Sunday May 9. [9 May 1909] Off at 6.5, 1850. Got to the foot of the hill at 7.25. We saw Maltai a little way across the stream and Dehok [Dahuk] up the valley a couple of hours or less away. Climbed up the hill and at first failed to find the reliefs - we had got higher than they. Searched about for a little and then told 'Abdallah to go down and fetch a guide. I sat down under a rock and looked out on the world and listened to the stream below. There was the real mountain feeling. There was a saxifrage growing, white clusters, and something very like campanula pyramidalis - white too - and the little yellow flax thing. In the corn below everywhere white and purple hollyhocks. Presently Abdallah came shouting that he had found the reliefs. There are 4 groups each consisting of the same procession: one man sitting and facing towards the spectator's right, one man on foot approaching him, then a man in a chair on the back of a lion, then 6 men standing on the backs of lions and lionesses, then one man on foot. One group is broken by the door of a hermit's cell and another by a niche hollowed out. We clambered down with difficulty. At the foot of the hill a stream gushes out of the rock. So to our horses and got off at 10. Crossed the river and left Maltai on our right. We reached Semail [Summel] at 11.45 and stayed till 12.15. I lunched on the top of the tell on which is an agha's house. Corn all the way to here. There is a guard house here. At 1.40 we reached Tell Maruni where there are only the ruins of a village. The country was now all deep in grass but no corn and no people. All are harried away by the Kochar Kurds. At 2.30 Abdallah said conversationally "That is the house of fardeskiyya." It was a white square house under the rocky chain of hills. It belongs to 'Abd egh Ghazazeh who is now in prison at Mosul [Mawsil, Al]. To him belongs the village of Ger Resh (= Tell el Aswad) just below the house. Hajji Beg who is also in prison, is a Koshar of the Altoshi tribe; Hassan Jangir of the Zeidle. "They do not fear God. They take the load and the camel with it. Allah el Wakil. They say we too are Hamidiyyeh, soldiers of the Sultan, and they fire at the soldiers of the govt. They take the load and the mule. They get their arms from Ibn Sabbah. They buy a rifle for £T3 and sell it here for 10 liras. Hajji Beg was a shepherd, a shepherd with a shepherd's staff guarding the sheep. And Abdul Hamid made him a beg." At 3 we passed Basitke - there is another village of the same name on the lower road. The post passed us, 6 loads and 3 soldiers. They were going in a very business like fashion but we caught them up again a little later, feeding their horses on the grass. We saw one or two villages under the hills. At 3.50 one called El 'Asi - about 3/4 of an hour away, at 4.50 Kerkiya a little way to the right near the opening of the gorge. We crossed the road leading up the gorge at 5 and at 5.40 got into our camp at Koleh. There is a big house belonging to a Kurdish Agha. Thunder and heavy rain. 2500.