was feared.

The great mosque lost much of its dignity through an atrocious clock-tower
standing in the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently been found too
expensive to cover this tower with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so
some ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering it with flattened
kerosene-tins. It must have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and
rain had rusted the cans and they presented but a sorry spectacle. From
the thousand and one uses to which these oil-cans have been put by the
native, one is inclined to think that the greatest benefit that has been
conferred on the natives by modern civilization is from the hands of the
Standard Oil Company.

There were a fair number of Indians living in Kerbela before the war, for
devout Shiahs are anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of Ali, and
when they are unable to move to Kerbela in their lifetime they frequently
make provisions that their remains may be transported thither. The British
found it a convenient abode for native rulers whom they were forced to
depose but still continued to pension.

[Illustration: The Lion of Babylon]

[Illustration: A dragon on the palace wall]

Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient Babylon, is a modern town
very much like Museyib. I never had a chance to study the ruins at any
length. Several times we went over the part that had been excavated by the
Germans immediately before the war. I understand that this is believed to
be the great palace where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. It
is built of bricks, each one of which is stamped in cuneiform characters.