volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

6o Our House in MSsul.
them.i He sent out a considerable sum of money to the
Shammar chief, and when the officer paid it over to him he,
according to Turkish custom, demanded a present {bakhshish)
for himself. Thereupon the Shammar chief gave
him seventy of the sheep which his kinsmen had that
day stolen from passing flocks, and promised to deliver
them to him in Mosul. He kept his word, and a few
days after the soldiers returned, some of the Shammar
drove the sheep into the town, and by enquiring in the
bazar where they should take the officer's bakhshish,
supplied the clue which enabled people to understand
the nature of his interview with the Shammar chief.
White and I continued to live in Nimrud Rassam's
house for three or four days, but we found that it was
absolutely necessary to establish ourselves elsewhere, for
we could get neither privacy nor rest under his hospitable
roof. Visitors came all day long and would not
be denied. If we were eating they would come in and
wait and watch us eat, if we were sleeping they would
wait until we woke up, and if we were talking business
they would sit down in a free and easy way and take
part in the conversation, and discuss the points which
we were considering, and then give us their advice freely
and readily. After inspecting many houses we found a
vacant outer court of a large house in which two or
three families lived. It seemed to have been specially
prepared for us. The outer court was separated from
the inner by a high wall in which was a large door,
usually locked, and on the right of the door was a square
opening with a sliding panel that was worked in the
inner court. Entrance into the outer court from the
street was obtained through a door facing this wall.
On the ground floor, on the other two sides of the court,
^ When these Kurds rebelled against the Turkish Government in
1879, the Pasha of Baghdad sent out a strong force of cavalry, infantry,
and artillery to crush them. A battle took place in the plain near
Karkuk, and the Kurds routed the Turks with great slaughter, and
captured all the guns ; the Turks who escaped fled to Baghdad. A
few months later the Pashi of Baghdad bought back the guns from
the Kurds, and bribed them heavily to let caravans alone.