Part 16 (1/2)

We had evidently to deal with a man of civilisation and luxury, for the old Kurd shortly returned followed by nu sherbets and various Persian delicacies, in china bowls Mousa Bey himself came to us in the afternoon, and his manners and conversation confirmed the impression that his breakfast had produced Intercourse with Persia, beyond whose frontiers his own tribe soe of his neighbours He told me that he was descended from one of the most ancient of Kurdish families, whose records for many hundred years still exist; and he boasted that Sheikh Tahar, the great saint, had deemed him the only chief worthy, frooverne as himself after the downfall of Beder Khan Bey This Sheikh Tahar, who as the ator of many atrocious massacres of the Christians, and especially of the Nestorians, ought to have been pursued into the uttered as a public exa from fever He sent to me for medicine; but as his sanctity would not per Frank, and as he wished to have a reh the usual for him any help in the matter

Mousa Bey was at this time almost the only chief in Kurdistan who had not yet overne for those fugitives who, less fortunate than hiholds by the arues of the Porte He bewailed the discords which severed the tribes, and made theeneration, have pursued their usual policy successfully in Kurdistan; the dissensions of the chiefs have been fomented, and, thus divided, they have fallen one by one victims to treachery or to force

We rose early on the following day, and left Nera long before the population was stirring, by a very steep pathinding over the face of a precipice, and co the top of the pass we came upon a natural carpet of Alpine flowers of every hue, spread over the eastern declivity of the ht's resting-place, I turned down the valley with my companions to visit the bishop of Shemisden at his convent[158] of Mar Hananisho

A ride of three quarters of an hour brought us to the episcopal residence[159] Mar Isho, the bishop, met me at some distance fro appearance; but he appeared to be good-natured, and to have a fair stock of coed the common salutations, seated on a bank of wild thyed carpets and felts had been spread in the dark vestibule, in the houl, and other provisions for the bishop's establish wheels, almost filled up the rest of the room; for these primitive Christians rely on the sanctity of their places of worshi+p for the protection of their temporal stores The title of the bishop is ”Metropolitan of Roustak,” a nain His jurisdiction extends over es chiefly in the valley of Shemisden Half of this district is within the Persian territories, and from the convent we could see the frontier doh road of the periodical reat tribe of Herki, who pass like a locust-cloud twice a year over the settle before the away even the miserable furniture of the hovels It is in vain that the sufferers carry their complaints to their Kurdish master; _he_ takes froovernment has in this part of the mountains no power, if it had the inclination, to protect its Christian subjects

After we had partaken of the frugal breakfast of milk, honey, and fruit prepared for us by the bishop, we turned again into the high road to Bash-Kalah We had another pass to cross before descending into the valley of Harouna, where our caravan had encaht On the , half naked, for shelter beneath a projecting rock They seized the bridles of our horses as we rode by, beseeching us to help them to recover their little property, which, but a few hours before, had been swept away by a party of Herki Kurds I could do nothing for these poor people, who seee of misery

From the summit of the pass we looked down into two deep and ooded valleys, heularly picturesque for the miserable Nestorian hamlet of Sourasor, and the ruined church and deserted Christian village of Tellana, reached our tents about sunset They were pitched near Harouna, whose Nestorian inhabitants were too poor to furnish us with even the common coarse black bread of barley

We had now quitted the semi-independent Kurdish valleys, and had entered the newly created province of Hakkiari, governed by a Pasha, who resides at Bash-Kalah The adjacent plain of Ghaour is, however, exposed to the depredations of the Herki Kurds, hen pursued by the Turkish troops, seek a secure retreat in their rocky fastnesses, beyond the lies, inhabited by a hardy and industrious race of Nestorian Christians The American missionaries of Ooroomiyah have crossed the frontier since my visit, and have, I a prospects of success Ghaour is a Nestorian bishopric

A ride of six hours and a-half brought us to the large village of Dizza, the chief place of the district, and the residence of a Turkish Mudir, or petty governor This office was filled by one Adel Bey, hoha of Tepelin, who had shown me hospitality three years before in the ruined castle of Amadiyah[160] He was now in coarrison A change had come over hilittered with gold, were now greasy and dull His face was as worn as his gar speech on his fortunes, and on that of Albanian irregulars in general ”Ah! Bey,” said he, ”the power and wealth of the Oser any authority The accursed Tanziood ed to live upon my pay; I cannot eat from the treasury, nor can I squeeze a piastre--what do I say, a piastre? not a h they be Christians Forsooth they must talk to me about reforone Even Tafil-Bousi (a celebrated Albanian condottiere) smokes his pipe, and becomes fat like a Turk It is the will of God I have forsworn raki, I believe in the Koran, and I keep Rae frohts of the st our party Nearly all our servants were laid up with fever, as well as the Doctor and Mr

Walpole, who had rarely been free fro the journey I could not, however, delay, and on the followingover the hills We had now entered the Armenian districts The Christian inhabitants of Dizza are of that race and faith

We encae of Perauniss

Next day we forded a branch of the Zab, and entered the valley of this great confluent of the Tigris, its principal source being but a few miles to the north of us, near the frontiers of Persia The land is so heavy, that the rude plough of the country requires frequently as h the beasts with a long iron-pointed goad, chant a monotonous ditty to which the animals appear so well accustoe, they also stop from their labors

A dell near our path was pointed out to me as the spot where the unfortunate traveller Schulz was murdered by Nur Ullah Bey, the Kurdish chief of Hakkiari Turning up a narrow valley towards the high ht of the castle of Bash-Kalah, one of the ancient strongholds of Kurdistan Its position is re out from the mountains which rise in a perpendicular wall behind it At the foot are grouped the houses of a village I found Izzet Pasha encamped at a considerable elevation in the rocky ravine[161], which we reached, guided by cawasses carrying huge glass lanterns, by a very precipitous and difficult track I reht was far advanced, and then returned to our encampment

He informed me that there was a direct road froh Beit-Shebbet, Daoudiyah, and Dohuk, which, with very little labor and expense, could be uns

Bash-Kalah was for-place of Nur Ullah Bey, a Kurdish chief well-known for his rapacious and blood-thirsty character, and as the reat massacres of the Nestorians, and for many years sorely vexed those Christians ithin his rule After a long resistance to the troops of the Sultan, he was captured about two years before my visit, and banished for life to the island of Candia

My co much in want of rest, I stopped a day at Bash-Kalah On resuh difficult track to Wan only open in thea s into the very heart of thethe banks of the rivulet, brought us to a large encampment The features of the women and of the men, who caue in which they addressed one another, showed at once that they were not Kurds

They were Jews, shepherds and wanderers, of the stock, h priest, Hyrcanus, were carried away captive froranes in the second century of our era, and placed in the city and neighbourhood of Wan Their descendants, two hundred years after, were already so numerous that Shapour (Sapores) II destroyed no less than 10,000 families in Wan alone

We encamped near the Jewish no of their history They fed their flocks, as their fathers had done before theovernor of Bash-Kalah

We had now reached the higher regions of Kurdistan[162] Nextwe soon left the narroery valley and the brawling strea upland covered with deep snow, considerably more than ten thousand feet above the level of the sea On all sides of us were towering peaks, and to the west a perfect sea of es of Hakkiari and Bohtan Far away to the north was the azure basin of Lake Wan, and beyond it rose the solitary white cone of the Subhan Dagh

Descending rapidly, and passing, near the foot of the mountain, one or twonarrow ravine, shut in by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone and conglomerate This outlet of the mountain streams opens into the valley of Mahmoudiyah, in the centre of which rises an isolated rock crowned by the picturesque castle of Kosh-Ab

We pitched our tents on a green lawn, near the bank of the foa stream which sweeps round the foot of the castellated rock Soon after our arrival a Kurdish Bey, of venerable appearance, a descendant of the hereditary chiefs of Mahmoudiyah, called upon me He had once been the owner of the castle, but it had been wrested from him by two brothers, named Khan Murad and Khan Abdal,defied the Turkish govern black-h their territories, and oppressing with fines and forced conversions their Christian subjects It was but the year before our visit that they had yielded to the troops sent against them, and had been sent into banishment, with the rest of the rebel chiefs, to Candia

With the Kurdish Bey cari, an intelligent avethe frontiers The fear of the conscription has driven many families into Persia, and into the more independent districts of Kurdistan On the whole, the wandering tribes are beco less formidable to the Porte than they formerly were

To the east of the district of Mahes and a considerable Jewish population[163] Both races are much oppressed by the Kurdish chiefs, who take their property, and even their lives, with perfect indifference, ”the Cadis,” as Ahiven _fetwahs_ (decrees) that both were lawful to the true believer”

We rose early nextinto ruins, though its towers still rise boldly froht the valley below In the-rooms of the old Kurdish chiefs, adorned with tasteful lattice-work, and with the painted panellings and gilded cornices of Persia They are now tenanted by the Turkish troops, whose bright araudy walls After drinking coffee and suard, alked down the narrow pathway leading to the valley, and,our horses, joined the caravan, which had preceded us on the road to Wan