given to desert mounds.

Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew tower, known by the natives as
the Malwiyah. It is about a hundred and sixty feet high, built of brick,
with a path of varying width winding up around the outside. No one knew
its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity varied by several thousand
years. One fairly well-substantiated story told that it had been the
custom to kill prisoners by hurling them off its top. We found it
exceedingly useful as an observation-post. In the same manner we used
Julian's tomb, a great mound rising up in the desert some five or six
miles up-stream of the town. The legend is that when the Roman Emperor
died of his wounds his soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a
mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever for this belief, for it would
have been physically impossible for a harassed or retreating army to have
performed a task of such magnitude. The natives call it "The Granary," and
claim that that was its original use. Before the war the Germans had
started in excavating, and discovered shafts leading deep down, and on top
the foundations of a palace. Around its foot may be traced roadways and
circular plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane it looks as if
there had at one time been an elaborate system of gardens.

We were continually getting false rumors about the movements of the Turks.
We had believed that it would be impossible for them to execute a flank
movement, at any rate in sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for
from all the reports we could get, the wells were few and far between.
Nevertheless, there was a great deal of excitement and some concern when
one afternoon our aeroplanes came in with the report that they had seen a
body of Turks that they estimated at from six to eight thousand marching
round our right flank. The plane was sent straight back with instructions
to verify most carefully the statement, and be sure that it was really men
they had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration of their original
report. As can well be imagined, that night was a crowded one for us, and
the feeling ran high when next morning the enemy turned out to be several
enormous herds of sheep.

As part consequence of this we were ordered to make a thorough water
reconnaissance, with a view of ascertaining how large a force could be
watered on a march around our flank. I went off in an armored car with
Captain Marshall of the Intelligence