of the same company which ply between Marseilles and Constanti- 
 nople fortnightly. They arrive in time at Smyrna to take the 
 Syrian and Egj^tian passengers. In both the "Labourdonnais" 
 and the "Provence" the officers were extremely obliging. As soon 
 as I spoke to the oificers in charge of the cargo about the antiquities, 
 and told them how important it was to have them lowered and
 
 248 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 stored carefuly, tliey cheerfully superintended the embarkation and 
 disembarkation in person. They cautioned the sailors also to move 
 them about carefully. 
 
 We had a large number of Ottoman officials on board, amongst 
 whom was Mohammed Ali Pasha, one of the nobility of Aleppo, 
 who was going to Constantinople to seek employment. He was 
 one of the most enlightened civil servants of the Porte, and hated 
 dishonesty and intrigue. His only fault in the eyes of his brother 
 officials was his partiality to the British nation. Through Sir 
 Henry Layard's influence at the court he got him to be appointed 
 governor of Dair, where he distinguished himself: but no sooner did 
 a change of ambassadors take place than his enemies got him dis- 
 missed for no cause whatever, excepting that he was on too friendly 
 terms with the English. He was left without employ for a long 
 time, and when, ultimately, the Porte appointed him ruler of an- 
 other Pashalic in the province of Baghdad, he died on the way 
 thither from sunstroke. 
 
 We reached Constantinople at eleven o'clock, on the night of the 
 21st June, 1878, and as it was too late to enter the harbor of the 
 Bosphorus we anchored off Saint Sophia, not far from the old 
 Seraglio, and at six o'clock the next morning we steamed into the 
 harbor and anchored off Galata. 
 
 It did not take Sir Henry Layard long to obtain a release from 
 the customs authorities, and through the proverbial courtesy of 
 his Imperial Majesty, Sultan Abd-al-Hameed, the antiquities of 
 the British Museum were not allowed to be touched, but forwarded 
 to England intact. Had the Porte insisted upon the division, I 
 do not know how we could have managed it or set a value upon the 
 part which would have fallen to the share of the Ottoman Govern- 
 ment. There is no doubt that the Ottomans, upon the whole, are 
 naturally most courteous, and they only require men who know 
 their ways and habits to manage them properly. 
 
 After having spent twelve days most pleasantly as guest of 
 Sir Henry and Lady Layard, who were then at Therapia, I em- 
 barked on board the same Messageries steamer, the "Provence," 
 in which I had gone to Constantinople from Smyrna. She left 
 for Marseilles on the 3d of July, and having touched at Naples 
 for a few hours we arrived at our destination on the 9th of July, 
 1878. As soon as I landed 1 started by rail for Paris and Calais, 
 and reached London on the 12th.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Trustees of the British Museum having obtained another 
 grant for continuing the researches in Assyria and Southern Meso- 
 potamia, I was again deputed to superintend their explorations 
 in those countries. I wilhngly undertook the task, inasmuch as I 
 had still very important work to carry on, both in Babylonia and 
 Armenia. I was also sanguine about the success of my mission, as 
 Sir Henry Layard had promised to obtain another firman for us 
 on more favorable terms, to enable me to excavate simultaneously 
 in different parts of Turkey,— a concession which was not allowed 
 by the mining regulations. I knew also that as long as Sir Henry 
 Layard was acting as ambassador at Constantinople all difficulties 
 in the way of our researches would be smoothed down, and there 
 would be no fear of annoyances and useless dispatches, from either 
 the Ministry of Pubhc Instruction or the difl'erent local authorities. 
 I left London once more on Tuesday, the 8th of October, 1878, 
 and took the same direct route to Alexandretta, through Calais 
 and Marseilles, touching at Palermo, Messina, Syra, Smyrna, 
 Khodes, and Mersine. The agents of the Messageries Maritimes 
 Company were courteous enough to allot me a cabin to myself, 
 which is a great comfort in a long voyage, as it took about twelve 
 days on the way, including stoppages. On my way out, however, 
 I paid a short visit to my old friends, Madame and M. Fleury, who 
 were living in a delightful locality near Toulon, and not far from 
 Marseilles, called La Sayne, and the name of their residence, "Villa 
 de bon Eepose," well typifies the charming spot. M. Fleury, who 
 had the rank of Pasha, was for a long time in the service of the 
 Ottoman Government as the head of the medical college at Con- 
 stantinople. He had then retired on a pension, and intended to 
 spend the remainder of his days in his native place. 
 
 I had a very agreeable fellow-passenger, an American Episco- 
 palian minister, between Marseilles and Alexandretta, the Rev- 
 erend Charles Chrvstal. Jle was going out to Aintab on his own 
 account, to visit the Eastern Churches in that part of Asia Minor. 
 He was a great advocate for baptism by immersion according to 
 the rites of the Oriental Churches, and his aim was to convert the 
 Western Churches to his way of thinking. As I found that he had 
 
 249
 
 250 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 not traveled in the East before, and was a mere novice in riding, 
 I invited him to accomj)any me to Aleppo, es23ecially as he did not 
 intend to engage any servant at Alexandretta. In the first stage 
 of our journey he had a tumble off his horse; and as he was obliged 
 to ride over a mountain about two thousand feet high, on a pack- 
 saddle not less than fifteen inches wide, flat, and as hard as a board, 
 he was quite stiff when he reached our halting-place. Khan Ad- 
 diarbekirlee. The next day he was not so bad, and by the time we 
 reached Aleppo, on the fourth day, he had mastered the caravan 
 mode of travehng. 
 
 I need not enter into a repetition of the story of my journey 
 through Aleppo, Beerajeek, Orfa, and Nissibeen; but as I had to 
 proceed to Mossul from the latter place by a different route from 
 that of wliich I have already given an account, I must briefly de- 
 scribe my tour through it. 
 
 The country between Xissibeen and the Tigris being then in 
 a very disturbed state, on account of the depredations of the Koords, 
 it was the duty of the local authorities to supply me with an escort; 
 but the governor of the place was away, quelling the disturbances 
 in the surrounding villages, and had taken with him all the avail- 
 able Dhabtias. I was therefore compelled to follow him; but for- 
 tunately he was then at a village not far out of my way to the 
 Tigris, and so I did not lose much time in search of him. 
 
 We left Nissibeen at 3.45 A. M., on the 12th of November, and 
 reached Aznaghoor, a large Jacobite village, at ten o'clock. There 
 I halted for a few minutes at the chief's house, where I heard a 
 deplorable account of the lawlessness of the neighboring Koords, 
 and the oppression of the authorities. Indeed, that village was 
 formerly one of the most important and wealthy in all the district 
 of Nissibeen, but the constant raids of the Highland Koords, to- 
 gether with the extortions of the Turks, brought its inhabitants 
 to utter destitution, and when I passed through it, in 1878, it had 
 not more than two dozen miserable huts. I resumed my journey 
 after half an hour's rest, and soon afterwards passed the ruined 
 villages of Haj-low and Siroojee, which were in a flourishing con- 
 dition a few months before. They were plundered and burned by 
 the Highland Koords of Midhiat, when I passed through that dis- 
 trict seven months previously. The majority of the villages in the 
 province of Nissibeen are either Jacobites of Asspian origin, or
 
 TO TEL-MIRJAN. ^^^ 
 
 Koords, but there is nothing to distinguish them one from the 
 other, excepting some parts of their dress 
 
 We reached the Koordish village of Deroona Colonga at 2 30 
 P M where I found the Kayim-Makkam of Nissibeen comfortably 
 settled I was told that it was quite impossible that I could go 
 to Mossul by the desert route, but the Kayim-Makkam said he 
 could send me as far as the Tigris, opposite the Chaldean village 
 of Peshapoor. I was not sorry for this, as I always preferred the 
 chance of route. He invited me to accompany him part of the 
 way as he was proceeding thitherward himself. The poor fellow 
 was suffering from intermittent fever, and as he had no medicines 
 with him, he was pleased with my offer of quinine. I had met this 
 officer at Saart when I passed through that town the year before 
 He was then acting Motssarif, or sub-governor, and I always found 
 him extremely courteous and obliging. 
 
 After a good deal of persuasion, I managed to induce the 
 Kayim-Makkam to move a little before six o'clock in the morning 
 thouoh my followers were ready to start three hours before; biit 
 we had not gone more than three-quarters of an hour when His 
 Excellency halted at the village of Daroona-Aghaz for breakfast. 
 For politeness' sake I had to keep him company, but I got him to 
 send my luggage on towards Tel-Mirjan, where I had intended to 
 remain for^the night. After having spent about an hour and a 
 half with the Kayim-Makkam, and finding that he was still in- 
 tending to remain a little longer there, I left him to rejoin my 
 luggage I found that it had been delayed a short distance off at 
 Karo-ho for want of escort. The available force of police had been 
 so s^'cattered on different duties that the authorities could only 
 supply me with two horsemen, one a Circassian Dhabtia, and the 
 other a villager, both of whom decamped as soon as they reached 
 Saramsak, as they were afraid to go further for fear of meeting 
 with Koordish marauders. I was therefore constrained to go on 
 without an escort to the village of Tel-^Iirjan, which place we 
 reached, after much delay, at 2.30 P. M. 
 
 Had we come on from Daroona Colonga when I ordered the 
 lu-gage to move at 2.30 A. M., we ought to have reached our halt- 
 ing-place at 10.30, as it takes only eight hours to travel at a cara- 
 van pace between Daroona Colonga and Tel-Mirjan. When we 
 reached the latter place I was told that the chief of the village 
 was away, and we were refused admittance into either his house
 
 252 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 or any other. When I inquired as to the reason of that strange 
 Dehavior, I was informed that as we were traders, the very fact of 
 our having valuable goods with us would attract the brigands to 
 their village, and cause a great havoc amongst the inhabitants; 
 and not only that, but the Ottoman authorities would hold them 
 responsible for our losses.* I was never placed in such a predica- 
 ment before, and to retrace our steps to Saramsak, or go forward 
 to the next village, was too much for the men and animals to under- 
 take. Moreover, it was getting late in the afternoon, and the 
 chances were, with the then existing want of security in the country, 
 we might have met with the same discourtesy in other villages. The 
 muleteers proposed that we should encamp outside the village until 
 the morning; but this I demurred against, as I knew it would be 
 too risky to hazard a night there without arms and protection. The 
 chances were that the bad characters of the village themselves 
 would rob us, and lay the crime on the shoulders of the lawless 
 Koords, who were scouring the country for plunder. Having 
 weighed the pros and cons of our difficult position, I gave orders 
 to the muleteers to move back forthwith to Saramsak, and warned 
 the inhospitable inhabitants of Tel-Mirjan that they would have 
 to give an account of their incivility to the Ottoman authorities 
 before I passed their village again. 
 
 Just as we began to move, one of the women who were standing 
 by came forward and offered me her house, and said she would 
 be responsible for my safety and that of my followers. I need 
 not say that I took her at her word, and was not a little relieved 
 to be housed after the fatigue of the day. As her dwelling con- 
 sisted of only one room, there was no accommodation excepting for 
 myself; so my followers had to take their quarters outside the hut, 
 with the animals picketed in a line in front. Soon after I had 
 settled myself with my hostess, some female members of the chief's 
 family, who found out who I was, came and began to abuse her 
 
 * The reason I was mistaken for a merchant was, because we had 
 some mercantile bales with us, consisting of copper plates and Man- 
 chester piece-goods. As I always traveled independently of any public 
 caravans, it often happened that the muleteer I wished to engage 
 had more animals than I wanted, and so I allowed him to employ 
 the remainder in the best way he could. He, as a matter of course, 
 let them to carry some goods for the merchants to the place whither 
 the muleteer was proceeding.
 
 TEL-MIRJAN. 253 
 
 for having secured me as her guest. They said that, because I 
 was a profitable tenant, she received me at her house, but they 
 themselves were always saddled with vagrants and extortioners, — 
 that is to say, destitute wayfarers and Turkish officials. My hostess 
 returned them their malediction with interest, and, had I not inter- 
 vened, the quarrel might have ended very seriously; because my 
 friend's husband, Omar Hosian, had just come home, and having 
 understood what the altercation was about, he took his wife's part, 
 and entered the lists right loyally. The fact was, before the \il- 
 lagers knew that my entertainment was of any material gain, every 
 one shunned me; but when they found that, as soon as I took my 
 quarters, a sheep was brought and slaughtered, and my servant be- 
 gan to prepare me the evening repast, they took it for granted that 
 I was a man whose possession was worth having. They knew that 
 not only my host and hostess would be well fed, but that they would 
 receive a substantial reward for their civility. Soon after the 
 hubbub was over, 1 learned that my liostess was the sister of the 
 chief, and her husband a respected elder; so in such distinguished 
 company I felt I could not be more secure. On finding that I 
 could not drink from the dirty brooklet which was in front of the 
 village, my hostess volunteered to go and fetch me clean water 
 from one of the springs some distance from the village. A pretty 
 girl, a daughter of the chief, was staying with them, as it appeared 
 that, in consequence of the death of her mother, and her father 
 marrying again, she preferred living with her paternal aunt rather 
 than remaining under the same roof with one who had taken the 
 place of her mother. My cook supplied them all with a sumptuous 
 dinner, and I presented them with several useful articles, which 
 I knew they would appreciate. 
 
 The chief of the village returned home at night, and hearing 
 how scurvily his people behaved to me on my arrival, he came to 
 apologize for their bad conduct; but he did not leave before I gave 
 him presents similar to those which he knew I had given to his 
 sister. He pressed me hard to remove to his house, as he said he 
 wanted to show the villagers that I was not offended with him. 
 I told him that as I was a guest of his sister, there was no fear of 
 any one thinking that I was on bad terms with him, especially as 
 his daughter was under the same roof. lie assured me of his good 
 will by presenting me with some delicious watermelons. 
 
 Having been told that it would not be safe to travel in those
 
 254 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 parts at night, we did not leave Tel-Mirjan till 5.30 A. M., on 
 Thursday, 14th. My host escorted me for three hours, until we 
 reached a village where he obtained two guides to accompany me 
 to the Tigris, as he said he dared not proceed any further, on 
 account of the blood-feud existing between liis people and those 
 who inhabited the villages beyond. As soon as we came in sight 
 of Peshapoor, a very large Chaldean village on the left side of the 
 river, my cook and I hurried on, and reached the Tigris at 12.50 
 P. M., and, finding the ferry-boat ready to start, we crossed over 
 in it. I went directly to the chief's house, where I generally put 
 up on proceeding to Mossul that way. Next to Tel-Kaif, Peshapoor 
 is the largest Chaldean village in the plains of Assyria. The 
 house of the chief is the best built in the rural districts, and in the 
 old feudal times it served as a great stronghold against Koordish 
 depredations. At night the reception-room, which was given for 
 my sole use, was crammed with visitors from the village and with 
 travelers, who entertained me with the topics of the day, mostly in 
 connection with the misgovernment of the country. It seemed 
 that lawlessness and corrupt practices were the order of the day! 
 
 On Friday, loth, we started at 2.40 A. M., and as I had no 
 regular escort with me, two mounted Chaldean Peshapoorees ac- 
 companied me as guides as far as Goorsheen. From that place my 
 muleteers knew the road. We then went on to Khanekark, which 
 we reached in five hours' ride. We halted there for breakfast, and, 
 after forty minutes' detention, we resumed our journey, and reached 
 the village of Semail at 2.30 P. M. After a little search, I found 
 comfortable quarters at a corn-merchant's house, where I was re- 
 ceived very civilly by the landlord. Three hours before I reached 
 Semail I met a large cavalcade of Chaldean traders, who were 
 coming down from Tipper Assyria, with fruit for sale at Mossul 
 and the surrounding villages. One of them volunteered to hasten 
 to Mossul and report my approach, of which I was glad, as I did 
 not like to reach the place unexpectedly. Semail being a postal 
 village, where a body of mounted police are stationed, I was pro- 
 vided with the requisite number of escort to accompany me. 
 
 We left Semail at 3.15 A. M. the next morning, and as soon 
 as it was daylight, one of the Dhabtias and I pushed on to Tel- 
 Addas, for the purpose of obtaining a change of escort, as those 
 who accompanied me from Semail could only go as far as that 
 station. We made the journey in five hours and a half.
 
 TO MOSSUL. 255 
 
 The chief of the police, Saeed Chaweesh, who escorted me five 
 years before, received me very graciously, and provided for me a 
 nice breakfast. After having spent about an hour there, I left 
 for Mossul, and my host accompanied me on my journey, as he 
 did on a former occasion. I had intended to stay that night at 
 Tel-Kaif, nine miles from Mossul, but as the muleteer volun- 
 teered to push on, I preferred doing so, as I wished to end my 
 journey as soon as possible. As I desired, however, to have an 
 interview with Monsigiior Georgis, the Chaldean metropolitan of 
 Tel-Kaif, I allowed the muleteers to take the more direct route 
 to Mossul, and Saeed Chaweesh, and I went on to that Chaldean 
 village, which we reached in three hours' quick ride from Tel- 
 Addas. On my arrival there I was met by Munssoor Yalda, the 
 chief of the village, who tried all he could to persuade me to 
 spend the night with him, and when he found that I was bent upon 
 continuing my journey to Mossul, he pressed me to dismount at 
 his house and have some refreshment. After having spent half an 
 hour with him, I went on to the church, and had a long talk with 
 the bishop. He seemed quite disappointed that the British Govern- 
 ment had not espoused the cause of the Chaldeans, and allowed" the 
 Vatican party to do as they liked. They were all looking forward 
 to my coming, thinking that I was going to bring them good tid- 
 ings with regard to their dispute with the other section of the 
 Chaldeans, who sided with the Papal primacy. From that day 
 forward they seemed to lose heart; and before many months were 
 over, both Monsignor Georgis and the Bishop of Karkook re- 
 tracted, and returned to their former homage to the Eoman Pontiff. 
 
 A little before two o'clock I resumed my journey, and Muns- 
 soor Yalda and four other Chaldean notables accompanied me 
 to Mossul, which place we reached in two hours and a half. A 
 little before we entered the town a large number of relatives and 
 friends came out to meet me, and by the time I reached my uncle's 
 house, where I usually took up my quarters, my party became quite 
 formidable. As usual, as soon as I arrived, a large number of 
 friends and acquaintances came to see me. 
 
 Soon after my arrival at Mossul, I increased the number of 
 workmen at Koyunjik, and went about looking for new sites to ex- 
 cavate. Unfortunately, I was attacked with intermittent fever 
 shortly after I resumed my superintendence of the excavations, 
 which ailment deterred me in some measure in my duties. Never-
 
 256 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 theless, I did not give way to the debilitating attacks which came 
 on, with few exceptions, regularly every other day, and almost at 
 the same hour. This malady always begins with a cliill (though the 
 temperature of the weather may be as high as 80, and even 90, 
 Fahrenheit), and ends with burning fever. At first the feeling 
 of cold is such that all the blankets in the world do not seem 
 sufficient to bring warmth to the body; but as soon as the fit of ague 
 is over, the patient begins to suffer from feverish heat, when he can 
 scarcely bear a single sheet over him. The duration of the fever 
 depends upon the state of the patient. If he should be full- 
 blooded and indulge too freely in rich food, his suffering becomes 
 more severe; whereas, if his attack should come on after a light 
 diet or fasting, then the malady is less aggravated. In either case, 
 the sufferer becomes qidte prostrate, and loses all energy. I suf- 
 fered, off and on, from this malady for nearly two months, and 
 during that time I visited a large number of mounds, and carried 
 on our excavations at Nimroud and Kalaa-Shirgat. 
 
 At the former place we merely discovered here and there a 
 few fragments of inscriptions, both in alabaster and terra-cotta; 
 and, though I placed different gangs of workmen near the spot, 
 where I had formerly found pieces of a black basalt obelisk, in the 
 hope of discovering the remainder, not an atom of any other por- 
 tion was seen anywhere. I feel confident that the rest of that 
 monolith is in existence somewhere in the mound, as the stone of 
 which the obelisk was made is not capable of being utilized for 
 lime by being burnt, nor is it of such perishable material as to 
 be destroyed by damp soil, or exposure to the air. All the Assyrian 
 and Babylonian mounds, where ancient cities and temples were 
 found, require a regular digging up, for I believe most valuable 
 records and monuments may be found buried in them. 
 
 At Kalaa-Shirgat I had excavations carried on for some months, 
 but we met with the same meager results as before. The site of 
 this ancient Assyrian city is an enigma to me. Its size and impor- 
 tant position make it look most tempting and full of hopeful re- 
 sults to an ardent explorer; but when the spade of the digger 
 penetrates deep into it, nothing but conglomerate rubbish is found 
 in the heart of it, with here and there some sprinkling of fragments 
 of inscriptions, painted bricks, and pottery. I have tried the mound 
 over and over again, and yet I could never find a sign of any 
 building. With all these failures, I still believe that it contains
 
 FIRHAN PASHA. 257 
 
 valuable remains, which the spade of future excavators will bring 
 to light, as was the case at Birs Ximroud and Babylon. 
 
 On that occasion we found a curiously-inscribed ten-sided 
 marble object, wliich seemed as if it had been used for some sacred 
 purpose.* 
 
 Formerly the mound of Kalaa-Shirgat was crown property, and 
 the explorer who possessed a firman had only to visit the place and 
 commence in it his researches; but on that occasion it was owned 
 by Firhan Pasha, the chief of the Shammer tribe, who had settled 
 there in accordance with the orders of the Ottoman Government, 
 who thought they could tame the Shammer Bedouins by forcing 
 them to cultivate the soil; so they gave Firhan Pasha all the waste- 
 land on the western bank of the Tigris, about sixty miles below 
 Mossul, to fertilize. Firhan Pasha tried, doubtless, to make peas- 
 ants and farmers of the lowest of his obstreperous followers, but with 
 very little success. He actually managed to clear a large tract of 
 land on the southern side of the mound for a garden, wherein he 
 planted a variety of fruit-trees, which he had to fetch from a great 
 distance; but as he had neither money to keep it up nor skilled 
 gardeners to rear the young trees, the place went to ruin. When 
 I was there, in 1878, there were only a few withered trees re- 
 maining, and the water-wheel, which he had erected in the river 
 for irrigation, was not in existence. Of the thousands of Shammer 
 Arabs, there were only two or three hundred living under his im- 
 mediate control, the remainder having either joined his half- 
 brother, Shaikh Faris, his rival in the chief dom, or followed their 
 petty chiefs in their plundering raids. 
 
 Shaikh Firhan, though having the rank of a Pasha of the 
 second degree, lived in the same style as any other superior Arab 
 chiefs. He also dressed in the Arab fashion, even when he paid 
 formal visits to the Mossul or Baghdad Ottoman authorities. He 
 was extremely courteous and hospitable, and all the time I was at 
 Kalaa-Shirgat he ^\'0uld not let my servants buy anything, but 
 
 * Mr. Pinches, of the British Museum, kindly supplied me with a 
 translation of the inscription, which is as follows: "Budi-Ilu the faithful 
 prince, the powerful king, the king of Assyria, builder of the temple 
 of the sun. the temple of the divine protector. Whoever erases the 
 written and destroys my inscription, may the sungod, my lord, over- 
 throw his kingdom, and send down want upon his country." The date 
 of this temple of the sun is supposed to be about 1360 B. C. 
 
 17
 
 258 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 supplied my kitchen with what he possessed. He was very anx- 
 ious that I should be successful in my operations there, and went 
 so far as to ask me to leave a gang of workmen under his direction, 
 in order that he might examine a spot where he alleged some of 
 his men had discovered an arm of a bronze statuette some time 
 before. I at once placed the proper number of workmen under his 
 superintendence; but his patience was of short duration, as he gave 
 up his pursuit before the close of the day. 
 
 I had intended to remain at Kalaa-Shirgat at least eight or ten 
 days; but having suffered severely while there from fever, I was 
 obliged to leave for Mossul on the fourth day, as I was afraid that 
 if I staid there any longer, I might get too weak to travel on horse- 
 back, and my other researches at iN'imroud and Koyunjik would 
 be neglected. I left, however, an overseer to carry on the work 
 for some days longer, especially as Firhan Pasha was kind enough 
 to promise his protection and assistance to the workmen. 
 
 The autumn of that year was far from healthy in consequence 
 of the want of early rain, which would have made the air cool and 
 the atmosphere pleasant and invigorating. Eain generally begins 
 to fall in Mesopotamia in September, but during that year it really 
 did not begin to rain till the middle of December. It is very 
 pleasant to see the delight of every one at the sight of a heavy 
 shower, especially when the rain is much wanted. This is natural, 
 when it is considered that the existence of all the people in 
 Northern Mesopotamia and Assyria depends upon the cultivation 
 of the soil, which is only v/atered through the blessing of rain. 
 It is true that the nomad x\rabs, who occupy part of the banks 
 of the Tigris, cultivate their grain, called dhoora, or millet, by 
 means of water drawn from the river, but the quantity obtained 
 through that kind of irrigation is scarcely sufficient for their 
 own wants. 
 
 Soon after my return from Kalaa-Shirgat, I was made happy 
 by the receipt of my new firman, which had been obtained for the 
 Trustees of the British Museum by Sir Henry Layard. In that 
 royal mandate I was invested with greater powers and facilities, 
 which -enabled me afterwards to carry on extensive operations 
 simultaneously in Assyria, Babylonia, and Armenia, It was granted 
 for two years, with the promise of a further term, if required. I 
 was allowed to carry on excavations in three different walayats 
 at the same time, — that is to say, in the provinces of three govern-
 
 BAGHDAD. 259 
 
 ors-general, of Baghdad, Aleppo, and Wan, Mossul being included 
 in the former Pashalic. This extensive tract of Asiatic Turkey 
 embraced Babylonia, all the lowland of Northern Mesopotamia, 
 Assyria, and that part of Syria under the Pashalic of Aleppo, in- 
 cluding Carchemish. In the same firman I was also permitted 
 to pack and dispatch to England any antiquities I found, without 
 division, after they were examined by the royal delegate; provided, 
 however, there were no duplicates. In that case I was allowed to 
 retain every single object, and the remainder were to be given up 
 to the Ottoman authorities for dispatch to the Imperial Museum 
 at Constantinople. 
 
 With these most exceptional and favorable terms granted to 
 England, through the influence of Sir Henry Layard, by the cour- 
 tesy of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, I hastened down to 
 Baghdad, to see what I could do on the site of ancient Babylon. 
 
 Having arranged for the carrying on, in my absence, the ex- 
 cavations at Koyunjik, Nimroud, and Ivalaa-Shirgat, I left Mossul 
 in a raft on the 30th of January, 1879, and reached Baghdad 
 in five days. Colonel Nixon, the British political agent, was kind 
 enough to invite me to his house, and I need not say that his 
 genial society and hospitable reception made my sojourn at Bagh- 
 dad most pleasant. He also rendered me every assistance in his 
 power to lessen the difficulties of my duties in the archaeological 
 research; and when I left Baghdad to return to ]\Iossul he was 
 good enough to undertake the general control of the British 
 Museum excavations in Babylon. 
 
 After I had made the proper arrangement for the tentative 
 examination of the ancient Babylonian sites, I started for Hillah 
 on the 8th of February, taking v.'ith me Dawood Toma, one of 
 my experienced Christian overseers, whom I had taken down with 
 me from Mossul, and another man, Ahmed Al-abid, a native Arab 
 of Sammirra. The services of the latter I obtained by chance, as 
 I was leaving Baghdad. Being well acquainted with the country 
 and the mode of searching for antiquities, as he had been employed 
 by some Europeans for that purpose, his services proved of im- 
 mense value to me at the outset, especially as a Moslem claiming 
 descent from the prophet Mohammed, which entitled him to as- 
 sume the name of "Seyid." 
 
 As we started from Baghdad rather late, I found it necessary 
 to break the journey at the village of Mahmoodia, a distance of
 
 260 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 about fifteen miles from Baghdad, and go on straight to Hillah 
 next morning, by starting early. The place was so crammed full 
 with Persian pilgrims, who were going to Carbala to commemorate 
 the death of their martyr, Hosain, that there was scarcely a foot's 
 space vacant to rest at. The khan and every hovel in the village 
 had been occupied before I arrived, and even the dirty lanes and 
 alleys were blocked with wayfarers and their animals. Although 1 
 had my tents with me, I did not care, for two reasons, to have them 
 pitched — first, because I wished to start early in the morning; and, 
 secondly, because all the surroundings of the place were too filthy 
 to occupy. I had sent in front of me one of my escort, to see if he 
 could find me a place to spend the night at; but he failed to do 
 so, either because the houses which were ususally let to travelers 
 had been already occupied, or those who only took in strangers 
 for hospitality's sake refused to have anything to do with Turkish 
 officials. While I was speaking to the muleteer as to the best 
 course to pursue, and he was sa}ing that it was too late to go on 
 to the next village, a very respectable Arab, who was standing at 
 the door of his house hearing what we were talking about, came 
 and offered me his house, on condition that I would take in no one 
 with me excepting my personal servants, as he said that he could 
 not receive either the muleteers or my escort. I thanked him very 
 much for his courtesy, and forthwith took up my quarters in his 
 house. As usual, as soon as I entered the threshold, its inmates, 
 his wife and daughter, voluntered their services, the former in 
 seeing to the comfort of my room, and the other in providing water 
 and fuel for my kitchen. I found out that my host was a Korai- 
 shite, — that is to say, of the Arab tribe of Mohammed, and a 
 native of the Hijaz. He was one of the few in that part of Meso- 
 potamia who professed the Soonee faith, and considered all those 
 of the Sheea persuasion heretics. 
 
 We left Mahmoodia at six o'clock the next morning, and 
 reached at ten o'clock Khan-Alhaswa, where there are a few huts, 
 and a coffee-shop, with some Dhabtias to guard the post. As the 
 luggage was still behind, I halted there about half an hour, pass- 
 ing away the time in partaking of some coffee and smoking a nar- 
 geela. We then resumed our journey, calculating that we should 
 not be more than five hours on our way to Hillah; whereas we 
 did not reach that town till a quarter past six o'clock in the even- 
 ing. An hour before I entered Hillah, I passed the ancient site
 
 HILL AH. 
 
 261 
 
 of that part of Babylon where, according to history and tradition, 
 Nebuchadnezzar and his successors lived in great magnificence. I 
 felt quite impatient to return to the spot and examine its contents. 
 
 Before I left Baghdad, one of the wealthy and principal Jews 
 of that place, named Khoaja Neheem Danial, kindly offered me 
 his furnished house at Hillah, which was unoccupied, as he had 
 heard that I had intended to make Hillah my headquarters while 
 pursuing my archaeological research in Babylon. He merely went 
 out to that place once a year with his family for change of air; 
 but he very seldom remained there more than two months, and the 
 remainder of the year the house was left either unoccupied, or 
 lent to travelers. 
 
 My reason for going direct to Hillah without halting on the 
 site of Babylon was for the purpose of seeing the lieutenant- 
 governor, in order that I might present my credentials to him, and 
 obtain the necessary permission to excavate in his province. For 
 some reason or other, I could not get him to appoint an interview. 
 One day he feigned to be sick; another, that the weather was very 
 wet, which compelled him to remain in his harem. It was rumored 
 at the time that he had just received a consignment of a pretty 
 Circassian girl from Constantinople, with whom he had been en- 
 raptured, and considered that in his old age he must reverse the 
 common maxim of duty before pleasure. However, as I had sent 
 him both the firman and the Beewirldee, or local passport, and 
 informed him that I could not delay any longer the work for which 
 I had purposely gone to Hillah, he sent to say that I could proceed 
 with my operations as soon as I liked. We met, nevertheless, ac- 
 cording to appointment, two days afterwards, and discussed mat- 
 ters together. The governor's name was Mohammed Pasha, a 
 native of Solaimannia, and one of the few-favored Koords who 
 had been intrusted by the Sublime Porte with governing powers. 
 He was at least seventy years of age, and consequently of the old 
 school, who considered searching for antiquities a silly occupation, 
 and those who valued them were only fit for a lunatic asylum. 
 
 As a matter of course, when I arrived at Hillah, the first thing 
 I had to guard against was the combination of the Arab diggers, 
 whose interest it was to create difliculties in the way of my opera- 
 tions. They had heard of my intention of excavating in their 
 haunts, and feared that I would stop their clandestine operations 
 when our works clashed.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Fkom time immemorial, the Arabs of Hillali and its suburbs 
 were in the habit of digging in Babylon for bricks for building 
 purposes; and it is a known fact that Hillah, Soak-ash-Sheyokh, 
 and other small towns and villages, on both sides of the Euphrates, 
 up and down the river, have been built from materials dug out 
 of the ruins of Babylon and other ancient cities. Since the value 
 of Babylonian antiquities became known, both Jewish and Arme- 
 nian brokers of Baghdad began to bribe those Arab diggers to sell 
 them any inscribed terra-cottas or other relics which might be 
 found in the diggings. The laborers did this under cover of their 
 usual vocation, as it was strictly prohibited to any one to dig for 
 antiquities without a special order from the Porte. 
 
 The damage done by such mode of searching is incalculable, 
 inasmuch as the Arab style of digging is too clumsy to get out 
 fragile objects intact from narrow and deep trenches, especially 
 when they have to carry on their work as secretly as possible, from 
 fear of being detected by the authorities. In nine cases out of ten, 
 they break or lose a large part of their collections, and worse than 
 all, they try to make a good bargain by breaking the inscribed ob- 
 jects, and dividing them amongst their customers. Generally 
 speaking, an Arab digger contracts with two or three individuals 
 to provide them with a certain quantity of antiquities, and when 
 he can not supply each individual with the same number or quality 
 of objects, he breaks a most valuable inscription to divide amongst 
 them. I myself bought, when I was at Baghdad, a most valuable 
 Babylonian terra-cotta cylinder for the British Museum, which had 
 met with the same fate. The discoverer had tried to saw it in 
 two, and in doing so the upper part broke into fragments, some 
 of which were lost altogether. The saw that was used for that 
 purpose must have been very rough, as it gnawed off nearly half 
 an inch of the inscription. 
 
 It will be conjectured from the above narrative, that my move- 
 ments were watched with great jealousy, not only by the Arab 
 brick-diggers, but especially by those who were bribing them to 
 search for antiquities. I found that I had no power to prevent 
 their excavating at the spot which I wished to explore, as the 
 262
 
 BABYLONIAN RUINS. 263 
 
 practice of digging for bricks had been in use ever since the de- 
 struction of Babylon. Not even the authorities had any right to 
 stop such work, and to allow the Arabs to do as they pleased would 
 have greatly interfered with my operations, and caused my work 
 incalculable mischief; to say nothing about having a host of robbers 
 at my elbow to profit by my experience, and be ready to steal what- 
 ever they could get hold of, either at night or when the workmen 
 are at rest during the day. 
 
 I managed, in the first instance, to engage the services of a very 
 respectable man of HiUah, whose occupation it was to contract 
 for the supply of bricks to the town's people from the rums of 
 Babylon, and who had, at the time, a large number of workmen 
 employed in demolishing ancient buildings in the mound called 
 "Babel " erroneously stvled by Eich "Imjaileeba." He rendered 
 me invaluable assistance in negotiating for me with the Arab la- 
 borers who reside on the outskirts of the Babylonian ruins and 
 consented for his own men working for me, on the promise that I 
 would allow him to have all the plain bricks they found m the 
 di-ings; but all monuments, inscriptive tablets, and other articles 
 of^antiquity required for the British Museum, were to be made 
 over to me I then sent for the rest of the brick-diggers, and made 
 them the same offer, which relieved them of any dilemma, as they 
 now had no reason to complain that I had interfered with their 
 labors. The result was that they all, without a murmur, agreed 
 to my proposal, and forthwith they went to work for me, and con- 
 tinued to do so to the end. The best of the joke was, that after 
 a time when I had to employ hundreds of other workmen from 
 different parts of the country, they did not trouble themselves 
 about possessing their share of the bricks found in the diggings, 
 but rested content with the regular wages they were receiving. 
 This arrangement, however, did not satisfy the greedy brokers, 
 because they tried, soon after I began to work,, to bribe some of the 
 workmen to steal our antiquities to sell to them, and although I was 
 anxious to bring home to the guilty party the offense charged 
 to them, I was not able to produce tangible proof to condemn 
 them. As the case would have gone for trial before a Turkish 
 tribunal, where the accused would receive greater sympathy than 
 those who preferred the complaint, I feared, lest by my losing a 
 case, other rogues would be encouraged in their nefarious intrigues. 
 Moreover, I always made it a rule never to force myself into any
 
 264 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 litigation in the matter of our research. I deemed it always to 
 our advantage to forgive a small transgression, rather than make 
 a mountain of a molehill, which would only be taken advantage 
 of by those who are jealous of our successes. In every little dispute 
 I had with the owners of the soil in which I carried on my exca- 
 vations, I always settled the case amicably, either in person or 
 through a friend; and I never failed in one instance to obtain the 
 object in view. Had I allowed the local authorities to intervene, 
 I should never have heard the end of the disputed point, and most 
 likely neither one party nor the other would have benefited by 
 their meddling. 
 
 I learned afterwards that the poor Arabs received very little 
 for the antiquities they sold to the Baghdad and Hillali brokers. 
 For the object for which the latter asked five or ten pounds, the 
 wretched digger had received one or two shillings. Two of the 
 cases which were brought to my notice, were a marble tablet that 
 was said to have been found at Kalaa-Shirgat, and a collection of 
 inscribed terra-cottas, which were discovered in Babylon. The 
 former, which a native of Mossul sold for thirty piasters, or about 
 five shillings, to the French consul of that place, Mr. George Smith 
 purchased for the British Museum for £70, and the latter were 
 sold for more than a hundred times what the Arabs were paid for 
 them. 
 
 As soon as I received the Pasha's message, already alluded to, 
 I started for Babylon, the site of the royal residences of the Chal- 
 dean kings of ancient glory, and took up my quarters at Quairich, 
 in the chief's house. There are now two modern villages on the 
 site of old Babylon, one called Quairich and the other Jimjima. 
 The reason I went at first to the former was, because it was the 
 nearest to the ruins of Imjaileeba, the site of the principal palace; 
 but I moved afterwards to the latter, as I found that the bulk of 
 my workmen came from that place, whose chief possessed more 
 power than that of Quairich. Moreover, the copyholder proprietor 
 of the site of Babylon proper had a residence there, which he was 
 good enough to leave at my disposal; and, although I did not like 
 to dispossess him of it altogether while I remained in those parts, 
 nevertheless I availed myself of his land offer, and spent some days 
 in his delightful garden during the hot months. He is one of the 
 nobility of Hillah, and possesses a great influence with the local 
 authorities and the natives of the place. Being a Sonee and lib-
 
 MOUND OF BABEL. 265 
 
 eral-minded man, he gets on better with the Turks than the heret- 
 ical Sheeas, who compose the majority of the inhabitants of the 
 Irack. 
 
 The present visible niins of Babylon consist of a large and high 
 mound, called Babel, as already mentioned; Imjaileeba, the site 
 of the principal, or old, palace, and (acording to my theory) the 
 temple of Belus, indicated by the brick tower, commonly called 
 "the Kassir," Omran, and Jimjima. The last two localities seem 
 to have been occupied, after the destruction of Babylon, by the 
 Sassanians and Parthians, as I found there evident signs of post- 
 Chaldean habitations. Both at Babylon and at Nineveh I dis- 
 covered different structures of those less civilized people, built 
 on the old ruins. They used in their erections remains of edifices 
 which had been destroyed; and, in the latter place in particular, 
 they utilized broken sculptures and inscribed marble slabs from 
 the palaces of Sennacherib and his grandson, Assur-bani-pal, com- 
 monly called Sardanapalus, with the engraved or inscribed objects 
 turned either upside-down or facing the brick wall. 
 
 With the exception of Birs Mmroud, which is about twelve 
 miles to the southwest of Babylon on the western side of the Eu- 
 phrates, there is no sign of any remains of the ancient city, not 
 even a remnant of kiln-burned bricks, which shows that there 
 could not have been any building of importance on the western 
 side of the present bed of the river. This is the more extraordinary, 
 when we find on the Mesopotamian side innumerable mounds, 
 embankments, and remains of old canals, even as far as the Tigris. 
 It is true there are some mounds, about nine miles to the south of 
 Imjaileeba, called Daillum, where I carried on some excavations; 
 but those could not have been in the vicinity of Babylon, if we are 
 to take Imjaileeba to be the center of the old city, as Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's inscription and Grecian historians testify. 
 
 I have tried over and over again to reconcile the accounts and 
 deductions of different ancient historians and modern critics with 
 the present visible remains of that famous city; but as soon as I 
 thought that I had arrived at a definite conclusion, I found myself 
 in far greater perplexities than when I began ray conjectures. "We 
 have only to study Berosus's account, on the authority of Josephus, 
 of the hanging-gardens and palaces of Babylon, as related in the 
 antiquities of the Jews, and in the first Book Against Apion, and 
 we get into a dilemma at once. In the former, Josephus records
 
 266 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 that Nebuchadnezzar built a palace adjoining that of his father, 
 with a pensile garden attached to it,* while in the latter the hang- 
 ing-gardens are stated to be as part and parcel of the same palace 
 mentioned above.f 
 
 If any one wants to be convinced how literally and truthfully 
 the different prophecies about the utter destruction of Babylon 
 have been fulfilled, he has only to visit that country, and see the 
 complete destruction of what was once upon a time called in Holy 
 Writ the ''CAovy of Kingdoms," the "Golden City," the "Lady of 
 Kingdoms," and the "praise of the whole earth." Indeed, the 
 annihilation of that city was so efPectual that one wonders whether 
 the accounts given of its greatness and magnificence by different 
 Gentile historians were true, or at all events not greatly exaggerated; 
 but the Word of God can not be gainsaid, as the prophet Isaiah 
 predicted that "the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency shall be as 
 when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah;" and, in another place, 
 it was decreed that "Babylon is fallen; and all the graven images 
 of her gods He has broken unto the ground." 
 
 I found it would be only waste of money and labor to excavate 
 at Imjaileeba, where former diggers had left nothing unturned 
 
 * "After he (Nebuchadnezzar) had, after a becoming manner, walled 
 the city and adorned its gates gloriously he built another palace be- 
 fore his father's palace, but so that they joined to it; to describe the 
 vast height and immense riches of which it would be perhaps too 
 much for me to attempt; yet, as large and lofty as they were, they 
 were completed in fifteen days. He also erected elevated places for 
 walking, of stone, and made it resemble mountains, and built it so 
 that it might be planted with all sorts of trees. He also erected what 
 was called a pensile paradise, because his wife was desirous to have 
 things like her own country, she having been bred in the palaces of 
 Media." (Antiquities, X, xi, 1.) 
 
 fHe (Nebuchadnezzar) added a new palace to that which his 
 father had dwelt in. and this close by it also, and that more eminent 
 in its height and in its greater splendor. It would perhaps require 
 too long a narrative, if any one were to describe it. However, as 
 prodigiously large and magnificently as it was, it was finished in fifteen 
 days. Now, in this palace he erected very high walks, supported by 
 some pillars, and by planting what was called a pensile paradise and 
 replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect of an 
 exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to please his 
 queen, because she had boon brought up in Media, and was fond of 
 a mountainous situation. (.Josephus Against Apion. I, 19.)
 
 RUINS OF BABYLON. ^67 
 
 to find what they wanted. From seeing the deep ditches existing, 
 and tlie nature of the rubbish which had been tlirown up I was 
 convinced that tliere could be no ancient remains of any value iett 
 there; so I contented myself by having a trial at the centtn- for a 
 week, and abandoned it for other localities not far distant, winch 
 had not been so much disturbed. These were the other rums of 
 the city called Omran, and Jimjima, and in both these spots I was 
 amply rewarded for my labors in Babylon. Here were discovered 
 what are called "the contract tablets," and as the bulk of these 
 were found at the latter mound, my idea is, that both the royal mint 
 and banking establishment of Babylon were located there. 
 
 The drawback experienced formerly in digging for antiquities 
 in Babylon was, the haphazard way of searching for the desired 
 objects as the Arabs had made such a mess of the ground, that it 
 would have puzzled the most experienced eye to know where to 
 bec^in and where to end. After a week's trial, however, by following 
 a certain method, we came upon signs of standing walls, which 
 surprised my diggers not a little, after which time we began to 
 discover relics of the past. Some parts of the walls were un- 
 doubtedly of Babylonian origin; but ev^ery now and then we came 
 upon Sassanian structures, which looked quite rough in comparison 
 to the regularity and smoothness of the Babylonian buildmgs. 
 
 Nothing of any great magnitude has ever been discovered m 
 the ruins of Babylon, in comparison to the bas-reliefs and colossal 
 mystic figures found in Assyria. The only large object that has 
 ever appeared within the ruins of Babylon was the monolith of 
 a lion, with the figure of a man lying beneath him, hewn of black 
 basalt, which must have been placed in the days of the Chaldean 
 monarchy at the entrance of the palace. There must have been 
 another similar monolith, which stood on the opposite side of the 
 entrance; and although I had a number of trenches dug around 
 the spot, no sign could be found of it anywhere in that locality. 
 The ground seemed to have been thoroughly searched into as 
 deep as the level of the Euphrates. 
 
 To the literary world and Assyrian scholars, however, most 
 important discoveries have been made in these mounds froin time 
 to time, amongst which we discovered in the ruins of Jimjima a 
 broken terra-cotta cylinder, which has been deciphered in the first 
 instance by Sir Henry Eawlinson, and found to contain the official 
 record of the taking of Babylon by Cyrus while Belshazzar was
 
 268 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMEOD. 
 
 reveling with '"a thousand of his lords/' and using in his impious 
 banquet the golden and silver vessels which were taken by his 
 father, Nebuchadnezzar, from the temple at Jerusalem. The name 
 of Belshazzar does not appear on this cylinder, because, most un- 
 fortunately, a large part of it was missing. 
 
 Wliile my workmen were busily engaged in digging in different 
 locaHties in Babylon, I went to Birs Ximroud, and placed a few 
 gangs of workmen to excavate in four different spots. The ruins 
 of the town, variably named Borsippa, Temple of Belus, Birs Nim- 
 roud, and Tower of Babel, rising, as it were, a high mountain out 
 of the sea, struck me with greater astonishment than anything 
 that I had seen of ancient devastations, and I could not but look 
 with wonder upon the seeming supernatural vitrifications of a large 
 part of the still standing brick-piles, that can be seen for about 
 twenty-five miles around.* Different travelers have attributed the 
 cause of the vitrification to either lightning, or extreme power of 
 artificial heat; but it seemed to me, on examining the different 
 masses, that neither the work of man nor the common electric 
 fluid could have caused that extent of vitrification.f I have been 
 trying to elicit, through scientific gentlemen in England, the cause 
 of the vitrification; but I have, as yet, found no one who could 
 explain the mystery satisfactorily. Indeed, on referring to two 
 good authorities on the effect of lightning upon such a massive 
 structure, I was told that electric fiuid could not cause such deep 
 vitrification. Benjamin of Tudela makes the assertion that the 
 "heavenly fire which struck the tower split it to its very founda- 
 tion," and my late friend, Mr. Loftus, gives the opinion of a "tal- 
 ented companion who originated the idea when they examined 
 the Birs Nimroud together, that, in order to render these edifices 
 more durable, the Babylonians submitted them, when erected, to 
 the heat of a furnace!" 
 
 * It is quite incomprehensible to me why all travelers who visited 
 Birs Nimroud, and wished to ascertain the meaning of the word Bii's, 
 failed to do so. It is from the Arabic word Birij, which signifies a 
 tower, only, the letter j is corrupted into s. This same word is used 
 in all Arabic Bibles, in reference to the building of the tower of Babel, 
 in Gen. ii, 4. 
 
 t We are told in the Talmud that "the tower was exceedingly tall. 
 The third part of it sunk down into the ground, a second third was 
 burned down, but the remaining third Avas standing until the destruc- 
 tion of Babylon." (The Talmud, chapter i.)
 
 T^t 
 
 
 
 
 i. < ^^ 
 
 -t > ' 
 
 <^?. 
 
 
 ^ : 
 
 { ' \ 
 
 
 
 
 ,-A' 
 
 V *.- 
 
 t>" 
 
 \ 
 
 o
 
 BIRS NIMROUD. 269 
 
 The former authority did not explain on what record or idea 
 he founded his allegation. He might have quoted a tradition 
 which existed then in the country when he visited the ruin, about 
 seven hundred years ago. As for the opinion of Mr. Loftus's 
 friend, it is untenable, because it is against common sense that a 
 huge tower as that of Birs Nimroud could, in the time of its glory, 
 be subjected to artificial heat after it was built. The tower must 
 have been at least two hundred feet high, and about one hundred 
 and fifty feet square, and to build a furnace to envelop it would, 
 be just like trying to cover a solid mass equal in size to the dome 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, with one huge furnace, and 
 subjecting it to artificial heat for the purpose of vitrifying it! 
 One-third of the tower is still standing in its original position, 
 and not a sign of fire or vitrification is visible in any part of it; but 
 the large boulders, which are vitrified, are scattered all about the 
 place, and look as if they do not belong to the same structure. 
 Some of these must be between ten and fifteen cubic feet square, 
 and the vitrification is so complete throughout, that when I tried 
 to have a large piece broken to bring to the British Museum, I 
 failed to do so until I engaged a competent mason, who managed 
 to break me two pieces after having blunted half a dozen of his 
 iron tools.* 
 
 Before I began operations at Birs Ximroud, the Arabs were 
 busily engaged in digging for antiquities under the guise of search- 
 ing for bricks for building purposes. My first aim was to engage 
 the services of the chief man amongst them, and, fortunately, he 
 made no difficulty in entering my service. As the spot where I 
 wanted to open a few trenches was near the sanctum of Ibraheem- 
 al-kaleel,f where the Arabs of that country believe that Nimrod 
 had tried to throw Abraham into the fiery furnace, I deemed it 
 advisable to engage the guardian of the shrine as a writer, and to 
 watch the workmen against transgressing the limit of the sacred 
 ground. Both this man and his relatives behaved most friendly 
 and faithfully all the time I had any work there. The chief, who 
 
 * May not the prophecy of Jeremiah apply to this tower in the 
 following words?— "Behold I am against thee. O destroying mountain, 
 saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth, and I will stretch out 
 mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will 
 make thee a burnt mountain." (Jeremiah li, 25.) 
 
 fAbraham the friend (of God).
 
 270 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 was a strict Sheea Moslem, and considered that any contact with a 
 Christian would defile him, went so far as to lend me a part of 
 his habitation to make ase of as a residence for my overseers, and 
 for the storing of my antiquities. 
 
 In my excavations at that mound, I discovered on the western 
 side of it a new building, which could not have been inhabited, 
 or even roofed; and on the southern limit I found a large collection 
 of inscribed clay tablets. This made me come to the conclusion 
 that the debris in which the inscribed objects were found, was 
 thrown from an old building which had existed before the new 
 structure I discovered was erected. 
 
 Our excavations were carried on so extensively at that place 
 that other small mounds sprang up from the rubbish that was 
 cleared out of the new building and the outskirts of the southern 
 corner of Ibraheem-al-kaleel, of which the peasantry took great 
 advantage. 
 
 The Moslems always choose elevated spots for the burying of 
 their dead; and so, when any of the Maadanees — that is to say, 
 the Arabs who occupy the marshes — wanted to save the expense 
 of digging a grave and covering it over properly, they used to bring 
 the corpses of their bereaved relatives to my workmen, and ask them 
 to cover them with the debris which they were throwing away, 
 and they assured them that the more they heaped over them of the 
 earth they were throwing away, the more they would earn heavenly 
 blessings. They felt certain that by this kind of interment the 
 remains of their deceased kindred were secured against exhuma- 
 tion, either by wild beasts or future excavators. 
 
 At Birs Nimroud, and almost opposite the new building dis- 
 covered at the mound of Ibraheem-al-kaleel, I was fortunate 
 enough to hit upon another palace of Nebuchadnezzar, where Na- 
 bonidus was supposed to have been residing u^hen Cyrus captured 
 Babylon. It is on the platform to the east, and just below the ex- 
 isting part of the town, which is identified with the temple of Bor- 
 sippa, erected by Nebuchadnezzar, and mentioned in his standard 
 inscription. It contained about eighty chambers and halls, but 
 only in four of them we found a few Babylonian antiquities. In 
 the principal hall was found the record of the building which gave 
 us the history of the erection of the palace by Nebuchadnezzar. 
 In the first hall opened, which led us to the remainder of the 
 palace, were found broken pillars, capitals, and fragments of enam-
 
 BIES NIMROVD. 271 
 
 eled bricks, evidently belonging to the embellishment of the room 
 with cedar wood, which are now in the British Museum. In three 
 other rooms we found two, what are called, boundary monuments, 
 and a small bas-relief. 
 
 The finding of this structure was most curious, and shows that 
 archaeologists ought not to be discouraged when they fail, some- 
 times, in their researches. This same mound was excavated at by 
 different explorers from time immemorial, for the purpose of find- 
 ing some historical record, but without success. When I went to 
 examine it in 1879, I felt convinced that the extensive platform 
 below the tower must contain some Babylonian structure, or other 
 interesting remains, and I therefore lost no time in placing two 
 gangs of workmen to try the most likely spot that augured success. 
 The overseer, whom I have already mentioned, had been in the 
 habit of searching for inscriptions in the mound of Ibraheem-al- 
 kaleel, and had tried the platform of Birs Nimroud on several 
 occasions, but failed to find in it any antiquities. The consequence 
 was that, after I gave him the necessary directions and went away 
 to see about my other explorations in Babylon, he excavated there 
 for a few hours and abandoned it. He removed the workmen to 
 his old haunts in the adjoining mound, as he felt quite convinced, 
 from former experience, that nothing would be found at the place 
 I pointed out to him, especially as he was very anxious to please 
 me by discovering a valuable collection of inscribed tablets in the 
 other locality. On my return to the mound, however, I ordered 
 him to resume the work which he had given up; and, to his sur- 
 prise, after one day's digging he found that he was excavating in 
 a hall which proved afterwards to be a part of the above-mentioned 
 palace.* 
 
 As my time was drawing nigh to return to Mossul, to attend 
 to my other researches in Assyria, and I wished before I quitted 
 
 * It is suprising to me to find, after my having discovered this ex- 
 tensive palace occupying the whole platform of Birs Nimroud, that Pro- 
 fessor Rawlinson, twenty years before, makes the following assertion 
 in his essay on the Topography of Babylon: "Before concluding this 
 essay," he says, "it seems proper that some account should be given 
 of the great ruin (Birs), which has long disputed with Babel the honor 
 of representing the temple of Belus. and which, a few years back, was 
 very completely explored by Sir Henry Rawlinson." (Rawlinson's 
 "Herodotus," Vol. II, Essay IV, paragraph 13.)
 
 272 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the country to visit the ruins of Tei-loh, to which I have already 
 alluded, I left a few workmen to go on with the excavations, and 
 returned to Baghdad. I had wished to go on to Shat-al-hai from 
 Babylon; but I found that it would entail heavy expenses and waste 
 of time to proceed thither overland, and so I made up my mind 
 to reach it by boat from Baghdad. 
 
 I took my passage in a Turkish steamer, called "Mossul," for 
 Coot-Alomara, situated on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite 
 the entrance of Shat-al-hai, leaving Baghdad at one A. M., on the 
 24th February. The river at that time of the year was very low; 
 the consequence was, we were longer on our passage than we should 
 have been two months later. ^Ye passed Ctesiphon at eleven 
 o'clock, where we saw the camp of Colonel Nixon and his family, 
 on the edge of the river. lie had gone there for change of air 
 and on a shooting excursion, and, having exchanged salutations, 
 we proceeded on our downward passage until six o'clock in the 
 evening, when we anchored, as the captain, who was an Arab, did 
 not like to go on during the night. It blew, all the afternoon and 
 night, a strong northerly breeze, which made the weather very cold. 
 
 On the 25th we did not make much progress, as the steamer 
 stranded several times, and at 4.30 P. M. we stuck hard and fast 
 for five hours. By the time M'e got off, it was too late for us to go 
 on; so we anchored, and in the morning resumed our voyage. The 
 same north wind continued to blow rather fresh all the night and 
 the whole of the next day, which made the teeth of the poor deck 
 passengers chatter. We weighed anchor at six A. M., and reached 
 Coot-Alomara at 11.30. As soon as I landed, I was hospitably re- 
 ceived by the superintendent of the transit department, Allah- 
 Wairdee Effendi. He not only provided me comfortable quarters 
 and a sumptuous table, both on my arrival and return, but ren- 
 dered me every assistance in his power to hasten my voyage down 
 Shat-al-hai to Tel-loh. I engaged a native sailing-boat with a 
 sharp, active master, who knew Shat-al-hai by inches; and I must 
 say that the services he rendered me were alone worth what he 
 received for the whole charter of his vessel and crew. It did not 
 take me long to make the necessary arrangements, and I started 
 at 2.30 P. M., or three hours after my arrival. As the north wind 
 was still blowing, it did not take as long to sail from the eastern to 
 the western side of the Tigris as to reach the mouth of Shat-al-hai. 
 "We had to go round a long island, which in that time of the year
 
 HAL 273 
 
 impeded the passage of small craft from the town of Coot-Alomara 
 to Shat-al-hai. 
 
 As the river was very shallow, we could not go on at night, but 
 anchored at 7.40 at a place where the tribe of Beni-Omair were 
 encamping. The chief came to offer his services as soon as he had 
 learned of my arrival; but I thanked him for his civility, and 
 begged him not to trouble himself on my behalf, as I had every- 
 thing I wanted and felt secure under his protection. 
 
 We left the next morning at six, and reached the town of 
 Hai, situated on the right bank of the river, at four P. M. Here 
 I landed to see a Christian merchant, called Yoseph Naaman, to 
 find out from him if there were any ruins in the neighborhood 
 which contained antiquities, as I had heard that he was well ac- 
 quainted with the country. He informed me of several; but I 
 found that they were difficult to reach without a proper escort and 
 great expense, which I could ill afford. While I was chatting with 
 him, the chief of the district came to see me, and offered his kind 
 offices. He was good enough to send with me his son, Bash Agha, 
 with an attendant, to escort me as far as Seyid Isa, which place we 
 reached the next morning at nine o'clock, after having spent the 
 night below the village of Oda. Here the young chief left me, as 
 he said that thenceforward the country was under the government 
 of Shaikh Fahad, or Fahad Pasha, the chief of all the Montifig 
 Arabs. We then resumed our voyage, and reached Jalaat-Sikir at 
 five P. M. There I obtained a fresh escort, and went on to Mun- 
 thur-Sibih, where we anchored at seven o'clock for the night.* We 
 found it rather cold there; and those of my followers who were 
 badly clad and possessed no bedding, felt the inclement weather 
 intensely. As the vessel had no cabin, a shed was rigged up for 
 me and my servants, of native reed matting, which the captain 
 obtained for me before we left Coot-Alomara, and covered it over 
 with part of my tent. 
 
 * Munthur means a depot for grain. At this point, tlie Baghdad 
 and Basra merchants obtain cereals for exportation to the Persian 
 Gulf and India. On both sides of Shat-al-hai a good deal of grain is 
 cultivated, and at certain points barns are built to store it, as it is 
 received from the peasants. They bring their produce after harvest 
 time to these stations, for the purpose of either exchanging it for piece 
 goods, or to pay back in kind to the merchants who had advanced them 
 money for the same. 
 
 18
 
 274 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 During the last night of February it was bitterly cold, and at 
 sunrise the next morning the thermometer stood within four de- 
 grees of freezing-point, but at noon it went up to 60 Fahrenheit. 
 We left Munthur-Sibih at six A. M., with a fair northwesterly 
 breeze, which continued all day. We reached a point on the right 
 side of the river, called Maazal, at 1.30 P. M. My destination was 
 only two miles further, which we might have reached in twenty 
 minutes with favorable wind; but it happened, fortunately, that 
 Dhaidan Bey, the eldest son of Fahad Pasha, the chief of the Mon- 
 tifig Arabs, and governor of that part of the Irack, was encamping 
 there with his clan for the sake of pasture, and I profited by his 
 being in the vicinity to go and pay him a visit before I commenced 
 my exploration in that part of Babylonia. He received me most 
 civilly, and, when he learned for what purpose I had gone thither, 
 he offered me his assistance in everything I required. It was, in- 
 deed, a most lucky oportunity for me to have fallen in with him 
 just then, as the country was very much disturbed on account of 
 some dissensions that had taken place amongst the Arabs in that 
 neighborhood, and it required the iron arm of such a man as 
 Dhaidan Bey to keep them in order. This young chief, who was 
 then not more than twenty-five years of age, possessed great in- 
 fluence over all the wild tribes by his affabihty and manly bearing. 
 The air of Arab noble blood was stamped on his face; he was 
 handsome, as well as benevolent, and the well-known Arab hos- 
 pitality was never better shown than when he had to use it. He 
 wanted me very much to spend the night with him, but as I told 
 him that I was pressed for time, and was anxious to visit Tel-loh 
 as soon as possible, he made me promise that I would go and see 
 him again on my return to Baghdad. He appointed two of his 
 confidential slaves, called Barrihh and Jaalan, to accompany me, 
 and to remain with me as long as I was engaged in the explorations 
 at Tel-loh; and they certainly did their duty right loyally. On 
 returning to my boat with them., I found that Dhaidan Bey had 
 sent two sheep as a present to my followers, and it did not take 
 them long to kill, dress, and feast on them. The northwesterly 
 breeze being still in our favor, we were not more than twenty min- 
 utes sailing down between Maazel and Im-al-ghad, the nearest n\- 
 laffe to Tel-loh, or the mound of Loh. As soon as we arrived, my 
 escort busied themselves to obtain for me the number of workmen 
 I required; and whether we wanted provisions, fuel, or shelter
 
 MOUND OF TEL-LOH. 275 
 
 for some of my followers, it was immediately produced. The 
 natives of Im-al-ghad, being strict Sheeites, and consequently 
 considering that any contact with Christians would defile them, 
 we had some difficulty on our first arrival to get them to do any- 
 thing for us in the way of our cooking arrangements; but after 
 a day or two they were reconciled to our ways and plans, especially 
 as they found the representatives of the chief of the Montifig and 
 my Moslem followers partaking of my dainties and mixing with my 
 Christian servants, 
 
 I was not a little vexed to learn, on my arrival at Im-al-ghad, 
 that Tel-loh was not in the Pashalic of Baghdad, as Basra had, 
 a few months before, been made an independent Pashalic; where- 
 fore, the privilege granted to me in my firman did not extend 
 further than the town of Hai. But as I had gone to the expense 
 of a voyage thither, and learned that M. Sarzac, the French vice- 
 consul at Basra, had, a short time before, visited the mound and 
 excavated in it without any permit from the Porte, I thought I 
 might just as well try the ruin for a few days, and see if it would 
 be worth while to ask our ambassador at Constantinople to use his 
 influence with the Porte so that my license might be extended to 
 that province. 
 
 Early on the 2d of March I walked to the mound with my' 
 guide and the workmen I had engaged at the village, and it 
 took us about an hour to reach it, though the distance w^as not 
 more than three miles from the river. There was neither road nor 
 any sign of footpath, as the soil consisted of dried mud, and both 
 pedestrians and equestrians had to make their way as best they 
 could through the cracked ground without tripping. I found, 
 on arriving at the mound, that the workmen had not provided 
 themselves with water, and that the nearest place from which they 
 could obtain a supply was close to my encampment, so I asked 
 one of the men to go and engage some v/omen to bring the requisite 
 quantity; but I was told that it was not customary nor proper in 
 that country for w^omen to be employed in such work, especially 
 in conveying water such a great distance, where only men are em- 
 ployed. On asking them if they had no poor women in their vil- 
 lage who would be glad to earn a few piasters, as was the case in 
 other places, they said fhat the women in that part of the country 
 were bashful, and would feel ashamed to be engaged in such a 
 vocation. I felt that my informants had some covert design in try-
 
 276 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 ing to mislead me, as they wished to monopolize the work them- 
 selves, and make me pay them enormously for what I could get 
 the women to do for me at less than a quarter of the amount they 
 claimed. I allowed them the first day to fetch the water required 
 for the workmen; but they were not a little surprised when they 
 saw me the next morning go to the village and call out for any 
 needy girls who wished to earn an honest living to come to me. 
 No sooner were my words heard than a score of dashing damsels 
 responded to the call, and they cheerfully engaged to carry the 
 required water to the mound, and so they continued to do until I 
 had left the place. 
 
 The mound of Tel-loh is very curiously shaped, quite different 
 from any other Babylonian site. It is about a mile in circumfer- 
 ence, and consists of different small elevations, the largest of which, 
 not more than thirty feet high, is the one in which the black 
 statues were discovered by M. Sarzac, and also the largest statue, 
 which I have already mentioned, whose hands were cut off and 
 sold to the late George Smith, and the bust of which was broken 
 and carried away by the former gentleman. It is quite certain 
 that that mound was not used as a kingly residence, but* as a 
 cemetery for renowned individuals. 
 
 On arriving there, I found that the Arabs had uncovered the 
 upper part of it, and as I wished to take a squeeze of the inscription 
 on it for the British Museum, I had it wholly dug out. I placed 
 a number of gangs of workmen to excavate in different parts of the 
 mound, which I thought to be the most likely spots where an- 
 tiquities might exist. The first day I began, we came upon the 
 remains of a temple, where I found traces of the walls and two 
 pebble sockets at the entrance for the posts of the door to revolve 
 upon. One of these I brought home to the British Museum, and 
 the other I gave to the Ottoman authorities for the Imperial 
 Museum at Constantinople. In another place we came upon a 
 grave, in which a large number of unbaked, inscribed clay tablets 
 were buried. In some parts of the area we had only to dig one 
 foot or two, and came upon inscribed objects, the majority of 
 which consisted of curiously-inscribed symbols in the shape of a 
 thick, short tent-peg; but no one has, as yet, found out what 
 these objects represented. There must have been thousands of 
 them in existence at one time, as the whole mound was covered 
 with fragments of them. The other objects were a kind of weights
 
 EXCAVATIONS MADE. 
 
 9.77 
 
 made of red granite, of different shapes, and inscribed with the 
 same sort of characters.* 
 
 During the first day of our excavations, a number of the Arabs 
 who were encamping near the mound, came to be employed, as they 
 said they had more right to dig there than the peasants I had taken 
 with me from Im-al-ghad, especially as they were in a better po- 
 sition to protect our diggings from the marauders, they being near 
 the spot, and having more power to drive away interlopers. When 
 I learned who they were I was glad to engage some of them, and 
 they proved most invaluable to me, not only as workmen, but as 
 men possessing great influence in the country. When I was at 
 breakfast the next day, a messenger came running to ask me to 
 go to the mound as soon as possible to prevent bloodshed, as a 
 party of the Gharaghool Arabs— the most refractory tribe in the 
 country — were trying to stop the Ira-al-ghad workmen from dig- 
 ging, in order that they might monopolize the work themselves. 
 The escort sent with me by Dhaidan Bey had tried to quiet them, 
 but to no purpose, as the other Arabs had sworn that they would 
 allow no one to excavate in that mound save those who belonged 
 to their tribe, as they considered Tel-loh to be in their district, 
 and the Arabs that I had employed were fellaheens, whose business 
 it was to cultivate the soil. On reaching the mound, I found that 
 the Gharaghools were really in earnest, and both they and the 
 Arabs I had employed from the camp near the mound were ready 
 to settle their dispute by force of arms, and the poor peasants of 
 Im-al-ghad were standing timidly on one side without daring to 
 go on with their work. As I could not induce the refractory Arabs 
 to listen to reason, though I promised to employ some of them 
 the next day, and I was afraid that if I allowed the excavations 
 to go on some serious fight might take place, I stopped the work 
 altogether for the time being, and returned to the village to see 
 what best I could do to protect my workmen from being molested. 
 I feared that if I sent to Dhaidan Bey, bloodshed might be caused, 
 which I should be sorry for, especially when, legally speaking, 
 I had no right to make any excavations there. I determined, 
 therefore, to send my escort, the two slaves of Dhaidan Bey, to 
 
 * It is very curious, in my discoveries at Aboo-Habba, or Sippara 
 (the Biblical Sepharvaim), three years afterwards, a small egg-shaped 
 stone was found, made of the same material, and having the same 
 inscription on it, said to be 3800 B. C.
 
 278 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the chief of the Gharaghools, whose camp was about eight miles 
 from my quarters, to represent to him the misbehavior of those of 
 his tribe who molested my workmen. In less than four hours 
 they returned, bringing one of the chiefs, called Shaikh Khallawee, 
 with them. He apologized most humbly for what had taken place, 
 and said that thenceforward he would see that not a man of 
 his tribe go to the mound while I was engaged there. He 
 invited me to go and encamp where they were located, as he said 
 that Tel-loh was nearer them than where I was. I thanked him 
 for his courtesy, and told him that I did not intend to remain 
 there more than two or three days; but I promised that if I went 
 there again, I would pay them a visit. 
 
 During my stay in the vicinity of Tel-loh the weather was 
 rather stormy; sometimes we were smothered with dust, and some- 
 times our work was interrupted by showers of rain. All the time 
 I was excavating there, I felt that I was trespassing, because I 
 did not possess the requisite permit, and I was not certain how long 
 I should be allowed to go on with my work without interruption 
 from the neighboring Arabs, who flocked to the trenches to see 
 what we were doing. On the other hand, had I been fortunate 
 enough to discover any large objects, it was doubtful whether I 
 would be allowed to remove them under the provisions of my firman. 
 Feeling indisposed to carry on my work under false pretenses, and 
 finding that I could ill afford to spend a longer time there on 
 account of my other duties in Babjdonia and Assyria, I resolved 
 to close my work at Tel-loh, and return to Baghdad after three 
 days' trial. 
 
 I had hoped that on my return to England I should manage, 
 through our ambassador at Constantinople, to obtain permission 
 from the Porte to excavate at Tel-loh. But I was sadly disap- 
 pointed, because it appeared afterwards, that in the meantime 
 M. Sarzac was endeavoring, through his embassy at the Turkish 
 capital, to obtain a firman to excavate on his own account, and 
 before I could communicate with Sir Henry Layard, he attained 
 his object. I did not know at first that M. Sarzac was negotiating 
 for a concession to excavate at Tel-loh, but supposed only that he 
 had asked the French Government to give him a grant for ex- 
 plorations in Southern Babylonia, which they had refused to do; 
 and this put me off the scent. Though my other duties obliged 
 me to shorten my stay at Tel-loh, had I had the proper permit I
 
 THE ANCIENT SIRGULLA. 279 
 
 would have left a few workmen, with a competent overseer, to go 
 on with the digging until m.y return to Babylonia the next year. 
 
 From what I have seen of the place of M. Sarzac's discoveries, 
 I am certain that if I had continued my researches there one day 
 longer, I should have come upon the nest of black statues which 
 were discovered in the highest mound, and within a few feet of the 
 large headless statue, wliich I have already alluded to. As soon 
 as I had uncovered it, for the purpose of taking a squeeze of the 
 inscription I placed two gangs of workmen to excavate in that same 
 mound. One I directed to open a trench in front of the said 
 statue, and the other going across it a distance of thirty feet. 
 The overseer who was employed by M. Sarzac, and who wanted 
 me to leave him in charge of the mound before I left the country, 
 told me that had I gone on with my excavations two or three feet 
 longer and deeper, I could not have missed one or two of the 
 statues, especially as one of the walls of the chambers must have 
 led me to them. 
 
 Assyrian scholars have identified that ancient site of bygone 
 civiHzation as "Sirgulla," or City of the Great Light — that is to 
 say, a place dedicated to fire-worship — and believe that the greater 
 part of the discovered antiquities bore the name of "Gudea," a 
 prince who held the rank of a viceroy under the king of Ur.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 As I had promised Dhaidan Bey to visit him again before my 
 return to Baghdad, as soon as I broke up my camp on the 6th 
 March, and saw my servant and followers safely on board the 
 boat, we sailed at nine o'clock up to the nearest point, according 
 to appointment, whither the chief's camp had removed. It took 
 us half an hour to reach it with fair wind, and I found, on my 
 arrival there, that a horse had been sent to take me to the encamp- 
 ment, which was about half a mile inland. I was surprised to 
 find, on reaching it, that the grand tent of Dhaidan Bey was full 
 of chiefs from all parts of the Montifig country, as he had invited 
 them to meet me at breakfast. They all accorded me the most 
 gratifying reception, and my noble friend, in particular, was most 
 courteous and affable. His huge tent, made of black goat's-hair, 
 must have contained at least one hundred and fifty chiefs, all of 
 whom, with their followers, partook of the same hospitality; the 
 latter were squatting outside the tent, and had their meal separately, 
 but the former fared alike with me by rotation. No less than 
 twenty sheep had been slaughtered; some were boiled with rice, 
 others were made into stew in the Arab fashion, but as Dhaidan 
 Bey, his father, Fahad Pasha, and all their relatives had mixed a 
 good deal with the town's-people and Ottoman officials, I was 
 regaled by other dainty dishes, both savory and sweet, placed in 
 front of me. Three huge trays, each about ten feet in circumfer- 
 ence, were heaped up with rice and mutton, and placed before me 
 in a line, to which a batch of the chiefs were invited. As soon 
 as I had done, I left my seat and sat on one side, and those who 
 sat with me did the 'same to make room for others. When the 
 second number had done, others succeeded them; and this went 
 on until all of the superior guests had eaten to their heart's con- 
 tent, Dhaidan himself acting as the master of ceremonies. I had 
 to wait until all the guests had finished before I could take leave 
 of my host, as it was contrary to Arab etiquette to go away without 
 drinking a cup of coffee, which could only be handed round after 
 all the company had finished eating. My host tried to prevail upon 
 me to stay the night with him, but I begged to be excused, as I 
 was in a hurry to return to Baghdad. I was able to leave at last 
 280
 
 JOURNEY TO BAGHDAD. 281 
 
 about eleven o'clock; and as soon as 1 got into the boat we sailed 
 eastward with fair breeze. In the afternoon it got very stormy, 
 with thunder and lightning all around us. At half-past four 
 o'clock it began to rain so heavily that we were obliged to moor 
 our vessel at Munthur-Shwailat, to enable those of my followers 
 who had no cover to take shelter in one of the tents on shore. 
 The downpour did not cease for five hours; and as my servant, 
 escort, and Seyid Ahmed, the overseer, had no proper covering, 
 they passed an uncomfortable night. I tried all I could to persuade 
 them to follow their fellow-passengers to the Arab tents, but 
 nothing would make them leave me. Their great anxiety was that 
 I should not get wet myself, and they kept hovering round me 
 all night. 
 
 The next morning the sun shone most brightly, and in a few 
 hours' time everything dried up, as if no rain had wetted us. 
 We started at 6.15 A. M., and as we had a strong head- wind, we 
 were obliged to be towed up the river. At Jilaat-Sikir, which we 
 reached in about four hours, we stopped to buy provisions, both 
 for my followers and crew, and about noon we resumed our voyage, 
 still under the necessity of having our boat towed by the crew. 
 We had to halt at 5.30 P. M. at the village of Munthur-chahaf- 
 Alhockamee, because the crew were quite knocked up with the hard 
 work of towing the heavy vessel. 
 
 On the 8th of March it began to rain again about two o'clock 
 in the morning, and it continued to come down in torrents till 
 ten. As the sky looked still overcast with heavy clouds, and most 
 of my followers were wet, as they had been nearly eight hours 
 without proper shelter, we did not leave our mooring until noon. 
 We started with a fair breeze, and sailed pleasantly for three hours, 
 until we reached a bend in the river, which obliged us to take down 
 the sails again, and revert to towing. It took the sailors only 
 about an hour this time to get over the difficulty of making head 
 against the wind, after which we were enabled to set sail once 
 more, and make up for lost time. We reached, at 5.45 P. M., the 
 spot where a branch of the Shihman Arabs, called Bait-Chereem, 
 were encamping, and moored our vessel near them for the night. 
 When we passed this tract of land on coming down the river, 
 twelve days before, the ground was quite parched up, and not a 
 blade of grass could be seen anywhere; but a few showers of rain, 
 which fell there at intervals for eight or nine days, made the
 
 282 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 country look quite green, and the pasturage grew high enough 
 for the sheep to feed upon it. This shows how fertile that country 
 is, and how easily it can be cultivated with proper irrigation, if 
 only the wretched inhabitants had better protection to life and 
 property. 
 
 On the morning of the 9th the weather looked very threatening, 
 in consequence of which the boatmen made all kinds of excuses 
 to delay our departure; but T would not listen to them, and made 
 them start at 6.45. The weather was certainly anything but pleas- 
 ant, considering that we were enveloped in a thick fog, and we had 
 to pass about five hours in a drizzling rain. Fortunately, the little 
 breeze we had in the beginning of our voyage that morning was 
 in our favor as far as the town of Hai, which we reached in two 
 hours and a half. After spending there about two hours in re- 
 plenishing our stores, we resumed our voyage; but this time our 
 boat had to be towed, as "the wind was contrary. At noon the sky 
 cleared up, and we enjoyed a most delightful sunshine. A little 
 before six o'clock we reached Munthur Mihairja, or Bunder * 
 Mihairja, where we halted for the night. 
 
 As usual, we left as soon as tlie sun was up the next morning, 
 and the spirit of the crew revived. We had a most delightful sail 
 all day, as the breeze blew in our favor from the south, which 
 enabled us to reach Coot-al-Omara at 3.30 P. M. While we were 
 sailing up the river under full canvas, we were hailed by some 
 men on shore to give them a lift to Coot, and as the master of my 
 boat recognized them to be his friends, he begged me to allow 
 him to take them in, in order that they might be of use in case the 
 wind turned contrary. I, of course, raised no objection to his 
 doing so. 
 
 My host of Coot, Allah- Wairdee Efi^endi, recognized our craft 
 from a distance; consequently I found him waiting at the landing- 
 place to receive me. He gave me the joyful intelligence that I 
 should not have to wait there long, because an English steamer 
 for Baghdad was expected from Basra during the night. She did 
 not arrive, however, till two A. M., on the 12th; but, fortunatel)'', 
 my friend Allah- Wairdee Effendi afforded me every act of hos- 
 pitality to make the time of my waiting pass agreeably. 
 
 Tn consequence of the unusual scanty fall of snow in Northern 
 
 * Bunder, in Arabic, means Port.
 
 ON THE STEAMER. ^83 
 
 Koordistan and Armenia during the winter of 1878-79, both the 
 Euphrates and the Tigris in the spring of that year were extremely 
 low and this caused lamentable famine all over Asiatic iurkey. 
 Shat-al-Hai, as a matter of course, shared in the calamity, and 
 that was the reason why I was so long in reaching Im-el-ghad, 
 the port of Tel-loh. It took me nearly forty hours on that voyage; 
 whereas, if the river had been as high as it was in other years m 
 springtime, I ought to have accomplished the same vopge down 
 in ten or twelve hours. Coming up the river is another story, 
 inasmuch as the strength of the current, when the river is high, 
 makes both sailing and towing against it very laborious Our boat, 
 which was about four feet draught, could only just make her way 
 through the shallow places; whereas, in the proper spring flood, 
 the river Hai rises between thirteen and fourteen feet. It is tra- 
 ditionally related that Shat-al-Hai was a gigantic canal dug out 
 by the giants of old; but from what I have seen of it, and of the 
 formation of its banks, it is neither more nor less than a natural 
 gully, which has been enlarged by time through the overflowing 
 of the Tigris into the Euphrates. The former stream is higher, 
 and contains a greater quantity of water on account of being con- 
 fined within its banks, while the latter loses more than half of its 
 water in the great marshes of Hinddiah and Affaj. 
 
 The steamer which took me back to Baghdad from Coot-al- 
 Omara was called the "City of London," and belonged to the firm 
 of Messrs. Lynch & Company, who were the first, I believe to 
 open a regular mercantile steam communication between the Per- 
 sian Gulf and Baghdad. I had to go on board at night, as the 
 vessel was to start at four o'clock in the morning. Her master, 
 Captain Clements, supplied me with a snug cabin, which was a 
 great comfort after roughing it, as 1 had done, in the open, dirty 
 Arab boat. Captain Clements, who was noted for his liberality 
 and courtesy, provided a sumptuous table, replenished with every 
 luxury that could be obtained in that country. I fared quite 
 differently on board the Turkish steamer, "Mossul," which took 
 me down to Coot, as her commander was an Arab, who kept no 
 table, but allowed his cook to prepare what eatables the well-to-do 
 passengers chose to order. 
 
 We had a dehghtful passage up the river, day and night, without 
 any accident to speak of. excepting at four P. M. on the first day, 
 in the snapping of the helm, when we lost about two hours m
 
 284 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 having a temporary one rigged up in its place. At 2.20 P. M. on 
 the following day, the steamer stopped at a point to land me with 
 two Swiss passengers, who were proceeding to Constantinople, in 
 order that we might walk to Ctesiphon and meet the "City of 
 London" again on the opposite point, as there was a regular semi- 
 circle of about ten miles from one end of the peninsula to the 
 other, which we walked across in about forty minutes, while it 
 took the steamer to go around it about two hours and twenty min- 
 utes. The first and second officers and the clerk accompanied 
 us, as they also wished to visit Ctesiphon. We had ample time 
 to see everything, as we had even to wait for the arrival of the 
 steamer on the bank of the river for more than a quarter of an 
 hour. My Swiss companions did not return with me to the steamer, 
 as their friends at Baghdad had sent them horses to take them 
 across the country. The land journey was not more than fifteen 
 miles, which they could easily accomplish in three hours; but it 
 took us more than seven hours to reach Baghdad in the steamer. 
 I landed early next morning, and went to take up my quarters at 
 my cousin's house, where I had staid two years before. I had 
 promised to pay him another visit on my return from Shat-al-Hai. 
 On calling on Colonel and Mrs. Nixon, I found that Mr. W. Scawen 
 and Lady Anne Blunt were on the point of starting for Persia 
 dressed in the Arab fashion, which seemed novel, inasmuch as in 
 these days of constant communication between the East and West 
 and the adoption of the European style of attire by the Turks, 
 native officials, and other respectable classes in Turkey, the wearing 
 of that old-fashioned and clumsy dress by an English lady and 
 gentleman seemed quite whimsical. T have always found all na- 
 tionalities in an Oriental country pay more respect to the Europeans 
 who adhere to their mode of dressing than when they change it 
 for the costume of the country. Forty or fifty years ago, when 
 the European dress was looked upon as a strange costume, travelers 
 were obliged to adopt the dress of the country to evade notice and 
 insult; but it is now quite a different thing, when even Arabs who 
 mix up with the Turks do not hesitate to dress in the European 
 fashion, excepting the hat. 
 
 The late well-known African traveler. Commander Lovett 
 Cameron, also came to Baghdad at the same time, for the purpose 
 of examining the route between the Mediterranean and the Persian 
 Gulf for a railwav.
 
 ANTIQUITIES FORWARDED. 285 
 
 During my absence in Southern Babylonia, some important 
 antiquities had been discovered in Babylon, and forwarded to me 
 to Baghdad to dispatch to England, before I returned to Mossul; 
 but I had no end of trouble to get tlie authorities to have them 
 examined according to the provisions of the firman, and permit 
 them to be forwarded to Basra. The first agent they sent to exam- 
 ine them refused to sign the necessary certificate after a regular list 
 of the collection was made, as he said that he could not make head 
 or tail of the quantity or quality of the objects which were shown 
 to him; and, although I had packed everything properly to send on 
 board the steamer, which was starting on that day, I had to allow 
 another examination of the contents of the cases before I could 
 send them off. I deemed it advisable not to make much ado about 
 the detention, because I should only create suspicion and distrust 
 in the eyes of the authorities, and, most probably, if they found 
 me too exacting, they would place greater impediments in my way 
 afterwards. However, after the delay of a week, I managed to get 
 the antiquities clear of further interference, and made them over 
 to Mr. Malcolm Baltazar, an Armenian merchant at Baghdad, to 
 forward to England by the first available opportunity after my 
 departure. This gentleman, to whom I owe great gratitude, was 
 good enough to undertake the responsibility of receiving and for- 
 warding all antiquities to Basra without any remuneration, and 
 he always acted most energetically and cheerfully in that behalf 
 until he was appointed chief dragoman to the Eussian consulate, 
 when it was deemed advisable to relieve him of that trouble. 
 
 Colonel Nixon, to whom I am also indebted for his great kind- 
 ness, was good enough, as on a former occasion, to take upon him- 
 self the general control of our researches during my absence, and 
 supply our agent in Babylon with the necessary funds, on the part 
 of the trustees of the British Museum, for the carrying on of the 
 excavations. 
 
 After having seen all arrangements in proper working order, 
 I left for ]\Iossul on the 24th March, at one o'clock in the afternoon. 
 As I wished to examine some ruins on the right bank of the Tigris, 
 and I had to see how my workmen fared at Kalaa-Shirgat in their 
 explorations there, I traveled this time on the Mesopotamian side 
 of the river. As usual, when it was known at Baghdad that I had 
 intended to take that route, a great number of travelers profited 
 by that opportunity, and their presence with my large escort made
 
 286 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 my cavalcade rather imposing. We reached Khan-almashaheeda 
 at 7.15 P. M., and, as my luggage had not arrived, and there being 
 no habitation for some distance further, I deemed it advisable to 
 halt there for the night. There was no village, but merely a cara- 
 vansary for the convenience of travelers. The rooms were so 
 filthily dirty and infested with vermin, that I did not even care to 
 set my foot into any of them, but had my tent pitched in the court- 
 yard. I was doomed not to rest quietly there, because, early in 
 the evening, it began to blow a regular hurricane from the east, 
 which made my tent stagger, especially as the pegs could not be 
 driven properly into the ground. Fortunately, outside every room 
 there was an open archway, where my servants and followers had 
 settled themselves for the night, and I thought I could not do 
 better than follow their example. 
 
 March 25th, when I awoke, I found that my bed and clothing 
 were covered about an inch thick with the rubbish of the khan, 
 and I was not sorry when I moved out of it after seven o'clock. 
 Our poor animals fared very badly, as they could get nothing to 
 eat, the innkeeper having sold all the spare fodder he possessed 
 to other muleteers, who had preceded us. We reached the im- 
 portant village of Dijail * at 12.30 P. M., and halted there for 
 the remainder of the day. My muleteers and escort took up their 
 quarters at the khan; but I went in search of comfortable quarters 
 in the village, and was fortunate enough to find a clean upper room 
 in a respectable man's house, who did not hesitate to lodge me with 
 him for the night, and supplied my servants with convenient 
 shelter in the same house. I was glad to find that my host was 
 of the Soonee sect of Moslems, they having no prejudices against 
 the Christians. It rained a little in the evening. 
 
 I had a most comfortable night's rest at Dijail, as my room was 
 very clean and waterproof. I found, on awaking in the morning, 
 that the weather was threatening to be wet; but after it had drizzled 
 for an hour, it cleared up, and we were able to start at six o'clock. 
 We reached Sammirra at 4.30 P. M., after having been ten hours 
 and a half on horseback. As that town is situated on the left side 
 of the Tigris, and we were traveling on the right bank, we halted 
 in a field opposite to it outside the village; but as the weather 
 looked rather stormy, I took shelter in one of the huts. I sent 
 
 *Llttle Tigris in Arabic.
 
 TIC REE T. 
 
 287 
 
 over the chief of my guard in a boat to the commandant of police 
 for a fresh escort to accompany me to Kalaa-Shirgat, as my Bagh- 
 dad Dhabtias were ordered to accompany me only as far as Sam- 
 mirra. We had very great trouble to obtain provender for our 
 animals, as the villagers were destitute of even the common neces- 
 saries of life, and I had to send across the river for everything 
 we wanted. We had a tremendous hurricane at night, with light- 
 ning and thunder, accompanied with rain. 
 
 We started at six A. M. on the 27th, and reached Ticreet at 
 3.45 P. M. Our journey the last two days was very dreary. Indeed, 
 the whole of the route on the western side of the Tigris, from 
 Baghdad to Mossul, is very uninteresting, because, with the excep- 
 tion of Dijail, Sammirra, and Ticreet, with here and there some 
 show of Arab tents, the whole distance is a monotonous wilderness. 
 Generally speaking, that route is infested with Arab marauders, 
 and no one dares travel the whole distance without a strong escort. 
 At Ticreet we had very great difficulty to obtain provender for 
 our animals. Soon after my arrival, the Moodeer, or sub-governor, 
 called on me with the members of his council. They all swore that 
 there was no barley to be had, and after no end of empty promises 
 and palaver, they managed to obtain some, for which we had to 
 pay enormously. My muleteers found out afterwards, that not only 
 was there a good supply of grain in the town, but we could purchase 
 it for half the price we had to pay through the authorities! The 
 Ticreetees are considered great cheats, and are notorious for their 
 propensity of fleecing strangers. The men are very muscular and 
 ugly, but the women are handsome and sprightly. 
 
 We left Ticreet at six A. M. on the 28th, and reached Khan- 
 Alkharneena at 1.30 P. M. This inn, which is in ruins, must have 
 been very important in former years, because, being situated in 
 such an isolated part of the Tigris, it afforded great protection to 
 weary travelers on their long journeys. Fortunately, when I passed 
 in 1879, a branch of the Dilaim Arabs were encamping not far 
 from it, and their chief accorded me his hospitality for the night. 
 That tribe had gone thither from the neighborhood of Aana, near 
 the Euphrates, in search of pasture for their flocks, because, during 
 that season both sides of the Euphrates were devoid of pasture 
 for want of rain. We had great difficulty to obtain water there, 
 as the river was a good distance from our camp, and my host's 
 water-carriers had failed to obtain the necessary supply, as they
 
 288 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 thought that we could manage to get on with as little water as they 
 did, for they were not very particular about washing. 
 
 The next day we left the Dilaim's camp at 4.45 A. M., and had 
 a very tedious journey of eleven hours, until we reached the springs 
 called "BalaleejV where we had the beasts of burden unloaded to 
 rest for a while. The water of those springs is neither abundant 
 nor palatable; but for the weary traveler, who had not seen nor 
 tasted water for hours on a hot day, the sight of such an element, 
 even with the feeling of partaking of its impurity, must be wel- 
 comed with delight! There were patches of grass near the different 
 springs, on which our poor animals tried to regale themselves. As 
 I wished to reach Kalaa-Shirgat before dark, in order that I might 
 find the whereabouts of my workmen, I left the animals with the 
 muleteers and a few men of my escort, to have a longer rest, and 
 hurried on to that place with two Dhabtias through hills and dales, 
 sometimes in a canter, and sometimes in a quick walk. We found 
 it very green on the plateau, which we had to pass before reaching 
 our destination, with here and there a small Arab encampment. 
 We arrived at the camp of Faraj-Addarweesh, the chief of my 
 Alboonjad workmen, at dusk: and as soon as it was reported that 
 I had arrived, he came out to welcome me, and received me in his 
 tent, which he had pitched below the northern side of the mound. 
 I found that my kawass, Fattah, had arrived from Mossul with my 
 groom and riding horse to meet me; but as they did not expect 
 me so soon, they had gone to the encampment of Firhan Pasha 
 to spend the night. As soon as I arrived, however, they were sent 
 for, and they came immediately and gave me the latest news from 
 Mossul. My luggage did not arrive till nearly two hours after me, 
 and I had my tent pitched a little distance off from the Arab 
 camp, under the shelter of tlie rocks. As my servants could not 
 begin to prepare my dinner before ten o'clock, I lay down on my 
 bed and went to sleep. When I awoke to have something to eat, 
 I found it was just one o'clock in the morning. It blew a regular 
 hurricane all night, and ever}' now and then I thought the tent 
 would tumble over me. 
 
 Early in the morning I went up to the mound to see the ex- 
 cavations, and was disappointed to find them as barren of any 
 valuable results as before. The storm raged all day, and I had 
 great difficulty in going about to see the different trenches and 
 tunnels from the dust which was blowing about. On my return
 
 STORM AT NIGHT. 289 
 
 to camp, I found my tent filthy in the extreme from the dirt that 
 had accumulated in it, consequent on the raging wind. Soon after- 
 wards it began to rain, and it continued to do so all day. At night 
 the rain came down in torrents, and my wonder was that the tents 
 stood the fury of the storm. I went to sleep notwithstanding, and 
 most pleasant it was to slumber while the thunder and Ughtning 
 were enlivening the sky! The downpour continued all night; and 
 as my followers had only slight shelter, and the servants had neg- 
 lected to dig a trench round their tent to keep the water away 
 from it, they got wet through in consequence of the torrent, 
 which ran down the declivity under which we had encamped. A 
 part of the escort had taken refuge in a cave behind my tent with 
 those travelers who accompanied me from Baghdad; but finding 
 that the rush of water had penetrated even to that retreat, they 
 had to run out of it into the open air, preferring the ducking in 
 safety, rather than being buried alive in that hollow. An officer's 
 wife who was going to Mossul with her baby-girl under my pro- 
 tection, accompanied by her mother, also spent the night in dis- 
 comfort, partially sheltered by the eaves of my tent and a tarpaulin 
 I lent her. I could not invite her to share my tent, for fear of 
 causing scandal. The poor infant daughter suffered from the in- 
 clement weather for some days afterwards, but under my simple 
 treatment she got over her indisposition in a short time. 
 
 I had intended to start for Mossul early the following day, but 
 as I found every one in a pitiful condition, I delayed my departure 
 until all those who had suffered by the storm had dried their 
 things, and partaken of some breakfast comfortably. 
 
 As my Baghdad escort were only ordered to accompany me to 
 Kalaa-Shirgat, they left me in the morning to return to Sammirra, 
 and Mijwil Bey, the second son of Firhan Pasha, provided me with 
 the necessary guides instead. His father was away arranging with 
 the Turkish authorities about the best means of putting down the 
 refractory spirit of his brother Farris. On my way through Fir- 
 han Pasha's camp I alighted at his tent to offer my salutation to 
 his wife. His son Mijwil received me very graciously, and his step- 
 mother, Fassil Khatoon,* invited me to have some refreshments, 
 which I did not like to refuse, though I was in a hurry to proceed 
 on my journey. Generally speaking, it is customary for a dis- 
 
 * "The Lady" in the Mossul Arabic. 
 
 19
 
 290 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 tinguished traveler to pay his respects to a lady of rank among 
 the nomad Arabs; but as Firhan Pasha had married the daughter 
 of a Koordish chief, and he had partly adopted the Turkish mode 
 of living, I did not like to visit the harem part of the tent, but 
 contented myself with the ceremony of exchanging salutations 
 behind the screen which separated the male apartment from that 
 occupied by the females. Both she and Mijwil tried very hard 
 to get me to stay to dinner, and went so far as to order a sheep to 
 be slaughtered for me; but I begged to be excused, as I wished to 
 hurry on to Mossul. So, after I had spent about an hour with them, 
 I left, and Mijwil accompanied me a short distance from the camp, 
 and then left me to return home. 
 
 The whole country seemed partially under water that morning 
 from the storm of the previous night. When I was proceeding to 
 Firhan Pasha's tent from Kalaa-Shirgat, I had to go a round- 
 about way to reach it, on account of the torrents which were rush- 
 ing down to the river from all directions. 
 
 At sunset I reached the encampment of the Jeboors, whose 
 chief, Shaik Azzawee Zarzoor, received me with every mark of 
 civility and hospitality. 1 had my tent pitched near his; and, as the 
 night seemed very threatening, I took the precaution to have my 
 servants and followers lodged in different Arab tents. According 
 to the usual Arab hospitality, a sheep was slaughtered as soon as 
 I arrived, and a large dish of savory stew was made of it for all. 
 As I expected, we had a tremendous thunderstorm, about eight 
 o'clock; and although I took every precaution to guard against 
 wet, the heavy downpour penetrated even through the canvas. Had 
 not my host and his people held the ropes of my tent tightly, noth- 
 ing would have saved it from coming down on my head. The in- 
 terior of my tent got so wet that I had to move to that of Shaikh 
 Azzawee, where a fire was kindled to dry up my wet things. 
 
 Tuesday, the 1st of April, everything was saturated with wet; 
 the consequence was that we could not move as early as I wished. 
 However, by eight o'clock we were able to do so, and reached 
 Hammam Alee at 3.30 P. M. As I was afraid of another storm, 
 I engaged one of the huts in the village for the night. I had my 
 tent pitched outside my dwelling, in case I should be annoyed 
 with fleas; but as I did not feel any discomfort from those pests, 
 I slept all the night there. We had another storm in the evening, 
 but it was not so severe as those of the past two nights.
 
 ARRI VING A T MOSS UL. 291 
 
 Hammam Alee being only about fifteen miles from Mossul, I 
 left my luggage the next morning to follow with the escort, and 
 cantered on alone to that tov/n, and reached it in about three 
 hours. The whole sky was overcast with black clouds, and the 
 sound of thunder and Hashes of lightning were incessant along 
 the horizon all the time 1 was hurrying to Mossul; but, fortunately, 
 it did not begin to rain till I reached my destination. As soon as 
 I dismounted, it began to pour down from all directions, and when 
 my followers arrived they were soaking wet. Happily, my luggage 
 was comparatively intact, as it was well protected by tarpaulins. 
 
 I started for Nimroud April 3d, as I wished to stop the work 
 there, on account of the unsuccessful explorations that had been 
 carried on at that mound in my absence and the short time I had 
 left me to return to England. The bridge of boats had been taken 
 down, on account of the high rise of the Tigris, so I had to cross 
 by the ferry. I found the road very heavy with mud, and my horse 
 was often nearly down to his knees in puddles; nevertheless, I 
 managed to reach the mound in three hours' ride, a distance of 
 eighteen miles. Having examined all the trenches and tunnels that 
 had been dug, and seeing that it would be useless to go on with the 
 excavations any longer, I closed the work. Wisliing to return to 
 Mossul the same day, and fearing lest the double journey would 
 be too much for one horse, I had sent another the day before to 
 Nimroud to carry me back, as the roads were very heavy. Before 
 I crossed over to Mossul, I went to Koyunjik to examine the work 
 at that place. The operations were getting on very slowly, in 
 consequence of the quantity of debris we had to remove before we 
 came to any objects of interest, as the valuable inscriptions which 
 were searched for were found at the bottom of the chambers. 
 
 The two following days I spent in receiving visitors, both 
 Europeans and natives, and returning the call of those who ex- 
 pected me to visit them; an etiquette which I could not very well 
 dispense with, though I had a good deal to occupy my time in 
 making arrangements for carrying on a few days' excavations at 
 the mound of Nebee Yonis,— that part of the city of Nineveh 
 where there is a sanctum dedicated to the prophet Jonah.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 I HAD been longing, for some years past, to explore in that part 
 of ancient Xineveh, called Xebee Yonis; but the prejudices of the 
 native Mohammedans and jealousy of the local authorities were too 
 powerful to cope with, especially as the whole place was built upon, 
 and none of the landlords would allow me, or any one else, to open a 
 few trenches, or tunnels, in their domains. On this last expedition, 
 however, I had employed at Koyunjik a large number of the in- 
 habitants of that village as laborers, one of whom I promoted 
 to the rank of overseer, and as I very often visited the place, and 
 the people began to know me well, it was proposed to me by a 
 number of the well-to-do inhabitants, who were not in my employ, 
 that I should dig in their courtyards, as they felt confident that 
 many objects of antiquity would be found there. They did not 
 ask me for any indemnity or remuneration, but they only wished 
 to please me by giving me the chance of finding some valuable 
 ancient remains in their houses. I thanked them all for their kind 
 offer; but I said that as I was making researches for the British 
 nation, I could not accept their friendly offer without entering 
 into a legal arrangement with the landlords, in accordance with 
 the provisions of my firman. The fact is, I was reluctant to ac- 
 cept their liberal offer, from fear of future complications in case I 
 found some valuable antiquities, and should lose them through the 
 interference of the local authorities, who could easily prevail upon 
 the landlords to debar me from appropriating any object I found in 
 their habitations. In the meantime, I heard that two or three 
 owners of tumbled-down houses, who were in need of money, 
 wanted to sell their property, and so I made arrangements with 
 them that I should pay them what their property was worth, and 
 after I had finished the necessary explorations, I would level the 
 excavated ground, and present them with all the materials with 
 which they might rebuild their houses. This proposal was re- 
 ceived with the greatest satisfaction, and, under this arrangement, 
 I could then purchase what houses I liked. The difficulty that first 
 presented itself to me was, that the land happened to be a copy- 
 hold of the mosque, or shrine, of the prophet Jonah, and I could 
 not purchase the houses and make a bargain for digging in the land 
 292
 
 NEBEE YONIS. 293 
 
 without the consent of the guardians of the sanctuary. On con- 
 sulting a number of my Mohammedan legal friends, I was assured 
 that there was no impediment to my buying houses or land, and 
 digging in what would be constituted my property for the time 
 betng, especially as it had been made law that aliens could make 
 sucirpurchases. I was advised, however, to obtain the consent of 
 the guardians of the mosque, which would facihtate matters. After 
 a short negotiation, I was able to enter into an agreement with 
 them, which was to the effect that, in purchasing the required 
 sites, I should pay a fee on each purchase I made, and I reserved 
 to myself the right of restoring the land to the individuals from 
 whom I had bought the property. Before the agreement was 
 signed, I had come to an arrangement with the land-owners about 
 their property, most of which was waste-land or ruined houses 
 unfit for habitation; and if I had had any money to spare, I could 
 have bought half of the village for a mere trifle. To make the 
 purchase more sure, I got one of the guardians to witness the com- 
 pact, and I need not say 1 lost no time in commencing the longed- 
 for operations immediately afterwards. 
 
 As a matter of course, as soon as it was known that I was taking 
 steps to dig at Nebee Yonis, and that the guardians of the shrine 
 were countenancing my project, jealousy and intrigue began to 
 be busy, especially amongst the local autliorities, who took it for 
 granted that I had bribed the guardians to consent to my excavating 
 in what they chose to call a sacred spot! Strictly speaking, the 
 guardians of the mosque had no legal right to prevent me from 
 purchasing any houses in the village of Nebee Yonis, or digging 
 in them when they became my property; but they could have used 
 their influence and authority with the natives of the place to pre- 
 vent them selling me any of their houses; or worse than this, they 
 could have easily raised the hue-and-cry against what they might 
 have called desecration. But they, being my friends, did not choose 
 to use such a subterfuge; on the contrary, they helped me to do 
 everything according to law; and as the senior of them was the 
 chief of the Olemas,* it was left to him to raise objection to my 
 digging, if there was any impediment to ]ny doing so. They got 
 me to give them a bond, however, before they consented to the 
 arrangement, that I should abstain from digging anywhere in the 
 
 * A term applied to Moslems learned in the law.
 
 294 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 close proximity to the mosque: and, to prevent future complica- 
 tions, we fixed certain limits round the courtyard of the mosque, 
 in order that mischief-makers might not have it in their power 
 to say that I was going to excavate witliin the sacred edifice. For 
 that matter, I was assured that if I really wished to try a few 
 trenches within the precincts of the mosque I could easily do so, 
 by offering to set up some useful dwellings and baths for chari- 
 table purposes, whicli all good ]\Ioslems would hail with infinite 
 pleasure; and as deep foundations must be dug for such erections, 
 I could appropriate any antiquities which might have been found 
 therein. 
 
 I deemed it prudent to employ all the laborers from the in- 
 habitants at Xebee Yonis, of whom not a few had already worked 
 for me at Koyunjik, and, consequently, they not only knew their 
 vocation, but they strengthened my hand in my new undertaking 
 in their village. One of their principal men, whom, as I said be- 
 fore, I had raised to the rank of an overseer at Koyunjik, I ap- 
 pointed, with two other men who had also been in my employ, to 
 superintend the operations. This arrangement, of course, not 
 only created great confidence amongst the inhabitants of Kebee 
 Yonis, but it gave satisfaction to all the Moslems at ]\Iossul and 
 in other parts. 
 
 As I expected, before many days were over the opposition which 
 ■was threatening in the distance began to break out with persistent 
 activity; but though I knew I should have to contend against a 
 formidable resistance, I certainly ne"\er contemplated a dead set 
 against my excavating in that part of Kineveh by the Ottoman 
 Government in contravention to the conditions contained in the 
 imperial decree which had been granted to me for the Trustees of 
 the British Museum by the Sultan. 
 
 After the guardians of the mosque and myself concluded the 
 agreement, they began to fear that if they did not get the governor- 
 general to countersign it, they might get into trouble; so they asked 
 me to let them take the document to His Excellency, and obtain his 
 assent, and as I knew the governor-general well, and felt sure that 
 he would be the last man to object to my digging at Nebee Yonis, 
 I did not raise any objection to their proposal; but, on the con- 
 trary, I thought that by his indorsing our agreement, I should be 
 doubly strengthened in my operations. Unfortunately, there were 
 other influences working against my enterprise, which seemed to
 
 NEBEE YONIS. ^^^ 
 
 frighten him from sanctioning such a measure without referring 
 the matter to the Porte. He tlierefore informed the guardians of 
 the mosque that the wording of the agreement required a revision 
 to prevent future disputes; but when I told him that I was desirous 
 to begin at once, he said, pending the ratification of the agreement, 
 I could go on with my excavations in accordance with the pro- 
 vision granted to me by my firman. He did not tell them, however, 
 what he considered to require altering, or of any addenda which 
 he desired to embody in the compact. I had no doubt that what 
 he wanted was to gain time to consult the proper authorities at 
 Constantinople about the matter. As far as 1 was concerned, I 
 was content to begin my operations forthwith, and I therefore lost 
 no time in commencing the work I was longing for. 
 
 As those who were opposed to my new undertaking saw that I 
 had begun my excavations, and no one had taken steps to stop me, 
 they began to spread false rumors regarding my intentions, and 
 went so far as to frighten the chief and some elders of Nebee 
 Yonis into the belief that, if I purchased half of the village and 
 destroyed the habitations, the local authorities would call upon 
 those who occupied the remaining dwellings to pay the taxes m 
 full, and before many months were over the whole village would 
 be deserted, as it was the case with Khorsabad.* They were told, 
 further, that they would lose nothing by petitioning the local 
 councils and the governor-general about the damage I was causing 
 to their village; but, on the contrary, the authorities might be 
 induced to lower their taxes and get me to indemnify them for the 
 damage which might happen to their village through my excava- 
 tions. They even prompted some women to create a hubbub, on 
 the plea that their dwellings would be destroyed through the bor- 
 ing of my tunnels in the neighboring houses, whereby they and 
 their children would become homeless. This plea I had guarded 
 against at the outset, as I knew that mischief-makers would pre- 
 
 * Khorsabad was the ancient city of Sargon, father of Sonnachorib, 
 king of Assyria, which was a flourishing village in 1844; but M. Botta, 
 the then French consul at Mossul, having discovered the ruins of the 
 famous palace of Sargon. and found that it spread underneath the 
 whole village, was obliged to purchase all the dwellings, and had 
 them leveled to the ground for the purposes of his researches. The 
 inhabitants had ultimately to erect their village below the mound, 
 where it now stands.
 
 296 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 vail upon incredulous proprietors of houses which I had not pur- 
 chased, to put forward this plea to prevent me from digging. I 
 therefore added a clause in my agreement with the guardians that 
 I should not approach any dwelling which did not legally belong to 
 me; and if my workmen caused any damage to neighboring houses, 
 I would indemnify them for all losses. Furthermore, in case of dis- 
 agreement, we should leave the settlement of the dispute in the 
 hands of arbitrators, to be appointed by both parties. 
 
 As soon as the petitions were presented the MijUs-at-Tamyeez,* 
 or Court of First Instance, composed of Moslems, Christians, and a 
 Jew, the non-Mohammedan members tried to show a great zeal 
 by protesting against aliens digging in that sacred spot, which 
 undertaking, they said, would create ill-feeling amongst the Mo- 
 hammedans. When they found their covert design availed them 
 but httle, as all the workmen I employed were Mohammedans of 
 Mossul and Nebee Yonis, they thought that by threatening Sahh 
 Effendi, the junior of the guardians, who they knew was the one 
 that was assisting me in the undertaking, he would make me desist 
 from carrying further researches in that part of Xineveh. But my 
 friend, being too wide-awake and not easily frightened, paid them 
 off in their own coin, and told them that he could not understand 
 their motive, because, first, I was benefiting the property of Nebee 
 Yonis instead of injuring it, as I had paid a good value for the 
 tumble-down houses; and then, as I had promised to restore the 
 land, properly filled in and leveled, after I had finished my work, 
 the former proprietors could build better houses, especially as I 
 intended to give them all the old material I might find in the ruins. 
 He said, moreover, that as I was allowed by international treaty to 
 purchase landed property anywhere in the Ottoman dominions, 
 he did not know who could prevent me from doing so in that part 
 of Turkey. When he was told that I was desecrating the hallowed 
 ground of the prophet Jonah by digging for antiquities, he replied 
 that I was not doing more than what the Ottoman Government 
 did thirty years before, when no one even thought of interfering, 
 and he did not see that m.y work Avas in any way different from 
 that of any other owner of a house in that locality, who chose to 
 dig a deep ditch for a vault or a well, nor was my purchase half as 
 bad as the religious endowmerts which were appropriated by the 
 
 * Arabic words, which mean "Council of Inspection.
 
 NEBEE YONIS. 297 
 
 chief of the Latin monks in the very heart of Mossul and adjoin- 
 ing a mosque.* It can be easily imagined how vexed those digni- 
 taries felt at the rebuke administered to them by that plucky 
 official; but as they found they could not argue with him, they were 
 determined to try some other method to stop me from digging. 
 
 One of the official members of the Council was the super- 
 intendent of the religious endowments, who imagined that I had 
 pecuniarily rewarded the Junior guardian of the shrine of the 
 prophet Jonah for his help, and he therefore thought, perhaps, that 
 he ought to have shared in the gain. The consequence was he 
 and the sub-governor of Mossul became thenceforth the prime 
 movers in stopping my operations. They endeavored to prevail 
 upon the governor-general to prohibit my working there; but as 
 he did not like to do so without investigating the case, he asked 
 me to meet him one day at the village, that he might see what the 
 petitioners had to say upon tlie subject of their complaint. They 
 and the members of the Council were ordered to attend on a certain 
 day at my excavations, and so we all met at the time appointed 
 to discuss the matter. Some women were induced to come forward 
 with their babies to plead for the injury their dwellings were ex- 
 posed to through my tunneling. 
 
 Fortunately, I had already tried a few trenches in two houses 
 that I had purchased, and as I found in them no sign of any an- 
 cient remains, except a few fragments of enameled bricks and 
 small objects of interest, I restored them to the former proprietors; 
 to one of whom I returned his dwelling intact, as I managed to 
 dig trenches along the walls, and bored a few tunnels without 
 doing any damage to the building. This act of liberality was re- 
 ceived with great favor by the inhabitants, and induced many 
 others, who were hesitating to sell me their dwellings, to come 
 forward and offer me their houses to dig at, without even asking 
 me for remuneration. 
 
 * He alluded to a plot of land the property of one of the mosques 
 at Mossul, w-hlch was allowed to be purchased, contrary to Moham- 
 medan law and all precedents, by the Papal Vicar Apostolic, for the 
 purpose of erecting a mission-house on it. To an unprejudiced Mos- 
 lem's mind, the sanctioning the purchase of a religious endowment 
 by a Christian was far more obiectionable than the buying of a house 
 at the village of Nebee Yonis, for the mere purpose of digging a few 
 trenches in it, and then restoring the ground to its former owner.
 
 298 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 The first thing the governor-general did, was to see whether 
 my excavations were at a legitimate distance from the mosque, 
 and, finding they were a good way ofl' from it, he sent for those who 
 had sold me their houses, and asked them if they had done so will- 
 ingly, and were quite content with their bargain. On their reply- 
 ing in the afiirmative, he asked the female complainants why they 
 had objected to my excavations. One of them, whose dwelHng 
 adjoined one of the houses I was digging at, replied that she was 
 afraid that my workmen would undermine her habitation, and as 
 she was poor she would be unable to repair any damage done to it. 
 As I said before, this contingent I had already guarded against; 
 and on appealing to the guardian of the mosque and others stand- 
 ing by who were witnesses to my engagement to indemnify the 
 owners for all damages caused by my excavations, the governor- 
 general said that he was certain that I was the last man in the 
 world to act unjustly towards any one, inasmuch as it had been 
 proved that all those with whom I dealt were quite satisfied with 
 what I had done for them. It was a notable fact that not one of 
 those who signed the petition was present at the inquiry; and I 
 learned afterwards, that as they were made to sign the petition 
 without having any good reason for their complaint, they thought 
 it prudent to absent themselves. 
 
 On finding that the opposition to my researches at Nebee 
 Yonis dwindled to a cipher, His Excellency relieved my mind 
 by saying that he could find no legitimate reason for stopping my 
 work. I thought then that all obstacles were got rid of; but, 
 unfortunately, I was- doomed to be disappointed, because those of 
 the members of the Council headed by the lieutenant-governor 
 would not suffer the matter to be at rest, and the latter managed 
 two days afterwards to gain the sanction of the governor-general 
 to write and prohibit my purchasing more houses for the purposes 
 of my explorations beyond those I had already possessed. In that 
 letter he set forth three reasons against permitting me to carry 
 on my researches in other parts of the same mound where I had 
 intended to dig. First, he said that I was debarred by my firman to 
 excavate in hallowed ground, or in any place which contained a 
 burial-ground and sacred buildings; secondly, that by doing so, I 
 should be hurting the feelings of the ^Mohammedans; and, thirdly, 
 that the village of Nebee Yonis would be damaged by my work 
 were I to carry on my operations to a great extent.
 
 EXCAVATIONS MADE. 299 
 
 My answers to these clap-trap objections were plain and indis- 
 putable; namely, that I had not dug, nor intended to dig, in any 
 sacred ground, which could only be reckoned as such within the 
 precincts of the mosque; that it was far from me to disrespect the 
 feelings of the Moslems; but, on the contrary, that I had the ap- 
 proval of the most learned and pious amongst them, which the 
 sanction and written agreement of the guardians of the mosque 
 of the prophet Jonah showed; and that I was not doing any harm 
 to the village, or causing any loss to its inhabitants; but, on the 
 contrary, I was benefiting all those who were willing to work for 
 me and sell me their houses of their own free will. 
 
 I was glad to learn from the governor-general afterwards that 
 my reply did not displease the local authorities, and His Excellency 
 declared that I had answered their pleas most satisfactorily. Had 
 the dispute rested with the governor-general and his Council, I 
 should have had no more opposition to my legitimate work there; 
 but, unfortunately, the matter had already been brought to the 
 notice of the Ministry of Public Instruction at Constantinople, 
 whose province it was to create obstacles and difficulties in the 
 way of any enterprise which would benefit foreigners; and as the 
 then chief of that department was not very fond of the British, 
 he tried to thwart us in everything, and succeeded. 
 
 The inhabitants of Nebee Yonis Avere very much dissatisfied 
 at the interference of the Mossul authorities, whom they considered 
 to be unreasonable in the course they had pursued. The most re- 
 spectable amongst the villagers wanted to address the governor- 
 general about the matter, and to inform him that the few persons 
 who signed the petition against my excavating there had really 
 no houses on the mound, but their dwellings were situated below 
 it, where I had never intended to dig, seeing there could be no like- 
 lihood of any remains of ancient buildings existing there, — the 
 ground being on a level with the cultivated fields. Indeed, the 
 chief mover in presenting the petition came to me afterwards 
 to apologize for what he had done, and offered, in conjunction with 
 those who joined him, to counteract their former deed by showing 
 up the men who instigated them to sign the document. 
 
 Having then scarcely time to excavate properly the spots which 
 I had purchased, and not knowing how far the Trustees of the 
 British Museum were willing that I should carry on our researches 
 there, I did not deem it advisable to move any further in the matter
 
 300 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 until I went home and laid the case before the proper authorities. 
 However, I felt confident that, with the presence of Sir Henry 
 Layard as our ambassador at the Turkish capital, we should have 
 no difficulty in gaining our object; but, unfortunately, when the 
 time came that we required an influential supporter at the Sub- 
 lime Porte, he was replaced by another official, who had greater 
 aims to gain in matters politic than to waste his time on archae- 
 ological squabbles. 
 
 It also happened, unfortunately, that a man who owed the 
 British Government a grudge for having been the cause of his 
 dismissal from two high positions for alleged malpractices, was 
 appointed at the head of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and, 
 as soon as it fell to his power to annoy us and put a stop to our 
 further operations, he did not hesitate to do so. I went myself to 
 Constantinople, when Lord Dufferin was acting as ambassador 
 there, to see what I could do through his influence; and although 
 his lordship did his best to assist me in removing the opposition 
 to our researches at Nebee Yonis and elsewhere, no advantage was 
 gained by his intervention. He sent with me the second dragoman 
 of the embassy to the Ministry of Public Instruction to explain 
 to the chief of that department certain matters that had been 
 misrepresented; but the more I tried to show him that all the 
 objections that had been raised against my digging were mere 
 phantoms, and that all I wanted was the fulfillment of the imperial 
 pledges, he became more dogged than ever. One of his fanciful 
 pleas against my exploring at Xebee Yonis, was that the Moham- 
 medans of Mossul would imagine that if I were to be allowed to 
 excavate there, I might one day bore a tunnel under the shrine 
 of the prophet Jonah, and bring about riot and bloodshed. I ex- 
 plained to him, in the first place, that if I had the least suspicion 
 of any riot resulting from my researches I should never dream of 
 continuing them. I also said that I had stipulated with the 
 guardians of the shrine that I should commence at a good dis- 
 tance from the outskirts of the mosque, and dig away from it, and 
 there need be no fear of my breaking my word. I pointed out fur- 
 ther, that even if I attempted to do so, there were on the spot 
 the imperial delegate and the police, who daily watched my opera- 
 tions, and last, but not least, the local authorities had carte-blanche 
 to examine my excavations any time they liked, without warning, 
 to say nothing about the diggers themselves, who were not only
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 
 
 301 
 
 Moslems, but natives of the place, who could stop working as soon 
 as they found I was trespassing on forbidden ground. He then 
 asked me to show him on paper tlie plan of my operations, and 
 how far I intended to dig from the mosque. 1 accordingly drew 
 a rough sketch of it, and the space I had intended to leave be- 
 tween the outer wall of the mosque and the limit of my excavations. 
 Not only did I leave the old diggings of the Ottoman Government 
 between mine and the mosque, but even left a public road to inter- 
 vene. To make it more clear, I drew points of the compass between 
 the shrine and my excavations, showing thereby that my work 
 would be carried on forward. To make my explanation still more 
 clear, I stood iip and pointed out to His Excellency that in doing 
 so I should leave the mosque behind mc. He coolly looked into 
 the paper, and said, 'This shows that you intend to dig towards 
 the mosque." The fact was, he was not heeding what I was saying, 
 and did not want to understand my explanation, as he had deter- 
 mined to turn a deaf ear to the ambassador's solicitation. 
 
 To make matters worse, this man not only did his best to cur- 
 tail my operations, but tried to bully those who did not choose to 
 set a stumbling-block in the way of my work. The imperial dele- 
 gate, who had protested strongly against the unjustifiable pro- 
 hibition of my digging at a spot in the village of Nebee Yonis, 
 which was not considered sacred ground, was dismissed, on pre- 
 tense of his inebriate propensities, and the junior guardian of the 
 mosque was suspended from the exercise of his functions, on the 
 ground that he had proved false to his office by allowing me to 
 excavate in hallowed ground for the sake of some gratification, 
 which was put down at twenty Turkish sovereigns. As I knew 
 that both accusations were false, I represented their cases to our 
 ambassadors, Mr. Goschen and Lord Dufferin; but, unfortunately, 
 British influence was then at its lowest ebb at Constantinople, and 
 nothing could therefore be done to protect the falsely-accused 
 officials against injustice. 
 
 The Porte, however, thought fit to put Salih Effendi on trial; 
 but the court which was appointed at Mossul to investigate into his 
 case exonerated him from all blame, especially as they failed to dis- 
 cover any dishonest dealing against him. In fact, they found that 
 whatever he did was for the benefit of the mosque, and the fees 
 that he had received from me for the purchase of the houses were 
 credited to the religious endowment. I have no doubt that those
 
 302 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 who misrepresented his case mistook the fees which I had paid him 
 according to agreement for a bribe! 
 
 With regard to the imperial delegate, the governor-general of 
 Baghdad, who was my personal friend, took up his cause, and 
 proved to the proper authorities at Constantinople that the accusa- 
 tion which had been brought up against him was made by some 
 designing individuals, and he was also allowed to resume his duties. 
 1 had heard, on reliable authority, that messages were sent to him 
 on several occasions from the Ministry of Public Instruction, to 
 try and find out some fault or a breach of faith on my part in the 
 performance of my different undertakings, whereby I could be 
 stopped from carrying on my explorations altogether; but I was 
 always on the alert. 
 
 Lord Dufferin tried also to help me to resume my researches 
 at jSTebee Yonis, by prevailing upon the Porte to order a court 
 of inquiry to investigate the objections that were raised by certain 
 individuals against my operations; and, though the Mossul authori- 
 ties were communicated with, and Her Majesty's vice-consul there 
 was directed to appoint a delegate to watch the case, the matter 
 was allowed to drop in a mysterious manner. I was informed that 
 those important personages on whose support the local authorities 
 depended, had been sounded and found to be prepared to favor 
 my cause by trying to prove that there was not the least objection 
 to my digging at the spots I had purchased. Consequently, the 
 court of inquiry was not allowed to be convened, especially as it 
 was feared that other matters would be divulged which had better 
 be left undisturbed. Thus the vexed question has been doomed 
 to lie dormant for an indefinite time; and as loug as we have no 
 one in authority at the Turkish capital to befriend our cause, the 
 field is open to any one to take possession of our sites. 
 
 My Moslem friends could not make out why the Porte was so 
 exacting in what they considered a trumpery affair, as they reck- 
 oned the spending of so much money upon rubbish, the relics of 
 Gentile nations, mere folly, and it was unbecoming for a Moham- 
 medan to dabble in such idolatrous researches. I was told that 
 some few years before, while the overseers of the mosque of Nebee 
 Yonis were digging a foundation for a minaret within the in- 
 closure, or outer wall, of the sanctum, they came upon a large 
 reservoir hewn out of one solid stone, inside which was found a 
 bronze throne covered over with inscriptions and representations
 
 MOUND OF NEBEE YON IS. 303 
 
 of animals and human figures. The former was used for the base 
 of the minaret, but the latter was broken to pieces and divided 
 amongst different officials. This shows how Uttle the Moslems 
 care about such antiquities, and the only value they set on any 
 relic is its intrinsic worth. 
 
 I feel confident that, sooner or later, the mound of Xebee 
 Yonis must be thoroughly explored; and, though my tentative 
 examination did not show satisfactory results, I am inclined to 
 think that some important discoveries will yet be made in that 
 interesting spot, where both Sennacherib and his son, Esarhaddan, 
 had royal habitations.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The site of ancient Nineveh has never been lost in the memory 
 of the inhabitants of Mossul, because both tradition and history 
 indicate Koyunjik and jSTebee Yonis as the locahties where the 
 Assyrian monarchs reigned with unUmited power. ISTebee Yonis, 
 a mound about half a mile from Koyunjik, contains a mosque dedi- 
 cated to Jonah, wherein is shown the shrine of that prophet. It 
 was formerly a Chaldean church; but like many other old churches 
 in Turkey, the indolent Mohammedan conquerors preferred to 
 turn them into mosques, rather than go to the expense of build- 
 ing new ones. Though this mound is commonly called "Nebee 
 Yonis" by the natives of the country, after the prophet Jonah, 
 yet, officially, it is styled 'Neneweh." This I learned when I en- 
 tered into an agreement with the guardians of the mosque to ex- 
 cavate there. They merely mentioned the word ''Neneweh" in 
 the document; and when I asked them why they omitted the com- 
 mon name of "Nebee Yonis," they said that that was the only 
 name they could use officially. 
 
 The mound of Nebee Yonis is supposed to have been occupied 
 by three kings, — Pul, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddan. The annals 
 of the latter monarch show that he had built a palace "such as the 
 kings, his fathers who went before him, had never made," and 
 which he called "the palace of the pleasures of all the year." Ac- 
 cording to this statement, the climate of that country must have 
 undergone a wonderful change, because the heat in June, July, and 
 August, at the present day, is so intense that no one in his right 
 senses would spend the summer months in that locality, if he could 
 avoid it. There are most pleasant retreats within thirty or forty 
 miles of Nineveh, where the kings of Assyria might have spent 
 their summer months enjoyably in the verdant and picturesque 
 valleys of the Assyrian mountains. 
 
 Nineveh is alluded to in the thirty-seventh chapter of the 
 Koran in the following words: "Jonah was also one of those who 
 were sent by Us,* when he fled into the loaded ship, and those 
 
 * The word "Us" is used here in the same sense as in Genesis, 
 chapter i, verse 28, "Let us make man in our imajre," as the Moslems 
 believe that the Koran was divinely revealed to Mohammed. 
 304
 
 PREACHING OF JONAH. 305 
 
 who were on board cast lots among themselves, and he was con- 
 demned, and the fish swallowed him, for he was worthy of repre- 
 hension; and if he had not been one of those who praise God, verily 
 he had remained in the belly thereof until the day of resurrectionj 
 and we east him on the naked shore, and he was sick, and we caused 
 a plant of gourd to grow over him; and we sent him to a hundred 
 thousand persons, or they were a greater number; and they be- 
 lieved; wherefore we granted them to enjoy this life for a season." * 
 
 It is not surprising that such an error should be introduced 
 into the Koran, for the author related the story of Jonah's mis- 
 sion to Nineveh either from hearsay or tradition. As to the number 
 of inhabitants Nineveh contained, and the disjointed incidents 
 that took place during his divine mission, even Josephus, who 
 ought to have known his Hebrew Bible better, committed a great 
 blunder. He mentions that the whale which swallowed Jonah 
 vomited him out on the shore of the Euxine, or Black Sea, and 
 that when he went to Nineveh "he preached that in a very little 
 time they should lose the dominion of Asia." f 
 
 Al-Baidhawee, an Arab historian, narrates the following story 
 concerning the preaching of Jonah: "This people having corrupted 
 themselves with idolatry, the son of Mattai [or Amittai, which the 
 Mohammedans suppose to be the name of his mother], an Israelite 
 of the tribe of Benjamin, was sent by God to preach repentance. 
 Instead of hearkening to him, they used him very ill, so that he was 
 obliged to leave the city, threatening them, at his departure, that 
 they would be destroyed within three days, or, as others say, 
 forty. But when the time drew near, and they saw the heavens 
 overcast with a black color, which shot forth fire and filled the air 
 with smoke, and hung directly over their city, they were in terrific 
 consternation, and getting into the fields with their families and 
 cattle, they put on sackcloth, and humbled themselves before God, 
 calling aloud for pardon, and sincerely repenting of their past 
 wickedness; wherefore God was pleased to forgive them, and the 
 storm blew over." ij: 
 
 After having made arrangements for the continuation of the 
 researches at Koyunjik and Nebee Yonis, after my departure, 
 
 * Sale's Koran, page 370. 
 
 t Joseplius's "Antiquities of the Jews," IX, x, 2. 
 
 X Sale's Koran, note, page 173. 
 
 20
 
 306 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and given directions to my nephew, Mr. Nimroud Eassam, to whom 
 I intrusted the superintendence of the work, to do what was neces- 
 sary, I left Mossul on Friday, the 3d of May, 1879, to return to 
 England by way of Sinjar, Khaboor, and Dair. "^ 
 
 The excavations at Nebee Yonis were to continue only in the 
 houses I had purchased, and as soon as the unexplored ground 
 was thoroughly examined, the work was to terminate. The re- 
 searches at Koyunjik, however, were to be carried on regularly 
 on a small scale, merely for the sake of searching for inscribed 
 terra-cottas, the remainder of the library discovered by Sir Henry 
 Layard in the palace of Sennacherib thirty-five years before. 
 
 The reason I took on this occasion the unfrequented route via 
 Dair, was because I had heard of some mounds situated on the 
 bank of the Khaboor, said to contain Assyrian antiquities; and 
 as I had a little time to spare before the hot weather, I thought 
 I could not do better than visit the identical spots in person, and 
 see whether I could find any ancient site worth excavating. 
 
 The first village I halted at, on the first day, was only about 
 six miles from Mossul, called Homaidat. Being then springtime, 
 the inhabitants were living in tents. I chose my camping-ground, 
 however, on a hill occupied by the Hadeedeyin Arabs, where there 
 was some pasturage for our horses. The Mossul authorities were 
 good enough to supply me with Dhabtias to accompany me to the 
 Khaboor; otherwise I should have been obliged to send for an 
 escort to Shaikh Paris, the chief of those of the Shammer Arabs 
 occupying the plain around Sinjar, which would have delayed my 
 journey, and made it very inconvenient to me in other respects. 
 
 The next day we made somewhat a long journey as far as the 
 town of Tel-Aafar, as we started at two o'clock A. M., and did not 
 halt till eleven o'clock. Finding the heat of the sun very severe, 
 I preferred taking my rest in the town, instead of living in a tent, 
 and took up my quarters in the house of one of the elders of the 
 place, which was clean and comfortable. The whole country 
 around Tel-Aafar looked quite parched up for want of rain, which 
 ought to have fallen in abundance at that time of the year. The 
 wretched inhabitants looked very disconsolate at the prospect of a 
 poor harvest, as all their cultivation depended entirely on rain. 
 My host, Seyid Wahab, was away, but his father, a venerable old 
 man, who, I was told, had completed fivescore years, received me 
 very civilly.
 
 BULLUL. 307 
 
 Tel-Aafar was very famous for its importance, and for the 
 courage its inhabitants always displayed in repelling the attacks 
 of the surrounding Arabs. They had even given no end of trouble 
 to the Turks in years gone by, and always managed to evade paying 
 the imperial taxes. Forty years ago, however, one of the governors- 
 general of Mossul, called Mohammed Pasha Bairak-dar, attacked 
 them with great force, and utterly destroyed their power, but not 
 before he had left the place almost a heap of ruins. The town can 
 scarcely now be called a second-rate village, though it boasts of 
 an Ottoman governor, called Moodeer. All the water-supply in 
 and outside the town is brackish; and even the beasts of burden 
 turn their heads from it when they first taste it. This and other 
 discomforts made me break my usual rule against traveling on a 
 Sunday, and, to avoid the heat of the day, we started for Sinjar 
 at midnight. The journey was rather tedious and fatiguing, as I 
 was eleven hours on horseback, and it took my servants thirteen 
 hours to come with the luggage. 
 
 On arriving at Bullud, the capital of the mountain district of 
 Sinjar, I was recommended by my escort to halt at the house of 
 Abbas Effendi, the Kadhee of the place, as it was considered the 
 cleanest and most convenient for my short sojourn there. My host 
 was not at home, but his servants received me well; and while I 
 was contemplating my awkward position of being in a strange 
 house without the invitation of its owner, my ipso-facto host, 
 learned in the law, came in, and soon made me feel that I was a 
 welcome guest. He lent me his reception-room for taking my 
 rest; but before I occupied it, he had it swept and watered, to make 
 it more agreeable for me. He dined with me in the evening in 
 the English fashion, which was a great novelty to him. 
 
 A large number of the Mossul and Ottoman officials called on 
 me in the afternoon, amongst whom I was surprised and pleased 
 to meet an old Mossul friend, of the name of Solaiman Effendi-al- 
 Omaree, a Mossul nobleman, who was at the time intrusted with 
 the government of Sinjar. He upbraided me for not having gone 
 to stay with him, which I should certainly have done had I known 
 that he was living there. 
 
 When T passed through this place a few years before, with my 
 friend, the Reverend Watkin Williams, the present Dean of Saint 
 Asaph, we were most hospitably entertained by a former governor, 
 who had been sent from Dair because at that time Sinjar was in
 
 308 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the Pashalic of that city;* but it appears that soon after we left, 
 he was murdered in cold blood by a number of Yezeedees, or devil- 
 worshipers, on account of his exactions for the benefit of his su- 
 periors. The inhabitants of Sin jar are all of the above persuasion. 
 They are supposed to be of pure Assyrian origin, and certainly 
 if independence and martial spirit are an indication of ancestral 
 inheritance, they are more entitled to that name than any other sect 
 inhabiting Assyria or Mesopotamia. They rebel periodically against 
 the tyranny of their oppressors, and, though the Ottomans have 
 repeatedly conquered them, and on several occasions nearly annihi- 
 lated them, they still persevere in their anarchical propensities! 
 As both my followers and beasts of burden seemed quite 
 knocked up the day we arrived at Bullud, we remained there a 
 day longer; but I started again at midnight on the 5th of May, 
 in order that I might avoid the heat of the sun the next morning. 
 We reached the village of Sakainee, inhabited by Yezeedees, at six 
 o'clock A. M., and, having been told by the guide, who was sup- 
 pHed to me from our last halting-place, that we should not come to 
 another village or encampment for five or six hours, I deemed it 
 advisable to rest there a few hours, to escape the hottest part of 
 the day. My guide immediately set about getting me comfortable 
 quarters in one of the huts of the village, whose inmates had gone 
 to their camp some distance off on important business; but as 
 soon as they returned they made the place tidy.f Soon after four 
 
 * The Sublime Porte is extremely partial to chopping and changing 
 the jurisdiction of their several Pashalics. Within the last few years 
 Siujar has been three times in the province of Mossul, once of that 
 of Nissibeen, or Diarbekir, and once under Dair; Mossul has been 
 thrice independent, twice under Baghdad, and once under Karkook, 
 and last, but not least, Basra is constantly changing its status; one year 
 it is an independent principality, and the next it is immei^ed into the 
 Pashalic of Baghdad. Everything depends upon the influence of the 
 chief ruler in either Pashalic, or the caprice of the most powerful of 
 the Sultan's ministers. Through these eccentric and sudden changes, 
 the British Museum lost a valuable collection of antiquities, which 
 were appropriated by M. Sarzac. See page 82, ante. 
 
 t It is always the custom in Assyria and Northern Mesopotamia 
 for the villagers to leave their dwellings in the spring and live in 
 tents, for two reasons— first, to avoid the annoyance of the fleas, which 
 abound at that time of the year: and. secondly, to enjoy the green 
 pasture with their flocks and herds. They generally leave their huts 
 the beginning of February, and return to them some time in May.
 
 THE KHABOOR RIVER. 309 
 
 P. M. we resumed our journey, and went on till we reached a dirty 
 rivulet, called Im-addeeban, at seven o'clock. Here we staid a 
 little while to give our animals drink, and then went on further, and 
 halted for the night at eight o'clock, at the camp of the inhabitants 
 of Samooga. I had my tent pitched near that of the chief, who 
 was absent, but his brother received me very civilly. It became 
 very cold at night, and, as I slept in the open air, I could scarcely 
 keep myself warm. A strong westerly breeze was blowing, and from 
 the strong smell of rain on the dry soil, it seemed that a heavy 
 shower must have soaked the ground a short distance from us in 
 the direction of the wind. 
 
 Although the chief of my escort promised to awake me early, 
 to start again about midnight, he overslept himself; but, thanks to 
 a horse which broke loose from his picket and ran past my bed, 
 I was aroused about one o'clock in the morning. He was followed 
 by half a dozen dogs, and they nearly hemmed him in, in close 
 proximity to my bedstead. I immediately ordered a general move, 
 and by two o'clock A. M. we were again on our way westward. 
 We went on until we reached the main spring of Maalagat at seven 
 A. M., where we halted for a few hours, as my guide informed 
 me that we could reach the Khaboor early in the afternoon. There 
 was the remnant of an old khan in that place, which showed that 
 in the time of the Califs that route must have been frequented 
 by traders and wayfarers. We spent about four hours there, and 
 after our animals had enjoyed net a little the rich verdure which 
 grew along the spring course, we resumed our journey, and reached 
 the mound of Tabban about four P. M. The Jeboors, who are 
 the real inhabitants of that district, had gone on to Nissibeen to 
 seek for pasture, as the country on both sides of the Khaboor was 
 quite parched up for want of rain; but we found two other tribes 
 there, who were called Baggara and Igaidat. They were also 
 seeking for grass, for their animals seemed in a starving condition. 
 These Arabs had come from that part of the Euphrates below the 
 junction of the Khaboor, and were then returning to their quar- 
 ters. I had my tent pitched near the Baggara Arabs, to the west 
 of the mound of Ita-ban, and their chief placed his services at my 
 disposal, and rendered me every possible assistance. I chose for my 
 encampment a green spot between wheat-crops which were nearly 
 ripe, and I had very great difficulty to keep the muleteers' animals 
 from injuring it. It seemed quite unnatural for the Jeboors to
 
 310 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 go away and leave their crops to the mercy of the passers-by; but 
 I beheve that when the owners of these fields went away in search 
 of food for their animals they did not expect that their grain would 
 come to anything for the want of the early rain; but since they left 
 a good deal of rain must have fallen, which is called in Deuter- 
 onomy "the latter rain," * and this, of course, restored the crops 
 to vitality. 
 
 Having heard the next morning that there was an important 
 mound on the western side of the Ivhaboor, about two miles above 
 us, I dispatched Mahmood Alfaraj with a few men to examine it. 
 He came back in the afternoon to report his discovery of some 
 marble slabs. Generally speaking, when marble remains are found 
 in any mound in Assyria and Mesopotamia, they inspire good 
 hopes of the discovery of some valuable antiquities. I therefore 
 determined, on hearing that good news, to proceed to the spot 
 at once, and see for myself. My difficulty was how I was to cross 
 to the ruin, as there was neither raft nor bridge, and the ford was 
 too deep for a horse, but Mahmood Alfaraj and another tall Arab, 
 like himself, volunteered to take me across on their shoulders, 
 which they did most splendidly without wetting me in the least. 
 But I was rather disappointed to find, on arriving at the spot, that 
 the pieces of marble were merely fragments, which had been 
 brought from a quarry in the neighborhood by some Arabs, who 
 had inhabited the mound in bygone days, for their domestic pur- 
 poses. 
 
 On Friday, 9th, we left Ita-ban at 1.50 A. M., and passed the 
 mound of Irban, on the opposite bank, at five o'clock, reaching 
 that part of the Khaboor opposite Shaddadee, the seat of the 
 Kayim-Makkam of the district, at eight.f Having rested there 
 about half an hour, awaiting the arrival of the luggage, my escort 
 and I resumed our journey, and reached our halting-place, near 
 the mound of Fadghamee, at one P. M. We passed a large party 
 of Igaidat Arabs this afternoon seeking for pasture, and the poor 
 animals were trying to satisfy their hunger by picking here and 
 
 * Deuteronomy xi, 14. It is supposed that, by tbis river Khaboor, 
 called in Holy Writ Chebar, the propliet Ezekiel saw the Divine 
 vision. (Ezekiel, chapter i, 1.) 
 
 f Sir Henry Layard excavated in tliis mound in l.S.'O. where he dis- 
 covered some Assyrian relics, among which was a small human-headed 
 bull.
 
 MOUND OF FADGHAMEE. ^11 
 
 there at some roots of shrubs and bits of parched grass. I had 
 our tents pitched about a mile to tiie north of tlie mound, m a 
 nice green corner formed by the bend of tiie river, and as soon as 
 Mahmood Alfaraj saw me comfortably settled, he went with some 
 Arabs to search in that ruin for antiquities. Towards the even- 
 ing I went to the mound, and as I could iind no indication of any 
 ancient remains there, I brought the overseer and workmen back 
 with me. They had only discovered some hewn stone and kiln- 
 burnt bricks, but there was no sign of any inscription found. The 
 mound of Fadghamee is a lofty and good-sized one, and to ex- 
 amine it thoroughly, it requires at least a fortnight's labor of ten 
 gangs of workmen. There is also another large mound on the 
 othe^r side of the river, about four miles to the south of the Fadg- 
 hamee, called Ishmisancc, which also ought to have been ex- 
 amined thoroughly; but, unfortunately, I could ill afford to spare 
 the time and money for that object. Moreover, I should have 
 found it difficult just then to find the number of men I required, 
 as the inhabitants of that locality were away seeking for food for 
 themselves and animals. 
 
 The scare which overtook the Jeboor Arabs and others was 
 not only from the failure of the crops and the want of proper 
 pasture, but from the constant oppression of the local authorities 
 and Arlb marauders, who dispossessed them of all their substance; 
 and if they had not sought for some protection elsewhere, they 
 would even have lost the scanty number of sheep and goats which 
 were left to them. It saddens one to see such fertile country lying 
 fallow, when such industrious Arabs as the Jeboors, who are accus- 
 tomed to irrigation, should be frightened away from their soil 
 through the mismanagement of the Turkish authorities. Had 
 there been proper supervision over the peaceful and well-disposed 
 peasant Arabs, Mesopotamia would be inferior to none of the 
 grain-growing countries in Europe or Asia; but the Turk has no 
 greater enemy than himself in this respect. 
 
 We left our camping-ground, near the Fadghamee, at 1.50 
 A. M., and went on till we reached our destination, the mound of 
 Shaikh Hammad, at nine o'clock. Here we pitched our tents on 
 the banks of the Khaboor, about a quarter of a mile to the north 
 of the mound. My object in going there, was for the purpose of 
 examining an Assyrian sculpture, which was reported to me by 
 different Arab travelers to exist there. I found the monument to
 
 312 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 be a representation of an Assyrian king on a black basalt tablet 
 (supposed to be Shalmaneser II), but, unfortunately, the bas-relief 
 had been broken, and only the head and shoulders of the figure 
 were visible. This part of the monolith was covered with arrow- 
 headed characters, which were very much defaced. It had been 
 hurled down the mound by the Arabs, who erected a shrine in 
 memory of the son of the Patron Saint of Baghdad, called Shaikh 
 Abd-Alkkadir, as the efFigy was considered an idol of the benighted 
 heathens unfit to remain in that hallowed ground. It is believed 
 that the remainder of the tablet is buried on the top of the mound, 
 and I intended, when I went back there on a future occasion, to 
 search for it. I had great difficulty to move to the sea-coast what 
 remained of the Assyrian sculpture, because it was too large to 
 carry on horseback; and when we came to thin it, as I had taken 
 some tools with me for the purpose, it was found too hard to cut. 
 My muleteer managed to convey it ultimately on the backs of his 
 strongest mules with thick pads under it, and by that means we 
 were able to take it to Alexandretta. 
 
 Before I reached the place, I thought the name of Shaikh 
 Hammad was merely given to that mound; but I was not a little 
 concerned to learn on arriving there, from the chief of the Igaidat 
 Arabs, who had just encamped below it, that that spot was dedi- 
 cated to the above-named saint, and that a memorial sanctuary 
 had been erected on the top of it for pilgrimage purposes. On 
 inquiring as to the time of Shaikh Hammad's visit to that spot, 
 as I had never heard of that individual ever going so far north- 
 west from Baghdad, I was told that he himself had never been 
 there in the flesh, but his spirit hovered over it after his death. 
 The story told me was as follows: One of the Arab devotees of 
 that neighborhood had been ailing from an incurable disease for 
 some years, and one night, while the invalid was lying restless 
 on the mound. Shaikh Hammad appeared and cured him of his 
 malady. The only reward he craved was that a memorial sanctuary 
 should be built for his spirit, which behest was, as a matter of 
 course, obeyed. Since then every man or woman who was afflicted 
 with a disease or had a boon to be gratified performed a pilgrimage 
 to that holy spot, and it was believed that most wonderful an- 
 swers to invocations for the saint's intercession had been vouch- 
 safed! This report put a damper upon my spirits, as I was afraid 
 I should find it difficult, or indeed impossible, to try an experi-
 
 MOUNDS ON THE KHABOOR. ^13 
 
 ment in that mound in the way of excavations. I was glad to 
 find, however, on examining the spot, that I could carry on the 
 necessary researches in it without going near the part where the 
 ghost of Shaikh Hammad was supposed to haunt the place. On 
 mentioning my plans to the Shaikh of the Arab clan, he not only 
 created no difficulty, but offered to assist me by sending men to 
 help my overseer. From the few relics we discovered of pamted 
 bricks and pottery, it seemed to me that there was every chance 
 of finding ancient remains; but, as usual, I could ill spare time 
 and funds to undertake extensive operations in such an out-of-the- 
 way place, especially as it was too late in the year to prolong my 
 visit in that part of Mesopotamia. I had hoped, however, to pro- 
 ceed to those parts the following winter, and examine that and 
 other mounds existing on both sides of the Khaboor; but, un- 
 fortunately, I had no chance to do so, Sir Henry Layard having, 
 in the meantime, been recalled from Constantinople, and the 
 Porte determining to refuse the renewal of our firman. Had the 
 Ottoman authorities allowed the provisions of the firman I then 
 possessed to be properly carried out, I could have conducted my 
 work in other localities, where I feel confident I should have 
 found valuable remains; but, unfortunately, the law of the Otto- 
 mans is not like that of "the Medes and Persians, which altereth 
 
 not." 
 
 There is a mound at the junction of the Jarajir Kiver with 
 the Khaboor, wherein I had made some tentative excavations, and 
 after a few days' labor some important sculptures were discovered; 
 but as soon as the local authorities at Eas-al-ain heard of the find 
 they sent and turned away my workmen, and took possession of 
 the relics, which I was told consisted of crouching lions and a 
 bas-relief on which were represented horses and other animals. 
 The only object my overseer was able to come away with was a 
 fragment of black basalt, whereon there were engraved a few 
 hieroglyphic figures, which I brought to the British Museum. 
 
 Unfortunately, I could not go there myself, because when I 
 first heard of the mound, I was at Dair on my way to Baghdad 
 to resume my superintendence of the excavations at Babylon; 
 and as I had then important work there, I could not possibly 
 manage to go so far out of my way to Eas-al-ain. I was there- 
 fore content to send an agent to do the work, and I took the pre- 
 caution to cause a letter to be written for him by the governor of
 
 314 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Dair, embodying the sense of the royal mandate with an of&cial 
 recommendation to the authorities at Ras-al-ain. Tliis was to 
 enable him to carry on operations witliout any molestation, but it 
 seems that no one gave any heed to either of the communications. 
 
 I had hopes that Ihe Porte will allow us to finish what we had 
 already begun, on the faith of the royal license, which ought not 
 to have been ignored. 
 
 Having satisfied myself that on a future occasion some few 
 days' labor might be carried on in that mound with advantage, 
 I left during the afternoon of the next day to visit another mound 
 called Soower, which means in Arabic "images," or '"pictures;" 
 and as the site was represented to me to be much larger than that 
 of Aboo-Hammad, and resembled the mound of Nimroud, I was 
 longing to see it. Indeed, my reason for visiting the Khaboor, was 
 mostly for the purpose of examining that mound, of which I had 
 heard so much. It was now necessary for us to cross the Khaboor, 
 because both Soower and Dair are on the western side of that 
 river; and as there was no bridge or a ferry-boat in the neighbor- 
 hood, my Arab acquaintance. Shaikh Hasan Alkassar, volunteered 
 to take us across. On reaching the ford, called Sharceat Ihlata, 
 after a ride of an hour and a quarter, I found him awaiting my 
 arrival with about a dozen of his followers to assist in the passage. 
 They took the luggage across by leading the animals through the 
 river, one man holding the head by the halter, and on either side 
 two others lifted the boxes and packages up to keep them from 
 touching the water. I myself was carried across by the shaikh 
 with my legs round his neck, one Arab supporting my back be- 
 hind, and another lifting my legs up in front. As soon as we 
 were ready to start, the men brought me some fish which they 
 had speared in the river. The Arabs are very expert in throwing 
 their javelins, and their aim with the spear very seldom misses. 
 I found the fish very nice but full of bones, which made the en- 
 joyment of them rather questionable. 
 
 After we had spent about an hour in crossing and reloading 
 some of the luggage, we resumed our journey and reached Soower 
 at five o'clock. I was sadly disappointed on arriving at the place 
 to find that instead of an artificial mound (which certainly looked 
 like one at a distance) it was a natural promontory overhanging 
 the Khaboor, and there was not a sign of any ancient remains 
 anywhere near it. We had great difficulty to find some fodder
 
 01 K 
 
 AT AL-ISSAIBA. 
 
 there for the aBimals, as the nomad Arabs who preceded us to 
 that spot had cleared the ground of every bit of either green or 
 dry fodder, and there was nothmg to he seen on the bank ol he 
 river except some green reeds, which were out of the reach of the 
 animals; hut my muleteers managed to cut down some bundles 
 to satisfy the beasts of burden, which they seemed to enjoy, though 
 coarse and hard to bite. We were very much troubled here with 
 sand-flies at night. They were so minute that they could seareely 
 be seen, but their sting was felt even the next day. They kept me 
 awake the greater part of the night, as they managed to creep 
 
 under my bedclothes. ■ , :n Tho 
 
 May 13th, my second muleteer was taken seriously ill. Ihe 
 symptoms of his malady looked very like Asiatic f°l^-. J>"ch 
 fri-htened us all; but after my giving him a good dose of biandy 
 h seemed to revive, and we were able soon after to proceed on 
 our ioTrney. It was thought afterwards that he must have ea en 
 "m urholesome food, which affected him. The weather in he 
 Zning was very sultry, quite contrary to that experienced die 
 IrninI before, 'vhen the thermometer went down below 40 de- 
 les We started at 1.40 A. M., and reached Tel-Alfidain at 5.o0. 
 Here I remained a short time to examine the mound o which 
 I had heard a good deal. I was satisfied after 1-d done so 
 however, that there could be nothing in it worth looking foi, 
 though if I had had time and a little spare cash, I might ha^e 
 tried a few trenches in it. It is certainly an Asspian mound, 
 but it seemed more a place of defense against the Bedomn ma- 
 rauders than an important royal habitation. I then resum d 
 my journey after spending about twenty minutes examining the 
 spot and reached the ancient ruined town of Al-Ibsaira at 10.30 
 / M The ruins of the old town extend far and wide, and even 
 the inhabited buildings which remained were in a most dilapidated 
 state so much so. that my guard did not take the trouble to look 
 for Mgings for me in that quarter; so I had to take refuge in 
 the ba^cks, where I was received very civilly by the chief o 
 the guard, who was good enough to provide me with the best 
 room in the place. It blew a regular hurricane from the west in 
 the afternoon, and as the windows of my room had no shutters, 
 I was almost suffocated by the dust that Hew into my habitation 
 My host was able at last to block up my windows with sacks, but 
 that made the room unbearably close; but even this I preferred
 
 316 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 to being smothered with dust. Al-Ibsaira, wliich is situated within 
 the junction of the Khaboor with the Euphrates, was, a few years 
 before, the chief seat of tlie Jeboors, at which time it played a 
 conspicuous part in the affairs of the Arabs in that neighborhood; 
 but since the Porte occupied Dair, and demoHshed all the strong- 
 holds of the marauding Arabs, Al-Ibsaira fell like the rest into 
 decay. That spot was formerly considered by savants and trav- 
 elers to be the site of Charchemish, t]ie capital of the Hittite 
 kingdom, but since the discovery of the ruin at Jarabulus near 
 Beerajeek it has been identified almost to a certainty with that 
 ancient city, on account of its position. At Al-Ibsaira there is 
 not a sign of any antiquities, nor have the Arabs any tradition 
 of its former greatness; and this fact alone does away with the 
 former supposition.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Being in a hurry to reach Dair early, I left Al-Ibsaira at two 
 A. M., and reached Tel-Assir at six o'clock. There I halted for 
 a while to examine the mound, as I found it larger than many I 
 had seen near the Khaboor, and commanded a fine view of that 
 part of the Euphrates. While I was walking about in search of 
 ancient remains (which I failed to find), a messenger arrived 
 from Dair with an escort, bringing me a letter from my 
 friend, Ali Pasha, the governor, welcoming me to his Pashalic, 
 and inviting me to his house. I had written to him before I left 
 Mossul of my intention to visit Dair, and, according to Arab news- 
 carriers, the report of my approach had been spread in the neighbor- 
 hood of Dair two or three days in advance of me; and thus my 
 friend, Ali Pasha, heard of my being in the vicinity of the Kha- 
 boor, and sent his people to meet me. I then remounted my 
 horse, and proceeded ^\'ith my guide and escort to the Euphrates, 
 which we reached in an hour's ride. The ferry-boat had been got 
 ready to take me across, and so we lost no time in landing on the 
 Syrian side of the river, just below Government House. My kind 
 friend was ready to receive me, and soon after I had a cup of coffee 
 and a whiff from a nargalee I was shown to the rooms which were 
 got ready in the public edifice for me and my followers to occupy 
 during my stay there. 
 
 In the afternoon he took me to see his private residence out- 
 side the town, which was under repair and enlargement, as he 
 expected his family to join him in a few months, and was making 
 it comfortable for them. It was the only residence in the place 
 surrounded with a garden; but as is generally the case in out-of- 
 the-way places, the villa and its surroundings had been allowed 
 to go to rack and ruin, and the paths were thickly covered with 
 weeds. Ali Pasha was, however, trying to put it in order and 
 renovate the ornamental part, which had already cost him more 
 than he could afford. 
 
 Soon after my arrival, the chief officers, both civil and mili- 
 tary, and the only priest in the town called on me. The few 
 Christian inhabitants who were there consisted of Armenians, 
 Syrians, and Chaldeans; but as they are all Eoman Catholics, and 
 
 317
 
 318 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Dair was considered to be in the diocese of Mardeen, it was left 
 to the Syrian patriarch to send one of his priests to attend to the 
 spiritual wants of the mixed Papal flock who were trading there. 
 They had managed to build a small church on an elevated po- 
 sition outside the town and near the military quarters, which fact 
 insured them the necessary protection. 
 
 A hurricane of unusual severity visited Dair towards the even- 
 ing, and as it was unaccompanied with rain, thick dust overspread 
 the whole place. 
 
 Soon after breakfast on May 14th I returned the call of the 
 chief visitors, and at 2.30 P. M. I resimied my journey for Aleppo 
 along the Euphrates. The first stage was short, as we halted at 
 Al-boo-Serie, an Arab encampment, at six o'clock in the afternoon. 
 I had my tent pitched near that of the chief of the clan, who 
 provided me with fodder and other requirements for my kitchen. 
 At first both he and his followers were somewhat chary of afford- 
 ing me the proper hospitality, thinking that I was an Ottoman 
 ofl&cial going to fleece them; but as soon as they found who I was, 
 they changed their demeanor and waited upon me most cheerfully. 
 We were told there that it was not safe to travel at night in that 
 part of the country, because lions were supposed to infest the wood, 
 wliich still existed there. I had often heard at Dair and else- 
 where that lions were plentiful in that neighborhood; but I never 
 saw, nor even heard, the roar of one during my travels, though 
 I passed through that country on three different occasions, and 
 slept in a tent either inside the tamarisk wood or outside of it on 
 the bank of the Euphrates. 
 
 We resumed our journey at 3.45 the next morning, and reached 
 Tibnee at 8.15. I halted near the water-shed, which irrigated 
 the cornfields along the river, and after having spent about three- 
 quarters of an hour in partaking of some refreshment, I resumed 
 my journey, and reached the old Parthian ruins of Halabeeyia 
 at eleven o'clock. As I had heard a good deal about that "won- 
 derful" edifice from my Arab guides, I dismounted and examined 
 the ruin. In one sense of the word it is certainly wonderful, and 
 quite unique in the style of its architecture, but meaningless in 
 regard to design. The architect must have bestowed all his skill 
 on the huge size of the coarse alabaster, or gypsum, blocks, of which 
 the structure is composed, and the inelegance of its general plan. 
 The compostition of the alabaster is the same as that found in the
 
 GOOSBEE. 319 
 
 quarries around Mossul, and used in some of the buildings of the 
 Assyrian kings. 
 
 Halabeeyia is supposed to have been the capital of Odenathus, 
 husband of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, whereto that famous sov- 
 ereign is supposed to have fled when she was pursued by Aurelian's 
 cavalry, and was taken captive to that haughty Eoman emperor. 
 
 There is another structure on the opposite, or left, side of the 
 river, called Zalabeeyia, whose style of architecture differs from 
 that of Halabeeyia, and seems to have been used merely as a fort- 
 ress. Both the buildings are seen from a great distance, as they 
 are erected on high promontories projecting to the bank of the 
 Euphrates. 
 
 I find that General Chesney had overlooked the existence of 
 Zalabeeyia, because in his account of the latter ruin he calls it 
 "Helebi, or Zelebi;'' whereas they are two distinct ancient sites 
 on opposite sides of the river. 
 
 The Arabs have a very romantic story attached to the town 
 of Zalabeeyia, about a prince who was in love with a beautiful 
 princess that lived in the Halabeeyia palace, and as he was not 
 allowed to have any communication with her, contrived to build 
 a citadel on the opposite side of the river, from which he bored a 
 tunnel under the Euphrates to Halabeeyia, by means of which he 
 obtained his desired object. 
 
 After having spent about half an hour at the ruin, we went on 
 to Goosbee, and halted there for the night at 12.15 P. M. The 
 village was deserted, and its inhabitants were residing in tents 
 and huts below it. 1 was always glad to halt at an Arab encamp- 
 ment, as I was assured of good supplies of milk, fodder for our 
 horses, and sheep, if we wanted any, for slaughter. My cook was 
 also pleased to be located in such proximity, because he was cer- 
 tain to obtain the required assistance from the active damsels, 
 either in the way of fuel or water supply. 
 
 We left Goosbee at 3.30 A. M., on Friday, 16th, and reached 
 Kishlat-As-sabkha * at one P. M. While I was awaiting the arrival 
 of the luggage, I visited the governor of the district, Easheed 
 
 * Kishlat means in Turkish, Barrack; and Sabkha is derived from 
 an Arabic word which denotes nitrous soil. This appropriate name 
 is given to the district, because when the ground is a little moist and 
 the heat of the sun strikes on it, a whitish salt-like substance, or 
 nitre, appears on the surface.
 
 320 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Effendi, at the Kishla, which was more or less tumbUng down; 
 but it seemed that the place was going to be abandoned, and on my 
 return through it the year after, I found the settlement had been 
 deserted, and only a few Circassian irregulars were keeping watch 
 on an island in the river. All the Arab inhabitants had gone 
 away, some towards Aleppo and others to Damascus. 
 
 I was entertained, however, very hospitably by the governor 
 of Sabkha, and when my luggage arrived and I retired to my 
 tent he presented me with a lamb, which my cook caused to be 
 slaughtered, and he had it dressed in different kinds of entrees. 
 As my guest had not tasted any vegetables or Baghdad and Mossul 
 delicacies for a very long time, I invited him to dine with me, 
 and he was not a little pleased to find that amongst the dainties 
 my cook had prej^ared was the favorite Turkish dish, called dolma. 
 "We finished with stewed damsons and apricots, pancakes, and cus- 
 tard, which my servant prepared to perfection. 
 
 On the 17th, having been ofhcially informed that the whole 
 country between Sabkha and Maskana, on the right bank of the 
 Euphrates, had been deserted by the Arabs, who occupied it for- 
 merly, I was compelled to cross the river at Eakka, and travel along 
 the left bank as far as ]\raskana. It took us about five hours to 
 reach the ferry, as the luggage had to be taken by a circuitous 
 route, owing to the dangerous defile overhanging the Euphrates. 
 The rise of the river had cut away the greater part of the fre- 
 quented path, and made it unsafe for laden animals to traverse 
 on account of the projecting rock. 
 
 As soon as I crossed, I hurjied on to the camp of the Kayim- 
 Makkam, Moosa Efiendi, who received me very hospitably and 
 provided me with breakfast. He was called in the country "Ang- 
 leezee" (Englishman), as it appears that his father had rendered 
 material assistance to General Chesney's Euphrates expedition, 
 and was rewarded with a pension. When my luggage arrived, I 
 had my tent pitched in the grove of wild mulberry-trees, a short 
 distance from the governor's camp. We had great difficulty to 
 obtain fodder for our animals there, but Moosa Effendi sent me 
 some dhirra (millet) stalks, which was better than nothing. He 
 also presented me with a lamb, and he came afterwards and dined 
 with me. Beside the cuisine which was prepared in my kitchen, 
 his harem sent us some other dishes, both savory and sweet, and 
 between us both we had a nice spread.
 
 RUKKA. 321 
 
 As I wished to examine the ruins of Eukka I dekiyed my de- 
 parture till the afternoon, and soon after breakfast Moosa Effendi 
 and I rode to the ruins of the old city. It is said that the famous 
 caliph, Haroun-al-Easheed, used to spend his summer months in 
 this locality. This seemed to me a quaint idea, seeing that that 
 part of the Euphrates must be as hot as Baghdad at that time 
 of the year, though I was told that in former days Eukka was 
 surrounded M'ith orchards and splendid gardens; and the country 
 around it was thickly inhabited. As is generally the case with 
 all Arab ruins, there was nothing of interest to be seen amongst 
 the remaining erections, save some vestiges of walls. There were 
 scattered about the place a large number of burnt-clay knobs 
 resembling those found at Tel-loh, but having no inscription on 
 them. I was in hopes of finding some interesting ancient monu- 
 ment there of Assyrian or Babylonian origin, but not a sign of 
 any such work could be seen anywhere. The river, which must 
 have skirted it formerly, is now about a mile off, though I was 
 told that when the Euphrates rose very high it went to within a 
 few yards of it. From the fragments of pottery and other indica- 
 tions, it seemed to me that the city of Eukka must have extended 
 about three miles along the left bank of the Euphrates, but in 
 breadth it could not have been more than a mile.* 
 
 We left Eukka at 3.45 P. M., and after having traveled about 
 two hours and a half, we halted for the night at a place called 
 Abd-Alee, near a saltish pool, the remains of the periodical over- 
 flow of the river, which showed the existence of extensive salt 
 deposits in the land near it. The pebbly hills come down in this 
 vicinity to the edge of the river-channel, and no trace of vegeta- 
 tion was visible on the barren hills. 
 
 As I knew that we should have a long Journey before us the 
 next day, I ordered the loading of the luggage at 11.15 P. M.; but 
 
 * In his narrative of the Euphrates expedition, General Chesney 
 alludes to Rukka thus: "It is, however, a place of some celebrity in 
 Moslem history, although our researches the next morning were 
 scarcely repaid by the discovery of spacious cisterns, the remains of 
 a mosque, the ruins of Haroun-al Rasheed's palace, and the extensive 
 walls which once surrounded this city of Kaliph-el Mansour. whose 
 name has been deservedly handed down to us In connection with 
 astronomical observations, and with his promotion of the science of 
 astronomy itself by the measurement of a grand base-line on the 
 plain near this city." (Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition, p. 243.) 
 
 21
 
 322 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the muleteers and my followers were too sleepy to do their work 
 briskly, and so we could not start before 12.45 the next morning. 
 My escort and I hurried on to the ruin of Jaabar, which I wished 
 to examine as soon as it was daylight, and reached the old castle 
 at nine o'clock. This old Arab fort is an imposing structure, as 
 it is built on a high promontory overlooking the river Euphrates, 
 and it was used until lately as a penal settlement, from whose 
 impenetrable walls no criminal ever escaped. It is the most solid 
 Arab building I ever saw, and as it is situated on an elevated defile 
 stretching into the heart of an extensive and flat part of the 
 valley about twenty miles in length, it is seen from a great distance. 
 The river must have run below it in days gone by, but now it has 
 receded about a mile or more towards the western border of the 
 valley, xis soon as the luggage arrived I resumed my journey, 
 and reached our halting-place, called Al-wasta, at noon, and had 
 our tents pitched near Shaikh Saaloo, the chief of the clan who 
 were encamping there. 
 
 The Arabs complained bitterly of the oppression of the Turks, 
 and when I asked them why they did not build themselves houses 
 or huts, but always resided in tents, they said they preferred that 
 mode of living, in order that they might be able to move away 
 without much trouble as soon as they found themselves imposed 
 upon beyond endurance. 
 
 The next day we did not start as early as I wished, because 
 I had overslept myself, and no one felt inclined to awaken me. 
 However, we were able to leave soon after four o'clock, and as a 
 curious illustration of how quickly our luggage could be laden 
 when the muleteers are put to it either by coaxing, scolding, or 
 interest, they managed to load and start in less than half an hour; 
 whereas, on other occasions, it would have taken them more than 
 that time merely for arranging their pack-saddles and tying up 
 their packages. Four hours' ride brought us to the ferry opposite 
 Maskana; and, as the luggage was far behind us, my escort and 
 I crossed soon after our arrival, as I found a ferry-boat ready to 
 take us over. The muleteer did not reach Maskana till about 
 eleven o'clock, or three hours after. In the meantime I rested 
 in the tent of the commandant of the Sabkha Dhabtias, who had 
 gone there to receive the harem of Ali Pasha, the governor of Dair, 
 who were coming from Aleppo. I had my tents pitched afterwards 
 in the island near the ford where there was a green plot, in which
 
 JODAIDA. 323 
 
 our animals feasted for a little while. Maskana was garrisoned 
 by Turkish mule-mounted regulars, whose duty it was to keep 
 the refractory Arabs in order. Besides the barracks and public 
 offices, there were a few huts and shops belonging to the camp 
 followers, who carry on a small trade both with the soldiery and 
 the nomad Arabs around. 
 
 The ruin of ancient Beles stands about two miles down the 
 river below Maskana, where there was a steamer at anchor awaiting 
 the arrival of the harem of Abd-ar-Eahman Pasha, the governor- 
 general of Baghdad, who were coming from Constantinople. 
 
 A branch of the Inizza Arabs were crossing the Euphrates to 
 Mesopotamia all day in search of fodder for their animals, as the 
 pasture in the Syrian desert had failed them for want of rain. 
 These Bedouins used to be very troublesome some years ago, but 
 the iron rule of the Turk brought them, in some measure, to 
 obedience. 
 
 We started the next morning at 12.20, and when the sun rose 
 we found other clans of the Inizza Arabs encamping along our 
 path, and all seemed very orderly and friendly. On passing some 
 wells, I found a number of their shepherds drawing water for 
 their flocks, and perceiving that my horse wanted a drink they 
 immediately volunteered their services. I had a supply of Baghdad 
 cakes with me, of which I gave them 'some to eat. They seemed 
 very much amused in tasting them, as they had never eaten such 
 a dainty before; "actually," they exclaimed to each other, "bread 
 flavored with sugar and butter!" My escort and I reached our 
 halting-place, Jodaida, at eleven A. M.; but the luggage did not 
 arrive till an hour after us. Thus our animals were nearly twelve 
 hours on the Journey without the chance of having anything to 
 eat on the way. We found the village deserted, as its inhabitants 
 were encamping about two miles away; but we took possession 
 of one of the gardens in which there was thick grass growing, 
 which was not a little enjoyed by our animals. I was prepared 
 to offer the proper compensations to the owner if he should come 
 and murmur; but when he did make his appearance, he not only 
 refused to receive anything for the occupation of his domain, but 
 waited on me all the time I remained there, and provided my 
 kitchen with fowls, eggs, milk, butter, and wood. At the end, 
 however, I prevailed upon him to accept a present. 
 
 Jodaida is the first inhabited village to the west of the Eu-
 
 324 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 phrates and north of Palmyra; and had it not been for the subjec- 
 tion of the Inizza Arabs by the Turkish authorities, this unpro- 
 tected httle hamlet would not have been in existence now, on 
 account of the marauding Arabs who infest the desert. 
 
 Although I instructed the escort and my followers not to 
 awake me till one or two o'clock the next morning, as I knew that 
 we could esaily reach Aleppo in six hours' ride, I was called at 
 11,20 P. M., as they were longing to reach that attractive city as 
 early as possible. Had we been leaving that place instead of pro- 
 ceeding to it, I should have had great difficulty to make them 
 hasten their departure. 
 
 We left Jodaida at 12.20 A. M. on Thursday, the 22d of May; 
 and as we reached the suburbs of the town soon after sunrise, I 
 did not like to intrude so early on the hospitality of my friend, 
 Mr. Henderson, but waited a little while in a corn-field, which 
 enabled my horse, and those of my escort and muleteers, to feed 
 on the stalks that remained after the gleaning. After having 
 spent about an hour and a half there, I left my luggage animals 
 to feed a little longer, and hurried on with one of my guides to 
 the British consulate, where, as usual, I was kindly received by 
 my friend, Mr. Patrick Henderson, whose generous hospitality 
 to visitors is proverbial. I had to go a round-about way to reach 
 the consulate, because, as I said before, it is situated in the 
 northern suburbs of the town, at a place called Azeczzia. Soon 
 after my arrival a large number of friends and acquaintances 
 called on me, and T had to return most of the visits in the course 
 of the day. I found that my friend, Mr. Skene, the ex-consul, 
 and his wife were still at Aleppo, and so was my old friend, Mr. 
 Augustine Catoni, the British vice-consul at Alexandretta. 
 
 After having spent four days most pleasantly with Mr. Hen- 
 derson, I started for Alexandretta, and reached that port in three 
 days, or twenty hours' ride. As I left Mr. Catoni at Aleppo, I 
 was received most kindly, as on a former occasion, by his estimable 
 wife, whom I knew when she was a child. Her brother, Mr. Bel- 
 fanti, who was acting for Mr. Catoni, rendered me every assistance 
 in his power, and made my visit to them most agreeable. 
 
 The French steamer, "La Seyne," of the Messageries Maritimes 
 Company, having reached Alexandretta in due time from Egypt 
 and Syria, the day after my arrival I left in her for Marseilles, on 
 Friday evening, the 30th May, and reached the latter port on the
 
 EXCAVATIONS CONTINUED. 325 
 
 morning of the 22d June, having touched on the way at Mersine, 
 Ehodes, Smyrna, and Messina. At Smyrna we had to wait two 
 days and a half, for the purpose of exchanging passengers and 
 cargo with another Messageries steamer, which came from Mar- 
 seilles bound for Constantinople. 
 
 After having spent two days with my friends, Madame and M. 
 Fleury, at La Seyne, near Toulon, I went on to Paris and thence 
 to London, which I reached on the 19th June, 1879. 
 
 The Trustees of the British Museum having found it expedient 
 to continue the excavations in Assyria and Babylonia, and to carry 
 on some researches in Armenia, I was deputed again to proceed 
 thither and conduct the necessary explorations in those countries. 
 
 After having spent about nine months at home, I started for 
 the scenes of my labor on the 7th April, 1880, and took the usual 
 sea route from Marseilles to Alexandretta, touching at Palermo, 
 Messina, Syra, Smyrna, Ehodes, and Mersine.* We reached Alexan- 
 dretta on the morning of the 20th April; and after having pur- 
 chased provisions for the road, and employed a muleteer to take me 
 to Aleppo, I started the next day on my journey. I had on this 
 occasion to engage a servant on board the steamer, who was a 
 native of Aleppo, as I had no time to send for my old servant 
 from Mossul. As usual, it took me three days to reach Aleppo, 
 and as the old consulate had been demolished, and a new resi- 
 dence was being built in its place, Mr. Henderson could not receive 
 me; but he had engaged rooms for me in the hotel kept by Madame 
 Cleopas, who did her best to make her lodgers comfortable. There 
 was staying at the time in the same hotel Mr. W. St. Chad Bos- 
 cawen, who had been sent by a committee of gentlemen to make 
 some researches in SjTia and Mesopotamia; but as the small sum 
 allowed him was exhausted before he could even reach the Eu- 
 phrates, he Avas compelled to return home sadly disappointed in 
 his expectation. 
 
 Having resolved to proceed direct to Babylon from Aleppo, 
 
 * Generally speaking, when I proceed to Mesopotamia from Eng- 
 land, I make it a point to leave in September, so as to begin my work 
 at the end of autumn; but as the grant allowed for the excavations 
 did not become due until the beginning of the official year, and the 
 Trustees were desirous that I should lose no time in resuming the work 
 Intrusted to me. I ventured to face the scorching sun of Southern 
 Mesopotamia in summer.
 
 326 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 I had not a little difficulty to obtain the required number of 
 animals for the journey; but after a good deal of trouble and 
 annoyance, I engaged the services of a Sheea Mohammedan of 
 Baghdad, whose apathy and shuffling caused me no end of dis- 
 comfort on the journey. It appeared that when he came to be 
 engaged he did not possess the proper number of animals I re- 
 quired; and, though he was not in want of money to purchase 
 the remainder to complete his bargain, he did not care to go direct 
 to the market and buy suitable mules for the long journey, but 
 trusted to chance for finding cheap animals, which were unfit for 
 the purposes they were wanted. It happened, moreover, that for 
 two years the crops had failed throughout Mesopotamia, Koordis- 
 tan, and Asia Minor, which caused immense distress everywhere. 
 The peasants had scarcely enough corn to keep them alive, much 
 less to spare it for the beasts of burden. Generally speaking, dur- 
 ing the spring muleteers depend entirely for the feeding of their 
 animals on the grass they find on their line of march; but during 
 the former two years, both fields and valleys were devoid of any 
 pasture, and the dry grass and straw of former years had been 
 consumed by the flocks and herds of the nomad Arabs and Koords. 
 On this occasion, I did what I could to obtain the necessary suc- 
 cor from the different Ottoman authorities and Arab chiefs on 
 the way, who were always ready to lend me a helping hand; but, 
 though I rendered my muleteer pecuniary help, both in the supply 
 of corn and food, three of his baggage horses and mules succumbed 
 on the journey for the want of proper nourishment. Of course, 
 I had to hire extra animals for carrpng fodder in case of emer- 
 gency, which, on other occasions, would not have been necessary; 
 and if it had not been for this precaution, I do not know what we 
 could have done when not less than four of our baggage animals 
 became disabled on the way. 
 
 After a delay of nine days, which was six days beyond my 
 usual halt at Aleppo, I way able to start on my journey to Babylon 
 on the 3d of May, when the weather in that part of the world begins 
 to be somewhat"^ oppressive in the sun. The fact is, I was obliged 
 to put up with the shilly-shallying of my Baghdad muleteer, 
 because it was quite impossible for me to find any other to under- 
 take such a hazardous journey with famine raging all over the 
 country. Had it not been for this man, who was anxious to re- 
 turn home, I should have been obliged to proceed to Baghdad
 
 FAMINE. 327 
 
 via Diarbekir and Mossul, which would have lengthened my jour- 
 ney at least a fortnight; and from what I found out afterwards, 
 the difficulty of obtaining provisions on that route would have 
 been far greater in extent than I experienced along the western 
 bank of the Euphrates. 
 
 In the Pashalic of Mossul the poor people were living on roots 
 and what they could pick up in dunghills. I was told that many 
 starving people had to chew pieces of old leather and gnaw any 
 bone they could get hold of to satisfy their hunger. In some 
 instances, even starving cats and dogs were devoured, and many 
 went to the shambles to lick the blood of the few slaughtered 
 animals that remained for the consumption of those who were 
 still able to pay for meat. M. Seoffi, the French consul at Mossul, 
 showed me some cakes which were sold to the wretched poor in 
 the time of the famine, consisting merely of sawdust and putrid 
 blood collected from slaughter-houses, and he gave me a heart- 
 rending account of the suffering of multitudes who were going 
 about in the time of this harrowing distress through the streets 
 crying for food. 
 
 Had there been any railroads in those parts some timely succor 
 might have been rendered from Europe to the starving populations, 
 but the difficulty of transport to countries situated hundreds of 
 miles from any seacoast renders succor almost impossible. Indeed, 
 a large number of philanthropic individuals, and in some cases 
 societies, did their best to allay the suffering of the starving poor; 
 but they could only render their help in remitting hard cash, 
 which proved useless in places where there was no corn to buy. 
 
 The first stage we halted at was Dair-Hafir, a well-to-do village, 
 about thirty miles from Aleppo, which my escort and I reached 
 in a ride of nine and a half hours; but the luggage did not arrive 
 till an hour after us. We were glad to find some pasture outside 
 the village for our animals, and I and my belongings were re- 
 ceived very hospitably by the chief, a venerable old man, who did 
 his utmost to make us comfortable. 
 
 I found it rather close inside the hut at night, though it was 
 the beginning of May. We started for Maskana at five A. M., 
 and reached our destination at one P. M. We passed a large num- 
 ber of Baggara encampments moving about in search of pasture. 
 We also found detachments of Turkish troops at Maskana return- 
 ing to Aleppo from Dair. As soon as I had partaken of some early
 
 328 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 dinner, I had our tents struck and packed ready to resume our 
 march at night, and I slept for tlie first time on this journey in 
 the open air. One of the mules strayed away, and could not be 
 caught until daylight: consequently we did not make a fair start 
 before five o'clock, or sunrise. 
 
 On passing the so-called ruined city of Beles, I examined the 
 old ruins, both in the valley on the bank of the river and on the 
 hills, and found nothing in them to warrant me to associate them 
 with an older date than the x\rab conquest. Historians and 
 savants suppose this place to be the same as the Eoman Barbalissus 
 and Xenophon's Belesys, which idea, in my humble opinion, is 
 rather preposterous, because either the account of Xenophon him- 
 self must be most erroneous, or he jumbled up distances and sites 
 of cities and rivers to a most lamentable extent. If we are to follow 
 him from the time Cyrus's expedition left Myriandrus, which, ac- 
 cording to Xenophon, was "a city near the sea inhabited by Phoe- 
 nicians," * we find that they had marched nine days, or fifty 
 parasangs (equal to about one hundred and fifty miles), before 
 they reached the source of a river called Dardes, on which the 
 "palace of Belesys, the governor of Syria," existed. "We must con- 
 clude that Cyrus had proper guides to direct his force to the 
 nearest point of the Euphrates, and they could not have followed 
 a straighter course than to make for that part of the river from 
 the Mediterranean where the present ruins of Beles is situated. 
 But Xenophon's Belesys, according to my theory, was in quite 
 a different locality from the present known site; because, in the 
 first place, he records that it was at the source of the river Dardes, 
 and no mention is made at all of the Euphrates, seeing that that 
 was the first point where the river is seen in its grandeur. He 
 explicitly mentions in the next paragraph that they proceeded 
 from thence "three days' march a distance of fifteen parasangs 
 to the river Euphrates, which is there four stadia in breadth, and 
 on which is situated a large and rich city named Thapsacus." 
 Some commentators have tried to reconcile the existence of a river 
 on the source of which Beles was situated, with a canal which 
 is said to have been taken from the Euphrates! Surely Xenophon 
 could not have confounded a canal with a river, and forgotten to 
 mention the existence of the Euphrates, which must have stretched 
 
 * Xenophon's Anabasis, Book I, chapter i, sections 6 and 10.
 
 EXPEDITION OF CYRUS. 329 
 
 far and wide before him! Moreover, if the opinions of different 
 commentators be correct, that Cyrus's expedition touched at first 
 at Beles, and then went on three days' march down the river to 
 cross at Thapsacus, it is very odd that Xenophon took no notice of 
 the Euphrates until they arrived at the site now called Al-hammam, 
 though they must have marched alongside of it for forty-five 
 miles! Furthermore, if the Greek Auxiliaries had crossed at Al- 
 hammam, the supposed site of Thapsacus, then Xenophon's cal- 
 culation of the distance from it to the Khaboor exceeds the reality 
 by at least fifteen parasangs, or forty -five miles; but if they had 
 forded in the valley of Beles, where the Arabs now cross, their 
 marches, according to his account, is quite accurate. 
 
 Xenophon's narrative of the marches from Myriandrus to 
 the river Chains, which I take to be the river of Aleppo, is 
 correct to the mile; but from that point to the next river, the 
 Dardes, his statement raises a mountain of difficulties. "Whether 
 Cyrus's expedition touched at the source, or tail end, of the Aleppo 
 river, it made no difference as to the length of the route from the 
 sea to the Euphrates, as it runs nearly in parallel with them, and 
 the distance from both is almost equal. If Xenophon's account 
 be correct, it may be that after Cyrus touched at the river Chains, 
 he set northward, intending to cross the Euphrates below the 
 mountains of Asia Minor; but, finding it impossible to do so, he 
 changed his course southward, and forded the river near the present 
 ruins of Beles. During the autumn and winter both the Euphrates 
 and Tigris become shallow, when they can be forded at different 
 spots without any difficulty. 
 
 One thing is certain, that the confusion created was from the 
 time C}Tus's expedition left the river Chains; because from the 
 Gulf of Alexandretta to the Euphrates, in a direct line, whether 
 by Aleppo or north or south of it, is not more than one hundred 
 and ten miles — that is to say, about sixty miles from the Mediter- 
 ranean to Aleppo, and fifty miles from thence to the Euphrates; 
 whereas, Xenophon's account makes the latter distance nearly twice 
 as long as the former. 
 
 We reached Aboohhraira at one P. M., and as I found the en- 
 campment of the Arabs far from tempting, it being surrounded 
 with dunghills and dirt, I went on about half a mile lower down, 
 and had my tent pitched near an old ruin on the bank of a creek; 
 an overflow from the Euphrates.
 
 330 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 The chief paid me a visit afterwards, and asked my assistance 
 in deciding a serious dispute between him and a Christian family, 
 which had just arrived from Baghdad on their way to Aleppo. 
 It happened, most unfortunately, that while a lady and her daugh- 
 ter were passing a narrow defile along the bank of the Euphrates, 
 near the spot where we were encamping, their Mahhafa,* in which 
 they were riding, struck against a projecting rock, and both the 
 animal and the occupants of the litter were precipitated into the 
 river; but the mother was fortunate enough to catch hold of a 
 branch of a tree projecting out of the slope where they fell, which 
 enabled her to keep afloat until she was rescued by the Arabs from 
 her watery grave. Her daughter was thrown out of the Mahhafa, 
 and was carried down the stream. The poor girl called out to her 
 mother not to think of her, but to try and save herself. On reach- 
 ing the Arab camp, the mother offered a reward to those who would 
 go and search for her daughter; but the quest proved abortive. 
 The men who went for that purpose had only seen the Mahhafa, 
 which had stranded on an island. The mother refused to reward 
 the men for their trouble, on the plea that she had only meant 
 to pay them if they had found the body of her daughter. I advised 
 both parties to come to terms, which they did after a long argu- 
 ment. 
 
 We resumed our journey the next day at 4.30 A. M., and reached 
 Al-hammam at 2.30 P. M. We had a tedious march that morning, 
 on account of the overflow of the river, which obliged .us to go 
 out of our way two or three times to avoid the creeks, which were 
 made impassable by the swelling of the Euphrates, and lengthened 
 our march by two hours. We had to take the hill track twice, to 
 enable us to reach our destination safely. Even after this long 
 detour, we had to cross a muddy end of a creek, in which one of 
 our luggage animals tumbled and spoiled some of our provisions. 
 I had my tent pitched on the bank of the river, where the stream 
 was running at the rate of ten miles an hour. Al-hammam means 
 in Arabic "the bath," where still exist some ruins marking an old 
 Arab settlement. It is said that there were there formerly some 
 famous baths, which attracted a larsre number of visitors every year 
 
 * Mahli.-ifa is a litter consisting: of two hampers hung on either 
 side of a mule, in which two persons sit in traveling.
 
 SABKHA. 331 
 
 from the neighboring towns; but there is no visible sign of such 
 establishments in the place now.* 
 
 We left Al-hammam at 3.45 A. M., and had a most tedious 
 journey of twelve hours to Sabkha, on account of the regular 
 high road having been flooded through the unusual rise of the 
 Euphrates, which obliged us to go a round-about way, to avoid 
 crossing numberless inlets and puddles. As I had anticipated on 
 passing through this place a year before, I found it quite deserted, 
 the Government House in ruins, and not a house in the village had 
 a roof on it; but a small garrison of Circassians, retained there 
 for the protection of the postal service, were encamping on the 
 island. As soon as I arrived, their commandant, Tatar Khan, 
 crossed with a number of his followers to render me the uecessary 
 assistance and protection during my stay there. At night the 
 muleteer discovered that his best mule was missing, and after he 
 and his men had searched for it in vain everywhere, he declared 
 that the guard had stolen it, as the Circassians were considered 
 the greatest robbers in the country. Though I participated in 
 his suspicion, I cautioned him to hold his tongue, because if the 
 Circassians began to suspect that we distrusted them we should 
 never get back the missing mule, which we could ill spare, seeing 
 that our luggage animals were already showing the effect of long 
 marches, and it was quite impossible to overburden them by 
 heavier loads. I therefore ofl'ered a reward to any one who would 
 find the lost animal, and told the guard that they would get into 
 trouble when I arrived at Dair and reported their negligence to 
 the authorities, as they would be held responsible for the loss of 
 the animal, as it was their duty to have watched properly and not 
 allowed us to be robbed. The poor muleteer was going about cry- 
 ing and almost out of his mind for the loss of his valuable mule, 
 which he declared he had purchased for thirty Turkish liras (equal 
 to £28), and said that he could have got fifty for it at Baghdad. 
 He was willing to give five liras to get the animal back, but I 
 told him if he offered a reward of two it would be more than 
 
 * I have already alluded to the generally-received opinion that this 
 place was the site of Thapsacus, the point on the Euphrates where 
 Cyrus is said to have crossed to Mesopotamia with the Greek Auxil- 
 iaries.
 
 332 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 sufficient. We then started, after having arranged the distri- 
 bution of the luggage on the other animals in the best way we 
 could, and awaited the search for the missing mule on an eminence 
 about two miles from our last halting-place, and we had not 
 been there a quarter of an hour when we saw one of the Cir- 
 cassian horseman galloping towards us, leading the prize triumph- 
 antly. His story was that the animal must have strayed at night, as 
 he found it grazing in one of the ditches near the hills. The head 
 muleteer, however, declared that the Circassians were a set of 
 rogues, vagabonds, and thieves, and swore that he would not give 
 them a piaster (two pence) for what he considered to be an im- 
 position! After my having remonstrated with him for his vacil- 
 lation and suspicion, which was quite impossible for him to sub- 
 stantiate, he agreed to give half the reward offered, but not until 
 I had consented to pay the remainder. 
 
 Although we began our march at five o'clock in the morning, 
 we did not make a fair start before 8.30. As we had to pass the 
 camp of Shaikh Fahhil, I paid that chief a short visit, as he had 
 ^ent his son to invite me to his tent. Of course I was asked to 
 spend the day with him, as he wished to have a sheep slaughtered 
 and dressed for me; but I thanked him for his civility, which I 
 said I could not accept, and, after having partaken of some coffee, 
 I left with my escort and joined my caravan, which was hastening 
 on to our halting-place, Maadan. We reached this hamlet at 5.30 
 P. M., though the distance could not have been more than twenty- 
 five miles from Sabkha. We encamped on the bank of the river 
 near a small Arab camp, where a guard is stationed for protect- 
 ing the postal service. 
 
 Sunday, the 9th of May, being the Lord's-day, we did not start 
 in the morning, but made a short journey of about four hours 
 in the afternoon. We had to make again to-day long detours over 
 the rugged hills to reach Tibnee, in consequence of the rise of 
 the Euphrates, which had overflowed the lower road. We found 
 the place quite deserted, and there were only a few wretched 
 Arabs remaining with the post guard. The fields, which were 
 last year blooming with fine crops, are now stocked with wild 
 oats, in which we let loose our animals, and they did enjoy them- 
 selves without any mistake! I encamped again on the bank of the 
 river, and was very much pestered all night by mosquitoes. 
 
 We left Tibnee at 2.30 A. M., and in consequence of the lower
 
 MA YADEEN. 333 
 
 road being flooded, we had again to take a most rugged path over 
 the hills overlooking the valley of Alboo-Sarai. My escort and I 
 pushed on to Dair soon after sunrise (five A. M.), and reached that 
 town at 11.45. The luggage did not arrive until three hours after 
 us. I found my good friend, Ali Pasha, just leaving his garden 
 villa for the meeting of the Mijlis (Council), and as soon as he 
 saw me he stopped and welcomed me by an affectionate embrace. 
 He invited me to his hospitable house, and gave me a room oppo- 
 site his own to occupy during my stay at Dair. The great Shaikhs 
 of the Inizza and Shammer Arabs were at Dair at the time. They 
 had assembled there to consult about keeping the refractory Arabs 
 in order. Shaikh Jaadan, of the Inizza, with his son, Tirkee, 
 and Shaikh Farris, the chief of the Shammer in the Dair Pash- 
 alic, paid me a visit soon after my arrival, i^li Pasha and I dined 
 in the open air in the garden, and in the evening I enjoyed a 
 Turkish bath, which His Excellency erected in his new villa. 
 We had a good deal of thunder and lightning at night, but there 
 was very little rain. 
 
 The next day, May 11th, I had, as usual, a large number of 
 visitors, both civil and military, and the ecclesiastical head of the 
 community. In the evening Ali Pasha gave a dinner party to the 
 chief officials of the settlement in honor of me. 
 
 On the following day I resumed my journey at 9.30 A. M., 
 and reached the town of Mayadeen at 4.30, and as soon as I 
 encamped near the river, Shaikh Farris, of the Shammer Arabs, 
 with the governor of the place, came to see me. The former had 
 preceded x\.li Pasha thither with his retinue to cross the next 
 day with him to Mesopotamia to punish those Arabs who had 
 proved turbident. 
 
 The ruins of Eahhaba, the supposed site of Rahaboth of the 
 Bible, stand on the crest of the hill about five miles westward of 
 the river, and there is no doubt that when that place was occu- 
 pied the Euphrates ran just below it. I was in hopes that I should 
 be able to examine those ruins on my way southward, but, un- 
 fortunately, I was too much pressed for time to enable me to go 
 out of my way for that purpose.* 
 
 ♦ General Chesney calls this Rahhaba "Rahaboth of the Ammon- 
 ites." (Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition, p. 2.51.) On what au- 
 thority he does so, I can not make out. The Ammonites were supposed
 
 334 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 We were delayed again the next morning in starting, conse- 
 quent upon the straying of one of our baggage animals with a tent 
 on its back, and so we could not resume our journey before three 
 o'clock, although I was up at one. AVe also lost another hour by 
 going round a canal, which was too high for the luggage animals 
 to cross. We reached our halting-place, Ssalhheya, where there 
 was a Turkish guard stationed, at 12.40 P. M. We found there 
 some rich pasture, on wliich our animals feasted to their heart's 
 content. We were obliged to encamp on that occasion away from 
 the river, on account of the meadows, which lie about a mile 
 from it; but we got some women to go and fetch us water and 
 fuel. Arab women, especially spinsters, are always very handy 
 in a case of emergency. Married women are generally engaged 
 either in nursing their children or attending their lords and mas- 
 ters! We were very much annoyed at that place, especially at 
 night, from the attack of mosquitoes. 
 
 We started May 14th at 2.15 A. M., though I was up at mid- 
 night. The muleteers and Dhabtias were dead sleepy, and so I 
 could not get them to hurry. We reached Albookamal, or Skaireya, 
 at eight. I encamped about half a mile to the southeast of the 
 fortress, the residence of the Kayim-Makkam, who paid me a visit 
 in the afternoon. He told me that he was foolish enough to bring 
 his family with him, and that, in consequence of the destitution 
 of the inhabitants of the place and the general distress all over the 
 country, they were well-nigh starved. He assured me that the 
 only light they had at night was what could be procured from a 
 wood fire. I therefore gave him some candles and what I could 
 spare of food. We changed the escort there, but Sooltan Agha, 
 the commandant of the Aleppo guard, remained with me to accom- 
 pany me to Dair. 
 
 We started the next morning at 2.45, and reached Alkayim 
 at 8.30. This is the first station in the Pashalic of Baghdad where 
 there is a Moodeer, or sub-governor; but he was away at the time. 
 
 to occupy the land to the east and adjoining to Gilead, the inheritance 
 of Gad. He refers, however, to Rehoboth, mentioned in Genesis xxxvi, 
 37, wherin mention is made of "Saul of Rehoboth by the river;" but 
 as this Saul was a descendant of Esau, who was called "the father 
 of the Edomites," and that tribe occupied the country adjoining Egypt, 
 the river there could not have been the Euphrates, which is about 
 three hundred miles from the supposed country of Edom.
 
 AL-BRAIKHA. 
 
 335 
 
 and his son and the commandant of the garrison received me very 
 civilly, and oiTered me their services. My escort was increased 
 there from the Baghdad Dhabtias, and as I was assured that there 
 was an Arab encampment not far distant, where I would be able 
 to find grass in abundance for our animals, I pushed on forward, as 
 I knew if we staid at Alkayim neither love nor money could pro- 
 cure us the required fodder, for there was not a blade of grass to 
 be seen in or around the place. I was greatly disappointed to 
 find no grazing ground, although we traveled three hours longer; 
 and as man and beast were getting quite knocked up from the 
 heat of the day and fatigue, the latter not having had anything to 
 eat for fourteen hours, I deemed it advisable to halt near an Arab 
 encampment of the Dilaini. But the poor wretches could not 
 assist us much, seing that they themselves had scarcely enough food 
 to suffice them for a week longer. While my tent was being 
 pitched, I searched the banks of the river for some fodder for the 
 animals, and seeing a patch of green reeds ,on the opposite side, I 
 prevailed upon some Arab damsels to swim across and bring us 
 a few bundles of the leaves, and see whether our animals could 
 eat it. The poor creatures, being nigh starving, had no choice but 
 to chew that coarse food. The country between Alkayim and 
 Ebaidha, where we halted, was quite barren, and incapable of being 
 cultivated, and the river zigzagged in every direction; consequently 
 we had to follow the current in all its windings, which lengthened 
 the distance to nearly double what it ought to have been, especially 
 as we had to go up and down hills to avoid the circular route. 
 
 The Arab camp was on the move early in the morning; but, 
 being Sunday, we did not leave until the afternoon. We only 
 traveled for three hours, and encamped near wheat and barley 
 crops at a place called Al-braikha. I had my tent pitched on the 
 edge of the river, which was quite refreshing. After no end of 
 coaxing and promises of good remuneration, I managed to induce 
 the peasants, who were watching the cultivation, to sell me some 
 grain for our animals, and provide me with milk and butter. 
 
 We left Al-braikha at three A. M., May 17th, and, in conse- 
 quence of the rise of the river, which had blocked the valley route, 
 we were obliged again to take to the hills, and make our way in 
 the best style we could through rough and intricate defiles to the 
 next stage, Aana, which we reached at eight o'clock. We had 
 to travel more than half an hour through the town before we
 
 336 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 halted at the residence of the governor, situated about the center 
 of it. Aana, which contains about four hundred houses, is one 
 of the most pecuHar spots in the world. It stretches on the right 
 bank of the Euphrates for about six niiles, and the houses, or huts, 
 built of mud, are almost all detached, and each surrounded by 
 groves of trees, such as date-palms, figs, pomegranates, and other 
 indigenous fruit. The river is confined between high, rocky hills, 
 the west side of which is bordered by elevated alluvial rich soil, 
 which the natives have turned to a very profitable use in grain- 
 growing. There are a number of islands in that valley, the largest 
 of which is called Ea-wa, containing about two hundred houses. 
 Another, which is in ruins, was supposed to be the palace of the 
 Persian king, Ardasheer. On the left bank of the river, just 
 below Aana, it is said that the ruins of ancient Anothoth still 
 exist. This spot is also famous in history for its connection with 
 the expeditions of the two Eoman emperors, Trajan and Julian, 
 in the years 115 and 363 A. D. respectively. 
 
 The Kayim-Makkam received me very civilly, and the kadhee 
 of the place, who happened to be a native of Mossul, was most 
 agreeable. We were hospitably entertained by the governor, and 
 we all spent a very pleasant evening together. 
 
 "We resumed our journey at 3.15 on the morning of the 18th 
 of May, and it took us more than half an hour to go through the 
 other part of the town, as we entered it the opposite way. We 
 had at this time to make an exit eastward, through narrow lanes 
 and muddy aqueducts. Our escort of two Dhabtias, on this occa- 
 sion, were not of the brightest, and one of them we had to part with 
 about five miles from Aana, as his horse became quite disabled, 
 and he could not get him to move; the other lost his way in the 
 desert, which caused both man and beast great fatigue and an 
 unpleasant march. The rise of the Euphrates was again the source 
 of our discomfort, as it had blocked the road which skirted the 
 Euphrates, and we had in consequence to proceed inland to our 
 next stage, Hadeetha; and by the time I had expected to arrive 
 at our destination, no sign could be seen of either the town or river. 
 We had neither water nor fodder, and so, after having traveled 
 for thirteen hours without knowing where we were, I galloped 
 for about two miles towards what I calculated to be the direction 
 of the river, to see if I could find anything to guide us. To my 
 great delight I found, on ascending a little hill, a deep valley just
 
 VALLEY OF HIJLAN. 
 
 337 
 
 below me with a large pool of water in it. I immediately signaled 
 to the muleteers to join me, as it was then near sunset, and both 
 animals and the men were dead beat. I ordered a halt there for 
 the night, feeling quite sure that we would reach the river early 
 the next morning. As soon as the muleteers saw the valley, they 
 recognized it to be Wadee-Hijlan. It seemed there had been some 
 rain in those parts within a few days, which filled a large pool, at 
 which we encamped; and, had it not been for this Godsend, I do 
 not know what might have happened to my followers from thirst! 
 Two of the luggage animals were already disabled, and if we had 
 gone on any further I was certain others would have shared their 
 fate. My only fear was that if we slept in the wilds of iirabia, 
 without a proper escort, we might be attacked by a marauding 
 party at night, without being able to defend ourselves. However, 
 we kept a strict watch, and I was not sorry to resume our march 
 the next morning at 2.15; and after having proceeded about five 
 miles on our journey, we saw the river below us. I found that 
 we had overshot our mark by nearly twenty miles, and that we 
 had passed the town of Hadeetha by over ten miles, which was, 
 of course, a gain towards the second day's stage. We had intended 
 to halt opposite the town of Jaaba, situated on a large island; but 
 as we had gained two hours by straying the day before, I deemed 
 it advisable to push on to the next halting-place, Al-Baghdadee. 
 On finding, however, that our animals required earlier rest, we 
 stopped at ten A. M. at a place called Na-oosan, about a mile to 
 the west of it. This break in our journey was necessitated by 
 the rise of the river, which had filled a long ravine, and would 
 have compelled us to go round it through very rugged hills for 
 an hour longer. Other animals of my followers, who accompanied 
 me from Aleppo, were disabled to-day, and their riders had to 
 walk and lead them. At the spot where we halted there was no 
 fodder for the animals, and the grain which we had with us for 
 them was barely enough to sufiice them to the next stage, so I 
 prevailed upon the chief of my escort to proceed to Al-Baghdadee 
 and fetch us some barley and straw, which I distributed amongst 
 the muleteers and followers. I felt quite knocked up that day 
 from the heat of the sun, and my anxiety for the poor animals, as 
 we had still a long and tedious journey before us. Wherever we 
 went there was the same great distress from the scarcity of food 
 amongst all the inhabitants of the land. 
 
 22
 
 338 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Our animals having had a long rest and seeming quite re- 
 freshed after a good feed, we resumed our march in bright moon- 
 light at 10.30 P. M., and traveled for an hour through most diffi- 
 cult ascents and descents, until we came to a plateau to the north 
 of Hheet. We reached that town at six o'clock in the morning 
 of the 20th May, and I went direct to Government House, where 
 I was welcomed by the governor, called the Moodeer, Hameed 
 Effendi, with whom I took up my quarters. Hheet has always 
 been famous in history for its bitumen springs, and called classi- 
 cally Iz, or Is. It is stated by different writers that this place 
 was visited by the emperors, Alexander the Great, Trajan, Severus, 
 and Julian. Herodotus also alludes to the bitumen springs, from 
 whence, he says, the Babylonians obtained this commodity for 
 their building purposes.* Even now hundreds of tons are taken 
 down the Euphrates to Babylonia every year, for the use of boat- 
 builders and paving purposes. But why Herodotus asserts that 
 "the bitumen used in the work was brought to Babylon from the 
 Is, a small stream which flows into the Euphrates at the point 
 where the city of the same name stands, eight days' journey from 
 Babylon," is more than I can understand, unless he meant that 
 the bitumen springs were then further inland, and the small stream 
 existing there now was used for purposes of navigation. The 
 present rivulet is not capable of floating even a boat or a raft 
 three feet wide, but it may be that in his time a canal was made 
 from the river to the springs, whence the present stream comes 
 down, and thus the exporters of that commodity were spared the 
 land transport. 
 
 * Herodotus, I, 179.
 
 CIL\PTKR XVIII. 
 
 To SAVE our animals and my followers further fatigue, and 
 myself much annoyance and anxiety, I resolved to go down to 
 Babylon by water, as I was told by the governor that he could 
 buy me a"^Hheet boat, by which I should be able to reach my 
 destination much quicker than if I went by land. The great 
 rise of the Euphrates made it very difficult for travelers to follow 
 the frequented road, and it was next to impossible to reach 
 Hillah along the right bank of the Euphrates, on account of the 
 marshes and inundations that intersected the land on the west 
 side of the river. In less than two hours' time I purchased the 
 required boat, and engaged a master, with a mate, to guide and 
 propel her. This vessel, which the Hheet people call "Ivaya," 
 was the quaintest that I have ever seen. It is Kke a huge basket 
 made of wicker work bound with straw and plastered over in and 
 out with bitumen. I can not do better, I think, than quote 
 General Chesney's interesting description of the way these boats 
 are built and navigated. He says: "The self-taught shipwrights 
 of Hit have neither docks nor basins, nor even slips to fa- 
 cilitate their labor, yet they can construct a serviceable boat 
 in a short time, with no other tools than an ax and a 
 saw, with a ladle for pouring out the melted pitch and a 
 roller for smoothing it. The first process in this primitive mode 
 of ship-building, is to choose a level spot of ground, near the 
 water, on which the carpenter traces the figure of the bottom of 
 the projected boat — not, it is true, with mathematical accuracy, 
 but still a line is used, and a certain system followed. In the 
 space thus marked out a number of rough branches are laid in 
 parallel lines, and others interlaced across them. A kind of basket 
 work, of reeds and straw, is then plaited through them, to fill up 
 the interstices; and some stronger branches, laid across at intervals 
 of eight or ten inches, give the requisite stabihty to the bottom. 
 The sides are then built up, which is done by driving upright posts 
 of the requisite height through the edge of the platform, about a 
 foot apart; these are filled in, in the same way as the bottom, 
 and the whole is consolidated by placing strong branches, or stems, 
 of small trees as tie beams, at short intervals from gunwale to 
 
 339
 
 340 ASSRUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 gunwale. The necessary stability being thus obtained, the out- 
 side of the boat is coated with hot bitumen, which is melted over 
 a fire made on the ground close at hand, to reduce to proper con- 
 sistency by admixture of sand and earth. 
 
 "This bituminous cement is spread over the framework of the 
 boat, both within and without, by means of a wooden roller, which 
 produces quite a smooth surface, and soon becomes perfectly hard, 
 impervious to water, and well-suited to river navigation. Some of 
 these boats are not unlike a coffin, the broadest end representing 
 the bow; but others are of a neater build." * 
 
 By the energetic assistance of the Moodeer, I was enabled to 
 complete the purchase of the boat and engage the services of a 
 competent navigator, named Joomaa, by noon the same day; and, 
 having taken all my luggage on board, I embarked at seven P. M, 
 with my cook, Dhabtia, and two passengers, a Turkish ofiicer and 
 his mother, who accompanied me from Aleppo, as it was feared 
 that their animals could not carry them through the remainder 
 of the journey. The old lady was in ecstasy when she heard 
 that I had offered her and her son seats in my boat, as the poor 
 creature had had no end of falls off her horse throughout the 
 journey, and extra roughing might have killed her. Our riding 
 and baggage animals I sent on by land, carrying only their necessary 
 fodder and the muleteers. 
 
 It was quite delightful, after we started, soon after seven 
 o'clock, to feel that there was no more loading and unloading, and 
 we could sleep on to our heart's content, without the unpleasant- 
 ness of taking a nap by fits and starts and gulping our meals in 
 hurry-scurry. After we had floated down for about two hours, 
 Joomaa, the master of my boat, rowed to some peasants' huts 
 on the right bank of the river, and obtained for us some wood 
 for cooking, and straw to make my hut more comfortable, as I 
 could not have my traveling bedstead stretched out in the boat 
 for fear of its legs going through the bottom of the vessel. These 
 Hheet boats are allowed to float down the stream without any 
 exertion, save when the current carries the vessel to some dangerous 
 offshoots, or when the banks of the river require to be approached; 
 in that case an oar, made in the shape of a strainer ladle, is used 
 in bringing the boat to land, which is easily done by the rower 
 
 * Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition, pp. 77 and 78.
 
 RUMADEE. 
 
 341 
 
 standing at the side where he wants the boat to proceed, and should 
 the current be too strong two oars are used. My boat was about 
 ten feet long by eight, fiat-bottomed, and rounded at the corners. 
 In comparison to the rafts of skins which are used on the Tigris, 
 they are more easily propelled, and twice as swift in moving on 
 the water; but in striking against a bank the rafts are safer. In 
 case of head wind they fare the same; but from my experience 
 of both, I would say the latter have the advantage, as they are 
 low and have no bulwark to catch the wind. 
 
 The whole of the next day it blew hard from the west; and 
 although the wind was in our favor, when we came to the bends 
 of the river the men had to labor with all their might to keep 
 the boat from striking against the banks. I must say the poor 
 men had tremendous exertion to prevent an accident, as their cap- 
 tain said that they would be disgraced forever if any mishap 
 occurred to the boat. We reached the populous town of Eumadee 
 at five o'clock P. M., though the distance by land was not more 
 than forty miles. I found the muleteers had already arrived 
 there, and were awaiting my final orders. They all seemed in the 
 best of spirits, as they had indulged in riding all the way, — a 
 luxury which they had not enjoyed for many days past on account 
 of the fatigue the beasts of burden underwent. The head mule- 
 teer proposed that he should cross to Mesopotamia from Eumadee 
 with his animals and followers, and proceed to Baghdad along 
 the left bank of the Euphrates until he reached Saglaweya, whence 
 he would take the high road. He would then send me the required 
 number of mules to Hillah to convey my luggage to Baghdad. 
 Having acquiesced in his arrangement and fixed the day when 
 he would join me, we parted, he with his followers to spend the 
 night at Eumadee, while I continued my voyage down the river. 
 
 Eumadee is the first station in that part of the Pashalic of 
 Baghdad, having telegraphic communication with that city, Hil- 
 lah, and all the different towns in Assyria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, 
 and Asia Minor, as far as Constantinople; but when I was there 
 the wires were not in working order, so I could not communicate 
 with my agents at Baghdad and Hillah about my movements. 
 
 After we left Eumadee, we had a delightful voyage, and the 
 next morning, the 22d May, we reached Saglaweya, where there 
 was a Turkish garrison and a ferry; and as soon as my cook pur- 
 chased the necessary provisions for the remainder of the passage.
 
 342 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and I had dispatched telegrams to Baghdad and Hillah inform- 
 ing my agents of my approach, we continued our course. In the 
 afternoon a strong westerly T\-ind sprang up, which caused my 
 boatmen immense trouble, and myself much anxiety. At one 
 place both the wind and the high waves were so set against our 
 vessel that the men lost all control over her, and she was driven 
 into an extensive marsh which had been swollen to a fearful ex- 
 tent through the rise of the river. I was told that if we were 
 drifted into it we should either be lost or rendered helpless in the 
 way of communication with any inhabited place; the consequence 
 would be, of course, starvation! Fortunately, just as we were 
 within an ace of being dragged by the rush of water into the 
 sea-like marsh we got entangled by the branches of a large tree 
 which had not yet been unrooted, of which we were able to get 
 hold until we obtained help. It was fortunate also that while we 
 were sticking firmly to the prostrate tree we saw two Arabs coming 
 towards us, making haste with their buffaloes for terra firma, as 
 they had also got alarmed at the sudden great rise of the river. 
 As soon as they saw what danger we were in, they came and 
 helped us out of our difficulty, which enabled us to cross to the 
 left bank of the river, where there was no fear of our being dragged 
 again into another marsh. 
 
 All along the Euphrates there are innumerable herds of buffa- 
 loes, which are kept there to graze for the purposes of cheese- 
 making and breeding, and the men who have the care of them 
 are considered the bravest of the brave. 
 
 At eleven o'clock in the evening a westerly gale sprang up, 
 which obliged us to moor our vessel in a sheltered place for the 
 remainder of the night, as the master was afraid to proceed with 
 such strong side wind blowing. It was so hot between eleven 
 A. M. and two P. M. that I could scarcely breathe. The ther- 
 mometer rose in my tent to 107 degrees. 
 
 At sunrise the next morning (Trinity Sunday, the 23d May), 
 we resumed our voyage, and went on smoothly until we reached 
 the town of Imseyib * at four P. M. Here Ahmed Effendi and his 
 mother left us to go on to Baghdad, as this was the nearest station 
 from which they could proceed thither with any degree of comfort 
 
 * This town is called by different people Imseyib, Mooseyib, or 
 Al-imseyib.
 
 HILLAH. ^^^ 
 
 on horseback. After having spent there about two hours m going 
 through the bridge of boats, which the authorities had to disunite 
 from the western bank, we continued our passage and went on 
 favorably all night; but the weather was stifling and mosquitoes 
 
 innumerable. .„ . _ . . , ^ 
 
 On May 2-ith, as soon as we sighted the village of Quainch, a 
 part of ancient Babylon situated on the eastern side of the Eu- 
 phrates I saw one of mv Arab workmen on the left bank awaiting 
 my arrival, who, on seeing me, ran back to inform my head over- 
 seer, Dawood Toma, of my appro^h. The latter soon a terwards 
 made his appearance, and as I wished to examine the works before 
 ffoino- into HiUah, I landed a little above Jimjima, another Arab 
 village the headquarters of my Babylonian workmen, about a 
 mile\elow Quairich. After having spent about an hour i^ gomg 
 over the trenches and tunnels, I repaired to Dawood's habita- 
 tion where I partook of some refreshments, including fresh apri- 
 cots' and plums, the produce of the country. The Ottoman dele- 
 gate, Mohammed Effendi, came there to see me, and after break- 
 fast he, Dawood, and I embarked on board the Hheet boat and 
 floated down to Hillah, which was reached in about an hour and 
 a half The Hillah authorities had already engaged me quarters 
 at the house of one of the principal inhabitants of the place named 
 Gani Ac^ha As soon as I landed I was conducted by the delegate 
 to my temporary residence, which was pleasantly situated and com- 
 
 °^ The'salamlic, or reception-room, I found to be large and well- 
 furnished; and the other suite of rooms for self and followers 
 were also as nice as we could wish for. The house consisted of 
 two divisions, the Salamlic and its accompaniments of three or 
 four smaller rooms, which pertain to the male inhabitants, and 
 are located at the entrance; and the inner part, which is called 
 the Harem, is apportioned to the female establishment. So m 
 this instance I was allowed to take possession of the outer com- 
 partment, and my landlord had to content himself m keeping 
 company with his consort. I was told that the kind old man 
 volunteered part of his house for my occupation when he heard 
 that the authorities were looking out for a house for my recep- 
 tion, there being no hotels in the place. The heat on that day 
 was most trying; and while I was going about the trenches, es- 
 pecially, I thought I should drop down in a fit of apoplexy. I
 
 344 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 think the morning sun is felt in those hot ehmes more severely 
 than that of the afternoon, especially between eight and eleven 
 o'clock. 
 
 Mohammed Effendi, the Turkish delegate, Dawood Toma, and 
 I, with an escort, started. May 25th, for Birs Nimroud at 3.15 A. M. 
 It took us two hours and a half to reach our destination, on account 
 of the overflow of the lake, which obliged us to go a round-about 
 way, to avoid being submerged into the quagmires that surround 
 the old tower. 
 
 I found, on arriving there, my energetic head overseer, Dawood, 
 had conducted the work I had intrusted to him in an admirable 
 manner, and with the funds I was allowed to apportion for the 
 different explorations I left under his superintendence he had 
 made several discoveries, with efficiency and economy. 
 
 Both at Babylon proper, and Birs Nimroud, he had uncovered 
 a large number of chambers which had been hidden from the 
 sight of man for more than two thousand years, and in most of 
 them he had unearthed monuments and inscriptions of the Baby- 
 lonian epoch, which are now in the British Museum. The palace 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, inhabited afterwards by ISTabonidus, which I 
 had discovered at Birs ISTimroud when I visited Babylon the year 
 before, he had nearly excavated throughout, and he was then await- 
 ing my orders to penetrate under the old tower on which the 
 Temple of Borsippa was supposed to have been erected. 
 
 Just as I set my foot on the mound a workman came running 
 to inform me of the discovery of a large metal object, which the 
 ignorant Arabs mistook for gold, because the pick-ax had struck 
 it in one or two places where it glittered. On going to examine 
 it, I found it was a large block of copper, which had been placed 
 on the threshold of what seemed to be the grand entrance to the 
 tower. I waited there to see it wholly uncovered, and it looked 
 from its shape and fixture that it was not intended for the purpose 
 it was latterly used, but it must have been placed there in after 
 time. The original entrance was much wider than the length of 
 the copper block, and to make it look uniform the future occu- 
 piers of the edifice had narrowed the passage by a brick wall on 
 either side. It was fitted in between the stone pavement and the 
 steps leading downwards toward the tower. From its length 
 and shape it looked as if it had been originally one of those
 
 COPPER BLOCK UNEARTHED. 345 
 
 bronze gates mentioned by Herodotus.* It must have been, when 
 it was made, double the length; but for the purpose of fitting it 
 in the position I found it, or for the sake of the value of the 
 metal, those who placed it there had cut it in two, just where the 
 inscription ended, and disposed of the other half. Some archae- 
 ologists, however, are of opinion that it was originally a doorstep, 
 and the groove at the end served as a socket, while others think 
 that it might have been part of a battering engine. Nevertheless, 
 I still maintain that if it was not the leaf of a gate, it could not 
 have been used for either of the above purposes. The most 
 striking fact in connection with it, is the inscription on the ledge, 
 which Assyrian scholars read as a dedication by Nebuchadnezzar 
 to his God for his restoration to health, which proves more than 
 anything that it could not have been intended to be walked upon, 
 as it was dedicated for a sacred object, and might have been -one 
 of the shutters of that very entrance to the Temple. 
 
 On passing out of this entrance towards the tower, we found 
 no remnant of any structure, but all that was excavated afterwards 
 consisted of debris showing evident signs of a ruined building. 
 As I was anxious not to miss any trace of ancient remains, I had 
 a large ditch excavated between the palace and the tower, about 
 sixty feet in diameter and twenty feet deep; and as I could not 
 afford to dig out the remaining space along the western end of 
 Nebuchadnezzar's palace, or eastern base of the Birs, I penetrated 
 by tunneling under the latter, a distance of about eighty feet. 
 Having proceeded so far, I was obliged to stop for fear of entomb- 
 ing the workmen in their attempt to dig further in; because we 
 met with nothing but loose earth and a large quantity of broken 
 burnt bricks, which came down in a run as if that huge tower was 
 erected on anything but solid foundations! 
 
 There is not the least doubt that formerly there was a com- 
 munication between the palace and the tower through the western 
 entrance of the former where the copper monument was found, 
 
 * Book I, chapter clxxxi. It may be that this kind of gate was 
 alluded to in Isaiah xlv, 1, where it was prophesied, "Thus saith the 
 Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to 
 subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings to open 
 before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut."
 
 346 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 as will be seen from the plan.* It was descended by steps, 
 at the bottom of which there was a pavement of red granite. 
 Whether this was an open space or a roofed hall, it is now quite 
 impossible to tell. 
 
 After the copper object was removed to my quarters in the 
 village, where I used to reside when superintending the works, 
 I had it packed in a wooden case, made expressly for it, to take 
 with me to Baghdad for the purpose of having it dispatched to 
 England; but finding that it was too heavy to transport even on 
 the strongest camel 1 could find, I left it in charge of my Arab 
 overseer at Birs Mmroud, intending on going to Baghdad to send 
 a proper conveyance to carry it. So on reaching that city I en- 
 gaged a muleteer to go and fetch it on a strong litter borne by four 
 mules. I was then pressed for time to proceed to Mossul to see 
 about our other excavations in Assyria and Armenia. I therefore 
 left the arrangement of sending the copper monument to England 
 to Her Majesty's consul-general. 
 
 Whenever I left our excavations in charge of native agents in 
 Babylonia I always solicited the favor of the British representa- 
 tives at Baghdad to protect our explorations, and thus when I was 
 proceeding to Mossul at that time. Colonel Miles, then consul- 
 general at Baghdad, was good enough to undertake the official 
 management of the Babylonian researches. But just as I was 
 starting for my northern journey, I received a telegram from my 
 head overseer at Babylon complaining that the local authorities 
 at Hillah had seized the copper relic and refused to allow it to 
 be taken to Baghdad, alleging that the object was a block of gold. 
 Eumor had spread all over the country that our find at Birs Nim- 
 roud was of incalculable value, and it was feared that if the warlike 
 tribes in the neighborhood believed the report they might take 
 it into their heads to plunder it and cause it to be injured. Colonel 
 Miles therefore lost no time in sending to the Baghdad authorities 
 under whose jurisdiction the Province of Hillah is, warning them 
 that if any injury happened to the monument he would hold them 
 responsible, especially as they had no right to object to having it 
 taken to Baghdad, where all antiquities had to be examined before 
 they were dispatched to England. Whereupon an official telegram 
 
 * Plan.
 
 347 
 STORE OF BRICKS. 
 
 was sent to the HiUah authorities, ordering them to allou the 
 relic to be taken to Baghdad with a proper escort. . , ,, „ 
 
 Ilearned afterwards that when tins peculiar object amved h 
 governor-general appointed a comruission to see '^ '* J^^ ^^^ ^J^ 
 intrinsic value, as i£ they could, by any manner of mean,,, detain 
 t ™ n i"it had proved to be made of gold. Accordmg to the 
 wording of my firman, we were allowed to appropr ate every umque 
 Titular object of any material or metal; and m th,s particular 
 cLe e^peciallj- it was absurd for the Ottoman authonties to mi - 
 Ske old copp;r for gold when the relic was thickly coated w,th 
 Terdigris! For five days this monument was gazed upon by the 
 Arabs, as well as by my Ottoman escort and the ™P™^1 dele- 
 gate, the latter of whom was the first to see it with me on its d s- 
 covery, and not a soul breathed a syllable about its fanciful val e, 
 but as soon as it was thought that I had started for Mossul tie 
 authorities imagined that they could prevent its leaving the country 
 
 "" SsiL excavations I carried on at Birs Nimroud, in the 
 mound of Ibraheem-Alk-haleel, and Babylon, I tried other small 
 mounds in the neighborhood, both on the eastern and western 
 "des of the Euphrates, but I only found a few inscriptions on 
 dt; tablets at Tel-Daillam, which is about -^ -If t.° *^' ^o t 
 east of Birs Nimroud, and six miles to the south o H.lah, al o m 
 he mound called Al-garainee, about four f - '» *^« -^td 
 Babel, and about two miles to the south of Ehan Al-Mahweel. 
 A remarkable incident occurred while we were digging in the 
 last-named mound, which might have ended in the stoppage of 
 our excavations there had not the owner of the mound known 
 how particular I was in respecting the rights of others As I 
 hive pointed out before, in all the Assyrian and Babylonian 
 mounds, large quantities of bricks are always found mixed up 
 with the rubbish when excavations are carried on m old rum., 
 and in Al-garainee, in particular, we came upon a store of theuL 
 I always allowed the owners of the mounds to take them; and 
 in case the land belonged to the State the bricks were given to 
 the local authorities if they wanted them. It happened hat while 
 I was awav superintending other researches in Babylonia, the 
 owner of the Al-garainee required some bricks, and when he sent 
 his workmen to fetch them my overseer refused to give any without 
 a special order from me. As soon as I heard of the mistake, I
 
 348 
 
 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 sent to apologize to the owner of the mound, and begged him to 
 take as many bricks as he hked, and if he wished I would direct 
 my workmen to assist his own men in loading them. He lost no 
 time in assuring me that he took no offense at the conduct of my 
 overseer, as it was his fault that he did not apply to me in the 
 first instance for his requirement, and he hoped I would not blame 
 my agent for what he had done, seeing that he had acted properly 
 in the performance of his duty. The most extraordinary part of 
 the business was that all the time I was in those parts the owner 
 of the Al-garainee and myself never met, as he never came near 
 the place, and I could not spare the time to go and see him. 
 
 In those ruins of Babylon called Imjaileeba, Omran, and Jim- 
 jima, situated on the left bank of the Euphrates, we always found 
 inscribed tablets mixed up with the rubbish; and in some parts 
 we went systematically to work by digging straight through the 
 ground, in order that no object of interest might be missed. The 
 excavations were carried on so efficiently by my overseers during 
 my absence in England, that other small mounds were formed 
 by the debris which Avas cleared out of the old ruins. The more 
 I dug there the more puzzled I was in arriving at a tangible con- 
 clusion in regard to the different sites. With the exception of half 
 a dozen rooms I discovered on what was the borders of a grand 
 
 XJW-Ami/ 
 
 The Remains of the Supposed Great Palace of the Kings of Babylon. 
 
 palace of the kings of Babylon where Belshazzar was supposed 
 to have met with his death on the capture of that city by the Per-
 
 MOUND OF OMRAN. 349 
 
 sians, I could find no regular structure or foundation of any 
 building to enable me to identify the position of the edifice. The 
 whole place seemed to have been upheaved or overthrown by an 
 earthquake or by some supernatural destruction. In some places 
 objects of antiquities were found almost within a foot of the sur- 
 face, and in other parts, not more than a few feet further, we came 
 upon Babylonian relics almost as low as the former foundations. 
 At one time I thought I had hit upon some ancient walls to en- 
 able me to penetrate with a definite aim into the interior of a 
 regular building, but I was soon doomed to disappointment; be- 
 cause, what I thought at first sight to be a Babylonian building, 
 turned out afterwards Sassanian or Parthian. There is no mistak- 
 ing a Bab3donian or Assyrian structure for that of Sassanian, Par- 
 thian, or Arab, as there is as much difl'erence between the two 
 styles as there is between Grecian and Egyptian art. 
 
 That part of the mound called Omran, to the north of the 
 sanctum of that name, is more mysterious to me than any mound 
 I ever dug at, either in Assyria or Babylonia; because, while the 
 southern portion contained evident signs of ancient remains, where 
 we discovered a large number of inscribed clay tablets, the northern 
 part was an accumulation of ashes, bones, fragments of pottery, 
 and other refuse. We could find no sign of inscription or any 
 object of interest to show that it had ever been occupied, though 
 I had a wide trench dug in the middle of it as far as the water. 
 I am even now unsettled in my mind whether that portion of 
 Omran which is very extensive, ought not to be tried once more 
 in other localities. I felt at the time quite reluctant to waste more 
 money in digging other trenches in that site, especially as I could 
 ill afford to carry on researches barren of good results when I had 
 other more promising localities to explore. 
 
 It has been supposed by some geographers that the mound 
 of Omran indicated the site of the hanging gardens; but against 
 this theory there is the undoubted fact of the discovery of the 
 four wells at Babel and the lowness of the former in comparison 
 to the towering prospect of the latter, which can be seen from a 
 great distance. Moreover, the very name of hanging gardens im- 
 plies that the plantations were laid in terraces to give them a 
 grand appearance, and the aspect of the flat, low mound of Omran 
 does not show any sign of such feature. The southern part of 
 Babel, where the wells are found, shows even now unmistakable
 
 350 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 indications of sloping tendency, though for the last two thousand 
 years the j^lace had been furrowed through by searchers for treasure 
 and diggers for bricks. Mr. Claudius Eich, one of the most accu- 
 rate and judicious observers, was the first who harbored the idea 
 that Babel (which he called Imjaileeba) indicated the site of the 
 hanging gardens, but the fact of the existence of some skeletons 
 which were found there somewhat puzzled him in determining 
 his theory.* At the time ]\Ir. Eich visited Babylon there had been 
 scarcely any archfeological research on a large scale carried on in 
 Babylonia, and, consequently, neither the graves nor buildings 
 of future occupiers of the ruined city were examined properly 
 to define their origin. Had he tried even half a dozen 
 graves he would have found that they did not belong to the 
 ancient Babylonians, but to subsequent occupiers of the soil, sup- 
 posed to be Parthians or Sassanians. In both Assyria and Baby- 
 lonia I very often came in contact with that kind of graves, 
 whether the dead were buried in vaults, sarcophagi, or merely 
 interred in the earth. The females were buried with their orna- 
 ments, consisting of common beads and rude trinkets, and the 
 males were supplied with their drinking earthenware jugs and 
 cups. What struck me as being extraordinary was the non- 
 existence of valuable or precious ornaments in any of the tombs, 
 unless the remains of the respectable class and the well-to-do were 
 cremated. At Babylon we found some skeletons with thin gold- 
 leaf covering the faces, and others with bands of the same gold- 
 leaf placed across the foreheads.f 
 
 Besides the tombs of those rude people, we found a large num- 
 ber of earthenware drain-pipes, varying from ten to eighteen inches 
 in diameter, which had been sunk through the debris from the top 
 of the different mounds to the depth of about twenty and thirty 
 feet. There is no doubt these belonged to the sinks of those 
 people who occupied the ruined city after the utter destruction 
 of Babylon had taken place. 
 
 Nothing can now be seen of that famous city but heaps of 
 rubbish, in which are mingled, in utter confusion, broken bricks, 
 pottery, and remnants of enameled tiles of different colors and 
 
 * Rich: Babylon and Persopolis, p. 95. 
 
 t Similar masks were found by Sir Henry Layard. See Layard's 
 "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 592.
 
 PALACE OF NABOPOLASSAR. ^^^ 
 
 designs. These latter are only found at Imjaileeba, and mentioned 
 both in sacred and profane writings. Ezeldel alludes to them m 
 his prophecy;* and Diodorus Siculus, the Grecian historian, says 
 concerning them, that the walls and towers of the palace were 
 covered with tiles of different colors, representing hunting scenes 
 wherein were shown various kinds of wild beasts with Semiramis 
 on horseback striking a leopard through with a dart, and next to 
 her, her husband, Ninus, in close fight with a lion, piercing him 
 
 with his lance." t , , ,., 
 
 I consider this ruin, the only place where the enameled tiles 
 were found in great abundance, is the site of the old palace wliich 
 was occupied by Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar and 
 the one at the eastern extremity of that mound where I found 
 some halls and chambers was the palace mentioned by Josephus, 
 which had been erected by the latter king in the marvelously 
 short time of fifteen days! $ Then at the southern portion of the 
 same site, indicated by what is commonly called the "Kassir, ^ 
 I take it to be the remnant of the Temple of Belus; and my reason 
 for saying so is founded on the fact that that ruin has the same 
 architecture as Birs Nimroud,-that is to say, wholly bmlt of 
 solid hard, kiln-burnt bricks, and cemented with lime cement, 
 especially as there is no other building in all Babylonia possessing 
 the same style of fabric devoid of any sun-dried bricks. No less 
 than the remains of seven royal structures, which I discovered 
 at Babylon, Birs Nimroud, Cutha, and Sepharvaim, or Sippara, 
 were built with sun-dried bricks plastered over with adhesive clay 
 
 * Ezekiel xxiii, 14, 15. 
 
 f Diodorus Siculus, Book II, e. 1. 
 
 t Josephus, Antiquities, X, xi, 1. 
 
 8 "Kassir" means a palace in Arabic; not that there is any reason 
 to call it so, but the Arabs always like to give a name to an old ruin, 
 either a palace or citadel. It is a remnant of a solid, original brick 
 masonry still existing there. But "Imjaileeba," which is the name 
 of the whole mound, means "overturned," from the nature of up- 
 heaved ruins. It had been dug into for hundreds of years by seekers 
 of treasure and bricks, and now the whole place seems as if it had 
 been destroved by an earthquake. The only reason that part of the 
 tower has been left undemolished. is on account of its solidity and 
 the adhesive quality of the cemented bricks. Although I tried my 
 utmost to find an entire enameled brick for the British Museum, I 
 failed to do so.
 
 352 ASSRUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 cement; and whenever I found any kiln-burnt bricks in any of 
 those buildings they were either used as buttresses or pavements.* 
 It may be considered a novelty to start up such a supposition as 
 there having been three separate structures on the mound of Im- 
 Jaileeba, — that is to say, the Temple of Belus, the palace of Nabo- 
 polassar, and the wonderful building of Nebuchadnezzar, which 
 was said to have been erected in fifteen days! But if we take the 
 size of the mound, and compare it with other Babylonian or 
 Assyrian sites, we shall find there was ample space there for the 
 three great edifices. The mound of Koyunjik (the royal city of 
 Mneveh), which is one-third smaller, contained two large palaces, 
 one of Sennacherib and the other of Assur-bani-pal, or Sardanapa- 
 lus, and these only occupied about one-third of the mound; and 
 at Nimroud, which is not quite half the size of Imjaileeba, Sir 
 Henr}' Layard discovered no less than three palaces of Assur- 
 nazir-pal, Esar-haddon, Saracus, and the remains of a fourth, sup- 
 posed to have belonged to Tiglath-Pileser. 
 
 At the mound of Babel, v/hich is no doubt the site of the 
 hanging gardens, as I shall prove presently, I followed the exca- 
 vations of the Arabs, who were digging for bricks, and uncovered 
 four exquisitely-built wells of red granite in the southern center 
 
 * The only difficulty which stares me in the face, regarding the 
 situation of the Temple of Belus, and the royal palace in the same 
 position, is the account given by Herodotus with regard to the situ- 
 ation of those two buildings. He distinctly says (I, clxxxi) that the 
 Temple of Belus stood in one division of the city, and the royal palace 
 occupied the other. I think this seeming antagonistic statement may 
 be explained by the fact that there must have been more than one 
 palace in each division, as there are unmistakable indications both at 
 Babel, Omran, and Jimjima, of royal habitations. Moreover, we are 
 informed by Diodorus (ii, 8) that there were two palaces, one on 
 either side of the river, and if the Euphrates flowed then between 
 Imjaileeba and Omran, it would have a palace on each of those sites. 
 As for the proximity of the temple to the royal residence, we have 
 only to take for an example Nabonidus's palace at Birs Nimroud, 
 which almost joins the Temple of Borsippa. We are also told by 
 Strabo and Arrian that when Alexander tried to repair the Temple of 
 Belus, it was conjectured that it would entail immense labor, ten 
 thousand men being unable to remove the rubbish in two months from 
 the ruin. As a matter of fact, even now the debris around the Kassir 
 is the only existing indication all over Babylonia of the nature attrib- 
 uted to it by historians.
 
 AQUEDUCTS AND WELLS. 353 
 
 of the mound; three of which were situated in a parallel line 
 within a few feet of each other, and one was some distance from 
 them in a southeasterly direction. Their engineering and scientific 
 erection reflect great credit upon the designer. Each well is built 
 of circular pieces of granite, which must have been brought from a 
 great distance in Northern ^fesopotamia, as there is no quarr}' of 
 that nature to be seen anywhere near the Euphrates within five 
 hundred miles up the river. Each stone, which is about three feet 
 in height, had been bored and made to fit the one below it so 
 exactly that one would imagine that the whole well was hewn in 
 one solid rock. On digging to the bottom of these wells, it was 
 found to communicate with an aqueduct supplied with water from 
 the Euphrates, or a canal which must have skirted the north- 
 eastern corner of the mound. Even when I dug into the water- 
 course when the river was high, the water oozed out through the 
 debris, though the Euphrates ran then about a mile from it. 
 These wells, which were about one hundred and forty feet high 
 when I uncovered them, and could not have been less than fifty 
 or sixty feet higher originally, must have been erected exclusively 
 for irrigating the hanging gardens, as they doubtless stood higher 
 than any other building in the city on account of the command- 
 ing position the mound of Babel occupied.* These stone-built 
 
 * Both Strabo and Quintus Curtius represent the hanging gardens 
 to have been very near the river; and Diodorus, in particular, men- 
 tions that the water was drawn by engines through conduits for 
 irrigating the surface, which testimonies prove more than anything 
 else that the wells and aqueduct found at Babel were the identical 
 sites that the ancient historians alluded to. As Diodorus gives a full 
 description of these gardens, I will quote his history of them. 
 
 He says: "There was also a hanging garden (as it is called) near 
 the citadel, not built by Semiramis, but by a later prince, called 
 Cyrus, for the sake of a courtesan, who, being a Persian (as they 
 say) by birth, and coveting meadows on mountain-tops, desired the 
 king, by an artificial plantation, to imitate the land in Persia. This 
 garden was four hundred feet square, and the ascent up to it was 
 as to the top of a mountain, and had buildings and apartments out 
 of one Into another like a theater. Under the steps to the ascent were 
 built arches one above another, rising gently by degrees, which sup- 
 ported the whole plantation. The highest arch upon which the plat- 
 form of the garden was laid was fifty cubits high, and the garden 
 itself was surrounded with battlements and bulwarks. The walls 
 were made very strong, bnilt at no small charge and expense, being 
 
 23
 
 354 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 weilri are quite peculiar to that spot, because all the wells that have 
 hitherto been discovered in Assyria and Babylonia were of the 
 same style of architecture, consisting of hard-baked bricks, 
 molded in such a shape as to fit regularly to each other in a cricle. 
 One of the wells I allude to was found at Ximroud by Sir Henry 
 Layard, and three others by me, at x\boo-habba, Jimjima, and 
 Balawat, one of the Nineveh mounds where the bronze monu- 
 ment of Shalmaneser II was discovered. The well which I found 
 at Jimjima was not deep, and seemed to have been repaired by 
 the Parthians.* 
 
 two aud twenty feet thick, and every sally-port ten feet wide. Over 
 the several stories of this fabric were laid beams and summers of 
 huge massy stones, each sixteen feet long and four broad. The roof 
 over all these was first covered with reeds, daubed with abundance 
 of brimstone (or bitumen); then upon them was laid double tiles 
 pargeted together with a hard and durable mortar, and over them all 
 was a covering, with sheets of lead that the wet which drenched 
 through the earth might not rot the foundation. Upon all these was 
 laid earth of a convenient depth, sufficient for the growth of the 
 greatest trees. When the soil was laid even aud smooth, it was 
 planted with all sorts of trees, which, both for beauty and greatness, 
 might delight the spectators. The arches, which stood one above an- 
 other, had in them many stately rooms of all kinds and for all pur- 
 poses. But there was one that had in it a certain engine, whereby 
 it drew plenty of water out of the river, through certain conduits and 
 conveniences from the platform of the garden; and nobody without 
 was the wiser, or knew what was done. The garden, as we said be- 
 fore, was built in later ages." B. II, c. 1. (Buckingham, Travels, VoL 
 II, p. 2G5.) 
 
 Pliny also mentions that the hanging gardens were constructed 
 on columns, arches, and walls, aud contained terraces of earth watered 
 by machines from the river, producing forests of large trees. Its height 
 was equal to that of the castle walls, and from the fine air enjoyed 
 there, fruits of all kinds were produced, and the shade and refreshing 
 coolness of the place were delicious in such a climate. It was said 
 that a king of Syria (Assyria), who reigned in Babylon, constructed 
 these gardens to gratify a wife whom he violently loved, and who, 
 having a passion for woods and forests, thus enjoyed, in the midst of 
 a great metropolis, the sylvan pleasures of a country life. (Nat. His., 
 B. V, c. 1. Buckingham, Travels, Vol. II, p. 282.) 
 
 * Strange to relate, all the water found in those wells was brackish, 
 owing to the existence of saline matter, both in the vicinity of Nine- 
 veh and Babylon, though wells are dug within a short distance from 
 the Tigris or Euphrates.
 
 THE HANGING GARDENS. ^^^ 
 
 It is very remarkable that in 1854 I discovered amongst the 
 bas-rehefs found in the palace of Assur-bani-pal a representation 
 of this very mound, which Sir Henry Eawlinson and other Assyrian 
 scholars identified with the famous hanging gardens of Xebuchad- 
 nezzar. They are now in the basement room in the British 
 Museum. On this sculpture the usual monohth of a deified kmg 
 is shown, with water-courses running down the declivities of the 
 mound. The first object that attracts the traveler's notice on 
 approaching Babylon from Baghdad, is this remarkable high mound 
 at the extreme northern border of the ancient city, and in riding 
 into Hillah the traveler skirts it on the eastern side. Next to Birs 
 Nimroud it is the most prominent of all the mounds. It can be 
 seen from a great distance; and at the time of its construction it 
 must have looked most imposing. 
 
 Of all the existing sites and ruins in Babylon proper, Babel is 
 the only mound that could have represented the hanging gardens, 
 both from its position and shape. Besides the wells which I have 
 mentioned, there still exist solid walls and battlements built of 
 kiln-burnt bricks, which evidently supported the arches and columns 
 which Diodorus and Pliny mention. On the northeast and north- 
 west the walls are quite perpendicular, and when they are uncov- 
 ered from the rubbish they look very like the architecture of the 
 Kassir, but the bricks are not so difficult to detach. The Arabs 
 had been at the work of destruction for centuries, and when I 
 was there they were busily engaged in demolishing the huge walls 
 on the northeast and northwest portions of the mound. Had I 
 had power to stop them and possessed the necessary funds to un- 
 cover the ruins, I feel sure that I should have discovered impor- 
 tant and more convincing proof of the identification of the his- 
 torical hanging gardens. 
 
 I also feel sure that there must have been an important public 
 building almost as large as Babel in area, but somewhat low, about 
 half a mile to the east of that mound; but as I had more important 
 work to carry on in other localities. I could not spare more than 
 one gang of seven men to examine it for a few days. I have never 
 found it of any use to spend more than three or four weeks upon 
 the examination of any site, unless T found some good indications 
 of valuable remains, especially when my workmen could be em- 
 ployed with greater advantage in other places. On this account, 
 therefore, I did not give that spot a thorough examination.
 
 356 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 Every time I returned to that country I tried all I could to 
 trace the original outskirts of the ancient city, according to the 
 description of the Grecian historians, Herodotus and Diodorus; 
 but the more I puzzled my head to arrive at a definite result, the 
 more I was perplexed. I also tried, after a strict examination of 
 the different sites in dispute, to reconcile my theory with that of 
 Mr. Eich, Major Eumell, M. Oppert, and other recent writers, but 
 I failed to do so; because the different conflicting arguments of 
 those who wrote about the topography of Bab^don seemed to add 
 to the difficulty of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 We have no reason to suppose that all those ancient historians 
 who wrote about the enormous size and magnificence of the 
 capital of Chaldea, reported what was not the fact, though they 
 might have made some mistakes and exaggerated the prodigious 
 extent of the walls and their great breadth/ and height. We ought 
 also not to discredit the united testimony of the ancients that the 
 river ran between the most notable royal buildings, the Temple 
 of Belus, and the hanging garden, though, with the exception 
 of Birs Mmroud, which is about thirteen miles to the southwest 
 of Babylon, all the remaining ruins are now situated on the east 
 side of the Euphrates, and not a vestige of any ancient remains 
 of importance can now be seen on the western bank. There are, 
 indeed, some isolated and insignificant artificial mounds around 
 Hillah and at Annana opposite Omran, but from the nature of 
 the soil these could not have been in existence before the destruc- 
 tion of Babylon. 
 
 It is quite impossible for the river to have demolished every 
 trace of the royal buildings on one side of the river, and not on 
 the other, especially as it is known how particular the Assyrian 
 and Babylonian monarchs were in protecting their habitations 
 and temples against an enemy and the inroad of flood. We ought, 
 therefore, to conclude that the Euphrates must have run formerly 
 either between the mound of Babel and Imjaileeba, or between the 
 latter ruin and Omran, — that is to say, keeping the mound of 
 Babel and Imjaileeba on the east or left side, and the other ruins 
 of Omran and Jimjima on the right or west. 
 
 All authorities agree that the river divided Babylon in two 
 parts, the same as the Thames divides London, and the royal 
 residences, the Temple of Belus, and the hanging gardens occupied 
 central parts, and these likewise were separated by the river. The
 
 COURSE OF THE EUPHRATES. 367 
 
 old course of the river ought therefore to be found between the 
 existing principal ruins, and I shall not wonder if even traces of 
 the old bed are discovered to the east of Babel and west of Imjai- 
 leeba, as I have found during my researches there brick masonry 
 deep under ground, in those two localities which would make the 
 river run in such a way as to leave Babel and Imjaileeba to the 
 right or west, and the other ruins to the left or east. 
 
 Although I am not certain between which mounds the river 
 actually flowed formerly, I am, nevertheless, quite convinced in 
 my mind that the main stream of the Euphrates did not run in 
 its present course before Cyrus captured Babylon; but through 
 the stratagem he used in turning its flow into Nitocris's old reser- 
 voir and other canals, it made for itself a new channel.* 
 
 There is no doubt that his engineering for that purpose was 
 carried out to the southwest of Khan-al-Mahweel, and not far from 
 the mouth of the Neel Canal, about six miles to the northwest of 
 Babel; and as Babylon was invested all around by the Medo-Persian 
 army the numerous canals, which must have traversed Babylon, 
 inside and out, for the purposes of irrigation, might have con- 
 tributed to a large extent in exhausting the main flow. The body 
 of the Euphrates, as a matter of course, must have been very small 
 in comparison to its present size in the neighl)orhood of Babylon, 
 seeing that the great canal called Nahr-Malka, or royal river, with 
 all its branches, must have absorbed at least one-third of it beside 
 the other minor canals that were fed by the Euphrates lower down; 
 that is to say, between Aboo-habba, or Sepharvaim, and the north- 
 ern limit of Babylon. 
 
 I am of opinion that the present lake that surrounds Birs 
 Nimroud is neither more nor less than the reservoir of Nitocris, 
 
 * Herodotus relates thus: "Having stationed the bulk of his army 
 near the passage of the river where it enters Babylon, and again 
 having stationed another division beyond the city where the river 
 makes its exit, he (Cyrus) gave orders to his forces to enter the city 
 as soon as they should see the stream fordable. Having thus sta- 
 tioned his forces, and given these directions, he himself marched 
 away with the ineffective part of his army, and having come to the 
 lake, Cyrus did the same with respect to the river and the lake as 
 the queen of the Babylonians (Nitocris) had done. For having di- 
 verted the river, by means of a canal into the lake which was before 
 a swamp, he made the ancient channel fordable by the sinbing of 
 the river." (Herodotus, I, 191.)
 
 358 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 which is now fed by the Hindeya Canal. I feel confident, also, 
 that the ancient course of the river could be ascertained easily 
 by a small outlay; because, if the statement of Herodotus can be 
 depended upon in reference to Queen Mtocris's embankment of the 
 river with burnt bricks, and bridging it over in one place with 
 large blocks of stone, some of these materials might be in existence 
 now 
 
 * 
 
 As for the theory that the site of the famous Temple of 
 Belus may be traced in the ruin of Birs Nimroud, it is utterly in- 
 consistent with historical evidences and contrary to the bare fact 
 of its distance from the royal precincts, — sites which can not be 
 disputed. 
 
 In the first place, there is the royal record of Nebuchadnezzar 
 found in his standard inscription, wherein he enumerates the 
 wonders of Babylon, and the part he had taken in adding to its 
 magnificence. He particularly mentions Borsippa (Birs Nimroud) 
 and the Temple of Merodach (supposed to be Belus). as two sepa- 
 rate buildings. 
 
 Secondly, Birs Nimroud is so far from what is considered the 
 center of Babylon, that it could never have occupied the position 
 
 * Herodotus relates: "As the city consisted of two divisions, which 
 were separated by the river during the reign of former kings, when any 
 one had occasion to cross from one division to the other, he was 
 obliged to cross in a boat; and this, in my opinion, was very trouble- 
 some. She (Nitocris) therefore provided for this; for after she had 
 dug the reservoir for the lake, she left this other monument built by 
 similar toil. She had lai^e blocks of stone cut, and when they were 
 ready and the place was completely dug out, she turned the whole 
 stream of the river into the place she had dug. While this was filled, 
 and the ancient channel had become dry, in the first place, she lined 
 with burnt bricks the banks of the river throughout the city, and the 
 descents that lead from the gates to the river in the same manner 
 as the walls. In the next place, about the middle of the city she 
 built a bridge with the stones she had prepared, and bound them 
 together with plates of lead and iron. Upon these stones she laid, 
 during the day, square planks of timber, on which the Babylonians 
 might pass over; but at night these planks were removed, to prevent 
 people from crossing by night and robbing one another. When the 
 hollow that was dug had become a lake filled by the river, and the 
 bridge was finished, she brought back the river to its ancient channel 
 from the lake. And thus the excavations having been turned into a 
 marsh, appeared to answer the purpose for which it was made, and 
 a bridge was built for the use of the inhabitants." (Herodotus, I, 186.)
 
 CAPTURE OF BABYLOX. 
 
 359 
 
 assigned to the Temple of Belus in either of the divisions, seeing 
 that it is more than twelve miles distant and quite isolated from 
 the other ancient ruins. Both Herodotus and Diodorus place the 
 Temple of Belus in the center; but while the former assigns the 
 palaces to the other center of the division, the latter merely men- 
 tions that the bridge was built on the narrowest part of the river, 
 with the royal edifices at each end of the bridge. So if we allow 
 the Birs to be the site of the Temple of Belus, we must discredit 
 altogether the statements of the ancients that the most important 
 buildings were situated in the center of Babylon on the opposite 
 sides of the river, and increase the size of that city to double 
 the dimension given to it by Herodotus as being fourteen miles 
 each side of the square; a measurement which has been con- 
 sidered by all critics to be preposterous! 
 
 Thirdly, we are informed by Berosus, on the authority of Jo- 
 sephus, that after Cyrus had captured Babylon, he ordered the 
 outer walls of the city to be demolished, and marched to Borsippa 
 to besiege Xabonidus, who had fled thither after his defeat.* This 
 proves, more than anything else, that not only Borsippa was not 
 included in the enciente of Babylon, but that it was quite a sepa- 
 rate place, and had its own defenses, part of which can even now 
 be seen intact. 
 
 It is related by Arrian, the historian of. Alexander (Exp. Alex. 
 VII, 17), that Xerxes razed to the ground the Temple of Belus, 
 a destruction which could not possibly apply to the town of Birs 
 Nimroud, which even now, after twenty-three centuries, can be 
 seen standing to the height of nearly two hundred feet! 
 
 * "When Nabooidus perceived he (Cyrus) was coming to attack 
 him, be met him with his forces, and, joining battle with him, was 
 beaten, and fled away, with a few of his troops with him, and was 
 shut up within the city of Borsippas. Hereupon Cyrus tooli Babylon, 
 and gave orders that the outer wall of the city should be demolished, 
 because the city had proved very troublesome to him. and cost him 
 a great deal of pains to take it. He then marched away to Borsippas 
 to besiege Nabonidus; but as Nabonidus did not sustain a siege he 
 delivered himself up into his hands." (Josephus Against Apion, i, 20.) 
 
 Herodotus, however, says that not Cyrus, but Darius, had de- 
 stroyed the walls. His words are these: "But w'hen Darius made 
 himself master of the Babylonians, first of all he demolished the walls 
 and bore away all the gates, for when Cyrus had taken Babylon before, 
 he did neither of these things." (Book III, clause 159.)
 
 360 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 The most wonderful of all destructions that have ever taken 
 place in the world is the non-existence of even a small remnant 
 of that prodigious wall of Babylon, which was said to have been 
 sixty miles in circumference; three hundred and fifty feet in 
 height, and seventy-five feet in width. Herodotus says that "on 
 the top of the wall, at the edges, they built dwellings of one story 
 fronting each other, and they left a space between these dwell- 
 ings sufficient for turning a chariot with four horses." * If we 
 reduce the size to half, or even a c^uarter, of the supposed extent 
 of the wall, it is marvelous that not even a speck of it can now 
 be traced, though there has been no lack of ardent researchers 
 and explorers, who have strained their wits to fix a certain spot or 
 limit to their conjectures, but failed to do so.f I myself have had 
 ample opportunity to arrive at a definite conclusion, and have met 
 with the same disappointing result. The reality of the utter ex- 
 tinction of that gigantic wall seems the more astonishing when 
 there are now other Babylonian city walls still in existence, almost 
 entire, not far from Babylon.J 
 
 Consider it as we may, it is certainly most puzzling to deter- 
 mine where the site of ancient Babylon begins and where it ends. 
 If we take the present conspicuous ruins to be the Center, accord- 
 ing to the general accepted testimony of different historians, with 
 the Euphrates running through the principal structures, why then, 
 both to the north and east, there are still to be seen ancient remains, 
 but to the south and west there exist no signs Avhatever of such 
 ruins. § If Herodotus's account of the different gates of the city 
 
 * Herodotus, 1, 179. 
 
 fThe destruction of the walls of Babylon was foretold by the 
 prophet Jeremiah in the following words: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; 
 The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates 
 shall be burnt with fire, and the people shall labor in vain." (Jer. li, 58.) 
 
 X The existing Babylonian city walls in the neighborhood of Baby- 
 lon are around Birs Nimroud, Aboo-habba, and Dair. The last of 
 these three mounds, which is very small, about two thousand yards 
 in circumference, and three miles to the east of Aboo-habba, is quite 
 entire, and there is not the least doubt that it is an original Babylonian 
 erection, not unlike the existing wall of Koyunjik (Nineveh). It is 
 faced with the common burnt bricks, but not hard baked, and it may 
 be that the walls of Babylon were built in the same style. 
 
 §Diodorus and Strabo reduce each side of the square to eleven 
 miles, or three miles less than the measurement of Herodotus.— that is
 
 DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON. 361 
 
 can be relied on, I think the mound of x\lgarainee indicates the 
 spot where the Nineveh gate was supposed to have stood.* 
 
 If we adopt the reckoning of Herodotus to be the correct one; 
 namely, that Babylon was about fifteen miles square, and that the 
 palaces and the Temple of Belus ocupied a central position and 
 represented by the ruins of Imjaileeba, we may then, safely, take 
 the mound of Al-hhaimar, about seven miles eastward, to indicate 
 one of the eastern gates of the city, either the Beledian or 
 Cissian. 
 
 From all accounts it seems that within the area of the hutge 
 outer wall, fields of corn, parks, and gardens predominated as it 
 is in the suburbs of Wan, the capital of Armenia. Outside the 
 walls of the latter city all the houses are surrounded by gardens 
 and orchards for nearly five miles in length, and three or four 
 miles in breadth. f 
 
 The complete demolition of that famous wall can only be 
 accounted for by its construction; as we are told by Herodotus 
 that "a moat, deep, wide, and full of water, ran entirely round 
 the city, of which the wall was built;" and, as a matter of course, 
 when the invaders were bent upon the destruction of what caused 
 the Medo-Persian conquerors immense trouble in the capture of 
 Babylon, it was no difficult matter to throw the debris back into 
 the ditch from whence it was dug out. Since then the plow- 
 ing of the soil for cultivation from year to year, and the digging 
 of different new canals and water-courses for the purposes of 
 irrigation, together with the deposit of alluvial soil from the 
 constant inundations, soon caused the furrowed land to assume its 
 former aspect. There is one objection to this theory, however, 
 which must not be overlooked, and that is, the statement of 
 Herodotus about the existence of baked bricks in the walls; as 
 he says that '"'as they dug the moat they made bricks of the earth 
 
 to say, the latter makes Babylon about two hundred square miles, 
 while the former compute it at only one hundred and thirty njiles. 
 
 * Book III, clause 155. 
 
 f We are told by Quintus Curtius "that the houses of the city did 
 not touch the walls, but were at some distance from it. All the space 
 within tlie city was not built, nor more than ninety stadia of it; and 
 even the houses did not join each other. The remainder of the ground 
 served as fields and gardens, sufficient to furnish provisions to the 
 city in the event of a siege." (B. V, c. 1.)
 
 362 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 that was taken out, and when they had molded a sufficient number 
 the}' baked them in kilns." * 
 
 Berosus, Diodorus^ and others also mention that the walls were 
 partly built of burnt bricks cemented with asphalt; and as 1 know 
 how difficult it is to detach kiln-burnt bricks from each other, 
 when they are built into a wall, without breaking them, I am 
 quite puzzled to account for the total absence of every sign of 
 such remains on the west side of the Euphrates for a distance 
 of twelve miles, until the outskirts of Birs Ximroud are reached. 
 It may be, as I said before, that the accumulation of alluvial de- 
 posit, for so many centuries, has covered the old ruins to such 
 a degree as to make the land appear as if it was in its natural 
 state, or the alleged burnt bricks were of that nature as to de- 
 compose to powder after a short space of time, when they are not 
 protected by a coating of bitumen. 
 
 There were three kinds of bricks made in Babylon, the sun- 
 dried bricks, which were commonly used in the royal buildings 
 in Assyria and Babylonia; the hard-baked, which N^ebuchadnezzar 
 declared to be, in his standard inscription, as "hard as 
 stones;*' and the other burnt bricks found in some localities in 
 Babylonia, such as the mound called Al-hhaimar, some of the 
 chambers in Nebuchadnezzar's palace at Birs Nimroud, part of 
 Aboo-habba, or Sippara, and the wail of Dair, another Babylonian 
 ancient site (which I believe to be the other Sippara of the moon 
 goddess), about three miles to the east of the last-named place. 
 These were made differently from the hard bricks, as they were 
 merely the common sun-dried bricks baked in an oven; but the 
 others, which are as hard as rock, contained some other ingedients, 
 including bitumen and lime.f 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that all the country around Babylon, 
 especially near the ruins, is impregnated with nitre; and after a 
 
 * Herodotus. I, 179. 
 
 t In the construction of their buildings of sun-dried bricks, the 
 Babylonians used matting between layers varying from four to ten 
 courses: for what purpose this was done it is impossible to tell. 
 Through the length of time they have been built in the walls, the 
 matting has decomposed, and now only a white substance, like French 
 plaster, about an eighth of an inch thick, is seen between the courses. 
 In Assyrian erections no such material was used, but in some buildings 
 matting was laid under the pavement between the burnt bricks, and 
 the bitumen used to keep the damp out.
 
 AT BAGHDAD. ^^^ 
 
 heavy shower of rain, followed by hot sun, some parts of the land 
 look quite white; and 1 have very often seen saltpeter as thick 
 as a penny on the ground. When this saliniferous substance ap- 
 pears in hard ground, it becomes slimy and slippery; but if it oozes 
 throu^-h soft earth it renders it very heavy, both for man and beast, 
 to walk on. The existence of nitre, so common in the ancient site 
 of Babylon, proves that debris of kiln-burnt bricks must be buried 
 under ground in large quantity to cause such a change in the 
 alluvial soil. Had it not been for my scruple not to waste public 
 money on such an object, which is of no material benefit to the 
 British Museum, I should certainly have gone about differently 
 to discover some clue to the positions of the important parts of 
 
 the old city. 
 
 Having reached Southern Mesopotamia at a time when the 
 heat of the weather makes it almost impossible for carrying on 
 extensive explorations in Babylonia; and as I had other works 
 to attend to in Assyria and Armenia, I hastened to Mossul by 
 way of Karkook and Arweel (ancient Arbela) on the eastern side of 
 the Tio-ris, after having made proper arrangements for the con- 
 tinuation, on a small scale, of our researches at Babylon and Birs 
 
 Nimroud. 
 
 I was fortunate enough to have a kind and hospitable friend 
 at the time at Baghdad, in the person of Colonel Miles, who was 
 then acting as Her Majesty's representative at that place. Nothing 
 could surpass his warm-hearted attention for the comfort of his 
 guests. It was not only of infinite pleasure to any traveler to 
 have him as a host, but his genuine thoughtfulness made his 
 guests feel quite at home under his roof. 
 
 After having spent a very pleasant week with him, while my 
 servants and the muleteer were preparing for the journey, I left 
 Bac^hdad on the 9th June, 1880, traveling either at night or very 
 earty in the morning soon after midnight, resting during the day, 
 in consequence of the great heat which prevails in those regions 
 at that time of the year. I reached ]\Iossul in fourteen days after 
 having broken my journey at Karkook for one day, for the pur- 
 pose of seeing the governor-general, who was sta^ang there on 
 account of the chronic disorder of the Hammnwand Koords. The 
 road to Karkook from Ssalhheya was so infested with them that 
 the governor of the last-named place found it necessary to send 
 a formidable escort with me for fear of an attack.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Owing to the famine which prevailed in the Pashalics of Bagh- 
 dad and Mossul, for more than a year, a dreadful epidemic of a 
 most malignant type, called '"black fever," had appeared in those 
 parts, which killed its victims by the thousand after a short ill- 
 ness. At Karkook and its neighborhood especially, the scourge 
 had been most severe. In the town itself the fever had carried 
 off so many of its inhabitants that hundreds of houses and shops 
 were left without owners, and the burial of paupers had cost the 
 Turkish Government 375,000 piasters for shrouds, being at the 
 rate of thirty piasters, or five shillings, a head.* In the time of 
 the famine all those who could not find sustenance in the provinces 
 took refuge at Karkook; and so, when the epidemic appeared, it 
 carried off these poor wretches by the scores. 
 
 While I was halting at Ssalhheya, where the epidemic was 
 raging, about sixty miles to the southeast of Karkook, I saw a 
 number of men being carried in a state of unconsciousness^ some 
 in a dying condition, and others just as they were attacked in the 
 bazaar. I was myself located at the telegraph office, which was 
 recommended to me by my escort as being the cleanest place in the 
 town, and where I should find comfortable accommodation and 
 a hearty reception by the chief of the station. On arriving there, 
 I found that my host was one of the victims who had been attacked 
 with the prevailing malady, as were also the rest of his family, 
 and was just getting over the worst part of the ailment. Though 
 he was too unwell to attend to me personally, he gave directions 
 that I should have the best room in the house, and two others were 
 apportioned to my followers. My cook, whether from fear or from 
 bilious derangement, was reported to me to be "suffering," which 
 report certainly made me anxious, as I was afraid that if the epi- 
 demic broke out amon2:st my followers, there was no knowing 
 what the end of it would be. Happily, a harmless laugh at his 
 timidity, with a strong dose of sedlitz powder, put him right again, 
 and soon afterwards he was able to go about his work and cook 
 
 * In Mohammedan countries all expenses attending the burial of 
 paupers are defrayed by the State; and a most wise provision it is. 
 364
 
 PALACE OF SENNACHERIB. ^65 
 
 my dinner. The fact was, the heat of the niornmg sun and the 
 news of so many deaths from the black fever at that place had 
 upset him altogether, and he thought, of course, that he was going 
 to fall a victim to the distemper. 
 
 It was no wonder that the sickness at Salhheya was so virulent, 
 for the water the natives were drinking was a filthy concoction 
 of mud, putrid vegetation, dead animals, and refuse that was 
 thrown out of the houses! Those who could afford it, sent and 
 fetched themselves drinking water from the spring outside the 
 town as I did; but the majority contented themselves with the 
 impure water that was got out of the stagnant rivulet m the town 
 I was in hopes that, on reaching Mossul from Baghdad, I should 
 be able to resume our explorations at Nebee Yonis through the 
 assistance of Mr. Goschen, the British ambassador at Constanti- 
 nople; but, unfortunately, the opposition arrayed against us was 
 too great to be overcome bv His Excellency, when the affair of 
 Dalcino had stamped out the little love the Turks entertained 
 for us Promises were made and broken, pleas were set up and 
 vanished, and an attempt to stir up a religious crusade against 
 the sacrilege of our explorations in the "holy place" failed, and 
 still I was left in a state of uncertainty for more than a month 
 without even having the comforting feeling that the representa- 
 tives of England at the Turkish capital had done their best to 
 restore to the British Museum their rightful privilege. I say 
 rightful, because we relied on the integrity and justice of His 
 Imperial Majesty, who had already granted us a royal license to 
 excavate in the Pashalic of ^lossul without let or hindrance under 
 certain restrictions, which I never failed to respect. Having most 
 important work to conduct at Wan, I could not wait any longer 
 at Mossul, but started northward, after having made proper ar- 
 rangements for carrying on the excavations in my absence by my 
 nephew, Mr. Nimroud Eassam, in case the Porte withdrew their 
 objection to our explorations at Nebee Yonis. As usual, I left 
 a few men at Koyunjik to search for inscribed objects in the palace 
 of Sennacherib, where my nephew was still finding remnants of the 
 library of that monarch. He had already secured a good collection 
 of different antiquities from the chambers which he had excavated, 
 amongst which he found some inscribed terra-cotta cylinders, and 
 a Grecian statuette of coarse stone, on which was inscribed in plain 
 Greek characters the name of "Diogenes."
 
 366 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 As I had a good deal to do at Koyunjik, and the weather was 
 too hot for me to go backwards and forwards to Mossul, I removed 
 to the former place a few days before I started for Wan, and soon 
 after midnight, on the 1-jth of July, I resumed my northward 
 journey, and reached the Chaldean village of Tel-iskkif with my 
 escort in about four hours and a half. As we had to wait for the 
 luggage, I occupied myself in making short visits to the priests of 
 the village, and as soon as the muleteers passed, I hurried on to 
 our resting-place, Hattara, a Yezeedee village, which we reached 
 in two hours, but the luggage did not arrive till half an hour 
 .after us. 
 
 We left Hattara on the 16th, at midnight, and as soon as it was 
 daylight I sent on the luggage to Dehok, and I, with my escort, 
 went on to a ruined village to examine some artificial mounds 
 which had been reported to me to contain relies of the past. I 
 was greatly disappointed to find, on reaching the place, that the 
 two mounds were not artificial, and the little earth that covered 
 them was an accumulation of refuse from the village. As soon 
 as I was satisfied that there was nothing there worth any con- 
 sideration, I hastened on to Dehok, which I reached in an hour's 
 ride. I was taken by my escort to the castle, where I was wel- 
 comed by the governor, Mosstafa Efi^endi, who entertained me most 
 hospitably. We had some fine grapes for the first time in that 
 part of the world then, but at Baghdad they had them earlier. 
 When I was halting at Jodaida, a village about six hours' journey 
 from Baghdad, its chief presented me with some grapes that grew 
 in the neighborhood in the beginning of June. 
 
 Dehok was considered in the days of Koordish ascendency one 
 of tbeir great strongholds, as it is situated at the mouth of a deep 
 valley, one of the entrances of that part of Koordistan, and Assyrian 
 mountains. It overlooks three valleys, and the scenery from the 
 top of the castle is magnificent. 
 
 We left Dehok the next morning at 1.30, and went on until 
 we reached some clumps of trees in a delightful valley called 
 "nnlley Goondka," near the village of Bagairee, where we halted 
 at 9.30 A. M. As T wished to rest the next day (Sunday) in a 
 nice Chaldean village, called Dawooddia, we left again at 1.30 
 P. M.: but on reaching that place, at 4.30, we found it almost 
 deserted, owing to the late famine; so we had to push on to Dehay, 
 another Chaldean callage up on the hill, about an hour and a half
 
 VILLAGE OF DEHAY. 367 
 
 further. There I was received very hospitabl)^ by the chief, named 
 leshu, through whose management and liberality he had saved 
 his community from starvation. Even with all his care seven lives 
 were lost for want of proper nourishment. 
 
 The village is delightfully situated at the foot of a picturesque 
 mountain, and has a fine extensive view of the valley of Immaddia. 
 The inhabitants of the village are Chaldean Nestorians, while the 
 natives of Dawooddia were Chaldean Catholics. The chief of the 
 former is also a Eoman Catholic, though all his family, except his 
 wife, were Nestorians. The reason he changed his religion was. 
 because he had fallen in love with a handsome Chaldean Catholic 
 damsel of Dawooddia, who would not marry him until he embraced 
 her faith. He had two very handsome daughters from a former 
 marriage, who administered to my wants; one was very fair with 
 golden hair, and the other dark — a most extraordinary contrast. 
 A brother of theirs, a handsome young man, named Barkho, who 
 lived in another place on account of the unhappy religious di- 
 vision in his family, came while I was there, and he was the one 
 who gave me the history of the marriage, and hoped that his 
 father would retract before his death. The abhorrence of the pic- 
 tures and crucifixes by the N'estorians is very great; and as for the 
 wine being forbidden in the Lord's Supper to the laity, it is con- 
 sidered the greatest heresy in the world. 
 
 He related to me a distressing account of the misery the famine 
 had created all over the country, and showed me a vineyard well 
 worth fifty pounds which was sold for a mere trifle, and he assured , 
 me that if any man had gone to that country for speculation in 
 the time of the famine he might have purchased any land he liked 
 for one-hundredth its value. 
 
 I spent a most pleasant Lord's-day at that village, and all my 
 followers were glad to have a little rest. Our animals also en- 
 joyed their grazing down the valley, which they certainly de- 
 served, as they had had two days' long journey, and the way before 
 us was far from smooth. 
 
 Having been forewarned of the difficult passes that lay in our 
 way, we did not start as early as on former occasions, but began 
 to move at 3.45 A. M. My host and his son accompanied me 
 through the gorge, and as the ascent was rather rough and steep, 
 they had to take two other men with them to assist our muleteers 
 in getting my things through. They had to unload some of the
 
 368 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 animals and carry the luggage on their shoulders and backs. After 
 we had ascended a very high mountain, we began to descend into 
 a most picturesque valley, with the river Khaboor * winding about 
 amongst luxuriant swards and cultivations. The chief of my 
 escort met with a bad fall as we were descending a precipitous 
 declivity, which might have ended fatally. As he was leading his 
 horse down a slippery path, his animal slipped and dragged him 
 headlong about thirty yards to the brink of the river. How both 
 escaped a serious hurt was a wonder. My horse also slipped as I 
 was leading him through the rocks, but he recovered his footing 
 in a marvelous manner. We reached a place called Chellug at 
 ten A. M., and halted under some huge mulberry-trees. 
 
 There were two villages down in the valley; one inhabited by 
 Koords, and the other by Nestorians; but I was advised to go 
 to neither, as both were reported to me to be dirty and unfit for 
 my occupation. Soon after we encamped, the chief of the Moslem 
 village, a descendant of the prophet Mohammed, came to offer 
 me his services, and left his daughter-in-law to attend to the wants 
 of the cook in fetching him wood, water, and milk; and she also 
 baked bread for us. A boy from the same village climbed up 
 the largest mulberry-tree, which was overstocked with fruit, and 
 shook us down showers of luscious white mulberries, of which my 
 followers partook more than was good for them. We were advised 
 not to sleep in the mulberry grove at night on account of the mos- 
 quitoes; but, though we went out to an open ground, we did not 
 ., altogether escape them. 
 
 We started the next morning at three o'clock, and reached the 
 Nestorian village of Gairamoos at one P. M. We had a most 
 fatiguing journey that day from the roughness of the path and 
 the lofty ascents and descents we had to go through. The way 
 was so bad that I myself had to go on foot most of the time we 
 were traveling. The heat down in the valleys was most stifling, 
 and certainly of all the bad roads I have been through, whether 
 in Koordistan, Armenia, or Abyssinia, I never saw worse than those 
 between Chellug and Gairamoos. On reaching the place, however, 
 the freshness of the gardens, bv which the village was surrounded, 
 
 * It is very curious that there should be two rivers of the same 
 name so near each other, one falling into the Euphrates, and this 
 latter into the Tigris.
 
 GAIRAMOOS. 
 
 369 
 
 and the pleasant prospect of water running in different directions, 
 soon made me forget the intricate defiles I had had to pass through. 
 Gairamoos is a very important place, and the Nestorians who in- 
 habit it seemed to be well-to-do. I was received there by the chief 
 priest of the village, who had a nice house; and both he and 
 his wife were extremely attentive; but the presence of the former 
 was rather intrusive, as he would not leave me a minute alone. 
 He was constantly receiving visitors, who talked about trifling 
 matters, and did not allow me a few moments to take a little rest. 
 I have no doubt my kind host meant it well, but I wished him 
 and his friends some distance away all the while. I had a delight- 
 ful bath in the cold and clear stream which was running down 
 from the snow-clad summits some two or three miles away. The 
 heat in the valley in the daytime was most oppressive, almost as 
 hot as it is in the plains of Mesopotamia, though the mountains 
 around were covered with perpetual snow. The mosquitoes were 
 also troublesome in the evening, but on moving to an open space 
 I was not bothered much by them. 
 
 Our baggage animals were so knocked up the day we reached 
 Gairamoos, from the difficult and precipitous defiles, that I was 
 afraid, if I moved the next morning, some of the poor beasts would 
 be done up. I was told that the next stage would be, if possible, 
 worse than that of the day before, as we had to ascend high moun- 
 tains about four thousand feet above Gairamoos, or about double 
 that height above the level of the sea; so I deemed it advisable 
 to remain at Gairamoos the whole of the next day, which resolve 
 pleased every one, especially the muleteers. The night was de- 
 lightful, and the breeze which came down the mountain cooled the 
 atmosphere to such a degree as to bring down the thermometer, 
 to 65 degrees. 
 
 We started at 3.45 A. M., July 22d, and as I was told that in 
 some parts of the difficult ascent we should be obliged to unload 
 the heavy baggage and have it transported on the backs of men, 
 I engaged four Nestorians for the purpose. It took us an hour in 
 going up to the pass, which I found, according to my aneroid 
 barometer, to be 7,500 feet high. We then descended to a small 
 plateau in the valley of "Ain-hwarta," * where we gave our animals 
 a rest of about three hours. There was an encampment of Nes- 
 
 * Two Chaldean words, which mean "White Spring." 
 
 24
 
 370 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 torian shepherds of Hairamoon a short distance from us, where 
 we obtained some rich milk and cream. A small ravine near us 
 was full of snow; and as the bottom part had melted away, it 
 formed an artificial cave, which looked quite tempting to take 
 shelter in from the heat of the sun. I went, therefore, and sat in 
 it for a few minvites to enjoy what I thought a great luxury; but 
 I was soon obhged to leave it, as I felt quite chilled and almost 
 began to shiver. 
 
 We resumed our journey soon after eleven o'clock, and, after 
 having descended about half an hour longer, we reached Ain- 
 hwarta, from which that valley takes its name. The spring itself 
 is high above the path, but the stream which runs down from it 
 alongside of the road was so cold that it made one's teeth chatter 
 to drink it. We found there a large number of women from Haira- 
 moon, who had just milked their ewes, and both they and their 
 men complained of the oppression of the Koords, who tyrannized 
 over them, for only the day before some men took by force four 
 of their sheep. What we gained in altitude after leaving Gairamoos 
 that morning, we lost in descending the valley in the afternoon. 
 My horse slipped in going through a rugged pass, and threw me 
 on my back; but, thank God, I was not much hurt. Whether 
 from resting in the snow cavity, or from the oppressive heat in the 
 bottom of the rocky valley, or from both combined, I felt far from 
 well in the evening. Abd-al-Maseeh, my cook, had also a fall; but 
 he escaped serious hurt. 
 
 At the latter part of our journey my luggage and followers 
 had to pass under a snow arch, about five hundred yards long, 
 which was rather dangerous, as part of it had fallen in; but my 
 Nestorian guide took me across it above the gorge, to save me from 
 getting wet. The snow was melting from the heat of the weather, 
 and the water was dropping down in heavy showers. We reached 
 a kind of crater called "Ishgulla," where we halted at three o'clock 
 P. M. for the night. I never saw in all my travels such magnificent 
 and gigantic mountain passes as those we passed near the end of 
 our journey that afternoon. In one place we came to a valley 
 with rocks standing quite perpendicular about five hundred feet 
 high, and the pass was so narrow and abrupt that we did not see 
 the opening until we came to the turning. The rent in the rock 
 looked as if it had been artificially cut through into a narrow
 
 OVER THE 3fOUNTAINS. 371 
 
 passage Just wide enough to enable caravans to pass. The sight 
 was truly magnificent. 
 
 We left our camping-ground at Ishgulla at 3.45 A. M., and, 
 having ascended for an hour and a half another high mountain, 
 we came to the gorge of Gulla-hespa, where we gave our animals 
 about half an hour's rest, and then continued our journey and 
 reached a Koordish shepherd's camp at Zarzee at 10.45 A. M., 
 where we halted near a spring. The chief of that Koordish clan 
 was most civil, and provided me with everything I wanted without 
 much ado. His people were living in huts made of rough circular 
 stones, and covered over with brushwood and straw; but the 
 majority had no roofs at all, and, in case of unexpected summer 
 showers, they covered them with temporary awnings. As far as 
 I was concerned, however, I was provided with a small tent rigged 
 with carpets by the chief himself. That tribe did not belong to 
 the nomad Koords, but, being peasants who live in villages, they 
 merely leave their hovels in the summer for the sake of finding 
 pasture for their flocks. I had to go on foot on that day and the 
 day before more than half of the journey, as the ascents and de- 
 scents were not only dangerous to ride through, but I felt it 
 would be cruelty to the horse to keep constantly on his back, when 
 in some places the poor animals could scarcely thread their way 
 through the slippery and rugged paths without stumbling, even 
 though they carried nothing. 
 
 We moved from Zarzee at three A. M. the next day, and as 
 soon as we left the rugged huts we began to ascend again until 
 we reached another pass, which took us nearly one hour and a 
 quarter to accomplish. My barometer marked an altitude of 7,500 
 feet at that pass, and tlie view from it was most grand. We had 
 then to descend a short distance, and ascend again to another pass 
 about 500 feet higher. From there we could see the Tearee 
 Mountains, inhabited by the Kestorians, the white peaks of which 
 give a superb aspect to the magnificent scenery around. We then 
 began to descend again until we reached the camp of the Pairooza 
 shepherds pitched in a small crater; and after having passed it, we 
 came to another encampment belonging to a branch of the Artoo- 
 shee nomad Koords, at a place called Chilla-mishk, whose chief, 
 Tayib Agha, received me very civilly. I had intended to push on to 
 Farasheen; but our animals were so knocked up after a most
 
 372 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 tedious journey of ten hours that I did not think it prudent to 
 proceed any further on that day, but halted at Chilla-mishk at 
 four o'clock P. M. We lost at least one hour and a half on the 
 way by halting at different grazing grounds. We passed on that 
 day a large number of snow patches and most rich pastures, with 
 plenty of cold, clear water running in all directions. Out of the 
 ten hours traveling on that day, I had to walk at least five; and 
 considering that my back was still painful from the effect of the 
 late fall, I did not quite enjoy the abrupt ups and downs on foot 
 for such a length of time. It was not only dangerous, but almost 
 impossible, to ride through some of the defiles when there was 
 scarcely room for a pedestrian, much less a horseman. All the 
 Artooshees were most attentive, and one man made haste and 
 piched me a black tent in a pleasant spot on the bank of a 
 copious rivulet, and provided me with everything I wanted. The 
 Koords are certainly most civil and courteous when they like, and 
 I never in all my travels amongst them met with anything but 
 politeness. 
 
 Sunday, the 25th July, being the Lord's-day, I remained sta- 
 tionary at Chilla-mishk, to afford both man and beast a little rest. 
 I did not feel quite well, partly from a pain in my back, and partly 
 from a chill I caught. It got extremely cold at night. 
 
 Before I left Mossul, the Pasha telegraphed to the governor- 
 general of Wan to send me an escort to Lewin to relieve that of 
 Mossul; and as I found, on arriving at Chilla-mishk, that it would 
 be out of my way to go thither, to say nothing about the bad roads 
 we should have to traverse, I deemed it advisable to send for them 
 to come to me. My messengers returned the next day, and 
 brought me a letter from the governor of Lewin, in which he 
 informed me that no escort had arrived for me from Wan, and 
 he apologized for not being able to send me any men himself, be- 
 cause the few he had for state purposes were all out on duty. I 
 was compelled, therefore, to take my Mossul Dhabtia with me to 
 Wan. 
 
 We left Chilla-mishk at 4.15 A. M., and reached the head- 
 quarters of the Artooshee Koords at Zoozark at twelve noon. The 
 chief of all the tribe, named Hajjee Agha, a very handsome young 
 man, received me most courteously in his large tent on my arriving; 
 but in order to make me feel more comfortable he had a separate
 
 INTO ARMENIA. 
 
 373 
 
 tent pitched for me and my followers adjoining his. He immedi- 
 ately had a sheep slaughtered, and insisted upon having it dressed 
 in his own kitchen for my table. He had a conference with me at 
 night about the state of affairs between the Nestorians and his own 
 people, and desired me very much to try and make peace between 
 himself and the chiefs of the Nestorian community, in order that 
 thenceforward both nationalities might live on amicable terms. 
 I told him I was sorry I could not interfere in the matter, as my 
 mission was not political; but I promised to speak to Her Majesty's 
 consul at Wan, in whose jurisdiction both the Nestorians and the 
 Artooshees were, and I was certain that he would do his best to 
 bring about a good understanding between them. Hajee Agha 
 informed me that the consul was at Kochannis, about eight hours' 
 journey from his camp, where he had gone to visit Mar Shimoon, 
 the patriarch of the (so-called) Nestorians. I therefore wrote to 
 Captain Clayton about the matter, and also addressed letters to 
 the patriarch and to Mullik * Daniel, — the former being the spir- 
 itual, and the latter the temporal head of the Tearees, — in which 
 I advised them to come to terms with their hereditary enemies. 
 Mar Shimoon wrote to say that he was quite willing to do as I 
 counseled; but the latter, though he did not refuse to negotiate, 
 thought that no good would result from it, on account of the bitter 
 enmity which existed between the Artooshees and the Tearees. 
 The fact was, the patriarch and IMullik Daniel were not on good 
 terms with each other; and as the latter did not like to meet the 
 former, it was quite impossible to do anything.f 
 
 We left Zoozark the next morning about four o'clock, and after 
 an hour's ride we entered Armenia. At 6.30 A. M. we passed an 
 Armenian village called Skoonis, whose chief invited me to stop 
 to breakfast. On accepting his hospitality, I found there was no 
 bread to be had in the place, and that the natives had not tasted 
 any for months in consequence of the late famine. As the break- 
 
 * Mullik means King in Chaldean. 
 
 f Captain Clayton also did his best to establish friendship between 
 the Nestorians and Artooshees, but could not prevail upon the chiefs 
 of the former to meet those of the latter; so the negotiation came to 
 an untimely end. I was extremely sorry for this, as I was in hopes 
 that, if those two nationalities patched up their quarrels, both would 
 benefit by the establishment of peace.
 
 374' ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 fast consisted of fried eggs, cheese, and curdled milk, which I 
 could not eat without that commodity, I ordered a halt and got 
 my servants to provide some bread for the chief's family and myself. 
 
 Just as we all had our breakfast and resumed our march, a 
 mounted Dhabtia came galloping to inform me that Captain Clay- 
 ton was coming to see me. At this intimation I ordered another 
 halt, and in about half an hour he made his appearance. As a 
 matter of course, our meeting was most cordial. He was returning 
 from his visit to Mar Shimoon, intending to proceed with me to 
 Wan; but when I informed him of the wishes of the chief of the 
 Artooshees, he changed his mind and resolved to go and see Hajee 
 Agha. 
 
 It appeared that the escort which was sent to meet me at Lewin 
 from Wan had reached that place soon after the departure of my 
 messengers, and without waiting they pushed on to join me at the 
 camp of Hajee Agha; but finding that I had started for Wan they 
 followed me to my next halting-place. In the meantime they 
 had met Captain Clayton, who was also proceeding to Wan, to 
 whom they imparted the news of my movements; hence our meet- 
 ing. I found that Captain Clayton had not received my letter, 
 which I had sent him from the Artooshees' camp, as he had left 
 Kochannis two days before the arrival of my messenger. After 
 we had some tea together, and spent about two hours chatting 
 about different matters, he started for the camp of the Artooshees, 
 and I resumed my journey northward. 
 
 Soon after we started the sky was overcast with thick clouds, 
 and as there was every indication of a downpour, I took two men 
 of my escort, and hurried on to the camp of a sub-tribe of the 
 Artooshees, at a place called Ivharaba-dar, where we had intended 
 to halt for the night. Most stupidly my guides lost their way, and 
 after having gone about three miles out of the right road, they 
 discovered their mistake. We no sooner began to retrace our 
 steps than it began to rain, and if it had not been for the umbrella 
 I always carried for protection from the sun, I should have been 
 drenched to the skin. Wlien I found that we had lost our way, 
 I began to feel anxious about my luggage, because I was afraid 
 that if my followers reached the place of rendezvous, and found 
 that I had not arrived, they would take it into their head that I 
 had gone on to the next stage, and follow me thither. In that 
 case they would not arrive there till late at night, and some of
 
 07 'S 
 
 KHARABA-DAR. 
 
 the animals might have been disabled. I therefore lost no time 
 in dispatching one of my Mossul escort to the high hil overlook- 
 ing the valley, where the camp of the Artooshee was located to 
 see if they were near. As soon as he reached the top of the 
 eminence he found the cavalcade had passed the camp where 
 I had intended to remain for the night, and were hurrying on to 
 the next halting-place; so he galloped towards them, and beckoned 
 to them to return. Had he followed the path round the hill m 
 retracing our steps, instead of going over it, we should certainly 
 have missed them; and, considering the wet weather and the bad 
 road we should all have been in a very unpleasant phght. Even 
 by halting before sunset, it took my followers all the evening 
 to dry up their things; for they were all soaking from head 
 to foot We had some difficulty to obtain proper fuel to make 
 a good fire there, consequently we had to leave a great number 
 of articles to dry by the next day's sun. No one ever thought 
 that we should be overtaken by such heavy rain at that time of 
 the year, July; and that was the reason why we were not prepared 
 
 for the emergency. xi ^ ^i, 
 
 I found, on arriving at Kharaba-dar at 3.30 P. M., that the 
 chief of the clan was away, but his son received me very hospi- 
 tably and leffat my disposal the largest part of his father's grand 
 black tent. As a matter of bourse, as soon as I arrived the female 
 members of the family began to make themselves generally use- 
 ful and two of them were most inquisitive, prying into every- 
 thing I had about me. I was fortunately located in the center of 
 the tent, far away from the slush and bad smells which surrounded 
 it. As usual, a sheep was slaughtered for my kitchen as soon as 
 I arrived, though I begged my young host not to bother himself 
 about it. All kinds of mattresses and coverlets covered with silk, 
 and also carpets, were offered me for my comfort, and I begged 
 to be excused, as I said I had everything I wanted with me. The 
 Koords are very particular in having a good supply of bedding, 
 clean and comfortable, very unlike the Arabs, who do not trouble 
 themselves about bed furniture, as theirs generally consists of 
 matting and carpets. Their greatest chiefs might sport one or 
 two mattresses, and sometimes a cushion, and these are for the 
 use of their distinguished guests, who might be in want of such 
 luxuries in their travels. 
 
 We did not leave Kharaba-dar till 4.45 the next morning, as
 
 376 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 everything was wet, and the weather cold. The thermometer 
 actually fell at night to 41 degrees. After a ride of four and a half 
 hours, we passed Akcha-Kalaasee, or Kassir, whereto the luggage 
 was proceeding the day before. We went on until we reached the 
 Koordish village of Goosnee at 1.30 P. M. My intention was to go 
 on to another Armenian village about two hours further towards 
 Wan, but I had to consider the baggage animals; and so we halted 
 there for the night under some poplar trees outside the village, 
 as the huts of the peasants were far from clean and swarming 
 with fleas. The villagers seemed poverty-stricken, and the chief 
 told me that his people were in great distress in consequence of the 
 late famine, but formerly they were very prosperous. They had 
 lost about fifty persons from starvation. 
 
 It is worthy of note that with all the complaints of the Chris- 
 tian communities in Koordistan, Armenia, and Asia Minor, about 
 the exaction and oppression of their Moslem neighbors, in the 
 majority of cases the former always seem to be in better circum- 
 stances and thrift than the latter. It may be that the Christians 
 are more industrious and painstaking in their avocations than 
 the Mohammedans, and are generally more protected by their 
 feudal chiefs and Turkish governors from public oppression and 
 tyranny. Moreover, the latter labor under great disadvantage 
 through the affliction of conscription, as I knew of some Moslem 
 villages, especially in the time of war, when all the young men 
 were taken as recruits or for the reserve force, and only females 
 and crippled old men were left to till the ground and attend to 
 the harvest. 
 
 July 29th, we left Goosnee at three A. M., and after having 
 passed a number of villages, my escort and I reached the outside 
 part of Wan in about six hours. As Captain Clayton was kind 
 enough to invite me to take up my quarters at his house in the 
 suburbs of Wan, I did not enter the town, which was about three 
 miles off. 
 
 I had written to Captain Clayton before I left Mossul, to in- 
 form him of my intention to visit Wan to see about our explora- 
 tions there. He had consequently given orders to his servant, whom 
 he had left to take care of the consulate, to provide me with 
 quarters, and I need not say that such hospitality to a traveler, 
 especially in a place where no hotels or lodging-houses are to be 
 found, is not only a great boon, but a real luxury; the more so
 
 THE CITY OF WAN. 377 
 
 when it is enhanced by a hearty welcome. He was good enough 
 to allow me to make the consulate my headquarters all the time 
 I remained at Wan; and with the exception of three occasions, 
 when duty called him away, we were always together. He accorded 
 me every act of kindness and assistance, both in my official and 
 private concerns. 
 
 As soon as I arrived, I was visited by a number of official and 
 other acquaintances; and in the afternoon I called on my Ameri- 
 can friends, Dr. Reynolds and Messrs. Scott and Barnham, of the 
 American Board of Missions, and their families. I was sorry to 
 find that the latter had been suffering from the prevailing black 
 
 fever. 
 
 On a former visit, in October, 1877, I noticed an artificial 
 mound on the top of a long promontory overlooking the valley 
 and Lake of Wan, just above the Armenian Church, called ''Derey- 
 Killisa," * which looked not unlike those found in Assyria; but 
 as I was then traveling on a political mission, and had not obLained 
 a firman to enable me to examine it for the British Museum, I 
 asked Dr. Reynolds if he would be so good as to act for us in the 
 event of our obtaining the requisite authority from the Porte for 
 excavating in the Province of Wan. He kindly promised to do 
 what he could for us as soon as he received my instructions. Soon 
 afterwards I obtained, through the influence of Sir Henry Layard, 
 the necessary permit, and I lost no time in having an official in- 
 timation sent to the Wan authorities of the concession, which 
 enabled Dr. Reynolds to excavate in the locality I had pointed 
 out to him. At that time there was no British consul at Wan; 
 but as soon as an officer was appointed, he, in conjunction with 
 Dr. Reynolds, carried on the needful explorations together. 
 
 As I had anticipated, they discovered most interesting objects 
 in the mound, the choicest of which consisted of shields embossed 
 with figures of lions, bulls, and other ornamentations, all beauti- 
 fully executed. There were also ivory figures and an arm of a 
 chair, or throne, in Mosaic workmanship. The shields were in- 
 scribed with arrow-headed characters, showing that they belonged 
 to the reign of Rusas, son of Erimenas (B. C. 645). 
 
 Unfortunately, most of the copper or bronze objects were so 
 corroded that they fell to pieces as soon as they were exposed 
 
 * Two Turkish words which mean "The valley church.
 
 378 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 to the air. They came upon the remains of what seemed to be 
 a temple built of well-polished black basalt slabs, of the same 
 style as scores of them which were to be seen scattered about in 
 the valley below; and I have no doubt that they were all taken 
 out from the same ruin. Not a sign of inscription could be found, 
 either on the stones above or on those below, to give any clue 
 as to the origin of the building. 
 
 I found, on arriving at Wan, that the excavations had been 
 stopped, owing to the illness of Dr. Eeynolds and the unavoidable 
 absence of Captain Clayton on duty. I forthwith took steps to 
 resume the explorations on a large scale, as I was pressed for time 
 on account of my researches in Assyria and Babylonia. The 
 mound, being narrow and long, I tried it in three different places 
 by digging right through it, to see if I could hit upon any ancient 
 structure; but, though I penetrated into it from side to side by 
 tunneling, I could find no indication of any building, but only 
 discovered other shields, some bronze bull's-heads, and other small 
 objects. On the southern outskirts of the mound we found the 
 remains of a tessellated pavement of three chambers; but there 
 was not a stone to be seen of the walls. The whole mound seemed 
 to consist of nothing but the debris of some ancient building, with 
 an abundant quantity of charcoal mixed up with the rubbish, which 
 showed that the palace, or temple, or whatever it might have been, 
 had undergone a tremendous conflagration. The only remains 
 that existed, were the base of the temple at the eastern limit of 
 the mound, Avith a large platform in front of it paved with lime- 
 stone.* We also found on the northern side of the platform a 
 large number of curiously cut stones of black basalt, all of the 
 same style and pattern, heaped one upon the other, which looked 
 to me to represent monumental slabs. I did not think it would be 
 worth the expense to send one of them to the British Museum, 
 especially as they were very bulky and had no inscription on them. 
 We also found a prettily designed laver, or font, made of the same 
 kind of stone. 
 
 I tried also another mound called Chooroovans, about six miles 
 to the east of Wan, because I had seen some inscribed stone pillars 
 in an Armenian house, which I was told had been found in that 
 locality; but I saw nothing to encourage me to carry on more than 
 
 * See Plan.
 
 ^7Q 
 PASHALIC OF WAN. 
 
 three or four days' operations in it. I asked Captam Clayton 
 however, to try it once more after my departure, because when I 
 walthe e I had some difficulty in findmg workmen on account 
 Tthe harvest. Fragments of inscribed black basalt slabs were 
 to be %een in different houses and churches, bmlt m walls or 
 thrown about; but I found only one perfect S-^ ^P-^^J ^^J 
 place called Karakhan, about forty miles to the northeast of Wan, 
 wh ch I could have sent to England but for fear of the expense 
 of transporting it about two hundred and fifty miles by land^ It 
 was a black basalt slab, H feet long by 2^ feet wide, and 12 
 inches deep, with 28 lines of arrow-headed characters on it. This 
 slab belonged to no one, as it was lying in the rubbish outside 
 the village, but the majority of the inscribed fragments were built 
 in broken down walls. I asked two Armenians to let me extract 
 three pieces which I took a fancy to, but they would not let me 
 do so, though I promised to repair the walls to their satisfaction 
 A Turkoman native of Wan, however, behaved differently when I 
 went to see an inscribed slab in his house. It was reported to 
 me one day that a Moslem of Wan possessed an inscribed stone, 
 so I lost no time in calling on him, and asking him to allow me to 
 COPY it He expressed great surprise at my request, and said, 
 «Do vou think that I am so mean as to give you the trouble to 
 copy the stone, when you can have it altogether?" and suiting his 
 word to his resolve, he instantly ordered one of his servants to 
 carry it to my house. He insisted upon my breakfasting with 
 him and spending the day in his garden; but I begged to be ex- 
 cused, as I had a pressing engagement in the town which I could 
 not put off. He was very much pleased when I told him after- 
 wards that I was going to send it to England, to be placed m the 
 
 National Museum. . ^, -n ^ v ^f 
 
 There are a large number of ancient sites m the Pashalic ot 
 Wan, which ought to be thoroughly explored; the most important, 
 I think, are the ruins near the village of Tirmait, about fifteen 
 miles to the southeast of Moosh; and also at the mound of Choor- 
 oovans, which I have already mentioned. 
 
 All the inscriptions on the rocks, either at Wan or m its 
 neio-hborhood, have been copied by British or German travelers; 
 but'^I feel confident that there are a large number of other inscrip- 
 tions scattered in different parts of the Pashalic of Wan, especially 
 around the lake, which have not yet been seen by any Europeans.
 
 380 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 I had casts taken of some which came under my notice, but I 
 had no time to go about in search of others. At the monastery 
 of Saint Gregorius, called by the Armenians Kirikor, I found the 
 top of an inscribed obelisk built in the altar, of which I took a 
 squeeze, and also of an inscription built in a wall, and of others 
 I found in the village of Sirka. In the latter place an inscribed 
 slab had been broken in three pieces, and used as door-posts of 
 the church. 
 
 I have already touched on my former visit to Wan, upon the 
 educational enterprises amongst the Armenians of that place, and 
 the peculiar seclusion of their wives; but although it is not quite 
 three years since I was there, many old-fashioned habits and 
 ceremonies had been abolished, or were replaced by more civilized 
 practices through the spread of enlightenment by the American 
 Board of Missions or other European element. Some families had 
 gone as far as to break through the rude custom of excluding 
 women from social intercourse with the male sex. Madame Kom- 
 saragan, the wife of the Eussian consul at Wan, was also doing 
 her best to get the ladies of that place to conform to European 
 habits, and had so far succeeded as to induce some Armenian young 
 ladies to go out riding with her. M. and Madame Komsaragan 
 were Armenians themselves, but being natives of Eussian Armenia 
 and not of Turkey, they have been Europeanized in every meaning 
 of the word. It shows how quickly the habits and customs of 
 a nation can be changed under the influence of Christianity and 
 civilization; and if the Ottoman Government would only learn by 
 experience, what advantages she would gain by introducing proper 
 reforms and honestly carrying them out! 
 
 During my visit to Wan in the summer of 1880, a Turkish 
 commission was busily engaged in establishing reforms in Armenia; 
 but I believe no good was gained by it, and its Constitution only 
 entailed an extra burden on the public exchequer, which could 
 ill afford such an extraordinary expenditure. All branches of the 
 public service, including the army, were in arrears of pay; and 
 while the soldiery and police were in distress, the members of the 
 commission were drawing their pay regularly. The commission 
 was headed by two able men. The chief was Yoseph Pasha, a 
 Turk, who was a general favorite, and his assistant, named Sarkees 
 Pasha, was an Armenian not very much liked, especially by his 
 nationality. There was also there then a young Turkish officer
 
 COMMISSIONER OF REFORM. 381 
 
 of the name of Assim Bey, who held the position of "Inspector 
 of Courts of Justice." * He was a thorough European in dress 
 and habit, and, withal, a very excellent man; but, unfortunately, 
 he was too young and inexperienced for his position; at all events 
 that was the opinion held of his acquirements by his elders. 
 
 * This was a temporary appointment at the time when the Porte 
 promised to establish reforms in Turkey; but what benefit the country 
 derived from the duty performed by such inspectors no one was able 
 to make out.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 As THE autumn season was now setting in, and other duties 
 were awaiting me in Assyria and Babylonia, I wound up my affairs 
 in the beginning of September, and left two gangs of workmen 
 with an overseer to continue the excavations at Tooprae-Kalaa, 
 under the superintendence of Captain Clayton, who kindly under- 
 took the management of the researches for the Trustees of the 
 British Museum after my departure. I deemed it advisable to 
 continue the excavations at that mound for the remainder of the 
 autumn, as I had still entertained great hopes that some important 
 relics might be found amongst the rubbish. 
 
 After having settled everything in connection with the ex- 
 pedition to Wan, and engaged a competent muleteer to take me 
 to Mossul, I started southward at noon on Friday, the 10th of 
 September. I selected a new route for my journey to the valley of 
 the Tigris on this occasion, by way of Bitlis, Saart, and Jazeerah, 
 especially as it was shorter and easier than the last one I traversed. 
 We reached Ishkhan-Koyee, an Armenian village, in five hours. 
 The luggage came nearly an hour after me, because there was a 
 good deal of delay on the way, on account of one of the animals hav- 
 ing got lame from a kick by a horse. I had some difficulty, on ar- 
 riving, to find proper lodgings, but two of the principal men who 
 had fine houses there invited me to their habitations on seeing that 
 I was in want of clean quarters. I, of course, accepted the first 
 offer, and was not a little surprised to see a well-appointed dwell- 
 ing, very unlike the generality of rural abodes, and the women 
 dressed in finery like the ladies of great towns. My host, who was 
 named Miksee Yoanis, knew a little Arabic, as he had traveled in 
 Palestine, and had the privilege of visiting the Holy Sepulcher, 
 which entitled him to assume the naine of Miksee.* There was 
 so much time wasted the next morning in arranging the baggage 
 that we did not start till six o'clock. Our laden animals went so 
 
 * Miksee is a corruption of Makkdasee. from the Arabic word 
 Kkidis, which means holy.— the name by which Jerusalem is called 
 in Biblical lands. Those of the Christians who perform the pilgrimage 
 to the Holy Sepulcher, annex to their names, consequent upon that 
 religious observance, Miksee, Makkdasee, or Hajjee, and are distin- 
 382
 
 EXPLORING IN WAN. ^^^ 
 
 slowly that I had to halt on the way several times to allow the 
 servants to overtake me. My first intention was to push on to 
 Navartas, but as we had to ascend a high mountain before we 
 ,ot to it and my muleteer told me that his animals could not 
 'each the top on that day from fatigue, we were obhged to turn 
 up the valley, about a mile out of the way, and halt at the Ar- 
 menian village of Anzak at four P. M. on Saturday, September 
 nth The chief received me very courteously, and selected for 
 rae the cleanest dwelling to rest at; but as I found even the best 
 house was rather stuffy and smelling strongly like a cows hab - 
 tation, I preferred taking up my quarters in the open space out- 
 
 ^'^^m\ waTrather uncomfortable there from not having proper 
 accommodation, I deemed it advisable to go on to the next village 
 and though it was Sunday, we started at 11.45 A M., and reached 
 the Armenian village of Gollee at five o'clock. There I was met by 
 a very intelligent Armenian priest of Wan, who had come out 
 thither to estabhsh proper schools in the district He went about 
 with me to look out for suitable quarters, and at last I was obhged 
 to take my rest in the passage of a house, as it was far from tempt- 
 ing to remain inside any of the Armenian dweUings. As it grew 
 somewhat chilly at night, the owner of the house hung some car- 
 pets at the entrance to keep me warm. _ 
 
 We left Gollee at 4.45 A. M. the followmg morning, and 
 reached the Armenian village of Oortab at 2.30 P. M. I had 
 some difficulty there to get quarters for the escor , as none of the 
 inhabitants would receive them into their dwelhngs. After no 
 end of remonstrance I managed to get them a room through the 
 assistance of the priest of the village. He apologized for the mis- 
 behavior of the peasants and their lazy chief, and did the service 
 for me himself. I had intended to go on to Tirmait from thence 
 to examine some inscriptions which were there, but as I was old 
 that I should lose at least four days by going thither, I resolved 
 to proceed straight to Bitlis, and leave the copying of the mscrip- 
 
 guishedTy having one of their arms, or ^o*^' f "ooed with ^a.red 
 Lresentations, such as crucifix, cross, or the likeness of the Virgin 
 Properlv speak ng, the word Hajjee is only applied to a Mohammedan 
 nZim to Mecca but amongst those who do not understand Arabic, 
 even Ch istUtn pilgrims to the Holy Sepulcher are called by that name.
 
 384 ASSHUE AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 tions to Captain Clayton, as I had asked him, before I left Wan, 
 to try and visit that place. 
 
 I started the next morning for Bitlis, which place I reached 
 in abont four hours and a half. I went direct to the house of my 
 former host, Awidees Effendi, the leading Armenian gentleman 
 there, to whom I had telegraphed my approach. When I arrived 
 he was just leaving the house on pressing duty to the Serai, or 
 Government House, where he had important business to transact 
 in connection with sending a force to chastise the Eushkootan 
 Koords, who had again been giving a good deal of trouble by 
 their plundering propensities; but he left his brother to see to 
 my comfort, and begged me to make myself at home in his ab- 
 sence. After bathing and partaking of breakfast, which was pre- 
 pared for me by the family of my host, I paid Major Norton a visit. 
 This gentleman had been retained there in the honorary command 
 of the Bitlis gendarmes. His position was neither lucrative nor 
 pleasant, as he was looked upon with jealousy, and had nothing in 
 common with his superiors or inferiors. 
 
 My host returned home late in the afternoon, and, according 
 to his former habits, we did not begin dinner till nine o'clock, as 
 he spent nearly two hours sipping Arakkee, or raisin spirit.* Major 
 Norton and his dragoman dined with us. As soon as dinner was 
 over and the usual black cofEee handed round, my host retired to 
 bed, but I remained some time with Major Norton. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 15th, the luggage started at 9.30 A. M., 
 but I did not leave till noon, as I had to wait for Major Norton, 
 who offered to ride with me part of the way. Both he and his 
 dragoman accompanied me as far as "Daliklee Dash," or the "Bored 
 Eock," which was said to have been tunneled through by Semir- 
 amis to save her troops the fatigue of descending to the valley 
 of Saart over the rugged defiles that intervened between that city 
 and Bitlis.f It is certainly a most remarkable piece of engineer- 
 
 * It is the common habit of the Christian communities in Biblical 
 lands to take some spirits, or liquor, before dinner, which they think 
 sharpens their appetite! 
 
 f The Armenians of Wan possess different legends about that re- 
 nowned Assyrian, or Chaldean, queen, one of which was that, to avoid 
 the burning heat of Nineveh and Babylon in summer, she used to 
 resort to Wan, and spend that season in the delightful clime of the 
 lake.
 
 AT SAART. ^^^ 
 
 ing- and whether Semiramis, or any other ancient monarch, was 
 the'proJector of the scientific cutting, it reflects great credit on the 
 skill of the originator. There is a little spring running just above 
 the archway, and the efl'ect of the water rolling down the rock 
 was very pretty. It took me about an hour and a half to reach 
 it from the house of Evidees Effendi. After having parted with 
 Major Norton at Daliklee Dash, I. continued my journey as far 
 as the ruined khan, called Dookhan, which place we reached at 
 5.15 P. M. Although the luggage left Wan two hours and a half 
 before me, it did not reach our halting-place till six P. M., or three 
 quarters of an hour after I did. The muleteer's excuse was that 
 the road was very rough and slippery, and as the greater part of 
 it contained steep defiles he was afraid to hurry on the animals. 
 We had intended to go up to the Koordish village of Sheenee for 
 the night; but as I found the road to it was both rugged and steep, 
 and would take us about an hour out of our way, I deemed it 
 prudent to remain at the ruined khan instead, and had my camp 
 pitched on the bank of the Bitlis Eiver. I had to send, however, 
 to the village for fodder for our animals, where I secured also 
 the services of two Koords to keep watch, as my muleteers were 
 afraid that, being in a deserted place which was reputed to be a 
 great haunt for robbers, we might lose some of our animals during 
 the night. The fact was, the muleteers did not care to keep watch 
 themselves, and dreaded the attack of desperate Koordish thieves 
 during their slumbers. 
 
 We left Dookhan at 5.15 A. M., on Thursday; and although 
 I was told that the distance to Saart was only eight hours' journey, 
 we did not reach that town till 4.30 P. M., but the luggage was 
 actually more than twelve hours in coming. I went direct to the 
 hospitable house of my friend, Khoaja Jabboor Aabboush, the 
 leading Chaldean gentleman of Saart, and he, with his usual cour- 
 tesy, received me as his honored guest with all my followers. As 
 soon as I arrived, the governor of the place, with all the chief 
 officials and residents, came to see me. The next day my host and 
 I dined with the Pasha. 
 
 On Saturday, September 18th, the luggage started for the valley 
 of the Tigris at 9.30 A. M., but as I wished to pay a flying visit to 
 Mar Petros, the Chaldean bishop of Saart, at the monastery of 
 Mar Yakoob, or St. James, situated about three miles to the north- 
 west of the town, I repaired thither and spent about half an hour 
 
 25
 
 386 ASSHUB AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 with him. I left the monastery at noon with Khoaja Hannah, the 
 brother of my Saart host, who accompanied me to the monastery 
 as a guide, and soon afterwards I found I had to descend an al- 
 most perpendicular declivity to the river called Boohtan, the greater 
 part of which I had to traverse on foot and lead my horse.* It 
 took us an hour to reach the bottom of the valley, where I found 
 my followers awaiting me to ford the river together. They had 
 to take an easier descent to the southeast, though somewhat longer, 
 as it would have been quite impossible for any heavily-laden animal 
 to go through the difficult goat's-track which I and my escort 
 traversed. My companion and I halted a little while on the bank 
 of the clear stream for refreshments, after which we parted, he 
 returning home to Saart, and I, with my followers, went on for 
 two hours longer to the ruined stone bridge, and forded the river 
 a little above it. The river was about two hundred feet ^nde in 
 that part; and its depth scarcely touched the girths of the largest 
 horse; but the bottom was so full of large, smooth boulders, or 
 pebbles, that the heavily-laden animals kept slipping over them. 
 I was glad when all got safely over, as I fully expected that part 
 of the luggage would get wet, even if we escaped serious mishap. 
 There must have been a very fine bridge there at the time when 
 that country was properly governed, and the state of that ruin, 
 with a hundred others, reminds one of the decay of the Turk. 
 After having rearranged our luggage, and seen every one safely out 
 of the river, we went on to the Koordish village of Motad, which 
 we reached at four o'clock in the afternoon. I had intended to 
 halt there, and rest the whole of Sunday; but there were no clean 
 quarters in the place, so I went on to another Koordish village 
 two miles further, called Bolak, where I was informed by a travel- 
 ing merchant of Mossul, whom I met at Motad, I should find com- 
 fortable quarters. I was certainly not deceived, as I found su- 
 perior accommodation in the house of the chief of the village, 
 named Shaikh Soofee, who, with his wife and daughter, received 
 me most civilly and attended to my wants. The sand-flies were 
 very troublesome in the evening, and my host and his wife offered 
 
 * It is also called Saart River, because it runs through that dis- 
 trict. It joins the river Tigris about eighteen miles lower down, and, 
 in my opinion, though it is called a branch of the Tigris, it is not 
 inferior in size to it, notwithstanding the Tigris comes down from 
 a greater distance.
 
 JAZEERAH. "**" 
 
 me their raised platform in the open air, where they assured me 
 I should be rid of the pest; but I thanked them for their civility 
 and told them that I could never think of dispossessing them ot 
 their comfortable quarters. 
 
 On Sunday, 19th September, we were all very glad to rest at 
 Bolak. I had passed a very restless night in consequence of the 
 closeness of the weather and the stings of the ^^^^f ^% ^^, ^^^^^ 
 load of two large baskets of beautiful grapes were brought to the 
 vmage in the course of the day, and I bought a large quantity for 
 my followers, who enjoyed the treat. -, t, i , ^p^v 
 
 We started the next morning at two o'clock, and had a very 
 pleasant Journey in bright moonlight. The Saart Eiver 301ns the 
 Tigris six miles below Bolak, and we traveled along it till eight 
 o'clock, when we left it to the right, and followed the road lead- 
 ing to the hills on the left. I was told that part o the river was 
 teeming with trout, though not a single fish of that kind is to be 
 seen below Jazeerah. After having spent about an hour on the 
 way for refreshment, I reached Findik at 11.30 A M. The in- 
 habitants of that village consisted chiefly of Koords, and the re- 
 mainder were Christians of the Armenian and Jacobite persuasion. 
 I took up my residence at the house of the Koordish chief, who, 
 with his family, received me in a most friendly way As it was 
 rather close at night, I slept in the open air on the terrace. 
 
 We resumed oSr journey the next morning at 1.30 and reached 
 Jazeerah in nine hours' ride. As this town is situated on the right 
 •side of the Tigris, we had to cross a bridge of boats to getto it. 
 My host of Saart having telegraphed to his son, who was sopurn- 
 ing at Jazeerah, asking him to secure me proper qiiarters, I found 
 on arriving there, that Khoaja Petros, the leadmg Christian of the 
 place, had prepared a room for my reception in his house, and as 
 soon as I arrived he came out to receive me. It was still very hot 
 at Jazeerah, but I slept out in the veranda, which was very 
 pleasant.* 
 
 * Jazeerah is an Arabic word for an Island. The Arabs called it 
 JaJ:t-bin-On.ai., or the Island of the Son of Omar to d, 
 it from AKiazeerah, which the Arabs apply to ^^^^^P^^/'^^^-^J*;!/^^^. 
 that formerly the town of Jazeerah was ^^'"''^^'''^'^ ^IZ"^^' ^^l 
 now the ditch that incloses its western limit is so choked up with 
 rubbish that, even when the Tigris is at its highest, it does not en- 
 circle it.
 
 388 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 When I was at Wan, I was told by Bahree Bey, son of the late 
 notorious Bedr-Khan-Beg, the hereditary chief of that country, 
 called Boohtan, that there were ancient bas-reliefs in a cave at the 
 village of Shakh, about ten miles to the east of Jazeerah; and so, 
 instead of marching direct to Mossul after having recrossed the 
 Tigris, the next day at 1.30 P. M. I went on thither to see if they 
 were of Assyrian origin. My escort and I hurried on to that place, 
 which we reached in three hours' quick ride, after having crossed 
 very rough mountains and dales. Bahree Bey was good enough 
 to give me a letter of introduction to a relative of his who resided 
 at Shakh, whom he asked to receive me, and point out to me the 
 sculptures he spoke of; but, unfortunately, I found, on arriving 
 there, that the Koordish chief was away. However, a lady of 
 wealth and rank, the widow of the late Ahmed Bey, the hereditary 
 Koordish prince of that district, invited me to her commodious 
 house outside the village, and left at my disposal the reception- 
 room as long as I remained there. I was glad to accept her prof- 
 fered hospitality, because the houses, or huts, that belonged to the 
 other Christian or Koordish inhabitants were anj-thing but tempt- 
 ing for a man who cared for cleanliness and comfort. As soon 
 as I arrived, my hostess sent me an abundance of delicious grapes, 
 honey-comb, and curdled milk. 
 
 The inhabitants of the important village of Shakh are Koords 
 and iSTestorians, and both denominations seemed miserably poor. 
 In days gone by, the latter were very much oppressed by the 
 former, but now both are fleeced equally by their Turkish rulers. 
 The village is situated in the most picturesque valley in that part 
 of Koordistan, and if it had been properly governed and managed 
 it would be a most delightful spot to spend the summer in. It 
 is surrounded with orchards, and a plentiful supply of water runs 
 in all directions.* 
 
 The next morning I repaired to the cave mentioned by Bahree 
 Bey on the other side of the ravine, a distance of about four hun- 
 dred yards, accompanied by guides, both Koords and Nestorians; 
 but I found no trace of Assyrian bas-reliefs, only an altar hewn 
 out of the rock. My guides had not heard of any such sculptures, 
 
 * There is a deep ravine to tlie southeast of the town, which I had 
 to cross on a bridge to go to the cave; in the bottom of it flowed a 
 copious stream.
 
 ASSYRIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 389 
 
 but they told me that there was a chair, or throne, of Kaisar-Room 
 (Caesar of the Greeks) on the mountain above Shakh, and also some 
 engravings on the top of the mountain, which they said had been 
 there from remote antiquity. The chair of Kaisar-Eoom turned 
 out to be a natural formation in a rock about eight hundred feet 
 above the village. It looked as if it had been purposely hewn 
 for an altar by the ancients, in the shape of a square slab placed 
 on the top of a short natural column. The sculptures, which were 
 about 1,500 feet above the valley, I found to be tablets of an Assyr- 
 ian king, but both the bas-reliefs and the inscriptions were so much 
 defaced that the paper squeezes I made of them were almost un- 
 intelligible. I wished very much that I had had an Assyrian 
 scholar with me, who could have copied the arrow-headed char- 
 acters, which might have proved of great value as an addition to 
 Assyrian history. 
 
 I found it most difficult to reach these Assyrian tablets, because 
 the chronicler had chosen that spot for the purpose of preserving 
 it from destruction. They are in quite an out-of-the-way place, 
 and it requires an expert guide to direct a visitor to them, the 
 acclivity being both difficult and intricate. 
 
 On returning to my quarters I found that my hostess had been 
 taken ill, and I was to go and see her. She was suffering from 
 headache and indigestion. I told her I was not a doctor, but 
 recommended her some pyretic saline, which seemed to do her 
 good. I had also to attend her son, who was suffering from fever. 
 It is a curious fact that all travelers are expected to cure diseases 
 in those countries, because they say they come from the ''land of 
 wisdom and culture," and though I am quite ignorant of the 
 art of medicine, I have done more wonders with my Holloway's pills, 
 emetics, pyretic saline, and chlorodyne, than many professed native 
 doctors! 
 
 It is extraordinary to state that the delegates of the Eoman 
 Church have not succeeded in converting the Nestorians of Shakh 
 to their dogmas, though so near a Turkish town, where the former 
 possess so much power under the protection of the French Gov- 
 ernment. The reason of this is, I suppose, the fear of Koordish 
 interference, though the Nestorians of Shakh told me that the 
 Chaldean Catholics of Jazeerah. who were formerly their co-relig- 
 ionists, had always tried, through their influence with the local 
 authorities, to bully them into submission to the Pope.
 
 390 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 To avoid the heat of the day I dined early, and, after having 
 had a few hours' sleep in the evening, got up to prepare for start- 
 ing soon after ten o'clock. By 11.30 P. M. we were off again, and 
 went on until we reached the Yezeedee village of Dairaboon at 
 nine A. M. Like most places in Turkey, it had dwindled down 
 to less than half its former size since I visited it with Sir Henry 
 Layard in 1850. At first the chief offered me a hut near the 
 threshing-floor, occupied during the summer by the villagers; but 
 it was so surrounded by every conceivable kind of dirt that every 
 time a gust of wind blew I was covered over by an accumulation 
 of filth; so I had, to my great annoyance, to move into the village, 
 where I made myself as comfortable as I could. But as soon as 
 the sun was down I moved to a tobacco-field, where I had my 
 dinner and slept a few hours before starting. We left Dairaboon 
 at midnight, and reached Semail at 11.45 A. M.; but the muleteers 
 did not arrive till two hours after me, which made their march 
 that day nearly fourteen hours. On my arrival at Semail I went 
 to my former host's house, where I was welcomed as usual. I was 
 somewhat staggered to hear there that the Bedouin Shammer 
 Arabs were plundering all over the country and committing rav- 
 ages right and left, and I was told that there was every fear of 
 our encountering them on the way after leaving Semail. As I 
 had always been accustomed to false alarms, and I never allowed 
 rumors of the kind to interfere with my movements, I did not 
 hesitate to leave at the time I appointed; so I had my dinner early 
 and started at 11.15 P. M., after I had had a few hours' sleep. On 
 occasions of unsafety I never separated from the luggage, lest we 
 should come in contact with marauders. I generally rode up to 
 the highest hill or eminence, and scanned the country all round, 
 and instructed my followers and escort not to show any fight in 
 case they encountered suddenly any plundering party, but to say 
 to whom the property belonged. Happily, we met no one, whether 
 friend or foe, and after six and a half hours' ride we reached 
 Babneet, situated on the left bank of the Tigris. Our direct route 
 to Mossul was via Tel- Addas; but as I had to see an ancient mound 
 which was reported to me to exist at the Yezeedee village of 
 Jaggan, I had to go out of my way to do so. I did not stay there, 
 but went to the Turcoman's hamlet of Babneet to spend Sunday, 
 the latter being much more clean and comfortable than the former. 
 As soon as we came within a short distance of the cultivated
 
 RETURN TO MOSSUL. 
 
 country, I sent the luggage direct to Babneet, and one of my escort 
 and I galloped on to Jaggan and inspected the mound. I f und 
 t was a natural hillock; but it bemg situated on ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 Tigris and the overhow having cut away one part of it, made it 
 appear to an inexperienced eye, as if it was artihcial 
 ^ At the village of Babneet I was the guest of its Moslem chief, 
 lesa (Jesus), who left at my disposal the nicest room m the house 
 and of course, my escort and followers were also accommodated 
 w'th apartments. His conduct towards us all was most pleasing. 
 I had again a few hours' sleep in the evening, and resumed our 
 iournev at 11.15 P. M., and my host, lesa, and a fnend of Ins 
 accompanied me for about three hours on the way, to show me 
 the proper path, as the night was very dark 
 
 We reached Koyunjik, opposite Mossul, at seven A. M on Mon 
 dav the 27th of September. I first visited the excavations, and 
 ^ou^d the gangs hard at work. With the exception of inscribed 
 
 trra-cotta^tabfets, nothing had been f -^^^ --/^^^tuT 
 ing I then crossed the Tigris on the bridge of boats to Mossul, 
 and as soon as I took up my quarters at my uncle's house, a large 
 number of friends and acquaintances, both Europeans and na- 
 tives, came to see me. In the evening I dined at the Br^ish con^ 
 sulate with Mr. and Mrs. Eussell, who, I was sorry to find, had 
 been ailing all the summer, but they were then f^^mg stronger. It 
 was still very hot at Mossul, and it was not to be wondered at that 
 Zse not accustomed to the long hot season of that part of Meso- 
 potamia soon begin to suffer in health, if they do ^^t take proper 
 precaution day and night,-that is to say, to keep out of the sun 
 during the day, and avoid getting a chill at night. . -„ , . . 
 
 The Mossul climate is very peculiar, unlike that of Bagiidad 
 and other towns in Southern and Northern Mesopotamia. Though 
 the days from June to September are extremely hot, yet the nights 
 are generally cool, when the northerly breeze blows, as it comes down 
 from the Assyrian or Koordistan mountains, where perpetual snow 
 exists. The months of August, September, and October are con- 
 sidered the most nnhealthy season, and the reason of this is sup- 
 posed to be the abundance of fruit and raw vegetables that are 
 eaten The worst are raw cucumbers and melons, on which most 
 of the poorer classes feed. When I arrived at Mossul that autumn 
 the cucumbers were selling for a penny a dozen, melons a penny 
 the six pounds, grapes two pounds for a penny, and other trmts
 
 392 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 and vegetables were sold at the same proportionate price. For- 
 tunately, the common fever of the country, as I have already men- 
 tioned, is intermittent, which, though very troublesome and weak- 
 ening, is not considered dangerous. 
 
 Soon after my return to Mossul, I received the new firman to 
 enable me to carry on the researches in Assyria and Babylonia 
 for a further term of two years; but I did not hear a word, bad 
 or good, from our ambassador about the excavations at Nebee Yonis. 
 Although the royal license was forwarded to me by Mr. Goschen, 
 Sir Henry Layard had secured its grant before he left Constanti- 
 nople, through imperial favor. I found, on examining it, that it 
 differed in some clauses from the former, not that the change did 
 me any harm, but had I not had the confidence of the authorities 
 my work might have been hampered by it. For the better success 
 of our operations, the first firman was made in the name of Her 
 Majesty's ambassador at Constantinople, and I represented him in 
 carrying on the researches; but the second firman was made in 
 my name only. Then, in the former I was recommended to the 
 good offices of the local authorities, who were ordered to render 
 me every assistance in their power to make my task easy; in the 
 latter that clause was struck out. Thirdly, in the old one it, was 
 decreed that, in case of necessity, the firman would be renewed 
 at the end of the term; but in the new that favorable allusion was 
 struck out. Last, but not least, though the term of the last decree 
 was for two years, nevertheless, because it was notified therein 
 that the period of two years was to take effect "from the date 
 thereof," and that date was purposely antedated to 16th August, 
 instead of 15th October, which was the day of termination of the 
 other firman, we lost by that stratagem just two months. I have 
 not been able to find out whose fault it was that we were cajoled 
 in that way. It could not have been done through the cognizance 
 of Mr. Goschen, as I do not suppose that he was either consulted 
 about it, or that he took the trouble to examine it. I have no 
 doubt that the dragoman who had charge of its execution must 
 have either winked at the mistake, or never cared to read the 
 draught of the document before it was submitted to His Imperial 
 Majesty's approval. 
 
 With regard to the renewal of our excavations at ISTebee Yonis 
 I was left in suspense for months, and after my return to Mossul 
 from Wan, I was daily awaiting intelligence from Constantinople
 
 LEAVING MOSSUL. 393 
 
 about it. I fully expected that if Mr. Goschen had found that it 
 was quite impossible to move the Porte to cancel its arbitrary 
 prohibition regarding my digging in that mound, he would have 
 sent me a line or telegram to say so, and I should have known what 
 to do, and not have remained in a state of uncertainty day after 
 day, when I was anxious to go down to Baghdad to see about our 
 other researches in Babylonia. I was advised by the governor of 
 Mossul to postpone my departure twice, as he hoped that the 
 Minister of Public Instruction might relent, and allow me to go 
 on with my work in that proscribed part of Nineveh. I had al- 
 ready purchased three spots to dig at, and an unlimited number 
 of the inhabitants were ready to sell me their houses for the same 
 purpose, if I chose to buy them. After having waited in vain, 
 impatiently, for a month and a half for good tidings from the 
 Turkish capital, I was obliged to abandon my longing desire to 
 excavate once more the domain of Esarhaddon, and go down to 
 Baghdad sadly disappointed. 
 
 As usual, I gave my nephew, Mr. Nimroud Eassam, the neces- 
 sary instructions with respect to our researches in Nineveh and 
 other parts of Assyria, which the Trustees of the British Museum 
 wished to continue. While I was waiting for news about our ex- 
 cavations at Nebee Yonis, I employed myself in searching for 
 other ancient sites in the neighborhood of Mossul, but with the 
 exception of an underground building, which I discovered in a 
 mound situated in the Zaweya,* skirted by the Tigris, about forty 
 miles to the southeast of Mossul, we found nothing tempting to 
 warrant me to continue the excavations in those parts. From all 
 I could make out of the architecture of the ruin at Zaweya, it 
 seemed to me of the Sassanian period; but I found below the mound 
 a buttress of hewn stone built very neatly to prevent the encroach- 
 ment of the river, showing that it was not erected by uncivilized 
 hands. 
 
 I left Mossul for Baghdad by raft, on Thursday, the 11th of 
 November, and reached Baghdad in seven days by floating and 
 rowing. For eight months in the year, from July to Februarv% 
 the Tigris gets very shallow, owing to its branches being exhausted 
 during the summer by irrigation purposes, and at the end of au- 
 tumn snow begins to fall, and the former accumulation ceases to 
 
 * "Corner" (of land).
 
 394 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 melt; otherwise I ought to have reached Baghdad in three or four 
 days, as I always traveled day and night. I also lost nearly a day 
 in examining the different excavations I was carrying on along both 
 sides of the Tigris within sixty miles of Mossul. 
 
 I was fortunate to find, on arriving at Baghdad, that Abd-ar- 
 Eahman Pasha was the wallee, or governor-general; he was one of 
 the best and most honest rulers the Porte ever employed. He was 
 formerly acting as governor-general at Baghdad, from whence 
 he had been sent to Diarbekir in the time of the Turko-Eussian 
 War of 1877-78. 
 
 After having spent about ten days at Baghdad, in settling my 
 accounts with the agents and examining and packing different 
 antiquities for dispatch to England, I started for Babylon on the 
 29th November. As usual, I halted at Mahmoodia for the night, 
 as it was only fifteen miles from Baghdad, and contained better 
 accommodation than either Khan-al-Haswa or Khan-al-Mahweel. 
 On reaching the place I found it overcrowded with Persian pil- 
 grims, who were going to Carballa, and whether at the Khan, the 
 huts of the inhabitants, or public thoroughfares, they were 
 crammed full of men, women, and children, with their beasts of 
 burden and luggage. I was fortunate enough to find a house 
 where the pilgrims had not been admitted, as the landlord was 
 away; so I prevailed upon his wife to take me in, and I was not 
 a little cheered when the husband came home at night and found 
 no fault,, but, on the contrary, he attended to my wants in a most 
 pleasing manner. 
 
 We left for Babylon early the next morning, and reached Khan- 
 al-Haswa in three hours' ride. I spent there about half an hour 
 for breakfast, provided for me by the villagers, consisting of a 
 dispatch cock, eggs, butter, and new baked bread. The most won- 
 derful part of preparing the breakfast was the quick way the fowl 
 was killed, cleaned, and roasted. No sooner was the order given 
 than a rush was made at the fowls which were hovering about the 
 \-illage; and by the time I dismounted and had taken a seat out- 
 side the khan, the bird was not only killed and stripped of its 
 feathers, but it was actually grilling on a brisk wood fire. In the 
 meantime, the man who provided coffee at the khan brought his 
 coffee-pot out to me, with some cups and a nargeela, or water-pipe, 
 to while away the time. My personal escort and I, with Dawood 
 Toma, the head overseer of our researches in Babylon, who had
 
 395 
 RUINS OF BABYLON. 
 
 ,one to Baghdad to meet me, hurried on to ^"~;^; 
 fo^ina to reach Babylon before dark. As soon as I arrived at that 
 Se in fi^^ W march, 1 sent on Dawood to Jnnjima, 
 
 t Trep!.re a place for me to rest at, as I did not intend to g^ into 
 
 T?-r . .^ .til the next dav.* I had to wait for a long time at Khan- 
 Hillah until the next aay. Babylon 
 
 Tta ;:rwHh"'eo:t for Jimji J, which place we reached .n 
 hree hours' ride. We had scarcely ridden half an hour when the 
 Ikybe" an to be overcast wfth thick clouds, and after l>a™g g°»^ 
 on an hour longer, thunder and lightning commenced, and the 
 atter beLme so^viCid that, though the night -s -— .-^^ 
 we could see our way quite clearly by the hght of the bnght 
 flashe " When we passed the mound of Babel, and got witlnn the 
 ru ns of Babylon, it became somewhat unsafe for us to hurry on 
 on account /f the number of ditches and holes w^-h mtervened 
 between us Had it not been for the constant flashes of hghtnmg, 
 whTch kept UB from falling headlong into the pits, I do not know 
 Ihf we should have donc^ especially as we had lost the r.ght path 
 and had to push on anyhow to get under shelter. The thundei 
 and lightlg became more constant and alarming when we neared 
 
 on Xg-plaee; and no sooner had I ^^^^'^;-'^\:'^ZrZ 
 quarters than rain and hail began to pour down m torrents. Ihe 
 ?rt fell so thickly that the whole country was covered mth i 
 n a short space of time. Some of the hailstones were as tag as 
 :rge walnut's, and we were told, the next day, that a good deal o 
 damage was caused by the storm. Of course all ^^^^^^f ^^^^J^ 
 soon as the sun rose, but it was very cnnous to see P«\"* ™°7' 
 sandy ground burrowed by the huge hailstones, ^-^^ looking as if a 
 shower of metal balls had fallen from the sky and dented the soil, 
 nearly half an inch, like a bagatelle board! .,-ff„p„t 
 
 Eariy the next day I went with Dawood Toma over the different 
 works, and examined the localities where collections of unbaked 
 clay tablets had been discovered, and was glad to find that im- 
 portant relics had crowned our labors. I found, to my great vex- 
 ation, that a large number of the records had crumbled to pieces 
 
 ^TTTTound it more convenient tor the head °^"^''" *" "j; °*" 
 our most important excavatioBS at Bab.vlon. I prevailed upon the 
 chief oT the place to let him have part of his house, which he made 
 his headquarters.
 
 396 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 as soon as they were removed, as they were found in damp soil im- 
 pregnated with nitre. Had I had an Assyrian copyist with me 
 we might have preserved, at all events, the history of the docu- 
 ments, though part of the originals would have been lost. 
 
 As soon as I returned to Jimjima, and had my breakfast, I 
 rode into Hillah, and took up my quarters at the house of my old 
 friend, Khoaja Menahim Daniel, of Baghdad, who was kind enough 
 to lend me his country house again to use as my headquarters, 
 while I was superintending the researches in Babylon and Birs 
 J^Timroud. 
 
 Having interchanged official and friendly visits with the civil 
 and military authorities at Hillah, I rode out to Birs Nimroud, 
 and examined the works there. I took up my quarters at the house 
 of Shaikh Jaafar, my Birs Nimroud overseer, and chief of the 
 Gowams, or guardians of the sanctum of Ibraheem-al-Khaleel; as 
 I wished to remain at Birs Nimroud for a few days to superintend 
 the excavations in person, and to make a plan of the newly-discov- 
 ered ruins near the tower. While I was in that neighborhood, I 
 visited different mounds, both in the vicinity of Hillah and Birs 
 Nimroud, for the purpose of examining them for future operations; 
 but I failed to find any spot to tempt me to try. 
 
 After having spent about three weeks at Hillah, Birs Nim- 
 roud, and Jimjima, I proceeded northward to see the other an- 
 cient mounds which were reported to me to be of immense size. 
 I first visited the mound of what the Arabs call Tel-Ibraheem, 
 situated about fifteen miles to the northeast of Hillah. I have 
 not the least doubt that from its situation and important position 
 between Babylon, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, it marks the seat of 
 ancient Cuthah. It is an enormously large mound, about three 
 thousand feet in circumference, and two hundred and eighty 
 feet high; and to the west of it, and almost adjoining it, there is 
 another small mound, on which the sanctuary of Ibraheem — 
 Abraham — is erected. Had I had any workmen at hand, I would 
 have certainly placed a few gangs to try it for two or three weeks; 
 but it was so far from any inhabited place, and so difficult to 
 induce my Arabs to work without any protection, that I could 
 not possibly examine it just then; but I resolved to return to it 
 as soon as I was able to go and superintend the work myself, when 
 I could obtain as many laborers as I liked without any difficulty. 
 There was another drawback to the carrying on of explorations
 
 SEEKING THE SITE OF SIPPARA. 397 
 
 there, the want of water; for there was no supply to be had for 
 nearly ten miles, either from the Mahaweel Canal to the south, or 
 the Tigris to the east. 
 
 Afterwards I repaired to Mahmoodia, to examine the numerous 
 mounds that were in that neighborhood, about fifteen miles to the 
 west of Baghdad. I went direct to the residence of Hommadee, 
 a former host, who was extremely attentive when I was his guest 
 the year before. lie was away attending his sheep, but his family 
 received me with their usual hospitality, and the favorite wife left 
 at my disposal her own chamber, the best in the house, which I 
 made my headquarters all the time I was in that neighborhood. I 
 took with me an Arab overseer from Babylon with a few laborers, 
 as I knew it would be difficult to obtain workmen at Mahmoodia. 
 The natives of that place cared more about serving the Persians 
 and other pilgrims, who were constantly passing and repassing, 
 than coming to work for me for three or four piasters (about six 
 pence) per day. Thus I was independent of the inhabitants of the 
 Mahmoodia district for a time. The mounds in which we began 
 to excavate happened, however, to be on the track of the pilgrims; 
 and as there were always no lack of loiterers who accompany that 
 religious cavalcade from Baghdad, my overseer, who possessed great 
 tact in gaining the confidence of all those with whom he came in 
 contact, soon managed to augment his gangs from the wayfarers; 
 and what was more extraordinary, they were engaged for less than 
 what we paid our Babylonian workmen. 
 
 I had been, for some time past, puzzling my head as to the 
 position of the renowned ancient city of Sippara, mentioned in 
 Holy Writ as Sepharvaim, and as I could not agree with the opinion 
 of former travelers as to the localities they accorded to it, I was 
 bent upon visiting every mound in the neighborhood, and seeing 
 if I could not hit upon the exact site to the north of Babylon. 
 First, I thought that Tel-Ibraheem might have been the ancient 
 city, but I had to abandon that idea, being unable to fix upon 
 another spot for the important city of Cuthah. My friends at Bagh- 
 dad thought that it might be identified with the mound of Shaisha- 
 bar, about eighteen miles to the southwest of that city, and about 
 three miles to the southeast of Mahmoodia: but as soon as I visited 
 the spot and examined the country around it, I dismissed that 
 suggestion from my mind. So little did I think of the importance 
 of that mound that I would not waste even a day's labor upon it.
 
 398 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 As for the notion that Moseyib, or Imseyib, indicated the site of 
 Sippara determined upon by modern geographers, I gave no heed 
 to it; because there was no mound of any magnitude near it to en- 
 title it to such a distinction. I therefore resolved to look for. 
 other sites further north for the object in view. I placed different 
 gangs to search three spots near the village of Mahmoodia, and 
 I employed myself daily in visiting other localities to the east and 
 northeast of Shaishabar; but I saw nothing to satisfy me. In two 
 of the ruins I examined near Mahmoodia I found traces of brick 
 walls; but from the nature of the building and the material used, 
 I was convinced that they belonged to the Parthian, and not to the 
 Babylonian epoch. I had therefore to abandon them for other more 
 desirable sites. I had also heard of three other mounds to the 
 north and northeast of Mahmoodia, called Aboo-Habba, Dair, and 
 Hargawee, which I had intended to examine as soon as I could 
 afford the time. One day, on returning to my host's house at 
 Mahmoodia, his brother, Mohammed, showed me a fragment of 
 kiln-burnt brick with a few arrow-headed characters on it, which 
 he said he had picked up at the ruins of Dair when he was re-' 
 turning from a wedding to which he had been invited. I no 
 sooner saw the relic than I began to long for a visit to the spot, 
 and I lost no time the next day in riding to it. It happened then i 
 that the Euphrates had overflowed its banks, and the Mahmoodia 
 Canal, which is generally dry nine months in the year, was run- 
 ning and inundating the land betv/een Dair and the village of 
 Mahmoodia; the consequence was we had to go a round-about 
 way to reach that place. We had first to pass the Sanctuary of, 
 Seyid Abdallah, the reputed saint of that country, situated about 
 six miles to the northwest of Mahmoodia; and we then veered to the 
 right and proceeded to Dair in an easterly direction. In about 
 half an hour's ride further, we came to an inclosure of what seemed 
 to me an artificial mound, and on ascending it I asked my guide 
 if that was the ruin in which he had picked up the inscribed brick. 
 He replied in the negative, but said that we were then at Aboo- 
 Habba, and Dair was about an hour further on.* I could scarcely* 
 
 * It is very difficult in Babylonia to distinguish from a distance 
 an artificial mound from the huge enbankment of the numerous canals 
 that intersect the country everywhere; and this is the reason why I did 
 not take much notice of the sites of Aboo-Habba and Dair, when I used 
 to pass them on my way between Baghdad and Hillah.
 
 THE TWO SIPPARAS. ^^^ 
 
 beUeve my eyes on looking down and finding everytliing under 
 my horse's feet indicating a ruin of an ancient city; and if I had 
 had any workmen at hand I would have then and there placed two 
 or three gangs to try the spot. I was then standing near a small 
 pyramid situated at the westerly limit of the mound, which I was 
 told contained a golden model of the ark in which Noah and his 
 family were saved from the Deluge, and that the second father of 
 mankind had it buried there as a memorial of the event. On asking 
 how it was that no one had dug out that valuable relic for so long, I 
 was confidently assured that no one dared to do so, for fear of 
 awful consequences. I found, on examining the extent of the 
 ruin, that it was of immense size, though not so high as either 
 Tel-ibraheem, Babel, or Ibraheem-al-Khaleel. It was surrounded 
 by a wall on all sides excepting the western, where the pyramid, or 
 cone, is situated. On the north and northeast sides, the wall is 
 almost perfect, but on the east and southeast it is not very con- 
 spicuous. The inclosure contained an area of about 3,500 square 
 yards; and, although on the east and southeast sides the mound 
 almost adjoins the wall, yet on the northern side there is a large 
 space, which must have been used as a courtyard for domestic 
 purposes. After having satisfied myself that it was of the utmost 
 importance to hasten back to it for the purpose of a tentative 
 examination, I went on with my guide to Dair, which we reached 
 in half an hour's galloping. After seeing the magnitude of Aboo- 
 Habba, Dair seemed most insignificant, though the walls which 
 surrounded it were most imposing, and belonged, without any 
 doubt, to the old Babylonian period. "N'otwithstanding the mound 
 within had also a primitive appearance, I did not think much of 
 it; and on digging in it for a few days afterwards, I found I was not 
 mistaken in my conjecture; for we found no trace of any important 
 building, but only discovered a few inscribed bricks with the name 
 of Nebuchadnezzar on them, the same as thousands which were 
 found afterwards at x\boo-Habba. 
 
 We are informed by Assyrian and Grecian historians that there 
 were two Sipparas in Babylonia, one for the worship of the sun, 
 and the other for the worship of the moon; and as the records 
 I discovered at Aboo-Habba represent the latter ruin as the Sip- 
 para of the sun, I have not the least doubt that Dair contained 
 the temple of the moon goddess; but whether it was very small 
 and its ruins are still underground, or that it was altogether de-
 
 400 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 stroyed, is more than I can venture to suggest for the present. 
 The reason which prompted me to this assumption was the fact 
 that the two Sipparas, according to history, were divided by a 
 river; and as there is no other important site near Aboo-Habba, 
 excepting Dair, the latter is unquestionably the ruin of the temple 
 of the moon; and the river or nahr * alluded to was the Nahr- 
 Malka which skirted them, the former being on the right bank, 
 and the latter on the left. The nahr could not have meant the 
 Euphrates, because Aboo-Habba is at least four miles in a direct 
 line from it, and there is no mound of any magnitude on its 
 western bank which could have contained Sippara of the moon 
 goddess. 
 
 On returning to Sepd Abdallah, I inquired if any laborers 
 could be found to excavate for me at Aboo-Habba. Some said they 
 could not work if I paid them a majeedea (four shillings) a day; 
 others asked such enormous wages that it was quite impossible 
 for me to pay them, not that I could not afford to employ a few 
 workmen on a high scale of pay for a short time, but I was obliged 
 to keep to a certain standard for fear of the demand for higher 
 wages in other quarters. When such difficulties arose, I used to 
 send to my other excavations for a few men to commence with, and 
 allowed them extra pay for what I called "special service." Those 
 men were not only useful in emergent eases, but showed new hands 
 the way the excavations were to be conducted. Very often the old 
 hands were promoted to higher grades of service as diggers and 
 basket-fillers, and sometimes, when they proved very faithful and 
 honest, I raised them as assistant overseers, giving according to 
 their status better pay. Whenever I went to a fresh place for the 
 object of digging, I was invariably asked more than double the 
 pay I was able or willing to give, as the Arabs have an absurd idea 
 that the English are made of money, and have the art of turning 
 dust into gold! On this occasion, when I wanted a few men to be- 
 gin digging at Aboo-Habba, naturally I lost no time in ordering 
 Seyid Ahmed, my Mahmoodia overseer, to proceed with his laborers 
 to that mound. I also sent to Babylon for two more gangs to 
 commence the explorations I was longing for. Being anxious that 
 no misunderstandings or complications should occur in consequence 
 of the jealousy of the Arabs in the vicinity of Aboo-Habba, I moved 
 
 * Nahr ia the Semitic languages means either canal or river.
 
 A T ABOO-HABBA . 401 
 
 my headquarters to Seyid Abdallah to superintend the explora- 
 tions in person. No sooner the neighboring Arabs saw that I was 
 able to obtain the laborers required without difficulty than they 
 came to me by hundreds, offering to work for less than I had in- 
 tended to give them at first; because a great number said that they 
 were starving, and they only wanted to earn enough to feed their 
 families on bread. 
 
 There was no one residing at the mound of Aboo-Habba; but 
 within a mile and a half to the southwest there was a mausoleum 
 of the patron saint of the neighboring Arabs, already alluded to, 
 called Seyid Abdullah, near which the guardian of the sanctuary 
 and his near relatives dwelt. I had my camp pitched near his; and 
 to make him take an interest in our excavations, I appointed him 
 sub-overseer, and offered his brothers, most brave fellows, and other 
 connections, good berths, which they accepted willingly. 
 
 There being no village nor Arab camp in the neighborhod of 
 Dair nearer than Seyid Abdallah, I had to send workmen thither 
 from the latter place, headed by one of the brothers of the chief 
 guardian, with experienced Babylonian diggers; but that was only 
 for a short time, as I soon found that it was useless to spend much 
 time and money just then for expectations which might never be 
 realized, when I had a good deal to do elsewhere. 
 
 At Aboo-Habba, the first day I commenced my explorations 
 near the pyramid, the workmen came upon pieces of inscribed 
 terra-cottas, which seemed to me to belong to a Babylonian cylinder 
 with fragments of inscribed bricks and bitumen, all of which indi- 
 cated a good prospect of coming upon an ancient building. I was 
 not left long to earn the reward of my labor, because two or three 
 days later one of the gangs came upon the wall of a chamber, and 
 on examination I found that it belonged to the old Babylonian 
 style of architecture. This success encouraged me to prosecute 
 the research with diligent perseverance; and, a few days afterwards, 
 the other workmen came upon other buildings in different parts 
 of the mound. This piece of good luck made me carry on the 
 work with redoubled energy, and very soon afterwards we came 
 upon a chamber paved with asphalt, which proved to contain the 
 history of the new city which I had discovered. Theretofore all 
 pavements in the Assyrian and Babylonian structures were found 
 to be either of stone, marble, or baked brick; consequently that 
 novel discovery made me rather curious to find out why asphalt 
 
 26
 
 402 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 was adopted in this instance. I therefore lost no time in having 
 the asphalt pavement broken into and examined, and to the sur- 
 prise of the workmen, and to my not a little delight, an inscribed 
 earthenware casket, with a lid, was discovered in the southeastern 
 corner of the chamber, about three feet below the surface. Inside 
 it we found a stone tablet, 11^ inches long by 7 inches wide, in- 
 scribed minutely on both sides with a small bas-relief on the top of 
 the obverse, representing a deity, which has since been identified 
 by Assyrian scholars with the sun-god. Above it were two figures 
 holding an emblem of the sun resting on an altar before him, and 
 three other figures approaching the deity with devout reverence. 
 The foremost figures, one leading the other by the arm, seemed 
 to be dressed in the same style; but the hindermost was going 
 forward in the act of supplication, with his arms raised.* There 
 were, with this tablet, two earthenware molds representing the 
 bas-relief alluded to, which seemed as if they were made for the 
 purpose of casting in metal those mystic figures for religious pur- 
 poses. The tablet was in two large and six small pieces, but other- 
 wise it was complete. It must have been broken formerly into 
 four pieces, and joined at the time with four iron pivots, which 
 have been eaten by corrosion. In a room adjoining the one in 
 which the tablet was discovered, we found two barrel-shaped, in- 
 scribed terra-cotta cylinders, containing a record of Nabonidus, 
 king of Babylon, and a curiously-hewn stone symbol, about nine 
 inches long, grooved in four divisions, ending on the top in the 
 shape of a cross. The former were covered with fine arrow-headed 
 characters, and looked as fresh as if they were newly baked; and 
 the latter was inscribed with archaic characters. These inscriptions 
 record the history of the place, and have established the identity 
 of the ruin with Sippara of the Sun-god and Sepharvaim of the 
 Bible. 
 
 I have been puzzled to account for the novelty of burying the 
 coffer deep in asphalt pavement; because the very fact of seeing 
 strange flooring would be likely to tempt those who search for 
 treasure or other valuable property to break through it as I did. 
 
 The discovery of the ruin at Aboo-Habba was most fortunate, 
 
 *It was very remarkable that we found in our diggings there 
 some trunks of statuettes in marble dressed in the same style, but 
 they were all without hands, feet, or heads.
 
 Stone Ta islet i>EscKiiiiM; the Kestouatiox of the TEMin.E of the Slw- 
 
 GOI) AT SiPl'AKA HV N ABl'-APA L-IDDIX, KiNG OF BaBYLOM (ABOUT 
 
 9U0 B. C. ) The 1lli>tkatxo.v at the Top rehkesexts 
 
 THE Su.V-Gon SEA TEH IN" A ShRIXE, IX PROXT OP 
 
 WHICH IS THE Sun Disk upon ax Altar.
 
 SIPPARA IDENTIFIED. ^^^ 
 
 as it has set at rest the long disputed spot of ancient Sippara, which 
 was imagined by different savants to be in other locahties m Baby- 
 lonia on the bank of the Euphrates. We are now certain of its 
 exact position being on the great historical canal of Babylonia, 
 called Nahr-Malka, or the royal river.* Though Aboo-Habba is 
 not more than four miles in direct hne from the Euphrates, the 
 source of Nahr-Malka is nearly twenty miles higher up the nver, 
 and flows to the city of Sippara in a southeasterly direction. This 
 canal was the wonder of the age when the Babylonian kingdom 
 was in its greatest prosperity, as it must have been about one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles in length, and bridged over m many places. 
 Xenophon records that the Greek auxiliaries had to cross it on 
 bridges made of palm-trees when they were retreating northwards 
 after the death of Cyrus. It used to run from the Euphrates 
 to Sippara, where it divided, the main body passing Dair and run- 
 ning in a southeasterly direction on the Tigris side of Mesopo- 
 tamia as far as Shat-al-hai, passing within three miles of Seleucia 
 and Ctesiphon. The other part took a more southerly course 
 nearer the Euphrates, and passed the mound of Tel-Ibraheem,— the 
 site of ancient Cuthah. The remains of the former is now called 
 Yosephia, and the latter Habl-Ibraheem, or the rope of Abraham, 
 from the resemblance of it to a rope, as it winds on through the 
 plain between Aboo-Habba and Tel-Ibraheem. Both these canals 
 are crossed by wayfarers who travel between Baghdad and Hillah, 
 and between the former place and Moseyib on the way to Carballa. 
 It is most interesting to examine this canal all the way between 
 the Euphrates and the Tigris, as it shows the magnitude of the 
 Babylonian agricultural industry in days gone by, when it irri- 
 gated hundreds of miles of rich alluvial soil. The remains of 
 countless large and small water-courses, which intersect the country 
 fed by those two branches of Nahr-Malka, are plainly seen even 
 now. Vestiges of prodigious basins are also visible, wherein a 
 surplus supply must have been kept for any emergency, especially 
 when the water in the Euphrates falls low in summer. 
 
 *In Aramaic, or what is now called Chaldean language, spoken 
 by the Nestorians of Koordistan and the Chaldeans of Assyria, Nahr 
 means river or canal, and Malka means king or royal.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 As SOON as the discoyery of Sippara was noised about, jealousies 
 began to take hold of the minds of the officials and of those Euro- 
 peans who could not endure any success crowning British enter- 
 prises. I was told one day that the chief of the Tappo, or superin- 
 tendent of the crown lands, had threatened to stop my excavations 
 at Aboo-Habba, and that he intended to proceed thither the next 
 day and arrest every workman he found on the spot. Conse- 
 quently, a great number were afraid to go to work; and to en- 
 courage them to do so, and to be on the spot in case the chief of 
 the Tappo kept his threat, I repaired thither soon after break- 
 fast. I had not to wait long before the looked-for officer made 
 his appearance with about twenty mounted followers, armed to the 
 teeth. They immediately surrounded the chamber where the bulk 
 of the men were working, and the chief began to abuse them for 
 daring to excavate in a mound which belonged to legal owners, 
 and ordered them to leave the trenches immediately. I was at the 
 time superintending the work in person, so I told him that he had 
 no business to speak to the men, who were only carrying out my 
 orders, and if he had anything to say he had better address himself 
 to me. He replied that the land belonged partly to natives of Bagh- 
 dad, and partly to the State, and that I had no right to excavate there 
 without the agreement of the one, and the sanction of the other. 
 I then said that I would not have dug there if I had not had an 
 imperial license, and if there were any proprietors who disapproved 
 of my action, I was ready to meet their objections. I said, further- 
 more, that if he thought that I was not doing right, he could lay the 
 ease before the Baghdad authorities, to whom I held myself respon- 
 sible. Two of his followers, who were chiefs of Arab clans in- 
 habiting the district of Mahmoodia, intervened, and said that my 
 name was well-known all over the country, and my explorations 
 in different parts of the Baghdad Pashalic were not conducted at 
 night or in secret, and begged the officer to leave me alone, and 
 refer the matter to the higher authority. This advice seemed to 
 have a great effect upon him, and when he heard afterwards that 
 404
 
 •«i { iw ii« wn 1 iiiMMi rmtufj 
 
 Wm»^»wnipii ^j|j^| 1^ ||)'iil|iiiM|iBWW«M||| 
 
 1 ■ ■ 
 
 4m^ 
 
 fc ■ I o ■ 
 
 M <f to»i^wiiaMar«r— —————— -^——'—^•■*'*™**''*'^ 
 
 Reverse of the ixscriptiox of Naru-apal-iddix relatixg to the AVorship 
 
 OF THE SuX-CrOD AT SiPHARA. COXTAIXIXG LiSTS OF THE KlXU's (llFTS, 
 AXD SETTIXG FORTH KULES fONCERXIXG PrIESILY VeSTMEXTS.
 
 ABOO-HABBA. 405 
 
 I possessed, besides the firman, a Beewirldee * (passport) from the 
 governor-general of Baghdad, authorizing me to excavate any- 
 where I liked in that province in accordance with the imperial 
 decree, he came to apologize for what he had done. After this 
 we became staunch friends, and he subsequently never lost an 
 opportunity of showing his civility and attention in all my con- 
 cerns. But my Baghdad evil-eyed men were not disposed to let 
 me go on with my researches without further trouble; because 
 some one had mischievously caused my discoveries at Aboo-Habba 
 to be mentioned in the Baghdad Arabic newspaper, called "Zowra," 
 and magnified them to a most prodigious extent. It was said in 
 the article that the antiquities I .had unearthed were "of greater 
 value than gold, and more precious than gems!" This bit of news 
 roused the cupidity of the part-owners of the mound, and the ire of 
 the envious, which nigh lost us those valuable relics, and stopped me 
 from going on with my excavations. I had, of course, a number 
 of friends, who reported to me everything that took place; and I 
 was therefore anxious to have the inscribed stone tablet, the two 
 cylinders, and other objects packed and sent away from Baghdad 
 as soon as possible. For fear of the risk of sending them without 
 having them copied, I had them photogrpahed by a French gen- 
 tleman named M. Mougel, engineer in the employ of the Govern- 
 ment of Baghdad, who kindly undertook the task for me for 
 nothing. This event alone trebly magnified their value, because 
 the very fact of having them photographed enhanced their worth 
 in the eyes of our adversaries. The part-owners of Aboo-Habba 
 took it into their heads to sue me formally before a court of justice, 
 or lay their complaint before the governor-general. Fortunately, 
 the morning they wished to do so they met two of my friends, one 
 of them praticing as an advocate, who dissuaded them against 
 taking that rash step, and advised them to come to me instead, 
 telling them at the same time that they would gain more by an 
 interview with me than by all the litigations in the world. This 
 was fortunate; because, on one of them coming to see me, I ex- 
 plained to him our respective positions with regard to the exact 
 locality where I was carrying on my exploration; and, although 
 when he came to see me he was riding the high horse, he soon 
 
 * A local passport, more for oflHcial recommendation than for a 
 free passage.
 
 406 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 found that it would be to Ms advantage to come to amicable terms 
 with me, by consenting to leave the settlement of the matter to 
 arbitration. After we had agreed as to the individuals who should 
 act as arbitrators, he left, seemingly quite satisfied. 
 
 I found out afterwards that half of the Mahmoodia district 
 had been ceded for cultivation to a Baghdad Moslem nobleman, 
 the father of the present owners, about sixty years before, by one 
 of the governors-general, for services they had rendered to the 
 State, and that the other half had been lately purchased by the 
 Sultan from his own private purse, the same as he had done in 
 other parts of the Baghdad Pashalic. But the mound of Aboo- 
 Habba being so high above the alluvial soil of IMahmoodia, it was 
 not capable of cultivation: consequently, in accordance with the 
 Tappo rules, it was considered waste land. However, sooner than 
 have any further dispute, I agreed to subsidize them, and they 
 accorded me the right of digging there as long as I wished. 
 
 In the course of three months we discovered in different 
 chambers a large number of inscribed clay tablets; but, unfortu- 
 nately, they were not baked as those found in Assyria; and the 
 clay of which they were made had become so friable that as soon 
 as they were exposed to the air they crumbled to pieces. I found 
 that the only way to preserve them was to have them baked, which 
 we did with success; but I regret to say a great number were de- 
 stroyed by the removal, as they were heaped up one upon another, 
 and stuck together. 
 
 In the room next to that wliieh was paved with asphalt we 
 came upon a solid platform, built most securely of kiln-burnt 
 bricks and bitumen. It was twenty feet square and twenty-five feet 
 high, facing the entrance of the asphalted room. I had the plat- 
 form partially broken into and examined, in the hope of discover- 
 ing some ancient record buried in it; but there was no sign of any 
 object of interest found. It was so hard to break that different 
 workmen had to take the task by turns, and even then very little 
 progress was shown after the day's labor. The consequence was, 
 I had to give up the attempt for a time. The stopping of our work 
 at Aboo-Habba abruptly debarred me from making a thorough 
 examination of what I think was an altar; and it is to be hoped that 
 on a future occasion we shall have the chance of digging it all out, 
 and seeing whether there is any record buried in it. 
 
 The style of the architecture of x\boo-Habba differed from that
 
 DISCOVERIES AT ABOO-HABBA. 
 
 407 
 
 found in other parts of Babylonia and Assyria; and from what I 
 could make out it seemed to me that Sippara of the bun-god was 
 divided into two distinct buildings; one for religious purposes and 
 the other for a habitation for priests and royalty. Each block of 
 buildings was surrounded by a breastwork, faced in some parts 
 with kiln-burnt bricks to make the structure ^^^^^^/f ^^^^ . 
 L temple and its environs must have been inhabited at differen 
 epochs by people of distinct ideas, because the height of the origmal 
 chambers and halls was twenty-five feet; but subsequent occupiers 
 
 Tun of'Bqju:land Temple fouhdot Aboo-habba by HormuzdKassah in 1881. 
 
 Statsofficf 
 
 of the place seemed to have had them filled up with debris up to 
 half the depth, and repaved the chambers to make them appear 
 as if they were originally built as low as I found them. It was m 
 this manner that I found the room in which the asphalt pavement 
 
 was discovered. ,.,-,. . o- 
 
 The mound of Aboo-Habba, in which the building of Sippara
 
 408 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 was discovered, is about 1,300 feet long by 400 feet wide, contain- 
 ing, according to my reckoning, at least three hundred chambers 
 and halls; of these I have only been able to dig out about one 
 hundred and thirty, and there is no knowing when we shall be 
 allowed to excavate the remainder, seeing that our work was put 
 a stop to by the Ottoman Government most abruptly. 
 
 Sippara has now been satisfactorily identified with the city 
 of Sepharvaim, mentioned in the Old Testament in five different 
 places. In the seventeenth chapter of the Second Book of Kings 
 it is said: "And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, 
 and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from 
 Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of 
 the children of Israel." Then in the eighteenth chapter of the 
 same book, Eabshakeh, in his boastful address to the Jews at Jeru- 
 salem about the victories gained by his master, Sennacherib, said: 
 "Where are' the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?" The city 
 of Sepharvaim has also been famous as being the oldest city known 
 amongst the ancients; and Chaldean and Grecian historians state 
 that many centuries before the Christian era, this was the place 
 where the second father of mankind buried the antediluvian rec- 
 ords. He was known to the Greek and Chaldean historians as 
 "Xisuthrus;" and as this name has no affinity in either sound or 
 meaning to the word Noah, some writers have considered the en- 
 tire Chaldean account of the Deluge a mere fable. But now the 
 buried records of the past reveal the mystery. The cuneiform 
 inscriptions tell us that God had destroyed all life by a great flood, 
 on account of the wickedness of the human race, and had saved a 
 good man, whom the Assyrians called "Khasis-Adra," * which 
 words mean "he who escaped the flood." It seems that Abydenus, 
 the Greek historian, who chronicled the legend of the Deluge from 
 Berosus, about 268 B. C, corrupted this word into "Xisuthrus;'* 
 and what makes it still very unlike the Semitic sound is the form 
 
 * Professor R. "W. Rogers, of Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, 
 N. J., however gives the following opinion about this name, as follows: 
 "The meaning of this name is still doubtful. Haupt thinks it means 
 'the Very Pious;' it is, however, more probably 'the Very Wise.'" 
 In the Assyrian Deluge story (line 195) it is written Atra-Chasis. In 
 the reversed form here given by Mr. Rassam, viz., Chasis-Atra, it is 
 probably the origin of the Greek Xisuthros {"Eioov&poq). It may be well 
 to say that this is not the name of the hero of the Deluge, but only
 
 MOUND OF TEL-IBRAHEEM. 409 
 
 of the Greek termination. It is the same as many Hebrew words 
 whose sounds have been changed in Greek or English, such as 
 Eliseus, Jesus, and Cephas, which are in the original Elisha, Yeshua, 
 Capa. 
 
 While the excavations were being carried on at Aboo-Habba, 
 I managed to take some workmen to try the mound called by the 
 Arabs "Tel-Ibraheem," which I have already mentioned. As I 
 said before, my reason for leaving it untried so long was its isolated 
 position, and the want of water supply for the workmen. I at last 
 prevailed upon a number of my laborers at Babylon and Birs Mm- 
 roud to accompany me thither with their wives and children for 
 three or four weeks, and I assisted them with the expense of the 
 transport, and allowed them extra pay for the special service. Some 
 of the women I employed as water-carriers for the workmen, and 
 others I set apart to collect fuel. It was a very pretty sight to 
 see the cavalcade marching through the plains of Babylonia with 
 the men armed in the usual way, and singing their favorite war 
 and love songs. Most fortunately, when the time came that I 
 could go there and superintend the work in person, the Tigris 
 rose unusually high, and inundated the country to within two miles 
 of the mound, which enabled us to have a regular supply of water 
 as long as we were working there. I, of course, did not care to 
 drink it, as it looked anything but tempting; so once a week I sent 
 and got some water for myself and followers from the Mahaweel- 
 Euphrates Canal, about six miles to the southwest. I found an old 
 well there which had been filled up with sand; and as I thought that 
 it might be of use in case I found it necessary to prolong our stay, 
 I had it cleared out; but it proved to be somewhat brackish, and the 
 workmen and their families preferred going a great distance and 
 fetching muddy water from the pools left by the overflow of the 
 Tigris, rather than drinking what they called "saltish water." We 
 were able, however, to use it for cooking and washing purposes. 
 
 an epithet applied to him. Elsewhere in the Deluge story he is called 
 by his name. Unfortunately, the reading of the first syllable of the 
 name is uncertain. It is variously read Cit-napishtim, Um-napishtim, 
 Par-napishtim, etc. Lately Hommel has proposed to read Nukh-naplsh- 
 tim. In this form it would accurately represent, in its first syllable, the 
 Biblical name Noah. This is, however, exceedingly doubtful, though 
 the suggestion is keen and attractive. See Hommel's paper in the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1892-93, p. 243.
 
 410 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 The first thing I did, on arriving there, was to repair the tumbled- 
 down mausoleum of Abraham, and have it thoroughly cleaned of 
 the refuse which had been accumulating for years. This reno- 
 vation not only raised me in the estimation of the Arab devotees, 
 but proved a boon to those workmen and their families who did 
 not possess proper shelter from the storms which soon afterwards 
 came on us with great fury, as they were able to take refuge in the 
 sanctuary.* 
 
 I was very much tried while there by the constant sandstorms 
 that blew in the daytime. On several occasions the dust was so 
 thick that I could not see the tents of my followers, and dared 
 not go out; and at one time the atmosphere was so dense with it 
 that our water-carriers lost their way, and could not find the mound 
 until the storm subsided, though they were not more than half a 
 mile away from it. I had to sit for hours with my eyes and mouth 
 closed, without attempting to stir; and, as for eating or drinking, 
 no one could venture to open his mouth for fear of its being filled 
 with the dust that was blowing about. The poor workmen had a 
 sorry time of it, on account of the sand which filled the air, espe- 
 cially when they were digging in soft soil; but as I had in the first 
 instance opened a number of tunnels, they were able to take shelter 
 in them when the storm was at its highest. The men certainly 
 labored with all their might during the four weeks we were there; 
 and it was an astounding fact that two gangs of seven men each 
 cleared out a ditch about twelve feet square by twenty-five feet 
 deep, and penetrated underground through four or five chambers 
 to the extent of at least sixty feet in a little more than three weeks; 
 carrjing out the debris and piling it up to the height of twenty 
 feet. 
 
 In the several trenches and tunnels I found very little of an- 
 cient remains to warrant me remaining there more than a month; 
 
 * An Arab historian, named "Ibu Athir," mentions that the Arab- 
 ian general, "Saad," after he had captured Cuthah in the sixteenth year 
 of the Hejira, and was advancing to Ctesiphon, offered up prayers at 
 the shrine of Ibraheem-al-Khaleel. It has been supposed that the shrine 
 alluded to was that near Birs Nimroud, but this could not be; because, 
 after taking Cuthah and marching to Ctesiphon in a northeasterly 
 direction, he would not have gone backwards about fifty miles to the 
 southwest to visit it, when there was another sanctuary of Abraham 
 at Cuthah. Al-khaleel, which means "the friend," in Arabic, is always 
 applied by the Arabs to Abraham.
 
 MOUND OF TEL-IBRAHEEM. 411 
 
 during which time we discovered a few inscribed clay tablets and 
 earthenware bowls, with Hebrew and Aramaic characters written 
 on them. In one part of the mound where the workmen showed 
 extraordinary energy, after having dug down about twenty feet 
 below the surface, we came upon an ancient edifice, the walls of 
 which looked quite fresh, as if the builder had just finished plas- 
 tering them. The style of this building in every way resembled 
 the new structure I discovered at the mound of Ibraheem-al-Kha- 
 leel,— that is to say, the walls were new, without the least sign of 
 their ha\ang been roofed over, and the earth with which they were 
 filled was pure soil, quite clear of any kind of debris. It was very 
 tantalizing to dig into those neat little chambers, and find nothing 
 to repay me for my trouble, and it was quite a mystery to me how 
 nearly twenty feet of earth had accumulated on the top of them 
 without any other story having existed above them as in the ruins 
 in Assyria and Babylonia. 
 
 As I said before, Tel-Ibraheem is an enormous mound; and, 
 although I had no less than twenty tunnels and trenches opened 
 in it, there were no indications whatever in them to give me any 
 hope of discovering Babylonian remains. It is true there were 
 kiln-burnt bricks in the diggings, like those usually found in 
 Babylonia, with the name of Nebuchadnezzar on them; neverthe- 
 less, I do not think that those belonged to any particular build- 
 ing, but they might have been taken there from another place. I 
 am, therefore, led to believe that that site could not have been of 
 much importance in the early Babylonian monarchy; but in a later 
 period it must have been a very flourishing city, as there were un- 
 mistakable exterior remains extending for miles around, which 
 showed that the town and its surroundings were thickly inhabited 
 after the destruction of Babylon. Had my firman been renewed, 
 I would have tried other spots in the mound, with the hope of 
 finding inscriptions or other relics indicating the history of the 
 place. 
 
 After I abandoned Tel-Ibraheem, I tried other mounds to 
 the southeast, where there was a nest of them, but to little or 
 no purpose. Notwithstanding if I had gone to that neighborhood 
 again, I would have tried them once more for at least one or two 
 months, when I should be able to judge definitely as to their im- 
 portance. My present opinion is that they were used as outposts 
 for the defense of the east side of Babylon.
 
 412 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 During that spring a kind of plague, or a very malignant black 
 fever, broke out at Nijjif, which carried off hundreds of the poor 
 Arabs in that district; and as the authorities established a quar- 
 antine on the high road between Baghdad, Hillah, and at Khan- 
 al-Mahweel, a large number of the nomad Arabs and others who 
 wished to evade it used to come round via Tel-Ibraheem, and 
 break the monotony of our solitude. They afforded me an oppor- 
 tunity to obtain from them sheep and oxen, with an unlimited 
 supply of butter, milk, and labban. 
 
 It was absurd to establish a quarantine at such a distance as 
 Khan-al-Mahweel and Mahaweel, when it was utterly impossible 
 to keep a strict surveillance over the wandering Arabs, who could 
 easily cross Mesopotamia from Hillah to the Tigris. As they are 
 expert swimmers, they could have easily crossed that river and the 
 Euphrates, and entered Baghdad to the east of it. I was told that 
 not a few of the Arabs actually swam through the Mahaweel 
 Canal between the Khan and the Euphrates at night, when their 
 spies reported to them that the banks were clear of the guard on 
 the watch. The quarantine, properly speaking, ought to have 
 been localized in cordon round Nijjif, or any place where the 
 epidemic was raging. 
 
 It is no wonder that every now and then malignant diseases 
 break out at Nijjif to the south of Birs Nimroud, when it is con- 
 sidered that every year hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of 
 dead bodies of the Persian and Arab Sheea sect of Moslems are 
 taken there for interment. In the majority of cases interment 
 is too long delayed; and as the Arabs are not very particular as to 
 the depth of the graves and how they are closed, one can imagine 
 how great the stench is in the extensive burial-ground after heavy 
 rains, followed by a hot sun. 
 
 Not caring to have ten or fifteen days of quarantine if I visited 
 our works at Babylon, I did not venture thither after I went to 
 Tel-Ibraheem. Nor would it have been right to evade the restric- 
 tions by moving from mound to mound to the southeast of Maha- 
 weel, and give the Hillah and Baghdad authorities cause to find 
 fault with me, though we were visited every day by Arabs who, 
 most probably, came from the infected region, seeing that the 
 nomad tribes were always on the move in the spring season in 
 search of pasture. 
 
 As the grant for that year had nearly expired, and it was
 
 TOWARDS THE MEDITERRANEAN. 413 
 
 necessary for me to go to Constantinople to see what could be done 
 about the excavations at Nebee Yonis and the renewal of my 
 firman, I intrusted the overseers, as usual, with the work to be 
 carried on in my absence, both at Babylon and Aboo-Habba, under 
 the general control of Her Majesty's consul-general at Baghdad.* 
 I started for the Mediterranean along the Euphrates at six 
 A. M. on Tuesday, the 3d of May, 1881. The weather was beginning 
 to get somewhat oppressive in the daytime. In consequence of the 
 overflow of the river, which filled a large number of muddy canals 
 on the way, we had to make a detour to reach our first halting- 
 place, Imhaireeja. It took us eight hours and a half to make the 
 journey from Aboo-Habba, which I had to visit for the last time 
 that morning; whereas, if we could have gone straight on, we 
 would have reached it easily in seven. Harraj, my Arab overseer 
 at Aboo-Habba, accompanied me as a guide the first two stages, 
 and to his surprise he found an aunt of his in the Arab camp, and 
 so I had my tent pitched near hers. x\nother relative of his sup- 
 plied me with milk, butter, and labban; and his daughters at- 
 tended to the kitchen requirements. We were very much troubled 
 with mosquitoes at that encampment on the border of a great 
 swamp, caused by the overflow of the Euphrates. Imhaireeja is 
 on the highway to Baghdad from Saglaweya, on the border of which 
 we found some tents to receive the harem of the governor-general 
 of Baghdad. 
 
 We started for Saglaweya at five A. M., and reached that place 
 at eleven o'clock. Though I visited the ruins of Felujah on my 
 way, and lost more than half an hour in going over it, the luggage 
 did not arrive till an hour after me. I found no sign of ancient re- 
 mains amongst its numerous ruins; but everything indicated a 
 late Arab occupation. 
 
 On arriving at Saglaweya we had to ride about a mile through 
 a swamp, from which arose noxious vapors, before we could reach 
 the ferry-boat. There was only one vessel to take passengers across; 
 whereas, it required at least three to do the work properly, as the 
 traffic was very great between the right and left banks of the 
 Euphrates in those parts. I found the boat was just starting 
 with the British overland camel mail, on its way from Baghdad 
 
 * Whenever I left the excavations in charge of native superintend- 
 ents, I kept myself in constant communication with them, and in- 
 structed them from time to time what to do.
 
 414 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 to Damascus. As I wanted the whole boat to myself, and the lug- 
 gage had not arrived, I asked the master to make haste and re- 
 turn to me, which he did in time to take us all comfortably across 
 without any mishap, though the luggage had to be carried by the 
 boatmen to and from the vessel for at least twenty yards, as the 
 water on both sides of the river was very shallow and muddy. It 
 took us nearly three hours from the time the animals were un- 
 loaded and reloaded, and my surprise was that none of our luggage 
 was disarranged through the rough way it was hustled into the 
 boat and landed. I myself had a narrow escape of being precipi- 
 tated into the muddy river when I was carried from the boat to 
 land, on account of the numerous puddles along the banks. 
 
 There was a talk that the Baghdad authorities were contemplat- 
 ing building a permanent bridge there, which I was certain they 
 would never undertake for want of funds. A bridge of boats could 
 easily be erected with very little cost; but, unfortunately, the Otto- 
 man Government lacks both funds and energy for such a purpose. 
 Who could ever believe that an important place like Baghdad, the 
 first city in Asiatic Turkey, has to depend upon a bridge of boats, 
 which is taken down whenever high winds from southeast or north- 
 west spring up, and that the inhabitants on both sides of ^ the river 
 have to cross in wicker circular boats, which are sometimes danger- 
 ous in case of a storm! There are many European capitalists ready 
 to undertake the building of a suspension bridge, if the Ottoman 
 Government would only encourage them to do so; but, for some 
 reason or other, such improvements are not consonant to Turkish 
 ideas. No one need be surprised at this, when it is considered that 
 even the great capital of Turkey, one of the greatest cities of 
 Europe, has no proper bridge to boast of, and the only existing 
 one is composed of rickety boats. In this case also, I feel per- 
 suaded that the Porte has only to show an inclination for the 
 erection of a suspension bridge, and it would have more than a 
 dozen contractors willing to undertake it. 
 
 My escort was changed at Saglaweya, and I also sent back Harraj 
 to Aboo-Habba. As we were all very tired after crossing the 
 Euphrates, I only traveled for three quarters of an hour, and had 
 my camp pitched at a place called Tirba, near some cultivated fields 
 along the sandy bank of a clear stream running from the river. 
 The mosquitoes were very troublesome again there, and to my not 
 a little alarm, I learned at Saglaweya that I must make up my
 
 ARRIVAL AT HHEET. 
 
 415 
 
 mind to be pestered with those insects all along the Euphrates 
 at that time of the year, and I was also horrified to learn that there 
 had been a quarantine estabhshed somewhere on my way to Aleppo, 
 in consequence of the plague which had appeared at Nijjif. I had 
 hoped that after I left Baghdad I should hear no more of it; but 
 I was doomed to be disappointed. 
 
 On Thursday, May 5th, we left Tirba at 4.30 A. M., and 
 reached Diban at 6.30, where I alighted and spent about half an 
 hour at a peasant's farm-yard in partaking of breakfast. I was 
 supplied there with delicious butter, milk, and labban. I then re- 
 sumed my journey; and after traveling about two hours we reached 
 two old canals, which had been filled by the rise of the river; one of 
 which we had great difficulty in crossing, as it was deep and muddy. 
 "We were obHged to unload the animals, and send the luggage across 
 on men's shoulders. Fortunately, we met a number of Arabs, who 
 assisted us; two of whom carried me over without any discomfort. 
 After having lost about an hour in crossing we resumed our jour- 
 ney, and reached Eamadee at 12.30 P. M. :N"ot wishing to remain 
 at that place, I called at the Government House for change of the 
 escort; but found the Kayim-Makkam was away, and his hmm 
 tenens, the Kadhee, fast asleep. One of the clerks, however, acted 
 for him, and we were able to resume our journey after half an 
 hour's delay. When we had traveled about a mile, I learned that 
 there was no Arab encampment nearer than two hours away, and 
 in consequence of the rise of the river we should be obliged to 
 make a long detour round a creek, which would occasion us un- 
 necessary fatigue; so I resolved upon encamping for the night 
 near some Arab tents at Talaa, on the bank of a large canal, called 
 Azeezzia, about three miles from Eamadee. 
 
 We left Talaa at four o'clock the next morning, and, after hav- 
 ing spent on the way about half an hour in breakfasting, I reached 
 the town of Hheet at two P. M. I went direct to Government House, 
 and found my friend, Hameed Effendi, the Moodeer, still governor 
 of the place, but on half pay, on account of the poverty of the 
 imperial exchequer. His salary had been reduced from 900 to 
 450 piasters, equal to about £4 sterling; a sum, he said, which was 
 scarcely enough to pay for his food. He told me that he had twice 
 asked to be relieved; but he was not listened to, and he did not know 
 what to do. 
 
 Having already given in these pages an account of my journey
 
 416 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 between Hheet and Aleppo, I shall not repeat the story of my travels 
 over the same route; but merely state the suffering I underwent 
 during my incarceration at Al-boo-ka-mal for a week, in conse- 
 quence of the plague in Babylonia. Why the Aleppo authorities 
 fixed upon that abominable place for establishing a quarantine 
 of fifteen days to afflict unfortunate wayfarers, when there was 
 no symptom of any epidemic within two hundred miles, or fifteen 
 days' journey, from the infected spot, is more than I can tell, un- 
 less it was for the mere fact that Al-boo-ka-mal was the first station 
 in the Aleppo Pashalic, as Al-Kayim, twenty miles southward, 
 was the first in that of Baghdad. With the exception of the high 
 road through those stations, the nomad Arabs were going back- 
 wards and forwards from one province to the other, without ap- 
 proaching Al-Kayim or Al-boo-ka-mal; and if I had chosen, I could 
 have passed the latter place ten miles higher up, and traveled 
 through the Inizza tribes to Aleppo, without going to Maskana; 
 but, as I said before, it would not have been proper for me to 
 evade the imposed restrictions, though foolish, and get myself 
 into trouble with the authorities. 
 
 So far as the governor of the place and the quarantine officials 
 were concerned, I am indebted to them for every act of kindness 
 and attention; and if it were not for the torture of the mosquitoes 
 day and night, I would have looked on my incarceration amongst 
 them as days of pleasure; for they did everything they could to 
 make my imprisonment pleasant. They were so good as to shorten 
 my term of quarantine, as they found that I had gone there straight 
 from Baghdad, and had been traveling for more than a fortnight 
 without having had any contact with persons from the infected 
 region. 
 
 With regard to the plague of the mosquitoes, I feel quite re- 
 luctant to describe faithfully the acute pain they inflicted upon 
 man and beast, as I fear that what I am going to relate would be 
 looked upon by those who never experienced such tortures, as quite 
 incredible. From the time we left Aana, the virulence of those 
 insects began to increase, and the night I slept at Al-Kayim they 
 convinced me of their unmistakable venom. When I arrived there 
 from Baghdad, I intended to encamp on the green bank of the 
 Euphrates; but the governor dissuaded me from doing so, as he 
 said that as soon as the sun began to set, and the little breeze that 
 was then blowing died out, I should be tormented with mosquitoes.
 
 AL-KA YIM. 
 
 417 
 
 So I had my tent pitched on the top of the hill overlooking the 
 Euphrates valley, not far from the Government House. At sunset 
 the Moodeer came to dine with me, and we had scarcely begun to 
 eat, when, as the wind lulled, the mosquitoes came in thick swarms 
 just like a sand-storm, and attacked us right and left. They were 
 so troublesome and stung so ferociously, that I was obliged to wear 
 gloves, and covered my face and neck with a handkerchief to pro- 
 tect myself from their sting; but it was of no use, as they managed 
 to find their way to my flesh to suck my blood. As for eating our 
 dinner with comfort it was quite impossible, though we had no 
 less than four men fanning us with all their might. We bore that 
 torture in the best way we could until a breeze sprang up again, 
 when every mosquito vanished as it came, in an instant. Indeed, 
 when they begin their assault a kind of whiz is heard; but on 
 the approach of any breeze, they vanish instantaneously. It was 
 anything but consoling to me to be told by the governor of Al- 
 Kayim that the swarms of mosquitoes which attacked us the even- 
 ing I was there, were nothing in comparison to what I should find 
 at Al-boo-ka-mal; and his statement proved unhappily but too 
 true. 
 
 The quarantine authorities apportioned me a clean and high 
 piece of ground on the bank of the river, where, if there was the 
 least breeze, I should get it. The first night I was there, the groan- 
 ing of the camels and the kicking and rolling in the sand of the 
 mules and horses from the attacks of the myriads of mosquitoes 
 was heart-rending. We tried smoke and huge fires to drive the 
 pest away, but without any effect. There were some poor Arabs 
 there in quarantine, who did everything they could to quiet their 
 camels, but found it a hard task, though they kindled two or three 
 heaps of rubbish to create smoke. The poor beasts were tied by the 
 legs to prevent them from running away in a fit of frenzy, and 
 it was a pitiful sight to see all the animals in the morning covered 
 over with blood. Very often before I could kill or drive mos- 
 quitoes off my hands or face they sucked blood enough to disable 
 them from flying away easily. As soon as I was settled in my 
 quarantine quarters, I had a bag made to cover my head, with 
 merely two holes to see through; but this contrivance did not afford 
 me any protection, for some of them found their way to my skin 
 in a most wonderful manner. I had also a bag made of a sheet, 
 which I got into at night, and a mosquito curtain to go over my 
 
 27
 
 418 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 head; and, although, when I went to bed, my servant placed the 
 curtain over me, and tucked it under the bed all round, while two 
 others tried their best to drive away the insects by means of large 
 fans, in less than ten minutes a large number of them crept in, 
 magic-like. I had, of course, great difficulty in washing and bath- 
 ing; and whenever I wished to perform the latter task, I used to 
 wait for a breeze to spring up, and then hurried through my ablu- 
 tions in the best way I could. Once I was thoroughly cheated; 
 for just as I began to bathe the wind lulled, and my tormentors 
 attacked me furiously. I feared at the time that I should meet 
 with the same fate as overtook some poor Arabs who died in the 
 tamarisk cover on the opposite bank of the river; but my servant 
 was ready to succor me, and I was able to dress quickly, without 
 being overbled by those horrid irritators. 
 
 There is a tamarisk thicket on the left bank of the Euphrates, 
 extending for miles above Aana, from where the Arabs cut wood 
 for the last-named town and other places below it; and I was told 
 it sometimes happened that one or two men, who were left without 
 proper protection against the attack of those ravenous insects, were 
 bled to death. I was often reminded, on the occasions of my 
 torture, of the plague of flies and lice in Egypt. No one can realize 
 the awful Divine visitation on the disobedient and obstinate Pha- 
 raoh and his people, without undergoing my experience of the 
 plague of Al-boo-ka-mal. 
 
 As regards the existence of the myriads and myriads of mos- 
 quitoes that infest the banks of the Euphrates in spring, from 
 Aana to Maskana, especially between Al-kayim and Salkheya, there 
 is no doubt they are bred in the numerous ponds and pools in the 
 valley of the Euphrates, which become filled in spring by the over- 
 flow of the river, and the water which is left to stagnate helps to 
 germinate the eggs deposited there the year before. 
 
 Those who lived in rooms where smoke could be confined, were 
 able to be, for a time, free of the mosquito torment, and, prop- 
 erly speaking, it was the duty of the quarantine authorities, when 
 they wished to establish their temporary jail, to have erected 
 proper quarters for the unfortunate victims, who were forced 
 to be detained by them in that dreadful spot. However, all is 
 well that ends well, and I had the satisfaction of leaving the place 
 without having lost my temper, and keeping on friendly terms with
 
 REACHING CONSTANTINOPLE. 419 
 
 every one; nor was I and my party, thank God! any the worse for 
 our incarceration. 
 
 The doctor and the inspector of the quarantine, who were return- 
 ing to Aleppo, accompanied me to Maskana. We had a very pleas- 
 ant journey together, and as they wanted to remain at that place 
 two or three days longer to transact some official business with the 
 quarantine authorities there, I parted with them with every friendly 
 feeling and good-will, reaching Aleppo, as usual, in two days. I 
 found my friend, ]\Ir. Henderson, was away; but his first drago- 
 man, Mr, Dermarkar, received me in the consulate, as he said that 
 Mr. Henderson had left orders that I should be accommodated 
 with quarters if I arrived at Aleppo in his absence. I staid there 
 four days, and then journeyed the usual way to Alexandretta, and 
 thence embarked for Constantinople in one of the French Messa- 
 geries steamers. 
 
 After spending seventeen days at the Turkish capital unprofit- 
 ably, trying to enlist the sympathy and friendly consideration 
 of the British and Ottoman authorities, I had to leave for England, 
 sadly disappointed at the result of my mission. Lord Dufferin, 
 who was then Her Majesty's representative at the Sublime Porte, 
 did his best to assist me in my endeavors to prevail upon the Min- 
 ister of Public Instructions to reconsider his refusal to allow us 
 to complete the digging out of the remainder of the antiquities 
 which I had already discovered. As I said before, we had a great 
 enemy at that time at the head of the Ministry of Public Instruc- 
 tions, and no entreaty or argument would make him change his 
 mind, or even give heed to my explanations. 
 
 As soon as the Trustees were able to obtain more funds to con- 
 tinuing our researches in Babylonia and AssjTia, I left London for 
 Southern Mesopotamia again on the 7th of March, 1882. I followed 
 the same route via Calais, Marseilles, Alexandretta, Aleppo, Mas- 
 kana, Hheet, and Saglaweya, reaching Baghdad on the 21st of the 
 following month, after having rested in different places on the way 
 for about ten days. 
 
 Our excavations at Aboo-Habba were carried on without any 
 interruption for eighteen months altogether, during which time 
 we must have discovered between sixty and seventy thousand in- 
 scribed clay tablets, a large number of which fell to pieces before 
 we could have them baked. We found there what are called boun-
 
 420 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 dary-stones, containing mj^stic representations, some of a hideous 
 type. We also discovered about three dozen different shaped terra- 
 cotta cyhnders, minutely inscribed with other interesting objects. 
 
 Before I started on my homeward journey, ten months before, 
 I prevailed upon the guardians of the mausoleum of Seyid Abd- 
 allah to allow me to repair the outer wall of the sanctuary, which 
 had fallen to decay, and to build one or two rooms at the entrance, 
 for the occupation of my head overseer, and for storing the an- 
 tiquities which might be discovered. Up to that time we were all 
 living in tents, and found it very unsafe and inconvenient to take 
 care of our collections, though I had made secure boxes for them. 
 All the Arabs in the neighborhood lived in tents, and there was 
 no village nearer than Mahmoodia, a distance of about six miles. 
 I had intended, at first, to have two or three huts built on the 
 mound; but as none of the Arabs liked to move their tents thither, 
 and created all kinds of difficulties on account of its isolation, I 
 fixed upon Seyid Abd-allah as our permanent headquarters. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the Moslems are jealous of Chris- 
 tians entering their mosques; but my experience has been quite 
 the contrary in all Mohammedan countries, excepting amongst the 
 fanatical Sheeas. My Arab friends of Seyid Abd-allah not only 
 raised no objection to establishing my headquarters in their holy 
 inclosure, but they actually declared that I respected their place 
 of worship more than many careless Mohammedans. My followers 
 and I ocupied it for more than a year, and never on any single occa- 
 sion were we troubled with the visits of the devotees, who came on 
 a pilgrimage by hundreds. No one ever looked on us with dislike, 
 though they knew quite well that I and three of my followers 
 were Christians. On the day of the commemoration of the death 
 of Seyid Abd-allah, crowds of Arabs, with their wives and chil- 
 dren, used to flock to the place with lambs and other thank-offerings, 
 which the guardians of the mosque appropriated. Some of them 
 came from a great distance, and slept in the inner courtyard; but 
 we were not inconvenienced by them. I only enforced the rule 
 which I established as soon as I occupied the entrance to the 
 mausoleum, that no animals were to be located within the inner 
 courtyard, and this resolution was very much applauded by all the 
 Moslems. 
 
 To please my Arab friends and those who came from a dis- 
 tance on a pilgrimage to the shrine of their venerated saint, I had
 
 RETURN TO ABOO-HABBA. 421 
 
 a well dug out and properly built within the inclosure of the 
 mosque, which rejoiced every one, especially the female sex, as 
 they could then water their animals and use it for their domestic 
 purposes, without walking for two miles to fetch their supply from 
 a ditch below Aboo-Habba.* The men also who visited the shrine 
 for devotional purposes were delighted with it, as they could then 
 perform their religious ablutions, which were many, to their heart's 
 content, without the trouble of going to the pond, or exhausting the 
 women's stock. I, of course, could not use the water, excepting 
 for bathing and the general washing of my establishment; nor 
 could I be tempted to use the water of the pond even for washing 
 purposes, on acount of its pollution; for, nine months in the year, 
 it is anything but fresh. It was quite enough for me, the first time 
 I visited it, to see women washing their dirty clothes in it, and all 
 the animals of the place getting into it to drink, and stirring up 
 the stagnant mud which existed around it. For my own drinking 
 and that of my immediate followers, I had water fetched from the 
 Euphrates, and filtered it in Baghdad porous jars; and it was most 
 amusing to see my Arab visitors smack their lips on drinking it. 
 We found at Aboo-Habba an exquisitely-built well, faced with 
 hard kiln-burnt bricks, molded purposely to fit each other in a 
 circular form. I had this cleared out in the hope of finding its 
 water more palatable for the workmen than that of the pond; but 
 unfortunately, it was a little brackish, and the Arabs turned up 
 their noses at it, and said they preferred drinking the sweet water 
 of the spring! 
 
 It must not be thought that I was left altogether in peace after 
 I disposed of the misunderstanding which took place between me, 
 the overseer of the crown lands, and the part-owner of Aboo- 
 Habba; but, on the contrary, on the eve of closing my excavations 
 at Sippara, another bugbear presented itself to me from quite an 
 unexpected quarter, which seemed more formidable; but happily 
 y ended in smoke. It appeared that the imperial trustees, who had 
 
 * There is there an extraordinary deep pond, which the Arabs call 
 Ain (Arabic, spring), whose supply is never exhausted, not even in 
 times of drought, though all the Arabs in the neighborhood draw their 
 water from it. My workmen also drank from it when the Mahmoodia 
 Canal ceased running on the fall of the Euphrates. When the canal 
 overflows, the pond is refilled to the brim from the inundation caused 
 therefrom.
 
 422 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 the management of the Sultan's private domains, became possessed 
 with a sudden alarm in consequence of my successes at Aboo-Habba. 
 One night, after I had gone to bed, a number of horsemen, headed 
 by the agent of His Majesty's landed estate (who was also sub- 
 governor of the district of Mahmoodia), took me by surprise; and 
 on inquiring what was the matter, the latter showed me a letter 
 which he had received from the royal trustees, wherein he was 
 asked to find out by whose authority I was carrying on excavations 
 at Aboo-Habba. They ordered him at the same time not to allow 
 any one to dig in royal lands without their special consent; but, 
 fortunately, there was no mention made that my excavations were 
 to be stopped. Consequently, the late intrusion of the Mahmoodia 
 authorities did not keep me awake the remainder of the night, 
 especially as the officer communicated his message in the most 
 courteous manner. He asked me, however, to try and obtain the 
 sanction of the royal trustees for the continuation of my researches, 
 in order that he might not get into trouble himself. On this 
 account I had to write to the governor-general of Baghdad about 
 the matter, as my firman was addressed to him. He replied that 
 he could not interfere in the affairs of the royal commissioners, 
 and referred me to them for settlement, which, he said, could only 
 be done by satisfying them. I was in a quandary how to construe 
 this problem, because it was easy to satisfy a needy landlord with 
 a few piasters; but when it came to the task of gratifying the wishes 
 of royalty, it was another thing; but, fortunately for me, for some 
 reason or other, I was not put to the unpleasant trial of wrangling 
 with an influential body on such a delicate matter, and went on dig- 
 ging for nearly two months afterwards, until our explorations came 
 to an end. In the first instance the trustees could not meet for a 
 long time, on account of sickness amongst their members; and when 
 they ultimately did so, they deemed it prudent to keep quiet for 
 a few days longer, as they knew that all our operations would die 
 a natural death by the expiration of my firman. I was therefore 
 left in peace until I closed my excavations at the end of July, 1882. 
 Since then we have been building hope upon hope, with the result 
 of utter failure, to obtain the renewal of our firman. 
 
 As for the governor-general of Baghdad, who was, I believe, 
 actuated by the feeling engendered at the office of Public Instruc- 
 tions at the Turkish capital, he thought he would catch me trans- 
 gressing the limit of my firman by watching the day, and even the
 
 OFFICIAL OBJECTIONS. 423 
 
 hour, of the limitation of the permit. Having had knowledge of 
 his intention, I gave express orders to the overseers of my different 
 operations, both in Assyria and Babylonia, to close the work the 
 day before the actual limit, in order that there might be no mis- 
 take in the reckoning of the lunar month.* Actually after being 
 so cautious, and I took care to give an early warning to the imperial 
 delegate, of the day of closing my researches, obstacles were created 
 in the dispatch of the last batch of antiquities, which I was anxious 
 to forward before leaving the country. When the remainder of 
 the collection was packed and ready to be embarked on board the 
 Tigris steamer proceeding to Basra, I was told that the authorities 
 deemed it necessary, before they could allow it to leave the country, 
 to communicate with the Hillah officials, to find out if my explo- 
 rations ceased within the prescribed time. Of course the delegate 
 did not hesitate to inform the proper authorities that we had 
 stopped work the day before I was obliged to do so, which circum- 
 stance no one could dispute, seeing that there were between two 
 and three hundred Arabs who could vouch for the fact. After this 
 the governor-general thought it clever to raise an objection to 
 the antiquities leaving Turkey after the expiration of the term of 
 my firman, as their dispatch, he argued, ought to have been simul- 
 taneous with the stoppage of the work. I had to point out the folly 
 of such an obstruction; for, I said, for that matter I might not 
 have been allowed to pack and dispatch the relics which I had dis- 
 covered four months before; as it happened that when I was in 
 Assvria I could not forward sometimes certain antiquities to Eng- 
 
 * The firmans are always dated according to the Mohammedan 
 months, which are lunar. Every month must follow the beginning 
 and ending of Ramadhan, when the Moslems keep a strict fast, and 
 neither the commencement of the fast nor its conclusion can be reck- 
 oned lawful, unless the new moon be seen by two creditable witnesses. 
 In case of cloudy weather, when the appearance of the new moon is 
 uncertain, they limit the fast to thirty days; but if the sky be clear, 
 in every Mohammedan town or city a large number of devotees, with 
 powerful eyesight, keep a sharp lookout for the new moon after they 
 have fasted twenty-eight days; and as soon as two men of good report 
 get a glimpse of the crescent they go before the Kadhee of the place, 
 and swear, in his presence, that they have seen the new moon. This 
 done, that dignitary proclaims the end of Ramadhan— that is to say, 
 the month of fasting— by means of a salute from a gun or by beating 
 of drums.
 
 424 ASSHUR AND THE LAND OF NIMROD. 
 
 land for five or six months, until I took them to Alexandretta 
 myself, to embark with me in a homeward-bound steamer. 
 
 With all the minor annoyances and childish obstructions thrown 
 in my way from time to time, mostly through ill-designed intrigues, 
 I can not but acknowledge that, with unfeigned sincerity, gen- 
 erally speaking, the Ottomans are good-natured, courteous, and 
 obliging; and, as far as I am concerned, I owe all officials my grati- 
 tude and cherish for them a most friendly feeling; and, though 
 sometimes I was bothered in connection with my explorations, I, 
 nevertheless, in the majority of cases, received from them most 
 unremitting kindness and help in all my undertakings. 
 
 After our works were closed I remained at Baghdad nearly 
 three months, waiting for good news from Constantinople; but 
 as soon as it was proved to me that there was no chance of our 
 ambassador obtaining the renewal of our firman, I left Baghdad once 
 more for home on the 22d October, 1882. This time I proceeded 
 to England by a different route, dispensing altogether with horse- 
 riding, which was quite a luxury after the roughing I had had 
 in the previous journeys to and from the Mediterranean. 
 
 First, I went down to Basra in one of Messrs. Lynch's river 
 steamers, and reached that port, after a few strandings, in three 
 days. There I engaged my passage to Egypt in a large vessel 
 called the "Bussorah," proceeding direct to London via the Suez 
 Canal. I found, to my great disappointment, that the steamer 
 was waiting for cargo which had been promised by different mer- 
 chants, and there was no knowing when she would start. Fortu- 
 nately for me, I found Major Mockler (now colonel and consul- 
 general at Baghdad), an old Aden friend, acting as British Political 
 Agent at Basra, who was kind enough to afford me his hospitality 
 during my stay there. Had it not been for his friendly attention, 
 I should have found my waiting there for a fortnight rather weari- 
 some. 
 
 At last we started on the 11th of November, and after touching 
 at Bushire and Muscat, we reached Suez on the morning of the 
 4th of December. As I had heard that Lord Dufferin was in 
 Egypt, and I wished to have an interview with him, I left the 
 "Bussorah" to proceed to London through the Suez Canal, with 
 my luggage on board, and landed and went on to Cairo. After 
 having staid five days there, I started for Alexandria, where I took 
 my passage for Marseilles in the French Messageries steamer "Said,"
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND. 425 
 
 and sailed thence on the 12th December. We touched at Naples 
 on the IGth; but as they had established there a quarantine against 
 Egypt, we could not land; so, after having exchanged mails and 
 taken on board some provisions, we resumed our voyage, and 
 reached Marseilles on the morning of the 18th. There we had 
 twenty-four hours' quarantine in a snug little harbor of Frioul, 
 where we found other vessels from different parts of Syria and 
 Egypt undergoing the same purification! As soon as I landed, 
 the next morning, I took train for Paris, and thence to happy 
 home, via Calais and Dover, and reached Charing Cross at 5.40 
 A. M. on Wednesday, the 20th of December, 1882.
 
 INDKX 
 
 Aakip Pasha, Governor-general of 
 
 Baghdad, 192. 
 Aana, a large and important town 
 on the Euphrates, with scattered 
 houses along the right bank for 
 about six miles, 336, 418. 
 Abbas Mirza Khan, A Persian 
 
 prince, 191. 
 Abbot, An Armenian hermit i^u 
 years old, 113. ^ ■, ■ e 
 
 Abd Al-kareem, Shaikh ; rival chiet 
 
 of his brother Firhan, 45. 
 Abd-Allah Bey, A notable of Mos- 
 sul, assisted the author in the dis- 
 covery of Shalmaneser's monu- 
 ment, 203. 
 Abd-ar-Kahman Pasha, Governor- 
 general of Diarbekir, 83; ap- 
 pointed gi-and vizier, 84 ; becomes 
 governor-general of Baghdad, 323. 
 Aboo-Habba, Site of the ancient 
 city of Sippara or Sepharvaim, 
 277, note; discoveries at, 397; as- 
 phalt pavement, 401; history of 
 the ruin, 402; discovery of the 
 sun-god in an earthenware casket, 
 with records, ib.; dispute about 
 the mound, 404; claimed as im- 
 perial property, 422. 
 Alboo-Hammed, Arab tribe, fur- 
 nishes an escort from the tribe, 
 229. 
 Albookamal, Or Skaireya, 334; its 
 governor was nigh starving from 
 want of food on account of the 
 famine, ib.; second visit, 417; 
 quarantine and plague of mos- 
 quitoes, ib. 
 Aleppo, 71, 244. . 
 
 Alexandretta, Important Syrian 
 
 port, 63, 325. 
 Al-garaikee, An ancient Babylo- 
 nian site, 347. 
 Al-Ibsaira, An ancient city at the 
 junction of the Khaboor with the 
 Euphrates, 315. 
 Ali Pasha, Govei-nor of Dair, 317; 
 his hospitality to the author, 333. 
 Ali, The muleteer, 100, 115, 
 
 Andrus, Rev. Mr. ; head of Amer- 
 ican mission at Mardeen, 234. 
 Arab Hospitality, Entertained lib- 
 erally by Shaikh Firhan, chief of 
 the Shammer Arabs, 280; by his 
 wife, 290; Azzawee Shaikh of the 
 Jeboors, 290; Dhaidan Bey, chief 
 of the Montifig Arabs in Southern 
 Mesopotamia gives sumptuous 
 breakfast, 280. 
 Archbishop's mission to the Assyr- 
 ian Christians, 148. 
 Ardeesh, Armenian village, 117. 
 Armenia is only known as a country 
 
 by Europeans (see Moosh), 110. 
 Armenian priest imprisoned for se- 
 duction, 117. 
 Armenian, Hospitality, 105, 116. 
 Armenian, Education, 126; seclu- 
 sion of women, 127; devoid of 
 spiritual culture, 126. 
 Arweel, or Arbela, An historic 
 
 town, 196. 
 AsHEETHA, A Nestorian town, 151. 
 Asslan Bey, A radical Ottoman offi- 
 cial, 156. 
 AssuR-BANi-PAL, Discovcry of pal- 
 ace, 24; bas-reliefs with hunting 
 scenes, 28 ; hislibrary,31 ; Creation 
 and Deluge record discovered, 31. 
 AssuR-NAZiR-PAL, Father of Shal- 
 maneser II, his obelisk discovered 
 at Koyunjik, 9 ; his temple at Nim- 
 roud, 225. ^ 
 
 Assyrian Christians, 163. (See 
 
 Nestonan.) 
 Assyrian mountains, 367. 
 Author, Ingulfed in a pit, 39; re- 
 turn to England, 47 ; appointed to 
 a political office at Aden , 47 ; made 
 second assistant political resident, 
 magistrate, and judge, 49; his 
 services in the Indian mutiny are 
 commended, 49 ; appointed to act 
 temporary political agent at Mus- 
 cat, 50; promoted to first po- 
 litical resident, ih.; sent on a 
 mission to Theodore, king of 
 Abyssinia, ib.; imprisoned at 
 427
 
 428 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Magdala and released on the 
 arrival of the British force, ih.; 
 earned the entire approval of his 
 conduct by Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, Liberal and Conservative, 
 lb.; married and retired from Her 
 Majesty's Indian service, 51 ; com- 
 missioned by the trustees of the 
 British Museum to undertake an- 
 other expedition to Assyria, 54 ; 
 failed to obtain a firman for ex- 
 cavating, 54 ; starts again for Con- 
 stantinople after the appointment 
 of Sir Henry Layard, ambassador, 
 62 ; his political mission to Asia 
 Minor andKoordistan, ih.; suffers 
 from intermittent fever, 255; 
 meets the Shaikhs of the Iniza 
 and Shammer Arabs at Dair, 333. 
 
 Babel, Supposed to be the site of 
 the hanging-gardens, 268, 352. 
 
 Babylon, Site of, 264; annals of the 
 capture of the city by Cyrus, 266, 
 270, 357 ; hailstorm, 395. 
 
 Baghdad, 187, 422. 
 
 Bahran Bey, A cruel Turkish gov- 
 ernor of Bitlis, 106. 
 
 Bala WAT, Mound of, 201. 
 
 Baltazar, Mr. Malcolm, 285. 
 
 Basra, 285. 
 
 Beerajeek, 2; 76. 
 
 Beles, Ancient city of, 328. 
 
 Belshazzar, Eemains of palace, 348. 
 
 Berrington, Mr., Fellow-traveler, 1. 
 
 Birch, Dr. Samuel, 21. 
 
 BiRS NiMROUD, Known by the an- 
 cients as Borsippa, 268 ; leaf of one 
 of the copper gates of Babylon 
 discovered, 344; Arab and Otto- 
 man authorities at Hillah mistook 
 it for gold, ib.; author revisits 
 the .spot and resides there, 396. 
 
 Bitlis, Author visits the place, 105, 
 384. 
 
 Blunt, Mr. W. Scawen and Lady 
 Anne, 284. 
 
 Boats, At Beerajeek on the Eu- 
 phrates, 2. 
 
 Botta, M., Discovery at Khorsabad, 
 30, note. 
 
 Boutcher. Mr. William, Artist to 
 Mr. Loftus, 37. 
 
 BoYADJiAN, Mr. Thomas, 82. 
 
 Bury, Lord, 2. 
 
 Cameron, Commander Lovett, 284. 
 Canning, Sir Stratford. (See Strat- 
 ford de Redcliffe.) 
 
 Catoni, Mr. Augustine, The British 
 vice-consul at Alexandretta, 63, 
 324. 
 
 Chaldean Christians, 158, 171 ; di- 
 vision amongst them on account 
 of the papal bull, 162. 
 
 Chaldean Hospitality, 88, 320. 
 
 Chilligha, An Arab Mesopotamian 
 village, 231. 
 
 Chrystal, The Rev. Charles, Amer- 
 ican Episcojialian, 249. 
 
 Clayton, Captain, Britisli consul at 
 Wan, 376; his hospitality to the 
 author, ih. 
 
 Clements, Captain, Master of the 
 Tigris steamer City of London, 
 283. 
 
 Coghlan, Sir William, Appointed 
 resident at Aden, 48. 
 
 Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Sculp- 
 tures for, 7. 
 
 Cuthah, 396. (See Tel-Ibraheem.) 
 
 Daillum. (See Babylon.) 
 
 Dair, An ancient Babylonian site, 
 317 ; supposed to be the site of the 
 second Sippara or Temple of the 
 Moon, 399. 
 
 Dair, An ancient city on the Eu- 
 phrates, 313. 
 
 Dairaboon, a Yezeedee village 
 which has fallen into decay, 390. 
 
 Dawood Toma, Head overseer at 
 Babylon, 343; successful in his 
 ojjerations, 344, 395. 
 
 Dehouk, a Chaldean or Assyrian 
 town, 156, 366. 
 
 Deluge, Assyrian record of, 31. 
 
 Derawa, 142. 
 
 Dhaidan Bey, Son of the chief of 
 the Montifig Arabs, 274 ; his recep- 
 tion and entertainment to the 
 author, 280. 
 
 Diarbekir, 63, 84. 
 
 DiJAiL, Or little Tigris, 286. 
 
 Diz, 141. 
 
 DuFFERiN, Marquis of, 300, 419. 
 
 Elijah Mallous, Chaldean bishop 
 
 of Malabar, 162. 
 Elliot, Sir Henry, discourteous 
 
 treatment of author and failure of 
 
 obtaining a firman for researches 
 
 in Assyria, 54. 
 Ely, The Misses, two American 
 
 philanthropic missionaries, 107. 
 
 Fadghamee, Mound of. (See Kha- 
 boor. )
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 429 
 
 Fahad Pasha, or Shaikh Fahad, 
 Chief of the Montifig Ai-abs in 
 Southern Babylonia, 273. 
 
 FiRHAN, Shaikh, chief of the Sham- 
 mer Arabs, 42, 231 ; becomes a 
 farmer, 257 ; offers to superintend 
 excavations, ib. 
 
 Flies, Ravenous, 235. 
 
 Ctairamoos, a large Nestorian vil- 
 lage, 368. 
 
 Ghatheeth, a Shammer notable, 
 230. 
 
 GoosNEE, A Koordish village, its in- 
 mates in bad circumstances and 
 starving, 376. 
 
 GoscHEN, The Right Honorable 
 G. J., appointed to succeed Sir 
 Henry Layard as ambasssador at 
 Constantinople, sends the author 
 the third firman for the excava- 
 tions which vs^as asked for by Sir 
 Henry before he quitted the Turk- 
 ish capital, 365. 
 
 Halabeeyia, 318, 319. 
 
 Hammawand Koordb, Notorious 
 robbers, 132, 135 ; diabolical treat- 
 ment by the Turkish authorities, 
 132. 
 
 Hammam Alee, 290. 
 
 Hajjee Agha, Chief of the Artoo- 
 shee Nomad Koords, 372 ; his 
 hospitality and wish for peace 
 with his neighbors the Teearees 
 (Nestoi'ians), 373. 
 
 Hajjir, a treacherous Shammer 
 chief, 42. 
 
 Hasan Pasha, Governor-general of 
 Wan, 122, 125. 
 
 Hawwar, Shaikh of the Tai Arabs, 18. 
 
 Henderson, Mr. Patrick, British 
 consul at Aleppo, 71, 244, 324. 
 
 Hheet, or Iz, Famous in history, 
 338 ; author purchases a boat here 
 to take him down to Babylon, 339 ; 
 second visit, 415, the governor on 
 half pay, ih. 
 
 Hillah, Town of, 261, 396. 
 
 Hilmi Pasha, 6. 
 
 HoDDER, Mr., Artist, 5, 13; re- 
 turns to England invalided, 36. 
 
 HosAiN Bey, Host of author at Bal- 
 awat, 206. 
 
 Huzzo, 97. 
 
 Iesa, a Chaldean chief, 391. 
 Ikbal-ai)-Doula, The Nawab, 188; 
 his characteristics, ih. 
 
 Illustrated London News, Compli- 
 mentary tribute for author's As- 
 syrian discoveries, 40. 
 
 Im-al-ghad, Headquarters of the 
 author while exploring at Tel- 
 loh, 275. 
 
 Imjaileeba, 263. (See Babylon.) 
 
 Immaddiah, Old city of Media, 154. 
 
 Innizza, Arab tribe of Syria, 43. 
 
 International Conference at Con- 
 stantinople, 60. 
 
 Ishmisanee, Mound of. (See Kha- 
 boor. ) 
 
 Jaabar, Fortress of; once a penal 
 
 settlement, 322. 
 Jaboor, Khoaja bin Shammas Ab- 
 
 bosh, a Chaldean notable, 98. 
 Jazeerah, a town on the Tigris 
 
 above Mossul, 387. 
 Jeboor Arabs, 21, 198, 210. 
 Jevdat Pasha, Ottoman minister 
 
 for home department obstacles for 
 
 the grant of a firman, 57. 
 JiMJiMA. (See Babylon.) 
 Job, Shrine of, 237. 
 JocELYN, The Honorable Nassue, 55. 
 JoLAMAiRK, Town of, 140. 
 
 Kabarlee, Village of, 204. 
 
 Kalaa-Shirgat, 7, 9, 12, 256. 
 
 Kamil Pasha, Governor-general of 
 Aleppo, 245 ; appointed minister of 
 public instruction at Constantino- 
 ple, 245, 300. 
 
 Karakosh, a Jacobite village, 209. 
 
 Kara-gaitchee Tribe, 238 ; lovely 
 daughter of the chief, Aiwoob 
 (Job) Bey, ib. 
 
 Karamlais, Village of, 197. 
 
 Karkook, a seat of a Chaldean 
 bishop, 195. 
 
 Kasha Dinha, A Nestorian priest, 
 archdeacon of Asheetha, 150. 
 
 Keork Bey, Head of the Ai-menian 
 community at Wan, 124. 
 
 Khaboor, or Chebar, Northern Mes- 
 opotamia, 314. 
 
 Khaboor, Upper Assyria, 368. 
 
 Khan-al-Mashaheeda, 286. 
 
 Khan, Alkharneena, 287. 
 
 Kharaba-dar, a Koordish encamp- 
 ment, 375 ; hospitality to the Au- 
 thor, ib. 
 
 Khorsabad, 4, 295. 
 
 Kishlat-as-Sabkla, 319. (See Sab- 
 kha.) 
 
 Kxapp. The Rev. G. S., missionary 
 at Bitlis, 105.
 
 430 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KocHANis, Seat of the Nestorian 
 patriarch, 137, 373. 
 
 KoMSAKAGAN, M., the Russian con- 
 sul at Wan, 380. 
 
 KooRDS, Their proverbial hospital- 
 ity, 82, 118, 375, 888. 
 
 KooRDisH atrocities and Ottoman 
 tyranny, 88, 94, 106, 132. 
 
 KooRDisH robber arrested, 115. 
 
 Kopp, An Armenian town, 112. 
 
 KoYUNJiK,7, 208, 222. 
 
 Lateef Agha, 24. 
 
 Lattar, Armenian village, 113. 
 
 La YARD, Sir Henry, Relinquishes his 
 archaeeological researches, 1 ; ap- 
 pointed ambassador at Constanti- 
 nople, 61 ; obtains favorable con- 
 cessions from the sultan for the 
 cari-ying on of the British Mu- 
 seum's explorations in the Pasha- 
 lics of Aleppo, Mossul, Baghdad, 
 and AVan, 130, 188, 258, 392. 
 
 Lesseps, M. Ferdinand de ; and the 
 Suez Canal, 48. 
 
 Liz, Armenian school at, 112. 
 
 LoFTUs, Kennett, 3 ; succeeds the 
 author, 36. 
 
 Magherdich Aghatonian Effendi, 
 Assistant to the governor-general 
 of Wan, 127. 
 
 Mahmood Alfaraj, a faithful Arab 
 overseer, 13, 192, 209, 310. 
 
 Mahmoodia, 259; residence there, 
 397 ; excavations carried on there, 
 ih. 
 
 Mar Shimoun, Patriarch of the Nes- 
 torians, 137, 373. 
 
 Mar Ssawa, A Nestorian monas- 
 tery ; seat of the patriai'ch on the 
 river Zab, supposed to the sacred 
 river of Pi son, 140. 
 
 Mar Yoseph Odo, Chaldean patri- 
 arch, 162. 
 
 Maskana, Near the ancient city of 
 Beles,327. 
 
 Melik Daneeal, a Nestorian chief, 
 150. 
 
 Melik Yacoob, A Nestorian chief, 
 143. 
 
 Mersine, 247, 325. 
 
 Mijwil, Firhan Pasha's son, 289. 
 
 Miles, Colonel, Consul-general at 
 Baghdad, 346; hospitality to the 
 author, 363. 
 
 Mineral Springs, 104. 
 
 MiRAAN Agha, A Koordish Mesopo- 
 tamian chief, 231. 
 
 Mohammed Zekeriah, A hospitable 
 host, 68. 
 
 Monophysites, Who are they? 168. 
 
 MoNTiFiJ, or MoNTiFiG, Arab tribe of 
 Southern Mesopotamia, 43. 
 
 MoosH, Town of, 86, 109. 
 
 MooTKEE KooRDisH Tribe, Heredit- 
 ary enemy of the Armenians, 
 102. 
 
 MossuL, Arrival at, 4; the climate, 
 391. 
 
 MSHMSHANA BeNYAMIAN, 138. 
 
 Nahr, Malka or Royal River, a Bab- 
 ylonian Canal, 403. 
 
 Nebee Yonis, 7, 292. 
 
 Nebo, The God, 10, 227. 
 
 Nestorian, Heresy so-called, 146; 
 archbishop's mission, 148. 
 
 NiMROUD, 9, 225, 357. 
 
 Nissibeen, or Nisibis, 233, 250. 
 
 Nixon, Colonel, British consul-gen- 
 eral at Baghdad, 188, 284. 
 
 Noor-Allah Bey, A notorious 
 wicked Koordish chief, 139. 
 
 Norton, Major, in command of the 
 gendarmes at Bitlis, 384. 
 
 Obelisk of Assur-Nazir-pal found at 
 Koyunjik, 9. 
 
 Omran, 348. (See Babylon.) 
 
 OoRTAB, An Armenian village where 
 the inhabitants refused to give 
 shelter to the author's escort, 383. 
 
 Oppert, Dr., visit to Mossul, 33. 
 
 Orpa, The ancient Edessa and re- 
 puted Ur of the Chaldees, 42, 239. 
 
 Ormi, a Persian town, 149. 
 
 Osman Agha, Captain of the guard, 
 92. 
 
 OuTRAM, Sir James, applies to the 
 East India directors for the au- 
 tlior's services at Aden, 47; ap- 
 pointed political resident at Luck- 
 now in India, 48. 
 
 Peshapoor, a Chaldean village, 254. 
 
 Petros Eleyah, Chaldean patri- 
 arch, 161. 
 
 Place, M., French consul at Mos- 
 sul 4, 7, 12, 14, 19. 
 
 Playfair, Colonel, assistant polit- 
 ical resident at Aden, 48. 
 
 Princess, Persian, 191. 
 
 PuL, Assyrian king, 10, 304. 
 
 Quarantine at Beerajeek, 2; at Al- 
 
 bookamel, 417. 
 QuAiRicH, 264, 343. (See Babylon. )
 
 INDEX. 
 
 431 
 
 Rahhaba, Supposed by some to be 
 Kehoboth of the Bible, 333. 
 
 Rakka, 320. 
 
 Ras-Alain, An ancient Mesopota- 
 mian city, 313. 
 
 Rasheed Epfendi, 66, 117. 
 
 Rassam, Christian, Mr. and Mrs., 4. 
 
 Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 1, 21, 32, 40. 
 
 RUKKA, 321. 
 
 Rumadee, Town of, where there is 
 a telegraph-office to communi- 
 cate with Baghdad and other 
 places in Turkey, 341. 
 
 Russell, Mr. and Mrs., arrived at 
 Mossul, from Baghdad, the former 
 to act as vice-consul, 184 ; both 
 suffer in health, ib. 
 
 Russo-TuRKisH War, 61 ; declara- 
 tion of war, 61. 
 
 Saart, 87, 386. 
 
 Sabkha, 320. 
 
 Saeed Pasha, Governor of Moosh, 
 113. 
 
 Saglaweya, a Turkish garrison 
 town where there is a ferry, 341 ; a 
 narrow escape of being ingulfed 
 in a marsh, 342 ; second visit, 413 ; 
 overland English mail carried on 
 camels, ib. 
 
 Salih Epfendi, Junior guardian of 
 Nebee Yonis, 296, 301. 
 
 Sammirra, a holy city of the Sheea 
 sect and Persians, 186, 286. 
 
 Sarzac, The French vice-consul at 
 Basra, 275; his researches at Tel- 
 loh, 276. 
 
 Semail, 254; report that the Sham- 
 mer Arabs were committing rav- 
 ages all over the country, 390. 
 
 Semiramis, Supposed to have 
 reigned at Wan ; the boring or 
 tunneling of a rock at the en- 
 trance to Bitlis from the lowlands 
 attributed to her, 384. 
 
 Sexnacherib, 8, 304. 
 
 Sepharvaim. (See Aboo-Habba.) 
 
 Seyid Abdallah, Patron saint of 
 the Aboo-Habba Arabs, 398 ; the 
 sanctum occupied as headquar- 
 ters, 420. 
 
 Shaddadee, Mound of. (See Kha- 
 boor. ) 
 
 Shahmeer, Khouja Yeramiah, In- 
 terpreter, 122. 
 
 Shakh, a large village in the high- 
 lands of Assyria inhabited by 
 Koords and Nestorians : it is a pic- 
 turesque hamlet, 388 ; existence of 
 
 Assyrian sculptures hewn on a 
 rock about 1,500 feet above the 
 village, 389 ; the Nestorian's aver- 
 sion to Popery, ib. 
 
 Shaikh Hammad, Mound of, 311. 
 (See Khaboor.) 
 
 Shaikh Obaid Allah, A notorious 
 fanatical Koordish chief, 123. 
 
 Shalmaneser II, Monument of, 
 found at Balawat, 212. 
 
 Shalmaneser IV, Sieges of Samaria, 
 and carries away Israel captives 
 to Assyria, 212, note. 
 
 Shammer Arabs, 42. 
 
 Shareep Dadda, 243. 
 
 Sin JAR, 307, 308. 
 
 Sippara. (See Aboo-Habba. ) 
 
 SiRDEE, Shaikh of the Aabda Sham- 
 mer tribe, 45. 
 
 Skene, Mr. , British consul at Aleppo, 
 71 ; his discovery of Carchemish, 
 ib. 
 
 Skoonis, Armenian village where 
 the author met Captain Clayton, 
 the British consul at Wan, 373. 
 
 Smith, Mr. George, his decipher- 
 ment of the Deluge tablet, 47 ; 
 sent out to Mesopotamia by the 
 proprietors of the Daily Telegraph 
 to search for the missing portion 
 of the Deluge tablet, 52. 
 
 Solaiman Bey, Governor of Saart, 
 94. 
 
 SoowER, Mound of. (See Khaboor.) 
 
 Ssalhheya, Infested with mosqui- 
 toes, 334. 
 
 Ssalhheya op Assyria, 364; black 
 fever, ib. 
 
 Stratford de Redclippe, British 
 ambassador, 134. 
 
 Swairak, 79. 
 
 Syrian, Meaning of, 170. 
 
 Tatar-Khan Bey, Chief of Barwaree, 
 152. 
 
 Tel-Aapar, a Mesopotamian town, 
 306. 
 
 Tel-Armun, Armenian village, 234. 
 
 Tel-Dailam, An ancient Babylonian 
 site, 347. 
 
 Tel-Ibraheem, Supposed to be the 
 site of the ancient city Cuthah, 
 visit to, 396 ; excavations at, 409 ; 
 continual sandstorms, 410; dis- 
 covery of edifice about twenty 
 feet below the surface of the 
 inound, 411. 
 
 Tel-Iskipp, a Chaldean village, 
 157.
 
 482 
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 Tel-loh, a Babylonian ruin ; visit 
 to, 275; excavations at, 276. 
 
 Tel-Kaip, a Chaldean village, 4, 
 157. 
 
 Tel-Mirjan, Koordish village ; au- 
 thor meets with difficulty , 251 ; the 
 wife of a notable renders help, 252. 
 
 TicREET, A large town on the Ti- 
 gris, 287. 
 
 TlGLATH-PlLESER, 9. 
 
 TiRMAiT, An Armenian village where 
 ancient Ai-menian remains were 
 found, 111, 383. 
 
 TooPRAC-BLiLAA, An ancient Assyr- 
 ian mound, 130. (See Wan.) 
 
 TuRco-RussiAN War, 61. 
 
 Vartan Agha, An Armenian nota- 
 able. 111. 
 
 Wairan-Shahr, An ancient ruined 
 city, 236; it is supposed to be tlie 
 Sinna of Ptolemy, and Assemanni, 
 a Chaldean city, ib. 
 
 Wan, Capital of the so-called Ar- 
 menia, arrival of the author in 
 1877 on a political mission, 125 ; ar- 
 rival in 1880 for archaeological re- 
 searches, 377 ; excavations carried 
 on at Tooprae Kalaa, 382 ; a gen- 
 erous Turcoman inhabitant, ib.; 
 education amongst the Arme- 
 nians (see Armenians), 380; Otto- 
 man Reform Commission, ib. 
 
 Yeramia Effendi, Metropolitan of 
 Wan, 124. 
 
 YosEPH Bey, Tamir Agha, a Turk- 
 ish notable of Wan, 122. 
 
 Zab, The Great, supposed to be the 
 lost Biblical river "Pison," 141, 
 145. 
 
 Zalabeeyia , 319. ( See Halabeeyia. ) 
 
 Zamboor, 74, 243. 
 
 Zarzee, a Koordish camp, 371. 
 
 Zoozark, Koordish camp, 372.
 
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