238 
PALMS, GUIDES TO WATER SPRINGS. 
compose its little bazar, enjoying a more delightful canopy 
from the piercing heat of the sun, than the richest arcades 
of ornamented masonry could have afforded. 
October 12th. — At seven o’clock the same evening, we be¬ 
gan again to move; my invalids, impatient as myself to reach 
Bagdad, having once more betaken themselves to their panniers, 
which I had caused to be put into more comfortable repair. On 
quitting the palm-groves of Sharaban, we proceeded due south 
over a dead flat of light sand, which in a gust of wind is terribly 
annoying to the traveller : and at the distance of a farsang over 
this yellow land, we discerned the dome-roofed tomb of an imaun 
zada (a son of the holy race) rising from amidst its embowering 
shelter of the same sort of beautiful Asiatic trees. We soon 
after passed close to it; and found it built of brick, and standing 
on the margin of a pretty stream or canal, called the Kara 
Mucthar. The first person who remarked to me the peculiarly 
delightful appearance of the palm in regions arid as these, was 
my gallant friend Sir Sidney Smith; and he observed, that after 
a long march over the desert, even a distant view of the top of a 
palm-grove was an object of joy ; for it promised not only shade 
for repose, but coolness, and the most grateful beverage from the 
springs, which were always to be found on or near the spot. No 
one, indeed, could better describe such paths than he, to whom 
his sovereign gave the impresse of the second Cceur de Lion. 
We did not halt for the refreshment of Kara Mucthar, but 
crossed it by a bridge of three small high arches, the banks 
being very steep ; and again entering on the sterile plain, tra¬ 
versed its monotonous flat till, at about five o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing, (October 13 th,) we were cheered with a vision of the lofty 
trees and gardens of Bacoubi, (or Yacoubi,) fringing the horizon. 
