Note 1 — Chapter VII · FROM BITLIS TO MUSH—MUSH

In less than half-an-hour we arrived at a handsome mausoleum, standing in the midst of an ancient cemetery, and now fallen into a ruinous state. It was circular in shape. I was not aware at the time of the existence in this neighbourhood of the spring of which Mr. Ainsworth speaks.1 But at Erzerum I learnt that I had passed by it, and was made acquainted with an interesting theory of its origin. It is said that a shepherd, pasturing his flocks on the slopes of Nimrud, happened to lose his staff, which was weighted with a purse, in the waters that collect in the caldron of that great volcanic mass. A little later the same staff was found on the bank of the stream which issues from this well. Such an occurrence is not improbable on a priori grounds. It is only necessary to recall the connection generally accepted as subsisting between the pool on the summit of the Little Ararat and the Sirdar’s well in the valley at its feet. While in Erzerum I was also given a copy of the Arabic inscription on the mausoleum just described. It records that it is the tomb of a certain emir, Karanlai Agha, who died in the year of the Hegira 689, or of our era 1290.2