CHAPTER XVIII

DEAD SEA FRUIT

The tale of the British administration of Mesopotamia (or Irak) is the familiar one of magnificent work done by men on the spot, which is yet hampered by the feebleness and indecision of "statesmen" at home, coupled with the activities of newspapers interested mainly in what an expert of old time, George III., called "that damnably dirty business, party politics." The tale, however--though one that is well worth the telling--is too long a one to be put in at the end of a book dealing with only a part of the land concerned, and here we must confine ourselves to that of which we have personal knowledge--viz., the fortunes of the tormented Assyrian nation after they reached "the haven where they would be," the protection of the British. General affairs can only be touched on so far as they concern this people.

We left the nation established in the huge refugee camp at Baqubah, near Baghdad, where they became one of the sights and sensations of Mesopotamia. They considered that their troubles were over at last, and, indeed, one of their number even broke out into English poetry to celebrate the fact, and presented his ode (which he would have been better advised to write in Syriac) to the General Officer commanding the camp:

We wish to express our thanks and great wish To all our friends, especially the British; For we are under the protection of the world's greatest monarch, Who to us in this wilderness is like the shadow of the rock.

All gentlemen from the headquarters, Soldiers, sergeants, corporals, and officers, All sisters and doctors, with bottles number one, two, three, They have from typhoid and relapsing fever made us free!

The idea of the people was that they would very speedily be put back, under British protection, in their old homes; and that full compensation (and incidentally full revenge) for all past sufferings and losses would be assured them. They were the allies of the victors in the war; and there was, of course, no limit either to the power or the wealth of their British protectors. The inability of European statesmen to make a peace at all,[168] and the fact that the British Government, in consequence, could not make up its mind what it wanted to do, or could do, either with the country at large or with this relatively small factor in it, were matters simply outside their mental horizon. "Our own country, under British protection," was their simple and intelligible demand; a "benevolent" government was all that British authorities could promise them in return, and, meantime, there was nothing to do but to wait. If you maintain anyone in idleness, you soon produce a pauper with all a pauper's vices. Assyrians proved no exception to that rule, and paupers they soon became, taking all that was given, and expecting more. They declined to do even necessary camp work without payment; and the quarrelsomeness and disposition to intrigue that have been their bane since the beginning appeared among them again.

One thing, however, they could do which was useful--they could fight. A double battalion of infantry, with one mounted company, was raised from among them, and put under picked British officers. Such officers, as has been shown many a time, can make good soldiers out of far worse material than warlike mountaineers; and the mutual regard that is usual in such cases soon grew up between the officers and their men. "See that lad there?" said one of these officers to the writer. "He sprained his ankle on the way down, but he turned up on parade with it next day hideously swollen. He only burst out crying when I told him he must not march, and went off to a bonesetter, who slashed it all round with a blunt knife and rubbed in gunpowder. Then he turned up again, begging to be allowed to march with the regiment!"

It is true that some difficulties arose. It had been intended to raise two battalions: one of mountaineers, and one of Urmi men. The latter, however (owing to the mistaken advice of some foreign friends), demanded impossible conditions of service; while the mountain men declared their readiness to go anywhere, if only they had British officers to lead them. The double battalion was raised, in consequence, of the mountain men alone. Then Petros Agha, who was now describing himself as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Assyrian Army," demanded as of right that any contingent raised should be under his orders, with such British officers to assist him as he judged expedient. When this modest demand was refused, he began intriguing against the project, till it became necessary to shepherd him gently out of the camp, and suggest Baghdad (or India) as his residence in future. The force was raised however, and the little campaign that became necessary against the Kurds in the summer of 1919 gave these hillmen an opportunity of getting as near to their own conception of heaven as some of them are ever likely to get, for they were given good rifles and good leaders, and a real chance of a slap at their hereditary enemies!

Experienced judges were loud in praise of their marching and fighting capacities, though admitting that they were "a trifle indiscriminate" at times. "Those Assyrians have got into it quick," said the G.O.C. on one occasion, noting how quickly the men opened fire in their advance up a hill they had been ordered to clear of the enemy. "Oh no, sir," said an A.D.C., who had experience of the creature; "I'll bet what you like it's a pig they are firing at!" He did them but a small injustice; it was a bear and not a boar; but having finished him, they cleared the hill. "How did the Assyrians really do in the fighting?" asked a British officer of a Subadar of the Gurkhas with whom they were brigaded. "Why did you not give us the same mountain sandals that they wear?" came the answer. "Then we should have done as well as they did!" Verily, when Gurkhas apologise for not doing as well as the irregular, there is no fault to find with the fighting capacity of the latter.[169]

Once, it must be admitted, a party of them found civilised campaigning too slow, and committed the heinous crime of deserting while on active service; but the apology they sent in (in a mixture of Syriac and English) went far to redeem their fault. "To the beloved and reverend Major Knight, our Commander, peace and love be multiplied," it began. "Dear Father, be it known to you that we did not run away because we did not wish to kill Kurds, but because we so wished to kill them; and by the blessing of God, we have been doing that thing for ten days. Regret to report following casualty: soldier, private, one. But we have killed a lot more Kurds. Now, dear Father, if you will promise to punish us yourself, we will come in. But we fear going to Mosul Gaol."

The Major promised that if they came in he would punish them all right, and he did so; but he subsequently squared matters somehow with his conscience, and reported that there had been a gratifying absence of crime on active service!

The campaign had the effect of clearing what is known as the Sapna area of Kurds; and, incidentally, the house of the English Mission at Bibaydi, the building of which has been referred to,[170] was fortified and occupied by British troops. Those old enemies of the writer who had prophesied that "if that house is built we shall see British troops in it before our beards are grey," were so delighted at the fulfilment of their prophecy, and at the local kudos that it brought them, that they entirely forgot their ill-feeling against the Englishman who had caused it, and greeted him on a visit as a long-lost friend![171]

Men on the spot now held that the Assyrian problem could be solved at once; the nation could be settled in the area that they had helped to clear and conquer, where they would be an admirable frontier guard for the future state of Irak. Suggestions to this effect were sent home, but no answer was returned. Those in authority could neither allow the men on the spot to act for themselves, nor could they produce any other plan. It was not that they objected (that would at least have been positive action of a sort), but they neither could, nor would, say or do anything; and so time passed until local circumstances (notably the impossibility of keeping British troops dangling in the hills till folk in comfortable offices at home had made up what they pleased to call their minds) made a withdrawal inevitable, and a promising scheme impossible.

By a very unfortunate decision the Assyrian contingent was disbanded shortly after this, owing to some breaches of discipline in the corps. Men who were at least being kept from idleness were thus returned to Baqubah, where a policy of pauperising was sapping all the morale of the nation; and where Assyrian and British, tied up together under uncomfortable conditions for too long, were rapidly getting on one another's nerves, and each showing the other their worst side! About the same time, too, the nation was deprived of its titular leader by the death of Polus Mar Shimun, their patriarch. Tuberculosis brought on by hardship had become worse in the dust-laden air of Baqubah, and a removal to the purer air of Sheikh Mattai[172] by Mosul had been too late to stop the disease. A flicker of improvement at the last had encouraged him as is so often the case, and he returned to his own people, but only to die. Meantime Authority, both in Mesopotamia and England, was getting very anxious to be rid of the Assyrians--as is frequently the case, when a man knows that he has neglected a good opportunity of getting a thing done. And it was at this juncture, when the nation had no titular head and all were anxious to be rid of an incubus, that Agha Petros came forward with a new scheme. Somewhat to the north of the area occupied by the British was a stretch of relatively fertile land, extending from the plain of Gawar to the town of Ushnu, which had once been largely Christian and was now practically derelict. To the east it stretched nearly to the Urmi plain; on the west it bordered on the Hakkiari mountains. Petros proposed to lead up the whole nation, duly armed, and to occupy this "Gawar-Ushnu" area. There they would be in a state of practical independence under his rule, and those Urmi folk who wished to return to their own homes could do so, while Hakkiari would be open to the mountaineers. The fighting men could go up first and take seizin[AA?] of the land, and the women and non-combatants could follow after a little.

The scheme was not impossible, provided that the people had enough of cohesion to unite on any scheme at all, and Petros enough of the statesman in him to enable him to execute any. If feasible, it certainly had the merit of providing an Anglophile buffer state just where one was most wanted; and as such, and as offering some means of getting the refugees off the shoulders of the British taxpayer, it was accepted by the Mesopotamian authorities, and urged with more or less of authority on the nation at large. Under this pressure, the bulk of the nation accepted it; though it is to be feared that one of its merits in their eyes was its indefiniteness, and the fact that it could be interpreted by everybody in his own sense. An Assyrian state with a measure (undefined) of British protection was what everyone wanted; but everyone also assumed that the area of the supposed state would include his own old home. And it is to be feared that Petros Agha[173] got a large measure of his support by promises to the effect that everybody should have just what he wanted, if only he was willing to come up with his true national leader to get it!

Even so the Patriarchal House, and certain sections of the mountaineers as well, rejected the scheme, owing to their rooted distrust of Petros and all his works. This, however, was disregarded. The "House," left leaderless by the death of the Patriarch, and by the fact that Surma Khanim (possessor of the best brain in it) had gone to England to put the case of her nation before the Government[174] was just then at a discount in the nation and had left the camp for Mosul. It was therefore ignored. It was assumed that the recalcitrant sections would follow with the rest when they found themselves alone; and so preparations were made for the breaking-up of the Baqubah camp, and the transfer of its inmates to Mindan (north-east of Mosul), which could be the base of the new move.

Assyrian ill-luck, however, dogged the scheme throughout. Time was of the essence of the plan, if several thousand people had to be got up to a high tableland, and there to provide food and shelter for themselves before the winter set in, and one cause of delay after another supervened. There was a change in the central authority first, for Sir Arnold Wilson, acting Chief Commissioner, was not only removed from office, but practically dismissed from the service of the King. Politicians at home found it convenient to make the good man on the spot the scapegoat for the fact that the policy they had approved was more expensive than they had anticipated, and were full of virtuous indignation because he did not effect in Mesopotamia the drastic economies which they could not themselves enforce in England. A new Chief Commissioner (Sir Percy Cox) was soon in the field; but the change implied delay, and the new man had not (owing perhaps to his home instructions) that power of giving a quick decision on a question which had been one of the strong points of his predecessor. Sir Percy, however, approved the general lines of the policy laid down, and the move to Mindan was in full swing when the Arab rising of 1920 put a stop to all action. All fighting men and all transport were imperatively needed elsewhere, and the Assyrian problem had to wait.

The story of the rising itself does not concern us, though the fighting men of the Assyrians were actively engaged in it in support of the Government. Men began to ask what new form of lunacy had possessed those in authority, that they had disbanded an existing force composed of such good material, and so absolutely trustworthy. It is true that some of the fighting was pure self-defence, for the Baqubah camp was left to look after itself, in the assurance that Assyrians could do so, but in forgetfulness of the fact that they had been disarmed! For some time the place was in real peril, particularly when a train loaded with rifles and ammunition for its defence was derailed some miles from camp.

The force raised in the camp, however, though then armed with a "scratch" armament, rescued the train and its contents,[175] and from that time forward the camp was in a state of safety. Skirmishes took place near it, and after one of these the combatants boasted to their British officer of the number of Arabs whom they had accounted for. "Oh, rubbish!" said the officer. "I know how many bullets go astray, and you need not tell me you hit as many as that." The disgusted mountaineers said nothing; but after the next action laid out before a rather horrified Englishman a large number of human ears--right ears all of them. "Look here, sahib! You can't say we didn't hit those fellows, anyhow!" Those who already had been transported to Mindan, though outside the real area of the rising, were not entirely deprived of their share of the fun. A disorderly tribe of Kurds, the Surchi, thought that so good an opportunity of making trouble ought not to be missed, and undertook a raid in the Akra district. The Assyrians had the satisfaction of sweeping the raiders into the Zab, and of thus restoring order in that corner of the world.

While this was being done, steps had been taken in Baqubah camp which tended to split up an already divided nation still further. Polus Mar Shimun, the Patriarch, had died as stated, and the larger half of the nation had been removed, under the leadership of Petros Agha, to Mindan. Those who remained took that opportunity of electing and consecrating Ishai, son of David d'Mar Shimun and nephew of Polus and Benyamin, to the Patriarchate--the new prelate being a child of twelve years old! It is true that, according to the old "_natar cursiya_ system"[176] this lad was the lawful heir of his departed uncle; but even so the election, according to that very tribal custom to which they were appealing, was an affair for the whole nation, and not of a minority in it. The electing party looked on themselves as the "faithful remnant," who remained loyal to the old head of the tribes when the bulk of them had gone off after a new leader who was not of the Sacred House; and also urged, not too consistently, that the "Mindan seceders" had, in fact, knowledge of the proceeding, and made no objection to it. In spite of this defence, the step was a disastrous and improper one; a decision that, in the opinion of the wiser of the party responsible, would not have been taken "had Surma _Khanim_ been here."[177] It divided the nation when union was the one necessity, and degraded the Patriarch into a mere party leader; while at the same time it gave a fresh lease of life to just those ancient anomalies (such as the hereditary Patriarchate and the temporal power of the holder of that office) which men of experience saw had outlived their usefulness, and for which they were seeking to provide a decent euthanasia. However, the thing was done and could not be undone, though the British Director of Repatriation marked his disapproval of a step which he did not feel entitled to forbid, by giving an order that no British officer was to attend the consecration ceremony.

The Arab rising flickered out in due course, but the summer had passed before the rising did; and when the question of the Assyrian settlement came up again, those who knew the country shook their heads over the prospect of moving masses of population at such a season of the year. October had begun--the month that sees the first snows on the hills--and there were signs of an early winter. Warnings to that effect, however, were disregarded, and the Assyrian force that was to go up and clear the ground under Petros Agha was concentrated at Akra.[178] and made ready for its march. It numbered about 5,000 men--mountaineers and Urmi men combined--and made an impressive show under a multitude of cross-bearing banners. High titles abounded, for Petros as Commander-in-Chief was at least liberal in this direction. A "Field-Marshal" served under him, sporting crossed batons on his khaki-clad shoulders, with Generals, Brigadier-Generals, and Colonels by the score. But if titles were plenty, experience was far to seek; and considering what a tremendous risk was being run in sending up the force at all, at so late a date as the end of October, there was a marvellous casualness shown about the whole affair. Those in authority seemed to be only anxious to be rid of the people and the problem together, and to act on the assumption that if once they could be got over the boundary all would go well, or that at least the British Government would not be concerned if it did not. Good rifles were provided, with ammunition, some mountain-guns, and plenty of mules for transport. There was also a big dump of provisions, and medical stores in abundance; but when the Assyrians wanted to leave these behind, those who were there to protect these wild people from their own folly and ignorance allowed them to do so; and the force moved off with not so much as a bandage, with provisions for a short seven days, and no means of securing a regular supply after that. In fact, these people who were in theory to go up to a land, occupy and colonise it, and maintain themselves there for a winter, were allowed to go off with the equipment of a raid and nothing else!

The British officers who were to accompany the force "in a purely advisory capacity" (three British Lieutenants, to wit) made some representations, urging in particular the provision of proper pack-saddles for the mountain-guns sent with the force. They were told the guns could go on their own carriages, as it would be a stiff pull over Akra Dagh, but plain sailing after that! A man who can stand at Akra, and think that the rugged ridge behind that town is the only obstacle between him and Gawar Plain, has the strangest ideas of the land he is sending his subordinates into!

No doubt Petros was to blame. An Assyrian who wants to get to a place will tell you that the road is easy, with the gayest defiance of facts; and men who will go off with a small raiding party, with no equipment save rifles and the clothes they wear, have not the least notion that "an army cannot charge in and out again like a troop of hussars." Those who directed this "Repatriation" were supposed to know something of that most difficult of problems, land transport in country where no mechanical means are available; but they did not force the Assyrians to benefit by their knowledge.

The frontier was crossed; the Zab, swollen by recent rain, was crossed also, though with some difficulty in the face of opposition from the local Kurds, of the Barzan and Zibar tribes. These were swept aside, however, though in the action Petros rather amused the British officers by the fact that he would persist in firing his few guns at the mountain landscape at large. "Hadn't you better wait till you have a target of some sort to fire at?" they urged. "You won't hurt the rocks, even if that is your object." "The noise will impress the Kurds," said Petros, and went on wasting his small supply of artillery cartridges. Barzan village was stormed and burned, the only remarkable piece of loot secured therein being a copy of the Book of Common Prayer. It bore the stamp of a Canadian parish--"St. Luke, North Battleford, Saskatchewan. _Not to be taken away._" Had the little book been able to speak, it might have told of strange adventures.

All this took time, however, and provisions began to fail. While the rations lasted, there had been little looting, if any; but when men are hungry it takes better discipline than that of such a force as this to keep them to their ranks and duty. Also, day after day of pitiless cold rain (such as is common in late autumn in this land) began to tell on the health and spirits of the Urmi plainsmen, who were quite unused to such conditions of travel as these. Many broke down altogether, more than 100 died on the way--the mortality among the animals being also very heavy--while hundreds abandoned rifles and gear, and turned back to the refuge of the British once more. The subsequent comment of the British officers on this proceeding was terse and forcible. Stripped of some rather unquotable verbiage, it amounts to the statement that a Tyari man may be as big a thief as heaven ever made, but at least he will leave his head before his rifle! In fact, one of the two wings into which the force was divided, that composed of Urmi men, had lost all spirit and "go" before they were half-way through the mountains. Had they had to face an enemy of any enterprise, they would have been like sheep before the butcher.

At this moment news came from the mountaineers of Tyari and Tkhuma which, though different enough in character from that current among the plainsmen, was at least equally fatal as far as the success of the expedition was concerned. These clansmen formed the left, or western, of the two columns of advance, and when the defeated Zibari Kurds retired in the westerly direction, they had pursued them till they had lost touch with their Urmi companions. Now they were in their own mountains, free from all control, and well armed; their faces were toward their own homes, and also toward the homes of their hereditary enemies.

What did they care for Urmi men and the settlement of Persia, when balanced against such a chance of loot and vengeance? Off they went on the raid, seeing in every Kurd a foe, in every village lawful prize. Nerwa and Rikan were turned out and burned, Tyari men being quite reckless of the fact that in all Kurdistan none had been so orderly and so loyal to the British as the men of these two districts! Word had gone to the Agha of Chal that he was to cut off the retreat of the fleeing Zibaris, and he had come out, more or less as an ally of the Assyrians, to do so. Either from deliberate treachery, or merely from the indiscipline natural in such a force, troops of the Tyari and Tkhuma men got round his flank and into his villages, and Chal also went up in flame and smoke. A glance at the map will show that their wild career had now brought them again to the Zab, and to the district of Berwar. Mira Reshid,[179] the biggest brigand in the district, now held this land as representing British Authority (having undergone, we hope, a change of soul like Petros Agha); and he now gathered his forces and held the bridges over the Zab in the name of King George, while a most naturally indignant British Political officer was hurrying up from Dohuk with such police as he could gather. The mountaineers' wild career was now stayed, and like schoolboys who have broken bounds, anticipatory of dire consequences, but yet feeling that the "rag" had been worth it, they obeyed the angry master's orders, and returned to the plains and British authority. The Urmi men, feeling that they could do nothing by themselves, had also drifted back; and Petros Agha himself, having entirely lost his army, found that he and his "personal staff" could do nothing but follow their example. He reported on arrival that he had not been able to do what he intended, but he was sure that the Government would be pleased, "because the moral effect upon the Kurds was so extremely good!"[180]

As it happened Government was anything but pleased; the whole expedition had failed, the money spent on it was wasted, the problem that they had hoped solved was still on their hands, and the Kurds, whom it was most important just then to keep quiet and contented, were all in a state of entirely justifiable suspicion and wrath. How could they be expected to believe that this was not what Government had intended? Those responsible for the arrangements that had broken down so utterly were, of course, furious, and planned condign punishment for the guilty hillmen; but these were vetoed by the Political authorities, who perhaps felt that, whatever the guilt of the men of Tyari, the blame did not lie entirely with them! The camp at Mindan was reorganised and set going once more, and harassed authority set itself to consider what could be done with a problem difficult enough before, and now tangled worse than ever. One thing only was clear, that in any case it was hopeless to attempt anything till spring; and so refugees and British, each extremely cross with the other, settled down for the winter in camp at Mindan, with nothing settled but the extreme difficulty of a settlement!

Government fell back on a scheme of "settlement by infiltration," or putting the people on the sites of villages that had "gone vacant" in time past, either through the war, or by virtue of the general decline of population during the later years of the Ottoman Empire. It was, of course, not the "enclave" that had once been planned for them and which they had been given the opportunity of securing, nor was it "their own country" for most of them, and they did not at all like the notion of being put where they could go, with Moslem neighbours and sometimes Moslem landlords.

Their behaviour towards these was not, it must be owned, altogether conciliatory. There were cases of villagers put under a particularly good landlord (and a good Moslem gentleman _is_ a gentleman), who accepted large advances from him on condition of promising to reap his crops at a certain wage-rate in harvest, and then (with true up-to-date spirit) struck for a large advance at the last moment! Even then the landlord was not anxious to take steps. It was, he said, a point of honour with him: he had never put any tenant, of any religion, in the law courts yet.

"Neither shall you now, Agha," said the local Political officer; "but the Government has its honour, too, and these fellows shall carry out a contract to which the Government was a party."

In another case, too, one had to admit that the Christians were asking for trouble. It is not neighbourly to kill a pig, cut him up, and put the _disjecta membra_ of him in and about the only spring from which your Mussulman neighbours have to draw their water!

Delay followed delay, it seeming to be the policy of the Government to keep those who were getting on one another's nerves tied together in idleness. Home authority said that it would give a "block grant" of £500,000 to settle the whole Assyrian problem, but would not allow those on the spot to get to work at the plan they had prepared, being apparently under the impression that when you are settling people "on the land" they can begin farming operations on it at any season. "I am willing to tackle Joshua's job," said a harassed official, "and try to settle these tribes in a promised land of sorts. Still, unlike Joshua, I cannot stop the sun, and the summer is advancing now!"

At last permission was received, and preparations commenced for the movement of the people, tribe by tribe, to villages on and about the northern border of Irak. The fact that the border was still undefined, and the only thing clear to everyone on the spot was that the line suggested by the unratified Treaty of Sèvres was unworkable, added yet another element of confusion to the problem. One person who was doing his efficient best to "queer the whole show" was Petros Agha. When inquiry was made into the fiasco of November, 1920, that worthy had got off at least as cheaply as he deserved, being acquitted of anything worse than incompetence and gross mismanagement. There was nothing to show that he intended Tyari and Tkhuma to go off and raid as they did, when he assigned to them just that part of his line from which it was easiest to do so! Thus, he had not been put into prison with others, and was using his freedom to intrigue against any plan of settling his people which was not under his control.

His dream now (and how far the man believes in his own dreams is a problem beyond our solving) was of an "independent Assyria," a thin strip that should stretch between Turkish and Irak territory, from Urmi in Persia to Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, the whole to be under French protection! This he put forward at the moment when the French were deciding that even Cilicia was beyond their power to hold; and he perpetually urged all of his nation to have nothing to do with any British schemes for their disposal, for was not he, Petros Agha, just coming back with boundless supplies of French rifles and French napoleons, to lead them back in triumph to their own land once more? That at least was the song sung by his agents in Mindan camp in his name, and no suggestion as to the desirability of shepherding the man out of the country met with any response. In particular, his influence was thrown against the most hopeful element in the Government scheme--viz., the reconstitution of the Assyrian contingent. The attempt to raise an Arab force in Mesopotamia was not looking too promising just then, and military men were proposing to collect afresh the force that they had so unfortunately thrown away before, and to use the best fighting element in Irak in the defence of the land. It was to be as numerous a force as the nation could raise, and to be officered by British officers.[181] Petros passed the word round (or his agents in camp did it for him), that no man who regarded Petros as his leader must enlist, and Government would not allow those charged with recruiting for the force to stop this counter-Government propaganda! It says something for the possibilities of using this nationality in the one way it can be really of use, that under these circumstances some 600 men were enrolled. On the final removal of Petros (see below) this number went up at once to over 2,000. It was only British advice, given for the sake of the people, that fixed that limit.

However, the wheels continued to revolve, if slowly, and with a vast amount of creaking and of worry to political officers who had the work of settling some 10,000 recalcitrant people. This trifling job was thrown in as a sort of additional faggot on the top of an already heavy load! Arrangements were come to with the Kurds of Berwar for the return of the Christians to that district, and to that of Ashitha beyond it, it being held that if that country was perhaps not strictly in Irak, at least it had never been efficiently in Turkey! The local Kurds, indeed, behaved quite unexpectedly well, seeming to regard the presence of their old Christian neighbours as a part of the established disorder of things, which had a sort of vested right to be restored. One was reminded of certain married couples who lead a "cat and dog life" in one another's society, but who yet both crave for the accustomed irritation if ever it is withdrawn! They recognised the right of the returning Christians to their old lands and villages, and even to a half of the crops that were in the ground, in places where the land was being cultivated by Kurds after the Christians had left it. Sometimes there were difficulties to settle, but surprisingly seldom.

In one case, some nomad Kurds who owed no allegiance to anybody had developed ambitions to try a more settled life, and had sat them down in a little group of villages known as the Halamun district, far away from anywhere. These fellows showed no eagerness to clear out and let the lawful owners return. It took a visit from the assistant Political Officer and a long argument to put matters straight here, and matters at one time got so strained that the Kurds began debating whether it would not be better to kill the English intruder there and then. This matter was solved by the A.P.O. (who quite understood the matter under debate) coolly going to bed, and to sleep, in the midst of them, and so leaving them to talk the interesting problem over. When he woke up in the morning the Kurds were ready with a compromise. They would turn out of three of the four villages under debate, but wanted to retain one. This was agreed to. So matters went on. A pass through a seemingly impassable range is always found as you approach it. Caravan after caravan of tribesmen (each caravan perhaps 1,000 strong) was moved in turn from Mindan camp and up to the distributing centre at Dohuk, whence they could be forwarded, after considerable grumbling, to the destination which was marked out for them. Every man, woman, and child received the Government grant of 120 rupees at Dohuk, and sometimes there were unforeseen claimants. One lady walked in triumphant with a baby that had not been there when she left Mindan two days before. She had simply gone aside from the caravan as it travelled, produced this infant, and then put it on the top of the bundle she was carrying, and so finished the day's journey! She wanted the Government to make the usual "capitation grant" to this new arrival. Strictly, he (or she) was not entitled to it, as not having been on the roll at the time of the departure from Mindan! Still, a point was stretched in this case.

The tribesmen were, of course, armed for self-defence, receiving a quota of rifles; and a very delicate business it was, in the light of recent events, to determine the proportion of guns that would enable them to defend themselves, and at the same time not tempt them to go a-raiding against their neighbours! This danger was a real one, as may be seen from the request of one Tabriz, an Amazonian lady who had led her own retainers in person through all the fighting, and who now specially demanded two rifles for herself. "Why two, Tabriz?" "One to kill the Turkish Agha of Chal, and the other to kill the man who killed my brother, and who is now in your gendarmerie!"

In spite of such grateful flashes of humour the business was a weary one, hearing the same sort of grumbles from an endless succession of people over and over again, and trying to get them to see that, when they could not get what they would like, it was better to take what they could get! One thought with profound admiration of Moses. We had not 1 per cent of the mass of people whom he had to manage for forty years; and yet--so far as is recorded--he only lost his temper once, and then only hit out at the rock instead of his tormentors! Would that we could say as much.

Ultimately, the thing got done somehow, and the people put where, given honest work and fair luck, they had at least a chance of living. The writer, as a reward for his small share in the work, found himself identified, not with Moses or Joshua, but with a much humbler Scriptural character. A flippant friend declared that he had always wanted to make the acquaintance of "that Egyptian" (Acts xxi. 38) "who made an uproar, and led out into the wilderness 4,000 men that were murderers," and now at last he had done so! The final stage of the work consisted in the settlement of the Patriarchal family in the "English Mission House" at Bibaydi (the property of the Archbishop of Canterbury), which was repaired and made ready for their reception. During the later stages of the _volks-wanderung_, they had remained rather in the background, seeming to acquiesce in a rather unfortunate manner in their own supersession by Petros Agha and his partisans. It was, therefore, a satisfaction to see them settled in a place where they could resume their proper work for their people; and where the old loyalty has a chance of crystallising afresh, though perhaps in a new form, round the ancient ecclesiastical throne they represent. The ultimate removal of Petros Agha[182] from the land, and the arrangement of working understandings with the local Kurds, both help in the same direction, and the boy-patriarch shows signs (under the influence of his aunt and guardian) of developing on sound lines. Indications that the human boy in him is not entirely swamped by his office (the fact that the Patriarch has been known to snowball official callers suggests joyous visions of what might be at episcopal palaces in England) will probably be thought, at least by English folk, absolutely healthy symptoms!

The mountaineers were thus settled in a place where they could live, even if they had to fight famine, local diseases, and domestic foes, and their settlement provides a centre to which scattered refugees may rally. With the Urmi sections, however, it is a different case. It was simply impossible for British authority to guarantee protection to these folk if they returned to their old home in Persia, and equally impossible for the Persian "Government" to protect them when there.

The only effective authority in the Urmi district is the ruffian Simco, and the feeling against the return of the expelled Christians is far more pronounced in Persia than in Kurdistan. In Kurdistan the war was simply a large instance of the feuds that had always been fought out in the land since time began. In Persia it was an unprecedented, and largely successful, rising of an inferior and subject race! This is a thing far harder to forgive. Thus, in Kurdistan the Kurds were ready to clear out of "Christian lands" that they had actually occupied and tilled; in Persia, the Mussulmans were ploughing the Assyrian village sites, and building houses on the vineyards, in their readiness to face any loss and labour, if only all trace of the Christians could be obliterated.

The British authorities declared that they could not repatriate men of Urmi. Every individual would receive a "capitation grant" similar to that given to others, and every family would be given lands, in Irak, if they would accept them. If they returned to Persia, it must be as individual Persian subjects at their own risk. It was a hard saying, but one does not see what else they could possibly say.

Even so, the drawing force of their own land was too strong to be resisted in many cases. "The earth that bore us lies lightest on our bones," and some thousands of Urmi people (there were some 10,000 of them in all) sought to return to their own land. Many settled in Mesopotamian towns, and found work there, but hardly any accepted the lands in Irak that the Government would give. Nothing is harder than helping folk! At first there were difficulties about the reception of even individuals at the frontier, but this was overcome, and several thousand returning refugees drifted to centres like Hamadan and Tabriz (where others of their co-nationals had preceded them), there to wait and live as they could, till fate should open a way for them to return to their own. One must admit with deep regret that, for these people, the result of joining the Entente in the war has been the utter extinction of a community of Christians who trace back their life to the Magi who came to worship at the manger of Bethlehem. Even the life of their mountain brethren is not assured. If war, famine, and disease shall spare them, and if a British democracy that fought the war to secure the safety of small nations shall not make peace at the price of handing over a small allied nation to its avowed and bitter enemy, then it may, perhaps, be allowed the chance of doing what it desires to do, and of continuing to serve England in the only way in which it can render service. But that matter is not settled at the date of writing.

The Assyrian settlement then has been, like the Mesopotamian settlement of which it is a part--like the whole Peace for that matter--a "botched job." A piece of work that might have been finely done has, in fact, been just patched up to go on somehow: because the Democracy that was going to make the world safe is too tired to finish its work; and because it was unwilling or unable to make up its mind as to what it wanted at all.

The spectacle is a pitiable one, only redeemed by the magnificent work done in Mesopotamia by the officers who now seem likely to meet the usual reward of those who serve the British Government well!

Turkey in 1918 was willing to accept absolutely any terms that Britain laid down, with thanks to Allah that they were not more severe. "We don't even care who governs us now," said a Turk of position to the writer (then a prisoner in Turkish hands in Anatolia). "No conceivable Government can be as bad as our own, and we only hope that the British will take us over." Then, because our "statesmen" did not know what they wanted, came delay, delay, delay: till the Turk could gather his forces again, and show himself, as usual, a good fighter, but uncivilised and uncivilisable; absolutely incapable of recognising that a _rayah_ has or can have rights, and equally incapable of seeing anything wrong in his habit of dealing with even the suspicion of "treason" by massacring every man and ravishing every woman! There may have been some excuse for maintaining him in Europe before the war, when to abolish him meant the outbreak of one. Now, after it, he has been maintained to be the seed of future trouble, by statesmen who proclaimed the "war to abolish war"; and on their heads rests the guilt of the future massacres that will surely arise after the gigantic lesson they have given to the world that massacres can be committed with impunity, if only they are big and horrible enough!

The war was "to make the world safe for Democracy." Has Democracy shown itself capable of dealing with the world? Its weaknesses are, first, that it cannot trust its agents. No race on earth has such administrators as the British; and the writer, who has been privileged to live with some of them and see their working, only hopes some day to be able to tell the story of what he has seen, that England may have at least the chance of knowing what manner of men they are who serve her in despised Mesopotamia. Yet, because one man in a hundred may show himself no true sahib, and may fall under temptations that he has never been trained to bear, Democracy at home hampers the ninety-nine good men for that reason; and will not allow the man on the spot, who knows, to act on his own judgment in crises, without delaying reference to those who neither know nor can know.

Second, Democracy, as represented by its leaders at home, gives pledges lightly, and abandons them. "Its vows are lightly spoken; its faith is hard to bind." In the East, decision and firmness come first. A governor who has these will always be respected, even if he be cruel as no Englishman can be. Let him be just as well, and he is worshipped. But how can he be firm and decisive when those at home will not let him act for himself, and send him ever-varying orders from Downing Street?

It is this conduct in the British Government; this failure, not in the men on the spot, but in those at home, that calls out all the worst qualities in Turk and Arab, Armenian and Assyrian. Few people know better than the writer how annoying those latter types can be, but they can respect and serve a Government that knows its own mind. It is because of this evil spirit that we have ourselves evoked that some now clamour for the complete evacuation of Mesopotamia.

This is a claim to which in honour we cannot yield. Even apart from the guardianship that we have definitely accepted under treaty, we have contracted a moral obligation that it is impossible for us to disown. We did not make war on the inhabitants of Mesopotamia; we came to free them from the domination of the Turk. Having so freed them, we cannot honourably leave them till fresh authority has arisen to control the disorderly elements that swarm in every quarter of that land. That was our pledge to those who have stood by us through good and ill.

We have cast out one unclean spirit; now, if we leave the house empty, seven other spirits more wicked than the Turk will enter in, and the last state of Mesopotamia will be worse than the first.

_Printed by_ LOWE & BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LTD., _London, N.W. 1_.

GLOSSARY

=Abba.= An Arab cloak. See p. 9.

=Agha.= "Master." The title of a petty chieftain, chiefly in use among the Kurds.

=Araba.= A light carriage. See p. 6. The driver is an =Arabaji=.

=Ashiret.= "Feudatory." See p. 167.

=Baita= (or Bait). A living room (Syriac).

=Beg= (or Bey). Perhaps equivalent to "Honourable." A title given to Europeans as well as to local chiefs.

=Belai.= Perhaps equivalent to Belvedere. See p. 142.

=Binbashi.= Lit. the commander of 1000 men. A "Major" (Turkish), often written Bimbashi, for euphony.

=Birader.= "Brother" (Kurdish).

=Cadi.= "Judge" or "Magistrate."

=Capitulations.= The charters defining the privileges of foreign residents in Turkey. Originally granted by the Sultans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and confirmed in their present form in 1870.

=Chôl.= The desert. See p. 61.

=Dagh.= "Mountain" (Turkish).

=Deir.= "Monastery" (Syriac).

=Diwan.= Lit. "Sofa" or "Däis"; hence an "Audience" or "Reception." =Diwan Khana=, "A Reception Room."

=Effendi.= "Sir." A title given especially to Europeans.

=Fedai.= An Armenian terrorist. See p. 245.

=Firman.= An Imperial rescript.

=Franga.= "Frank"; i.e. European.

=Giaour.= An "Infidel"; i.e. one who is not a Moslem.

=Haj.= The obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca, which is incumbent upon all strict Moslems. =Haji=, one who has performed the pilgrimage. Shiahs go also on "Haj" to the tomb of Hossein at Kerbela.

=Hakim.= A physician.

=Hamidié.= The battalions of irregular soldiers embodied by Abdul Hamid II.

=Hegira.= The flight of Mohammed from Mecca in 622 A.D.

=Imaum.= Properly one who leads the Responses in the public services in the Mosques. A Moslem divine, learned in the =Sheriat= or Sacred Law.

=Iyba.= "Shame"; "Infra dig."

=Jebel.= "Mountain" (Arabic).

=Jehad.= A "Holy War," undertaken for the defence of Islam against unbelievers.

=Kaimakam.= A Turkish district governor of the third rank, inferior to a =Vali= and a =Mutaserif=. =Kaimakamlik=, the district governed by a =Kaimakam=.

=Kala.= "Castle."

=Kalima.= The Moslem Confession of Faith.

=Katar.= "Mule." =Katarji.= A "Muleteer."

=Kavass.= An armed attendant, usually attached to a foreign Consulate.

=Keleg.= A raft buoyed on inflated skins. See pp. 137 and 340. =Kelegji=, the man who works it.

=Khan.= An "Inn" (Turkish). =Khanji=, an "Inn-keeper."

=Khan.= "Chief" (Persian). A title of respect.

=Malik.= "Chief" (Syriac). Akin to =Melek=, "King." A title in use among the Mountain Syrians as about equivalent to =Agha= among the Kurds.

=Mar.= "Lord." Fem. =Mart.= (Syriac). A title given by the Syrians to the Saints and Bishops of their Church.

=Mejidié.= A Turkish silver coin of the value of twenty =piastres=. Equivalent at present rates to about 3s. 9d.

=Millet.= Any subject religious sect officially recognized as existing in the Ottoman Empire. See pp. 80 and 89.

=Mira.= "Ruler." A form of =Amir= or =Emir= (Arabic). A title given to the Chief of the Yezidis, and to certain prominent Chiefs among the Kurds.

=Mohurram.= The ten days' mourning observed by the Shiah Moslems in memory of Hassan and Hosein, the sons of Ali: particularly in memory of the latter, slain by his rival Yezid at Kerbela in 680.

=Mollah.= A Moslem priest.

=Mudir.= A Turkish local governor of the fourth and lowest rank; inferior to a =Vali=, a =Mutaserif=, and a =Kaimakam=.

=Mutaserif.= A Turkish provincial governor of the second rank; inferior to a =Vali.=

=Piastre.= A Turkish coin, worth about 2-1/4d.

=Pshitta.= The ancient Syriac version of the Holy Scriptures.

=Qasha.= A Christian priest (Syriac).

=Rabban.= Fem. =Rabbanta= (Syriac). A Christian who has adopted certain Monastic obligations. See pp. 113 and 270.

=Rabbi.= "Teacher" (Syriac). The title usually given by the Syrians to the members of the Archbishop's Assyrian Mission.

=Rais.= The head man of a village.

=Ramazan.= The great Moslem Fast, lasting one lunar month; during which time no food may be taken from sunrise to sunset.

=Rayat.= "Subject" or "Serf"; see p. 167.

=Regie.= An inter-national trading company, which rents the tobacco monopoly from the Ottoman Government.

=Sam.= The "Poison Wind" of the desert. See pp. 62 and 339.

=Santon.= A Moslem saint.

=Serai.= Strictly a "yard" or "quadrangle"; hence a house which is built around a quadrangle: often "Government House."

=Seyyid.= A descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.

=Shamasha.= A Christian deacon (Syriac).

=Sheikh.= Lit. "Elder." A title given especially to Moslem chiefs possessing high religious authority.

=Sheriat.= The "Sacred Law," as enunciated in the Koran.

=Shiah.= An important sect among the Moslems, dominant in Persia and India, who maintain that Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, was his legitimate and hereditary successor, and who accordingly repudiate the authority of Ali's three predecessors in the Khalifate, Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman.

=Sufi.= A Moslem mystic of somewhat pantheistic sympathies.

=Sunni.= The Orthodox Moslems, dominant in Turkey, who regard Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman as being legitimate Khalifs and assign them precedence over Ali.

=Tashnak.= The Armenian Revolutionary Society. See p. 245.

=Tel.= A prehistoric barrow or tumulus.

=Vali.= A Provincial Governor-General. A Turkish governor of the highest rank.

=Vilayet.= The province under the jurisdiction of a =Vali=.

=Yezidi.= See chap. iv, pp. 87-110.

=Zaptieh.= A policeman of the Turkish constabulary. See p. 47.

=Ziaret.= A Moslem place of pilgrimage; usually the tomb of a saint.

INDEX

A

Abbassides, Khalifs at Baghdad, 4, 115-6 _n._, 349; their last living descendant, 132

Abdi Agha (of the Sindiguli Kurds), his stronghold at Tanina, 311-2; his "hint" to the men of Amadia, 325-6

Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey, incidents of his rule, 37, 38; arms the Kurds as _Hamidié_ irregulars, 168; countenances the Armenian Massacres, 232, 292; his deposition deplored in Mosul, 79; his reverence for Sheikh Abd-l-Kadr of Kirkuk, 343; his endorsement of Ali's _Firman_ at Adeljivas, 243; _lèse-majesté_ in the expression, H_{2}O., 226

Abdurrahman the Kurd, his robbery of our messenger, 331; his imprisonment and release, 331-3

Abgarus, King of Osroëne, legend of, 18-9

Ablahad the Deacon, his exploits and death, 192-4

Abraham the Patriarch, claimed as tutelary saint of Urfa, 22-3; teaches his descendants to offer sacrifices, 187

Adeljivas, the Armenian priest of, and his hereditary privilege, 242-3

Akra, 128-33; 401-2

Aleppo, 1-7; origin of name, 22 _n._

Alexander the Great, his victory at Arbela, 115; his design to fix his capital at Babylon, 356-7; his theatre there, _ib._

Ali (the fourth Khalif), his _Firman_ to the family of the Armenian priest at Adeljivas, 242-3

Ali Beg (Mira of the Yezidis), 93; his castle, 106-7; his authority over his followers, 107-8; murdered by his successor, 108-9

Ali Ihsan, Turkish General, 382-3

Ali Riza (_Vali_ of Van), interviewed by David, the Fedai informer, 252; his steps to suppress the Fedais, 252-7

Alkosh, 116-7

Amadia, 43-4, 321-33, 337; _Kai makam_ of, endeavours to expel us from Sapna, 324-5; our dealings with him concerning Abdurrahman the Kurd, 331-3

Amida, _see_ Diarbekr

Anastasius, Emperor, gives orders for the building of Daras, 49

Antioch, 5; seat of Patriarchate, 44-6

Arabs, costume of, 9-10; encampment of, 65-7; unruliness of, 65, 85-6, 99, 399-401

Aram, chief of the Fedais at Van, captured, 256-7; Amnestied, and let loose again, 258-9

Ararat, Aghri Dagh, 25, 335

Archbishop's Assyrian Mission, _see_ Preface; _also_, 153, 262, 271, 321

Armenians, their national characteristics, 237-9; their conquest by the Turks, 238; their condition under the Turks, 35-6, 239-45; their perverseness, 240-1; massacred in 1895 at Urfa, 17 _n._; also at Diarbekr, 34-6; and elsewhere, 244-5; escape their pursuers in the Chokh Mountains, 231-2; sheltered by Zohar Agha, 232; Their revolutionary organizations, 245-7; their outbreaks at Mush and Van in 1905, 247-51; their arsenals betrayed, 252-3; their murder of the informer, 254; their leaders captured, 255-7; and amnestied at the Revolution, 257; impracticability of their Programme of "Reform," 257-9; massacres in the Great War, 360, 363-4, 383, 385, 387-91; resistance of their fighting units, 378, 382

Assur, _see_ Kala Shergat

Assyrian Empire, 39, 122-4; its final fall, 83-4, 114; its conquest of Urmi, 200; of Urartu, 236-7; and of Babylon, 121, 352-3

Assyrian remains, at Nineveh, 69, 83-5, 114; at Bavian, 121-4; at Amadia, 320-1; at Kala Shergat, 343-6

Assyrians, the East Syrian Highlanders supposed to be descended from them, 112, 168; their share in the Great War, 359-387; under British protection at Baqubah, 392-400; difficulties of re-settlement, 400-415, _see also_ East Syrian Christians

Assyrian contingent, formation, 393-4; exploits, 394-5, 399-400; disbandment, 396; re-embodiment, 399; dissolution under Petros Agha, 404-5; re-constitution under Iraq government, 408

Avalanches, 285-6; escapes from, 278, 285-6; Armenian escape through, 231-2

B

Babylon, 350-7; destroyed by Sennacherib, 121, 352-3; rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, 352-4; chosen by Alexander the Great as the capital of his empire, 356-7

Babylonian charms, still in use, against the evil eye, etc., 329 _n._

Babylonian remains, at Samarra, 348-9; at Babylon, 350-7

Baghdad, 349-50

Baghdad Railway, progress of, at Aleppo, 1-2; at Mosul, 85; at Baghdad, 349-50

Bajan, Malik of Balulan, his exploits and death, 189

Baldwin I and II, Counts of Edessa in the Crusades, 20-1

Bar Soma, Bishop of Nisibis, founds the University of Nisibis, 58

Baqubah, formation of refugee camp, 386, 392, 396; attacked by revolted Arabs, 399-400

Barzan, the Sheikh of, 134-54; his country, 134-7; his "palace," 137-8; his fair treatment of his subjects, 138, 153-4, 312-3; devotion of his clansmen, 141, 143-5; his war with the Government, 139-41, 143-5; his reception of us at Suryi, 142-3; his quashing of Tettu's _Jehad_, 143-4; his request for medical assistance, 146-7; his "score" off the Heriki Kurds, 149-51; put to death by Turks, 369; storming of Barzan village, 403

Bashkala, 226-7, 231; postal arrangements at, 226-7

Bathing _al fresco_ in the mountain districts, 294-5

Bavian, Assyrian sculptures at, 121-4

Baz, 167, 303 _n._, 366, 370, 381

Bazaar, humours of, at Akra, 132-3; Persian, at Urmi, 196-7

Bedr Khan Beg, Mira of Bohtan, his massacres of the Syrian Christians in 1845, 37, 279, 338; banished to Candia, 37 _n._; reproved by his brother, 318

Bedr Khan Beg, grandson of last, suppressed by the Government, 37

Bedr Khan Beg, of the Begzadi Kurds, his dark and sunny sides, 190, 193-4

Begzadi Kurds, 189

Belisarius wins the battle of Daras, 52-3; his previous escape, 56

Berwar, 311, 319-20; Jewish village raided on Good Fridays by the Tyari Christians, 304; misdeeds of Mira Reshid, 311-16; in the Great War, 366, 369, 404; resettlement in, 409

Bibaydi, building of English Mission House, 321 _et seq._; its conversion into British military post, 395-6; selection as the seat of the Patriarchate, 411

Blood money, awarded in expiation for murder, 303

Blood offerings, practised by Abraham, 187; by the Yezidis at Sheikh Adi, 101, 104; by the Christians at Mar B'Ishu, 187-8; and at Mar Sergius and elsewhere, 205-6; by Moslems at the Feast of Bairam, 187; by all creeds at Noah's Altar on Judi Dagh, 335

Bohtan, _see_ Bedr Khan Beg, tale of the Christian Captive, 337-8

Bridges--at Shuster, said to have been built by the captive Emperor Valerian, 16; at Dara (Roman), 52 _n._; at Nisibis (Roman), 59; at Mosul, 82-3; near Suryi (the "Bridge of Rocks" erected by the Heriki Kurds), 149; in the mountain districts, 288; at Chumba, 296; at Lizan, held against the Kurdish raiders, 315

British Consul (from Van, 1909), affronted by Sheikh Musa of Neri, 165-6; attacked by escort in Gawar, 179-82; entertained by an ingenuous Agha between Urmi and Van, 228-9; (from Tabriz) at Urmi on the frontier commission, 219-20; hears of our murder, and arranges for our funeral, 225-6; (from Mosul) canvasses Abdi Agha in our interest, 325-6; visits us at Amadia, 326, 331; his interview with the Servian prophetess, 326; (from Van, 1902) attacked by Kurds in Sapna, 329-30

British Consulates--at Diarbekr, 40-1; at Mosul, 69-70, 75, 340; its establishment the cause of a mild religious riot, 79-80; at Van, a good point for seeing the fight between the Government troops and the Fedais, 253-4; at Baghdad, 350

British influence, a waning quantity, 40-1; exerted on behalf of the Yezidis, 107; to secure fair usage for the Sheikh of Barzan, 140; and on behalf of the East Syrian Christians, 272; a valuable factor for the prevention of oppression, 41, 263-4, 321, 324

British invasion of Mesopotamia, 379, 382-4, 386-7

Browne, the late Rev. W. H., incidents of his life at Qudshanis, 271-3; his perilous predicament in the hands of the men of Tkhuma, 299-300

C

Capital punishment, as carried out at Mosul, 77-9; as left in abeyance at Van, 244

Carchemish, 13

Cave monasteries, at Urfa, 18 _n._; at Dara, 54-5; at Rabban Hormizd, 117-20; at Bavian, 121; at Maragha, 185 _n._

Censorship of books in Turkey, 226

Census taking in the mountains, 174-5

Châl, raided by the Tyari men, 297-8; sacked by Assyrians, 377, 404

Châl, The Agha of: _mudir_, murderer, and Jew farmer, 317; joins coalition against Assyrians, 366; reconciled to British authority, 404; Tabriz' vendetta against him, 410

Chaldæan Christians (Uniat Nestorians), 80-1; in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd, 118-9; proposal to eliminate them in Tal, 303-4; their bishop in Sapna, his medæival methods of controversy, 321-3

Charrae, Crassus' defeat at, 16; Valerian's defeat at, _ib._; its identity with Abraham's Haran, 22 _n._

Chokh Dagh, the road across, 231; escape of Armenian fugitives in its gorges, 231-2

Chôl, the, 61-8

Cholera, at Urmi, 207

Chosroës I., king of the Sassanid Persians, his siege of Edessa, 31 _n._

Chosroës II., king of the Sassanid Persians, his capture of the "True Cross," 188; his defeat by the Emperor Heraclius at Nineveh, 115; his palace at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, 354

Churches--at Dara, in the Cave Monastery, 55; at Deir el Za'aferan, 44; at Erdil, Oramar, 154-5; at Rabat, Tal, rebuilt by the villagers, 302-3; at Rabban Hormizd, 119-20; at Shwawutha, 263, 274 _n._; at Urfa, scene of the Armenian massacre, 17; of Mar Abd' Ishu, Tal, 306-7; of Mar B'Ishu, Gawar, 185-8; of Mar Giwergis, Lizan, 315; of Mar Sergius, Urmi, 205-6; of Mar Shalitha, Qudshanis, 273-6; of Mar Zeia Jilu, 171-3; sack of, 370; of Mart Miriam, Urmi, 202; of Mart Miriam, Walto, 291; of St. James at Nisibin (fourth-century Roman), 59-61; of SS. Peter and Paul at Van, its property registered in the names of the patron saints, 241

Commandeering of our horses by Sheikh Musa at Neri, 165-6; of an English traveller's horses by soldiers at Diza of Gawar, 182-3

Constantius, Emperor, fortifies Amida, 30

Costume, of Arabs and Kurds, 9-10; of the upper official classes, 10; of the Yezidis, 92, 106-8; of Syrian and Kurdish mountaineers, 112-3, 143; of Syrian women, 152; of Persians at Urmi, 197; of Seyyids at Urmi, 209; in Mar Shimun's _Diwan_, 276

Cox, Sir Percy, Chief Commissioner of Mesopotamia, 399, 411 _n._

Crassus, defeated by the Parthians at Charrae, 16

Crusaders, employed as captives to build Aleppo citadel, 3; their capture and loss of Edessa, 20-1

Cyaxares, king of the Medes, captures Nineveh, 83

D

Dara, anciently Daras, the building of the city, 48-9; its ruins, 48-52; the battle, 52-3; the ancient quarries, 54-5

David d'Mar Shimun, his leadership during the war, 366, 377, 381; his escape at the murder of the Patriarch, 380; his son elected to the Patriarchate, 400

David, the Armenian informer, betrays the rebel arsenals at Van, 252-3; murdered, 254

Deir el Za'aferan, 44-6

Derceto, worshipped at Edessa, 23

Devil worship, _see_ Yezidis

Dhuspas, _see_ Van

Diarbekr, anciently Amida, its walls and monuments, 26-9; its siege by Sapor, II, 30-1; by Kobad, 31-3; and by Farzman, 33-4; massacre of the Armenians at, 34-5; British Consulate at, 40-1; massacres during the Great War, 389

Diz, the _Qasha_ and the looted cow, 291-2; during the war, 365, 372-4

Diza of Gawar, 179, 180-3, 185

Donkeys, regarded as _infra dig_ by the _Ashirets_, 288-9; their use on _Kelegs_, 348 _n._

E

East Syrian Christians (Nestorians), 80-1, 112, 118-9; origin and former importance of their church, 19, 264-5; its present condition, 150-3, 202-4, 265; their patriarch and hierarchy, 264-8, 112-3; their churches, rites and ceremonies, 185-8, 274-6; their constancy to their religion, 154, 177, 337-8

Eden, traditional site of, 26, 235, 264

Edessa, _see_ Urfa

Enver Pasha, invades Trans-Caucasia 361-2; his responsibility for Armenian massacres, 387, 391

Episcopate in the East Syrian Church, hereditary, 266-8

Erdil, 147-57

Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, 122, 353; his palace at Nineveh, Nebi Yunus, 84-5

Euphrates River, crossing of, 12-3

Evil Eye, belief in, and charms against, 328-9

F

Farzman, recaptures Amida from the Persians, 33-4

Fasting, as a religious observance, importance of, in an Oriental's eyes, 259, 277-8, 338, 342; the "Rogation of the Ninevites," 85 _n._; strictness of the Nestorian Lent, 303; 405 _n._

Fedais (Armenian Terrorists), their methods and organization, 245-7; their outbreak at Mush, 247-50; their exploits there, 247-9; their strongholds, 249-50; their incursion into Van, 250-1; their arsenals betrayed, 252-4; their leaders captured, 255-6; and amnestied, 257; their proceedings since the Revolution, 257-9

Ferries, across the Euphrates near Birijik, 12-3; across the Tigris at Mosul, 82; across the Zab at Barzan, 136-7

Feuds, general conduct of, 167-9, 292-4; dormant in the "Apostles'" house, 292; composed by the Patriarch's intervention, 268-70, 298; by payment of blood money, 303; feuds between Christians and Kurds in Tergawar, 189-90, 192-4; the author unwittingly involved, 223-5; feuds between the men of Châl and Tkhuma, 143, 297-8; between Reshid Beg and the men of Lizan, 314-5

Fire worship, traces of, 101, 199-200

Fishing, by dynamite, 229; in the river-bed after an avalanche, 286

Fountain worship, traces of, 100, 101

G

Gawar, 176-85; oppression of the Christian inhabitants, 177-9; attacked in the marshes by our own escort, 179-82; state of the Government, 182-3; the Cave of the Jann, 183-5; massacres during the war, 362, 372; proposed resettlement of Assyrians in, 397-8, 401-5

German excavators, at Kala Shergat, 343-7; at Babylon, 352-7

Ghara, 311; Reshid Agha wishes to be enrolled as a British subject, 323-4

Ghufas, in use on the lower Tigris, 347-9

Goblins, etc., belief in, 183-4, 333-5

Gregory the Illuminator, Saint, converts the Armenians, 238-9

H

Haidar Beg, Vali of Mosul, his murder of Hormizd, 368; of the Sheikh of Barzan, 369

Haji Kas, and how his own son bought him, story of, 210-4

Hakkiari, _see_ Barzan, Jilu, Neri, Oramar, Tkhuma, Tyari, etc.

Hassan and Hosein, sons of Ali, the mourning for them at Urmi (Mohurram), 207-8; tombs of their comrades at Samarra, 348; Pilgrimage to Hosein's tomb at Kerbela, 220, 350-1

Hassan Beg, of the Marku Kurds, Governor of Urmi, 214-5

Heraclius, Emperor, his victory over the Persians at Nineveh, 115

Heriki Kurds, their migrations and depredations, 127-8, 159-60; their original home, 162-3; their tribal palladium, _ib._; their encounter with the Sheikh of Barzan, 149-51; their orisons at the shrine of Mar Sergius, 206; "Hermit Crab Act" (so-called) 177-9; plundered of their sheep by Assyrians during the war, 377

Hermits' cells attached to churches, 206, 275 _n._

Herodotus, inaccuracies in his description of _kelegs_ and _ghufas_, 348 _n._; of the walls of Babylon, 351-2; and of the Babylonian temples, 354-5

High places for worship, 3, 62, 233-4, 343

Hittites, traces of their empire, 13-4, 344

Hormizd d'Mar Shimun, murdered by the Turkish government, 368

Houses, at Diarbekr, 28; at Mosul, 70-1; identical with the plans of the ancient houses at Assur, 346; at Akra, 129, 131; in the mountain districts, 142 _n._, 153

I

Inns and lodgings, on the plains, 8-9, 109, 125-6; in the mountains, 152-3, 155

Invulnerability, reputations of, 189, 329-30

Ishtar, Temple of, at Babylon, 354-6

Ismail, Malik of Chumba, protects the Turkish soldiers who seek refuge with him, 296-7

J

Jacobites, Monophysite Christians, 44-46; at Deir el Za'aferan, the seat of their Patriarch, _ib._; at Nisibin, 61; at Mosul, 80-1; at Sheikh Mattai, 118; in Sapna, 312; formerly at Tekrit, 347; massacres during the Great War, 364, 391

Jaffar Agha, murdered by the Shah at Tabriz, 216

James of Nisibis, Saint, his defence of Nisibis, 57; his church and tomb, 59-61

Jebel Maklub, 116; monastery of Sheikh Mattai, 118

Jebel Sinjar, 67; Yezidi stronghold, 90, 102, 154 _n._

Jebel Tur, a district full of ancient monasteries, 42-3, 46

Jevdet of Ghara, his difficulties as to the marriage of his daughter, 330-1

Jevdet Bey, Vali of Van, his massacres of Assyrians, 383; and of Armenians, 389, 390

Jews at Mosul, claiming descent from the ten tribes, 81-2; in Berwar, making the same claim, 304; at Bashkala, 226; suspected of ritual murder, 88 _n._; raided by the Tyari Christians on Good Fridays, 304; farmed by the Agha of Châl, 317; and by other Kurdish Aghas, 317-8; their pilgrimage to Nahum's tomb at Alkosh, 116; and to Noah's altar, 335

Jilu, 167-76; wandering habits of the tribesmen, 169-71; their Church of Mar Zeia, 171-3; the _Diwan_ of their bishop, 173-4; troubles of a census taker, 174-5; during the war, 366, 370, 377

Job, said to have dwelt at Urfa, 22 _n._

Jonah the Prophet, his reputed tomb at Nineveh, 84-5; his fast, 85 _n._; his estimate of the size of Nineveh confirmed, 114

Judi Dagh, the traditional resting-place of the Ark, 335-6

Julian, Emperor, defeated by Sapor II, 57-8, 348

Justinian, Emperor, attempts to suppress the Jacobites, 45; his castle between Dara and Nisibin, 56

K

Kala Shergat, anciently Assur, excavations, 343-6

Karaja Dagh, 25-6

Kelegs, on the Tigris, 70, 340-2, 347; on the Zab, 136-7; employed for transporting the Assyrian sculptures, 122

Kerbela, 220, 348, 350-1

Khoja Nazr-ed-din and the Seyyid, story of, 209

Khosbaba of Lizan, his leadership during the war, 371, 374, 381

Khoshab Kala, 232-3

Kirkuk, 343

Kobad, king of the Sassanid Persians, captures Amida, 31-3; sends his queen on pilgrimage to the monastery at Dara, 54 _n._; defeats Justinian's army, 55-6

Kouyunjik, _see_ Nineveh, origin of name, 102

Kurds, their origin, 39 _n._; 111; their costume, 9-10, 112-3; their toughness and hardihood, 133, 168-9, 173-4, 278, 329-330; their turbulence and plundering, 39-40, 216-8, 222-4, 263-4; their oppression of Christians, 177-8, 279, 319, 337 _n._; and of Yezidis, 99-100, 102; favoured by the Government to its own detriment, 38-9, 178-9; _see also_ Barzan, Begzadi, Châl, Heriki, Neri, Sapna, Reshid Agha, Zohar Agha, &c.; in the Great War; acquiescence in Assyrian repatriation, 409

L

Labaree, the Rev. Benjamin, of the American Mission, murdered, 191 _n._, 224 _n._

Languages of the various tribes, 10, 111-2, 265, 289

Legends, of the Roman columns in Urfa Citadel, 18 _n._; of King Abgarus of Osroëne, 18-9; of Rabban Ephrem of Urfa, 21-2; of Abraham at Urfa, 22-3; of Sheikh Adi and Melek Taüs, 105; of Rabban Hormizd at Sheikh Mattai, 117-8; of the woman of Sat and the Devil, 160-1; of the True Cross, 188; of St. Thomas walking across Lake Urmi, 201; of the Wise Men of the East, 202; of Prester John, 262; of the hoopoe, 283; of the Tyari man and his father, 308-9; of the Tyari men searching for the sun, 309-10; of Noah and the Deluge, 90, 335-7

Liturgy of the East Syrian Christians, 270 _n._, 275-6

Lizan, raided by Mira Reshid of Berwar, 314-5; the defence of the bridge, 315; during the war, 366, 371, 374

Lyke-wake for the dead, 278-9

M

Madness, as treated at "Churches of Name," 120, 206; by the Tyari men, 308; and by the Archbishop's Mission, 327-8

Mardin, 42-6

Mar Dinkha, Bishop of Tergawar, 191; his martyrdom; 362

Marku Kurds, 214, 218

Marriage, inadmissible when the best man has been smoking, 277 _n._; marriage problems submitted for our solution at Amadia, 330-1

Mar Sergius, Bishop of Jilu, 172-4

Mar Shimun (Benyamin), Patriarch of the East Syrian Christians, 262, 264; his temporal authority, 262, 265-6, 279-80; his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 262, 266-7, 271, 273-4; his youth, 266-8; his reputation among his people, 141, 268; his interventions as peace-maker 268-70, 298; his _Diwan_, 276-9; his leadership of his people during the Great War, 359-81; his personal heroism, 368, 371; murder by Simko Agha, 380-1

Mar Shimun (Ishai), his election to the Patriarchate, 400; his resettlement at Bibaydi, 411

Mar Shimun (Polus) his election to the Patriarchate, 381; his death, 396-7

Mawana, siege and relief, 192-3.

Massacres, of the Armenians at Urfa, 17 _n._; at Diarbekr, 34-6; in Van _Vilayet_, 231-2, 244-5, 250, 254; of the East Syrian Christians by Bedr Khan Beg, 37, 279; of the Yezidis, 99-100, 102; by Kobad at Amida, 32-3; by Timour in Mesopotamia, 4-5, 265; in the Great War, 360-4, 368, 372, 383-91

Medical treatment, as suggested by a Yedizi _hakim_, 146; as practised by a Syrian _hakim_, 174; and by the Archbishop's Mission, 146-7, 173-4, 327-30, 332-3

Mejid-es-Sultaneh, Governor of Urmi, 215; administration of his estate, 221-3; conduct during the war, 361, 385

Melek Taüs, Satan, the Yezidi deity, 90-106

Mergawar, 188, 360

Mesopotamia, 16, 42, 61-4, 341-9; irrigation scheme, 357-8; British administration of, 373, 392-3, 396-9, 405-8, 412-15

Mindan, refugee camp at, 398, 400, 406, 408-10

Mohammed the Prophet, his reputed _Firman_ to the Church of Mar Zeia, Jilu, 172-3; and to the Patriarchal Church at Qudshanis, 279

Mohammedans, mission work among, 204

Mohurram, at Urmi, 215

Money, in Turkey, 14-5

Mosul, 69-83, 85-6, 340-1; description of city, 69-72; incidents of life in it, 72-83

Murderous attempts upon Europeans, upon the author and the British Consul in Gawar, 179-82; upon the author between Urmi and Van, 223-6; upon the Rev. Benjamin Labaree (American), murdered in 1905, 191 _n._, 224 _n._; upon an Englishman in Hakkiari, 277 _n._; upon Capt. Maunsell, R.A., British Consul at Van in 1902, 329

Mush, Armenian outbreak, 247-50; exploits of the Fedai parties, 247-9

N

Nabopolassar, Allied with Cyaxares against Nineveh, 83; begins to rebuild Babylon, 352

Nahum the Prophet, his tomb at Alkosh, 116-7

Nazim Pasha, _Vali_ of Baghdad, at Mosul, 70; makes peace with the Sheikh of Barzan, 140

Nebuchadnezzar, his victory at Carchemish, 13; his rebuilding of Babylon, 352-4; claimed as an ancestor by some Mountain Syrians, 112

Neri, the Sheikh of, 163-7; Sheikh Obeid Allah, 163; Sheikh Saddik, his tobacco smuggling, 163; his banking account in London, 163-4; his oppression of Christians, 164; his judgment concerning the inspired cock, 164-5; Sheikh Taha, 165; his dispute with his uncle Abd-l-Kadr, 166-7; his brother's (Sheikh Musa's) affront to the British Consul, 165-6

Nestorians, _see_ East Syrian Christians

Nimrud Dagh, 25, 235; Fedai stronghold in crater, 249

Nineveh, site of the city, 83-5, 114-5; its size, 114; its fall, 83-4; battles upon the site, 115

Niphates mountains, the modern Hakkiari, 135, 235

Nisibin, anciently Nisibis, 56-61; captured by Lucellus, 56; besieged by Sapor II, 57; ceded to Persia by Jovian, 57-8; Bar Soma's University, 58; Church of St. James, 59-61

Noah, building of the Ark, 90; voyage of the Ark, 335; the Ark rests on Judi Dagh, Noah's Altar, tomb, and vineyard, 335-6; the Ark represented as a _Ghufa_, 347-8

O

Old manuscripts, rumours of their existence, 154, 228

Omar, second khalif, supposed to have granted toleration to the Nestorians, 172, 279

Omayyedes, Khalifs at Damascus, 103 _n._, 115-6 _n._

Oramar, 148-57; Agha of, joins coalition against Assyrians, 366; betrays Cossack re-inforcement, 369; his stronghold sacked, 377

Osman Bey, _Vali_ of Mosul, his massacre of the Yezidis, 99-100

Osroëne, _see_ Abgarus

P

Persian officials at Urmi, their impotence, 194, 208, 214-8; their attempts to put down the Seyyids, 214-5; and to remedy disorder by assassination, 215-6, 217-8, 378, 380; conduct during the war, 360-2, 375-6, 379-80, 410

Pennington, Capt., R.A.F., his flight from Miani to Urmi, 384

Petros Ello of Baz, his youthful rogueries, 218; his leadership of the Assyrian armies, 381-6; his impracticable pretensions since the armistice, 394, 397-8, 407-8, 411; his futile irruption into Hakkiari, 401-5

Prester John, legend of, 262, 265

Prisons in Turkey, 151, 331-2; easy-going confinement of prisoners, 75, 243-4; rumours of the employment of torture, 256; escape of Qasha Tuma and his deacon, 301-2

Q

Qashas (priests), married men, 113; usually non-combatants in fights, 190

Qudshanis, 264-80; site of village, 264, _see also_ Mar Shimun; deserted by Patriarch, 364; burned by Kurds, 366; "Waters of Qudshanis," 374

Qurbana (the Eucharist), among the East Syrian Christians, 275-6, 338; a Jacobite monk's query respecting it, 46

R

Rabat, building of the church, 302-3

Rabban Ephrem of Urfa, legend of, 21-2

Rabban Hormizd, legend of, 117-8

Rabban Hormizd, the Cave Monastery, 117-20

Rabbans and Rabbantas, 113, 270-1

Rabban Werda, 113; at Sheikh Adi, 97-8; at Rabban Hormizd, 118-9; at Bavian, 123; his journey to Bohtan, 337-8

Raids, general theory and practice, 39-40, 167-9, 291, 323; women not molested formerly, 168, 292; raids by the Kurds on Urmi plain, 216-8, 223; at Shwawutha, 263-4; by Mira Reshid on Lizan, 314-6; by the Tkhuma men on Châl, 297-8; by the Diz men, 291-2; by the Tyari men on Berwar, 304; by the Kurds on the Yezidis, 99-100, 102; _see also_ Bedr Khan Beg, Heriki Kurds, etc.

Reshid Agha, of Ghara, his fifteen murders, and his wish to become a British subject, 323-4

Reshid Beg, Mira of Berwar, his brigandage, 311-3; his profits as a tax-gatherer, 313; his _Jehad_ against Lizan, 314-5; his evasion of punishment, 316; joins coalition against Assyrians, 366; recognized as representative of British authority, 404

Revolution in Turkey, general results, 38, 130-1, 257-61

Ritual murder, charged against Jews and Yezidis, 88 _n._

Roads, 16-7, 41-2, 47, 231

Roman remains, near Aleppo, 7-8; at Urfa, 17-8; at Diarbekr, 26-9; at Deir el Za'aferan, 44; near Mardin, 48; at Dara, 48-51, 54-6; at Nisibin, 56-61; between Urmi and Van, 227-8

Rowandiz, Beg of, massacres the Yezidis, 102

Russia, her support courted by Kurdish intriguers, 37, 139; intervenes in the Tergawar frontier dispute, 195; occupies Urmi, 208, 220; the asylum of the Armenian revolutionists, 245-6; evacuates Urmi, 360-1; returns, 362, 375; relieves Van, 365, 390; invites the Assyrians to join in the war, 365; accords them slight support, 366, 368-9, 371, 376-7; collapses, 377-80

S

Sabonji Pasha, the "Tammany Boss" of Mosul, 73, 85; foments the war with the Sheikh of Barzan, 139, 140 _n._

Sakkiyehs, on the Tigris banks, 343

Saladin, 21; builds the citadel at Aleppo, 3; owner of Khoshab Kala, 232-3

Salmas, 371-2, 374, 376

Samarra, 348-9

Sapna, eastern portion, _see_ Barzan, 135-8; anarchy in western portion, 311-3; the Chaldaean bishop and his intrigues, 321-3; during the war, 366; re-settlement schemes, 395-6, 411

Sapor I, king of the Sassanid Persians, defeats the Emperor Valerian, 16

Sapor II, king of the Sassanid Persians, captures Amida, 30-1; repulsed at Nisibis, 57; defeats the Emperor Julian, 57-8, 348

Sargon, king of Assyria, leads the ten tribes of Israel captive, 81-2, 304

Sassanian Empire, _see_ Chosroës, Kobad, and Sapor; _also_ Bar Soma

Sassanian remains, at Urfa, 18; at Seleucia Ctesiphon, 354

Sat, tale of the woman of Sat, 160-1; the forgotten _Mudir_, 161-2; the Heriki Valley, 162-3

Savage and Scott-Ollson, Capts., 14th Hussars. Rescue of Assyrian refugees, 386

Second sight, instances of, 304-6, 326-7

Seleucid Empire, 343

Seljuk sultans, 21, 132

Seljukian remains, 232

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, his destruction of Babylon, 121, 352-3; his palace at Nineveh (Koyunjik), 83-4; his quarries at Bavian, 121-4

Serpent worship, traces of, 101

Seyyid Ullah, of Mosul, his burglaries and smuggling, 74-5

Seyyids, at Urmi, their insolence, 208-9; attempts to deal with them by Governors of Urmi, 208-15; and by Bedr Khan Beg, 190-1; _see also_ Khoja Nazr-ed-din, and Haji Kas

Shamashas, deacons, in the East Syrian Church, 112, 190, 192-4

Shamsdin, _see_ Neri

Sheikh Adi, the Yezidi Prophet, 104-5

Sheikh Adi, Yezidi Temple, 90-101

Sheikh Mattai, monastery, 117-8

Shwawutha, raided by Kurds during author's stay there, 263-4; church, 274 _n._

Simko, Agha of the Shekak Kurds, 216, 370; allies himself with the Assyrians and Armenians, 378-9; turns traitor and assassinates Mar Shimun, 380-2; his present predominance at Urmi, 412

Sindiguli Kurds, 311-2

Sinsariskun (Sardanapalus), king of Assyria, his death, 83; his temple at Assur, 344

Sipan Dagh, 25, 335 _n._

Stones, set up as votive monuments, 15, 233; as sepulchral cairns, 15-6

Sun worship, traces of, 101; _see also_ High Places

Superstitions, of Jann, goblins, etc. 183-4, 277, 333-5; of the _Hiblabashi_ or vampire, 333-4; of the _Khwarha_, 306; of unquiet spirits, 319; _see also_ Second sight, Evil eye, and Yezidis

Surma, sister of Mar Shimun, 270-1; installed in charge of magazine, 376-7; her mission to England, 400-1

Suryi, 142-7

T

Tahir Pasha, _Vali_ of Mosul, 76-8; on the frontier commission at Urmi, 218-20; _Vali_ at Van during Armenian outbreak, 251; death, 368

Tal, the rebuilding of Rabat Church, 302-3; proposal for eliminating Chaldaean intruders, 303-4; shrine of Mar Abd' Ishu, 306-7; during the war, 371-4

Talaat Pasha, his massacres of Armenians, 387-91

Taxes, 14-5; corrupt assessments, 38-9

Tax-gathering, by the _Malmudir_ at Akra, 129-31; in the mountain districts, 161-3, 175 _n._; by the sheikh of Barzan, 150-1; by Mira Reshid of Berwar, 313-4

Tekrit, 347

Tendurek Dagh, 235; Fedai stronghold, 249-50

Tenure of land, in Turkey, 14; in Persia, 221-2

Tergawar, 188-95; turbulence of the Christian tribesmen, 189-90, 192; their chief, Bajan, 189; their bishop, Mar Dinkha, 191; their defence and relief of Mawana, 192-3; driven from their homes by the Ottoman occupation, 194; enlisted as garrisons by the villages near Urmi, 218, 223; installed in Mejid-es-Sultaneh's villages, 220-3; return to their homes, 194-5; driven out in Great War, 360

Tettu Agha, suppressed by the Sheikh of Barzan, 143-4

Thaddeus, Saint (Mar Adai), the Apostle of the East, 18-9, 104

Thomas, Bishop of Amida, 34; builder of Daras, 49

Thomas, Saint, the Apostle of India, 18-9; legend of his walking across Lake Urmi, 201

"Three Children," the, their burial-place, 343

Tigris River, at Diarbekr, 26-7; at Mosul, 69-70, 82-3, 114; Mosul to Baghdad, 340-9

Timour the Tartar, his ravages in Mesopotamia, 4-5, 265; his repulse from the citadel of Mardin, 44

Tiridates, king of Armenia, his palace at Amida, 29; his conversion to Christianity, 238-9

Tkhuma, 143, 284; fighting reputation of the clansmen, 293; their views on frog-eating, 289; their raid on the Kurds of Châl, 297-8; their readiness to resent a slight, 298; their treatment of a tackless teetotaler, 298-9; and of an intrusive ethnologist, 300-1; the Rev. W.H. Browne in a dangerous predicament among them, 299-300; during the war, 366, 369-71, 404-6

Travelling, on the plains, 6-7, 41-2, 47-8; across the Chôl, 61-4, 339-40; in the mountain districts, 111, 113-4, 124-5, 134-6, 138, 147-9, 155-9, 287-8; by _keleg_ down the rivers, 341-2

Tree worship, traces of, 100, 127 _n._, 205

True Cross, a Legend of the, 188

Tuma, Qasha of Tyari, volunteers to kill the Rev. W. H. Browne's enemies, 273; imprisoned at Amadia, and breaks out, 301-2

Turkish officials, their courtesy, 161, 179, 243; their corruption and laziness, 38-9, 73-6, 130-1, 178-9, 180-2, 239-40, 313, 315-6; their occasional outbursts of ferocity, 34-6, 244-5; individuals under the thumb of local chiefs, 163, 312; or forgotten in remote corners, 161-2; the prospect under the new _régime_, 38, 130-1, 259-61, 357-8; _see also_ Tahir Pasha, a Sabonji Pasha, and Amadia, _Kaimakam_ of

Turkish soldiers, their ill-treatment by Government, 38, 229-31; their good behaviour, 229-31, 253

Tyari, 284-8; prejudices of the clansmen, 288-90; their _amour propre_, 290; their fighting reputation, 293; their feuds and raids, 273, 290-4; their representatives volunteer to aid the British Army in South Africa, 272; their primitive habits, 294-5; their chivalry, 295-7; their skill in prison breaking, 301-2; their devotional raids on the Jews of Berwar, 304; their reputation of being "all mad together," 308, 309 _n._; their treatment of lunacy, 308; their former method of dealing with old age, 308-9; their exploits in the Great War, 366, 370, 385, 403-6

U

Urfa, formerly Edessa, 17-23, 27, 389

Ur of the Chaldees, site of, 22

Urartian remains, at Firek Gol., 123 _n._; at Khoshab, 233; at Van, 236-7, 253

Urartu, ancient empire of, 236-7

Urmi, 196-7, 205-20; vicissitudes during the Great War, 360-2, 369, 371-2, 375-6, 379, 381-5; conditions since the war, 412-3; difficulties with the Urmi Christians, 394, 397, 403-4, 407, 412-3

Urmi, Lake, 200-1

V

Valerian, Emperor, defeated by Sapor I, 16

Vampires, belief in, 333-4

Van, anciently Dhuspas, 245-61; capital of the Empire of Urartu, 236-7; Armenian outbreak at, 250-7; its fate during the war, 365, 383, 389-90

Van Lake, 235-6; curative properties of its waters, 236

Volcanic districts in Kurdistan, 24-6, 41-2, 235, 249-50, 340

W

War song of the Assyrians, 365-6

Wild animals, 63-4, 126, 155, 280-3

Wilson, Sir Arnold, Acting Chief Commissioner, Mesopotamia, 396 _n._, 398-9

Wise men of the East, legend of the, 202, 413

X

Xenophon, his fording of the Euphrates, 12; his march up the banks of the Tigris, 342 _n._, 347; and across the site of Nineveh, 114; his encounters with the Carduchi, 39 _n._

Xerxes, trilingual inscription at Van, 236-7

Y

Yailas, defence and evacuation of, 370-4

Yezidis, 87-100; their belief, 88, 98-9, 100-6; their temple at Sheikh Adi, 91-100; their stronghold on Jebel Sinjar, 89-90, 102, 154 _n._; their Mira, 106-9; their ill-repute among their neighbours, 88-9; oppressed, proscribed, and massacred, 99-100, 102, 109; the Yezidi _hakim_ at Barzan, 146; immunity from massacre during the war, 391; proposal to enrol in a contingent, 408 _n._

Z

Zab, River, in eastern Sapna, 135-7, 142; at the "Bridge of Rocks," near Suryi, 149; its sources, 177; identified with the Pison, 264; its gorges in Tyari, 284-9; at Lizan bridge, 315; scene of operations in the Great War, 368, 372, 374, 400, 403-4

Zab River, Lesser, 343

Zanghi the Atabek captures Edessa, 21

Zaptiehs, as escort to European travellers, 46-7, 61, 67; their opinion of Yezidis, 89; considered _de trop_ in the Sheikh of Barzan's country, 135-6; refuse to act against the Sheikh of Neri, 166; attempt to shoot us in Gawar, 180-1

Zibari Kurds, 403-4

Ziggurats, at Kala Shergat, 344; at Samarra, 348-9

Zohar Agha of Zirnek, preserves the fugitive Armenians, 232

Zoroaster, the Prophet of the Fire Worshippers, 199-200

* * * * *

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] The direct journey across the desert occupies about ten days, and this is the route followed by the Government pack mules which carry the mails; but we diverged slightly to the northward in order to visit Urfa, Diarbekr, and Mardin.

[2] _Yaili_ is really a Turkish word meaning "springy."

[3] Hierapolis, _alias_ Bambyce, or Bembij, was sacred to the worship of Astarte. Here one of the most notable remains is a great underground conduit, with deep circular inspection pits descending into it at frequent intervals. An American lady inspecting these pits observed artlessly that "now she understood where all those columns came from." Apparently she imagined that they had been extracted like so many corks!

[4] A _Khanji_ keeps a _khan_ (an inn), just as an _Arabaji_ drives an _araba_ (a carriage), or a _Katarji_ a _katar_ (a mule). The _ji_ is simply a suffix meaning a worker.

[5] It may be said that the Government revenue is entirely derived from the land; and it is at least quaint to observe that the pet ideal of our own extremest Radicalism is at present actually realized (of all places in the world) in Turkey!

[6] An English cheque in Turkey will often pass from hand to hand like a banknote, and may be current for months before it reaches the bank. Indeed a cheque is more readily accepted than a banknote. It is more familiar to the money-changers. Also, if it gets purloined in the post, the loss is more easily recoverable.

[7] Weights and measures are in a similar state of chaos: _e.g._ each village has its own "stone" (a real material stone varying in size and weight _ad libitum_), and will sell its produce by no other standard.

[8] The bridge is now broken; but enough of it remains to reflect great credit on its builder, whether he was actually the Emperor Valerian or no.

[9] This church was the scene of one of the most fiendish incidents in the terrible Armenian massacres of 1895. Over two thousand refugees of all ages and both sexes had crowded into the sacred edifice to seek sanctuary from their pursuers. The Moslems thrust through the doors and windows fragments of broken furniture and carpets saturated with paraffin, and burnt or suffocated every soul.

[10] A legend attaches to these columns which should make a strong appeal to anyone with gambling instincts. One of the two is full of gold and silver; the other acts as stopper to a prodigious fountain of water which is capable of producing another Noachian flood. He who pulls down the former will win wealth beyond the dreams of avarice; but if he touches the latter he will eliminate mankind. Which is which no one can tell, for the two are precisely similar, and consequently nobody hitherto has had courage to risk the attempt.

[11] There are many tombs and hermits' cells in the hill which faces the castle, similar to the combs and cells of Dara, which will be described in chap. iii. One of the tombs near the moat has a door formed of a great stone disc running in a groove and socket. Of this type in all probability was the tomb of our Lord.

[12] The inhabitants of Osroëne might be quite correctly described as "Greeks"; that word being often used in the New Testament as merely equivalent to "Gentiles."

[13] "They have continued Christian to this day," writes Eusebius; a statement which is not quite accurate, for Paganism was re-established later. Yet there were undoubtedly a large number of Christians in Edessa in Eusebius' day.

[14] Many of the Crusaders had married Asiatic wives, and the children of such ill-assorted marriages were generally a pretty poor lot. This fact contributed very sensibly to the fall of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.

[15] The true Ur of the Chaldees was either Erech or Tel Mugayir in Babylonia; but Haran, Abraham's later home, lay a considerable distance further north. Local traditions identify it with Harran (Carrhæ) about twenty-five miles south of Urfa, the proudest boast of whose inhabitants is the possession of Rebekah's Well. Other corroborative traditions assert that the Patriarch lost many cattle in fording the Euphrates near Birijik; and that the Arabic name of Aleppo (Haleb, "milk")was bestowed upon it in compliment to his pedigree cow. Jacob was certainly journeying northwards when he fled from Beersheba to Bethel; but this fact does not necessarily favour the Urfa tradition, for his direct line to Babylonia would cross an impassable desert. The Ibrahim of Urfa was perhaps some local hero who has got credited with his namesake's deeds. It may be added that a further tradition asserts that Urfa was the home of Job.

[16] A multitude of basalt boulders covering quite a considerable area lie in the midst of the alluvial levels a little to the east of Nisibin. These are, of course, obviously volcanic, but it is not quite obvious how they get there: for Karaja and Nimrud, the nearest admitted craters, are each a hundred miles away.

[17] It is said that they were cleared away once; and that the inhabitants promptly replaced them, lest they should lose the fees that accrued to them for helping carriages along the road!

[18] The spacing of the towers also is just about the same as at Lugo and Astorga; but the irregular outline of the works is less usual, the Romans generally adopting a more formal plan.

[19] The walls of Constantinople had similar double banquettes. In this case the walls were double; and the two walls, taken together, must have made a stronger defence than the single wall at Amida. But neither of the two, taken separately, was quite so formidable in itself.

[20] The whole is built of basalt with yellow marble columns, and yellow marble bands here and there.

[21] The science of war has made little progress in these parts since the days of the Assyrians. To this day a Kurdish chieftain, when besieging his rival's castle, will endeavour to force an entry by mining the walls with picks.

[22] Zachariah of Mitylene.

[23] Chosroes employed the same device in his siege of Edessa a little later. In this case the mine was fired prematurely and (lest the smoke should betray them) the defenders pelted the mound with fireballs so that the Persians never suspected that the real danger was under ground. Presently the fire got beyond all quenching, and the mound was destroyed completely; the smoke of its burning being visible fifty miles away. Such counter-strokes were rather dangerous, as sometimes the wall itself burst with the heat of the bonfire; but the basalt walls of Amida were doubtless pretty well inured.

[24] Kobad's losses had amounted to 50,000, so there were plenty of _manes_ to appease.

[25] We may quote a parallel incident which occurred in India soon after the Mutiny. An old cultivator was being examined as witness with regard to the outbreak in his town. He had heard a great row, he explained, but at first he took no notice. He thought it was "only the Rajah plundering the bazaar." But soon the riot came nearer, and he could distinguish the shouts of "Allah." And at that word he grew frightened. It must mean real mischief when the mob invoked the name of God!

[26] See pp. 227, 338. Bedr Khan Beg's massacres of the mountain Christians occurred in 1843, and are described by Layard in his "Nineveh and its Remains." Under pressure from the British Ambassador, Bedr Khan and his family were eventually banished to Candia--"a totally inadequate punishment."

[27] Or rather, he has now written the Code Napoleon side by side with this system, and left authority to take its choice between the two, and to apply the code that is least trouble in each case!

[28] The Kurds are a very ancient people, no doubt identical with the "Carduchi" who gave so much trouble to the Ten Thousand in the Anabasis. Their modern Russian name "Kurdischi" is a transliteration of the Greek.

[29] These oppressed nationalities cherish pathetically futile hopes of British intervention, recognizing rightly that England is the only disinterested power. But the only power ever likely to interfere effectively is Russia; and though those who have tried Russian rule have found themselves bitterly disillusioned, it must be admitted that the Russians preserve better order than the Turks. What the country needs is a set of self-sacrificing administrators, with no axe of their own to grind, who will devote themselves solely to the good of the people. No other nation can furnish such administrators as England: and no other nation so obstinately refuses to recognize their worth.

[30] These monasteries have been visited and described by the Rev. O. H. Parry and Miss G. Lothian Bell.

[31] _i.e._ "Believers in one nature"; the name was given them because they rejected the technical term enforced at Chalcedon, which declared that Christ existed "_in two natures_," the Divine and the Human.

[32] It is a remarkable proof of the persistency of Eastern conditions that, up to the commencement of the present century, 1 piastre (2_d._) was still regarded as the regular day's wage.

[33] The Chronicler also alludes to the baths as a monument fit to rank even with the granary and the cistern; but the limited time at our disposal did not allow us to identify these. The bridge and the river embankments are, however, conspicuous works.

[34] The establishment of this hermit monastery must have followed immediately upon the building of the city: for it is written that in 526 the Queen of King Kobad, being possessed by a demon, and having sought relief in vain from her own magicians, sorcerers, and soothsayers (who only succeeded in "introducing more demons into her") came hither to consult a certain holy hermit named Moses, and was duly healed by his prayers. Kobad was, of course, officially a Zoroastrian (and privately, of all incredible things, a Communist); but even to this day the mountain Moslems not infrequently go on pilgrimage to Christian shrines.

[35] Justinian, it may be noted, had equipped this army with such a plethora of commanders that their defeat can hardly cause surprise.

[36] The snowfall on this occasion was even more prodigious in the mountains. The valley of Amadia was buried under an _average_ depth of fourteen feet, and not a man could stir beyond his own village for a period of fully four weeks! Fortunately the villagers had their winter stock of provisions and fuel, and so did not suffer like the nomads; but the hares and partridges were exterminated, and have only just begun to reappear.

[37] The driving belt also formed part of the loot, and this was a good, useful bit of leather; so the game was generally voted quite worth the candle after all.

[38] See p. 81 for an explanation of these terms.

[39] The terms are not technically correct, but are used for clearness' sake.

[39a] The terms are not technically correct, but are used for clearness' sake.

[40] Jonah is still a great personage in the district. The Fast which he is said to have instituted, now known as the "Rogation of the Ninevites," is still observed annually by the members of all religious denominations--an extraordinary survival even in this extraordinary land.

[41] Thus they are even charged with human sacrifices; and it is said that, when a Yezidi falls ill, his relatives seek to propitiate the Power of Evil in his favour by murdering a Christian or Kurd. The charge is widely believed, but quite unsupported. It reminds one of the old accusation of ritual murder which was so often brought against the Jews in mediæval Europe; and which, by the way, is still devoutly believed by the Syrians--"Surely you would not eat Jews' bread, Rabbi? How can you be sure it is not made with the blood of a Christian child?"

[42] This is really the same word as Amir. The title is also given occasionally to some of the local Kurdish chiefs.

[43] Mascot means simply a temple, and is used by the Yezidis for mosques and churches as well as for their own shrine. Etymologically it is no doubt identical with _masjid_, _mezquita_, mosque.

[44] When approaching a village by night it is considered correct to give warning, either by sending a messenger ahead, or by firing a gun as one draws near, so that the villagers may be prepared for visitors. Otherwise it is not at all improbable that the intruders may be saluted with a fusillade!

[45] The Yezidis all agree that their temple was built by Christian workmen, and the monks at Rabban Hormizd even went so far as to say that it was once a Christian church. The former statement is possibly true; but the latter highly improbable. Sheikh Adi must have been a holy place long before the days either of Christians or Yezidis; and that Christian monks may have occupied it for a time in the days of the Roman Empire is about the utmost that we can reasonably concede.

[46] A hatchet forms part of the Mira's insignia when he is fully arrayed for performing religious rites; and a comb has also certain magic properties, as instanced on p. 306.

[47] The Christians always remove their shoes in their churches, in addition to uncovering their heads.

[48] Another chamber, now used as an oil store for the temple lamps, opens out of the sanctuary to the westward. It is conceivable that this may have been the original nave, following the true lines of Orientation; and that the naves on the south side were added subsequently when larger accommodation was required.

[49] The Yezidis are so careful on this point that they even avoid words which are at all similar in sound to Sheitan, such as _shat_ an arrow and _keitan_ a thread.

[50] _i.e._ "Standards."

[51] They also act medicinally; the water in which they are washed being a great specific against every kind of disease.

[52] When Mrs. Badger visited Sheikh Adi the priest showed her an image which they said was that of _Melek Taüs_. But this was almost certainly a bronze lamp in the form of a bird, which they produced to appease her importunity. We are informed, however, that a later visitor has actually seen and photographed one of the _sanjaks_.

[53] These practices, of course, did not originate in the Mosaic ritual, and the Yezidis may possibly have borrowed them direct from a yet older source.

[54] This owes its name to the fact of its having contained the word, Sheitan--now in every instance carefully erased.

[55] It is possible that the Yezidis themselves at one time encouraged this misconception; for, so long as the Ommayedes were on the throne, Yezid's name may have helped to gain them toleration.

[56] In this legend we meet with the only official explanation to account for _Melek Taüs_ being represented as a peacock. When the Marys came to the empty tomb and found no body within it, _Melek Taüs_ (says the legend) appeared to them as a Dervish and related what he had done. To rebuke their doubts, he took a cock which had been killed, cooked, and dismembered, and restored it to life in their sight. He then vanished; first informing them that henceforth he would choose to be worshipped in the form of the most beautiful of birds. The representation of Deities under the form of birds was familiar to the ancient Babylonians.

[57] The duty of hospitality is incumbent upon all Eastern monasteries; and often where the monastery has become extinct this duty has passed to the present tenants of its lands.

[58] From the days of "the Great Elchi" onward the English Ambassadors have interfered occasionally, and with some success, in favour of the persecuted Yezidis; and this fact explains their gratitude towards the English race.

[59] "Divine right" is an axiom in the East; and the Khalifate soon became hereditary, though at first it was endeavoured to make it elective. To this day at Constantinople, though a Sultan may be deposed or murdered, it is always a member of the House of Othman who is appointed in his room.

[60] Not the same nephew that we had met at Sheikh Adi.

[61] This was really rather a bit of cheek. It would be thought presumptuous even in a Kurd.

[62] A coarse local kind of Anise

[63] See, for instance, the head on the title-page--a portrait of a Syrian priest, the late Qasha Khoshaba, who might have been a reincarnation of Sargon.

[64] These caps are precisely of the shape which we see on Assyrian bas-reliefs.

[65] A clean-shaven man in the East is regarded as something emasculate, and in order to escape reproach one must wear at least a moustache. Laymen often shave the beard and whiskers, but a bishop or priest never shaves; and to shave a priest is esteemed as practically equivalent to unfrocking him.

[66] Gibbon takes the "six-score thousand persons who could not discern between their right hand and their left" as referring only to the children, and thus calculates the total population of Nineveh at 700,000 souls. Taking a line from Mosul we might estimate that about 150,000 could actually be housed within the walls.

[67] Chosroës had sent him forth with the significant instruction: "If you cannot conquer, you can die."

[68] On the same ground in 750 was fought the great battle which transferred the Khalifate from the dynasty of the Omayyades to the Abbassides. There can be few spots on the earth's surface which have seen three such decisive days.

[69] One of these marshy valleys is known locally as the Dungeon of Solomon, that potent necromancer having here imprisoned the rebellious Jann, by pegging them into the mud.

[70] The monastery of Sheikh Mattai, perched high up on the southern slopes of Jebel Maklub, is very similar to Rabban Hormizd in general situation, but consists of buildings, not of caves.

[71] Of course he was: though physically (and we hope morally) the accuracy of the description was not so striking as might be wished.

[72] A strong chain is advisable; for in one of the Tkhuma churches a lunatic who had been similarly tethered succeeded in wrenching the staple from the wall. The old priest entering next morning discovered him squatting on the altar, having torn up all the service books, and set the hangings on fire! He was further anxious to strangle the priest, who only just eluded him. Evidently this was a case of possession by Apollyon himself.

[73] The nearest village to these sculptures is Hinnis, upon the right bank of the river at the point where our road struck it; but they take their name from the larger village of Bavian, situated on the left bank a little lower down.

[74] There are several remains of reservoirs also, built on the southern side of the mountains by the Assyrians, and on the northern by the Urartians. In one instance (at Firek Gol, near Van) even the dam is still intact, but is no longer watertight.

[75] Abdul Hamid, for all his shortcomings, was apparently a pretty good landlord. Khalilka had to pay to him only one-third of its rice crop and one-fifth of its other produce; which is a considerably smaller proportion than local custom would justify.

[76] These trees are often "sacred trees," from which no one will dare to take fuel. For there are still "sacred trees" in this country--as there were in the days when the bas-reliefs of Nineveh were carved.

[77] The _malmudir_ of Akra supervises the taxation of about 150 villages, and about £10,000 in taxes pass annually through his hands. His salary is about £120, while that of a _kaimakam_ is £500 to £800, according to the importance of his district. These are not exactly princely (even when they are paid regularly), but it is, of course, possible to increase them by well-recognized, if not quite legitimate, means.

[78] We spent the night in equally brotherly fashion, our beds being spread out for us side by side on the floor of the room. Our host even wished us to take turn and turn about with the hubble-bubble with which he solaced his last waking moments; but we pleaded that this was a taste which we had not acquired.

[79] The prevalent opinion in Mosul was that the Tripoli, where the war was raging, was the Asiatic Tripoli. The comet which was visible about this time presaged destruction to the Italians, "because you will observe that the tail points towards Italy"--the aforesaid comet standing vertically in the north-eastern quarter of the sky.

[80] Tuesday, it may be added, is esteemed inauspicious by Christians, because on that day Judas Iscariot made his covenant with the chief priests. Wednesday is the Yezidi Sabbath; but apparently anyone may work on Thursday. Thursday will probably be early closing day when reform is inaugurated in the land.

[81] The Imaum is virtually a sort of parish clerk, leading the Responses in the public services at the mosque; and our friend was as gravely self-important as any English parish clerk could be.

[82] The Sheikh tried to purchase peace honestly; but his enemies outraged even local morality by accepting his bribes, and persisting in their machinations.

[83] They were mostly half-trained Kurdish levies, who were not quite easy in their consciences at fighting such a Holy Man as the Sheikh, and had moreover a pretty shrewd suspicion that they were being employed in Sabonji's interests and not the _Hukumet's_. The Sheikh used merely to disarm his prisoners, and then release them on parole. As he had nowhere to keep them, his only alternative would have been to kill them; and this would have meant a war of extermination, which he did not wish to provoke.

[84] This was Nazim Pasha, then Vali of Baghdad, who was subsequently Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman army in the Balkan War, and was assassinated by the partisans of Enver Bey during the negotiations for peace. He so entirely exonerated the Sheikh as to award him £1000 indemnity--on paper: but the Sheikh had suffered heavily from the plunder of his villages, and gained nothing but prestige.

[85] The correct title to use in addressing the Sheikh is "_Corban_"--"Your Holiness."

[86] The regular oath of a Tyari Christian is: "By the head of Mar Shimun."

[87] A "_belai_" forms the top story of many of the mountain houses. It is quite open on one side (usually the northern) and forms the general family living room during the summer heats. In winter it is used as a hay barn, and thus helps to warm the room below.

[88] Except one hoof, to be accurate--such at least was the cook's report. Scott points out that the Scotch highlanders also would eat prodigious meals when they got the chance, though ordinarily their fare was very meagre.

[89] Eye disease is terribly prevalent in all the neighbouring provinces. It is originated by dust and want of cleanliness, and aggravated by persistent neglect.

[90] In this connexion sometimes the phrase is unpleasantly literal. The prison at Akra, for instance, is a regular bottle-shaped dungeon like those at Alnwick and Berkeley, and in many Continental keeps.

[91] See p. 112.

[92] It is to be feared that sometimes they adopt other masculine habiliments, particularly (for instance) in winter, for convenience in getting through deep snow. We went once to rout up a workman who had failed to turn up at his job in the morning. He was still in bed, we discovered. A fact which did not tend to appease us until he faltered out his excuse. "But my wife has gone away to work, Rabbi; and has taken my only pair of trousers"--when we fear that the Rabbi's laughter brought these confidences to a sudden end.

[93] This brushwood harbours all sorts of vermin, including scorpions and serpents, which latter are rather encouraged because they are reputed to eat the rest. The proper way to get rid of them is to make up a blazing fire, and pile on to it a quantity of sheep's horns or goats' horns (cow's horns will not do). This sounds as if it ought to get rid of much worse things than serpents!

[94] The _tanura_ serves also as an oven, and when the fire has subsided into embers the thin pancakes of dough (the form in which bread is usually made in the mountains) are plastered round the hot sides of the pit.

[95] Most "old books" have now been ferreted out, and perhaps the only earths yet untried are in the Yezidi villages of the Sinjar. These villages were formerly Christian; and there is a widespread conviction (strenuously denied by the Yezidis) that old Christian books still remain there, carefully secreted in certain caves. We have heard from a Syrian priest that he himself once actually saw some spread out to dry in the sun because they had got damp in a flood. He was at once headed off when he tried to look at them; but could see from the title-page that one was "The Works of Diodorus," a famous Eastern doctor whose writings have been entirely lost.

[96] This journey was actually made in the spring of 1909, and was thus earlier in date than the events recorded in the last chapter.

[97] Alternatively _mesta_--curds; the usual form of dairy produce hereabouts--identical with Jael's "Butter in a lordly dish."

[98] Turkey has since evacuated the disputed province.

[99] See "Highlands of Asiatic Turkey," by Lord Percy. The victim was Mar Gabriel of Urmi.

[100] See the writings of Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, quoted by Milman, "Latin Christianity," XIII, xvi. The Italian, however, entirely misunderstood the chivalrous practice.

[101] The Prophet himself never left Arabia; and even Omar--a favourite legendary hero in these parts--never came north of Jerusalem.

[102] The life of a minor official in Turkey is not a happy one. We have recently heard of the experience of a tax-collector in this seventh year of upright and constitutional government, who undertook the adventurous job of gathering the taxes from Tkhuma and Tyari, (!) at a wage of £3 per month. After two months' work he asked for an instalment of his salary. "My dear fellow, you shall have it all," said the _Mal-mudir_; "there are no more arrears in these days; you take all your salary--subject to the official deductions, of course." Accordingly he presented the applicant with a schedule of these "deductions" (which amounted to £5 10s. 9d. out of the total of £6), and the balance of 9s. 3d. in silver!

[103] From "Turkey in Europe" by "Odysseus"

[104] These truculent ruffians (when they have thoroughly earned a thrashing) will often accept it with most edifying docility. We have heard the late Dr. Browne, an old gentleman of the mildest manners and most fragile appearance, lamenting with the utmost artlessness that he had been obliged to thrash his muleteers. Consuls do not approve the habit, but have been known to practise it nevertheless.

[105] There is some real danger in exploring these caverns, for if you do not often find real _Jann_, you are always liable to stumble on a wolf!

We were once exploring a "cave-monastery," near Maragha; one feature of which was a long passage, burrowing into the rock, and expanding at intervals into cells, like balls threaded on a string.

Down this we crawled, with an antiquarian's eagerness, our guide politely allowing us to go first. When we were well in, a voice came from behind us: "_Rabbi_, there's a wolf who generally lives down here, but I don't know if he's in now!"

[106] _I.e._ by Kurds driving cattle into the building. This outrage is exceptional, but not unknown.

[107] Orientals usually attribute the Epistle to the Hebrews to St. Paul.

[108] We fear that other episodes in the career of this polite brigand are of a far darker hue. He was at least concerned in the murder of an American Missionary--the Rev. Benjamin Labaree--in 1905.

[109] Tea is considered a great luxury, and men of moderate means will actually ruin themselves by indulging in it. Not so much owing to the cost of tea as to that of the sugar, for they use about as much sugar as the tea will dissolve.

[110] Owing to Russian influence, this statement now needs some qualification as far as Urmi is concerned.

[111] It is a double church really: Mar Sergius and Mar Bacchus: these very popular saints in the East, among whose churches that at Constantinople is the most famous, were Persian martyrs of the fifth century; and the church of Mar Sergius near Urmi claims to mark the site of their martyrdom.

[112] The word has been adopted into English, as a relic, probably, of Crimean slang; and the "Ancient Society of Codgers" may claim khoja Nazr-ed-din as a member of their club. Literally, it means "eunuch" or "tutor"; but in common speech implies rather "old fellow."

[113] Persian women have a high reputation for cleverness; a repute which is exemplified in the saying that every Moslem, to be happy, requires at least four wives. A Persian because of her wit, and a Circassian because of her beauty; an Armenian to do the cookery and housework, and a Kurdish woman to thrash, as a wholesome example to the other three.

[114] At the present price of silver about 3_s._ 6_d._

[115] Heir-Apparent of Persia; Azerbaijan is his hereditary province.

[116] This was the Rev. Benjamin Labaree, of the American Presbyterian Mission, Urmi, who was murdered by the _Seyyid_ Nur-ed-din, on account of some personal grudge that he had (or fancied he had) against another member of that mission. The _Seyyid_ was little better than a madman; though, of course, not the less of a holy man or of a dangerous scoundrel on that account. It appears (though there is not absolute certainty in the matter) that Mr. Labaree was offered life if he would renounce Christianity by repeating "the _kalima_," and died as a martyr on his refusal.

[117] Even Bibles used to reach their destination with the word Armenia neatly obliterated; but we feel there was some excuse for the censor who confiscated a batch of hymn books on the ground that "Onward Christian Soldiers" was a sort of Armenian _Marseillaise_!

[118] _i.e._ Governor. The rank is intermediate between _kaimakam_ and _vali_.

[119] "I'll tell you what it is," cried an irritated British Consul to an Armenian petitioner, "if ever we did undertake the administration of your country, you fellows would have to pay your taxes." "What!" exclaimed that gentleman in dismay, "_every year?_"

[120] The criminals who were not sentenced must have been far more numerous. The _Vali_ must have felt like the old Lord of Perugia, who had to grant a general amnesty lest he should depopulate the town!

[121] The word "_Fedai_" is Persian, and comes from a root that means sacrifice, and implies "one who sacrifices himself for a cause." Thus a volunteer in a forlorn hope would be a _Fedai_; and the term was originally applied to the devoted Assassins of the "Old Man of the Mountain" in crusading days. Ottomans usually called the revolutionaries simply "brigands." A third society, the _Huntchak_, was worked on the same lines as the _Tashnak_, and was incorporated with it later.

[122] _Tashnak_ means a banner.

[123] Some were found in the writer's own residence; a Tashnakist having taken service with him for the express purpose of securing a good _cache!_ The soldiers were hugely delighted with their haul, and gave us some packets of dynamite as mementoes!

[124] Otherwise "Bashi-bazouks." This word of formidable memory means merely "rotten-heads," and is barrack slang for a civilian mob.

[125] It may be a novelty to some readers to hear that all varieties of Christianity, as well as of Islam, are established and endowed by the State in Turkey. Bishops are appointed by the State and are State paid in part; and church organizations are recognized, given power, and controlled as such. The fallacious assumption implied in the query, "_quid Christianis cum regibus?_" does not deceive the Oriental as easily as it appears to do the Western.

[126] See the Preface.

[127] Until quite lately his Beatitude maintained a court jester also--one Shlimun (Solomon), who died a few years ago. He was an amusing scamp, but his sense of humour was sometimes rather _outré_.

[128] The priest has been known to stop in the middle of service, and ask her where he is to go on; for they are simple folk, and the Use is very complex.

[129] See Benson, "Cyprian," pp. 51-57. The scandals there referred to, however, are quite absent from the modern Nestorian Church.

[130] This advice applies even more forcibly to travellers in the remoter villages. There almost the only food obtainable is the local pancake bread. The sole delicacies are "butter (_i.e._ curds) and honey," as they were in the days of Isaiah. Eggs may be got occasionally; but the pampered European who lusts for flesh meat had better bring it with him in tins. Life is too hard in the mountains to yield more than the barest necessaries; and the slaughter of a sheep for a banquet is a very exceptional extravagance indeed.

[131] The churches serve as refuges for the women and children whenever the villages are raided, and are thus built with an eye to security. Often they are planted in almost impregnable sites, like the little church of Shwawutha in our illustration.

[132] Attached to the church are a couple of anchorites' cells, and within the last twenty-five years one of these was actually inhabited by a venerable hermit--the _rabban_ Yonan. The incumbent is entitled to reside there still--if he likes.

[133] See additional note, p. 283.

[134] Fasting as a religious observance is most strictly enforced among the Syrians. We have known a priest refuse to proceed with a marriage service (which, of course, is ranked as a Sacrament) because he discovered that the best man had been smoking that morning! It was only after thrashing the delinquent that he relented and finished the service.

Smoking breaks a fast. And this fact was exemplified in a ludicrous sequel to an ugly attack on an Englishman which occurred in these parts in 1912. The Englishman had evaded his assailants, and found shelter for the night in a village: but it was quite likely he would be pursued; and at daybreak next morning every one's nerves were very much on edge. The sun's rays had just touched the hill-top opposite, and the shadows were rapidly sinking into the valley, when over the ridge, running as hard as he could leg it, there swooped a solitary Kurd. None could doubt the nature of his tidings; and they watched with their hearts in their mouths as he tore down the slope towards them, leapt the stream, flung himself on the grass beside it, and--_lit a cigarette_.

It was _Ramazan_: and he only wished to reach a spot where the sun had not yet risen, in order to enjoy a last smoke!

[135] Tyari men would not have eaten her at all; not for that reason, but because they have scruples about touching beef. "Our Fathers did not do so."

[136] The Baz men are hereditary builders, and migrate in a body to Mosul in winter in order to undertake such work.

[137] _i.e._ "Prophet."

[138] A comb is one of the mystic symbols which are carved on the Yezidi temple at Sheikh Adi.

[139] See note at end of chapter.

[140] See Tylor, "Anthropology," ch. xvi.

[141] Reshid's personal reputation may be gleaned from the fact that natives travelling in our company have begged us to pocket their cash for them while passing through his borders. Even our inviolable "shadow" was not quite good enough there!

[142] _Châl_ in Turkish means Thieve!--habitually, and preferably with violence. But this, though admirably apposite, is not an accredited derivation.

[143] The writer was recounting this anecdote at a meeting after his return to England when an old gentleman in the audience was overheard to remark, in a scandalized voice: "Tut, tut, tut; why didn't he give him in charge?"

[144] There are no coroner's inquests in the mountains; but we never killed any one as far as we know.

[145] "Books of remedies" and collections of charms like the one referred to are often found among the Nestorians, and the substance of them is often of almost incredible antiquity. The writer once translated some specimens he had selected to a friend learned in Assyriology and found that they were essentially identical with the charms on the oldest of the Babylonian tablets. A substratum of the oldest faith of the land has survived all the changes of seven thousand years.

[146] The incident occurred in 1901 or 1902. The officer concerned was Captain Maunsell, R.A., then British Vice-Consul at Van. The English "Apostles" do not usually carry arms. It might answer if they could be sure of disabling an assailant; for then he would come to be doctored, and amicable relations would be re-established. But to kill him would start a blood feud, and to miss him would be worst of all. The _vacuus viator_ is safer than one who carries such a valuable prize as an English gun.

[147] The lady is usually allowed very little choice. We were consulted once in a knotty case where a girl had been betrothed to one man by her father and another by her mother; and we mildly suggested that she might at least be allowed a casting vote. "What can it matter to her, Rabbi?" said the Bishop of Berwar who was acting as arbitrator; "one husband is as good as another!"

[148] "And satyrs shall dance there" is the final touch in Isaiah's picture of the desolation of Babylon. This is doubtless the identical beast.

[149] He entirely confirmed Mr. Bram Stoker's evidence that the King of the Vampires is Dracula.

[150] Armenians aver that this happened on the summit of Sipan Dagh, near Van. Noah, on feeling the bump, ejaculated "_Sipan Allah!_" (Praise God!) and this gave its name to the mountain. He must have been the only mariner on record to feel delight at such an event.

[151] These were the gorges that drove Xenophon to take to the mountains in the Anabasis. He could march up the left bank of the river about as high as Jezireh; but there the ravine grew too narrow and difficult for troops.

[152] Herodotus seems to have confused the _keleg_ and the _ghufa_ in his notes; for both existed, on the evidence of the sculptures, in his day. He speaks of "circular craft, covered with skins and caulked with bitumen," and made on wooden frames. He adds that at the journey's end the wood was sold, and the skins carried back "to Armenia" on the back of a donkey that had made the voyage down on the vessel. All his details are right, as regards one or other of the two types, save only the voyaging donkey. An experienced jackass will jump readily into a _ghufa_ and be ferried across, or some way down, the river; but he does not, in these days at any rate, come all the way down from Diarbekr to Baghdad. However, there is no reason why he should not.

[153] Under these was in each case a small chamber, just large enough to contain the miniature image of the "guardian of the threshold" that was invariably placed there.

[154] See p. 191.

[155] This is not precisely the epithet that is usually applied to Nineveh in Scripture; but a touch of national prejudice changes the point of view. The Assyrian Tyrtæus was a refugee from Serai, near Van.

[156] See pp. 311 _et seq._

[157] See p. 317.

[158] See pp. 76-78, 251, etc.

[159] See pp. 136 _et seq._

[160] See pp. 171-73.

[161] The _Yaila_ of Shina lies amid the mountains which are shown in the illustration facing p. 176. It would be near the extreme left of the picture, facing the precipices of Ghara Dagh.

[162] The Tal gorge debouches upon the Zab from the left, near the further end of the reach shown in the frontispiece. See also p. 288.

[163] This must have been a col in the distant mountain range, shown in the illustration facing p. 257.

[164] See pp. 127, 159, etc.

[165] See p. 216.

[166] The Kitab ul Fakhri on the Tartar sack of Baghdad.

[167] See pp. 256-69. Firebrand as he was, Aram on this occasion did all he could to avert disorder, exhorting the Armenians to suffer anything rather than give a pretext for "repression."

[168] The delay was partly owing to the "Sykes-Picot Treaty" which left Mosul in the French sphere. The French could not work this treaty, and for long would not consent to its abrogation, and the fact tied British hands.

[169] A quaint episode marked the campaign. After storming--and plundering--a Kurdish village, some exultant mountain warriors came to their C.O. to announce that they had secured the most valuable loot they could hope to win. They presented to the amused officer an enormous MS. tome of Church services! It was a copy of their "Khudra"--_i.e._, the collection of the variable parts of the offices on all Sundays and ferials of the "circle" (khudra) of the year, an enormously enlarged equivalent to the Collects and occasional prayers of the Book of Common Prayer. They begged for a mule from the transport train to carry this sacred trophy at the head of the column on the march, and it gives some idea of the size of the book when we say that the mule was actually necessary to carry it, though, as the companion volume of the "Gezza" (Treasury, containing the prayers for saints' days) was not there, it was not more than half a load for the beast. For the rest of the campaign the book was the palladium and standard of the corps, and was given a voluntary guard of honour every night. Subsequently, it was presented to the Patriarch, and is now in use in his church.

[170] Pp. 321 _et seq._

[171] The Ottoman Government had, during the war, some notion of hanging the writer "because he had built a house to serve as a British fort." He escaped by a clerical error, heartlessly described by Sir A. Wilson as "one of those errors of routine inevitable in even the best administrations!" His name, in the list of civil prisoners, was transliterated one way; on the list of criminals, in another. We hope that this posthumous justification of the sentence is as satisfactory to the judges as it is to the criminal!

[172] See p. 118.

[173] "Sandy McPherson," said Lord Justice Braxton to the "panel" before him, "ye are a vera ingenious chiel, but ye'll be nane the waur of a haanging." And one is reminded of this verdict by the character of that sporting and alluring rascal, Agha Petros. The man is a good fighter, who under other circumstances might have earned high rank; but whose lot has been cast in places that have developed that "kink" in his nature that will prevent him from ever being chevalier of a higher order than that of "Industrie." He declared to the writer--with a frankness that does him credit--that he had read the earlier edition of this book, and that all said of him therein (see pp. 218-19) was true; but he added that he had become a changed man since.

It is certainly the fact that this hawk has since learned to fly at higher game, but he still must be classified among "raptores." Alas that so many good fellows are rascals!

[174] See note on p. 401.

[175] When the Assyrians made their attack, an officer in the train judged it better to get out on the side remote from the action, "lest he should see things that it might be his duty to report."

[176] See p. 267.

[177] Surma _Khanim_ spent several months, in the years 1919-20, in England, where she was the guest of the "Sisters of Bethany," who have an interest in her people of long standing. The object of her visit was to put the claims and position of her people before the British Home Authorities, and, if possible, before those of Europe at large. She at least secured a courteous hearing from British Cabinet Ministers, and though she was unable to extract any definite promises from men who did not themselves know what they wanted, she left the impression of a very striking personality on the minds of those who had been accustomed to think of Assyrians as a mere barbarian nuisance.

[178] See illustration facing p. 128.

[179] See pp. 311 _et seq._ Reshid had been "reconciled" the previous autumn; his formidable "Castle" at Deir Sherish being razed so flat that (as reported by the gleeful Assyrians) "You wouldn't think it had ever been there!"

[180] Some of the heroes of this Odyssey retired into Mosul Gaol for a while in consequence of it, and were still there at the following Easter. Then a pitiful petition was sent in on their behalf (or, at least, on behalf of the "Old Churchmen" among them) to the effect: "Please let those out for Easter who have been keeping their fast so properly in prison. Never mind about the Protestants--_they_ have been eating the good prison food and don't matter."

Unfortunately, even this pathetic plea did not move the Gallio who then sat in the seat of authority! However, all were released soon after.

Gaol has become, as a result of British rule, quite unpopular in Mosul. You can no longer sit in the prison and take your ease there, sending out for your food and tobacco, as under the Turk. Instead, you have to wear "an unbecoming frock" like the gentleman in the Bab ballads, and work on the roads. So "wearing the cap" is disliked in Mosul, the more as it is no longer possible, when weary of captivity, to hire a substitute to take your place there and make up the tale of captives!

[181] It was proposed to raise some companies of Yezidis for the levy also, and they would serve British officers most loyally. However, up to the time of writing this has not been done, though they offer good military material, and their home in Jebel Sinjar lies conveniently on the flank of the one line of advance possible to the one enemy. The only difficulty (given separate companies of Yezidis, as of Assyrians) seems to lie in the British words of command used throughout the "Mosul levy," and which Orientals who know no English pick up with marvellous quickness. For any sound resembling "Sheitan" is blasphemy to the ears of a Yezidi. How then is it possible to address to them the mystic adjuration "'Shun"?

[182] Petros was ill-advised enough to try and blackmail the High Commissioner! He claimed present payment of Rs. 38,000, alleged to have been spent by him out of his own funds on the expedition to Gawar! Failing immediate payment of this, he would denounce Sir P. Cox's dealings with his people to the League of Nations, the French Republic, and the Pope. To his amazement he was told that he might go to all three, and the devil as well if he liked (the connection with the Pope was not so obvious to Petros as to the angry A.D.C.), and had better begin by leaving the office.

* * * * *

Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

Selencia=> Seleucia {pg 5}

admittted=> admitted {pg 100}

bridgroom=> bridegroom {pg 161}

left a one=> left alone {pg 178}

France or Amercia=> France or America {pg 259}

inacessible=> inaccessible {pg 264}

callousnesss=> callousness {pg 378}

faily well=> fairly well {pg 287}

is a good as ever=> is as good as ever {pg 291}

mattter=> matter {pg 301}

Hand him over over to us=> Hand him over to us {pg 301}

did not minish=> did not deminish {pg 382}

cavavan=> caravan {pg 409}

deserted by Patriach, 364;=> deserted by Patriarch, 364; {pg 427}

shrin of Mar Abd' Ishu, 306-7;=> shrine of Mar Abd' Ishu, 306-7; {pg 429}