Eve Visits the Site of Eden.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18496, 23 June 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

Eve Visits the Site of Eden .

‘Tree of Knowledge ’ Thrill

BAGDAD. WHAT woman could suppress a thrill when brought faee to face with the Tree of Knowledge? I confess that I could not, when the river steamer in which I was travelling to Bagdad stopped at Kurna, where Tigris .and Euphrates meet, writes E.G.M. in the “ Daily Express.” It is only a withered stump, with a few leafless branches, but my Arab escort told me it was the original apple tree on the site of the Garden of Eden, which both Christians and Moslems respect. It may be only a tradition, but this first thrill has never left me. 1 was a twentieth century woman suddenly set down amid Biblical romance. It is this piquant contrast which helps Englishwomen to endure life in Iraq, the modern Mesopotamia. There is a mere handful of Englishwomen to Iraq’s leagues of desert. Life is mostly centred in the towns of Bagdad, the capital, and Basrah, the port, on th<? River Shatt-el-Arab. The feminine population is made up of wives of civil officials or business men, and nurses. The Government will not permit the wives of Army men there. English Ways in Bible Land. It is remarkable how this small band bring their modern English ways to the land where the Bible still lives. Housekeeping involves none of the drudgery which is the fate of the average woman in England. Servants, if not exactly cheap, arc plentiful, and shape well with training. The houses are large, and built for coolness during the long summer when the south wind, called by the Arabs “ The donkey of the clouds,” blows all day long, and the temperature goes up to 130 degrees. Of course, in winter, with a thermometer playing round 25 degrees, we sigh for a snug English house where the doors do fit and the floors are draught-proof! It is a trial to go for many months without fresh vegetables, though there are compensations. The Basrah sole, not unlike a Dover sole, but with more bones, is one. Fruit is another. Grapes

J sell for 4<l a large basket; monster j melons and luscious pink tigs and great oranges from Jaffa more than make up for the lack of cabbages! : Irrigation Wonders. Wonders can be done by irrigation, though, for a market gardener once brought to my door a cabbage two feet in diameter! Tennis is the chief social occupation. Bagdad becomes another Wimbledon each winter! There are no good golf courses. The Basrah links consist chiefly of sand and slippery salt-pits. Venturers therein look like novices on skis! Everyone is dance-mad. despite the climate. There are even two amateur dramatic societies. Basrah has her hunt. Eager followers chase jackal in

the winter dawns. \\ lien other amusements failed I have angled for sharks from a barge, and even tasted a steak from this spoil of my line. It was not pleasant. Too much like a chunk of deal! The land which enshrines Babylon and Ur-of-the-Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham, is a varied romance. There is so much to explore and learn. Mystery Land. It is a land of mystery, and on starry summer nights the story-tellers sit cross-legged in the bazaars and tell curious tales which make a woman’s thoughts go back to the mystery of the “ Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” This lone and withered apple tree, remarkably enough the only one in the whole of Iraq, stands to-day, age old but firm, the eternal riddle and a perpetual memorial to Eve l.