A rope was
passed from the mast-head to a girdle round their respective bodies, and
off they set along the banks; sometimes, on reaching creeks, irrigating
channels, or unequal projections, plunging up to their necks, and wading
or swimming with their burthen, as the depth or shallowness of the water
required. In this way all the communication up the Tigris and Euphrates
is carried on when the wind blows down those rivers. The business of
tracking as may be conceived, is extremely fatiguing and dangerous: in
fact, so excellent a test does it furnish of the muscular powers and
courage of man, that the heads of the Mallah tribes require that each
Mallah should make three trips to Bagdad, as a tracker, before he can be
qualified for the married state and the care of a family.
(The plague rages at Bagdad, and he returns to Bussorah. On his way he
escapes a storm on the Euphrates.)
The river, which does not ordinarily rise until the month of June, now
rose with inconceivable rapidity, preceded by a violent storm, and in a
few hours inundated the whole Irak. Numberless villages of matted huts
were swept away; men, women, and children, were in a moment rendered
houseless; numerous cattle and sheep were drowned; date trees torn up by
the roots, and boats swamped or stranded.
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