The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-12-17


\ prepared By the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. D. CD
Disputes between Great Britain and
| Turkey over the border petroleum
I region around NOsul and a general
/ restiyeness TO the southeast bring
[ Iraq repeatedly before world that
I has hardly yet learned the signif1-
.ance Of this new state name. But
when II is explained that @Iraq" is
merely another name for Mesopo-
tamia, now under Arab rule and
British mandate. the country is cas-
lily oriented.
Something more than convenience
to the older generations was lost, 1t
would seem, when Iraq took its new
name. This is pre-eminently the land
of the Tfgris and Euphrates, and
"Mesopotamia- means between the
rivers"
Gashing the cool highlands Of Ar
menia and Kurdistan, the Tigris and
Euphrates flow out upon the ancient
plain where the civilization that mat
ters most to the western world was
born. Within the sweep Of their
changing river beds they inclo5e
land whose capitals at Nineveh and
Babylon were once the wonders Of
the world
Near the traditional site of the
Garden of Eden they unite TO worm
their way across a blistering plain on
their way TO the hot Persian gulf, or
In fiood-time spread across the land
a sea in which their channel is OBJ
scured.
Here patient scholars, using count
less spades in operations for which
a scalpel might well prove too crude
a tool, have won back the treasures
of the past and made them speak to
u.s. And young Rawlinson, on his
way to train the troops Of Persia's
shah. Transcribed the inscriptions OF
the Behistun rock, facilitated the de-
cipherment Of cuneiform writing, and
so showed back the horizon Of world
history by many hundred years
Here Britain's soldiers and admin
istrators are trying 10 prepare this !
ancient highway for the bustling fu- /
ture and gifted prince of Mecca is
trying to bring prosperity to the re-
born kingdom of Iraq.
Here modern boatmen whirl in
kufas such as men used at the dawn /
Of time and Kurdish porters introduce
into the racial complex of Bagdad /
such faces as one sees portrayed on |
old Assyrian tablets antedating Abra-
ham.
Tommy Atkins playing Haroun-al-
Raschid in the tortuous lanes of old
Bagdad, across which New street
cuts its unromandc way, and wire
less men using the traditional Tower
of Babel as an aerial listening post
seem novel because We still are hyp-
Noticed by the glamOr of the past
The veil OF centuries has added
mystery to a dull and dreary land,
Just as the Moslem veil has made
each shadowy form. whose lowing
vestments brush US as we pass. a fig
ure full of interest.
A Twilight Land.
Mesopotamia is q twilight land,
never entirely awake and never Who'll
ly still. The summer roofs. deserted
to the sun by day. become alive be
meath the velvet dome 81 night. and
the drama of the East gains mystery
from the dim obScurity of its setting.
Skies so clear that they made as
tronomers of the Chaldeans look
down upon these roofiess upper rooms.
whose ceiling is the changing stars
and the luminous Milky Way.
Persia has lent her lustrous tiles
and soft carpets from ShiraZ and
Hamadan. Turkeys tarbouche adds
is carmine glow to the open-air cafes
The stately Arab. in head shawl and
.amel-hair crown. sweeps through the
streets with dignity which few can
match.
Copper and brass CLINT from door
.nocker ana fruit-tray piled high
With lusciouSneSs. The tinkling arm
cts of the women family echo TO the
link of ice in the huge carafes Of
he sherbet vendors |
The hammering of huge caldrons q
rom soft copper adds its own noisy
ote to the chorus The sharp rap $
Z markers on the backgammon !
cards hints idleness on the part of 7
ONE desert son ensnared oy city Y
harms. From overhanging balconies {
he lattices drip sound muffied by {
Ilks and deep-piled rugs.
In the Occident such colors, sounds d
nd smells would reach high heaven V
y the virtue Of barbaric strength; d