volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

io6 Water Wheels on the Tigris.
the south-east. Close to Al-Fathah, i.e., the "Opening,"
where there is a pass through Jabal Hamrin, we saw on
the east bank some ruins, which did not appear to be
ancient, and close to the east bank a large solitary rock
standing in the stream. A few miles lower down we
skirted several islands, and floated down the river
swiftly with the strong current ; at the foot of a long
rapid Jabal Hamrin comes close up to the river on the
west bank. We next passed Tall al-Laklak,^ or the
" Chattering Hill," on the east bank, and then some
large mounds on the west bank ; close to these was
Khan Kharnenah,^ where we saw a camp of soldiers.
Several miles lower down the river on the west bank we
saw Kal'at Abu Riyash, a ruined castle, which seemed
to be about to tumble into the river, and then, on the
same side of the river, several Muhammadan tombs.
Among these is the tomb of Abu Khalkhalan, son of
Imam Musa, the seventh Shi'ite Imam, who is buried at
Kazimen near Baghdad. The river now ran due south
through fine open country, and palm trees appeared on
the banks. These were standing in large groups in
gardens which were watered by oxen. The animals
did not walk round and round on a platform above the
river, as they do when turning a water-wheel, but they
drew up the water-skins, to which they were attached
by a rope, by walking down a slope away from the
river, on the bank of which the staging was erected.
When the skins reached the level of the staging, the
oxen stopped, and their drivers tilted out the water
into a channel, from which it was directed on to the
land through many runnels. The oxen then walked
back up the slope, the drivers let the skins down again
into the river, and the process was repeated as long as
necessary. Soon afterwards we saw in the distance,
on the west bank, the high cliff on which stood the
old castle and fortifications of Takrit, and we prepared
^ " Three miles to the north of Leg Leg is the northern mouth of
the old Nahrawan Canal." Felix Jones, op. cit., p. 27.
" See Felix Jones, Bombay Records, vol. xliii, p. 26.