THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS (RABBAN HORMIZD, BAVIAN, AND AKRA)
One may go to Aleppo by train, and by carriage one may get on to Mosul;
but he who would penetrate further must adopt more primitive means.
Nothing that runs upon wheels can enter the Kurdistan highlands. And the
"heir of all the ages," travelling there in A.D. 1900, finds himself no
better off than his forerunners of B.C. 1100, whose Great King recorded
amazedly on slabs of imperishable granite the fact that "I,
Tiglath-Pileser, was obliged to go on foot!"
Accordingly our _Dramatis Personae_ had to be radically recast at Mosul.
We were escorted by two fresh _zaptiehs_; our baggage was corded on pack
mules; and for our own riding we had saddle horses--or perhaps more
accurately ponies, for they stood about fourteen hands high.
Our attendants deserve a paragraph to themselves; for they are
representatives of a nation which we have hitherto scarcely mentioned,
but of whom in the remaining chapters we shall have a great deal to
tell. Aziz and Yukhanan were Syrians who had come down from their
mountain villages to await our arrival at Mosul. They were about
twenty-five years of age, attired in the costume of the highlands, and
imbued with true highland contempt for the dwellers in cities and
plains. Outwardly there is little to distinguish them from the Kurds
among whom they are domiciled; but the fact of their speaking a
different language proves that they must ultimately be derived from a
totally different stock; for Kurdish is akin to Persian, and is
consequently an Aryan language; but Syriac is Semitic, and is the
nearest modern equivalent of that Aramaic which was spoken in Palestine
during the lifetime of our Lord. Their own traditions aver (and in many
cases their physiognomy affords strong support to the contention)[63]
that they are the lineal descendants of the ancient Assyrians. Some will
quite glibly assert that their family ancestor was Nebuchadnezzar; and
if it be true (as the Welsh maintain) that blood feuds are a most
valuable factor in ensuring the preservation of genealogies, then
certainly these fellows have had every reason for keeping their
pedigrees up to date.
In religion both men were Christians, and, what is more, _Shamashas_
(Deacons): members of the ancient East Syrian, often called the
Nestorian Church. But Syrian Deacons (though properly ordained) are not
necessarily engaged exclusively in the performance of clerical duties;
albeit they will always have received some sort of educational training,
and (as in the present instances) will probably be able to read and
write.
The regular mountain costume consists of a sort of zouave jacket, worn
open over a loose shirt; and very wide trousers, girt tightly around a
rather slim waist. The point of junction between these two garments is
masked by a broad sash. The material of which they are composed is
generally a coarse Isabella-coloured fabric, striped at rather wide
intervals with a narrow red or blue line. Green is less frequently seen,
because it is the colour of the false prophet, but when the grounding is
purple it is sometimes trimmed with green. The stripes are disposed
vertically on the jacket and trousers, and horizontally on the sleeves;
but the suit is often such a mass of patches that but little of the
original survives. The head-dress is a conical felt cap,[64] which is
often bound round with a turban. The front half of the head is shaved;
and Tyari men wear their back hair plaited into two small pigtails, one
on either side. The sash is generally garnished with a knife or pistol
when the men are at home in the mountains; and often, slung across the
shoulder, they carry an antiquated gun.
The Kurds wear a similar costume, but a much more extensive arsenal; and
the weapons with which they are furnished are usually of more modern
type. This forms the main tangible distinction by which it is possible
to tell a Kurd from a Syrian: but somehow a certain ruffianly swagger is
the truest hall-mark of a Kurd.
The third man who had joined our party was a certain _Rabban_ Werda
(Friar Rose) who acted as our chief lieutenant. He too, like the others,
was a deacon, but he was more usually addressed as _Rabban_; for he was
one of a queer religious order which still survives in eastern
Christendom, and which corresponds to one of the aspects assumed by
monasticism in the west. _Rabbans_--and _Rabbantas_--(for there are a
few women also in the order)--have bound themselves not to marry, not to
use a razor,[65] and not to eat flesh meat. But they do not live in
communities, nor obey any definite rule; and, except in the three
particulars mentioned, they lead much the same life as other men. It is
from the ranks of the _Rabbans_ that the Syrian episcopate is recruited;
for, by old tradition, _Abunas_ or bishops must be celibate, though the
_Qashas_ or priests are always married men.
_Rabban_ Werda in personal appearance was the image of the immortal
Sancho Panza; and he wore, with his gorgeous purple trousers, a European
frock-coat and a fez. But his worth is not to be gauged by his rather
uninspiring exterior. Though his views of our twentieth century may have
sometimes a tinge of artlessness, in his own mediæval environment he is
as intelligent and reliable a henchman as anyone need desire.
For the journey into the mountains does indeed carry us back to
mediævalism; or at least to the Highlands of Scotland as they existed
two hundred years ago. And the sensations of Bailie Nicol Jarvie on his
trip to the glens of the Lennox may be easily recaptured by a modern
tourist in the Highlands of Hakkiari to-day.
We crossed the pontoon bridge at Mosul, and the broad alluvial levels
which have silted up the ancient channel of the Tigris; and had soon
ascended once more on to that wide rolling wold which stretches to the
snow-capped mountains that lie along the horizon to the north. On our
right we left the vast enclosure which marks the site of the city of
Semiramis; and the mounds which cover those mighty ramparts which the
old Assyrian conquerors once kept festooned with the skins of captive
kings. But we have many a mile to travel before we are really clear of
the site of ancient Nineveh, for the space comprised within the walls
was only its inner nucleus; and without was a great Garden City of
mansions and parks and orchards, analogous to the present garden city
which environs the town of Van. Greater Nineveh may well have embraced
the outlying palaces of Khorsabad, and the temples of Nimrud; and this
would easily account for the "great city of three days' journey,"
(_i.e._ of about sixty miles in circumference) of which the Prophet
speaks.[66]
The annihilation of this huge metropolis is one of the most astounding
cataclysms in all the world's history. We possess its most intimate
records almost up to the hour of its agony: and those records tell only
of continual conquests, and of the building of palaces by its kings.
Then falls a sudden great silence. For fifty years we hear nothing. And
when fresh records take up the story, these are written in another
language, and in another character, and tell of cities and peoples which
have hardly been even named before. Nineveh had vanished utterly; and
within two hundred years of its fall Xenophon's army marched across the
very site of it without so much as dreaming of giving its ruins a name.
[Illustration: THE GORGE OF THE ZAB, TYARI
One of the reaches near Tal
page 284]
Other armies than Xenophon's have marched and fought over its ruins.
Here, in B.C. 331, Alexander the Great encountered the great army of
Darius at the little village of Gaugamela in the angle between the
Tigris and the Zab. This was that great "decisive battle of the world"
which was to decide the Empire of Asia, and Alexander's signal victory
laid the whole of Persia at his feet. Gaugamela is about equidistant
between Nineveh and Arbela, which lies about twenty miles from the
battlefield on the further side of the Zab river. But all Darius'
baggage and treasure were parked around Arbela; and as the pursuers
poured headlong towards the place where they would find the plunder, it
is Arbela and not Nineveh which has given its name to that day.
Here too in A.D. 627, upon the very site of Nineveh, was fought the last
battle in the long duel between the Sassanid Persians and the Byzantine
Romans. Five years previously the Emperor Heraclius, driven within the
very walls of Constantinople, had sallied from his last refuge, and had
created in northern Syria the army with which he made his last throw.
For five years he had marched and fought among the mountains of Armenia,
striking right and left with unerring judgment and with unvarying
success, at the armies which hemmed him round. At last Chosroës, brought
to bay in his turn, mustered his troops for the final struggle, and met
him on the site of Nineveh with an army of (it is said) 500,000 men. The
Persians fought with desperation, and "it was easier to kill than to
break them," but once more the skill and good fortune of the
warrior-emperor triumphed; and he himself with his own hand slew
Rhazates the Persian Commander,[67] in single combat between the armies
before the battle was joined. The power of Chosroës was crushed: but the
Romans were as much exhausted by the long-drawn struggle as the
Persians; and, within a few years, both empires alike succumbed to the
onslaught of the Mohammedans.[68]
In a bird's-eye view from the mountains this country seems all one dead
level, with the solitary height of Jebel Maklub rising like an island in
the midst. But, to the wayfarer actually traversing it, it is a range of
hills and hollows, with marshy valleys[69] intervening between sparsely
cultivated downs. A few good-sized villages are passed, the largest
being Tel Keif and Tel Uskof--each, as their names imply, grouped round
the base of an ancient _tel_: and after a long day's journey (performed
at the pace of the mules, which is rather slower than walking) we reach
the township of Alkosh, placed just at the foot of the hills.
A glance at the map would suggest that it is by no means easy to
determine the precise point where the plains end and where the mountains
begin. But actually there is no such uncertainty. The breastwork range
of the mountains rears itself up like a wall above the minor
inequalities of the plateau, and the heights stretch away right and left
continuously as though they were toeing a line. Of all the countries of
Europe, Spain is the land which is nearest in sympathy with the Orient;
and the sudden uplift of the Cantabrian mountains above the basin of the
Duero is an excellent reproduction of the rise of the Kurdistan ranges
above the plain of Mosul.
Alkosh, at the foot of the steeps, is just an unmitigated sun trap; and
the town seems positively sizzling under the blaze that is poured on it
from the south. It is a mean little hole; but its synagogue boasts a
notable shrine in the tomb of the prophet Nahum, who of course also
holds local brevet rank (like Jonah) as a Mussulman saint. Commentators
generally assert that the Elkosh of Nahum was in Palestine; but local
tradition adheres unshakenly to the claims of the Assyrian Alkosh, and
the Jews make an annual pilgrimage in order to visit this shrine. After
all there is much to be urged for it. Nahum was "of the children of the
captivity," and he certainly knew his Nineveh better than most dwellers
in Palestine can have done.
It was a weird and striking effect that we witnessed from it next
morning. The clouds lay low and horizontal above the plain beneath us;
and many of them seemed to have sunk on to the ground, and looked
exactly like lakes under the level rays of the rising sun. As his orb
rose higher they lifted, and dispersed into wreaths of vapour. How well
might such an effect have inspired the words of the Prophet, "Nineveh is
of old as a pool of water: yet they shall flee away!"
Some three miles east of Alkosh lies a great recess in the
mountains--hardly so much a valley as a deep pocket among the cliffs.
And at the end of this pocket is ensconced one of the most interesting
Christian relics in these regions--the ancient monastery of Rabban
Hormizd, the Scetis of the uttermost east. Rabban Hormizd is no western
monastery; it is a typical Oriental Laura: a rookery of independent
hermits rather than a community of monks. And to speak of it as a
"rookery" is hardly so descriptive as to call it a warren of
sand-martins; for the anchorites' cells are all caves, some natural and
some artificial, burrowed into the escarpments of a great natural
_cirque_.
Rabban Hormizd, the original and eponymous hermit, established himself
here in the eighth century; and the fame of his singular sanctity soon
drew hundreds of other eremites to the neighbourhood of his lonely
retreat. Here he lived praying, fasting, and macerating himself after
the manner of the Great St. Anthony; and wrestling mightily with the
devils who notoriously frequent such desert spots. He was evidently a
believer in "close action," for the adjoining pocket is known as the
Vale of Devils; and, appropriately enough, a little village of
"Devil-Worshippers" is situated at the mouth of it to this day.
But perhaps in the eyes of Rabban Hormizd even the very devils
themselves were not so foul an abomination as the great rival monastery
on Jebel Maklub,[70] which rises conspicuous in the midst of Mosul plain
in full sight of his cell. For Rabban Hormizd was a "Nestorian," while
the monks of Sheikh Mattai were "Jacobites;" their monastery being still
the abode of their _Maphrian_, the second dignitary in their church.
Both sects are equally obnoxious to the intermediate orthodox; but they
are even more obnoxious to each other, for they draw towards opposite
poles.
His zeal against the monks of Sheikh Mattai roused Rabban Hormizd to the
great deed of his lifetime. He actually quitted his cell (for the only
occasion on record) and started on a lone-hand raid against his
adversaries' stronghold. The monks of Sheikh Mattai received him
hospitably, and gave him lodging in their monastery. But at dead of
night he arose and groped his way to their library, where the works of
"the accursed Cyril" stood stored like cordite shells. By virtue of his
prayers he summoned up a miraculous spring in the centre of the floor,
and carefully washed every line of writing off every page of their
books! Then leaving them a collection of nice clean leaves free from
every taint of heresy, he departed joyfully to his hermitage and
thereafter stirred from it no more.
This scandalous transaction was of course accounted to him for
righteousness; and indeed Oriental religious controversies continue to
be conducted on very similar lines to this day!
The monastery of Rabban Hormizd has always been kept going ever since
the date of its foundation; but now it is only the _Succursale_ of the
big modern monastery established on the plains below it, and there are
but some four or five monks still left in the old mother house. They are
Uniat Nestorians who have submitted themselves to the Papacy, and are
consequently not at all in charity with the independent Nestorian church
from which they have seceded. Hearing that we were going to Tyari, the
home of the independent Nestorians, they inquired artlessly "Pray, do
you know anything of a deacon there? one Werda, a _very_ wicked
person--a tall man with a red beard?" (Our deacon is short and rotund,
and his beard is black).
"I am _Shamasha_ Werda," replied that worthy with a twinkle.
"Oh! but we don't think you can be the man we mean!" protested our hosts
in some consternation.
"Oh, yes! I am," persisted the delighted deacon.[71]
Despite this _contretemps_, however, we got on with our hosts very
amicably. They fed us with tea and cake, and wine from their own
vineyard; and finished by conducting us over their monastery and showing
us all the sights.
The place must be a furnace in summer time, for the _cirque_ faces due
southward; the tawny precipices are completely destitute of vegetation,
and must radiate the heat mercilessly all round that breathless pit. In
the caves would lurk such coolness as was going; but the lack of water
must have been a sore trial in summer. Hermits, however, are generally
credited with requiring a very moderate supply.
The cells lie some way up the ramp, and are reached by a steep zigzag
pathway. How many of them there may be we do not pretend to guess; but
we think we may safely say hundreds; for they extend laterally for
several hundred yards along the concave sweep of the corrie, and (like
the port-holes of an old line-of-battle ship) they are ranged up in tier
above tier. They are not of any uniform pattern, like the older
hermitages at Dara; and some few (probably those which have been most
recently occupied) are furnished with windows and doors. A series of
narrow pathways and rude rock staircases strings the whole assortment
together, and by these the solitaries were enabled to assemble at their
church.
Here and there the main pathway is barred by the erection of a rude
arched gateway: but the only real building is the church, which is
terraced out on a buttress of rock. This church is comparatively modern,
dating from about 1500; but behind it, jammed against the face of the
cliff, is another and much older church erected in the ninth or tenth
century, and adorned with some nice bits of carving somewhat similar to
the Runic work of our own land. Behind this again, excavated in the rock
itself, is the veritable cell of Rabban Hormizd--a chamber some eight
feet square, and approached by a sort of winding rabbit burrow. The
original door and window of this cell are now closed, the church having
been built up against it; and the grave of the hermit is placed in one
of the walls, at a spot which is situated immediately behind the altar.
The church of Rabban Hormizd is very much "Lord of Name," that is it
enjoys great repute as a place of pilgrimage; and the virtue for which
it is chiefly celebrated is the healing of the insane, or (as they are
more commonly called in this country) the "possessed." The lunatic
(often quite willing) is solemnly conducted to the church, and is
tethered up in it for the night with a ponderous iron chain and collar
affixed to a staple in the wall.[72] By morning (unless he is very mad
indeed) he will usually profess himself cured. Quite a number of other
mountain churches can boast a similar reputation, but their methods of
treatment (as will be hereafter related) are often more drastic still.
We rejoined our caravan at the mouth of the gorge, and pursued our way
steadily eastward along the foot of the mountains; passing first the
village of Baadri, dominated by Ali Beg's castle, and then rejoining the
road which we had followed previously on our visit to the Yezidi shrine.
Some two hours beyond Ain Sufni, we reached the river Gomel, a fairly
large mountain stream; and here we swung round to the left, perhaps half
a mile up the river, in order to get a passing glimpse of the famous
"Picture Rocks" of Bavian.[73]
The Gomel emerges from the mountains by a flat-bottomed winding valley
shut in on either hand by vertical walls of rock; and along the cliffs
on the right bank a little above the point of exit, hangs that
marvellous gallery of "pictures" so well known to Assyriologists. The
principal bas-relief is a huge square panel, graven on the face of a
rock bastion which immediately overhangs the stream. It comprises four
gigantic figures; now wofully battered and weather-beaten, but awesome
beyond all telling in the loneliness of that desolate glen. Some dozen
smaller panels are ranged above it, along an upper story of the cliff;
and at its foot two great detached stone tables lie half submerged in
the waters of the stream. The design of the big panel is self-repeating,
each half being mirrored by the other; and this circumstance is of great
assistance in deciphering the details of the work. For, some thousand
years after the carvings were executed, a party of mis-begotten hermits
came to settle down in the valley, and burrowed a set of cells for
themselves along the face of the cliff. Two or three of these vandals
chose to excavate immediately behind the great panel, and cut out their
windows in the middle of it, quite regardless of the "idols" outside.
With fortunate carelessness, however, they did not do their damage
symmetrically, and the portions destroyed upon one side remain on the
other intact. The subject is King Sennacherib making an offering to the
goddess Ishtar; and the inscription records the destruction of Babylon,
which had rebelled against him at the commencement of his reign, and
which he took and razed to the ground.
The panels on the cliff above are all identical with each other. They
have semi-circular heads, and are carved with the figure of the king. Of
the two great slabs in the water, one bears on its face three
figures--apparently the god Bel and two worshippers--and is carved on
one of the angles into a small human-headed bull. The second is so much
eroded that it is impossible to distinguish the design.
It seems that the cliffs of the Gomel were one of the principal quarries
which supplied the materials for constructing the ancient palaces of
Nineveh. Most of the great slabs were quarried from the upper beds of
the limestone, and were brought down to the river bank, at the foot of
the principal bas-relief, by a broad inclined way which can still be
distinctly traced. Down this they could be lowered on rollers, and would
then be safely deposited upon the spit of sand and shingle piled up
under the bank by the river; for this work would be done in summer, at a
time when the waters were low. The gravel beneath the slab would then be
dug away in sections; and, bit by bit, there would be inserted under it
a wicker-framed raft or _keleg_ supported on inflated skins. Given a
sufficiency of skins such a raft can be made to float anything, and in
autumn, when the river rose again, the slab would be floated down to the
Tigris, and landed under the walls of Nineveh near the palace for which
it was destined. The two slabs now lying in the water were evidently
intended to be transported in this manner, but for some cause (which we
can now only guess at) they were eventually abandoned unshipped.
Possibly they were mis-handled and damaged. Possibly the building of the
palace was interrupted by the assassination of Sennacherib, and was
never resumed subsequently when Esarhaddon had quelled Sharezer's
revolt.
It is conceivable that the great panel also would eventually have been
cut from the rock behind it, lowered on to the spit beneath, and
dispatched in similar fashion; but it is perhaps more likely that this
was always intended to remain as a permanent monument in its present
site. The smaller panels along the crest of the cliff do not look as if
they had been destined for removal. They were probably carved for mere
"swank," to give dignity to the royal quarries; or to keep the carvers'
hands in, at a time when contract work was slack.
The handling and moving of the ponderous blocks habitually employed by
the ancients would tax even modern constructors, with all the resources
of machinery and steam power which nowadays they have at command. But
the Assyrians (like the Romans after them) could avail themselves of a
limitless amount of dirt-cheap labour. The hordes of captives taken in
their wars had to be used somehow; and no one raised any objection if
they were rather rapidly used up. Men cost less than oxen or asses, and
their strength could be applied more effectively. They could be drilled
to keep step, and to give their tugs in unison. Moreover the old
Oriental task-masters possessed an asset which we have lost--a supreme
scorn for being unduly hurried. They could well afford to spend a
generation or so on buildings which were designed to endure for
centuries, and which might have endured for millennia if only they had
been left alone.
But even their works of utility have been no more spared by posterity
than the tablets which recorded their learning, or the palaces which
were the trophies of their pride. And such a work also had its source at
the quarries in the Gomel valley; one of those splendid irrigating
channels which used to feed the desert with the waters of life.[74] Its
course can be traced for some distance alongside the banks of the river;
where for yards upon yards the ample conduit is hewn through spurs of
solid rock. Werda had seen further remains of it far away on the plains
to the southward; "and the villagers were carrying off the stone facing
of the embankments to use in building their huts." It was "only the work
of infidels," and consequently fair loot for anyone. Now European
engineers are labouring to re-establish what might have been so easily
preserved.
The "Pictures of Bavian" are at least exempt from the fate which has
befallen most pictures. They are fixed for ever immovably in the
position for which they were designed. They are like some forgotten "Old
Master" which still hangs tarnished and ill-lit above the altar where it
was dedicated; and which shows there far more nobly than when restored
and exhibited in a brand-new gilded frame on a glaring gallery wall.
There are far finer Assyrian sculptures in the Louvre and the British
Museum than the grim, gaunt, battered sentinels that keep watch over the
Gomel vale. But ranged along a Bloomsbury corridor they are obviously
mere graven images; while enthroned amid the solitudes of their own
eerie mountains they seem to be the very gods themselves.
There are several similar bas-reliefs scattered here and there about the
mountains--some fairly well preserved like those at Malthaiyah between
Dohuk and Alkosh, some now almost obliterated like that by the gate of
Amadia. The great king seems to have delighted in setting his seal upon
any conspicuous point that was reached by his conquering armies: and to
this day that instinct re-asserts itself in the behaviour of Private
Atkins, who delights to carve the badge of his regiment upon any
conspicuous precipice in Afghanistan.
A caravan moves but slowly, but it generally wants to keep moving, and
the novice who is travelling with it finds that he is allowed few
lengthy halts. The old stagers always seem thinking of some point a
little way ahead which they would much prefer to have behind them.
Sometimes it is a bad bit of road which can only be traversed in broad
daylight; sometimes a river which may suddenly be rendered unfordable by
the intervention of an unforeseen spate. On this stage the unknown
factor was the conduct of the Khozr river, a much more considerable
stream than the Gomel, which lay some four hours further east; and whose
behaviour on the present occasion was more problematical than usual
because the dark clouds to the northward might imply heavy rain in the
hills.
"Rabbi Mr. Wigram" had lively recollections of his last experiences with
the Khozr. He had been kept for three days on the banks of it, waiting
for the floods to subside. And he had forded it at last "in his birthday
suit," with the water over his horse's withers, and his clothes slung
over his shoulders to keep them out of the wet. We are wont to deride
the rustic who _expectat dum defluat amnis_; but our derision only
shows our own ignorance as much as his expectancy showed his. The rustic
was quite well acquainted with the behaviour of his own mountain rivers,
and knew that when they were in spate there was simply nothing else to
be done.
And our chances of passing the Khozr were rendered additionally dubious
by the fact that none of our party knew the right road to take for the
fords. The _zaptiehs_ had never been in this district and could offer us
no assistance. The _Rabbi Effendi_ had approached the river from a
different direction, and that some years before. We caught a guide in
one of the villages; but as his first step was to ask the way himself at
the very next village that we came to, we grew distrustful of his
capacity and dismissed him again to his home. Few of the inhabitants
ever stray beyond the bounds of their own village, and on a more
extended excursion they are often hopelessly at sea.
Thus thrown on our own resources we took a bee-line across the moorland,
steering our course by the light of nature and by a very small scale
map. And fortune so far favoured us that we found the river in its very
mildest mood; and though we had struck it at none of the recognized
fording-places, there was no difficulty in getting across.
But safe on the further bank our perplexities recommenced again. The
dusk was falling rapidly, and we needed a lodging for the night. By now
we should have been at Khalilka, a prosperous and desirable village,
which is part of the private estate of the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, and
which on that account enjoys immunity from taxes and conscription and
raids.[75] But of course in missing the fords we had also missed
Khalilka, and not knowing whether it were above or below us, were
uncertain which way to turn. However, it was tolerably obvious that if
we followed the river either way we should presently find a village of
some sort; and a little distance down the left bank we alighted upon a
straggling hamlet of miserable Kurdish hovels, which we unanimously
accepted as being "Hobson's choice."
Of course no _khan_ is to be looked for in any of these outlying
villages, and it is customary for the traveller to quarter himself upon
the _rais_ or head man. He will obtain fire and shelter, and liberty to
eat his own provisions, and possibly (if he is fortunate) will be able
to purchase bread. Such entertainment should be requited, if mine host
is poor, in money; if he is a person of importance, by some kind of
trifling gift. Hospitality is hardly ever refused even to the humblest
wayfarer, and public opinion quite backs a man who enforces it if it is
denied.
In the present case the only shelter available was the veranda of the
_rais'_ house; which afforded us a roof certainly, but no outer
wall--only a wattle hurdle about five feet high. Here, however, we
kindled a fire, and packed ourselves in pretty comfortably; though the
night was made constantly hideous by the howling of the village dogs.
Their uproar was not unjustified, for (as we were informed next morning)
a scavenging pack of "you-eë-yahs" had been prowling round the hamlet
all night. A "you-eë-yah" is a sort of hyæna which haunts the
neighbourhood of villages, and gives intimation of its presence by
incessantly howling out its own name. It is known alternatively as a
_Ghul_ or _Sheitan_ because it is addicted to digging up and devouring
the corpses buried in the graveyards; a foul and stealthy brute, but not
dangerous to man. We had heard the howls all night intermittently
between the volleys of barking, but had thought it was only the village
cats taking their share in the row.
Next day the road was easier to follow; not because it was marked more
clearly, but because its direction was defined by a string of Mohammedan
cemeteries which were dotted across the moorland at intervals of three
or four miles. These are small square walled enclosures, generally with
a _santon's_ tomb in the middle, and with tall slender Moslem
head-stones marking some of the principal graves. The country was open
and undulating, but everywhere barren and pebbly; one can hardly as yet
call it stony, as that more emphatic word will be urgently needed later
on. Here and there were traces of villages; but these were all abandoned
and ruined, with nothing left but foundations, or a fragment or two of
broken wall. The only inhabited villages stood high on the hills
overlooking us, generally with an Agha's castle planted somewhat
aggressively in the midst.
There is something unnatural in this desertion, for the land might
obviously be cultivated, and within the walls of the cemeteries there
stand many well-grown trees.[76] But the key to the flight of the
inhabitants is not the parsimony of nature:
_Rookhope stands in a pleasant place_
_If the false thieves wad let it be._
And this essential condition is very conspicuously lacking in the
country between Bavian and Akra, not to mention several districts
further north; for across this ground twice a year pass that horde of
human locusts, the wandering Heriki tribesmen; and one skinning every
six months is more than any village can survive.
The Heriki are a large tribe of Kurdish nomads who possess no permanent
domicile. They encamp in winter on the plain of Mosul, and in summer on
the loftier and cooler plateau of Urmi; and with all their flocks and
herds and their other possessions, they migrate every spring from Mosul
to Urmi, and every autumn from Urmi to Mosul. It is not a good thing for
a village to lie in the track of the Heriki, for everything that is not
too hot or too heavy they annex and carry away. They "lift" the sheep
and cattle first; then the rugs and kettles and pitchers and the scanty
household plenishing; and they leave their hapless entertainers with
nothing but bare walls and rags.
We had learned something of their thoroughness at our last night's
lodgings on the Khozr; for in the veranda of the _rais'_ house we had
found three or four large bales, securely corded up in pieces of carpet,
and had casually asked what they were. Our poor host replied
despondently that he was "warehousing" them for the Heriki. They would
call upon him and claim them when next they passed that way. No; they
paid him nothing for "warehousing," but he had to be responsible for
them; and he had to restore four-fold if any of the contents were lost.
"And what is in them?" we asked. The poor wretch grew even more
dejected. "Oh, it is all my own property; my own rugs and cooking pots,"
he replied. "That is to say part of it mine, and part the property of
the other villagers, which the Heriki took from us when they plundered
the village last time!"
So complete was the reign of terror which the impudent scoundrels had
established, and so powerless was the Government to keep their
depredations in check, that they could actually dragoon their victims
into keeping their own plunder till they called for it, and go off for
six months quite confident that their orders would be implicitly obeyed!
Our day's stage ended at Akra; a considerable mountain township and the
seat of a Turkish _kaimakam_, a departmental governor, subordinate in
the present instance to the _Vali_ of the province of Mosul. Akra
displays itself most imposingly to a traveller approaching from the
westward, and indeed forms a striking spectacle from whatever point it
is viewed. Behind it a group of steep-pitched ridges are gabled out from
the main mountain chain like a range of gigantic dormers, and drop down
in rugged hipped ends to the level plain far below. Their crests are
hacked and indented like the "dissipated saw" of the Bab Ballads, and
the intervening gorges are half choked with the avalanches of boulders
which have cascaded down their flanks. The lower portions of these
gorges are filled with trees which grow in the terraced garden plots
alongside the little rivulets, but the upper slopes are all bare and
tawny like broken craters of half-baked clinker brick.
[Illustration: ORAMAR.
Looking northward across the gorge towards the crags of Supa Durig
between Jilu and Baz.
No. 6]
One of the most prominent of these ridges breaks down into a sort of
saddle, and surges up again into a rocky knoll before its final descent
to the plain; and across this saddle are hung the houses of Akra, with
the ruined fragments of its ancient citadel crowning the highest
point of the rocky ridge above. The bulk of the town overflows into the
ravine on the western side, where the houses are ranged round the sweep
of the hollow like the stepped seats of an amphitheatre. So steep are
the slopes on which they lie that the roof of each house serves as a
front yard to its next door neighbour, or perhaps one should say to its
neighbour on the next story; and the streets are all so narrow that they
are quite undiscernible from a distance, though one of them is in fact
wide enough to accommodate a rudimentary bazaar.
Akra does not boast a _khan_, but our _zaptiehs_ had already decided for
us at what house we were to spend the evening. We were to put up with
the _malmudir_, the departmental treasurer;[77] and one of our escort
had already spurred ahead to inform that worthy functionary of the treat
that was in store for him. This seemed rather an arbitrary proceeding,
but the _malmudir_ quite acquiesced in it. We met him at the entrance to
the town, walking out to make us welcome; a young and pleasant looking
man, who greeted us in French very hospitably, and guided us up the
steep stepped streets to his house on the saddle above.
None of the houses in Akra can be called in any way palatial, and
probably the _malmudir's_ lodging was a typical residence of the better
class. He occupied a single apartment on the first floor, the big
landing outside serving as his kitchen and servant's room, and the
ground floor consisting only of an entrance hall and lumber room. The
furniture of his living room (as usual) consisted only of carpets and
cushions. The windows were set very low down, so that one could see out
of them comfortably when squatting on the floor; and above them were
square recesses which served as receptacles for books.
He gave us a capital supper, consisting of fried eggs, rissoles wrapped
in cabbage, and a curry of meat and fruit. This was served in several
dishes on one large tray, round which we all sat cross-legged straying
from dish to dish with our wooden spoons. We had only one tumbler
between the three of us, which we all used in turn; and the meal was
concluded with the usual tiny cups of coffee.[78]
Meanwhile he poured out his woes to us: woes with which we could
heartily sympathize, and which afforded an instructive commentary upon
the progress of Turkish "Reform." He himself was a native of Aleppo, a
Syrian Catholic Christian. He had been duly trained for his post in the
Government offices at Constantinople; and had received his present
appointment in pursuance of that great Principle which was first
enunciated at the Revolution, recognizing that Christians and Moslems
should possess equal standing in the State. This admirable theory worked
fairly in Constantinople itself, and even at the more accessible
provincial capitals such as Smyrna and Aleppo; but alas for its
practical efficacy in such out-of-the-way districts as Mosul! It would
take at least a generation for reform to filter through here! Here all
the administrative offices had been long since cornered by the
invincibly corrupt "Old Gang;" a set of pig-headed reactionaries whose
dead weight nothing could shift. What use was it to tell them that
Christians and Moslems were equal, when the Koran expressly stated that
they were emphatically not? Why should they use the powers that were
their inalienable birthright to make true believers obey a Christian
dog?
Accordingly the poor _malmudir_ found himself cold-shouldered and
thwarted at every turn by the officials who were nominally his
colleagues; by the _cadi_, or judge of the district; by the _binbashi_
who controlled the police. They persistently refused to support him in
carrying out his own duties, particularly if the defaulters whom he
wished to bring to book chanced to be their own private friends; and
their continual snubbing of him had infected even his own subordinates
who obeyed him grudgingly and reluctantly. The _kaimakam_, his immediate
chief, had indeed always shown himself friendly; but even with his
support he felt he could make no headway; and, though still but new to
his office, he was already sick of the job. Indeed he had already
written twice to the _Vali_ begging to be transferred to Beirut or
Aleppo, but as yet he had received no answer. This however, we privately
thought, was not surprising; for Tahir Pasha never answers anybody; and
every official in his _vilayet_ would like to be transferred to Beirut
or Aleppo if he could!
Of course it is not at all improbable that centuries of subjection have
left the Christians in Turkey constitutionally unfit for positions of
authority: that, for all their superior intelligence, they are at
present as incapable of governing Turks and Kurds and Arabs as the
Bengali Babus are of governing Pathans and Sikhs. But even if the power
is latent in them, it is bound at first to be exercised in the face of
intense resentment; and this fact will long constitute a formidable
obstacle to any constitutional reform.
It seemed that the _malmudir's_ welcome to us was to some extent
accounted for by the distinction which European visitors would confer
upon him in the eyes of his carping colleagues. He was earnest with us
to remain as his guests for a second day in order that he might exhibit
us; but from this we begged to excuse ourselves as we could not spare
the time. However, _faute de mieux_, we might at least call on the
_kaimakam_, and thither our host conducted us as soon as we had finished
our coffee.
The _kaimakam_ resided in the Government House, a dilapidated two-story
building disposed around a forlorn courtyard and generally resembling a
_khan_. It was picturesque enough in a slummy way, and the groups of
soldiers snoozing under the lanterns in the deep entrance archway would
merit yet higher commendation. But there was little enough of
traditional "Oriental glamour" about the dirty white-washed walls; and
the governor's official audience hall resembled an ill-kept village
school-room. Conversation turned on the Italian war; a subject on which
all parties were profoundly ignorant; for we had heard nothing since
leaving Europe, and the _kaimakam_ nothing but what Government channels
allowed to filter through. The Government does not encourage the
dissemination of inauspicious news; and herein no doubt they act
prudently, for such news might easily excite the Kurds to break out in
reprisals against the nearest Christians. But it is certainly somewhat
amazing to discover how thoroughly authentic intelligence can be
stifled. They had heard of nothing but Turkish victories: have very
likely heard nothing else to this day.[79]
Two or three of the prominent residents dropped in to chat while we were
sitting there; but the resident whom we would most have wished to see
was unfortunately not among them. For among the inhabitants of Akra is
an old gentleman of the bluest blood in Asia--the last living descendant
of the Khalif Harun al Raschid the hero of the Arabian Nights. Akra
formed a part of the Abbassides' ancestral principality before they
attained to the Khalifate; and when their dynasty was overthrown by the
Seljuk Sultans in 1050, it was to their ancient patrimony that they
retired again. Now even this last possession has also slipped through
their fingers; and the poor old survivor, though his social status is
impregnable, lives on, as a private citizen of Akra, in very reduced
circumstances indeed.
Our final impressions of Akra were gleaned in the bazaar, and induce us
to rank it more highly as a centre of sport than of business. "Rabbi Mr.
Wigram" had needed some trifling repair to his boots, and had
accordingly sent them overnight to a cobbler. But when the boots were
returned next morning, the part that needed repair had been ignored
completely, and the repairer had only displayed his forethought by
appropriating the English nails.
Akra, however, in this respect had certainly shown more enterprize than
Mosul; for the _Sheikh Birader Effendi_ had previously tried his fortune
there. He had the prescience to allow three days for the job; but when
the boots were demanded on the morning of the fourth day they had not
even lost their nails. Friday (it was explained) had been the Mohammedan
Sabbath, and Saturday the Jewish, and Sunday the Christian; and no doubt
a Bank Holiday on Monday was only averted by the fact of the boots being
prematurely reclaimed.[80]
The second incident at Akra was of a still more farcical character. A
Kurd had come in from the mountains in order to purchase a mule, and
after a good deal of chaffering had traded off a pistol in exchange. The
seller had promptly proceeded to test the purchase money by the rather
drastic method of firing a bullet through his leg; and, on the accident
being reported to us, we had deemed it our duty to go and volunteer
"first aid." The patient, however, was quite content with his own
remedies, and not at all anxious to experiment in new-fangled treatment
_a la Franga_. He was plugging the hole himself with a mixture of butter
and cow dung which he was poking in with a stick! Probably this dressing
possesses some kind of antiseptic qualities; for it is much favoured in
the mountains, and somehow does not seem to prevent the wounds healing.
But perhaps the cure results not by virtue, but in spite, of the remedy,
for with these tough-fibred mountaineers "first intention" will hardly
be denied.