Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1915 — HOMD of ADAM AND SINDBAD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOMD of ADAM AND SINDBAD

WHEN the British forces captured Basra, Just below the mouths of the Tigris and the Euphrates, they secured control of a most interesting piece of country. This is the spot where God is popularly supposed to hare created Adam, and moreover, Basra is the city from which Slndbad the Sailor set forth on the wonderful voyages that are related in the Arabian Nights. Prom a political point of view Basra In important because the Germans intended to end their Bagdad railroad there. It is the center of the world’s date trade. Basra is on the Shatt-Ul-Arab, an estuary formed of the combined waters of the Tigris, Euphrates and Karan rivers. The Shatt empties Into the Persian golf. The British already controlled Fao. a cable station on the gulf. From here the expedition proceeded up the western or Turkish bank of the Shatt. Beautiful date palms line the waterway. Wan ' Garden of Eden. The bank on the eastern side forms one edge of Adagan island, traditionally the site of the Garden of Eden, but now boasting principally the refineries of the Anglo-Perslan Oil company. The oQ runs down 150 miles from the Bakhtiari mountains of Persia, where crude petroleum gushes from the ground in abundance. Another site on the way to Basra la the home of the powerful sheikh of Moham mera. The British steamers always fire a salute when passing, because the sheikh once came to the rescue of a British boat attacked by pirates near his home. Basra itself is on the southern side of the river. It is entirely modern, the old city of Basra from which Sindhad the Sailor made his seven voyages

being now a good four miles inland. Old Basra, now called Zotbelr, was in those days—for Sindbad is not an entirely fictitious character —on the sea or, at least, on the salt tide that ebbed and flowed along the Khor Abdulla, then the chief mouth of the Euphrates. The most conspicuous buildings in Basra are the British consulate, a sturdy, verandaed house, that, properly sandbagged, could give a good account of Itself against mere rifle-fire. mml the Lynch offices, almost next door. A little farther upstream is the Ashar, a creek that extends for some distance southward from the river. It is crowded with boats of all sizes, from canoes to bungalows, and on the southeastern side is a kind of promenade between the creek and a row of tumble-down houses which represent the Piccadilly of Basra. Where Adam Was Created. Away in old Basra there is not much to see except the minaret of Bash-Ayyan, which is. perhaps, 850 years old, and has a picturesque courtyard. Nothing, unfortunately, recalls the Basra of Sindbad any more than modern Bagdad represents the Bagdad of the good Caliph Harun-al-Ras-chid, except the direction of the streets and one lump of hard brickwork, Which is, alas, fast dropping into ithe Tigris. But the date gardens between Old and New Basra hare a apeidal Interest of their own. for it was jftem between the roots of a date palm 0t Basra that Jehovah gathered the day with which he fashioned In the Garden of Eden. Fbr this reason the devout Mohammedan wiQ never abase his date trees, however much they fail him, for ths com- —- »1 M a y t«aen wnna* i( T7 fnA 'XXJJxfMp let tut) ZVv/i ttu I Uuß >

Gibbon mentioned “The Christiana of St. John of Basra.” These are the Sebacans, a strange race that live in the Euphrates’ bed, and, besides dairy farming, earn a livelihood by making the one remaining mystery of metal work in the world. They execute beautiful Niello designs in silver, gold and black, and would die rather than surrender the secret of the workmanship. They are a quiet folk, if only because thev believe that St. John the Baptist was the real Messiah, and worship only him —and the Pole Star. They keep their doctrine as much a secret as their metallurgy, but certain tenets are admitted by them which link them not only with Christianity and Gnosticism, but with Islam and Zoroastrianism. o

SITE OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN

WHERE SINDBAD THE SAILOR LIVED