says, "is nourished and the ears formed by means of irrigation
from the river. For this river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the
cornlands of its own accord, but is spread over them by the hand or by the
help of engines," i. 193. [Our quotations are from Prof. Rawlinson's
_Herodotus_ (4 vols. 8vo. 1875; Murray); Ed.] The inundations of the Tigris
and Euphrates do not play so important a _role_ in the lives of the
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, as that of the Nile in those of the Egyptians.

[22] LAYARD, _A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh_, plate 27
(London, oblong folio, 1853).

[23] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 551-556; LOFTUS, _Chaldaea and Susiana_,
chap. x.

[24] LAYARD (_Discoveries_, pp. 467, 468 and 475) tells us what the Turks
"have made of two of the finest rivers in the world, one of which is
navigable for 850 miles from its mouth, and the other for 600 miles."

[25] LAYARD, _Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. i. p. 78 (1849). "Flowers of
every hue enamelled the meadows; not thinly scattered over the grass as in
northern climes, but in such thick and gathering clusters that the whole
plain seemed a patch-work of many colours. The dogs as they returned from
hunting, issued from the long grass dyed red, yellow, or blue, according to
the flowers through which they had last forced their way."

[26] LAYARD, _Nineveh and its Remains_, vol. ii. pp. 68-75.

[27] HERODOTUS, i. 193. "Of all the countries that we know, there is none
which is so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension indeed, of growing
the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other trees of the kind; but in grain
it is so fruitful as to yield commonly two hundredfold, and when the
production is greatest, even three hundredfold. The blade of the wheat
plant and barley is often four fingers in breadth. As for millet and the
sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within my own
knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have already written
concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia, must seem incredible to those who
have never visited the country.... Palm trees grow in great numbers over
the whole of the flat country, mostly of the kind that bears fruit, and
this fruit supplies them with bread, wine, and honey."

Sec. 3.--_The Primitive Elements of the Population._

The two great factors of all life and of all vegetable production are water
and warmth, so that of the two great divisions of the country we have just
described, the m