Chapter I: Front Matter

BY DESERT WAYS TO BAGHDAD

_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME._

THE GREAT BOER WAR. _Arthur Conan Doyle._ COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. _G. W. E. Russell._ REMINISCENCES. _Sir Henry Hawkins._ LIFE OF LORD RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN. _R. Barry O'Brien._ FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO. _E. S. Grogan._ A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN. _Dean Hole._ LIFE OF FRANK BUCKLAND. _George C. Bompas._ A MODERN UTOPIA. _H. G. Wells._ WITH KITCHENER TO KHARTUM. _G. W. Steevens._ THE UNVEILING OF LHASA. _Edmund Candler._ LIFE OF LORD DUFFERIN. _Sir A. Lyall._ ROUND THE WORLD ON A WHEEL. _John Foster Fraser._ LITERATURE AND DOGMA. _Matthew Arnold._ SPURGEON'S SERMONS. _Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D._ MY CONFIDENCES. _Frederick Locker-Lampson._ SIR FRANK LOCKWOOD. _Augustine Birrell, K.C., M.P._ THE MAKING OF A FRONTIER. _Colonel Durand._ LIFE OF GENERAL GORDON. _Demetrius C. Boulger._ POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN. _Mrs. Earle._ THE RING AND THE BOOK. _Robert Browning._ THE ALPS FROM END TO END. _Sir W. Martin Conway._ THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. _Walter Bagehot._ LIFE OF RICHARD COBDEN. _Lord Morley._ LIFE OF PARNELL. _R. Barry O'Brien._ HAVELOCK'S MARCH. _J. W. Sherer._ UP FROM SLAVERY. _Booker Washington._ WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE. _H. Hesketh Prichard._ HISTORICAL MYSTERIES. _Andrew Lang._ THE STRENUOUS LIFE. _Theodore Roosevelt._ MEMORIES GRAVE AND GAY. _Dr. John Kerr._ LIFE OF DANTON. _Hilaire Belloc._ A POCKETFUL OF SIXPENCES. _G. W. E. Russell._ THE ROMANCE OF A PRO-CONSUL. _James Milne._ A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. _S. Reynolds Hole._ RANDOM REMINISCENCES. _Charles Brookfield._ THE LONDON POLICE COURTS. _Thomas Holmes._ THE AMATEUR POACHER. _Richard Jefferies._ THE BANCROFTS. _Sir Squire Bancroft._ AT THE WORKS. _Lady Bell._ MEXICO AS I SAW IT. _Mrs. Alec Tweedie._ EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VIGNETTES. _Austin Dobson._ GREAT ANDES OF THE EQUATOR. _Edward Whymper._ THE EARLY HISTORY OF C. J. FOX. _Sir G. O. Trevelyan._ THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA. _H. Hesketh Prichard._ BROWNING AS A PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHER. _Professor Henry Jones._ LIFE OF TOLSTOY. _Charles Sarolea._ PARIS TO NEW YORK BY LAND. _Harry de Windt._ LIFE OF LEWIS CARROLL. _Stuart Dodgson Collingwood._ A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS. _Eugene Andre._ THE MANTLE OF THE EAST. _Edmund Candler._ LETTERS OF DR. JOHN BROWN. JUBILEE BOOK OF CRICKET. _Prince Ranjitsinhji._

_Etc., etc._

_Others to follow._

BY DESERT WAYS TO BAGHDAD

BY

LOUISA JEBB (MRS. ROLAND WILKINS)

THOMAS NELSON & SONS

LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN AND NEW YORK

"Oft have I said, I say it once more,
I, a wanderer, do not stray from myself;
I am a kind of parrot; the mirror is holden to me;
What the Eternal says, I, stammering, say again."

CONTENTS

PAGE

PART I

BRUSA TO DIARBEKR

PROLOGUE 13

I. DISENTANGLEMENT 23

II. BRIGANDAGE 34

III. SOCIAL INTERCOURSE 46

IV. THE DAWN OF THE BAGHDAD RAILWAY 55

V. IN THE TAURUS 88

VI. ROYAL PROGRESS 112

VII. HARRAN: A DIGRESSION INTO THE LAND OF ABRAHAM 132

VIII. THAT UNBLESSED LAND, MESOPOTAMIA 146

PART II

DOWN THE TIGRIS ON GOATSKINS

IX. AFLOAT 167

X. HELD UP 175

XI. A RECEPTION AND A DANCE 194

XII. AN ENCOUNTER WITH AN ENGLISHMAN 204

XIII. THE CREED OF THE KORAN 215

XIV. THE EVIL ONE 227

XV. ARAB HOSPITALITY 241

XVI. A STORM AND A LULL 254

XVII. AN ENCOUNTER WITH FANATICS 267

XVIII. THE END OF THE RAFT 277

PART III

BAGHDAD TO DAMASCUS

XIX. BABYLON 287

XX. THE SOUND OF THE DESERT 302

XXI. PALMYRA 316

XXII. AN ARMENIAN AND A TURK 325

XXIII. RETROSPECTIVE 354

APPENDIX 367

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

MAP _Frontispiece_

A WELL IN THE KONIA PLAINS 64

HITTITE BAS-RELIEF AND INSCRIPTION. IVRIZ 129

JACOB'S WELL. HARRAN 160

"DRAWING SKINS OF WATER" 225

PALMYRA. TRIUMPHAL ARCH 256

HASSAN 321

ERECH. SYRIAN DESERT 352