vii OVEECOMING DIFFICULTIES 77 



" The land of Assyria," says Herodotus, " is 

 but little watered by rain, and that little 

 nourishes the root of the corn ; however, the corn 

 grows up, and the grain comes to maturity, by 

 being irrigated from the river, not, as in Egypt, by 

 the river overflowing the fields, but it is irrigated 

 by the hand and by engines. For the Babylonian 

 territory, like Egypt, is intersected by canals ; and 

 the largest of these is navigable, stretching in the 

 direction of the winter sunrise, and it extends from 

 the Euphrates to another river, the Eiver Tigris, on 

 which the city of Nineveh stood. 



"This is, of all lands with which we are acquainted, 

 by far the best for the growth of corn ; but it does 

 not carry any show of producing trees of any kind, 

 neither the fig nor the vine nor the olive, yet it is so 

 fruitful in the produce of corn that it yields continu- 

 ally two-hundredfold, and when it produces its best 

 it yields even three-hundredfold. The blades of 

 wheat and barley grow there to full four fingers in 

 breadth, and though I well know to what a height 

 millet and sesame grow, I shall not mention it, for 

 I am well assured that, to those who have never 

 been in the Babylonian country, what has been said 

 concerning its productions will appear to many 

 incredible. 



" They use no other oil than such as is drawn 

 from sesame. They have palm trees growing all 



