heep on the steppe, holding
long lances in their hands. Sometimes the steamer is invaded by a cloud
of green grasshoppers, and one can only escape them by going into one's
cabin and closing both door and windows. Round the funnel lie heaps of
grasshoppers who have singed themselves or are stupefied by the smoke.

After a voyage of a few days up the river I come to Baghdad, which
retains little of its former magnificence. In the eleventh century
Baghdad was the greatest city of the Mohammedans, and here were
collected the Indian and Arabic tales which are called the _Thousand and
one Nights_. Not far from Baghdad, but on the Euphrates, lay in early
ages the great and brilliant Babylon, which had a hundred gates of
brass. By the waters of Babylon the Jewish captives hung up their harps
on the willows, and of Babylon Jeremiah prophesied: "And Babylon shall
become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an
hissing, without an inhabitant."

BAGHDAD TO TEHERAN

When I reached Baghdad I had only a little over L5 left, all in Persian
silver _kran_, a _kran_ being worth about seven-pence; and I could not
get any more money until I reached Teheran, 600 miles away. I knew that
if I could only get as far as the town of Kermanshah, a distance of 200
miles, I could then take service in a caravan; but it would be
unpleasant to tramp on foot the whole way, and receive no pay other than
a little bread and a few cucumbers and melons.

Just in the nick of time, however, I made the acquaintance of a caravan
owner who was starting immediately for Kermanshah with English
merchandise. The goods were loaded on fifty asses, and were accompanied
by ten Arab traders on horseback. Eight pilgrims and a Chaldean merchant
had joined the party. I, too, might go with them on paying fifty _kran_
for the hire of a mule; food and drink I must provide for myself.

It was a pleasant journey which began at ten o'clock on the evening of
June 6. Two Arabs led me on my mule slowly and solemnly through the
narrow streets of Baghdad in the warm summer night. An oil lamp
flickered dully here and there, but the bazaars were brisk and lively.
Here sat thousands of Arabs, talking, eating, drinking, and smoking. It
was the month of fasting, when nothing is eaten until after sunset.

The two Arabs conducted me into the court of a caravanserai, where the
traders were just making preparations to start. When I heard that they
would not be ready b