From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon

by J. A. Zahm

Beautiful old stories,

Tales of angels, fairy legends,

Stilly histories of martyrs,

Festal songs and words of wisdom;

Hyperboles, most quaint it may be,

Yet replete with strength, and fire,

And faith—how they gleam,

And glow and glitter!

Heine.

Apart from its imposing monuments of the storied past, few things in the Near East are of greater interest or suggest more subjects for reflection to the serious traveler than do its trade routes which, for the most part, follow the same course as they did when Abraham fared forth from Ur of the Chaldees into the land of Canaan and when the messengers of the Great King sped along the Royal Road from Susa to Sardis.