| Show ak I 1 aa aw 01 egv w ol a r WA aw 54 W 0 o re IN q O 11 IN 57 7 A 0 milking a rubber tree near singapore prepared by national geographic society Wah Wh neton ington D C service cities of asia that have T figured prominently in former ung england lan to australla flights will be on the route of the london melbourne race which will take place in october they are baghdad alla habad and singapore baghdad Is near the persian frontier hard by the traditional site of old eden mans birthplace here on the classic soil of babylon nineveh and apis once nourished flourished the pick of the human race here was tho the center of the worlds wealth power and civilization liza Ilza tion and back to this ancient region modern men are turning to reclaim its lost areas open its mines and oil deposits to restore the garden of eden from the deck of a tigris steamer baghdad looms up boldly its splendid skyline of domes and minarets mina reminding one of some midway of worlds fair memory an odd pontoon bridge connects the two parts of the city separated by the yellow tigris on the west bank is the old town enclosed by date and orange groves from here the new ea baghdad hda railway starts on its long run across the track trackless less desert de sert east aas t of the river on the persian side Is new baghdad with its government offices barracks consulates prisons etc beyond as tar far as the eye can reach in every direction stretches the vast flat treeless empty plain of mesopotamia a region once more populous than belgium to go native one must paddle ashore from the steamer in a goo fah I 1 a queer coracle like craft in use here since jonass day A Is woven from willows about G feet in diameter Is perfectly circular and basket shaped and Is coated outside with bitumen some say moses was cut adrift in one of these goodalis goo falis fahs another strange craft at baghdad Is the kelck a kurdish invention the Is a raft made of inflated goat skins held together by poles and c covered ov with a platform of straw mats these feleks come down to the city in hundreds from bringing woo wool 1 pottery grain and skins not the baghdad of all baba A great wall encircles baghdad flat roofed huddled moorish houses many almost windowless and each surrounding its own open court are a distinct feature of the older parts of the city on these flat roofs arabs spend the summer nights inith tom toms flutes water pipes and dancing women facing the river removed from the arab town are built the imposing foreign consulates mercantile offices and the sumptuous homes of rich jews armenians Armen ians greeks and syrians the men who made new baghdad but the baghdad of all babas day with the splendor of gladdins Alad dins enchanted age Is gone forever the palaces the mosques and minarets mina are mostly in ruins even the tomb of lovely lady zobeide Zo belde favorite wife of ilarue al is tumbled down and decayed it Is into modern monuments to new kew baghdad into roads bridges public buildings irrigation works army organization dredging the tigris etc that the prominent citizens put their money modern baghdad Is to in safe hands now no dissipated royalty guards its gates eates sober clearheaded clear headed men drilled tn in the best schools of modern europe able to bold their own anywhere administer its affairs As late as 1 the tigris overflowed Us its banks swept through baghdad and drowned people in 0 one e night Alla habad attracts millions normally formally Kor mally Alla habad babad india Is a city of people it lies in the V shaped region between the jamna and ganges rivers at the meeting place of 0 the two streams it Is this location that draws huge crowds to the town annually and at twelve tielve year intervals tremendous hordes ordes li both the jamna and the ganges are sacred streams and their meeting place la Is doubly sacred the mystical indian mind finds still a third reason for holiness it la Is believed by the pilgrims that the saraswati a river diver which Is swallowed up by the sands southwest of ct the punjab emerges at the junction point of the jamna and ganges both the ganges and the jamna arte arb coffee colored streams heavily laden with slit silt at low water in late winter a large expanse of dusty sand Is exposed below be ow the Alla habad fort which stands on the bluff overlooking the confluence it Is on this beach that the millions of pilgrims assembled recently the indian police have their hands full during the great religious fair or kumba mela all vehicles are excluded from the river plain and all efforts concentrated rated on maintaining order among the multitude of men women and children that move about in the dust slip on the wet clay near the stream banks and attain merit by bathing in the murky waters A torrid sun beats down and to screen its rays little shelters of rushes have been erected on the sands under these sit all manner of people wearing a minimum of clothing among them are holy men their bodies smeared with gray coats of ashes groups of idols are set up that the faithful may contribute coins among the crowds go men carrying water skins sprinkling the water in an effort to lay the dust that millions of bare feet stir up the kumba mela Is a mecca for moneymakers money makers and the principal thoroughfare ough fare Is lined with mat shed shops for the sale of sacrificial tiny brass idols holy berries made into dark necklaces and shining brass bottles zoned with mellow tinted copper in which holy water can be taken to remote parts of india by credulous people here and there one finds men with small furnaces full of heated pitch sealing scaling the water vessels so that not a germ or an atom of holiness can escape Alla habad is old in the enclosure of the fort is a pillar erected by asoka the great buddhist king during the third century B a it may have been moved to the spot later however so it Is I 1 not conclusive evidence that a town existed on the site of Alla habad babad during ahokas reign the first town known to history on this site was about which a chinese traveler wrote in A D the hindus still call the town the place of sacrifice it received the name by which it Is now known to the world from its mohammedan conquerors in 1575 singapore a great free port singapore Is an island 27 miles long by 14 wide and just misses being the southernmost point of the continent of asia by a half mile water channel it Is at the funnel point of the strait of malacca which extends between tile tho malay peninsula and the island of sumatra the great water highroad between india and china little more than a hundred years ago the island owned by tile the sultan of on the nearby mainland was a deserted jungle save for a little fishing village ships in the china trade passed it by as they passed many another jungle shore the only ports or of call in that region of the world were wele those on the dutch islands of sumatra and java cut but these ports took a big toll in fees and sir stamford rames raffles an official of the east india company began to dream of a free british port that would facilitate trade in 1810 he obtained the seemingly worthless island ot of singapore i for his company tor for a small fee developments soon proved him a prophet tor for within two years the little trading center he established had a population of it was 1822 before the british government consented to take an interest in the place in the little more than a hundred years since it was founded the jungle of singapore it has as given place to a huge city of close to population ca carrying on trade normally valued at a billion dollars annually one of the metropolises ses of the british empire its quays and anchorages serve thousands of craft of all sorts and sizes ozes from the picturesque graceful biala malay sampans and the stodgy chinese junks junk to the familiar freighters of the west and what kipling asserts are ladylike lady like 11 liners the tie rs they build k up tip sing I 1 n abores shipping to the tremendous ts I 1 tal at of tons yearly |
