[8] The bridge is now broken; but enough of it remains to reflect great credit on its builder, whether he was actually the Emperor Valerian or no.
[9] This church was the scene of one of the most fiendish incidents in the terrible Armenian massacres of 1895. Over two thousand refugees of all ages and both sexes had crowded into the sacred edifice to seek sanctuary from their pursuers. The Moslems thrust through the doors and windows fragments of broken furniture and carpets saturated with paraffin, and burnt or suffocated every soul.
[10] A legend attaches to these columns which should make a strong appeal to anyone with gambling instincts. One of the two is full of gold and silver; the other acts as stopper to a prodigious fountain of water which is capable of producing another Noachian flood. He who pulls down the former will win wealth beyond the dreams of avarice; but if he touches the latter he will eliminate mankind. Which is which no one can tell, for the two are precisely similar, and consequently nobody hitherto has had courage to risk the attempt.
[11] There are many tombs and hermits’ cells in the hill which faces the castle, similar to the combs and cells of Dara, which will be described in chap. iii. One of the tombs near the moat has a door formed of a great stone disc running in a groove and socket. Of this type in all probability was the tomb of our Lord.
[12] The inhabitants of Osroëne might be quite correctly described as “Greeks”; that word being often used in the New Testament as merely equivalent to “Gentiles.”
[13] “They have continued Christian to this day,” writes Eusebius; a statement which is not quite accurate, for Paganism was re-established later. Yet there were undoubtedly a large number of Christians in Edessa in Eusebius’ day.
[14] Many of the Crusaders had married Asiatic wives, and the children of such ill-assorted marriages were generally a pretty poor lot. This fact contributed very sensibly to the fall of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.
[15] The true Ur of the Chaldees was either Erech or Tel Mugayir in Babylonia; but Haran, Abraham’s later home, lay a considerable distance further north. Local traditions identify it with Harran (Carrhæ) about twenty-five miles south of Urfa, the proudest boast of whose inhabitants is the possession of Rebekah’s Well. Other corroborative traditions assert that the Patriarch lost many cattle in fording the Euphrates near Birijik; and that the Arabic name of Aleppo (Haleb, “milk”)was bestowed upon it in compliment to his pedigree cow. Jacob was certainly journeying northwards when he fled from Beersheba to Bethel; but this fact does not necessarily favour the Urfa tradition, for his direct line to Babylonia would cross an impassable desert. The Ibrahim of Urfa was perhaps some local hero who has got credited with his namesake’s deeds. It may be added that a further tradition asserts that Urfa was the home of Job.
[16] A multitude of basalt boulders covering quite a considerable area lie in the midst of the alluvial levels a little to the east of Nisibin. These are, of course, obviously volcanic, but it is not quite obvious how they get there: for Karaja and Nimrud, the nearest admitted craters, are each a hundred miles away.
[17] It is said that they were cleared away once; and that the inhabitants promptly replaced them, lest they should lose the fees that accrued to them for helping carriages along the road!