about an interior
court. The ground floor, except for the _serdab_, is given up to kitchens,
store-rooms, servants' quarters, stables, &c. The principal rooms are on
the first floor and open directly from a covered veranda, which is reached
by an open staircase from the court. These constitute the winter residence
of the family, reception rooms, &c. The roofs of the houses are all flat,
surrounded by parapets of sufficient height to protect them from the
observation of the dwellers opposite, and separate them from their
neighbours. In the summer the population sleeps and dines upon the roofs,
which thus constitute to all intents a third storey. The remainder of the
day, so far as family life is concerned, is spent in the _serdab_, a cellar
sunk somewhat below the level of the courtyard, damp from frequent
wettings, with its half windows covered with hurdles thatched with camel
thorn and kept dripping with water. Occasionally the _serdabs_ are provided
with punkahs.

Sometimes, in the months of June, July and August, when the _sherki_ or
south wind is blowing, the thermometer at break of day is known to stand at
112deg F., while at noon it rises to 119deg and a little before two o'clock
to 122deg, standing at sunset at 114deg, but this scale of temperature is
exceptional. Ordinarily during the summer months the thermometer averages
from about 75deg at sunrise to 107deg at the hottest time of the day. Owing
to the extreme dryness of the atmosphere and the fact that there is always
a breeze, usually from the N.W., this heat is felt much less than a greatly
lower temperature in a more humid atmosphere. Moreover, the nights are
almost invariably cool.

Formerly Bagdad was intersected by innumerable canals and aqueducts which
carried the water of both the Euphrates and the Tigris through the streets
and into the houses. To-day these have all vanished, with the exception of
one aqueduct which still conveys the water of the Tigris to the shrine of
Abd al-Qadir (ul-Kadir). The present population draws its water directly
from the Tigris, and it is distributed through the city in goat-skins
carried on the backs of men and asses. There is, of course, no sewerage
system, the surfaces of the streets serving that purpose, and what garbage
and refuse is not consumed by the dog scavengers washes down into the
Tigris at the same place from which the water for drinking is drawn. As a
consequence of these insanitary conditions the death-r