Other kelegs appear as we descend. Even in the present thinly populated state of the country, they are fairly numerous, and must have been far more so when the “Ten Thousand” marched up the eastern bank of this river. Indeed, they must have been so familiar, that it is a matter for surprise that the Greeks feared to make use of them, when it was a question of how to cross the Tigris with their baggage; particularly as they had at least one man in the army who was bred to their use. Still, they shrank from the unfamiliar, and preferred to abandon all their plunder and take to the hazardous passage of the mountains.
Tekrit, another city of vast antiquity, was reached and passed. This was a place of some importance in the ecclesiastical history of the land, as having been a stronghold of the Jacobites against the dominant Nestorian Church. It also marks a change in the geography, indicated by a change of kelegji. By law of that ancient brotherhood, the river falls into three stretches, and each man must stick to his own portion—Diarbekr to Mosul, Mosul to Tekrit, or Tekrit to Baghdad. This custom does somehow correspond to some subtle alteration in conditions, though we cannot trace how or why. But the fact remains that below that point the cattle develop humps, which they do not affect elsewhere; and that the traffic on the river is conducted not only in kelegs, but also in ghufas, which are not to be seen higher up.
A ghufa is, if anything, more ancient than a keleg, for its type dates back to the flood, if not to the times before it;[{348}] and the Babylonian “deluge tablets” seem to picture Shamashnapastim (the equivalent of Noah), as navigating a gigantic ghufa of 140 cubits diameter. The craft is nothing but a wicker-work coracle of palm basket-work, circular in shape, but “pitched within and without with pitch” instead of being provided with a hide covering. In size it may be anything from the dimensions of a clothes’ basket up to twenty or twenty-five feet in diameter, according to the size of the palm-spathes that form its ribs. It can hardly be capsized, and can carry enormous weights; but it is difficult to steer without practice, a novice tending to go round and round in a circle of small diameter.[152]
Ghufas are hardly seen above Samarra, which is some fourteen hours below Tekrit, for the source of the bitumen with which they are pitched is near to the lower city. Samarra is itself historic enough, though it only appears in Western history as the scene of the action in which Julian fell. As a shrine and ziaret of the Shiah Mussulmans, however, it is second in sanctity only to Kerbela itself; for it is the burial-place, not indeed of the two grandsons of the Prophet, but of many of their comrades who fell beside them on the day of the “battle of the ditch”; and a magnificent mosque covers their bones.
To an antiquarian, however, there is something at Samarra of far greater interest than anything of either Roman or Mussulman history; for there stands the only ziggurat or Babylonian temple tower that has not been ruined in the lapse of centuries. By some fortunate freak of fate, the great pyramid, with its spiral ascent to the summit, was preserved when worship ceased in the temple below. It went on as Zoroastrian fire-temple; and subsequently as minaret to[{349}] the great mosque which Harun-l-Rashid built at its foot. That has gone now, and only a square of ruinous wall remains; but we owe some gratitude to the Abbassid, who was great enough to revere the monument of an older day.
So the monument has been preserved to our own time, and stands still with its brick casing practically intact. It must be beyond comparison the oldest tower in the world, for Samarra was one of the earliest of Babylonian shrines.
This site is, we believe, the one which the German excavators have decided to examine next, as soon as their work at Kala Shergat, which is now rapidly approaching completion, shall be finally done; and we understand that a preliminary survey, and perhaps a little experimental digging, has given them the right to hope for a harvest of most exceptional richness. One must trust that the proximity of the mosque will not hinder their work.
Slowly the last stage of the journey is accomplished, for the river current becomes gentler as it approaches the great delta of the two rivers. Hereabouts the capital of the country has stood since time began, though it has changed its place and name again and again. Date groves appear on the shore in place of melon gardens; and flocks of big pelicans (called “water-sheep” locally) gather on the sand-banks, accompanied by the only type of kingfisher which is quakerishly serious in his garb. Both above and below, his cousins flaunt magnificent metallic hues; but in the reaches above Baghdad he keeps to a simple black and white livery. Finally, “Baghdad’s walls of fretted gold” are seen in the distance, and the keleg has to be exchanged for a ghufa, for facility of shooting the bridge of boats.
Baghdad is civilization once more; a town that boasts hotels and European shops and costumes, besides being a railway terminus at present, to which trains may possibly attain in the future. Also it is a steamer port, being the highest point on the river to which the boats of Messrs. Lynch, which connect this place with Bassora and the open sea, are permitted to ascend.
We may see trains at Baghdad in a few years, but the engineers who are constructing the railway keep it[{350}] enveloped in mystery now, and allow no man to approach without an order from the Governor-General of the town. One assumes there is good reason for this, though it is not obvious what harm anyone could do by looking at the steel sleepers.