CHAPTER IV.
THE SURVEY OF MOAB.
THE survey of Western Palestine was happily complete in 1877, and the map was out in the following year; but the Memoirs were still not half published when, in 1881, I was again given command of a party instructed to carry the work east of Jordan. The adventures of the fifteen months which followed were far more exciting than any encountered west of the river. Even in 1877, when it was thought that some trouble might arise, the condition of affairs was really favourable, as the Turkish Government was very cordial, and all the dangerous characters were drafted out of the country to the war, leaving only peaceful elders, women, and boys. But in 1881-82 there was great excitement preceding the Alexandria massacres and the expectation of a Moslem Messiah in the year 1300 of the Hegira. In addition to this, our relations with Turkey had altered. The new Sultan refused to prolong our firman or to allow any exploration. The British Government served me with a notice that any expedition I might undertake was at my own risk, and that they would not be responsible for the consequences. We had, therefore, no support on which to rely, and were yet expected to work in the wildest districts, against the will of the Government of the country, and in a time of religious and popular excitement, finally culminating in massacre.
Arriving at Beirût in March 1881, before the assistants and the stores had left England, I determined to fill out the time by a journey through Northern Syria, in company with Lieutenant Mantell, R.E. The object of the excursion, which, by hard riding, was carried through in eighteen days, was to search for the lost city of Kadesh on Orontes. On our way through Baalbek we made the discovery of a Greek inscription painted in red in a chamber behind the north apse of the church built by Theodosius in the great enclosure. It appears to me to be as old as the time of the building of this church, and had not, I believe, been previously noticed.
Our farthest point was the ancient and picturesque town of Homs, whence we returned by the valley of the Eleutherus to Tripoli, and down the Phœnician coast. The full account of this journey I have already given (“Heth and Moab,” chaps. i. and ii.). The impression left on my mind was that few parts of the East would now better repay scientific exploration than Northern Syria. Excavations at Carchemish are urgently needed. Rock-tablets and large ruins exist in the Northern Lebanon, as yet very imperfectly explored. Round Homs there are great mounds awaiting the spade, which probably contain Hittite and other remains of the highest interest. Even the remains existing above-ground are as yet little known, though De Vogüé has done much for the Byzantine ruins of this region.
Kadesh on Orontes was the Hittite capital attacked by Rameses II., and an Egyptian picture represents it as a walled town surrounded by the river. Its discovery, which rewarded our labour, gave an instance of the necessity of keeping the mind open in archæological research, and of avoiding preconceived theory. South of Homs is a great lake, which, in the fourteenth century, was known as the Lake of Kadesh. A mound in this lake was thought likely to be the site of the city. We found, however, that the lake was artificial, being formed by a Roman dam across the river. This agrees with the statement of a Rabbinical writer, who says that the lake was made by Diocletian as a reservoir for the supply of Homs, the ancient Emesa; and an aqueduct still leads from the dam to this city. The lake, then, did not exist in the days of Rameses II.
Camping for the night a few miles south of this lake, I, as usual, inquired for the names of towns, ruins, &c., in the district, and to my surprise the name Kades was among them. We therefore altered our plan, and turned aside to explore the place pointed out under this name. We found it to be the site of an important town on the Orontes, about five miles south of the lake, and it was afterwards discovered that previous travellers had recovered the name, though it had escaped the map-makers. Standing on the great mound, and observing how the Orontes washes it on the east, while a tributary stream flows on the west and joins the river immediately to the north, no doubt remained possible that the name survived at a site exactly fulfilling the requirements of the Egyptian account. Excavations at the recovered Hittite capital might lead to very important discoveries, if thoroughly carried out.
I was much interested also to find a considerable Turkoman population in these plains; for the border between Turkic and Arab populations is generally placed much farther north. This mingling of Turanian and Semitic peoples round the old Hittite capital represents, in our own times, just the same racial condition which we gather to have existed in the time of Rameses II.
It has come to be generally recognised that the Kheta or Hittites were a Mongolic people, speaking what is called an “agglutinative” language, which was, I believe, akin to the Turkic dialects.[46] They were thus related to that ancient race of Chaldea and Media which, through the labours of Sir Henry Rawlinson and of Dr. Oppert, and their disciples of the second generation, has been so wonderfully demonstrated to have produced the existing population of Central Asia and of the Turkish hordes which spread over Asia Minor. The hieroglyphics found at Hamath, a day’s journey north of Emesa, are the same characters now known in many parts of Asia Minor, and of which examples occur even in Nineveh and at Babylon.
Our troubles were all before us. The Wâli of Syria caused us to be privately told that he must forbid any exploration under the old firman. The Druzes were in rebellion, and the Hauran, which I had intended first to enter, was surrounded by a cordon which we could not pass. Moving southwards, I found the Belka governor, who lives at Nâblus, equally firm. The word had been sent all over Syria. Moreover, the great Arab tribes of the Belka were at war, and the Adwân had just killed a chief of the Beni Sakhr. I soon found that we were watched by spies, and, moreover, that the Turkish power east of Jordan had been so much strengthened since the time when Sir Charles Warren visited Moab, that it was very hard to find an Arab chief independent of the Turks with whom to treat. I felt that the lives and safety of my party rested on my decision, and that while subscribers at home were eager for results, the question of putting my followers in peril rested on my shoulders.