volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Tablets in a Coffin. 283
chanting, but I noticed that the last man in it stopped
and spoke to the guards of the bridge, who were standing
outside their huts watching the passengers and collecting
the bridge dues, and then ran on quickly to rejoin the
procession. I rode on towards the bridge, intending
to go straight across, when the guards stepped forward
and stopped me, and said that the man who had just
left them had told them that I had travelled with them
and was of their party, and had agreed to pay the
bridge dues for all. He had also said that the deceased
was a friend of mine ! And, pointing to the large
water-jars, the guards said that I must pay octroi on
them for bringing them into the city. Though amused
at the impudence of the man in the funeral procession,
I was angry at being called upon to pay octroi, and
still more with myself for not knowing enough local
Arabic to express my views completely. Meanwhile
the funeral procession had got across the bridge and was
out of sight, and, having paid all demands, we crossed
the bridge and rode through the bazar to Clarke's
house. The following morning Hasan appeared and
told me that the Abu Habbah tablets were in Baghdad.
I asked him how they got there, and he replied, " They
came with you yesterday." He then went on to explain
that he had got up the funeral procession, and that three
boxes of tablets had taken the place of a dead person
on the bier. The guards at the bridge were friends
of his, and he had told them about the water-jars, so
that whilst they and I were quarrelling over the octroi
he could make good his entry into the city. The
" mourners " all came from Abu Habbah, and were
" interested " in the tablets, and they were all very
glad to get rid of their tablets without having to resort
to expensive bribery.
In the course of the conversation which followed,
Hasan told me a story which amused him greatly, and
I have often thought that he was one of the principal
actors in the scenes which he described ;
as it illustrates
a phase of Baghdad life at that time, I summarize
the facts which he related. The Wall Pasha sent the