BAGHDAD. 79 



been said concerning its productions will appear to 

 many incredible ! " -^ 



Perhaps when the schemes of Sir William Willcocks 

 have been carried out, and corn is yielding three hundred- 

 fold, and millet and sesame are growing to a height 

 which even Herodotus would be unwilling to commit to 

 writing, it will at last begin to dawn upon Downing 

 Street that the dividends of any future Baghdad Rail- 

 way will not be dependent solely upon a somewhat 

 hypothetical through traffic to India. 



On the morning of the seventh day after embarking 

 at Mossul, the buildings of Baghdad came into sight, at 

 the far end of a long vista of palm-trees, and a few 

 hours later I left my floating domicile, and installed 

 myself in the capital. 



As I have pointed out already in chap. i. , any one who 

 comes to the present capital of Chaldsea expecting to 

 find in it some semblance of the Baghdad of his imagin- 

 ation will be rudely disappointed. It must be admitted 

 that the magnificence and romance of Baghdad lie 

 almost entirely in tradition, — the hopelessly common- 

 place buildings and bazaars on either bank of the river 

 afibrding an entirely inadequate setting to the lives of 

 Harun-al-Baschid and the Khalifs, or to the engrossing 

 scenes of the 'Arabian Nights.' The palm-trees which 

 line the river banks and give a certain picturesqueness 

 to the town cease with abrupt suddenness immediately 

 the river is left ; and all round, encroaching upon the 

 very houses of the city itself, the mournful desolation 

 common to uncultivated ground in lands where, for 

 half the year, a scorching sun looks down from a brazen 

 sky, and where 120° in the shade is no uncommon read- 

 ing of the thermometer in summer, reigns supreme. 



As far as the town itself is concerned, there can be 



1 Herodotus, Book I. chap. 193. 



