We have not, I conceive, sufficient data in Xenophon's narrative to identify with any degree of certainty his route after crossing the Euphrates. We know that about twenty parasangs from that river the Greeks encamped near a hot spring, and this spring might be recognised in one of the many which abound in the country. It is most probable that the Greeks took the road still used by caravans through the plains of Hinnis and Hassan-Kalah, as offering the fewest difficulties. But what rivers are we to identify with the Phasis and Harpasus, the distance between the Euphrates and Phasis being seventy parasangs, and between the Phasis and Harpasus ninety-five, and the Harpasus being the larger of the two rivers? I am on the whole inclined to believe, that either the Greeks took a very tortuous course after leaving the Euphrates, making daily but little actual progress towards the great end of their arduous journey, the sea-coast, or that there is a considerable error in the amount of parasangs given by Xenophon; that the Harpasus must be the Tcherouk, and the Phasis either the Araxes or the Kur[17]; and that Mount Theches, the holy mountain from which the Greeks beheld the sea, was between Batoun and Trebizond, the army having followed the valley of the Tcherouk, but leaving it before reaching the site of the modern port on the Black Sea. [Illustration: Subterranean Excavations at Kouyunjik.] CHAPTER IV. STATE OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON MY RETURN TO MOSUL.--DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK.--TUNNELS IN THE MOUND.--BAS-RELIEFS REPRESENTING ASSYRIAN CONQUESTS.--A WELL.--SIEGE OF A CITY.--NATURE OF SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK.--ARRANGEMENTS FOR RENEWAL OF EXCAVATIONS.--DESCRIPTION OF MOUND.--KIAMIL PASHA.--VISIT TO SHEIK ADI.--YEZIDI CEREMONIES.--SHEIKH JINDI.--YEZIDI MEETING.--DRESS OF THE WOMEN.--BAVIAN.--DOCTRINES OF THE YEZIDI--JERRAIYAH.--RETURN TO MOSUL. On the morning after our arrival in Mosul, I rode at sunrise to Kouyunjik. The reader may remember that, on my return to Europe in 1847, Mr. Ross had continued the researches in that mound, and had uncovered several interesting bas-reliefs, which I have already described from his own account of his discoveries.[18] That gentleman had, to my great regret, left Mosul. Since his departure the excavations had been placed under the charge of Mr. Rassam, the English vice-consul, who was directed by the Trustees of the British Museum to employ a small number of men, rather to retain possession of the spot, and to prevent interference on the part of others, than to carry on extensive operations. Toma Shishman, or "the Fat," was still the overseer of the workmen, and accompanied me on my first visit to the ruins.