As they proceeded on their way the aspect of the country improved greatly. Little towns built of sun-dried bricks replaced the former villages of reeds and mats. Among the dwellers on the Upper Tigris are Bedouins who had wandered thither in the dry season to water their flocks, and had settled there.
A PARTY OF WANDERING BEDOUINS.
Have you all heard of the Bedouins of the desert? At certain seasons the desert is an arid waste, where flocks would perish of thirst. Many Bedouins, who had thus found their way to the river-banks, and had staid on, became farmers there. Some of them in the course of time would wander off to Bagdad or some other great town in search of employment, and thus these wanderers would cease to be the Bedouins of the desert.
Tom became thoroughly interested in all this. He looked with curiosity at the farmer Bedouins. Presently he saw a party of them mounted upon camels ("ships of the desert") steering their way along the river-bank.
"There's one queer thing," Tom said, looking about him on the steamer's deck. "Did you ever see so many blind people together before, Mr. Jollytarre? I mean blind of one eye. I never saw anything like it. What do you suppose is the cause?"
"Diseases of the eye are very common here on account, I suppose, of the glare of the sun on these hot plains. They have a way of using tobacco juice as a remedy for these diseases, which only makes them worse. The native doctors put out many an eye by this treatment. The patient is lucky if he escapes with even one good one. The natives have great confidence in the European doctors, and look upon them as magicians—that is, unless they propose to cut off an arm or a leg. That they won't submit to; they would rather die. The loss of an eye is evidently a trifling matter."
"That accounts for the Three Calenders," said Tom, "You remember those Three Calenders in the Arabian Nights? They were princes' sons, each blind of the right eye, who all met at the gates of Bagdad together. Now I've always thought it so very remarkable—all three blind of the same eye, all three princes, all meeting at the same place."
"What you might call a coincidence, or rather three of them. I always used to think that story hard to swallow myself, but since I've seen these Eastern folks in the flesh, I find it easier to believe. In fact, I have been told that it would be a very singular circumstance if three individuals came together at Bagdad, or any other town in the neighborhood, who could count six eyes among them."
So they went on their way, coming nearer and nearer to Bagdad. Five hours from their destination they came to the ruins of two cities, the "Twin Cities of the Arabs"—Seleucia and Ctesiphon.