A HIDE TO BABYLON. 367 



tight, and inside was a sort of lining of rushes and 

 date leaves. The enjoyment of this novel manner 

 of proceeding down a river was rather marred by the 

 idea that if any one of the party were suddenly to 

 give a kick on the spot whereon he stood, the action 

 would most inevitably consign the whole of us to 

 one "watery grave." But, fragile as these "ghoofas" 

 appear, in reality they are not so. They will cross a 

 river with one or two horses on board with perfect 

 safety. We sped rapidly down through the gardens 

 and groves of Baghdad. Our ghoofaman plied his 

 paddle craftily, and as he inclined his body forwards 

 above the edge, he represented as it were the prow 

 of our shield-like basket-boat. Singular as was the 

 appearance and construction of our own ghoofa, and 

 of the numberless others we passed, our attention 

 was also much attracted by some large boats of 

 quite another build. These were moving along, 

 some down stream, under a huge lateen sail ; 

 others were being towed up stream by a string 

 of stalwart naked Arabs, who chanted to their 

 work a wild melancholy strain. These boats were 

 also covered with bitumen as ours was, but the build, 

 instead of being round, was that of a boat, with a 

 fantastically-curved raking prow and sharp stern. 

 Projecting far out behind the stern were several large 

 logs of wood, fastened together in an objectless, un- 

 tidy sort of way: these logs so fastened formed a 

 grotesque-looking thing enough, which served, rather 



