volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Excavations at Kuy^njik. 65
court or not she always bestowed many curses upon
him.
As soon as we were settled down in our new quarters
I devoted myself to the work of the excavations and the
search for Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. I visited the
Pasha as arranged on the day following that on which
he decided to send out soldiers against the Shammar,
and presented my official papers for his inspection. His
secretary read my permit, and then fetched a copy of
the instructions which he had received from Stambul.
He was ordered to permit the excavations at Kuyunjik
which were to be conducted under the supervision of
the Delegate who had been sent from Stambul for the
purpose, and he was specially instructed to have delivered
to him every object of antiquity which might be found
during the work. I explained to him that Hamdi Bey
had told me that I might take away " pottery " fragments,
i.e., fragments of inscribed tablets, but he said
there was no mention of this arrangement in his instructions.
He dismissed the secretary and then told me
that the owners of growing crops on the mound of
Ku5mnjik must be indemnified, and that arrangements
must be made for pasturage of the sheep which usually
grazed on the mound. Besides this, he said that as all
the work on the mound had to be done under the supervision
of the Delegate, I must not begin to excavate
until the Delegate arrived. When I objected strongly to
this view of the case he begged me to be patient and to
listen to what he had to say. The gist of his remarks
was that I was to consider him my waktl, or deputy, and
he would arrange with the owners of the crops and the
men who had the right of pasture on the mound, and
that when he had fixed the sum to be paid to them he
would send me word. Meanwhile, as I had honoured
Mosul by coming there, and he had not forgotten the
matter of the Shammar, he would permit me on his own
responsibility to begin to dig at once. He suggested
that I should deposit a certain sum of money with him
for preliminary expenses, and I did so, and although His
Excellency forgot to pay for the crops and for the hire of
/