abounds in brushwood and short-lived herbage, occupied by numbers of partridges, hares, and gazelles, which reign supreme lords of an immeasurable wild, bounded only by the hori

zon.

When the orb of day rises, he appears emerging from the earth, without rays, until considerably above the horizon; and on sinking into the golden chambers of the west, his beams disappear long before the body of the orb is covered.

The soil of this Desert consists of a hard clay mixed with sand, which, at noon, becomes so heated by the sun's rays, (although the nights are cold,*) that I find it too hot

* Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from my eyes.— (Genesis xxxi. 40.)

"In Europe the days and nights resemble each other, with respect to the qualities of heat and cold: but it is quite otherwise in the East. In the lower Asia, in particular, the day is always hot: on the contrary, in the height of summer the nights are as cold as at Paris in the month of March. I have travelled in Arabia and in Mesopotamia, the theatre of the adventures of Jacob, both in winter and in summer, and have found the truth of what the Patriarch said, That he was scorched with heat in the day, and stiffened with cold in the night.' This contrariety in the qualities of the air in twenty-four hours is extremely great in some places, and not

to walk over it with any degree of comfort. It is not, however, my intention to de

conceivable by those that have not felt it: one would imagine he had passed in a moment from the violent heats of summer to the depth of winter. The heat of the sun is tempered by the coolness of the nights, without which the greatest part of the East would be barren and a desert: the earth could not produce any thing."-Sir J. Chardin.

The hot pestilential south wind, which blows from these deserts, commences from the 20th of June, and continues for about seven weeks. It is thus described by Mr. Bruce :"This hot wind is called by the Arabs Samum, or Simoom. It is generally preceded by an extreme redness in the air, and usually blows from the south-east, or from the south, a little to the east. It appeared in the form of a haze, in colour like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so compressed, or thick it was a kind of blush upon the air. The guide warned the company, upon its approach, to fall upon their faces, with their mouths close to the ground, and to hold their breath as long as they could, to avoid inhaling the outward air. It moved very rapidly, about twenty yards in breadth, and about twelve feet high from the ground; so that," says Bruce, "I had scarcely time to turn about and fall upon the earth, with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all fell upon our faces until the Simoom passed on, with a gentle ruffling wind. When the meteor, or purple haze, had passed, it was succeeded by a light air, which still blew so hot as to threaten suffocation, which sometimes lasted three hours, and left the company totally enervated and exhausted, labouring under asthmatic sensations, weakness of stomach, and violent head-aches, from imbibing the poisonous vapour."-Bruce's Travels.

D

tain the reader by an enumeration of my sufferings from bodily fatigue; those who have crossed these desert wilds are already acquainted with their dreary tediousness, even on horseback; what it is on foot they can easily imagine. The thought, however, that I was gradually approaching the sites of the once magnificent and renowned cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, with the Tigris still flowing beneath the solitary remains of ancient splendour, amply compensated me for all my troubles, and animated me with renewed strength and vigour.

I perceived no swans upon the surface of the stream: hoping to meet with some of these birds, I had traced its current for miles, but was still disappointed. In vain, too, I looked for the smallest stones; there is not one in the district; nor are there any fragments of ruined edifices, to tell of "long forgotten ages."

At four, p. m. I saw a very extensive sand-bank, that stretched more than half over the bed of the river: it was studded throughout with innumerable small cupolas of

NAVIGATION OF THE TIGRIS.

35

clay; and as the eye glanced quickly over the whole, it reminded one exactly of the domes which cover the bazaars at Ispahan, Shiraz, and other Persian cities.

The root, from which is procured what in England is called liquorice,* is so abundant throughout the country, that it is burnt as fire-wood.

Some modern travellers have remarked that this river is totally unnavigable in the dry season, which is incorrect. The Tigris, during the whole year, contains a sufficient body of water for moderate-sized boats, and these heavily laden. Several, requiring a great draught of water, quitted Bussorah a few days before me, and, although the river had been remarkably low all the season, their progress was not interrupted by a want of water. The great and only difficulty they had to contend with, was the savage inhabitants of these banks; not the lion, but a fiercer animal-the Desert

* The Glycyrrhiza, with both smooth and scabrous pericarps. The Arabs call it soos. The Glycyrrhiza echinata is the most abundant.

Arab, who never goes in search of his wild neighbour; but, should he chance to meet the king of the forest, he slays him in self-defence. The Arab's chief weapons being the sword and spear, he is not always certain of conquering his foe. For this reason all the people hereabouts are much alarmed by the circumstance of the lion making this part his favourite haunt.

At sunset we saw some fires at a short distance. On going to the spot, we found a camp of one of the wandering tribes, known by the name of Eelauts*,-as usual, poor-but happy, contented, and civil. A few sheep and goats appeared to be their only property. The left nostril of most of the women of this tribe was perforated, to admit a gold or silver ring, from which hung a pearl or turquoise.

How widely different is the behaviour of these poor people from that of the roving Arab,

Wandering pastors of Persian or Coordish origin. Pococke describes all their riches to consist in goats and sheep, and says that they live in great poverty, having nothing except a few dates and goats' milk.