The river here, then, is flowing southeast. Your steamer came upstream, along the part of the river you see at the right of the picture, to the bridge of boats. On which side of the river do you see the greater number of buildings? Can you find some places where there are palm gardens, and other places where the land is barren? With the help of these two pictures perhaps you can build with sand and clay a model of the city of

Drawing a sign for Bagdad and the Tigris. — ‘Make for yourself from Figure 29 a drawing like the one in Figure 30, showing how part of Bagdad and of the Tigris look from the air. Do not try to draw all the little things, but show the river and the place where the city is. The picture from which you make this drawing shows only about two miles of the Tigris. If the airplane went higher, and the aviator took another picture, more of the Tigris would show. Would the river in this picture seem wider or narrower than it does in Figure 29? Would the spot where Bagdad is seem larger or smaller? In the drawing in Figure 31, you can find the signs for Bagdad and for much more of the Tigris River than is shown in Figure 30. The top of the thawing in Figure 31 stands for the northern border of the land that is shown, and the bottom of the drawing for the southern border. The strip of land shown in Figure 31 is fourteen miles from north to south, and nine miles from east to west. What does this drawing show you about the river that Figures 29 and 30 do not show? Can you imagine going so high that the river would look to you like a mere line, and the city a mere dot? Even so, you couldn’t see much of the Tigris at once, for, you remember, it is many hundreds of miles long.

A sign for a sea coast. — Figure 32 is an airplane picture of a sea coast. Make from it a drawing like that in Figure 33, which shows how a sea coast looks from high in the air. How can you tell in the picture which is land and which is sea? How can you show which is sea in your drawing?

A sign language. — If you had airplane pictures of all the parts of the Tigris and of the Euphrates, and were to put them together much as you would a picture puzzle, a drawing could be made from them that would show all the hundreds of miles of these rivers, and the shore of the sea into which the Shat-el-Arab flows.

There isn’t room in this book to put in all these pictures. Figure 34, however, is just such a drawing as could be made from them. Although it is very small, it shows the whole of the Tigris and of the Euphrates. Just as in Figure 31, the top of the drawing stands for the northern border of the region that is shown, and the bottom of the drawing for the southern border.

Can you find in Figure 34 the sign tor the Shat-el-Arab? For the sea into which it flows? This sea is called the Persian Gulf. Can you find the sign for Basra, on the west bank of the Shat-el-Arab? The sign for Bagdad, on the Tigris?

If you really understand this drawing, it tells you some things that you did not learn from the pictures and the reading. It tells you that you did not go half way up the Tigris when you went from Basra to Bagdad. You can see that the Euphrates is even longer than the Tigris. You can tell that the Euphrates first flows west, that it then makes several great bends, and that it finally flows southeast. Do you see just how this drawing tells each of these things? These signs, then, that stand for the Tigris and the Euphrates are really part of a sign language that tells you things just as words and pictures do. Wherever you now see these signs, whether they are large or small, they should make you think of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and of the houses, trees, animals, people, kinds of work, and scenery tnat you nave tounci m this land.

Reading this sign language. — In + the drawing in Figure 35 some signs are added that will tell other things that the reading and pictures have not told you. The questions which follow will help you find out what they are.

1. If you traveled west from Bagdad as far as the land is shown in this drawing, to what would you come?

2. If you traveled west from the Persian Gulf, to what would you come?

3. If you traveled a little west of Bagdad and then north, to what would you come?

4. If you traveled northeast from Bagdad, to what would you come?

5. By airplane, Bagdad is only 350 miles from Basra. About how long a journey do you think it would be from the eastern edge to the western edge of the region that is shown in this drawing? Have you ever traveled this far?

6. The picture in Figure 36 shows what you should have read from the signs added in Figure 35 Did they mean this to you?

7. This land is sometimes called "The Land of the Five Seas." Do you see why?

The "Game of Guide." — One of you may be guide, and all the others may pretend you are curious travelers. As you all look at Figure 1, the guide begins to tell you things that you should notice there. As he talks on, he tells you when to turn to other pictures. The curious traveler may, from time to time, ask him questions such as these: "Why are these gardens along the river here, and not in other places? Why are most of the trees here date palms? Why do we see no houses built of wood? Why do the houses have flat roofs? Why not use hollow logs for boats, or build row boats like ours?" If the guide cannot answer one of these questions, one of you who knows the answer may take his place as guide.

If you went to live in Mesopotamia. — "Mesopotamia"is made up of two Greek words. "Meso" means "between ", and "Potamia" means "rivers." This name was given at first to a part of the land which lies between the Tigris River and the Euphrates. Now Mesopotamia includes much more land near these rivers. So if you were in Mesopotamia, you would live near the Tigris and the Euphrates.

If you were to live in Mesopotamia after living as long as you have in your own land, you might want to do there just as you do at home. Most of us like to do the things we are used to doing. You would soon find it best, however, to do many things as the people who have lived there a long time do them. If you chose to build a house of wood because you had always lived in such a house, you would find that it would cost you a great deal. This is because there is so little rain in this land that few trees grow, and the lumber would have to be brought from far away. If you did build your house of wood brought from somewhere else, it probably would not be so pleasant to live in as if it had thick walls of brick or mud. It would not be so cool when the rays of the sun beat down upon it in summer. Then too, the dry air would make the wood shrink, and cracks would come in floors and walls that were made at first to fit. So you would find that the clay which is near at hand is not only easier to get, but better than wood to use for building in a land where it is hot and there is so little rain. In such a land, there would be no need for you to build a sloping roof so the rain might run off quickly, for very little rain falls. Moreover, you would find it pleasant to use a flat roof as a sitting room during the evening. These people, you see, have built their houses the way they have because such houses are suitable in the kind of land in which they live.

If you wished the same foods you have at home, you might have some kinds that do not grow in Mesopotamia sent to you canned. You also could get from distant places other kinds that would not spoil, but the fresh foods you could get most easily would be those which can grow right there. Dates are plentiful there, because they grow where there is much sunshine and little rain. An easy way to preserve the fruits and vegetables there is to dry them in the hot sunshine. Sheep and goats get along in a dry land better than cattle do, and so you would find it easy to get mutton and goat’s milk there, and hard to get cow’s milk and beef.

You would learn from the way the people of Mesopotamia dress, the kind of clothes that would protect you well from the heat and the sand storms. You would see that they have chosen their food and clothing and their work because of the kind of country in which they live. They use the things they have at