g by Nisibis, and now called the Nahr-Jaghjagha.

** Tabiti is the Thebeta (Thebet) of Roman itineraries and
Syrian writers, situated 33 miles from Nisibis and 52 from
Singara, on the Nahr-Hesawy or one of the neighbouring
wadys.

*** Magarisi ought to be found on the present Nahr-
Jaghjagha, near its confluence with the Nahr-Jerrahi and its
tributaries; unfortunately, this part of Mesopotamia is
still almost entirely unexplored, and no satisfactory map of
it exists as yet.

**** Sirki is Circesium at the mouth of the Khabur.

Between the embouchures of the Khabur and the Balikh, the Euphrates
winds across a vast table-land, ridged with marly hills; the left bank
is dry and sterile, shaded at rare intervals by sparse woods of poplars
or groups of palms. The right bank, on the contrary, is seamed with
fertile valleys, sufficiently well watered to permit the growth of
cereals and the raising of cattle. The river-bed is almost everywhere
wide, but strewn with dangerous rocks and sandbanks which render
navigation perilous. On nearing the ruins of Halebiyeh, the river
narrows as it enters the Arabian hills, and cuts for itself a regular
defile of three or four hundred paces in length, which is approached by
the pilots with caution.*

* It is at this defile of El-Hammeh, and not at that of
Birejik at the end of the Taurus, that we must place the
_Khinqi sha Purati_--the narrows of the Euphrates--so often
mentioned in the account of this campaign.

Assur-nazir-pal, on leaving Sirki, made his way along the left bank,
levying toll on Supri, Naqarabani, and several other villages in his
course. Here and there he called a halt facing some town on the opposite
bank, but the boats which could have put him across had been removed,
and the fords were too well guarded to permit of his hazarding an
attack. One town, however, Khindanu, made him a voluntary offering
which, he affected to regard as a tribute, but Kharidi and Anat appeared
not even to suspect his presence in their vicinity, and he continued
on his way without having obtained from them anything which could be
construed into a mark of vassalage.*

* The detailed narrative of the _Annals_ informs us that
Assur-nazir-pal encamped on a mountain between Khindanu and
Bit-Shabaia, and this information enables us to determine on
the map with tolerable certainty the localities mentioned