This heroic task was proceeding when I left Sulaimania, and till now I have reason to believe that the happy gathering at Chemchemal still exists, six months after they arrived to march against two hundred and fifty horsemen. Some day they will retire, as soon as food gets scarce, and the Hamavands will reappear suddenly, to commence another period of raiding and defiance. When we were among them on this occasion, as yet no move had been made against them, and the universal opinion was that no caravans after ours could pass. This was the case, for it was not till late August, when the tribe had gone away, that caravans once more went between Sulaimania and Kirkuk. A large number of horsemen escorted us next morning, and we left their country after about two hours’ journey, under the western side of their eastern range of boundary hill, finding at last a path over a neck. From the summit of this we could see a long range of hills on the opposite side of an undulating plain about twelve miles broad, and far away to the east a great snow-capped wall, the Aoraman mountain, and Persia. This is the plain of Surchina, on the eastern border of which Sulaimania lies. At the foot of the pass the Hamavand escort indicated the spot where they had lately looted a caravan, killing all the military escort and destroying a large number of despatches and Government accounts. The scraps of these still lay about, and one could decipher upon them the tag-ends of sentences, a diversion which occupied some of the travellers for a considerable time. The recognised territory of the Hamavands extends a little way into this plain, and a large number were encamped by a stream in their black tents, and their flocks covered the hill-sides. Approaching Sulaimania, we came to a region of hillocks where had originally been extensive gardens. Now they were but deserted patches of land where the few trees remaining were dying for want of water. Around Sulaimania the country is excellently watered by a river and a number of streams, but the terror of the Hamavands in troublous times, and of the Government and the shaikhs in days of peace, has effectually ensured the desertion of what was once a richly cultivated country. Right up to the outskirts of Sulaimania are the same melancholy relics of past prosperity. At present there are no gardens around the town, and it is supplied with fruit at exorbitant prices, from villages on the other side of the hills, which are out of the range of the Hamavands. [Sidenote: ARRIVE AT SULAIMANIA]