592 Sir R. Ker Porter's Travels in 
insinuated its delightful odours through 
all the rough appends of our un- 
shaven visages. Tere was, the actual 
ceremony performed upon. us, after 
eating, which Ihave described as senlp- 
tured on the walls of the banqueting 
chamber, in the palace of Persepolis. 
There a group of persons are seen, “one, 
holding a sort of censer, evidently in- 
tended for burning perfumes, while in 
the other hand he carries a vessel re- 
sembling a pail; probably to contain 
the aromatic gums. ‘The man who fol- 
lows him, bears a little bottle set in the 
palm of his right hand, and in the left 
he holds a picee of linen or towel:” we 
eannot doubt that all this apparatus was 
to perform the cleansing rite we had 
just gone through. The saloon in which 
we were received, exhibited no gaudy 
variety of ornament; and those in at- 
tendance, both in demeanour and ap- 
parel, were in unison with its cleanli- 
ness and simple furniture. Most of 
these persons, for they were numerous, 
appeared to be Georgians; a regular 
garde de corps, amounting to several 
hundred well-looking young men of 
acknowledged bravery and talent, 
having been the long-established house- 
hold battalion of the pashas of Bagdad. 
Tt_is from this body that their favourite 
ministers are usually chosen; and too 
often the ambitions servant manifests 
his gratitude to his master, by engaging 
in intrigues to displace him from his 
authority, or to remove him to a better 
world; that he may, for a bricf while, 
seat himself on the same slippery chair 
of state! 
THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES. 
The Tigris varies as much in the ra- 
pidity,,«s in the depth of its stream, 
hoth being governed by the periodical 
waters. that rush from the mountains of 
Armenia, where its sourees are about 
fifty miles north-west of the valley of 
Diarbeker. It flows thence, with a 
swiltness that. gave it the ancient 
Persian name of Zeer or Tir, the arrow, 
which is descriptive of its course. ‘The 
average rate of its current is about 
seven knots an hour. Its first swell 
takes place in April, and is produced 
by the melting of ihe winter snows in 
the mountains; its second appears to- 
wards the close of Octuber, or the be- 
ginning of Noyember, and rises imme- 
diately after the annual rains in those 
high regions, But it is only during the 
spring torrents, that a complete. inun- 
dation coyérs the land, and. the city of 
Bagdad stands like a castellated island 
Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Sc. 
in the midst of a boutidless sea. This 
mighty flood does not, however, owe all 
its waters: to the Tigris; those of ‘the 
vaster Buphtates, which flow algo’ from 
Artienia, having receiyed their’ super- 
abundance about ‘the beginning of 
March, continue inéreasitis in elevation 
ti the end of April; at whieh ‘period, 
the river being atits highest pitch, ¥e- 
Mains so until the expiration’ of Julies 
and, during that tine, having spread ifs 
welcome waters to meet the overflowing 
Tigris, hoth united cover the surromd- 
ing country, west, east, and south, to 
beyond the reach of sight. Soon after 
they have subsided, spots, which at this 
season flourish only partially, become 
enriched to an amazing Juxurianee. 
Herodotus, speaking of the fertility ‘of 
Babylonia, ascribes it to the influence 
of the river; bat remarks, that it does 
not, like the Nile, enrich the’ soil by 
overflowing its banks}; the dispersion of 
the waters, he adds, being produced by 
manual labour. Rather, we might'say, 
held in check by that means ; for, doubt- 
less, the perfect state of the numerous 
canals, now in ruins, or totally ost, 
would regulate the diffasion “more 
within the limits of what might be 
called voluntary irrigation ; and “when 
the water is very low, it has always’ been 
raised to use by machines on its banks. 
The Euphrates, or Phrat, is’a’ much 
more magnificent stream than the Tigris, 
flowing in a more abundanf, circuitous, 
and majestic course, from its Sources in 
Armenia, through a length of ehannet 
estimated at fourteen thousand miles.” 
CLIMATE OF BAGDAD. 
The latitude of Bagdad, from the 
mean observations taken by Mr. Rich 
and others, is 33° 19! 40”; and the lon- 
vitude east of Greenwich, 44° 44’ 45", 
The climate, im general, has the advan- 
tage of parts of Persia, in not being 
variable in such violent extremes; but 
then its warmest months are certainly 
insufferable, from the abiding effects of 
the forty days’ prevalence’ of the’ 'con- 
suming samicll. At that: season, the 
thermometer frequently mounts in the 
shade, from 120 10 140 degrees of heat, 
according to Fahrenheit. | Hence itmay 
easily be conceived that’ winter is! the 
most genial season here ; and the’ inha- 
bitants teil’ me, that the air’ thet’ be- 
comes soft, and of the most ‘delightful 
salubrity; particularly, they say, from 
the fifteenth of November to about’ the 
middle of January. At’ present; to- 
wards the latterend of October; while I 
am writing, the skirts of the’ ‘withering 
blast,” 
