6

KOORDISH HORSEMANSHIP.

reah," or flat country bordering the great rivers of Irak and Mesopotamia, they said, "You had better change your dress, and join us: you know not our happiness on these hills; here we live secure from oppression; and, should the pasha come to rob us, we enter the rugged passes of our mountains, where he can never find us." The women always accompany their husbands in these flights. They all ride en cavalier, and no horsemen can ascend the heights, or gallop down the declivities, with greater boldness.

To excel in horsemanship, is considered by the Koords of both sexes, as well as by the Arabians, a most essential accomplishment. Hence the boast of Amriolkais :-" Often have I risen at early dawn, while the birds were yet in their nests, and mounted a steed with smooth short hair, of a full height; and so fleet as to make captive the beasts of the forests. Ready in turning, quick in pursuing, bold in advancing, firm in backing; and performing the whole with the strength and swiftness of a vast rock which a torrent

PASS OF DURBUND-EL-BAZIAN.

7

has pushed from its lofty base. He makes the light youth slide from his seat, and violently shakes the skirts of a heavier and more stubborn rider *"

From Temar to Dolan the ascent is considerable, and the direction of the road nearly due south. After winding through a very narrow and rugged defile for two hours, we alighted, and, leading our horses up the steep and jagged hill, commenced ascending the celebrated pass of Durbund-el Bazian. This pass precisely accords with the account given by Xenophon of his passage through the defiles of the Carducian mountains.

As we advanced, the natural features of the defile grew more and more imposing, until the rocks, gradually approaching each other, seemed all at once to close in upon us without leaving a trace even of any outlet. Sometimes the path wound along dizzy precipices without any protect

* See the Moallakat by Sir W. Jones, p. 10.

8

PERILOUS ASCENT.

ing wall, and, at other times, it led past deep and rugged ravines, formed by the rushing of innumerable mountain-torrents, where the road was so narrow that the loads on the mules actually overhung these formidable chasms. On the left of our path was a frightful chasm, which admitted a strong mountain-torrent, that had evidently forced itself through the very heart of the mountain. We soon passed over an arch of just sufficient width for the passage of our Kajavahs, and scaled an overhanging cliff whose sides were nearly perpendicular, varying from five hundred to fifteen hundred feet in height, without any interval between them and the stream. Their rugged bosoms gave nourishment to a few stunted oaks that hung to the scanty soil. Some distant banks appeared to to produce the wild vine, others were tufted with small trees and bushes growing most luxuriantly, the continued shade furnishing them with moisture.

The arid chasm alone was naked, and

GATE OF KOORDISTAUN.

9

strewed with huge fragments detached from the topmost cliffs, which had rolled into the stream and formed rocky islets, around whose base the impetuous torrent was dashing. This strong pass, as I have just observed, presented so many windings in its course, that the eye could not penetrate beyond a few yards, and we were often at a loss to trace the direction whence the passage would issue out, so completely mountain-locked did it appear. Continuing our progress towards the south, though still ascending, we reached some ruined circular watch-towers and a parapet, which our guide said was called the "Gate of Koordistaun." The opening of this barrier was about twenty yards wide, whence some mouldering walls of masonry led down the hill; a strong hold in olden times, perhaps, against Roman inroads. At this point, a small band of armed men might arrest the advance of any force however numerous; it is difficult even for a single horseman; and the spot is most conveniently situated for overlooking

10

FANTASTIC CRAGS.

all the entrances into Koordistaun from the Assyrian side.

I think it is not at all unlikely that this position often became the scene of military operations. The early historians have been so loose and inaccurate in their accounts, that it is scarcely possible to trace the movements of the numerous armies that passed through Assyria into the country of the Carducii. There can be no doubt, however, that this was the formidable pass through which Heraclius marched, on his route to Ganzaca after the fall of Dustajird, because it is the only road by which he could possibly have reached Siozuros.

There is no part of the landscape which the eye wanders over with more interest than the crags of Durbund-el-Bazian, which stand up on every side in the most rugged and fantastic forms-sometimes strangely piled one on the other, and sometimes as strangely yawning in clefts of a frightful depth. We looked towards the rugged pathway we had scaled, and watched the