A RIDE TO BABYLON. 377 



was our great stand-by, we lay spokewise towards the 

 fire, with the screams of jackals ringing in our ears 

 the livelong night. The next morning, before the 

 cold light of dawn had left the eastern sky, we were 

 jogging on our road. In the distance, high above 

 the plain, loomed a great mound of earth. On both 

 sides of us lay what looked like long lines of parallel 

 ranges of hills. These lines are pronounced to be 

 the remains of those canals that once conducted the 

 waters of the Euphrates over the length and breadth 

 of the ancient Babylonia. "What mighty canals must 

 they have been, that still showed under the roll of 

 centuries such substantial traces ! now not so much 

 as a drop of water, no, not even a drop of heaven's 

 pearly dew, ever glistens, where once ships must have 

 navigated. Those mighty banks that carried fertility 

 to every comer of the ancient kingdom are now mere 

 useless, sightless mounds. ~No morning mist, moist- 

 ening the thirsty earth, ever hangs over them. Xo 

 rain-clouds ever shadow them, tempering the rays of 

 a fierce daily -returning sun. The end of her that 

 " dwelt upon many waters " had been brought about 

 only too surely. The awful prophecies had been ful- 

 filled, and desolation, in all its nakedness, in all its 

 dreariness, was around us. After riding some two 

 hours, we arrived at the foot of the great mound 

 that we had seen in the distance in the morning. 

 "We dismounted and scrambled to the top, for we 

 had e'en arrived at the ruins of Babylon ; and this 



