ects. After a stay of some length at Shiraz, he returned through
Irak to the celebrated city of Cufa, and thence to Bagdad, which was
then the residence of a simple Mongol prince. Here he describes at
length the mosques, colleges, mausoleums and baths, while Ibn Djozay
takes occasion to introduce his favorite quotations from the poets. The
reader, we think, will find the following more picturesque than the
somewhat formal descriptions of Ibn Batuta:--

'Yea, Bagdad is a spacious place for him who's gold, to spend,
But for the poor it is the house of suffering without end:
I wander idly through its streets, as lost us if I were
A Koran in an atheist's house, which hath no welcome there.'
'A sigh, a sigh for Bagdad, a sigh for Irak's land!
For all its lovely peacocks, and the splendors they expand:
They walk beside the Tigris, and the looks they turn on me
Shine o'er the jeweled necklace, like moons above the sea!'

Our traveler, also, was the forerunner of Layard. In visiting Mosul, he
writes: 'Near this place one sees the hill of Jonah, upon whom be
blessing! and a mile distant from it the fountain which bears his name.
It is said that he commanded the people to purify themselves there; that
afterwards they ascended the aforesaid hill; that he prayed, and they
also, in such manner that God turned the chastisement from their heads.
In the neighborhood is a great ruin, and the people pretend that it is
the remains of the city known under the name of Nineveh, the city of
Jonah. One perceives the vestiges of the wall which surrounded it, as
well as the situation of its gates. On the hill stands a large edifice,
and a monastery, which contains numerous cells, apartments, places of
purification, and fountains, all closed by a single gate. In the middle
of the monastery one sees a cell with a silken curtain, and a door
encrusted with gold and precious stones. This, they say, is the spot
where Jonah dwelt; and they add that the choir of the mosque attached to
the monastery covers the cell in which he prayed to God.'

Returning to Bagdad, Ibn Batuta crossed the Arabian Desert a second
time, and took up his residence in Mecca for the space of three years.
His account of the voyage along the eastern coast of Africa, as far
south as Quiloa, is brief and uninteresting; but on his return he
visited Oman, of which province he gives us the first authentic account.
From the Pearl Islands in the Persian Gulf, he bent hi