The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-06-13
'S|MP|CH WRITES Of
THE TRAIL Of JONAH
Former Wenatchee Newspaper Man Now Living ia Bag
dad Made Trip Through Orient Made Famous in Bib
ical Times Says Little is Left of Ancient City of
Nnevah- Sees Tomb of Ananias

| WHICH IIOWS lntO the IlSrlS ABOVE
Bagdad. Finally we reached a big
town called Kerkouk, where the
Turks keep lot of soldiers for use
in subduing the warning Arab tribes
who live hereabouts.
Past the Tomb of Old Ananias,
Kerkouk is mainly famous, how
ever, because old Ananias, the first
of the worlds great liars, is buried
there. Since the founding of the
| ''Ananias Club in America, and the
interest the public has taken in Sc
lecting members for this growing Or
ganization, a few words about the
last resting place of the pristine pre-
varicator for whom it was named
may be in order. The tomb itself
is not pretentious at all; it stands in
side mosque, beside the tombs of
Azariah and Mishael. Thousands of
Jewish pilgrims visit the burial place
of Ananias every year. Some 10000
Arabs, Americans, Persians and Jews
live in Kerkouk, engaged in the man
ufacture of wine from the great vine
yards which grow about the town,
and in the export of Arab horses to
India. A beautiful bridge of early
architecture, with twelve magnificent
spans, stretches across the river
Kissa Chat. Naptha springs spout
from the ground, and are worked in
crude way by the natives. Some
day, peradventure, a concessionaire
will snap them up, and make himself
rich. for fuel of all sorts in Meso-
potamia is expensive. Coal at Bag
dad costs $40 ton.
From Kerkouk we passed on, due
north, through a town called Altun-
Keupri. 1t stands on an island in
the river Fab, and takes it's name
from one of the so-called Golden
Bridges" which connects it with the
mainland.
Two days later we passed through
Erbil, and bore off westwards to-
wards Nineveh. The modern town
of Mossour stands on the west bank
of the Tigris, opposite the site of old
Nineveh, and towards it We marched,
glad of the promised rest. What with
heat, fleas and poor food, 1 was
ready to hunt the cool "serdabs' -
or cellars of Mossoul-and recuper-
ate. These serdabs are peculiar to
all towns in Mesopotamia; 125 Fair
is not an unusual temperature dur
ing the summer months of the year,
and the heat-tortured folk flee from
the suns wrath, deep down into
these damp, cellar-like chambers, |
where they pant out the hot, mid
day hours. At night they sleep on
the housetops, to catch what air
there is.
Forty thousand people live in
Mossoul. The town is new" COM
pared with the world-Old ruins of
Nineveh, whose mounds are visible
from the housetops of Mossoul. But
even Mossoul has an old, old atmo-
sphere. It's narrow, crooked streets,
it's fine old wall and seven gates, its
many minarets and moat, make it
an ideal type OF the towns built in
centuries past. Jonah is looked on
as a Saint in Mossoul, too, and the
people refer to him as 'Nebi Yunus.'
When I limited that I'd like to see
where the man was buried who had
been swallowed by a fish, and been
carried around for some days inside
the scaly creature, whole flock OF
chattering street Arabs offered to
show me. Even the wild, long-haired
Kurds, with their curved knives and
slim lances, offered to point out
where Nebi Yunus lay buried.
Strange to say, Mohammedans and
Christians seem to unite in honor
ing both Jonah and st. George, at
Mossoul.
Marco Polo tells in his fascinating
style of how he explored the magic
bazaars of old Mossoul, centuries ago
when he made his famous journey
through this historic land. Once the
town was noted throughout the world
for the splendid products of its many
looms. Muslin" or as the French
say ''Mousseline, took it's name from
this town, where this colth was first
made.
I cross from Moussoul to Nineveh
on the great bridge, half boats and
half masonry. Followed by half a
hundred street Arabs and naked ur-
chins, who turned hand springs be-
side the path and then asked for
'baaksheesh" Gust as the street
youngsters of Naples do, I strolled
through the mounds and half oblit-
Grated walls that mark the spot
where once Nineveh stood 1t was
hard to believe that the powerful
monarchy of old Assyria once made
its capital on this now desolate spot
that the splendid castle of SEN
nacherib rose from these sandy ruins
where now only Jackals, owls and