"abu" always amused me. Its literal meaning is "father." In the bazaars a
shop-owner was always hailed as "father" of whatever wares he had for
sale. I remember one fat old man who sold porous earthenware
jars--customers invariably addressed him as "Abu hub"--"Father of
water-coolers."

My best friend among the natives was a Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey
Baban. His father had been captured and taken to Constantinople. After
living there a number of years in semicaptivity he died--by poison it was
said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to Kurdistan until after he was a
grown man and had almost forgotten his native language. He spoke and read
both French and English. Eventually permission was granted him to live in
Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish hills, so he set off by
motor accompanied only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent ahead by
camel caravan to be left for him at selected points. The journey was not
without incident, for the villagers had never before seen an automobile
and regarded it as a devil; often stones were thrown at them, and on one
occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only escaped by driving full speed
through the crowd.

His existence in Baghdad had been subject to sudden upheavals. Once he was
arrested and convoyed back to Constantinople; and just before the advance
of the British his life was in great danger. Naturally enough he had
little love for the Turk and staked everything on the final victory of the
Allies.

He intended writing a book on the history of his family, in which he was
much interested. For material he was constantly purchasing books and
manuscripts. In the East many well-known histories still exist only in
manuscript form, and when a man wishes to build up a library he engages