'Routes in Arabia' [‎770] (801/852)

770
Route No. 202— contd.
south to take baths here. There are said to be 10,000 visitors
in a season ; the season is from the middle of June to the middle
of September. The course is one of 3 baths per diem, lasting
10 to 30 minutes each, and continues for 40 days. The visitors
inhabit mud huts and temporary shelters (Arlsh), paying £T 1
or 2 as rent for each for the period of the course. 'The water in
the springs, which are built over, is of a dirty green colour, has a
bituminous scum floating on the surface, and smells strongly
of sulphur. Daring the season a municipality (haladiyah) is
cansbitutjd. Two Iic0ns3d coifea shops here bring in £T. 200 a
saason, and the bitumen yielded by the springs is collected and
fetches about £T. 20.
At 22 minutes after leaving Hammam 'Ali, where we have
spanb | of an hour, we pass Salahlyah (3:) houses of Jibur) on
the right bank.
At about 36 minutes, on the right bank, is Jahainah (100
houses of Jibur). The Jibur hereabouts are Jibur-al-Wawi.
At 53 minutes, on the left bank, partly on the river bank and
partly at some distance behind a hill, is Salamiyah, GO houses
of lurksmans and Jibur Arabs.
At 1 hour 16 minutes we reach the first 'Awayah or rapid
which we have to pass on our way to Baghdad. The river is
too high to disclose the nature of the object forming it, and it
give? n^ trouble. There are again hills close to the^ht bank.
At 1 hour 23 minutes comes, on the left bank, NSifah (50
houses of Jahaish), the landing place for the Nimriid site. The
left bank is low, shelving and gravelly; on the right bank there
are stony lulls. There is a raft ferry here.
1 he chief mound at XimrTid, which wo visited, is situated
a jout ' miles east-south-east of Naifah ; there are fine crops of
ripe barley all the way thither. From the mound we see to the
west, at about U mil:*?, the village of Nimrad (150 houses of
hhammattah and Jibur). Camps of Wawi and Jahoni are
visible to the west across the Tigris.
In 3 hours we are under way again, and in 25 minutes we pass
a rapid known as 'Awayah Sakhr JVfunairah.
- t 35 minutes a ravine called Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Jahannam comes down
o u uver on the right bank immediately below a small island,
smiiar y named, near the same bank. Not far from this point,
on u eft bank, we saw the village of Saiyid Hamad, consisting
\