I have heard it denied that the Kizzilbashes are even Mahomedans. They did not appear to me Persians, as their name would infer, a name, by the way, which I was warned not to apply to them openly, as they did not accept it with the same readiness with which it was applied to them by others. 20. The Turcomans are numerous in Central Asia Minor, and west of Sivas. Their former social and political importance may be judged by the fact that the large town of Yuzgat owes its rise to one of their Chiefs or Dera Beys. They are a wealthy and well-disposed people, owners of lands, villages, and cattle, but their occupation under the present government appears restricted to farming and agriculture. At the village of Hussun Bey, or Bey Obahsi,' about sixteen miles east of the Kizzil Irmak at the Angureh road ferry, I was quartered in a large house belonging to the head man of the place. The servants were ready to provide for the wants of all travellers, and remuneration was strictly forbidden to be received. The inconvenience to an Englishman in this kind of accommodation is its publicity, and there is a disagreeable necessity besides involved of getting up continual conversation with so many strange visitors, few of whom have any interest in a traveller's movements unconnected with personal advantage. 21. Among the many Armenian villages that we passed after once entering the plains of Kharput, we once or twice had occasion to seek a breakfast or a night's lodging, and there was no reason to complain of the reception afforded us. The work of the American missionaries, exclusively with this people, is of a most interesting kind, and my obligations to these gentlemen for their kindness and attention to my companion and myself are not to be easily effaced. A brief report like the present is hardly the proper place to enter into any detailed account of their labours. But I may mention that their presence at Mardin, Kharput, Sivas, and Yuzgat, seemed to me likely to produce highly beneficial results. There is a strange mixture of heaviness and smartness about the Turkish Armenians, a remark which may be said to apply equally to the physical as the moral formation. It struck me that while there were many handsome faces there were few symmetrical forms, and this in the case of both men and women. As a rule all classes speak Turkish, though I am not sure whether as much can be said of their acquaintance with the language of their forefathers. 22. As for the genuine Turks or Osmanlis, the actual rulers of the soil, take them en masse there is much to admire. Take them individually, and there are doubtless many specimens of humanity which will not only provoke the criticism of their European brethren but oftentimes their hatred and contempt. Take them by classes, and although the distinction of high and low, rich and poor, is not defined as with us, there is still the barrier dividing Dives from his humbler fellow, and showing the latter in the far more advantageous light. For my own part I have every reason to be satisfied with the civility and attention shown to me, whether by the officials who met me at various stages, and escorted me from place to place, the kind hosts who received me, or the Pachas and men in authority at the larger towns. In the first instance, and indeed up to Kharput, I had come as a simple traveller, and the 'Buymilti' or 'Perwana' of Namik Pacha with which I had been provided at Bagdad had seldom been required to aid me on the road. But a slight change was perceptible as we entered I was surprised to find a regular Istikbal' sent out from the Pacha both at Sivas and Angureh. The Pacha of Kerkuk I had not called on. At Mosul we had been lodged by Mr. ViceConsul Rassam. The Pacha of Diarbekir was most friendly, and it was no doubt at his own instigation, as we knew it to be out of his own kitchen, that his Italian doctor gave us an evening banquet. The Pacha of Kharput was absent on our arrival, at Malatyah. At Sivas we were shown a house assigned to us, but we preferred staying at the Telegraph Office. At Angureh the Pacha housed us, supplied us with servants from the palace, made us live as his guests, and paid us a friendly visit at our lodgings. This was the last headquarters of a Pacha at which I arrived before taking post-horses. Asia Minor; and 23. I could not avoid remarking two prominent features in the character of the modern Asiatic Turk as he appeared to me in my progress from Bussora to Constantinople-one was his comparative freedom from bigotry and prejudice, the other his general inclination to European customs. It may be that habitual association with the Indian Mussulman had led me to expect a different state of things, and that the contrast presented an unusually strong light. It may be that I lived too much among the servants of Government to judge fairly of the true feelings of the people. Certain it is that if religious toleration is practised under the Khat-i-Humayun' of 1856 to an extent theretofore unknown in European Turkey the spirit of the Act is working also in Asia. But at the same time I would by no means affirm that the so-called civilization of Young Turkey is void of grave objection. The lowest Parisian tastes do not improve, nor does the assumed importance of a London clerk or shopman edify. Knowledge of French in the Turkish army is spreading, and might be turned to excellent account, but it is too often made available for immoral talk and empty display. The attainment to Government employ in demiEuropean Offices, like the Telegraph, is in like manner frequently made the means of exhibiting an offensive nonchalance and indifference to the public. But there is really so much to remedy in telegraphic organization, both in-doors and without, that a passing remark can hardly affect the subject. Not only are messages generally known to the employés upstairs, but the menials down below come in for their share of the diffused knowledge. It will require some training to appreciate the necessity of keeping silent on the affairs of others; it will require some strong pressure of practical business to show that what has been imagined a pastime is in reality serious, hard work; and theoretical and practical acquaintance with telegraphy as a science will have to be acquired, as well as mere manipulation. These matters have, however, been treated to some extent elsewhere, and reference is accordingly solicited to the enclosures. 24. The chief towns which I visited on my route were-Kerkuk, between the Tigris and the Kurdish hills; Mosul, Jezireh, Mardin, and Diarbekir, in Mesopotamia, reading the name in its literal sense-for all these places are on the right bank of the Tigris,* and consequently between the rivers; Kharput, which some may include with the last four; Sivas, Yuzgat, and Angureh, in Asia Minor. I was too short a time at Beibazar, Mudurli, and Izmid, to add them to the number. 25. A few desultory notes on each of the above places may not be without interest. The information which enabled me to record that this is a town of Kerkuk. about 2,500 houses and 10,000 inhabitants appears of doubtful accuracy. These figures may represent two *NOTE. The main source should be near the Ghyuljik Lake, and still nearer to Argana Muden. But both the Tigris and Euphrates have many sources, for every feeder may claim its right to partnership. thirds of the real number. There is an upper and a lower town, the former enclosed within walls, and covering the flat top of an abrupt hill about 150 feet high; the latter, scattered over the plain below Kerkuk, is the seat of a Pacha, who is under the authority of the Governor General of Bagdad. We were housed in the lower town, which is very filthy. The streets are irregular and ill-constructed. There are a few shady and pleasant fruit-gardens, to which the inhabitants resort in hot weather. The Telegraph Office is a large and roomy building, but the Pacha has converted the best part into a prison! There is something picturesque in the first view of Kerkuk. It looms out in the distance like the background of an Oriental stage melodrama. It is just the sort of scene which would foreshadow the coming of the conventional stage Pacha, accompanied by Turks, Arabs, Kurds, men and women, with scimitars and choruses. The more classical and famous Arbeil, or Arbela, which we passed without entering on our third march from hence, is about 55 miles off in a northerly direction, and has a very simliar appearance. I was told there were two Chaldean churches at Kerkuk. The mound on which the citadel is built is probably artificial. 26. Mosul. Mosul is too well-known from the works of recent travellers and explorers to need any particular description. Nearly thirty years ago Mr. Southgate, a missionary of the estimated its population at American Protestant Episcopal Church, 40,000, of which 6,000 were Christians. The accounts given me were conflicting, but I am of opinion, on good authority, that the proportion of Christians to the whole number of inhabitants is greater than fifteen per cent. Before crossing the Tigris to the town we looked at the scene of the Nineveh excavations, and entered the Mahomedau musjid at Nubbi Yunas. Mr. Rassam thinks this last must have been at one time a temple of fire-worship, from the blackened apppearance of the roof. The town of Mosul is dirty and irregular, but its Moorish doorways are pleasant to the eye, and there are many quaint oldfashioned figures seen beside them which almost recall forms and faces of our own country in the reigns of Henry VII. and Edward VI. Some of the children are especially beautiful. I was introduced here to the Chaldean patriarch, a Chaldean bishop and Syriac bishop, of the Romish Church, and visited with the latter the Chaldean church of the Miskinta' and his own cathedral. All are built of marble, obtained at a comparatively trifling cost in the neighbourhood of Mosul. The interior of the cathedral is well proportioned. It has its two aisles and altars, and the centre archway and altarpiece are remarkably handsome. It appears that these churches have communication with those of Malabar, and are a branch of the Romish Propaganda. The Telegraph Office is a good, roomy building, situated near the Pacha's palace. I have already remarked on the utter uselessness of bringing the telegraph wires to Mosul at all. It is perilling the whole line of telegraph to suit one man's convenience. Were the station on the other side of the Tigris a single wire might, if necessary, be supplied to the Pacha; but at present the two wires from Constantinople and two from Bagdad are all dragged across the most precarious bridge and ferry, for no necessary object whatever, and at enormous risk to our Indian communication, especially in the spring of the year. 27. Once the principal city of the Chaldeans in the low country. Jezireh, on the Tigris. Its towers and walls and ruined Moslem bridges are picturesque in their way, but the place is unhealthy and unattractive as a residence. I have no data of the number of inhabitants, but should not put them down at 10,000. It is famous for a striped cotton cloth, which may be used as the Lungi' or waist-band of Sind, or as a hat-turban. The Telegraph Office is a barn, and a most unsavoury one, yet it appeared to be the best place in which we could find accommodation. I was glad to leave the town after a day's halt there, and seemed to breathe more freely on attaining the summit of the high land behind it, and overlooking the valley of the Tigris. 28. We arrived here at about 1 P.M. on the 17th June, an intensely hot day, riding up a good road from the foot of the hill to the gate of the town. From this point to the Telegraph Office our passage was along a dirty, steep, and stony street. We enjoyed a cool breeze on opening out the southern aspect of the hill, and a grand view across the wide plains of Mesopotamia, comprising a vast extent of low, level country so far as the eye could reach. Mardin is picturesquely situated on the slope of a limestone rock, the apex of which is surmounted by a remarkable and ancient fort. The houses of the town are solid, and many comparatively good, but there is dirt and misarrangement everywhere. The Telegraph Office is small, and most |