Page 198 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

READING LESSO S. 197
and render them navigable a considerable distance om the sea. The Irrawady, Ganges, Brahmapootra, Indus, and Euphrates, descend om the western ter­ races of this great plateau, and carry their waters, and those of the lowlands of Southe Asia, which they traverse, to the Iudian Ocean. Some of these rivers, as the Ganges and Brahmapootra, like the Nile, inundate the adjacent countries to a consider­ able distance.
4. Asia, on account of its immense extent, pos­ sesses every variety of soil and climate. The char-· acter of its people va1·ies with their climate. The Chinese are remarkable r their industry; the Hin­ doos r the opposite quality; while the Arabs and Tartars lead the same wandering life as- in the an­ cient patriarchal times. The form of government is almost universally despotic. The rapid rise and dis­ appearance of Asiatic towns has been accounted r by the slight and perishable nature of the materials which rm the houses. In Arabia, and on the great plateau, ·where wood is scarce, they are mere tents, covered with• skins of beasts, or with stu made of their hair or wool. In India, where wood is abun­
dant, they are rmed of that material, but so slightly, that they soon decay.
5. Asia derives its name from a city called Asia, belonging to the tribe of the Asiones, in a district of Lydia. The name of the city was rst extended by the Greeks to Asia finor, and ultimately to the other regions of the east. Until the rise of the Ro­ man empire, it occupied the rst place in the history
of mankind. It was the scene of all the leading events recorded in Sacred Vrit; of the creation of m_ankind, the delivery of the law, the miraculous 17*