'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [‎19r] (37/72)

are everywhere about. The town with its extremely mixed, and in the main Arabic-speak-
in gipopulation of 30,000 or 40,000, covers a rising ground on the right, or Mesopotamian
bank of the Tigris; access to it from the Sulimama direction being by a modern stone
bridge, the fault of which is its not stretching far enough. But long before the river was
reached, signs of military strength and stir presented themselves. Soldiers were refresh-
mg themselves after a dusty march, in the sluggish Khosr, which once flowed past the
palaces of Sennacherib : and near the large Muslim village of Nabi Yunas, built on the
traditional site of the prophet's preaching, and containing a shrine venerated as his tomb,
a band was practising. At present, it would be vain to hope for permission to do anything
to disturb the repose of Jonah. The mosque associated with his dust is considered too
sacred to be so much as entered by unbelievers. But the mound on which the village
stands is in the best of all situations for a battery, and in that, or some other way, perhaps
the time may come for it to be " opened."
For the rest, among the features of Mosul the following may be noted : Time after
Mosul. time famine, pestilence, and inundation have assailed it.
The town wall, about three miles in circumference, includes
large empty spaces, as well as numerous ruins. And then an enormous influx of machine-
made goods from Europe has gradually killed all but the commonest native manufactures,
such as cotton-cloths and soap, for sale outside where there are no shops to tempt the
rustic with Manchester wares. So pre-eminent long ago was the town in the manufacture
of thin cotton fabrics,that the airiest of them all—muslin—took its name from it. On the
other hand, Mosul is one of the great storehouses in which non-cultivating tribes buy their
food and clothing. Its fields are sown with wheat and barley when the rain begins in
November. All through winter the crops are cut as fast as they come up, and given green
to cattle. In the end a good return is yielded all the same; and if the difficulty as to
transport handicaps the producer so much the better for the consumer. The principal
product yielded by Mosul to Europe is wool. Fleeces grown in pastoral Mesopotamia, and
among the Kurdi mountains, are bought by its merchants, and sent to be spun in York
shire. The raft traffic on the Tigris provides hundreds with employment. Others push
their fortunes as muleteers, and others in buying colts from Kurds or Shammar, and pass
ing them on, in spite of the Osmanli, towards India.* The summer heat drives people
into underground apartments by day and to the housetops at night. There are very few
medical practitioners, and no European medicines. The town and its surroundings are
so insanitary that they could hardly be worse. The dead are buried without coffins, in
shallow graves distributed all over the plain outside the walls. The streets are extremely
narrow, partly causewayed with rough stones, and sloping towards the centre, like
saucer-drains. In wet weather walking is very difficult, and riding even more so.
Dead animals are merely dragged a little way outside the gates for dogs and vultures to
quarrel over. Any one who wishes to see a dead donkey has only to go to Mosul. The
Bedouin hatred of towns, in so far as due to mere disgust, and not to antipathy to all
governors and magistrates, policemen and soldiers, here explains itself. And yet all
classes, especially the poorer, look full of health ; and children, if they do not all grow up,
are at least produced in enormous numbers, judging from the fine show of them in the
streets. The elevation above the sea is about 800 feet. Nearly all the rainfall is in winter j
and on the present occasion, out of twenty-three days spent encamped on a ridge opposite
the b^bu'l bedh, or "white gate," not more than five or six were fine. Once it poured with
out a break for three days and nights. The roof of the Kabul tent, and the iron tent pegs,
stood it all, though a good deal of water found its way in somehow. In clear weather the
ground in the morning would be white with hoar frost. A house was hired inside the
walls, and several hours spent in it daily for the convenience of visitors. The governor
and military commandant paid official visits. A dinner party, Constantinople fashion,
was also given in the Sarai.
The extent of country administered by the present Wali, Muhammad Tahsin Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. ,
Mosul Pashcllik. 1S traced ' and its boundaries indicated, in sketch map
facing this page. The system of the Porte seems growing
Among the natives of Mosul an excellent breed of carrier-pigeon deserves notice. From his large beak, or
from the fleshy lobes at the base of it, this bird is called by the Arabs Abu'l Khashm, literally, " the fellow with the
nose. He is a powerful and athletic-looking, rather than graceful, bird. A few years ago a loft of Mosul carriers
was started on the roof of the Baghdad Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. . The young birds were trained by being sent down the Tigris
on the mail-steamers, each being carried a stage further every time, before being thrown off with a despatch. The
results obtained were very good. The strength and precocity of the homing instinct which the birds exhibited
showed how carefully Mosul preserves a pure strain.