Part 9 (1/2)

CHAPTER X

VISIT TO KALAH SHERGHAT PREVENTED--VISIT TO SHOMAMOK--KESHAF--THE HOWAR--A BEDOUIN--HIS MISSION--DESCENT OF ARAB HORSES--THEIR PEDIGREE--RUINS OF MOKHAMOUR--THE MOUND OF THE KASR--PLAIN OF SHOMAMOK--THE GLA OR KALAH--XENOPHON AND THE TEN THOUSAND--A WOLF--RETURN TO NIMROUD AND MOSUL--DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK--DESCRIPTION OF THE BAS-RELIEFS

Thebeen very i ements to return to the ruins All my preparations were coris on a raft laden with provisions and tools necessary for at least a month's residence and work in the desert I had expected to find Mohammed Seyyid, one of my Jebour Sheikhs, with a party of the Ajel, his own particular tribe, ready to acco to the north, and their horsehbourhood of Kalah Sherghat Nothing would consequently induce the Ajel, ere not on the best terms with the Shammar Arabs, to leave their tents, and, after ive up the journey

Aith a party of Jehesh, had been for nearly six weeks exploring the mounds in the plain of Shomamok, the country of the Tai Arabs, and had sent to tell s, vases, and inscribed bricks I deter his excavations, and in carefully exa those ruins which I had only hastily visited on ly started from Nimroud on the 2d of March, accompanied by Horris to its junction with the Zab, whose waters, swollen by the er fordable Near the confluence of the streams, and on the southern bank of the Zab, is the lofty mound of Keshaf, where are the rearrisoned a few years ago by an officer and a cohdad, ere able frohold to check the inroads of the Bedouins, as well as of the Tai and other tribes, who plundered the Mosul villages Since it has been abandoned, the country has again been exposed to the incursions of these marauders, who now cross the rivers unmolested, and lay waste the cultivated districts

The tents of the Hoere about five miles from Keshaf Since ed chief of the Tai Faras had, however, withdrawn from his rival, and, followed by his own adherents, had moved to the banks of the Lesser Zab The Shaed by the division in the tribe, had, only three days before our visit, crossed the Tigris and fallen suddenly upon the Kochers, or Kurdish wanderers, of the Herki clans These noions to winter in the rich meadows of Shomamok They pay a small tribute to the Tai for perainst the desert Arabs The Hoas consequently bound to defend the to do so, had been beaten with the loss of forty of their finest mares

We found the Howar much cast down and vexed by his recent loomy consultation over their losses A Bedouin, wrapped in his ragged cloak, was seated listlessly in the tent He had beenat Nimroud, and had announced himself on a mission from the Shammar to the Tai, to learn the breed of the e norant of the customs of the Arabs, one of insult and defiance But he was on a coh there was blood between the tribes, his person was as sacred as that of an ambassador in any civilised community After a battle or a foray, the tribes who have taken horses from the enemy will send an envoy to ask their breed, and a person so chosen passes fro from each man, as he eats his bread, the descent and qualities of the anihest value to the pure blood of their horses, and who have no written pedigree, for ast the Bedouins documents of this kind do not exist, such customs are necessary The descent of a horse is preserved by tradition, and the birth of a colt is an event known to the whole tribe It would be considered disgraceful to the character of a true Bedouin to give false testimony on such a point, and his word is usually received with ih the Howar and the Arabs refused to accompany me, I set off for the ruins, which are in the deserted district between the Karachok range and the river Tigris The plains in which they are situated are celebrated for the richness of their pastures, and are sought in spring by the Tai and the Kurdish Kochers We kept as much as possible in the broken country at the foot of the mountain to escape observation

The wooded banks of the Tigris and the white dome of the tomb of Sultan Abdallah were faintly visible in the distance, and a few artificial mounds rose in the plains The pastures were already fit for the flocks, and luxuriant grass furnished food for our horses amidst the ruins

The principal ht, and ends in a cone It is apparently the reinally divided into several distinct stages or terraces On one side are the traces of an inclined ascent, or of a flight of steps, once leading to the sule of lower mounds, about 480 paces square I could find no rements of inscribed bricks, pottery, or sculptured alabaster

The ruins are near the southern spur of Karachok, where that ain rises into a solitary ridge, called Bis between the two rivers These detached lie of Kurdistan, such as the Makloub, Sinjar, Karachok, and Haical structure of the country lying between the ancient province of Cilicia and the Persian Gulf

Having exas of the principal landh grass, I returned to the enca, across the spurs of the Karachok, brought us to the ruins of Abou-Jerdeh, near which we had found the tents of Faras on our last visit The mound is of considerable size, and on its summit are traces of foundations in stone masonry; but I could find no remains to connect it with the assyrian period

We breakfasted with our old host Wali Beg, and then continued our journey to one of the principal artificial mounds of Shomamok, called the ”Kasr,”

or palace The pastures were covered with the flocks of the Arabs, the Kochers, and the Disdayi Kurds We crossed a broad and deep valley, called the Kordereh, and encaht at the foot of the Kasr, on the banks of a rivulet called As-Surayji, which joins the Kordereh below Abou-Jerdeh, near a village named ”Salae and lofty, and is surrounded by the remains of an earthen embankment It is divided almost into two distinct equal parts by a ravine or watercourse, where an ascent probably once led from the plain to the edifice on the summit of the platform Awad had opened several deep trenches and tunnels in the mound, and had discovered chambers, some alls of plain sun-dried bricks, others panelled round the lower part with slabs of reddish lih He had also found inscribed bricks, with inscriptions declaring that Sennacherib had here built a city, or rather palace, for the name of which, as written in the cuneifor I observed a thin deposit, or layer, of pebbles and rubble above the reht feet beneath the surface, as at Kouyunjik

Fros of twenty-five considerable mounds, the re in the direction of the Lesser Zab Wishi+ng to exahbourhood I left our tents early on the following ht or nine hdad and Arbil The latter toith its castle perched upon a lofty artificial ave its nareatest battles the world ever saas visible during the greater part of our day's ride The plain abounds in villages and canals for irrigation, supplied by the As-Surayji The soil thus irrigated produces cotton, rice, tobacco, etables

The jurisdiction of the Tai Sheikh ends at the Kasr; the villages beyond are under the iovernor of Arbil, to whom they pay their taxes The inhabitants complained loudly of oppression, and appeared to be an active, industrious race Upon the banks of the Lesser Zab, below Altun Kupri (or Guntera, the ”Bridge,” as the Arabs call the place), encamp the Arab tribe of Abou-Hamdan, renowned for the beauty of its women

The mounds I examined, and particularly that of Abd-ul-Azeez, abound in sepulchral urns and in pottery, apparently not assyrian

The most remarkable spot in the district of Shomamok is the Gla (an Arab corruption of Kalah), or the Castle, about two miles distant from the Kasr It is a natural elevation, left by the stream of the Kordereh, which has worn a deep channel in the soil, and dividing itself at this place into two branches forms an island, whose summit, but little increased by artificial means, is, therefore, nearly on a level with the top of the opposite precipices The valley may be in some places about a mile wide, in others only four or five hundred yards The Gla is consequently a natural stronghold, above one hundred feet high, furnished on all sides with outworks, rese the artificial embankments of a modern citadel

A few isolated mounds near it have the appearance of detached forts, and nature seems to have formed a complete system of fortification I have rarely seen a more curious place

There are no remains of modern habitations on the summit of the Gla, which can only be ascended without difficulty from one side Awad excavated by my directions in the s, and several inscribed bricks, bearing the name of Sennacherib, and of a castle or palace, which, like that on the bricks from the Kasr, I am unable to interpret

From the Gla I crossed the plain to the mound of Abou Sheetha, in which Awad had excavated for so any discovery of interest

Near this ruin, perhaps at its very foot, must have taken place an event which led to one of the most celebrated episodes of ancient history Here were treacherously seized Clearchus, Proxenus, Menon, Agias, and Socrates; and Xenophon, elected to the command of the Greek auxiliaries, commenced the ever-memorable retreat of the Ten Thousand The calittering with golden areous display of Persian pomp, probably stood on the Kordereh, between Abou-Sheetha and the Kasr The Greeks having taken the lower road, to the west of the Karachok range, through a plain even then as now a desert[98], turned to the east, and crossed the spur of the mountain, where we had recently seen the tents of the Howar, in order to reach the fords of the Zab I have already pointed out the probability of their having forded that river above the junction of the Ghazir[99], and to this day the ford to the east of Abou-Sheetha is the best, and that usually frequented by the Arabs Still not openly molested by the Persians, the Greeks halted for three days on the banks of the stream, and Clearchus, to put an end to the jealousies which had broken out between the two arht an intervieith the Persian chief The crafty Eastern, knowing no policy but that to which the descendants of his race are still true, inveigled the Greek co seized them, sent them in chains to the Persian monarch He then put to death many of their bravest companions and soldiers, who had accompanied their chiefs The effect which this perfidious act had on the Greek troops, surrounded by powerful ene in the midst of an unknown and hostile country, betrayed by those they had come so far to serve, and separated from their native land by impassable rivers, waterless deserts, and inaccessible uide to direct their steps, is touchingly described by the great leader and historian of their retreat: ”Few ate anything that evening, few ht never came to their quarters, but laid themselves down, every man in the place where he happened to be, unable to sleep, through sorrow and longing for their country, their parents, their wives, and children, whoain” But there was one in the army as equal to the difficulties which encoe his hopeless countryreat effort for their liberty and their lives Before the break of day, Xenophon had formed his plans Dressed in the ht if the Gods granted him victory these ornaments would become a conqueror, and if he were to die they would decorate his fall,” he harangued the desponding Greeks, and showed theain see their hoave the the river Zab, they comy unequalled, which led theh difficulties almost insurmountable to their native shores

Near Abou-Sheetha, too, Darius, a fugitive, urged his flying horses through the Zab, followed by the scattered remnants of an army which numbered in its ranks men of almost every race and clied into the ford in pursuit of the fallen ions which he was to lead, without almost a second check, to the banks of the Indus The plains which stretch from the Zab below Abou-Sheetha have since been azed with deep interest upon the scene of such great events--a plain, where nothing remains to tell of the vast armies which once nificence

Whilst riding through the jungle towards Negoub, a wolf rose beforethe animal, I wounded it with one barrel of e the second, when my horse slipt on soether upon the wolf It struggled and freed itself, leaving me besmeared with its blood The cock of the pistol fortunately broke in going off whilst the muzzle was close to my head, and I escaped without other injury than a bruised hand, the complete use of which I did not recover for some months