[28] The Kurds are a very ancient people, no doubt identical with the “Carduchi” who gave so much trouble to the Ten Thousand in the Anabasis. Their modern Russian name “Kurdischi” is a transliteration of the Greek.
[29] These oppressed nationalities cherish pathetically futile hopes of British intervention, recognizing rightly that England is the only disinterested power. But the only power ever likely to interfere effectively is Russia; and though those who have tried Russian rule have found themselves bitterly disillusioned, it must be admitted that the Russians preserve better order than the Turks. What the country needs is a set of self-sacrificing administrators, with no axe of their own to grind, who will devote themselves solely to the good of the people. No other nation can furnish such administrators as England: and no other nation so obstinately refuses to recognize their worth.
[30] These monasteries have been visited and described by the Rev. O. H. Parry and Miss G. Lothian Bell.
[31] i.e. “Believers in one nature”; the name was given them because they rejected the technical term enforced at Chalcedon, which declared that Christ existed “in two natures,” the Divine and the Human.
[32] It is a remarkable proof of the persistency of Eastern conditions that, up to the commencement of the present century, 1 piastre (2d.) was still regarded as the regular day’s wage.
[33] The Chronicler also alludes to the baths as a monument fit to rank even with the granary and the cistern; but the limited time at our disposal did not allow us to identify these. The bridge and the river embankments are, however, conspicuous works.
[34] The establishment of this hermit monastery must have followed immediately upon the building of the city: for it is written that in 526 the Queen of King Kobad, being possessed by a demon, and having sought relief in vain from her own magicians, sorcerers, and soothsayers (who only succeeded in “introducing more demons into her”) came hither to consult a certain holy hermit named Moses, and was duly healed by his prayers. Kobad was, of course, officially a Zoroastrian (and privately, of all incredible things, a Communist); but even to this day the mountain Moslems not infrequently go on pilgrimage to Christian shrines.
[35] Justinian, it may be noted, had equipped this army with such a plethora of commanders that their defeat can hardly cause surprise.
[36] The snowfall on this occasion was even more prodigious in the mountains. The valley of Amadia was buried under an average depth of fourteen feet, and not a man could stir beyond his own village for a period of fully four weeks! Fortunately the villagers had their winter stock of provisions and fuel, and so did not suffer like the nomads; but the hares and partridges were exterminated, and have only just begun to reappear.
[37] The driving belt also formed part of the loot, and this was a good, useful bit of leather; so the game was generally voted quite worth the candle after all.