'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1865 to December 1867. (Edited by the Honorary Secretary.) Volume XVIII.' [‎23] (158/268)

BAGDAD TO CONSTANTINOPLE.
23
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Haji Baba, a a astrologer. I did not much like his looks : he might
have been a mutineer, a refugee, anything. To my thinking the face
was that of a ship- lascar A term used by the British officials to describe non-European sailors employed on East India Company ships. , or little better, but the man had a wonderful
smattering of knowledge He had no look of the higher-class native.
With a dash of the Faquir there was something besides of the ordinary
Munshi A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf. or teacher of Hindustani. He had a dark and unmistakeable
Indian skin and complexion : his long, oiled, and curved hair was combed
down behind the ears : his manner was such as I have often seen in
Indians desirous to dazzle by display of general knowledge, tie took
occasion to show off his handwriting, and to talk of officers whom he
remembered, at least byname (Roberts and Wray). I was puzzled to
think who this man was, whence came his fine clothes, and when and
why be had left his native country. His own history was that he lived
in the Bendi Bazaar at Bombay, that he had quitted India about fourteen
or fifteen years before the annexation of the Punjaub, that he constantly
travelled, had visited Bokhara and Astrakhan among other places,
and had heard of Colonel Stoddart, though he knew little about him.
His age might be thirty-five, but it is hard to say exactly. They
told me that he practised as an astrologer, but took no money; that he
appeared to have a sufficiency both of money and clothes. He had seen
and conversed with Mr. Taylor before he left, but that gentleman was
away from Diarbekir at the period of my visit. The man spoke Arabic
awkwardly, but well for an Indian ; his Persian was Indian and fluent,
his Hindustani was naturally faultless.
31. Though Kharput is the name given to the Telegraph Station,
the real Kharput is at about three
Kbarput. miles’ distance, at the summit of a
hill not far from a thousand feet in
height. The Telegraph Station is where the Pacha’s serai is, at Mazra,
on the plains below. The derivation of the word * Kharput,’ or
c Harput,’ was explained to me to be from two Armenian words, sig
nifying < stone castle.’ Mr. Brandt and Lieutenant Glasscot estimate
its height at 4,832 feet above the level of the Black Sea. The view
of the Kharput plains, coming up from the Deva Boyun mountain, to
the southward, is magnificent. Some idea of the extent of low country
niay be formed from the statement that the Murad Chai (or Upper
Euphrates), one of the largest rivers of Asia Minor, appears like a
min °r canal or stream in the midst of the plain through which it winds.