'DIARY OF A TOUR IN THE PERSIAN GULF AND IN TURKISH ARABIA, DECEMBER, 1906 (WITH MAP)' [‎14r] (27/106)

0
A route to Persia.
Kut.
River scenery.
21
aroused in the breasts of neighbouring
monarchs, of the invasions and expedi
tionary attacks which followed, space does
not admit here of recital. The subject, too,
hardly comes within the scope of an official
diary, however informal and discursive.
It will suffice to say that now, after the
lapse of almost countless centuries the
descendants of those early Yemen inhab
itants are to be found scattered about in
small and exclusive colonies in Turkish
Arabia, and that of those colonies Amara
is perhaps the chief. The Sab^ans of to
day have a reputation as skilful craftsmen,
and especially as jewellers and silversmiths
Their silver work in particular, inlaid
with antimony, shows evidences of taste
and originality.
From Amara a track takes off to Dizful
and Shuster in Persia. By all accounts,
though, this route would not always be a
very safe one. Still, there are evidences
of vitality in the place, and it seems to
possess a considerable trade. Once above
Amara the marsh region is left behind and
a country less liable to inundation is met
with. A little cultivation is discernible in
places, but the inhabitants are chiefly no
mad pastoral Arabs, whose black tents,
round which swarmed numbers of children
and many domestic animals, were constanly
to be seen. At Kut, another considera
ble town, the river is again spanned by a
bridge-of-boats. Kut is the centre of a
considerable grain traffic, most of which
comes from the Shatt-el-Hai, a large canal
which here takes off from the Tigris and
flows to the Euphrates. _ Ordinarily this
canal is too shallow to admit of navigation,
but when the snows of Kurdistan begin
to melt, and the Tigris comes down in
flood, at times as much as half its water is
diverted into the Shatt-el-Hai, which then
becomes navigable Jor even the largest
native boats.
On the whole, though, there is little
to be seen on the river voyage to Bagdad.
The Pusht-i-Kuh of Luristan, crowned by
a thin line of snow, approaches and retires
as the steamer wends its way through
the tortuous waters of the Tigris, but in
the main nothing but desert meets the eye.
More interesting than the country passed
through were the pilgrims we took along
with us. They were of every type, com
ing from all parts of the Muhammadan
world in order to make the pilgrimage
to the sacred cities of Kerbela and Nejef.
The women of course go strictly veiled,
but the occasional glances one got of them
made it evident that they were anything
but houries ! Their habits were primitive