21st October. Deir 1900
My wife being still unwell & weak
I preferred to go to Bagdad from here by Mossoul
as we will have only eight days only with the
caravan to this last place.& from their we will
have to go by Kelek to Baghdad. It was very hard for
me to decide The muleteer to come by this way as he is engaged
from Aleppo to Bagdad direct, anyhow I enduced
him to undertake this route by giving him
a £ extra.
The Archbishop Monseigneur Rahmani is going
also to Mossoul thus we decided to accompany
him. The hour of our departure was announced
for noon. Therefore we hastely packed our luggage
& other things and at 12 exactly we left the house
of Mr. Razooki Dinha (who is coming with us) & we
went on foot to the other side of Deir & crossed
the small bridge & went again further more
were their is again another crossing of a small
embranchement of the Euphrates, but this fearful
crossing is made by a kind of small barge
all dirty & chapless. We arrived to this place
at half past twelve & stayed till 4 awaiting
the crossing of our mules & luggage. we were
very annoyed thus awaiting & incircled by
hundreds of savage arabs & brutes. At last
the Archbishop arrived from town with a
hundred persons and at 4½ p.m. we crossed
the river to the other side where all the caravan
was awaiting with our tektersin & the cariage
of M Rahmani.
22.10.900 We started all together at 5 p.m. exactly
towards the plain desert & we intended to march
till the morning as our station is about twelve
hours. Marie mounted the horse & I walked
till 7, then Marie stayed in the tektersin & I mounted
the horse. At 10 p.m., we felt anyhow hungry, then
I gave my horse to Razook & I enterred the tektersin
where we dined & stayed uneasy till 4. a.m.
exactly when we arrived to our station
called El-Sooioir الَُصَّوَّرَّ & we put only 11 hours
from Deir instead of 12 . Hasstily we put up the
tent & tried to sleep but at 7 we were again
up as the sounds of the mules were insupportable.
At 8 we had our tea & afterwards Monseigneur
Rahmani came to see us. We are here on the
bank of the small river Khabour خابور which
is about 25 yards large. This river comes from
Aboo el Ain & continues till Miadin & unites with the Euphrates & we will
have to cross it tomorrow in a place called Shaddadi.
At 1 p.m. we arranged again to start &
hurry our journey, therefore after 5 minutes we
moved & went towards a Western direction keeping
on our right hand the river Khabour for an hour.
The desert here is very dry except near the bank
of the river where their are very seldom some
arabs with very small plantations of Maїse
or Idra. The plains in these places are all
infested with the Shammar and Iniza Arabs &
today at 4 p.m. we witnessed from a far distance
these two renowned tribes in dispute & the Shammar
people have taken many Camels item from
the Iniza & these latter were on their pursuit
with hundreds of horses.
Our caravan is escorted with the gendarmes,
two of them have gone two days ago with the greater
part of the big caravan & await for us tomorrow
& here we are only with about 15 mules & 8
gendarmes. I was very tired this afternoon
from this successive march but anyhow
at half past seven we reached our
station called Bregda برقده on the river
Khabour again & exactly opposit the commen-
cement of a rang of mountains on the left.
Here we found our big Caravan e has not
yet gone & crossed the Khabour before us.
Our arrival here was very nasty one, the
darkness was terrible & we ere all pell
mell with so much people & mules about
200 beasts. We heard that we will start
again from here tonight at 3 in the morning
therefore I found it useless to put up the
tent to us but only ordered a hasty dinner
& slept outside on the bedsteads & Mary
slept in the tektersin. It was till 10½ p.m.
that I was awaken & could not sleep. At
12 the majority of the Caravan moved & started
before us in order to be able to cross the river
before our arrival as the crossing will surely
occupy a whole day.
23rd October,
At 3 a.m. we were up & after drinking our
tea we prepared to start again. At 4½ a.m.
we all moved & tooked again a Western direction
but it was rather cold & I preferred to stay
with Mary in the Tektersin & give the horse to Rezooki.
This morning the Archbishop felt unwell &
preferred to move from El Ragda at day light & as
he is in a carriage he will surely catch us in the
way. I think he is thus because yesterday he
tooked a bath in the river Khaboor, he told
me this when we dined together with him.
Indeed all us of feel very uneasy from this
kind of hurry march & complain of it but
from another part it seems that M. Rahmani
wants to reach Mossoul in 7 days but I do
never agree with this as we will be dead!
Nearly all our march was near the bank of
the river. At noon exactly we sighted suddenly on
coming down from a hill, the fort of gendarmes
& our station El Shaddadi, we dismounted
between the mules, the heat & dust. A part
of the big caravan which left us at midnight
is still here as the manner of crossing in a
simple Shaktoor or boat is absolutely fearful if
not dreadful to the extreme. The boat 3 or 4 yards
& 2 large is the only mean with wich all
the caravan has to cross to the other side
& no more than 4 or 5 mules can cross each
time. Here I felt exceedingly angry & hungry
& I more than once quarrelled with the brute
the boat hierer who do not permit our
kit to go to the other side in order to put
the tent and take at least a rest. After a
terrible annoyance with all these beasts of
people we could cross at 2½ p.m. & put
the tent & eat something light as we had nothing
of cooked. I hear now that M. Rahmani
wants to start again at sunset & march all
the night! but I do never accept & am decided
to go & tell him that we are without any rest
& we require to sleep & eat a little comfortably.
We heard afterwards that we will sleep
here & start very early. we dined early too &
turned down.
24 October. At 2 a.m. we were up & drunk
tea and at 2½ were ready to start but
the people of the Patriarch were not yet in order & we aught
to await till 3 when we started on our
way in the plain desert. keeping the Khabour
river on our back but thirty minutes after
our departure we had to stop as we had
lost the way & nobody in the caravan could know
it , we had to dismount in the darkness & send
back a Zaptieh to Shaddadi where is again M.
Rahmani with six Zaptiehs who know better
the route. I was very much disgusted & the
cold wind catched us with clouds & lightening
& we are lost knowing not where to go. I had here
a terrible balyache with little fever & only in an
hour the Zaptieh returned & showed us the route .
Rain began to come in showers on us & I
feard to be all wet but in an hour the clouds
dispersed & the weather began to be very fresh
& nice. We continued anyhow to march &
march till 4 p.m. thus making a killing
march of 13 hours which rendered all of us
tired to the extreme. At last we encamped
on a salt spring very narrow & very dirty
all covered with green. This station is called
Ksebeh كصيبه & not fare from a rang of
mountains in front of us. At the end
of this rang is the town of Sinjar سنجار the well
known place & we will try to reach it tomor-
row if we can go & make a march of 15
hours directly . The desert here is very
dry & not a single person is to be seen
& I feel very weary but I hope we will reach
Mossoul in 4 days more & be off of all these troubles.
M. Rahamni who were unwell since two days
is better today. We dined at 7 & turned in at
9 p.m.
25 October. We were awaken at 4 a.m. and
at 4½ we moved in the darkness. Today we have
to make not only a long station but all the
way from here till Sinjar is infested with
murderous brigands & marauders of Yzidis يزيدي
who never let a caravan traverse their
country without molesting them & ask ransoms
anyhow we pushed forward with 4 gendarmes
the remainder have been kept behind with
the Pattrack who travel at 6 everyday on
account of his carriage. At sunrise we
were already beginning to march on the left of
the magnificent mountain of the Yzidis & which
we will have to pass only in Sinjar day after
tomorrow. At about half past seven we remarked
in the distance for the first time some Yzidis working
& ploughing but soon three murderous looking Yzidis
come to us from the Mountain with their
Martini on the shoulder & began to walk with
the Caravan but as our Caravan was unusually
a big one & was at that moment dispersed
one of the gendarmes (knowing what the three Yzidis
mean by coming to us) sounded the
trumpet to collect all the gendarmes & the
caravan but the three brigands approached
some people & let them understand
that they want ransom from all the caravan.
Seeing this we all stopt in one spot & sounded
again the trumpet to let the other gendarmes with
the Archbishop to hear us but when the 3 Yzidis
saw us decided to make no attention to them
they turned their heads & returned to their village which
indeed very interesting . This village or rather inns
excavated in the mountain is in a large valley
& from outside is nothing to be seen. Further
more some others came & tryed to ask the
same thing at last at 9 a mounted Yzidis ap-
proached us & decididly pressed on the head of
the gendarme to follow us but we treatened him
& he left. This place is very dangerous & more
than one the Turks fought the Yzidis & lost & now
they are king of themselves & everybody fear them,
all along the way they have built protects of
stones high about 3 yards with holes & from there
they fire on the people.
The way here is very bad & full of stones
of all sizes & we meet two sweet springs until
we arrived near a Yzidis village called El Jaddala
الجدَّال& encamped at 2 p.m. on a very sweet
spring coming from the mountain but as soon as we
rested we were surrounded by all the villagers
which are all Yzidis & few Arabs. All the caravan
have so much fear of these that they never
tell them a word & let them come everywhere
& some Yzidis came to me & inspected every
article for an hour but I was disgusted
with them & asked some gendarmes to kick
them off & they did this . At 6 M. Razook & I
went to the village to see it, it is indeed very
curiously built. the houses are inns covered
with wood & mud & large logs of wild figue
trees are supporting the roof, they are dirty & all
of them fierclooking persons. At night all
the caravan kept a good watch the Yzidis
are robbers of first rate.
26th October. At 5 a.m. we were up & packed
again our luggage & tent & at 5½ proceeded from
this fearful spot of many fightings & tooked
the way to Sinjar which is not far from here.
We marched among many stones & croocked places until
8 a.m. when we passed another Yzidis village
called Sijac سيجاق& at 9½ we approached
Sinjar which is on the mountain & visible from
a distance of one hour & half. We encamped near
the town in a very dirty place & on a hight of about
100 yards, their is here a very sweet spring & some
gardens but the inhabitants of this place are
most savage & impolite, Though their is here a
garrison of Turkish soldiers protecting the arabs from
the infuriated Yzidis. I had a dispute
with the head of the Soldiers who objected my taking
snapshots of the places, he was so angry
that he wanted to confiscate my Camera.
It is pity indeed that we are here among
such fierce worst than savages people & I
had to convince him that my Camera is
merely a glass through which I only look
a little neater than the eyes,. he was obliged
to go with the fifty brutes others & keep me quiet.
I can not discribe how I am disgusted here
especially from these stupid manners
I feel taking pity on me & on Marie when
I think of Sweet Europe & its liberty, I am
getting so tired so tired from these savages
& brute animals. At 5 p.m. we went to see
M. Rahmani who is quite well today & he is in
the village in a Khan, we passed an hour but he
desired us to dine with his priests as he is
invited somewhere & he likes to enjoy ourselve
together. at 8 we returned to the tent & turned
in.
27th October. Saturday.
At 5 a.m. we were awaken & after
half an hour we started towards another station
keeping Sinjar behind us, we descended the
mountain & marched on a very stony
road but soon we were on a very smooth
ground & passed about three or four springs
but of dirty & bitter water & we had to cross them
sometimes with difficulty so much they are
broad . Nothing of particular to note about
the rest. At 2½ p.m. we arrived at a place
called El Abbar العبرafter 9 hours march we
encamped on a green place & on a spring of salt
water. Near to this place their is an aban-
doned village full of strow about ten tones
all dispersed, the story of this is very remarquable.
It seems that the poor inhabitants of this village
which were perhaps 500 persons have been
attacked some weeks ago by the Shammar &
many of them have been killed & the other
after being molested very fearfully they
fled with their lives leaving the village as it
stands, it makes pity to imagine this
fate & when all the caravan rested all
the muleteers swarmed on this village
& tooked as many strow as they could for
the beasts. We are here only 18 hours distance
from Mossoul & hope to enter it day after
tomorrow early in the morning.
28th October. Sunday
At