"سرد لإقامة في كردستان وفي موقع نينوى القديمة؛ مع مذكرات رحلة إلى بغداد عبر نهر دجلة ووصف زيارة إلى شيراز وبرسبوليس." [‎٢‎٠] (٤٥٠/٤٣)

20
PLAIN OF THE ZAU.
[dl. XII.
The country still continued increasing in undula
tions as we advanced, but was not very considerably
indented, and was without any particular feature. At
some intervals we perceived one or two little mounts,
as if the road had been traced in the same manner
as I remarked on the other side of Arbil. About
half-past eight we passed Girdasheer, a little tort
on a mount, with a village at the foot ol it: this
is called half-way to the Zab. Soon after we passed
Little Girdasheer on the right of our road. The
level of the country now began to descend: the Zab
was on our right, with the village of Elbesheer on
its banks. At eleven o'clock we reached the village
of Kellek on the pebbly banks of the Zab 1 . The
bank opposite to us retires; below it advances, and
the bank on our side retires, leaving a plain of about
one mile to one and a half mile's extent, in which
the Zab divides itself into two or three streams. We
descended into this plain, and passing two branches
not above a few inches deep, at half-past eleven we
arrived at the main stream under the right bank,
which is a pebbly cliff. We went over on a kellek
or raft, and our horses and attendants forded a little
tain, then Naokor, Zaaferania, Zakho. This, consequently, was
the first mountain Xenophon and the Ten Thousand ascended.
The Koordish, like the languages of all mountains, is very fertile
in terms descriptive of natural objects and situations.
* All the Koords and people of these parts call the Zab, Zerb.
The Zab seems the Arabic name taken from the Chaldean.
Bochart's etymology is ingenious and plausible.