The Kurds were as frank with him as with their hosts of the previous night; but he took a different view of the matter. "No, you don't if you please! I have no special interest in that Englishman or any other; but if he is killed on my land it is me that the Government will come down on. Take another party; it makes no odds to you, and will not cause trouble for other gentlemen." [Illustration: THE QUDSHANIS MOUNTAINS. From the village of Shwawutha, the scene of the incident related on p. 263. The Zab river is just visible at the foot of the glen, and beyond it rises the great mass of the Kokobuland Dagh. Qudshanis lies just below the snow line, at the head of the lateral valley opposite. No. 10] As there was after all no personal feeling in the matter, they agreed to that compromise; and we proceeded safely. When we heard the tale later we could only be grateful to our host for his consideration; and convinced even more in the semi-fatalistic belief that is apt to soak into one in a land of "_Kismet_"--the belief that every man is immortal till his work is done. There was an afterpiece to the play; what had very nearly been a tragedy developing into something resembling a farce. This is not unusual in the East; for the angel, (or devil) charged with looking after the Persian and Ottoman empires, has a strong--if grim--sense of humour; and mercifully sees to it that the most serious and painful of matters shall always have also a ridiculous side. Our kind hosts at Umbi, having allowed reasonable time for their guests to carry out their expressed intentions, reported them at Urmi as already accomplished; saying that the Englishman and his party had been actually killed. "Is it not already done sahib?" is what your servant says to you about some order that he may, or may not, intend to carry out when convenient; and the minds of these gentlemen were working on similar lines. Word was accordingly brought to the British Consul, then staying in Urmi, that some of the men for whom he was responsible had been murdered. At first that official was blankly incredulous. One acquires a large fund of scepticism about all rumours in the East, and this was a man of some experience. Still, the report grew and grew, and was confirmed again and again, and the bald and unconvincing narrative was embellished with corroborative detail; till at last somebody with an artistic mind came in to declare that he had not only seen our corpses lying on a certain pass, but had smelt them as well; and gave the name of the Sheikh whose bridle was now adorned by the writer's beard! Even consular scepticism broke down under this strain; and a caravan was got ready, and even coffins ordered for us so that decent interment might be given to our bodies; when a Nestorian _qasha_ turned up opportunely from the mountains, and was summoned before the Consul at once.