'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [‎25v] (50/72)

34
Fifty years ago beavers abounded in it, and lions reared their cubs on its wooded banks.
The beavers have been exterminated for the sake of their musk bags, a precious medicine
among the Turks. The cutting down of the trees has made the lions also disappear. Herds
of wild asses still quench their thirst in it. The Arabs along its banks are excellent raft-
makers. Still skins and timber are not always procurable in a moment, and this is a point
requiring to be thought of * After a course of fully two hundred miles, the Khabur joins
the Euphrates at a spot which the Arabs call Buseyra (the ancient Circessium) about four
hours below Der.
Two days from Ih-sih-cha the kdfila's course, leaving the Khabur, struck west by
south for Der. For promoting speed a failing commis
sariat often answers better than a full one. For some time
past the marches had been lasting from sunrise till it was too dark to go any longer*
Water wheels all along the river spoke of cultivation and on both sides of it sheep were
grazing. But the cultivators were all nomadic and nowhere visible; and when the
shepherds did not run clean away, all that money could extract from them was that they
had no power to sell. Happily three thin chickens were bought in a small encampment of
Jiburis. The following morning (January 12th) the kdfila was left to find its own way to
Der ; and with only one (Arab) attendant the intervening forty or fifty miles—the per
fection of galloping ground, and alive with antelope—got over rapidly. Still it was dark
before the Euphrates was reached. Just across the river within the arid region called
Shamiya the Turks have posted themselves conspicuously in the ancient little desert town
of Der, a minor civil charge under the Aleppo Wali, with from fifty to five hundred
soldiers, according to what can be spared. With the Shammar on one side and Ih-ni-zah
on the other, and scarcely an attempt at fortification or entrenchment, it can only be the
Sultan's "star" that keeps Der from being pretty often plundered. Next to the trade of
the country, there is nothing the Ottoman authorities keep a sharper eye on than the
ferry boats ; and yet it is only after a fashion that they db so. At Der, as elsewhere, the
one licensed boat is always stationed on the official bank. The boatmen had gone off to
the town, and shouts were answered only by the echoes. It seemed as if there would be
nothing for it but lie down on the sloppy ground horse in hand. At last a few huts were
discovered a little way up the bank ; and after a tiresome parley, an Arab was persuaded
to swim across and beat up the boatman. It seemed incredible on such a night that any
one should for a few pence venture into so broad and formidable a current; but presently
a splash followed by the sound of swimming showed that he had done so. Apparently the
ferry had not been working that day, for a number of wayfarers, including several soldiers,
were collected in the hamlet. After an hour or more the welcome sound of oars was
heard. Evidently the same potent spell that had sent the peasant into the swollen river
had prevailed on the boatman to turn out in the rain. Still it seemed as if there would be
no getting off, as the greedy Charon, not satisfied with the bribe that had brought him
began driving separate bargains all round. Only the soldiers were taken in free. Not
being supposed to have any money, these are franked by their uniforms everywhere in
the Ottoman empire. An old Hajji, who struggled in without paying, was pitched into the
water after the boat had started with its freight of twenty or thirty people and half a
dozen fighting kicking horses. An Arab horseman's cloak and Sulimaniah saddlery with
a muffled up head, and starless night, prevented one all this time from being recognised
as an official, far less a European, or the stream of native life would not thus have flowed
so naturally. To get among the meshes of Osmanli courtesy and hospitality lay outside
the present programme ; else a house would have had to be taken in Der, as at Mosul,
and at least a week consumed in paying and receiving visits. Moreover, a strong inclina
tion existed to pay a visit from Der to the multitudinous tribes of the Ih-ni-zah roaming
over Shamiya ; but owing to these being then in the very heart of the desert, beyond
* "If I had possessed a bridge equipment of ten pontoons," wrote Napoleon during the most brilliant campaign
of his life (1814), " the war would have been finished, and the army of Prince Schwartzenberg annihilated. I should
have taken eight or ten thousand carriages, and beaten his army in detail. But for want of boats I was unable to
cross the Seine where it was necessary to do so." On the Tigris and Lower Euphrates an exceedingly useful kind
of boat, called a Kuffah, or Guffnh, is in common use. These are made of osiers, plaited over a circular frame of
stout materials. The section shows a gentle curve at the bottom, with a deep one above forming the side. Some
times the outer covering is of well-stretched hide: but the more common method is to apply a coating of bitumen,
which effectually excludes the water. Guffahs range from about 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, and2feet6 inches deep,
to 15 fee' from gunwale to gunwale. One man can work an ordinary guffah, plying a large bladed paddle on the
two sides alternately. Even camels can be «aken across a river in guffahs, and horses and mules being used to
them, jump in and out of them readily. A boat of this kind is almost as easily constructed as a raft. Hundreds of
them are always to be bought at places like Hillah and Baghdad. Noah's ark, it will be remembered, was made of
41 Gopher wood, covered within and without with pitch."