Gaol has become, as a result of British rule, quite unpopular in Mosul. You can no longer sit in the prison and take your ease there, sending out for your food and tobacco, as under the Turk. Instead, you have to wear “an unbecoming frock” like the gentleman in the Bab ballads, and work on the roads. So “wearing the cap” is disliked in Mosul, the more as it is no longer possible, when weary of captivity, to hire a substitute to take your place there and make up the tale of captives!
[181] It was proposed to raise some companies of Yezidis for the levy also, and they would serve British officers most loyally. However, up to the time of writing this has not been done, though they offer good military material, and their home in Jebel Sinjar lies conveniently on the flank of the one line of advance possible to the one enemy. The only difficulty (given separate companies of Yezidis, as of Assyrians) seems to lie in the British words of command used throughout the “Mosul levy,” and which Orientals who know no English pick up with marvellous quickness. For any sound resembling “Sheitan” is blasphemy to the ears of a Yezidi. How then is it possible to address to them the mystic adjuration “‘Shun”?
[182] Petros was ill-advised enough to try and blackmail the High Commissioner! He claimed present payment of Rs. 38,000, alleged to have been spent by him out of his own funds on the expedition to Gawar! Failing immediate payment of this, he would denounce Sir P. Cox’s dealings with his people to the League of Nations, the French Republic, and the Pope. To his amazement he was told that he might go to all three, and the devil as well if he liked (the connection with the Pope was not so obvious to Petros as to the angry A.D.C.), and had better begin by leaving the office.
| Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: |
|---|
| Selencia=> Seleucia {pg 5} |
| admittted=> admitted {pg 100} |
| bridgroom=> bridegroom {pg 161} |
| left a one=> left alone {pg 178} |
| France or Amercia=> France or America {pg 259} |
| inacessible=> inaccessible {pg 264} |
| callousnesss=> callousness {pg 378} |
| faily well=> fairly well {pg 287} |
| is a good as ever=> is as good as ever {pg 291} |
| mattter=> matter {pg 301} |
| Hand him over over to us=> Hand him over to us {pg 301} |
| did not minish=> did not deminish {pg 382} |
| cavavan=> caravan {pg 409} |
| deserted by Patriach, 364;=> deserted by Patriarch, 364; {pg 427} |
| shrin of Mar Abd’ Ishu, 306-7;=> shrine of Mar Abd’ Ishu, 306-7; {pg 429} |
