The Tigris Expedition/The Key to Rebecca/Horowitz and Mrs. Washington/Bullet Train/The Last Enemy [antikvár]

Ji Tr The beginning. The real beginning. This was the plaee. This was where written history began. This was w^here mythology began. This was the source of three of the mightiest rehgions in human history. Two biUion Christians, Jews and Moslems all over the world are taught by their sacred books that this was the spot chosen by God to give life to mankind. Here two large rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, drift slowly together, yet the narrow point of green land where they meet is not a spectacular scene. Silent as the rivers are the narrow rows of date palms lining the banks, while sun and moon, passing over the barren dessert, are reflected day and night on the calm waters. A canoe glides by, with men casting nets. Yet this, much of mankind believes, was the cradle of civilization: paradise lost. Today, between the rivers, at the very point of the land, a little resthouse faces the sunrise over the River Tigris, a modest building that bears, in big letters above the door, an impressive name: TIIK (iAKDKN OK KDKN UKSTIIOUSK. Hardly a stone's throw from the resthouse are a couple of inconspicuous green trees leaning over the Tigris. Between them lies the thick, short stump of an aged tree, solemnly fenced in as a very simple sanctuary and venerated by modest candles. The long-lost branches of this tree certainly had never carried apples, but a 9