A Dweller in Mesopotamia / Being the Adventures of an Official Artist in the Garden of Eden

alls

OF THE FL

ty or otherwise of the traditional site. Is it true that Mesopotamia was the cradle of the human race, and, if so, are the descriptions in the book of Genesis concerning the world known to Adam and Noah, however figuratively they may be taken, in k

the ark of Noah pitched "within and without with pitch" as the ancient goufa is still pitched, the Tower of Babel, built with brick instead of stone and with slime (i.e. bitumen) for mortar-all these things belong to the flat, sun-baked lands of this alluvial plain. At Kurna, Arab tradition has placed Eve's Tree

ON TH

ry sides with thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild," and "of that steep savage hill," are entirely northern in feeling. The same northern wildness pervades the garden. Note the "flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art in beds and curious knots, but Nature boon poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain." In irrigation lands like Mesopotamia it is the combination of great heat and abundant water that makes for luxuriant growth. Milton conceives the mo

t to rain upon the earth, and ther

on from the earth, and watered

of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight." The garden, too, is watered, not by rainfall, but by

f the earth and the great men sought to hide from the wrath of God. They "hid themselves in the de

themselves only "amongst

ND THE PERSI

d began to abate, on the third day after the rain had ceased to fall, he sent out some birds to see whether they would find any land, but the birds, having found neither food nor place to rest upon, returned to the ship. A few days later Xisuthros once more sent the birds out; but they again came back to him, this time with muddy feet. On being sent out again a third time they did not return at all. Xisuthros then knew that the land was uncovered, made an opening in the roof of the ship, and saw that it was stranded on the top of a mountain. He

teen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered," may be easily reconciled. It has always seemed to me that mountains which were covered by 24 feet of water must have looked very insignificant even in the flat land of Chaldea. If, however, the word "desert" will serve equally well for the wor

e and out is still practised in putting together some of the Euphrates boats, and the method of making a goufa, covering

ing to the Ark. It was, we are told, a true ship. It was decked in. It was well caulked in all its seams. It was handed over to a pilot. It was navigated in proper style. "I steered abou

ch like Noah's ark of the toy shop, and made a scri

HE ARABS AS "TH

smoke of incrusted salt and sulphur, of rock and fiery heat-known to the Arabs as the Mouth of Hell. It guards the garden from approach by the nature of its inhospitable ground, and so I h

ll cut off the view from time to time as we approach Hit, and we surmount one of these, obtaining a goodly prospect of the river, to plunge down again into a wilderness glittering with crystals. At first sight we might be entering the valley of diamonds of the Arabian

lose to the town. We left the driver, however, to tinker about with the old Ford, and plu

detach itself from the ground, and it was apparently floating about in an ever-changing lake. Little black men were stoking a furnace

locks of bitumen, setting fire to the pile. The effect of these kilns with their great co

arkening sky. A fringe of palms, beyond, showed where the river flowed, the river that watered the garden where the land was green and good. But the grim ramparts of Hit stretched like a line of fire be

their faces shal