THE BATMAN SU.

If the supremacy were to be assigned to the greater body of water, the Batman Su must undoubtedly be regarded as the main stream, and the name of Tigris be assigned to it. It is thus described by Kinneir:—

"The guide conducted us about a mile up the left bank of the Batman Su, when he ordered his attendants to strip and prepare to pass the river. He allotted two men to each horse to prevent accidents, as the stream was deep and rapid, and there were doubts whether or not the cattle could pass without swimming. I certainly expected more than once to have been carried away by the force of the current, and this was actually the case with one of our escort, who was forced to abandon his horse. We crossed the river half a mile above its junction with the Tigris, at a spot where it was one hundred and twenty yards in breadth, although it was then said to be very low compared to what it had been a fortnight before. At the end of half a mile we reached the Diarbekr branch, (the Tigris,) a stream nearly of the same width but not so deep as the Batman Su."

This latter is the Barema, the great river of Edrisi; and as the Barema mountain of the Arabs was the Niphates of the ancients, it is more than probable that the Batman Su is the Niphates river of the classical poets. . . .