ten minutes during the night. Sometimes, the alarm was wellfounded, and nothing but a general muster and display of our force, in a state for immediate action, prevented the attacks of several bodies of Koords, formed in different quarters to assail us; at other times, the alarm was groundless, and arose from the idle discharges of pistols and muskets within our own camp: between both, however, sleep, or even bodily repose, was unattainable; so that I burned with impatience to commence our dangerous march.

a deer, which was a pleasant but very dangerous sight to us. When they shewed themselves, so as if they would fall upon us instantly, we drew our caravan close together, in order to resist them. Wherefore we stood still, and tied our beasts together, and bound the fore feet of each of them, that they could not stir; behind them stood our mockery, [Mookeri, or camel drivers,] with their bows, and all those that were not well provided with arms and horses either to shoot at the enemy, or else, in case of necessity, if they should come too near us, to sally out, and cut off their horses with our scymitars. Near unto us our horses were drawn up into a troop, ready for their assault, to venture their success. After a whole hour's delay, we sent at length two of our company to them, and they sent also two of theirs to meet them to parley together; but which way they made up an agreement I know not, but they prevailed so much with them, that soon after they left us, and rode away, and we went on in our journey. After this, we kept our caravan, (that is so much as to say, a great many people, with loaden camels, asses, and horses,) in far better order than we had done before, and came that same day a good way to a small village, where we encamped and staid all night."-pp. 169–171.

JULY 3d. We quitted our station on the plain, just as the moon was setting, and although we had now an additional escort of eighty well-armed and well-mounted men, our whole party did not exceed in number two hundred persons.

Soon after commencing our night-march, going in a direction of east-south-east, we passed over a deep ravine, filled with large basaltic masses, forming a vein in the earth, like the deep and winding bed of a torrent. The rest of our way was over desert ground, though the whole tract was capable of being rendered highly fertile, being covered with a good soil, and intersected by several small rivulets of water.

It was soon after the rising of the Pleiades, or just before the

first gleam of dawn appeared, that we formed our halt, at a spot called Romoila, for the sake of filling our vessels with water, as our next stage was to be a night one, through which we might not find any supply of this indispensable provision. This march was intended to be prolonged without a halt, until we should arrive on the banks of the Tigris, in order that we might thus pass over this dangerous plain of Sinjar by night, and escape the prying sight of the Yezeedis under the cover of darkness.*

The prayers of El Fudjer, or day-break, were performed by all the members of the caravan, with an unusual degree of solemnity, evidently betraying an extraordinary degree of apprehension, and proving that fear was a more powerful incentive than devotion to the exercise of this duty. Among the rest, was one individual who repeated aloud the call to prayer, in a fine voice, and after the peculiar manner of Medina, the native city of the Prophet, which differs from the common invocation, though both of them are peculiar to the Soonnee sect. This was, by some, highly admired, by others, thought an impertinent innovation, at such a place and at such a moment, and, by a third party, it was laughed at, as highly ludicrous. There was indeed just the same diversity of opinion on the merits of this fashion, as there would be in a country village in

* "Les Yézidis sont censés dépendre du pacha de Moussol, qui leur permet de venir acheter de temps en temps des provisions dans les villages de son département; mais ils n'en sont pas moins grands voleurs, et toujours en guerre avec les Arabes de la Mésopotamie: ils ont pour armes, le fusil à mèche, la fronde et la pique. Les caravanes souffrent beaucoup de leurs brigandages; cependant elles ne sont jamais dépouillées complètement par ces bandits, qui ont coutume de les attaquer à l'un des bouts, et n'emportent que ce qui peut servir à leur nourriture, ou à leur habillement. Je ferai remarquer ici que les pachas de Bagdad ont essayé à différentes époques de réduire les Yézidis, en les attaquant avec des forces considérables; mais ils n'ont jamais pu en venir à bout. Ali-pacha, qui a tenté depuis peu la même enterprise, n'y a pas été plus heureux que ses prédécesseurs: on sait que son expédition contre cette race d'hommes agrestes et endurcis par les travaux, n'a abouti qu'à détruire trois ou quatre de leurs villages, et à massacrer ou emmener en esclavage quelques misérables familles, dont la conversion forcée à l'islamisme ne le dédommagera certainement pas de ses fatigues et de ses dépenses."-Description du Pachalik de Bagdad, p. 98, 99.

England, on the introduction of any new mode of singing the psalms, or chaunting the Litany of the Church Service.

As the Hadjee's tent was now crowded with the horsemen who formed our escort, and who, from their numbers and consequence, were here the lords paramount, every one of his usual guests was obliged to erect for himself some temporary shelter from the searching rays of the noon-day sun. There was not a breath of air stirring: the thermometer, under the shade of a double cloak spread overhead, stood at 118°, an hour before noon, and at two o'clock was 126°, while the parched state of the country, the dead calm, and the glare reflected from the desert plain, made our situation more oppressive to the feelings than any description can convey an accurate idea of. At the same moment, while thus fainting under so exhausting an atmosphere, we had in view before us, to the north-east, the lofty mountains of Koordistan, covered with snow, the very contrast of which served to increase our desire after a colder region, and to render us more impatient under our suffering in the present.

Our course through the preceding night had been from one to two points southward of east, and the extent of our journey not more than ten miles, in four hours of march, from the last stage of our encampment at Chehel Aga, to the place of our present halt, at Romoila. It was at about an equal distance from both of these, or near the centre of our route, that we passed a stream called Dama Kaupy. The town of Jezeereh was spoken of as being about the same distance from hence, in a direction of north-north-east, as Nisibeen is in a direction of west-north-west. In describing its size, when in the height of its splendour, the people of the country say, that it had three hundred and sixty-six mosques, or as many as there are days in the year, which is not, however, to be taken literally, meaning merely an indefinitely great number. The buildings in this town, like those of Diarbekr, are all constructed of black basalt, which gives it the same dark appearance, and has obtained for it among the Turks the same characteristic appellation of Kara, or black. It

is said to be, even in its present ruined state, as large as Orfah; but all acknowledge that it is not so agreeable, or so well-built a city. The supplies of gall-nuts, which are brought to it from the mountains of Koordistan, and exported from thence to Aleppo, are the chief source of wealth and occupation to the inhabitants, who are principally Koords, with a small proportion of Arabs and Turks.

This town does not boast a very high antiquity. Its name is purely Arabic, signifying an island; and though now applied particularly to the town, was anciently the general name of all Mesopotamia, or the whole space between the Tigris and Euphrates.* Benjamin of Tudela describes the Jezeereh of the present day, under the name of "Gezir ben Ghamar," which he places at "two days' journey from Netsibin." He says, it was "surrounded by the Tigris," from which feature it probably derived its name; "and was seated at the foot of Mount Taurus," as he calls the mountains of Koordistan," at the distance of four miles from the spot where the Ark of Noah reposed." This town was then the metropolis of all Mesopotamia, and contained, according to the Rabbi's report, about four thousand Jews. The population is greatly lessened since then, and the town declined in consequence; but the local features, both of the site of the city, and the place of the mountain, on which the Ark of Noah is believed to have rested, still remain unchanged.

Having filled our water from the small stream at Romoila, and made such other arrangements as were deemed necessary for our next long march, we began, after the public prayers of noon, in which all joined, to load our camels, and quitted our encampment at one o'clock. We now went to the south-east, over the plain, observing nothing peculiar in the way, except three small eminences, which we passed at equal intervals between noon and sun-set, the hills being called respectively Tal Fraat, Tal Howa, and Tal Moos, each serving as landmarks for our course, and elevated points of observation, like many others of a similar kind, scattered over the face of these desert wastes.

* Bibliothèque Orientale, vol. ii. p. 111.