volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

yo Mr. Ainslie the American Missionary.
Pasha two or three times, but what arrangement he
made with him I do not know ; he rarely visited the
excavations and the Pasha sent no one in his place. I
took care that he was properly fed, and deducted what
I paid for his food from his salary.
Meanwhile, in the course of work, I became
acquainted with many people in Mosul, Nestorians,
Jacobites, and Muslims, and nearly all of them were
ready to help me in every way. There were no English
there, and only three people besides White and myself
who could speak English, namely, Mr. Ainslie, the
American Missionary and his wife and Mr. Jeremiah
Shamir. The Ainslies had recently come to Mosul and
found their task very uphill work, for the simplicity of
the American services repelled those who loved churches
with richly-furnished altars, high ritual and ceremonies,
incense, and richly-clad priests. Mr. AinsUe was a
simple earnest man, and was much liked by all who
came in contact with him for his straightforward and
honest dealing. An incident in connection with him
may be noted here. He and I were walking to Kuyunjik
one day to look at the work, and as we passed over the
stone bridge which spans the Khusur, near the south-west
comer of the mound, we saw a man fishing. Mr. Ainslie
called out to him and asked what he had caught, and
the man answered, " I have cast my net a hundred
times, but Allah has given me no fish." Mr. Ainslie
said, " Cast your net now, what are a hundred casts
compared with the goodness of Allah ? " And the man
replied, " I will cast my net in thy name," and muttering
" Ansli, Ansll, Ansli," as a spell he cast his net.
As we were leaving the bridge we heard him shout
" Samak, Samak," " a fish, a fish," and turning
round we saw him pulling out his little net with a large
fish in it
Mr. Jeremiah Shamir was a little active old man,
with dark eyes deeply set in a little wizened face ; he
was very shrewd and intelHgent, not to say cunning,
and by some means or other he managed to know everybody's
business. He spoke English clearly but slowly,