Assemanni (Bib. Or. Vol. 111. part 2, p. 709) exchanges one s of the Syriac alphabet for the other, so as to obtain an equivalent to Rás' ul'Ain. This is evidently forcing the etymology to the circumstances of the case.

The Greeks made from Larissa, in one day's march, 18 miles "to a large uninhabited castle, standing near a town called Mespila." The distance here performed would carry the Greeks from Nimrúd to the modern village of Yarum-jáh, built upon a mound of ruins 1150 feet long by 42 in perpendicular height, and situated on a bend of the river at a short distance from Nineveh, and which thus from Xenophon's evidence would appear to belong to an ancient castle, and not, as Mr. Rich thinks, to part of the city of Nineveh itself.

The orthography adopted by Major Rennell, a careful scholar, as well as a distinguished geographer, for the Mespila of Xenophon, is Meso-pulai, "the middle gates or pass," and applicable to the narrow pass of the Tigris which has existed at Nineveh from the remotest times. Rennell even thinks that the city of Mósul may have derived its name from Mesulœ, a corruption of Mesopulai. That, however, the Mespila of Xenophon is the same as the Nineveh of antiquity, is evidenced by distances, and by the circumstance that there are no other ruins of sufficient extent, excepting those of Nineveh, to answer the descriptions of the historian. I have also established a strongly corroborative proof (Researches, &c., p. 257) in the fact that the plinth of the wall was built with the common stone of Mósul, which is full of fossil shells, and it is described by our historian as constructed of Xilov GeoTOÛ KOYXVλiάTOV. Leunclavius argues that these shells were sculptured κογχυλιάτου. on the walls, others have treated the subject as unworthy of attention, but it has served, like any other correct observation, to illustrate a question of identity; for the same fossiliferous limestone, which at Mósul alternates with beds of gypsum, is not met with many miles to the north or south of that city, being succeeded by unproductive wastes of the last-mentioned mineral.

From Mespila, the Greeks made in one day's march 12 miles. This would have carried them to the present small Chaldean town of Tel Kaif, a site of some interest on the Assyrian plain, and whose tell or mound is undoubtedly of remote antiquity.

Having rested here a day, in order to provision the army, they departed the next over an open country, harassed by the enemy, and marched five days. "While they were upon their

march the fifth day they saw a palace and many villages lying round it." As Xenophon afterwards says explicitly, Tv Te odò πρòs τὸ χωρίον τοῦτο διὰ γηλόφων ὑψηλῶν γιγνομένην, οἱ καθῆκον ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄρους, ip' ❀ v kúμŋ. (III. 4. § 24), we must believe that the Greeks, who were delighted with meeting a hilly country, could not have seen the palace till the hills were surmounted. The first hills that are met with in proceeding northwards from Adiabene to Karduchia, constitute a double range designated Chá Spí by the Kurds, and Jebel 'Abyadh by the Arabs, both signifying White Hills, and immediately beyond them is Zákhú, at a distance of about 50 miles by map from Tel Kaif, but about 60 by the road, giving an average of 12 miles per diem.

The "white hills" are, as described by Xenophon, a prolongation of the loftier mountains of Kurdistan, and they are divided at the point of passage into two distinct ranges, with an intervening wooded irregular and hilly vale. The enemy attacked the Greeks on passing the first range, and successively on each different height, and the Greeks only gained the villages after much fighting and with many wounded. The appearance of Zákhú, in the present day, corresponds in a remarkable manner with what it is described to have been in the time of Xenophon-a palace amid villages. As the stranger approaches he is struck with its bold and isolated appearance—a pile of ruin, belonging to different ages, built on an island of rock, and a good picture of a baronial castle of feudal times, surrounded by the cottages of serfs and retainers.

The fourth day the Greeks καταβαίνουσιν εἰς τὸ πεδίον (111. 4. § 31), according to our historian, although, "advanced upon the plain,' would have been an expression more consonant with the identifications here established, especially as they had already surmounted the hills. Tissaphernes attacking them to advantage on the plain of Zákhú, they were obliged to encamp at the first village, from whence they started again at night, making 6 miles, to which if we add as much for the day's march, it would carry them to the ancient mound called Tel Kobbin, now surmounted by a village of Chaldeans. The Greeks marched hence two days unmolested, but on the third day the enemy was found to have got before them, and possessed themselves of an eminence that commanded the road. From a careful study of the adjacent country, and allowing a march of 9 geographical miles per diem, this eminence would appear to be the last of the series, of which the first, or more

southerly, is occupied by the ruins of the castle of Rabáhí, overlooking a fertile tract with villages, which extends thence along the Tigris, to Jezireh ibn 'Omár, or, in the words of Xenophon, ȧkpwvvχίαν ὄρους, ὑφ ̓ ἣν ἡ κατάβασις ἦν εἰς τὸ πεδίον. The Greeks were here obliged to outflank the enemy, which was done by a body of troops under the command of Xenophon, and the Persians having fled, they marched down upon the plain, and encamped in a village, of which there were many, abounding in “all sorts of provisions."

Two other points indicate the position of the Greeks at this moment to have been the neighbourhood of Jezireh; the first is, that many herds of cattle are described as being taken when the people of the country were endeavouring to make them pass the river, this being a ferry from all antiquity, as also the seat of a bridge in the middle ages; and, secondly, that the generals and captains assembled in great perplexity, "for on one side of them were exceeding high mountains, and on the other a deep river;" and this is the point where the Tigris is first hemmed in by the mountains of Kurdistan. Instead of at once attempting the passage of the mountains, the Greeks turned off next day up the valley of the Chaldean district and episcopate of MárYuhannah, where they obtained prisoners, one of whom described to them the existence of four roads: 1st, that by which they came; 2ndly, one to the east, leading to the Atropatenian Ecbatana, (through the country of the Chaldeans and the upper Zab); a third, west, over the Tigris, to Lydia, &c. (by Nisibis, &c.); and a fourth, over the mountains, which led to the Karduchians. (111. 5. § 15.)

Having resolved upon the last road, they started while it was yet dark, and came to the mountains by break of day, and passing the summit of the mountain, they gained without molestation "the villages of the Karduchians that lay dispersed in the valleys and recesses of the mountains." Thus was accomplished the entrance into Kurdistán, and from previous details, as well as the circumstances of the case, and the peculiar description given of the position of the villages, ἐν τοῖς ἄγκεσί τε καὶ μυχοῖς τῶν ὀρέων, there can be very little doubt that they gained what are the first Kurd villages in the pass of the Tigris to the present day, in the centre of which is Fenik, surrounded by extensive ruins and luxuriant gardens, and representing apparently the Phoenica of Ammianus Marcell. (xx. p. 15, 18, 26), of which I have only been able to find notices in that author, and certain Kurd histories quoted

by Mr. Rich (Narrative of a Residence in Kurdistán, &c. Vol. 1. pp. 106 and 375), who, however, did not visit the place, for these were countries unexplored by Europeans previous to my travels in 1840.

On the next day's march, the generals placed themselves in a pass, (most probably the ravine of the rivulet of Zawiyah, about six miles beyond Fenik, and the only point affording the desirable facilities), and deprived the soldiers of all superfluous baggage, slaves, &c. "In this manner they marched that day, sometimes fighting, and sometimes resting themselves." It is probable, therefore, that they did not travel beyond the slope of the hills above Zawiyah, where are now the remains of Konákti and other castles, which once commanded the approach to the hills, and which are about eight miles from Fenik.

The next day there was a great storm, but they were obliged to go on, and the enemy made a brisk attack upon them, σTεvŵv övtwv tôv xwpíwv, (Iv. 1. § 12), for beyond the castle of Konákti, and the ascent of the hills, the road leads through narrow rocky ravines, which sometimes terminate abruptly over precipices of great perpendicular height. When they had arrived at the place where they designed to encamp, Xenophon upbraided Cheirisophus for hastening forward, and deserting him in the passes; but the Lacedemonian answered him by pointing to the road before them, calling upon him to observe how impassable the mountains were, defended by a multitude of men; and that he had marched hastily to make himself master of the pass. From this, it is evident to a person intimate with the topography of the country in question, that the position now gained was the pass of the second range of hills, between the large Kurd village of Findúk, and the Syrian hamlets called Kuwárro and Baráván, and from whence the valley of the Tigris is perceived opening a little round the foot of the colossal mountain of Vihán (left bank), but shut up beyond by bold and precipitous rocks. Guided by information extorted from a prisoner, three captains volunteered to start the same evening by a circuitous road to gain the first summit, whose base is washed by a small but rapid tributary to the Tigris, and whose precipitous face is in the present day defended by a ruined castle. At the same time, Xenophon marched with the rear guard directly to the passage by the open valley, in order to draw the attention of

5 Seven geographical miles from Konákti.

the enemy that way, and when they came to the cross valley with the rivulet, described by Xenophon, like the Kházír-sú, as a Xapádpa, or a valley formed by a torrent, and which they were to pass in order to climb the ascent, the Kurds so defended the ravine with large stones, as to render it inapproachable.

The surprised party, which had marched round with the guide, found the enemy's guard sitting round a fire, and having killed some of them, and forced others down the precipice, they stayed there, thinking they had made themselves masters of the summit, but in this, as Xenophon remarks, they were mistaken, for there was still an eminence above them, near which lay the narrow way, where the guard sate. Nothing therefore was in reality gained by this movement, and the next day early, and favoured by a mist, Xenophon advanced upon the enemy and routed them, which allowed Cheirisophus to march up the passage, while the rest of the generals took bye paths, each of them where he happened to be, and climbing as well as they could, ávíμov ἀλλήλους τοῖς δόρασι, highly expressive of the character of the difficulties which they had to surmount. But Xenophon dividing the rear guard into one half in advance, and the other in the rear of the baggage, marched up the same way, (or to the right,) which those went who had the guide, and which was the only one feasible to sumpter-horses. In their march they came to a hill which was possessed by the enemy, whom they were obliged to dislodge, or to be severed from the rest of the Greeks. Beyond this they met with another hill also possessed by the enemy, and having left a guard at the first hill, Xenophon attacked this, and drove the Kurds from it. But there remained a third hill, which was the eminence that commanded the post where the guard was surprised at the fire, the night before, by the detachment. The Kurds however retired from this position, and attacking the guard left at the first hill, slew several captains and many men. Xenophon was obliged, in consequence, to enter into treaty with the Kurds, who after this success returned in force before him, but Cheirisophus and the rest of the army, coming up at the time, (the third hill or eminence being then open to them, as a direct passage, and the first to them) a movement in advance was made, by which Xenophon was put in danger from rolling stones, and deserted by his standard bearer, but the Greeks prevailed, and they were the same evening quartered all together "in many good houses, where they found abundance of provisions, and where there was plenty of wine, which they kept in plastered cisterns." (Iv. 2.