Salim’s lack of curiosity was no feature of the behaviour of these men. They pestered me with questions, and were loth to believe me English, taking me for a Persian; for I had to speak to Salim in Kurdish, and as I had not the appearance of a Kurd (I was now wearing a short coat, European trousers, and a fez), they opined I must be a Persian. However, on being told that they might please themselves as to what they believed, they put me a question or two from the New Testament, and receiving satisfactory replies, became convinced that at any rate I was a Christian, and dubbed me “Saun Effendi.”
They pressed me to stay, and Salim told me that he would not permit me to make any arrangements for dinner while I was there, that I must share with the rest of them, and fend for myself during the day. He promised meanwhile to try and find me mules in the Bagdad caravan, which would leave a few days hence.
So, having nothing to do, I bethought me of that resort of the idle, the bazaar, and took a stroll there, refreshing my memories of the place, where I had stayed sixteen days four months before.
It was extremely hot here. The end of August in Kirkuk is probably as hot as in any town of Mesopotamia, and, fresh from the hills of Kurdistan, great drowsiness overtook me, and hardly was I back in my room than I lay and slept—till sunset, being awakened by Salim, who, thinking I must be ill, came in to see what was the matter.
We went and sat in the verandah outside, where Salim’s brother was cooking a meal, and Salim himself having divested himself of his business garments—the long striped tunic, Aleppo gold-threaded belt and fez—donned loose clothing, and enveloped his head in a handkerchief.
For a time he rummaged about in his room, and at last came forth with two little glasses and a bottle wrapped in wet rags, to keep the contents cool—and I perceived that I had met a drinker. The drink was araq, a fiery spirit flavoured with aniseed and aromatic gum, and he insisted on my joining him in three or four glasses of the stuff, followed by morsels of sweet water-melon, which is taken to remove the unpleasant aftertaste from the mouth, and quench the thirst the spirit generates.
As it grew darker, we repaired to the roof, where benches were set about. The sun had just set, and from the roof one could see over Kirkuk, with its flat roofs, to the great desert westwards, where the gold of the setting sun was blotted by the shape of the big mountain, standing lonely and unsupported by foothills or rising slope, in the west.
How little did these lineal descendants of the Assyrians know that the very prospect they looked over, the town in which they lived, had been founded by their ancestors, and the mount under which the caravanserai lay, called “Qala debeit Seluk”—“The fortress of the Seleucids.”
CHRISTIAN MANNERS
There was but little time to enjoy the prospect, for the sun having set, it grew dark almost immediately, and the chatter of the Christians and their invitation to drink prevented any attempt at a stroll in the cool breeze. Every one of them was provided with a little bottle of the araq, and by the bench of each was a pail of water in which they kept their bottles cool.