comes to Sersar ;l and, after watering all these countries, it
joins the Tigris between Baghdad and Medajin (Modain).
Six miles below the Nahr Sersar, the inlet of Abu Gharib
coincides with another ancient canal, of which there are
traces, at intervals, in the direction of the ruins of Dan, and
of Khan Izaid, on the road from Hillah to Baghdad, and as
far as the lower part of the ruins of Seleucia. Its termination
at the latter point, as well as the traditional name of Nahr
Malka, seem to connect this cut with the Flumen Regium
of Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as of our historian Gibbon;
which was so celebrated by the passage of the fleets of Trajan
and Julian. Abu-l-feda2 places the El Melik next below the
Sersar, adding, that it waters all the country of ’Irak, which
is around it, and falls into the Tigris under Modain. This, according
to Pliny,3 was the work of Gobaris, to protect Babylon
from inundations, and was called by the Assyrians, Armalkhar.4
The fourth is the river Kuthah, which runs nearly parallel
to the three others, from the mounds of Muhammed to the
centre of Mesopotamia, where, a bifurcation takes place. The
northern branch seems to have continued in a S.S.-easterly
direction towards the Tigris, or towards the ruins of ’Ashik
wa Ma’shukah (the lover and his beloved), about 10 miles
below Modain; whilst the other, called the Nahr Dhiyab,
took a southerly direction, or towards Babylon, passing the
Khan of Iskanderiyah. Abu-l-feda says,5 the Kuthea is a
channel from the Euphrates, below El Melik; beyond Far-
sans it divides, the southern branch spreading into a marshy
country, and the other, which is the larger, entering the
Tigris below the Almalik.6
Below the mounds of Muhammed, the great river takes a
straighter course, in a more southerly direction, as far as the
floating bridge on the western side of the town of Musseyib;
1 A flourishing commercial town, nine miles from Baghdad, situate on a
navigable canal, over which there is a bridge of boats.—E d risi: p. 157, Tome
VI., Recueil de Voyages et de Mthnoires public par la Societd de Geographic
de Paris, 1840. 3 Mr. Rassam’s MS. translation.
8 Lib. VII., c. 26. 4 Ibid.
0 Mr. Rassam’s MS. translation. 0 Ibid.
and proceeds through the date-groves surrounding this place,
across a bare country, onwards to Hillah, which is 91 miles
by water, or 6 1 | miles direct S. 33° E. from Felujah. The
stream, in this part of its course, has an average breadth of
200 yards, with an ordinary depth of 15 feet, and a current
of barely two and a half knots per hour in the season of
floods, when there are 15 low islands, some of them covered
with jungle. The town at which we have now arrived is
built oh a part of Babylon, and chiefly with materials obtained
from its ruins : it contained in 1831, the time of my first
visit, about 10,000 inhabitants, whose dwellings are principally
on the right bank ; the line of houses forming an
obtuse angle almost midway between the Mujellibeh and the
still more celebrated Birs Nimrud.
The Willow Boat of Babylon.—Herod., Lib. I., c. 194.
Soon after passing the ruins of Babel the river begins to
assume that appearance which may have caused Herodotus to
say, that it differs from all other great streams, by becoming
smaller towards the lower, than in the higher part of its
course. The numerous canals drawn from each side, at short
intervals from each other, in order to irrigate the fields, as well
as the date-groves and pomegranate-gardens, near the villages
here covering both banks, produce a change in the appearance
of the country, which, although very gradual, becomes
sufficiently evident, especially after passing the derivation
called Yusufiyah, which takes place1 at one mile and a half
above Diwaniyah, a respectable Arab town, of about 1200
houses, situate oh the left bank. About 18-| miles below,
another derivation, forming the canal of Old Lamlum, takes
place, and the river rather decreases from hence to the entrance
1 This is on the eastern side of the Euphrates, and joins the Lamlum branch,
previous to the junction of the latter with the main branch near El Kardyem.