WAITING FOR ANOTHER BOAT TO PASS.
BAGHDAD AS IT EXISTS TO-DAY.
Drawn from photographs and a plan provided by the National Electric Construction Company, Limited.
CHAPTER VII.
THE BATTLE BEYOND BAGHDAD.
By Brigadier-general A. G. Wauchope, C.M.G., D.S.O.
The following Chapter appeared in Blackwoods Magazine for August 1917:—'On the banks of the Tigris I am lying in the shadow of a palm, looking down the river on the brick walls and mud roofs, on the mosques and minarets of the city of Baghdad, and as I look I am lost in wonder. For although I am now lying in a grove of date-palms, it is fifteen months since I have seen a tree of any kind; it is fifteen months since I have seen a house or lain under a roof; and this girl coming towards me with hesitating steps, clothed in rags and patches, this little date-seller with her pale face and dark eyes, her empty basket resting on her small, well-shaped head—this is the first woman I have seen or spoken to for more than a year.'
Perhaps it is the twilight which gives a feeling of mystery and beauty unknown in the glare and noise of midday, and I hardly know, as the Tigris seems to lose itself in the evening mists, above which the golden minarets of Kazimain still shine and glitter in the setting sun, whether I am truly in the land of reality or if I still linger but half awake in the realm of dreams and fancies, where stand the gates of horn and ivory.
| THE TRANSPORT OFFICER. | CAPTAIN R. MACFARLANE, M.C. KILLED IN ACTION. |