Chapter II: Preface: To First Edition

It requires at least four persons to compound a salad sauce, say the Spaniards. The requisite incompatibilities can never co-exist in one. A spendthrift should squander the oil, and a miser dole out the vinegar. A wise man should dispense the salt, and a madman should do the stirring.

Similarly, it has been stated that it takes two people at least to write a book of travel; a newcomer to give the first impressions and an old resident to reveal the true inwardness of things.

Though the quality of the ingredients must remain of more importance than the proportions, the authors of the present volume hope that at least the latter are correct. One of the writers has spent but three months in the country, the other has lived there for ten years. One was quite ignorant of the East, and spoke no word of any Oriental language; the other had become so intimate with the tribesmen of his own locality, that they had even begun to tell him of their superstitions--the last secret that they ever disclose.

And the country itself possesses most intense and varied interest. It contains some of the grandest scenery, and some of the most venerable monuments in the world. It is the very _fons et origo_ of our Indo-European ancestors. Its traditions connect it with the Garden of Eden, with Noah, and with Abraham. Its folk-lore preserves the old Nature-worship which originated in the brains of the Ape-man. Its history records the very dawn of civilization, and the rise and fall of the earliest of the great empires. The every-day life of its present inhabitants is to this hour the life of the Patriarchs, the life of Europe in the Dark Ages, the life of the Highlands of Scotland in the days of Stewart Kings.

It is not an accessible country, even when judged by half-civilized standards. It is visited on sufferance only, even by its nominal rulers themselves. Fortune has given to the authors the opportunity of travelling through it, and of residing in it, and they have ventured to set down in these chapters the impressions it has left upon their minds.

The opportunity of residence in this country, it may be stated, came to one of the authors through his membership of the "Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Mission." This Mission (which consists of five or six clergy of the Church of England) has been maintained in the district in question, by successive Archbishops, for a period of about twenty-five years. It exists at the request of the Patriarch and other authorities of the "Nestorian" or "Assyrian" Church, and it works with the object of educating the clergy and laity of that body, without disturbing them in their membership of their own ancient and interesting communion.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY 1 (ALEPPO AND URFA)

II. A LAND OF DUST AND ASHES 24 (DIARBEKR AND MARDIN)

III. THE MARCHES OF ANCIENT ROME 47 (DARA AND NISIBIN)

IV. THE BURDEN OF NEWER NINEVEH 69 (MOSUL)

V. THE TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL 87 (SHEIKH ADI)

VI. THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS 111 (RABBAN HORMIZD, BAVIAN, AND AKRA)

VII. AN ORIENTAL VICH IAN VOHR 134 (THE SHEIKH OF BARZAN)

VIII. A MASTER OF MISRULE 158 (NERI AND JILU)

IX. THE DEBATABLE LAND 176 (GAWAR, MERGAWAR, AND TERGAWAR)

X. TWIGS OF A WITHERED EMPIRE 196 (URMI)

XI. A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH 221 (URMI TO VAN)

XII. A SLOUGH OF DISCONTENT 235 (VAN)

XIII. THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN 262 (QUDSHANIS)

XIV. THE GREAT CAÑONS 284 (TYARI AND TKHUMA)

XV. INTRUDERS IN A PANDEMONIUM 311 (AMADIA AND BOHTAN)

XVI. GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES 339 (MOSUL TO BAGHDAD)

XVII. OUR SMALLEST ALLY 359

XVIII. DEAD SEA FRUIT 392

GLOSSARY 417

INDEX 421

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PRINTED SEPARATELY

1. THE RIVER OF EDEN _Frontispiece_

_Facing Page_

2.MOSUL 33

3. SHEIKH ADI 48

4. THE "PICTURE ROCKS" OF BAVIAN 81

5. AKRA 96

6. ORAMAR 129

7. THE HERIKI VALLEY 144

8. THE MOUNTAINS OF TKHUMA AND JILU 176

9. THE CITADEL ROCK, VAN 209

10. THE QUDSHANIS MOUNTAINS 224

11. CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA, QUDSHANIS 257

12. A MOUNTAIN BRIDGE 272

13. THE GORGE OF THE ZAB, TYARI 305

14. TRAVELLING IN LOWER TKHUMA 320

15. CHAL 353

16. ENTRANCE TO AMADIA 368

IN THE TEXT

17. THE MOUNTAINS OF DIZ AND TAL,
FROM THE PASS ABOVE QUDSHANIS 366

18. A BIT OF THE ROAD BETWEEN TAL AND JULAMERK 372

PLANS IN THE TEXT

GREAT GRANARY OF DARAS 51

CHURCH OF ST. JAMES AT NISIBIS 59

THE YEZIDI TEMPLE AT SHEIKH ADI 95

CHURCH OF MAR B'ISHU 185

QUDSHANIS: CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA 273

TEMPLE OF ISHTAR'I BABYLON 355

MAP of EASTERN KURDISTAN with inset of mesopotamia (insert at end)

THE CRADLE OF MANKIND