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  [Illustration: CHURCH OF MAR SHALITA, KOCHANES. _Frontispiece,
   vol. II._]





     JOURNEYS
     IN
     PERSIA AND KURDISTAN

     INCLUDING A SUMMER IN THE UPPER KARUN
     REGION AND A VISIT TO THE
     NESTORIAN RAYAHS

     BY MRS. BISHOP
     (ISABELLA L. BIRD)

     HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
     AUTHOR OF 'SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS'
     'UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN,' ETC.

     IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. II.

     WITH PORTRAIT, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS

     LONDON
     JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
     1891




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IN VOLUME II.


     Church of Mar Shalita, Kochanes          _Frontispiece_

     Stone Lion and Guide                           _Page_ 8

     Karun at Pul-i-Ali-Kuh                _To face page_ 10

     Killa Bazuft                                  "      19

     Fording the Karun                             "      23

     Sar-i-Cheshmeh-i-Kurang                       "      29

     Zard Kuh Range                                "      30

     Aziz Khan                                            37

     Yahya Khan                                          110

     A Twig Bridge                                       114

     Tomb of Esther and Mordecai                         153

     Kurd of Sujbul[=a]k                                 208

     Hesso Khan                                          264

     A Syrian Family                                     273

     Designs on Tombs at Kochanes         _To face page_ 297

     Syrian Cross                                        297

     Syrian Priest and Wife                              310

     A Syrian Girl                                       315

     Rock and Citadel of Van              _To face page_ 338

     Kurds of Van                                        339

     A Hakkiari Kurd                                     372




LETTER XVI


     ALI-KUH, _June 12_.

Two days before we left Chigakhor fierce heat set in, with a blue heat
haze. Since then the mercury has reached 98 deg. in the shade. The call to
"Boot and Saddle" is at 3.45. Black flies, sand-flies, mosquitos,
scorpions, and venomous spiders abound. There is no hope of change or
clouds or showers until the autumn. Greenery is fast scorching up.
"The heaven above is as brass, and the earth beneath is as iron." The
sky is a merciless steely blue. The earth radiates heat far on into
the night. "Man goeth forth to his work," not "till the evening," but
in the evening. The Ilyats, with their great brown flocks, march all
night. The pools are dry, and the lesser streams have disappeared. The
wheat on the rain-lands is scorched before the ears are full, and when
the stalks are only six inches long. This is a normal Persian summer
in Lat. 32 deg. N. The only way of fighting this heat is never to yield to
it, to plod on persistently, and never have an idle moment, but I do
often long for an Edinburgh east wind, for drifting clouds and rain,
and even for a chilly London fog! This same country is said to be
buried under seven or eight feet of snow in winter.

On leaving Chigakhor we crossed a low hill into the Seligun valley, so
fair and solitary a month ago, now brown and dusty, and swarming with
Ilyats and their flocks, and Lake Albolaki has shrunk into something
little better than a swamp. A path at a great elevation above a stream
and a short rocky ascent brought us to the top of the pass above
Naghun, a wall of rock, with an altitude of 7320 feet, and a very
stiff zigzag descent upon Isfandyar Khan's garden, where the heat made
a long halt necessary. The view from the Naghun Pass of the great
Ardal valley is a striking one, though not so striking as one would
suppose from the altitude of the mountains, which, however, do not
nearly reach the limit of perpetual snow, though the Kuh-i-Kaller, the
Kuh-i-Sabz, the great mass of the Kuh-i-Gerra, the range of the
Kuh-i-Dinar, and the Kuh-i-Zirreh are all from 11,000 to 13,000 feet
in height. Even on the north side