satisfied, was that the words must have been extraordinarily brilliant
or that the Baghdad public was very easily entertained.

[Illustration: A bit of Old Baghdad.]

The journey from Basra to Baghdad takes nearly a week in a "fast"
steamer. It can be done, however, express, by taking the train from
Basra to Amara, leaving Basra about five in the evening and arriving at
Amara in the morning. Then the journey is continued by boat to Kut, and
thence from Kut in the evening by train, arriving in Baghdad in the
early morning--the whole distance within two days. The railway does not
run the whole way. The journey from Amara to Kut sounds a mere link
across the river, as the full name of Kut is Kut-el-Amara, and most
people naturally suppose Amara is part of Kut. This is another Amara,
however. The Amara from 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.