On a second slab, preserved in this chamber, was represented a double-walled city with arched gateways, and inclined approaches leading to them from the outer walls. Within were warriors with horses; outside the fortifications was a narrow stream or canal, planted on both sides with trees, and flowing into a broad river, on which were large boats, holding several persons, and a raft of skins, bearing a man fishing, and two others seated before a pot or caldron. Along the banks, and apparently washed by the stream, was a wall with equidistant towers and battlements. On another part of the same river were men ferrying horses across the river in boats, whilst others were swimming over on inflated skins. The water swarmed with fish and crabs. Gardens and orchards, with various kinds of trees, appeared to be watered by canals similar to those which once spread fertility over the plains of Babylonia, and of which the choked-up beds still remain. A man, suspended by a rope, was being lowered into the water. Upon the corner of a slab almost destroyed, was a hanging garden, supported upon columns, whose capitals were not unlike those of the Corinthian order. This representation of ornamental gardens was highly curious. It is much to be regretted that the bas-reliefs had sustained too much injury to be restored or removed. CHAPTER XI. PREPARATIONS FOR A JOURNEY TO THE KHABOUR.--SCULPTURES DISCOVERED THERE.--SHEIKH SUTTUM.--HIS REDIFF.--DEPARTURE FROM MOSUL.--FIRST ENCAMPMENT.--ABOU KHAMEERA.--A STORM.--TEL ERMAH.--A STRANGER.--TEL JEMAL.--THE CHIEF OF TEL AFER.--A SUNSET IN THE DESERT.--A JEBOUR ENCAMPMENT.--THE BELLED SINJAR.--THE SINJAR HILL.--MIRKAN.--BUKRA.--THE DRESS OF THE YEZIDIS.--THE SHOMAL.--OSSOFA.--ALDINA.--RETURN TO THE BELLED.--A SNAKE-CHARMER.--JOURNEY CONTINUED IN THE DESERT.--RISHWAN.--ENCAMPMENT OF THE BORAIJ.--DRESS OF ARAB WOMEN.--RATHAIYAH.--A DEPUTATION FROM THE YEZIDIS.--ARAB ENCAMPMENTS.--THE KHABOUR.--MOHAMMED EMIN.--ARRIVAL AT ARBAN. I had long wished to visit the banks of the Khabour. This river, the Chaboras of the Greek geographers, and the Habor, or Chebar, of the Samaritan captivity[103], rises in the north of Mesopotamia, and flowing to the west of the Sinjar hill, falls into the Euphrates near the site of the ancient city of Carchemish[104] or Circesium, still known to the Bedouins by the name of Carkeseea. As it winds through the midst of the desert, and its rich pastures are the resort of wandering tribes of Arabs, it is always difficult of access to the traveller. It was examined, for a short distance from its mouth, by the expedition under Colonel Chesney; but the general course of the river was imperfectly known, and several geographical questions of interest connected with it were undetermined previous to my visit.