w to
be full four fingers broad; and from millet and sesame seed how large
a tree grows, I know myself but shall not record, being well aware that
even what has already been said relating to the crops produced has been
enough to cause disbelief in those who have not visited the Babylonian
land. They use no oil of olives, but only that which they make of sesame
seed; and they have date-palms growing over all the plain, most of them
fruit-bearing, of which they make both solid food and wine and honey;
and to these they attend in the same manner as to fig-trees, and in
particular they take the fruit of those palms which the Hellenes call
male-palms, and tie them upon the date-bearing palms, so that their
gall-fly may enter into the date and ripen it and that the fruit of
the palm may not fall off: for the male-palm produces gall-flies in its
fruit just as the wild-fig does.

194. But the greatest marvel of all the things in the land after the
city itself, to my mind is this which I am about to tell: Their boats,
those I mean which go down the river to Babylon, are round and all of
leather: for they make ribs for them of willow which they cut in the
land of the Armenians who dwell above the Assyrians, and round these
they stretch hides which serve as a covering outside by way of hull, not
making broad the stern nor gathering in the prow to a point, but making
the boats round like a shield: and after that they stow the whole boat
with straw and suffer it to be carried down the stream full of cargo;
and for the most part these boats bring down casks of palm-wood 200
filled with wine. The boat is kept straight by two steering-oars and
two men standing upright, and the man inside pulls his oar while the man
outside pushes. 201 These vessels are made both of very large size and
also smaller, the largest of them having a burden of as much as five
thousand talents' weight; 202 and in each one there is a live ass, and
in those of larger size several. So when they have arrived at Babylon in
their voyage and have disposed of their cargo, they sell by auction the
ribs of the boat and all the straw, but they pack the hides upon their
asses and drive them off to Armenia: for up the stream of the river
it is not possible by any means to sail, owing to the swiftness of the
current; and for this reason they make their boats not of timber but
of hides. Then when they have come back to the land of the Armenians,
driving their asses with them