volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Springs at Al-Hardrdt. 223
gave orders that our beasts were to be fed, and he told
the women of his house to make some bread-cakes for
me for the journey, but I found these attentions very
costly, for I not only had to buy the fodder and the
burghul {i.e., crushed barley) at high prices, but to make
a present to every servant in the house.
Soon after midnight, November 22nd, Muhammad
got the beasts down into the plain without attracting
any very unfavourable notice on the part of the townguard,
and at 2 a.m. we watered them at one of the
streams in the plain, and at 3 a.m. we set out on our
journey. We had neither escort nor guide, but Muhammad
had passed that way before and seemed quite
at his ease. We crossed various wadis, some of which
were dry, and at daybreak saw the Yazidi village of
Mihrkan on the slope of the hills to the north. The
sight of the village stirred' some memory in Muhammad,
who suddenly broke out in violent curses on the Yazldis,
and his stories of their villainies and iniquities pleasantly
beguiled the tediousness of the journey until we reached
Al-Khan at 7 a.m. Al-Khan turned out to be nothing
but the ruins of a large khan of the usual kind, but the
walls offered good shelter and we rested there for
breakfast. The meal was not a success, for the breadcakes
we brought from Sinjar were more than half
unbaked, and none of us could eat them ; but the camels,
after much sniffing, ate them, so they were not wasted.
I looked at the sculptures and at the Arabic inscription
over the door of the khan which Sachau copied {Reise,
p. 334), and wondered at first why such a large building
was set up in that bare spot. But the reason was not
far to seek, for the fine springs called Al-Harirat are
close by, and caravans have halted there for the night
from time immemorial.
We left Al-Khan at 7.30 and arrived at the sulphur
springs of 'Ain al-Hisan at nine. Continuing our journey
we passed several mounds. Tall Sharaya, Tall ar-Rus,
Tall 'Abrah, etc., -crossed the Wadi 'Abrah, which
contained much watef , and reached the large mound of
Tall Wardan at 2 p.m., and from this point we saw