TCD MS 10515 folio 31v
[April 2nd 1916] had collected; a fleet of bellums thronged the stream. They appeared to be chielfy Armenians who lay comfortably on the soft cushions while the Arab boatmen paddled them gently about the stream. Some had disembarked and were enjoying refreshment on the banks; others in the boats, played banjos, sung rollicking songs, while almost all were swallowing lettuce in enormous mouthfuls, drinking sugar and water and smoking innumerable cigarettes. The ladies of Basra were well represented; many were really pretty, very fair, with high coloured complexions, but with so lavish an adornment of rouge in the cheeks and dark pigment around the eyes that their natural beauties were lost,- if not destroyed-, by these artificial dec-