Part 2 (1/2)
C, who rejoiced to feel hi a mountain wooded with dwarf oaks, by a very difficult pathway, carried along and over rocks containing e on the Tigris supposed to occupy the site of an ancient town (Phoenica)[9]
After we had breakfasted, soathered round us, offered to take ures We rode up a narrow and shady ravine, through which leapt a brawling torrent, watering fruit trees and melon beds The rocks on both sides were honeycombed with tombs The bas-relief is somewhat above the line of cultivation, and is surrounded by excavated chaures, dressed in loose vests and trowsers, one apparently resting his hand on the shoulder of the other There are the remains of an inscription, but too much weather-worn to be copied with any accuracy The costuures, and the foruished, prove that the tablet belongs to the Parthian period
We quitted Fynyk in the afternoon Accompanied by Cawal Yusuf and Mr C, I left the caravan to exa frohold of Beder Khan Bey The sculptures are about two h road, near a sarrison of Arnaouts There are two tablets, one above the other; the upper contains a warrior on horseback, the lower a single figure Although no traces of inscription rened to the same period as that at Fynyk
We found the caravan at Mansouriyah, where they had established theht This is one of the very few Nestorian Chaldaean villages of the plains which has not gone over to the Roman Catholic faith It contains a church, and supports a priest The inhabitants complained much of oppression, and unfortunately, chiefly from brother Christians forence and beauty of the children; one boy, scarcely twelve years of age, was already a shamasha, or deacon, and could read with ease the Scriptures and the co, passing Jezireh about dawn, its towers and walls just visible through the haze on the opposite bank of the Tigris Shortly after ere unexpectedly met by a number of Yezidi horsemen, from e learnt that the country was in a very disturbed state, on account of the incursions of the Desert Arabs; but as a strong party aiting to accoh erous and less frequented, road by Dereboun This road, impracticable to caravans except when the river Khabour is fordable, winds round the spur of the Zakko hills, and thus avoids a difficult and precipitous pass Dereboun is a large Yezidi village standing on the western spur of the Zakko range Nuate extensive rice-grounds Below is the large Christian village of Feshapoor, where there is a ferry across the Tigris We were most hospitably entertained by the Yezidi chief, one of the horsemen who had met us near Jezireh
We mounted our horses as theescort, which left us ere within five or six miles of Se-place, after a dreary and fatiguing ride We were now fairly in the assyrian plains; the heat was intense--that heavy heat, which see the very air itself to vibrate The high artificial e, crowned by abefore we reached it, roup of towers and fortifications Almost overcome eariness, we toiled up to it, and found its owner, Abde Agha, the Yezidi chieftain, seated in the gate, a vaulted entrance with deep recesses on both sides, used as places of asse the day,[10] and as places of rest for guests during the night He was of a tall, coure, with the deepest and most powerful voice I ever heard We arrived earlier than he had expected, our forced ised for not having ridden out to meet us His reception was most hospitable; the lamb was slain and the feast prepared But a sudden attack by the Bedouin on a neighbouring village obliged hi our stay Being urged to depart, through apprehension of the Bedouin, we pushed forward, when suddenly a large body of horseround to the east of us We could scarcely expect Arabs from that quarter; however, all our partythe best mounted, rode towards them to reconnoitre Then one or two horsemen advanced warily from the opposite party We neared each other Yusuf spied the well-known black turban, dashed forith a shout of joy, and in a moment ere surrounded, and in the embrace of friends Hussein Bey and Sheikh Nasr, with the Cawals and Yezidi elders, had ridden nearly forty ht to ht at seeing us knew no bounds; nor was I less touched by a display of gratitude and good feeling, equally unexpected and sincere
They rode with us as far as Tel Eskoff, where the danger from the Arabs ceased; and I was now once more with old friends In the afternoon, as we rode towards Tel Kef, I left the high road with Hormuzd to drink water at soreeted with exclamations of joy, and were soon in theour knees, and exhibiting other tokens of welcome They were Jebours, who had been e to dig after old stones, they at once set about striking their tents to join us at Mosul or Niroups of my old superintendents and workmen by the roadside There were fat To me once e we found Mr Rassaoman, who had made ready the feast for us at the house of the Chaldaean bishop Next , as we rode the three last hours of our journey, we roups of familiar faces Then as we ascend an eminence midalls, towers, in of the broad river, cheating us into the belief, too soon to be dispelled, that Mosul is still a not unworthy representative of the great Nineveh As we draw near, the long line of lofty ates, detach the hills; now the vastheaps: then above it peers the white cone of the tomb of the prophet Jonah; many other well-reer Hastening over the creaking bridge of boats, we force our way through the crowded bazars, and alight at the house I had left two years ago Old servants take their places as a ular occupations as if they had never been interrupted
Indeed it seemed as if we had but returned from a summer's ride: two years had passed away like a dream
I may in this place add a feords on part of the route pursued by Xenophon and the Ten Thousand during their memorable retreat, the identification of which had been one ofour journey I have, in the course of nalled by remarkable events on their march
I , like its representative, theor farsakh of Persia, was not a measure of distance very accurately determined, but rather indicated a certain aiven space That Xenophon reckoned by the common mode of co, al,” instead of the Greek stadiu was the same as the modern hour, we find by the distance between Larissa (Nis, corresponding exactly with the nuned by the present inhabitants of the country, and by the authorities of the Turkish post, to the sahteen English miles
The ford, by which the Greeks crossed the Great Zab (Zabates) may, I think, be accurately determined It is still the principal ford in this part of the river, and must, from the nature of the bed of the stream, have been so from the earliest periods It is about twenty-five ris[11] The Greeks could not have crossed the Zab above the spot I have indicated, as the bed of the river is deep, and confined within high rocky banks They ht have done so _below_ the junction of the Ghazir, and a ravine worn by winter rains may correspond with the valley mentioned by Xenophon, but I think the Ghazir far more likely to have been the torrent bed vieith so e of which Mithridates ht have disputed with some prospect of success[12]
That Larissa and Mespila are represented by the ruins of Nimroud and Kouyunjik no one can reasonably doubt Xenophon's description corresponds most accurately with the ruins and with the distance between thes, and probably halted near the e of Batnai, between Tel Kef and Tel Eskof, an ancient site exactly four hours, by the usual caravan road, fro the Khabour near its junction with the Tigris, and thus avoiding the hills, they crossed them by a precipitous pass to the site of theit on the fifth, probably by the modern caravan road They were probably ht their way over three distinct es It is reh he e[13] before reaching the plain Yet the stream is broad and rapid, and the fords at all times deep Nor does he allude to the Hazel, a confluent of the Khabour, to which he ca Zakko These oive an accurate itinerary of his route
Four days' march, the first of only sixty stadia, or about seven h ris, shut out all further advance, except by difficult and precipitous passes, already occupied by the Persians Xenophon, having dislodged the enee, returned to the main body of the army, which had remained in the plain This must have been near Fynyk, where the very foot of the Kurdish rees accurately with Xenophon's description, as it does with the distance ”The Greeks,” says he, ”caris is, both from its depth and breadth, absolutely iyover the river”
Xenophon preferred the route across the mountains of Kurdistan, as it led into Arht choose their own road to the sea, and which abounded in villages and the necessaries of life
Beyond the Carduchianto the prisoners, two roads into Ar the head waters of the principal branch of the Tigris, the other going round the them to the left These are the roads to this day followed by caravans, one crossing the plains of Kherzan to Diarbekir, and thence, by well-known h Bitlis Xenophon chose the latter The villages in the valleys and recesses of the mountains are still found around Funduk; and, on their first day's march over the Carduchian hills, the Greeks probably reached the neighbourhood of this village There now reh which flows the eastern branch of the Tigris; but the country was difficult, and at this ti the river was impassable The Greeks had, therefore, to force their way over a series of difficult passes, all stoutly defended by warlike tribes They were consequently four days in reaching the Centritis, or eastern Tigris, the united waters of the rivers of Bitlis, Sert, and Bohtan It was impossible to cross the river at this spot in the face of the eneher up, and Xenophon, by skilful strategy, effected the passage This must have been at a short distance from Tilleh, as the river, narrowed between rocky banks, is no longer fordable higher up
Owing to the frequent incursions of the Carduchi, the villages along the banks of the Bitlis had been abandoned, and the Greeks were compelled to turn to the ard, to find provisions and habitations Still _there was no road_ into Armenia, particularly at this tie, except that through the Bitlis valley The remains of an ancient causeway are even now to be traced, and this probably has always been the great thoroughfare betestern Armenia and the assyrian plains Xenophon consequently made nearly the same detour as I had made on my way fros each, brought them to the small river Teleboas, which I believe to have been the river of Bitlis After crossing the low country of Kherzan, well described by Xenophon as ”a plain varied by hills of an easy ascent,” the Greeks htly to the eastward to reach the Bitlis valley, as inaccessible ress My caravan was thirty-three hours in journeying fro exactly with the six days' march of the Greeks They probably came to the river somewhat below the site of the modern tohere it well deserves the epithet of ”beautiful” It es near its banks It will be observed that Xenophon says that _they came to_, not that they _crossed_, the Teleboas
Fro, as usual, five parasangs each day; in all, thirty parasangs, or hours I believe, therefore, that, after issuing from the valley of Bitlis, Xenophon turned to the ard, leaving the lake of Wan a little to the right, though coe of low hills[16]
Skirting the western foot of the Nih a plain thickly inhabited, abounding in well-provisioned villages, and crossed here and there by ranges of hills This country still tallies precisely with Xenophon's description
We have not, I conceive, sufficient data in Xenophon's narrative to identify with any degree of certainty his route after crossing the Euphrates We know that about twenty parasangs fro, and this spring nised in one of the many which abound in the country It is most probable that the Greeks took the road still used by caravans through the plains of Hinnis and Hassan-Kalah, as offering the fewest difficulties But what rivers are we to identify with the Phasis and Harpasus, the distance between the Euphrates and Phasis being seventy parasangs, and between the Phasis and Harpasus ninety-five, and the Harpasus being the larger of the two rivers?
I am on the whole inclined to believe, that either the Greeks took a very tortuous course after leaving the Euphrates, reat end of their arduous journey, the sea-coast, or that there is a considerable error in the aiven by Xenophon; that the Harpasus must be the Tcherouk, and the Phasis either the Araxes or the Kur[17]; and that Mount Theches, the holy mountain from which the Greeks beheld the sea, was between Batoun and Trebizond, the ar it before reaching the site of the modern port on the Black Sea
[Illustration: Subterranean Excavations at Kouyunjik]
CHAPTER IV
STATE OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON MY RETURN TO MOSUL--DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK--TUNNELS IN THE MOUND--BAS-RELIEFS REPRESENTING assYRIAN CONQUESTS--A WELL--SIEGE OF A CITY--NATURE OF SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK--ARRANGEMENTS FOR RENEWAL OF EXCAVATIONS--DESCRIPTION OF MOUND--KIAMIL PASHA--VISIT TO SHEIK ADI--YEZIDI CEREMONIES--SHEIKH JINDI--YEZIDI MEETING--DRESS OF THE WOMEN--BAVIAN--DOCTRINES OF THE YEZIDI--JERRAIYAH--RETURN TO MOSUL
On theafter our arrival in Mosul, I rode at sunrise to Kouyunjik