wonder which the Greeks called Mesopotamia--the "country
between the rivers."

The names of the two rivers are the Euphrates (which the Babylonians
called the Purattu) and the Tigris (which was known as the Diklat). They
begin their course amidst the snows of the mountains of Armenia where
Noah's Ark found a resting place and slowly they flow through the
southern plain until they reach the muddy banks of the Persian gulf.
They perform a very useful service. They turn the arid regions of
western Asia into a fertile garden.

The valley of the Nile had attracted people because it had offered them
food upon fairly easy terms. The "land between the rivers" was popular
for the same reason. It was a country full of promise and both the
inhabitants of the northern mountains and the tribes which roamed
through the southern deserts tried to claim this territory as their
own and most exclusive possession. The constant rivalry between the
mountaineers and the desert-nomads led to endless warfare. Only the
strongest and the bravest could hope to survive and that will explain
why Mesopotamia became the home of a very strong race of men who
were capable of creating a civilisation which was in every respect as
important as that of Egypt.

THE SUMERIANS

THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY TABLETS TELL US THE STORY OF
ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC MELTING-POT

THE fifteenth century was an age of great discoveries. Columbus tried
to find a way to the island of Kathay and stumbled upon a new and
unsuspected continent. An Austrian bishop equipped an expedition which
was to travel eastward and find the home of the Grand Duke of Muscovy,
a voyage which led to complete failure, for Moscow was not visited by
western men until a generation later. Meanwhile a certain Venetian
by the name of Barbero had explored the ruins of western Asia and had
brought back reports of a most curious language which he had found
carved in the rocks of the temples of Shiraz and engraved upon endless
pieces of baked clay.

But Europe was busy with many other things and it was not until the
end of the eighteenth century that the first "cuneiform inscriptions"
(so-called because the letters were wedge-shaped and wedge is called
"Cuneus" in Latin) were brought to Europe by a Danish surveyor, named
Niebuhr. Then it took thirty years before a patient German school-master
by the name of Grotefend had deciphered the first four letters, the
D, t