the river and
tends to make it shift its channel. Above Bagdad there are no steamers on
the Tigris, but sailing vessels of 30 tons and more navigate the river to
Samarra and beyond. The characteristic craft for local service in the
immediate environment of Bagdad is the _kufa_, a circular boat of
basket-work covered with bitumen, often of a size sufficient to carry five
or six horses and a dozen men. These boats have been employed from the
remotest antiquity through all this region, and are often depicted on the
old Assyrian monuments. Equally ancient are the rafts called _kellek_,
constructed of inflated goat-skins, covered with a framework of wood, often
supporting a small house for passengers, which descend the Tigris from
above Diarbekr. The wood of these rafts is sold in Bagdad, and constitutes,
in fact, the chief supply of wood in that city.

Bagdad also lies on a natural line of communication between Persia and the
west, the ancient caravan route from Khorasan debouching from the mountains
at this point, while another natural caravan route led up the Euphrates to
Syria and the Mediterranean and still another up the Tigris to Armenia and
the Black Sea. It was its situation at the centre of the lines of
communication between India and Persia and the west, both by land and
water, which gave the city its great importance in early times. With the
change of the methods of transportation its importance has naturally
declined. The trade of Persia with the west now passes either through the
ports of the Persian Gulf or northward over Trebizond, while India
communicates with the west directly through the Suez Canal. Bagdad is,
therefore, a decayed city. Money is scarce among all classes, and the wages
of common labourers are scarcely half what is paid in Syria. It is still,
however, the centre of distribution for a very large, if scantily
populated, country, and it also derives much profit from pilgrims, lying as
it does on the route which Shi'ite [v.03 p.0197] pilgrims from Persia must
take on their way to the sacred cities. It also possesses important shrines
of its own which cause many pilgrims to linger there, and wealthy Indians
not infrequently choose Bagdad as a suitable spot in which to end their
days in the odour of sanctity. There has also sprung up of late years
considerable direct trade between the European and American markets and
Bagdad, and several foreign houses, especially English, have established
themselv