Part 6 (2/2)
3 Parts of two horses, of a er, and of an assyrian warrior The horses are blue The man appears to have been wounded or slain in battle, and is naked, with the exception of a twisted blue cloth round the loins Ground an olive green
4 Fragment, with assyrian warriors on horses Horses yelloith blue trappings Ground olive green
5 Part of a chariot and horse, yellow on a blue ground
6 A man, with a white cloth round his loins, pierced by two arrows A fish, blue, with the scales marked in white; and part of a horse's head, yellow Ground yellow
7 Part of a walled tower, or fort, with square battle a chariot and horses passing over a naked figure, pierced through the neck by an arrow Under this group are the heads, and parts of the shi+elds, of two assyrian warriors The wounded man wears a fillet round his head, to which is attached a feather The horses are blue, and their trappings white; the wheels of the chariot, yellow The shi+elds of the warriors are blue, edged by a band of alternate squares of blue and yellow; their helmets are yellow, but the faces appear to be round
9 The lower part of an assyrian warrior, his arreaves blue, yellow, and white The naked hand is of a pale brown color Ground olive green
10 A castle, with angular battleround A square door is painted blue
All these frag to the saeneral subject I should conjecture that they had been taken fro as the detached bas-reliefs in the south-west palace, and that consequently they [69]
The outlines are spirited, in character and treatment of painted brick, found in the ruins of the north-west palace, is undoubtedly of a different, and of an earlier, period The outline is in black, and not in white The upper robe is blue, the under yellow, and the fringes white The ground is yellow
But theis that on a brick, 12 inches by 9, discovered in the centre of the mound of Ni followed by his attendant eunuch, receiving his general or vizir, a group very similar to those seen in the sculptures froed pavilion and part of an inscription, which appears to have contained his nauilloche border The outline is in black upon a pale yellow ground, the colors having probably faded Fro I believe him to be either the builder of the north-west or centre palace This is an unique specireater part of the , I was suddenly disturbed by the reports of firearled with the shouts ofimmediately from the house, I found the open space behind it a scene of wild excite in all directions and singing their war song, were driving before thee Theat the invaders; the wo the air with their shrill screa to rescue the animals The horsee of a thickover the Jaif, to cross the Zab early in the , and to fall upon us before ere aware of their approach No tireeable consequences A horse was soon ready, and I rode towards the one who appeared to be the chief of the attacking party Although his features were concealed by the _keffieh_ closely drawn over the lower part of his face, after the Bedouin fashi+on in war, he had been recognised as Saleh, the brother of the Howar, the Sheikh of the Tai At ent solicitation Saleh consented to restore all that had been stolen, and each one was accordingly invited to clailers about lost cloaks, handkerchiefs, and the like, a hare suddenly sprang froreyhounds, who had followed me from the house, immediately pursued her This was too much for the Arabs; their love of the chase overca other people's property; cattle, cloaks, swords, and _keffiehs_ were abandoned to their respective claimants, and the whole band of marauders joined wildly in the pursuit Before we had reached the game ere far distant from Nimroud I seized the opportunity to conclude the truce, and Saleh with his followers rode slowly back towards the ford of the Zab to seek his brother's tents I promised to visit, the Howar in two or three days, and we parted with mutual assurances of friendshi+p
I spent Christmas-day at Niain accompanied me, Mr Rolland (a traveller, who had recently joined us), Hor the Kuther Elias to the left, we passed the ruined village of Kini-Harei through a rich alluvial plain, divides itself into four branches, before entering a range of low conglomerate hills, bethich it sweeps in its narrowed bed with great velocity The four channels are each fordable, except during floods, and the Arabs generally cross at this spot The water reached above the bellies of our horses, but we found no difficulty in ste the current The islands and the banks were clothed with trees and brushwood In the le were innumerable deep, sharp prints of the hoof of the wild boar
The tents of the Hoere still higher up the Zab Sending a horseman to apprise the chief of our approach, we rode leisurely towards thee named Kaaitli, the wo towho is co up the bones of our grandfathers and grande which they seemed inclined to resent Saleh, at the head of fifty or sixty horsee, and conducted us to the enca, parallel lines That of the chief held the foreht spears tufted with ostrich feathers at its entrance, and the h-bredfigure, of erect and noble carriage, issued from beneath the black canvass, and advanced to receive st the Arabs a ular and handso been fresh dyed with hennah alone, was of a bright brick-red hue, ill suited to the gravity and dignity of his countenance His head was encircled by a rich cash over his shoulder, as is the custost the Arabs of the Hedjaz He wore a criantly embroidered down the back, and on one of the wide sleeves with gold thread and many-colored silks This was Sheikh Howar
As I dismounted, the Sheikh advanced to embrace me, and when his arms were round my neck my head scarcely reached to his shoulder He led uests It had been prepared for my reception, and was not ill furnished with cushi+ons of silk and soft Kurdish carpets The tent itself was st Arabs The black goat-hair canvass alone was the load of three camels[70], and was supported by six poles down the centre, with the saht fire was an array of highly burnishedseveral quarts, and the sh to fill the dier
Coffee was, of course, the first business It was highly spiced, as drank by the Bedouins The Howar, after soeneral conversation, spoke of the politics of the Tai, and their differences with the Turkish government
The same ruinous system which has turned some of the richest districts of Asia into a desert, and has driven every Arab clan into open rebellion against the Sultan, had been pursued towards hi to the extortionate deovernors, and intestine dissensions and broils between the Arabs themselves, the country had rapidly been reduced to a state of anarchy The Arabs, having no one responsible chief, took, of course, to plundering The villages on the Mosul side of the Zab, as well as in the populous district of Arbil, were laid waste The Kurds, who caed to follow the example of the Tai, and, from the rapaciousness and overnment, evils had ensued whose consequences will be felt for years, and which will end in adding another rich district to the desert Such is the history of almost every tribe in Turkey, and such the causes of the desolation that has spread over her finest provinces
The Tai is a remnant of one of the most ancient and renowned tribes of Arabia The Howar himself traces his descent from Hatem, a sheikh of the tribe who lived in the seventh century, and who, as the impersonation of all the virtues of Bedouin life, is the theenerosity, his courage, and his skill as a horseman were alike unequalled, and there is no nast the wild inhabitants of the desert than that of Hatem Tai The Howar is proud of his heroic ancestor, and the Bedouins acknowledge and respect his descent[71]
We dined with the Sheikh and sat until the night was far spent, listening to tales of Arab life, and to the traditions of his tribe
On the followingthe tents were struck at sunrise, and the chief moved with his followers to new pastures The crowd of camels, flocks, cattle, laden beasts of burden, horsemen, footmen, women and children darkened the plain for soh thehim to fix the spot for his encampment, we turned from the river and rode inland towards the tents of his rival and cousin, Faras Saleh, with a few horse to bring about a reconciliation between the two chiefs
The plain, bounded by the Tigris, the great and lesser Zab, and the Kurdish hills, is renowned for its fertility It is the granary of Baghdad, and it is a cost the Arabs, ”that if there were a famine over the rest of the earth, Shomamok (for so the principal part of the plain is called) would still have its harvest” This district belongs chiefly to the Tai Arabs, ander from pasture to pasture, and leave the cultivation of the soil to small sedentary tribes of Arabs, Turcoes, and pay an annual tribute inwe passed h the rich soil Large flocks of gazelles grazed in the cultivated patches, scarcely fearing the husband away over the plain as horsemen approached Artificial est, called Abou-Jerdeh, we found the black tents of Sheikh Faras The rain began to fall in torrents before we reached the encae to ainst the weather He soon returned urging his e contrast to the elder member of his family He was short, squat, and fat, and his coarse features were buried in a fraht red He was, however, profuse in assurances of friendshi+p, talked incessantly, agreed to all I proposed with regard to a reconciliation with the other branch of the tribe, and received Saleh with every outward sign of cordiality His son had nity of his race, but the expression of his countenance was forbidding and sinister The two young men, as they sat, cast looks of defiance at each other, and I had so out in invectives, which probably would have ended in an appeal to the sword
As the rain increased in violence, and the tent offered but an ie, where a house had been prepared for us by its honest, kind-hearted Turcoman chief, Wali Bey With unaffected hospitality he insisted that we should becouests, and had already slain the sheep for our entertainment I have met few men who exceed, in honesty and fidelity, the descendants of the pure Turcoman race, scattered over Asia Minor and the districts watered by the Tigris
On the following , Wali Bey provided an ae were set before us On reaching the Zab, we found it rising rapidly from the rains of the previous day Our servants had already crossed, but the river was now iher up, and above the junction of the Ghazir Having struggled in vain against the swollen strea reh road, between Arbil and Mosul We did not reach the se, where a raft is kept for the use of travellers and caravans, until nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, and it was sunset before we had crossed the river