MavII, 1857.] RAWLINSON ON MOHAM'RAH. 351 



and the natives could not pronounce it. It would be confounded with that of 

 O'Brien, and the hill people would probably call this mountain Ob'ron. As 

 another instance of the difficulty which the natives experienced in pronouncing 

 English names, he might, among others, mention that the name of the 

 *' Hon. Mr. Cavendish" was pronounced by them '• Humbel go mundee." 



2. Notes on Mdharnrah and the Chaab Arabs, etc. By Col. Sir Henry 



EaWLINSON, K.C.B., F.R.G.S., etc. 



Sir H. Rawlinson said he held in his hand a report upon 

 Moham'rah and the Chaab Arabs, which he had prepared for 

 the information of Her Majesty's Government about thirteen 

 years ago, when the dependency of the first-named place was 

 contested between the governments of Persia and Turkey, and 

 when those powers had accepted the arbitration of England and 

 Russia in the settlement of the dispute. Although this report, treat- 

 ing almost exclusively of political geography, might, perhaps, with 

 some alterations and additions, be made fit for publication in the 

 Journal of the Geographical Society, still he thought the Meeting, 

 instead of having inflicted upon them a dry catalogue of barbarous 

 names, and a still drier disquisition on the nationality of disputed 

 territory, would prefer hearing something of the actual position and 

 history of Moham'rah, a name which had now become, as it were, a 

 household word in our annals. Therefore, instead of reading the 

 official report, he proposed to divide his address into three parts. In 

 the first place, he would trace upon the map the configuration of the 

 adjoining country and explain something of the actual geography of 

 Moham'rah. In the second place, as the ancient history of 

 .Moham'rah was of considerable interest, he would read a few notes 

 which he had drawn up upon the comparative geography of the 

 region in which it was situated from the earliest times. And, 

 .thirdly, if time permitted, he would offer a few observations upon 

 the place, as connected with our recent military operations ; that is 

 in reference to the Persian war which had just been brought to a 

 conclusion by Sir James Outram, 



Moham'rah, as the meeting was aware, was the scene of our 

 latest, and he hoped he might say, our last, military exploit against 

 the Persians. It had thus become a place of very great interest ; 

 but he believed that at the present hour (as the town was not 

 marked upon any of the standard published maps), there were very 

 few people who were acquainted with its exact position. He pro- 

 posed therefore, in the first place, to show exactly where it was, and 

 to trace the geography of the surrounding country. The map before 

 the Meeting exhibited the Avhole of the northern coast of the Persian 



