236 
HAMREEN HILLS. 
honey-combed sides obtruded themselves so frequently, and im¬ 
ped in gly into the road, as to render it unusually winding and 
intricate, besides being so straitened in places as to scarcely 
leave room for a foot-path; in other parts it was extensively 
open. This sort of up-and-down labyrinth proved painful, as 
well as dreary to my invalids: and from its wearisome coiling 
out a space which, on a more direct line, might have been passed 
in quarter the time, I found it nearly as irksome to myself, 
having no longer the conversation of my intelligent Persian to 
beguile the way; but at length it brought us forth into an im¬ 
mense plain, where the eye at least found relief in the free 
expansion. 
The rocky ground we had just left, is part of a long ridge of 
high uneven country, called the Hamreen Hills, which stretches 
eastward towards Kuzistan ; the Susiana of Cyrus, and the do¬ 
minion of his friends the celebrated Abradates and Panthea. 
Susiana and Persia Proper are supposed to comprise the Elam of 
the Scriptures. These hills are the last considerable heights we 
had to pass, before we should behold the vast and almost uninter¬ 
rupted level of that part of ancient Babylonia which lies north of 
the Tigris. It now lay before us. After descending them into the 
plain, we soon came to the brink of a rapid stream, called Bela- 
Drooz, which falls ultimately into the Diala. Its banks are 
rather steep, and thickly clothed with high reeds. Having 
crossed it by a bridge of one arch, a tolerable road led us on 
for nearly an hour and a half, till we reached the gardened 
vicinage of Sharaban ; and there we traversed many a ditch and 
swampy tract, owing to the waters having been let loose to irri¬ 
gate the ground. For some time I had been glad to find that 
the free, refreshing air of the night had beneficially affected my 
sick people ; (I cannot allow such merit to the cataplasms and 
