'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [‎33v] (64/72)

48
delight of the storks and other winter visitants, the boatmen, and the melon-growers^
Continents, peninsulas, islands now begin slowly to shape themselves out of the face of
the waters, and the smells and malaria which will set in later on can be imagined. But
with all this the Tigris keeps delivering, it is calculated, during the high season some
thing like one hundred and sixty thousand cubic feet of water every second at Baghdad.
Its fits of playfulness apart, of all the world's workers one of the hardest working it.'
Receiving the drainage and mud of the country, and absorbing tributaries on every side,
the weight of silt which it carries with it in its course exceeds what the mind can easily
picture. Equally interesting to the geologist and important to the navigator the changes
undergone by it in the performance of its several tasks. The low limestone and conglo
merate hills washed by it, as has been seen,in its upper or Assyrian portion, constantly
send it from this side to that, the broad surfaces of rich soil left exposed by each deflection
being quickly taken up as corn-fields or pasture. Once within the stoneless alluvium of
Babylonia, the changes in its channel are chiefly due to the way in which it keeps under
mining and devouring the solid land, and depositing the spoil in new places. Eminently
navigable as it is for vessels drawing up to three or three and a half feet of water from
Baghdad, or rather Tikrit, downward, equal care and experience are needed to prevent
accidents, especially between August and November. In so soft a bed bumping and 1 scrap
ing lead to little harm. Of wrecking in the sense of a hole being knocked in the bottom
there is not much danger. Mistaking the channel, and holding across the arable, at the
risk of being left high and dry till the river's next annual rise, is much more likely. On
the way down this time several sunken safinas or sailing- craft* were passed, with nothing
but the tips of the masts visible. One day a solitary boar as big and black as a buffalo
was seen swimming the river merely on his private affairs. Among other kind things
Sunms say of Shias is that when they die they are turned into pigs, and sent back unbles
sed to their old haunts ! Under this view the travelling hog immediately attracted the great
est interest. From his size it was said he must have been a Shekh; and as the steamer
was full of Shia pilgrims, there might have been a disturbance^
At Kurna, or Gurna, where the two great rivers of Mesopotamia unite their waters
Gurna. about fort y (4°) miles above Bussorah, to form the Shattu'l
. Arab ' a Turkish gunboat is generally on the watch. Thus
ar vessels of all nations are supposed freely to come and go, but the ascent of the Tigris
or Euphrates proper ,s matter of privilege. In the vicinity of Kurna, as along the lower
reaches of both rivers generally, military operations would be difficult. Marshes here act
as mountains do in so many other countries, and the ease with which the natives when
pressed can retire where troops are unable to follow them is a fine check on local Govern-
Long ago, when Cflfa was at its best, Bussorah, founded by the Caliph Omar, formed
Bussorah. a sister city. In those days it stood some eight
7 r_• • „„ T , , ralles lnland on a canal . wher e the Arab settlement of
Z' 7 n t0Wn iS bUt a P00r affair: P 0 P aIa tion certainly under ten
Calcutta n T ^ ^ ShattU,1 ^ from ^ ^e
on a creek a a'd 7 ' ^ ^ ' Sh0U ' d ^ Speakin g of the native at Ieas '.
on a creek at a distance of about a couple of miles from the river, it may perhaps have a
future before it, commercially, not unworthy of its past. As it is, it forms no inconsider-
sea-goinff '^^^^"^iteraHWemale^nuIel'd^'' "f* a t"" 0 ', n,lme ° f -oh variety from the huge
to the bird's It Mke ^ •• ZrtrSov; «,» and ot Js.
through the Crusaders and the gipsies a number of semifr" ^ g a g 0 th e Aryan tongues of Europe received
Arabic (or robber or bandit) E^h lex^ober, ^^ SaraCen 0f ^
language's turn to pay off the debt. Notably is this poi W rm J" 5 e g 1 " nin g to "tentify. Now has come our
" Wdptir," is now one'of the accepted w^ds fo^a st3 Wh Zl ^ T-T * 0r
Arabicised, with unfortunately a number of nantiVal • ra ' c an( ^ ur ' ?is h. " Anchor" has been similarly
having their currency thus extended. Same with weapons^^Mrrdli 0 ^ En f, hsh and Hindustani ) so worthy of
" cannon " is an English one, while for pistols of all • f • ^ . 1S n0W as fairl y an Arabic word as
(revolver) is fast driving out the older names Still mnrp ^ '• 0nS ln r, ]sh " Vat "var," in Arabic " Warwar"
political ideas: such af the appropSiorbv thf lZ f " T® 0f transfe — made to express
American Republics. PP ro P" atl °n by the Arabs of our word "Company" to denote the French and
t The pig, it may be noted, holds too considerable a in > i
the prohibition as to his flesh taken by Muhammad from the MosakTw^ ^
run of a stable yard or cavalry lines ; though, perhaps rather is a . c . pig 13 glven t 6
The Arabic name for whooping-cough means " pig's couch " for wh" • 1 ev s P lrits than out of love for him.
is thought a sovereign remedy. The worthy Captain of one of I vnrh'' CU J y ' ^ ter from a P'?' 5 drinHng trough
cuity is to prevent its being invaded by ereen-turbaneH - a j 3 ste amers keeps a piggery; and the diffi-
of the healing water. 7 g " d Saiyids and othei - Muslims, anxious to carry away cupfuls