volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Arrival of the Delegate from StambM. 69
from the day he left Stambul to the day he returned,
and all the expenses he incurred in going to the site to
be excavated and in returning. Acting under competent
advice I had deposited with the authorities in Stambul,
before I left, the sum of £T6o, i.e., £T20 for the Delegate's
first month's salary, and £l^o for travelling
expenses, including the hire of horses. According to the
Delegate he only received a small portion of the £T6o,
and he had to set out on his journey insufficiently
equipped as regards clothing, and with insufficient
money. He travelled to Mosul by way of Diar Bakr
and Jazirat ibn 'Omar, and as he could not ride even a
donkey he hired somewhere a takhtarawdn, i.e., a sort
of litter swung between two long poles which were carried
by two animals (mules, horses or even camels), one
supporting the fore-ends of the poles and one the hind
ends. Near Diar Bakr he encountered snowy weather,
and the roads were very bad, and every conceivable
accident seemed to have happened to himself and his
men. His horses fell down and broke one of the poles,
the glass windows of the box in which he was carried
got smashed, and the rain and snow drenched him to
the skin. At one place he was, he said, robbed, and
at another when he could not pay for his food the
Khanji or Khan-keeper beat him. For several days he
had lived at the expense of his muleteers, promising that I
would pay them when they reached Mosul. He was
greatly exhausted by his journey, and as soon as I had
got rid of his muleteers, who utterly refused to leave
him until they were paid, we saw him to his Kh&,n and
left him. He was a man of small stature and physically
unfitted for any kind of hardship, and as soon as he
found that the comforts which he had enjoyed in Stambul
could not be obtained in Mosul he wished to leave the
town as soon as possible. He spoke German fluently
and had, I was told, a good knowledge of Turkish.
When he had recovered somewhat from the fatigue of
his journey he came out with us to the mound, but the
place had no attractions for him, and the bitter wind
soon drove him back to Mosul. He went to see the