volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

88 Hammam 'Alt.
gifts of food, eggs, preserved dates and the like, which
they had specially prepared for our journey. Among
such gifts were several loaves of white bread, which
Mrs. Ainslie, the wife of the American Missionary, had
herself baked. There are, of course, evil, cruel and
crafty people in Mosul, as there are in most towns
containing nearly 100,000 inhabitants, but White and I
discovered many who were good and kind and sincere.
We embarked on our raft in the afternoon of February
26th, and as soon as we pushed out into the river we began
to move quickly. The raftsman having tied a little bag
of dust from the tomb of Rabban Hormizd about his
neck, felt happy and began to sing, and his helper
threw down his cloak on the planks and began to pray,
while the soldier began to bewail his departure from
Mosul and from a lady whose personal charms he
praised extravagantly. We arrived at Hammam 'Ali^
a little before sunset, and there was sufficient light to
enable us to walk over the mounds and find the traces
of the excavations made by Layard^ and by one of the
French Consuls at Mosul. Neither excavator discovered
any Assyrian antiquities there, and the pieces of pottery
suggested to me that the mounds covered the ruins of
some early Arab town. Whether the great 'All is alluded
to in the name " Bath of 'Ali " is uncertain, but I was
assured that he had bathed there. The village is famous
all over that part of the country for its hot sulphur
springs, and the curious bath-houses built over them
are generally crowded with men and women suffering
from all manner of ailments. Patients of both sexes
used the same bath, and there being little or no accommodation
for their clothing many would walk or hobble
there naked and unashamed. There is no doubt that
the waters of the spring do cure skin diseases, rheumatism
and sciatica, but the terribly insanitary state of the
village, which so horrified George Smith, induces in
those who stay there long gastric diseases to which many
^ The " AlyhamS " of Thevenot, to which many lepers resorted.
^ Nineveh and Babylon, p. 465.