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Tonight the Kjerwan-Bashi told me a characteristic story of an Arab which I had heard before in Orfa. A Turkish general of cavalry, Dano-Pasha at Mardin, had been negotiating for some time with an Arab tribe concerning the purchase of a full-blooded mare of the Meneghi breed. Finally a price of sixty bags or almost fifteen hundred dollars was agreed upon.
At Asshur, the old metropolis, which may have hoped to lure back the Court by its subservience, at Arbela in the Zab region, at Amidi on the Upper Tigris, at Tel-Apni near the site of Orfa, and at more than twenty other fortified places, Asshur-danin-pal was pro-claimed king, and accepted by the inhabitants for their sovereign.
The Belik rises among the hills east of Orfa, about long. 39°, lat. 37° 10'. Its course is at first somewhat east of south; but it soon sweeps round, and, passing by the city of Harran the Haran of Scripture and the classical Carrh proceeds nearly due south to its junction, a few miles below Rakkah, with the Euphrates.
From Mosul I went to Merdin, which is in the countrey of the Armenians; but now there dwell in that place a people which they call Cordies or Curdi. From Merdin I went to Orfa, which is a very faire towne, and it hath a goodly fountaine full of fish, where the Moores hold many great ceremonies and opinions concerning Abraham: for they say he did once dwell there.
Dara, the magnificent creation of Justinian, lies in ruins, and on the site of Nisibin, which had been completely destroyed, Hafiss-Pasha has built only recently some new cavalry barracks, under whose protection the city and the surrounding villages have taken a new lease of life. Orfa and Mossul finally, the only large cities, appear like outposts of Mesopotamia.
The trunk-line passes by Angora, Kaisarieh, Diarbekr, Mardin, and Mosul; and a loop-line leaves it at Eski Shehr, which, going by Konia, Marasch, and Orfa, rejoins it at Diarbekr. It was said that the strong competition placed the Government in the position of the man in the Eastern story who went to the bazaar to sell an old camel, and a young cat of rare beauty.
I went thence to Orfa, a fair town having a fair fountain full of fish, where the Mahometans hold many opinions, and practice many ceremonies in reference to Abraham, who they allege once dwelt there. From thence I went to Bir, where I crossed the Euphrates, and continued my journey to Aleppo; whence, after staying some months for a caravan, I went to Tripolis in Syria.
Hafiss-Pasha, therefore, decided to give them a most thorough chastisement. The pashas of Orfa and of Mardin were to march against them, and he wanted to have the pasha of Mossul, who is not under his jurisdiction, do the same. If this had been done, the Arabs would have been forced back against the Euphrates, beyond which the Aenesi Arabs live who are hostile to them.
With the Arabs it has as many friends to take care of it. When the Turks succeed in surprising an ashiret they take away the herds of sheep and goats, a few camels, and possibly some hostages whom they keep in miserable bondage. In a small hut or stable of the serail of Orfa I found nine old men.
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