Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/355

Rh other familiar plants, which scattered an exquisite and refreshing fragrance far and wide.

In three hours we passed the ruined village of Dolabiyah, where the Jubeilah range terminates, and at half-past 7 reached Aboo-Marya. This is a square fortress, lately rebuilt by Mohammed Pasha, and now garrisoned by a single soldier, who bestirred himself to make us comfortable. Under the walls flows a small stream in its course to the Tigris, crossed by a bridge of three arches called Kasé Koopri, by which name the station itself is sometimes known. We remained here till 3 when we proceeded in a north-westerly direction towards Hegneh, which we reached in four hours. On this part of the road there are several artificial mounds, near which I observed remains of architecture, and an occasional pavement, clearly proving that in by-gone days this district had other inhabitants than the roving Bedooeen. The Sinjâr hills were now on our left, and on our right the snow-capped summits of the Tcah Meteenah rose majestically beyond the line of the desert, recalling to my recollection the rugged but picturesque scenery of the Geli Mezurka, and the message which I carried with me when I first crossed it to enter the peaceful valleys of the mountain Nestorians. What scenes of rapine and bloodshed have since then been witnessed there! How mysterious have been the ways of the in suffering the infidel Coords to slaughter so many thousands of 's followers! We may not doubt, however, but that God has an exalted end in such dispensations; for

The fort of Hegneh is situated on a tell, or mound, beneath which are the remains of a village, and a meagre spring of brackish water. It was formerly farmed by the Gargarè tribe