ON THE WESTERN BANK OF THE RIVER. 
389 
loping play, shaking their spears, and charging each other with 
all the seeming spirit and fury of actual combat; and whenever 
I saw any thing like a demur in their proceeding, I had only to 
set off full speed, when they were obliged to follow me; their 
heads being to answer for my safety. They were all well armed; 
but I observed that several amongst them, besides their usual 
spears, and pistols, carried a couple of darts or javelins, made 
of iron and steel, richly inlaid: they were attached to the saddle, 
under the right thigh of the rider, and were a most deadly 
weapon in pursuit. 
The morning was tolerably clear, and from the summit of the 
Birs I could observe several objects scattered over the plain, 
which the sudden haze on my first visit had completely ob¬ 
scured. Amongst the most conspicuous was the Nebbi Kaffeel, 
or tomb of Ezekiel; an object of great veneration to the Jews 
dwelling in Hillah, who acknowledge it to be the real sepulchre 
of the prophet. A little more to the westward, the lofty 
walls of a khaun were visible, which my people told me was 
that called Khaun Dubbeh, on the road to Mesched Ali. The 
country all in that direction seemed very low and swampy, 
and, towards the horizon, spotted with the appearance of even 
large lakes ; but whether those lucid surfaces were indeed water, 
or the effect of vapour only, (an illusion often met with in flat 
and hot countries,) I cannot positively say ; neither could my 
companions inform me to any certainty, though they assured 
me there was no want of the actual presence of water, either 
in the shape of lakes, or swamps and marshes, all over that 
neglected waste. Such impediments before the western boun¬ 
dary of Babylon, we are told, prevented Alexander from enter¬ 
ing the city on that side; I now saw them before my eyes : and 
on turning to the north, similar morasses and ponds tracked 
