Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/24

18 God"), but in the later documents we find it written Bab-ilâni ("Gate of the Gods"), which explains the Greek form . With the exception of Babylon, Herodotus mentions only two towns of Babylonia: Is (, I., 179) and Arderikka ( I., 185). He places the former on a stream of the same name, tributary to the Euphrates, eight days' journey from Babylon. Of this stream Herodotus says: "Is carries down many lumps of bitumen in its current, whence the bitumen was brought to Babylon for the construction of its walls." This town, which is situated some two hundred kilometers north of Babylon, a distance which corresponds with the estimate of Herodotus, is generally identified with the modern Hit, concerning which a recent traveler says: "Hit has been inhabited since the natives of Babylon learned to use pitch, or bitumen, as mortar, and from that time to this it has been the principal source of supply of that product. As already stated, the chief bitumen springs lie close behind the modern town. Beyond, and around these, stretches a dismal black plain, fetid with the smell of sulphureted hydrogen. … Bitter streams trickle downward to the Euphrates. The rock which crops out here and there beneath your feet and the cliffs that border the plain are seamed with pitchy deposits. Above the town hangs a cloud of smoke from the burning bitumen in the furnaces of the shipwrights and the ovens of the housewives. Strings of women pass by on their way to and from the river, and the vessels balanced on their heads are made of wickerwork or porous earthenware smeared over with bitumen. In their belts the men carry short clubs, with round balls of bitumen for heads. You enter the town and meet a