Wed March 22 [22 March 1911] It poured in the night and was still
raining heavily in the morning, so we did not get off till past 8. I had a
horrible cold and cd scarcely enjoy the beauty of the world after the
rain. It looked all new made. We got out of the hills soon and into a
wide plain with the Persian Mts at the end of it. Lots of tiny tea houses
along the road where they sell eggs and dates and bread. Khanikin
[Khanaqin] lies low and we did not see it till we came actually upon it.
The best view of it is from the bridge over the Helwan [Alwand].
Storks building everywhere - I saw the first in Baghdad and the
second the day we left Baghdad. I rode straight to the house of
Mustafa Pasha ibn Othman Pasha and found him sitting with lots of
friends. He read the letter of Abd ur Rahman Jemil Zadeh and
insisted that I should lodge with him. The talk was mostly in Kurdish
which bored me. But I had to give them all the news about Nazim
Pasha which they received with joy, specially the names of those who
had been imprisoned. Then we had a large lunch which we eat with
our fingers - though they eat out of the same dish with me they wd not
touch my hand. I nearly laughed out loud at the thought of Herbert's
picture of me. Then I wrote some letters in my tiny room on the roof
and came down to find the Pasha and an old Hajji playing a curious
sort of draughts. The Hajji's turban was crooked with his excitement.
Then I went to see the harim. He has two wives - they never go out of
the hosh. He was exiled for 8 years in C'ple [Istanbul
(Constantinople)] during which time they never saw him.
Consequently he has no children. Then he was 5 years in Baghdad
when they came and never left the house. Then in Muhammad
Reshad's time he was allowed to return. The quarantine doctor, a
Greek, came to see me and told me the whole story of the row in Kasr
i Shirin [Qasr-e-Shirin] was a put up job. The Turkish consul from
Kermanshah [Bakhtaran] had telegraphed that there was danger in
order to make himself important. The Vali had ordered the Mudir of
the bank (an Armenian) not to go on to Hamadan the real reason
being that he thought he cd be useful to him in his hour of danger. The
Mudir had not liked to disobey the direct order of the authorities.
Mustafa Pasha's Khal, Mejid Pasha, is at Kifri. After dinner I went in to
see the women again and found there a pretty little Turkish woman the
wife of a doctor who is now up country somewhere. She finds
Khanikin very dull after C'ple where she belongs.