MESOPOTAMIA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 746, 19 February 1910, Page 13

MESOPOTAMIA.

AN- OLD FEUD STUD ACTIVE,

' A feature ot the Januaiy number of the "Geographical Journal" ia o lecture on "Mesopotamia:-' Past, Present, ;-and.-Fu-ture," by Sir William Willcocks, the irrigation. ■ engineer- whoso .Mesopotamia schemes have attained much-prominence. He .shows, thabj therft":esista. nowadays tin, the 'delta of the'Eiviri(Euphrates the: same! old.; dispute between-, -ragrionltuiists' and shepherds which was typified thousands of years.ago intho fead.between.Cain and •Abel.' Sir.-William.says«w.< • ■ ;."When the flood was at its height I was riding up the'left' bank of the' Euphrates,; and counted over fifty flocks of Bhaop of about 200 each walking . into' the valley : .from? the ;-desert. The /appearance . of ■ the shepherds (made the" agriculturists -alert; and on my. way 'down, theCriver. in a boat' the. next. day I. heard-;two'.'.- 6hots. fired ■ quieldy, ;one otheri'.and in ; • ail' instant - the cultivated plain was'. covered with; men on horseback ; an'd on foot, rush-: ing. spot,, some J with spa.dcs and' some wi "gims.;-. 'TheT^ere;.prepared tofight the Bedouin shepherds .'or 'the - flood;' "Meeting ' one ; of ~t)io . head . sheikhs, I asked him why they could not arrango to' let somo of . the' land-be inundated and : some put under wheat and; barley; he 6aid , that they: co'illdynot ■ agree 1 -,among: 'them-, selves,-; but'.would Bp pleased to f«e«; some' order, a"nd method instead'.of: the eternal : feud."