294 



Correspondence. 



desolation. The Arabs of the Desert being the only people met with, 

 no man is safe who cannot carry sufficient force to intimidate those 

 he meets, and prevent their plundering him. The wharfs, numerous 

 corn mills, stone embankments at the bunds of the river to receive the 

 rush of the current, the ruins of numberless aqueducts and lofty mina- 

 rets, are the only signs of the past, now to be seen. Below Hit, 

 the nature of the country alters very much from a hilly and rocky 

 country, the stream now enters an open level country, the bank being 

 low and formed of mould, (the alluvium of the Delta of the Euphrates 

 here doubtless commences), and the course becomes very tortuous 

 and winding ; the rapid action of the stream on the banks causes 

 frequent changes, by which whole towns are sometimes swept entirely 

 away. Here the country takes an active and cheerful appearance, the 

 natives being seen busy on the side of the river irrigating their corn 

 fields by cattle and leather buckets, singing and responding to each 

 other, and a stranger would little think, while he listens to their jokes 

 and merriment, that he was passing a tribe of the greatest thieves and 

 rascals, who for two buttons would not scruple to commit robbery 

 and murder, and return to their buckets again with greatest sang froid 

 imaginable ; to us, however, they were civil enough, for they feared the 

 strength of the party. 



" Here we had an opportunity of witnessing a most pleasing sight. 

 One evening it being quite calm, we exchanged compliments with the 

 chief of the tribe ; he expressed sincere friendship for the English, and 

 as we left, his Moollah asked us to decide a dispute about a feast which 

 was to commence that night or the next, but they had forgotten which. 

 Having just come from Hit, they thought we could tell them, as they 

 had no communication. On assuring them that the feast began that 

 night, the Seik immediately ordered the signal to be made, on which a 

 dozen balls of fire rose on the points of the long spears, and the men 

 mounting galloped about, causing a most extraordinary appearance, for 

 in a short time the country round, as far as the eye could see, appeared 

 covered with little stars flitting about in all directions. The rest of the 

 people commenced singing and dancing, and the watermen on the 

 banks of the river passed rapidly the news down to each other, so that 

 we found that the signal had reached Hillah the same night, a distance 

 of 150 miles. 



" From Hillah, the supposed ruins of the tower of Babel are situated 

 seven miles distance in a S. W. direction. These remains are most 

 admirably represented and correctly described in ' Keith on Prophecy.' 

 The mound is now 140 feet in height, and is without question, square 



