which we embark for Kut, a day’s journey in a fast boat, is a large camp, and quite a town for Mesopotamia, captured from the Turks, early in the war, by sheer bluff.  The Turkish commandant surrendered to a naval launch under the impression that about half the sea-power of the British Empire lay in the offing.  As a matter of fact no other help of any kind arrived until the next day, and all the surrendered forces were kept on good behaviour by a Lieutenant and a marine—­I think with one revolver between them.

Kut looks quite an imposing place from across the river.  The sketch at the top of this article shows it when the water of the Tigris was particularly high.  It is drawn from the site of the famous liquorice factory, which is now represented by a few mud heaps and one rusted piece of machinery.  The long arcade with brick pillars runs along the margin of the river, suggestive of some ancient Babylonian city from this distance, and is but a sorry enough place in reality.

[Illustration:  A MOONLIGHT FANTASY:  KUT FROM THE RUINS OF THE LICQUORICE FACTORY]

Very little of the Baghdad as we know it to-day is old.  By tradition it was founded in 762 A.D., and became the renowned capital of the Arab empire.  It is said that the city grew till it covered some 25 square miles, reaching its high-water mark of splendour and magnificence under the Sultan Haroun-al-Raschid.  The fame of its schools and learning was world-wide, and Baghdad became to the East what Rome became in the West.

For some five centuries this pre-eminence continued, until the Turkish nomadic tribes from Central Asia came on to the stage.  They conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria.

The Turks extended their conquests to Egypt, and Baghdad, now on the decline, kept her head above water for another century.  But Chingiz Khan, the Mongol, appeared on the scene, and his son and successor, Ogotay, overran the Caucasus, Hungary, and Poland.  Baghdad was sacked by Hulagu in 1258, and the irrigation works of Mesopotamia were destroyed.

In spite of her decline and fall Baghdad is still a holy place to all faithful Mohammedans.  It is the Mecca of the Shiah Mussulmans.  Kerbela and Nejef are the great places of burial for the faithful, and among the common sights of the plains of Mesopotamia are endless caravans of corpses from the Persian hills or from the distant north.

The British occupation of Baghdad has been responsible for one broad street through the city, possible for ordinary traffic, but most of the bazaars are long covered-in ways, arched like cloisters and very picturesque at night.  There are some wonderful blues on domes and minarets, but it is not until you see the golden towers of Khadamain that you get any glimpse of the splendour of the golden prime of good Haroun-al-Raschid.  Khadamain is a great place of pilgrimage, and so zealously guarded is the place that it is said no Christian would ever be allowed to come out of the great mosque alive.  A golden chain hangs across the entrance.  This can be seen in frontispiece sketch of this book.  All good Mussulmans kiss this chain as they enter the sacred precincts.