The bulk of their foes lay to the eastward, blocking all the direct tracks to Urmi, and drawing their sustenance from the fertile fields of Gawar, where Nuri Beg had just completed a peculiarly atrocious massacre of the unarmed Christians of the plain. Therefore they would break out westward, where no one would dream of expecting them. They would march in two bands, lest their line should be strung out unwieldily--and perhaps with a tacit prevision like that of the patriarch Jacob, that if one band was caught and overwhelmed the other might have chances of escape. They would cross the Zab by the flimsy wooden bridges near the mouths of the lateral valleys of Diz and Tal.[162] Then, making a wide circuit northward, they would reunite on the further side of Julamerk, whence one more long day's march would bring them to Albaq (near Bashkala) and the pass that led to Salmas Plain. And, in the face of all military probability, this daring plan actually succeeded. If the Assyrians were but poorly disciplined, the Kurds who beleaguered them were no better. [Illustration: A BIT OF THE ROAD BETWEEN TAL AND JULAMERK These built-up sections, or "_Stangi_," are a feature of the mountain paths] The pursuers who should have pressed on their tracks, as soon as they found that the _Yailas_ had been evacuated, stayed behind to quarrel over the division of such sheep as had been abandoned; and the isolated detachments that strove to check their progress were surprised by their sudden sally and easily brushed aside. The Patriarch marched with the Tal column, and his march was marked by an incident as moving as it is picturesque. His route led him over a lofty mountain col near Julamerk,[163] whence for the last time he was able to look down upon the little green "alp" that marked the site of his own village of Qudshanis; and, as he paused to gaze, one natural sigh escaped him: "When shall I ever drink the waters of Qudshanis again?" The words were caught by as attentive ears as those of the three mighty men who followed the son of Jesse. Without a word to their chieftain a small party of devoted warriors broke away from the line of march, burst through the Kurdish picket that attempted to bar the path against them, and brought back to their beloved Patriarch a pitcher of water from the Qudshanis spring. The columns from Tal and Diz joined hands again at Kotranis, and the reunited nation reached Albaq according to plan. Here they had one last struggle; for a body of Kurds from Gawar had crossed the Zab by one of the higher bridges and cut into their path ahead of them. But the pass was carried triumphantly by a detachment under Khoshaba of Lizan; and the Assyrians, saved by their own exertions, poured at last into Salmas Plain.