A RIDE TO BABYLON. 391 



finger you touch the very bricks, large, square- 

 shaped, and massive, that were " thoroughly " 

 burned; the very mortar; the "slime," now hard 

 as granite, handled more than four thousand years 

 ago by earth's impious people. From the summit of 

 the mound, far away over the plain, we could see 

 glistening, brilliant as a star, the gilded dome of a 

 mosque, that caught and reflected the bright rays of 

 the morning sun. This glittering speck was the 

 tomb of the holy AH, and to pray before this at 

 some period of his life, to kiss the sacred dust of the 

 earth around, there at some time or other to bend 

 his body and count his beads, is the daily desire of 

 every devout Mohammedan. 



We were back from the Birs-Nimrood and under 

 our Hillah roof again by ten o'clock. By four that 

 evening we had turned our faces to the north, and 

 were riding for Baghdad. The distance from Hillah 

 to the gates of Baghdad is called sixty miles. We 

 were actually in the saddle on our return-ride, never 

 going beyond a walk's pace, 18|- hours, viz. : 

 Hillah to Mohawul, . . 4 hours. 



Mohawul to Iskandria, 4 



Iskandria to Kanezad, .5 ,, 



Kanezad to Baghdad, . .5 



