racted me on the day I arrived, and it quite fulfilled
its promise. Indeed, it was the only place I came across in Mesopotamia
that might have been a surviving fragment of the Garden of Eden. It was
nearly a mile long, and scattered about on it were seven or eight
thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The entire island was one great
palm-grove, with pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and
grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The grass at the foot of the trees
was dotted with blue and pink flowers. Here and there were fields of
spring wheat. The water-ditches which irrigated the island were filled by
giant water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter. These "naurs" have
been well described in the Bible, and I doubt if they have since been
modified in a single item. There are sometimes as many as sixteen in a
row. As they scoop the water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars bound
to their rims, they shriek and groan on their giant wooden axles.

On the night of March 25 we got word that the long-expected attack would
take place next morning. We had the cars ready to move out by three. Since
midnight shadowy files had been passing on their way forward to get into
position. One of our batteries went with the infantry to advance against
the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi. The rest of us went with the
cavalry around the flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat
up-stream. We were well on our way at daybreak. The country was so broken
up with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew we had a long, hard march
ahead of us. Our maps were poor. A German officer that we captured had in
some manner got hold of our latest map, and noting that we had omitted
entirely a very large ravine, became convinced that any enveloping
movement we attempted would prove a failure. As it happened, we came close
to making the blunder he had anticipated, for we started to advance down
to the river along the bank of a nullah which would have taken us to Khan
Baghdadi instead of eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I think it
was our aeroplanes that set us straight. I was in charge of the tenders
with supplies and spares, and spent most of the time in the leading
Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped into an armored car to go off
somewhere on a separate mission. The Turks had doubtless anticipated a
flanking movement and kept shelling us to a certain extent, but we could
hear that they were occupying themselves ch