volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Dir az-Zilr. 199
mighty dam on the Euphrates and of a well-built stone
embankment, a large and flourishing city must have
stood here in the early centuries of
Rauwolf, who stayed three days in
the Christian Era.
the town in 1573,
says it is " pretty well built with Houses .
. . but
as for the Walls and Ditches they are but very slight.
. . . We got acquaintance with the Inhabitants,
which were handsome, lusty, and well-set, and white,
and more mannerly than the rest ; they visited us
frequently, and spoke kindly to us, so that we found a
vast Difference between those and the former."^ He
also praises the gardens round Der.^
I found a lodging in the house of an 'Agel Arab,
another friend of Muhammad's, who, before attempting
to offer me any food, brought a large tisht or flat bath
like a tray into the reception room of his house with a
good supply of hot water and invited me to have a bath.
This was a great luxury, for I had not been able to take
all my clothes off since I left Tudmur. I had frequently
tried rubbing the limbs with warm sand and found it
very soothing to the body and refreshing, but it was
inferior to a bath for cleansing purposes. Having eaten,
Muhammad and I went to see about the grooming of
our beasts, and when this was done we went into the
bazar to replenish our stock of provisions for the last
and longest stage of our journey to Mosul. We found
some quite good shops, and a very civil Armenian
supplied us with most of the things which we wanted.
I was surprised to find that so many European commodities
were to be found there. The Armenian told
me that he had often catered for British officers when
they were riding from Baghdad to Aleppo or to Damas-
cus. He not only supplied me with rice, sugar, tea,
coffee, etc., but packed all dry goods in canisters which
a neighbour made to order for him. Even the pepper,
salt and matches were contained in little tin boxes with
well-fitting covers.
* I.e., the inhabitants of the other towns that he had passed
through.
^ Ray's Collection, vol. i, p. 160.