21 S Present State of the Ruins of Babylon. 



bv one man ; thence it is conducted through narrow channels to 

 any part of the fields. The perpendicular mud pillars upon whrch 

 the cross-bar rests are about two feet in diameter, and the bas- 

 ket that takes up the water is of an oval form, three feet long by 

 sixteen or eighteen inches broad, made of reeds, and covered 

 with bitumen. 



" On account of the decayed state of the water-courses, culti- 

 vation is confined to the banks of the river, and the few canals 

 that admit the water at the annual increase of the river : — thus 

 that country, which has been considered the richest in the world, 

 has more the appearance of a desert, than of lands that had for- 

 merly yielded four hundred-fold to the industry of the husband- 

 man. 



** It is worthy of remark, that after leaving Korna, which is 

 situated forty miles above Bussora, at the confluence of the Eu- 

 phrates and Tigris, no date-trees are to be seen on the banks of 

 the latter river ; and that the sides of the former are lined with 

 them up to Babylon, and even a very considerable distance above 

 it. The date-fruit to the present day constitute so essential a 

 part of the food of the inhabitants, that it may, without any im- 

 propriety of either language or ideas, be esteemed the bread of 

 the people ; and from it also a fermented liquor is made, into 

 vhich aniseed is put, to give it a flavour. It is well known that 

 the ancients were not very delicate with regard to the flavour of 

 their wines, and that any fermented liquor passed under that de- 

 nomination. The Babylonians, however, might have possessed 

 the art of extracting the sap, and making a liquor of it, or a 

 wine, as Herodotus would have called it, by fermentation, — an 

 art which the Arabs of the ])resent day are unacquainted with. 



« Hillal), which is in lat. 32" 28' N., observed by Niebuhr, 

 and said to be built on the site of ancient Babylon, is a good-sized 

 town, containing from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, with 

 the Eui)hrates flowing through the midst of it. The two divi- 

 sions of the place communicate by means of a bridge of boats of 

 a vejy rude construction, and connected with each other by a 

 couple of large iron chains, and platforms of date-trees, mats, 

 and inud. A great number of date-trees are interspersed amongst 

 the buildings, whi:;h, at a distance, give it the appearance of a 

 large town situated in the midst of a grove. 



" The road to it from Bagdad is good, and the surrounding 

 country, as far as the eye cau reach, perfectly flat, intersected 

 with canals, which had been cut formely across the Jezzera from 

 the Tigris to the Euphrates, but at present they can only be traced 

 bv their decayed banks. 

 ' ^' The climate of this country has been considered particularly 



clear. 



