Show 4 I 1 G le gr old assyria now new life the american flag goes down tits the tigris river in the same way that men went years yearn ago by WILLIAM T ELLIS on 06 the tigris river in pursuit of the tha news of the awakening of the older nations I 1 am on my way to the site of the garden of eden and the home of the very oldest nations in the tig ris ria euphrates valley report has it that this old mesopotamia Is to blossom gin again as the rose roee by the help ot of modern irrigation methods of all of 0 more later the persistence of ancient usages Is shown by the fact that I 1 am at tills this moment traveling in a or raft made of inflated goat skins on which Is fastened a crude platform of light poles tied together the inscriptions show that this idon identical fical method of travel down the tigris was employed years ago it seems beems to haye have continued uninterruptedly since that time the like some politicians Is supported by wind and can travel only with the current after bagdad or Is reached the skins kins are deflated merthey and a slimy mess mes they make and carried back to the point of departure on the backs of Df donkeys my raft Is made of skins sometimes these are punctured when shooting the numerous rapids and then the rent Is fastened over a curious wooden plug or button some borne of tho the skins show as many as a dozen of those these buttons ornamenting them to see the men inflating this the skins with their lungs Is an interesting illustration of the primitive methods in vogue in this land where here women still grind their corn at hand band mills even as they didat didat the very beginning of civilization an old craft for niagara rapids foreigners travel by differently from natives the tha totter latter carry their bag of bread and their bundle of clothes or rugs and perch on tho the car go regardless or of tto the kind ot of weather what an oriental can stand I 1 in n the hard conditions of life here passes a westerners knowledge when at rare intervals a foreigner either a consul a missionary an archaeologist or an adventurer goes down the tigris and they average about one a month bg he builds a hut or pitches a tent on the icelea ot of course my tont tnt flies files the american n flag the journey Irom Diar bekir to bagdad takes from ten days to a month according to the state of the water it to Is really the acme of delightful delight fui travel provided one has proper equipment the motion Is altogether restful resta I 1 except for the fhe mild thrills ot of TOZ going through the nuni numerous erous rapids when the raft twists and bends in a fashion fashion that seems more dangerous than it really Is because of the flexibility of the construction construct lon there are numerous whirlpools and in one of these ray my raft was caught for a time and when the two arabs who ms me I 1 tho the tage sweeps got it out they thanked allah with more mora sincerity than I 1 had ver ever before witnessed in them the question naturally arises in the mind of an american why could not a be made that would ride the niagara rapids the experiment would IMS be an inexpensive one and it could be made without risk of life by sending down an empty it would be of interest tt it the wisdom of the very tinclent ancient ancients should surmount eur mount this problem which as a mere profitless feat has haa long held public interest in the new day that tl at to la surely coming the tigris with its incomparable scenic panorama and its wealth ot of historical associations will be a favorite travel route some american will vill come along shortly ehor aly I 1 have no doubt and be ba the first to go down the tigris in a canoe the river Is teeming with fish which the natives have not ambition elou enough gh to catch and there are millions of wild fowl upon which he ha cannot afford to spend powder most interesting of allis all Is the panorama of life from the kudish women that bathe themselves and their clothes by the waterside not wearing oven even so much as aa atlantic city bathing suit to the shepherds with their flocks of ft at elieen and the women lue cue sime sl roc sort of water jars jara that rh reu aca carriel carried markets that are waiting As ono one passes scores of vil villages ages many of them amid the picturesque ruins of once great cities which could rise again to life afe under proper conditions he Is impressed with the fact that here to la a virgin market tor for almost everything it Is true thal thai the scale of living Is ia low some same of the villagers are ara still living in the numerous cliff dwellings of prehistoric man yet the appetite for foreign fashions Is 18 as strong as ao that for strong drink and like the latter grows grown by what it feeds upon the house even if it Is but a cave care needs lamps and lamp lame chimneys that will not break easily the man needs tools and especially farming famine implements and he bo and life his whole family need various kinds ot of cheap cloths claths to be raade nado up into cloth ing the van vail of Diar bekir in a long au an 1 earnest talk with me mad a really eloquent plea for hotter better roads and electric and steam railways ays he like most of 0 the ba other enlightened n ed aerson persona 8 with whom I 1 have talked perceives that mat tho the immediate need of this part of turkey Is ia people talk to me about the need for or education and for or modern improvements in all lines everybody seems seema interested in these things but I 1 always say eay let us have transportation for or our products first we can grow unlimited quantities ot of grain here but wo we have no market for it what Is the use ot of a modern plow when the old way prepares the ground tor for more grain than you can use all the improvements tor for which our people are eager will come with railways then followed ollo wod the plea aich which I 1 have heard so BO often for american engineers american capital and american enterprise the ev which I 1 find everywhere of americas vogue and of these older peoples childlike faith in tha the young nation across the ho unknown sea have come to nil 1111 me with a sort tot of awe certainly they convey a powerful message to america lost tribes of israel here this trip by down tho the tigris Is ot of absorbing interest to the historian the archaeologist the ethnologist the geologist the ornithologist all of which la Is to say that there Is something for everybody la in this unrolling panorama of life yonder snow capped mountain cobil judi la Is believed by tho the natives to be the ono one on which noahs ark landed here in these theao villages one finds communities muni ties of poverty stricken jews I 1 started to gather estimates concerning their number but after the total had reached many thousands scat all over the territory that used to be assyria with and as principal points I 1 gave up the attempt the conclusion 1 Is inescapable and it Is held by everybody hereabouts who Is interested in the bible that these are the mysterious lost ten tribes of israel over ever besses the ottomans ottoman a love ot of firearms Ur earma nobody 1 so BO poor ns as not to possess at least leant a dagger and every mans ambition la in to own a rifle tho the antiquated flintA with long barrels and small stocks which are still in use here would stock block hundreds of museums at a wedding or any other time or of jubilation the men express their spirits by firing off as an many ball cartridges as aa they can afford I 1 have seen been a photograph of a kurdish bride and groom taken with ono one h holding iding a pistol and the other a dagger 0 no swell would think thick of having hla big photograph taken without hla his arsenal showing yet this fierce hurd may be DO seen sitting la in the sun along the public highways highway knitting socks while women are breaking stones atones in tho the road there Is an untilled field for the suffragist in asla aela the socks that the men knit rind and wear are one of the unique things ot of this part of the world the endeavor oristo la to crowd armany conflicting col ore era its as possible into the smallest space the loudest pattern on broad way would be a quaker gray along side of thorn them the socks go well with the trousers no somber comber blacks for your kurd hurd ile he wears wide flowing trousers drawn in and embroidered at the ends with 9 a stripe ot of embroidery down tho the side the color scheme of the background may be anything from a red or a green to a delicate lavender such as aa I 1 raw yesterday patches are ara so fabb fashionable that all the colors are likely to be superimposed before tho the life ot of the garment Is ended it Is fashionable to have wide stripes about two inches wide run down the legs halt half a dozen stripes to a leg on hla shoulders the kurd hurd wears a sort of 0 eton jacket much abbreviated with the long hair of the black goat on the A f 7 5 re va ill I 1 01 IV ak aa 4 01 f f 1 1 I 1 1 N village along tha tigris river whom BO much controversy has raged for centuries and about whom books are still being written the explanation of tho the matter Is perfectly simple the tribes were never lost after being carried into assyria as captives and dropping out of the old testament record they all or a great part of them simply remained here with that phenomenal eq persistence to type which has ever characterized the tha jews they bave kept their identity they havo bato their synagogues the captivity evidently cured them of their proneness prone nesB to idolatry and they remain A peculiar people they are very poor tor for the moat part and their quarter of each community Is about the most miserable all accounts agree that they have been hereabouts from time immo imme mortal morial before it attempts to colonize mesopotamia with jews the zionist movement might well ivell look into the lot of these poor brethren with such a tragic history who aro are already on the spot another peculiar people whom ome meets along the river and like ilka tho the jews an interesting survival are the idis or devil worshipers these theao seem to have a religion that continues a mixture of the old heathen cults they will fight anybody who saya hard things about the devil aud and 1 I suppose christian charity should rejoice that the old boy has somebody to st stand n up tip for him amid all the ad verse verae criticism which lio lie must endure tho the kurd and pile hio trousers when xenophon camo through this region he had trouble with the car buchl mountaineers and the turkish government has had ne nc end of difficulty with the same cirile irile stuck who are now known as aa kurds burds they are the fellows whose penchant for massacre ing armenians Armen ians has made tho the name kurd hurd known to the modern world abdul alamid always count on them for his bloodiest work simple in mind tri in body too burden carriers of all turkey the kurd yet has tho the primitive virtues lie ile values life lightly and has haa scant respect for property rights yet he la Is brave bf ate hospitable and loyal russia hopes to q draw tho the mountains ot of kurdistan as part of her share chare when this queer conglomerate of a nation goes to pieces to an unusual degree the kurd pos poo 1 outside ills ilia turban la Is the biggest and bulgiest bul giest worn in this land of strange head hend gears yet none of 0 them seem quito quite so BO strange as the hat bat I 1 saw a man remove his yards of turban with the fez that was waa beneath it and put on the derby hat of a returned emigrant the sight was waa greeted with gales ot of laughter by all his friends standing near the awakening Is coming unless I 1 am greatly mistaken hats will become as common here as in japan everybody seems to banker openly or secretly after the tha western ways waya I 1 noticed a long procession ot f schoolboys in the streets of diarse kir and every one was dressed in european clothes cave only the bat this outwardly symbolized what their schoolbooks moro more truly represented the change in ideals that modern education to Is producing even in this out of the way corner of the world the governor himself asked me about an american college to which he could bend his bis son eon 1 the presence of an american doctor in Diar bekir illustrates how bow one well furnished modern man affects a comman community ity dr edwin st john waid the only missionary here except his wife and baby and trained nurse has in three year hearp p made mada a place for himself that has toned up all the tha native doctors but he bo has been called to tho the important chair of surgery in the syrian protestant college beirut and after a few months there will bo be neither missionary nor representative v e of america in this pictures picturesque qu old d walled town but the american spirit Is here to stay copyright 1311 1911 by joseph joseh B bowled |