creed. The hardy life of the mountaineer has produced
in him an open and erect bearing; and he is courageous
and revengeful abroad, although kind and cordial at home.
1 he women are neither covered like other easterns, nor
secluded from social intercourse. The men are loosely
clad, wearing sandals of chamois skin, and a peaked woollen
cap, behind which their hair falls in one plaited tress. The
diet of the people is almost entirely vegetable; their houses
are scattered along the sides of the mountains, amidst groups
oi iruit and other trees, and are clean and commodious. But
m summer time they remove their families to sleep on an
elevated platform, inclosed like an immense bedstead. By a
natural mistake, the Chaldeans have been confounded with
a schismatic branch; who, to the great annoyance of those
who consider themselves the orthodox party, adopted, and
have preserved, the doctrines of Nestorius.
The remarkable country of the Kaldani stretches eastward
ot the district of Amadiyah, between lake Vim and the
laurus: in the interior are terraces cultivated with rice
or other gram, with a succession of deep, dark, wooded
valleys, between the high and rugged Alpine ranges of
Julamenk, the Jawur Tagh, and other chains, which rise
to the uplands, situated beyond the back bone of Kurdistan.
Towards the eastern extremity of this sea of mountains,
the peak of Rowanduz towers to the height of 10,568
feet, and the view from thence towards the north-west is
in the highest degree magnificent, especially in the direction
of the distant sources of the Zab, where the summits rise to
about 15,000 feet.1 The numerous tributaries of this river
and those of the Assyrian Khabur, like the Diyalah and
Kerkhah, rise beyond the high chains, and force their way
through them in many directions: the intercourse from side
to side is by means of rope-bridges.2
The general elevation of K u r d is t a n , and the height of its
mountain ranges, secures the province from the scorching
Collected during ]V£r. Ainsworth’s recent visit.
J Mr. Ainsworth’s Visit to the Chaldeans— Vol. XI. Part I., pp. 21 to 76
of the Royal Geographical Journal. ’
heats to which the people of Mesopotamia are exposed, in the
very same latitude; whilst the cheerful vales and long terraces
on the sides of the mountains boast of the gum tragacanth
plant, at the same time that they yield grain, and produce the
vine,1 as well as other fruit trees. The forests, in addition to
the ash and oriental plane, have the finest walnut trees in
great abundance; and the oaks bear large gall-nuts of the
very best quality. The honey, which is found in holes underground,
or in hives made of mud, is remarkably fine, as well
as very plentiful; and it produces a fragrant wax in such
quantities that it forms a constant article of export, with the
gall-nuts, yellow-berries, goats’ hair, &c. In addition to
these, the valleys likewise grow silk, cotton, tobacco, hemp,
pulse, wheat, barley, rice, Indian corn, flax, sumach, sesame,
and the castor-oil plant. Melons .and pumpkins grow to an
enormous size; and flowers of all kinds, particularly the
gigantic rose, are abundant.
But the most remarkable production in ancient Assyria is
the celebrated vegetable known here by the name of manna;2
which, in Turkish, is most expressively called Kudret-hal-
vassiz, or the Divine sweetmeat. It is found on the leaves of
the dwarf oak, and also, though less plentifully, and scarcely
so good, on those of the tamarisk,3 and several other plants.
It is occasionally deposited on the sand, and also on rocks and
stones. The latter is of a pure white colour, and appears to
be more esteemed than the tree manna.4 It is collected chiefly
at two periods of the year; first in the early part of spring,
and again towards the end of autumn; in either case the
quality depends upon the rain that may have fallen, or, at
least, on the abundance of the dews; for, in the seasons
which happen to be quite dry, it is understood that little or
none is obtained. In order to collect the manna, the people
1 Excellent wine and brandy are made near Bitlls.—Kinneir, p. 394.
5 Exod. xvi. 15, 31, 33, and 35 ; Numb. xi. 7.
8 Tarfa, in Arabic.
4 Mr. Rich, Vol. I., p. 142, seems to think this is another kind of manna;
but Mr. Rassam, from whom my information is chiefly derived, considered it
to be the same; with the simple difference of being free from the leaves and
other impurities taken up with it, when shaken from the trees or plants.