A change had to be made in our personnel for the ensuing section of the journey. The _zaptiehs_ who had accompanied us from Mardin had reached the end of their beat, and we had to apply for a fresh escort to carry us on to Mosul. One of our two new protectors had travelled with "Rabbi Mr. Wigram" before and "knew him to be virtuous and generous," so relations promised to be harmonious. They were instructed to call for us at the _khan_ at daybreak, "as soon as there was light enough to distinguish between a black thread and a white." They turned up fairly punctually; but it then transpired that two of our horses needed shoeing, and that the drivers (of course) had not considered it necessary to attend to the matter until it was time to start. Thus the day was quite two hours old when we forded the Jag-jag river, and bumped off along the causeway which leads from the end of the bridge. Eastward from Nisibin to Mosul--a distance of 120 miles as the crow flies--lies a stretch of unmitigated desert which is known by the expressive name of the _Chôl_. For a journey of four or five days (according to the conditions of travelling) you pass no permanent human habitation, and the same monotonous level lies before you at every stage. You must carry your own provisions with you, your own shelter for your nightly bivouacs, and (if you are prudent) your own furnace for boiling the water. Even that water itself is only found at rare intervals in stagnant muddy puddles or intermittent and starveling streams. The _Chôl_ is no sandy desert like the Obi or the Sahara. It is rather what the Spaniards would call a _dehesa_ or _despoblada_--a waste which might be made fertile by the expenditure of a little pains. It is covered with sparse grass and stunted shrubs, and thistles which are by no means stunted; and a little desultory cultivation which is carried on along the outskirts proves that, with the re-establishment of irrigation, it might again be converted into one of the granaries of the world. Once it supported an immense population, for it was the home of the ancient Assyrians; and though the nucleus of that nation was concentrated at Nineveh and the adjacent townships, yet there must have been thousands of surrounding villages to supply food for the crowded cities and recruits for the mighty armies which dominated the whole Eastern world.