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 NORTH-EASTERN FACADE AND GRAND ENTRANCE OF SENNACHERIB'S PALACE ! KOU HJNJIK J 
 
 Restored from a - 
 
DISCOVERIES 
 
 AMONG THE RUINS OF 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON; 
 
 WITH 
 
 TRAVELS IN ARMENIA, KURDISTAN, AND THE DESERT: 
 BEING THE RESULT OF A SECOND EXPEDITION 
 
 UNDERTAKEN FOR 
 
 TOE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEEM. 
 
 BY AUSTEN H, LAYARD, M.P„ 
 
 AUTHOR OF " NINEVEH AND ITS REMAINS." 
 
 " For thou hast made of a city an jffllfll ill IH^HHBi^flBH' ' 13 palace of strangers to be no city ; it 
 heap ; of a defenced city a ruin : a W'; ? - V WU$wm sfta11 never be built."— Is., xxv. 2 
 
 £©iti) Iflaps, $lans, an* JHlustrattons. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 329 & 331 PEARL STREET, 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 1859. 
 
TUTU 
 
TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONORABLE 
 
 THE EARL GRANVILLE 
 
 tfjjia % uhm is Drttinttrft, 
 
 IN ADMIRATION OF HIS PUBLIC CHARACTER, 
 
 AND AS A GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MANY ACTS OF 
 
 PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Many unavoidable delays have prevented the earlier 
 publication of this volume. I can no longer appeal, as in 
 the preface of my former work, to the indulgence of my 
 readers on the score of complete literary inexperience ; 
 but I can express heartfelt gratitude for the kind and 
 generous reception given, both by the press and the pub- 
 lic, to my first labors. I will merely add, that the follow- 
 ing pages were written at different periods, and amid nu- 
 merous interruptions but little favorable to literary occu- 
 pations. This must be my apology, to a certain extent, 
 for the many defects they contain. 
 
 Since the publication of my first work on the discover- 
 ies at Nineveh much progress has been made in decipher- 
 ing the cuneiform character, and the contents of many 
 highly interesting and important inscriptions have been 
 given to the public. For these additions to our knowl- 
 edge we are mainly indebted to the sagacity and learn- 
 ing of the two English scholars, Col. Rawlinson and the 
 Rev. Dr. Hincks. In making use of the results of their 
 researches, I have not omitted to own the sources from 
 which my information has been derived. I trust, also, 
 that I have in no instance availed myself of the labors 
 of other writers, or of the help of friends, without due 
 acknowledgments. I have endeavored to assign to every 
 one his proper share in the discoveries recorded in these 
 pages. 
 
yi PREFACE. 
 
 I am aware that several distinguished French scholars, 
 amongst whom I may mention my friends, M. Botta and 
 M. de Saulcy, have contributed to the successful decipher- 
 ing of the Assyrian inscriptions. Unfortunately I have 
 been unable to consult the published results of their in- 
 vestigations. If, therefore, I should have overlooked in 
 any instance their claims to prior discovery, I have to ex- 
 press my regret for an error arising from ignorance, and 
 not from any unworthy national prejudice. 
 
 Doubts appear to be still entertained by many eminent 
 critics as to the progress actually made in deciphering the 
 cuneiform writing. These doubts may have been con- 
 firmed by too hasty theories and conclusions, which, on 
 subsequent investigation, their authors have been the first 
 to withdraw. But the unbiassed inquirer can scarcely 
 now reject the evidence which can be brought forward to 
 confirm the general accuracy of the interpretations of the 
 inscriptions. Had they rested upon a single word, or an 
 isolated paragraph, their soundness might reasonably have 
 been questioned ; when, however, several independent in- 
 vestigators have arrived at the same results, and have not 
 only detected numerous names of persons, nations, and 
 cities in historical and geographical series, but have found 
 them mentioned in proper connection with events recorded 
 by sacred and profane writers, scarcely any stronger evi- 
 dence could be desired. The reader, I would fain hope, 
 will come to this conclusion when I treat of the contents 
 of the various records discovered in the Assyrian palaces. 
 
 I have endeavored to introduce into these pages as many 
 illustrations from the sculptures as my limits would admit. 
 I have been obliged to include the larger and more elab- 
 orate drawings of the bas-reliefs in a folio volume, which 
 will form a second series of the Monuments of Nineveh, 
 
PREFACE. v ii 
 
 and will be published at the same time as the present 
 work. 
 
 I trust it may not be inferred from any remark I have 
 been induced to make in the following pages, that I have 
 any grounds of personal complaint against the Trustees 
 of the British Museum. From them I have experienced 
 uniform courtesy and kindness, which I take this oppor- 
 tunity of acknowledging with gratitude ; but I can not at 
 the same time forbear expressing a wish, felt in common 
 with myself by many who have the advancement of na- 
 tional education, knowledge, and taste sincerely at heart, 
 that that great establishment, so eminently calculated to 
 promote this important end, should be speedily placed 
 upon a new and more efficient basis. 
 
 To Mr. Thomas Ellis, who has added so much to the 
 value of my work by his translations of inscriptions on 
 Babylonian bowls, now for the first time, through his sa- 
 gacity, deciphered ; to those who have assisted me in my 
 labors, and especially to my friend and companion, Mr. 
 Hormuzd Rassam, to the Rev. Dr. Hincks, to the Rev. 
 S. C. Malan, who has kindly allowed me the use of his 
 masterly sketches, to Mr. Fergusson, Mr. Scharf, and to 
 Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Birch, Mr. Vaux, and the other officers 
 of the British Museum, I beg to express my grateful 
 thanks and acknowledgments. 
 
 London, January, 1853. 
 
 Ivory Ornament from Nimroud. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Trustees of the British Museum resume Excavations at Nineveh. — Departure 
 from Constantinople. — Description of our Party. — Cawal Yusuf. — Roads from 
 Trebizond to Erzeroom. — Description of the Country. — Varzahan and Armenian 
 Churches. — Erzeroom. — Reshid Pasha. — The Dudjook Tribes. — Shahan Bey. — 
 Turkish Reform. — Journey through Armenia. — An Armenian Bishop. — The Lakes 
 of Shailu and Nazik. — The Lake of Wan Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Lake of "Wan. — Akhlat. — Tatar Tombs. — Ancient Remains. — A Dervish — A 
 Friend. — The Mudir. — Armenian Remains. — An Armenian Convent and Bishop. — 
 Journey to Bitlis. — Nimroud Dagh. — Bitlis. — Journey to Kherzan. — Yezidi Vil- 
 lage 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Reception by the Yezidis. — Village of Guzelder. — Triumphal March to Redwan. — 
 Redwan. — Armenian Church. — Mirza Agha. — The Melek Taous, or Brazen Bird. — 
 Tilleh. — Valley of the Tigris. — Bas-reliefs. — Journey to Dereboun — to Semil. — 
 Abde Agha. — Journey to Mosul. — The Yezidi Chiefs. — Arrival at Mosul. — Xeno- 
 phon's March from the Zab to the Black Sea 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 State of the Excavations on my Return to Mosul. — Discoveries at Kouyunjik. — Tun- 
 nels in the Mound. — Bas-reliefs representing Assyrian Conquests. — A Well. — Siege 
 of a City. — Nature of Sculptures at Kouyunjik.— Arrangements for Renewal of Ex- 
 cavations. — Description of the Mound. — Kiamil Pasha. — Visit to Sheikh Adi. — Yez- 
 idi Ceremonies. — Sheikh Jindi. — Yezidi Meeting. — Dress of the Women. — Bavian. 
 — Ceremony of the Kaidi.— Sacred Poem of the Yezidi. — Their Doctrines. — Jer- 
 raiyah — Return to Mosul 55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Renewal of Excavations at Kouyunjik. — First Visit to Nimroud. — State of Ruins. — 
 Renew Excavations in Mound. — The Abou Salman Arabs. — Visit of Colonel Raw- 
 linson. — LatifT Agha. — Mr. H. Rassam. — The Jebour Workmen at Kouyunjik. — 
 Discoveries at Kouyunjik. — Sculptures representing moving of great Stones and 
 Winged Bulls. — Methods adopted. — Similar Subject on Egyptian Monument. — 
 Epigraphs on Bas-reliefs of moving Bulls. — Sculptures representing Invasion of 
 Mountainous Country, and Sack of City. — Discovery of Gateway. — Excavation in 
 high Conical Mound at Nimroud. — Discovery of Wall of Stone. — Feast to the Yez- 
 idis at Mosul. — Visit to Khorsabad. — Discovery of Slab. — State of the Ruins. — 
 Futhliyah. — Baazani. — Baasheikhah 80 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Discovery of Grand Entrance to the Palace of Kouyunjik — of the name of Senna- 
 cherib in the Inscriptions. — The Records of that King in the Inscriptions on the 
 Bulls. — An abridged Translation of them. — Name of Hezekiah. — Account of Sen- 
 nacherib's Wars with the Jews. — Dr. Hincks and Col. Rawlinson. — The Names of 
 Sargon and Shalmaneser. — Discovery of Sculptures at Kouyunjik, representing the 
 Siege of Lachish. — Description of the Sculptures.— Discovery of Clay Seals — of 
 Signets of Egyptian and Assyrian Kings. — Cartouche of Sabaco. — Name of Essar- 
 haddon. — Confirmation of Historical Records of the Bible. — Royal Cylinder of Sen- 
 nacherib 114 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Road opened for Removal of Winged Lions. — Discovery of Vaulted Drain — of other 
 Arches— of Painted Bricks. — Attack of the Tai on the Village of Nimroud. — Visit 
 to the Howar. — Description of the Encampment of the Tai. — The Plain of Shoma- 
 mok.— Sheikh Faras.— Wali Bey.— Return to Nimroud Page 137 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Contents of newly-discovered Chamber. — A Well. — Large Copper Caldrons. — Bells, 
 Rings, and other Objects in Metal. — Tripods. — Caldrons and large Vessels. — Bronze 
 Bowls, Cups, and Dishes. — Description of the Embossings upon them. — Arms and 
 Armour. — Shields. — Iron Instruments. — Ivory Remains. — Bronze Cubes inlaid 
 with Gold.— Glass Bowls.— Lens.— The Royal Throne 149 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Visit to the Winged Lions by Night. — The Bitumen Springs. — Removal of the 
 Winged Lions to the River. — Floods at Nimroud. — Loss and Recovery of Lion. — 
 Yezidi Marriage Festival. — Baazani. — Visit to Bavian. — Site of the Battle of Ar- 
 bela. — Description of Rock-Sculptures. — Inscriptions. — The Shabbaks 171 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Visit to Kalah Sherghat prevented. — Visit to Shomamok. — Keshaf. — The Howar. — 
 A Bedouin.— His Mission. — Descent of Arab Horses. — Their Pedigree. — Ruins of 
 Mokhamour. — The Mound of the Kasr. — Plain of Shomamok. — The Gla or Kalah. 
 — Xenophon and the Ten Thousand. — A Wolf. — Return to Nimroud and Mosul. — 
 Discoveries at Kouyunjik. — Description of the Bas-Reliefs 185 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Preparations for a Journey to the Khabour. — Sculptures discovered there. — Sheikh 
 Suttum. — His Rediff. — Departure from Mosul. — First Encampment. — Abou Kha- 
 meera.— A Storm.— Tel Ermah.— A Stranger.— Tel Jemal.— The Chief of Tel 
 Afer. — A Sunset in the Desert. — A Jebour Encampment. — The Belled Sinjar. — 
 The Sinjar Hill. — Mirkan. — Bukra. — The Dress of the Yezidis. — The Shomal. — 
 Ossofa. — Aldina. — Return to the Belled.— A Snake-Charmer. — Journey continued 
 in the Desert. — Rishwan. — Encampment of the Boraij. — Dress of Arab Women. — 
 Rathaiyah. — Hawking. — A Deputation from the Yezidis. — Arab Encampments. — 
 The Khabour. — Mohammed Emin. — Arrival at Arban 199 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Arban. — Our Encampment. — Suttum and Mohammed Emin. — Winged Bulls discov- 
 ered. — Excavations commenced. — Their Results. — Discovery of Small Objects — 
 of Second Pair of Winged Bulls — of Lion — of Chinese Bottle — of Vase — of Egyp- 
 tian Scarabs — of Tombs. — The Scene of the Captivitv 230 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Residence at ArDan. — Mohammed Emin's Tent. — The Agaydat. — OurTei.ts. — Bread- 
 baking. — Food of the Bedouins. — Thin Bread. — The Produce of their Flocks. — Dis- 
 eases amongst them. — Their Remedies. — The Deloul or Dromedary. — Bedouin 
 Warfare. — Suttum's First Wife. — A Storm. — Turtles. — Lions. — A Bedouin Rob- 
 ber. — Beavers. — Ride to Ledjmiyat. — A plundering Expedition. — Loss of a Hawk. 
 — Ruins of Shemshani. — A Tradition. — Jebours strike their Tents. — Return to Ar- 
 ban. — Visit to Moghamis 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Leave Arban. — The Banks of the Khabour. — Artificial Mounds. — Mijwell. — The Cadi 
 of the Bedouins. — The Thar or Blood-Revenge. — Caution of Arabs. — A natural 
 Cavern. — An extinct Volcano. — The Confluents of the Khabour. — Bedouin Marks. 
 — Suleiman Agha. — Encampment at Um-Jerjeh. The Turkish Irregular Cavalry. 
 — Mound of Mijdel. — Ruins on the Khabour. — Mohammed Emin leaves us. — Visit 
 to Kurdish Tents and Harem. — The Milli Kurds. — The Family of Rishwan. — Arab 
 Love-Making. — The Dakheel. — Bedouin Poets and Poetry. — Turkish Cavalry 
 Horses 258 
 
CONTENTS. xj 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Departure from the Khabour. — Arab Sagacity.— The Hoi. — The Lake of Khatouni- 
 yah. — Return of Suttum. — Encampment of the Shammar. — Arab Horses — theii 
 Breeds— their Value— their Speed.— Sheikh Ferhan. — Yezidi Villages.— Falcons. 
 — An Alarm. — Abou Maria.— Eski Mosul.— Arrival at Mosul. — Return of Suttum 
 to the Desert Page 274 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Discoveries at Kouyunjik. — Procession of Figures bearing Fruit and Game. — Lo- 
 custs. — Led Horses. — An Assyrian Campaign. — Dagon, or the Fish-God. — The 
 Chambers of Records. — Inscribed Clay Tablets.— Return to Nimroud. — Effects of 
 the Flood.— Discoveries. — Small Temple under high Mound. — The Evil Spirit. — 
 Fish-God. — Fine Bas-relief of the King. — Extracts from the Inscription. — Great 
 inscribed Monolith. — Extracts from the Inscription.— Cedar Beams. — Small Ob- 
 jects.— Second Temple.— Marble Figure and other Objects 287 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Summer. — Encampment at Kouyunjik. — Visitors.— Mode of Life.— Departure 
 for the Mountains.— Akra. — Rock-Tablets at Gunduk. — District of Zibari. — Namet 
 Agha. — District of Shirwan— of Baradost— of Gherdi— of Shemdina. — Mousa Bey. 
 — Nestorian Bishop. — Convent of Mar Hananisho. — District and Plain of Ghaour. 
 — Dizza.— An Albanian Friend. — Bash-Kalah. — Izzet Pasha. — A Jewish Encamp- 
 ment. — High Mountain Pass. — Mahmoudiyah. — First View of "Wan 314 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Mehemet Pasha. — Description of Wan. — Its History. — Improvement in its Condition. 
 — The Armenian Bishop. — The Cuneiform Inscriptions. — The Caves of Khorkhor. 
 — The Meher Kapousi. — A Tradition. — Observations on the Inscriptions. — Table 
 of Kings mentioned in them. — The Bairam. — An Armenian School. — The Ameri- 
 can Missions. — Protestant Movement in Turkey. — Amikh. — The Convent of Yedi 
 Klissia 335 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Leave Wan. — The Armenian Patriarch. — The Island of Akhtamar. — An Armenian 
 Church. — History of the Convent. — Pass into Mukus. — The District of Mukus — 
 of Shattak — of Nourdooz. — A Nestorian Village. — Encampments. — Mount Ararat. 
 — Mar Shamoun. — Julamerik. — Valley of Diz. — Pass into Jelu. — Nestorian District 
 of Jelu. — An ancient Church. — The Bishop. — District of Baz — of Tkhoma. — Return 
 to Mosul 353 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Discoveries at Kouyunjik during the Summer. — Description of the Sculptures. — Cap- 
 ture of Cities on a great River. — Pomp of Assyrian King. — Passage of a River. — 
 Alabaster Pavement. — Conquest of Tribes inhabiting a Marsh. — Their Wealth. — 
 Chambers with Sculptures belonging to a new King. — Description of the Sculp- 
 tures. — Conquest of the People of Susiana. — Portrait of the King. — His Guards 
 and Attendants. — The City of Shushan. — Captive Prince. — Musicians. — Captives 
 put to the Torture. — Artistic Character of the Sculptures. — An inclined Passage. 
 — Two small Chambers. — Colossal Figures. — More Sculptures 374 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Preparations for leaving Nineveh. — Departure for Babylon. — The Awai. — Descent 
 of the River. — Tekrit. — The State of the Rivers of Mesopotamia. — Commerce upon 
 them. — Turkish Roads. — The Plain of Dura. — The Naharwan. — Samarrah.— Ka- 
 desia. — Palm Groves. — Kathimain. — Approach to Baghdad. — The City. — Arrival. 
 — Dr. Ross. — A British Steamer. — Modern Baghdad. — Tel Mohammed. — Depart- 
 ure for Babylon. — A Persian Prince. — Abde Pasha's Camp. — Eastern Falconry. — 
 Hawking the Gazelle.— Approach to Babylon.— The Ruins— Arrival at Hillah. 397 
 
xn 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The Chiefs of Hillah. — Present of Lions. — The Son of the Governor. — Description oi 
 the Town. — Zaid. — The Ruins of Babylon. — Changes in the Course of the Eu- 
 phrates. — The Walls. — Visit to the Birs Nimroud. — Description of the Ruin.— 
 View from it. — Excavations and Discoveries in the Mound of Babel — in the Muje- 
 libe or Kasr. — The Tree Athele. — Excavations in the Ruin of Amran. — Bowls, 
 with Inscriptions in Hebrew and Syriac Characters. — Translations of the Inscrip- 
 tions. — The Jews of Babylonia Page 415 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 State of the Ruins of Babylon. — Cause of the Disappearance of Buildings. — Nature 
 of original Edifices. — Babylonian Bricks. — The History of Babylon. — Its Fall. — Its 
 remarkable Position. — Commerce. — Canals and Roads. — Skill of Babylonians in 
 the Arts.— Engraved Gems. — Corruption of Manners, and consequent Fall of the 
 City. — The Mecca Pilgrimage. — Sheikh Ibn Reshid. — The Gebel Shammar. — 
 Tribes of Southern Mesopotamia. — The Mounds of El Hymer — of Anana 449 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Ruins in Southern Mesopotamia. — Departure from Hillah. — Sand-Hills. — Villages in 
 the Jezireh. — Sheikh Karboul. — Ruins. — First View of Niffer. — The Marshes. — 
 Arab Boats. — Arrive at Souk-el-Afaij. — Sheikh Agab. — Town of the Afaij. — De- 
 scription of the Ruins of Niffer. — Excavations in the Mounds. — Discovery of Cof- 
 fins — of various Relics. — Mr. Loftus' Discoveries at Wurka. — The Arab Tribes- 
 Wild Beasts. — Lions. — Customs of the Afaij. — Leave the Marshes. — Return to 
 Baghdad.— A Mirage 463 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Preparations for Departure. — Sahiman. — Plunder of his Camels. — Leave Baghdad. — 
 Journey through Mesopotamia. — Early Arab Remains. — The Median Wall. — Tek- 
 rit. — Horses stolen. — Instances of Bedouin Honesty.— Excavations at Kalah Sher- 
 ghat. — Reach Mosul. — Discoveries during Absence. — New Chambers at Kouyun- 
 jik. — Description of Bas-reliefs. — Extent of the Ruins explored. — Bases of Pillars. 
 — Small Objects. — Roman Coins struck at Nineveh. — Hoard of Denarii. — Greek 
 Relics. — Absence of Assyrian Tombs. — Fragment with Egyptian Characters. — 
 Assyrian Relics. — Remains beneath the Tomb of Jonah. — Discoveries at Shereef- 
 Khan — at Nimroud. — Names of new Kings. — Assyrian Weights. — Engraved Cyl- 
 inders 488 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Results of the Discoveries to Chronology and History. — Names of Assyrian Kings in 
 the Inscriptions. — A Date fixed. — The Name of Jehu. — The Obelisk King. — The 
 earlier Kings. — Sardanapalus. — His Successors. — Pul, or Tiglath-Pileser. — Sar- 
 gon. — Sennacherib. — Essarhaddon. — The last Assyrian Kings. — Tables of proper 
 Names in the Cuneiform Character. — Antiquity of Nineveh. — Of the Name of As- 
 syria. — Illustrations of Scripture. — State of Judaea and Assyria compared. — Polit- 
 ical Condition of the Empire. — Assyrian Colonics. — Prosperity of the Country. — 
 Religion. — Extent of Nineveh. — Assyrian Architecture — compared with Jewish. 
 — Palace of Kouyunjik restored. — Platform at Nimroud restored. — The Assyrian 
 fortified Inclosures. — Description of Kouyunjik. — Conclusion. 521 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES AND MAPS. 
 
 N. E. Fa9ade and Entrance to Sennacherib's Palace, restored Frontispiece. 
 
 Plan I. of excavated Chambers, Kouyunjik to face page 56 
 
 Egyptians moving a Colossus from the Quarries " 97 
 
 Plan II. of Square Tower and Small Temple " 105 
 
 Plan III. Platform and Palaces, Nimroud " 556 
 
 Map of Assyria &c. > at the end 
 
 General Map of Mesopotamia ) 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Ruined Mosque and Minarets (Erzeroom). In page ! 
 
 Ancient Armenian Church at Varzahan. In page 6 
 
 Threshing the Corn in Armenia. In page 15 
 
 Section of Wheel of Armenian Cart. In page 18 
 
 Armenian Plough, near Akhlat. In page 18 
 
 Early Mussulman Tomb at Akhlat. In page 19 
 
 Turbeh, or Tomb, of Sultan Baiandour, at Akhlat. Facing page 20 
 
 Yezidi Women. In page 34 
 
 Kurdish Women at a Spring. In page 35 
 
 The Melek Taous, or Copper Bird of the Yezidis, In page 40 
 
 Sculptured Tablet at Fynyk. In page 45 
 
 Rock Sculptures near Jezireh. In page 45 
 
 Mosul, from the North. In page 54 
 
 Subterranean Excavations at Kouyunjik. In page 55 
 
 Castle near a River or Marsh (Kouyunjik). In page 56 
 
 Valley and Tomb of Sheikh Adi. Facing page 67 
 
 Sheikh Nasr, High Priest of the Yezidis. In page 68 
 
 Yezidi Dance at Sheikh Adi. Facing page 70 
 
 Yezidi Cawals. In page 79 
 
 Mound of Nimroud. In page 80 
 
 Head-dress of Captives employed by Assyrians in moving Bull (Kouyunjik). In page 87 
 Excavations at Kouyunjik Facing page 89 
 
 Workmen carrying Ropes, Saws, and other Implements for moving Bull (Kouyun- 
 jik). In page 91 
 Stag (Kouyunjik). In page 91 
 Wild Sow and Young, amongst Reeds (Kouyunjik). In page 91 
 King superintending Removal of Colossal Bull (Kouyunjik;. Facing page 92 
 Village with conical Roofs, near Aleppo. In page 94 
 Assyrians placing a human-headed Bull (partly restored from a Bas-relief at Kou- 
 yunjik). Facing page 96 
 Plan of Northern Entrance to Inclosure of Kouyunjik. In page 103 
 Tunnel along Eastern Basement Wall (Nimroud). Facing page 105 
 Tunnel along Western Basement Wall (Nimroud). Facing page 105 
 Western Face of Basement of Tower (Nimroud). Facing page 106 
 Northern Face of Basement of Tower (Nimroud). Facing page 106 
 Elevation of Stylobate of Temple. In page 110 
 Section of Stylobate of Temple. In page 110 
 Cart with Ropes, and Workmen carrying Saws, Picks, and Shovels, for moving Co- 
 lossal Bull (Kouyunjik). In page 113 
 Bulls, with Historical Inscriptions of Sennacherib (Kouyunjik). In page 114 
 Remains of Grand Entrance of the Palace of Sennacherib (Kouyunjik). 
 
 Facing page 117 
 Existing Remains at Khorsabad, showing original State of Grand Entrance at Kou- 
 yunjik. Facing page 117 
 Sennacherib on his Throne before Lachish. In page 127 
 Jewish Captives from Lachish (Kouyunjik). In page 129 
 Impression of a Seal on Clay. In page 130 
 Back of the same Seal, showing the Marks of the String and the Fingers. In page 130 
 Assyrian Seals. In page 131 
 Phoenician Seals. In page 131 
 Egyptian Seals. . In page 132 
 Impressions of the Signets of the Kings of Assyria and Egypt. (Original Size.) 
 
 In page 132 
 Part of Cartouche of Sabaco, enlarged from the Impression of his Signet. In page 132 
 Royal Cylinder of Sennacherib. In page 135 
 
 Piece of Clay with Impressions of Seals. In page 136 
 
XIV 
 
 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Vaulted Drain beneath the North-west Palace at Nimroud. In page 137 
 
 Bronze Socket of the Palace Gate (Nimroud). In page 138 
 
 Vaulted Drain beneath South-east Palace (Nimroud). In page 138 
 
 Perfect Arch beneath South-east Edifice (Nimroud). In page 139 
 
 Arab Tent. In page 148 
 
 Excavated Chamber in which the Bronzes were discovered (Nimroud). In page 149 
 
 Bronze Bells found in a Caldron (Nimroud). In page 150 
 
 Horse Trappings from a Bas-relief at Kouyunjik, showing probable Use of Ivory 
 
 Studs and Metal Rosettes. 
 Bronze Ornaments. 
 Bronze Object. 
 Bronze Hook. 
 
 Ivory and Mother of Pearl Studs (Nimroud). 
 Feet of Tripods in Bronze and Iron 
 Feet of Tripods in Bronze and Iron. 
 Bronze Vessels, taken from the Interior of a Caldron. 
 Bronze Vessel, taken from the Interior of a Caldron. 
 Bronze Head of a Mace. 
 Bronze Handle of a Dish or Vase. 
 Bronze Wine Strainer. 
 Bronze Dish, from Nimroud. 
 Bronze Dish, from Nimroud. 
 Handles of Bronze Dishes, from Nimroud. 
 Bronze Cup, 6Jin. diameter, and l|in. deep. 
 Engraved Scarab in Centre of same Cup. 
 
 In page 150 
 
 Facing page 150 
 
 Facing page 150 
 
 Facing page 150 
 
 Facing page 150 
 
 Facing page 150 
 
 In page 152 
 
 Facing page 152 
 
 Facing page 152 
 
 Facing page 152 
 
 Facing page 152 
 
 Facing page 152 
 
 In page 155 
 
 In page 156 
 
 In page 157 
 
 In page 157 
 
 In page 157 
 
 Embossed Figures on the Bronze Pedestal of a Figure from Polledrara, in the British 
 Museum. In page 160 
 
 Embossed Figure on the Bronze Pedestal of a Figure from Polledrara. In page 160 
 Bronze Pedestal of Figure from Polledrara. In page 161 
 
 Bronze Cup, from Nimroud. In page 161 
 
 Bronze Shields, from Nimroud. In page 163 
 
 An Iron Pick, from Nimroud. In page 165 
 
 Half of a double-handled Saw, from Nimroud. In page 165 
 
 Part of Ivory Sceptre. In page 165 
 
 Bronze Cubes inlaid with Gold. (Original Size.) In page 166 
 
 Glass and Alabaster Vases bearing the Name of Sargon, from Nimroud. In page 167 
 Fragments of Bronze Ornaments of the Throne (Nimroud). In page 168 
 
 Bronze Bull's Head from Throne. In page 168 
 
 Bronze Head, part of Throne, showing bitumen inside. In page 168 
 
 Bronze Binding of Joints of Throne. In page 169 
 
 Bronze Casing, from the Throne (Nimroud). In page 169 
 
 A Group of Yezidis. In page 171 
 
 Rock-Sculpture (Bavian). In page 178 
 
 Sacred Symbols or Royal Tablets (Bavian). In page 179 
 
 Fallen Rock-Sculptures (Bavian). In page 182 
 
 Assyrian Fountain (Bavian). In page 183 
 
 Hussein Bey, the Chief of the Yezidis, and his Brother. In page 184 
 
 The Author's House at Nimroud. In page 185 
 
 Awad, Sheikh of the Jehesh. In page 191 
 
 A Captive (of the Tokkari?) Kouyunjik. In page 195 
 
 Bas-relief from Kouyunjik, representing a fortified City, a River with a Boat and 
 Raft, and a Canal. In page 196 
 
 Bas-relief representing a River, and Gardens watered by Canals (Kouyunjik). 
 
 Facing page 196 
 Our first Encampment in the Desert. In page 199 
 
 Sheikh Suttum. In page 203 
 
 Roman Coin of Gordian and Tranquillina, struck at Singara (British Museum). 
 
 In page 212 
 Interior of a Yezidi House at Bukra, in the Sinjar. In page 214 
 
 Arab Nose Ring and Bracelet of Silver. In page 222 
 
 Suttum, with his Wife, on his Dromedary. In page 229 
 
 Sheikh Mohammed Emin. In page 230 
 
 Encampment on the Khabour. Facing page 230 
 
 Mound of Arban, on the Khabour. Facing page 233 
 
 Front View of Winged Bull at Arban. In page 235 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. xv 
 
 Lion discovered at Arban — Bas-relief discovered at Arban. In page 237 
 
 Chinese Bottle discovered at Arban — Figure in Pottery, from Mosul. In page 238 
 Egyptian Scarab, from Arban — Scarabs discovered at Arban. In page 239, 240 
 
 Scarabs discovered at Arban. In page 240 
 
 Winged Bull discovered at Arban. In page 242 
 
 Arab Women grinding Corn with a Handmill, rolling out the Dough, and baking the 
 Bread. In page 243 
 
 Saddling a Deloul, or Dromedary. In page 257 
 
 Kurdish Women. In page 258 
 
 The Tent of the Milli Chief. In page 273 
 
 Volcanic Cone of Koukab. In page 274 
 
 Lake and Island of Khatouniyah Facing page 277 
 
 Arab Camels. In page 286 
 
 An Entrance to the Great Hall of the North-west Palace (Nimroud). In page 287 
 Attendants carrying Pomegranates and Locusts (Kouyunjik). Facing page 289 
 
 The King in his Chariot passing through a Stream in a Valley (Kouyunjik). 
 
 Facing page 290 
 Assyrian Cylinder, with Dagon, or the Fish-God. In page 292 
 
 Entrance Passage, Kouyunjik. Facing page 292 
 
 Fish-God, Kouyunjik. " Facing page 295 
 
 Fish-God on Gems in the British Museum. In page 295 
 
 Archive Chamber, Kouyunjik. Facing page 296 
 
 Inscribed Tablet impressed with Seals. In page 298 
 
 Inscribed Tablet, with Inscription at one End in cursive Characters. In page 298 
 Entrance to small Temple (Nimroud). Facing page 301 
 
 Fish-God at Entrance to small Temple (Nimroud). In page 301 
 
 Entrance to Temple, High Mound (Nimroud) Facing page 302 
 
 Fragment in blue Clay (Nimroud). In page 308 
 
 Eye in black Marble and Ivory (Nimroud). In page 308 
 
 Box in Chalcedony (Nimroud) — Box in Porcelain 1 (Nimroud). In page 309 
 
 Fragment in Porcelain 1 (Nimroud). In page 309 
 
 Entrance to a small Temple (Nimroud). Facing page 31 1 
 
 Statue of King, from Temple (Nimroud). In page 311 
 
 Head in Gypsum, from small Temple (Nimroud). In page 312 
 
 Ivory Head from small Temple (Nimroud). In page 312 
 
 Landing Place with Ferry-boats on the Tigris, at Mosul. In page 314 
 
 Rock-Sculptures near the Village of Gunduk. In page 319 
 
 The Castle of Mahmoudiyah. In page 334 
 
 Kurds of Wan. In page 335 
 
 The Town and Rock of Wan. Facing page 338 
 
 Interior of a Tomb in the Rock (Wan). In page 340 
 
 Ground Plan of the same Tomb (on the same Scale). In page 341 
 
 Kurd of the neighbourhood of Wan. In page 352 
 
 A Nestorian Family employed in the Excavations at Kouyunjik. In page 353 
 
 Summer Sleeping-Place in the Hills. In page 373 
 
 Arabs and Nestorians moving a Slab at Kouyunjik. In page 374 
 
 Metal Vessel or Casket (Kouyunjik). In page 380 
 
 Assyrian Warriors in a Cart, captured from the Elamites (Kouyunjik). In page 382 
 Musicians and Singers coming out to meet the Conquerors (Kouyunjik). In page 389 
 Assyrians torturing their Captives (Kouyunjik). In page 390 
 
 Assyrians flaying their Prisoners alive, and carrying away Heads of the Slain (Kou- 
 yunjik). Facing page 390 
 Wall of ascending Passage in the Palace of Kouyunjik. Facing page 395 
 Colossal Figures at an Entrance (Kouyunjik). In page 395 
 Tunic of colossal Figures on opposite Sculpture. In page 395 
 Cases containing Sculptures readv for Embarkation. In page 396 
 A Kellek or Raft on the Tigris. " In page 397 
 Bronze Ball from Tel Mohammed — Figures of Assyr. Venus in baked Clay. In page 408 
 A Hooded Falcon (Chark) on its Stand. In page 414 
 The Mujelibe or Kasr (from Rich). In page 415 
 Plan of Part of Ruins of Babylon on Eastern Bank of the Euphrates. In page 418 
 Eastern Face of the Birs Nimroud, with proposed Restoration. In page 424 
 Bottle of ribbed Glass, from the Mound of Babel. In page 429 
 Glass Bottles, from the Mound of Babel. In page 429 
 Glazed Earthenware Vessel, from the Mound of Babel. In page 429 
 
XVI 
 
 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Jug of Soapstone, from the Mound of Babel. In page 430 
 
 Fragment from the Mujelibe (Babylon). In page 433 
 
 Earthen Jars found in Babylonian Ruins. In page 434 
 
 No. 1. An Earthen inscribed Bowl, from Babylon. Diameter 6 inches, depth 3 
 inches. In page 437 
 
 No. 3. An Earthen inscribed Bowl, from Babylon. Diameter 6 inches, depth 14- 
 inch. In page 440 
 Bowl No. 5. Diameter 4| inches, depth 2£ inches. In page 442 
 Bowl No. 6. Diameter 5 inches, depth 3 inches. In page 444 
 Inscribed Earthen Bowls, from Babylon. In page 448 
 Terracotta Tablet from Babylon, representing an Indian Dog. In page 449 
 Babylonian Cylinder in Sienite (Size of the Original). In page 458 
 Engraved Gem from Babylon — Cylinder in the British Museum. In page 458 
 Heads of Arab Delouls. In page 462 
 Arab Man and Woman. In page 463 
 Lid of glazed Coffin. In page 474 
 Glazed Coffins from Babylonia. In page 475 
 Terracotta Model of a Body in a Coffin. In page 476 
 Ram in baked Clay, from NifTer — Engraved Pebble. In page 478 
 Fragments of engraved Shells, from Wurka. In pages 478, 479 
 Inscribed Object in Clay, from Wurka. In page 479 
 Arab Sheep. . In page 487 
 Nestorian and Arab Workmen, with Jar discovered at Nimroud. In page 488 
 Loading a Camel (Kouyunjik)— Captives resting (Kouyunjik). In page 495 
 Captives in a Cart (Kouyunjik). In page 496 
 A Battle in a Marsh in Southern Mesopotamia (Kouyunjik). In page 497 
 Chariot, with circular Shield attached (Kouyunjik). In page 499 
 Assyrians cutting down the Palm Trees belonging to a captured City (Kouyunjik). 
 
 In page 500 
 Assyrian Pedestal, from Kouyunjik. In page 501 
 
 Coin of Trajan, struck at Nineveh — Coin of Maximinus struck at Nineveh. In page 502 
 Fragment of stamped Pottery, from Kouyunjik, probably of the Persian Period. 
 
 In page 502 
 Greek or Roman Relics, from Kouyunjik. Facing page 505 
 
 Fragment of Dish, with Inscriptions in Hieroglyphs, from Kouyunjik. In page 505 
 Stone Vessel, from Kouyunjik. In page 506 
 
 Handle of Marble Dish, from Kouyunjik. Facing page 506 
 
 Copper Instrument, from Kouyunjik. Facing page 506 
 
 Fragments of hollow Tubes in Glass, from Kouyunjik. Facing page 506 
 
 Gold Ear-ring with Pearls, from Kouyunjik. Facing page 506 
 
 Terracotta Vessel, from Kouyunjik. Facing page 506 
 
 Moulds for Gold and Silver Ear-rings, from Nimroud. Facing page 506 
 
 Moulds for Gold and Silver Ear-rings, from Kouyunjik and Nimroud. Facing page 506 
 Inscriptions on Bronze Lion-Weights in the British Museum. Facing page 513 
 
 Egyptian weighing Rings of Metal, with Weights in form of a seated Lion. In page 513 
 Cylinders in green Jasper. In page 514 
 
 Ancient Assyrian Cylinder, in Serpentine. In page 515 
 
 Assyrian Cylinders, in Serpentine. In page 515 
 
 Assyrian Cylinder, in Agate — Assyrian Cylinder, in Porcelain or Quartz. In page 516 
 Babylonian Cylinders, in Iron Haematite and Jasper. In page 516 
 
 Babylonian Cylinder, in green Jasper. In page 516 
 
 Babylonian Cylinder, in Jasper — Cylinders, with Semetic Characters. In page 517 
 Persian Cylinders, in red Cornelian, in Chalcedony, in Rock Crystal, and in Onyx. 
 
 In page 518 
 Clay Tablet with Cylinder, impressed, from Kouyunjik. In page 519 
 
 Part of colossal Head, from Kouyunjik. In page 520 
 
 Tomb of the Prophet Jonah, and the River Khauser. In page 521 
 
 Bas-relief representing Pul, or Tiglath-Pileser (Nimroud). In page 527 
 
 Captives from Padan-Aram, Assyria, and Carchemish, of the Time of Amenophis III. 
 
 In page 538 
 Exterior of a Palace, from a Bas-relief at Kouyunjik. In page 552 
 
 Throne Room, Teheran. In page 553 
 
 Plan of the Inclosure Walls and Ditches at Kouyunjik. In page 561 
 
 Double Ditch and Walls of Inclosure of Kouyunjik. Facing page 562 
 
 Last View of Mosul. In page 566 
 
NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 Ruined Mosque and Minarets (Erzeroom). 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM RESUME EXCAVATIONS AT NINEVEH. DEPART- 
 URE FROM CONSTANTINOPLE. DESCRIPTION OF OUR PARTY. CAWAL YUSUF. ROADS 
 
 FROM TREBIZOND TO ERZEROOM. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. VARZAHAN AND 
 
 ARMENIAN CHURCHES. ERZEROOM. RESHID PASHA. THE DUDJOOK TRIBES. SHAHAN 
 
 BEY. TURKISH REFORM. JOURNEY THROUGH ARMENIA. AN ARMENIAN BISHOP. 
 
 THE LAKES OF SHAILU AND NAZIK. THE LAKE OF WAN. 
 
 After a few months' residence in England during the year 1848, to 
 recruit a constitution worn by long exposure to the extremes of an Eastern 
 
 A 
 
2 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. I. 
 
 climate, I received orders to proceed to my post at Her Majesty's Embassy 
 in Turkey. The Trustees of the British Museum did not, at that time, 
 contemplate further excavations on the site of ancient Nineveh. Ill health 
 and limited time had prevented me from placing before the public, pre- 
 vious to my return to the East, the results of my first researches with the 
 illustrations of the monuments and copies of the inscriptions recovered from 
 the ruins of Assyria. They were not published until some time after my 
 departure, and did not consequently receive that careful superintendence 
 and revision necessary to works of this nature. It was at Constantinople 
 that I first learnt the general interest felt in England in the discoveries, 
 and that they had been universally received as fresh illustrations of Scrip- 
 ture and prophecy, as well as of ancient history sacred and profane. 
 
 And let me here, at the very outset, gratefully acknowledge that gener- 
 ous spirit of English criticism which overlooks the incapacity and short- 
 comings of the laborer when his object is worthy of praise, and that object 
 is sought with sincerity and singleness of purpose. The gratitude, which 
 I deeply felt for encouragement rarely equalled, could be best shown by 
 cheerfully consenting, without hesitation, to the request made to me by 
 the Trustees of the British Museum, urged by public opinion, to undertake 
 the superintendence of a second expedition into Assyria. Being asked to 
 furnish a plan of operations, I stated what appeared to me to be the course 
 best calculated to produce interesting and important results, and to enable 
 us to obtain the most accurate information on the ancient history, language, 
 and arts, not only of Assyria, but of its sister kingdom, Babylonia. Per- 
 haps my plan was too vast and general to admit of performance or war- 
 rant adoption. I was merely directed to return to the site of Nineveh, 
 and to continue the researches commenced amongst its ruins. 
 
 Arrangements were hastily, and of course inadequately, made in En- 
 gland. The assistance of a competent artist was most desirable, to por- 
 tray with fidelity those monuments which injury and decay had rendered 
 unfit for removal. Mr. F. Cooper was selected by the Trustees of the Brit- 
 ish Museum to accompany the expedition in this capacity. Mr. Hormuzd 
 Rassam, already well known to many of my readers for the share he had 
 taken in my first discoveries, quitted England with him. They both joined 
 me at Constantinople. Dr. Sandwith, an English physician on a visit to 
 the East, was induced to form one of our party. One Abd-el-Messiah, a 
 Catholic Syrian of Mardin, an active and trustworthy servant during my 
 former residence in Assyria, was fortunately at this time in the capital, and 
 again entered my service : my other attendants were Mohammed Agha, a 
 cawass, and an Armenian named Serkis. The faithful Bairakdar, who 
 had so well served me during my previous journey, had accompanied the 
 English commission for the settlement of the boundaries between Turkey 
 and Persia ; with the understanding, however, that he was to meet me at 
 Mosul, in case I should return. Cawal Yusuf, the head of the Preachers 
 of the Yezidis, with four chiefs of the districts in the neighborhood of Diar- 
 
Chap. I.] cawal yusuf ' 3 
 
 bckir, who had been for some months in Constantinople, completed my 
 party. 
 
 After my departure from Mosul, in 1847, the military conscription, en- 
 forced amongst the Mussulman inhabitants of the Pashalic, was extended 
 to the Yezidis, who, with the Christians, had been previously exempted 
 from its operation on the general law sanctioned by the Koran, and hith- 
 erto acted upon by most Mohammedan nations, that none but true believ- 
 ers can serve in the armies of the state. On the ground that being of no 
 recognised infidel sect, they must necessarily be included, like the Druses 
 and Ansyri of Mount Lebanon, amongst Mussulmans, the Government had 
 recently endeavored to raise recruits for the regular troops amongst the 
 Yezidis. The new regulations had been carried out with great severity, 
 and had given rise to many acts of cruelty and oppression on the part of 
 the local authorities. Besides the feeling common to all Easterns against 
 compulsory service in the army, the Yezidis had other reasons for opposing 
 the orders of the Government. They could not become nizam, or disci- 
 plined soldiers, without openly violating the rites and observances enjoined 
 by their faith. The bath, to which Turkish soldiers are compelled weekly 
 to resort, is a pollution to them, when taken in common with Mussulmans ; 
 the blue color, and certain portions of the Turkish uniform are absolutely 
 prohibited by their law ; and they cannot eat several articles of food in- 
 cluded in the rations distributed to the troops. The recruiting officers re- 
 fused to listen to these objections, enforcing their orders with extreme and 
 unnecessary severity. The Yezidis, always ready to suffer for their faith, 
 resisted, and many died under the tortures inflicted upon them. They 
 were, moreover, still exposed to the oppression and illegal exactions of the 
 local governors. Their children were still lawful objects of public sale, 
 and, notwithstanding the introduction of the reformed system of government 
 into the provinces, the parents were subject to persecution, and even to 
 death, on account of their religion. In this state of things, Hussein Bey 
 and Sheikh Nasr, the chiefs of the whole community, hearing that I was 
 at Constantinople, determined to send a deputation to lay their grievances 
 before the Sultan, hoping that through my assistance they could obtain ac- 
 cess to some of the Ministers of State. Cawal Yusuf and his companions 
 were selected for the mission ; and money was raised by subscriptions from 
 the sect to meet the expenses of their journey. 
 
 After encountering many difficulties and dangers, they reached the cap- 
 ital and found out my abode. I lost no time in presenting them to Sir 
 Stratford Canning, who, ever ready to exert his powerful influence in the 
 cause of humanity, at once brought their wrongs to the notice of the Porte. 
 Through his kindly intercession a firman, or imperial order, was granted to 
 the Yezidis, which freed them from all illegal impositions, forbade the sale 
 of their children as slaves, secured to them the full enjoyment of their re- 
 ligion, and placed them on the same footing as other sects of the empire. 
 It was further promised that arrangements should be made to release them 
 
4 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. I. 
 
 from such military regulations as rendered their service in the army in- 
 compatible with the strict observance of their religious duties. So often 
 can influence, well acquired and well directed, be exercised in the great 
 cause of humanity, without distinction of persons or of creeds ! This is but 
 one of the many instances in which Sir Stratford Canning has added to 
 the best renown of the British name. 
 
 Cawal Yusuf, having fulfilled his mission, eagerly accepted my proposal 
 to return with me to Mosul. His companions had yet to obtain certain 
 documents from the Porte, and were to remain at Constantinople until 
 their business should be completed. The Cawal still retained the dress 
 of his sect and office. His dark face and regular and expressive features 
 were shaded by a black turban, and a striped aba of coarse texture was 
 thrown loosely over a robe of red silk. 
 
 Our arrangements- were complete by the 28th of August (1849), and on 
 that day we left the Bosphorus by an English steamer bound for Trebi- 
 zond. The size of my party and its consequent incumbrances rendering a 
 caravan journey absolutely necessary, I determined to avoid the usual 
 tracks, and to cross eastern Armenia and Kurdistan, both on account of the 
 novelty of part of the country in a geographical point of view, and its po- 
 litical interest as having only recently been brought under the immediate 
 control of the Turkish government. 
 
 We disembarked at Trebizond on the 31st, and on the following day 
 commenced our land journey. The country between this port and Erze- 
 room has been frequently traversed and described. Through it pass the 
 caravan routes connecting Persia with the Black Sea, the great lines of 
 intercourse and commerce between Europe and central Asia. The roads 
 usually frequented are three in number. The summer, or upper, road is 
 the shortest, but is most precipitous, and, crossing very lofty mountains, is 
 closed after the snows commence ; it is called Tcha'irler, from its fine up- 
 land pastures, on which the horses are usually fed when caravans take this 
 route. The middle road has few advantages over the upper, and is rarely 
 followed by merchants, who prefer the lower, although making a consider- 
 able detour by Gumish Khaneh, or the Silver Mines. The three unite at 
 the town of Baiburt, midway between the sea and Erzeroom. Although 
 an active and daily increasing trade is carried on by these roads, no means 
 whatever have until recently been taken to improve them. They consist 
 of mere mountain tracks, deep in mud or dust according to the season of 
 the year. The bridges, built when the erection and repair of public works 
 were imposed upon the local governors, and deemed a sacred duty by the 
 semi-independent hereditary families, who ruled in the provinces as Pashas 
 or Dereh-Beys, have been long permitted to fall into decay, and commerce 
 is frequently stopped for days by the swollen torrent or fordless stream. 
 This has been one of the many evil results of the system of centralisation 
 so vigorously commenced by Sultan Mahmoud, and so steadily carried out 
 during the present reign. The local governors, receiving a fixed salary, 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 TURKISH ROADS. 
 
 and rarely permitted to remain above a few months in one office, take no 
 interest whatever in the prosperity of the districts placed under their care. 
 The funds assigned by the Porte for public works, small and totally inade- 
 quate, are squandered away or purloined long before any part can be ap- 
 plied to the objects in view. 
 
 Since my visit to Trebizond, a road for carts has been commenced, which 
 is to lead from that port to the Persian frontiers ; but it will, probably, 
 like other undertakings of the kind, be abandoned long before completed, 
 or, if ever completed, will be permitted at once to fall to ruin from the want 
 of common repair. And yet the Persian trade is one of the chief sources of 
 revenue of the Turkish empire, and unless conveniences are afforded for its 
 prosecution, will speedily pass into other hands. The southern shores of 
 the Black Sea, twelve years ago rarely visited by a foreign vessel, are now 
 coasted by steamers belonging to three companies, which touch nearly 
 weekly at the principal ports ; and there is commerce and traffic enough 
 for more. The establishment of steam communication between the ports 
 and the capital has given an activity previously unknown to internal 
 trade, and has brought the inhabitants of distant provinces of the empire 
 into a contact with the capital highly favorable to the extension of civil- 
 ization and to the enforcement of the legitimate authority of the govern- 
 ment. The want of proper harbors is a considerable drawback in the 
 navigation of a sea so unstable and dangerous as the Euxine. Trebizond 
 has a mere roadstead, and from its position is otherwise little calculated 
 for a great commercial port, which, like many other places, it has become, 
 rather from its hereditary claims as the representative of a city once fa- 
 mous, than from any local advantages. 
 
 The only harbor on the southern coast is that of Batoun, nor is there 
 any retreat for vessels on the Circassian shores. This place is therefore 
 probably destined to become the emporium of trade, both from its safe and 
 spacious port, and from the facility it affords of internal communication 
 with Persia, Georgia, and Armenia. From it the Turkish government 
 might have been induced to construct the road since commenced at Trebi- 
 zond, had not a political influence, always hostile to any real improve- 
 ment in the Ottoman empire, opposed it with that pertinacity which is 
 generally sure to command success. 
 
 At the back of Trebizond, as indeed along the whole of this singularly 
 bold and beautiful coast, the mountains rise in lofty peaks, and are wood- 
 ed with trees of enormous growth and admirable quality, furnishing an 
 unlimited supply of timber for commerce or war. Innumerable streams 
 force their way to the sea through deep and rocky ravines. The more 
 sheltered spots are occupied by villages and hamlets, chiefly inhabited by 
 a hardy and industrious race of Greeks. In spring, the choicest flowers 
 perfume the air, and luxuriant creepers clothe the limbs of gigantic trees. 
 In summer, the richest pastures enamel the uplands, and the inhabitants 
 of the coasts drive their flocks and herds to the higher regions of the hills. 
 
NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 The forests, nourished by the exhalations and rains engendered by a large 
 expanse of water, form a belt, from thirty to fifty miles in breadth, along 
 the Black Sea. Beyond, the dense woods cease, as do also the rugged 
 ravine and rocky peak. They are succeeded by still higher mountains, 
 mostly rounded in their forms, some topped with eternal snow, barren of 
 wood and even of vegetation, except during the summer, when they are 
 covered with Alpine flowers and herbs. The villages in the valleys are 
 inhabited by Turks, Lazes (Mussulmans), and Armenians ; the soil is fer- 
 tile, and produces much corn. 
 
 Our journey to Erzeroom was performed without incident. A heavy 
 and uninterrupted rain for two days tried the patience and temper of 
 those who for the first time encountered the difficulties and incidents of 
 Eastern travel. The only place of any interest, passed during our ride, 
 was a small Armenian village, the remains of a larger, with the ruins of 
 three early Christian churches, or baptisteries. These remarkable build- 
 
 Ancient Armenian Church at Varzahan. 
 
 ings, of which many examples exist, belong to an order of architecture 
 peculiar to the most eastern districts of Asia Minor and to the ruins of 
 
Chap. 1.1 Armenian churches. 7 
 
 ancient Armenian cities,* on the borders of Turkey and Persia. The one, 
 of which I have given a sketch, is an octagon, and may have been a bap- 
 tistery. The interior walls are still covered with the remains of elaborate 
 frescoes representing scripture events and national saints. The colors are 
 vivid, and the forms, though rude, not inelegant or incorrect, resembling 
 those of the frescoes of the Lower Empire still seen in the celebrated By- 
 zantine church at Trebizond, and in the chapels of the convents of Mount 
 Athos. The knotted capitals of the thin tapering columns grouped togeth- 
 er, the peculiar arrangement of the stones over the doorway, supporting 
 each other by a zigzag, and the decorations in general, call to mind the 
 European Gothic of the middle ages. These churches date probably be- 
 fore the twelfth century : but there are no inscriptions, or other clue, to 
 fix their precise epoch, and the various styles and modifications of the 
 architecture have not been hitherto sufficiently studied to enable us to de- 
 termine with accuracy the time to which any peculiar ornaments or forms 
 may belong. Yet there are many interesting questions connected with 
 this Armenian architecture which well deserve elucidation. From it was 
 probably derived much that passed into the Gothic, whilst the Tatar con- 
 querors of Asia Minor adopted it, as will be hereafter seen, for their mau- 
 soleums and places of worship. It is peculiarly elegant both in its deco- 
 rations, its proportions, and the general arrangement of the masses, and 
 might with advantage be studied by the modern architect. Indeed, Asia 
 Minor contains a mine of similar materials unexplored and almost un- 
 known. 
 
 The churches of Varzahan, according to the information I received from 
 an aged inhabitant of the village, had been destroyed some fifty years be- 
 fore by the Lazes. The oldest people of the place remembered the time 
 when divine worship was still performed within their walls. 
 
 We reached Erzeroom on the 8th, and were most hospitably received 
 by the British consul, Mr. Brant, a gentleman who has long, well, and 
 honorably sustained our influence in this part of Turkey, and who was the 
 first to open an important field for our commerce in Asia Minor. With 
 him I visited the commander-in-chief of the Turkish forces in Anatolia, 
 who had recently returned from a successful expedition against the wild 
 •mountain tribes of central Armenia. Reshid Pasha, known as the " Guz~ 
 lu" or " the Wearer of Spectacles," enjoyed the advantages of an Euro- 
 pean education, and had already distinguished himself in the military ca- 
 reer. With a knowledge of the French language he united a taste for Eu- 
 ropean literature, which, during his numerous expeditions into districts un- 
 known to western travellers, had led him to examine their geographical 
 features, and to make inquiries into the manners and religion of their in- 
 habitants. His last exploit had been the subjugation of the tribes inhab- 
 
 * Particularly of Ani. Mons. Texier is, I believe, the only traveller who has at- 
 tempted to give elaborate plans, elevations, drawings, and restorations of these in- 
 teresting edifices. 
 
g NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP I 
 
 iting the Dudjook Mountains, to the south-west of Erzeroom, long in open 
 rebellion against the Sultan. The account he gave me of the country 
 and its occupants, much excited a curiosity which the limited time at my 
 command did not enable me to gratify. According to the Pasha, the 
 tribes are idolatrous, worshipping venerable oaks, great trees, huge soli- 
 tary rocks, and other grand features of nature. He was inclined to at- 
 tribute to them mysterious and abominable rites. This calumny, the 
 resource of ignorance and intolerance, from which even primitive Chris- 
 tianity did not escape, has generally been spread in the East against those 
 whose tenets are unknown or carefully concealed, and who, in Turkey, are 
 included under the general term, indicating their supposed obscene cere- 
 monies, of Cheragh-sonderan, or " Extinguishers of Lights." They have 
 a chief priest, who is, at the same time, a kind of political head of the 
 sect. He had recently been taken prisoner, sent to Constantinople, and 
 from thence exiled to some town on the Danube. They speak a Kurdish 
 dialect, though the various septs into which they are divided have Arabic 
 names, apparently showing a southern origin. Of their history and early 
 migrations, however, the Pasha could learn nothing. The direct road be- 
 tween Trebizond and Mesopotamia once passed through their districts, and 
 the ruins of spacious and well-built khans are still seen at regular inter- 
 vals on the remains of the old causeway. But from a remote period, the 
 country had been closed against the strongest caravans, and no traveller 
 would venture into the power of tribes notorious for their cruelty and law- 
 lessness. The Pasha spoke of re-opening the road, rebuilding caravanse- 
 rais, and restoring trade to its ancient channel — good intentions, not 
 wanting amongst Turks of his class, and which, if carried out, might re- 
 store a country rich in natural resources to more than its ancient prosper- 
 ity. The account he gave me is not perhaps to be strictly relied on, but 
 a district hitherto inaccessible may possibly contain the remains of ancien! 
 races, monuments of antiquity, and natural productions of sufficient im- 
 portance to merit the attention of the traveller in Asia Minor. 
 
 The city of Erzeroom is rapidly declining in importance, and is almost 
 solely supported by the Persian transit trade. It would be nearly deserted 
 if that traffic were to be thrown into a new channel by the construction 
 of the direct road from Batoun to the Persian frontiers. It contains no 
 buildings of any interest, with the exception of a few ruins of those mon- 
 uments of early Mussulman domination, the elaborately ornamented por 
 tico and minaret faced with glazed tiles of rich yet harmonious coloring, 
 and the conical mausoleum, peculiar to most cities of early date in Asia 
 Minor. The modern Turkish edifices, dignified with the names of palaces 
 and barracks, are meeting the fate of neglected mud. Their crumbling 
 walls can scarcely shelter their inmates in a climate almost unequalled in 
 the habitable globe for the rigor of its winters. 
 
 The districts of Armenia and Kurdistan, through which lay our road 
 from Erzeroom to Mosul, are sufficiently unknown and interesting to 
 
Chap 1 1 THE DUDJ00K tribes 9 
 
 merit more than a casual mention. The map will show that our route 
 by the lake of Wan, Bitlis, and Jezirah was nearly a direct one. It had 
 been but recently opened to caravans. The haunts of the last of the 
 Kurdish rebels were on the shores of this lake. After the fall of the most 
 powerful of their chiefs, Beder Khan Bey, they had one by one been sub- 
 dued and carried away into captivity. Only a few months had, however, 
 elapsed since the Beys of Bitlis, who had longest resisted the Turkish 
 arms, had been captured. With them rebellion was extinguished for the 
 time in Kurdistan. 
 
 Our caravan consisted of my own party, with the addition of a mule- 
 teer and his two assistants, natives of Bitlis, who furnished me with seven- 
 teen horses and mules from Erzeroom to Mosul. The first day's ride, as 
 is customary in the East, where friends accompany the traveller far be- 
 yond the city gates, and where the preparations for a journey are so nu- 
 merous that everything cannot well be remembered, scarcely exceeded nine 
 miles. We rested for the night in the village of Guli, whose owner, one 
 Shah an Bey, had been apprised of my intended visit. He had rendered 
 his newly-built house as comfortable as his means would permit for our 
 accommodation, and, after providing us with an excellent supper, passed 
 the evening with me. Descended from an ancient family of Dereh-Beys 
 he had inherited the hospitality and polished manners of a class now al- 
 most extinct, and of which a short account may not be uninteresting. 
 
 The Turkish conquerors, after the overthrow of the Greek empire, par- 
 celled out their newly acquired dominions into military fiefs. These ten- 
 ures varied subsequently in size from the vast possessions of the great fam- 
 ilies, with their hosts of retainers, such as the Kara Osmans of Magnesia, 
 the Pasvan Oglus, and others, to the small spahiliks of Turkey in Europe, 
 whose owners were obliged to perform personal military service when 
 called upon by the state. Between them, of middle rank, were the Dereh- 
 Beys, literally the "Lords of the Valley," who resided in their fortified cas- 
 tles, or villages, and scarcely owned more than a nominal allegiance tc 
 the Sultan, although generally ready to accompany him in a great national 
 war against the infidels, or in expeditions against too powerful and usurp- 
 ing subjects. Sultan Mahmoud, a man of undoubted genius and of vast 
 views for the consolidation and centralisation of his empire, aimed not only 
 at the extirpation of all those great families, which, either by hereditary 
 right or by local influence, had assumed a kind of independence ; but of all 
 the smaller Dereh-Beys and Spahis. This gigantic scheme, which changed 
 the whole system of tenure and local administration, whether political or 
 financial, he nearly carried out, partly by force of arms, and partly by treach- 
 ery. Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid, freed from the difficulties and embarrassments 
 with which an unfortunate war with Russia and successful rebellions in Al- 
 bania and Egypt had surrounded his father, has completed what Mahmoud 
 commenced. Not only have the few remaining Dereh-Beys been destroyed 
 or removed one by one, but even military tenure has been entirely abol- 
 
10 NINEVEH AND BABYLpN. [CHAP. I. 
 
 ished by arbitrary enactments, which have given no compensation to the 
 owners, and have destroyed the only hereditary nobility in the empire. 
 Opinions may differ as to the wisdom of the course pursued, and as to its 
 probable results. Whilst greater personal security has been undoubtedly 
 established throughout the Ottoman dominions, whilst the subjects of the 
 Sultan are, theoretically at least, no longer exposed to the tyranny of local 
 chiefs, but are governed by the more equitable and tolerant laws of the 
 empire ; his throne has lost the support of a race bred to military life, un- 
 disciplined, it is true, but brave and devoted, always ready to join the holy 
 standard when unfurled against the enemies of the nation and its religion, 
 a race who carried the Turkish arms into the heart of Europe, and were 
 the terror of Christendom. Whether a regular army, disciplined as far as 
 possible after the fashion of Europe, will supply the place of the old Turk- 
 ish irregular cavalry and infantry, remains to be seen, and, for reasons 
 which it is scarcely necessary to enter into, may fairly be doubted. "With 
 the old system the spirit which supported it is fast dying away, and it may 
 be questioned whether, in Mussulman. Turkey, discipline can ever compen- 
 sate for its loss. The country has certainly not yet recovered from the 
 change. During the former state of things, with all the acts of tyranny 
 and oppression which absolute power engendered, there was more happiness 
 amongst the people, and more prosperity in the land. The hereditary chiefs 
 looked upon their Christian subjects as so much property to be improved 
 and protected, like the soil itself. They were a source of revenue ; conse- 
 quently heavy taxes which impeded labor, and drove the laborer from the 
 land, were from interest rarely imposed upon them. The Government left 
 the enforcement of order to the local chiefs ; all the tribute received from 
 them was so much clear gain to the treasury, because no collectors were 
 needed to raise it, nor troops to enforce its payment. The revenues of the 
 empire were equal to great wars, and there was neither public debt nor 
 embarrassment. Now that the system of centralisation has been fully car- 
 ried out, the revenues are more than absorbed in the measures necessary to 
 collect them, and the officers of government, having no interest whatever 
 in the districts over which they are placed, neglect all that may tend to 
 the prosperity and well-being of their inhabitants. It may be objected in 
 extenuation that it is scarcely fair to judge of the working of a system so 
 suddenly introduced, and that Turkey is merely in a transition state ; the 
 principle it has adopted, whatever its abuse, being fundamentally correct. 
 One thing is certain, that Turkey must, sooner or later, have gone through 
 this change. 
 
 It is customary to regard these old Turkish lords as inexorable tyrants — 
 robber chiefs who lived on the plunder of travellers and of their subjects. 
 That there were many who answered to this description cannot be denied ; 
 but they were, I believe, exceptions. Amongst them were some rich in vir- 
 tues and high and noble feeling. It has been frequently my lot to find a 
 representative of this nearly extinct class in some remote and almost un- 
 
Chap. I.] shahan bey. n 
 
 known spot in Asia Minor or Albania. I have been received with affec- 
 tionate warmth at the end of a day's journey by a venerable Bey or Agha 
 in his spacious mansion, now fast crumbling to ruin, but still bright with 
 the remains of rich, yet tasteful, oriental decoiation ; his long beard, white 
 as snow, falling low on his breast ; his many-folded turban shadowing his 
 benevolent yet manly countenance, and his limbs enveloped in the noble 
 garments rejected by the new generation ; his hall open to all comers, the 
 guest neither asked from whence he came or whither he was going, dipping 
 his hands with him in the same dish ; his servants, standing with rever- 
 ence before him, rather his children than his servants ; his revenues spent 
 in raising fountains^ on the wayside for the weary traveller, or in building 
 caravanserais on the dreary plain ; not only professing but practising all 
 the duties and virtues enjoined by the Koran, which are Christian duties 
 and virtues too ; in his manners, his appearance, his hospitality, and his 
 faithfulness a perfect model for a Christian gentleman. The race is fast 
 passing away, and I feel grateful in being able to testify, with a few oth- 
 ers, to its existence once, against prejudice, intolerance, and so called re- 
 form. 
 
 But to return to our host at Guli. Shahan Bey, although not an old 
 man, was a very favorable specimen of the class I have described. He 
 was truly, in the noble and expressive phraseology of the East, an "Ojiak 
 Zadeh," " a child of the hearth," a gentleman born. His family had orig- 
 inally migrated from Daghistan, and his father, a pasha, had distinguished 
 himself in the wars with Russia. He entertained me with animated ac- 
 counts of feuds between his ancestors and the neighbouring chiefs, when 
 without their armed retainers neither could venture beyond their immedi- 
 ate territories, contrasting, with good sense and a fair knowledge of his sub- 
 ject, the former with the actual state of the country. On the following 
 morning, when I bade him adieu, he would not allow me to reward either 
 himself or his servants, for hospitality extended to so large a company. 
 He rode with me for some distance on my route, with his greyhounds and 
 followers, and then returned to his village. 
 
 From Guli we crossed a high range of mountains, running nearly east 
 and west, by a pass called Ali-Baba, or Ala-Baba, enjoying from the summit 
 an extensive view of the plain of Pasvin, once one of the most thickly-peo- 
 pled and best cultivated districts in Armenia. The Christian inhabitants 
 Were partly induced by promises of land and protection, and partly com- 
 pelled by force, to accompany the Russian army into Georgia after the end 
 of the last war with Turkey. By similar means that part of the Pashalic 
 of Erzeroom adjoining the Russian territories was almost stripped of its 
 most industrious Armenian population. To the south of us rose the snow- 
 
 * The most unobservant and hasty traveller in Turkey would soon become ac- 
 quainted with this fact, could he read the modest and pious inscription, carved in re- 
 lief on a small marble tablet of the purest white, adorning almost every half-ruined 
 fountain at which he stops to refresh himself by the wayside. 
 
12 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. J. 
 
 capped mountains of the Bin Ghiul, or the " Thousand Lakes," in which 
 the Araxes and several confluents of the Euphrates have their source. "VVe 
 descended from the pass into undulating and barren downs. The villages, 
 thinly scattered over the low hills, were deserted by their inhabitants, who. 
 at this season of the year, pitch their tents and seek pasture for their flocks 
 in the uplands. We encamped for the night near one of these villages., 
 called G-undi-Miran, or, in Turkish, Bey-Kiui, which has the same meaning, 
 " the village of the chief." A man who remained to watch the crops of 
 corn and barley went to the tents, and brought us such provisions as we 
 required. The inhabitants of this district are Kurds, and are still divided 
 into tribes. The owners of Gundi-Miran, and the surrounding villages, 
 are the Ziraklu (the armour-wearers), who came originally from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Diarbekir. Within a few months of our visit they were in 
 open rebellion against the government, and the country had been closed 
 against travellers and caravans. 
 
 Next day we continued our journey amongst undulating hills, abound- 
 ing in flocks of the great and lesser bustard. Innumerable sheep-walks 
 branched from the beaten path, a sign that villages were near ; but, like 
 those we had passed the day before, they had been deserted for the yilaks, 
 or summer pastures. These villages are still such as they were when 
 Xenophon traversed Armenia. " Their houses," says he, " were under 
 ground ; the mouth resembling that of a well, but spacious below : there 
 was an entrance dug for the cattle, but the inhabitants descended by lad- 
 ders. In these houses were goats, sheep, cows, and fowls with their young. "* 
 The low hovels, mere holes in the hill-side, and the common refuge of 
 man, poultry, and cattle, cannot be seen from any distance, and they are 
 purposely built away from the road to escape the unwelcome visits of trav- 
 elling government officers and marching troops. It is not uncommon for a 
 traveller to receive the first intimation of his approach to a village by find- 
 ing his horse's fore feet down a chimney, and himself taking his place un- 
 expectedly in the family circle through the roof. Numerous small streams 
 wind among the valleys, marking by meandering lines of perpetual green 
 their course to the Arras, or Araxes. We crossed that river about midday 
 by a ford not more than three feet deep, but the bed of the stream is wide, 
 and after rains, and during the spring, is completely filled by an impassa- 
 ble torrent. On its southern bank we found a caravan reposing, the horses 
 and mules feeding in the long grass, the travellers sleeping in the shade of 
 their piled up bales of goods. Amongst the merchants we recognised sev- 
 eral natives of Mosul who trade with Erzeroom, changing dates and coarse 
 Mosul fabrics for a fine linen made at Riza, — a small place on the Black 
 Sea, near Trebizond, — and much worn by the wealthy and by women. 
 
 During the afternoon we crossed the western spur of the Tiektab Mount- 
 ains, a high and bold range with three well defined peaks, which had been 
 visible from the summit of the Ala-Baba pass. From ths crest we had the 
 * Anabasis, lib. iv. c. 5 
 
Chap. 1.1 THE subhan dagh. 13 
 
 first view of Subhan, or Sipan, Dagh,^ a magnificent conical peak, covered 
 with eternal snow, and rising abruptly from the plam to the north of Lake 
 Wan. It is a conspicuous and beautiful object from every part of the sur- 
 rounding country. We descended into the wide and fertile plain of Hinnis. 
 The town was just visible in the distance, but we left it to the right, and 
 halted for the night in the large Armenian village of Kosli, after a ride of 
 more than nine hours. I was received at the guest-housef with great hos- 
 pitality by one Misrab Agha, a Turk, to whom the village formerly belong- 
 ed as Spahilik or military tenure, and who, deprived of his hereditary rights, 
 had now farmed its revenues. He hurried with a long stick among the 
 low houses, and heaps of dried dung, piled up in every open space for win- 
 ter fuel, collecting fowls, curds, bread, and barley, abusing at the same time 
 the tanzimat, which compelled such exalted travellers as ourselves, he said, 
 " to pay for the provisions we condescended to accept." The inhabitants 
 were not, however, backward in furnishing us with all we wanted, and the 
 flourish of Misrab Agha's stick was only the remains of an old habit. I 
 invited him to supper with me, an invitation he gladly accepted, having 
 himself contributed a tender lamb roasted whole toward our entertainment. 
 The inhabitants of Kosli could scarcely be distinguished either by their 
 dress or by their general appearance from the Kurds. They seemed pros- 
 perous and were on the best terms with the Mussulman farmer of their 
 tithes. This village, with others in the district, had been nearly deserted 
 after the Russian war, the inhabitants migrating into Georgia. Several 
 
 * Sipan is a Kurdish corruption of Subhan, i. e. Praise. The mountain is so called, 
 because a tradition asserts that whilst Noah was carried to and fro by the waters of 
 the deluge, the ark struck against its peak, and the patriarch, alarmed by the shock, 
 exclaimed " Subhanu-llah," " Praise be to God !" It has also been conjectured that 
 the name is derived from " Surp," an Armenian word meaning "holy." It has only 
 been ascended once, as far as I am aware, by Europeans. Mr. Brant, the British 
 consul of Erzeroom, accompanied by Lieut. Glascott and Dr. Dickson, reached the 
 summit on the 1st of September, 1838, after experiencing considerable fatigue and 
 inconvenience from some peculiarity in the atmosphere (not, it would appear, the re- 
 sult of any very considerable elevation). They found within the cone a small lake, 
 apparently rilling the hollow of a crater ; and scoria and lava, met with in abundance 
 during the ascent, indicated the existence, at some remote period, of a volcano. Un- 
 fortunately, the barometers with which the party were provided, were out of order, 
 and Mr. Brant has only been able to estimate the height of the mountain by approx- 
 imation, at 10,000 feet, which I believe to be under the mark. (See Mr. Brant's 
 highly interesting memoir in the tenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Geograph- 
 ical Society, p. 49.) 
 
 t Almost every village in Turkey, not on a high road, and not provided with a car- 
 avanserai or khan, contains a house reserved exclusively for the entertainment of 
 guests, in which travellers are not only lodged, but fed, gratuitously. It is maintain- 
 ed by the joint contribution of the villagers, or sometimes by the charitable bequests 
 of individuals, and is under the care either of the chief of the village, or of a person 
 expressly named for the purpose, and called the Oda-Bashi, the chief of the guest- 
 room. Since the introduction of the tanzimat (reformed system), this custom is rap- 
 idly falling into disuse in most parts of Turkey frequented by European travellers. 
 
X4 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. I. 
 
 families had recently returned, but having finished their harvest, were de- 
 sirous of recrossing the frontier, probably a manoBuvre to avoid the payment 
 of certain dues and taxes. Of this Misrab Agha was fully aware. " The 
 iU-mannered fellows," exclaimed he, " having filled their bellies with good 
 things, and taken away the fat of the land, want to go back to the Mus- 
 covites ; but they deceive themselves, they must now sit where they are." 
 The emigrants did not indeed speak very favourably of the condition of 
 those who had settled in Russia. Many wish to return to their old villages 
 in Turkey, where they can enjoy far greater liberty and independence. 
 This was subsequently confirmed to me by others who had come back to 
 their native settlements. The Russian government, however, by a strict 
 military surveillance along the Georgian frontiers, prevents as far as pos- 
 sible this desertion. 
 
 Kosli stands at the foot of the hills forming the southern boundary of the 
 plain of Hinnis, through which flows a branch of the Murad Su, or Lower 
 Euphrates. We forded this river near the ruins of a bridge at Kara Kupri. 
 The plain is generally well cultivated, the principal produce being corn 
 and hemp. The villages, which are thickly scattered over it, have the ap- 
 pearance of extreme wretchedness, and, with their low houses and heaps 
 of dried manure piled upon the roofs and m the open spaces around, look 
 more like gigantic dunghills than human habitations. The Kurds and Ar- 
 menian Christians, both hardy and industrious races, are pretty equally 
 divided in numbers, and live sociably in the same filth and misery. The 
 extreme severity of the winter — the snow lying deep on the ground for 
 some months — prevents the cultivation of fruit trees, and the complete ab- 
 sence of wood gives the country a desolate aspect. Bustards, cranes, and 
 waterfowl of various kinds abound. 
 
 We left the plain of Hinnis by a pass through the mountain range of 
 Zernak. In the valleys we found clusters of black tents belonging to the 
 nomad Kurds, and the hill-sides were covered with their flocks. The sum- 
 mit of a high peak overhanging the road is occupied by the ruins of a castle 
 formerly held by Kurdish chiefs, who levied black-mail on travellers, and 
 carried their depredations into the plains. On reaching the top of the pass 
 we had an uninterrupted view of the Subhan Dagh. From the village of 
 Karagol, where we halted for the night, it rose abruptly before us. This 
 magnificent peak, with the rugged mountains of Kurdistan, the river Eu- 
 phrates winding through the plain, the peasants driving the oxen over the 
 corn on the threshing-floor, and the groups of Kurdish horsemen with their 
 long spears and flowing garments, formed one of those scenes of Eastern 
 travel which leave an indelible impression on the imagination, and bring 
 back in after years indescribable feelings of pleasure and repose. 
 
 The threshing-floor, which added so much to the beauty and interest of 
 the picture at Karagol, had been seen in all the villages we had passed 
 during our day's journey. The abundant harvest had been gathered in, 
 and the corn was now to be threshed and stored for the winter. The pro- 
 
Chap. L] 
 
 A THRESHING-FLOOR. 
 
 15 
 
 cess adopted is simple, and nearly such as it was in patriarchal times. 
 Ihe children either drive horses round and round over the heaps, or stand- 
 ing upon a sledge stuck full of sharp flints on the under part, are drawn by 
 oxen over the scattered sheaves. Such were " the threshing-sledges armed 
 with teeth" mentioned by Isaiah. In no instance are the animals muz- 
 zled — " thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn ;" but 
 they linger to pick up a scanty mouthful as they are urged on by the boys 
 and young girls, to whom the duties of the threshing-floor are chiefly as- 
 signed. The grain is winnowed by the men and women, who throw the 
 corn and straw together into the air with a wooden shovel, leaving the 
 wind to carry away the chaff whilst the seed falls to the ground. The 
 
 Threshing the Corn in Armenia. 
 
 wheat is then raked into heaps and left on the threshing-floor until the 
 tithe-gatherer has taken his portion. The straw is stored for the winter, 
 as provender for the cattle.^ 
 
 The Kurdish inhabitants of this plain are chiefly of the tribe of Mamanli. 
 
 * These processes of threshing and winnowing appear to have been used from the 
 earliest time in Asia. Isaiah alludes to it when addressing the Jews (xxviii. 27, 28. 
 See Translation by the Rev. John Jones) : — 
 
 " The dill is not threshed with the threshing sledge, 
 Nor is the wheel of the wain made to roll over the cummin. 
 
 Bread corn is threshed : 
 
 But not for ever will he continue thus to thresh it ; 
 
 Though he driveth along the wheels of his wain, 
 
 And his horses, he will not bruise it to dust." 
 " The oxen and the young asses, that till the ground 
 
 Shall eat clean provender, 
 
 Which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan." (xxx. 24.) 
 " Behold, I have made thee a new sharp threshing wain (sledge) armed with faint- 
 ed teeth:' (xh. 15.) 
 " Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away." (xli. 16.) 
 
15 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. I. 
 
 once very powerful, and mustering nearly 2000 horsemen for war, accord- 
 ing to the information I received from one of their petty chiefs who lodged 
 with us for the night in the guest-house of Karagol. After the Russian 
 war, part of the tribe was included in the ceded territory. Their chief re- 
 sides at Malaskert. 
 
 "We crossed the principal branch of the Euphrates soon after leaving 
 Karagol. Although the river is fordable at this time of the year, during 
 the spring it is nearly a mile in breadth, overflowing its banks, and con- 
 verting the entire plain into one great marsh. We had now to pick our 
 way through a swamp, scaring, as we advanced, myriads of wild-fowl. I 
 have rarely seen game in such abundance and such variety in one spot ; 
 the water swarmed with geese, duck, and teal, the marshy ground with 
 herons and snipe, and the stubble with bustards and cranes. After the 
 rains the lower road is impassable, and caravans are obliged to make a con 
 siderable circuit along the foot of the hills. 
 
 We were not sorry to escape the fever-breeding swamp and mud of the 
 plain, and to enter a line of low hills, separating us from the lake of Gula 
 Shailu. I stopped for a few minutes at an Armenian monastery, situated 
 on a small platform overlooking the plain. The bishop was at his breakfast, 
 his fare frugal and episcopal enough, consisting of nothing more than boiled 
 beans and sour milk. He insisted that I should partake of his repast, and 
 I did so, in a small room scarcely large enough to admit the round tray con- 
 taining the dishes, into which I dipped my hand with him and his chaplain. 
 I found him profoundly ignorant, like the rest of his class, grumbling about 
 taxes, and abusing the Turkish government. All I could learn of the 
 church was that it contained the body of a much venerated saint, who had 
 lived about the time of St. Gregory the Illuminator, and that it was the 
 resort of the afflicted and diseased who trusted to their faith, rather than 
 to medicine, for relief. The whole establishment belongs to the large Ar- 
 menian village of Kop, which could be faintly distinguished in the plain be- 
 low. The Kurds had plundered the convent of its books and its finery, but 
 the church remained pretty well as it had been some fifteen centuries ago. 
 After a pleasant ride of five hours we reached a deep clear lake, em- 
 bedded in the mountains, two or three pelicans, " swan and shadow double," 
 and myriads of water-fowl, lazily floating on its blue waters. Piron, the 
 village where we halted for the night, stands at the further end of the 
 Gula Shailu, and is inhabited by Kurds of the tribe of Hasananlu, and by 
 Armenians, all living in good fellowship amidst the dirt and wretchedness 
 of their eternal dungheaps. Ophthalmia had made sad havoc amongst 
 them, and the doctor was soon surrounded by a orowd of the blind and 
 diseased clamoring for relief. The villagers said that a Persian, professing 
 to be a Hakim, had passed through the place some time before, and had 
 offered to cure all bad eyes on payment of a certain sum in advance. These 
 terms being agreed to, he gave his patients a powder which left the sore 
 eves as they were, and destroyed the good ones. He then went his way ; 
 
Chap. LI A kurdish village 17 
 
 " And with the money in his pocket too," added a ferocious-looking Kurd, 
 whose appearance certainly threw considerable doubt on the assertion ; 
 " but what can one do in these days of accursed Tanzimat (reform) ?" 
 
 The district we had now entered formerly belonged to Sheriff Bey, the 
 rebellious chief of Moush, but, since his capture last year, had been made 
 miri, or government property. Although all the Mohammedan inhabitants 
 of this part of Kurdistan are Kurds, those alone are called so who live in 
 tents ; those who reside in villages are known simply as "Mussulman." 
 
 The lake of Shailu is separated from the larger lake of Nazik, by a 
 range of low hills about six miles in breadth. We reached the small 
 village of Khers, built on its western extremity, in about two hours and a 
 half, and found the chief, surrounded by the principal inhabitants, seated 
 on a raised platform near a well-built stone house. He assured me, stroking 
 a beard of spotless white to confirm his words, that he was above ninety 
 rears of age, and had never seen an European before the day of my visit. 
 Half blind, he peered at me through his bleer eyes until he had fully satis- 
 fied his curiosity ; then spoke contemptuously of the Franks, and abused 
 the Tanzimat, which he declared had destroyed all Mussulman spirit, had 
 turned true believers into infidels, and had brought his own tribe to ruin, 
 meaning, of course, that they could no longer prey upon their neighbours. 
 His son, more of a courtier, and probably thinking that something might 
 be gained by praising the present state of things, spoke less unfavorably 
 of reform, though, I doubt not, entertaining equal aversion to it in his heart. 
 The old gentleman, notwithstanding his rough exterior, was hospitable 
 after his fashion, and would not suffer us to depart until we had eaten of 
 every delicacy the village could afford. 
 
 Our path lay along the banks of the lake. The people of Khers declare 
 that the Nazik Gul only contains fish during the spring of the year, and 
 then but of the one kind caught in the lake of Wan. I was unable 
 to account for this fact, repeated by the peasants whom we met on our 
 road, until reaching the eastern end of the lake I found that a communi- 
 cation existed between it and that of Wan, by a deep ravine, through 
 which the waters, swollen during the rains and by the melting of the snows 
 in spring, discharge themselves near Akhlat.* At this season there was 
 only water enough in the ravine to show the difference of level. In spring 
 the fish seek the creeks and fresh-water streams to spawn, and at that time 
 alone are captured by the inhabitants of the shores of the lake of Wan. 
 During the rest of the year, they leave the shallows and are secure from 
 the nets of the fishermen.! The only fish known is of the size and appear- 
 
 * The Shailu lake has, I was informed, a similar communication with the Murad 
 Su. Both lakes are wrongly placed in the Prussian and other maps, and their out- 
 lets unnoticed. 
 
 t Yakuti, in his geographical work, the "Moajem el Buldan," mentions this dis- 
 appearance of the fish, which are only to be seen, he says, during three month.* of 
 the year. He adds, however, frogs and shellfish. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 ance of a herring. It is caught during the season in such abundance that 
 it forms, when dried and salted, provision for the rest of the year, and a 
 considerable article of exportation. I was informed, however, by a Chris- 
 tian, that a large fish, probably of the barbel kind, was found in the Nazik 
 G-ul, whose waters, unlike those of Wan, are fresh and sweet. 
 
 Leaving the Nazik Gul we entered an undulating country traversed by 
 very deep ravines, mere channels cut into the sandstone by mountain tor- 
 rents. The villages are built at the bottom of these gulleys, amidst fruit 
 trees and gardens, sheltered by perpendicular rocks and watered by running 
 streams. They are undiscovered until the traveller reaches the very edge 
 of the precipice, when a pleasant and cheerful scene opens suddenly be- 
 neath his feet. He would have believed the upper country a mere desert 
 had he not spied here and there in the distance a peasant slowly driving 
 his plough through the rich soil. The inhabitants of this district are more 
 industrious and ingenious than their neighbours. They carry the produce 
 of their harvest not on the backs of animals, as 
 in most parts of Asia Minor, but in carts entire- 
 ly made of wood, no iron being used even in the 
 wheels, which are ingeniously built of walnut, 
 oak, and kara agatch (literally, black tree — ? 
 thorn), the stronger woods being used for rough 
 spokes let into the nave. The plough also differs 
 from that in general use in Asia. To the share 
 are attached two parallel boards, about four feet 
 long and a foot broad, which separate the soil 
 and leave a deep and well defined furrow. 
 "We rode for two or three hours on these uplands, until, suddenly reach- 
 ing the edge of a ravine, a beautiful prospect of lake, woodland, and mount- 
 ain, opened before us. 
 
 Section of Wheel of Armenian 
 Cart. 
 
 Armenian Plough, near Akhlat. 
 
Early Mussulman Tomb at Akhlat. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LAKE OF WAN. AKHLAT. TATAR TOMBS. ANCIENT REMAINS. A DERVISH. A 
 
 FRIEND. THE MUDIR. ARMENIAN REMAINS. AN ARMENIAN CONVENT AND BISHOP. 
 
 JOURNEY TO BITLIS. NIMROUD DAGH. BITLIS. JOURNEY TO KHERZAN. YEZIDI VIL- 
 LAGE. 
 
 The first view the traveller obtains of the lake of Wan, on descending 
 towards it from the hills above Akhlat, is singularly beautiful. This great 
 inland sea, of the deepest blue, is bounded to the east by ranges of serrated 
 snow-capped mountains, peering one above the other, and springing here 
 and there into the highest peaks of Tiyari and Kurdistan ; beneath them 
 lies the sacred island of Akhtamar, just visible in the distance, like a dark 
 shadow on the water. At the further end rises the one sublime cone of 
 the Subhan, and along the lower part of the eastern shores stretches the 
 Nimroud Dagh, varied in shape, and rich in local traditions. 
 
 At our feet, as we drew nigh to the lake, were the gardens of the an- 
 cient city of Akhlat, leaning minarets and pointed mausoleums peeping 
 
20 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. II. 
 
 above the trees. We rode through vast burying-grounds, a perfect forest 
 of upright stones seven or eight feet high of the richest red colour, most 
 delicately and tastefully carved with arabesque ornaments and inscriptions 
 in the massive character of the early Mussulman age. In the midst of 
 them rose here and there a conical turbeh* of beautiful shape, covered 
 with exquisite tracery. The monuments of the dead still stand, and have 
 become the monuments of a city, itself long crumbled Into dust. Amidst 
 orchards and gardens are scattered here and there low houses rudely built 
 out of the remains of the earlier habitations, and fragments of cornice and 
 sculpture are piled up into walls around the cultivated plots. 
 
 Leaving the servants to pitch the tents on a lawn near one of the finest 
 of the old Mussulman tombs, and in a grove of lofty trees, beneath whose 
 spreading branches we could catch distant views of the lake, I walked 
 through the ruins. Emerging from the gardens and crossing a part of the 
 great burying-ground, I came upon a well-preserved mausoleum of the 
 same deep red stone, now glowing in the rays of the sun ; its conical roof 
 rested on columns and arches, and on a kubleh, or place to direct the face 
 in prayer, decorated with all the richness, yet elegance, of Eastern taste. 
 The cornice supporting the roof was formed by many bands of ornament, 
 each equally graceful though differing one from the other. The columns 
 stood on a base rising about nine feet from the ground, the upper part of 
 which was adorned with panels, each varying in shape, and containing 
 many- angled recesses, decorated with different patterns, and the lower part 
 projected at an angle with the rest of the building. In this basement was 
 the chamber ; the mortal remains of its royal occupant had long ago been 
 torn away and thrown to the dust. Around the turbeh were scattered 
 richly carved head and foot stones, marking the graves of less noble men ; 
 and the whole was enclosed by a grove of lofty trees, the dark-blue lake 
 glittering beyond. Whilst the scene was worthy of the pencil of a Turner, 
 each detail in the building was a study for an architect. Tradition names 
 the tomb that of Sultan Baiandour,f one of the chiefs of the great Tatar 
 tribes, who crossed the frontiers of Persia in the fifteenth century. The 
 building still resisting decay is now used as a storehouse for grain and straw 
 by a degenerate race, utterly unmindful of the glories of their ancestors. 
 Near this turbeh were others, less well preserved, but equally remarkable 
 for elegant and varied decoration, their conical roofs fretted with delicate 
 tracery, carved in relief on the red stone. They belong, according to local 
 tradition, to Sultans of the Ak-Kouyunlu and Kara-Kouyunlu Tatars, the 
 well-known tribes of the White and Black Sheep. 
 
 Beyond the turbeh of Sultan Baiandour, through a deep ravine such 
 as I have already described, runs a brawling stream, crossed by an old 
 bridge ; orchards and gardens make the bottom of the narrow valley, and 
 
 * The small building which sometimes covers a Mohammedan tomb is so called. 
 t A sultan of the Ak-Kouyunlu, or "White-sheep Tatars, from whom the tribe de- 
 rived their name of Baiandouri. 
 
Turbeh, or Tomb, of Sultan Baiandour, at Akhlat. 
 
22 NINEVEH A^sD BABYLON [CHAP. II. 
 
 the cultivated ledges as seen from above, a bed of foliage. The lofty per- 
 pendicular rocks rising on both sides are literally honeycombed with en- 
 trances to artificial caves, ancient tombs, or dwelling-places. On a high 
 isolated mass of sandstone stand the walls and towers of a castle, the re- 
 mains of the ancient city of Khelath, celebrated in Armenian histoiy, and 
 one of the seats of Armenian power. I ascended to the crumbling ruins, 
 and examined the excavations in the rocks. The latter are now used as 
 habitations, and as stables for herds and flocks. The spacious entrances 
 of some are filled up with stones for protection and comfort, a small opening 
 being left for a doorway. Before them, on the ledges overlooking the ra- 
 vine, stood here and there groups of as noble a race as I have anywhere 
 seen, tall, brawny men, handsome women, and beautiful children. They 
 were Kurds, dressed in the flowing and richly-colored robes of their tribe. 
 I talked with them and found them courteous, intelligent, and communi- 
 cative. 
 
 Many of the tombs are approached by flights of steps, also cut in the 
 rock. An entrance, generally square, unless subsequently widened, and 
 either perfectly plain or decorated with a simple cornice, opens into a spa- 
 cious chamber, which frequently leads into others on the same level, or by 
 narrow flights of steps into upper rooms. There are no traces of the means 
 by which these entrances were closed : they probably were so by stones, 
 turning on rude hinges, or rolling on rollers. * Excavated in the walls, or 
 sometimes sunk into the floor, are recesses or troughs, in which once lay the 
 bodies of the dead, whilst in small niches, in the sides of the chambers, 
 were placed lamps and sacrificial objects. Tombs in every respect similar 
 are found throughout the mountains of Assyria and Persia, as far south as 
 Shiraz ; but I have never met with them in such abundance as at Akh- 
 lat. Their contents were long ago the spoil of conquerors, and the ancient 
 chambers of the dead have been for centuries the abodes of the living. 
 
 Leaving the valley and winding through a forest of fruit trees, here and 
 there interspersed with a few primitive dwellings, I came to the old Turk- 
 ish castle, standing on the very edge of the lake. It is a pure Ottoman 
 edifice, less ancient than the turbehs, or the old walls towering above the 
 ravine. Inscriptions over the gateways state that it was partly built by 
 Sultan Selim, and partly by Sultan Suleiman, and over the northern en- 
 trance occurs the date of 975 of the Hejira. The walls and towers are 
 
 * Tombs, with entrances closed by stones, ingeniously made to roll back into a 
 groove, still exist in many parts of the East. We learn from both the Old and New 
 Testament, that such tombs were in common use in Palestine, as well as in othei 
 countries of Asia. The stone was " rolled away from the sepulchre" in which Christ 
 was laid ; which we may gather from the context was a chamber cut into the rock 
 and intended to receive many bodies, although it had not been used before. Such 
 also, was the tomb of Lazarus. Raphael, who is singularly correct in delineating 
 Eastern habits and costumes in his scriptural pieces, has thus portrayed the tomb 
 of the Saviour in a sketch in the Oxford Collection. 
 
Chap. II 1 ruins of akhlat. 23 
 
 still standing, and need but slight repair to be again rendered capable of 
 defence. They inclose a fort, and about 200 houses, with two mosques 
 and baths, fast falling into decay, and only tenanted by a few miserable 
 families, who, too poor or too idle to build anew, linger amongst the ruins. 
 In the fort, separated from the dwelling places by a high thick wall and a 
 ponderous iron-bound gate now hanging half broken away from its rusty 
 hinges, there dwelt, until very recently, a notorious Kurdish freebooter, of 
 the name of Mehemet Bey, who, secure in this stronghold, ravaged the 
 surrounding country, and sorely vexed its Christian inhabitants. He fled 
 on the approach of the Turkish troops, after their successful expedition 
 against Nur-Ullah Bey, and is supposed to be wandering in the mountains 
 of southern Kurdistan. 
 
 After the capture of Beder Khan Bey, Osman Pasha, the commander-in- 
 chief of the Turkish army, a man of enterprise and liberal views, formed 
 a plan for restoring to Akhlat its ancient prosperity, by making it the cap- 
 ital of the north-eastern provinces of the Turkish empire. He proposed, 
 by grants of land, to induce the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages to 
 remove to the town, and by peculiar privileges to draw to the new settle- 
 ment the artizans of Wan, Bitlis, Moush, and even Erzeroom. Its posi- 
 tion on the borders of a vast lake is favourable to traffic, and its air is con- 
 sidered very salubrious. From its vicinity to the Persian and Russian 
 frontiers it might become of considerable importance as a military depot. 
 Osman Pasha was about to construct a palace, a bazar, and barracks, and 
 to repair the walls of the old castle, when death put an end to his schemes. 
 In Turkey a man in power, from principle, never carries out the plans, or 
 finishes the buildings of his predecessor ; and Akhlat, one of the most 
 beautiful spots that the imagination can picture, will probably long remain 
 a heap of ruins. Scarcely a sail flutters on the water. The only com- 
 merce is carried on by a few miserable vessels, which venture in the finest 
 weather to leave the little harbour of Wan to search for wood and com on 
 the southern shores of the lake. 
 
 The ancient city of Khelath was the capital of the Armenian province 
 of Peznouni. It came under the Mohammedan power as early as the ninth 
 century, but was conquered by the Greeks of the Lower Empire at the 
 end of the tenth. The Seljuks took it from them, and it then again be- 
 came a Mussulman principality. It was long a place of contention for the 
 early Arab and Tatar conquerors. Shah Armen^ reduced it towards the 
 end of the twelfth century. It was besieged, without result, by the cele- 
 brated Saleh-ed-din, and was finally captured by his nephew, the son of 
 Melek Adel, in a. d. 1207. 
 
 The sun was setting as I returned to the tents. The whole scene was 
 
 * Shah Armen, i. e. King of Armenia, was a title assumed by a dynasty reigning 
 at Akhlat, founded by Sokman Kothby, a slave of the Seljuk prince, Kothbedin Is- 
 mail, who established an independent principality at Akhlat in a. d. 1100, which lasted 
 eighty years. 
 
24 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. II. 
 
 lighted up with its golden tints, and Claude never composed a subject more 
 beautiful than was here furnished by nature herself. I was seated out- 
 side my tent gazing listlessly on the scene, when I was roused by a well- 
 remembered cry, but one which I had not heard for years. I turned about 
 and saw standing before me a Persian Dervish, clothed in the fawn-colored 
 gazelle skin, and wearing the conical red cap, edged with fur, and embroid- 
 ered in black braid with verses from the Koran and invocations to Ali, the 
 patron of his sect. He was no less surprised than I had been at his greet- 
 ing, when I gave him the answer peculiar to men of his order. He was 
 my devoted friend and servant from that moment, and sent his boy to fetch 
 a dish of pears, for which he actually refused a present ten times their 
 value. He declared that I was one of his craft, and was fairly puzzled to 
 make out where I had picked up my knowledge of his mystery and phra- 
 seology. But he was not my first Dervish friend ; I had had many ad- 
 ventures in company with such as he. 
 
 Whilst we were seated chatting in the soft moonlight, Hormuzd was 
 suddenly embraced by a young man resplendent with silk and gold em- 
 broidery and armed to the teeth. He was a chief from the district of Mo- 
 sul and well known to us. Hearing of our arrival he had hastened from 
 his village at some distance to welcome us, and to endeavor to persuade 
 me to move the encampment and partake of his hospitality. Failing, of 
 course, in prevailing upon me to change my quarters for the night, he sent 
 his servant to his wife, who was a lady of Mosul, and formerly a friend of 
 my companion's, for a sheep. "We found ourselves thus unexpectedly 
 amongst friends. Our circle was further increased by Christians and Mus- 
 sulmans of Akhlat, and the night was far spent before we retired to rest. 
 
 In the morning, soon after sunrise, I renewed my wanderings amongst 
 the ruins, first calling upon the Mudir, or governor, who received me seated 
 under his own fig-tree. He was an old greybeard, a native of the place, 
 and of a straightforward, honest bearing. I had to listen to the usual 
 complaints of poverty and over-taxation, although, after all, the village, 
 with its extensive gardens, only contributed yearly ten purses, or less than 
 forty-five pounds, to the public revenue. This sum seems small enough, 
 but without trade, and distant from any high road, there was not a para 
 of ready money, according to the Mudir, in the place. 
 
 The governor's cottage stood near the northern edge of Akhlat, and a 
 little beyond it the road again emerged into that forest of richly-carved 
 tombs which surrounds the place, like a broad belt — the accumulated re- 
 mains of successive generations. The triumph of the dead over the living 
 is perhaps only thus seen in the East. In England, where we grudge our 
 dead their last resting places, the habitations of the living encroach on the 
 burial-ground ; in the East it is the grave-yard which drives before it the 
 cottage and the mansion. The massive headstones still stand erect long 
 after the dwelling-places of even the descendants of those who placed 
 them there have passed away. Several handsome turbehs, resembling in 
 
Chap II.l AN ARMENIAN convent. 25 
 
 their general form those I had already visited, though differing from them 
 in their elegant and elaborate details, were scattered amongst the more 
 humble tombs. 
 
 From the Mudir's house I rode to the more ancient part of the city and 
 to the rock tombs. The ravine, at no great distance from where it joins 
 the lake, is divided into two branches, each watered by an abundant 
 stream. I followed them both for four or five miles, ascending by the one, 
 then crossing the upland which divides them, and descending by the other. 
 Both afford innumerable pleasant prospects, — the water breaking in fre- 
 quent cascades over the rocky bottom, beneath thick clusters of gigantic 
 chesnuts and elms, the excavated cliffs forming bold frames to the pic- 
 tures. I entered many of the rock-tombs, and found all of them to be of 
 the same character, though varying in size. The doors of some have been 
 enlarged, to render the interior more convenient as dwelling-places, and 
 there are but few which have not been blackened by the smoke of the 
 fires of many centuries. The present population of the ravine, small and 
 scanty enough, resides almost entirely in these caves. Amongst the tombs 
 there are galleries and passages in the cliffs without apparent use, and 
 flights of steps, cut out of the rock, which seem to lead nowhere. I 
 searched and inquired in vain for inscriptions and remains of sculpture, and 
 yet the place is of undoubted antiquity, and in the immediate vicinity of 
 cotemporary sites where cuneiform inscriptions do exist. 
 
 During my wanderings I entered an Armenian church and convent 
 standing on a ledge of rock overhanging the stream, about four miles up 
 the southern ravine. The convent was tenanted by a bishop and two 
 priests. They dwelt in a small low room, scarcely lighted by a hole care- 
 fully blocked up with a sheet of oiled paper to shut out the cold ; dark, 
 musty, and damp, a very parish clerk in England would have shuddered 
 at the sight of such a residence. Their bed, a carpet worn to threads, 
 spread on the rotten boards ; their diet, the coarsest sandy bread and a 
 little sour curds, with beans and mangy meat for a jubilee. A miserable 
 old woman sat in a kind of vault under the staircase preparing their food, 
 and passing her days in pushing to and fro with her skinny hands the goat's 
 skin containing the milk to be shaken into butter. She was the house- 
 keeper and handmaiden of the episcopal establishment. The church was 
 somewhat higher, though even darker than the dwelling-room, and was 
 partly used to store a heap of mouldy corn and some primitive agricultural 
 implements. The whole was well and strongly built, and had the evi- 
 dent marks of antiquity. The bishop showed me a rude cross carved on 
 a rock outside the convent, which, he declared, had been cut by one of the 
 disciples of the Saviour himself. It is, at any rate, considered a relic of 
 very great sanctity, and is an object of pilgrimage for the surrounding 
 Christian population. Near the spot are several tombs of former bishops, 
 the head and foot stones of the same deep mellow red stone, and as elab- 
 orately carved as those of the old Tatar chiefs near the lake, although dif- 
 
26 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. LL 
 
 fering from them somewhat in the style of their ornaments ; the cross, and 
 the bold, square, ancient Armenian character being used instead of the 
 flowery scroll-work and elongated letters of the early Mussulman conquer- 
 ors. The bishop, notwithstanding his poverty, was, on the whole, better 
 informed than others of his order I had met in the provinces. He had vis- 
 ited the capital, had even studied there, and possessed a few books, amongst 
 which, fortunately for himself, and I hope for his congregation, he was not 
 ashamed to include several of the very useful works issued by the Ameri- 
 can missionary press, and by that praiseworthy religious society, the Mek- 
 hitarists of Venice. The older books and MSS. of the church, together 
 with its little store of plate, its hangings, and its finery, were gone. The 
 last rummage was made by Mehemet Bey, the Kurdish freebooter of the 
 castle on the lake, who, having been expelled from his stronghold by the 
 exasperated inhabitants of Akhlat, took refuge in the Armenian convent, 
 and defended it for nearly a year against his assailants, living of course, 
 the while, upon the scanty stores of the priests, and carrying off, when he 
 had no longer need of the position, the little property he had pulled out 
 of every nook and corner. The tyranny of this chief had driven nearly the 
 whole Christian population from Akhlat. About twenty families only re- 
 mained, and they were huddled together in the rock tombs, and on the 
 ledges immediately opposite the convent. They are not allowed to possess 
 the gardens and orchards near the lake, which are looked upon as the pe- 
 culiar property of the ancient Mussulman inhabitants, to be enjoyed by their 
 orthodox descendants, who employ neither care nor labor in keeping them 
 up, trusting to a rich soil and a favorable climate for their annual fruits. 
 
 I was again struck during my ride with the beauty of the children, who 
 assembled round me, issuing, like true Troglodytes, from their rocky dwell- 
 ing-places. Near the end of the ravine, on the edge of a precipice clothed 
 with creepers, is a half-fallen turbeh, of elegant proportions and rich in arch- 
 itectural detail. It overhangs the transparent stream, which, struggling 
 down its rocky bed, is crossed by a ruined bridge ; a scene calling to mind 
 the well-known view of Tivoli. Beyond, and nearer to the lake, are other 
 turbehs, all of which I examined, endeavoring to retain some slight record 
 of their peculiar ornaments. The natives of the place followed me as I 
 wandered about and found names for the ancient chiefs in whose honor the 
 mausoleums had been erected. Amongst them were Iskender, Hassan, and 
 Haroun, the Padishas, or sultans, of the Tatar tribes.^ 
 
 * Iskender, the son of Kara Yusuf, second sultan of the Tatar dynasty of the 
 Black Sheep, began to reign a. d. 1421, and was murdered by his son, Shah Kobad. 
 Hassan, commonly called Usun, or the Long, the first sultan of the Baiandcuri, or 
 White Sheep, Tatars, succeeded to the throne a. d. 1467. Neither of these sultans, 
 however, appear to have died at Akhlat. I have been unable to find the name of 
 Haroun amongst the sultans of these Tatar dynasties. It is possible that the tur- 
 behs may be more ancient than the period assigned to them by the inhabitants of 
 Akhlat, and that they may belong to some of the earlier Mussulman conquerors. 
 
CHAJr. II.l ARMENIAN ARCHITECTURE. 27 
 
 On my return to our encampment the tents were struck, and the caravan 
 had already began its march. Time would not permit me to delay, and 
 with a deep longing to linger on this favored spot I slowly followed the road 
 leading along the margin of the lake to Bitlis. I have seldom seen a fair- 
 er scene, one richer in natural beauties. The artist and the lover of na- 
 ture may equally find at Akhlat objects of study and delight. The archi- 
 tect, or the traveller, interested in the history of that graceful and highly 
 original branch of art, which attained its full perfection under the Arab 
 rulers of Egypt and Spain, should extend his journey to the remains of an- 
 cient Armenian cities, far from high roads and mostly unexplored. He 
 would then trace how that architecture, deriving its name from Byzantium, 
 had taken the same development in the East as it did in the West, and how 
 its subsequent combination with the elaborate decoration, the varied out- 
 line, and tasteful coloring of Persia had produced the style termed Sara- 
 cenic, Arabic, and Moresque. He would discover almost daily, details, or- 
 naments, and forms, recalling to his mind the various orders of architecture, 
 which, at an early period, succeeded to each other in Western Europe and 
 in England ;* modifications of style for which we are mainly indebted to 
 the East during its close union with the West by the bond of Christianity. 
 The Crusaders, too, brought back into Christendom, on their return from 
 Asia, a taste for that rich and harmonious union of color and architecture 
 which had already been so successfully introduced by the Arabs into the 
 countries they had conquered. 
 
 This connection between Eastern and Western architecture is one well 
 worthy of study, emd cannot be better illustrated than by the early Chris- 
 tian ruins of Armenia, and those of the Arsacian and Sassanian periods still 
 existing in Persia. As yet it has been almost entirely overlooked, nor are 
 there any plans or drawings of even the best known Byzantine, or rather 
 Armenian, remains in Asia Minor, upon which sufficient reliance can be 
 placed to admit of the analogies between the styles being fully proved. 
 The union of early Christian and Persian art and architecture produced a 
 style too little known and studied, yet affording combinations of beauty and 
 grandeur, of extreme delicacy of detail and of boldness of outline, worthy 
 of the highest order of intellect.! 
 
 * The sketch, not very accurate unfortunately in its details, of the ruined Arme- 
 nian church at Varzahan (p. 6.), will sufficiently show my meaning, and point out 
 the connection indicated in the text. I would also refer to M. Texier's folio work on 
 Armenia and Persia, for many examples of Armenian churches, illustrating the tran- 
 sition between the Byzantine and what we may undoubtedly term Gothic. It would 
 be of considerable importance to study the remains of churches still scattered over 
 Armenia, and of which no accurate plans or drawings have been published. 
 
 t The Arabs, a wild and uncultivated people, probably derived their first notions 
 of architecture on the conquest of the Persian provinces. The peculiar and highly 
 tasteful style of the Persians, of which traces may still be seen in the remains of the 
 celebrated palace of Chosroes, at Ctesiphon, and in other ruins of southern Persia 
 and Khuzistan, united with the Byzantine churches and palaces of Syria, produced 
 
28 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. II. 
 
 Our road skirted the foot of the Nimroud Dagh, which stretches from 
 Akhlat to the southern extremity of the lake. We crossed several dykes 
 of lava and scoria, and wide mud-torrents now dry, the outpourings of a 
 volcano long since extinct, but the crater of which may probably still be 
 traced in a small lake said to exist on the very summit of the mountain. 
 There are several villages, chiefly inhabited by Christians, built on the wa- 
 ter's edge, or in the ravines worn by the streams descending from the hills. 
 Our road gradually led away from the lake. With Cawal Yusuf and my 
 companions I left the caravan far behind. The night came on, and we 
 were shrouded in darkness. We sought in vain for the village which was 
 to afford us a resting-place, and soon lost our uncertain track. The Cawal 
 took the opportunity of relating tales collected during former journeys on 
 this spot, of robber Kurds and murdered travellers, which did not tend to 
 remove the anxiety felt by some of my party. At length, after wandering 
 to and fro for above an- hour, we heard the distant jingle "of the caravan 
 bells. We rode in the direction of the welcome sound, and soon found our- 
 selves at the Armenian village of Keswack, standing in a small bay, and 
 sheltered by a rocky promontory jutting boldly into the lake. 
 
 Next morning we rode along the margin of the lake, still crossing the 
 spurs of the Nimroud Dagh, furrowed by numerous streams of lava and 
 mud. In one of the deep gulleys, opening from the mountain to the wa- 
 ter's edge, are a number of isolated masses of sandstone, worn into fantastic 
 shapes by the winter torrents, which sweep down from the hills. The peo- 
 ple of the country call them "the Camels of Isimrod." Tradition says that 
 the rebellious patriarch endeavoring to build an inaccessible castle, strong 
 enough to defy both God and man, the Almighty, to punish his arrogance, 
 turned the workmen as they were working into stone. The rocks on the 
 border of the lake are the camels, who with their burdens were petrified 
 into a perpetual memorial of the Divine vengeance. The unfinished walls 
 of the castle are still to be seen on the top of the mountain ; and the sur- 
 rounding country, the seat of a primaeval race, abounds in similar tradi- 
 tions. 
 
 We left the southern end of the lake, near the Armenian village of Tad- 
 wan, once a place of some importance, and containing a caravanserai, 
 mosques, and baths built by Khosrew Pasha in the sixteenth century. En- 
 tering an undulating country we soon gazed for the last time on the deep 
 blue expanse of water, and on the lofty peaks of the Hakkiari mountains. 
 The small trickling streams, now running towards the south, and a gradual 
 descent showed that we had crossed the water-shed of central Asia, and had 
 reached the valleys of Assyria. Here and there the ruins of a fine old khan, 
 its dark recesses, vaulted niches, and spacious stalls, blackened with the 
 
 the Saracenic. Already some such modification had, I am convinced, taken place in 
 Armenia by a similar process, the Persian and Imperial power being continually 
 brought into contact in that kingdom. I cannot dwell longer upon this subject, which 
 well merits investigation. 
 
Chap II.] town of bitlis. 29 
 
 smoke of centuries, served to mark one of the great highways, leading in 
 the days of Turkish prosperity from central Armenia to Baghdad. We had 
 crossed this road in the plain of Hinnis. It runs from Erzeroom to Moush 
 and thence to Bitlis, leaving to the east the Nimroud Dagh, which sepa- 
 rates it from the lake of "Wan. Commerce has deserted it for very many 
 years, and its bridges and caravanserais have long fallen into decay ; when, 
 with the restoration of order and tranquillity to this part of Turkey, trade 
 shall rovive, it may become once more an important thoroughfare, uniting 
 the northern and southern provinces of the empire. 
 
 We soon entered a rugged ravine worn by the mountain rills, collected 
 into a large stream. This was one of the many head waters of the Tigris. 
 It was flowing tumultuously to our own bourne, and, as we gazed upon the 
 troubled waters, they seemed to carry us nearer to our journey's end. The 
 ravine was at first wild and rocky ; cultivated spots next appeared, scat- 
 tered in the dry bed of the torrent ; then a few gigantic trees ; gardens and 
 orchards followed, and at length the narrow valley opened on the long 
 straggling town of Bitlis. 
 
 The governor had provided quarters for us in a large house belonging to 
 an Armenian, who had been tailor to Beder Khan Bey. From the terrace 
 before the gate we looked down upon the bazars built in the bottom of a 
 deep gulley in the centre of the town. On an isolated rock opposite to us 
 rose a frowning castle, and, on the top of a lofty barren hill, the fortified 
 dwelling of Sheriff Bey, the rebel chief, who had for years held Bitlis and 
 the surrounding country in subjection, defying the authority and the arms 
 of the Sultan. Here and there on the mountain sides were little sunny 
 landscapes, gardens, poplar trees, and low white houses surrounded by 
 trellised vines. 
 
 My party was now, for the first time during the journey, visited with 
 that curse of Eastern travel, fever and ague. The doctor was prostrate, 
 and having then no experience of the malady, at once had dreams of typhus 
 and malignant fever. A day's rest was necessary, and our jaded horses 
 needed it as well as we, for there were bad mountain roads and long 
 marches before us. I had a further object in remaining. Three near rela- 
 tions of Cawal Yusuf returning from their annual visitation to the Yezidi 
 tribes in Georgia and northern Armenia, had been murdered two years be- 
 fore, near Bitlis, at the instigation of the Kurdish Bey. The money col- 
 lected by the Cawals for the benefit of the sect and its priesthood, together 
 with their personal effects, had been taken by Sheriff Bey, and I was de- 
 sirous of aiding Cawal Yusuf in their recovery. Reshid Pasha had given 
 me an official order for their restoration out of the property of the late chief, 
 and it rested with me to see it enforced. I called early in the morning on 
 the mudir or governor, one of the household of old Essad Pasha, who was 
 at that time governor-general of Kurdistan, including Bitlis, Moush, and the 
 surrounding country, and resided at Diarbekir. He gave me the assistance 
 I required for the recovery of the property of the murdered Cawals, and 
 
30 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP II. 
 
 spoke in great contempt of the Kurds now that they had "been subdued, 
 treating like dogs those who stood humbly before him. The Turks, how 
 ever, had but recently dared to assume this haughty tone. Long after the 
 fall of Beder Khan Bey, the chiefs of Hakkiari, Wan, Moush, and Bitlis 
 had maintained their independence, and Sheriff Bey had only been sent 
 that spring to the capital to pass the rest of his days in exile with the au- 
 thor of the Nestorian massacre. 
 
 The governor ordered cawasses to accompany me through the town. I 
 had been told that ancient inscriptions existed in the castle, or on the rock, 
 but I searched in vain for them : those pointed out to me were early Mo- 
 hammedan. Bitlis contains many picturesque remains of mosques, baths, 
 and bridges, and was once a place of considerable size and importance. It 
 is built in the very bottom of a deep valley, and on the sides of ravines, 
 worn by small tributaries of the Tigris. The best houses stand high upon 
 the declivities, and are of stone, ornamented with large arched windows, 
 trellis work, and porticoes ; many of them being surrounded by groves of 
 trees. The bazars are in the lowest parts of the town, and low, ill-built, 
 and dirty. They are generally much crowded, as in them is carried on 
 the chief trade of this part of Kurdistan. The export trade is chiefly sup- 
 plied by the produce of the mountains ; galls, honey, wax, wool, and car- 
 pets and stuffs, woven and dyed in the tents. The dyes of Kurdistan, and 
 particularly those from the district around Bitlis, Sert, and Jezireh, are 
 celebrated for their brilliancy. They are made from herbs gathered in the 
 mountains, and from indigo, yellow berries, and other materials, imported 
 into the country. The colors usually worn by both men and women are a 
 deep dull red and a bright yellow, mingled with black, a marked taste for 
 these tints, to the exclusion of almost every other, being a peculiar charac- 
 teristic of the Kurdish race from Bayazid to Suleimaniyah. The carpets 
 are of a rich soft texture, the patterns displaying considerable elegance 
 and taste : they are much esteemed in Turkey. There was a fair show 
 of Manchester goods and coarse English cutlery in the shops. The sale of 
 arms, once extensively carried on, had been prohibited. The trade is chiefly 
 in the hands of merchants from Mosul and Erzeroom, who come to Bitlis 
 for galls, at present almost the only article of export from Kurdistan to the 
 European markets. This produce of the oak was formerly monopolised by 
 Beder Khan Bey, and other powerful Kurdish chiefs, but the inhabitants 
 are now permitted to gather them without restriction, each village having 
 its share in the woods. The wool of the mountains is coarse, and scarcely 
 fit for export to Europe ; and the " teftik," a fine underhair of the goat, 
 although useful and valuable, is not collected in sufficient quantity for 
 commerce. There is a race of sheep in Kurdistan producing a long silken 
 wool, like that of Angora, but it is not common, and the fleeces being 
 much prized as saddle and other ornaments by the natives, are expensive. 
 There are, no doubt, many productions of the mountains, besides valuable 
 minerals, which appear to abound, that would become lucrative objects of 
 
Chap. II.l town of bitlis 31 
 
 commerce were tranquillity fully restored, and trade encouraged. The 
 slaughter-houses, the resort of crowds of mangy dogs, are near the bazars, 
 on the banks of the stream, and the effluvia arising from them is most of- 
 fensive. 
 
 Having examined the town I visited the Armenian bishop, who dwells 
 in a large convent in one of the ravines branching off from the main valley. 
 Or my way I passed several hot springs, some gurgling up in the very bed 
 of the torrent. The bishop was maudlin, old, and decrepit ; he cried over 
 his own personal woes, and over those of his community, abused the Turks, 
 and the American missionaries, whispering confidentially in my ear as if 
 the Kurds were at his door. He insisted in the most endearing terms, and 
 occasionally throwing his arms round my neck, that I should drink a couple 
 of glasses of fiery raki, although it was still early morning, pledging me 
 himself in each glass. He showed me his church, an ancient building, 
 well hung with miserable daubs of saints and miracles. On the whole, 
 whatever may have been their condition under the Kurdish chiefs, the 
 Christians of Bitlis at the time of my visit had no very great grounds of 
 complaint. I found them well inclined and exceedingly courteous, those 
 who had shops in the bazar rising as I passed. The town contains about 
 seven hundred Armenian and forty Jacobite families (the former have four 
 churches), but no Nestorians, although formerly a part of the Christian 
 population was of that sect. 
 
 There are three roads from Bitlis to Jezireh ; two over the mountains 
 through Sert, generally frequented by caravans, but very difficult and 
 precipitous ; a third more circuitous, and winding through the valleys of 
 the eastern branch of the Tigris. I chose the last, as it enabled me to 
 visit the Yezidi villages of the district of Kherzan. We left Bitlis on the 
 20th. Soon issuing from the gardens of the town we found ourselves 
 amidst a forest of oaks of various descriptions.* It was one of those deep, 
 narrow, and rocky valleys abounding in Kurdistan ; the foaming torrent 
 dashing through it, to be crossed and re-crossed, to the great discomfort of 
 the laden mules, almost at every hundred yards, and from the want of 
 bridges generally impassable during the spring and after rains. In autumn 
 and winter the declivities are covered with the black tents of the Kochers, 
 or wandering Kurds, who move in summer to the higher pastures. The 
 tribes inhabiting the valley are the Selokeen, the Hamki, and the Babosi, 
 by whom the relatives of Cawal Yusuf were murdered. There are no 
 villages near the road-side. They stand in deep ravines branching out 
 from the main valley, either perched on precipitous and almost inaccessible 
 ledges of rock, or hid in the recesses of the forest. Several bridges and 
 spacious khans, whose ruins still attest the ancient commerce and inter- 
 course carried on through these mountains, are attributed, like all other 
 
 * In the appendix will be found a note, with which I have been kindly favored by 
 Dr. Lindsay, upon the new and remarkable oaks found in these mountains, and now 
 *br the first time grown in this country from acorns sent home by me 
 
32 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. II. 
 
 public works in the country, to Sultan Murad during his memorable expe- 
 dition against Baghdad (a. d. 1638). 
 
 About five miles from Bitlis the road is carried by a tunnel, about twenty 
 feet in length, through a mass of calcareous rock, projecting like a huge 
 rib from the mountain's side. The mineral stream, which in the lapse of 
 ages has formed this deposit, is still at work, projecting great stalactites 
 from its sides, and threatening to close ere long the tunnel itself. There 
 is no inscription to record by whom and at what period this passage was 
 cut. It is, of course, assigned to Sultan Murad, but is probably of a far 
 earlier period. There are many such in the mountains ;* and the re- 
 mains of a causeway, evidently of great antiquity, in many places cut out 
 of the solid rock, are traceable in the valley. We pitched our tents for 
 the night near a ruined and deserted khan. 
 
 We continued during the following day in the same ravine, crossing by 
 ancient bridges the stream which was gradually gathering strength as it 
 advanced towards the low country. About noon we passed a large Kurd- 
 ish village called Goeena, belonging to Sheikh Kassim, one of those relig- 
 ious fanatics who are the curse of Kurdistan. He was notorious for his 
 hatred of the Yezidis, on whose districts he had committed numerous depre- 
 dations, murdering those who came within his reach. His last expedition 
 had not proved successful ; he was repulsed with the loss of many of his 
 followers. We encamped in the afternoon on the bank of the torrent, near 
 a cluster of Kurdish tents, concealed from view by the brushwood and high 
 reeds. The owners were poor but hospitable, bringing us a lamb, yahgourt, 
 and milk. Late in the evening a party of horsemen rode to our encamp- 
 ment. They were a young Kurdish chief, with his retainers, carrying off 
 a girl with whom he had fallen in love, — not an uncommon occurrence in 
 Kurdistan. They dismounted, eat bread, and then hastened on their jour- 
 ney to escape pursuit. 
 
 Starting next morning soon after dawn we rode for two hours along the 
 banks of the stream, and then, turning from the valley, entered a country 
 of low undulating hills. Here we left the Bitlis stream, which is joined 
 about six hours beyond, near a village named Kitchki, by the river of 
 Sert, another great feeder of the Tigris. This district abounds in saline 
 springs and wells, whose waters, led into pans and allowed to evaporate., 
 deposit much salt, which is collected and forms a considerable article of 
 export even to the neighbourhood of Mosul. 
 
 We halted for a few minutes in the village of Omais-el-Koran, belong- 
 ing to one of the innumerable saints of the Kurdish mountains. The 
 Sheikh himself was on his terrace superintending the repair of his house, 
 gratuitously undertaken by the neighbouring villagers, who came eagerly 
 to engage in a good and pious work. Whilst the chief enjoys the full ad- 
 vantages of a holy character the place itself is a Ziorah, or place of pil- 
 
 * See Col. Shell's Memoir in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. 
 viii. p. 81. 
 
Chap. II.] a yezidi village - 33 
 
 o-rimao-e, and a visit to it is considered by the ignorant Kurds almost as 
 meritorious as a journey to Mecca ; such pilgrimages being usually ac- 
 companied by an offering in money, or in kind, are not discouraged by the 
 Sheikh. 
 
 Leaving a small plain, we ascended a low range of hills by a precipi- 
 tous pathway, and halted on the summit at a Kurdish village named Kho- 
 khi. It was filled with Bashi-Bozuks, or irregular troops, collecting the 
 revenue, and there was such a general confusion, quarrelling of men and 
 screaming of women, that we could scarcely get bread to eat. Yet the 
 officer assured me that the whole sum to be raised amounted to no more 
 than seventy piastres (about thirteen shillings). The poverty of the vil- 
 lage must indeed have been extreme, or the bad will of the inhabitants 
 outrageous. 
 
 It was evening before we descended into the plain country of the dis- 
 trict of Kherzan. The Yezidi village of Hamki had been visible for some 
 time from the heights, and we turned towards it. As the sun was fast 
 sinking, the peasants were leaving the threshing-floor, and gathering to- 
 gether their implements of husbandry. They saw the large company of 
 horsemen drawing nigh, and took us for irregular troops, — the terror of an 
 Eastern village. Cawal Yusuf, concealing all but his eyes with the Arab 
 kefieh, which he then wore, rode into the midst of them, and demanded 
 in a peremptory voice provisions and quarters for the night. The poor 
 creatures huddled together, unwilling to grant, yet fearing to refuse. The 
 Cawal having enjoyed their alarm for a moment, threw his kerchief from 
 his face, exclaiming, " evil ones ! will you refuse bread to your priest, 
 and turn him hungry from your door ?" There was surely then no unwil- 
 lingness to receive us. Casting aside their shovels and forks, the men 
 threw themselves upon the Cawal, each struggling to kiss his hand. A 
 boy ran to the village to spread the news, and from it soon issued women, 
 children, and old men, to welcome us. A few words sufficed to explain 
 from whence we came, and what we required. Every one was our serv- 
 ant. Horses were unloaded, tents pitched, lambs brought, before we had 
 time to look around. There was a general rejoicing, and the poor Yezi- 
 dis seemed scarcely able to satiate themselves with looking on their priest ; 
 for a report had gone abroad, and had been industriously encouraged by 
 the Mussulmans, who had heard of the departure of the deputation for 
 Constantinople, that Yusuf and his companions had been put to death by 
 the Sultan, and that not only the petition of the Yezidis had been rejected, 
 but that fresh torments were in store for them. For eight months they 
 had received no news of the Cawal, and this long silence had confirmed 
 their fears ; but " he was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is 
 found ;" and they made merry with all that the village could afford. 
 
 Yusuf was soon seated in the midst of a circle of the elders. He told 
 his whole history, with such details and illustrations as an Eastern alone 
 can introduce, to bring every fact vividly before his listeners. Nothing 
 
 C 
 
NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 was omitted : his arrival at Constantinople, his reception by me, his intro- 
 duction to the ambassador, his interview with the great ministers of state, 
 the firman of future protection for the Yezidis, prospects of peace and hap- 
 piness for the tribe, our departure from the capital, the nature of steam- 
 boats, the tossing of the waves, the pains of sea-sickness, and our journey 
 to Kherzan. Not the smallest particular was forgotten; every person and 
 event were described with equal minuteness ; almost the very number of 
 pipes he had smoked and coffees he had drunk was given. He was con- 
 tinually interrupted by exclamations of gratitude and wonder ; and, when 
 he had finished, it was my turn to be the object of unbounded welcomes 
 and salutations. 
 
 As the Cawal sat on the ground, with his noble features and flowing 
 robes, surrounded by the elders of the village, eager listeners to every word 
 which dropped from their priest, and looking towards him with looks of 
 profound veneration, the picture brought vividly to my mind many scenes 
 described in the sacred volumes. Let the painter who would throw off the 
 conventionalities of the age, who would feel as well as portray the inci- 
 dents of Holy Writ, wander in the East, and mix, not as the ordinary trav- 
 eller, but as a student of men and of nature, with its people. He will 
 daily meet with customs which he will otherwise be at a loss to under- 
 stand, and be brought face to face with those who have retained with lit- 
 tle change the manners, language, and dress of a patriarchal race. 
 
 Yezidi Women 
 
Kurdish Women at a Spring. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 RECEPTION BY THE YEZIDIS. VILLAGE OF GUZELDER. TRIUMPHAL MARCH TO REDWAX. 
 
 REDWAN. ARMENIAN CHURCH. MIRZA AGHA. THE MELEK TAOUS, OR BRAZEN BIRD. 
 
 TILLEH. VALLEY OF THE TIGRIS. BAS RELIEFS. JOURNEY TO DEREBOUN. TO SEMIL. 
 
 ABDE AGHA. JOURNEY TO MOSUL. THE YEZIDI CHIEFS. ARRIVAL AT MOSUL. XEN- 
 
 OPHON's MARCH FROM THE ZAB TO THE BLACK SEA. 
 
 I was awoke on the following morning by the tread of horses and the 
 noise of many voices. The good people of Hamki having sent messengers 
 in the night to the surrounding villages to spread the news of our arrival, a 
 large body of Yezidis on horse and on foot had already assembled, although 
 it was not yet dawn, to greet us and to escort us on our journey. They 
 were dressed in their gayest garments, and had adorned their turbans with 
 flowers and green leaves. Their chief was Akko, a warrior well known in 
 the Yezidi wars, still active and daring, although his beard had long turned 
 grey. The head of the village of Guzelder, with the principal inhabitants, 
 had come to invite me to eat bread in his house, and we followed him. 
 As we rode along we were joined by parties of horsemen and footmen, each 
 man kissing my hand as he arrived, the horsemen alighting for that pur- 
 pose. Before we reached Guzelder the procession had swollen to many 
 hundreds. The men had assembled at some distance from the village, the 
 women and children, dressed in their holiday attire, and carrying boughs 
 of trees, congregated on the housetops As I approached sheep were 
 
36 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. III. 
 
 brought into the road and slain before my horse's feet, and as we entered 
 the yard of Akko's house, the women and men joined in the loud and pierc- 
 ing "tahlel." The chief's family were assembled at his door, and his wife 
 and mother insisted upon helping me to dismount. We entered a spacious 
 room completely open to the air on one side, and distinguished by that ex- 
 treme neatness and cleanliness peculiar to the Yezidis. Many-colored car- 
 pets were spread over the floor, and the principal elders took their seats 
 with me. 
 
 Soon after our arrival several Fakirs,* in their dark coarse dresses and 
 red and black turbans, came to us from the neighbouring villages. One 
 of them wore round his neck a chain, as a sign that he had renounced the 
 vanities of the world, and had devoted himself to the service of God and 
 his fellow-creatures. Other chiefs and horsemen also flocked in, and were 
 invited to join in the feast, which was not, however, served up until Cawal 
 Yusuf had related his whole history once more, without omitting a single 
 detail. After we had eaten of stuffed lambs, pillaws, and savory dishes 
 and most luscious grapes, the produce of the district, our entertainer placed 
 a present of home-made carpets at my feet, and we rose to depart. The 
 horsemen, the Fakirs, and the principal inhabitants of Guzelder on foot 
 accompanied me. At a short distance from the village we were met by 
 another large body of Yezidis, and by many Jacobites, headed by one Namo ; 
 who, by the variety of his arms, the richness of his dress, a figured Indian 
 silk robe, with a cloak of precious fur, and his tastefully decorated Arab 
 mare, might rather have been taken for a Kurdish bey than the head of a 
 Christian village. A bishop and several priests were with him. Two 
 hours' ride, with this great company, the horsemen galloping to and fro, 
 the footmen discharging their firearms, brought us to the large village of 
 Koshana. The whole of the population, mostly dressed in pure white, and 
 wearing leaves and flowers in their turbans, had turned out to meet us ; 
 women stood on the road-side with jars of fresh water and bowls of sour 
 milk, whilst others with the children were assembled on the housetops 
 making the tahlel. Resisting an invitation to alight and eat bread, and 
 having merely stopped to exchange salutations with those assembled, I 
 continued on the road to Redwan, our party swollen by a fresh accession 
 of followers from the village. Ere long we were met by three Cawals on 
 their periodical visitation to the district. They Were nearly related to 
 Cawal Yusuf. and old friends of my own. With them, amongst others, 
 were several young Mussulmans, who appeared to be on the best terms with 
 their Yezidi friends, but had probably ridden out with them to show their 
 gay dresses and admirable horsemanship. As we passed through the de- 
 file leading into the plain of Red wan, we had the appearance of a triumph- 
 al procession, but as we approached the small town a still more enthusias- 
 tic reception awaited us. First came a large body of horsemen, collected 
 from the place itself, and the neighbouring villages. They were followed 
 * The lowest ordor of t\x2 Yezidi priesthood. 
 
Chap. III.] T0WN 0F Redwan. 37 
 
 by Yezedis on foot, carrying flowers and branches of trees, and preceded by 
 musicians playing on the tubbul and zernai.^ Next were the Armenian 
 community headed by their clergy, and then the Jacobite and other Chris- 
 tian sects, also with their respective priests ; the women and children lined 
 the entrance to the place and thronged the housetops. I alighted amidst 
 the din of music and the " tahlel" at the house of Nazi, the chief of the 
 whole Yezidi district, two sheep being slain before me as I took my feet 
 from the stirrups. 
 
 Nazi's house was soon filled with the chiefs, the principal visitors, and 
 the inhabitants of Redwan. Again had Cawal Yusuf to describe all that 
 had occurred at Constantinople, and to confirm the good tidings of an im- 
 perial firman giving the Yezidis equal rights with the Mussulmans, a com- 
 plete toleration of their religion, and relief from the much dreaded laws of 
 the conscription. At length breakfast was brought and devoured. It was 
 then agreed that Nazi's house was likely to be too crowded during the day 
 to permit me to enjoy comfort or quiet, and with a due regard to the du- 
 ties of hospitality, it was suggested that I should take up my quarters in 
 the Armenian church, dining in the evening with the chiefs to witness the 
 festivities. 
 
 The change was indeed grateful to me, and I found at length a little 
 repose and leisure to reflect upon the gratifying scene to which I had that 
 day been witness. I have, perhaps, been too minute in the account of my 
 reception at Redwan, but I record with pleasure this instance of a sincere 
 and spontaneous display of gratitude on the part of a much maligned and 
 oppressed race. To those, unfortunately too many, who believe that East- 
 erns can only be managed by violence and swayed by fear, let this record 
 be a proof that there are high and generous feelings which may not only 
 be relied and acted upon without interfering with their authority, or com- 
 promising their dignity, but with every hope of laying the foundation of 
 real attachment and mutual esteem. 
 
 The church stands on the slope of a mound, on the summit of which are 
 the ruins of a castle belonging to the former chiefs of Redwan. It was 
 built expressly for the Christians of the Armenian sect by Mirza Agha, the 
 last semi-independent Yezidi chief, a pleasing example of toleration and 
 liberality well worthy of imitation by more civilised men. The building 
 is peculiar and primitive in its construction ; one side of the courtyard is 
 occupied by stables for the cattle of the priests ; above them is a low room 
 with a dead wall on three sides and a row of arches on the fourth. On 
 the opposite side of the court is an iwan, or large vaulted chamber, com- 
 pletely open on one side to the air ; in its centre, supported on four columns, 
 is a gaudily painted box containing a picture of the Virgin ; a few miser- 
 able daubs of saints are pasted on the walls. This is the church, when 
 in summer the heat prevents the use of a closed room. It can only be di- 
 vided from the yard by a curtain of figured cotton print, drawn across when 
 * A large drum beaten at both ends, and a kind of oboe or pipe. 
 
38 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. III. 
 
 unbelievers enter the building ; a low doorway to the left leads into a dark 
 inner church, in which pictures of the Virgin and saints can faintly be dis- 
 tinguished by the light of a few propitiatory lamps struggling with the 
 gloom. Service was performed in the open iwan during the afternoon, 
 the congregation kneeling uncovered in the yard. 
 
 The priests of the different communities called upon me as soon as I 
 was ready to receive their visits. The most intelligent amongst them was 
 a Roman Catholic Chaldsean, a good-humoured, tolerant fellow, who with 
 a very small congregation of his own did not bear any ill will to his neigh- ^ 
 bours. With the principal Yezedi chiefs, too, I had a long and interesting 
 conversation on the state of their people and on their prospects. Nazi is 
 descended from the ancient hereditary lords of Redwan. The last of them 
 was Mirza Agha, his uncle, whose history and end were those of many of 
 the former independent chieftains of Turkey. When the celebrated Reshid 
 Pasha had subdued northern Kurdistan and was marching to the south, 
 Mirza Agha, dreading the approach of the army, submitted to the Sultan, 
 and agreed to receive a Turkish governor in his castle. The officer chosen 
 for the post was one Emin Agha. He had not been long in Redwan be- 
 fore he carried away by force the beautiful wife of the Yezidi chief. Mirza 
 Agha, instead of appealing to arms, went to Reshid Pasha, and feigning 
 that the woman was a slave and not his wife, protested that Emin Agha 
 might come back without fear to his government. The Turk did return, 
 but he and his followers were no sooner in the power of the chief than they 
 fell victims to his revenge. Reshid Pasha then marched against Redwan, 
 but being called away against the rebel Bey of Rahwanduz, was unable 
 to subdue the district. After the successful termination of the expedition 
 against the Kurdish bey, Mirza Agha again made an unqualified submission, 
 was received into favour, and appointed governor over his own people. On 
 the death of Reshid Pasha he was invited to the quarters of the new Turk- 
 ish commander, and treacherously murdered during his visit. His former 
 wife, who, according to the laws of the sect, could not be received again 
 into the community, had been placed in the harem of the murderer ; she 
 died on hearing the fate of her Yezidi husband. The body of Mirza Agha 
 was brought by some faithful attendants to his native place, and lies under 
 a neat turbeh on the banks of the stream to the west of the town. Nazi, 
 his nephew, was his successor, but long oppression has reduced him to 
 poverty ; the old castle has been deserted, and is fast falling to ruin, whilst 
 its owner occupies a mud hovel like the meanest of his followers. 
 
 Redwan is called a town, becauseit has a bazar, and is the chief place 
 of a considerable district. It may contain about eight hundred rudely-built 
 huts, and stands on a large stream, which joins the Diarbekir branch of 
 the Tigris, about five or six miles below. The inhabitants are Yezedis, 
 with the exception of about one hundred Armenian, and forty or fifty Jac- 
 obite and Chaldaean families. A Turkish Mudir, or petty governor, gen- 
 erally resides in the place, but was absent at the time of my visit. 
 
Chap. Ill] MELEK TA0US - 39 
 
 The sounds of rejoicing had been heard during the whole afternoon ; 
 raki had circulated freely, and there were few houses which had not slain 
 a lamb to celebrate the day. After we had dined, the dances commenced 
 in the courtyard of Nazi's house, and were kept up during the greater part 
 of the night, the moon shedding its pale light on the white robes of the 
 Yezidi dancers. But as the sun was setting we were visited by one of 
 those sudden storms or whirlwinds which frequently riot over the plains 
 of Mesopotamia and through the valleys of Assyria. Although it lasted 
 scarcely more than half an hour, it tore down in its fury tents and more 
 solid dwellings, and swept from the housetops the beds and carpets already 
 spread for the night's repose. After its passage, the air seemed even more 
 calm than it had been before, and those who had been driven to take 
 shelter from its violence within the walls resumed their occupations and 
 their dances. 
 
 We slept in the long room opening on the courtyard, and were awoke 
 long before daybreak by the jingling of small bells and the mumbling of 
 priests. It was Sunday, and the Armenians commence their church services 
 betimes. I gazed half dozing, and without rising from my bed, upon the 
 ceremonies, the bowing, raising of crosses, and shaking of bells, which con- 
 tinued for above three hours, until priests and congregation must have been 
 well nigh exhausted. The people, as during the previous afternoon's serv- 
 ice, stood and knelt uncovered in the courtyard. 
 
 The Cawals, who are sent yearly by Hussein Bey and Sheikh Nasr to 
 instruct the Yezidis in their faith, and to collect the contributions forming 
 the revenues of the great chief, and of the tomb of Sheikh Adi, were now 
 in Red wan. The same Cawals do not take the same rounds every year. 
 The Yezidis are parcelled out into four divisions for the purpose of these 
 annual visitations, those of the Sinjar, of Kherzan, of the pashalic of Aleppo, 
 and of the villages in northern Armenia, and within the Russian frontiers. 
 The Yezidis of the Mosul districts have the Cawals always amongst them. 
 I was aware that on the occasion of these journeys the priests carry with 
 them the celebrated Melek Taous, or brazen peacock, as a warrant for their 
 mission. A favourable opportunity now offered itself to see this mysterious 
 figure, and I asked Cawal Yusuf to gratify my curiosity. He at once ac- 
 ceded to my request, and the Cawals and elders offering no objection, I 
 was conducted early in the morning into a dark inner room in Nazi's 
 house. It was some time before my eyes had become sufficiently accus- 
 tomed to the dim light to distinguish an object, from which a large red 
 coverlet had been raised on my entry. The Cawals drew near with every 
 sign of respect, bowing and kissing the corner of the cloth on which it was 
 placed. A stand of bright copper or brass, in shape like the candlesticks 
 generally used in Mosul and Baghdad, was surmounted by the rude image 
 of a bird in the same metal, and more like an Indian or Mexican idol than 
 a cock or peacock. Its peculiar workmanship indicated some antiquity, 
 but I could see no traces of inscription upon it. Before it stood a copper 
 
40 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 The Melek Taous, or 
 Bird of the Yezidis. 
 
 bowl to receive contributions, and a bag to contain the bird and stand, 
 which takes to pieces when carried from place to 
 place. There are four such images, one for each dis- 
 trict visited by the Cawals. The Yezidis declare 
 that, notwithstanding the frequent wars and massa- 
 cres to which the sect has been exposed, and the plun- 
 der and murder of the priests during their journeys, 
 no Melek Taous has ever fallen into the hands of 
 the Mussulmans. Cawal Yusuf, once crossing the 
 desert on a mission to the Sinjar, and seeing a body 
 of Bedouin horsemen in the distance, buried the Me- 
 lek Taous. Having been robbed and then left by 
 the Arabs, he dug it up and carried it in safety to its 
 destination. Mr. Hormuzd Rassam was alone per- 
 mitted to visit the image with me. As I have else- 
 where observed,* it is not looked upon as an idol, 
 but as a symbol or banner, as Sheikh Nasr termed 
 it, of the house of Hussein Bey. 
 
 Having breakfasted at Nazi's house we left Red- 
 2 J^per wan, followed by a large company of Yezidis, whom 
 I had great difficulty in persuading to turn back 
 about three or four miles from the town. My party was increased by a 
 very handsome black and tan grey-hound with long silky hair, a present 
 from old Akko, the Yezidi chief, who declared that he loved him as his 
 child. The affection was amply returned. No delicacies or caresses 
 would induce Touar, for such was the dog's name, to leave his master. 
 He laid himself down and allowed one of the servants to drag him by a rope 
 over the rough ground, philosophically giving tongue to his complaints in a 
 low howl. This greyhound, a fine specimen of a noble breed, much prized 
 by the Kurds and Persians, became, from his highly original character and 
 complete independence, a great favourite with us. He soon forgot his old 
 masters, and formed an equal attachment for his new. Another dog, a 
 shepherd cur, had accompanied our caravan the whole way from Trebizond. 
 He joined us without invitation, and probably finding the living to his taste, 
 and the exercise conducive to health, remained with us, acknowledging 
 the hospitality shown him by keeping watch over the horses by night. 
 
 Cawal Yusuf, and the Yezidi chiefs, had sent messengers even to Hus- 
 sein Bey to apprise him of our coming. As they travelled along they scat- 
 tered the news through the country, and I was received outside every vil- 
 lage by its inhabitants. At Kunduk, two hours from Redwan, we found a 
 second breakfast prepared for us, and were obliged to alight. Below this 
 place the Redwan stream joins the Diarbekir branch of the Tigris, the two 
 forming a broad river. Near are the remains of Husn Kaifa, and of other 
 ancient cities, which I was unable to visit. 
 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 298. 
 
Chap III 1 xenophon's retreat. 4j 
 
 We had scarcely left Kunduk when we were met by a party of Chris- 
 tians, with the Kiayah of the village of Aoudi at their head. I was again 
 obliged to stop, eat bread, and receive an offering of home-made carpets, 
 of which we had now well nigh received a mule-load as presents. The 
 inhabitants of the district were suffering much from oppression and illegal 
 taxation. 
 
 The Kiayah, with some horsemen, accompanied us to Tilleh, where the 
 united waters of Bitlis, Sert, and the upper districts of Bohtan, join the 
 western branch of the Tigris. The two streams are about equal in size, 
 and at this time of the year both fordable in certain places. We crossed 
 the lower, or eastern, which we found wide and exceedingly rapid, the 
 water, however, not reaching above the saddle-girths. The villagers rais- 
 ed the luggage, and supported the horses against the current, which rush- 
 ing over loose and slippery stones, affording an uncertain footing, threat- 
 ened to sweep the animals down the stream. Our travelling companion, 
 the dog from Trebizond, having made several vain attempts to brave the 
 rapids, quietly retired, thinking our company not worth any further risk. 
 Touar, more fortunate, was carried over in the arms of a servant. 
 
 The spot at which we crossed was one of peculiar interest. It was here 
 that the Ten Thousand in their memorable retreat forded this river, called, 
 by Xenophon, the Centritis. The Greeks having fought their way over 
 the lofty mountains of the Carduchians, found their further progress toward 
 Armenia arrested by a rapid stream. The ford was deep, and its passage 
 disputed by a formidable force of Armenians, Mygdonians, and Chaldseans, 
 drawn up on an eminence 300 or 400 feet from the river. In this strait 
 Xenophon dreamt that he was in chains, and that suddenly his fetters 
 burst asunder of their own accord. His dream was fulfilled when two 
 youths casually found a more practicable ford, by which the army, after a 
 skilful stratagem on the part of their commander, safely reached the oppo- 
 site bank.^ 
 
 The village of Tilleh belongs to Hassan Agha, a Kurdish chief, who 
 lives in a small mud fort. He maintained, during the time of Beder Khan 
 Bey, a sort of independence, sorely oppressing Christians and Yezidis. Un- 
 fortunately the Turks, with their usual want of foresight and justice, had 
 enabled him to continue in his evil ways by selling him the revenues and 
 tithes of the district, and naming him its governor. He came out and in- 
 vited me into his castle, pressing me to pass the night with him, and re- 
 galing us with pipes and coffee. It was near Tilleh that the Sultan's 
 troops, assisted by the Yezidis, completely defeated Khan Malmoud, who 
 was marching with the tribes of Wan and Hakkiari to the help of Beder 
 Khan Bey. 
 
 The sun had set before our baggage had been crossed, and we sought, 
 by the light of the moon, the difficult track along the Tigris, where the 
 river forces its way to the low country of Assyria, through a long, narrow, 
 
 * Anab. book iv. c. 3. 
 
42 NINEVEH ANT) BABYLON. [CHAP. Ill 
 
 and deep gorge. Huge rocks rose perpendicularly on either side, broken 
 into many fantastic shapes, and throwing their dark shadows over the wa- 
 ter. In some places they scarcely left room for the river to pursue its 
 course ; and then a footpath, hardly wide enough to admit the loaded 
 mules, was carried along a mere ledge overhanging the gurgling stream. 
 The gradual deepening of this outlet during countless centuries is strikingly 
 shown by the ledges which jutt out like a succession of cornices from the 
 sides of the cliffs. The last ledge left by the retiring waters formed our 
 pathway. The geological history of the Tigris, and, consequently, of the 
 low country, at its entry into the plain, is strikingly illustrated by this 
 rocky ravine. In winter this drainer of the springs and snows of the high- 
 lands of Armenia and Kurdistan is swollen into a most impetuous torrent, 
 whose level is often full thirty feet above the summer average of the river. 
 
 We found no village until we reached Chellek. The place had been 
 deserted by its inhabitants for the Yilaks, or mountain pastures. On the 
 opposite side of the river (in the district of Asheeti) danced the lights of a 
 second village, also called Chellek, but distinguished from the one on the 
 eastern bank by the addition of " Ali Rummo," the name of a petty Kurd- 
 ish chief, who owns a mud fort there. 
 
 After some search we found a solitary Kurd, who had been left to watch 
 the small patches of cultivation belonging to the villagers. Taking us for 
 Turkish soldiers, he had hidden himself on our arrival. He offered to walk 
 to the tents, and returned after midnight with provisions for ourselves and 
 barley for our horses. 
 
 For three hours during the following morning we followed the bold and 
 majestic ravine of the Tigris, scenes rivalling each other in grandeur and 
 beauty opening at every turn. Leaving the river, where it makes a sudden 
 bend to the northward, we commenced a steep ascent, and in an hour and 
 a half reached the Christian village of Khouara. We rested during the 
 heat of the day under the grateful shade of a grove of trees, and in the 
 afternoon continued our journey, ascending again as soon as we had left the 
 village, towards the crest of a mountain, from whence, according to Cawal 
 Yusuf, we were to behold all the world ; and certainly, when we reached 
 the summit, there was as much of the world before us as could well be 
 taken in at one ken. We stood on the brink of the great platform of Cen- 
 tral Asia. Beneath us were the vast plains of Mesopotamia, lost in the 
 hazy distance, the undulating land between them and the Taurus confound- 
 ed, from so great a height, with the plains themselves ; the hills of the Sin- 
 jar and of Zakko, like ridges on an embossed map ; the Tigris and the 
 Khabour, winding through the low country to their place of junction at 
 Dereboun ; to the right, facing the setting sun, and catching its last rays, 
 the high cone of Mardin ; behind, a confused mass of peaks, some snow- 
 capped, all rugged and broken, of the lofty mountains of Bohtan and Mal- 
 ataiyah ; between them and the northern range of Taurus, the deep ravine 
 of the river and the valley of Redwan. I watched the shawdows as they 
 
Chap III 1 kurdish hospitality 43 
 
 lengthened over the plain, melting one by one into the general gloom, and 
 then descended to the large Kurdish village of Funduk, whose inhabitants, 
 during the rule of Beder Khan Bey, were notorious amongst even the savage 
 tribes of Bohtan for their hatred and insolence to Christians. 
 
 Although we had now nothing to fear, I preferred seeking another spot 
 for our night's halt, and we passed through the narrow streets as the fam- 
 ilies were settling themselves on the housetops for their night's rest. We 
 had ridden about half a mile when we heard a confused murmur in the 
 village, and saw several Kurds running towards us at the top of their speed. 
 Mr. C, had been fairly frightened into a state of despair by the youngest 
 of our party, who entered with mischievous minuteness into the details of 
 the innumerable robberies and murders, authentic and otherwise, commit- 
 ted by the people of Funduk. He now made up his mind that his last hour 
 was come, but gallantly prepared his double-barrelled pistols. Neither 
 Cawal Yusuf nor myself could exactly make out what was in store for us, 
 until the foremost of the runners, seizing my bridle, declared that the 
 Kiayah, or chief, would not allow me to proceed without partaking of his 
 hospitality ; that it was worse than an insult to pass his house without eat- 
 ing bread and sleeping under his roof. Other Kurds soon came up with us, 
 using friendly violence to turn my horse, and swearing that the chief, al- 
 though suffering from severe illness, would come out himself unless I con- 
 sented to retrace my steps. It was useless to persist in a refusal after such 
 a display of hospitality, and notwithstanding the protests of my companion, 
 who believed that we were rushing into the jaws of destruction, I rode back 
 to the village. 
 
 Resoul Kiayah, although laboring under a fit of ague, was standing at 
 his door to receive me, surrounded by as ferocious a set of friends as one 
 could well desire to be in company with. " He had entertained," he ex- 
 claimed, as he saluted me, "Osman Pasha and Ali Pasha, and it would be 
 a disgrace upon his house if the Bey passed without eating bread in it." 
 In the meanwhile a sheep had been slain, and comfortable carpets and 
 cushions spread on the housetop. His greeting of Yusuf, although he knew 
 him to be a Yezidi, was so warm and evidently sincere, that I was at a 
 loss to account for it, until the Cawal explained to me that when Khan 
 Mahmoud and Beder Khan Bey's troops were defeated near Tilleh, the 
 Kiayah of Funduk fell into the hands of the men of Redwan, who were 
 about to inflict summary justice upon him by pitching him into the river. 
 He was rescued by our friend Akko, who concealed him in his house until 
 he could return to Kurdistan in safety. To show his gratitude he has 
 since condescended to bestow on the Yezidi chief the title of father, and to 
 receive with a hearty welcome such travellers of the sect as may pass 
 through his village. The Kurds of Funduk wear the Bohtan dress in its 
 full perfection, a turban nearly three feet in diameter, shalwars or trowsers 
 of enormous width, loose embroidered jackets, and shirt sleeves sweeping 
 the ground ; all being striped deep dull red and black, except the under- 
 
44 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. Ill 
 
 linen and one kerchief tied diagonally across the turban, which is generally 
 of bright yellow. They are armed, too, to the teeth, and as they crouched 
 round the fires on the housetops, their savage countenances peering through 
 the gloom, my London companion, unused to such scenes, might well have 
 fancied himself in a den of thieves. The Kiayah, notwithstanding his bad 
 reputation, was exact in all the duties of hospitality ; the supper was abund- 
 ant, the coffee flowed perpetually, and he satisfied my curiosity upon many 
 points of revenue, internal administration, tribe-history, and local curiosi- 
 ties. 
 
 We passed the night on the roof without any adventure, and resumed 
 our journey before dawn on the following morning, to the great relief of 
 Mr. C, who rejoiced to feel himself well out of the hands of such danger- 
 ous hosts. Crossing a mountain wooded with dwarf oaks, by a very diffi- 
 cult pathway, carried along and over rocks containing many excavated 
 tombs, we descended to Fynyk, a village on the Tigris supposed to occupy 
 the site of an ancient town (Phcenica).* We rested during the heat of the 
 day in one of the pleasant gardens with which the village is surrounded. 
 At its entrance was a group of girls and an old Kurd baking bread in a hole 
 in the ground, plastered with clay. "Have you any bread?" we asked. 
 
 "No, by the Prophet!" "Any buttermilk?" — "No, by my faith!" 
 
 " Any fruit ?" — " No, by Allah !" — the trees were groaning under the weight 
 of figs, pomegranates, pears, and grapes. He then asked a string of ques- 
 tions in his turn: "Whence do you come?" — "From afar!" "What is 
 your business?" — "What God commands !" "Whither are you going?" 
 
 "As God wills !" The old gentleman, having thus satisfied himself as 
 
 to our character and intentions, although our answers were undoubtedly 
 vague enough, and might have been elsewhere considered evasive, left us 
 without saying a word more, but soon after came back bearing a large bowl 
 of curds, and a basket filled with the finest fruit. Placing these dainties 
 before me, he ordered the girls to bake bread, which they speedily did, 
 bringing us the hot cakes as they drew them from their primitive oven. 
 
 After we had breakfasted, some Kurds who had gathered round us, of- 
 fered to take me to a rock, sculptured, they said, with unknown Frank fig- 
 ures. We rode up a narrow and shady ravine, through which leapt a 
 brawling torrent, watering fruit trees and melon beds. The rocks on both 
 sides were honeycombed with tombs. The bas-relief is somewhat above the 
 line of cultivation, and is surrounded by excavated chambers. It consists 
 
 * It was at the foot of this steep descent that Xenophon was compelled to turn off. 
 as caravans still are, from the river, and to brave the difficulties of a mountain pass, 
 defended by the warlike Carduchi or Kurds. The Rhodian, who offered to construct 
 a bridge with the inflated skins of sheep, goats, oxen, and asses, anchoring them with 
 stones, and covering them with fascines and earth, had perhaps taken his idea from 
 the rafts which were then used for the navigation of the Tigris, as they are to this 
 day. As there was a large body of the enemy on the opposite side, ready to dispute 
 the passage, the Greeks were unable to avail themselves of his ingenious suggestion. 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 ROCK SCULPTURES. 
 
 45 
 
 s 
 
 Ilia 
 
 Sculptured Tablet at Fynyk. 
 
 of two figures, dressed in loose vests and 
 trowsers, one apparently resting his hand 
 , on the shoulder of the other. There 
 1 are the remains of an inscription, but too 
 much weather-worn to be copied with 
 any accuracy. The costume of the fig- 
 ures, and the forms of the characters, as 
 far as they can be distinguished, prove 
 that the tablet belongs to the Parthian 
 period. It closely resembles monuments 
 of the same epoch existing in the mount- 
 ains of Persia.^ Most of the surround- 
 ing tombs, like those of Akhlat, contain 
 three troughs or niches for the dead, one 
 on each side, and a third facing the en- 
 trance. 
 
 We quitted Fynyk in the afternoon. 
 Accompanied by Cawal Yusuf and Mr. 
 C, I left the caravan to examine some 
 rock-sculptures, in a valley leading from 
 
 
 Rock Sculpture near Jezireh. 
 
 Rock Sculpture near Jezireh. 
 
 * Particularly those which I discovered near Shimbor, in the mountains of Susiana. 
 (Journal of Geog. Soc. vol, xvi. p. 84.) 
 
46 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Jezireh to Derghileh, the former stronghold of Beder Khan Bey. The 
 sculptures are about two miles from the high road, near a small fort built 
 by Mir Saif-ed-din,^ and now occupied by a garrison of Arnaouts. There 
 are two tablets, one above the other ; the upper contains a warrior on 
 horseback, the lower a single figure. Although no traces of inscription 
 remain, the bas-reliefs may confidently be assigned to the same period as 
 that at Fynyk. Beneath them is a long cutting, and tunnel in the rock, 
 probably an ancient watercourse for irrigation, to record the construction 
 of which the tablets may have been sculptured. On our return we passed 
 a solitary Turkish officer, followed by his servant, winding up the gorge on 
 his way to Derghileh, where one Ali Pasha was stationed with a detach- 
 ment of troops ; a proof of the change which had taken place in the coun- 
 try since my last visit, when Beder Khan Bey was still powerful, and no 
 Turk would have ventured into that wild valley. 
 
 We found the caravan at Mansouriyah, where they had established 
 themselves for the night. This is one of the very few Nestorian Chaldsean 
 villages of the plains which has not gone over to the Roman Catholic faith. 
 It contains a church, and supports a priest. The inhabitants complained 
 much of oppression, and, unfortunately, chiefly from brother Christians for- 
 merly of their own creed. I was much struck with the intelligence and 
 beauty of the children ; one boy, scarcely twelve years of age, was already 
 a shamasha or deacon, and could read with ease the Scriptures and the 
 commentaries. 
 
 We left Mansouriyah at four in the morning, passing Jezireh about dawn, 
 its towers and walls just visible through the haze on the opposite bank of 
 the Tigris. Shortly after we were unexpectedly met by a number of Yez- 
 idi horsemen, who, having heard of our approach from the messengers sent 
 to Hussein Bey, had ridden through the night from Dereboun to escort 
 us. They were mounted on strong, well-bred Arab mares, and armed 
 with long lances tipped with ostrich-feathers. We learnt from them that 
 the country was in a very disturbed state, on account of the incursions of the 
 Desert Arabs ; but as a strong party was waiting to accompany us to Se- 
 mil, I determined upon taking the shorter, though more dangerous and less 
 frequented, road by Dereboun. This road, impracticable to caravans ex- 
 cept when the river Khabour is fordable, winds round the spur of the Zak- 
 ko hills, and thus avoids a difficult and precipitous pass. We stopped to 
 breakfast at the large Catholic Chaldaean village of Tiekhtan, one of the 
 many settlements of the same sect scattered over the singularly fertile plain 
 of Zakko. The Yezidi Kochers, or Nomades, had begun to descend from 
 
 * Mir Saif-ed-din was the hereditary chief of Bohtan, in whose name Beder Khan 
 Bey exercised his authority. His son, Asdenshir (a corruption of Ardeshir) Bey, is 
 now under surveillance amongst the Turks. So well aware was Beder Khan Bey of 
 the necessity of keeping up the idea amongst the Kurds, that his power was delega- 
 ted to him by the Mir, that he signed most of his public documents with that chief's 
 seal, although he confined him a close prisoner until his death. 
 
Chap. III.l village of semil. 47 
 
 the mountain pastures, and their black tents and huts of boughs and dried 
 grass were scattered amongst the villages. We forded the Khabour, where 
 it is divided into several branches, and not far from its junction with the 
 Tigris. The water in no part reached much above the horses' bellies, and 
 the stream was far less rapid than that of the eastern Tigris, at Tilleh. 
 Dereboun is a large Yezidi village standing on the western spur of the Zak- 
 ko range. Numerous springs burst from the surrounding rocks, and irrigate 
 extensive rice-grounds. Below is the large Christian village of Feshapoor, 
 where there is a ferry across the Tigris. We were most hospitably entertain- 
 ed by the Yezidi chief, one of the horsemen who had met us near Jezireh. 
 We mounted our horses as the moon rose, and resumed our journey, ac- 
 companied by a strong escort, which left us when we were within five or 
 six miles of Semil. It was late in the forenoon before we reached our 
 halting-place, after a dreary and fatiguing ride. We were now fairly in 
 the Assyrian plains ; the heat was intense — that heavy heat, which seems 
 to paralyse all nature, causing the very air itself to vibrate. The high 
 artificial mound of the Yezidi village, crowned by a modern mud-built cas- 
 tle, had been visible in the distance long before we reached it, miraged 
 into double its real size, and into an imposing group of towers and fortifica- 
 tions. Almost overcome with weariness, we toiled up to it, and found its 
 owner, Abde Agha, the Yezidi chieftain, seated in the gate, a vaulted en- 
 trance with deep recesses on both sides, used as places of assembly for busi- 
 ness during the day,* and as places of rest for guests during the night. 
 He was of a tall, commanding figure, with the deepest and most powerful 
 voice I ever heard. We arrived earlier than he had expected, our forced 
 march from Dereboun having saved us some hours, and he apologised for 
 not having ridden out to meet us. His reception was most hospitable ; 
 the lamb was slain and the feast prepared. But, in the midst of our greet- 
 ings, a man appeared breathless before him. The Bedouins had attacked 
 the neighbouring district and the village of Pashai, belonging to Abde 
 Agha's tribe. No time was lost in idle preparations. The messenger had 
 scarcely delivered his message, and answered a few necessary inquiries, be- 
 fore the high bred mare was led out ready saddled from the harem ; her 
 owner leapt on her back, and followed by a small body of horsemen, his 
 immediate dependants, galloped off in the direction of the Tigris. Wea- 
 ried by my long night's march I retreated to a cool dark chamber in the cas- 
 tle, unmindful of the bloody business on which its owner had sallied forth. 
 Abde Agha did not return that day, but his wife well performed all the 
 * The custom of assembling and transacting business in the gate is continually 
 referred to in the Bible. See 2 Sam. xix. 8., where king David is represented as 
 sitting in the gate; comp. 2 Chron. xviii. 9., and Dan. ii. 49. The gates of Jewish 
 houses were probably similar to that described in the text. Such entrances are also 
 found in Persia. Frequently in the gates of cities, as at Mosul, these recesses are 
 used as shops for the sale of wheat and barley, bread and grocery. Elisha prophe- 
 sies that a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two measures of bar 
 ley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2 Kings, vii. 1. and 18. 
 
48 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. III. 
 
 duties of hospitality in his stead. Messengers occasionally came running 
 from the scene of the fight with the latest news, mostly, as in such cases, 
 greatly exaggerated, to the alarm of those who remained in the castle. 
 But the chief himself did not appear until near dawn the following morn- 
 ing, as we were preparing to renew our journey. He had not been idle 
 during his absence, and his adherents concurred in stating that he had 
 killed five Arabs with his own hand. His brother, however, had received 
 a dangerous wound, and one of his relations had been slain. He advised 
 us to make the best of our way to Tel EskofT, before the Arabs were either 
 repulsed, or had succeeded in taking Pashai. He could not furnish us with 
 an escort, as every man capable of bearing arms was wanted to defend 
 the district against the Bedouins, who were now swarming over the river 
 to support their companions. Taking a hasty leave of us, and changing 
 his tired mare, he rushed again to the fight. We rode off in the direction 
 of the hills, taking an upper road, less likely to be occupied by the Arabs. 
 
 About three miles from Semil we saw a horseman closely pursued by a 
 Bedouin, who was fast coming up with him, but on observing us turned 
 back, and soon disappeared in the distance. The fugitive was a Mosuleean 
 Spahi, with broken spear, and speechless with terror. When he had suffi- 
 ciently recovered himself to speak, he declared that the Bedouins had de- 
 feated the Yezidis, and were spreading over the country. Although not 
 putting much faith in the information, I urged on the caravan, and took 
 such precautions as were necessary. Suddenly a large body of horsemen 
 appeared on a rising ground to the east of us. We could scarcely expect 
 Arabs from that quarter; however, all our party made ready for an attack. 
 Cawal Yusuf and myself, being the best mounted, rode towards them to re- 
 connoitre. Then one or two horsemen advanced warily from the opposite 
 party. We neared each ether. Yusuf spied the well-known black turban, 
 dashed forward with a shout of joy, and in a moment we were surrounded, 
 and in the embrace of friends. Hussein Bey and Sheikh Nasr, with the 
 Cawals and Yezidi elders, had ridden nearly forty miles through the night 
 to meet and escort me, if needful, to Mosul ! Their delight at seeing us 
 knew no bounds ; nor was I less touched by a display of gratitude and good 
 feeling, equally unexpected and sincere. 
 
 They rode with us as far as Tel Eskoff, where the danger from the 
 Arabs ceased, and then turned their hardy mares, still fresh after their long 
 journey, towards Sheikhan. I was now once more with old friends. We 
 had spent the first day of our journey, on leaving Mosul two years ago. in 
 the house of Toma, the Christian Kiayah of Tel Eskoff; we now eat bread 
 with him the last on our return. In the afternoon, as we rode towards 
 Tel Kef, I left the high road with Hormuzd to drink water at some Arab 
 tents. As we approached we were greeted with exclamations of joy, and 
 were soon in the midst of a crowd of men and women, kissing our knees, 
 and exhibiting other tokens of welcome. They were Jebours, who had 
 been employed in the excavations. Hearing that we were again going to 
 
Chap. III. J A HAPPY MEETING - 49 
 
 dig after old stones, they at once set about striking their tents to join us at 
 Mosul or Nimroud. 
 
 As we neared Tel Kef we found groups of my old superintendents and 
 workmen by the road side. There were fat Toma, Mansour, Behnan, and 
 Hannah, joyful at meeting me once more, and at the prospect of fresh serv- 
 ice. In the village we found Mr. Rassam (the vice-consul) and Khodja 
 Toma, his dragoman, who had made ready the feast for us at the house 
 of the Chaldaean bishop. Next morning, as we rode the three last hours 
 of our journey, we met fresh groups of familiar faces : — Merjan, with my 
 old groom holding the stirrup ready for me to mount, the noble animal look- 
 ing as beautiful, as fresh, and as sleek as when I last saw him, although 
 two long years had passed ; former servants, Awad and the Sheikhs of the 
 Jebours, even the very greyhounds who had been brought up under my 
 roof. Then as we ascend an eminence midway, walls, towers, minarets, 
 and domes rise boldly from the margin of the broad river, cheating us into 
 the belief, too soon to be dispelled, that Mosul is still a not unworthy rep- 
 resentative of the great Nineveh. As we draw near, the long line of 
 lofty mounds, the only remains of mighty bulwarks and spacious gates, de- 
 tach themselves from the low undulating hills : now the vast mound of 
 Kouyunjik overtops the surrounding heaps ; then above it peers the white 
 cone of the tomb of the prophet Jonah; many other well-remembered spots 
 follow in rapid succession ; but we cannot linger. Hastening over the 
 creaking bridge of boats, we force our way through the crowded bazars, 
 and alight at the house I had left two years ago. Old servants take their 
 places as a matter of course, and, uninvited, pursue their regular occupa- 
 tions as if they had never been interrupted. Indeed it seemed as if we 
 had but returned from a summer's ride ; two years had passed away like a 
 dream. 
 
 I may in this place add a few words on part of the route pursued by 
 Xenophon and the Ten Thousand during their memorable retreat, the iden- 
 tification of which had been one of my principal objects during our journey. 
 I have, in the course of my narrative, already pointed out one or two spots 
 signalled by remarkable events on their march. 
 
 I must first state my conviction that the parasang, like its representa- 
 tive the modern farsang or farsakh of Persia, was not a measure of distance 
 very accurately determined, but rather indicated a certain amount of time 
 employed in traversing a given space. Travellers are well aware that the 
 Persian farsakh varies considerably according to the nature of the country, 
 and the usual modes of conveyance adopted by its inhabitants. In the 
 plains of Khorassan and central Persia, where mules and horses are chiefly 
 used by caravans, it is equal to about four miles, whilst in the mountainous 
 regions of Western Persia, where the roads are difficult and precipitous, 
 and in Mesopotamia and Arabia, where camels are the common beasts of 
 burden, it scarcely amounts to three. The farsakh and the hour are al- 
 most invariably used as expressing the same distance. That Xenophon 
 
 D 
 
50 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. III. 
 
 reckoned by the common mode of computation of the country is evident 
 by his employing, almost always, the Persian " parasang" instead of the 
 Greek stadium ; and that the parasang was the same as the modern hour, 
 we find by the distance between Larissa (Nimroud) anc Mespila (Kouyun 
 jik) being given as six parasangs, corresponding exactly with the number 
 of hours assigned by the present inhabitants of the country, and by the au- 
 thorities of the Turkish post, to the same road. The six hours in this in- 
 stance are equal to about eighteen English miles. 
 
 The ford, by which the Greeks crossed the Great Zab (Zabates) may, I 
 think, be accurately determined. It is still the principal ford in this part 
 of the river, and must, from the nature of the bed of the stream, have been 
 so from the earliest periods. It is about twenty- five miles from the con- 
 fluence of the Zab and Tigris.* A march of twenty-five stadia, or nearly 
 three miles, in the direction of Larissa, would have brought them to the 
 Ghazir, or Bumadus ; and this stream was, I have little doubt, the deep 
 valley formed by the torrent where Mithridates, venturing to attack the re- 
 treating army, was signally defeated.! This action took place eight stadia 
 beyond the valley ; the Persian commander having neglected to intercept 
 the Greeks when endeavouring to cross the difficult ravine, in which they 
 would most probably have been entangled. A short march of three para- 
 sangs, or hours,$ brought them to Larissa, the modern Nimroud. The 
 Greeks could not have crossed the Zab above the spot I have indicated, 
 as the bed of the river is deep, and confined within high rocky banks. 
 They might have done so below the junction of the Ghazir, and a ravine 
 worn by winter rains may correspond with the valley mentioned by Xeno- 
 phon, but I think the Ghazir far more likely to have been the torrent bed 
 viewed with so much alarm by the Greek commander, and the passage of 
 which Mithridates might have disputed with some prospect of success. S 
 
 That Larissa and Mespila are represented by the ruins of Nimroud and 
 Kouyunjik no one can reasonably doubt. Xenophon's description corre- 
 sponds most accurately with the ruins and with the distance between them 
 
 From Mespila the Greeks marched four parasangs and probably halted 
 near the modern village of Batnai, between Tel Kef and Tel Eskof, an 
 ancient site exactly four hours, by the usual caravan road, from Kouyunjik. 
 Many ancient mounds around Batnai mark the remains of those villages, 
 from which, after having repulsed the Persian forces under Tissaphernes 
 and Orontas, the Greeks obtained an abundant supply of provisions. In- 
 stead of fording the Khabour near its junction with the Tigris, and thus 
 
 * Mr. Ainsworth would take the Greeks up to the modern ferry, where there could 
 never have been a ford, and which would have been some miles o..t of their route 
 (Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand.) t Anab book hi. ch. 4. 
 
 t Xenophon merely says that they marched the rest of the day. After the action, 
 they could scarcely have advanced more than three parasangs, or nine miles. 
 
 § In Chapter X. will be found some further remarks on this subject ; many rea- 
 sons, based upon personal experience, may be adduced for the probability of Xeno- 
 phon's preferring the upper ford. 
 
Chap. III.l xenophon's retreat. /^ 
 
 avoiding the hills, they crossed them by a precipitous pass to the site of 
 the modern Zakko. They reached this range in four days, traversing it on 
 the fifth, probably by the modern caravan road. The distance from Bat- 
 nai to Zakko, according to the Turkish post, is twenty hours. This would 
 give between four and five hours, or parasangs, a day for the march of the 
 Greeks, the distance they usually performed. They were probably much 
 retarded during the last day, by having to fight their way over three dis- 
 tinct mountain ridges. It is remarkable that Xenophon does not mention 
 the Khabour, although he must have crossed that river either by a ford or 
 by a bridge* before reaching the plain. Yet the stream is broad and rapid, 
 and the fords at all times deep. Nor does he allude to the Hazel, a con- 
 fluent of the Khabour, to which he came during his first day's march, after 
 leaving Zakko. These omissions prove that he does not give an accurate 
 itinerary of his route. 
 
 Four days' march, the first of only sixty stadia, or about seven miles,! 
 brought the Greeks to the high mountains of Kurdistan, which, meeting 
 the Tigris, shut out all further advance except by difficult and precipitous 
 passes, already occupied by the Persians. Xenophon, having dislodged the 
 enemy from the first ridge, returned to the main body of the army, which 
 had remained in the plain. This must have been near Fynyk, where the 
 very foot of the Kurdish mountains is first washed by the river. The spot 
 agrees accurately with Xenophon's description, as it does with the distance. 
 " The Greeks," says he, " came to a place where the river Tigris is, both 
 from its depth and breadth, absolutely impassable ; no road appeared, the 
 craggy mountains of the Carduchians hanging over the river." The offer 
 of the Rhodian to cross the army on inflated skins, bound together to form 
 abridge, having been rejected, on account of the strong force assembled on 
 the opposite side to dispute the passage, the Greeks marched back to the 
 villages. The Persian prisoners informed Xenophon that four roads branch- 
 ed off from this spot : one to the south, by which the Greeks had retreated 
 from Babylonia ; the second eastwards, to Susa and Ecbatana, by the plain 
 of Zakko, the modern Amadiyah, Suleimaniyah, and the foot of the great 
 range of Zagros ; a third to the west, crossing the Tigris, near Jezireh, and 
 thence through Orfa, Aintab, Tarsus, and the Cilician gates to Lydia and 
 Ionia ; and a fourth across the mountains of the Carduchians, or Kurdis- 
 tan. The tribes infesting this fourth road were represented to Xenophon 
 as notorious for their courage and warlike habits. They only held inter- 
 course with the inhabitants of the low country, when they were at peace 
 with the governor residing in the plain, and such has been precisely the 
 case with their descendants to this day. This route was, however, pre- 
 
 * He probably took the more difficult road over the pass, and not that round the 
 spur, in order to cross the Khabour by a bridge or ferry. It must be remembered 
 that it was winter, and that the rivers were consequently swollen. 
 
 t This halt, after so short a day's march, may have been occasioned by the Hazel. 
 The distance corresponds with sufficient accuracy. 
 
52 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. III. 
 
 ferred, as it led into Armenia, a country from which they might choose 
 their own road to the sea, and which abounded in villages and the neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 The Greeks appear to have followed the route taken by Sultan Murad 
 in his expedition against Baghdad, and, recently, by part of the Turkish 
 forces sent against Beder Khan Bey ; in fact, the great natural highway 
 from the remotest period between eastern Armenia and Assyria. Beyond 
 the Carduchian mountains there were, according to the prisoners, two roads 
 into Armenia, one crossing the head waters of the principal branch of the 
 Tigris, the other going round them ; that is, leaving them to the left. 
 These are the roads to this day followed by caravans, one crossing the 
 plains of Kherzan to Diarbekir, and thence, by well-known mountain-passes 
 to Kharput, the other passing through Bitlis. Xenophon chose the latter. 
 The villages in the valleys and recesses of the mountains are still found 
 around Funduk ; and, on their first day's march over the Carduchian hills, 
 the Greeks probably reached the neighbourhood of this village. There 
 now remained about ten parasangs to the plain through which flows the 
 eastern branch of the Tigris ; but the country was difficult, and at this 
 time of the year (nearly midwinter),* the lower road along the river was 
 impassable. The Greeks had, therefore, to force their way over a series 
 ->f difficult passes, all stoutly defended by warlike tribes. They were con- 
 sequently four days in reaching the Centritis, or eastern Tigris, the united 
 waters of the rivers of Bitlis, Sert, and Bohtan. The stream was rapid, 
 the water reaching to the breast, and the ford, owing to the unevenness of 
 the bottom and the loose, slippery stones, exceedingly difficult ; such, it 
 will be remembered, we found to be the case near Tilleh. The opposite 
 banks were, moreover, defended by the combined forces of the Armenians, 
 Mygdonians, and Chaldseans. It was impossible to cross the river at this 
 spot in the face of the enemy. At length a ford was discovered higher up, 
 and Xenophon, by skilful strategy, effected the passage. This must have 
 been at a short distance from Tilleh, as the river, narrowed between rocky 
 banks, is no longer fordable higher up. The Greeks came upon the Cen- 
 tritis soon after leaving the Carduchian mountains. 
 
 The direct and most practicable road would now have been along the 
 
 * It is a matter of surprise that Cyrus should have chosen the very middle of sum- 
 mer for his expedition into Babylonia, and still more wonderful that the Greeks, un- 
 used to the intense heats of Mesopotamia, and encumbered with their heavy arms 
 and armour, should have been able to brave the climate. No Turkish or Persian 
 commander would in these days venture to undertake a campaign against the Arabs 
 in this season of the year ; for, besides the heat, the want of water would be almost 
 an insurmountable obstacle. During their retreat, the Greeks had to encounter all 
 the rigor of an Armenian winter ; so that, during the few months they were under 
 arms, they went through the most trying extremes of climate. The expedition of 
 Alexander was also undertaken in the middle of summer. It must, however, be 
 borne in mind, that Mesopotamia was probably then thickly peopled and well culti- 
 vated, and that canals and wells of water must have abounded. 
 
Chap III 1 xenophon's retreat. 53 
 
 river banks to Bitlis ; # but owing to the frequent incursions of the Carduchi, 
 the villages in that direction had been abandoned, and the Greeks were 
 compelled to turn to the westward, to find provisions and habitations. 
 Still there was no road into Armenia, particularly at this time of year, for 
 an army encumbered with baggage, except that through the Bitlis valley. 
 The remains of an ancient causeway are even now to be traced, and this 
 probably has always been the great thoroughfare between western Armenia 
 and the Assyrian plains. Xenophon consequently made nearly the same 
 detour as I had made on my journey from Constantinople. 
 
 Six marches, of five parasangs each, brought them to the small river 
 Teleboas. I am convinced that this river cannot be identified with the 
 Kara Su, which would be at least between forty and fifty parasangs, or 
 from eight to ten days' march, from Tilleh, supposing Xenophon to have 
 made the smallest possible deviation to the west. I believe the Teleboas 
 to have been the river of Bitlis. f After crossing the low country of Kher- 
 zan, well described by Xenophon as " a plain varied by hills of an easy 
 ascent," the Greeks must necessarily have turned slightly to the eastward 
 to reach the Bitlis valley, as inaccessible mountains stopped all further 
 progress. My caravan was thirty-three hours in journeying from Bitlis to 
 Tilleh, corresponding exactly with the six days' march of the Greeks. 
 They probably came to the river somewhat below the site of the modem 
 town, where it well deserves the epithet of " beautiful." It may have 
 then had, as at this day, many villages near its banks. It will be ob- 
 served that Xenophon says that they came to, not that they crossed, the 
 Teleboas. 
 
 From this river they reached the Euphrates in six marches, making, as 
 usual, five parasangs each day ; in all, thirty parasangs, or hours. Now 
 from the Kara Su to the Euphrates, even supposing the Greeks to have 
 gone far to the eastward out of the direct route on the plain of Malaskert, 
 there would scarcely be twenty parasangs, whereas the high road from Bit- 
 lis to Northern Armenia would lead in exactly thirty hours, or six marches, 
 to the Euphrates, which it crosses near Karaghal. I believe, therefore, 
 that, after issuing from the valley of Bitlis, Xenophon turned to the west- 
 ward, leaving the lake of Wan a little to the right, though completely con- 
 cealed from him by a range of low hills. J Skirting the western foot of 
 the Nimroud Dagh range, he passed through a plain thickly inhabited, 
 abounding in well-provisioned villages, and crossed here and there by ranges 
 of hills. This country still tallies precisely with Xenophon's description. 
 
 * That by Sert passes over very precipitous mountains, and is only now taken by 
 caravans, because it is more secure than the other, and leads through a town in which 
 there is some trade. 
 
 t It must be borne in mind that the river of Bitlis joins the Sert Su before it falls 
 into the main branch of the Tigris at Tilleh, and might therefore, under a different 
 name, have appeared another river to Xenophon. 
 
 X Had he seen this large inland sea, he would probably have mentioned it. 
 
5£ NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP III 
 
 We have not, I conceive, sufficient data in Xenophon's narrative to iden- 
 tify with any degree of certainty his route after crossing the Euphrates 
 We know that about twenty parasangs from that river the Greeks encamped 
 near a hot spring, and this spring might be recognised in one of the many 
 which abound in the country. It is most probable that the Greeks took 
 the road still used by caravans through the plains of Hinnis and Hassan- 
 Kalah, as offering the fewest difficulties. But what rivers are we to iden- 
 tify with the Phasis and Harpasus, the distance between the Euphrates 
 and Phasis being seventy parasangs. and between the Phasis and Harpasus 
 ninety-five, and the Harpasus being the larger of the two rivers ? I can- 
 not admit that the Greeks turned to the west, and passed near the site of 
 the modern Erzeroom. There are no rivers in that direction to answer 
 the description of Xenophon. Moreover, the Greeks came to the high 
 mountain, and beheld- the sea for the first time, at the distance of thirty- 
 two parasangs from Trebizond. Had they taken either of the three modern 
 roads from Erzeroom to the coast, and there are no others, they must have 
 seen the Euxine in the immediate vicinity of Trebizond, certainly not more 
 than six or eight parasangs from that city. I am on the whole inclined 
 to believe, that either the Greeks took a very tortuous course after leaving 
 the Euphrates, making daily but little actual progress towards the great 
 end of their arduous journey, the sea coast, or that there is a considerable 
 error in the amount of parasangs given by Xenophon ; that the Harpasus 
 must be the Tcherouk, and the Phasis either the Araxes or the Kur ;* and 
 that Mount Theches, the holy mountain from which the Greeks beheld 
 the sea, was between Batoun and Trebizond, the army having followed the 
 valley of the Tcherouk, but leaving it before reaching the site of the mod- 
 ern port on the Black Sea. 
 
 * In no way. however, would a direct line of march between these two Tivers, nor 
 between any other two rivers which can possibly answer to his description, tally 
 with the distances given by Xenophon 
 
 Mosul, from the North 
 
Subterranean Excavations at Kouyunjik. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 STATE OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON MY RETURN TO MOSUL. DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK — 
 
 TUNNELS IN THE MOUND. BAS-RELIEFS REPRESENTING ASSYRIAN CONQUESTS. A WELL. 
 
 SIEGE OF A CITY. NATURE OF SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK. ARRANGEMENTS FOR 
 
 RENEWAL OF EXCAVATIONS DESCRIPTION OF MOUND. KIAMIL PASHA. VISIT TO 
 
 SHEIKH ADI. YEZIDI CEREMONIES. SHEIKH JINDI. YEZIDI MEETING. DRESS OF THE 
 
 WOMEN BAVIAN. CEREMONY OF THE KAIDI. SACRED POEM OF THE YEZIDI. THEIR 
 
 DOCTRINES. JERRAIYAH. RETURN TO MOSUL 
 
 On the morning after our arrival in Mosul, I rode at sunrise to Kouyun- 
 jik. The reader may remember that, on my return to Europe in 1847, 
 Mr. Ross had continued the researches in that mound, and had uncovered 
 several interesting bas-reliefs, which I have already described from his own 
 account of his discoveries * That gentleman had, to my great regret, left 
 Mosul. Since his departure the excavations had been placed under the 
 charge of Mr. Rassam, the English vice-consul, who was directed by the 
 Trustees of the British Museum to employ a small number of men, rather 
 * See Nineveh and its Remains, vol ii., p 139 
 
56 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 to retain possession of the spot, and to prevent interference on the part of 
 others, than to carry on extensive operations. Toma Shishman, or " the 
 Fat," was still the overseer of the workmen, and accompanied me on my 
 first visit to the ruins 
 
 But little change had taken place in the great mound since I had last 
 seen it. It was yellow and bare, as it always is at this time of the year. 
 Heaps of earth marked the site of former excavations, the chambers first 
 discovered having been again completely buried with rubbish. Of the 
 sculptured walls laid bare two years before no traces now remained. The 
 trenches dug under Mr. Ross's directions, in the southern corner, opposite 
 the town of Mosul, were still open. It was evident at a glance that the 
 chambers he had entered did not, as he had been led to suppose, belong to 
 a second palace. They formed part of the same great edifice once stand- 
 ing on this angle ofthe mound, and already partly explored. The style 
 of the bas-reliefs, and of the inscriptions, marked them at once as of 
 the same epoch as those previously discovered. They belonged to the 
 same king, and also recorded his wars and his triumphs. The same great 
 fire, too. which had raged in the rest of the building, turning the sculp- 
 tured panelling to lime, defacing the ancient records, and reducing the ed- 
 ifice to a heap of ashes and rubbish, had done its work here. But four or 
 five feet remained of the bas-reliefs once covering the walls of sun-dried 
 bricks to the height of eight or nine, and even these fragments were gen- 
 erally too much defaced to admit of minute description. 
 
 The walls of two chambers had been laid bare. In one.* the lower part 
 of a long series of sculptures was still partly preserved, but the upper had 
 
 Castle near a River or Marsh (Kouyunjik) 
 
 * No. LI. Plan I. 
 
^H^*^ : " 
 
 **=: 
 
 WIS, "' * ' "'^^^^fH 
 
 LXVH 
 
 IHEMOUflD OFMITCNJIK 
 
 Lifh of '■ S'({/v/t\ ■ X ■ )/«/<>/■ . I ' ) • 
 
EXCAVATED CHAMBERS 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 JJ''Lr" 
 
 4 
 
 ro 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
Chap. IV.l sculptures discovered. 57 
 
 been completely destroyed, the very alabaster itself having disappeared. 
 The bas-reliefs recorded the subjection by the Assyrian king of a nation in- 
 habiting the banks of a river. The captive women are distinguished by 
 long embroidered robes fringed with tassels, and the castles have a pecul- 
 iar wedge-shaped ornament on the walls. The towns probably stood in 
 the midst of marshes, as they appear to be surrounded by canes or reeds, 
 as well as by groves of palm trees. The Assyrians having captured the 
 strong places by escalade, carried the inhabitants into captivity, and drove 
 away cattle, camels, and carts drawn by oxen. Some of the men bear 
 large baskets of osier work, and the women vases or cauldrons. The king, 
 standing in his chariot, attended by his warriors, and preceded by an eu- 
 nuch registering the number of prisoners and the amount of the spoil, re- 
 ceives the conquered chiefs. Not a vestige of inscription remains to re- 
 cord the name of the vanquished people ; but we may conjecture, from the 
 river and the palm trees, that they inhabited some district in southern 
 Mesopotamia. They were, probably, one of the numerous Arab tribes who 
 lived in the marshes formed by the Euphrates and Tigris, and took advant- 
 age, as their descendants do to this day, of their almost inaccessible posi- 
 tion in the midst of vast swamps to be in continual rebellion against the 
 supreme government. Many of these tribes, it will hereafter be seen, are 
 mentioned amongst the southern conquests of the king who built the pal- 
 ace. In the southern wall of this chamber was a doorway formed by plain, 
 upright slabs of a close-grained magnesian limestone, almost as hard as 
 flint : between them were two small, crouching lions, in the usual alabas- 
 ter. This entrance led into a further room, of which only a small part 
 had been explored.* The walls were panelled with unsculptured slabs of 
 the same compact limestone. 
 
 The sculptured remains hitherto discovered in the mound of Kouyunjik 
 had been reached by digging down to them from the surface, and then 
 removing the rubbish. After the departure of Mr. Ross, the accumulation 
 of earth above the ruins had become so considerable, frequently exceeding 
 thirty feet, that the workmen, to avoid the labor of clearing it away, be- 
 gan to tunnel along the walls, sinking shafts at intervals to admit light and 
 air. The hardness of the soil, mixed with pottery, bricks, and remains of 
 buildings raised at various times over the buried ruins of the Assyrian pal- 
 ace, rendered this process easy and safe with ordinary care and precaution. 
 The subterraneous passages were narrow, and were propped up when nec- 
 essary either by leaving columns of earth, as in mines, or by wooden beams. 
 These long galleries, dimly lighted, lined with the remains of ancient art. 
 broken urns projecting from the crumbling sides, and the wild Arab and 
 hardy Nestorian wandering through their intricacies, or working in their 
 dark recesses, were singularly picturesque. 
 
 Toma Shishman had removed the workmen from the southern corner 
 of the mound, where the sculptures were much injured, and had opened 
 
 * No. LIII. Plan I. 
 
58 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 tunnels in a part of the building previously explored, commencing where I 
 had left off on my departure from Mosul.* I descended into the vaulted 
 passages by an inclined way, through which the workmen issued from be- 
 neath to throw away the rubbish dug out from the rqjns. At the bottom 
 I found myself before a wall forming the southern side of the great Hall. 
 discovered, though only partly explored, during my former researches. t 
 The sculptures, faintly seen through the gloom, were still well enough pre- 
 served to give a complete history of the subject represented, although, with 
 the rest of the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik. the fire had nearly turned them to 
 lime, and had cracked them into a thousand pieces. The faces of the 
 slabs had been entirely covered with figures, varying from three inches to 
 one foot in height, carefully finished, and designed with great spirit. 
 
 In this series of bas-reliefs the history of an Assyrian conquest was more 
 fully portrayed than in any other yet discovered, from the going out of the 
 monarch to battle, to his triumphal return after a complete victory. The 
 first part of the subject has already been described in my former work.t 
 The king, accompanied by his chariots and horsemen, and leaving his cap- 
 ital in the Assyrian plains, passed through a mountainous and wooded 
 district. § He does not appear to have been delayed by the siege of many 
 towns or castles, but to have carried the war at once into the high coun- 
 try. His troops, cavalry and infantry, are represented in close combat with 
 their enemies, pursuing them over hills and through valleys, beside streams, 
 and in the midst of vineyards. The Assyrian horsemen are armed with 
 the spear and the bow, using both weapons whilst at full speed : their op- 
 ponents seem to be all archers. The vanquished turn to ask for quarter ; 
 or, wounded, fall under the feet of the advancing horses, raising their hands 
 imploringly to ward off the impending deathblow. The triumph follows. 
 The king standing in his chariot, beneath the royal parasol, followed by 
 long lines of dismounted warriors leading richly caparisoned horses, and 
 by foot soldiers variously armed and accoutred, is receiving the captives 
 and spoil taken from the conquered people. First approach the victorious 
 warriors, throwing the heads of the slain into heaps before the registering 
 officers. They are followed by others leading, and urging onwards with 
 staves, the prisoners — men chained together, or bound singly in fetters, and 
 women, some on foot, carrying their children on their shoulders, and lead- 
 ing them by the hand, others riding on mules. The procession is finished 
 
 * At No. VI. same plan. The chambers marked with letters in the Plan of Kou- 
 yunjik in the 2d vol. of " Nineveh and its Remains," are distinguished, for conven- 
 ience of general reference, by numbers in Plan I. of this work, which includes all 
 those excavated during the first expedition, as well as those discovered during the 
 second : the letters are, however, also inserted. 
 
 t No. VI. Plan I. 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 134. 
 
 § The long lines of variously armed troops, described in my former work (vol. ii. 
 p. 134) as covering several slabs froYn top to bottom, form the army of the king 
 inarching to this campaign. Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 81. 
 
Chap IV 1 sculptures described. 59 
 
 by asses, mules, and flocks of sheep. As on the bas-reliefs uncovered by 
 Mr. Ross, there is unfortunately no inscription by which the name of the 
 conquered people can be determined. We are left to conjecture the site 
 of the country they inhabited from its natural features, rudely portrayed 
 in the bas-reliefs, or from notices that may hereafter — on a better acquaint- 
 ance with the cuneiform character — be found in the great inscriptions on 
 the bulls containing the history of the v^rs of the Assyrian king. The 
 mountains, valleys, and streams, the vines^and dwarf oaks, probably indi- 
 cate a region north of Assyria, in Armenia, Media, or Kurdistan, countries 
 we know to have been invaded by the royal builder of the palace. The 
 dress of the men consists of a short tunic ; that of the women, of a shirt 
 falling to the ankles, and cut low in front of the neck.^ 
 
 In the side of the hall sculptured with these bas-reliefs was a wide por- 
 tal, formed by a pair of gigantic human-headed bulls. f They had suffered, 
 like all those previously discovered, from the fire, and the upper part, the 
 wings and human head, had been completely destroyed. The lower halt 
 had, however, escaped, and the inscriptions were consequently nearly en- 
 tire. Joined to the forepart of the bulls were four small figures, two on 
 each side, and one above the other. They had long hair, falling in large and 
 massive curls on their shoulders, wore short tunics descending to the knee, 
 and held a pole topped by a kind of cone in one hand, raising the other as 
 in act of adoration. $ At right angles with the slabs bearing these sculp- 
 tures were colossal figures carrying the oft-repeated cone and basket. 
 
 In this entrance a well, cut through the large pavement slab between 
 the bulls, was afterwards discovered. It contained broken pottery, not one 
 vase having been taken out whole, apparently human remains, and some 
 fragments of calcined sculptured alabaster, evidently detached from the 
 bas-reliefs on the walls. It is doubtful whether this well was sunk after 
 the Assyrian ruins had been buried, or whether it had been from the earliest 
 times a place of deposit for the dead. The remains of bas-reliefs found in 
 it, at a considerable depth, show that it must have been filled up after the 
 destruction of the Assyrian palace ; and, as no such wells exist in similar en- 
 trances, I am inclined to believe that, like many others discovered during the 
 excavations, it had been made by those who built on the mound above the 
 ancient ruins. "When sinking the shaft they probably met with the pave- 
 ment slab, and cut through it. It appears to have been afterwards choked 
 by the falling in of the rubbish through which it had been carried, and 
 hence the fragments of sculptured alabaster mixed with the broken pot- 
 tery. Being unable to support its crumbling sides, I was obliged to abandon 
 the attempt after digging to the depth of about fifteen feet. 
 
 * Two plates from these spirited sculptures are given in the 2d series of the 
 Monuments of Nineveh, Plates 37, 38. They represent the battle, and part of the 
 triumph. t Entrance k. No. VI. Plan I. 
 
 t One such figure has been placed in the British Museum, and see 2d series of the 
 Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 6. 
 
6Q NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 A small doorway to the right of the portal formed by the winged hulls, 
 led into a further chamber,* in which an entrance had been found into a 
 third room.f whose walls had been completely uncovered. Its dimensions 
 were 26 feet by 23, and it had but this one outlet, flanked on either side 
 by two colossal figures, whose lower extremities alone remained, the upper 
 part of the slabs having been destroyed : one appeared to have been eagle- 
 headed, with the body of a man, and the other a monster, with human 
 head and the feet of a lion. The bas-reliefs round the chamber repre- 
 sented the siege of a castle standing on an artificial mound, surrounded at 
 its base by houses. The besieged defended themselves on the walls and 
 turrets with bows, spears, and stones. The Assyrian army was composed 
 of spearmen, slingers, and bowmen, some of whom had already gained the 
 housetops. Male and female captives had been taken and heads cut off; 
 the victorious warriors according to custom, and probably to claim a re- 
 ward, t bringing them to the registrars. The led horses and body-guard of 
 the king was still preserved, but that part of the bas-relief containing the 
 monarch himself, probably standing in his chariot, had been destroyed. In 
 the back ground were wooded mountains ; vines and other trees formed a 
 distinct band in the middle of the slabs; and a river ran at the foot of the 
 mound. The dress of the male prisoners consisted either of a long robe 
 falling to the ankles, or of a tunic reaching to the knees, over which was 
 thrown an outer garment, apparently made of the skins of animals, and 
 they wore greaves laced up in front. The women were clothed in a robe 
 descending to the feet, with an outer fringed garment thrown over the shoul- 
 ders ; a kind of hood or veil covered the back of the head, and fell over the 
 neck. Above the castle was the fragment of an inscription in two lines, 
 containing the name of the city, of which unfortunately the first character 
 is wanting. It reads: " The city of . . . alammo I attacked and cap- 
 tured; I carried away its spoil." NTo name, however, corresponding with 
 it has yet been found in the royal annals, and we can only infer, from the 
 nature of the country represented, that the place was in a mountainous dis- 
 trict to the north of Assyria. § It is remarkable that in this chamber, 
 as in others afterwards explored, some of the slabs (those adjoining the en- 
 trance) had been purposely defaced, every vestige of sculpture having been 
 carefully removed by a sharp instrument. 
 
 Returning to the great hall, I found that a third outlet had been discover- 
 ed, opening, however, to the west. This entrance had been guarded by six co- 
 lossal figures, three on each side. The upper part of all of them had been de- 
 stroyed. They appear to have been eagle-headed and lion-headed monsters.il 
 
 * No. XIII. Plan I. t No. XIV. same plan. 
 
 % It is still the custom in Persia, and was so until lately in Turkey, for soldiers to 
 bring the heads of the slain to their officers after a battle, and to claim a small pecun- 
 iary reward. 
 
 ij As much of the bas-reliefs as could be moved is now in the British Museum ; sp* 
 also 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 39. 
 
 II Entrance i. No. VI. Plan I. 
 
Chap. IV.l sculptures described. 61 
 
 This doorway led into a narrow passage, one side of which had alone 
 been excavated ; on it was represented the siege of a walled city, divided 
 into two parts by a river. One half of the place had been captured by the 
 Assyrians, who had gained possession of the towers and battlements, but 
 that on the opposite bank of the stream was still defended by slingers and 
 bowmen. Against its walls had been thrown banks or mounds, built of 
 stones, bricks, and branches of trees.* The battering-rams, covered with 
 skins or hides looped together, had been rolled up these inclined ways, and 
 had already made a breach in the fortifications. Archers and spearmen 
 were hurrying to the assault, whilst others were driving off the captives, 
 and carrying away the idols of the enemy. The dress of the male prison- 
 ers consisted of a plain under-shirt, an upper garment falling beloW the 
 knees, divided in the front and buttoned at the neck, and laced greaves. 
 Their hair and beards were shorter and less elaborately curled than those 
 of the Assyrians. The women were distinguished by high rounded turbans, 
 ornamented with plaits or folds. A veil fell from the back of this head- 
 dress over the shoulders. f No inscription remained to record the name of 
 the vanquished nation. Their castles stood in a wooded and mountainous 
 country, and their peculiar costume, and the river passing through the cen- 
 tre of their chief city, may help hereafter to identify them. 
 
 The opposite side of this narrow chamber, or passage, was shortly after- 
 wards uncovered. The bas-reliefs on its walls represented the king in his 
 chariot, preceded and followed by his warriors. The only remarkable feat- 
 ure in the sculptures was the highly decorated trappings of the horses, 
 whose bits were in the form of a horse at full speed. 
 
 Such were the discoveries that had been made during my absence. There 
 could be no doubt whatever that all the chambers hitherto excavated be- 
 longed to one great edifice, built by one and the same king. I have already 
 shown how the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik differed from those of the older pal- 
 aces of Nimroud, but closely resembled those of Khorsabad in the general 
 treatment, in the costumes of the Assyrian warriors, as well as of the na- 
 tions with whom they warred, and in the character of the ornaments, in- 
 scriptions, and details. Those newly uncovered were, in all these respects, 
 like the bas-reliefs found before my departure, and upon which I had ven- 
 tured to form an opinion as to the respective antiquity and origin of the va- 
 rious ruins hitherto explored in Assyria. The bas-reliefs of Nimroud, the 
 reader may remember, were divided into two bands or friezes by inscrip- 
 tions ; the subject being frequently confined to one tablet, or slab, and ar- 
 
 * For an account of these mounds represented in the Assyrian sculptures, and the 
 manner in which they illustrate various passages in Scripture, see my Nineveh and 
 its Remains, vol. ii. p. 367. and note. 
 
 t Such is the costume of the women in ships in a bas-relief discovered during my 
 former researches (see Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 129. and Monuments of 
 Nineveh, Plate 71.), and which, I have conjectured, may represent the capture of 
 Tyre or Sidon. 
 
62 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 ranged with some attempt at composition, so as to form a separate picture. 
 A.t Kouyunjik the four walls of a chamber were generally occupied by one 
 series of sculptures, representing a consecutive history, uninterrupted by in- 
 scriptions, or by the divisions in the alabaster panelling. Figures, smaller 
 in size than those of Nimroud, covered from top to bottom the face of slabs, 
 eight or nine feet high, and sometimes of equal breadth. 
 
 The sculptor could thus introduce more action, and far more detail, into 
 his picture. He aimed even at conveying, by rude representations of trees, 
 valleys, mountains, and rivers, a general idea of the natural features of the 
 country in which the events recorded took place. A chamber thus gener- 
 ally contained the whole story of a particular war, from the going out of 
 the king to his triumphal return. These pictures, including a kind of plan 
 of the campaign, add considerably to the interest of the monuments, and 
 allow us to restore much of the history of the period. They will probably 
 also enable us to identify the sculptured records with the descriptive ac- 
 counts contained in the great inscriptions carved upon the bulls, at the va- 
 rious entrances to the palace, and embracing a general chronicle of the 
 reign of the king. At Kouyunjik there were probably few bas-reliefs, par- 
 ticularly those containing representations of castles and cities, that were 
 not accompanied by a short epigraph or label, giving the name of the con- 
 quered king and country, and even the names of the principal prisoners, es- 
 pecially if royal personages. Unfortunately these inscriptions having been 
 usually placed on the upper part of the slabs, which has very rarely escaped 
 destruction, but few of them remain. These remarks should be borne in 
 mind to enable the reader to understand the descriptions of the excavated 
 chambers at Kouyunjik. which will be given in the following pages in the 
 order that they were discovered. 
 
 I lost no time in making arrangements for continuing the excavations 
 with as much activity as the funds granted to the Trustees of the British 
 Museum would permit. Toma Shishman was placed over Kouyunjik : 
 Mansour, Behnan (the marble cutter), and Hannah (the carpenter), again 
 entered my service. Ali Rahal, a sheikh of the Jebours, who, hearing of 
 my return, had hastened to Mosul, was sent to the desert to collect such 
 of my old workmen from his tribe as were inclined to re-enter my service. 
 He was appointed ''sheikh of the mound," and duly invested with the cus- 
 tomary robe of honor on the occasion. 
 
 The accumulation of soil above the ruins was so great, that I determined 
 to continue the tunnelling, removing only as much earth as was necessary 
 to show the sculptured walls. But to facilitate the labor of the workmen, 
 and to avoid the necessity of their leaving the tunnels to empty their bask- 
 ets, I made a number of rude triangles and wooden pulleys, by which the 
 excavated rubbish could be raised by ropes through the shafts, sunk at in- 
 tervals for this purpose, as well as to admit light and air. One or twi 
 passages then sufficed for the workmen to descend into the subterranean 
 galleries. 
 
Chap IV. 1 ruins of kouyunjik. go 
 
 Many of the Nestorians formerly in my service as diggers, having also 
 heard of my intended return, had left their mountains, and had joined me 
 a day or two after my arrival. There were Jebours enough in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of the town to make up four or five gangs of excava- 
 tors, and I placed parties at once in the galleries already opened, in differ- 
 ent parts of Kouyunjik not previously explored, and at a high mound in the 
 northwest walls, forming one side of the great inclosure opposite Mosul — a 
 ruin which I had only partially examined during my previous visit. * 
 
 During the spring of this year Colonel Williams, the British commissioner 
 for the settlement of the disputed boundaries between Turkey and Persia, 
 had visited Mosul on his way to Baghdad, and had kindly permitted Lieu- 
 tenant Glascott, R.N., the engineer of the commission, to make a careful 
 survey of Kouyunjik. His plan, into which the excavations subsequently 
 made have been introduced, will show the position of the palace and the 
 general form of the mound. f The shape of this great ruin is very irregu- 
 lar. ; nearly square at the S.W. corner, it narrows almost to a point at the 
 N.E. The palace occupies the southern angle. At the opposite, or north- 
 ern, extremity are the remains of the village of Kouyunjik, from which the 
 mound takes its name.J From this spot a steep road leads to the plain, 
 forming the only access to the summit of the mound for loaded animals or 
 carts. Nearly midway between the ruined village and the excavations is 
 a small whitewashed Mussulman tomb, surmounted by a dome, belonging 
 to some sheikh, or holy man, whose memory and name have long passed 
 away. A little beyond it, to the south-west, the level of the mound rises 
 above that of any other part ; in consequence probably of the ruins of an- 
 cient buildings, belonging to a period preceding the Arab conquest, though 
 still erected over the older Assyrian edifices. Beyond it, to the north, the 
 level is considerably below that part of the mound which covers the re- 
 mains of the excavated palace. To the south of the tomb the platform 
 suddenly sinks, leaving a semicircular ridge, resembling an amphitheatre. 
 There are ravines on all sides of Kouyunjik, except that facing the Tigris. 
 If not entirely worn by the winter rains, they have, undoubtedly, been 
 deepened and increased by them. They are strewed with fragments of 
 pottery, bricks, and sometimes stone and burnt alabaster, whilst the falling 
 earth frequently discloses in their sides vast masses of solid brick masonry, 
 which fall in when undermined by the rains. Through these ravines are 
 carried the steep and narrow pathways leading to the top of the mound. 
 As they reach far into the ruins, frequently laying bare the very founda- 
 tions of the artificial platform of earth on which the edifices were erected, 
 they afford the best places to commence experimental tunnels. 
 
 * See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 144., for a description of the discoveries 
 previously made in this mound. 
 
 t See General Plan of the mound of Kouyunjik, in corner of Plan I. 
 
 t "The little sheep." Kouyunjik is, however, generally known to the Arabs by 
 the name of Armousheeyah. 
 
64 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IV 
 
 The Khauser winds round the eastern base of Kouyunjik, and leaving 
 it near the angle occupied by the ruins of the palace, runs in a direct line to 
 the Tigris. Although a small and sluggish stream, it has worn for itself a 
 deep bed, and is only fordable near the mound immediately below the 
 southern corner, where the direct road from Mosul crosses it, and at the 
 northern extremity where a flour mill is turned by its waters. After rain 
 it becomes an impetuous torrent, overflowing its banks, and carrying all 
 before it. It then rises very suddenly, and as suddenly subsides. The 
 Tigris now flows about half a mile from the mound, but once undoubtedly 
 washed its base. Between them is a rich alluvium deposited by the river 
 during its gradual retreat ; it is always under cultivation, and is divided 
 into corn fields, and melon and cucumber beds. 1 * In this plain stands the 
 small modern village of Kouyunjik, removed for convenience from its an- 
 cient site on the summit of the mound. Round the foot of the platform 
 are thickly scattered fragments of pottery, brick, and stone, fallen from the 
 ruins above. 
 
 In Mosul I had to call upon the governor, and renew my acquaintance 
 with the principal inhabitants, whose good will was in some way necessary 
 to the pleasant, if not successful, prosecution of my labors. Kiamil Pasha 
 had been lately named to the pashalic. He was the sixth or seventh pasha 
 who had been appointed since I had left, for it is one of the banes of Turk- 
 ish administration that, as soon as an officer becomes acquainted with the 
 country he is sent to govern, and obtains any influence over its inhabitants; 
 he is recalled to make room for a new ruler. Kiamil had been ambassador 
 at Berlin, and had visited several European courts. His manners were 
 eminently courteous, and polished ; his intelligence, and, what is of far 
 more importance in a Turkish governor, his integrity, were acknowledged. 
 His principal defects were great inactivity and indolence, and an unfortu- 
 nate irritability of temper, leading him to do foolish and mischievous things, 
 of which he generally soon found cause to repent. He offered a very favor- 
 able contrast to the Pasha who received me on my visit to Mosul in 1847, 
 and who, by the way, notwithstanding a decree of the supreme council • 
 condemning him to death for his numerous misdeeds, but not carried into 
 execution in consequence of the misdirected humanity of the Sultan, had 
 been recently appointed to a comfortable pashalic in Asia Minor, far from 
 consuls and other troublesome checks upon his tyranny and extortion. Our 
 
 * The river Tigris flows in this part of its course, and until it reaches Saimarrah, 
 on the confines of Babylonia, through a valley varying from one to two miles in width, 
 bounded on both sides by low limestone and conglomerate hills. Its bed has been 
 undergoing a continual and regular change. When it reaches the hills on one side, 
 it is thrown back by this barrier, and creeps gradually to the opposite side, leaving 
 a rich alluvial soil quickly covered with jungle. This process it has been repeating, 
 backwards and forwards, for countless ages, and will continue to repeat as long as 
 it drains the great highlands of Armenia. At Nimroud it is now gradually returning 
 to the base of the mound, which it deserted some three thousand years ago ; but 
 centuries must elapse before it can work its way that far. 
 
Chap. IV.l sheikh adi revisited g ; -; 
 
 right to excavate was now too well established to admit ot question, and 
 my visit to the Pasha was rather one of friendship than of duty. I had 
 known him at the capital, where he held a high post in the council of 
 state, and at Belgrade, when governor there during troublous times. 
 
 Soon after my arrival, my old friends Sheikh Abd-ur-rahman, of the 
 Abou Salman, and Abd-rubbou, chief of the Jebours, rode into the town to 
 see me. The former complained bitterly of poverty : his claims upon Mo- 
 hammed Pasha, although recognised by the government, had not been 
 paid, and by the new system of local administration introduced into the 
 pashalic since my departure, his old pasture grounds near Nimroud had 
 been taken from his tribe, and made " miri," or public property. The 
 Jebours, under Aftd-rubbou, were encamping in the desert to the south 
 of Mosul. He offered to accompany me to Kalah Sherghat, or to any 
 other ruin I might wish to examine, and a silk robe cemented our former 
 friendship. 
 
 I had scarcely settled myself in the town, when Cawal Yusuf came m 
 from Baadri, with a party of Yezidi Cawals, to invite me, on the part of 
 Hussein Bey and Sheikh Nasr, to the annual festival at Sheikh Adi. The 
 invitation was too earnest to be refused, nor was I sorry to have this oc- 
 casion of meeting the principal chiefs of the sect assembled together, of ex- 
 plaining to them what had occurred at Constantinople, and of offering them 
 i few words of advice as to their future conduct. The Jebour workmen, 
 too, had not yet moved their tents to Nimroud or Mosul, and the excava- 
 tions had consequently not been actively resumed. 
 
 I was accompanied in this visit by my own party, with the addition of 
 Mr. Rassam, the vice-consul, and his dragoman. We rode the first day to 
 Baadri, and were met on the road by Hussein Bey and a large company 
 of Yezidi horsemen. Sheikh Nasr had already gone to the tomb, to make 
 ready for the ceremonies. The young chief entertained us for the night, 
 and on the following morning, an hour after sunrise, we left the village for 
 Sheikh Adi. At some distance from the sacred valley we were met by 
 Sheikh Nasr, Pir Sino, the Cawals, the priests, and the chiefs. They con- 
 ducted us to the same building in the sacred grove that I had occupied on 
 my former visit. The Cawals assembled around us and welcomed our 
 coming on their tambourines and flutes ; and soon about us was formed 
 one of those singularly beautiful and picturesque groups which I have at- 
 tempted to describe in my previous account of the Yezidi festival.* 
 
 The Yezidis had assembled in less numbers this year than when I had 
 last met them in the valley. Only a few of the best armed of the people 
 of the Sinjar had ventured to face the dangers of the road now occupied by 
 the Bedouins. Abde Agha and his adherents were fully occupied in de- 
 fending their villages against the Arab marauders, who, although repulsed 
 after we quitted Semil, were still hanging about the district, bent upon re- 
 venge. The Kochers, and the tribes of Dereboun, were kept away by the 
 * Nineveh and its. Remains, vol. i. ch. ix. 
 E 
 
Chap. IV.] SHE1KH JINDI 67 
 
 same fears. The inhabitants of Kherzan and Redwan were harassed by 
 the conscription. Even the people of Baasheikhah and Baazani had been 
 so much vexed by a recent visit from the Pasha that they had no heart for 
 festivities. His Excellency not fostering feelings of the most friendly na- 
 ture towards Namik Pasha, the new commander-in-chief of Arabia, who 
 was passing through Mosul on his way to the head-quarters of the army at 
 Baghdad, and unwilling to entertain him, was suddenly taken ill, and re- 
 tired for the benefit of his health at Baasheikhah. On the morning after 
 his arrival he complained that the asses by their braying during the night 
 had allowed him no rest ; and the asses were accordingly peremptorily ban- 
 ished from the village. The dawn of the next day was announced, to the 
 great discomfort of his Excellency, who had no interest in the matter, by 
 the cocks ; and the irregular troops who formed his body-guard were imme- 
 diately incited to a general slaughter of the race. The third night his sleep 
 was disturbed by the crying of the children, who, with their mothers, were 
 at once locked up, for the rest of his sojourn, in the cellars. On the fourth 
 he was awoke at daybreak by the chirping of sparrows, and every gun in 
 the village was ordered to be brought out to wage a war of extermination 
 against them. But on the fifth morning his rest was sorely broken by the 
 flies, and the enraged Pasha insisted upon their instant destruction. The 
 Kiayah, who, as chief of the village, had the task of carrying out the Gov- 
 ernor's orders, now threw himself at his Excellency's feet, exclaiming, 
 " Your Highness has seen that all the animals here, praise be to God, obey 
 our Lord the Sultan ; the infidel flies alone are rebellious to his authority. 
 I am a man of low degree and small power, and can do nothing against 
 them ; it now behoves a great Vizir like your Highness to enforce the com- 
 mands of our Lord and Master." The Pasha, who relished a joke, forgave 
 the flies, but left the village. 
 
 I have already so fully described the general nature of the annual festi- 
 val at Sheikh Adi, and the appearance of the valley on that occasion, that 
 1 shall confine myself to an account of such ceremonies as I was now per- 
 mitted to witness for the first time. 
 
 About an hour after sunset, Cawal Yusuf summoned Hormuzd and my- 
 self, who were alone allowed to be present, to the inner yard, or sanctuary, 
 of the Temple. We were placed in a room from the windows of which we 
 could see all that took place in the court. The Cawals, Sheikhs, Fakirs, 
 and principal chiefs were already assembled. In the centre of the court 
 was an iron lamp, with four burners — a simple dish with four lips for the 
 wicks, supported on a sharp iron rod driven into the ground. Near it stood 
 a Fakir, holding in one hand a lighted torch, and in the other a large ves-. 
 sel of oil, from which he, from time to time, replenished the lamp, loudly in- 
 voking Sheikh Adi. The Cawals stood against the wall on one side of the 
 court, and commenced a slow chant, some playing on the flute, others on 
 the tambourine, and accompanying the measure with their voices. The 
 Sheikhs and chiefs now formed a procession, walking two by two. At 
 
68 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. IV 
 
 their head was Sheikh Jindi. He wore a tall shaggy black cap, the hair of 
 which hung far over the upper part of his face. A long robe, striped with 
 horizontal stripes of black and dark red, fell to his feet. A countenance 
 more severe, and yet more imposing, than that of Sheikh Jindi could not 
 well be pictured by the most fanciful imagination. A beard, black as jet. 
 waved low on his breast ; his dark piercing eyes glittered through ragged 
 eyebrows, like burning coals through the bars of a grate. The color of his 
 face was of the deepest brown, his teeth white as snow, and his features, 
 1 hough stern beyond measure, singularly noble and well formed. It was a 
 by -word with us that Sheikh Jindi had never been seen to smile. To look 
 at him was to feel that a laugh could not be born in him. As he moved, 
 with a slow and solemn step, the nickering lamp deepening the shadows of 
 his solemn and rugged countenance, it would have been impossible to con- 
 ceive a being more eminently fitted to take the lead in ceremonies conse- 
 crated to the evil one. He is the Peesh-?ia??iaz, " the leader of prayer"* to 
 the Yezidi sect. Behind him were two venerable sheikhs. They were 
 followed by Hussein Bey and Sheikh "Xasr, and the other chiefs and Sheikhs 
 
 ^ 
 
 Sheikh Nasr. High Pnest of the Yezidis. 
 
 came after. Their long robes were all of the purest white. As they walked 
 slowly round, sometimes stopping, then resuming their measured Etep, they 
 
Chap. IV. 1 AN assembly op yezidis. 69 
 
 chanted prayers in glory and honor of the Deity. The Cawals accompanied 
 the chant with their flutes, beating at intervals the tambourines. Round 
 the burning lamp, and within the circle formed by the procession, danced 
 the Fakirs in their black dresses, with solemn pace timed to the music, 
 raising and swinging to and fro their arms after the fashion of Eastern 
 dancers, and placing themselves in attitudes not less decorous than elegant. 
 To hymns in praise of the Deity succeeded others in honor of Melek Isa 
 and Sheikh Adi. The chants passed into quicker strains, the tambourines 
 were beaten more frequently, the Fakirs became more active in their mo- 
 tions, and the women made the loud tahlel, the ceremonies ending with 
 that extraordinary scene of noise and excitement that I have attempted to 
 describe in relating my- first visit. When the prayers were ended, those 
 who marched in procession kissed, as they passed by, the right side of the 
 doorway leading into the temple, where a serpent is figured on the wall ; 
 but not, as I was assured, the image itself, which has no typical or other 
 meaning, according to Sheikh Nasr and Cawal Yusuf. Hussein Bey then 
 placing himself on the step at this entrance, received the homage of the 
 Sheikhs and elders, each touching the hand of the young chief with his 
 own, and raising it to his lips. All present, afterwards, gave one another 
 the kiss of peace. 
 
 The ceremonies having thus been brought to a close, Hussein Bey and 
 Sheikh Nasr came to me, and led me into the inner court. Carpets had 
 been spread at the doorway of the temple for myself and the two chiefs ; 
 The Sheikhs, Cawals, and principal people of the sect, seated themselves, 
 or rather crouched, against the walls. By the light of a lamp, dimly 
 breaking the gloom within the temple, I could see Sheikh Jindi unrobing. 
 During the prayers, priests were stationed at the doorway, and none were 
 allowed to enter except a few women and girls : the wives and daughters 
 of sheikhs and cawals had free access to the building, and appeared to join 
 in the ceremonies. The Vice-Consul and Khodja Toma were now admit- 
 ted, and took their places with us at the upper end of the court. Cawal 
 Yusuf was then called upon to give a full account of the result of his mis- 
 sion to Constantinople, which he did with the same detail, and almost in 
 the same words, that he had used so frequently during our journey. After 
 he had concluded, I endeavored to point out to the chiefs that by the new 
 concessions made to them, liberty of conscience and the enjoyment of prop- 
 erty were, if not completely secured, at least fully recognised as their right, 
 and that the great burdens to which the Yezidis had long been exposed 
 were abolished. Their children could no longer be taken as slaves, and 
 the Sultan had even ordered the liberation of those who were already in 
 bondage.* Henceforward none would suffer torture or death for their re- 
 
 * During my subsequent residence in Mosul, I was able, with the assistance of 
 Mr. Rassam, the Vice-Consul, who always exerted himself zealously and disinterest- 
 edly in the cause of humanity, to take from the very harem of the Cadi, a Yezidi girl, 
 who had been torn from her parents some time before, and had been compelled to 
 
70 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. IV. 
 
 ligion's sake. "Whatever their objections to the conscription and military 
 service, it was but reasonable that, as subjects of the Sultan, and as exempt 
 from the capitation tax paid by Christians, they should be placed under 
 the same laws as Mussulmans, and should serve the state. Such practices 
 and food as were repugnant to them, the Grand Vizir had promised should 
 not be forced upon those who were enrolled in the regular army. For the 
 first time the Yezidis had been in direct communication with the Sultan's 
 ministers, and had been formally recognised as one of the sects of the em- 
 pire. They were to justify the good intentions of the Porte towards them 
 by proving themselves loyal and faithful subjects. But, above all, they 
 were to eschew internal quarrels, and to maintain peace and unity among 
 the tribes, by which means alone they could defy their enemies. Their in- 
 dustry had already raised them above their Mohammedan and Christian 
 neighbours, and now that additional protection was extended to them they 
 might fairly hope to be wealthy and prosperous. It was finally agreed 
 that letters of thanks, sealed by all the chiefs of the Yezidis, should be 
 sent to the Grand Vizir, Reshid Pasha, for the reception given to the Yez- 
 idi deputation, and to Sir Stratford Canning for his generous intercession 
 in their behalf. 
 
 The private and domestic affairs of the sect were then discussed, and va- 
 rious reforms proposed. The mode of contracting marriages required some 
 change. The large sums of money demanded by parents for their daugh 
 ters had been the cause that many girls remained unmarried, a state of 
 things rarely found in Eastern countries, and the source of loud complaints 
 amongst the younger members of the community. Rassam suggested that 
 the price paid to the father should be reduced, or he should encourage elope- 
 ments, and give the fugitives the benefit of his protection. The proposed 
 alternative caused much merriment ; but one of the old Sheikhs of Baaz- 
 ani at once consented to take 300 piasters (about 21. 10s.) for his daugh- 
 ter, instead of 3000, which he had previously asked. This led to several 
 betrothals on the spot, amidst much mirth and great applause on the part 
 of such young Cawals as were anxious to get married. It was nearly mid- 
 night before the assembly broke up. We then went into the outer court, 
 where dances were kept up until late in the morning, by the light of torch- 
 es, all the young men and women joining in the Debka. 
 
 Soon after sunrise on the following morning the Sheikhs and Cawals of- 
 fered up a short prayer in the court of the temple, but without any of the 
 ceremonies of the previous evening. Some prayed in the sanctuary, fre- 
 quently kissing the threshold and holy places within the building. "When 
 they had ended they took the green cloth covering from the tomb of Sheikh 
 Adi, and, followed by the Cawals playing on their tambourines and flutes, 
 walked with it round the outer court. The people flocked about them, 
 and reverently carried the corner of the drapery to their lips, making after- 
 embrace the Mohammedan religion. Such an unusual proceeding had a great effect 
 in the town. 
 
72 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [ClIAP. IV. 
 
 wards a small offering of money. After the cover had been again thrown 
 over the tomb, the chiefs and priests seated themselves round the inner 
 court. The Fakirs and Sheikhs especially devoted to the service of the 
 sanctuary, who are called Kotcheks, now issued from the kitchens of the 
 temple bearing large platters of smoking harisa* which they placed on 
 the ground. The company collected in hungry groups round the messes, 
 and whilst they were eating, the Kotcheks standing by called upon them 
 continually in a loud voice to partake of the hospitality of Sheikh Adi. 
 After the empty plates had been removed, a collection was made towards 
 the support of the temple and tomb of the saint. It is also customary for 
 all families who come to the annual festival to send some dish as an offer- 
 ing to Sheikh ]S"asr. He merely tastes these contributions to show his ac- 
 ceptance of them, and they are then shared by the servants of the sanc- 
 tuary. 
 
 These ceremonies occupied us until nearly mid-day ; we then sat by the 
 fountain in the valley, and the men and women danced before us, the boys 
 climbing into the trees and hanging on the boughs to see the dancers. 
 Sugar, dates, and raisins were afterwards scrambled amongst the children. 
 The men soon took part in the amusements. A party of Kurds, bringing 
 grapes from the mountains to sell at the festival, were maliciously pointed 
 out as good objects for a joke. The hint was no sooner given than they, 
 their donkeys, and their grapes, were all rolled into one heap under a 
 mountain of human beings. The Kurds, who were armed, resisted man- 
 fully ; and, ignorant of our intentions, might have revenged themselves 
 on their assailants, but were soon restored to good humour when they 
 found that they were to receive ample compensation for their losses and 
 personal injuries. A fat bakkal, a peddling dealer in nuts, raisins, and 
 dates from Mosul, was then thrown with all his stores into a pond, and 
 was well-nigh drowned by the crowd of boys who dived into the reservoir 
 on the chance of sharing in the contents of his panniers. The young chief 
 mingled heartily in the sport, stripping off his gay robes and inciting the 
 people to mischief. There was general laughing in the valley, and the 
 Yezidis will long remember these days of simple merriment and happiness. 
 
 In the afternoon the wives and daughters of the chiefs and Cawals call- 
 ed upon me. The families of the Cawals, evidently descended from the 
 same stock, are remarkable for the beauty both of the men and women, all 
 of whom are strikingly like one another. Their complexion is, perhaps, 
 too dark, but their features are regular and admirably. formed. The dresses 
 
 * A mixture of bruised wheat, chopped meat, milk and curds, boiled into a thick 
 pulpy mass, over which melted butter is poured. It is a favorite di&h in Syria and 
 Mesopotamia, and is cooked by families on great festivals, or on certa ; n days of the 
 year, in consequence of vows made during sickness or in travel. On these occasions 
 it is sent round to friends, and distributed amongst the poor. The wealthy sprinkle 
 it with cinnamon and sugar, and it is then agreeable to the taste, and palatable enough. 
 It is sold early in the morning in the bazars of many Eastern towns. 
 
iHAP. 
 
 jy 1 CURIOUS CEREMONY 73 
 
 of the girls were elegant, and as rich as the material they could obtain 
 would allow. Some wove flowers into their hair, others encircled their 
 black turbans with a single wreath of myrtle, a simple and elegant orna- 
 ment. They all wore many strings of coins, amber, coral, agate, and glass 
 beads round their necks, and some had the black skull cap completely cov- 
 ered with gold and silver money. A kind of apron of grey or yellowish 
 cneck, like a Scotch plaid, tied over one shoulder, and falling in front over 
 the silk dress, is a peculiar feature in the costume of the Yezidi girls, and 
 of some Christians from the same district. Unmarried women have the 
 neck bare, the married conceal it with a white kerchief, which passes un- 
 der the chin, and is tied on the top of the head. The brightest colors are 
 worn by the girls, but the matrons are usually clothed in plain white. 
 The females of the Cawal families always wear black turbans and skull 
 caps. Cawal Yusuf, to show how the Frank ladies he had seen at Con- 
 stantinople were honored by their husbands, made his young wife walk arm 
 in arm with him before us, to the great amusement of the bystanders. 
 
 At night the same religious ceremonies were repeated in the temple, 
 and I was allowed to sleep in the room overlooking the inner court from 
 whence I had witnessed them on the previous evening. After all had re- 
 tired to rest, the Yezidi Mullah recited, in a low chanting tone, a religious 
 history, or discourse, consisting of the adventures and teachings of a certain 
 Mirza Mohammed. He stood before the burning lamp, and around him 
 were stretched at full length on the stone pavement, and covered by their 
 white cloaks, the sleeping Sheikhs and Cawals. The scene was singularly 
 picturesque and impressive. 
 
 Next morning I visited, with Mr. Rassam and Mr. Cooper, the rock- 
 sculptures of B avian, which are not more than six miles from the valley 
 of Sheikh Adi in the same range of hills ; but I will defer a description of 
 ihese remarkable monuments until I come to relate my second journey to 
 the spot. 
 
 The Kaidi, a Yezidi tribe, perform at the annual festival, the following 
 curious ceremony, said to be of great antiquity, which we witnessed on the 
 day of our departure from Sheikh Adi. They ascend, in company with 
 all those who have fire-arms, the rocks overhanging the temple, and, plac- 
 ing small oak twigs into the muzzles of their guns, discharge them into the 
 air. After having kept up a running fire for nearly half an hour, they de- 
 scend into the outer court and again let off their pieces. When entering 
 the inner court they go through a martial dance, before Hussein Bey, who 
 stands on the steps of the sanctuary amidst the assembled priests and elders. 
 The dance being ended, a bull, presented by the Yezidi chief, is led out 
 from the temple. The Kaidi rush upon the animal with shouts, and seizing 
 it, lead it off in triumph to Sheikh Mirza, one of the heads of the sect, from 
 whom they also receive a present, generally consisting of sheep. During 
 these ceremonies the assembled crowd of men, women, and children form 
 groups on the steep sides of the ravine, some standing on the well- wooded 
 
1A > :_veh axd baby: TChap IV 
 
 terraces, others on projecting rocks and ledges, -whilst the bop clamber intc 
 the high trees, from whence they can obtain a view of the proceed 
 The women make the tahlel without ceasing, and the valley resounds with 
 the deafening noise. The long white garments fluttering amongst the 
 trees, and the gay costumes of some of the groups, produce a very beautiful 
 
 The Kaidi were formerly a powerful tribe, sending as many as six hund- 
 red matchlock-men to the great feast. They have been greatly reduced 
 in numbers and wealth by wars and oppression. 
 
 Cawal Yusuf had promised, on the occasion of the festival, to show me 
 the sacred hook of the Yezidis. He accordingly brought a volume to me 
 one morning, accompanied by the seer i :- zidi . 
 
 as far as I am aware, who could read it. It consisted of a few tattered 
 leaves, of no ancient date, containing a poetical rhapsody on the merits and 
 attributes of Sheikh Adi, who is identified with the Deity himself, as the 
 origin and creator of all things, though evidently distinguished from the 
 Eternal Essence by being represented as seeking the truth, and as reach- 
 ing through it the highest place, which he declares to be attainable by all 
 those who like him shall find the truth. I will, however, give a trans- 
 lation of this mn gnlar poem, for which I am indebted to Mr. Hormuzd 
 
 :i BirnTiTHFW (ok Poem) op Sheikh Am — Praci iz upoa BDI 
 
 ~..iz.iL7.z ="7r:ur.i5 ::.t :t::'l ::'::„:._-. 
 
 :';. :- :..:;■; r i :: ::. z:.- 
 oth of my descent is set forth by itself :t 
 it was known it was altogether in me.$ 
 e in the universe are under me, 
 : Li'.-.'.i'.'.-: : -r- iT.i :':.- :-:— r~ . ; 
 
 :..:_• iTrr.-ri is -r.irT :ia 
 ".'.-: :.'..:_""' '■■'-: : . : : - :.: _ :".". :'--: -: x.-"~ 
 ':.-: ~':. : -: i/a i ~:r--. si;. .: z 
 the just judge, and the ruler of the earth (Bat "ha) 
 he whom men worship in my glory. 
 
 1. 
 
 Vy :: 
 
 - 
 
 
 a- : :: 
 
 4. And ^ 
 
 i 
 
 a;; ~. 
 
 6. 
 
 A i : i 
 
 
 
 8. 
 
 
 9. 
 
 
 10. 
 
 
 11. 
 
 A '.. - - 
 
 ■ The year after my visit to Sheikh Adi this poem was shown, through Mr C. Ras- 
 sam, to the Rev. Mr. Badger, who has also given a translation of it in the first volume 
 of his " Xestorians and their Rituals.*" The translation in the text was. however. 
 m*A» before Mr. Badger's work was published. That gentleman is mistaken in stat- 
 ing that " Sheikh Adi is one of the names of the Deity in the theology of the 
 dis,** and "that he is held by them to be the good deity.*" for in the firry-eighth 
 the Sheikh is expressly made to say, *• The AU-meraful has distinguished me with 
 n«np« -« and the Yezidis always admit him to be but a great prophet, or Vicegerent 
 of the Almighty. 
 
 t Or, u I am come of myself-"* 
 
 /cording to Mr. Badger, " I have not known evil to be with me," but the verse 
 seems to have reference to the Sheikh's self-existence. 
 
 4 Or, "And who are in distress and in a thic 
 
 1 Or, u And in every good action I take delight.*' 
 
Chap IV 1 P0EM 0F SHEIKH ADI - 75 
 
 12. Coming to me and kissing my feet. 
 
 13. And I am he who spread over the heavens their height. 
 
 14. And I am he who cried in the beginning (or in the wilderness, Al bidaee). 
 
 15. And I am the Sheikh, the one and only one. 
 
 16. And I am he who of myself revealeth all things. 
 
 17. And I am he to whom carne the book of glad tidings, 
 
 18. From my Lord who burnetii (or cleaveth) the mountains. 
 
 19. And I am he to whom all created men come, 
 
 20. In obedience to kiss my feet. 
 
 21. I bring forth fruit from the first juice of early youth, 
 
 22. By my presence, and turn towards me my disciples.* 
 
 23. And before his light the darkness of the morning cleared away. 
 
 24. I guide him who asketh for guidance. 
 
 25. And I am he that caused Adam to dwell in Paradise, 
 
 26. And Nimrod to inhabit a hot burning (or hell) fire, 
 
 27. And I am he who guided Ahmed the Jiist, 
 
 28. And led him into my path and way. 
 
 29. And I am he unto whom all creatures 
 
 30. Come unto for my good purposes and gifts.t 
 
 31. And I am he who visited all the heights (or, who hath all majesty), 
 
 32. And goodness and charity proceed from my mercy. 
 
 33. And I am he who made all hearts to fear 
 
 34. My purpose, and they magnified the power and majesty of my awfulness.t 
 
 35. And I am he to whom the destroying lion came, 
 
 36. Raging, and I shouted against him and he became stone. 
 
 37. And I am he to whom the serpent came, 
 
 38. And by my will I made him dust. 
 
 39. And I am he who struck the rock and made it tremble, 
 
 40. And made to burst from its side the sweetest of waters. 
 
 41. And I am he who sent down the certain truth. 
 
 42. From me (is) the book that comforteth the oppressed. 
 
 43. And I am he who judged justly ; 
 
 44. And when I judged it was my right. 
 
 45. And I am he who made the springs to give water, 
 
 46. Sweeter and pleasanter than all waters. 
 
 47. And I am he that caused it to appear in my mercy, 
 
 48. And by my power I called it the pure (or the white). 
 
 49. And I am he to whom the Lord of Heaven hath said, 
 
 50. Thou art the Just Judge, and the ruler of the earth (Bat'hai). 
 
 51. And I am he who disclosed some of my wonders. 
 
 52. And some of my virtues are manifested in that which exists. 
 
 53. And I am he who caused the mountains to bow, 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Badger translates the 21st and 22d verses differently :— 
 " I am the mouth, the moisture of whose spittle 
 Is as honey, wherewith I constitute my confidants ;" 
 referring to the mode of initiation amongst Mussulman dervishes, who drink a bowl 
 of milk into which a Sheikh has spat. 
 + Or, " Mine are all created, or existing things ; 
 
 They are my gifts, and for my purposes." 
 t " And I am he that entereth the heart in my zeal, 
 
 And I shine through the power of my awfulness and majesty." 
 
 Mr. Badger. 
 
76 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. IV. 
 
 54. To move under me, and at my will. 
 
 55. And I am he before whose awful majesty the wild beasts cried ; 
 
 56. They turned to me worshipping, and kissed my feet. 
 
 57. And I am Adi Es-shami (or, of Damascus), the son of Moosafir.* 
 
 58. Verily the All-Merciful has assigned unto me names, 
 
 59. The heavenly throne, and the seat, and the seven (heavens) and the earth.- 1 
 
 60. In the secret of my knowledge there is no God but me. 
 
 61. These things are subservient to my power. 
 
 62. And for which state do you deny my guidance. X 
 
 63. Oh men ! deny me not, but submit ; 
 
 64. In the day of Judgment you will be happy in meeting me. 
 
 65. Who dies in my love I will cast him 
 
 66. In the midst of Paradise by my will and pleasure ; 
 
 67. But he who dies unmindful of me, 
 
 68. Will be thrown into torture in misery and affliction. § 
 
 69. I say that I am the only one and the exalted ; 
 
 70. I create and make rich those whom I will. 
 
 71. Praise be to myself, and all things are by my will 
 
 72. And the universe is lighted by some of my gifts. 
 
 73. I am the King who magnifies himself ; 
 
 74. And all the riches of creation are at my bidding. 
 
 75. I have made known unto you, people, some of my ways, 
 
 76. Who desireth me must forsake the world. 
 
 77. And I can also speak the true saying. 
 
 78. And the garden on high is for those who do my pleasure. 
 
 79. I sought the truth, and became a confirming truth ; 
 
 80. And by the like truth shall they possess the highest place like me. 
 
 This was the only written work that I was able to obtain from the Yez- 
 idis ; their Cawals repeated several prayers and hymns to me, which were 
 purely laudatory of the Deity, and unobjectionable in substance. Numer- 
 ous occupations during the remainder of my residence in Assyria prevented 
 me from prosecuting my inquiries much further on this subject. Cawal 
 Yusuf informed me that before the great massacre of the sect by the Bey 
 of Rahwanduz they possessed many books which were lost during the gen- 
 eral panic, or destroyed by the Kurds. He admitted that this was only a 
 fragmentary composition, and by no means " the Book" which contained 
 the theology and religious laws of the Yezidi. He even hinted that the 
 great work did still exist, and I am by no means certain that there is not 
 a copy at Baasheikhah or Baazani. The account given by the Cawal 
 
 * There is some doubt about this passage ; Mr. Badger has translated it, 
 " I am Adi of the mark, a wanderer." 
 Guided by the spirit of the passage, I prefer, however, Mr. Rassam's version which 
 agrees with the common tradition amongst the Yezidis, with whom Sheikh Moosafir 
 is a venerated personage. His mother was a woman of Busrah. He was never 
 married. 
 
 f " And my seat and throne are the wide-spread earth." — Mr. Badger. 
 
 X Or, " mine enemies, why do you deny me?" 
 
 <) Or, " Shall be punished with my contempt and rod." — Mr. Badger 
 
Chap. IV.l creed op the yezidis. 77 
 
 seems to be confirmed by the allusion made in the above poem to the 
 " Book of Glad Tidings," and " the Book that comforteth the oppressed," 
 which could scarcely have been inserted for any particular purpose, such 
 as to deceive their Mohammedan neighbours. 
 
 I have given in an appendix three chants of the Yezidis, which were 
 noted down by M. Lowy as Cawal Yusuf played on his flute when with 
 me at Constantinople.* Two of them were not without originality and 
 melody. 
 
 I will here add a few notes concerning the Yezidis and their faith to 
 those contained in my former work ; they were chiefly obtained from Cawal 
 Yusuf. 
 
 They believe that Christ will come to govern the world, but that after 
 him Sheikh Medi will appear, to whom will be given special jurisdiction 
 over those speaking the Kurdish language, including the Yezidis (this is 
 evidently a modern interpolation derived from Mussulman sources, perhaps 
 invented to conciliate the Mohammedans). 
 
 All who go to heaven must first pass an expiatory period in hell, but no 
 one will be punished eternally. Mohammedans they exclude from all fu- 
 ture life, but not Christians. (This may have been said to avoid giving 
 offence.) 
 
 The Yezidis will not receive converts to their faith ; circumcision is op- 
 tional. When a child is born near enough to the tomb of Sheikh Adi, to be 
 taken there without great inconvenience or danger, it should be baptized as 
 early as possible after birth. The Cawals in their periodical visitations 
 carry a bottle or skin filled with the holy water, to baptize those children 
 who cannot be brought to the shrine. 
 
 There are forty days fast in the spring of the year, but they are observed 
 by few ; one person in a family may fast for the rest.f They should ab- 
 stain during that period as completely as the Chaldeeans from animal 
 food. Sheikh Nasr fasts rigidly for one month in the year, eating only 
 once in twenty-four hours and immediately after sunset. 
 
 Only one wife is strictly lawful, although the chief takes more ; but con- 
 cubines are not forbidden. The wife may be turned away for great mis- 
 conduct, and the husband, with the consent of the Sheikhs, may marry 
 again ; but the discarded wife never can. Even such divorces ought only 
 to be given in cases of adultery ; for formerly, when the Yezidis adminis- 
 tered their own temporal laws, the wife was punished with death, and the 
 husband of course was then released. 
 
 The religious, as well as the political head of all the Yezidis, wherever 
 they may reside, is Hussein Bey, who is called the Kalifa, and he holds this 
 
 * The flute of the Yezidis consists of a reed blown at one end. The tone is ex- 
 ceedingly sweet and mellow, and some of their melodies very plaintive. 
 
 t This reminds me of the Bedouins, who, when they come into a town in a party, 
 send one of their number to the mosque to pray for his companions as well as him- 
 self. 
 
78 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IV 
 
 position by inheritance. As he is young and inexperienced, he deputes his 
 religious duties to Sheikh Nasr. He should be the Peesh-Namaz, or lead- 
 er of the prayers, during sacred ceremonies ; but as a peculiar dress is worn 
 on this occasion, and the Bey is obliged to be in continual intercourse with 
 the Turkish authorities, these robes might fall into their hands, and they 
 are, therefore, entrusted to Sheikh Jindi, who officiates for the young chief.* 
 Sheikh Nasr is only the chief of the Sheikhs of the district of Sheikhan. 
 The Cawals are all of one family, and are under the orders of Hussein Bey, 
 who sends them periodically to collect the voluntary contributions of the 
 various tribes. The amount received by them is divided into two equal 
 parts, one of which goes to the support of the tomb of Sheikh Adi, and 
 half of the other to Hussein Bey, the remainder being equally shared by 
 the Cawals. Neither the priests nor Hussein Bey ever shave their beards. 
 They ought not to marry out of their own order, and though the men do 
 not observe this rule very strictly, the women are never given in marriage 
 to one out of the rank of the priesthood. Hussein Bey ought to take his 
 wife from the family of Chul Beg. 
 
 After death, the body of a Yezidi, like that of a Mohammedan, is washed 
 in running water, and then buried with the face turned towards the north 
 star. A Cawal should be present at the ceremony, but if one cannot be 
 found, the next who visits the neighbourhood should pray over the grave. 
 I have frequently seen funeral parties of Yezidis in their villages. The 
 widow dressed in white, throwing dust over her head, which is also well 
 smeared with clay, and accompanied by her female friends, will meet the 
 mourners dancing, with the sword or shield of her husband in one hand 
 and long locks cut from her own hair in the other. 
 
 I have stated that it is unlawful amongst the Yezidis to know how t( 
 read or write. This, I am assured, is not the case, and their ignorance 
 arises from want of means and proper teachers. Formerly a Chaldaean 
 deacon used to instruct the children. 
 
 Cawal Yusuf mentioned accidentally, that, amongst the Yezidis, the an- 
 cient name for God was Azed, and from it he derived the name of his sect. 
 He confirmed to me the fact of the small Ziareh at Sheikh Adi being dedi- 
 cated to the sun, who, he says, is called by the Yezidis " Wakeel el Ardth" 
 (the Lieutenant or Governor of the world). They have no particular rev- 
 erence for fire ; the people pass their hands through the flame of the lamps 
 at Sheikh Adi, merely because they belong to the tomb. Their Kublah, 
 he declared, was the polar star and not the east. 
 
 On my way to Mosul from Sheikh Adi, I visited the ruins of Jerraiyah, 
 where excavations had been again carried on by one of my agents. No 
 ancient buildings were discovered. The principal mound is lofty and con- 
 ical in shape, and the base is surrounded by smaller mounds, and irregular- 
 
 * Ali Bey, Hussein's father, was initiated in the performance of all the ceremonies 
 of the faith. 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 JERRAIYAH. 
 
 79 
 
 ities in the soil which denote the remains of houses. I had not leisure 
 during my residence in Assyria to examine the spot as fully as it may de- 
 
 serve. 
 
 Yezidi Cawals. 
 
Mound of Nimroud. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 P.LNEWAL OF EXCAVATIONS AT KOUYUNJIK. FIRST VISIT TO NIMROUD. STATE OF RUI>S 
 
 RENEW EXCAVATIONS IN MOUND. THE ABOU SALMAN ARABS. VISIT OF COLONtl. 
 
 RAWLINSON. LATIFF AGHA. MR. H. RASSAM. THE JEBOUR WORKMEN AT KOUYUNJIK 
 
 DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK. SCULPTURES REPRESENTING MOVING OF GREAT STONES 
 
 AND WINGED BULLS. METHODS ADOPTED. SIMILAR SUBJECT ON EGYPTIAN MONU- 
 MENT. EPIGRAPHS ON BAS-RELIEFS OF MOVING BULLS. SCULPTURES REPRESENTING 
 
 INVASION OF MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRY. AND SACK OF CITY. DISCOVERY OF GATEWAY. 
 
 EXCAVATION IN HIGH CONICAL MOUND AT NIMROUD. DISCOVERY OF WALL OF STONE. 
 
 FEAST TO THE YEZIDIS AT MOSUL. VISIT TO KHORSABAD. DISCOVERY OF SLAB. 
 
 STATE OF THE RUINS. FUTHLIYAH. BAAZANI. BAASHEIKHAH. 
 
 We were again in Mosul by the 12th of October. The Jebours, my old 
 workmen, had now brought their families to the town. I directed them to 
 cross the river, and to pitch their tents over the excavations at Kouyunjik. 
 as they had formerly done around the trenches at Nimroud. The Bedou- 
 ins, unchecked in their forays by the Turkish authorities, had become so 
 bold, that they ventured to the very walls of Mosul, and on the opposite 
 bank of the Tigris had plundered the cattle belonging to the inhabitants of 
 the village of the tomb of Jonah. On one occasion I saw an Arab horse- 
 man of the desert dart into the high road, seize a mule, and drive it off 
 from amidst a crowd of spectators. This state of things made it necessary 
 to have a strong party on the ruins for self-defence. The Jebours were, 
 however, on good terms with the Bedouins, and had lately encamped 
 amongst them. Indeed, it was suspected, that whilst Abd-rubbou and his 
 tribe were more than usually submissive in their dealings with the local 
 government, they were the receivers of goods carried off by their friends, 
 their intercourse with the town enabling them to dispose of such property 
 to the best advantage in the market-place. 
 
 About one hundred workmen, divided into twelve or fourteen parties, 
 were employed at Kouyunjik. The Arabs, as before, removed the earth 
 and rubbish, whilst the more difficult labor with the pick was left entire- 
 ly to the Nestorian mountaineers. My old friend, Yakoub, the Rais of 
 Asheetha, made his appearance one morning, declaring that things were 
 
Chap. V.l return to nimroud gl 
 
 going on ill in the mountains ; and that, although the head of a village, he 
 hoped to spend the winter more profitably and more pleasantly in my 
 service. He was accordingly named superintendent of the Tiyari work- 
 men, for whom I built mud huts near the foot of the mound. 
 
 The work having been thus began at Kouyunjik, I rode with Hormuzd 
 to Nimroud for the first time on the 18th of October. It seemed but yes- 
 terday that we had followed the same track. We stopped at each village, 
 and found in each old acquaintances ready to welcome us. From the crest 
 of the hill half way, the first view of Nimroud opened upon us ; the old 
 mound, on which I had gazed so often from this spot, and with which so 
 many happy recollections were bound up, rising boldly above the Jaif, the 
 river winding through the plain, the distant wreaths of smoke marking the 
 villages of Naifa and Nimroud. At Selamiyah we sought the house of the 
 Kiayah, where I had passed the first winter whilst excavating at Nim- 
 roud ; but it was now a house of mourning. The good old man had died 
 two days before, and the wails of the women, telling of a death within, 
 met our ears as we approached the hovel. Turning from the scene of woe, 
 we galloped over the plain, and reached Nimroud as the sun went down. 
 Saleh Shahir, with the elders of the village, was there to receive us. I 
 dismounted at my old house, which was still standing, though somewhat 
 in ruins, for it had been the habitation of the Kiayah during my absence. 
 Toma Shishman had, however, been sent down the day before, and had 
 made such preparations for our reception as the state of the place would 
 permit. To avoid the vermin swarming in the rooms, my tent was pitched 
 in the courtyard, and I dwelt entirely in it. 
 
 The village had still, comparatively speaking, a flourishing appearance, 
 and had not diminished in size since my last visit. The tanzimat, or re- 
 formed system of local administration, had been introduced into the pashalic 
 of Mosul, and although many of its regulations were evaded, and arbitrary 
 acts were still occasionally committed, yet on the whole a marked improve- 
 ment had taken place in the dealings of the authorities with the subjects 
 of the Sultan. The great cause of complaint was the want of security. 
 The troops under the command of the Pasha were not sufficient in number 
 to keep the Bedouins in check, and there was scarcely a village in the low 
 country which had not suffered more or less from their depredations. Nim- 
 roud was particularly exposed to their incursions, and the inhabitants lived 
 in continual agitation and alarm. 
 
 The evening was spent with the principal people of the village, talking 
 with them of their prospects, taxes, harvests, and the military conscription, 
 now the great theme of discontent in Southern Turkey, where it had been 
 newly introduced. 
 
 By sunrise I was amongst the ruins. The mound had undergone no 
 change. There it rose from the plain, the same sun-burnt yellow heap that 
 it had stood for twenty centuries. The earth and rubbish, which had been 
 heaped over the excavated chambers and sculptured slabs, had settled, and 
 
 F 
 
52 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP V 
 
 had left uncovered in sinking the upper part of several bas-reliefs. A few 
 colossal heads of winged figures rose calmly above the level of the soil, and 
 with two pairs of winged bulls, which had not been reburied on account of 
 their mutilated condition, was all that remained above ground of the north- 
 west palace, that great storehouse of Assyrian history and art. Since my 
 departure the surface of the mound had again been furrowed by the plough, 
 and ample crops had this year rewarded the labors of the husbandman. 
 The ruins of the south-west palace were still uncovered. The Arabs had 
 respected the few bas-reliefs which stood against the crumbling walls, and 
 Saleh Shahir pointed to them as a proof of the watchfulness of his people 
 during my long absence. 
 
 Collecting together my old excavators from the Shemutti and Jehesh 
 (the Arab tribes who inhabit Nimroud and Naifa), and from the tents of 
 a few Jebours who still lingered round the village to glean a scanty sub- 
 sistence after the harvest, I placed workmen in different parts of the mound. 
 The north-west palace had not been fully explored. Most of the chambers 
 which did not contain sculptured slabs, but were simply built of sundried 
 bricks, had been left unopened. I consequently directed a party of workmen 
 to resume the excavations where they had been formerly abandoned.* 
 New trenches were also opened in the ruins of the centre palace, where, as 
 yet. no sculptures had been discovered in their original position against the 
 walls. The high conical mound forming the north-west corner of Nim- 
 roud, the pyramid as it has usually been called, had always been an object 
 of peculiar interest, which want of means had hitherto prevented me fully 
 examining. With the exception of a shaft, about forty feet deep, sunk 
 nearly in the centre, and passing through a solid mass of sundried bricks, 
 no other opening had been made into this singular ruin. I now ordered a 
 tunnel to be carried into its base on the western face, and on a level with 
 the conglomerate rock upon which it rested. 
 
 Whilst riding among the ruins giving directions to the workmen, we had 
 not escaped the watchful eyes of the Abou-Salman Arabs, whose tents were 
 scattered over the Jaif. Not having heard of my visit, and perceiving 
 horsemen wandering over the mound, they took us for Bedouin marauders, 
 and mounting their ever-ready mares, sallied forth to reconnoitre. Seeing 
 Arabs galloping over the plain I rode down to meet them, and soon found 
 myself in the embrace of Schloss, the nephew of Sheikh A 1 i-ur-Rahman. 
 We turned together to the tent of the chief, still pitched m the old en- 
 camping ground. The men, instead of fighting with Bed ins, now gath- 
 ered round us in the muzeefA and a sheep was slain to c/ebrate my re- 
 turn. The Sheikh himself was absent, having been thrown mto prison by 
 the Pasha for refusing to pay some newly-imposed taxes. I was able to 
 announce his release, at my intercession, to his wife, who received me as his 
 guest. The Sheikh of the Haddedeen Arabs, hearing that I was at the 
 
 * To the south of Chamber X. Plan III. " Nineveh and its Remains," vol. i. p. 62 
 t The muzccf is that part of an Arab tent in which guests are received. 
 
Chap V 1 AN UNEXPECTED meeting. g3 
 
 Ahou-Salman camp, rode over with his people to see me. His tents stood 
 on the banks of the Tigris, and he had united with Abd-ur-E.ahman for 
 mutual defence against the Bedouins. 
 
 As we returned to Nimroud in the evening, we stopped at a small en- 
 campment in the Jaif, and buried beneath a heap of old felts and sacks 
 found poor Khalaf-el-Hussein, who had, in former times, been the active 
 and hospitable Sheikh of my Jebour workmen at the mound. The world 
 had since gone ill with him. Struck down by fever, he had been unable 
 to support himself and his family by labor, or other means open to an Arab. 
 He was in great poverty, and still helpless from disease. He rose up as 
 we rode to his tent, and not having heard of our arrival was struck with 
 astonishment and delight as he saw Hormuzd and myself as its entrance. 
 We gave him such help as was in our power, and he declared that the 
 prospect of again being in my service would soon prove the best remedy for 
 his disease. 
 
 As I ascended the mound next morning I perceived a group of travellers 
 on its summit, their horses picketted in the stubble. Ere I could learn 
 what strangers had thus wandered to this remote region, my hand was 
 seized by the faithful Bairakdar. Beneath, in an excavated chamber, 
 wrapped in his travelling cloak, was Rawlinson deep in sleep, wearied by 
 a long and harassing night's ride. For the first time we met in the As- 
 syrian ruins, and besides the greetings of old friendship there was much to 
 be seen together, and much to be talked over. The fatigues of the jour- 
 ney had, however, brought on fever, and we were soon compelled, after 
 visiting the principal excavations, to take refuge from the heat of the sun 
 in the mud huts of the village. The attack increasing in the evening, it 
 was deemed prudent to ride into Mosul at once, and we mounted our horses 
 in the middle of the night. 
 
 During two days Col. Rawlinson was too ill to visit the excavations at 
 Kouyunjik. On the third we rode together to the mound. After a hasty 
 survey of the ruins we parted, and he continued his journey to Constanti- 
 nople and to England, to reap the laurels of a well-earned fame.* 
 
 I had now nearly all my old adherents and workmen about me. The 
 Bairakdar, who had hastened to join me as soon as he had heard of my re- 
 turn, was named principal cawass, and had the general management of 
 my household. One LatifF Agha, like the Bairakdar, a native of Scio, car- 
 ried off as a slave after the massacre, and brought up in the Mussulman 
 creed, was appointed an overseer over the workmen. He had been strongly 
 
 * Shortly after Col. Rawlinson's departure, Capt. Newbold, of the East India Com- 
 pany's service, spent a few days with me at Mosul. Although, alas ! I can no longer 
 recall to his recollection the happy hours we passed together, let me pay a sincere 
 tribute to the memory of one who, in spite of hopeless disease, and sufferings of no 
 common kind, maintained an almost unrivalled sweetness of disposition, and never 
 relaxed from the pursuit of knowledge and the love of science. Those who enjoyed 
 tiis intimacy, and profited by his learning, will know that this testimony to his worth 
 is not the exaggerated praise of partial friendship. 
 
84 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V. 
 
 recommended to me by the British consul at Kaiseriyah, and fully justified 
 in my service by his honesty and fidelity the good report I had received of 
 him. 
 
 My readers would be wearied were I to relate, day by day, the progress 
 of the excavations, and to record, as they were gradually made, the discov- 
 eries in the various ruins. It will give a more complete idea of the results 
 of the researches to describe the sculptured walls of a whole chamber when 
 entirely explored, instead of noting, one by one, as dug out, bas-reliefs 
 which form but part of the same subject. I will, therefore, merely men- 
 tion that, during the months of October and November, my time was spent 
 between Kouyunjik and Nimroud, and that the excavations were carried on 
 at both places without interruption. Mr. Cooper was occupied in drawing 
 the bas-reliefs discovered at Kouyunjik, living in Mosul, and riding over 
 daily to the ruins. To Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, who usually accompanied me 
 in my journeys, were confided, as before, the general superintendence of the 
 operations, the payment of the workmen, the settlement of disputes, and 
 various other offices, which only one, as well acquainted as himself with 
 the Arabs and men of various sects employed in the works, and exercising 
 so much personal influence amongst them, could undertake. To his un- 
 wearied exertions, and his faithful and punctual discharge of all the du- 
 ties imposed upon him, to his inexhaustible good humour, combined with 
 necessary firmness, to his complete knowledge of the Arab character, and 
 the attachment with which even the wildest of those with whom we were 
 brought in contact regarded him, the Trustees of the British Museum owe 
 not only much of the success of these researches, but the economy with 
 which I was enabled to carry them through. Without him it would have 
 been impossible to accomplish half what has been done with the means 
 placed at my disposal. 
 
 The Arab workmen, as I have already observed, lived in tents amongst 
 the ruins. The overseers of the works of Kouyunjik resided either in the 
 village near the foot of the mound, or in Mosul, and crossed the river every 
 morning before the labors of the day began. The workmen were divided 
 into several classes, and their wages varied according to their respective 
 occupations, as well as according to the time of year. They were gener- 
 ally paid weekly by Hormuzd. The diggers, who were exposed to very se- 
 vere labor, and even to considerable risk, received from two piastres and a 
 half to three piastres (from 5d. to 6d.) a-day ; those who filled the baskets 
 from two piastres to two and a half; and the general workmen from one 
 and a half to two piastres. The earth, when removed, was sifted by boys, 
 who earned about one piastre for their day's labor. These wages may ap- 
 pear low, but they are amply sufficient for the support of a family in a 
 country where the camel-load of wheat (nearly 480 lbs.) is sold for about 
 four shillings, and where no other protection from the inclemencies of the 
 weather is needed than a linen shirt and the black folds of an Arab tent.*" 
 * At Mosul, a bullock, very small certainly when compared with our high-fed cat- 
 
Chap V 1 chambers described. §5 
 
 The Kouyunjik workmen were usually paid in the subterraneous galle- 
 ries, some convenient space where several passages met being chosen for 
 the purpose ; those of Nimroud generally in the village. A scene of wild 
 confusion ensued on these occasions, from which an inexperienced observer 
 might argue a sad want of order and method. This was, however, but 
 the way of doing business usual in the country. "When there was a dif- 
 ference of opinion, he who cried the loudest gained the day, and after a 
 desperate struggle of voices matters relapsed into their usual state, every 
 one being perfectly satisfied. Screaming and gesticulation with Easterns 
 by no means signify ill will, or even serious disagreement. Without them, 
 except of course amongst the Turks, who are staid and dignified to a prov- 
 erb, the most ordinary transactions cannot be carried on, and they are fre- 
 quently rather symptoms of friendship than of hostility. Sometimes the 
 Arabs employed at Kouyunjik would cross the river to Mosul to receive 
 their pay. They would then walk through the town in martial array, 
 brandishing their weapons and chanting their war cries in chorus, to the 
 alarm of the authorities and the inhabitants, who generally concluded that 
 the place had been invaded by the Bedouins. It was Mr. Hormuzd Ras- 
 sam's task to keep in check these wild spirits. 
 
 By the end of November several entire chambers had been excavated 
 at Kouyunjik, and many bas-reliefs of great interest had been discovered. 
 The four sides of the hall, part of which has already been described,* had 
 now been explored, f In the centre of each side was a grand entrance, 
 guarded by colossal human-headed bulls. $ This magnificent hall was no 
 less than 124 feet in length by 90 feet in breadth, the longest sides being those 
 to the north and south. It appears to have formed a centre, around which 
 the principal chambers in this part of the palace were grouped. Its walls 
 had been completely covered with the most elaborate and highly-finished 
 sculptures. Unfortunately all the bas-reliefs, as well as the gigantic mon- 
 sters at the entrances, had suffered more or less from the fire which had 
 destroyed the edifice ; but enough of them still remained to show the sub- 
 ject, and even to enable me in many places to restore it entirely. 
 
 The narrow passage leading from the great hall at the southwest corner 
 
 tie, is sold for forty or fifty piastres (8s. or 10s.) ; a fat sheep for about 4s. ; a lamb 
 for 2s. or 2s. Gd. Other articles of food are proportionally cheap. The camel-load 
 of barley was selling at my departure for ten or twelve piastres (2s. or 2s. 6d.). A 
 common horse is worth from 31. to 51. ; a donkey about 10s. ; a camel about the same 
 as a horse. 
 
 * See p. 59. 
 
 t It will be borne in mind that it was necessary to carry tunnels round the cham- 
 bers, and along the walls, leaving the centre buried in earth and rubbish, a very la- 
 borious and tedious operation with no more means at command than those afforded 
 by the country. 
 
 t All these entrances were formed in the same way as that in the south-eastern 
 side, described p. 60, namely, by a pair of human-headed bulls, flanked on each side 
 bv a winged giant, and two smaller figures one above the other. 
 
g(j NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. V 
 
 had been completely explored. Its sculptures have already been described.* 
 It opened into a chamber 24 feet by 19, from which branched two other 
 passages.! The one to the west was entered by a wide doorway, in which 
 stood two plain spherical stones about three feet high, having the appear- 
 ance of the bases of columns, although no traces of any such architectural 
 ornament could be found. This was the entrance into a broad and spa- 
 cious gallery, about 218 feet long and 25 wide 4 A tunnel at its western 
 end, cut through the solid wall, as there was no doorway on this side of 
 the gallery, led into the chambers excavated by Mr. Ross,§ thus connect- 
 ing them with the rest of the building. Opposite this tunnel the gallery 
 turned to the right, but was not explored until long after. From this part 
 of the excavations an inclined way, dug from the surface of the mound, 
 was used by the Arabs in descending to the subterraneous works. 
 
 I have already described the bas-reliefs representing the conquest of a 
 mountainous country on the southern side of the great hall. || The same 
 subject was continued on the western wall, without much variety in the 
 details. But on the northern, the sculptures differed from any others yet 
 discovered, and from their interest and novelty merit a particular notice. 
 They were in some cases nearly entire, though much cracked and calcined 
 by fire, and represented the process of transporting the great human-headed 
 bulls to the palaces of which they formed so remarkable a feature. But 
 before giving a particular description of them, I must return to the long 
 gallery to the west of the great hall,^" as the sculptures still preserved in 
 it form part of and complete this important series. 
 
 The slabs on one side of this gallery had been entirely destroyed, except 
 at the eastern end ; and from the few which still remained, every trace of 
 sculpture had been carefully removed by some sharp instrument. Along 
 the opposite wall (that to the right on leaving the great hall) only eight 
 bas-reliefs still stood in their original position, and even of these only the 
 lower part was preserved. Detached fragments of others were found in 
 the rubbish, and from them I ascertained that the whole gallery had been 
 occupied by one continuous series, representing the different processes adopt- 
 ed by the Assyrians in moving and placing various objects used in their 
 buildings, and especially the human-headed bulls, from the first transport 
 of the huge stone in the rough from the quarry, to the raising of these gi- 
 gantic sculptures in the gateways of the palace-temples. On these frag- 
 ments were seen the king in his chariot, superintending the operations, and 
 workmen carrying cables, or dragging carts loaded with coils of ropes, and 
 various implements for moving the colossi. Enough, however, did not re- 
 main to restore any one series of bas-reliefs, but fortunately, on the slabs 
 
 * P. 61. t Nob. XLVIII. and XLII. Plan I 
 
 X Xo. XLIX. same Plan. $ Xos. LI. and LII. same Plan. 
 
 H P. 59. I assume the building to be due north and south, although it is not so. 
 It faces nearly north-east and south-west. 
 •T No. XLIX. Plan I. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 MOVING THE BULLS. 
 
 87 
 
 still standing, was represented the first process, that of bringing the stone 
 from the quarry, whilst those on the northern walls of the great hall fur- 
 nished many of the subjects which were here wanting. Amongst the scat- 
 tered fragments was the figure of a lion-headed man raising a sword ; * 
 which does not appear to have belonged to this gallery, unless it had been 
 used to break the monotony of one long line of elaborate bas-reliefs repre- 
 senting nearly the same subject. Similar figures only occur at entrances 
 in the ruins of Kouyunjik. 
 
 I will commence, then, by a description of the sculptures still standing 
 in their original position in the gallery. A huge block of stone (probably 
 of the alabaster used in the Assyrian edifices), somewhat elongated in form 
 so as to resemble an obelisk in the rough,! is lying on a low flat-bottomed 
 boat floating on a river. It has probably been towed down the Tigris from 
 some quarry, and is to be landed near the site of the intended palace, to be 
 carved by the sculptor into the form of a colossal bull. It exceeds the boat 
 considerably in length, projecting beyond both the head and stern, and is 
 held by upright beams fastened to the sides of the vessel, and kept firm in 
 their places by wooden wedges. Two cables are passed through holes cut 
 in the stone itself, and a third is tied to a strong pin projecting from the 
 head of the boat. Each cable is held by a large body of men, who pull 
 by means of small ropes fastened to it and passed round their shoulders. 
 Some of these trackers walk in the water, others on dry land. The num- 
 ber altogether represented must have been nearly 300, about 100 to each 
 cable, and they appear to be divided into distinct bands, each distin- 
 guished by a peculiar costume. Some wear a kind of embroidered turban, 
 
 through which their long hair is gath- 
 ered behind ; the heads of others are 
 encircled by a fringed shawl, whose 
 ends hang over the ears and neck, 
 leaving the hair to fall in long curls 
 upon the shoulders. Many are repre- 
 sented naked, but the greater number 
 Head-dress of Captives employed by Assyrians are dressed in short chequered tunics, 
 
 in moving Bull (Kouyunjik). ^ & hng fri attached to the gir . 
 
 die. They are urged on by taskmasters armed with swords and staves. 
 The boat is also pushed by men wading through the stream. An overseer, 
 who regulates the whole proceedings, is seated astride on the fore-part of 
 the stone. His hands are stretched out in the act of giving commands. 
 The upper part of all the bas-reliefs having unfortunately been destroyed, 
 
 * This sculpture is now in the British Museum. The engraving on the following 
 page, from a sketch by the able pencil of the Rev. S. C. Maian, will show in what 
 state these fragments were discovered. 
 
 f It is just possible that this object may really represent an obelisk, similar to that 
 brought, according to Diodorus Siculus (lib. li. c. 1.), by Semiramis, from Armenia to 
 Babylon ; but I think it far more probable, for several reasons, that it is a block in the 
 rough from the quarry, to be sculptured into the form of a winged bull. 
 
II K.iir. u 
 
Chap. V.l moving the bulls. 59 
 
 it cannot be ascertained what figures were represented above the trackers ; 
 probably Assyrian warriors drawn up in martial array, or may be the king 
 himself in his chariot, accompanied by his body-guard, and presiding over 
 the operations. # 
 
 The huge stone having been landed, and carved by the Assyrian sculp- 
 torin to the form of a colossal human-headed bull, is to be moved from the 
 bank of the river to the site it is meant to occupy permanently in the pal- 
 ace-temple. This process is represented on the walls of the great hall. 
 From these bas-reliefs, as well as from discoveries to be hereafter mention- 
 ed, it is therefore evident that the Assyrians sculptured their gigantic figures 
 before, and not after, the slabs had been raised in the edifice, although all 
 the details and the finishing touches were not put in, as it will be seen, 
 until they had been finally placed. f I am still, however, of opinion, that 
 the smaller bas-reliefs were entirely executed after the slabs had been at- 
 tached to the walls. 
 
 In the first bas-relief I shall describe, the colossal bull rests horizontally 
 on a sledge similar in form to the boat containing the rough block from the 
 quarry, but either in the carving the stone has been greatly reduced in size, 
 or the sledge is much larger than the boat, as it considerably exceeds the 
 sculpture in length. The bull faces the spectator, and the human head 
 rests on the fore part of the sledge, which is curved upwards and strength- 
 ened by a thick beam, apparently running completely through from side to 
 side. The upper part, or deck, is otherwise nearly horizontal ; the under, 
 or keel, being slightly curved throughout. Props, probably of wood, are 
 placed under different parts of the sculpture to secure an equal pressure. 
 The sledge was dragged by cables, and impelled by levers. The cables are 
 four in number ; two fastened to strong projecting pins in front, and two to 
 similar pins behind. They are pulled by small ropes passing over the 
 shoulders of the men, as in the bas-reliefs already described. The numbers 
 of the workmen may of course be only conventional, the sculptor introduc- 
 ing as many as he found room for on the slab. They are again distinguished 
 by various costumes, being probably captives from different conquered na- 
 tions, and are urged on by task-masters. The sculpture moves over rollers, 
 which, as soon as left behind by the advancing sledge, are brought again 
 to the front by parties of men, who are also under the control of overseers 
 armed with staves. Although these rollers materially facilitated the mo- 
 tion, it would be almost impossible, when passing over rough ground, or it' 
 the rollers were jammed, to give the first impetus to so heavy a body by 
 mere force applied to the cables. The Assyrians, therefore, lifted, and con- 
 sequently eased, the hinder part of the sledge with huge levers of wood, and 
 in order to obtain the necessary fulcrum they carried with them during the 
 
 * For the details of these interesting bas-reliefs, I must refer my readers to Plates 
 10 and 11. in the 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 t In my former work (vol. ii. p. 255.) I had stated that all the Assyrian sculptures 
 were carved in their places against the walls of the buildings. 
 
90 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ClIAP. V. 
 
 operations wedges of different sizes. Kneeling workmen are represented in 
 the bas-reliefs inserting an additional wedge to raise the fulcrum. The 
 lever itself was worked by ropes, and on a detached fragment, discovered in 
 the long gallery, men were seen seated astride upon it to add by their weight 
 to the force applied. 
 
 On the bull itself are four persons, probably the superintending officers. 
 The first is kneeling, and appears to be clapping his hands, probably beat- 
 ing time, to regulate the motions of the workmen, who unless they applied 
 their strength at one and the same moment would be unable to move so 
 large a weight. Behind him stands a second officer with outstretched arm. 
 evidently giving the word of command. The next holds to his mouth, 
 either a speaking-trumpet, or an instrument of music. If the former, it 
 proves that the Assyrians were acquainted with a means of conveying 
 sound, presumed to be of modern invention. In form it undoubtedly resem- 
 bles the modern speaking-trumpet, and in no bas-relief hitherto discovered 
 ('oes a similar object occur as an instrument of music. The fourth officer, 
 also standing, carries a mace, and is probably stationed behind to give di- 
 rections to those who work the levers. The sledge bearing the sculpture 
 is followed by men with coils of ropes and various implements, and draw- 
 ing carts laden with cables and beams. Even the landscape is not neg- 
 lected; and the country in which these operations took place is indicated 
 by trees, and by a river. In this stream are seen men swimming on skin? : 
 and boats and rafts, resembling those still in use in Assyria, are impelled 
 by oars with wedge-shaped blades. 
 
 A subject similar to that just described is represented in another series 
 of bas-reliefs, with even fuller details. The bull is placed in the same man- 
 ner on the sledge, which is also moved by cables and levers. It is accom- 
 panied by workmen with saws, hatchets, pick-axes, shovels, ropes, and props, 
 and by carts carrying cables and beams. Upon it are three officers direct- 
 ing the operations, one holding the trumpet in his hands, and in front walk 
 four other overseers. Above the sledge and the workmen are rows of trees, 
 and a river on which are circular boats resembling in shape the " kufas," 
 now used on the lower part of the Tigris, and probably, like them, built of 
 reeds and ozier twigs, covered with square pieces of hide. * They are heav- 
 ily laden with beams and implements required for moving the bulls. They 
 appear to have been near the sledge when dragged along the bank of the 
 river, and were impelled by four oars similar to those above described. Near 
 the boats, astride on inflated skins in the water, are fishermen angling with 
 hook and line.f 
 
 On a fallen slab, forming part of the same general series, is the kinu 
 standing in a richly decorated chariot, the pole of which, curved upwards 
 
 * Such appear to have been the boats described by Herodotus (lib. i. c. 194.). The 
 modern "kufa" is covered with bitumen. 
 
 t This bas-relief is now in the British Museum, and see Plate 12., 2nd series of 
 Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 MOVING THE BULLS. 
 
 91 
 
 Workmen carrying Ropes, Saws, and other Implements for moving Bull (Kouyunjik). 
 
 at the end, and ornamented with the head of a horse, is raised by eunuchs. 
 
 From the peculiar form of this chariot and the absence of a yoke, it would 
 
 seem to have been intended purposely for 
 such occasions as that represented in the 
 bas-relief, and to have been a kind of 
 moveable throne drawn by men and not 
 by horses.^ Behind the monarch, who 
 holds a kind of flower, or ornament in the 
 shape of the fruit of the pine, in one hand, 
 stand two eunuchs, one raising a parasol 
 to shade him from the sun, the other cool- 
 ing him with a fan. He appears to have 
 been superintending the transport of one 
 of the colossal sculptures, and his chariot 
 
 In the up- 
 
 ft If 
 
 Stag (Kouyunjik). 
 
 is preceded and followed by his bodyguard armed with maces 
 
 illy a 
 
 Wild Sow and Young, amongst Reeds (Kouyunjik) 
 
 * A throne on wheels, with a yoke, carried hy two eunuchs, is represented in a bas- 
 relief at Khorsabad. Botta, Plate 17. 
 
92 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V 
 
 per part of the slab is a jungle of high reeds, or canes, in which are seen a 
 wild sow with its young, and a stag and two hinds. These animals are de- 
 signed with great spirit and truth.* 
 
 The next series of bas-reliefs represents the building of the artificial plat- 
 forms on which the palaces were erected, and the Assyrians moving to 
 their summit the colossal bulls. f The king is again seen in his chariot 
 drawn by eunuchs, whilst an attendant raises the royal parasol above his 
 head. He overlooks the operations from that part of the mound to which 
 the sledge is being dragged, and before him stands his body-guard, a long 
 line of alternate spearmen and archers, resting their arms and shields upon 
 the ground. Above him are low hills covered with various trees, amongst 
 which may be distinguished by their fruit the vine, the fig, and the pome- 
 granate. At the bottom of the slab is represented either a river divided 
 into two branches and forming an island, as the Tigris does to this day op- 
 posite Kouyunjik, or the confluence of that stream and the Khauser, which 
 then probably took place at the very foot of the mound. On the banks 
 are seen men raising water by a simple machine, still generally used for 
 irrigation in the East, as well as in Southern Europe, and called in Egypt 
 a shadoof. It consists of a long pole, balanced on a shaft of masonry, and 
 turning on a pivot ; to one end is attached a stone, and to the other a 
 bucket, which, after being lowered into the water and filled, is easily raised 
 by the help of the opposite weight. Its contents are then emptied into a 
 conduit communicating with the various watercourses running through the 
 fields. In the neighbourhood of Mosul this mode of irrigation is now rarely 
 used, the larger skins raised by oxen affording a better supply, and giving, 
 it is considered, less trouble to the cultivator.^ 
 
 The process of building the artificial mound adjoined the subject just 
 described. k Men, apparently engaged in making bricks, are crouching and 
 kneeling round a square space, probably representing the pit whence the 
 clay for this purpose was taken. Unfortunately this part of the subject, on 
 the only two slabs on which it occurs, has been so much defaced, that its 
 details cannot be ascertained with certainty. These bookmakers are be- 
 tween two mounds, on which are long lines of workmen going up and down. 
 Those who toil upwards carry large stones, and hold on their backs by ropes 
 baskets filled with bricks, earth, and rubbish. On reaching the top of the 
 mound they relieve themselves of their burdens, and return again to the 
 foot lor fresh loads in the order they went up. 
 
 It would appear that the men thus employed were captives and male- 
 
 * See Plate 12. 2d series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 t See Plates 14 and 15. 2d series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 X I have described the mode of irrigation now generally employed by the Meso- 
 potamian Arabs, in my "Nineveh and its Remains," vol. ii. p. 353. 
 
 § Part of this bas-relief is in the British Museum, and see 2d series of Monuments 
 of Nineveh, Plates 14 & 15. The whole series occupied about twenty-five slabs in 
 the N.E. walls of the great hall, from No. 43 to No. 68. Plan I. Unfortunately some 
 f the slabs had been entirely destroyed 
 
04 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V. 
 
 factors, for many of them are in chains, some singly, others bound together 
 by an iron rod attached to rings in their girdles. The fetters, like those 
 of modern criminals, confine the legs, and are supported by a bar fastened 
 to the waist, or consist of simple shackles round the ankles. They wear 
 a short tunic, and a conical cap. somewhat resembling the Phrygian bon- 
 net, with the curved crest turned backwards, a costume very similar to 
 that of the tribute bearers on the Nimroud obelisk. Each band of work- 
 men is followod and urged on by task-masters armed with staves. 
 
 The mound, or artificial platform, having been thus built, not always, 
 as it has been seen, with regular layers of sundried bricks, but frequently 
 in parts with mere heaped-up earth and rubbish,* the next step was to 
 drag to its summit the colossal figures prepared for the palace. As some 
 of the largest of these sculptures were full twenty feet square, and must 
 have weighed between forty and fifty tons, this was no easy task with such 
 means as the Assyrians possessed. The only aid to mere manual strength 
 Avas derived from the rollers and levers. A sledge was used similar to that 
 already described, and drawn in the same way. In the bas-relief repre- 
 senting the operation, four officers are seen on the bull, the first apparent- 
 ly clapping his hands to regulate the motions of those who draw, the sec- 
 ond using the trumpet, the third directing the men who have the care of 
 the rollers, and the fourth kneeling down on the edge of the back part of 
 the sculpture to give orders to those who use the lever. Two of the groups 
 of workmen are preceded by overseers, who turn back to encourage them 
 by their exertions ; and in front of the royal chariot, on the edge of the 
 mound, kneels an officer, probably the chief superintendent, looking toward? 
 the king to receive orders direct from him. 
 
 Behind the monarch, on an adjoining slab, are carts bearing the cables, 
 wedges, and implements required in moving the sculpture. A long beam 
 or lever is slung by ropes from the shoulders of three men, and one of the 
 great wedges is carried in the same way. In the upper compartment of 
 this slab is a stream issuing from the foot of hills wooded with vines, fig- 
 trees, and pomegranates. Beneath stands a town or village, the houses 
 
 Village with conical Hoofs, near Aleppo. 
 
 of which have domes and high conical roofs, probably built of mud, as in 
 
 parts of northern Syria. The domes have the appearance of dish-covers 
 
 * Subsequent excavations at Kouyunjik and Nimroud fully verified this fact. 
 
Chap. V.l moving the bulls. g^ 
 
 with a handle, the upper part being topped by a small circular projection 
 perhaps intended as an aperture to admit light and air. 
 
 This interesting series is completed by a bas-relief,^ showing, it would 
 seem, the final placing of the colossal bull. The figure no longer lies hori- 
 zontally on the sledge, but is raised by men with ropes and forked wooden 
 props. It is kept in its erect position by beams, held together by cross 
 bars and wedges, f and is further supported by blocks of stone, or wood, 
 piled up under the body. On the sledge, in front of the bull, stands an 
 officer giving directions with outstretched hands to the workmen. Cables, 
 ropes, rollers, and levers are also employed on this occasion to move the 
 gigantic sculpture. The captives are distinguished by the peculiar tur- 
 bans before described.^ Unfortunately the upper part of all the slabs has 
 been destroyed, and much of the subject is consequently wanting. 
 
 We have thus represented, with remarkable fidelity and spirit, § the sev- 
 eral processes employed to place these colossi where they still stand, from 
 the transport down the river of the rough block to the final removal of the 
 sculptured figure to the palace. From these bas-reliefs we find that the 
 Assyrians were well acquainted with the lever and the roller, and that they 
 ingeniously made use of the former by carrying with them wedges, of dif- 
 ferent dimensions, and probably of wood, to vary the height of the fulcrum. 
 When moving the winged bulls and lions now in the British Museum from 
 the ruins to the banks of the Tigris, I used almost the same means. || The 
 Assyrians, being unable to construct a wheeled cart of sufficient strength 
 to carry so great a weight, employed a sledge, probably built of some hard 
 wood obtained from the mountains. It seems to have been nearly solid, or 
 to have been filled with beams, or decked, as the sculpture is raised above 
 its sides. Unless the levers were brought from a considerable distance, 
 they must have been of poplar, no other beams of sufficient length existing 
 in the country. Although weak, and liable to break with much strain, I 
 found them strong enough for purposes of the same kind. The Assyrians. 
 like the Egyptians, had made considerable progress in rope twisting, an art 
 now only known in its rudest state in the same part of the East. The 
 cables appear to be of great length and thickness, and ropes of various di- 
 mensions are represented in the sculptures. If 
 
 * See next page. 
 
 t It may be remarked, that precisely the same framework was used for moving 
 the great sculptures in the British Museum. 
 
 t See woodcut, p. 87. 
 
 § Although in these bas-reliefs, as in other Assyrian sculptures, no regard is paid 
 to perspective, the proportions are very well kept. I must refer my readers to the 
 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh for detailed drawings of these highly inter 
 esting sculptures. 
 
 II See woodcut in the Abridgment of my " Nineveh and its Remains" (p. 297.), 
 which may be compared with the Assyrian bas-reliefs, to show the difference be- 
 tween the ancient and modern treatment of a subject almost identic. 
 
 % There appears to be a curious allusion to ropes and cables of different sizes, and 
 
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Chap Y 1 Egyptian sculpture. 0,7 
 
 I have given, for the sake of comparison, a woodcut of the well-known 
 painting in an Egyptian grotto at El Bersheh of the moving of a colossal 
 figure.* It will show how the Egyptians and Assyrians represented nearly 
 a similar subject, and in what way these nations differed in their mode of 
 artistic treatment. The Egyptian colossus is placed upon a sledge not un- 
 like that of the Assyrian bas-reliefs in form, though smaller in comparison 
 with the size of the figure, which appears in this case to have been about 
 twenty-four feet high.f The ropes, four in number, as in the Kouyunjik 
 sculptures, are all fastened to the fore-part of the sledge, and are pulled 
 by the workmen without the aid of smaller cords. The absence of levers 
 and rollers is remarkable, as the Egyptians must have been well acquaint- 
 ed with the use of both, and no doubt employed them for moving heavy 
 weights. $ On the statue, as in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, stands an officer, 
 who claps his hand in measured time to regulate the motions of the men, 
 imd from the front of the pedestal another pours some liquid, probably 
 grease, on the ground, to facilitate the progress of the sledge, which would 
 scarcely be needed were rollers used.$ As in Assyria, the workmen in- 
 cluded slaves and captives, who were accompanied by bands of armed men. 
 
 As this curious representation is believed to be of the time of Osirtasen 
 II., a king of the seventeenth dynasty, who reigned, according to some, about 
 sixteen centuries before Christ, it is far more ancient than any known As- 
 syrian monument. The masses of solid stone moved by the Egyptians 
 also far exceeded in weight any sculpture that has yet been discovered in 
 Assyria, or any monolith on record connected with that empire ; with the 
 exception, perhaps, of the celebrated obelisk which, according to Diodorus 
 Siculus, was brought by Semiramis from Armenia to Babylon. || It is a sin- 
 gular fact, that whilst the quarries of Egypt bear witness of themselves to 
 the stupendous nature of the works of the ancient inhabitants of the country, 
 and still show on their sides engraved records of those who made them, no 
 
 to their use for such purposes as that described in the text in Isaiah, v. 18. " Woe 
 unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope." 
 A most interesting collection of ancient Egyptian cordage of almost every kind has 
 lately been purchased by the French Government from Clot Bey, and is now in the 
 Louvre. 
 
 * This woodcut has been taken from a drawing by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who 
 has kindly allowed me to use it. It is more correct in its details than that given in 
 his work on the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 328. 
 
 f Wilkinson, vol. iii. p. 327. 
 
 X Herodotus particularly mentions levers in his account of the transport of the 
 monolith of Sais (lib. ii. 175.). 
 
 <j This looks as if the sledge were moving on an inclined way of boards constructed 
 for the purpose. 
 
 I! A colossus of granite of Rameses II., at the Memnonium, weighed, when entire, 
 according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 887 tons ; and the stupendous monolith in the 
 temple of Latona, at Buto, which, according to Herodotus, took 2000 men during three 
 entire years to move to its place, upwards of 5000. (Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, 
 vol. iii. p. 331.) 
 
98 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V 
 
 traces whatever, notwithstanding the most careful research, have yet been 
 found to indicate from whence the builders of the Assyrian palaces obtained 
 their large slabs of alabaster. That they were in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood of Nineveh there is scarcely any reason to doubt, as strata of this ma- 
 terial, easily accessible, abound, not only in the hills but in the plains. This 
 very abundance may have rendered any particular quarry unnecessary, and 
 blocks were probably taken as required from convenient spots, which have 
 since been covered by the soil. The alabaster now used at Mosul is cut 
 near the Sinjar gate, to the north-west of the town. The blocks are rarely 
 larger than can be carried on the backs of horses. These quarries also sup- 
 ply Baghdad, where this material is much prized for the pavement of baths 
 and serdaubs, or underground summer apartments. 
 
 There can be no doubt, as will hereafter be shown, that the king rep- 
 resented as superintending the building of the mounds and the placing of 
 the colossal bulls, is Sennacherib himself, and that the sculptures celebrate 
 the building at Nineveh of the great palace and its adjacent temples de- 
 scribed in the inscriptions as the work of this monarch. The bas-reliefs 
 were accompanied in most instances by short epigraphs in the cuneiform 
 character, containing a description of the subject with the name of the city 
 to which the sculptures were brought. The great inscriptions on the bulls 
 at the entrances of Kouyunjik record, it would seem, not only historical 
 events, but, with great minuteness, the manner in which the edifice itself 
 was erected, its general plan, and the various materials employed in dec- 
 orating the halls, chambers, and roofs. When completely deciphered they 
 will perhaps enable us to restore, with some confidence, both the general 
 plan and elevation of the building. 
 
 Unfortunately only fragments of these epigraphs have been preserved. 
 From them it would appear that the transport of more than one object was 
 represented on the walls. Besides bulls and sphynxes in stone are men- 
 tioned figures in some kind of wood, perhaps of olive, like " the two cher- 
 ubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high," in the temple of Solomon.* 
 Over the king superintending the removal of one of these colossi is the fol- 
 lowing short inscription, thus translated by Dr. Hincks : — 
 
 "Sennacherib, king of Assyria, the great figures of bulls, which in the 
 land of Belad were made for his royal palace at Nineveh, he transported 
 thither." (?) 
 
 The land of Belad, mentioned in these inscriptions, appears to have been 
 a district in the immediate vicinity of Nineveh, and probabiy on the Tigris, 
 as these great masses of stone would have been quarried near the river for 
 the greater convenience of moving them to the palace. The district of 
 Belad may indeed have been that in which the city itself stc >d. 
 
 * 1 Kings, vi. 23. I shall hereafter compare the edifices built by Solomon with the 
 Assyrian palaces, and point out the remarkable illustrations of the Jewish temple 
 afforded by the latter. 
 
Chap. V.l moving the bulls 99 
 
 Over the representation of the building of the mound there were two 
 epigraphs, both precisely similar, but both unfortunately much mutilated. 
 As far as they can be restored, they have thus been interpreted by Dr. 
 Hincks : — 
 
 " Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Hewn stones, which, as the gods* 
 willed, were found in the land of Belad, for the walls (?) (or foundations, 
 the word reads ' shibri') of my palace, I caused the inhabitants of for- 
 eign countries (?) and the people of the forests (Kershani),f the great bulls 
 for the gates of my palace to drag (?) (or bring)." 
 
 If this inscription be rightly rendered, we have direct evidence that cap- 
 tives from foreign countries were employed in the great public works un- 
 dertaken by the Assyrian kings, as we were led to infer, from the variety 
 of costume represented in the bas-reliefs, and from the fetters on the legs 
 of some of the workmen. The Jews themselves, after their captivity, may 
 have been thus condemned to labor, as their forefathers had been in Egypt, 
 in erecting the monuments of their conquerors ; and we may, perhaps, rec- 
 ognise them amongst the builders portrayed in the sculptures. Two dis- 
 tinct objects appear to be mentioned in these epigraphs — unhewn, or mere- 
 ly squared, stones for walls or foundations, and the colossal bulls for the 
 entrances ; unless some of the small stones carried on the backs of the 
 workmen are intended by the former, we find only the colossi represented 
 in the bas-reliefs. 
 
 From the long gallery, which appears to have been panelled with bas- 
 reliefs, describing the removal of more than one object employed, in the con- 
 struction of the palace, we have unfortunately only three fragments of in- 
 scriptions without the sculptured representations of the events recorded. 
 The most perfect is interesting on more than one account. According to 
 Dr. Hincks it is to be translated : — 
 
 " Sennacherib, king of Assyria .... (some object, the nature 
 not ascertained) of wood, which from the Tigris I caused to be brought up 
 {through ?) the Kharri, or Khasri, on sledges (or boats), I caused to be car- 
 ried (or to mount)." 
 
 The name of the river in this inscription very nearly resembles that of 
 the small stream which sweeps round the foot of the great mound of Kou- 
 yunjik. In the woodcut of the king superintending the removal of the 
 bull,$ it will be perceived that two rivers, a smaller running into a larger, 
 appear to be rudely represented. They correspond with the actual posi- 
 tion of the Tigris and Khauser beneath Kouyunjik. It is possible, there- 
 fore, that the latter stream was deepened or enlarged, so as to enable the 
 Assyrians to float heavy masses close to the mound ; and from the bas- 
 relief it would appear that the bull was moved from the very edge of the 
 
 * A peculiar deity is mentioned who probably presided over the earth, but his name 
 is as yet unknown ; it is here denoted by a monogram. 
 
 t Compare the Hebrew tfinh, khersh, a thick wood, or, perhaps, V~\T\, a stone-cut- 
 ter, or a workman in stone or wood. % Ante, page 93. 
 
100 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V. 
 
 water up the artificial declivity. At that time, however, the Tigris was 
 nearer to the palace than it now is to the ruins, its course having varied 
 considerably at different periods ; but its ancient bed is still indicated by 
 recent alluvial deposits. 
 
 In the fragment of another epigraph, we have mention of some objects 
 also of wood " brought from Mount Lebanon, and taken up (to the top of 
 the mound) from the Tigris." These may have been beams of cedar, 
 which, it will be hereafter seen, were extensively used in the Assyrian pal- 
 aces. It is highly interesting thus to find the inhabitants of Nineveh fetch- 
 ing their rare and precious woods from the same spot that king Solomon 
 had brought the choicest woodwork of the temple of the Lord and of his 
 own palaces. 
 
 On a third fragment similar objects are described as coming from or up 
 the same Kharri or Khasri. 
 
 I have mentioned that the long gallery containing the bas-relief repre- 
 senting the moving of the great stone, led out of a chamber, whose walls 
 had been completely uncovered.* The sculptures upon them were partly 
 preserved, and recorded the conquest of a city standing on a broad river, 
 in the midst of mountains and forests. The Assyrians appear to have en- 
 tered the enemy's country by a valley, to have forded the stream frequent- 
 ly, and to have continued during their march along its banks. Warriors 
 on foot led their horses, aud dragged the chariots over precipitous rocks. 
 On each side of the river were wooded hills, with small streams flowing 
 amongst vineyards. As they drew near to the city, the Assyrians cut down 
 the woods to clear the approaches. Amongst the branches of a tree ex- 
 ceeding the others in size, and standing immediately beneath the walls, 
 were birds and two nests containing their young. The sculptor probably 
 introduced these accessories to denote the season of the year. The river 
 appeared to flow through or behind the city. Long low walls with equi- 
 distant towers, the whole surmounted by cornices and angular battlements 
 stood on one side of the stream. "Within the walls were large square build- 
 ings, curiously ornamented, and whose windows, immediately beneath the 
 roof, were formed by small pillars with capitals in the form of the Ionic 
 volute. The doors, except the entrance to the castle which was arched, 
 were square, and, in some instances, surmounted by a plain cornice. That 
 part of the city standing on the opposite side of the river, seemed to consist 
 of a number of detached forts and houses, some of which had also open 
 balustrades to admit the light. Flames issued from the dwellings, and on 
 the towers were men apparently cutting down trees growing within the 
 walls. Assyrian warriors, marching in a long line, carried away the spoil 
 from the burning city. Some were laden with arms ; others with furni- 
 ture, chairs, stools, couches, and tables of various forms, ornamented with 
 the heads and feet of animals. They were probably of metal, perhaps of 
 irold or silver. The couches, or beds, borne by two men, had a curved 
 * No. XLVIII. Plan I. See Monuments of Nineveh, 2d series, Plate 40. 
 
Chap V 1 A GATEWAY 0F nineveh 101 
 
 head. Some of the chairs had high hacks, and the tahles resemhled in 
 shape the modern camp-stool. 
 
 The last bas-relief of the series represented the king seated within a for- 
 tified camp, on a throne of elaborate workmanship, and having beneath his 
 feet a footstool of equally elegant form. He was receiving the captives, 
 who wore long robes falling to their ankles. Unfortunately no inscription 
 remained by which we might identify the conquered nation. It is proba- 
 ble, from the nature of the country represented, that they inhabited some 
 district in the western part of Asia Minor or in Armenia, in which direc- 
 tion, as we shall hereafter see, Sennacherib more than once carried his vic- 
 torious arms. The circular fortified walls enclose tents, within which are 
 seen men engaged in various domestic occupations. 
 
 It will be remembered that excavations had been resumed in a lofty 
 mound in the north-west line of walls forming the enclosure round Kou- 
 yunjik. It was apparently the remains of a gate leading into this quarter 
 of the city, and part of a building, with fragments of two colossal winged 
 figures,* had already been discovered in it. By the end of November the 
 whole had been explored, and the results were of considerable interest. As 
 the mound rises nearly fifty feet above the plain, we were obliged to tunnel 
 along the walls of the building within it, through a compact mass of rub- 
 bish, consisting almost entirely of loose bricks. Following the rows of low 
 limestone slabs, from the south side of the mound, and passing through two 
 halls or chambers, we came at length to the opposite entrance. This gate- 
 way, facing the open country, was formed by a pair of majestic human- 
 headed bulls, fourteen feet in length, still entire, though cracked and in- 
 jured by fire. They were similar in form to those of Khorsabad and Kou- 
 yunjik, wearing the lofty head-dress, richly ornamented with rosettes, and 
 edged with a fringe of feathers peculiar to that period. Wide spreading 
 wings rose above their backs, and their breasts and bodies were profusely 
 adorned with curled hair. Behind them were colossal winged figures of 
 the same height, bearing the pine cone and basket. Their faces were in 
 full, and the relief was high and bold. More knowledge of art was shown 
 in the outline of the limbs and in the delineation of the muscles, than in 
 any sculpture I have seen of this period. The naked leg and foot were 
 designed with a spirit and truthfulness worthy of a Greek artist. f It is. 
 however, remarkable that the four figures were unfinished, none of the 
 details having been put in, and parts being but roughly outlined. They 
 stood as if the sculptors had been interrupted by some public calamity, and 
 had left their work incomplete. Perhaps the murder gpf Sennacherib by 
 his sons, as he worshipped in the house of Nisroch his god, put a sudden 
 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 146. 
 
 t The bulls and winged figures resembled those from Khorsabad, now in the great 
 hall at the British Museum, but far exceeded them in beauty and grandeur, as well 
 as in preservation. As nearly similar figures had thus already been sent to England. 
 I did not think it advisable to remove them 
 
102 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V 
 
 stop to the great undertakings he had commenced in the beginning of his 
 reign. 
 
 The sculptures to the left, on entering from the open country, were in a 
 far more unfinished state than those on the opposite side. The hair and 
 beard were but roughly marked out, square bosses being left for carving the 
 elaborate curls. The horned cap of the human-headed bull was, as yet, 
 unornamented, and the wings merely outlined. The limbs and features 
 were hard and angular, still requiring to be rounded off, and to have ex- 
 pression given to them by the finishing touch of the artist. The other two 
 figures were more perfect. The curls of the beard and hair (except on one 
 side of the head of the giant) and the ornaments of the head-dress had been 
 completed. The limbs of the winged deity and the body and legs of the 
 bull had been sufficiently finished to give a bold and majestic character to 
 the figures, which might have been rather lessened than improved by the 
 addition of details. The wings of the giant were merely in outline. The 
 sculptor had begun to mark out the feathers in those of the bull, but had 
 been interrupted after finishing one row and commencing a second.* No 
 inscription had yet been carved on either sculpture. 
 
 The entrance formed by these colossal bulls was fourteen feet and a 
 quarter wide. It was paved with large slabs of limestone, still bearing 
 the marks of chariot wheels. The sculptures were buried in a mass of 
 brick and earth, mingled with charcoal and charred wood ; for " the gates 
 of the land had been set wide open unto the enemy, and the fire had de- 
 voured the bars."f They were lighted from above by a deep shaft sunk 
 from the top of the mound. It would be difficult to describe the effect pro- 
 duced, or the reflections suggested by these solemn and majestic figures, 
 dimly visible amidst the gloom, when, after winding through the dark, un- 
 derground passages, you suddenly came into their presence. Between them 
 Sennacherib and his hosts had gone forth in all their might and glory to 
 the conquest of distant lands, and had returned rich with spoil and cap- 
 tives, amongst whom may have been the handmaidens and wealth of Is- 
 rael. Through them, too, the Assyrian monarch had entered his capital in 
 shame, after his last and fatal defeat. Then the lofty walls, now but long 
 lines of low, wave-like mounds, had stretched far to the right and to the 
 left — a basement of stone supporting a curtain of solid brick masonry, 
 crowned with battlements and studded with frowning towers. 
 
 This entrance may have been arched like the castle gates of the bas-re- 
 liefs, and the mass of burnt bricks around the sculptures may be the re- 
 mains of the vault. A high tower evidently rose above this gate, which 
 formed the great northern access to this quarter of Nineveh. 
 
 Behind the colossal figures, and between the outer and inner face of the 
 gateway, were two chambers, nearly 70 feet in length by 23 in breadth. 
 
 * See Plate 3. of the second series of the Monuments of Nineveh. The giant is 
 correctly represented in its unfinished state in this plate, but the artist by mistake 
 has filled up the details in the wings of the bulls. t Nahnm, iii. 13 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 DISCOVERIES IN HIGH MOUND. 
 
 103 
 
 Of that part of the entrance which was within the walls, only the frag- 
 ments of winged figures, discovered during my previous researches, now re- 
 mained. # It is probable, however, that a second pair of human-headed 
 bulls once stood there. They may have been " the figures of animals," de- 
 scribed to Mr. Rich as having been casually uncovered in this mound, and 
 which were broken up nearly fifty years ago to furnish materials for the re- 
 pair of a bridge.f 
 
 EJgc of Mound 
 
 Plan of Northern Entrance to Inclosure of Kouyunjik. 
 
 The whole entrance thus consisted of two distinct chambers and three 
 gateways, two formed by human-headed bulls, and a third between them 
 simply panelled with low limestone slabs like the chambers. Its original 
 height, including the tower, must have been full one hundred feet. Most 
 of the baked bricks found amongst the rubbish bore the name of Senna- 
 cherib, the builder of the palace of Kouyunjik. A similar gateway, but 
 without any remains of sculptured figures, and panelled with plain alabaster 
 slabs, was subsequently discovered in the inner line of walls forming the 
 eastern side of the quadrangle, where the road to Baasbiekhah and Baazani 
 leaves the ruins. 
 
 At Nimroud discoveries of very considerable importance were made in 
 the high conical mound at the north-west corner. Desirous of fully explor- 
 ing that remarkable ruin, I had employed nearly all the workmen in open- 
 ing a tunnel into its western base. After penetrating for no less than 
 eighty-four feet through a compact mass of rubbish, composed of loose grav- 
 el, earth, burnt bricks, and fragments of stone, the excavators came to a 
 
 * See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 143. 
 
 t See Rich's Residence in Kurdistan and Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 39. 
 

 _ Plan 2. _ 
 
 sor.\ur.T()\VKiTIs\i,\i.[,TKM|.| 
 
 Xorlh.siilo nl the Mmmduf Ximroud 
 
 c 
 
 ' /,-/////■, / r/it-trr.'h r , </ ■ font/' 
 
 S KrrrtJi irtt.n'r/ ti-tfJiJmi/Witt/s „f 
 
 burl- .v/t/HP.rt/i'-/ /'/■ftf.v 
 
 ■ gf&rvhm brick 
 
 /I/ T/wi /////' oj'/'f/il'fr ,/i/>nsi/ 
 
 if. Cutting. ; 
 
 I 
 
 /;. . \fr////Yf/ >vti4//wn,-nitt . 
 
 /', Tempk ~8 of plan 
 
 /.:> Zevd .-/ . VwuvucL irwund- i 
 
 O 
 
Chap V 1 discovery of tower. 105 
 
 wall of solid stone masonry. The manner in which this structure had 
 been buried is so curious, that I have given a section of the different strata 
 through which the tunnel passed. # I have already observed that the edi- 
 fice covered by this high mound was originally built upon the natural rock. 
 a bank of hard conglomerate rising about fifteen feet above the plain, and 
 washed in days of yore by the waters of the Tigris. Our tunnel was car- 
 ried for thirty-four feet on a level with this rock, which appears to have 
 been covered by a kind of flooring of sun-dried bricks, probably once form- 
 ing a platform in front of the building. It was buried to the distance of 
 thirty feet from the wall, by baked bricks broken and entire, and by frag- 
 ments of stone, remains of the superstructure once resting upon the base- 
 ment of still existing stone masonry. This mass of rubbish was about 
 thirty feet high, and in it were found bones apparently human, and a yel- 
 low earthen jar rudely colored with simple black designs.! The rest of 
 this part of the mound consisted of earth, through which ran two thin lines 
 of extraneous deposit, one of pebbles, the other of fragments of brick and pot- 
 tery. I am totally at a loss to account for their formation. 
 
 I ordered tunnels to be carried along the basement wall in both direc- 
 tions, hoping to reach some doorway or entrance, but it was found to con- 
 sist of solid masonry, extending nearly the whole length of the mound. Its 
 height was exactly twenty feet, which, singularly enough, coincides with 
 that assigned by Xenophon to the stone basement of the wall of the city 
 (Larissa).J It was finished at the top by a line of gradines, forming a kind 
 of ornamental battlement, similar to those represented on castles in the sculp- 
 ture, p-* ■n These gradines had fallen, and some of them were dis- 
 
 r^ 
 
 covered in the rubbish. § The stones in this structure were carefully fitted 
 together, though not united with mortar, unless the earth which filled the 
 crevices was the remains of mud used, as it still is in the country, as a ce- 
 ment. They were bevelled with a slanting bevel, and in the face of the 
 wall were eight recesses or false windows, four on each side of a square 
 projecting block between gradines. 
 
 The basement, of which this wall proved to be only one face, was not ex- 
 cavated on the northern and eastern side until a later period, but I will de 
 scribe all the discoveries connected with this singular building at once 
 The northern side was of the same height as, and resembled in its masonry 
 the western. It had a semicircular hollow projection in the centre, sixteen 
 feet in diameter, on the east side of which were two recesses, and on the 
 west four, so that the two ends of the wall were not uniform. That pari 
 of the basement against which the great artificial mound or platform abut- 
 
 * See section of conical mound, Plan II. 
 
 t These relics may have belonged to tombs made in the mound after the edifice 
 had fallen into ruins. % Anab. lib. iii. c. 4. 
 
 § Part of a wall, precisely similar in construction, still exists on one side of the 
 great mound of Kalah Sherghat. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 61.) 
 
106 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V. 
 
 ted, and which was consequently concealed by it, that is, the eastern and 
 southern sides, was of simple stone masonry without recesses or ornament. 
 The upper part of the edifice, resting on the stone substructure, consisted 
 of compact masonry of burnt bricks, which were mostly inscribed with the 
 name of the founder of the centre palace (the obelisk king), the inscription 
 being in many instances turned outwards. 
 
 It was thus evident that the high conical mound forming the north-west 
 corner of the ruins of Nimroud, was the remains of a square tower, and not 
 of a pyramid, as had previously been conjectured. The lower part, built of 
 solid stone masonry, had withstood the wreck of ages, but the upper walls 
 of burnt brick, and the inner mass of sun-dried brick which they encased, 
 fulling outwards, and having been subsequently covered with earth and veg- 
 etation, the ruin had taken the pyramidal form that loose materials falling 
 in this manner would naturally assume. 
 
 It is very probable that this ruin represents the tomb of Sardanapalus, 
 which, according to the Greek geographers, stood at the entrance of the city 
 of Nineveh. It will hereafter be seen that it is not impossible the builder 
 of the north-west palace of Nimrcud was a king of that name, although it 
 is doubtful whether he can be identified with the historical Sardanapalus. 
 Subsequent discoveries proved that he must himself have raised the stone 
 substructure, although his son, whose name is found upon the bricks, com- 
 pleted the building. It w r as, of course, natural to conjecture that some 
 traces of the chamber in which the royal remains were deposited, were to 
 be found in the ruin, and I determined to examine it as fully as I was able. 
 Having first ascertained the exact centre of the western stone basement, I 
 there forced a passage through it. This was a work of some difficulty, as 
 the wall was 8 ft. 9 in. thick, and strongly built of large rough stones. 
 Having, how r ever, accomplished this step, I carried a tunnel completely 
 through the mound, at its very base, and on a level with tiie natural rock, 
 until we reached the opposite basement wall, at a distance of 150 feet. 
 Nothing having been discovered by this cutting, I directed a second to be 
 made at right angles to it, crossing it exactly in the centre, and reach- 
 ing from the northern to the southern basement ; but without any discov- 
 ery. At the point where they intersected, and therefore precisely in the 
 centre of the building, I dug down through the solid conglomerate to the 
 depth of five feet, but without finding any traces whatever of an ancient 
 disturbance of the soil. I was unable to make further excavations in this 
 part of the ruin, on account of the enormous mass of superincumbent earth, 
 and the great risk to which the men uviv exposed from its falling in.* 
 
 The next cutting was made in the centre of the mound, on a line with 
 the top of the stone basement wall, which was also the level of the plat- 
 form of the north-west palace. The workmen soon came to a narrow gal- 
 
 * The walls, as well as the vault, were of sun-dried bricks. It is curious that be- 
 iween one row of bricks was a layer of reeds, as in the Babylonian ruins ; the only 
 instance of this mode of construction yet met with in Assyria. 
 
103 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V. 
 
 lery, about 100 feet long, 12 feei high, and 6 feet broad, which was blocked 
 up at the two ends without any entrance being left into it. It was vaulted 
 with sun-dried bricks, a further proof of the use of the arch at a very 
 early period, and the vault had in one or two places fallen in. I\o remains 
 whatever were found in it, neither fragments of sculpture or inscription, nor 
 any smaller relic. There were, however, undoubted traces of its having 
 once been broken into on the western side, by digging into the face of the 
 mound after the edifice was in ruins, and consequently, therefore, long after 
 the fall of the Assyrian empire. There was an evident depression in the ex- 
 terior of the mound, which could be perceived by an observer from the plain : 
 and the interior vault had been forced through. The remains which it may 
 have contained, probably the embalmed body of the king, with vessels of 
 precious metals and other objects of value buried with it, had been carried 
 off by those who had opened the tomb at some remote period, in search of 
 treasure. They must have had some clue to the precise position of the 
 chamber, or how could they have dug into the mound exactly at the right 
 <?pot] Had this depositary of the dead escaped earlier violation, who can 
 tell with what valuable and important relics of Assyrian art or Assyrian 
 history it might have furnished us? I explored, with feelings of great dis- 
 appointment, the empty chamber, and then opened other tunnels, without 
 further results, in the upper parts of the mound. 
 
 It was evident that the long gallery or chamber I have described was 
 the place of deposit for the body of the king, if this were really his tomb. 
 The tunnels and cuttings in other parts of the mound only exposed a com- 
 pact and solid mass of sun-dried brick masonry I much doubt, for many 
 reasons, whether any sepulchre exists in the rock beneath the foundations oi 
 the tower, though, of course, it is not impossible that such may be the case.* 
 
 From the present state of the ruin it is difficult to conjecture the exac: 
 original form and height of this edifice. There can be no doubt that it was 
 a vast square tower, and it is not improbable that it may have terminate!. 
 in a series of three or more gradines, like the obelisk of black marble from 
 the centre palace now in the British Museum. It is this shape that I have 
 ventured to give it, in a general restoration of the platform of Nimroud and 
 its various edifices.! Like the palaces, too, it was probably painted on the 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson, remarks in his memoir on the " Outlines of Assyrian History' - 
 (published by the Royal Asiatic Society in 1852), that " the great pyramid at Nimroud 
 was erected by the son of the builder of the north-west palace ;" and as the Greeks 
 name that monument the tomb of Sardanapalus, he believes that " a shaft sunk into 
 the centre of the mound, and carried down to the foundations, would lay bare the 
 original sepulchre. The difficulties (he adds) of such an operation have hitherto pre- 
 vented its execution, but the idea is not altogether abandoned." He appears thus, 
 curiously enough, to be ignorant of the excavations in that ruin described in the text, 
 although he had just visited Nimroud. The only likely place not yet examined would 
 be beneath the very foundations. 
 
 t In the frontispiece to the 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh. I am indebted 
 to Mr. Fergusson, who was good enough to make the original drawing, for this res- 
 oration so ably executed by Mr. Baines. 
 
Chap. V.] YEZIDI ALARM - 109 
 
 outside with various mythic figures and devices, and its summit may have 
 been crowned by an altar, on which the Assyrian king offered up his great 
 sacrifices, or on which was fed the ever-burning sacred fire. But I will 
 defer any further remarks upon this subject until I treat of the architecture 
 of the Assyrians. 
 
 As the ruin is 140 feet high, the building could scarcely have been much 
 less than 200, whilst the immense mass of rubbish surrounding and cover- 
 inn- the base shows that it might have been considerably more. 
 
 During the two months in which the greater part of the discoveries de- 
 scribed in this chapter were made, I was occupied almost entirely with the 
 excavations, my time being spent between Nimroud and Kouyunjik. The 
 only incidents worth noting were a visit from Hussein Bey, Sheikh Nasr. 
 and the principal chiefs of the Yezidis, and a journey taken with Hormuzd 
 to Khorsabad and the neighbouring ruins. 
 
 The heads of the Yezidi sect came to Mosul to settle some differences 
 with the Turkish authorities about the conscription. They lodged in my 
 house. Sheikh Nasr had only once before ventured into the town, and 
 then but for a few hours. To treat them with due honor I gave an enter- 
 tainment, and initiated them into the luxuries of Turkish cookery. We 
 feasted in the Iwan, an arched hall open to the courtyard, which was 
 lighted up at night with mashaah, or bundles of flaming rags saturated 
 with bitumen, and raised in iron baskets on high poles, casting a flood of 
 rich red light upon surrounding objects. The Yezidis performed their 
 dances to Mosul music before the chiefs. Suddenly the doors were thrown 
 open, and a band of Arabs, stripped to the waist, brandishing their weapons 
 and shouting their war-cry, rushed into the yard. The Yezidis believed 
 that they had been betrayed. The young chief drew his sword ; and even 
 Sheikh Nasr, springing to his feet, prepared to defend himself. Their 
 fears, however, gave way to a hearty laugh, when they learnt that the in- 
 truders were a band of my workmen, who had been instigated by Mr. 
 Hormuzd Rassam thus to alarm my guests. 
 
 Wishing to visit Baasheikhah, Khorsabad, and other ruins at the foot of 
 the range of low hills of the Gebel Makloub, I left Nimroud on the 26th 
 of November with Hormuzd and the Bairakdar. Four hours' ride brought 
 us to some small artificial mounds near the village of Lak, about three 
 miles to the east of the high road to Mosul. Here we found a party of 
 workmen excavating under one of the Christian superintendents. Nothing 
 had been discovered except fragments of pottery and a few bricks bearing 
 the name of the Kouyunjik king. As the ruins, from their size, did not 
 promise other results, I sent the men back to Mosul. We reached Khorsa- 
 bad after riding for nearly eight hours over a rich plain, capable of very 
 high cultivation, though wanting in water, and still well stocked with vil- 
 lages, between which we startled large flocks of gazelles and bustards. 1 
 had sent one of my overseers there some days before to uncover the platform 
 to the west of the principal edifice, a part of the building I was desirous of 
 
] 1Q NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. V 
 
 examining. Whilst clearing away the rubbish, he had discovered tvc. 
 bas-reliefs sculptured in black stone. They represented a hunting scene 
 On one slab, broken into several pieces, was an eunuch discharging an ar- 
 row at a flying bird, probably a pigeon or partridge. He was dressed in a 
 fringed robe, confined at the waist by a girdle, and a short sword hung 
 from his shoulder by a broad and richly ornamented belt. The ends of hi> 
 bow were in the shape of the heads of birds. Behind the archer were two 
 figures, one carrying a gazelle over his shoulder and a hare in his hand, 
 the other wearing an embroidered tunic, and armed with a bow and arrows. 
 In the back ground were trees, and birds flying amongst them.-' On the 
 second slab were huntsmen carrying birds, spears, and bows 
 
 These bas-rehefs were executed with much truth and spirit. They be- 
 longed to a small building, believed to be a temple, entirely constructed of 
 black marble, and attached to the palace. It stood upon a platform 1 (5 -"> 
 feet in length and 100 in width, raised about 6 feet above the level of the 
 flooring of the chambers, and ascended from the main building by a nigh; 
 of broad steps. This platform, or stylobate, is remarkable for a cornice in 
 grey limestone carried round the four sides, — one of the few remains of ex- 
 terior decoration in Assyrian architecture, with which we are acquainted. 
 It is carefully built of separate stones, placed side by side, each forming 
 part of the section of the cornice. Mr. Fergusson observes,! with reference 
 to it, " at first sight it seems almost purely Egyptian ; but there are pecul- 
 iarities in which it differs from any found in that country, especially in the 
 curve being continued beyond the vertical tangent, and the consequent pro- 
 jection of the torus giving a second shadow. AYhether the effect of this 
 
 ££ 
 
 ' C_J— ' 
 
 Elevation of Stylobate of Temple Section of St ylobate of Temple 
 
 would be pleasant or not in a cornice placed so high that we must look up 
 to it is not quite clear ; but below the level of the eye, or slightly above it. 
 the result must have been more pleasing than any form found in Egypt 
 and where sculpture is not added might be used with effect anywhere/' 
 
 Many fragments of bas-reliefs in the same black marble, chiefly parts of 
 winged figures, had been uncovered ; but this building has been more 
 completely destroyed than any other part of the palace of Khorsabad, and 
 there is scarcely enough rubbish even to cover the few remains of sculpture 
 which are scattered over the platform. 
 
 * See Plate 32 of the 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh This bas-relief, 
 which has been perfectly repaired, is now in the British Museum 
 t Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis restored, p. 223. 
 
Chap. V.] futhliyah. 1H 
 
 The sculptures in the palace itself had rapidly fallen to decay, and of 
 those which had been left exposed to the air after M. Botta's departure 
 scarcely any traces remained. Some, however, had been covered up and 
 partly preserved by the falling in of the high walls of earth forming the 
 sides of the trenches. Here and there a pair of colossal bulls, still guard- 
 ing the portals of the ruined halls, raised their majestic but weather-beaten 
 human heads above the soil. In one or two unexplored parts of the ruins 
 my workmen had found inscribed altars or tripods, similar to that in the 
 Assyrian collection of the Louvre, and bricks ornamented with figures and 
 designs in color, showing that they had belonged to walls painted with 
 subjects resembling those sculptured on the alabaster panels. 
 
 Since my former visit to Khorsabad, the French consul at Mosul had sold 
 to Col. Rawlinson the pair of colossal human-headed bulls and winged fig- 
 ures, now in the great hall of the British Museum.^ They had stood in a 
 propylaeum, about 900 feet to the south-east of the palace, within the 
 quadrangle, but not upon the artificial mound. In form this small build- 
 ing appears to have been nearly the same as the gateway, in the walls of 
 Kouyunjik,f and like it was built o£ brick and panelled with low lime- 
 stone slabs. From the number of enamelled bricks discovered in the rutns 
 it is probable that it was richly decorated in color. $ 
 
 Trenches had also been opened in one of the higher mounds in the line 
 of walls, and in the group of ruins at the S.W. corner of the quadrangle, 
 but no discoveries of any interest had been made. The centre of the quad- 
 rangle was now occupied by a fever-breeding marsh formed by the waters 
 of the Khauser. 
 
 We passed the night at Futhliyah, a village built at the foot of the 
 Gebel Makloub, about a mile and a half from Khorsabad. A small grove 
 of olive trees renders it a conspicuous object even from Mosul, whence it 
 looks like a dark shadow on the tawny plain. Although once containing 
 above two hundred houses it has now but sixty. It formerly belonged to 
 the Mosul spahis, or military fief-holders, and is still claimed by them, al- 
 though the government has abolished such tenures. "We lodged in a well- 
 built stone, kasr, or large house, fast falling into ruins, belonging to the 
 Ala'i Bey, or chief of the spahis. Selim Bey, one of the former tenants of 
 the land, still lingered about the place, gathering together such small 
 revenues in money and in kind as he could raise amongst the more chari- 
 table of the inhabitants. He came to me in the morning, and gave me 
 the history of the village and of its owners. 
 
 * These sculptures were purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum from 
 Col. Rawlinson. Owing to that carelessness and neglect, of which there has been 
 so much cause to complain in all that concerns the transport of the Assyrian antiqui- 
 ties to this country, they have suffered very considerable injury since their discovery. 
 They were sawn into many pieces for facility of transport by my marble-cutter Beh- 
 nan, superintended by Mr. Rassam. 
 
 t See plan, p. 103. J Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 52 
 
112 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAI\ V. 
 
 Near Futhliyah, and about two miles from the' palace of Khorsabad, i* 
 a lofty conical Tel visible from Mosul., and from most parts of the surround- 
 ing country. It is one of those isolated mounds so numerous in the plains 
 of Assyria, which do not appear to form part of any group of ruins, and the 
 nature of which I have been unable to determine. Its vicinity to Khorsa- 
 bad led me to believe that it might have been connected with those re- 
 mains, and might have been raised over a tomb. By my directions deep 
 trenches were opened into its sides, but only fragments of pottery were dis- 
 covered. The place is, however, worthy of a more complete examination 
 than the time and means at my disposal would permit. 
 
 From Futhliyah we rode across the plain to the large village of Baaza- 
 ni, chiefly inhabited by Yezidis. There we found Hussein Bey, Sheikh 
 Nasr, and a large party of Cawals assembled at the house of one Abd-ur- 
 rahman Chelibi, a Mussulman gentleman of Mosul, who had farmed the 
 revenues of the place. 
 
 Near Baazani is a group of artificial mounds of no great size. The 
 three principal have been used as burying-places by the Yezidis, and are 
 covered with their graves and white conical tombs. Although no difficul- 
 ties* would have been thrown in my way had I wished to excavate in these 
 ruins, they did not appear to me of sufficient importance to warrant an in- 
 jury' to the feelings of these poor people by the desecration of the resting- 
 places of their dead. Having examined them, therefore, and taken leave 
 of the chiefs, I rode to the neighbouring village of Baasheikhah, only sep- 
 arated from Baazani by a deep watercourse, dry except during the rains. 
 Both stand at the very foot of the Gebel Makloub. Immediately behind 
 them are craggy ravines worn by winter torrents. In these valleys are 
 quarries of the kind of alabaster used in the Assyrian palaces, but I could 
 find no remains to show that the Assyrians had obtained their great slabs 
 from them, although they appear to be of ancient date. They are now 
 worked by the Yezidis, who set apart the proceeds for Sheikh Nasr, as the 
 highpriest of the tomb of Sheikh Adi. The stone quarried from them is 
 used for the houses both of Baazani and Baasheikhah, which consequently 
 have a more cleanly and substantial appearance than is usually the case in 
 this part of Turkey. Indeed, both villages are nourishing, chiefly owing 
 to the industry of their Yezidi inhabitants, and their cultivation of several 
 large groves of olive trees, which produce the only olive oil in the country. 
 Mixed with the Yezidis are some families of Jacobite Christians, who live 
 in peace and good understanding with their neighbours. 
 
 I have already mentioned, in my former work,* the Assyrian ruin near 
 Baasheikhah. It is a vast mound, little inferior in size to Nimroud, irreg- 
 ular in shape, uneven in level, and furrowed by deep ravines worn by the 
 winter rains. Standing, as it does, near abundant quarries of the favorite 
 sculpture-material of the Assyrians, and resembling the platforms of Kou- 
 yunjik or Khorsabad, there was every probability that it contained the re- 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i p. 52. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 BAASHEIKHAH. 
 
 113 
 
 mains of an edifice like those ruins. There are a few low mounds scat- 
 tered around it, but no distinct line of walls forming an inclosure. During 
 the former excavations only earthen jars, and bricks, inscribed with the 
 name of the founder of the centre palace at Nimroud, had been discover- 
 ed .* A party of Arabs and Tiyari were now opening trenches and tun- 
 nels in various parts of the mound, under the superintendence of Yakoub 
 Rais of Asheetha. The workmen had uncovered, on the west side of the 
 ruin near the surface, some large blocks of yellowish limestone apparently 
 forming a flight of steps ; the only other antiquities of any interest found 
 during the excavations were a few bricks bearing the name of the early 
 Nimroud king, and numerous fragments of earthenware, apparently belong- 
 ing to the covers of some earthen vessels, having the guilloche and honey- 
 suckle alternating with the cone and tulip, as on the oldest monuments of 
 Nimroud, painted upon them in black upon a pale-yellow ground. f 
 
 It is remarkable that no remains of more interest have been discovered 
 in this mound, which must contain a monument of considerable size and 
 antiquity. Although the trenches opened in it were numerous and deep, 
 yet the ruin has not yet probably been sufficiently examined. It can 
 scarcely be doubted that on the artificial platform, as on others of the same- 
 nature, stood a royal palace, or some monument of equal importance. 
 
 * The fragment of sculpture brought me by a Christian overseer, employed during 
 the former expedition, was, I have reason to believe, obtained at Khorsabad. 
 
 t Now in the British Museum. They appear to belong to several distinct objects, 
 probably the covers to some funeral or other vases. See Plate 55. of 2d series of 
 the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 Cart with Ropes, and Workmen carrying Saws, Picks, and Shovels, for moving Colossal Bull (Kouyunjik). 
 
 H 
 
Bulls, with historical Inscriptions of Sennacherib (Kouyunjik). 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF GRAND ENTRANCE TO THE PALACE OF KOUYUNJIK OF THE NAME OP 
 
 SENNACHERIB IN THE INSCRIPTIONS. THE RECORDS OF THAT KING IN THE INSCRIP- 
 TIONS ON THE BULLS. AN ABRIDGED TRANSLATION OF THEM. NAME OF HEZEKlAH 
 
 ACCOUNT OF SENNACHERIB'S WARS WITH THE JEWS DR. HINCKS AND COL. RAW- 
 LIN SO If. THE NAMES OF SARGON AND SHALMANESER. DISCOVERY OF SCULPTURES \T 
 
 KOUYUNJIK, REPRESENTING THE SIEGE OF LACHISH. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCCLPTCRE> 
 
 DISCOVERY OF CLAY SEALS OF SIGNETS OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN KINGS. CAB- 
 
 TOUCHE OF SABACO. NAME OF ESSARH ADDON. CONFIRMATION OF HISTORICAL REC- 
 ORDS OF THE BIBLE ROYAL CYLINDER OF SENNACHERIB. 
 
 During the month of December, several discoveries of the greatest in- 
 terest and importance were made, both at Kouyunjik and Nimroud. I 
 will first describe the results of the excavations in the ruins opposite Mosul. 
 
 I must remind the reader that, shortly before my departure for Europe 
 in 1848, the forepart of a human-headed bull of colossal dimensions had 
 been uncovered on the east side of the Kouyunjik Palace.* This sculp- 
 ture then appeared to form one side of an entrance or doorway, and it - * 
 placed in the plan of the ruins accompanying my former work.f The ex- 
 cavations had. however, been abandoned before any attempt could be mad- 
 to ascertain the fact On my return, I had directed the workmen to di<_ r 
 out the opposite sculpture A tunnel, nearly 100 feet in length, was ac- 
 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 137. 
 + Ibid vol. ii — plan of Kouyunjik. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 SCULPTURES DESCRIBED. \\§ 
 
 cordingly opened at right angles to the bull first discovered, but without 
 coming upon any other remains than a pavement of square limestone slabs 
 which stretched without interruption as far as the excavation was carried. 
 I consequently discontinued the cutting, as it was evident that no entrance 
 could be of so great a width, and as there were not even traces of building 
 in that direction. 
 
 The workmen having been then ordered to uncover the bull which was 
 still partly buried in the rubbish, it was found that adjoining it were other 
 sculptures, and that it formed part of an exterior facade. The upper half 
 of the next slab had been destroyed, but the lower still remained, and en- 
 abled me to restore the figure of the Assyrian Hercules strangling the lion, 
 similar to that discovered between the bulls in the propylsea of Khorsabad, 
 and now in the Louvre. The hinder part of the animal was still preserved. 
 Its claws grasped the huge limbs of the giant, who lashed it with the ser- 
 pent-headed scourge. The legs, feet, and drapery of the god were in the 
 boldest relief, and designed with great truth and vigor. Beyond this fig- 
 ure, in the same line, was a second bull. The facade then opened into a 
 wide portal, guarded by a pair of winged bulls, twenty feet long, and prob- 
 ably, when entire, more than twenty feet high. Forming the angle be- 
 tween them and the outer bulls were gigantic winged figures in low relief,* 
 and flanking them were two smaller figures, one above the other. f Be- 
 yond this entrance was a group similar to and corresponding with that on 
 the opposite side, also leading to a smaller entrance into the palace, and to 
 a wall of sculptured slabs ; but here all traces of building and sculpture 
 ceased, and we found ourselves near the edge of the water- worn ravine. 
 
 Thus a facade of the south-east side of the palace, forming apparently 
 the grand entrance to the edifice, had been discovered. Ten colossal bulls, 
 with six human figures of gigantic proportions, were here grouped togeth- 
 er, and the length of the whole, without including the sculptured walls 
 continued beyond the smaller entrances, was 180 feet.$ Although the 
 bas-reliefs to the right of the northern gateway had apparently been pur- 
 posely destroyed with a sharp instrument, enough remained to allow me to 
 trace their subject. They had represented the conquest of a district, prob- 
 ably part of Babylonia, watered by a broad river and wooded with palms, 
 spearmen on foot in combat with Assyrian horsemen, castles besieged, long 
 lines of prisoners, and beasts of burden carrying away the spoil. Amongst 
 various animals brought as tribute to the conquerors, could be distinguished 
 a lion led by a chain. There were no remains whatever of the super- 
 
 * Nos. 4. and 9. Grand entrance, S.E. side, Plan I. These figures were those 
 of winged priests, or deities, carrying the fir-cone and basket. 
 
 t Nos. 5. and 8. Same entrance. The small figure resembled No. 2. in Plate 6. 
 of 2d series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 t The frontispiece to this volume will convey to the reader some idea of this mag- 
 nificent fagade when entire. This restoration, for which I am mainly indebted to 
 Mr. Fergusson, has been made with a careful regard to the exact proportions. 
 
-- *na , 
 
Chap. VI. 1 name of sennacherib. 117 
 
 structure which once rose above the colossi, guarding this magnificent en- 
 trance ; but I shall hereafter more particularly describe the principal dec- 
 orations and details of Assyrian architecture, and shall endeavor to restore, 
 as far as the remains still existing will permit, the exterior and interior of 
 the palaces of Nineveh. 
 
 The bulls, as I have already observed, were all more or less injured. 
 The same convulsion of nature — for I can scarcely attribute to any human 
 violence the overthrow of these great masses — had shattered some of them 
 into pieces, and scattered the fragments amongst the ruins. Fortunately, 
 however, the lower parts of all, and, consequently, the inscriptions, had 
 been more or less preserved. To this fact we owe the recovery of some of 
 the most precious records with which the monuments of the ancient world 
 have rewarded the labors of the antiquary. 
 
 On the great bulls forming the centre portal of the grand entrance, was 
 one continuous inscription, injured in parts, but still so far preserved as to 
 be legible almost throughout. It contained 152 lines. On the four bulls 
 of the facade were two inscriptions, one inscription being carried over each 
 pair, and the two being of precisely the same import. These two distinct 
 records contain the annals of six years of the reign of Sennacherib, besides 
 numerous particulars connected with the religion of the Assyrians, their 
 gods, their temples, and the erection of their palaces, all of the highest in- 
 terest and importance. 
 
 In my first work I had pointed out the evidence, irrespective of the in- 
 scriptions, which led me to identify the builder of the great palace of Kou- 
 yunjik with Sennacherib.^ Dr. Hincks, in a memoir on the inscriptions of 
 Khorsabad, read in June, 1849, but published in the " Transactions of the 
 Royal Irish Academy,"! in 1850, was the first to detect the name of this 
 king in the group of arrowheaded characters at the commencement of 
 nearly all the inscriptions, and occurring on all the inscribed bricks from 
 the ruins of this edifice. Subsequent discoveries confirmed this identifica- 
 tion, but it was not until August, 1851, that the mention of any actual 
 event recorded in the Bible, and in ancient profane history, was detected 
 on the monuments, thus removing all further doubt as to the king who had 
 raised them. 
 
 Shortly after my return to England my copies of these inscriptions hav- 
 ing been seen by Colonel Hawlinson, he announced, in the Athenaeum of 
 the 23d August, 1851, that he had found in them notices of the reign of 
 Sennacherib, "which placed beyond the reach of dispute his historic iden- 
 
 * I had also shown the probability that the palace of Khorsabad owed its erection 
 to a monarch of this dynasty, in a series of letters published in the Malta Times, as 
 far back as 1843. 
 
 t Vol. xxii. p. 34. I take this opportunity of attributing to their proper source the 
 discoveries of the names of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, inadvertently assigned to 
 others in my " Nineveh and its Remains." We owe these, with many others of 
 scarcely less importance, to the ingenuity and learning of Dr. Hincks. (Literary 
 Gazette, June 27. 1846.) 
 
HQ NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VI 
 
 tity," and he gave a recapitulation of the principal events recorded on the 
 monuments, the greater part of which are known to us through history 
 either sacred or profane. These inscriptions have since been examined by 
 Dr. Hincks, and translated by him independently of Colonel Rawlinson. 
 He has kindly assisted me in giving the following abridgment of their con- 
 tents.* 
 
 The inscriptions begin with the name and titles of Sennacherib. It is 
 to be remarked that he does not style himself " King [or rather High PriestJ 
 of Babylon," as his father had done in the latter part of his reign, from 
 which it may be inferred that at the time of engraving the record he was 
 not the immediate sovereign of that city, although its chief may have paid 
 tribute to him, and, no doubt, acknowledged his supremacy. He calls him- 
 self " the subduer of kings from the upper sea of the setting sun (the Med- 
 iterranean) to the lower sea of the rising sun (the Persian Gulf)." In the 
 first year of his reign he defeated Merodach Baladan, a name with which 
 we are familiar, for it is this king who is mentioned in the Old Testament 
 as sending letters and a present to Hezekiah,f when the Jewish monarch 
 in his pride showed the ambassadors " the house of his precious things, the 
 silver and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the 
 house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures : there was 
 nothing in his house nor ih all his dominions that Hezekiah showed them 
 not ;" an act of vain boasting which led to the reproof of the prophet 
 Isaiah, and to his foretelling that all this wealth, together with the de- 
 scendants of its owner, should be carried away as spoil to the very city 
 from which these ambassadors came. Merodach Baladan is called king of 
 Kar-Duniyas, a city and countiy frequently mentioned in the Assyrian in- 
 scriptions, and comprising the southernmost part of Mesopotamia, near the 
 confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, together with the districts watered 
 by those two rivers, to the borders of Susiana. This king, with the help 
 of his Susianian allies, had recently recovered Babylon, from which Sar- 
 gon, Sennacherib's father, had expelled him in the twelfth year of his 
 reign. The battle appears to have been fought considerably to the north 
 of that city. The result was that Sennacherib totally defeated Merodach 
 
 " I must here remind the reader that any new discoveries in the cuneiform inscrip- 
 tions referred to in the text are to be attributed to Dr. Hincks. The translation 
 made by Col. Rawlinson, and published by the Royal Asiatic Society, was compiled 
 from three distinct records of the same monarch, — the inscriptions on the bulls, on a 
 large barrel-shaped terra-cotta cylinder, known as Bellino's cylinder, now in the 
 British Museum, and on an hexagonal cylinder in the same 'material, in the posses- 
 sion of the late Col. Taylor. The first annals extend over six years of Sennacherib's 
 reign, the second over only two, and the last, the fullest and most detailed, but un- 
 fortunately said to be lost, over eight. It will be perceived that Dr. Hincks's version 
 differs somewhat from that published by Col. Rawlinson ; and it must be observed 
 that he was unable to refer to the more complete records, of which a cast in paper 
 is in the Colonel's possession. He has availed himself of Bellino's cylinder to com- 
 plete the annals of the first two years ©f the reign of the Assyrian king. 
 
 t Isaiah, xxxix. 1. and 2 Kings, xx. 12. where the name is written Berodach. 
 
Chap. VI.l Sennacherib's wars. Uq 
 
 Baladan, who fled to save his life, leaving behind him his chariots, ivag- 
 gons (?), horses, mares, asses (?), camels, and riding horses with their 
 trappings for war (?). The victorious king then advanced to Babylon, 
 where he plundered the palace, carrying off a vast treasure of gold, silver, 
 vessels of gold and silver, precious stones, men and women servants, and 
 a variety of objects which cannot yet be satisfactorily determined. No less 
 than seventy-nine cities (or fortresses), all the castles of the Chaldseans, 
 and eight hundred and twenty small towns (or villages), dependent upon 
 them, were taken and spoiled by the Assyrian army, and the great wander- 
 ing tribes " that dwelt around the cities of Mesopotamia," the Syrians 
 (Arameans), and Chaldseans, &c. &c. were brought under subjection. 
 Sennacherib having made Belib,^ one of his own officers, sovereign of the 
 conquered provinces, proceeded to subdue the powerful tribes who border 
 on the Euphrates and Tigris, and amongst them the Hagarenes and Naba- 
 thseans. From these wandering people he declares that he carried off to 
 Assyria, probably colonising with them, as was the custom, new-built 
 towns and villages, 208,000 men, women, and children, together with 
 7200 horses and mares, 11,063 asses (?), 5230 camels, 120,100 oxen, and 
 800,500 sheep. It is remarkable that the camels should bear so small a 
 proportion to the oxen and asses in this enumeration of the spoil. Amongst 
 the Bedouin tribes, who now inhabit the same country, the camels would 
 be far more numerous.! It is interesting to find, that in those days, as at 
 a later period, there was both a nomade and stationary population in North- 
 ern Arabia. 
 
 In the same year Sennacherib received a great tribute from the con- 
 quered Khararah, and subdued the people of Kherimmi, whom he declares 
 to have been long rebellious (neither people can as yet be identified), re- 
 building (? or consecrating) the city of the latter, and sacrificing on the 
 occasion, for its dedication to the gods of Assyria, one ox, ten sheep, ten 
 goats or lambs, and twenty other animals. $ 
 
 In the second year of his reign, Sennacherib appears to have turned his 
 arms to the north of Nineveh, having reduced in his first year the southern 
 country to obedience. By the help of Ashur, he says, he went to Bishi and 
 Yasubirablai (both names of doubtful reading and not identified), who had 
 long been rebellious to the kings his fathers. He took Beth Kilamzakh, 
 their principal city, and carried away their men, small and great, horses, 
 mares, asses (?), oxen, and sheep. The people of Bishi and Yasubirablai, 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson reads Bel-adon. This Belib is the Belibus of Ptolemy's Canon. 
 The mention of his name led Dr. Hincks to determine the accession of Sennacherib 
 to be in 703 b. c. 
 
 t Col. Rawlinson gives 11,180 head of cattle, 5230 camels, 1,020,100 sheep, and 
 800,300 goats. He has also pointed out that both Abydenus and Polyhistor mention 
 this campaign against Babylon. 
 
 t It is to be remarked that he does not say he gave a new name to this city, as 
 was generally the case ; it may have been a holy city (compare "Harem") and con- 
 sequently escaped destruction. 
 
120 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CllAP. VI. 
 
 who had fled from his servants, he brought down from the mountains and 
 placed them under one of his eunuchs, the governor of the city of Arapkha. 
 He made tablets, and wrote on them the laws [or tribute) imposed upon 
 the conquered, and set them up in the city. He took permanent posses- 
 sion of the country of Illibi (Luristan ?), and Ispabara* its king, after be- 
 ing defeated, fled, leaving the cities of Marubishti and Akkuddu, the royal 
 residences, with thirty-four principal towns, and villages not to be counted, 
 to be destroyed by the Assyrians, who carried away a large amount of cap- 
 tives and cattle. Beth-barrua, the city itself and its dependencies, Senna- 
 cherib separated from Illibi, and added to his immediate dominions. The 
 city of Ilbinzash (?) he appointed to be the chief city in this district. He 
 abolished its former name, called it Kar-Sanakhirba (i. e. the city of Senna- 
 cherib), and placed in it a new people, annexing it to the government of 
 Kharkhar, which must have been in the neighbourhood of Holwan, com- 
 manding the pass through mount Zagros. After this campaign he received 
 tribute to a great amount from some Median nations, so distant, that his 
 predecessors " had not even heard mention of their names," and made them 
 obedient to his authority. 
 
 In the third year of his reign Sennacherib appears to have overran with 
 his armies the whole of Syria. He probably crossed the Euphrates above 
 Carchemish, at or near the ford of Thapsacus, and marched to the sea- 
 coast, over the northern spur of Mount Lebanon. The Syrians are called 
 by their familiar biblical name of Hittites, the Khatti, or Khetta, by which 
 they were also known to the Egyptians. The first opposition he appears 
 to have received was from Luli (or Luliya), king of Sidon, who had with- 
 held his homage ; but who was soon compelled to fly from Tyre to Yavan 
 in the middle of the sea. Dr. Hincks identifies this country with the island 
 of Crete, or some part of the southern coast of Asia Minor, and with the 
 Yavan (\l) of the Old Testament, the country of the Ionians or Greeks, an 
 identification which I believe to be correct. t This very Phoenician king is 
 mentioned by Josephus (quoting from Menander), under the name of Elu- 
 lseus, as warring with Shalmanezer, a predecessor of Sennacherib. He ap- 
 pears not to have been completely subdued before this, but only to have 
 paid homage or tribute to the Assyrian monarchs.t Sennacherib placed a 
 
 * We learn from the Khorsabad inscriptions, that in the eleventh year of the reign 
 of Sargon, Dalta, the king of this country, died, leaving two sons, one of whom was 
 supported by the king of Susa, and the other by the Assyrian monarch, who sent a 
 large army, under seven generals, to his assistance, and totally defeating the Susi- 
 anians, placed Ispabara on the throne. Ispabara appears afterwards to have thrown 
 off the Assyrian yoke. (Dr. Hincks.) Col. Rawlinson places Illibi in northern 
 Media, and reads most of the names in the text differently. (P. 20. of his Memoir.) 
 
 t Col. Rawlinson identifies the name, which he reads Yetnan, with the Rhinoculura 
 of the Greeks, and places it in the south of Phoenicia, on the confines of Egypt. 
 
 % Joseph. 1. ix. c. 14., and see Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 400., where I had 
 long before the deciphering of the inscriptions endeavoured to point out the repre- 
 sentation of this event, in some bas-reliefs at Kouyunjik. This flight of Luliya, in- 
 
Chap. VI.l conquest of jud^e a. 121 
 
 person, whose name is doubtful (Col. Rawlinson reads it Tubaal), upon 
 the throne of Luli, and appointed his annual tribute. All the kings of the 
 sea-coast then submitted to him, except Zidkaha (compare Zedekiah) 01 
 Zidkabal, king of Ascalon. This chief was, however, soon subdued, and was 
 
 sent, with his household and wealth, to Assyria, (name destroyed), the 
 
 son of Rukipti (?), a former king, being placed on the throne in his stead. 
 The cities dependent upon Ascalon, which had not been obedient to his au- 
 thority, he captured and plundered. A passage of great importance which 
 now occurs is unfortunately so much injured that it has not been satisfac- 
 torily restored. It appears to state that the chief priests (?) and people of 
 Ekron (?) had dethroned their king Padiya, who was dependent upon As- 
 syria, and had delivered him up to Hezekiah, king of Judsea. # The kings 
 of Egypt sent an army, the main part of which is said to have belonged to 
 the king of Milukhkha (Meroe, or ^Ethiopia), to Judsea, probably to help 
 their Jewish allies. Sennacherib joined battle with the Egyptians, and to- 
 tally defeated them near the city of Al .... ku, capturing the charioteers 
 of the king of Milukhkha, and placing them in confinement. This battle be- 
 tween the armies of the Assyrians and Egyptians appears to be hinted at in 
 Isaiah and in the Book of Kings. f Padiya having been brought back from 
 Jerusalem was replaced by Sennacherib on his throne. "Hezekiah, king 
 of Judah," says the Assyrian king, "who had not submitted to my author- 
 ity, forty-six of his principal cities, and fortresses and villages depending 
 upon them, of which I took no account, I captured and carried away their 
 spoil. I shut up (?) himself within Jerusalem, his capital city. The 
 fortified towns, and the rest of his towns, which I spoiled, I severed from 
 his country, and gave to the kings of Ascalon, Ekron, and Gaza, so as to 
 make his country small. In addition to the former tribute imposed upon 
 their countries, I added a tribute, the nature of which I fixed." The next 
 passage is somewhat defaced, but the substance of it appears to be that he 
 took from Hezekiah the treasure he had collected in Jerusalem, 30 talents 
 of gold and 800 talents of silver, the treasures of his palace, besides his sons 
 and his daughters, and his male and female servants or slaves, and brought 
 
 deed, appears to be represented in plate No. 71. of the first series of the "Monu- 
 ments of Nineveh." 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson reads the name of the king Haddiya. That of Ekron is very 
 doubtful. 
 
 t Isaiah, xxxvii. 2 Kings, xix. 9. It is not stated that the armies of the two 
 great antagonistic nations of the ancient world actually met in battle, but that Sen- 
 nacherib " heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is coming forth to 
 make war with thee." Herodotus, however, appears to have preserved the record 
 of the battle in the celebrated story of the mice which gnawed the bowstrings and 
 the thongs of the shields of the Assyrian soldiers during the night, and left them an 
 easy prey to the Egyptians (lib. in., s. 141.). This looks very much like a defeat sus- 
 tained by the Egyptians, which the vanity of their priests had converted into this 
 marvellous story. The fact, intimated in tne inscriptions, of Tirhakah having nut 
 one but several Egyptian kings dependent upon him is new to history. 
 
|22 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VI 
 
 them all to Nineveh.* The city itself, however, he does not pretend to 
 have taken. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the campaign against the cities of Pales- 
 tine recorded in the inscriptions of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, is that de- 
 scribed in the Old Testament. The events agree with considerable accu- 
 racy. We are told in the Book of Kings, that the king of Assyria, in the 
 fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, " came up against all the fenced 
 cities of Judah and took them,"t as he declares himself to have done in 
 his annals. And, what is most important, and perhaps one of the most re- 
 markable coincidences of historic testimony on record, the amount of the 
 treasure in gold taken from Hezekiah, thirty talents, agrees in the two per- 
 fectly independent accounts.! Too much stress cannot be laid on this sin- 
 gular fact, as it tends to prove the general accuracy of the historical details 
 contained in the Assyrian inscriptions. There is a difference of 500 tal- 
 ents, as it will be observed, in the amount of silver. It is probable that 
 Hezekiah was much pressed by Sennacherib, and compelled to give him 
 all the wealth that he could collect, as we find him actually taking the 
 silver from the house of the Lord, as well as from his own treasury, and 
 cutting off the gold from the doors and pillars of the temple, to satisfy the 
 demands of the Assyrian king. The Bible may therefore only include the 
 actual amount of money in the 300 talents of silver, whilst the Assyrian 
 records comprise all the precious metal taken away. There are some 
 chronological discrepancies which cannot at present be satisfactorily recon- 
 ciled, and which I will not attempt to explain. § It is natural to suppose 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson gives a somewhat different version of this part of the inscription. 
 He translates, "Because Hezekiah, king of Judaea, did not submit to my yoke, forty- 
 six of his strong-fenced cities, and innumerable smaller towns which depended on 
 them, I took and plundered ; but I left to him Jerusalem, his capital city, and some 
 
 of the inferior towns around it And because Hezekiah still continued 
 
 to refuse to pay me homage, I attacked and carried off the whole population, fixed 
 and nomade, which dwelled around Jerusalem, with 30 talents of gold and 800 tal- 
 ents of silver, the accumulated wealth of the nobles of Hezekiah's court, and of their 
 daughters, with the officers of his palace, men slaves and women slaves. I returned 
 to Nineveh, and I accounted their spoil for the tribute which he refused to pay me." 
 He identifies Milukhkha (or Mirukha) with Meroe or ^Ethiopia, and Al . . . ku, which 
 he reads Allakis, with Lachish, the city besieged by Sennacherib, when he sent Rab- 
 shakeh to Hezekiah, and of which, I shall endeavour to show, we have elsewhere a 
 more certain mention. 
 
 t 2 Kings, xviii. 13. ; and compare Isaiah, xxxvi. 1. I may here observe that the 
 names of Hezekiah and Judaea, with others mentioned in the text, occur in inscrip- 
 tions on other bulls of Kouyunjik already published. (See British Museum Series, 
 p. 61. 1. 11.) 
 
 t "And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents 
 of silver and 30 talents of gold." (2 Kings, xviii. 14.) 
 
 § According to Dr. Hincks (Chronological Appendix to a Paper on the Assyrio- 
 Babylonian Characters in vol. xxii. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy), 
 it is necessary to read the fifth for the fourteenth year of Hezekiah as the date of 
 Sennacherib's invasion. The illness of Hezekiah, and the embassy of Merodach Bal- 
 
Chap VI 1 wars of sennacherib 123 
 
 that Sennacherib would not perpetuate the memory of his own overthrow, 
 and that, having been unsuccessful in an attempt upon Jerusalem, his army 
 being visited by the plague described in Scripture, he should gloss over his 
 defeat by describing the tribute he had previously received from Hezekiah 
 as the general result of his campaign. 
 
 There is no reason to believe, from the biblical account, that Sennacherib 
 was slain by his sons immediately after his return to Nineveh ; on the con- 
 trary, the expression " he returned and dwelt at Nineveh," infers that he 
 continued to reign for some time over Assyria. We have accordingly his 
 further annals on the monuments he erected. In his fourth year he went 
 southward, and subdued the country of Beth-Yakin, defeating Susubira, 
 the Chaldsean, who dwelt in the city of Bittut on the river — (Agammi, ac- 
 cording to Rawlinson). Further mention is made of Merodach Baladan. 
 " This king, whom I had defeated in a former campaign, escaped from my 
 principal servants, and fled to an island (name lost) ; his brothers, the seed 
 of his lather's house, whom he left behind him on the coast, with the rest 
 of the men of his country from Beth-Yakin, near the salt (?) river (the Shat- 
 el-Arab, or united waters of the Tigris and Euphrates), I carried away, and 
 several of his towns I threw down and burnt ; Assurnadzmm (? Assurna- 
 din, according to Rawlinson), my son, I placed on the throne of his king- 
 dom." He appears then to have made a large government, of which 
 Babylon was the chief placed 
 
 In the fifth year he defeated the Tokkari, capturing their principal strong- 
 hold or Nipour (detached hill fort ?), and others of their castles. He also 
 attacked Maniyakh, king of Okku or Wukku (?), a country to which no 
 previous Assyrian king had penetrated. This chief deserted his capital 
 and fled to a distance. Sennacherib carried off the spoil of his palace and 
 plundered his cities. This expedition seems to have been to the north of 
 Assyria, in Armenia or Asia Minor. 
 
 In the following year Sennacherib again marched to the mouths of the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, and attacked the two cities of Naghit and Naghit 
 Dibeena. They appear to have stood on opposite sides of the great salt 
 river, a name anciently given, it is conjectured, to the Shat-el-Arab, or 
 united waters of the Euphrates and Tigris, which are affected by the tides 
 of the Persian Gulf, and are, consequently, salt. Both cities belonged to 
 the King of Elam (Elamti), or Nuvaki, the two names being used indiffer- 
 ently for the same country. The Assyrian king, in order to reach them, 
 was compelled to build ships, and to employ the mariners of Tyre, Sidon, 
 and Yavan, as navigators. He brought these vessels down the Tigris, and 
 crossed on them to the Susianian side of the river, after having first, it would 
 
 adan he places eleven years earlier. Certainly the phrase "in those days" was used 
 with great latitude. 
 
 * Dr. Hincks identifies the son of Sennacherib with the Aparanadius of Ptolemy's 
 canon, whose reign began three years after that of Belibus. He supposes a to be a 
 corruption of a<r. 
 
124 NINEVEH AMD BABYLON. [CHAP. VI 
 
 seem, taken the city Xaghit which stood on the western bank. He on 
 precious sacrifices to a god (? Xeptune. but name doubtful) on the bank ol 
 the salt river, and dedicated to him a ship of gold, and two other golden 
 objects, the nature of which has not been determined. Mention is then 
 made of his having captured Nagfait Dibeena. together with three other 
 cities lamefl cannot be well ascertained, and of his crossing the river 
 
 ? the Ulai of Daniel, the Eulaeus of the Greeks, and the modern Ka- 
 roon). Unfortunately the whole of the passage which contains the record 
 of the expedition against these cities is much defaced, and has not yet been 
 satisfactorily restored. It appears to give interesting details of the building 
 of the ships on the Tigris., by the men of Tyre and Sidon and of the navi- 
 gation of that river. 
 
 Such are the principal historical facts recorded on the bulls placed by 
 Sennacherib in his palace at Xineveh. I have given them fully, in order 
 that we may endeavour to identify the sculptured representations of those 
 :s on the walls of the chambers and halls of that magnificent building, 
 described in the course of this work. Appended to the historical annals, 
 and frequently embracing the whole of the shorter inscriptions on the co- 
 lossi at the entrances, are very full and minute details of the form of the pal- 
 ace, the mode of its construction, and the materials employed., which will be 
 alluded to when I come to a description of the architecture of the Assyrians. 
 
 As the name of Sennacherib, as well as those of many kings, countries 
 and cities, are not written phonetically, that is, by letters having a certain 
 alphabetic value, but by monograms, and the deciphering of them is a pe- 
 culiar process, which may sometimes appear suspicious to those not ac- 
 quainted with the subject, a few words of explanation may be acceptable 
 to my readers. The greater number of Assyrian proper names with which 
 we are acquainted, whether royal or not, appear to have been made up of 
 the name, epithet, or title, of one of the national deities, and of a second 
 word such as ■• slave of," ,; servant of." " beloved of." u protected by:" like 
 the '• Theodosius. " " Theodoras," ice. of the Greeks, and the •• Abd-uiiah." 
 and " Abd-ur-Rahman," of Mohammedan nations. The names of the gods 
 being commonly written with a monogram, the first step in deciphering is 
 to know which God this particular sign denotes. Thus, in the name of Sen- 
 nacherib, we have first the determinative of' 1 god,'" to which no phonetic 
 value is attached; whilst the second character denotes an Assyrian god. 
 whose name was San. The first component part of the name of Essar- 
 haddon. is the monogram for the god Assur. It is this fact which renders 
 it so dirhcult to determine, with any degree of confidence, most of the As- 
 syrian names, and which leads me to warn my readers that, with the ex- 
 ception of such as can with certainty be identified with well-known historic 
 kings, as Sargon. Sennacherib; and Essarhaddon, the interpretation of all 
 those which are found on the monuments of Xineveh, is liable to very con- 
 siderable doubt. In speaking of them I shall, therefore, not use any of the 
 readings which have been suggested by different writers. 
 
Chap. VI.1 name of sennacherib. 125 
 
 Although no question can reasonably exist as to the identification of the 
 king who built the palace of Kouyunjik with the Sennacherib of Scripture, 
 it may still be desirable to place before my readers all the corroborative evi- 
 dence connected with the subject. In so doing, however, I shall have to 
 refer to discoveries made at a subsequent period, and which ought conse- 
 quently to be described, if the order of the narrative be strictly preserved, 
 in a subsequent part of this work. In the first place, it must be remem- 
 bered that the Kouyunjik king was undoubtedly the son of the founder of 
 the palace at Khorsabad. He is so called in the inscriptions behind the 
 bulls in the S.W. palace at Nimroud, and in numerous detached inscrip- 
 tions on bricks, and on other remains from those ruins and from Kouyunjik. 
 Now the name of the Khorsabad king was generally admitted to be Sar- 
 gon,* even before his relationship to the Kouyunjik king was known ; al- 
 though here again we are obliged to attach phonetic powers to characters 
 used as monograms, which, when occurring as simple letters, appear to have 
 totally different values. f Colonel Rawlinson states,! that this king bears 
 in other inscriptions the name of Shalmaneser, by which he was better 
 known to the Jews.§ Dr. Hincks denies that the two names belong to the 
 same person. It would appear, however, that there are events mentioned 
 in the inscriptions of Khorsabad, which lead to the identification of its 
 founder with the Shalmaneser of Scripture, and the ruins of the palace it- 
 self, were known even at the time of the Arab conquest by the name of 
 " Sarghun." 
 
 Unfortunately the upper parts of nearly all the bas-reliefs at Kouyunjik 
 having been destroyed the epigraphs are wanting ; and we are unable, as 
 yet, to identify with certainty the subjects represented with any known 
 event in the reign of Sennacherib. There is, however, one remarkable ex- 
 ception. 
 
 During the latter part of my residence at Mosul a chamber was discov- 
 ered in which the sculptures were in better preservation than any before 
 
 * First, I believe, though on completely false premises, by M. Lowenstein. 
 
 t Col. Rawlinson reads the name " Sargina." 
 
 t Athenaeum, Aug. 23. 1851. 
 
 $ Shalmaneser, who made war against Hoshea, and who is generally supposed to 
 have carried away the ten tribes from Samaria, although the sacred historian does 
 not distinctly say so (2 Kings, xvii.), is identified by general consent with Sargon, who 
 sent his general against Ashdod (Isaiah, xx.). Dr. Hincks questioned this identifi- 
 cation (Athenaeum for Sept. 13. 1851), considering Shalmaneser as son of Sargon, and 
 brother to Sennacherib. In his last paper, however (Trans. Royal Irish Acad. vol. 
 xxii.), he has taken a different view. He considers Shalmaneser to be the prede- 
 cessor of Sargon, who went up against Jerusalem in his last year, b.c. 722. "The 
 king of Assyria," that is Sargon, took the city in his second year, b.c. 720. In either 
 case, no monument whatever has yet been discovered bearing the name of this king. 
 There is certainly nothing in Scripture to identify the two names as belonging to the 
 same king, except that their general, in both instances, is called Tartan, which we 
 now find from the inscriptions was merely the common title of the commander of the 
 Assyrian armies. 
 
126 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VI 
 
 found at Kouyunjik.* Some of the slabs, indeed, were almost entire, though 
 cracked and otherwise injured by fire ; and the epigraph, which fortunate- 
 ly explained the event portrayed, was complete. These bas-reliefs repre- 
 sented the siege and capture by the Assyrians, of a city evidently of great 
 extent and importance. It appears to have been defended by double walls, 
 with battlements and towers, and by fortified outworks. The country around 
 it was hilly and wooded, producing the fig and the vine. The whole power 
 of the great king seems to have been called forth to take this stronghold. 
 In no other sculptures were so many armed warriors seen drawn up in ar- 
 ray before a besieged city. In the first rank were the kneeling archers, 
 those in the second were bending forward, whilst those in the third dis- 
 charged their arrows standing upright, and were mingled with spearmen 
 and slingers ; the whole forming a compact and oiganised phalanx. The 
 reserve consisted of large bodies of horsemen and charioteers. Against the 
 fortifications had been thrown up as many as ten banks or mourns, compact- 
 ly built of stones, bricks, earth, and branches of trees, and seven battering- 
 rams had already been rolled up to the walls. The besieged defended them- 
 selves with great determination. Spearmen, archers, and slingers thronged 
 the battlements and towers, showering arrows, javelins, stones, and blazing 
 torches upon the assailants. On the battering-rams were bowmen discharg- 
 ing their arrows, and men with large ladles pouring water upon the flaming 
 brands, which, hurled from above, threatened to destroy the engines. Lad- 
 ders, probably used for escalade, were falling from the walls upon the sol- 
 diers who mounted the inclined ways to the assault. Part of the city had, 
 however, been taken. Beneath its walls were seen Assyrian warriors im- 
 paling their prisoners, and from the gateway of an advanced tower, or fort, 
 issued a procession of captives, reaching to the presence of the king, who. 
 gorgeously arrayed, received them seated on his throne. Amongst the spoil 
 were furniture, arms, shields, chariots, vases of metal of various forms, cam- 
 els, carts drawn by oxen, and laden with women and children, and many 
 objects the nature of which cannot be determined. The vanquished peo- 
 ple were distinguished from the conquerors by their dress, those who de- 
 fended the battlements wore a pointed helmet, differing from that of the 
 Assyrian warriors in having a fringed lappet falling over the ears. Some 
 of the captives had a kind of turban with one end hanging down to the 
 shoulder, not unlike that worn by the modern Arabs of the Hedjaz. Others 
 had no head-dress, and short hair and beards. Their garments consisted 
 either of a robe reaching to the ankles, or of a tunic scarcely falling lower 
 than the thigh, and confined at the waist by a girdle. The latter ap- 
 peared to be the dress of the fighting-men. The women wore long shirts, 
 with an outer cloak, thrown, like the veil of modern Eastern ladies, over the 
 back of the head and falling to the feet. 
 
 Several prisoners were already in the hands of the torturers. Two were 
 stretched naked on the ground to be flayed alive, others were being e 
 ♦ No. XXXVI. Plan I. 38 feet by 19. 
 
CHA[>. VI ] 
 
 SIEGE OF LACHISH. 
 
 12' 
 
 by the sword before the throne of the 
 king. The haughty monarch was re- 
 ceiving the chiefs of the conquered na- 
 tion, who crouched and knelt humbly be- 
 fore him. They were brought into the 
 royal presence by the Tartan of the As- 
 syrian forces, probably the Rabshakeh 
 himself, followed by his principal officers. 
 The general was clothed in embroidered 
 robes, and wore on his head a fillet adorn- 
 ed with rosettes and long tasseled bands. 
 The throne of the king stood upon an 
 elevated platform, probably an artificial 
 mound, in the hill country. Its arms ana 
 sides were supported by three rows of fig- 
 ures one above the other. The wood 
 was richly carved, or encased in emboss- 
 ed metal, and the legs ended in pine- 
 shaped ornaments, probably of bronze. 
 The throne, indeed, appears to have re- 
 sembled, in every respect, one discovered 
 in the north-west palace at Nimroud. 
 which I shall hereafter describe.* Over 
 the high back was thrown an embrofd- 
 ered cloth, doubtless of some rare and 
 beautiful material. 
 The royal feet rested upon a high footstool of elegant form, fashioned like 
 the throne, and cased with embossed metal ; the legs ending in lion's paws. 
 Behind the king were two attendant eunuchs raising fans above his head, 
 and holding the embroidered napkins. 
 
 The monarch himself was attired in long loose robes richly ornamented, 
 and edged with tassels and fringes. In his right hand he raised two ar- 
 rows, and his left rested upon a bow , an attitude, probably denoting tri- 
 umph over his enemies, and in which he is usually portrayed when receiving 
 prisoners after a victory. 
 
 Behind the king was the royal tent or pavilion :f and beneath him were 
 his led horses, and an attendant on foot carrying the parasol, the emblem 
 of royalty. His two chariots, with their charioteers, were waiting for him. 
 One had a peculiar semicircular ornament of considerable size, rising from 
 the pole between the horses, and spreading over their heads It may orig- 
 inally have contained the figure of a deity, or some mythic symbol. It was 
 * Chap. VIII. 
 
 t I presume this to be a tent, or moveable dwelling-place. It is evidently sup- 
 ported by ropes. Above it is an inscription declaring that it is " the tent (') (the word 
 seems to read sarata) of Sennacherib, king of Assyria." 
 
 Sennacherib on his Throne before Lachish. 
 
] 98 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 attached to the chariot by that singular contrivance joined to the yoke and 
 represented in the early sculptures of Nimroud, the use and nature of which 
 I am still unable to explain.* This part of the chariot was richly adorned 
 with figures and ornamental designs, and appeared to be supported by a 
 prop resting on the pole. The trappings of the horses were handsomely dec- 
 orated, and an embroidered cloth, hung with tassels, fell on their chests. 
 Two quivers, holding a bow, a hatchet, and arrows, were fixed to the side 
 of the chariot. 
 
 This fine series of bas-reliefs, f occupying thirteen slabs, was finished by 
 the ground-plan of a castle, or of a fortified camp containing tents and 
 houses. "Within the Avails was also seen a fire-altar with two beardless 
 priests, wearing high conical caps, standing before it. In front of the altar, 
 on which burned the sacred flame, was also a table bearing various sacri- 
 ficial objects, and beyond it two sacred chariots, such as accompanied the 
 Persian kings in their wars.$ The horses had been taken out, and the yokes 
 rested upon stands. Each chariot carried a lofty pole surmounted by a 
 globe, and long tassels or streamers ; similar standards were introduced into 
 scenes representing sacrifices^ in the sculptures of Khorsabad. 
 
 Above the head of the king was the following inscription, 
 
 ) HH« -V H* ^1T « I « * —V 
 
 h -Ei *et ~~it -fl <£ **n 
 
 which may be translated, " Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the 
 country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment, before (or at the 
 entrance of) the city of Lachish (Lakhisha). I give permission for its 
 .slaughter." 
 
 Here, therefore, was the actual picture of the taking of Lachish, the city, 
 as we know from the Bible, besieged by Sennacherib, when he sent his gen- 
 erals to demand tribute of Hezekiah, and which he had captured before 
 their return ;|| evidence of the most remarkable character to confirm the in- 
 terpretation of the inscriptions, and to identify the king who caused them 
 to be engraved with the Sennacherib of Scripture. This highly interesting 
 
 * It has been suggested to me that it may have been a case in which to place the 
 how ; but the bow and arrows are contained in the quiver suspended to the side of 
 the chariot 
 
 t For detailed drawings, see 2nd series of the Monuments of Nineveh, Plates 20. 
 to 24. t Xenophon, Cyrpp. Ivii. e. 3. Quintus Curtius, lni. c. 3. 
 
 <;» Botta's Monumens de Nmivc. Plate 146. 
 
 II 2 Kings, wiii. 14 Isaiah xxxvi 2. From 2 Kings, xix. 8., and Isaiah, xxxvii. 
 8 , we may infer that the city soon yielded 
 
Cjup. VI.] 
 
 SIEGE OF LACHISH. 
 
 129 
 
 Jewish Captives from Lachish (Kouyunjik). 
 
 series of bas-reliefs contained, moreover, an undoubted representation of a 
 king, a city, and a people, with whose names we are acquainted, and of an 
 event described in Holy Writ. They furnish us, therefore, with illustra- 
 tions of the Bible of very great importance.^ The captives were undoubt- 
 edly Jews, their physiognomy was strikingly indicated in the sculptures, but 
 they had been stripped of their ornaments and their fine raiment, and were 
 left barefooted and half-clothed. From the women, too, had been removed 
 "the splendor of the foot ornaments and the caps of network, and the cres- 
 cents ; the ear-pendents, and the bracelets, and the thin veils ; the head- 
 dress, and the ornaments of the legs and the girdles, and the perfume-boxes 
 and the amulets; the rings and the jewels of the nose; the embroidered 
 robes and the tunics, and the cloaks and the satchels ; the transparent gar- 
 ments, and the fine linen vests, and the turbans and the mantles, " for they 
 wore instead of a girdle, a rope ; and instead of a stomacher, a girdling of 
 sackcloth."! 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson has, I am aware, denied that this is the Lachish mentioned in 
 Scripture, which he identifies with the All . . . ku of the bull inscriptions, and places 
 on the sea-coast between Gaza and Rhinocolura. (Outlines of Assyrian History, p 
 xxxvi.) But I believe this theory to be untenable, and I am supported in this view 
 of the subject by Dr. Hincks, who also rejects Col. Rawlinson's reading of Lubana 
 (Libnah). Lachish is mentioned amongst "the uttermost cities of the tribe of Ju- 
 dah." (Joshua, xv. 39.) From verse 21 to 32 we have one category of twenty-nine 
 cities " toward the coast of Edom southward." The next category appears to ex- 
 tend to verse 46, and includes cities in the valley, amongst which is Lachish. We 
 then come to Ashdod and the sea It was therefore certainly situated in the hill 
 country. (See also Robinson's Biblical Researches in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 388.) 
 
 t Isaiah, iii. 18-24, &c. (See translation by the Rev. J. Jones.) This descrip- 
 tion of the various articles of dress worn by the Jewish women is exceedingly inter- 
 esting. Most of the ornaments enumerated, probably indeed the whole of them, if 
 we were acquainted with the exact meaning of the Hebrew words, are still to be 
 traced in the costumes of Eastern women inhabiting the same country. Many ap- 
 pear to be mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions amongst objects of tribute and of 
 
130 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap VI. 
 
 Other corroborative evidence as to the identity of the king who built the 
 palace of Kouyunjik with Sennacherib, is scarcely less remarkable. In a 
 chamber, or passage, in the south-west corner of this edifice, 1 * were found 
 a large number of pieces of fine clay bearing the impressions of seals,! 
 which, there is no doubt, had been affixed, like modern official seals of 
 wax, to documents written on leather, papyrus, or parchment. Such docu- 
 ments, with seals in clay still attached, have been discovered in Egypt, and 
 specimens are preserved in the British Museum. The writings themselves 
 had been consumed by the fire which destroyed the building or had per- 
 
 lmpression of a Seal on Clay. 
 
 Back of the same Seal, showing the Marks 
 of the String and the Fingers. 
 
 ished from decay In the stamped clay, however, may still be seen the 
 holes for the string, or strips of skin, by which the seal was fastened ; in 
 some instances the ashes of the string itself remain, $ with the marks of 
 the fingers and thumb. 
 
 The greater part of these seals are Assyrian, but with them are others 
 bearing Egyptian, Phoenician, and doubtful symbols and characters. Some- 
 times the same seal is impressed more than once on the same piece of clay. 
 The Assyrian devices are of various kinds ; the most common is that of a 
 king plunging a dagger into the body of a rampant lion. This appears to 
 have been the royal, and, indeed, the national, seal or signet. It is fre- 
 quently encircled by a short inscription, which has not yet been deciphered. 
 or by a simple guilloche border The same group, emblematic of the su- 
 perior power and wisdom of the king, as well as of his sacred character, is 
 found on Assyrian cylinders, gems, and monuments. From the Assyrians 
 it was adopted by the Persians, and appears upon the walls of Persepolis 
 and on the coins of Darius. 
 
 Other devices found among these impressions of seals are : — 1. A king, 
 attended by a priest, in act of adoration before a deity standing on a lion, 
 and surrounded by seven stars : above the god's head, on one seal, is a 
 
 spoil brought to the king. See also Ezekiel xvi. 10 — 14 for an account of the dress 
 of the Jewish women. * No. LXI. Plan I. 
 
 t Resembling the 77) ar]fj.avrpls (the sealing earth) of the Greeks. 
 
 t M Botta also found, at Khorsabad, the ashes of string in lumps of clay impressed 
 with a seal, without being aware of their origin. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 PIKENICIAN SEALS. 
 
 131 
 
 scorpion. 2. The king, followed by an attendant bearing a parasol, and 
 preceded by a rampant horse. 3. A god, or the king, probably the former, 
 rising from a crescent. There appears to be a fish in front of the figure. 
 4. The king, with an eunuch or priest before him ; a flower, or ornament- 
 ed staff, between them. 5. A scorpion, surrounded by a guilloche border 
 (a device of very frequent occurrence, and probably astronomical). 6. A 
 priest worshipping before a god, encircled by stars. 7. A priest worship- 
 ping before a god. Behind him are a bull, and the sacred astronomical 
 emblems. 8. An ear of corn, surrounded by a fancy border. 9. An object 
 resembling a dagger, with flowers attached to the handle ; perhaps a sac- 
 rificial knife. 10. The head of a bull and a trident, two sacred symbols 
 of frequent occurrence on Assyrian monuments 11. A crescent in the 
 midst of a many-rayed star. 12. Several rudely cut seals, representing 
 priests and various sacred animals, stars,* &c. 
 
 The seals most remarkable for beauty of design and skilful execution 
 
 represent horsemen, one at full speed 
 raising a spear, the other hunting a 
 stag. The impressions show that 
 they were little inferior to Greek in- 
 taglios. No Assyrian or Babylonian 
 relics yet discovered, equal them in 
 delicacy of workmanship, and the 
 best examples of the art of engraving 
 on gems, — an art which appears to have reached great perfection amongst 
 the Assyrians, — are unknown to us, except through these impressions. 
 There are three seals apparently Phoenician ; two of them bearing Phoeni- 
 cian characters,! for which I can- 
 not suggest any interpretation. 
 A few have doubtful symbols 
 upon them, which I will not at- 
 tempt to explain ; perhaps hiero- 
 glyphical signs. 
 
 Of the purely Egyptian seals 
 there are four. One has two car- 
 Phcenician Seals. touches placed on the symbol of 
 
 gold, and each surmounted by a tall plume ; they probably contained the 
 praenomen and name of a king, but not the slightest trace remains of the 
 hieroglyphs. The impression is concave, having been made from a convex 
 surface : the back of some of the Egyptian ovals, the rudest form of the 
 scarabasus, are of this shape. On the second seal is the figure of the Egyp- 
 tian god Harpocrates, seated on a lotus flower, with his finger placed upon 
 
 * For engravings of these seals, see 2nd series of Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 69 
 t It is, however, possible that these characters may belong to some other Semitic 
 
 nation, as a cursive alphabet, having a close resemblance to the Phoenician, was used 
 
 from Tadmor to Babylon. 
 
132 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 his mouth ; an attitude in which he is represented on an ivory from Nim- 
 
 roud. The hieroglyph before him does 
 not appear to be Egyptian. 
 
 But the most remarkable and im- 
 portant of the Egyptian seals are two 
 impressions of a royal signet, which, 
 though imperfect, retain the cartouche, 
 with the name of the king, so as to be 
 perfectly legible. It is one well known to Egyptian scholars, as that of 
 the second Sabaco the ^Ethiopian, of the twenty-fifth dynasty. On the 
 same piece of clay is impressed an Assyrian seal, with a device representing 
 a priest ministering before the king, probably a royal signet. 
 
 Egyptian Seals. 
 
 Impressions of the Signets of the Kings of Assyria 
 and Egypt (Original Size.) 
 
 Part of Cartouche of Sabaco, enlarged 
 from the Impression of his Signet. 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever as to the identity of the cartouche.* 
 
 * I am indebted to Mr. Birch for the following remarks upon this seal: — "The 
 most important of the numerous seals discovered at Kouyunjik is one which has re- 
 ceived two impressions — an Assyrian, representing a personage in adoration before 
 a deity ; and a second, with the representation and name of the Egyptian monarch, 
 Sabaco, of the twenty-fifth dynasty of .Ethiopians, and evidently impressed from a 
 royal Egyptian seal. Similar impressions are by no means unknown, and a few ex- 
 amples have reached the present time. Not to instance the clay seals found attach- 
 ed to the rolls of papyrus containing letters written in the time of the Ptolemies and 
 Romans, there are in the British Museum seals bearing the name of Shashank or 
 Shishak (No 5585) of Amasis II. of the twenty-sixth dynasty (No. 5584.) and of 
 Nafuarut oi Nepherophis, of the twenty-ninth dynasty (No. 5585.). Such seals were, 
 therefore, affixed by the Egyptians to public documents, and it was in accordance 
 with this principle, common to the two monarchies, that the seal of the Egyptian 
 king has been found in Assyria. It appears to have been impressed from an oval, in 
 all probability the bezel of a metallic finger ring, like the celebrated seal of Cheops ; 
 in this case an oval, two inches in length, by one inch wide. The king Sabaco i- 
 represented upon the left in an action very commonly seen in the historical monu- 
 ments of Egypt, wearing the red cap teshr. He bends down, seizing with his left 
 hand the hair of the head of an enemy, whom he is about to smite with a kind of 
 mace or axe in his right, having slung his bow at his side Above and before him 
 are hieroglyphs, expressing Netr nfmb ar cht Shabaka, 'the perfect God, the Lord 
 who produces things, Shabaka (or Sabaco).' Behind is an expression of constant oc- 
 currence in Egyptian texts sha (s)anch-ha /, 'life follows his head.' Although no 
 
Chap. VI.] Egyptian seals. l33 
 
 Sabaco reigned in Egypt at the end of the seventh century before Christ, 
 the exact time at which Sennacherib came to the throne. He is probably 
 
 figure of any deity is seen, the hieroglyphs at the left edge show that the king was 
 performing this action before one — ma, na nak, • I have given to thee,' which must 
 have been followed by some such expression as ' a perfect life,' ' all enemies or coun- 
 tries under thy sandals.' It is impossible to determine which god of the Pantheon 
 was there, probably Amon-Ra, or the Theban Jupiter. These seals, therefore, as- 
 sume a most important character as to the synchronism of the two monarchies. 
 There can, indeed, be no doubt that the Shabak found upon them is the usual king 
 of the inscriptions ; and it is owing alone to the confusion of Herodotus and Diodorus 
 that the difficulty of identifying the true chronological position has occurred. The 
 twenty-fifth dynasty of Manetho, according to all three versions, consisted of three 
 .Ethiopic kings, the seat of whose empire was originally at Gebel Barkal, or Napata, 
 and who subsequently conquered the whole of Egypt. The first monarch of this line 
 was called Sabaco by the Greek writers ; the second Sebechos, or Seuechos, his son; 
 the third was Tarkos or Taracus. Now, corresponding to Sabacon and Seuechos 
 are two kings, or at least two praenomens, each with the name of Shabak : one reads 
 Ra-nefer-kar, the other Ra-tat-karu, although the correctness of this last praenomen is 
 denied, and it is asserted that only one king is found on the monuments. Even the 
 existence of the first Shabak or Sabacon is contested, and the eight or twelve years 
 of his reign credited to his successor ; and it is remarkable to find that in two ver- 
 sions of Manetho each reigned twelve years. Still the non-appearance of the first 
 Shabak on the monuments of Egypt would be intelligible, owing to the trouble he 
 may have had to establish his sway, although then it would be probable that he should 
 be found at Napata, his ^Ethiopian capital. As Rosellini, however, gives so distinct- 
 ly the second praenomen (M.R. cli. 5.), it is difficult to conceive that it does not exist. 
 In the other scenes at Karnak, Shabak, wearing the upper and lower crown, show- 
 ing his rule over the Delta, is seen embraced by Athor and Amen-t, or T-Amen 
 (Rosell. M.R. cli. 2 and 3), or else wearing a plain head-dress, he is received by 
 Amen and Mut ; but as he is unaccompanied by his praenomen, it is uncertain whether 
 Shabak I. or Shabak II. is intended. In the legends, Shabak II. is said to be ' crowned 
 on the throne of Turn (Tomos) like the sun for ever,' from which it is evident that 
 Sabaco claimed to be at that time king of Upper and Lower Egypt. The hypothesis 
 originally proposed by Marsham ( 1 Chron. Com. p. 457.), and subsequently adopted 
 by others is, that Sabaco is the king Sua or So, mentioned in Kings, xvii. 4., to whom 
 Hoshea, in the sixth year of his reign, sent an embassy. ' Against him came up 
 Shalmaneser king of Assyria ; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him pres- 
 ents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea : for he had sent mes- 
 sengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he 
 had done year by year : therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in 
 prison.' According to some chronologers, this was b. c. 723 — 722. (Winer, Bibl. 
 Real-Worterbuch, ii. s. 876. Bd. i. 730 f); according, however, to De Vignolles, 
 721 — 720. Of the later chronologists, Rosellini places Sabaco I. b. c. 719., and Sa- 
 baco II. b. c. 707. ; Sir Gardner Wilkinson, b. c. 778—728. If Sabaco be really So, 
 the reckoning of Rosellini and Bockh (Manetho, s. 393.), b. c. 711., for Sabaco II. is 
 nearest the truth. The name of So is written jod* N'D> Sva or Sia. The great 
 difficulty is the dreadful confusion of the period. The duration of the Ethiopian 
 dynasty, according to Africauus and Eusebius, is, 
 
 Years. Years. 
 
 Sabacon - 8 (Africanus) 12 (Eusebius) 
 
 Seuechos - ... 14 „ 12 „ 
 
 Taracus - 18 „ 20 „ 
 
 Total - 40 44 
 
134 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 the So mentioned in the second book of Kings (xvii. 4.) as having received 
 ambassadors from Hoshea, the king of Israel, who, by entering into a league 
 with the Egyptians, called down the vengeance of Shalmaneser, whose 
 tributary he was, which led to the first great captivity of the people of 
 Samaria. Shalmaneser we know to have been an immediate predecessor 
 of Sennacherib, and Tirakhah, the Egyptian king, who was defeated by 
 the Assyrians near Lachish, was the immediate successor of Sabaco II. 
 
 It would seem that a peace having been concluded between the Egyp- 
 tians and one of the Assyrian monarchs, probably Sennacherib, the royal 
 signets of the two kings, thus found together, were attached to the treaty, 
 which was deposited amongst the archives of the kingdom. "Whilst the 
 document itself, written upon parchment or papyrus, has completely per- 
 ished, this singular proof of the alliance, if not actual meeting, of the two 
 monarchs is still preserved amidst the remains of the state papers of the 
 Assyrian empire ; furnishing one of the most remarkable instances of con- 
 firmatory evidence on record, # whether we regard it as verifying the cor- 
 rectness of the interpretation of the cuneiform character, or as an illustra- 
 tion of Scripture history. 
 
 Little doubt, I trust, can now exist in the minds of my readers as to the 
 
 Herodotus (ii. 152.), in his usual confusion, places Sabaco, (who, he says, reigned 
 after Anysis, a blind man, who fled to the island of Elbo in the marshes,) after My- 
 cerinus, of the fourth dynasty, and states that he reigned fifty years, more than the 
 whole time of the dynasty. Diodorus placed Sabaco after Bocchoris, whom, he de- 
 clares, he burnt alive. This might be the deed of Sabaco I., while the burning of 
 Xechao I. may have been the act of Sabaco II. Hence, M. Bunsen (Aegyptens 
 Stelle, iii. 137, 138.), and Lepsius have adopted the hypothesis that the twenty-fifth 
 and twenty-sixth dynasties were contemporaneous, and that the capital of the -Ethi- 
 opian dynasty was at Napata, or Mt. Barkal, whence, from time to time, the iEthi- 
 opians successfully invaded Egypt, or the hypothesis that Amenartas, the .Ethiopian, 
 was not expelled when the Saites commenced their reign. (M. De Rougee, Exam, 
 ii. p. 66.) 
 
 XXIV. x.wi. 
 
 Anysis, in the Delta. Stephinatrs. 
 
 xxv. Nechepsos. 
 
 Sabaco (Thebes). The Dodekarchy (League of Xomarchs). 
 
 Sebichus. Psammetichus I. (M. Maury, Rev. Arch 
 
 Amenartas. 1851, p. 277.) 
 
 The great interest attached to the Kouyunjik seals depends upon having the pre- 
 cise date of this king, as they were probably affixed to a treaty with Assyria, or some 
 neighbouring nation. There can be no doubt as to the name of Sabaco. Herodotus 
 in. 139.) win. - 2ABAKn2; Diodorus (i. 69.) 2ABAKHN, Africanus Sabakon, for the 
 first Sabaid, and Sebechoa or Senechoe (5EBHXH2) for the second. The Armenian 
 version n ads Sabbakon, for the name of the first king (M. Bockh, Manetho, 326.). 
 Son* MSS. of the Septoagint have SHrriP (Segoor). Cf. Winer, /. c. ; Gesenius, 
 Com. in Test. i. 696.) It is indeed highly probable, that this is the monarch men- 
 tioned in the Book of Kings as Sua or So, and that his seal was affixed to some treat) 
 between Assyria and Egypt.*' 
 
 * The impressions of the signets of the Egyptian and Assyrian kings, besides a 
 large collection of seals found in Kouyunjik, are now in the British Museum. 
 
Chap. VI ] 
 
 ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS. 
 
 135 
 
 identification of the builder of the palace of Kouyunjik, with the Senna- 
 cherib of Scripture. Had the name stood alone, we might reasonably have 
 questioned the correctness of the reading, especially as the signs or mono- 
 grams, with which it is written, are admitted to have no phonetic power. 
 But when characters, whose alphabetic values have been determined from a 
 perfectly distinct source, such as the Babylonian column of the trilingual 
 inscriptions, furnish us with names in the records attributed to Sennacherib, 
 written almost identically as in the Hebrew version of the Bible, such as 
 Hezekiah, Jerusalem, Judah, Sidon, and others, and all occurring in one 
 and the same paragraph, their reading, moreover, confirmed by synchro- 
 nisms, and illustrated by sculptured representations of the events, the identi- 
 fication must be admitted to be complete. 
 
 The palace of Khorsabad, as I have already observed, was built by the 
 father of Sennacherib. The edifice in. the south-west corner of Nimroud 
 was raised by the son, as we learn from the inscription on the back of the 
 bulls discovered in that building * The name of the king is admitted to 
 be Essarhaddon, and there are events, as it will hereafter be seen, men- 
 tioned in his records, which further tend to identify him with the Essar- 
 haddon of Scripture, who, after the murder of his father Sennacherib, suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. 
 
 I may mention in conclusion, as connected with the bulls forming the 
 grand entrance, that in the rubbish at the foot of one of them were found 
 lour cylinders and several beads, with a scorpion in lapis lazuli, all appar- 
 ently once strung together. On one cylinder of translucent green felspar, 
 
 called amazon stone, which I believe to 
 have been the signet, or amulet, of Sen- 
 nacherib himself, is engraved the king 
 standing in an arched frame as on the 
 rock tablets at Bavian, and at the Nahr- 
 el-Kelb in Syria. He holds in one hand 
 the sacrificial mace, and raises the other 
 in the act of adoration before the winged 
 
 Royal Cylinder of Sennacherib figure m a circlej heY0 represented as a 
 
 triad with three heads. This mode of portraying this emblem is very rare 
 on Assyrian relics, and is highly interesting, as confirming the conjecture 
 that the mythic human figure, with the wings and tail of a bird, inclosed 
 in a circle, was the symbol of the triune god, the supreme deity of the As- 
 syrians, and of the Persians, their successors, in the empire of the East.f 
 
 * The relationship between the various Assyrian kings whose names are found on 
 the monuments, was discovered by me during the first excavations, and published in 
 my Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii 2nd part, chap. 1. Colonel Rawlinson in his 
 first memoir declares, that I had been too hasty in attributing the south-west palace 
 to the son of Sennacherib, but he appears since to have adopted the same opinion. 
 ''Outlines of Assyrian History, p. 40 ) 
 
 t M Lajard had conjectured that the component parts of this representation of the 
 triune deity were a circle or crown to denote time without bounds, or eternity, the 
 
136 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. VI 
 
 In front of the king is an eunuch, and the sacred tree, whose flowers are. 
 in this instance, in the form of an acorn. A mountain goat, standing upon 
 a flower resembling the lotus occupies the rest of the cylinder. The in- 
 taglio of this beautiful gem is not deep but sharp and distinct, and the de- 
 tails are so minute, that a magnifying glass is almost required to perceive 
 them. 
 
 On a smaller cylinder, in the same green felspar,* is a cuneiform inscrip- 
 tion, which has not yet been deciphered, but which does not appear to con- 
 tain any royal name. On two cylinders of onyx, also found at Kouyunjik. 
 and now in the British Museum, are, however, the name and titles of Sen- 
 nacherib. 
 
 image of Baal the supreme god, and the wings and tail of a dove, to typify the asso- 
 ciation of Mylitta, the Assyrian Venus. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. li p. 449 
 note.) 
 
 * A cylinder, not yet engraved or pierced, and several beads, are in the same ma- 
 terial. Part of another cylinder appears to be of a kind of vitreous composition. I 
 shall, hereafter, describe the nature and uses of these relics, which are so frequently 
 found in Assyrian and Babylonian ruins. 
 
 *K 
 
 Piece of clay with impressions of seals 
 
Vaulted drain beneath the North-west Palace at Nimroud 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ROAD OPENED FOR REMOVAL OF WINGED LIONS DISCOVERY OF VAULTED DRAIN. OF 
 
 OTHER ARCHES. OF PAINTED BRICKS. ATTACK OF THE TAI ON THE VILLAGE OF 
 
 NIMROUD. VISIT TO THE HOWAR DESCRIPTION OF THE ENCAMPMENT OF THE TAl 
 
 THE PLAIN OF SHOMAMOK. SHEIKH FARAS. WALI BEY RETURN TO NIMROUD 
 
 The gigantic human-headed lions, first discovered in the north-west pal- 
 ace at Nimroud,* were still standing in their original position Having 
 been carefully covered up with earth previous to my departure in 1848. 
 they had been preserved from exposure to the effects of the weather, and 
 to wanton injury on the part of the Arabs The Trustees of the British 
 Museum wishing to add these fine sculptures to the national collection I 
 was directed to remove them entire. A road' through the ruins, for their 
 transport to the edge of the mound, was in the first place necessary, and 
 it was commenced early in December. They would thus be ready for 
 embarkation as soon as the waters of the river were sufficiently high to 
 bear a raft so heavily laden, over the rapids and shallows between Nim- 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol i. p. 65. 
 
38 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 roud and Baghdad This road was dug to the level of the pavement or 
 artificial platform, and was not finished till the end of February, as a large 
 
 mass of earth and rubbish had to be 
 taken away to the depth of fifteen or 
 twenty feet. During the progress of 
 the work we found some carved frag- 
 ments of ivory similar to those already 
 placed in the British Museum ; and 
 two massive sockets in bronze, in which 
 turned the hinges of a gate of the pal- 
 ace. No remains of the door-posts, or 
 other parts of the gate, were discovered 
 in the ruins, and it is uncertain whether 
 these rings were fixed in stone or wood.* 
 In the south-eastern corner of the mound tunnels carried beneath the 
 ruined edifice, which is of the seventh century B.C., showed the remains 
 oi' an earlier building. A vaulted drain, about five feet in width, was also 
 
 P.ronze Socket of the Palace Gate (Nimroud). 
 
 Vaulted Drain beneath South-east Palace (Nimroud) 
 
 * The sockets, which are now in the British Museum, weigh 61b 3|oz ; the diam- 
 eter of the ring is about five inches. Tbe hinges and frames of the brass gates at 
 Babylon were also of brass (Herod, i 178 ) 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 ASSYRIAN ARCHES. 
 
 139 
 
 discovered. The arch was turned with large kiln-burnt bricks, and rested 
 upon side walls of the same material. The bricks being square, and not 
 expressly made for vaulting, a space was left above the centre of the arch, 
 which was filled up by bricks laid longitudinally. 
 
 Although this may not be a perfect arch, we have seen from the vaulted 
 chamber discovered in the very centre of the high mound at the north-west 
 corner, that the Assyrians were well acquainted at an early period with 
 its true principle. Other examples were not wanting in the ruins. The 
 earth falling away from the sides of the deep trench opened in the north- 
 west palace for the removal of the, bull and lion during the former excava- 
 tions, left uncovered the entrance to a vaulted drain or passage built of sun- 
 dried bricks. Beneath was a small watercourse, inclosed by square pieces 
 of alabaster.* A third arch, equally perfect in character, was found be- 
 neath the ruins of the south-east edifice. A tunnel had been opened al- 
 most on a level with the plain, and carried far into the southern face of 
 the mound, but without the discovery of any other remains of building than 
 
 Perfect Arch beneath South-east Edifice (Nimroud) 
 
 * See woodcut at the head of this chapter This drain was beneath chamlx t> S 
 and T. of the north-west palace. (See Plan III. Nineveh and its Remains, vol i 
 
 p. 62.) 
 
140 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 this solitary brick arch. This part of the artificial elevation or platform 
 appears to consist entirely of earth, heaped up without any attempt at reg- 
 ular construction. It contained no relics except a few rude vessels, or 
 vases, in the coarsest clay. 
 
 In the south-east corner of the quadrangle, formed by the low mounds 
 marking the walls once surrounding this quarter of the city of Nineveh, or 
 the park attached to the royal residence, the level of the soil is considera- 
 bly higher than in any other part of the inclosed space. This sudden in- 
 equality evidently indicates the site of some ancient edifice. Connected 
 with it, rising abruptly, and almost perpendicularly, from the plain, and 
 forming one of the corners of the walls, is a lofty, irregular mound, which 
 is known to the Arabs by the name of the Tel of Athur, the Lieutenant 
 of Nimroud.^ Tunnels and trenches opened in it showed nothing but 
 earth, unmingled even with bricks or fragments of stone. Remains of 
 walls and a pavement of baked bricks were, however, discovered in the 
 lower part of the platform. The bricks had evidently been taken from 
 some other building, for upon them were traces of colored figures and pat- 
 terns, of the same character as those on the sculptured walls of the palaces. 
 Their painted faces were placed downwards, as if purposely to conceal 
 them, and the designs upon them were in most instances injured or destroy- 
 ed. A few fragments were collected, and are now in the British Museum. 
 The colors have faded, but were probably once as bright as the enamels of 
 Khorsabad.f The outlines are white, and the ground a pale blue and olive 
 green. The only other color used is a dull yellow. The most interesting 
 specimens are,$ 
 
 1. Four captives tied together by their necks, the end of the rope being 
 held by the foremost prisoner, whose hands are free, whilst the others have 
 their arms bound behind. They probably formed part of a line of captives 
 led by an Assyrian warrior. They are beardless, and have bald heads, to 
 which is attached a single feather. § Two of them have white cloths 
 
 * " Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh." (Gen. x. 11.) 
 
 t The colors on the Nineveh bricks have not yet been fully examined, but they 
 appear to be precisely the same as those on the Babylonian, which have been care- 
 fully analyzed by Sir Henry De la Beche and Dr. Percy. The yellow is an antimo- 
 niate of lead, from which tin has also been extracted, called Naples yellow, supposed 
 to be comparatively a modern discovery, though also used by the Egyptians. The 
 white is an enamel or glaze of oxide of tin, an invention attributed to the Arabs of 
 Northern Africa in the eighth or ninth century. The blue glaze is a copper, contains 
 no cobalt, but some lead ; a curious fact, as this mineral was not added as a coloring 
 matter, but to facilitate the fusion of the glaze, to which use, it was believed, lead had 
 only been turned in comparatively modern times. The red is a sub-oxide of copper. 
 
 t For facsimiles of these colored fragments, see 2nd series of Monuments of Nine- 
 veh, Plates 53, 54, 55. 
 
 $ On Egyptian monuments captives are portrayed with similar feathers attached 
 to their heads ; but they appear to be of a negro race, whilst those on the Nimroud 
 bricks bear no traces of negro color or physiognomy. (Wilkinson's Ancient Egyp- 
 tians, vol. i. plate, p 385.) 
 
Chap. VII.l painted bricks. 141 
 
 round their loins, the others long white shirts open in front, like the shirt 
 of the modern Arab. The figures on this fragment are yellow on a blue 
 ground. 
 
 2. Similar captives followed by an Assyrian soldier. The armour of the 
 warrior is that of the later period, the scales and greaves are painted blue 
 and yellow, and the tunic blue. The ground blue. 
 
 3. Parts of two horses, of a man holding a dagger, and of an Assyrian 
 warrior. The horses are blue. The man appears to have been wounded 
 or slain in battle, and is naked, with the exception of a twisted blue cloth 
 round the loins. Ground an olive green. 
 
 4. Fragment, with Assyrian warriors on horses. Horses yellow, with 
 blue trappings. Ground olive green. 
 
 5. Part of a chariot and horse, yellow on a blue ground. 
 
 6. A man, with a white cloth round his loins, pierced by two arrows. 
 A fish, blue, with the scales marked in white ; and part of a horse's head, 
 yellow. Ground yellow. 
 
 7. Part of a walled tower, or fort, with square battlements; white, on a 
 blue ground. 
 
 8. Fragment of a very spirited design representing a chariot and horses 
 passing over a naked figure, pierced through the neck by an arrow. Under 
 this group are the heads, and parts of the shields, of two Assyrian warriors. 
 The wounded man wears a fillet round his head, to which is attached a 
 feather. The horses are blue, and their trappings white ; the wheels of the 
 chariot, yellow. The shields of the warriors are blue, edged by a band of 
 alternate squares of blue and yellow ; their helmets are yellow, but the 
 faces appear to be merely outlined in white on the olive green ground. 
 
 9. The lower part of an Assyrian warrior, his armour and greaves blue, 
 yellow, and white. The naked hand is of a pale brown color. Ground 
 olive green. 
 
 10. A castle, with angular battlements ; white, with yellow bands on a 
 blue ground. A square door is painted blue. 
 
 All these fragments evidently belong to the same period, and probably to 
 the same general subject, the conquest of some distant nation by the Assy- 
 rians. It is evident, from the costume of the warriors, and the form of the 
 chariots, that they are of the later epoch, and without attempting to fix 
 their exact date, I should conjecture that they had been taken from the 
 same building as the detached bas-reliefs in the south-west palace, and that 
 consequently they may be attributed to the same king.^ The outlines are 
 spirited, in character and treatment resembling the sculptures. 
 
 A fragment of painted brick, found in the ruins of the north-west palace, 
 is undoubtedly of a different, and of an earlier, period. f The outline is in 
 black, and not in white. The figures, of which the heads have been de- 
 stroyed, wear the same dress as the tribute-bearers bringing the monkey and 
 * That is, as will be hereafter shown, to Pul, or Tiglath Pileser. 
 t No. 6. Plate 53. 2nd series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
!42 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 ornaments, on the exterior walls of the same building.* The upper robe is 
 blue, the under yellow, and the fringes white. The ground is yellow. 
 
 But the most perfect and interesting specimen of painting is that on a 
 brick, 12 inches by 9, discovered in the centre of the mound of Nimroud. 
 and now in the British Museum. It represents the king followed by his 
 attendant eunuch, receiving his general or vizir, a group very similar to 
 those seen in the sculptures from the north-west palace. Above his head 
 is a kind of fringed pavilion, and part of an inscription, which appears to 
 have contained his name ; beneath him is the Assyrian guilloche border. f 
 The outline is in black upon a pale yellow ground, the colors having prob- 
 ably faded. From the costume of the king I believe him to be either the 
 builder of the north-west or centre palace. This is an unique specimen of 
 an entire Assyrian painting. 
 
 During the greater part of the month of December I resided at Nimroud. 
 One morning, I was suddenly disturbed by the reports of firearms, mingled 
 with the shouts of men and the shrieks of women. Issuing immediately 
 from the house, I found the open space behind it a scene of wild excitement 
 and confusion. Horsemen, galloping in all directions and singing their war 
 song, were driving before them with their long spears the cattle and sheep 
 of the inhabitants of the village. The men were firing at the invaders : 
 the women, armed with tent poles and pitchforks, and filling the air with 
 their shrill screams, were trying to rescue the animals. The horsemen of 
 the Arab tribe of Tai had taken advantage of a thick mist hanging over 
 the Jaif, to cross the Zab early in the morning, and to fall upon us before 
 we were aware of their approach. No time was to be lost to prevent 
 bloodshed, and all its disagreeable consequences. A horse was soon ready, 
 and I rode towards the one who appeared to be the chief of the attacking 
 party. Although his features were concealed by the keffieh closely drawn 
 over the lower part of his face, after the Bedouin fashion in war, he had 
 been recognised as Saleh, the brother of the Howar, the Sheikh of the Tai. 
 He saluted me as I drew near, and we rode along side by side, whilst hi? 
 followers were driving before them the cattle of the villagers. Directing 
 Hormuzd to keep back the Shemutti, I asked the chief to restore the plun- 
 dered property. Fortunately, hitherto only one man of the attacking partv 
 had been seriously wounded. The exped-'ion was chiefly directed against 
 the Jebours, who some days before had carried off a large number of the 
 camels of the Tai. I promised to do my best to recover them. At length 
 Saleh, for my sake, as he said, consented to restore all that had been taken, 
 and the inhabitants of Nimroud were called upon to claim each his own 
 property. As we approached the ruins, for the discussion had been carried 
 on as we rode from the village, my Jebour workmen, who had by this time 
 heard of the affray, were preparing to meet the enemy. Some had ascended 
 to the top of the high conical mound, where they had collected stones and 
 * First series of Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 40. 
 t Plate 55. 2nd scries of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
Chap. VII.] VISIT TO THE H0WAR 143 
 
 bricks ready to hurl against the Tai should they attempt to follow them. 
 Thus probably assembled on this very mound, which Xenophon calls a pyr- 
 amid, the people of Larissa when the ten thousand Greeks approached their 
 ruined city.* Others advanced towards us, stripped to their waists, brand- 
 ishing their swords and short spears in defiance, and shouting their war-cry 
 It was with difficulty that, with the assistance of Hormuzd, I was able to 
 check this display of valour, and prevent them from renewing the engage- 
 ment. The men and women of the village were still following the retreat- 
 ing horsemen, clamoring for various articles, such as cloaks and handker- 
 chiefs, not yet restored. In the midst of the crowd of wranglers, a hare sud- 
 denly sprang from her form and darted over the plain. My greyhounds, 
 who had followed me from the house, immediately pursued her. This was 
 too much for the Arabs ; their love of the chase overcame even their pro- 
 pensity for appropriating other people's property ; cattle, cloaks, swords, ana 
 keffiehs were abandoned to their respective claimants, and the whole band 
 of marauders joined wildly in the pursuit. Before we had reached the 
 game we were far distant from Nimroud. I seized the opportunity to con- 
 clude the truce, and Saleh with his followers rode slowly back towards 
 the ford of the Zab to seek his brother's tents. I promised to visit the 
 Howar in two or three days, and we parted with mutual assurances of 
 friendship. 
 
 Accordingly, two days afterwards, I started with Hormuzd, Schloss, and 
 a party of Abou-Salman horsemen, for the tents of the Tai. We took the 
 road by an ancient Chaldsean monastery, called Kuther Elias, and in three 
 hours reached the Zab. The waters, however, were so much swollen by 
 recent rains, that the fords were impassable, and having vainly attempted 
 to find some means of crossing the river, we were obliged to retrace our 
 steps. 
 
 I spent Christmas-day at Nimroud, and on the 28th renewed the attempt 
 to visit the Howar. Schloss again accompanied me, Mr. Holland (a trav- 
 eller, who had recently joined us), Hormuzd, and Awad being of the party 
 Leaving the Kuther Elias to the left, we passed the ruined village of Kini- 
 Haremi, taking the direct track to the Zab. The river, winding through 
 a rich alluvial plain, divides itself into four branches, before entering a range 
 of low conglomerate hills, between which it sweeps in its narrowed bed 
 with great velocity. The four channels are each fordable, except during 
 floods, and the Arabs generally cross at this spot. The water reached above 
 the bellies of our horses, but we found no difficulty in stemming the cur- 
 rent. The islands and the banks were clothed with trees and brushwood. 
 In the mud and sand near the jungle were innumerable deep, sharp prints 
 of the hoof of the wild boar. About two miles above the ford, on the op- 
 posite side, rose a large, table-shaped mound, called Abou-Sheetha. We 
 rode to it, and I carefully examined its surface and the deep rain- worn ra- 
 vines down its sides, but there were no remains of building; and although 
 
 * Anab. 1. iii. c. 4. 
 
144 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VII 
 
 fragments of brick and pottery were scattered over it, I could see no traces 
 upon them of cuneiform characters ; yet the mound was precisely of that 
 form which would lead to the conjecture that it covered an edifice of con- 
 siderable extent. Awad, however, subsequently excavated in it without 
 finding any ruins of the Assyrian period. A few urns and vases were the 
 only objects discovered. 
 
 The tents of theHowar were still higher up the Zab. Sending a horse- 
 man to apprise the chief of our approach, we rode leisurely towards them. 
 Near Abou-Sheetha is a small village named Kaaitli, inhabited by sedentary 
 Arabs, who pay tribute to the Sheikh. A few tents of the Tai were scattered 
 around it. As we passed by, the women came out with their children, and 
 pointing to me exclaimed, "Look, look! this is the Beg who is come from 
 the other end of the world to dig up the bones of our grandfathers and grand- 
 mothers !" a sacrilege which they seemed inclined to resent. Saleh, at the 
 head of fifty or sixty horsemen, met us beyond the village, and conducted 
 us to the encampment of his brother. 
 
 The tents were pitched in long, parallel lines. That of the chief held 
 the foremost place, and was distinguished by its size, the upright spears 
 tufted with ostrich feathers at its entrance, and the many high-bred mares 
 tethered before it. As we approached, a tall, commanding figure, of erect 
 and noble carriage, issued from beneath the black canvass, and advanced 
 to receive me. I had never seen amongst the Arabs a man of such lofty 
 stature. His features were regular and handsome, but his beard, having 
 been fresh dyed with hennah alone, * was of a bright brick-red hue, ill suited 
 to the gravity and dignity of his countenance. His head was encircled by 
 a rich cashmere shawl, one end falling over his shoulder, as is the custom 
 amongst the Arabs of the Hedjaz. He wore a crimson satin robe and a 
 black cloak, elegantly embroidered down the back, and on one of the wide 
 sleeves with gold thread and many-colored silks. This was Sheikh Howar. 
 and behind him stood a crowd of followers and adherents, many of whom 
 had the features and stature which marked the family of the chief. 
 
 As I dismounted, the Sheikh advanced to embrace me, and when his 
 arms were round my neck my head scarcely reached to his shoulder. He 
 led me into that part of the tent which is set aside for guests. It had been 
 prepared for my reception, and was not ill furnished with cushions of silk 
 and soft Kurdish carpets. The tent itself was more capacious than those 
 usually found amongst Arabs. The black goat-hair canvass alone was the 
 load of three camels,! and was supported by six poles down the centre, 
 with the same number on either side. Around a bright fire was an array 
 of highly burnished metal coffee-pots, the largest containing several quarts, 
 
 * In order to die the hair black, a preparation of indigo should be used after the 
 hennah. 
 
 t The ^nvass of such tents is divided into strips, which, packed separately on 
 the camels uuring a march, are easily united again by coarse thread, or by small 
 wooden pins. 
 
Chap. VII.] THE TRIBE 0F TAI> 145 
 
 and the smallest scarcely big enough to fill the diminutive cup reserved 
 for the solitary stranger. Several noble falcons, in their gay hoods and 
 tresses, were perched here and there on their stands. The Howar seated 
 himself by my side, and the head men of his tribe, who had assembled on 
 the occasion, formed a wide circle in front of us ; Saleh, his brother, stand- 
 ing without, and receiving the commands of the Sheikh. 
 
 Coffee was, of course, the first business. It was highly spiced, as drank 
 by the Bedouins. The Howar, after some general conversation, spoke of 
 the politics of the Tai, and their differences with the Turkish government. 
 The same ruinous system which has turned some of the richest districts 
 of Asia into a desert, and has driven every Arab clan into open rebellion 
 against the Sultan, had been pursued towards himself and his tribe. He 
 was its acknowledged hereditary chief, and enjoyed all the influence such 
 a position can confer. For years he had collected and paid the appointed 
 tribute to the Turkish authorities. Fresh claims had, however, been put 
 forward : the governors of Arbil, in whose district the Tai pastured their 
 flocks, were to be bribed ; the Pashas of Baghdad required presents, and the 
 tribute itself was gradually increased. At length the Howar could no lon- 
 ger satisfy the growing demands upon him. One of the same family was 
 soon found who promised to be more yielding to the insatiable avarice of 
 the Osmanlis, and, in consideration of a handsome bribe, Faras, his cousin, 
 was named Sheikh of the tribe. The new chief had his own followers, 
 the support of the government gave him a certain authority, and the Tai 
 were now divided into two parties. The Pasha of Baghdad and the gov- 
 ernor of Arbil profited by their dissensions, received bribes from both, and 
 from others who aimed at the sheikhship, and the country had rapidly been 
 reduced to a state of anarchy. The Arabs, having no one responsible chief, 
 took, of course, to plundering. The villages on the Mosul side of the Zab, 
 as well as in the populous district of Arbil, were laid waste. The Kurds, 
 who came down into the plains during the winter, were encouraged to fol- 
 low the example of the Tai, and, from the rapaciousness and misconduct 
 of one or two officers of the Turkish government, evils had ensued whose 
 consequences will be felt for years, and which will end in adding another 
 rich district to the desert. Such is the history of almost every tribe in 
 Turkey, and such the causes of the desolation that has spread over hei 
 finest provinces. 
 
 The Tai. now reduced to two comparatively small branches, one under 
 the Howar, the other residing in the desert of Nisibin, watered by the 
 eastern branch of the Khabour, is a remnant of one of the most ancient 
 and renowned tribes of Arabia. The Howar himself traces his descent 
 from Hatem, a Sheikh of the tribe who lived in the seventh century, 
 and who, as the impersonation of all the virtues of Bedouin life, is the 
 theme to this day of the Arab muse. His hospitality, his generosity, his 
 courage, and his skill as a horseman were alike unequalled, and there is no 
 name more honored amongst the wild inhabitants of the desert than that 
 
 K 
 
146 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VII 
 
 of Hatem Tai. The Howar is proud of his heroic ancestor, and the Be- 
 douins acknowledge and respect his descent.* 
 
 We dined with the Sheikh and sat until the night was far spent, listen- 
 ing to tales of Arab life, and to the traditions of his tribe. 
 
 On the following morning the tents were struck at sunrise, and the chief 
 moved with his followers to new pastures. The crowd of camels, flocks, 
 cattle, laden beasts of burden, horsemen, footmen, women and children dark- 
 ened the plain for some miles. "We passed through the midst of them with 
 the Sheikh, and leaving him to fix the spot of his encampment, we turned 
 from the river and rode inland towards the tents of his rival, Faras. Saleh, 
 with a few horsemen, accompanied me, but Schloss declared that it was 
 against all the rules of Arab etiquette for a stranger, like myself, to take 
 undue advantage of the rights of hospitality by introducing an enemy un- 
 der my protection into an encampment. There was a feud between the 
 two chiefs, blood had actually been spilt, and if Saleh entered the dwell- 
 ings of his rivals, disagreeable consequences might ensue, although my pres- 
 ence and the fact of his having eaten bread with me would save him from 
 actual danger. However, one of my objects was to bring about a reconcil- 
 iation between the two chiefs, and as Saleh had consented to run the risk 
 of accompanying me, I persevered in my determination. Schloss was not 
 to be persuaded, he hung behind, sulked, and finally turning the head of 
 his mare, rode back with his companions to the river. I took no notice of 
 his departure, anticipating his speedy return. He recovered from his ill 
 humor, and joined us again late in the evening. 
 
 The plain, bounded by the Tigris, the great and lesser Zab, and the Kurd- 
 ish hills, is renowned for its fertility. It is the granary of Baghdad, and 
 , it is a common saying amongst the Arabs, " that if there were a famine 
 over the rest of the earth, Shomamok (for so the principal part of the plain 
 is called) would still have its harvest." This district belongs chiefly to 
 the Tai Arabs, who wander from pasture to pasture, and leave the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil to small sedentary tribes of Arabs, Turcomans, and Kurds, 
 who dwell in villages, and pay an annual tribute in money or in kind. 
 
 As we rode along we passed many peasants industriously driving the 
 plough through the rich soil. Large flocks of gazelles grazed in the cul- 
 tivated patches, scarcely fearing the husbandman, though speedily bound- 
 ing away over the plain as horsemen approached. Artificial mounds rose 
 on all sides of us, and near one of the largest, called Abou-Jeideh, we found 
 the black tents of Sheikh Faras. The rain began to fall hi torrents before 
 
 * The reader may remember a well-known anecdote of this celebrated Sheikh, 
 still current in the desert. He was the owner of a matchless mare whose fame had 
 even reached the Greek Emperor. Ambassadors were sent from Constantinople to 
 ask the animal of the chief, and to offer any amount of gold in return. When they 
 announced, after dining, the object of their embassy, it was found, that the tribe suf- 
 fering from a grievous famine, and having nothing to offer to their guests, the gen- 
 erous Hatem had slain his own priceless mare to entertain them. 
 
Chap. VII.] sheikh faras. 14 7 
 
 we reached the encampment. The chief had ridden out to a neighbouring 
 village to make arrangements for our better protection against the weather. 
 He soon returned urging his mare to the top of her speed. In person he 
 was a strange contrast to the elder member of his family. He was short, 
 squat, and fat, and his coarse features were buried in a frame of hair dyed 
 bright red. He was, however, profuse in assurances of friendship, talked 
 incessantly, agreed to all I proposed with regard to a reconciliation with 
 the other branch of the tribe, and received Saleh with every outward sign 
 of cordiality. His son had more of the dignity of his race, but the expres- 
 sion of his countenance was forbidding and sinister. The two young men, 
 as they sat, cast looks of defiance at each other, and I had some difficulty 
 in restraining Saleh from breaking out in invectives, which probably would 
 have ended in an appeal to the sword. 
 
 As the rain increased in violence, and the tent offered but an imperfect 
 shelter, we moved to the village, where a house had been prepared for us 
 by its honest, kind-hearted Turcoman chief, Wali Bey. With unaffected 
 hospitality he insisted that we should become his guests, and had already 
 slain the sheep for our entertainment. I have met few men who exceed, 
 in honesty and fidelity, the descendants of the pure Turcoman race, scat- 
 tered over Asia Minor and the districts watered by the Tigris. 
 
 On the following morning, Wali Bey having first provided an ampl^ 
 breakfast, in which all the luxuries of the village were set before us, we 
 again visited the tents of the Howar. After obtaining his protection for 
 Awad, who was to return in a few days with a party of workmen, to ex- 
 plore the mounds of Shomamok, and settling the terms of reconciliation be- 
 tween himself and Faras, we followed the baggage, which had been sent 
 before us to the ford. On reaching the Zab, we found it rising rapidly 
 from the rains of the previous day. Our servants had already crossed, but 
 the river was now impassable. We sought a ford higher up, and above 
 the junction of the Ghazir. Having struggled in vain against the swollen 
 stream, we were compelled to give up the attempt. Nothing remained 
 but to seek the ferry on the high road, between Arbil and Mosul. We did 
 not reach the small village, where a raft is kept for the use of travellers 
 and caravans, until nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, and it was sunset 
 before we had crossed the river. 
 
 We hurried along the direct track to Nimroud, hoping to cross the Gha- 
 zir before night-fall. But fresh difficulties awaited us. That small river, 
 collecting the torrents of the Missouri hills, had overflown its bed, and its 
 waters were rushing tumultously onwards, with a breadth of stream al- 
 most equalling the Tigris. We rode along its banks, hoping to find an en- 
 campment where we could pass the night. At length, in the twilight, we 
 spied some Arabs, who immediately took refuge behind the walls of a ruined 
 village, and believing us to be marauders from the desert, prepared to de- 
 fend themselves and their cattle. Directing the rest of the party to stop, 
 T rode forward with the Bairakdar, and was in time to prevent a discharge 
 
148 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 of fire-arms pointed against us. The Arabs were of the tribe of Hadded- 
 een, who having crossed the Ghazir, with their buffaloes, had been unable 
 to regain their tents on the opposite side by the sudden swelling of the 
 stream 
 
 The nearest inhabited village was Tel As wad, or Kara Tuppeh, still far 
 distant. As we rode towards it in the dusk, one or two wolves lazily stole 
 from the brushwood, and jackals and other beasts of prey occasionally crossed 
 our path. We found the Kiayah seated with some travellers round a blaz- 
 ing fire. The miserable hut was soon cleared of its occupants, and we 
 prepared to pass the night as we best could. 
 
 Towards dawn the Kiayah brought us word that the Ghazir had sub- 
 sided sufficiently to allow us to ford. We started under his guidance, and 
 found that the stream, although divided into three branches, reached in 
 some places almost to the backs of the horses. Safe over, we struck across 
 the country towards Nimroud, and reached the ruins as a thick morning 
 mist was gradually withdrawn from the lofty mound. 
 
 During our absence, a new chamber had been opened in the north-west 
 palace, to the south of the great centre hall. The walls were of plain, 
 sun-dried brick, and there were no remains of sculptured slabs, but in the 
 earth and rubbish which had filled it, were discovered some of the most in- 
 teresting relics obtained from the ruins of Assyria. A description of its con- 
 tents alone will occupy a chapter. 
 
 Arab Tent 
 
Excavated Chamber in which the Bronzes were discovered (Nimroud). 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONTENTS OF NEWLY DISCOVERED CHAMBER. A WELL. LARGE COPPER CALDRONS. BELLS?. 
 
 RINGS, AND OTHER OBJECTS IN METAL. TRIPODS. CALDRONS AND LARGE VESSELS. 
 
 BRONZE BOWLS, CUPS, AND DISHES. DESCRIPTION OP THE EMBOSSINGS UPON THEM. 
 
 ARMS AND ARMOUR. SHIELDS. IRON INSTRUMENTS. IVORY REMAINS. BRONZE CUBES 
 
 INLAID WITH GOLD. GLASS BOWLS. LENS. THE ROYAL THRONE. 
 
 The newly discovered chamber was part of the north-west palace, and 
 adjoined a room previously explored.* Its only entrance was to the west, 
 and almost on the edge of the mound. It must, consequently, have opened 
 upon a gallery or terrace running along the river front of the building. 
 The walls were of sun-dried brick, panelled round the bottom with large 
 burnt bricks, about three feet high, placed one against the other. They 
 were coated with bitumen, and, like those forming the pavement, were in- 
 scribed with the name and usual titles of the royal founder of the building. 
 In one corner, and partly in a kind of recess, was a well, the mouth of 
 which was formed by brickwork about three feet high. Its sides were also 
 brjcked down to the conglomerate rock, and holes had been left at regular 
 intervals for descent. When first discovered it was choked with earth. 
 The workmen emptied it until they came, at the depth of nearly sixty feet, 
 to brackish water. f 
 
 The first objects found in this chamber were two plain copper vessels or 
 
 * It was parallel to, and to the south of, the chamber marked A A, in the plan of 
 the north-west palace (Nineveh and its Remains, vol i. Plan III.) 
 t Few wells in the plains bordering on the Tigris yield sweet water. 
 
150 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. VIII 
 
 caldrons, about 2^ feet in diameter, and 3 feet deep, resting upon a star/ 1 
 of brickwork, with their mouths closed by large tiles. Near them was a 
 copper jar, which fell to pieces almost as soon as uncovered. Several vases 
 of the same metal, though smaller in size, had been dug out of other parts 
 of the ruins ; but they were empty, whilst those I am describing were filled 
 
 ith 
 
 Bronze Bells found hi a Caldron (Nunrou 
 
 relics. I first took out a number of small bronze bells*' with 
 
 iron tongues, and various 
 small copper ornaments, 
 some suspended to wires 
 With them were a quanti- 
 ty of tapering bronze rods, 
 bent into a hook, and end- 
 ing in a kind of lip. Be- 
 neath were several bronze- 
 cups and dishes, which I 
 succeeded in removing 
 entire. Scattered in the 
 earth amongst these ob- 
 jects were several hund- 
 red studs and buttons in 
 mother of pearl and ivory, 
 with many small rosettes 
 in metal. 
 
 All the objects contain- 
 ed in these caldrons, with 
 the exception of the cups 
 and dishes, were probably 
 ornaments of horse and 
 chariot furniture. The ac- 
 companying woodcut from 
 
 a bas-relief at Kouyunjik. 
 
 Horse Trappings from a Bas-relief at Kouyunjik, showing probable 
 use of Ivory Studs and Metal Rosetits. 
 
 * The caldrons contained about eighty bells. The largest are 3J inches high, and 
 2} inches in diameter, the smallest 1$ inch high, and l\ inch in diameter. With the 
 rest of the relics they are now in the British Museum. 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 OBJECTS IN BRONZE 
 
 151 
 
 Bronze Object. 
 
 Bronze Ornaments. 
 
 Bronze Hook 
 
 Ivory and Mother of Pearl Studs (Nimroud) 
 
 Feet of Tripods in Bronze and Iron. 
 
152 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 will show the way in which the studs of ivory and mother of pearl, and the 
 rosettes or stars of metal, were probably used. The horses of the Assyrian 
 
 cavalry, as well as those harnessed 
 to chariots, are continually repre- 
 sented in the sculptures with bells 
 round their necks, and in the Bible 
 we find allusion to this custom # 
 The use of the metal hooks cannot 
 be so satisfactorily traced ; they 
 probably belonged to some part of 
 the chariot, or the horse trappings. 
 Beneath the caldrons were heap- 
 ed lions' and bulls' feet of bronze : 
 and the remains of iron rings and 
 bars, probably parts of tripods, or 
 
 Feet of Tripodsl^ze and Iron. stands for supporting vessels and 
 
 bowls ;f which, as the iron had 
 rusted away, had fallen to pieces, leaving such parts entire as were in the 
 more durable metal. 
 
 Two other caldrons, found further within the chamber, contained, be- 
 sides several plates and dishes, four crown shaped bronze ornaments, per- 
 haps belonging to a throne or couch ;$ two long ornamented bands of cop- 
 per, rounded at both ends, apparently belts, such as were worn by warriors 
 in armour ;§ a grotesque head in bronze, probably the top of a mace ; a 
 metal wine-strainer of elegant shape ; various metal vessels of peculiar 
 form, and a bronze ornament, probably the handle of a dish or vase. 
 
 Eight more caldrons and, jars were found in other parts of the chamber 
 One contained ashes and bones, the rest were empty. || Some of the 
 larger vessels were crushed almost flat, probably by the falling in of the 
 upper part of the building. 
 
 With the caldrons were discovered two circular flat vessels, nearly six 
 feet m diameter, and about two feet deep, which I can only compare with 
 the brazen sea that stood m the temple of Solomon. IF 
 
 * Zech. xiv. 20. 
 
 f Tripod-stands, consisting of a circular ring raised upon feet, to hold jars and 
 vases, are frequently represented in the bas-reliefs. (See particularly Botta's large 
 work, plate 141.) The ring was of iron, hound in some places with copper, and the 
 feet partly of iron and partly of bronze ingeniously cast over it. 
 
 t If, however, they were part of a throne, it is difficult to account for their being 
 found detached in the caldron They measured 6 inches in diameter, and 2 inches in 
 depth. 
 
 $ Resembling those of the eunuch warriors in Plate 28. of the 1st series of the 
 Monuments ofNinereh. 
 
 II One of the jars was 4 feet 1 1 inches high. Two of the caldrons with handles on 
 each side were 2 feet 5 inches in diameter, and 1 foot 6 inches deep 
 
 U" 2 Chron. iv. 2. The dimensions, however, of this vessel were far greater. It is 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 OBJECTS IN BRONZE 
 
 153 
 
 Bronze Vessels, taken from the Interior of a Caldron. 
 
 Bronze Vessel, taken from the Interior of a Caldron. 
 
 Bronze Head of a Mace. Bronze Handle of a Dish or Vase. Bronze Wine Strainer. 
 
154 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Caldrons are frequently represented as part of the spoil and tribute, in 
 the sculptures of Nimroud and Kouynnjik.* They were so much valued 
 by the ancients that, it appears from the Homeric poems, they were given 
 as prizes at public games, and were considered amongst the most precious 
 objects that could be carried away from a captured city. They were fre- 
 quently embossed with flowers and other ornaments. Homer declares one 
 so adorned to be worth an ox.f 
 
 Behind the caldrons was a heap of curious and interesting objects. In 
 one place were piled without order, one above the other, bronze cups, bowls, 
 and dishes of various sizes and shapes. The upper vessels having been 
 most exposed to damp, the metal had been eaten away by rust, and was 
 crumbling into fragments, or into a green powder. As they were cleared 
 away, more perfect specimens were taken out, until, near the pavement of 
 the chamber, some were found almost entire. Many of the bowls and 
 plates fitted so closely, one within the other, that they have only been de- 
 tached in England. It required the greatest care and patience to separate 
 them from the tenacious soil ii^ which they were embedded. 
 
 Although a green crystalline deposit, arising from the decomposition of 
 the metal, encrusted all the vessels, I could distinguish upon many of them 
 traces of embossed and engraved ornaments. Since they have been in 
 England they have been carefully and skilfully cleaned by Mr. Doubleday, 
 of the British Museum. $ and the very beautiful and elaborate designs upon 
 them brought to light. $ 
 
 The bronze objects thus discovered may be classed under four heads — 
 dishes with handles, plates, deep bowls, and cups. Some are plain, others 
 have a simple rosette, scarab, or star in the centre, and many are most 
 elaborately ornamented with the figures of men and animals, and with el- 
 egant fancy designs, either embossed or incised. Although the style, like 
 
 singular that in some of the bas-reliefs large metal caldrons supported on brazen oxen 
 are represented. 
 
 * See particularly Monuments of Nineveh, 1st series, Plate 24., and 2d series, Plate 
 35., and on the black obelisk. They were carried away by the Babylonians from Je- 
 rusalem. Jerem. lii. 18. 
 
 t They were dedicated to the gods in temples. Colceus dedicated a large vessel 
 of brass, adorned with griffins, to Here. Herod, iv. 152. 
 
 % I seize this opportunity of expressing my thanks to that gentleman, for the kind as- 
 sistance and valuable information I have received from him during my connection with 
 the British Museum, and of bearing testimony to the judgment and skill he has dis- 
 played as well in the disembarkation and removal of the great sculptures, as in the 
 cleaning and repairing of the most minute and delicate objects confided to his care. 
 
 § Engravings of the- most interesting of these vessels will be found in the 2d series 
 of my Monuments of Nineveh. They have been chiefly executed from the admirable 
 drawings of Mr. Prentice, to whom I am indebted for the very accurate representa- 
 tions of the ivories, published in my former work. The Trustees of the British Mu- 
 seum have judiciously employed that gentleman to make exact copies of these inter- 
 esting relics, which, it is feared, will ere long be utterly destroyed by a process of 
 natural decomposition in the metal, that no ingenuity can completely arrest. 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 BRONZE DISHES. 
 
 155 
 
 that of the ivories from the same palace, and now in the British Museum, 
 is frequently Egyptian in character, yet the execution and treatment, as 
 well as the subjects, are peculiarly Assyrian. The inside, and not the out- 
 side, of these vessels is ornamented. The embossed figures have been 
 raised in the metal by a blunt instrument, three or four strokes of which 
 in many instances very ingeniously produce the image of an animal* 
 Even those ornaments which are not embossed but incised, appear to have 
 been formed by a similar process, except that the punch was applied on 
 the inside. The tool of the graver has been sparingly used. 
 
 The most interesting dishes in the collection brought to England are : — 
 No. 1,, with moving circular handle (the handle wanting), secured by 
 
 three bosses ; diameter 10 J inch- 
 es, depth 2 J inches ; divided in- 
 to two friezes surrounding a cir- 
 cular medallion containing a 
 male deity with bull's ears (?) 
 and hair in ample curls, f wear- 
 ing bracelets and a necklace of 
 an Egyptian character, and a 
 short tunic ; the arms crossed, 
 and the hands held by two Egyp- 
 tians (?), who place their other 
 hands on the head of the centre 
 figure. The inner frieze con- 
 tains horsemen draped as Egyp- 
 tians, galloping round in pairs ; 
 the outer figures also wearing 
 the Egyptian " shenti" or tunic, 
 hunting lions on horseback, on 
 foot, and in chariots. The hair 
 of these figures is dressed after 
 a fashion, which prevailed in 
 Egypt from the ninth to the eighth century B.C. Each frieze is separated 
 by a band of guilloche ornament.^ 
 
 No. 2., diameter 10J inches, having a low rim, partly destroyed ; orna- 
 mented with an embossed rosette of elegant shape, surrounded by three 
 friezes of animals in high relief, divided by a guilloche band. The outer 
 frieze contains twelve walking bulls, designed with considerable spirit ; be- 
 tween each is a dwarf shrub or tree. The second frieze has a bull, a winged 
 griffin, an ibex, and a gazelle, walking one behind the other, and the same 
 
 * The embossing appears to have been produced by a process still practised by sil- 
 versmiths. The metal was laid upon a bed of mixed clay and bitumen, and then 
 punched from the outside. 
 
 t The Egyptian goddess Athor is represented with similar ears and hair. 
 
 % Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd Series. Plate 65. 
 
 Bronze Dish, from Nimroud. 
 
156 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VIII 
 
 animals seized by leopards or lions, in all fourteen figures. The inner 
 
 frieze contain twelve gazelles 
 The handle is formed by a 
 plain movable ring.* The or- 
 naments on this dish, as well 
 as the design, are of an Assyr- 
 ian character. The bull, the 
 wild-goat, and the griffin are 
 the animals, evidently of a sa- 
 cred character, which occur so 
 frequently in the sculptures of 
 Nimroud. The lion, or leop- 
 Bronze D^^n Nimnmd. ard > devouring the bull and ga- 
 
 zelle, is a well-known symbol 
 of Assyrian origin, afterwards adopted by other Eastern nations, and may 
 typify, according to the fancy of the reader, either the subjection of a prim- 
 itive race by the Assyrian tribes, or an astronomical phenomenon. 
 
 No. 3., diameter 10 J inches, and 1 J inch deep, with a raised star in the 
 centre ; the handle formed by two rings, working in sockets fastened to a 
 rim, running about one third round the margin, and secured by five nails 
 or bosses ; four bands of embossed ornaments in low relief round the centre, 
 the outer band consisting of alternate standing bulls and crouching lions. 
 Assyrian in character and treatment ; the others, of an elegant pattern, 
 slightly varied from the usual Assyrian border by the introduction of a ian- 
 like flower in the place of the tulip. f 
 
 Other dishes were found still better preserved than those just described, 
 but perfectly plain, or having only a star, more or less elaborate, embossed 
 or engraved in the centre. Many fragments were also discovered with 
 elegant handles, some formed by the figures of rams and bulls. 
 Of the plates the most remarkable are : — 
 
 No. 1., shallow, and 8f inches in diameter, the centre slightly raised and 
 incised with a star and five bands of tulip-shaped ornaments ; the rest oc- 
 cupied by four groups, each consisting of two winged hawk-headed sphinxes, 
 wearing the " pshent," or crown of the upper and lower country of Egypt : 
 one paw raised, and resting upon the head of a man kneeling on one knee, 
 and lifting his hands in the act of adoration. Between the sphinxes, on a 
 column in the form of a papyrus-sceptre, is the bust of a figure wearing on 
 his head the sun's disc, with the ursei serpents, a collar round the neck, and 
 four feathers ; above are two winged globes with the asps, and a row of 
 
 - Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series. Plate 60. 
 
 t Id. A Plate 57. I have called this dower, the lotus of the Egyptian sculptures, 
 a tulip, as it somewhat resemhles a bright scarlet tulip which abounds in early spring 
 on the Assyrian plains, and may have suggested this elegant ornament. It has no 
 resemblance whatever to the honeysuckle, by which name it is commonly known 
 when used in Greek architecture. 
 
Chap. VIII] 
 
 BRONZE PLATES 
 
 157 
 
 birds. Each group is inclosed by two columns with capitals in the form 
 
 Handles of Bronze Dishes, from Nimroud. 
 
 of the Assyrian tulip ornament, and is separated from that adjoining by a 
 scarab with out-spread wings, raising the globe with its fore feet, and rest- 
 ing with its hind on a papyrus-sceptre pillar.^ This plate is in good pres- 
 ervation, having been found at the very bottom of a heap of similar relics. 
 Part of the bronze was still bright, and of a golden color ; hence the report 
 spread at the time of the discovery, that an immense treasure in vessels of 
 gold had been dug up at Nimroud. The emblems are evidently derived 
 from familiar objects in Egyptian mythology, which may have been ap- 
 plied by the Assyrians to other ideas The workmanship, although not 
 purely Egyptian, appears to be more so than that of any other specimen in 
 the collection, except a fragment very closely resembling this plate. f A 
 scarab, apparently more of a Phcsnician than of an Egyptian form, occurs 
 
 Bronze Cup, 6^ in. diameter, and 1| in deep Engraved Scarab in Centre of same Cup 
 Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series Plate 63. t Id. Plate 68 
 
158 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 as an ornament on many of these bronzes ; as in the centre of a well-pre- 
 served bowl otherwise plain, and on a dish. 
 
 No. 2., depth, 1 j in. ; diameter, 9 J in., with a broad, raised rim, like 
 that of a soup plate, embossed with figures of greyhounds pursuing a hare. 
 The centre contains a frieze in high relief, representing combats between 
 men and lions, and a smaller border of gazelles, between guilloche bands, 
 encircling an embossed star.* In this very fine specimen, although the 
 costumes of the figures are Egyptian in character, the treatment and de- 
 sign are Assyrian. 
 
 Xo. 3., shallow; 9J inches diameter; an oval in the centre, covered 
 with dotted lozenges, and set with nine silver bosses, probably intended to 
 represent a lake or valley, surrounded by four groups of hills, each with 
 three crests in high relief, on which are incised in outline trees and stags, 
 wild goats, bears, and leopards. On the sides of the hills, in relief, are 
 similar figures of animals. The outer rim is incised with trees and deer.f 
 The workmanship of this specimen is Assyrian, and very minute and curi- 
 ous. The subject may represent an Assyrian paradise, or park, in a mount- 
 ainous district. 
 
 No. 4., diameter, 7 J inches, the centre raised, and containing an eight- 
 rayed star, with smaller stars between each ray, encircled by a guilloche 
 band. The remainder of the plate is divided into eight compartments, by 
 eight double-faced figures of Egyptian character in high relief; between 
 each figure are five rows of animals, inclosed by guilloche bands ; the first 
 three consisting of stags and hinds, the fourth of lions, and the fifth of 
 hares, each compartment containing thirteen figures. A very beautiful 
 specimen, unfortunately much injured.^ 
 
 No. 5., diameter, 8J inches ; depth, lj inch. The embossings and orna- 
 ments on this plate are of an Egyptian character. The centre consists of 
 four heads of the cow-eared goddess Athor (?), forming, with lines of bosses. 
 an eight-rayed star, surrounded by Ijills, indicated as in plate No. 3., but 
 filled in with rosettes and other ornaments. Between the hills are incised 
 animals and trees. A border of figures, almost purely Egyptian, but un-. 
 fortunately only in part preserved, encircles the plate ; the first remaining 
 group is that of a man seated on a throne, beneath an ornamented arch 
 with the Egyptian Baal, represented as on the coins of Cossura, standing 
 full face ; to the right of this figure is a square ornament with pendants 
 (resembling a sealed document), and beneath it the crux ansata or Egyp- 
 tian symbol of life. The next group is that of a warrior in Egyptian at- 
 tire, holding a mace in his right hand, and in his left a bow and arrow 
 with the hair of a captive of smaller proportions, who crouches before him. 
 At his side is a tame lion, recalling to mind the pictures on Egyptian 
 monuments of Rameses II., accompanied by a lion during his campaigns. 
 A goddess, wearing a long Egyptian tunic, presents a falchion with her 
 
 * Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series. Plate 64. t Id. Plate 66. 
 
 t Id A. Plate 61 
 
Chap. VIII.] bronze plates 159 
 
 right hand to this warrior, and holds a sceptre in her left Between these 
 figures are two hieroglyphs, an ox's head and an ibis or an heron. Over 
 the goddess is a square tablet for her name. The next group represents 
 the Egyptian Baal (?), with a lion's skin round his body, and plumes on 
 his head, having on each side an Egyptian figure wearing the "shent, ,: 
 or short tunic, carrying a bow, and plucking the plumes from the head of 
 the god, perhaps symbolical of the victory of Horus over Typhon. This 
 group is followed by a female figure, draped in the Assyrian fashion, but 
 wearing on her head the triple crown of the Egyptian god Pnebta, hold- 
 ing in one hand a sword, and in the other a bow (?), and having on each 
 side men, also dressed in the Assyrian costume, pouring out libations to 
 her from a jug or chalice : the Egyptian symbol of life occurs likewise in 
 this place. The Egyptian god Amon, bearing a bird in one hand and a 
 falchion in the other, with female figures similar to that last described, ap- 
 pears to form the next group ; but unfortunately this part of the plate has 
 been nearly destroyed : the whole border, however, appears to have rep- 
 resented a mixture of religious and historical scenes.^ 
 
 No. 6., diameter, 6 inches ; depth, 1 J inch ; a projecting rim, ornamented 
 with figures of vultures with outspread wings ; an embossed rosette, en- 
 circled by two rows of fan-shaped flowers and guilloche bands, occupies a 
 raised centre, which is surrounded by a frieze, consisting of groups of two 
 vultures devouring a hare. A highly finished and very beautiful specimen. 
 On the back of this plate are five letters, either in the Phoenician or As- 
 syrian cursive character.! 
 
 Nos. 7. and 8., covered with groups of small stags, surrounding an elab- 
 orate star, one plate containing above 600 figures ; the animals are formed 
 by three blows from a blunt instrument or punch. These plates are orna- 
 mented with small bosses of silver and gold let into the copper. $ 
 
 No. 9., diameter, 7§ inches ; depth, 1 \ inch, of fine workmanship ; the 
 centre formed by an incised star, surrounded by guilloche and tulip bands. 
 Four groups on the sides representing a lion, lurking amongst papyri or 
 reeds, and about to spring on a bull. 
 
 No. 10., diameter 7 J inches. In the centre a winged scarab raising the 
 disc of the sun, surrounded by guilloche and tulip bands, and by a double 
 frieze, the inner consisting of trees, deer, winged ursei, sphinxes, and papy- 
 rus plants ; the outer, of winged scarabs, flying serpents, deer, and trees, 
 all incised. 
 
 The plates above described are the most interesting specimens brought 
 to this country : there are others, indeed, scarcely less remarkable for 
 beauty of workmanship^ or, when plain or ornamented with a simple star 
 
 * Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series. B. Plate 61. f Id. B. Plate 62. 
 
 % Id. E. Plate 57. and C. Plate 59. 
 
 § I may instance in particular a fragment covered with a very elegant and classic 
 design. Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series. Plate 62., and see Plates 57, 58, 59 
 of same work. 
 
160 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON 
 
 [Chap VIII 
 
 in the centre, for elegance of form. Of the seventeen deep bowls discov- 
 ered, only three have embossings, sufficiently well preserved, to be de- 
 scribed; the greater part appear to be perfectly plain. The most remark- 
 able is 8J inches in diameter, and 3f inches deep, and has at the bottom, 
 in the centre, an embossed star, surrounded by a rosette, and on the sides 
 a hunting scene in bold relief. From a chariot, drawn by two horses, and 
 driven by a charioteer, a warrior turning back shoots an arrow at a lion, 
 which is already wounded ; whilst a second huntsman in armour, above 
 whose head hovers a hawk, pierces the animal from behind with a spear 
 These figures are followed by a sphinx, wearing the Egyptian head-dress 
 • pshent"' and a collar, on which is the bust of a winged, ram-headed god 
 Two trees, with flowers or leaves in the shape of the usual Assyrian tulip 
 ornament, are introduced into the group. 
 
 A second, 7J inches in diameter, and 3f inches deep, has in the centre 
 a medallion similar to that in the one last described, and on the sides, in 
 
 Embossed Figures on the Bronze Pedestal of a figure from Polledrara, in the British Museum 
 
 verv high relief, two lions and two sphinxes of Egyptian character, wear- 
 ing a collar, feathers, and housings. 
 and a head-dress formed by a disc 
 with two uraei. Both bowls are re- 
 markable for the boldness of the re- 
 lief and the archaic treatment of the 
 figures, in this respect resembling the 
 ivories previously discovered at Nim- 
 roud They forcibly call to mind the 
 early remains of Greece, and especial- 
 ly the metal work, and painted pottery 
 found in very ancient tombs in Etruria. 
 which they so closely resemble not 
 only in design but in subject, the same 
 mythic animals and the same orna- 
 ments being introduced, that we cannot but attribute to both the same 
 
 Embossed Figure on the Bronze Pedestal of a 
 Figure from Polledrara. 
 
Chap. VIIL] 
 
 BRONZE VESSELS. 
 
 1G1 
 
 Bronze Pedestal of Figure from Polle- 
 drara. 
 
 origin.* I have given for the sake of com- 
 parison, wood-cuts of the bronze pedestal of 
 a figure found at Polledrara in Etruria, and 
 now in the British Museum. The animals 
 upon it are precisely similar to those upon 
 the fragment of a dish brought from Nineveh, 
 and, moreover, that peculiar Assyrian orna- 
 ment, the guilloche, is introduced. 
 
 The third, 7f inches in diameter, and 2J 
 inches deep, has in the centre a star formed 
 by the Egyptian hawk of the sun, bearing 
 the disc, and having at its side a whip, be- 
 tween two rays ending in lotus flowers ; on 
 the sides are embossed figures of wild goats, 
 lotus-shaped shrubs, and dwarf trees of peculiar form.f 
 Of the cups the most remarkable are : — 
 
 No. 1., diameter, 5| inches, and 2 J inches deep, very elaborately orna- 
 mented with figures of animals, interlaced and grouped together in singu- 
 lar confusion, covering the whole inner surface ; apparently representing a 
 combat between griffins and lions ; a very curious and interesting speci- 
 men, not unlike some of the Italian chasing of the cinque cento. $ 
 
 No. 2., a fragment, embossed with the figures 
 of lions and bulls, of very fine workmanship. 
 
 Of the remaining cups many are plain but 
 of elegant shape, one or two are ribbed, and 
 some have simply an embossed star in the cen- 
 
 Bronze Cup, from Nimroud. x 
 
 About 150 bronze vessels discovered in this chamber are now in the 
 British Museum, without including numerous fragments, which, although 
 showing traces of ornament, are too far destroyed by decomposition to be 
 cleaned. 
 
 I shall add, in an Appendix, some notes on the bronze and other sub- 
 stances discovered at Nimroud, obligingly communicated to me by Dr. 
 Percy. It need only be observed here, that the metal of the dishes, bowls, 
 and rings has been carefully analysed by Mr. T. T. Philips, at the Museum 
 of Practical Geology, and has been found to contain one part of tin to ten 
 of copper, being exactly the relative proportions of the best ancient and mod- 
 ern bronze. The bells, however, have fourteen per cent, of tin, showing 
 that the Assyrians were well aware of the effect produced by changing 
 the proportions of the metals. These two facts show the advance made 
 by them in the metallurgic art. 
 
 * For the two Assyrian bowls see Plate 68. of the Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd 
 series. These bronzes should also be compared with the vessels found at Cervetri, 
 and engraved in Griffi's Monumenti de Ceri Antica (Roma, 1841), and with various 
 terracottas in the British Museum. 
 
 t Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series. C. Plate 57. t Id. Plate 67. 
 
 L 
 
162 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 The effect of age and decay has been to cover the surface of all these 
 bronze objects with a coating of beautiful crystals of malachite, beneath 
 which the component substances have been converted into suboxide of cop- 
 per and peroxide of tin, leaving in many instances no traces whatever of 
 the metals. 
 
 It would appear that the Assyrians were unable to give elegant forms or 
 a pleasing appearance to objects in iron alone, and that consequently they 
 frequently overlaid that metal with bronze, either entirely, or partially, by 
 way of ornament. Numerous interesting specimens of this nature are in- 
 cluded in the collection in the British Museum. Although brass is now 
 frequently cast over iron, the art of using bronze for this purpose had not, 
 I believe, been introduced into modern metallurgy.* The feet of the ring 
 tripods previously described, furnish highly interesting specimens of this 
 process, and prove the progress made by the Assyrians in it. The iron in- 
 closed within the copper has not been exposed to the same decay as that 
 detached from it, and will still take a polish. 
 
 The tin was probably obtained from Phoenicia ; and consequently that 
 used in the bronzes in the British Museum may actually have been export- 
 ed, nearly three thousand years ago, from the British Isles ! We find the 
 Assyrians and Babylonians making an extensive use of this metal, which 
 was probably one of the chief articles of trade supplied by the cities of the 
 Syrian coast, whose seamen sought for it on the distant shores of the At- 
 lantic. 
 
 The embossed and engraved vessels from Nimroud afford many interest- 
 ing illustrations of the progress made by the ancients in metallurgy. From 
 the Egyptian character of the designs, and especially of the drapery of the 
 figures, in several of the specimens, it may be inferred that some of them 
 were not Assyrian, but had been brought from a foreign people. As in the 
 ivories, however, the workmanship, subjects, and mode of treatment are 
 more Assyrian than Egyptian, and seemed to show that the artist either 
 copied from Egyptian models, or was a native of a country under the in- 
 fluence of the arts and taste of Egypt. The Sidonians, and other inhab- 
 itants of the Phoenician coast, were the most renowned workers in metal of 
 the ancient world, and their intermediate position between the two great 
 nations, by which they were alternately invaded and subdued, may have 
 been the cause of the existence of a mixed art amongst them. In the 
 Homeric poems they are frequently mentioned as the artificers who fash- 
 ioned and embossed metal cups and bowls, and Solomon sought cunning 
 men from Tyre to make the gold and brazen utensils for his temple and 
 palaces. f It is, therefore, not impossible that the vessels discovered at 
 
 * Mr. Robinson of Pimlico has, I am informed, succeeded in imitating some of the 
 Assyrian specimens. 
 
 t 1 Kings, vii. 13, 14. 2 Chron. iv. The importance attached to such objects in 
 metal, which were chiefly used for sacred purposes, is shown by its being especially 
 recorded that Huram (or Hiram), the widow's son, was sent for to make "the pots. 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 ASSYRIAN ARMS. 
 
 163 
 
 Nimroud were the work of Phoenician artists,^ brought expressly from 
 Tyre, or carried away amongst the captives when their cities were taken 
 by the Assyrians, who, we know from many passages in the Bible,! always 
 secured the smiths and artizans, and placed them in their own immediate 
 dominions. They may have been used for sacrificial purposes, at royal 
 banquets, or when the king performed certain religious ceremonies, for in 
 the bas-reliefs he is frequently represented on such occasions with a cup or 
 
 Bronze Shields, from Nimroud. 
 
 bowl in his hand ; or they may have formed part of the spoil of some Syr- 
 ian nation, placed in a temple at Nineveh, as the holy utensils of the Jews, 
 
 and the shovels, and the basons." Homer particularly mentions Sidonian goblets as 
 used at the funeral games of Patroclus. 
 
 * It will be remembered that Phoenician characters occur on one of the plates 
 The discovery in Cyprus of twelve silver bowls very closely resembling those found 
 at Nimroud, tend further to confirm the idea that many of these relics were the works 
 of Phoenician artists ; unfortunately only two of these curious vessels have been pre- 
 served ; they are now in Paris ; one, the most perfect, in the collection of the Due 
 de Luines, the other placed by M. de Saulcy in the Louvre. 
 
 t 2 Kings, xxiv. 14. 16. Jeremiah, xxiv. 1. ; xxix. 2. 
 
X64 NINEVEH AND BAB FLON. [C HAP. VIII. 
 
 after the destruction of the sanctuary, were kept in the temple of Babylon.* 
 It is not, indeed, impossible, that some of them may have been actually 
 brought from the cities round Jerusalem by Sennacherib himself, or from 
 Samaria by Shalmaneser or Sargon, who, we find, inhabited the palace at 
 Nimroud, and of whom several relics have already been discovered in the 
 ruins. 
 
 Around the vessels I have described were heaped arms, remains of 
 armour, iron instruments, glass bowls, and various objects in ivory and 
 bronze. The arms consisted of swords, daggers, shields, and the heads of 
 spears and arrows, which being chiefly of iron fell to pieces almost as soon 
 as exposed to the air. A few specimens have alone been preserved, includ- 
 ing the head of a weapon resembling a trident, and the handles of some 
 of the swords (?), which, being partly in bronze, were less eaten away than 
 the rest. The shields stood upright, one against the other, supported by a 
 square piece of brick work, and were so much decayed that with great dif- 
 ficulty two were moved and sent to England. They are of bronze, and cir- 
 cular, the rim bending inwards, and forming a deep groove round the edge. 
 The handles are of iron, and fastened by six bosses or nails, the heads of 
 which form an ornament on the outer face of the shield. f The diameter 
 of the largest and most perfect is 2 feet G inches. Although their weight 
 must have impeded the movements of an armed warrior, the Assyrian 
 spearmen are constantly represented in the bas-reliefs with them. Such, 
 too, were probably the bucklers that Solomon hung on his towers. $ 
 
 A number of thin iron rods, adhering together in bundles, were found 
 amongst the arms. They may have been the shafts of arrows, which, it 
 has been conjectured from several passages in the Old Testament, were 
 sometimes of burnished metal. To "make bright the arrows"^ may, how- 
 ever, only allude to the head fastened to a reed, or shaft of some light wood. 
 Several such barbs, both of iron and bronze, have been found in Assyrian 
 and Babylonian ruins, and are preserved in the British Museum. 
 
 The armour consisted of parts of breast-plates (?) and of other fragments, 
 embossed with figures and ornaments. 
 
 * In ancient history, embossed or inlaid goblets are continually mentioned amongst 
 the offerings to celebrated shrines. Gyges dedicated goblets, Alyattes, a silver cup, 
 and an inlaid iron saucer (the art of inlaying having been invented, according to He- 
 rodotus, by Glaucus), and Crcesus similar vessels, in the temple of Delphi. (Herod. 
 i. 14. and 25. Pausanias, 1. x.) They were also given as acceptable presents to 
 kings and distinguished men, as we see in 2 Sam. viii 10. and 2 Chron. ix. 23, 24. 
 The Lacedaemonians prepared for Croesus a brazen vessel ornamented with forms of 
 animals round the rim (Herod, i. 70.), like some of the bowls described in the text. 
 The embossings on the Nimroud bronzes may furnish us with a very just idea of the 
 figures and ornaments on the celebrated shield of Achilles, which were probably much 
 the same in treatment and execution. 
 
 t Such may have been " the bosses of the bucklers" mentioned in Job, xv. 26. 
 
 t 1 Kings, x. 16, 17.; xiv. 25,26. 
 
 $ Jer. li. 11. Ezek. xxi. 21.. and compare Isaiah, xlix. 2., where a polished shaft 
 is mentioned. 
 
Chap. VIII.] objects of ivory. 165 
 
 Amongst the iron instruments were the head of a pick, a double-handled 
 
 r 
 
 1 
 
 An Iron Pick, from Nimroud. 
 
 saw (about 3 feet 6 inches in length), several objects resembling the heads 
 of sledge-hammers, and a large blunt spear-head, such as we find from the 
 
 Half of a double-handled Saw, from Nimroud. 
 
 Sculptures were used during sieges to force stones from the walls of be- 
 sieged cities.^ 
 
 The most interesting of the ivory relics were, a carved staff, perhaps a 
 royal sceptre, part of which has been preserved, although in the last stage 
 of decay ; and several entire elephants' tusks, the largest being about 2 feet 
 5 inches long. Amongst the smaller objects were several 
 figures and rosettes, and four oval bosses, with the nails 
 of copper still remaining, by which they were fastened to 
 wood or some other material. 
 
 The ivory could with difficulty be detached from the 
 earth in which it was imbedded. It fell to small frag- 
 ments, and even to dust, almost as soon as exposed to the 
 air. Such specimens as have been brought to this coun- 
 try have been restored, and further decay checked by the 
 same ingenious process that was applied to the ivory 
 carvings first placed in the British Museum. Parts only 
 of the elephants' tusks have been preserved. We find 
 from the bas-reliefs in the north-west palace of Nimroud, f 
 and on the obelisk (where captives or tribute-bearers are 
 seen carrying tusks), that this produce of the far East was 
 brought at an early period in considerable quantities to As- 
 syria. I have described elsewhere! the frequent use of ivory for the adorn- 
 ment of ancient Eastern palaces and temples, as well as for the thrones ami 
 
 Part of Ivory Sceptre. 
 
 * Monuments of Nineveh, 1st series. Plate 66. All these relics are in the Brit- 
 ish Museum. 
 
 t Id. Plate 24., where elephants' tusks are represented above the captives as part 
 of the spoil. X Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p 120. 
 
166 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 furniture. Ezekiel includes "horns of ivory" amongst the objects brought 
 to Tyre from Dedan, and the Assyrians may have obtained their supplies from 
 the same countrv, which some believe to have been in the Persian Gulf* 
 
 Bronze Cubes inlaid with Gold. (Original Size.) 
 
 Amongst various small objects in bronze were two cubes, each having on 
 one face the figure of a scarab with outstretched wings, inlaid in gold ;f very 
 interesting specimens, and probably amongst the earliest known, of an art 
 carried in modern times to great perfection in the East. 
 
 Two entire glass bowls, with fragments of others, were also found in this 
 chamber ;t the glass, like all that from the ruins, is covered with pearly 
 scales, which, on being removed, leave prismatic opal-like colors of the 
 greatest brilliancy, showing, under different lights, the most varied and 
 beautiful tints. This is a well known effect of age, arising from the decom- 
 position of certain component parts of the glass. These bowls are probably 
 of the same period as the small bottle found in the ruins of the north-west 
 palace during the previous excavations, and now in the British Museum. 
 On this highly interesting relic is the name of Sargon, with his title of king 
 of Assyria, in cuneiform characters, and the figure of a lion. We are, there- 
 fore, able to fix its date to the latter part of the seventh century B.C. It 
 is, consequently, the most ancient known specimen of transparent glass, 
 none from Egypt being, it is believed, earlier than the time of the Psamet- 
 tici (the end of the sixth or beginning of the fifth century B.C. Opaque 
 colored glass was, however, manufactured at a much earlier period, and 
 some exists of the fifteenth century, b.c). The Sargon vase was blown in 
 one solid piece, and then shaped and hollowed out by a turning-machine, 
 of which the marks are still plainly visible. With it were found, it will be 
 remembered, two larger vases in white alabaster, inscribed with the name 
 of the same king. They were all probably used for holding some ointment 
 or cosmetic. § 
 
 With the glass bowls was discovered a rock-crystal lens, with opposite 
 
 * Ezek. xxvii. 15. Ivory was amongst the objects brought to Solomon by the navy 
 of Tharshish (1 Kings, x. 23.). [weights. 
 
 t They weigh respectively 8264 oz. and 5 299 oz., and have the appearance of 
 
 % The larger, 5 inches in diameter, and 2} inches deep ; the other, 4 inches in diam- 
 eter, and 2fc deep. 
 
 $ The height of the glass vase is 2\ inches ; of the alabaster, 7 inches. In an ap- 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 OBJECTS OF GLASS. 
 
 167 
 
 Glass and Alabaster Vases bearing the name of Sargon, from Nimroud. 
 
 convex and plane faces. Its properties could scarcely have been unknown 
 to the Assyrians, and we have consequently the earliest specimen of a mag- 
 nifying and burning-glass.* It was buried beneath a heap of fragments of 
 beautiful blue opaque glass, apparently the enamel of some object in ivory 
 or wood, which had perished. 
 
 In the further corner of the chamber, to the left hand, stood the royal 
 throne. Although it was utterly impossible, from the complete state of de- 
 cay of the materials, to preserve any part of it entire, I was able, by care- 
 fully removing the earth, to ascertain that it resembled in shape the chair 
 of state of the king, as seen in the sculptures of Kouyunjik and Khorsa- 
 bad, and particularly that represented in the bas-reliefs already described, 
 of Sennacherib receiving the captives and spoil, after the conquest of the 
 
 pendix will be found some notes by Sir D. Brewster, on the remarkable nature of the 
 process of decomposition in the glass from Nineveh. 
 
 * I am indebted to Sir David Brewster, who examined the lens, for the following 
 note : — " This lens is plano-convex, and of a slightly oval form, its length being 1 T 6 7 
 inch, and its breadth 1-^ inch. It is about y^ths of an inch thick, and a little thicker 
 at one side than the other. Its plane surface is pretty even, though ill polished and 
 scratched. Its convex surface has not been ground, or polished, on a spherical con- 
 cave disc, but has been fashioned on a lapidary's wheel, or by some method equally 
 rude. The convex side is tolerably well polished, and though uneven from the mode 
 in which it has been ground, it gives a tolerably distinct focus, at the distance of 4$ 
 inches from the plane side. There are about twelve cavities in the lens, that have 
 been opened during the process of grinding it : these cavities, doubtless, contained 
 either naphtha, or the same fluid which is discovered in topaz, quartz, and other min- 
 erals. As the lens docs not show the polarised rays at great obliquities, its plane 
 surface must be greatly inclined to the axis of the hexagonal prism of quartz from 
 which it must have been taken. It is obvious, from the shape and rude cutting of 
 the lens, that it could not have been intended as an ornament ; we are entitled, there- 
 fore, to consider it as intended to be used as a lens, either for magnifying, or for con- 
 centrating the rays of the sun, which it does, however, very imperfectly." 
 
168 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. VIII 
 
 Fragments of Bronze Ornaments of the Throne (Nimroud 
 
 :■:• 
 
 city of Lachish.^ With the exception of the legs, which appear to have 
 been partly of ivory, it was of wood, cased or overlaid with bronze, as the 
 throne of Solomon was of ivory, overlaid with gold.f The metal was 
 most elaborately engraved and embossed with symbolical figures and orna- 
 ments, like those embroidered on the robes of the early Nimroud king, such 
 as winged deities struggling with griffins, mythic animals, men before the 
 sacred tree, and the winged lion and bull. As the wood-work over which 
 the bronze was fastened by means of small nails of the same material, had 
 rotted away, the throne fell to pieces, but the metal casing was partly pre- 
 served. Numerous fragments of it are now in the British Museum, includ- 
 ing the joints of the arms, and legs ; the rams' or bulls' heads, which adorned 
 the end of the arms (some still retaining the clay and bitumen with the im- 
 
 Bronze Bull's Head froui Throne. 
 
 Bronze Head, part of Throne, showins bitumen inside. 
 
 pression of the carving, showing the substance upon which the embossing 
 had been hammered out), and the ornamental scroll-work of the cross-bars. 
 
 3ee p. 127. 
 t 1 Kings, x. 18. This is a highly interesting illustration of the work in Solomon's 
 palaces. The earliest use of metal amongst the Greeks appears also to have been 
 as a casing to wooden objects. 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 THE ROYAL THRONE. 
 
 169 
 
 fi 
 
 in the form of the Ionic volute. The legs were adorned 
 with lion's paws resting on a pine-shaped ornament, 
 like the thrones of the later Assyrian sculptures,*' and 
 stood on a bronze base. A rod with loose rings, to 
 which was once hung embroidered drapery, or some 
 rich stuff, appears to have belonged to the back of the 
 chair, or to a frame-work raised above or behind it 
 though not I think, as conjectured, to a curtain con- 
 Bronze Binding of Joints of cealing the monarch from those who approached 
 
 Throne. , . , ir 
 
 nim.t 
 
 In front of the throne was the foot-stool, also of wood overlaid with em- 
 bossed metal, and adorned with the heads of rams or bulls. The feet end- 
 ed in lion's paws and pine cones, like those of the throne. The two pieces 
 of furniture may have been placed together in a temple as an offering to 
 the gods, as Midas placed his throne in the temple of Delphi. $ The orna- 
 ments on them were so purely Assyrian, that there can be little doubt of 
 their having been expressly made for the Assyrian king, and not having 
 been the spoil of some foreign nation. 
 
 Near the throne, and leaning against the mouth of the well, was a cir 
 
 Bronze Casing, from the Throne (Nimroud) 
 
 * I succeeded, after much trouble, in moving and packing two of these legs ; but 
 they appear to have since fallen to pieces. 
 
 t That Eastern monarchs were, however, accustomed to conceal themselves by 
 some such contrivances from their subjects, we know from the history of Deioces 
 (Herod 1 99.) It has been even conjectured that the Hebrew word for a throne in- 
 fers a veiled seat. The Assyrian kings, if we may judge from the bas-reliefs, were 
 more accessible, and mingled more freely with their subjects. 
 
 t Herod, i 14 I need scarcely remind the reader of the frequent mention, in an- 
 cient historians, of thrones and couches ornamented with metal legs in the shape of 
 the feet of animals. 
 
170 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 cular band of bronze, 2 feet 4 inches in diameter, studded with nails. It 
 appears to have been the metal casing of a wheel, or of some object of 
 wood. 
 
 Such, with an alabaster jar,* and a few other objects in metal, were the 
 relics found in the newly-opened room. After the examination I had made 
 of the building during my former excavations, this accidental discovery 
 proves that other treasures may still exist in the mound of Nimroud, and 
 increases my regret that means were not at my command to remove the 
 rubbish from the centre of the other chambers in the palace. 
 
 * After my departure from Assyria, a similar alabaster jar was discovered in an 
 adjoining chamber. Colonel Rawlinson states that the remains of preserves were 
 found in it, and hence conjectures that the room in which the bronze objects de- 
 scribed in this chapter were found, was a kitchen. There is nothing, however, to 
 show that this was the case, even if the contents of the jar are such as Colonel Raw- 
 linson supposes them to be. It is much more probable, that it was a repository fo~ 
 the royal arms and sacrificial vessels. 
 
A Group of Yezidis 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 VISIT TO THE WINGED LIONS BY NIGHT. THE BITUMEN SPRINGS. REMOVAL OF THE 
 
 WINGED LIONS TO THE RIVER. FLOODS AT NIMROUD. LOSS AND RECOVERY OF LION. 
 
 YEZIDI MARRIAGE FESTIVAL BAAZANI. VISIT TO BAVIAN. SITE OF THE BATTLE OF 
 
 ARBELA. DESCRIPTION OF ROCK-SCULPTURES. INSCRIPTIONS. THE SHABBAKS. 
 
 By the 28th of January, the colossal lions forming the portal to the great 
 hall in the north-west palace of Nimroud were ready to be dragged to the 
 river-bank. The walls and their sculptured panelling had been removed 
 from both sides of them, and they stood isolated in the midst of the ruins. 
 We rode one calm cloudless night to the mound, to look on them for the 
 last time before they were taken from their old resting-places. The moon 
 was at her full, and as we drew nigh to the edge of the deep wall of earth 
 rising around them, her soft light was creeping over the stern features of 
 the human heads, and driving before it the dark shadows which still 
 clothed the lion forms. One by one the limbs of the gigantic sphinxes 
 emerged from the gloom, until the monsters were unveiled before us. I 
 shall never forget that night, or the emotions which those venerable figures 
 caused within me. A few hours more and they were to stand no longer 
 where they had stood unscathed amidst the wreck of man and his works 
 for ages. It seemed almost sacrilege to tear them from their old haunts to 
 make them a mere wonder-stock to the busy crowd of a new world. They 
 were better suited to the desolation around them ; for they had guarded 
 the palace in its glory, and it was for them to watch over it in its ruin. 
 Sheikh Abd-ur-Rahman, who had ridden with us to the mound, was troub- 
 led with no such reflections He gazed listlessly at the grim images, won- 
 
172 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 dered at the folly of the Franks, thought the night cold, and turned his 
 mare towards his tents. "We scarcely heeded his going, but stood speech- 
 less in the deserted portal, until the shadows again began to creep over its 
 hoary guardians. 
 
 Beyond the ruined palaces a scene scarcely less solemn awaited us. I 
 had sent a party of Jebours to the bitumen springs, outside the walls to the 
 east of the inclosure. The Arabs having lighted a small fire with brush- 
 wood awaited our coming to throw the burning sticks upon the pitchy 
 pools. A thick heavy smoke, such as rose from the jar on the sea shore 
 when the fisherman had broken the seal of Solomon, rolled upwards in 
 curling volumes, hiding the light of the moon, and spreading wide over 
 the sky. Tongues of flame and jets of gas, driven from the burning pit, 
 shot through the murky canopy. As the fire brightened, a thousand fan- 
 tastic forms of light played amidst the smoke. To break the cindered crust, 
 and to bring fresh slime" to the surface, the Arabs threw large stones into 
 the springs ; a new volume of fire then burst forth, throwing a deep red 
 glare upon the figures and upon the landscape. The Jebours danced round 
 the burning pools, like demons in some midnight orgie, shouting their war- 
 cry, and brandishing their glittering arms. In an hour the bitumen was 
 exhausted for the time,^ the dense smoke gradually died away, and the 
 pale light of the moon again shone over the black slime pits. 
 
 The colossal lions were moved by still simpler and ruder means than 
 those adopted on my first expedition. They were tilted over upon loose 
 earth heaped behind them, their too rapid descent being checked by a haws- 
 er, which was afterwards replaced by props of wood and stone. They 
 were then lowered, by levers and jackscrews, upon the cart brought un- 
 der them. A road paved with flat stones had been made to the edge of 
 the mound, and the sculpture was, without difficulty, dragged from the 
 trenches. 
 
 Beneath the lions, embedded in earth and bitumen, were a few bones, 
 which, on exposure to the air, fell *o dust before I could ascertain whether 
 they were human or not. The sculptures rested simply upon the platform 
 of sun-dried bricks without any other sub-structure, a mere layer of bitu- 
 men, about an inch thick, having been placed under the plinth. 
 
 Owing to recent heavy rains, which had left in many places deep 
 swamps, we experienced much difficulty in dragging the cart over the plain 
 to the river side. Three days were spent in transporting each lion. The 
 men of Isaifa and Nimroud again came to our help, and the Abou-Salman 
 horsemen, with Sheikh Abd-ur-Rahman at their head, encouraged us by 
 their presence. The unwieldy mass was propelled from behind by enor- 
 mous levers of poplar wood ; and in the costumes of those who worked, as 
 well as in the means adopted to move the colossal sculptures, except that 
 we used a wheeled cart instead of a sledge, the procession closely resem- 
 bled that which in days of yore transported the same great figures, and 
 * In a few hours the pits are sufficiently filled to take fire again. 
 
•J HAP. 
 
 j-£ -i MOVING THE LIONS I73 
 
 which we see so graphically represented on the walls of Kouyunjik.* As 
 they had been brought so were they taken away. 
 
 It was necessary to humor and excite the Arabs to induce them to per- 
 severe in the arduous work of dragging the cart through the deep soft soil 
 into which it continually sank. At one time, after many vain efforts to 
 move the buried wheels, it was unanimously declared that Mr. Cooper, the 
 artist, brought ill luck, and no one would work until he retired. The cum- 
 brous machine crept onward for a few more yards, but again all exertions 
 were fruitless. Then the Frank lady would bring good fortune if she sat 
 on the sculpture. The wheels rolled heavily along, but were soon clogged 
 once more in the yielding soil. An evil eye surely lurked among the 
 workmen or the bystanders. Search was quickly made, and one having 
 been detected upon whom this curse had alighted, he was ignominiously 
 driven away with shouts and execrations. This impediment having been 
 removed, the cart drew nearer to the village, but soon again eame to a 
 standstill. All the Sheikhs were now summarily degraded from their 
 rank and honors, and a weak ragged boy having been dressed up in taw- 
 dry kerchiefs, and invested with a cloak, was pronounced by Hormuzd to 
 be the only fit chief for such puny men. The cart moved forwards, until 
 the ropes gave way, under the new excitement caused by this reflection 
 upon the character of the Arabs. "When that had subsided, and the pres- 
 ence of the youthful Sheikh no longer encouraged his subjects, he was as 
 summarily deposed as he had been elected, and a greybeard of ninety was 
 raised to the dignity in his stead. He had his turn ; then the most unpop- 
 ular of the Sheikhs were compelled to lie down on the ground, that the 
 groaning wheels might pass over them, like the car of Juggernaut over its 
 votaries. With yells, shrieks, and wild antics the cart was drawn within 
 a few inches of the prostrate men. As a last resource I seized a rope my- 
 self, and with shouts of defiance between the different tribes, who were 
 divided into separate parties and pulled against each other, and amidst the 
 deafening tahlel of the women, the lion was at length fairly brought to the 
 water's edge. » 
 
 The winter rains had not yet swelled the waters of the river so as to en- 
 able a raft bearing a very heavy cargo to float with safety to Baghdad. It 
 was not until the month of April, after I had left Mosul on my journey to 
 the Khabour, that the floods, from the melting of the snows in the higher 
 mountains of Kurdistan, swept down the valley of the Tigris. I was 
 consequently obliged to confide the task of embarking the sculptures to 
 Behnan, my principal overseer, a Mosuleean stonecutter of considerable 
 skill and experience, Mr. Vice-consul Rassam kindly undertaking to super- 
 intend the operation. Owing to extraordinary storms in the hills, the river 
 rose suddenly and with unexampled rapidity. Mr. and Mrs. Rassam were 
 at the time at Nimroud, and the raftmen had prepared the rafts to receive 
 the lions. It was with difficulty that they escaped before the flood, from 
 * See woodcut, p. 93. 
 
174 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IX 
 
 my house in the village to the top of the ruins. The Jaif was one vast 
 sea, and a furious wind drove the waves against the foot of the mound. The 
 Arabs had never seen a similar inundation, and before they could escape 
 to the high land many persons were overwhelmed in the waters. 
 
 When the flood had subsided, the lions on the river bank, though cover- 
 ed with mud and silt, were found uninjured. They were speedily placed 
 on the rafts prepared for them, but unfortunately during the operation one 
 of them, which had previously been cracked nearly across, separated into 
 two parts. Both sculptures were doomed to misfortune. Some person, un- 
 covering the other during the night, broke the nose. I was unable to dis- 
 cover the author of this wanton mischief. He was probably a stranger, 
 who had some feud with the Arabs working in the excavations. * 
 
 The rafts reached Baghdad in safety. After receiving the necessary re- 
 pairs they floated onwards to Busrah. The waters of the Tigris through- 
 out its course had risen far above their usual level. The embankments, 
 long neglected by the Turkish government, had given way, and the river, 
 bursting from its bed, spread itself over the surrounding country in vast 
 lakes and marshes. One of the rafts was dragged into a vortex which 
 swept through a sluice newly opened in the crumbling bank. Notwith- 
 standing the exertions of the raftmen, aided by the crew of a boat that ac- 
 companied them, it was carried far into the interior, and left in the middle 
 of a swamp, about a mile from the stream. The other raft fortunately es- 
 caped, and reached Busrah without accident. 
 
 For some time the stranded raft was given up for lost. Fortunately it 
 bore the broken lion, or its recovery had probably been impossible. Cap- 
 tain Jones, with his usual skill and intrepidity, took his steamer over the 
 ruined embankment, and into the unexplored morass. After great exer- 
 tion, under a burning sun in the midst of summer, he succeeded in placing 
 the two parts of the sculpture on large boats, provided for the purpose, and 
 in conveying them to their destination.! 
 
 During my hasty visit in the autumn to Bavian, I had been unable either 
 to examine the rock-tablets with sufficient care, or to copy the inscriptions. 
 The lions having been moved, I seized the first leisure moment to return 
 to those remarkable monuments. 
 
 Cawal Yusuf having invited me to the marriage of his niece at Baashiek- 
 hah, we left Nimroud early in the morning for that village, striking across 
 the country through Tel Yakoub, Karakosh (a large village inhabited by 
 Catholic Chaldaeans, and having several churches), and Bartolli. We were 
 met at some distance from Baashiekhah by the Cawal, followed by the 
 principal inhabitants on horseback, and by a large concourse of people on 
 foot, accompanied by music, and by children bringing lambs as offerings. It 
 
 * Both sculptures have, however, been completely restored in the British Museum. 
 
 t These accidents, and even still more the carelessness afterwards shown in bring- 
 ing them to this country, have much injured these fine specimens of Assyrian sculp- 
 ture, which now stand in a great hall of the British Museum. 
 
Chap. IX.] A YEZIDI marriage. 175 
 
 was already the second day of the marriage. On the previous day the par- 
 ties had entered into the contract before the usual witnesses, amidst rejoic- 
 ings and dances. After our arrival, the bride was led to the house of the 
 bridegroom, surrounded by the inhabitants, dressed in their gayest robes, 
 and by the Cawals playing on their instruments of music. She was cover- 
 ed from head to foot by a thick veil, and was kept behind a curtain in the 
 corner of a darkened room. Here she remained until the guests had feasted 
 three days, after which the bridegroom was allowed to approach her. 
 
 The courtyard of the house was filled with dancers, and during the day 
 and the greater part of the night nothing was heard but the loud signs of 
 rejoicing of the women, and the noise of the drum and the pipe. 
 
 On the third day the bridegroom was sought early in the morning, and 
 led in triumph by his friends from house to house, receiving at each a tri- 
 fling present. He was then placed within a circle of dancers, and the 
 guests and bystanders, wetting small coins, stuck them on his forehead.* 
 The money was collected as it fell, in an open kerchief held by his com- 
 panions under his chin. 
 
 After this ceremony a party of young men, who had attached themselves 
 to the bridegroom, rushed into the crowd, and carrying off the most wealthy 
 of the guests locked them up in a dark room until they consented to pay a 
 ransom for their release. This violence and restraint were cheerfully sub- 
 mitted to, and the money thus collected was added to the dowry of the 
 newly married couple. There was feasting during the rest of the day, 
 with raki-drinking and music, and the usual accompaniments of an East- 
 ern wedding. 
 
 Leaving the revellers I rode to Baazani with Cawal Yusuf, Sheikh 
 Jindi (the stern leader of the religious ceremonies at Sheikh Adi), and a 
 few Yezidi notables, to examine the rocky valleys behind the village. I 
 once more searched in vain for some traces of ancient quarries from whence 
 the Assyrians might have obtained the slabs used in their buildings. At 
 the entrance of one of the deep ravines, which runs into the Gebel Mak- 
 loub, a clear spring gushes from a grotto in the hill-side. Tradition says 
 that this is the cave of the Seven Sleepers and their Dog, and the Yezid«s 
 have made the spot a ziareh, or place of pilgrimage.! 
 
 In the sides of the same ravine are numerous excavated sepulchral 
 chambers, with recesses or troughs in them for the reception of the dead, 
 such as I have so frequently had occasion to describe. 
 
 Our road from Baashiekhah to Bavian lay across the rocky range of the 
 Gebel Makloub. We found it difficult and precipitous on the western face. 
 
 * This custom of sticking coins to the forehead of a bridegroom is common to sev- 
 eral races of the East, amongst others to the Turcomans, who inhabit the villages 
 round Mosul. 
 
 t No tradition is more generally current in the East than the well known story of 
 the Seven Sleepers and their Dog. There is scarcely a district without the original 
 cave in which the youths were concealed during their miraculous slumber. 
 
1/6 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 and scarcely practicable to laden beasts ; on the eastern, it sank gradually 
 into a broad plain. We passed the village of Giri Mohammed Araba. 
 built near an artificial mound of considerable size. Similar mounds are 
 scattered here and there over the flat country, and under almost every one 
 is a Kurdish or Arab hamlet. 
 
 A ride of seven hours brought us to the foot of the higher limestone 
 range, and to the mouth of the ravine containing the rock-sculptures. 
 Bavian is a mere Kurdish hamlet of five or six miserable huts on the left 
 bank of the Ghazir. "We stopped at the larger village of Khinnis ; the 
 'wo being scarcely half a mile apart, the place is usually called " Khinnis- 
 Bavian." The Arab population ceases with the plains, the villages in the 
 hills being inhabited by Kurds, and included in the district of Missouri 
 Adjoining Khinnis is the Yezidi district of Sheikhan. 
 
 The rock-sculptures of Bavian are the most important that have yet 
 been discovered in Assyria.* They are carved in relief on the side of a 
 narrow, rocky ravine, on the right bank of the Gomel, a brawling mount- 
 ain torrent issuing from the Missouri hills, and one of the principal feeders 
 of the small river Ghazir, the ancient Bumadus. The Gomel or Goraela 
 may, perhaps, be traced in the ancient name of Gaugamela,! celebrated 
 for that great victory which gave to the Macedonian conqueror the domin- 
 ion of the Eastern world. Although the battlefield was called after Ai- 
 bela, a neighbouring city, we know that the river Zab intervened between 
 them, and that the battle was fought near the village of Gaugamela, on 
 the banks of the Bumadus or Ghazir, the Gomela of the Kurds. It is re- 
 markable that tradition has not preserved any record of the precise scene 
 of an event which so materially affected the destinies of the East. The 
 history of this great battle is unknown to the present inhabitants of the 
 country ; nor does any local name, except perhaps that which I have 
 pointed out, serve to connect it with these plains. The village, which 
 once stood near the mound of Nimroud, was, indeed, said to have been 
 called Dariousha, after the Persian monarch, who slept there on the night 
 preceding the defeat that deprived him of his empire.J Some have fan- 
 
 * They were first visited by the late M. Rouet, French consul at Mosul. In my 
 Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 142. note, will be found a short description of 
 the sculptures by my friend Mr. Ross. These are the rock-tablets which have been 
 recently described in the French papers, as a new discovery by M. Place, and as con- 
 taining a series of portraits of the Assyrian kings ! 
 
 t In some MSS. of Quintus Curtius, the Bumadus or Ghazir is called the "Bumc- 
 lus" which would not be far from the modern name of the upper branch of the river. 
 [t will, of course, be remembered, that Gaugamela, according to ancient historians, 
 signifies "a camel," as derived probably from Gcmd, the Semitic word for that 
 animal. 
 
 t I never heard any similar tradition from the people of the country. According 
 to the Shemutti, who inhabit the new village the name was Darawish, i. e. the place 
 of Dervishes. It belonged to Turcomans, who mostly died of the plague, the remain- 
 der migrating to Selamiyah. 
 
Oh IX 1 SCULPTURES AT BAVIAN. I77 
 
 cied a similarity between the name of Gaugamela and that of the modern 
 village of Karamless. The battlefield was probably in the neighbourhood 
 of Tell Aswad, or between it and the junction of the Grhazir with the Zab. 
 on the direct line of march to the fords of that river. "We had undoubted- 
 ly crossed the very spot during our ride to B avian. The whole of the 
 country between the Makloub range and the Tigris is equally well suited 
 to the operations of mighty armies, but from the scanty topographical de- 
 tails given by the historians of Alexander we are unable to identify the 
 exact place of his victory. It is curious that hitherto no remains or relics 
 have been turned up by the plough which would serve to mark the pre- 
 cise site of so great a battle as that of Arbela. 
 
 The principal rock-tablet at Bavian contains four figures, sculptured in 
 relief upon the smoothed face of a limestone cliff, rising perpendicularly 
 <rom the bed of the torrent. They are inclosed by a kind of frame 28 feet 
 jiigh by 30 feet wide, and are protected by an overhanging cornice from the 
 water which trickles down the face of the precipice. Two deities, facing 
 each other, are represented, as they frequently are on monuments and rel- 
 ics of the same period, standing on mythic animals resembling dogs. They 
 wear the high square head-dress, with horns uniting in front, peculiar to 
 the human-headed bulls of the later Assyrian palaces. One holds in the 
 left hand a kind of staff' surmounted by the sacred tree. To the centre of 
 this staff is attached a ring encircling a figure, probably that of the king. 
 The other hand is stretched forth towards the opposite god, who carries a 
 similar staff, and grasps in the right hand an object which is too much in- 
 jured to be accurately described.* These two figures may represent but 
 one and the same great tutelary deity of the Assyrians, as the two kings 
 who stand in act of adoration before them are undoubtedly but one and the 
 same king. The monarch, thus doubly portrayed, is behind the god. He 
 raises one hand, and holds in the other the sacred mace, ending in a ball. 
 His dress resembles that of the builder of the Kouyunji'k palace, Sennache- 
 v ib, with whom the inscriptions I shall presently describe, identify him. 
 The peak projecting from the conical royal tiara is longer and more pointed 
 than usual. The ornaments of the costumes of the four figures are rich 
 and elaborate. The sword-scabbards end in lions, and the earrings are pe- 
 culiarly elegant in design. Resting on the cornice above the sculptures ; 
 and facing the ravine, are the remains of two crouching sphinxes, proba- 
 bly similar in form to those at the grand entrance to the south-west palace 
 of Nimroud.f Behind them is a narrow recess or platform in the rock. 
 
 This bas-relief has suffered greatly from the effects of the atmosphere, 
 and in many parts the details can no longer be distinguished. But they 
 have been still more injured by those who occupied the country after the 
 fall of the Assyrian empire. Strangers, having no reverence for the records 
 or sacred monuments of those who went before them, excavated in the 
 
 * See Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series, Plate 51. for an illustration of these 
 rock-sculptures. t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 349. 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON 
 
 [Chap IX 
 
 ready- scarped rocks the sepulchral chambers of their dead.* In this great 
 tablet there are four such tombs. Two have been cut between the figures 
 of the god, and have spared the sculptures The others have destroyed 
 the head of one king and a part of the robes of the opposite figure. The 
 entrances to the two largest were once ornamented with columns, which 
 have been broken away. Hound the walls of these excavated chambers 
 are the usual troughs for the bodies of the dead. I entered the tombs by 
 means of a rope lowered from above by a party of Kurds. They were 
 empty, their contents having, of course, been long before carried away, or 
 destroyed. 
 
 To the left of this great bas-relief, and nearer the mouth of the ravine. 
 
 is a second tablet containing 
 a horseman at full speed, ami 
 the remains of other figures. 
 Both horse and rider are of 
 colossal proportions, and re- 
 markable for the spirit of the 
 outline. The warrior wears 
 the Assyrian pointed helmet, 
 and couches a long ponder- 
 ous spear, as in the act of 
 charging the enemy Before 
 him is a colossal figure of 
 the king, and behind him a 
 
 Rock Sculpture (Bavian ) dehy ^^ th<J homed cap . 
 
 above his head a row of smaller figures of gods standing on animals of vari- 
 ous forms, as in the rock-sculptures of Malthaiyah. 
 
 This fine bas-relief has, unfortunately, suffered even more than the other 
 monuments from the effects of the atmosphere, and would easily escape 
 notice without an acquaintance with its position. 
 
 Scattered over the cliff, on each side of the principal bas-reliefs, are 
 
 :i small tablets, some easily accessible, others so high up on the face 
 
 oi^ the precipice, that they are scarcely seen from below One is on a level 
 
 * It is evident that these tombs are not of the Assyrian epoch, supposing even the 
 Assyrians to have placed their dead in chambers excavated in the rocks. I have 
 never met with rock-tombs which could be referred with any certainty to that period 
 In a bas-relief discovered at Khorsabad one writer (Bonomi. Ninev( h and its Palaces. 
 p 196 ) detects the representation of such excavations in a rock on which stands 
 a castle ; but I believe that houses are meant, as in a similar subject from Kouyun- 
 jik (see 2nd Series of Monuments of Nineveh. Plate :39.). It is e iJent that these 
 supposed rock-tombs cannot indicate the sepulchres of the Valley < f Jehoshaphat, 
 which are of a very different period, nor, as the same writer has inferred, the city of 
 Jerusalem. The Jews, as well as other nations of antiquity, were, however, accus- 
 tomed to make such rock-chambers for their dead, as we learn from Isaiah, xxii. 16 
 "What hast thou here I and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a 
 sepulchre here, as he that hewcth him out a sepulchre on high, and that gravcth an hab- 
 i: ;tion for himself in a rock !" 
 
Chap. IX 1 inscriptions at bavian \jij 
 
 with the bed of the stream, and was, indeed, almost covered by the mud 
 deposit of the floods. Each arched recess, for they are cut into the rock, 
 contains a figure of the king, as at the Nahr-el-Kelb, near Beyrout in Syr- 
 ia,^ 5 feet C inches high. Above his head are the sacred symbols, ar- 
 ranged in four distinct groups. The first group consists of three tiaras, like 
 those worn by the gods and human-headed bulls, and of a kind of altar on 
 which stands a staff ending in the head of a ram ; the second of a cres- 
 cent and of the winged disk, or globe ; the third of a pedestal, on which 
 are a trident and three staffs, one topped by a cone, another without orna- 
 ment, and the last ending in two bull's heads turned in opposite directions ; 
 and the fourth of a Maltese cross (? symbolical of the sun) and the seven 
 stars Some of these symbols have reference, it would seem, to the astral 
 
 : | j M . 
 
 
 
 Sacred Symbols or Royal Tablets (Bavian). 
 
 worship of the Assyrians; whilst others, probably, represent instruments 
 used during sacrifices, or sacred ceremonies. 
 
 Across three of these royal tablets are inscriptions. One can be reached 
 from the foot of the cliff, the others, being on the higher sculptures, cannot 
 be seen from below They are all more or less injured, but being very 
 nearly, word for word, the same, they can to some extent be restored. I 
 was lowered by ropes to those on the face of the precipice, which are not 
 otherwise accessible. Standing on a ledge scarcely six inches wide, over- 
 looking a giddy depth, and in a constrained and painful position, I had 
 some difficulty in copying them. The stupidity and clumsiness, moreover, 
 of the Kurds, who had never aided in such proceedings before, rendered my 
 attempts to reach the sculptures somewhat dangerous. 
 
 The inscriptions, the longest of which contains sixty-three lines, are in 
 many respects of considerable importance, and have been partly translated 
 by Dr. Hincks. They commence with an invocation to Ashur and the 
 
 * I examined the remarkable tablets at the Nahr-el-Kelb, on my return to Europe 
 in 1851. They were sculptured, as I stated in my first work, by Sennacherib, the 
 king of the Bavian monuments. The only inscription partly preserved is unfortu- 
 nately so much injured as to have hitherto defied transcription. The tablets are seven 
 in number, and, as it is well known, are cut upon a rock near the mouth of the Nfahr- 
 el-Kelb river, adjoining three Egyptian inscriptions and bas-reliefs with the name <>i 
 Rameses. 
 
|S0 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP IX 
 
 great deities of Assyria, the names of only eleven of whom are legible, al- 
 though probably the whole thirteen are enumerated, as on the monuments 
 from Nimroud. Then follow the name and titles of Sennacherib. -Next 
 there is an account of various great works for irrigation undertaken by this 
 king. From eighteen districts, or villages, he declares he dug eighteen 
 canals to the Ussur or Khusur (?), in which he collected their waters. He 
 also dug a canal, from the borders of the town or district of Kisri to Nine- 
 veh; and brought these waters through it ; he called it the canal of Senna- 
 cherib. No traces now remain, as far as I know, of such a canal, unless 
 the bed of the Khauser (Ussur ?) was deepened by this king, and other small 
 streams of the surrounding country led into it. Then the Ussur may mean 
 the great ditch defending the inclosure of Kouyunjik to the east, through 
 which the Khauser now flows. If such be the case, the canal, fed by the 
 united streams, may have been intended for defence as well as for irriga- 
 tion. Or else it may have been mainly derived from the Gomel or Ghazir, 
 here called Ussur (?), and carried to some other part of the great city. 
 We can then understand why the execution of this work was recorded on 
 the rock-tablets near the source of the river. However, this part of the in- 
 scription has not yet been satisfactorily interpreted, and may hereafter b<? 
 found to contain details which may help to identify the site of these artifl 
 cial water-courses. 
 
 A long obscure passage precedes a very detailed account of the expedi 
 tion to Babylon and Kar-Duniyas against Merodach Baladan, recorded un 
 der the first year of the annals on the Kouyunjik bulls. * After mention- 
 ing some canals which he had made in the south of Assyria, Sennacherib 
 speaks of the army which defended the workmen being attacked by the 
 king of Elam and the king of Babylon, with many kings of the hills and 
 the plains who were their allies. He defeated them in the neighbourhood 
 of Kahlul (site undetermined). Many of the great people of the king of 
 Elam and the son of the king of Kar-Duniyas were either killed or taken 
 prisoners, while the kings themselves fled to their respective countries. 
 Sennacherib then mentions his advance to Babylon, his conquest and plun- 
 der of it, and concludes with saying, that he brought back from that city 
 the images of the gods which had been taken by Merodach- adakhe (?), 
 the king of Mesopotamia, from Assyria 418 years before, and put them in 
 their places. A name imperfectly deciphered is given as that of the king 
 of Assyria of that day. Dr. Hincks would read it Shimishti-Pal-Bithkira, 
 but admits that the last element in particular is very doubtful. The same 
 name is found in the inscriptions of Nimroud, as that of a predecessor of 
 the builder of the north-west palace, as also in an inscription of the time 
 of Tiglath Pilcsar or Pul. In this place the earlier king is probably intend- 
 ed. Sennacherib, after his victory, appears to have transported the inhab- 
 itants of Babylon to Arakhti (? the river Araxes), but the whole passage is 
 
 * See p. 118. 
 
Chap. IX.l sculptures at bavian. x gl 
 
 doubtful, owing to some important words being destroyed in the three in- 
 scriptions. 
 
 After his return from this expedition " at the mouth (?) of the river he 
 had dug he set up six tablets, and beside them he put up the full length 
 (?) images of the great gods." 
 
 Now, the importance of this inscription, presuming it to be correctly in- 
 terpreted, will at once be perceived, for it proves almost beyond a doubt, 
 that at that remote period the Assyrians kept an exact computation of 
 time. "We may consequently hope that sooner or later chronological ta- 
 bles may be discovered, which will furnish us with minute and accurate 
 information as to the precise epoch of the occurrence of various important 
 events in Assyrian history. It is, indeed, remarkable that Sennacherib 
 should mark so exactly the year of the carrying away of the Assyrian gods. 
 This very date enables us, as will hereafter be seen, to restore much of the 
 chronology, and to place, almost with certainty, in the dynastic lists, a king 
 whose position was before unknown. 
 
 We find also that the greater part, if not the whole, of the rock-sculp- 
 tures were executed either at the end of the first, or at the beginning of 
 the second, year of the reign of Sennacherib. As he particularly describes 
 six tablets, it is probable that the others were added at some future period, 
 and after some fresh victory. The mention, too, of the transportation of 
 the inhabitants of Babylon to so remote a locality as the Araxes is highly 
 interesting, and, if the translation of the passage may be relied on, we may 
 perhaps trace in these colonies the origin of those Chaldasan tribes which 
 Xenophon and Strabo describe as still, in their time, inhabiting the same 
 region. "When the whole inscription is restored we shall probably obtain 
 many other important details which are wanting in the annals of Kouyun- 
 jik, and in the records of the same period. 
 
 Beneath the sculptured tablets, and in the bed of the Gomel, are two 
 enormous fragments of rock, which appear to have been torn from the over- 
 hanging cliff, and to have been hurled by some mighty convulsion of nature 
 into the torrent below. The pent up waters eddy round them in deep and 
 dangerous whirlpools, and when swollen by the winter rains sweep com- 
 pletely over them.* They still bear the remains of sculpture. One has 
 been broken by the fall into two pieces. On them is the Assyrian Her- 
 cules strangling the lion between two winged human-headed bulls, back to 
 back, as at the grand entrances of the palaces of Kouyunjik and Khorsa- 
 bad.f Above this group is the king, worshipping between two deities, who 
 stand on mythic animals, having the heads of eagles, the bodies and fore 
 feet of lions, and hind legs armed with the talons of a bird of prey. The 
 height of the whole sculpture is 24 feet, that of the winged bull 8 feet 
 inches. 
 
 * It was at this spot that Mr. Bell, the youthful artist sent out by the Trustees of 
 the British Museum, was unfortunately drowned when bathing, in the month of July, 
 1851, shortly after my departure from Mosul. t See woodcut, p. 116 
 
152 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 Fallen Rook-Sculptures (Bavian). 
 
 Near the entrance to the ravine the face of the cliff has been scarped ior 
 some yards to the level of the bed of the torrent. A party of Kurds were 
 hired to excavate at this spot, as well as in other parts of the narrow val- 
 ley. Remains and foundations of buildings' in well-hewn stone were dis- 
 covered under the thick mud deposited by the Gomel when swollen by 
 rains. Higher up the gorge, on removing the earth, I found a series of ba- 
 sins cut in the rock, and descending in steps to the stream. The water had 
 originally been led from one to the other through small conduits, the lowest 
 of which was ornamented at its mouth with two rampant lions in relief. 
 These outlets were choked up, but we cleared them, and by pouring water 
 into the upper basin restored the fountain as it had been in the time of the 
 Assyrians. 
 
 From the nature and number of the monuments at Bavian. it would seem 
 that this ravine was a sacred spot, devoted to religious ceremonies and to 
 national sacrifices. When the buildings, whose remains still exist, were 
 used for these purposes, the waters must have been pent up between quays 
 or embankments. They now occasionally spread over the bottom of the val- 
 V'v. leaving no pathway at the foot of the lofty cliffs. The remains of a 
 well-built raised causeway of stone, leading to Bavian from the city of 
 Xineveh, may still be traced across the plain to the east of the Gebel Mak. 
 loub. 
 
 The place, from its picturesque beauty and its cool refreshing shade even 
 in the hottest day of summer, is a grateful retreat, well suited to devotion 
 and to holy rites. The brawling stream almost fills the bed of the narrow 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 RETURN TO MOSUL. 
 
 isa 
 
 Assyrian Fountain (Bavian). 
 
 ravine with its clear and limpid waters. The beetling cliffs rise abruptly 
 on each side, and above them tower the wooded declivities of the Kurdish 
 hills. As the valley opens into the plain, the sides of the limestone mount- 
 ains are broken into a series of distinct strata, and resemble a vast flight 
 of steps leading up to the high lands of central Asia. The banks of the 
 torrent are clothed with shrubs and dwarf trees, amongst which are the 
 green myrtle and the gay oleander, bending under the weight of its rosy 
 blossoms. 
 
 I remained two days at Bavian to copy the inscriptions, and to explore 
 the Assyrian remains. Hannah the overseer, with a party of poor Nesto- 
 rians, who, driven by want from the district of Tkhoma, chanced to pass 
 through the valley, was left to clear away the earth from the lower monu- 
 ments, and to excavate amongst the ruins. No remains were discovered ; 
 and after working for a few days without results, they came to Mosul. 
 
 Wishing to visit the Yezidi chiefs, I took the road to Ain Sifni, passing 
 through two large Kurdish villages, Atrush and Om-es-sukr, and leaving 
 the entrance to the valley of Sheikh Adi to the right. The district to the 
 north-west of Khinnis is partly inhabited by a tribe professing peculiar re- 
 ligious tenets, and known by the name of Shabbak. Although strange and 
 mysterious ritef are, as usual, attributed to them, I suspect that they are 
 simply the descendants of Kurds, who emigrated at some distant period from 
 the Persian slopes of the mountains, and who still profess Sheeite doctrines. 
 
164 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. IX 
 
 They may, however, be tainted with Ali-Illahism.* Their chief, with 
 whom I was acquainted, resides near Mosul. 
 
 "We passed the night in the village of Esseeyah, where Sheikh Xasr had 
 recently built a dwelling-house. I occupied the same room with the Sheikh, 
 Hussein Bey, and a large body of Yezidi Cawals, and was lulled to sleep 
 by an interminable tale, about the prophet Mohammed and a stork, which, 
 when we had all lain down to rest, a Yezidi priest related with the same 
 soporific effect upon the whole party. On the following day I hunted ga- 
 zelles with Hussein Bey, and was his guest for the night at Baadri, return- 
 ing next morning to Mosul. 
 
 * A creed professed by several tribes in Kurdistan and Louristan. and by some of 
 the inhabitants of the northern part of the Lebanon range in Syria. It consists main- 
 ly in the belief, that there have been successive incarnations of the Deity, the prin- 
 cipal having been in the person of Ali, the celebrated son-in-law of the prophet Mo- 
 hammed. The name usually given them, Ali-Illahi, means "believers that Ali is 
 God." Various abominable rites have been attributed to them, as to the Yezidis, An- 
 syris, and ail sects whose doctrines are not known to the surrounding Mussulman or 
 Christian population. 
 
 Hussein Bey, the Chief of the Yezidis, and his Brother. 
 
The Author's House at Nimroud. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VISIT TO KALAH SHERGHAT PREVENTED. VISIT TO SHOMAMOK. KASHAF. THE HOWAR. — 
 
 A BEDOUIN. HIS MISSION. DESCENT OF ARAB HORSES. THEIR PEDIGREE. RUINS OP 
 
 MOKHAMOUR. THE MOUND OF THE KASR. PLAIN OF SHOMAMOK. THE GLA OR KALAH. 
 
 XENOPHON AND THE TEN THOUSAND. A WOLF. RETURN TO NIMROUD AND MOSUL. 
 
 DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK. DESCRIPTION OF THE BAS-RELIEFS. 
 
 The mound of Kalah Sherghat having been very imperfectly examined 
 during my former residence in Assyria,^ I had made arrangements to re- 
 turn to the ruins. All my preparations were complete by the 22nd of 
 February, and I floated down the Tigris on a raft laden with provisions 
 and tools necessary for at least a month's residence and work in the desert. 
 I had expected to find Mohammed Seyyid, one of my Jebour Sheikhs, with 
 a party of the Ajel, his own particular tribe, ready to accompany me. The 
 Bedouins, however, were moving to the north, and their horsemen had al- 
 ready been seen in the neighbourhood of Kalah Sherghat. Nothing would 
 consequently induce the Ajel, who were not on the best terms with the 
 Shammar Arabs, to leave their tents, and, after much useless discussion, I 
 was obliged to give up the journey. 
 
 Awad, with a party of Jehesh, had been for nearly six weeks exploring 
 the mounds in the plain of Shomamok, the country of the Tai Arabs, and 
 had sent to tell me that he had found remains of buildings, vases, and in- 
 scribed bricks. I determined, therefore, to make use of the stores collected 
 for the Kalah-Sherghat expedition by spending a few days in inspecting his 
 excavations, and in carefully examining those ruins which I had only hast- 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. chap. 12. 
 
186 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. X. 
 
 ily visited on my previous journey. I accordingly started from Nimroud 
 on the 2nd of March, accompanied by Hormuzd, the doctor, and Mr. Hol- 
 land. We descended the Tigris to its junction with the Zab, whose waters, 
 swollen by the melting of the snows in the Kurdish mountains, were no 
 longer fordable. Near the confluence of the streams, and on the southern 
 bank of the Zab, is the lofty mound of Keshaf. This artificial platform of 
 earth and unbaked bricks rests upon a limestone rock, projecting abruptly 
 from the soil. Its summit is crowned by a stone wall, with an arched gate- 
 way facing the south — the remains of a deserted fort, commanding the two 
 rivers. It was garrisoned a few years ago by an officer and a company of 
 irregular troops from Baghdad, who were able from this stronghold to check 
 the inroads of the Bedouins, as well as of the Tai and other tribes, who 
 plundered the Mosul villages. Since it has been abandoned, the country 
 has again been exposed to the incursions of these marauders, who now cross 
 the rivers unmolested, and lay waste the cultivated districts. I could find 
 no relics of an early date, nor did subsequent excavations lead to their dis- 
 covery. The mound is, nevertheless, most probably of Assyrian origin. 
 From the remotest period the importance of the position, at the confluence 
 of two great rivers, must have led to the erection of a castle on this spot. 
 
 The tents of the Howar were about five miles from Keshaf. Since my 
 last visit, he had received his cloak of investiture as Sheikh from the Pasha 
 of Kerkouk,* and was once more the acknowledged chief of the Tai. Faras 
 had, however, withdrawn from his rival, and, followed by his own adher- 
 ents, had moved to the banks of the Lesser Zab. The Shammar Bedouins, 
 encouraged by the division in the tribe, had, only three days before our 
 visit, crossed the Tigris and fallen suddenly upon the Kochers, or Kurdish 
 wanderers, of the Herki clans. These nomades descend annually from the 
 highest mountain regions to winter in the rich meadows of Shomamok. 
 They pay a small tribute to the Tai for permission to pasture their flocks, 
 and for protection against the desert Arabs. The Howar was consequently 
 bound to defend them, and had sent Saleh, with his horsemen, to meet the 
 Shammar. They had been beaten, and had lost forty of their finest mares. 
 The Kurds appear to have little courage when attacked by the Bedouins 
 in the plains, although they can oppose the rifle to the simple spear. A 
 large number of them had been slain, and several thousand of their sheep 
 and cattle had been driven across the Tigris. 
 
 We found the Howar much cast down and vexed by his recent misfor- 
 tunes. The chiefs of the tribe were with him, in gloomy consultation over 
 
 * The great pashalic of Baghdad, formerly one of the most important and wealthy 
 in the Turkish empire, and the first in rank, had recently been divided into several 
 distinct governments. It once extended from Diarbekr to the Persian Gulf, and 
 was first curtailed about fifteen years ago, when Diarbekr and Mosul were placed un- 
 der independent pachas. Lately it has been reduced to the districts surrounding the 
 city, with the Arab tribes who encamp in the neighbourhood ; Kerkouk, Suleimani- 
 yah, and Busrah being formed into separate governments. In this new division the 
 Tai were included within the pashalic of Kerkouk. 
 
Chap X 1 tents of the howar. 1§7 
 
 their losses. A Bedouin, wrapped in his ragged cloak, was seated listlessly 
 in the tent. He had been my guest the previous evening at Nimroud, and 
 had announced himself on a mission from the Sham mar to the Tai, to learn 
 the breed of the mares which had been taken in the late conflict. His 
 message might appear, to those ignorant of the customs of the Arabs, one 
 of insult and defiance. But he was on a common errand, and although 
 ihere was blood between the tribes, his person was as sacred as that of an 
 ambassador in any civilised community. Whenever a horse falls into the 
 hands of an Arab, his first thought is how to ascertain its descent. If the 
 owner be dismounted in battle, or if he be even about to receive his death- 
 blow from the spear of his enemy, he will frequently exclaim, " Fellan ! 
 (such a one) the mare that fate has given to you is of noble blood. She 
 is of the breed of Saklawiyah, and her dam is ridden by Awaith, a sheikh 
 <if the Fedhan" (or as the case may be). Nor will a lie come from the 
 mouth of a Bedouin as to the race of his mare. He is proud of her noble 
 qualities, and will testify to them as he dies. After a battle or a foray, 
 the tribes who have taken horses from the enemy will send an envoy to 
 ask their breed, and a person so chosen passes from tent to tent unharmed, 
 hearing from each man, as he eats his bread, the descent and qualities of 
 the animal he may have lost. 
 
 Amongst men who attach the highest value to the pure blood of then 
 horses, and who have no written pedigree, for amongst the Bedouins docu- 
 ments of this kind do not exist, such customs are necessary. The descent 
 of a horse is preserved by tradition, and the birth of a colt is an event 
 known to the whole tribe. If a townsman or stranger buy a horse, and is 
 desirous of having written evidence of its race, the seller, with his friends, 
 will come to the nearest town to testify before a person specially qualified 
 to take the evidence, called " the cadi of the horses," who makes out a 
 written pedigree, accompanied by various prayers and formularies from the 
 Koran used on such occasions, and then affixes to it his seal. It would be 
 considered disgraceful to the character of a true Bedouin to give false 
 testimony on such an occasion, and his word is usually received with im- 
 plicit confidence. 
 
 The morning following our arrival at the tents of the Howar was ush- 
 ered in by a heavy rain. I thought this a good opportunity of visiting the 
 ruins of Mokhamour, as the Bedouins rarely leave their tents on plundering 
 expeditions in wet weather. None of the Tai, however, would accompa- 
 ny me. They still dreaded the Shammar, and the Howar loudly protested 
 against the rashness of venturing alone into the plains so recently overrun 
 by the enemy. Awad professed to know the road, and accompanied by 
 Hormuzd and Mr. R,., I struck across the low hills under his guidance. 
 
 These ruins, of which I had so frequently received exaggerated descrip- 
 tions from the Arabs, are in the deserted district between the Karachok 
 range and the river Tigris. The plains in which they are situated arc 
 celebrated for the richness of their pastures, and are sought in spring by 
 
188 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. X. 
 
 the Tai and the Kurkish Kochers. Even as early as the time of our visit 
 the face of the country is usually covered with their flocks and herds. But 
 the dread of the Shammar had now scared them from the banks of the 
 river, and they had migrated to the inland meadows, further removed from 
 the forays of the Bedouins. From the tents of Howar, on the low undu- 
 lating hills forming the northern spur of the Karachok, to Mokhamour, a 
 distance of some fifteen miles, we did not see a single human being. 
 
 We kept as much as possible in the broken country at the foot of the 
 mountain to escape observation. The wooded banks of the Tigris and the 
 white dome of the tomb of Sultan Abdallah were faintly visible in the dis- 
 tance, and a few artificial mounds rose in the plains. The pastures were 
 already fit for the flocks, and luxuriant grass furnished food for our horses 
 amidst the ruins. 
 
 The principal mound of Mokhamour is of considerable height, and ends 
 in a cone. It is apparently the remains of a platform built of earth and 
 sun-dried bricks, originally divided into several distinct stages or terraces. 
 On one side are the traces of an inclined ascent, or of a flight of steps, 
 once leading to the summit. It stands in the centre of a quadrangle of 
 lower mounds, about 480 paces square. I could find no remains of ma- 
 sonry, nor any fragments of inscribed bricks, pottery, or sculptured alabaster 
 
 The ruins are near the southern spur of Karachok, where that mount- 
 ain, after falling suddenly into low broken hills, again rises into a solitary 
 ridge, called Bismar, stretching to the Lesser Zab, Mokhamour being be- 
 tween the two rivers. These detached limestone ridges, running parallel 
 to the great range of Kurdistan, such as the Makloub, Sinjar, Karachok, 
 and Hamrin, are a peculiar feature in the geological structure of the coun- 
 try lying between the ancient province of Cilicia and the Persian Gulf 
 Hog-backed in form, they have an even and smooth outline when viewed 
 from a distance, but are really rocky and rugged. Their sides are broken 
 into innumerable ravines, producing a variety of purple shadows, ever 
 changing and contrasting with the rich golden tint of the limestone, and 
 rendering these solitary hills, when seen from the plain, objects of great in- 
 terest and beauty.* They are, for the most part, but scantily wooded with 
 a dwarf oak, and that only on the eastern slope ; their rocky sides are gen- 
 erally, even in spring, naked and bare of all vegetation. Few springs of 
 fresh water being found in them, they are but thinly inhabited. In the 
 spring months, when the rain has supplied natural reservoirs in the ra- 
 vines, a few wandering Kurdish tribes pitch their tents in the most shelter- 
 ed spots. 
 
 * I take this opportunity of mentioning, with the praise it most fully deserves as 
 a work of art, the Panorama of Nimroud, painted and exhibited by Mr. Burford, in 
 which the Karachok and Makloub are introduced. The tints produced by the set- 
 ting sun on those hills are most faithfully portrayed, and the whole scene, consider- 
 ing the materials from which the artist worked, is a proof of his skill as a painter, 
 and of his feeling for Eastern scenery. 
 
Chap X 1 ruins of shomamok. 189 
 
 Having examined the ruins, taken bearings of the principal landmarks, 
 and allowed our horses to refresh themselves in the high grass, I returned 
 to the encampment of the Tai. As we rode back we spied in the desert 
 three horses, which had been probably left by the Bedouins in their retreat, 
 and were now quietly grazing in the pastures. After many vain efforts 
 we succeeded in driving them before us, and on our arrival at the tents I 
 presented them in due form to the Howar, who was rewarded, by this un- 
 expected addition to his stud, for the alarm he declared he had felt for our 
 safety during our absence. A ride of three hours next morning, across the 
 spurs of the Karachok, brought us to the ruins of Abou-Jerdeh, near which 
 we had found the tents of Faras on our last visit. The mound is of con- 
 siderable size, and on its summit are traces of foundations in stone mason- 
 ry ; but I could find no remains to connect it with the Assyrian period. 
 The eastern base is washed by a small stream coming from the Kordereh. 
 
 We breakfasted with our old host Wali Beg, and then continued our 
 journey to one of the principal artificial mounds of Shomamok, called the 
 •' Kasr," or palace. The pastures were covered with the flocks of the 
 Arabs, the Kochers, and the Disdayi Kurds. A broad and deep valley, or 
 rather gully, worn by a sluggish stream in the alluvial soil, crosses the 
 plain. The stranger is not aware of its existence until he finds himself 
 actually on the brink of the lofty precipices which hem it in on both sides. 
 Then a long, narrow meadow of the brightest emerald green, studded with 
 Hocks and tents, opens beneath his feet. We crossed this valley, called 
 the Kordereh, and encamped for the night at the foot of the Kasr, on the 
 banks of a rivulet called As-surayji, which joins the Kordereh below Abou- 
 Jerdeh, near a village named " Salam Aleik," or " Peace be with you." 
 
 The mound is both large and lofty, and is surrounded by the remains of 
 an earthen embankment. It is divided almost into two distinct equal 
 parts by a ravine or watercourse, where an ascent probably once led from 
 the plain to the edifice on the summit of the platform. Above the ruins 
 of the ancient buildings stood a modern fort, generally garrisoned by troops 
 belonging to the Mutesellim of Arbil. It was afterwards inhabited by 
 some families of the Jehesh tribe, who were driven away by the exactions 
 of the chiefs of the Tai. Awad had opened several deep trenches and 
 tunnels in the mound, and had discovered chambers, some with walls of 
 plain sun-dried bricks, others panelled round the lower part with slabs of 
 reddish limestone, about 3| or 4 feet high. He had also found inscribed 
 bricks, with inscriptions declaring that Sennacherib had here built a city, or 
 
 rather palace, for the name of which, written ^ — < > "" < ^| ]»I cannot sug- 
 gest a reading. 
 
 I observed a thin deposit, or layer, of pebbles and rubble above the re- 
 mains of the Assyrian building, and about eight feet beneath the surface. 
 as at Kouyunjik. It may probably have been the flooring or foundation of 
 some edifice of a more recent date raised above the buried palaces. I 
 
190 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. X. 
 
 could discover no traces whatever of alabaster in the ruins, although the 
 material is common in the neighborhood, nor could I find the smallest 
 fragment of sculptured stone which might encourage a further search after 
 bas-reliefs or inscriptions. 
 
 From the summit of the Kasr of Shomamok I took bearings of twenty- 
 five considerable mounds, the remains of ancient Assyrian population ;* 
 the largest being in the direction of the Lesser Zab. Over the plain, too. 
 were thickly scattered villages, surrounded by cultivated fields, and belong- 
 ing to a tribe of Kurds called Disdayi, who move with their flocks and 
 tents to the pastures during spring, and return to their huts in the summer 
 to gather in the harvest and to till the soil. 
 
 Wishing to examine several ruins in the neighbourhood, I left our tents 
 early on the following morning, and rode to the mound of Abd-ul-Azeez. 
 about eight or nine miles distant, and on the road between Baghdad and 
 Arbil. The latter town, with its castle perched upon a lofty artificial 
 mound, all that remains of the ancient city of Arbela, which gave its name 
 to one of the greatest battles the world ever saw, was visible during the 
 greater part of our day's ride. The plain abounds in villages and canals 
 for irrigation, supplied by the As-Surayji. When the land is too high to 
 be watered by the usual open conduits, the villagers cut subterranean pas- 
 sages like the Persian Kaiiduks, which are frequently at a considerable 
 depth under ground, and are open to the air at certain regular distances 
 by shafts sunk from above. The soil thus irrigated produces cotton, rice, 
 tobacco, millet, melons, cucumbers, and a few vegetables. The jurisdic- 
 tion of the Tai Sheikh ends at the Kasr ; the villages beyond are under the 
 immediate control of the governor of Arbil, to whom they pay their taxes. 
 The inhabitants complained loudly of oppression, and appeared to be an 
 active, industrious race. Upon the banks of the Lesser Zab, below Altuti 
 Kupri (or Guntera, the " Bridge," as the Arabs call the place), encamp the 
 Arab tribe of Abou-Hamdan, renowned for the beauty of its women. 
 
 The mounds I examined, and particularly that of Abd-ul-Azeez, abound 
 in sepulchral urns and in pottery, apparently not Assyrian. 
 
 The most remarkable spot in the district of Shomamok is the Gla (an 
 Arab corruption of Kalah), or the Castle, about two miles distant from the 
 Kasr. It is a natural elevation, left by the stream of the Kordereh, which 
 has worn a deep channel in the soil, and dividing itself at this place into 
 two branches forms an island, whose summit, but little increased by arti- 
 ficial means, is therefore, nearly on a level with the top of the opposite 
 precipices. The valley may be in some places about a mile wide, in others 
 only four or five hundred yards. The Gla is consequently a natural strong- 
 hold, above one hundred feet high, furnished on all sides with outworks 
 resembling the artificial embankments of a modern citadel. A few isolated 
 mounds near it have the appearance of detached forts, and nature seems 
 
 * The names of the principal are Tel-el-Barour, Abbas, Kadreeyah, Abd-ul-Azeez, 
 Baghurtha, Elias Tuppeh, Tarkheena, and Dogban. 
 
Chap. X.l ruins of shomamok 1^1 
 
 to have formed a complete system of fortification I have rarely seen a 
 more curious place. 
 
 There are no remains of modern habitations on the summit of the Gla, 
 which can only be ascended without difficulty from one side. Awad ex- 
 
 
 Awad, Sheikh of the Jehesh 
 
 cavated by my directions in the mound, and discovered traces of Assyrian 
 buildings, and several inscribed bricks, bearing the name of Sennacherib. 
 
 and of a castle or palace, JJT -^ , which, like that on the bricks from the 
 
 Kasr, I am unable to interpret. It is highly probable that a natural strong- 
 hold, so difficult of access, almost impregnable before the use of artillery, 
 should have been chosen at a very early period for the site of a castle Even 
 at this day it might become a position of some importance, especially as a 
 check upon the Arabs and Kurds, who occasionally lay waste these rich 
 districts Numerous valleys, worn by the torrents, descending from the 
 Karachok hills, open into the Kordereh They have all the same character, 
 deep gulleys, rarely mere than half a mile in width, confined between lofty 
 perpendicular banks, and watered during summer by small sluggish rivu- 
 lets. These sheltered spots furnish the best pastures, and are frequented 
 by the Disdayi Kurds, whose flocks were already scattered far and wide- 
 over their green meadows. 
 
 From the Gla I crossed the plain to the mount of Abou-Sheetha, in 
 which Awad had excavated for some time without making any discovery 
 of interest. Near this ruin, perhaps at its very foot, must have taken place 
 an event which led to one of the most celebrated episodes of ancient his- 
 tory. Here were treacherously seized Clearchus, Proxenus, Menon, Agias. 
 
192 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. X. 
 
 and Socrates ; and Xenophon, elected to the command of the Greek auxil- 
 iaries, commenced the ever-memorable retreat of the Ten Thousand. The 
 camp of Tissaphernes, dappled with its many-colored tents, and glittering 
 with golden arms and silken standards, the gorgeous display of Persian 
 pomp, probably stood on the Kordereh, between Abou-Sheetha and the 
 Kasr. The Greeks having taken the lower road, to the west of the Kar- 
 achok range, through a plain even then as now a desert,* turned to the 
 east, and crossed the spur of the mountain, where we had recently seen the 
 tents of the Howar, in order to reach the fords of the Zab. I have already 
 pointed out the probability of their having forded that river above the 
 junction of the Ghazir,f and to this day the ford to the east of Abou- 
 Sheetha is the best, and that usually frequented by the Arabs. Still not 
 openly molested by the Persians, the Greeks halted for three days on the 
 banks of the stream, and Clearchus, to put an end to the jealousies which 
 had broken out between the two armies, sought an interview with the 
 Persian chief. The crafty Eastern, knowing no policy but that to which 
 the descendants of his race are still true, inveigled the Greek commanders 
 into his power, and having seized them sent them in chains to the Persian 
 monarch. He then put to death many of their bravest companions and 
 soldiers, who had accompanied their chiefs. The effect which this perfid- 
 ious act had on the Greek troops, surrounded by powerful enemies, wan- 
 dering in the midst of an unknown and hostile country, betrayed by th.?sr 
 they had come so far to serve, and separated from their native land by im- 
 passable rivers, waterless deserts, and inaccessible mountains, without even 
 a guide to direct their steps, is touchingly described by the great leader 
 and historian of their retreat : " Few ate anything that evening, few made 
 fires, and many that night never came to their quarters, but laid them- 
 selves down, every man in the place where he happened to be, unable to 
 sleep through sorrow and longing for their country, their parents, their 
 wives, and children, whom they never expected to see again." But there 
 was one in the army who was equal to the difficulties which encompassed 
 them, and who had resolved to encourage his hopeless countrymen to make 
 one great effort for their liberty and their lives. Before the break of day, 
 Xenophon had formed his plans. Dressed in the most beautiful armour 
 he could find, " for he thought if the gods granted him victory these orna- 
 ments would become a conqueror, and if he were to die they would deco- 
 rate his fall," he harangued the desponding Greeks, and showed them how 
 
 * Anab. b. ii. c. 4. It is remarkable that Xenophon does not mention the Lesser 
 Zab, which he crossed near its junction with the Tigris. The Greeks must have 
 followed the road indicated in the text, and not that to the east of the Karachok, now 
 the highway between the two rivers, as Xenophon particularly mentions that the Ti- 
 gris was on his left, and that he saw, at the end of the first day's journey, on its op- 
 posite bank, a considerable city named Caenae, which must be identified with Kalah- 
 Sherghat, as there are no other ruins to mark the site of a large place, and no open 
 ground below it upon which one could have stood. The distance of twenty parasangs, 
 or five days' journey, agrees very accurately with this route. t See p. 51. 
 
OhAP X 1 XENOPHON'S RETREAT jg3 
 
 alone they could again see their homes. His eloquence and courage gave 
 them new life. Having made their vows to the eternal gods, and singing 
 pagans, they burnt their carriages, tents, and superfluous baggage, and pre- 
 pared for the last great struggle. The sun must have risen in burning 
 splendor over the parched and yellow plains of Shomamok, for it was early 
 in the autumn. The world has rarely seen a more glorious sight than 
 was witnessed on the banks of the Zab on that memorable morning. The 
 Ten Thousand, having eaten, were permitted by the enemy, who were 
 probably unprepared for this earnest resistance, to ford the river. Reach- 
 ing the opposite bank they commenced that series of marches, directed with 
 a skill and energy unequalled, which led them through difficulties almost 
 insurmountable to their native shores. 
 
 Near Abou-Sheetha, too, Darius, a fugitive, urged his flying horses through 
 the Zab, followed by the scattered remnants of an army which numbered 
 m its ranks men of almost every race and clime of Asia. A few hours after, 
 the Macedonian plunged into the ford in pursuit of the fallen monarch, at 
 the head of those invincible legions which he was to lead, without almost 
 a second check, to the banks of the Indus. The plains which stretch from 
 the Zab below Abou-Sheetha have since been more than once the battle- 
 field of Europe and Asia. 
 
 I gazed with deep interest upon the scene of such great events — a plain, 
 where nothing remains to tell of the vast armies which once moved across 
 it, of European valour, or of Eastern magnificence. 
 
 We had expected to find a raft ready for us near Abou-Sheetha. The 
 raftmen; however, having chosen a more convenient place nearer Negoub. 
 we had to follow the windings of the river for some miles, crossing the mouth 
 of the Kordereh, which joins it five or six miles below Abou-Sheetha. Whilst 
 riding through the jungle a wolf rose before me from its lair, and ran to- 
 wards the plain. Following the animal, I wounded it with one barrel of 
 my pistol, and was about to discharge the second, when my horse slipt on 
 some wet straw left by a recent encampment, and we fell together upon 
 the wolf. It struggled and freed itself, leaving me besmeared with its blood. 
 The cock of the pistol fortunately broke in going off whilst the muzzle was 
 close to my head, and I escaped without other injury than a bruised hand, 
 the complete use of which I did not recover for some months. 
 
 On my return to Nimroud, I remained there a few days to give directions 
 to the overseers for continuing the work during a prolonged absence which 
 I meditated in the desert. On a level with the north-west palace, and on 
 the south side of the high pyramidal mound, some chambers, ornamented 
 with sculptures, had already been discovered, and it was chiefly in this part 
 of the ruins that the excavations were now carried on ; but I will defer an 
 account of the remarkable monuments existing there until I can describe 
 the entire building from which the earth was removed during our trip to 
 the Khabour. 
 
 At Kouyunjik several new chambers had been opened. The western 
 
 N 
 
194 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP X 
 
 portal of the great hall, whose four sides were now completely uncovered,* 
 led into a long narrow chamber (eighty-two feet by twenty-six), the walls 
 of which had unfortunately been almost entirely destroyed.! On such frag- 
 ments, however, as remained were traces of the usual subjects, — battles and 
 victories. There was nothing remarkable in the dresses of the captives, or 
 in the details, to give any clue to the conquered people, whose country was 
 simply represented by wooded mountains and a broad river. 
 
 In the chamber beyond| a few slabs were still standing in their original 
 places. In length this room was the same as that parallel to it, but in 
 breadth it was only eighteen feet. The bas-reliefs represented the siege and 
 sack of one of the many cities taken by the great king, and the transfer of 
 its captives to some distant province of Assyria. The prisoners were dressed 
 in garments falling to the calves of their legs, and the women wore a kind 
 of turban. Although the country was mountainous, its inhabitants used the 
 camel as a beast of burden, and in the sculptures it was represented laden 
 with the spoil. The Assyrians, as was their custom, carried away in tri- 
 umph the images of the gods of the conquered nation, which were placed 
 on poles and borne in procession on men's shoulders. "Hath any god of 
 the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?" ex- 
 claimed the Assyrian general to the Jews. "Where are the gods of Ha- 
 math and Arphad ? where are the gods of Sepharvairn ?"§ They had been 
 carried away with the captives, and the very idols that were represented in 
 this bas-relief may be amongst those to which Rabshakeh made this boast- 
 ing allusion. The captured gods were three, a human figure with out- 
 stretched arms, a lion-headed man carrying a long staff in one hand, and an 
 image inclosed by a square frame. "VYithin a fortified camp, defended by 
 towers and battlements, the priests were offering up the sacrifices usual 
 upon a victory; the pontiff was distinguished by a high conical cap, and, 
 as is always the case in the Assyrian sculptures, was beardless. By his 
 side stood an assistant. Before the altar, on which were some sacrificial 
 utensils, was the sacred chariot, with its elaborate yoke. On a raised band, 
 across the centre of the castle, was inscribed the name and titles of Senna- 
 cherib. II 
 
 On the northern side of the great hall the portal formed by the winded 
 bulls, and the two smaller doorways guarded by colossal winged figures, led 
 into a chamber one hundred feet by twenty-four, which opened into a further 
 room of somewhat smaller dimensions. IF In the first, a few slabs were still 
 standing, to show that on the walls had been represented some warlike ex- 
 pedition of the Assyrian king, and, as usual, the triumphant itsue of the cam- 
 paign. The monarch, in his chariot, and surrounded by his body-guards, 
 was seen receiving the captives and the spoil in a hilly country, whilst his 
 warriors were dragging their horses up a steep mountain near a fortified 
 
 * No. vi. Plan 1. t No. ix. Same Plan. t No. x. Same Plan. 
 
 $ Isaiah, xxxvi. 18, 19. 
 
 II Plate 50. 2d series of Monuments of Nineveh. 1 Nos. vii. and vui Plan I 
 
Chai\ X.] 
 
 BAS-RELIEFS DESCRIBED- 
 
 195 
 
 town, driving their chariots along the banks of a river, and slaying with 
 the spear the flying enemy.* 
 
 The bas-reliefs, which had once ornamented the second chamber, had 
 been still more completely destroyed. A few fragments proved that they 
 had recorded the wars of the Assyrians with a maritime people, whose over- 
 throw was represented on more than one sculptured wall in the palace, and 
 who may probably be identified with some nation on the Phoenician coast 
 conquered by Sennacherib, and mentioned in his great inscriptions. Their 
 galleys, rowed by double banks of oarsmen, and the high conical head-dress 
 of their women, have already been described.! On the best preserved 
 slab was the interior of a fortified camp, amidst mountains. Within the 
 walls were tents whose owners were engaged in various domestic occupa- 
 tions, cooking in pots placed on stones over the fire, receiving the blood of a 
 slaughtered sheep in ajar, and making ready the couches. "Warriors were 
 
 seated before a table, with their shields hung 
 to the tent-pole above them. This bas-relief 
 may confirm what I have elsewhere stated, 
 that the Assyrians were accustomed to dwell 
 in tents within the walls of their cities, as a 
 portion of the inhabitants of many Eastern 
 towns still do ; though it is more probable that. 
 in this sculpture, a fortified camp is intended 
 by the turretted ground-plan. $ 
 
 To the south of the palace, but part of the 
 same great building, though somewhat re- 
 moved from the new excavations, and adjoin- 
 ing those formerly carried on, an additional 
 chamber had been opened, in which several 
 bas-reliefs of considerable interest had been dis- 
 covered. $ Its principal entrance, facing the 
 west, was formed by a pair of colossal human- 
 headed lions, carved in coarse limestone, so 
 much injured that even the inscriptions on the 
 lower part of them were nearly illegible. Un- 
 
 fortunately the bas-reliefs were equally muti- 
 
 Kou- lated, four slabs only retaining any traces of 
 sculpture. One of them represented Assyrian 
 
 yunjik. 
 
 * Plate 29. of 2d series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 128. 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 243. It was first suggested by a recent 
 writer on Nineveh, and, I think, for good reasons, that these ground-plans of fortifi- 
 cations in the bas-reliefs represent a fortified camp, and not a city. (" Assyria, her 
 Manners and Customs, &c.," p. 327 , by Mr. Goss, — a work the general accuracy of 
 which I take the opportunity of acknowledging.) 
 
 $ No. xxii. Plan 1. Some of the slabs had been originally sculptured on the face 
 now turned to the wall of sun-dried bricks, but they had not, I think, been brought 
 
196 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 warriors leading captives, who differed in costume from any other conquer- 
 ed people hitherto found on the walls of the palaces. Their head-dress 
 consisted of high feathers, forming a kind of tiara like that of an Indian 
 chief, and they wore a robe confined at the waist, by an ornamented girdle. 
 Some of them carried an object resembling a torch. Amongst the enemies 
 of the Egyptians represented on their monuments is a tribe similarly at- 
 tired. Their name has been read Tokkari, and they have been identified 
 with an Asiatic nation. We have seen that in the inscriptions on the 
 bulls, the Tokkari are mentioned amongst the people conquered by Senna- 
 cherib,* and it is highly probable that the captives in the bas-reliefs I am 
 
 Bas-relief from Kouyunjik, representing fortified City, a River with a Boat and Raft, and a Canal. 
 
 describing belonged to them. Unfortunately no epigraph, or vestige of an 
 inscription, remained on the sculptures themselves, to enable us to identify 
 them.f 
 
 On a second slab, preserved in this chamber, was represented a double- 
 walled city with arched gateways and inclined approaches leading to them 
 from the outer walls. Within were warriors with horses ; outside the for- 
 tifications was a narrow stream or canal, planted on both sides with trees. 
 
 and flowing into a broad river, on which were 
 
 large boats, holding several 
 
 from any other building. The style of sculpture was similar to that on the walls of 
 Kouyunjik, and it is most probable that some error having been made in the bas-re- 
 lief, it was destroyed, and the opposite face carved afresh 
 
 See p. 123. t Plate 44. 2d series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
-4 
 
198 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. X. 
 
 persons, and a raft of skins, bearing a man fishing, and two others seated 
 before a pot or caldron. Along the banks, and apparently washed by the 
 stream, was a wall with equidistant towers and battlements. On another 
 part of the same river were men ferrying horses across the river in boats, 
 whilst others were swimming over on inflated skins. The water swarmed 
 with fish and crabs. Gardens and orchards, with various kinds of trees, 
 appeared to be watered by canals similar to those which once spread fer- 
 tility over the plains of Babylonia, and of which the choked-up beds still 
 remain. A man, suspended by a rope, was being lowered into the water. 
 Upon the corner of a slab almost destroyed, was a hanging garden, support- 
 ed upon columns, whose capitals were not unlike those of the Corinthian 
 order. This representation of ornamental gardens was highly curious. It 
 is much to be regretted that the bas-reliefs had sustained too much injury 
 to be restored or removed. 
 
Our first Encampment in the Desert. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR A JOURNEY TO THE KHABOUR. SCULPTURES DISCOVERED THERE. 
 
 SHEIKH SUTTUM. HIS REDIFF. DEPARTURE FROM MOSUL. FIRST ENCAMPMENT. ABOU 
 
 KHAMEERA. A STORM. TEL ERMAH. A STRANGER. TEL JEMAL. THE CHIEF OF TEL 
 
 AFER. A SUNSET IN THE DESERT. A JEBOUR ENCAMPMENT. THE BELLED SINJAR. 
 
 THE SINJAR HILL. MIRKAN. BUKRA. THE DRESS OF THE YEZIDIS. THE SHOMAL. 
 
 OSSOFA. ALD1NA. RETURN TO THE BELLED. A SNAKE-CHARMER. JOURNEY CONTIN- 
 UED IN THE DESERT. RISHWAN. ENCAMPMENT OF THE BORAIJ. DRESS OF ARAB WOM- 
 EN. RATHAIAH. HAWKING. A DEPUTATION FROM THE YEZIDIS. ARAB ENCAMP- 
 MENTS. THE KHABOUR. MOHAMMED EMIN. ARRIVAL AT ARBAN. 
 
 I had long wished to visit the banks of the Khabour. This river, the 
 Chaboras of the Greek geographers, and the Habor, or Chebar, of the Sa- 
 maritan captivity,* rises in the north of Mesopotamia, and flowing to the 
 west of the Sinjar hill, falls into the Euphrates near the site of the ancient 
 city of Carchemishf or Circesium, still known to the Bedouins by the 
 name of Carkeseea. As it winds through the midst of the desert, and its 
 rich pastures are the resort of wandering tribes of Arabs, it is always difficult 
 of access to the traveller. It was examined, for a short distance from its 
 mouth, by the expedition under Colonel Chesney ; but the general course 
 of the river was imperfectly known, and several geographical questions of 
 interest connected with it were undetermined previous to my visit. 
 
 With the Bedouins, who were occasionally my guests at Mosul or Nim- 
 * 2 Kings, xviii. 11. Ezek. i. 1. t 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. 
 
200 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 roud, as well as with the Jebours, whose encamping grounds were origin- 
 ally on its banks, the Khabour was a constant theme of exaggerated praise. 
 The richness of its pastures, the beauty of its flowers, its jungles teeming 
 with game of all kinds, and the leafy thickness of its trees yielding an 
 agreeable shade during the hottest days of summer, formed a terrestrial 
 paradise to which the wandering Arab eagerly turned his steps when he 
 could lead his flocks thither in safety. Ruins, too, as an additional attrac- 
 tion, were declared to abound on its banks and formed the principal induce- 
 ment for me to undertake a long and somewhat hazardous journey. I was 
 anxious to determine how far the influence of Assyrian art and manners ex- 
 tended, and whether monuments of the same period as those discovered at 
 Nineveh existed so far to the west of the Tigris. During the winter my 
 old friend Mohammed Emin, Sheikh of one of the principal branches of the 
 Jebour tribe, had pitched his tents on the river. Arabs from his encamp- 
 ment would occasionally wander to Mosul. They generally bore an invi- 
 tation from their chief, urging me to visit him when the spring rendered a 
 march through the desert both easy and pleasant. But when a note ar- 
 rived from the Sheikh, announcing that two colossal idols, similar to those 
 of Nimroud, had suddenly appeared in a mound by the river side, I hesita- 
 ted no longer, and determined to start at once for the Khabour. To avoid, 
 however, any disappointment, I sent one of my own workmen to examine 
 the pretended sculptures. As he confirmed, on his return, the account I 
 had received, I lost no time in making preparations for the journey. 
 
 As the Shammar Bedouins were scattered over the desert between Mo- 
 sul and the Khabour, and their horsemen continually scoured the plains in 
 search of plunder, it was necessary that we should be protected and ac- 
 companied by an influential chief of the tribe. I accordingly sent to Sut- 
 tum, a Sheikh of the Boraij, one of the principal branches of the Shammar. 
 whose tents were at that time pitched between the river and the ruins of 
 El Hather. Suttum was well known to me, and had already given proofs 
 of his trustworthiness and intelligence on more than one similar occasion. 
 He lost no time in obeying the summons. Arrangements were soon made 
 with him. He agreed to furnish camels for our baggage, and to remain 
 with me himself until he had seen my caravan in safety again within the 
 gates of Mosul. He returned to the desert to fetch the camels, and to 
 make other preparations for our journey, promising to be with me in a few 
 days. 
 
 Punctual to his appointment, Sheikh Suttum brought his camels to [Mo- 
 sul on the 19th of March. He was accompanied by Khoraif, his rediff, as 
 the person who sits on the dromedary* behind the principal rider is called 
 by the Bedouins. Amongst the two great nomade tribes of the Shammar 
 and Aneyza, the word " rediff" frequently infers a more intimate connec- 
 
 * I use the word " dromedary" for a swift-riding camel, the Deloul of the Arabs, 
 and Hejin of the Turks : it is so applied generally, although incorrectly by Europeans 
 in the East. 
 
Chap. XI.l departure for the desert. 201 
 
 tion than a mere companionship on a camel. It is customary with them 
 for a warrior to swear a kind of brotherhood with a person not only not re- 
 lated to him by blood, but frequently even of a different tribe. Two men 
 connected by this tie are inseparable They go together to war, they live 
 in the same tent, and are allowed to see each other's wives. They be- 
 come, indeed, more than brothers. Khoraif was of the tribe of the Aneyza, 
 who have a deadly feud with the Shammar. Having left his own kith 
 and kin on account of some petty quarrel, he had joined their enemies, and 
 had become the rediff of Suttum, dwelling under his canvass, accompany- 
 ing him in his expeditions, and riding with him on his deloul. Although 
 he had deserted his tribe, Khoraif had not renounced all connection with 
 his kindred, nor had he been cut off by them. Being thus allied to two 
 powerful clans, he was able to render equal services to any of his old or 
 new friends, who might fall into each other's hands. It is on this account 
 that a warrior generally chooses his rediff from a warlike tribe with which 
 he is at enmity, for if taken in war, he would then be dakheel, that is, pro- 
 tected, by the family, or rather particular sept, of his companion. On the 
 other hand, should one of the rediff's friends become the prisoner of the sub- 
 tribe into which his kinsman has been adopted, he would be under its pro- 
 tection, and could not be molested. Thus Khoraif would have been an im- 
 portant addition to our party, had we fallen in, during our journey, with 
 Aneyza Arabs, against whom, of course, Suttum could not protect us. On 
 warlike expeditions the rediff generally leads the mare which is to be rid- 
 den by his companion in the fight. When in face of the enemy he is left 
 in charge of the dromedary, and takes part in the battle from its back. 
 He rides, when travelling, on the naked back of the animal, clinging to 
 the hinder part of the saddle, his legs crouched up almost to his chin — a 
 very uncomfortable position for one not accustomed from childhood to a 
 hard seat and a rough motion. 
 
 As our desert trip would probably last for more than two months, during 
 which time we should meet with no villages, or permanent settlements, we 
 were obliged to take with us supplies of all kinds, both for ourselves and 
 the workmen ; consequently, flour, rice, burghoul (prepared wheat, to be 
 used as a substitute for rice), and biscuits, formed a large portion of our 
 baggage. Two enormous boxes, each half a camel-load, were under the 
 particular protection of Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, with whom they became a 
 kind of hobby, notwithstanding my repeated protests against their size and 
 inconvenience. They held various luxuries, such as sugar, coffee, tea, and 
 spices, with robes of silk and cotton, and red and yellow boots, presents for 
 the various chiefs whom we might meet in the desert. Baskets, tools for 
 excavating, tents, and working utensils, formed the rest of our baggage. 
 
 I knew that I should have no difficulty in finding workmen when once 
 in Mohammed Emin's encampment. As, however, it was my intention to 
 explore any ruins of importance that we might see on our way, I chose 
 about fifty of my best Arab excavators, and twelve Tiyari, or Nestorians, 
 
202 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. fCllAP XI 
 
 to accompany us. They were to follow on foot, but one or two extra cam- 
 els were provided in case any were unable from fatigue to keep up with 
 the caravan. The camels were driven into the small Mussulman burial- 
 ground, adjoining my house in Mosul. The whole morning was spent in 
 dividing and arranging the loads, always the most difficult part of the 
 preparations for a journey in the East. The pack-saddles of the Bedouins, 
 mere bags of rough canvass stuffed with straw, were ill adapted to carry 
 anything but sacks of wheat and flour. As soon as a load was adjusted, it 
 was sure to slip over the tail, or to turn over on one side. "When this dif- 
 ficulty was overcome, the animals would suddenly kneel and shake offtheir 
 burdens. Their owners were equally hard to please : this camel was 
 galled, another vicious, a third weak. Suttum and Khoraif exerted them- 
 selves to the utmost, and the inhabitants of the quarter, together with stray 
 passers-by, joined in the proceedings, adding to the din and confusion, and 
 of course considerably to our difficulties. At length, as the muezzin called 
 to midday prayer, the last camel issued from the Sinjar gate. A place of 
 £eneral rendezvous had been appointed outside the walls, that our party 
 might be collected together for a proper start, and that those who were 
 good Mussulmans might go through their prayers before commencing a 
 perilous journey. 
 
 I did not leave the town until nearly an hour and a half after the cara- 
 van, to give time for the loads to be finally adjusted, and the line of march 
 to be formed. When we had all assembled outside the Sinj ar gate, our party 
 had swollen into a little army. The Doctor, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Hormuzd 
 K-assam, of course, accompanied me. Mr. and Mrs. Rolland, with their serv- 
 ants, had joined our expedition. My Yezidi fellow-traveller from Constan- 
 tinople, Cawal Yusuf, with three companions, was to escort me to the Sin- 
 jar, and to accompany us in our tour through that district. Several Jebour 
 families, whose tribe was encamped at Abou-Psera, near the mouth of the 
 Khabour, seized this opportunity to join their friends, taking with them 
 their tents and cattle. Thirteen or fourteen Bedouins had charge of the 
 camels, so that, with the workmen and servants, our caravan consisted of 
 nearly one hundred well-armed men ; a force sufficient to defy almost any 
 hostile party with which we were likely to fall in during our journey. We 
 had about five and twenty camels and as many horses, some of which were 
 led. As it was spring time and the pastures were good, it was not neces- 
 sary to carry much provender for our animals. Hussein Bey, the Yezidi 
 chief, and many of our friends, as it is customary in the East, rode with us 
 during part of our first stage ; and my excellent friend, the Rev. Mr. Ford, 
 an American missionary, then resident in Mosul, passed the first evening 
 under our tents in the desert. , 
 
 Suttum, with his redifT, rode a light fleet dromedary, which had been 
 taken in a plundering expedition from the Aneyza. Its name was Dhwaila. 
 Its high and picturesque saddle wes profusely ornamented with brass boss- 
 es and nails ; over the seat was thrown the Baghdad double bags adorned 
 
Chav XI] 
 
 SHEIKH SUTTUM. 
 
 20: 
 
 with long tassels and fringes of many-colored wools, so much coveted by the 
 Bedouin. The Sheikh had the general direction and superintendence of 
 our march. The Mesopotamian desert had been his home from his birth, 
 and he knew every spring and pasture. He was of the Saadi, one of the 
 most illustrious families of the Shammar,* and he possessed great personal 
 influence in the tribe. His intelligence was of a very high order, and he 
 was as well known for his skill in Bedouin intrigue, as for his courage and 
 daring in war. In person he was of middle height, of spare habit, but well 
 
 Sheikh Suttum. 
 
 made, and of noble and dignified carriage ; although a musket wound in 
 the thigh, from which the ball had not been extracted, gave him a slight 
 lameness in his gait. His features were regular and well-proportioned, 
 and of that delicate character so frequently found amongst the nomades of 
 the desert. A restless and sparkling eye of the deepest black spoke the 
 inner man, and seemed to scan and penetrate every thing within its ken. 
 
 * An Arab tribe is divided into septs, and each sept is composed of certain fami- 
 lies. Thus Suttum was a Shammar, of the branch called the Boraij, and of the fam- 
 ily of the Saadi, besides being a member of a peculiar division of the great tribe called 
 the Khorusseh. 
 
204 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI 
 
 His dark hair was platted into many long tails ; his beard, like that of the 
 Arabs in general, was scanty. He wore the usual Arab shirt, and over it 
 a cloak of blue cloth, trimmed with red silk and lined with fur, a present 
 from some Pasha as he pretended, but more probably a part of some great 
 man's wardrobe that had been appropriated without its owner's consent. 
 A colored kerchief, or keffieh, was thrown loosely over his head, and con- 
 fined above the temples by a rope of twisted camel's hair. At his side 
 hung a scimitar, an antique horse-pistol was held by a rope tied as a girdle 
 round his waist, and a long spear, tufted with black ostrich feathers, and 
 ornamented with scarlet streamers, rested on his shoulder. He was the 
 very picture of a true Bedouin Sheikh, and his liveliness, his wit, and his 
 singular powers of conversation, which made him the most agreeable of 
 companions, did not belie his race. 5 * The rest of my party, with the ex- 
 ception of the workmen, who were on foot, or who contrived to find places 
 on the loads, and spare camels, were on horseback. The Bairakdar had 
 the general management of the caravan, superintending, with untiring zeal 
 and activity, the loading and unloading of the animals, the pitching of the 
 tents, and the night watches, which are highly necessary in the desert. 
 
 As we wound slowly over the low rocky hills to the west of the town of 
 Mosul, in a long straggling line, our caravan had a strange and motley ap- 
 pearance ; Europeans, Turks, Bedouins, town-Arabs, Tiyari, and Yezidis, 
 were mingled in singular confusion ; each adding, by difference of costume 
 and a profusion of bright colors, to the general picturesqueness and gaiety 
 of the scene. 
 
 The Tigris, from its entrance into the low country at the foot of the 
 Kurdish mountains near Jezireh, to the ruined town of Tekrit, is separated 
 from the Mesopotamian plains by a range of low limestone hills. We rode 
 over this undulating ground for about an hour and a half, and then de- 
 scended into the plain of Zerga, encamping for the night near the ruins of 
 a small village, with a falling Kasr, called Sahaghi, about twelve miles 
 from Mosul. The place had been left by its inhabitants, like all others on 
 the desert side of the town, on account of the depredations of the Bedouins. 
 There is now scarcely one permanent settlement on the banks of the Tigris 
 from Jezireh to the immediate vicinity of Baghdad, with the exception of Mo- 
 sul and Tekrit. One of the most fertile countries in the world, watered by 
 
 * Burckhardt, the English traveller best acquainted with the Bedouin character, and 
 admirably correct in describing it, makes the following remarks : " With all their 
 faults, the Bedouins are one of the noblest nations with which I ever had an oppor- 
 tunity of becoming acquainted. . . . The sociable character of a Bedouin, when there 
 is no question of profit or interest, may be described as truly amiable. His cheerful- 
 ness, wit, softness of temper, good-nature, and sagacity, which enable him to make 
 shrewd remarks on all subjects, render him a pleasing, and often a valuable, compan- 
 ion. His equality of temper is never ruffled by fatigue or suffering." (Notes on the 
 Bedouins, pp. 203. 208.) Unfortunately, since Burckhardt's time, closer intercourse 
 with the Turks and with Europeans, has much tended to destroy many good features 
 in the Arab character. 
 
Chap. XI.] encamp at sahaghi. 205 
 
 a river navigable for nearly six hundred miles, has been turned into a des- 
 ert and a wilderness, by continued misgovernment, oppression, and neglect. 
 
 Our tents were pitched near a pool of rain water, which, although mud- 
 dy and scant, sufficed for our wants. There are no springs in this part of 
 the plain, and the Bedouins are entirely dependent upon such temporary 
 supplies. The remains of ancient villages show, however, that water is not 
 concealed far beneath the surface, and that wells once yielded all that was 
 required for irrigation and human consumption. 
 
 The loads had not yet been fairly divided amongst the camels, and the 
 sun had risen above the horizon before the Bedouins had arranged them to 
 their satisfaction, and were ready to depart. The plain of Zerga was car- 
 peted with tender grass, scarcely yet forward enough to afford pasture for 
 our animals. Scattered here and there were tulips of a bright scarlet hue, 
 the earliest flower of the spring. 
 
 A ride of three hours and a quarter brought us to a second line of lime- 
 stone hills, the continuation of the Tel Afer and Sinjar range, dividing the 
 small plain of Zerga from the true Mesopotamian desert. From a peak 
 which I ascended to take bearings, the vast level country, stretching to 
 the Euphrates, lay like a map beneath me, dotted with mounds, but other- 
 wise unbroken by a single eminence. The nearest and most remarkable 
 group of ruins was called Aboii Khameera, and consisted of a lofty, conical 
 mound surrounded by a square inclosure, or ridge of earth, marking, as at 
 Kouyunjik and Nimroud, the remains of ancient walls. From the foot of 
 the hill on which I stood there issued a small rivulet, winding amongst 
 rushes, and losing itself in the plain. This running water had drawn to- 
 gether the black tents of the Jehesh, a half sedentary tribe of Arabs, who 
 cultivate the lands around the ruined village of Abou Maria. Their flocks 
 grazing on the plain, and the shepherds who watched them, were the only 
 living objects in that boundless expanse. The hill and the stream are call- 
 ed Mohallibiyah, from the sweetness of the water, the neighbouring springs 
 being all more or less brackish.* 
 
 As the caravan issued from the defile leading from the hills into the 
 plain, the Arabs brought out bowls of sour milk and fresh water, inviting 
 us to spend the night in their encampment. Eight or ten of my workmen, 
 under a Christian superintendent, had been for some days excavating in 
 the ruins of Abou Khameera. I therefore ordered the tents to be pitched 
 near the reedy stream, and galloped to the mounds, which were rather 
 more than a mile distant. 
 
 In general plan the ruins closely resemble those of Mokhamour in the 
 Tai country.! A broad and lofty mound shows the traces of several dis- 
 tinct platforms or terraces rising one above the other. It is almost perpen- 
 
 * There is a second spring of fresh water called Sheikh Ibrahim, beneath a high 
 rock named Maasoud. The whole line of hills bounding the plain of Zerga to the 
 west is called Kebritiyah, " the sulphur range," from a sulphurous spring rising at 
 their feet. In this range are several remarkable peaks, serving as landmarks from 
 great distances in the desert. t See p. 187. 
 
206 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI 
 
 dicular on its four sides, except where, on the south-eastern, there appears 
 to have been an inclined ascent, or a flight of steps, leading to the summit, 
 and it stands nearly in the centre of an inclosure of earthen walls forming 
 a regular quadrangle about 660 paces square. The workmen had opened 
 deep trenches and tunnels in several parts of the principal ruin, and had 
 found walls of sun-dried brick, unsculptured alabaster slabs, and some cir- 
 cular stone sockets for the hinges of gates, similar to those discovered at 
 Nimroud. The baked bricks and the pieces of gypsum and pottery scat- 
 tered amongst the rubbish bore no inscriptions, nor could I, after the most 
 careful search, find the smallest fragment of sculpture. I have no hesita- 
 tion, however, in assigning the ruins to the Assyrian period. 
 
 The Jehesh encamped near Abou Khameera were under Sheikh Saleh. 
 the chief of this branch of a tribe scattered over the pashalic, and once 
 large and powerful. They pay kowee, or black mail, to the Shammar Be 
 douins, and are thus able to pasture their flocks free from molestation in 
 this part of the desert. 
 
 One of those furious and sudden storms, which frequently sweep over the 
 plains of Mesopotamia during the spring season, burst over us in the night. 
 Whilst incessant lightnings broke the gloom, a raging wind almost drowned 
 the deep roll of the thunder. The united strength of the Arabs could 
 scarcely hold the flapping canvass of the tents. Rain descended in tor- 
 rents, sparing us no place of shelter. Towards dawn the hurricane had 
 passed away, leaving a still and cloudless sky. When the round clear sun 
 rose from the broad expanse of the desert, a delightful calm and freshness 
 pervaded the air, producing mingled sensations of pleasure and repose. 
 
 The vegetation was far more forward in that part of the desert traversed 
 during the day's journey than in the plain of Zerga. We trod on a carpet 
 of the brightest verdure, mingled with gaudy flowers. Men and animals 
 rejoiced equally in these luxuriant pastures, and leaving the line of march 
 strayed over the meadows. On all sides of us rose Assyrian mounds, now 
 covered with soft herbage. I rode with Suttum from ruin to ruin, examin- 
 ing each, but finding no other remains than fragments of pottery and baked 
 bricks. The Bedouin chief had names for them all, but they were mere 
 Arab names, derived generally from some local peculiarity ; the more an- 
 cient had been long lost. From his childhood his father's tents had been 
 pitched amongst these ruins for some weeks twice, nearly every year ; when 
 in the spring the tribe journeyed towards the banks of the Khabour, and 
 again when in autumn they resought their winter camping-grounds around 
 Babylon. These lofty mounds, seen from a great distance, and the best of 
 landmarks in a vast plain, guide the Bedouin in his yearly wanderings.* 
 
 Tel Ermah, " the mound of the spears," had been visible from our tents, 
 
 * The following are the names of the principal mounds seen during this day's 
 march : Ermah, Shibbit, Duroge, Addiyah, Abou-Kubbah, and Kharala, each name 
 being preceded by the Arabic word Tel, i. e. mound. They are laid down in the map 
 accompanying this volume, their positions having been fixed by careful bearings, and 
 in some instances by the sextant. 
 
Chap. XL] T£L ERMAH - 207 
 
 rising far above the surrounding ruins. As it was a little out of the direct 
 line of march, Suttum mounted one of our led horses, and leaving Khoraif 
 to protect the caravan, rode with me to the spot. The mound is precisely 
 similar in character to Abou Khameera and Mokhamour, and, like them, 
 stands within a quadrangle of earthen walls. On its south-eastern side also 
 is a ravine, the remains of the ascent to the several terraces of the building. 
 The principal ruin has assumed a conical form, like the high mound at 
 Nimroud, and from the same cause. It was, I presume, originally square. 
 Within the inclosure are traces of ancient dwellings, but I was unable to 
 find any inscribed fragments of stone or brick. 
 
 Whilst I was examining the ruins, Suttum, from the highest mound, had 
 been scanning the plain with his eagle eye. At length it rested upon a 
 distant moving object. Although with a telescope I could scarcely distin- 
 guish that to which, he pointed, the Sheikh saw that it was a rider on a 
 dromedary. He now, therefore, began to watch the stranger with that 
 eager curiosity and suspicion always shown by a Bedouin when the solitude 
 of the desert is broken by a human being of whose condition and business 
 he is ignorant. Suttum soon satisfied himself as to the character of the sol- 
 itary wanderer. He declared him to be a messenger from his own tribe, 
 who had been sent to lead us to his father's tents. Mounting his horse, 
 he galloped towards him. The Arab soon perceived the approaching horse- 
 man, and then commenced on both sides a series of manoeuvres practised 
 by those who meet in the desert, and are as yet distrustful of each other. 
 I marked them from the ruin as they cautiously approached, now halting, 
 now drawing nigh, and then pretending to ride away in an opposite direc- 
 tion. At length, recognising one another, they met, and, having first dis- 
 mounted to embrace, came together towards us. As Suttum had conject- 
 ured, a messenger had been sent to him from his father's tribe. The Bo- 
 raij were now moving towards the north in search of the spring pastures, 
 and their tents would be pitched in three or four days beneath the Sinjai 
 hill. Suttum at once understood the order of their march, and made ar 
 rangements to meet them accordingly. 
 
 Leaving the ruins of Tel Ermah, we found the caravan halting near 
 some wells of sweet water, called Marzib. They belong to a branch of 
 the Jebours under Sheikh Abd-ul-Azeez, and a few patches of green barley 
 and wheat were scattered around them, but the tents of the tribe were now 
 nearer the hills, and the cultivated plots were left unprotected. 
 
 From this spot the old castle of Tel Afer,* standing boldly on an eminence 
 about ten miles distant, was plainly visible. Continuing our march we reach- 
 ed, towards evening, a group of mounds known as Tel Jemal, and pitched in 
 the midst of them on a green lawn, enamelled with flowers, that furnished 
 a carpet for our tents unequalled in softness of texture, or in richness of col- 
 or, by the looms of Cashmere. A sluggish stream, called by the Arabs El 
 Abra, and by the Turcomans of Tel Afer, Kharala, crept through the ruins. 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 313. 
 
203 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI 
 
 The tents had scarcely been raised when a party of horsemen were seen 
 coming towards us. As they approached our encampment they played the 
 Jerid with their long spears, galloping to and fro on their well-trained 
 mares. They were the principal inhabitants of Tel Afer with Ozair Agha, 
 their chief, who brought us a present of lambs, flour, and fresh vegetables. 
 The Agha rode on a light chestnut mare of beautiful proportions and rare 
 breed. His dress, as well as that of his followers, was singularly pictur- 
 esque. His people are Turcomans, a solitary colony in the midst of the des- 
 ert ; and although their connection with the Bedouins has taught them the 
 tongue and the habits of the wandering tribes, yet they still wear the tur- 
 ban of many folds, and the gay flowing robes of their ancestors. They al- 
 low their hair to grow long, and to fall in curls on their shoulders. 
 
 Ozair Agha was an old friend, who had more than once found refuge in 
 my house from government oppression. He now sought my advice and pro- 
 tection, for he was accused of having been privy to some recent foray of the 
 Bedouins, and was summoned to Mosul to answer the charge, of which, 
 however, he declared himself completely innocent. I urged him to obey 
 the summons without delay, to avoid the suspicion of rebellion against the 
 government. I gave him, at the same time, letters to the authorities. 
 
 As the evening crept on, I watched from the highest mound the sun as 
 it gradually sank in unclouded splendour below the sea-like expanse before 
 me. On all sides, as far as the eye could reach, rose the grass-covered heaps 
 marking the site of ancient habitations. The great tide of civilisation had 
 long since ebbed, leaving these scattered wrecks on the solitary shore. Are 
 those waters to flow again, bearing back the seeds of knowledge and of 
 wealth that they have wafted to the West ? We wanderers were seeking 
 what they had left behind, as children gather up the colored shells on the 
 deserted sands. At my feet there was a busy scene, making more lonely 
 the unbroken solitude which reigned in the vast plain around, where the 
 only thing having life or motion were the shadows of the lofty mounds as 
 they lengthened before the declining sun. Above three years before, when, 
 watching the approach of night from the old castle of Tel Afer, I had count- 
 ed nearly one hundred ruins.* now, when in the midst of them, no less than 
 double that number were seen from Tel Jemal. Our tents crowning the 
 lip of a natural amphitheatre bright with flowers, Ozair Agha and his Tur- 
 comans seated on the greensward in earnest talk with the Arab chief, the 
 horses picketed in the long grass, the Bedouins driving home their camels 
 for the night's rest, the servants and grooms busied with their various la- 
 bors ; such was the foreground to a picture of perfect calm and stillness. 
 In the distance was the long range of the Sinjar hills, furrowed with count- 
 less ravines, each marked by a dark purple shadow, gradually melting into 
 the evening haze. 
 
 We had a long day's march before us to the village of Sinjar. The wil- 
 derness appeared still more beautiful than it had done the day before. The 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 315. 
 
Chap. XL] THE BELLED sinjar. 209 
 
 recent storm had given new life to a vegetation which, concealed beneath 
 a crust of apparently unfruitful earth, only waits for a spring shower to 
 burst, as if by enchantment, through the thirsty soil. Here and there grew 
 patches of a shrub-like plant with an edible root, having a sharp pungent 
 taste like mustard, eaten raw and much relished by the Bedouins. Among 
 them lurked game of various kinds. Troops of gazelles sprang from the low 
 cover, and bounded over the plain. The greyhounds coursed hares ; the 
 horsemen followed a wild boar of enormous size, and nearly white from 
 age ; and the Doctor, who was the sportsman of the party, shot a bustard, 
 with a beautiful speckled plumage, and a ruff of long feathers round its 
 neck. This bird was larger than the common small bustard, but appar- 
 ently of the same species. Other bustards, the great and the middle-sized 
 (the Houbron and Houbara of the Arabs*), and the lesser, besides many 
 birds of the plover kind,f rose from these tufts, which seemed to afford food 
 and shelter to a variety of living creatures. We scanned the horizon in 
 vain for the wild ass, which is but thinly scattered over the plains. The 
 Arabs found many eggs of the middle bustard. They were laid in the grass 
 without any regular nest, the bird simply making a form somewhat like 
 that of a hare, and sitting very close, frequently not rising until it was near- 
 ly trodden under foot. One or two eggs of the great bustard were also 
 brought to me during the day. 
 
 We still wandered amongst innumerable mounds. The largest I exam- 
 ined were called Hathail and Usgah. They resembled those of Abou-Kha- 
 meerah and Tel Ermah, with the remains of terraces, the ascent to them 
 being on the south-eastern side, and the inclosure of earthen walls. 
 
 We rode in a direct line to the Belled Sinjar, the residence of the gov- 
 ernor of the district. There was no beaten track, and the camels wander- 
 ed along as they listed, cropping as they went the young grass. The horse- 
 men and footmen, too, scattered themselves over the plain in search of 
 game. Suttum rode from group to group on his swift deloul, urging them 
 to keep together, as the Aneyza gazous% occasionally swept this part of 
 the desert. But to little purpose ; the feeling of liberty and independence 
 which these boundless meadows produced was too complete and too pleas- 
 ing to be controlled by any fear of danger, or by the Sheikh's prudent 
 counsel. All shared in the exhilarating effects of the air and scene. Hor- 
 muzd would occasionally place himself at the head of the Jebours, and 
 chant their war songs, improvising words suited to the occasion. The men 
 answered in chorus, dancing as they went, brandishing their weapons, and 
 raising their bright-colored kerchiefs, as flags, on the end of their spears. 
 The more sedate Bedouins smiled in contempt at these noisy effusions of 
 
 * The Houbron is the Otis tarda, or great bustard ; the Houbara, the Otis Houbara. 
 I believe that more than one species of the lesser bustard (Otis tetrax) is found in 
 the Mesopotamian plains. 
 
 f The most abundant was a large grey plover called by the Bedouins " Smoug." 
 
 % A plundering party, the chappou of the Persian tribes. 
 
 
 
210 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI 
 
 joy, only worthy of tribes who have touched the plough ; but they in 
 dulged in no less keen, though more suppressed, emotions of delight. Even 
 the Tiyari caught the general enthusiasm, and sung their mountain songs 
 as they walked along. 
 
 As we drew near to the foot of the hills we found a large encampment, 
 formed partly by Jebours belonging to Sheikh Abd-ul-Azeez, and partly by 
 a Sinjar tribe called Mendka, under a chief known as the " EfTendi," who 
 enjoys considerable influence in this district. His tent is frequently a place 
 of refuge for Bedouin chiefs and others, who have fled from successful ri- 
 vals, or from the Turkish authorities. His grandfather, a Yezidi in creed, 
 embraced Mohammedanism from political motives. The conversion was 
 not consequently very sincere, and his descendants are still suspected of a 
 leaning to the faith of their forefathers. This double character is one of 
 the principal causes of the Efiendi's influence. His tribe, which inhabits 
 the Belled and adjoining villages on the south side of the mountain, con- 
 sists almost entirely of Yezidis. The chief himself resides during the win- 
 ter and spring in tents, and the rest of the year in a village named Soulak. 
 The Yezidis of the Sinjar are divided into ten distinct tribes, the Heska. 
 Mendka, Houbaba, Merkhan, Bukra, Beit-Khaled, Amera, Al Dakhi, Se- 
 moki, and Kerani. 
 
 I dismounted at a short distance from the encampment, to avoid a breach 
 of good manners, as to refuse to eat bread, or to spend the night, after 
 alighting near a tent, would be thought a grave slight upon its owner. 
 The caravan continued its journey towards the village. I was soon sur- 
 rounded by the principal people of the camp ; amongst them was one of my 
 old workmen, Khuther, who now cultivated a small plot of ground in the 
 desert. 
 
 It was with difficulty that I resisted the entreaties of the EfTendi to par- 
 take of his hospitality. We did not reach the Belled until after the sun 
 had gone down, the caravan having been ten hours in unceasing march. 
 The tents were pitched on a small plot of ground, watered by numerous 
 rills, and in the centre of the ruins. Although almost a swamp, it was the 
 only spot free from stones and rubbish. In front of the tent door rose a 
 leaning minaret, part of a mosque, and other ruins of Arab edifices. To 
 the right was an old wall with a falling archway, from beneath which 
 gushed a most abundant stream of clear sweet water, still retained for a 
 moment in the stone basins once the fountains and reservoirs of the city. 
 
 I had scarcely entered my tent when the governor of the district, who 
 resides in a small modern castle built on the hill-side, came to see me. He 
 was a Turkish officer belonging to the household of Kiamil Pasha, and 
 complained bitterly of his solitude, of the difficulties of collecting the taxes, 
 and of dealing with the Bedouins who haunted the plains. The villages 
 on the northern side of the mountain were not only in open rebellion to his 
 authority, but fighting one with the other ; all, however, being quite of 
 one mind in refusing to contribute to the public revenues. He was almost 
 
Chap XI 1 ruins of the belled sin jar. 211 
 
 shut up within the walls of his wretched fort, in company with a garrison 
 of a score of half-starved Albanians. This state of things was chiefly 
 owing to the misconduct of his predecessor, who, when the inhabitants of 
 the Sinjar were quiet and obedient, had treacherously seized two of their 
 principal chiefs, Mahmoud and Murad, and had carried them in chains to 
 Mosul, where they had been thrown into prison. A deputation having 
 been sent to obtain their release, I had been able to intercede with Kiamil 
 Pasha in their behalf, and now bore to their followers the welcome news 
 of their speedy return to their homes. 
 
 The tent was soon filled with the people of the Belled, and they remain- 
 ed in animated discussion until the night was far spent. 
 
 Early on the following morning, I returned the visit of the governor, and, 
 from the tower of the small castle, took bearings of the principal objects 
 in the plain. The three remarkable peaks rising in the low range of 
 Kebriteeyah, behind Abou Khameera, were still visible in the extreme dis- 
 tance, and enabled me to fix with some accuracy the position of many 
 ruins. They would be useful landmarks in a survey of this part of the 
 desert. About four or five miles distant from the Belled, which, like the 
 fort, is built on the hill-side, is another large group of mounds, resembling 
 that of Abou Khameera, called by the Bedouins simply the " Hosh," the 
 courtyard or inclosure. 
 
 The ruins of the ancient town, known to the Arabs as " El Belled," or 
 the city, are divided into two distinct parts by a range of rocky hills, which, 
 however, are cleft in the centre by the bed of a torrent, forming a narrow 
 ravine between them. This ravine is crossed by a strong well-built wall, 
 defended by a dry ditch cut into the solid rock. An archway admits the 
 torrent into the southern part of the city, which appears to have contained 
 the principal edifices. The northern half is within the valley, and is sur- 
 rounded by ruined fortifications. I could find no traces of remains of any 
 period earlier than the Mohammedan, unless the dry ditch excavated in the 
 rock be more ancient ; nor could I obtain any relics, or coins, from the in- 
 habitants of the modern village. The ruins are, undoubtedly, those of the 
 town of Sinjar, the capital of an Arab principality in the time of the Ca- 
 liphs. Its princes frequently asserted their independence, coined money, 
 and ruled from the Khabour and Euphrates to the neighbourhood of Mosul. 
 The province was included within the dominions of the celebrated Saleh- 
 ed-din (the Saladin of the Crusades), and was more than once visited by 
 him. 
 
 The ruins of Sinjar are also believed to represent the Singara of the Ro- 
 mans. On coins struck under the Emperor Gordian, and bearing his effigy 
 with that of the Empress Tranquillina, this city is represented by a female 
 wearing a mural crown surmounted by a centaur, seated on a hill with a 
 river at her feet (?).* According to the Arab geographers, the Sinjar was 
 
 * There were also coins of Alexander Severus, struck in Singara. It is to be re- 
 marked that, in consequence of considerable discrepancies in the accounts of ancient 
 
212 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XT 
 
 celebrated for its palms. This tree is no longer found there, nor does it 
 bear fruit, I believe, anywhere to the north of Tekrit in Mesopotamia. 
 
 Roman Coin of Gordian and Tranquillina, struck at Singara (British Museum). 
 
 Wishing to visit the villages of the Shomal, or northern side of the mount- 
 ain, and at the same time to put an end, if possible, to the bloodshed be- 
 tween their inhabitants, and to induce them to submit to the governor, 1 
 quitted the Belled in the afternoon, accompanied by Cawal Yusuf and his 
 Yezidi companions, Mr. and Mrs. R., the Doctor, and Mr. Cooper. The 
 tents, baggage, and workmen were left under the charge of the Bairak- 
 dar. Suttum went to his tribe to make further arrangements for our jour- 
 ney to the Khabour. 
 
 We followed a precipitous pathway along the hill-side to Mirkan, the 
 village destroyed by Tahyar Pasha on my first visit to the Sinjar.* This 
 part of the mountain is coated with thin strata of a white fossiliferous lime- 
 stone, which detach themselves in enormous flakes, and fall into the val- 
 leys and ravines, leaving an endless variety of singular forms in the rocks 
 above. In some places the declivities are broken into stupendous flights 
 of steps, in others they have the columnar appearance of basalt. This 
 limestone produces scarcely a blade of vegetation, and its milk-white color, 
 throwing back the intense glare of the sun's rays, is both painful and hurt- 
 ful to the sight. 
 
 Mirkan was in open rebellion, and had refused both to pay taxes and to 
 receive the officer of the Pasha of Mosul. I was, at first, somewhat doubt- 
 ful of our reception. Esau, the chief, came out, however, to meet me, and 
 led us to his house. We were soon surrounded by the principal men of the 
 village. They were also at war with the tribes of the " Shomal." A few 
 days before they had fought with the loss of several men on both sides 
 Seconded by Cawal Yusuf, I endeavored to make them feel that peace and 
 union amongst themselves was not only essential to their own welfare, but 
 to that of the Yezidis of Kurdistan and Armenia, who had, at length, re- 
 ceived a promise of protection from the Turkish government, and who 
 
 geographers, several authors have beon inclined to believe that there were two cities 
 of the same name ; one, according to Ptolemy, on the Tigris, the other under the 
 mountain. It was long a place of contention between the Romans and Parthians. 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 317. 
 
Chap XII villages of the sinjar. 213 
 
 would suffer for their misdeeds. After a lengthened discussion the chief 
 consented to accompany me to the neighbouring village of Bukra, with whose 
 inhabitants his people had been for some time at war. 
 
 Mirkan had been partly rebuilt since its destruction three years before ; 
 but the ruins and charred timbers of houses still occupied much of its for- 
 mer site. We crossed the entrance to the ravine filled with caverns into 
 which the Yezidis had taken refuge, when they made the successful de- 
 fence I have elsewhere described. 
 
 There are two pathways from Mirkan to the " Shomal," one winding 
 through narrow valleys, the other crossing the shoulder of the mountain. I 
 chose the latter, as it enabled me to obtain an extensive view of the sur- 
 rounding country, and to take bearings of many points of interest. The 
 slopes around the villages are most industriously and carefully cultivated. 
 Earth, collected with great labor, is spread over terraces, supported by walls 
 of loose stones, as on the declivities of Mount Lebanon. These stages, ris- 
 ing one above the other, are planted with fig-trees, between which is occa- 
 sionally raised a scanty crop of wheat or barley. The neatness of these 
 terraced plots conveys a very favorable impression of the industry of the 
 Yezidis. 
 
 Near the crest of the hill we passed a white conical building, shaded by 
 a grove of trees. It was the tomb of the father of Murad, one of Yusuf 's 
 companions, a Cawal of note, who had died near the spot of the plague some 
 years before. The walls were hung with the horns of sheep, slain in sacri- 
 fice, by occasional pilgrims. 
 
 I had little anticipated the beauty and extent of the view which opened 
 round us on the top of the pass. The Sinjar hill is a solitary ridge rising 
 abruptly in the midst of the desert ; from its summit, therefore, the eye 
 ranges on one side over the vast level wilderness stretching to the Euphrates, 
 and on the other over the plain bounded by the Tigris and the lofty mount- 
 ains of Kurdistan. Nisibin and Mardin«were both visible in the distance. I 
 could distinguish the hills of Baadri and Sheikh Adi, and many well-known 
 peaks of the Kurdish Alps. Behind the lower ranges, each distinctly 
 marked by its sharp, serrated outline, were the snow-covered heights of 
 Tiyari and Bohtan. Whilst to the south of the Sinjar artificial mounds ap- 
 peared to abound, to the north I could distinguish but few such remains. 
 We dismounted to gaze upon this truly magnificent scene lighted up by 
 the setting sun. I have rarely seen any prospect more impressive than 
 these boundless plains viewed from a considerable elevation. Besides the 
 idea of vastness they convey, the light and shade of passing clouds flitting 
 over the face of the land, and the shadows as they lengthen towards the 
 close of day, produce constantly changing effects of singular variety and 
 beauty.* 
 
 * The traveller who has looked down fromMardin, for the first time, upon the plains 
 of Mesopotamia, can never forget the impression which that singular scene must have 
 made upon him. The view from the Sinjar hill is far more beautiful and varied. 
 
214 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XI 
 
 It was night before we reached Bukra, where we were welcomed with 
 great hospitality. The best house in the village had been made ready for 
 us, and was scrupulously neat and clean, as the houses of the Yezidis usually 
 are. It was curiously built, being divided into three principal rooms, open- 
 ing one into the other. They were separated by a wall about six feet high, 
 upon which were placed wooden pillars supporting the ceiling. The roof 
 rested on trunks of trees, raised on rude stone pedestals at regular intervals 
 in the centre chamber, which was open on one side to the air, like a Per- 
 sian Iwan. The sides of the rooms were honeycombed with small recesses 
 like pigeon-holes, tastefully arranged. The whole was plastered with the 
 whitest plaster, fancy designs in bright red being introduced here and there, 
 and giving the interior of the house a very original appearance. 
 
 Interior of a Yezidi House at Bukra, in the Sinjar. 
 
 The elders of Bukra came to me after we had dined, and seated them- 
 selves respectfully and decorously round the room. They were not averse 
 to the reconciliation I proposed, received the hostile chief without hesita- 
 tion, and promised to accompany me on the morrow to the adjoining village 
 of Ossofa, with which they were also at war. Amongst those who had fol- 
 lowed us was an active and intelligent youth, one of the defenders of the 
 caverns when the Turkish troops under Tahyar Pasha attacked Mirk an 
 He related with great spirit and zest the particulars of the affair, and as- 
 
Chap. XL] 
 
 RECEPTION AT BUKRA. 215 
 
 sured me that he had killed several men with his own gun. He was then 
 but a boy, and it was the first time he had seen war. His father, he said, 
 placed a rifle in his hand, and pointing to a soldier who was scaling the rocks 
 exclaimed, "Now, show me whether thou art a man, and worthy of me. 
 Shoot that enemy of our faith, or I will shoot you !" He fired, and the as- 
 sailant rolled back into the ravine. 
 
 In the morning we visited several houses in the village. They were all 
 built on the same plan, and were equally neat and clean. The women re- 
 ceived us without concealing their faces, which are, however, far from pleas- 
 ing, their features being irregular, and their complexion sallow. Those who 
 are married dress entirely in white, with a white kerchief under their chins, 
 and another over their heads held by the agal, or woollen cord, of the Be- 
 douins. The girls wear white shirts and drawers, but over them colored 
 zabouns, or long silk dresses, open in front, and confined at the waist by a 
 girdle ornamented with pieces of silver. They twist gay kerchiefs round 
 their heads, and adorn themselves with coins, and glass and amber beads, 
 when their parents are able to procure them. But the Yezidis of the Sin- 
 jar are now very poor, and nearly all the trinkets of the women have long 
 since fallen into the hands of the Turkish soldiery, or have been sold to pay 
 taxes and arbitrary fines. The men have a dark complexion, black and 
 piercing eyes, and frequently a fierce and forbidding countenance. They 
 are of small stature, but have well-proportioned limbs strongly knit together, 
 and are muscular, active, and capable of bearing great fatigue. Their dress 
 consists of a shirt, loose trowsers and cloak, all white, and a black turban, 
 from beneath which their hair falls in ringlets. Their long rifles are rarely 
 out of their hands, and they carry pistols in their girdle, a sword at their 
 side, and a row of cartouche cases, generally made of cut reeds, on their 
 breast. These additions to their costume, and their swarthy features, give 
 them a peculiar look of ferocity, which, according to some, is not belied by 
 their characters. 
 
 The Yezidis are, by one of their religious laws, forbidden to wear the com- 
 mon Eastern shirt open in front, and this article of their dress is always 
 closed up to the neck. This is a distinctive mark of the sect by which its 
 members may be recognised at a glance. The language of the people of Sin- 
 jar is Kurdish, and few speak Arabic. According to their traditions they 
 are the descendants of a colony from the north of Syria, which settled in 
 Mesopotamia at a comparatively recent period, but I could obtain no posi- 
 tive information on the subject. It is probable, however, that they did not 
 migrate to their present seats before the fall of the Arab principality, and 
 the invasion of Timourleng, towards the end of the fourteenth century. 
 
 The north side of the mountain is thickly inhabited, and well cultivated 
 as far as the scanty soil will permit. Scarcely three quarters of a mile to 
 the west of Bukra is the village of Naksi, the interval between the two be- 
 ing occupied by terraces planted with fig-trees. We did not stop, although 
 the inhabitants came out to meet us, but rode on to Ossofa, or Usifa, only 
 
215 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI 
 
 separated from Naksi by a rocky valley. The people of this village were 
 at war with their neighbours, and as this was one of the principal seats of 
 rebellion and discontent, I was anxious to have an interview with its chief. 
 
 The position of Ossofa is very picturesque. It stands on the edge of a 
 deep ravine ; behind it are lofty crags and narrow gorges, whose sides are 
 filled with natural caverns. On overhanging rocks, towering above the 
 village, are two ziarehs, or holy places, of the Yezidis, distinguished from 
 afar by their white fluted spires. 
 
 Pulo, the chief, met us at the head of the principal inhabitants and led 
 me to his house, where a large assembly was soon collected to discuss the 
 principal object of my visit. The chiefs of Mirkan and Bukra were induced 
 to make offers of peace, which were accepted, and after much discussion the 
 terms of an amicable arrangement were agreed to and ratified by general 
 consent. Sheep were slain to celebrate the event. The meat, after the 
 Yezidi fashion, was boiled in onions, and a kind of parched pea, and after- 
 wards served up, like porridge, in large wooden bowls. The mess is not 
 unsavoury, and is the principal dish of the Sinjar. Dried figs, strung in 
 rows and made up into grotesque figures, were brought to us as presents. 
 After the political questions had been settled, the young men adjourned to 
 an open spot outside the village to practise with their rifles. They proved 
 excellent shots, seldom missing the very centre of the mark. 
 
 The villages of Bouran (now deserted), Gundi-Gayli, Kushna, and Aldi- 
 na, follow to the west of Ossofa, scarcely half a mile intervening between 
 each. They are grouped together on the mountain side, which, above and 
 below them, is divided into terraces and planted with fig-trees. The loose 
 stones are most carefully removed from every plot of earth, however small, 
 and built up into walls : on the higher slopes are a few vineyards. 
 
 "We passed the night at Aldina, in the house of Murad, one of the im- 
 prisoned chiefs, whose release I had obtained before leaving Mosul. I was 
 able to announce the good tidings of his approaching return to his wife, to 
 whom he had been lately married, and who had given birth to a child dur- 
 ing his absence. 
 
 Below Aldina stands a remarkable ziareh, inclosed by a wall of cyclo- 
 pean dimensions. In the plain beneath, in the midst of a grove of trees, is 
 the tomb of Cawal Hussein, the father of Cawal Yusuf, who died in the Sin 
 jar during one of his periodical visitations. He was a priest of sanctity 
 and influence, and his grave is still visited as a place of pilgrimage. Sac- 
 rifices of sheep are made there, but they are merely in remembrance of the 
 deceased, and have no particular religious meaning attached to them. The 
 flesh is distributed amongst the poor, and a sum of money is frequently 
 added. Approving the ceremony as one tending to promote charity and 
 kindly feeling, I gave a sheep to be sacrificed at the tomb of the Cawal. 
 and one of my fellow-travellers added a second, the carcases being after- 
 wards divided among the needy. 
 
 All the villages we had passed during our short day's journey stand high 
 
Chap XI 1 yezidi snake-charmers. 217 
 
 on the mountain side, where they have been built for security against the 
 Bedouins. They command extensive views of the plain, the white bar- 
 racks of Nisibin, although certainly between twenty and thirty miles dis- 
 tant, being visible from them, and the snowy range of Kurdistan forming 
 a magnificent back ground to the picture. The springs, rising in the hill, 
 are either entirely absorbed in irrigation, or are soon lost in the thirsty 
 plain beneath. Parallel to the Sinjar range is a long narrow valley, scarce- 
 ly half a mile in width, formed by a bold ridge of white limestone rocks, 
 so friable that the plain for some distance is covered with their fragments. 
 
 A messenger brought me word during the night that Suttum had return- 
 ed from his tribe, and was waiting with a party of horsemen to escort us 
 to his tents. I determined, therefore, to cross at once to the Belled by a 
 direct though difficult pass. The Doctor and Mr. R,., leaving the path- 
 way, scaled the rocks in search of the ibex, or wild goat, which abounds 
 in the highest ridges of the mountain. 
 
 "We visited Nogray and Ameera before entering the gorge leading to 
 the pass. Only two other villages of any importance, Semoka and Jafri, 
 were left unseen. The ascent of the mountain was extremely precipitous, 
 and we were nearly two hours in reaching the summit. We then found 
 ourselves on a broad green platform thickly wooded with dwarf oak. I 
 was surprised to see snow still lying in the sheltered nooks. On both sides 
 of us stretched the great Mesopotamian plains. To the south, glittering 
 in the sun, was a small salt lake about fifteen miles distant from the Sin- 
 jar, called by the Arabs, Munaif. From it the Bedouins, when in their 
 northern pastures, obtain their supplies of salt. 
 
 We descended to the Belled through a narrow valley thick with oak and 
 various shrubs. Game appeared to abound. A Yezidi, who had accom- 
 panied us from Aldina, shot three wild boars, and we put up several coveys 
 of the large red partridge. The Doctor and Mr. R., who joined us soon 
 after we had reached our tents, had seen several wild goats, and had found 
 a carcase half devoured by the wolves. 
 
 In the valley behind the Belled we passed the ruins of a large deserted 
 village, whose inhabitants, according to Cawal Yusuf, had been entirely de- 
 stroyed by the plague. We were nearly five hours in crossing the mount- 
 ain. 
 
 Suttum and his Bedouin companions were waiting for us, but were not 
 anxious to start before the following morning. A Yezidi snake-charmer, 
 with his son, a boy of seven or eight years old, came to my tents in the 
 afternoon, and exhibited his tricks in the midst of a circle of astonished be- 
 holders. He first pulled from a bag a number of snakes knotted together, 
 which the bystanders declared to be of the most venomous kind. The 
 child took the reptiles fearlessly from his father, and placing them in his 
 bosom, allowed them to twine themselves round his neck and arms. The 
 Bedouins gazed in mute wonder at these proceedings, but when the Sheikh, 
 feigning rage against one of the snakes which had drawn blood from his 
 
218 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 son, seized it, and biting off its head with his teeth, threw the writhing 
 body amongst them, they could no longer restrain their horror and indig- 
 nation. They uttered loud curses on the infidel snake-charmer and his 
 kindred to the remotest generations. Suttum did not regain his compo- 
 sure during the whole evening, frequently relapsing into profound thought, 
 then suddenly breaking out in a fresh curse upon the Sheikh, who, he 
 declared, had a very close and unholy connection with the evil one. Many 
 days passed before he had completely got over the horror the poor Yezidi's 
 feats had caused him. 
 
 The poisonous teeth of the snakes which the Sheikh carried with him 
 had probably been drawn, although he offered to practise upon any speci- 
 mens we might procure for him. I did nol, however, deem it prudent to 
 put him to the test. The ruins of the Sinjar abound with these reptiles, and 
 I had seen many amongst them. That most commonly found is of a dark 
 brown color, nearly approaching to black, and, I believe, harmless. I have 
 met with them above six feet in length. Others, however, are of a more 
 dangerous character, and the Bedouins are in great dread of them. 
 
 Suttum had changed his deloul for a white mare of great beauty, named 
 Athaiba. She was of the race of Kohaila, of exquisite symmetry, in tem- 
 per docile as a lamb, yet with an eye of fire, and of a proud and noble car- 
 riage when excited in war or in the chase. His saddle was the simple 
 stuffed pad generally used by the Bedouins, without stirrups. A halter 
 alone served to guide the gentle animal. Suttum had brought with him 
 several of the principal members of his family, all of whom were mounted 
 on high-bred mares. One youth rode a bay filly, for which, I was assured : 
 one hundred camels had been offered. 
 
 We followed a pathway over the broken ground at the foot of the Sin- 
 jar, crossing deep watercourses worn by the small streams, which lose 
 themselves in the desert. The villages, as on the opposite slope, or 
 " Shomal," are high up on the hill-side. The first we passed was G-aba- 
 ra, inhabited by Yezidis and Mussulmans. Its chief, Ruffo, with a party 
 of horsemen, came to us, and entreated me to show him how to open a 
 spring called Soulak, which, he said, had suddenly been choked up, leav- 
 ing the village almost without water. Unfortunately, being ignorant of 
 the art for which he gave me credit, I was unable to afford him any help. 
 Beyond Gabara, and nearer to the plain, we saw some modern ruins named 
 Werdiyat, and encamped, after a short ride, upon a pleasant stream beneath 
 the village of Jedaila. 
 
 We remained here a whole day in order to visit Suttum's tribe, which 
 was now migrating towards the Sinjar. Early in the morning a vast 
 crowd of moving objects could be faintly perceived on the horizon. These 
 were the camels and sheep of the Boraij, followed by the usual crowd of 
 men, women, children, and beasts of burden. We watched them as they 
 scattered themselves over the plain, and gradually settled in different pas- 
 tures. By midday the encampment had been formed and all the strag- 
 
Chap XI. 1 visit to sheikh rish wan. 219 
 
 glers collected. We could scarcely distinguish the black tents, and their 
 site was only marked by curling wreaths of white smoke. 
 
 In the afternoon Outturn's father, Rishwan, came to us, accompanied by 
 several Sheikhs of the Boraij. He rode on a white deloul celebrated for 
 her beauty and swiftness. His saddle and the neck of the animal were 
 profusely adorned with woollen tassels of many colors, glass beads, and 
 small shells, after the manner of the Arabs of Nejd. The well-trained 
 dromedary having knelt at the door of my tent, the old man alighted, 
 and, throwing his arms round my neck, kissed me on both shoulders. He 
 was tall, and of noble carriage. His beard was white with age, but his 
 form was still erect and his footsteps firm. Rishwan was one of the brav- 
 est warriors of the Shammar. He had come, when a child, with his fa- 
 ther from the original seat of the tribe in northern Arabia. As the leader 
 of a large branch of the Boraij he had taken a prominent part in the wars 
 of the tribe, and the young men still sought him to head their distant fo- 
 rays. But he had long renounced the toils of the gazou, and left his three 
 sons, of whom Suttum was the second, to maintain the honor of the Saadi. 
 He was a noble specimen of the true Bedouin, both in character and ap- 
 pearance. With the skill and daring of the Arab warrior he united the 
 hospitality, generosity, and good faith of a hero of Arab romance. He 
 spoke in the rich dialect of the desert tongue, with the eloquence peculiar 
 to his race. He sat with me during the greater part of the afternoon, and 
 having eaten bread returned to his tent. 
 
 The Yezidi chiefs of Kerraniyah or Sekkiniyah (the village 1 is known by 
 both names) came to our encampment soon after Rishwan's arrival. As 
 they had a feud with the Bedouins, I took advantage of their visit to effect 
 a reconciliation, both parties swearing on my hospitality to abstain from 
 plundering one another hereafter. The inhabitants of this village and of 
 Semokiyah give tithes of produce (and also of property taken in forays) to 
 Hussein Bey alone ; whilst others pay tithes to Sheikh Nasr as well as to 
 the chief. 
 
 Being anxious to reach the end of our journey I declined Suttum's invi- 
 tation to sleep in his tent, but sending the caravan to the place appointed 
 for our night's encampment, I made a detour, to visit his father, accompa- 
 nied by Mr. and Mrs. R., the Doctor, Mr. C, and Hormuzd. Although the 
 Boraij were above six miles from the small rivulet of Jedaila, they were 
 obliged to send to it for water.* As we rode towards their tents we passed 
 their camels and sheep slowly wandering towards the stream. The cam- 
 els, spreading far and wide over the plain, were divided according to their 
 colors ; some herds being entirely white, some yellow, and others brown or 
 
 * In the spring months, when the pastures are good, the sheep and camels of the 
 Bedouins require but little water, and the tents are seldom pitched near a well or 
 stream ; frequently as much as half a day's journey distant. Suttum assured me 
 that at this time of the year the camels need not be watered for two months, such is 
 the richness of the grass of the Desert. 
 
220 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 black. Each animal bore the well-known mark of the tribe branded on 
 his side. The Arabs, who drove them, were mounted on dromedaries car- 
 rying the capacious rouivis, or buckets made of bullock skins, in which 
 water is brought to the encampment for domestic purposes. 
 
 A Bedouin warrior, armed with his long tufted spear, and urging his 
 fleet deloul, occasionally passed rapidly by us leading his high-bred mare 
 to water, followed by her colt gambolling unrestrained over the greensward. 
 In the throng we met Sahiman, the elder brother of Suttum. He was rid- 
 ing on a bay horse, whose fame had spread far and wide amongst the tribes, 
 and whose exploits were a constant theme of praise and wonder with 
 the Shammar. He was of the race of Obeyan SherakR, a breed now al- 
 most extinct, and perhaps more highly prized than any other of the Desert. 
 He had established his fame when but two years old. Ferhan, with the 
 principal warriors of the Khurusseh,* had crossed the Euphrates to plun- 
 der the Aneyza. They were met by a superior force, and were completely 
 defeated. The best mares of the tribe fell into the hands of the enemy, 
 and the bay colt alone, although followed by the fleetest horses of the 
 Aneyza, distanced his pursuers.! Such noble qualities, united with the 
 purest blood, rendered him worthy to be looked upon as the public property 
 of the Shammar, and no sum of money would induce his owner to part 
 with him. With a celebrated bay horse belonging to the Hamoud, a 
 branch of the same tribe, he was set apart to propagate the race of the 
 finest horses in Mesopotamia. In size he was small, but large in bone and 
 of excellent proportions. On all sides I heard extraordinary instances of 
 his powers of endurance and speed. 
 
 Neat the encampment of the Boraij was a group of mounds resembling 
 in every respect those I have already described. The Bedouins call them 
 Abon-Khaima. Are these singular ruins those of towns or of temples ? 
 Their similarity of form, — a centre mound divided into a series of terraces, 
 ascended by an inclined way or steps, and surrounded by equilateral walls, 
 — would lead to the conjecture that they were fire temples, or vast altars, 
 destined for Astral worship. It will be seen hereafter that the well-known 
 ruin of the Birs Nimroud, on or near the site of ancient Babylon, is very 
 
 * Five sects or subdivisions of the great tribe of Shammar, renowned for their brav- 
 ery and virtues, and supposed to be descended from the same stock, are so called 
 Their hereditary chief is Ferhan. To belong to the Khurusseh is an honorable dis- 
 tinction amongst the Shammar. The five septs are the Boraij, the Fedagha, the 
 Alayian, the Ghishm, and the Hathba ; of this last, and of the family of Ahl-Moham- 
 med, was the celebrated Bedouin chief Sofuk. Tbe otber clans forming the tribe of 
 Shammar are the Abde, Assaiyah (divided into As-Subhi and Al-Aslam), Thabet, Ha 
 moud, Theghavgheh, Ghatha, Dhirayrie, Ghufayla, and Azumail. All these tribes 
 are again divided into numerous septs. The Assaiyah have nearly all crossed the 
 Euphrates, owing to a blood feud with the rest of the Shammar, and have united 
 with the Aneyza. The RafTidi, however, a large section of the Aneyza, have left 
 their kindred, and are now incorporated with the Shammar. 
 
 t It is an error to suppose that the Bedouins never ride horses ; for several rea- 
 sons, however, they seldom do so. 
 
Chap XII encampment of the boraij. 221 
 
 nearly the same in shape. When I come to describe those remarkable re- 
 mains, I will add some further observations upon their original form. 
 
 The Bedouins who accompanied us galloped to and fro, engaging in 
 mimic war with their long quivering spears, until we reached the encamp- 
 ment of the Boraij . The tents were scattered far and wide over the plain ; 
 for so they are pitched during this season of the year when the pastures are 
 abundant, and no immediate danger is apprehended from hostile tribes. 
 At other times they are ranged in parallel lines close together, the Sheikh 
 always occupying the foremost place, facing the side from which the guest, 
 as well as the enemy, is expected, that he may be the first to exercise hos- 
 pitality, and the first to meet the foe. This position, however, varies in 
 winter, when the tent must be closed completely on one side, according to 
 the prevailing wind, so that when the wind changes, the whole camp sud- 
 denly, as it were, turns round, the last tent becoming the foremost. It is 
 thought unmannerly to approach by the back, to step over the tent-ropes, 
 or to ride towards the woman's compartment, which is almost always on 
 the right. During warm weather the whole canvass is raised on poles to 
 allow the air to circulate freely, a curtain being used in the morning and 
 evening to ward off the rays of the sun. The Bedouin can tell at once, 
 when drawing near to an encampment, the tent of the Sheikh. It is gen- 
 erally distinguished by its size, and frequently by the spears standing in 
 front of it. If the stranger be not coming directly towards it, and wishes 
 to be the guest of the chief, he goes out of his way, that on approaching he 
 may ride at once to it without passing any other, as it is considered un- 
 courteous and almost an insult to go by a man's tent without stopping and 
 eating his bread. The owner of a tent has even the right to claim any one 
 as his guest who passes in front of it on entering an encampment. 
 
 Rishwan, Suttum, Mijwell his younger brother, and the elders of the 
 tribe, were standing before the tent ready to receive us. All the old car- 
 pets and coverlets of the family, and ragged enough they were, had been 
 spread out for their guests. As we seated ourselves two sheep were slain 
 before us for the feast ; a ceremony it would not have been considered suf- 
 ficiently hospitable to perform previous to our arrival, as it might have been 
 doubtful whether the animals had been slain wholly for us. The chief 
 men of the encampment collected round us, crouching in a wide circle on 
 the grass. We talked of Arab politics and Arab war, ghazous and Aneyza 
 mares stolen or carried off in battle by the Shammar. Huge wooden plat- 
 ters, heavy with the steaming messes of rice and boiled meat, were soon 
 brought in and placed on the ground before us. Immense lumps of fresh 
 butter were then heaped upon them, and allowed to melt, the chief occa- 
 sionally mixing and kneading the whole up together with his hands. 
 When the dishes had cooled^ the venerable Rishwan stood up in the cen- 
 
 * It is considered exceedingly inhospitable amongst the Shammar to place a hot 
 dish before guests, as they are obliged to eat quickly out of consideration for others, 
 who are awaiting their turn, which they cannot do, unless the mess be cool, without 
 
222 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XI. 
 
 tre of the tent, and called in a loud voice upon each person by name and 
 in his turn to come to the feast. We fared first with a few of the princi- 
 pal Sheikhs. The most influential men were next summoned, each how- 
 ever resisting the honor, and allowing himself to be dragged by Suttum 
 and Mijwell to his place. The children, as usual, were admitted last, and 
 wound up the entertainment by a general scramble for the fragments and 
 the bones. Neither Rishwan nor his sons would eat of the repast they 
 had prepared, the laws of hospitality requiring that it should be left en- 
 tirely to their guests. 
 
 After we had eaten, I accompanied Mrs. R. to the harem, where we 
 found assembled the wives and daughters of Rishwan, of his sons, and of 
 
 the elders of the tribe, who had met to- 
 gether to see the Frank lady. Amongst 
 them were several of considerable beau- 
 ty. The wife of Sahiman, the eldest of 
 the three brothers, was most distinguish- 
 ed for her good looks. They were all 
 dressed in the usual long blue shirt, and 
 striped, or black, abba, with a black 
 headkerchief, or keffieh, confined by a 
 band of spun camel's wool. Massive 
 rings of silver, adorned with gems and 
 coral, hung from their noses,* and brace- 
 lets in the same metal, and also set with 
 precious stones, encircled their wrists and 
 ankles. Some wore necklaces of coins, 
 coarse amber, agate, cornelian beads and 
 cylinders, mostly Assyrian relics picked 
 up amongst ruins after rain. These ornaments were confined to the un- 
 married girls, and to the youngest and prettiest wives, who on waxing old 
 are obliged to transfer them to a more favored successor. 
 
 When Bedouin ladies leave their tents, or are on a march, they some- 
 times wear a black kerchief over the lower part of the face ; showing only 
 their sparkling eyes. Like the men they also use the keffieh, or head-ker- 
 chief, to cover their features. Their complexion is of a dark rich olive. 
 Their eyes are large, almond-shaped, expressive, and of extraordinary brill- 
 iancy and fire. They suffer their black and luxuriant hair to fall in clus- 
 
 burning their mouths, or wasting half their time picking out the colder bits. On one 
 occasion, Ferhan, the great chief of the Shammar, and a large number of horsemen 
 having alighted at my tent, I prepared a dinner for them. The Sheikh was after- 
 wards heard to say that the Bey's feast was sumptuous, but that he had not treated 
 his guests with proper hospitality, as the dishes were so hot nobody could eat his fill. 
 * These are "the rings ami nose jewels," which Isaiah (iii. 21.) describes as worn 
 by the Jewish women. It is curious that no representation of them has hitherto been 
 found in the Assyrian sculptures. I take this opportunity of mentioning, that I saw 
 a finger-ring sculptured on a fragment at Khorsabad. 
 
 Arab Nose Ring and Bracelet of Silver. 
 
Chap. XL] departure. 223 
 
 ters of curls. Their carriage in youth is erect and graceful. They are able 
 to bear much fatigue, and show great courage and spirit in moments of 
 difficulty and danger. But their beauty is only the companion of extreme 
 youth. With few exceptions, soon after twenty, and the birth of one or two 
 children, they rapidly change into the most hideous of old hags, the light- 
 ning-like brightness of the eye alone surviving the general wreck. When 
 young, the daughters and wives of the chiefs are well cared for ; they move 
 with the tribe in the covered camel-saddle, shaded by carpets from the rays 
 of the sun. Daughters are looked upon in the Desert^ as a source of strength 
 and advantage, from the alliances they enable the father to make with 
 powerful and influential chiefs, being frequently the means of healing feuds 
 which have existed for many years. 
 
 The children of Itishwan's family were naked, and, of course, dirty. One 
 who, singularly enough for a Bedouin, had light flaxen hair and blue eyes, 
 was on this account supposed to bear a striking likeness to Mr. 0., and had, 
 consequently, been nicknamed the Musauer, the artist, a name by which 
 he will probably be known for the rest of his days. 
 
 Before we left the encampment Suttum led before me as a present a hand- 
 some grey colt, which was as usual returned with a request to take care 
 of it until it was required, the polite way to decline a gift of this nature. f 
 
 Suttum having saddled his deloul was ready to accompany us on our 
 journey. As he was to be for some time absent from his tents, he a^ked to 
 take his wife with him, and I willingly consented. Rathaiyah was the 
 sister of Suttam el Meekh, chief of the powerful tribe of the Abde, one of 
 the principal divisions of the Shammar. Although no longer young she 
 still retained much of her early beauty. There was more than the usual 
 Bedouin fire in her large black eyes, and her hair fell in many ringlets on 
 her shoulders. Her temper was haughty and imperious, and she evidently 
 
 * Amongst the inhabitants of towns, a daughter is considered a kind of flaw in the 
 family, and the death of a girl, too frequently purposely brought about, is rarely a 
 cause of grief. 
 
 t As this was known to be a mere matter of form with me, as I made it a rule 
 never to accept presents of this kind, Suttum might have offered me his bay colt, the 
 most valuable horse amongst the Shammar, to increase the display of hospitality. 
 The reason he did not was this, that although he knew I would have returned the 
 horse, I might have expressed a wish to buy it, and have offered a price. An offer 
 of this kind would have at once injured the value of the animal in the eyes of the Be- 
 douins, and its owner might have been ultimately compelled to sell it. On one oc- 
 casion, when I was amongst the Shammar, at Al Hather, an Arab rode into my en- 
 campment on a beautiful grey colt. I was so much struck with the animal, that I at 
 once expressed a wish to its rider to purchase it. He merely intimated that the sum 
 I named was beneath the value. I increased it, but he only shook his head, and rode 
 off. Nevertheless, the report spread amongst the tribes that he had bargained for the 
 sale of his horse. Although of the best blood, the animal was looked upon with sus- 
 picion by the Bedouins, and the owner was, some months after, obliged to sell him 
 at a lower price than I had bid, to a horse-dealer of Mosul ! A knowledge of such 
 little prejudices and customs is very necessary in dealing with the Arabs of the Des- 
 ert, who are extremely sensitive, and easily offended. 
 
OO-i NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP XI 
 
 held more sway over Suttum than he liked to acknowledge, or was quite 
 consistent with his character as a warrior. He had married her from mo- 
 tives of policy, as cementing an useful alliance with a powerful tribe. She 
 appears to have soon carried matters with a high hand, for poor Suttum 
 had been compelled, almost immediately after his marriage, to send back 
 a young and beautiful wife to her father's tent. This prior claimant upon 
 his alfections was now on the Khabour with her tribe, and it was probably 
 on this account that Rathaiyah. knowing the direction he was about to take 
 was so anxious to accompany her husband. She rode on the dromedary be- 
 hind her lord, a comfortable seat having been made for her with a rug and 
 coverlet. The Sheikh carried his hawk. Hattab, on his wrist, guiding the 
 deloul by a short hooked stick held in the right hand. Khoraif, his redifT. 
 rode on this occasion a second dromedary named Sheaila, with a Shammar 
 Bedouin. 
 
 The true Sinjar mountain ends about nine miles from Jedaila, the high 
 ridge suddenly subsiding into low broken hills. From all parts of the plain 
 it is a very beautiful object. Its limestone rocks, wooded here and there 
 with dwarf oak, are of a rich golden color ; and the numberless ravines, 
 which furrow its sides, form ribs of deep purple shadow. The western 
 part of the Sinjar is inhabited by the Yezidi tribe of Kherraniyah. We 
 rode over the plain in a parallel line to the mountain, and about seven or 
 eight miles from it. Towards nightfall we skirted a ridge of very low hills 
 rising to our left. They are called Alouvi and Yusuf Beg. 
 
 The Desert abounded in the houbara, or middle-sized bustard, the bird 
 usually hawked by the Arabs, and esteemed by them a great delicacy 
 Hattab had been principally trained to this game, and sat on the raised 
 wrist of Suttum, scanning the plain with his piercing eye. He saw the 
 crouching quarry long before we could distinguish it, and spreading hi? 
 wings struggled to release himself from the tresses. Once free, he made one 
 straight, steady swoop towards the bustard, which rose to meet the coming 
 foe, but was soon borne down in his sharp talons. A combat ensued, which 
 was ended by a horseman riding up, substituting the lure for the game, 
 and hooding the hawk, which was again placed on its master's wrist. 
 
 Thus we rode joyously over the plain, night setting in before we could 
 see the tents. No sound except the mournful note of the small desert owl. 
 which has often misled the weary wanderer,* broke the deep silence, nor 
 could we distinguish the distant fires usually marking the site of an en- 
 campment. Suttum, however, well knew where the Bedouins would halt, 
 and about an hour after dark we heard the well-known voice of Dervish, 
 and others of mv workmen, who, anxious at our delay, had come out to 
 seek us. The tents stood near a muddy pool of salt water, thick with 
 loathsome living things and camels' dung. The Arabs call the place Om- 
 el-Dhiban, " the mother of flies," from the insects which swarm around it. 
 
 * Its note resembles the cry of the camel-driver, when leading the herds home at 
 night, for which it is frequently mistaken. 
 
Chap. XL] 
 
 ENCAMPMENT AT OM-EL-DHIBAN. 225 
 
 and madden by their sting the camels and horses that drink at the stag- 
 nant water. 
 
 Our encampment was full of Yezidis of the Kherraniyah tribe, who had 
 ridden from the tents to see me, bringing presents of sheep, flour, and figs. 
 They were at war, both with the Bedouins and the inhabitants of the north- 
 ern side of the mountain. My large tent was soon crowded with guests. 
 They squatted down on the ground in double ranks. For the last time I 
 spoke on the advantage of peace and union amongst themselves, and I ex- 
 acted from them a solemn promise that they would meet the assembled 
 tribes at the next great festival in the valley of Sheikh Adi, referring their 
 differences in future to the decision of Hussein Bey, Sheikh Nasr, and the 
 Cawals, instead of appealing to arms. I also reconciled them with the Be- 
 douins, Suttum entering into an engagement for his tribe, and both parties 
 agreeing to abstain from lifting each other's flocks when they should again 
 meet in the pastures at the foot of the hills. The inhabitants of the Sin- 
 jar are too powerful and independent to pay koivee* or black-mail, to the 
 Shammar, who, indeed, stand in much awe of their Yezidi enemies. They 
 frequently raise their annual revenues, and enrich themselves almost en- 
 tirely, at the expense of the Arabs. They watch their opportunity, when 
 the tribes are migrating in the spring and autumn, and falling by night on 
 their encampments, plunder their tents, and drive off their cattle. Return- 
 ing to the hills, they can defy in their fastnesses the revenge of the Bedouins 
 
 The Yezidis returned to their encampment late at night, but about a 
 hundred of their horsemen were again with me before the tents were struck 
 in the morning. They promised to fulfil the engagements entered into on 
 the previous evening, and accompanied me for some miles on our day's 
 journey. Cawal Yusuf returned with them on his way back to Mosul. It 
 was agreed that he should buy, at the annual auction, the Mokhatta, or 
 revenues of the Sinjar,f and save the inhabitants from the tyranny and ex- 
 actions of the Turkish tax-gatherer. I wrote letters for him to the author- 
 ities of Mosul, recommending such an arrangement, as equally beneficial to 
 the tranquillity of the mountain and the treasury of the Pasha. X 
 
 * Literally, "strength-money ;" the small tribes, who wander in the Desert, and 
 who inhabit the villages upon its edge, are obliged to place themselves under the pro- 
 tection of some powerful tribe to avoid being utterly destroyed. Each great division 
 of the Shammar receives a present of money, sheep, camels, corn, or barley, from some 
 tribe or another for this protection, which is always respected by the other branches 
 of the tribe. Thus the Jehesh paid kowee to the Boraij, the Jebours of the Khabou'r 
 to Ferhan (the hereditary chief of all the Shammar), the people of Tel Afer to the 
 Assaiyah. Should another branch of the Shammar plunder, or injure, tribes thus pay- 
 ing kowee, their protectors are bound to make good, or revenge, their losses. 
 
 t The revenues, i. e. the different taxes, tithes, &c. of some pashalics are sold by 
 auction in the spring to the highest bidders, who pay the purchase-money, or give 
 sufficient security, and collect the revenues themselves. This is a system which has 
 contributed greatly to the ruin of some of the finest provinces in the empire. 
 
 X Cawal Yusuf actually became the farmer of the revenues for a sum scarcely ex- 
 ceeding 350/. The inhabitants of the Siniar were greatly pleased by this concession 
 
 P 
 
226 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XJ. 
 
 After leaving Om-el-Dhiban we entered an undulating country, crossed 
 by deep ravines, worn by the winter torrents. Veins of Mosul marble, the 
 alabaster of the Assyrian sculptures, occasionally appeared above the soil, 
 interrupting the carpet of flowers spread over the face of the country. We 
 drew near to the low hills into which the Sinjar subsides to the west. They 
 are called Jeraiba, are well wooded with the ilex and dwarf oak, and abound 
 in springs, near which the Shammar Bedouins encamp during the summer. 
 Skirting them we found a beaten path, the first we had seen since enter- 
 ing the Desert, leading to the Jebour encampments on the Khabour, and we 
 followed it for the rest of the day. It seemed irksome after wandering, as 
 we had listed, over the boundless untrodden plain, to be again confined to 
 the narrow track of the footsteps of man. However, the Bedouins declared 
 that this pathway led to the best water, and we had committed ourselves to 
 their guidance. Four hours' ride brought us to a scanty spring; half an 
 hour beyond we passed a second ; and in five and a half hours pitched the 
 tents, for the rest of the day, near a small stream. All these springs are 
 called Maalaga, and rising in the gypsum or Mosul marble, have a brack- 
 ish and disagreeable taste. The Bedouins declare that, although unpalat- 
 able, they are exceedingly wholesome, and that even their mares fatten on 
 the waters of Jeraiba. 
 
 Near our tents were the ruins of an ancient village surrounded by a 
 wall. The spring once issued from the midst of them, but its source had 
 been choked by rubbish, which, as some hours of daylight still remained, 
 Hormuzd employed the Jebours and Tiyari in removing. Before sunset the 
 supply and quality of the water had much improved. Suttum, who could 
 not remain idle, wandered over the plain on his deloul with his hawk in 
 search of game, and returned in the evening with a bag of bustards. He 
 came to me before nightfall, somewhat downcast in look, as if a heavy 
 weight were on his mind. At length, after various circumlocutions, he said 
 that his wife would not sleep under the white tent which I had lent her. 
 such luxuries being, she declared, only worthy of city ladies, and altogether 
 unbecoming the wife and daughter of a Bedouin. " So determined is she,'" 
 said Suttum, "in the matter, that, Billah ! she deserted my bed last night 
 and slept on the grass in the open air; and now she swears she will leave 
 me and return on foot to her kindred, unless I save her from the indignity 
 of sleeping under a white tent." It was inconvenient to humour the fan- 
 cies of the Arab lady, but as she was inexorable, I gave her a black Arab 
 tent used by the servants for a kitchen. Under this sheet of goat-hair can- 
 vass, open on all sides to the air, she said she could breathe freely, and feel 
 again that she was a Bedouin. 
 
 As the sun went down we could distinguish, in the extreme distance, a 
 black line marking the wooded banks of the Khabour, beyond which rose 
 the dark hills of Abd-ul-Azeez. Columns of thin curling smoke showed 
 
 to one of their own faith, and were encouraged to cultivate the soil, and to abstain 
 from mutual aggressions. 
 
Chap. XI. 1 A R0bbery.-the khabour. 227 
 
 that there were encampments of Bedouins between us and the river, but we 
 could neither see their tents nor their cattle. The plains to the south of 
 our encampment was bounded by a range of low hills, called Rhoua and 
 Haweeza. 
 
 "We crossed, during the following evening, a beautiful plain covered with 
 sweet smelling flowers and aromatic herbs, and abounding in gazelles, 
 hares, and bustards. We reached in about two hours the encampments, 
 whose smoke we had seen during the preceding evening. They belonged 
 to Bedouins of the Hamoud branch of the Shammar. The tents were pitch- 
 ed closely together in groups, as if the owners feared danger. We alighted 
 at some distance from them to avoid entering them as guests. The chiefs 
 soon came out to us, bringing camels' milk and bread. From them we 
 learnt that they had lately plundered, on the high road between Mosul and 
 Mardin, a caravan conveying, amongst other valuable loads, a large amount 
 of government treasure. The Turkish authorities had called upon Ferhan, 
 as responsible chief of the Shammar, to restore the money, threatening, in 
 case of refusal, an expedition against the whole tribe. The Hamoud, unwil- 
 ling to part with their booty, and fearing lest the rest of the Shammar might 
 compel them to do so in order to avoid a war, were now retreating toward 
 the north, and, being strong in horsemen, had openly defied Ferhan. They 
 had been joined by many families from the Assaiyah, who had crossed the 
 Euphrates, and united with the Aneyza on account of a blood feud with the 
 Nejm. The Hamoud are notorious for treachery and cruelty, and certainly 
 the looks of those who gathered round us, many of them grotesquely attired 
 in the plundered garments of the slaughtered Turkish soldiery, did not be- 
 lie their reputation. They fingered every article of dress we had on, to 
 learn its texture and value. 
 
 Leaving their encampments, we rode through vast herds of camels and 
 flocks of sheep belonging to the tribe, and at length came in sight of the 
 river. 
 
 The Khabour flows through the richest pastures and meadows. Its banks 
 were now covered with flowers of every hue, and its windings through the 
 green plain were like the coils of a mighty serpent. I never beheld a more 
 lovely scene. An uncontrollable emotion of joy seized all our party when 
 they saw the end of their journey before them. The horsemen urged their 
 horses to full speed ; the Jebours, dancing in a circle, raised their colored ker- 
 chiefs on their spears, and shouted their war cry, Hormuzd leading the cho- 
 rus ; the Tiyari sang their mountain songs and fired their muskets into the air. 
 
 Trees in full leaf lined the water's edge. From amongst them issued 
 a body of mounted Arabs. As they drew nigh we recognised at their head 
 Mohammed Emin, the Jebour Sheikh, and his sons, who had come out from 
 their tents to welcome us. We dismounted to embrace, and to exchange 
 the usual salutations, and then rode onwards, through a mass of flowers, 
 reaching high above the horses' knees, and such as I had never before seen, 
 even in the most fertile parts of the Mesopotamian wilderness. 
 
223 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [Chap. XI 
 
 The tents of the chief were pitched under the ruins of Arban, and on the 
 right or northern bank of the river, which was not at this time fordable. As 
 we drew near to them, after a ride of nearly two hours, Mohammed Emiu 
 pointed in triumph to the sculptures, which were the principal objects of my 
 visit. They stood a little above the water's edge, at the base of a mound 
 of considerable size. We had passed several tels and the double banks of 
 ancient canals, showing that we were still amidst the remains of ancient 
 civilisation. Flocks of sheep and herds of camels were spread over the 
 meadows on both sides of the river. They belonged to the Jebours, and to 
 a part of the Boraij tribe under Moghamis, a distinguished Arab warrior, 
 and the uncle of Suttum. Buffaloes and cattle tended by the Sherabbeeir 
 and Buggara, small clans pasturing under the protection of Mohammed 
 Emin, stood lazily in the long grass, or sought refuge in the stream from 
 the flies and noonday heat. 
 
 At length we stopped opposite to the encampment of the Jebour Sheikh, 
 but it was too late to cross the river, some time being required to make ready 
 the rafts. We raised our tents, therefore, for the night on the southern ban!: 
 They were soon filled by a motley group of Boraij, Hamroud, Assaiyah, and 
 Jebour Arabs. Moghamis himself came shortly after our arrival, bringiii. 
 me as a present a well-trained hawk and some bustards, the fruits of \\\>. 
 morning's sport. The falcon was duly placed on his stand in the centre 
 of the spacious tent, and remained during the rest of my sojourn in the East 
 a member of my establishment. His name was Fawaz, and he was a na- 
 tive of the hills of Makhhoul, near Tekrit, celebrated for their breed o'< 
 hawks. He was of the species called " chark," and had been given by Sa- 
 doun-el-Mustafa, the chief of the great tribe of Obeid, toFerhan, the sheikh 
 of the Shammar, who had bestowed him in token of friendship on Mo > 
 hamis. 
 
 A Sheikh of the Hamoud also brought us a wild ass-colt, scarcely tv. 
 months old, which had been caught whilst following its dam, and had been 
 since fed upon camel's milk.* Indeed, nearly all those who came to my 
 
 • I am indebted to Mr. Grey for the following remarks on the skin of a young wild 
 ass brought by me to this country : — " It is, I have no doubt, the wild ass, or onager 
 of the ancients. It is evidently the same as the ass without a stripe, which has been 
 described by several authors as the Equus Hemionus, found in Cutch, and quite dis- 
 tinct from the Equus Hemionus described by Pallas as found in the snowy mountains 
 of Asia, and called by Mr. Hodgson Equus Kiang and E. polyodon. The wild ass, or 
 onager, was one of the desiderata of zoologists, as it was only described from some 
 specimens seen at a distance, and not from the examination of specimens, and is 
 characterised by being said to have larger and more acute ears than the Hcmione a 
 Pallas. I do not find this to be the case in the young specimen you have sent to ti. 
 Museum. The great difference between the wild ass of the plains of Mesopotamia 
 and the Hemione of Tibet is, that the former is a yellowish white, and the latter a 
 bright bay in summer, both being greyish white in winter. There is also some dif- 
 ference in the forms of the skull, and in the disposal of the hole for the transmission 
 of the bloodvessels and nerves of the face." The Arabs of Mesopotamia frequent] v 
 capture this beautiful animal when young, and generally kill it at once for food. Ii 
 
Chap. XL] 
 
 INTERCHANGE OF PRESENTS. 
 
 229 
 
 tent had some offering, either sheep, milk, curds, or butter ; even the Arab 
 boys had caught for us the elegant jerboa, which burrows in vast numbers 
 on the banks of the river. Suitable presents were made in return. Din- 
 ner was cooked for all our guests, and we celebrated our first night on the 
 Ivhabour by general festivities. 
 
 is almost impossible to take it when full grown. The colt mentioned in the text died 
 before we returned to Mosul. A second, after living eight or nine months, also died ; 
 and a third met with the same fate. I was desirous of sending a live specimen to 
 England, but thus failed in all my attempts to rear one. They became very playful 
 and docile. That which I had at Mosul followed like a dog. 
 
 Suttum, with his Wife, on his Dromedary. 
 
Sheikh Mohammed Emin. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ARBAN. OUR ENCAMPMENT. SUTTUM AND MOHAMMED EMIX. WINGED BULLS DISCOV- 
 ERED. EXCAVATIONS COMMEXCED. THEIR RESULTS. DISCOVERY OF SMALL OBJECTS 
 
 OF SECOND PAIR OF WINGED BULLS OF LION OF CHINESE BOTTLE OF VASE OF 
 
 EGYPTIAN SCARABS OF TOMBS. THE SCENE OF THE CAPTIVITY. 
 
 On the morning after our arrival in front of the encampment of Sheikh 
 Mohammed Emin, we crossed the Khabour on a small raft, and pitched 
 our tents on its right, or northern, bank. I found the ruins to consist of a 
 large artificial mound of irregular shape, washed, and indeed partly carried 
 away by the river which was gradually undermining the perpendicular 
 cliff left by the falling earth. The Jebours were encamped to the west of 
 it. I chose for our tents a recess, like an amphitheatre, facing the stream. 
 We were thus surrounded and protected on all sides. Behind us and to 
 the east rose the mound, and to the west were the family and dependents 
 of Mohammed Emin. In the Desert, beyond the ruins, were scattered far 
 and wide the tents of the Jebours, and of several Arab tribes who had 
 placed themselves under their protection ; the Sherabeen, wandering keep- 
 ers of herds of buffaloes ; the Buggara, driven by the incursions of the 
 
Chap. XII. 1 beauty of the banks of the khabotjr. 233 
 
 Aneyza from their pasture grounds at Ras-al-Ain (the source of the Kha- 
 bour) ; and some families of the Jays, a large clan residing in the district 
 of Orfa, whose sheikh having quarrelled with his brother chiefs had now 
 joined Mohammed Emin. From the top of the mound the eye ranged 
 over a level country bright with flowers, and spotted with black tents, and 
 innumerable flocks of sheep and camels. During our stay at Arban the 
 color of these great plains was undergoing a continual change. After be- 
 ing for some days of a golden yellow, a new family of flowers would spring 
 up, and it would turn almost in a night to a bright scarlet, which would 
 again as suddenly give way to the deepest blue. Then the meadows 
 would be mottled with various hues, or would put on the emerald green 
 of the most luxuriant of pastures. The glowing descriptions I had so fre- 
 quently received from the Bedouins of the beauty and fertility of the banks 
 of the Khabour were more than realised. The Arabs boast that its mead- 
 ows bear three distinct crops of grass during the year, and the wandering 
 tribes look upon its wooded banks and constant greensward as a paradise 
 during the summer months, where man can enjoy a cool shade, and beast 
 can find fresh and tender herbs, whilst all around is yellow, parched, and 
 sapless. 
 
 In the extreme distance, to the east of us, rose a solitary conical eleva- 
 vation, called by the Arabs, Koukab. In front, to the south, was the beau- 
 tiful hill of the Sinjar, ever varying in color and in outline as the declining 
 sun left fresh shadows on its furrowed sides. Behind us, and not far dis- 
 tant, was the low, wooded range of Abd-ul-Azeez. Artificial mounds, 
 smaller in size than Arban, rose here and there above the thin belt of trees 
 and shrubs skirting the river bank. 
 
 I had brought with me a tent large enough to hold full two hundred 
 persons, and intended as a " museef," or place of reception, always open to 
 the wayfarer and the Arab visitor ; for the first duty of a traveller wishing 
 to mix with true Bedouins, and to gain an influence over them, is the ex- 
 ercise of hospitality. This great pavilion was pitched in the centre of my 
 encampment, with its entrance facing the river. To the right were the 
 tents of the Cawass and servants ; one fitted up expressly for the Doctor to 
 receive patients, of whom there was no lack at all times, and the black 
 Arab tent of Rathaiyah, who would not mix with the Jebours. To the 
 left were those of my fellow-travellers, and about two hundred yards be- 
 yond, near the excavations, my own private tent, to which I retired during 
 the day, when wishing to be undisturbed, and to which the Arabs were not 
 admitted. In it, also, we usually breakfasted and dined, except when there 
 were any Arab guests of distinction with whom it was necessary to eat 
 bread. In front of our encampment, and between it and the river, was a 
 small lawn, on which were picketed our horses. Suttum and Mohammed 
 Emin usually ate with us, and soon became perfectly reconciled to knives 
 and forks, and the other restraints of civilised life. Suttum's tact and in- 
 telligence were indeed remarkable. Nothing esca.ped his hawk-like eye 
 
234 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 A few hours had enabled him to form a correct estimate of the character of 
 each one of the party, and he had detected peculiarities which might have es- 
 caped the notice of the most observant European. The most polished Turk 
 would have been far less at home in the society of ladies, and during the 
 whole of our journey he never committed a breach of manners, only ac- 
 quired after a few hour's residence with us. As a companion he was de- 
 lightful, — full of anecdote, of unclouded spirits, acquainted with the history 
 of every Eedouin tribe, their politics and their wars, and intimate with ev- 
 ery part of the Desert, its productions and its inhabitants. Many happy 
 hours I spent with him, seated, after the sun went down, on a mound over- 
 looking the great plain and the winding river, listening to the rich flow of 
 his graceful Bedouin dialect, to his eloquent stories of Arab life, and to his 
 animated descriptions of forays, wars, and single combats. 
 
 Mohammed Emin, the Sheikh of the Jebours, was a good-natured portly 
 Arab, in intelligence greatly inferior to Suttum, and wanting many of the 
 qualities of the pure Bedouin. During our intercourse I had every reason 
 to be satisfied with his hospitality and the cordial aid he afforded me. His 
 chief fault was a habit of begging for every thing. Always willing to give, 
 he was equally ready to receive. In this respect, however, all Arabs are 
 alike, and when the habit is understood it is no longer a source of incon- 
 venience, as on a refusal no offence is taken. The Jebour chief was a 
 complete patriarch in his tribe, having no less than sixteen children, of 
 whom six sons were horsemen and the owners of mares. The youngest, a 
 boy of four years old named Sultan, was his favorite. His usual costume 
 consisted simply of a red Turkish skull cap, or fez, on his head. He scarce- 
 ly ever left his father, who always brought the child with him when he 
 came to our tent. He was as handsome and dirty as the best of Arab 
 children. His mother, who had recently died, was the beautiful sister of 
 Abd-rubbou. I chanced to be her brother's guest when the news of her 
 death was brought to him. An Arab of the tribe, weary and wayworn, 
 entered the tent and seated himself without giving the usual salutation ; 
 all present knew that he had come from the Khabour and from distant 
 friends. His silence argued evil tidings. By an indirect remark, imme- 
 diately understood, he told his errand to one who sat next him, and who in 
 turn whispered it to Sheikh Ibrahim, the chief's uncle. The old man said 
 aloud, with a sigh, "It is the will and mercy of God ; she is not dead, but 
 released !" Abd-rubbou at once understood of whom he spake. He arose 
 and went forth, and the wailing of the mother and of the women soon is- 
 sued from the inner recesses of the tent. 
 
 "We were for a day or two objects of curiosity to the Arabs who assem- 
 bled in crowds around our tents. Having never before seen an European, 
 it was natural that they should hasten to examine the strangers. They 
 soon, however, became used to us, and things went on as usual. It is a 
 circumstance well worthy of mention, and most strongly in favor of the 
 natural integrity of the Arab when his guests are concerned, that during 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 SCULPTURES AT ARBAN. 
 
 235 
 
 the whole of our journey and our residence on the Khabour, although we 
 lived in open tents, and property of all kinds was scattered about, we had 
 not to complain of a single loss from theft. 
 
 My first care, after crossing to Arban, was to examine the sculptures 
 described by the Arabs. The niver, having gradually worn away the 
 mound, had, during the recent floods, left uncovered a pair of winged human- 
 headed bulls, some six feet above the water's edge, and full fifty beneath 
 the level of the ruin. Only the fore part of these figures had been exposed 
 to view, and Mohammed Emin would not allow any of the soil to be re- 
 moved before my arrival. The earth was soon cleared away, and I found 
 them to be of a coarse limestone, not exceeding 5 J feet in height by 4 J- in 
 length. Between them was a pavement slab of the same material. They 
 resembled in general form the well-known winged bulls of Nineveh, but 
 in the style of art they differed considerably from them. The outline and 
 treatment was bold and angular, with an archaic feeling conveying the 
 impression of great antiquity. They bore the same relation to the more 
 delicately finished and highly ornamented sculptures of Nimroud, as the 
 earliest remains of Greek art do to the exquisite monuments of Phidias 
 and Praxiteles. The human features were unfortunately much injured, 
 
 but such parts as remained were suffi- 
 cient to show that the countenance had 
 a peculiar character, differing from the 
 Assyrian type, The sockets of the eyes 
 were deeply sunk, probably to receive 
 the white and the ball of the eye in 
 ivory or glass. The nose was flat and 
 large, and the lips thick and overhang- 
 ing like those of a negro. Human ears 
 were attached to the head, and bull's 
 ears to the horned cap, which was low 
 and square at the top, not high and or- 
 namented like those of Khorsabad and 
 Kouyunjik, nor rounded like those of 
 Nimroud. The hair was elaborately 
 curled, as in the pure Assyrian sculp- 
 tures, though more rudely carved. The 
 wings were small in proportion to the 
 size of the body, and had not the majes- 
 tic spread of those of the bulls that 
 adorned the palaces of Nineveh. Above 
 the figure were the following charac- 
 ters,^ which are purely Assyrian. 
 
 * The last letter is in one instance omitted. For a drawing of the bull, see wood- 
 cut at the end of the chapter. 
 
 Front View of Winged Bull at Arban. 
 
236 NINEVEH A*D BABYLON. [CHAP. XII 
 
 It would appear from them that the sculptures belonged to the palace 
 of a king whose name has been found on no other monument. No titles 
 are attached to it, not even that of ''king;" nor is the country over which 
 he reigned mentioned ; so that some doubt may exist as to whether it really 
 be a royal name. • 
 
 The great accumulation of earth above these sculptures proves that, 
 since the destruction of the edifice in which they stood, other habitations 
 have been raised upon its ruins. Arban, indeed, is mentioned by the Arab 
 geographers as a flourishing city, in a singularly fertile district of the Kha- 
 bour. Part of a minaret, whose walls were cased with colored tiles, and 
 ornamented with cufic inscriptions in relief, like that of the Sinjar, and the 
 foundations of buildings, are still seen on the mound ; and at its foot, on the 
 western side, are the remains of a bridge which once spanned the stream. 
 But the river has changed its course. The piers, adorned with elegantly 
 shaped arabesque characters, are now on the dry land. 
 
 I will describe, at once, the results of the excavations carried on during 
 the three weeks our tents were pitched at Arban. To please the Jebour 
 Sheikh, and to keep around our encampment, for greater security, a body 
 of armed men, when the tribe changed their pastures, I hired about fifty, 
 of Mohammed Emin's Arabs, and placed them in parties with the work- 
 men who had accompanied me from Mosul. Tunnels were opened behind 
 the bulls already uncovered, and in various parts of the ruins on the same 
 level. Trenches were also dug into the surface of the mound. * 
 
 Behind the bulls were found various Assyrian relics ; amongst them a 
 copper bell, like those from Nimroud, and fragments of bricks with arrow- 
 headed characters painted yellow with white outlines, upon a pale green 
 ground. In other parts of the mound were discovered glass and pottery, 
 some Assyrian, others of a more doubtful character. Several fragments of 
 earthenware, ornamented with flowers and scrollwork, and highly glazed, 
 had assumed the brilliant and varied iridescence of ancient glass.* 
 
 It was natural to conclude, from the usual architectural arrangement of 
 Assyrian edifices, that the two bulls described stood at an entrance to a 
 hall or chamber. We searched in vain for the remains of walls, although 
 digging for three days to the right and left of the sculptures, a work of con- 
 siderable difficulty in consequence of the immense heap of superincumbent 
 earth. I then directed a tunnel to be carried towards the centre of the 
 mound, hoping to find a corresponding doorway opposite. I was not disap- 
 pointed. On the fifth day a similar pair of winged bulls were discovered. 
 They were of the same size, and inscribed with the same characters. A 
 part of one having been originally broken off", either in carving the sculp- 
 ture or in moving it, a fresh piece of stone had been carefully fitted into its 
 place. I also dug to the right and left of these sculptures for remains of 
 walls, but without success, and then resumed the tunnelling towards the 
 centre of the mound. In a few days a lion, with extended jaws, sculptured 
 * These relics are now in the British Museum. 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 SClTLPTURESrAT ARBAN. 
 
 237 
 
 Lion discovered at Arban, 
 
 Bas-relief discovered at Arban. 
 
 in the same coarse limestone, and in the 
 same bold archaic style as the bulls, was 
 discovered. It had five legs, and the tail 
 had the claw at the end, as in the Nine 
 veh bas-reliefs. In height it was nearly 
 the same as the bulls. I searched in vain 
 for the one which must have formed the 
 opposite side of the doorway. 
 
 With the exception of these sculptures 
 no remains of building were found in this 
 part of the mound. In another tunne 
 opened at some distance from the bull , 
 half of a human figure in relief was di. - 
 covered.^ The face was in full. One ham 1 : 
 grasped a sword or dagger ; the other he] 
 some object to the breast. The hair an 
 beard were long and flowing, and orna- 
 mented with a profusion of curls as in the 
 Assyrian bas-reliefs. The head-dress ap 
 
 * The height of this fragment was 5 feet 8 inches. 
 
238 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 peared to consist of a kind of circular helmet, ending in a sharp point. 
 The treatment and style marked the sculpture to be of the same period as 
 the bull and lion. 
 
 Such were the sculptures discovered in the mound of Arban. Amongst 
 smaller objects of different periods were some of considerable interest, jars, 
 vases, funeral urns, highly-glazed pottery, and fragments of glass. In a 
 trench, on the south side of the ruin, was found a small green and white 
 bottle, inscribed with Chinese characters. A similar relic was brought to 
 me subsequently by an Arab from a barrow in the neighbourhood. Such 
 bottles have been discovered in Egyptian tombs, and considerable doubt 
 exists as to their antiquity, and as to the date and manner of their import- 
 ation into Egypt.* The best opinion now is that they are comparatively 
 modern, and that they were probably brought by the Arabs, 
 in the eighth or ninth century, from the kingdoms of the far 
 East, with which they had at that period extensive commer- 
 cial intercourse. Bottles precisely similar are still offered 
 for sale in the bazars at Cairo, and are used to hold the kohl, 
 or powder for staining the eyes of ladies. 
 
 A jar, about four feet high, in coarse half-baked clay, was 
 dug out of the centre of the mound. The handles were 
 formed by rudely-designed human figures, and the sides cov- 
 3 dis- ered with grotesque representations of men and animals, and 
 covered at Arban. ara b e sque ornaments in relief. 
 
 Vases of the same material, ornamented with figures, are frequently dis- 
 covered in digging the foundations of houses in 
 the modern town of Mosul. They appear to be- 
 long to a comparatively recent period, later prob- 
 ably than the Christian era, but previous to the 
 Arab occupation. As they have upon them hu- 
 man figures, dressed in a peculiar costume, con- 
 sisting of a high cap and embroidered robes, I 
 should attribute them to the Persians. A vase, 
 similar in size and shape to that of Arban, and 
 also covered with grotesque representations of 
 monstrous animals, the finest specimen I have | 
 seen of this class of antiquities, was found be- % 
 neath the foundations of the very ancient Chal- P»V 
 daBan church of Meskinta at Mosul, when that 
 edifice was pulled down and rebuilt two years Figure m Pottery, from Mosul, 
 ago.f It was given to me by the Catholic Chaldsean Patriarch, to whom 
 * Wilkinson, in his "Ancient Egyptians," vol. iii. p. 107., gives a drawing of a 
 bottle precisely similar to that described in the text, and mentions one which, accord- 
 ing to Rosellini, had been discovered in a previously unopened tomb, believed to be of 
 the 18th dynasty ; but there appears to be considerable doubt on the subject. 
 
 t In laying the foundations of the new church, the tombs of two of the early Chal- 
 daean patriarchs were discovered amongst other objects of interest. The bodies, be- 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 SCARABS DISCOVERED AT ARBAN. 
 
 239 
 
 it belonged as chief of the community, but was unfortunately destroyed, 
 with other interesting relics, by the Arabs, who plundered a raft laden with 
 antiquities, on its way to Baghdad, after my return to Europe. 
 
 Amongst other relics discovered at Arban were, a large copper ring, ap- 
 parently Assyrian ; an ornament in earthenware, resembling the pine-cone 
 of the Assyrian sculptures ; a bull's head in terracotta ; fragments of paint- 
 ed bricks, probably of the same period ; and several Egyptian 
 scarabsei. It is singular that engraved stones and scarabs 
 bearing Egyptian devices, and in some instances even royal 
 cartouches, should have been found on the banks of the Kha- 
 bour. Similar objects were subsequently dug up at Nimroud, 
 and brought to me by the Arabs from various ruins in Assyria. 
 I will take this opportunity of adding the following remarks 
 by Mr. Birch on those deposited in the British Museum. 
 
 Egyptian Scarab, 
 from Arban. 
 
 1. A scarabaeus, having on the base Ra-men-chepr, 
 the prenomen of Thothmes III. Beneath is a scarab 
 between two feathers, placed on the basket sub. 
 
 2. A scarabaeus in dark steaschist, with the figure of 
 the sphinx (the sun), and an emblem between the fore- 
 paws of the monster. The sphinx constantly appears 
 on the scarabaei of Thothmes III., and it is probably 
 to this monarch that the one here described belongs." 
 After the sphinx on this scarab are the titles of the 
 king, " the sun placer of creation," of Thothmes 
 III. 
 
 3. Small scarabaeus of white steaschist, with a brown- 
 ish hue ; reads Nctcr nefer nebta Ra-neb-ma, " The good 
 God, the Lord of the earth, the sun, the Lord of truth, 
 rising in all lands." This is of Amenophis III., one of 
 the last kings of the eighteenth dynasty, who flourish- 
 ed about the fifteenth century b. c, and who records 
 amongst his conquests As-su-ru (Assyria), Naharaina 
 (Mesopotamia), the Saenkar (Shinar or Sinjar), and Pat- 
 tana (Padan Aram). The expression, "who rises in 
 all lands," refers to the solar character of the king, and 
 to his universal dominion. 
 
 ing still preserved, were, of course, canonised at once, and turned into a source of 
 profit by the bishop, the faithful paying a small sum for permission to touch the sa- 
 cred relics. One had been head of the Oriental church before the Arab invasion. 
 By his side was his crozier ending in a silver crook, on which was an inscription in 
 Chaldee letters. The second was of a rather later period. His crozier was of eb- 
 ony, surmounted by a ball of glass, and inscribed with the earliest cufic characters 
 I examined these interesting relics immediately after their discovery. 
 
 * On many scarabaei in the British Museum, and on those figured by Klaproth from 
 the Palin Collection, in Leeman's Monuments, and in the " Description de l'Egypte," 
 Thothmes is represented as a sphinx treading foreign prisoners under him. 
 
240 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 10 
 
 LI 
 
 4. Scarabaeus in white steaschist, with an abridged 
 form of the prenomen of Thothmes III., Ra men cheper 
 at en Amen, " The sun-placer of creation, the type of 
 Amnion." This monarch was the greatest monarch 
 of the eighteenth dynasty, and conquered Xaharaina 
 and the Saenkar, besides receiving tribute from Babel 
 or Babylon and Assyria. 
 
 5. Scarabaeus in pale white steaschist, with three 
 emblems that cannot well be explained. They are the 
 sun's disk, the ostrich feather, the uraeus, and the gui- 
 tar nabluim. They may mean " Truth the good god- 
 dess," or " lady," or ma nefer, " good and true." 
 
 6. Scarabaeus in the same substance, with a motto 
 of doubtful meaning. 
 
 7. Scarabae, with a hawk, and God holding the em- 
 blem of life, and the words ma nefer, "good and true."' 
 The meaning very doubtful. 
 
 8. A scarabaeus, with a hawk-headed gryphon, em- 
 blem of Menta-Ra, or Mars. Behind the monster is 
 the goddess Sati, or Nuben. The hawk-headed lion is 
 one of the shapes into which the sun turns himself in 
 the hours of the day. It is a common emblem in the 
 Aramaean religion. 
 
 9. Scarabaeus, with hawk-headed gryphon, having be- 
 fore it the uraeus and the " nabla" or guitar, hieroglyph- 
 ic of good. Above it are the hieroglyphs " Lord of the 
 
 earth." 
 
 10. Small scarabaeus in dark steaschist. with a man in 
 adoration to a king or deity, wearing the crown of the 
 upper country, and holding in the left hand a lotus 
 flower. Between them is the emblem of life. 
 
 11. ScarabaMis. with the hawk-headed scarabaeus. 
 emblem of Ra-chcpcr, "the Creator Sun," flying with 
 expanded wings, four in number, which do not appear 
 in Egyptian mythology till after the time of the Per- 
 sians, when the gods assume a more Pantheistic form 
 Such a representation of the sun, for instance, is foun:i 
 on the Torso Borghese. 
 
 It will be observed that most of the Egyptian relics discovered in the 
 Assyrian ruins are of the time of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, or of the 151 
 century before Christ ; a period when, as we learn from Egyptian monu- 
 ments, there was a close connection between Assyria and Egypt. 
 
 Several tombs were also found in the ruins., consisting principally of 
 
Chap XII 1 antiquity of sculptures at arban. 241 
 
 boxes, or sarcophagi, of earthenware, like those existing above the Assyrian 
 palaces near Mosul. Some, however, were formed by two large earthen 
 jars, like the common Eastern vessel for holding oil, laid horizontally, and 
 joined mouth to mouth. These terracotta coffins appear to be of the same 
 period as those found in all the great ruins on the banks of the rivers of 
 Mesopotamia, and are not Assyrian. * They contained human remains 
 turned to dust, with the exception of the skull and a few of the larger bones, 
 and generally three or four urns of highly-glazed blue pottery. 
 
 Fewer remains and objects of antiquity were discovered in the mounds 
 on the Khabour than I had anticipated. They were sufficient, however, 
 to prove that the ruins are, on the whole, of the same character as those 
 on the banks of the Tigris. That the Assyrian empire at one time em- 
 braced the whole of Mesopotamia, including the country watered by the 
 Khabour, there can be no doubt, as indeed is shown by the inscriptions on 
 the monuments of Nineveh. Whether the sculptures at Arban belong to 
 the period of Assyrian domination, or to a distinct nation afterwards con- 
 quered, or whether they may be looked upon as cotemporary with, or more 
 ancient than, the bas-reliefs of Nimroud, are questions not so easily an- 
 swered. The archaic character of the treatment and design, the pecul- 
 iar form of the features, the rude though forcible delineation of the mus- 
 cles, and the simplicity of the details, certainly convey the impression 
 of greater antiquity than any monuments hitherto discovered in Assyria 
 Proper. t 
 
 A deep interest, at the same time, attaches to these remains from the 
 site they occupy. To the Chebar were transported by the Assyrian king, 
 after the destruction of Samaria, the captive children of Israel, and on its 
 banks "the heavens were opened" to Ezekiel, and " he saw visions of God," 
 and spake his prophecies to his brother exiles. $ Around Arban may have 
 been pitched the tents of the sorrowing Jews, as those of the Arabs were 
 during my visit. To the same pastures they led their sheep, and they 
 drank of the same waters. Then the banks of the river were covered with 
 towns and villages, and a palace-temple still stood on the mound, reflected 
 in the transparent stream. We have, however, but one name connected 
 with the Khabour recorded in Scripture, that of Tel-Abib, "the mound of 
 Abib, or, of the heaps of ears of corn," but whether it applies to a town, 
 or to a simple artificial elevation, such as still abound, and are still called 
 " tels," is a matter of doubt. I sought in vain for some trace of the word 
 
 * Most of the small objects described in the text are now in the British Museum 
 t A lion very similar to that discovered at Arban, though more colossal in its di 
 mensions, exists near Seroug. (Chesney's Expedition, vol. i. p. 114.) 
 
 t 2 Kings, xvii. 6. Ezek. i. 1. In the Hebrew text the name of this river is spelt 
 in two different ways. In Kings we have -\j:3n> Khabour, answering exactly to the 
 Chaboras of the Greeks and Romans, and the Khabour of the Arabs. In Ezekiel it 
 « written -Q3, Kebar. There is no reason, however, to doubt that the same river is 
 a>eant. 
 
 a 
 
242 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XII 
 
 amongst the names now given by the wandering Arab to the various ruins 
 on the Khabour and its confluents.* 
 
 "We know that Jews still lingered in the cities of the Khabour until long 
 after the Arab invasion ; and we may perhaps recognise in the Jewish com- 
 munities of Ras-al-Ain, at the sources of the river, and of Karkisia, or Car- 
 chemish, at its confluence with the Euphrates, visited and described by 
 Benjamin of Tudela, in the latter end of the twelfth century of the Chris- 
 tian aera, the descendants of the captive Israelites. 
 
 But the hand of time has long since swept even this remnant away, with 
 the busy crowds which thronged the banks of the river. From its mouth 
 to its source, from Carchemish to Ras-al-Ain, there is now no single per- 
 manent human habitation on the Khabour. Its rich meadows and its de- 
 serted ruins are alike become the encamping places of the wandering Arab. 
 
 Winged Bull discovered at Arban. 
 
 * The name occurs in Ezekiel, iii. 15. "Then I came to them of the captivity at 
 Tel-Abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar." In the Theodosian tahles we find Thal- 
 laba on the Khabour. with which it may possibly be identified. (Illustrated Comment- 
 ary on the Old and New Testaments, published by Charles Knight, a very useful and 
 well-digested summary, in note to word.) It is possible that Arbonad, a name appa- 
 rently given to the Khabour in Judith, ii. 24 .. may be connected with Arban : how- 
 ever, it is not quite clear what river is really meant, as there appears to be some 
 
Arab Women grinding Corn with a Handmill, rolling out the Dough, and baking the Bread. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 RESIDENCE AT ARBAN. MOHAMMED EMIN S TENT. THE AGAYDAT. OUR TENTS. BREAD- 
 BAKING. FOOD OF THE BEDOUINS. THIN BREAD. THE PRODUCE OF THEIR FLOCKS. 
 
 DISEASES AMONGST THEM. THEIR REMEDIES. THE DELOUL OR DROMEDARY. BEDOUIN 
 
 WARFARE. SUTTUM'S FIRST WIFE. A STORM. TURTLES. LIONS. A BEDOUIN ROB- 
 BER. BEAVERS. RIDE TO LEDJMIYAT. A PLUNDERING EXPEDITION. LOSS OF A 
 
 HAWK. RUINS OF SHEMSHANI. A TRADITION.— -JEBOURS STRIKE THEIR TENTS. RE- 
 TURN TO ARBAN. VISIT TO MOGHAMIS. 
 
 In the preceding chapter I have given an account of the discoveries 
 made in the ruins of Arban, I will now add a few notes of our residence 
 on the Khabour. A sketch of Arab life, and a description of a country not 
 previously visited by European travellers, may be new and not uninterest- 
 ing to my readers. 
 
 During the time we dwelt at Arban, we were the guests and under the 
 protection of Mohammed Emin, the Sheikh of the Jebours. On the day 
 we crossed the river, he celebrated our arrival by a feast after the Arab 
 fashion, to which the notables of the tribe were invited. Sheep, as usual, 
 were boiled and served up piecemeal in large wooden bowls, with a mass 
 of butter and bread soaked in the gravy. The chief's tent was spacious, 
 though poorly furnished. It was the general resort of those who chanced 
 
 confusion in the geographical details. The cities on the Khabour, mentioned by the 
 Arab geographers, are Karkisia (Circesium, at the junction of the river with the Eu- 
 phrates), Makeseen (of which I could find no trace), Arban, and Khabour. I have 
 not been able to discover the site of any ruin of the same name as the river. Kar- 
 kisia, when visited in the twelfth century by Benjamin of Tudela, contained about 
 500 Jewish inhabitants, under two Rabbis. According to Ibn Haukal, it was sur- 
 rounded by gardens and cultivated lands. The spot is now inhabited by a tribe of 
 Arabs. 
 
244 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. Kill. 
 
 to wander, either on business or for pleasure, to the Khabour, and was, con- 
 sequently, never without a goodly array of guests ; from a company of 
 Shammar horsemen out on a foray to the solitary Bedouin who was seek- 
 ing to become a warrior in his tribe, by first stealing a mare from some 
 hostile encampment. 
 
 Amongst the strangers partaking, at the time of our visit, of the Sheikh's 
 hospitality, were Serhan, a chief of the Agaydat, and Dervish Agha, the 
 hereditary Lord of Nisibin, the ancient Nisibis. The tents of the former 
 were at the junction of the Khabour and Euphrates, near Karkisia (the 
 ancient Carchemish), or, as it is more generally called by the Arabs, Abou- 
 Psera.^ The fertile meadows near the confluence of the two rivers for- 
 merly belonged to the Jebours, who occupied the banks of the Khabour 
 throughout nearly the whole of its course. An old feud kept them at con- 
 tinual war with the great tribe of the Aneyza. They long successfully 
 struggled with their enemies, but having at length been overpowered by 
 superior numbers, they lost their horses, their flocks, their personal proper- 
 ty, and even their tents. Thus left naked and houseless, they sought ref- 
 uge in the neighborhood of Mosul, and learnt to cultivate the soil and to 
 become subjects of the Turks. The Agaydat, who before dwelt principally 
 on the western banks of the Euphrates, crossed the river and seized the de- 
 serted pastures. The Jebours who had returned to the Khabour, claimed 
 their former encamping grounds, and threatened to reoccupy them by force 
 of arms. It was to settle these differences that Serhan had visited Mo- 
 hammed Emin. After remaining two or three days, he went back to his 
 tents without, however, having succeeded in his mission. I learnt from 
 him that there were many artificial mounds near the confluence of the 
 rivers, but he had never heard, nor had Mohammed Emin, of any sculp- 
 tures, or other monuments of antiquity, having been found in them. 
 
 Dervish Agha, of Kurdish descent, was the representative of an ancient 
 family, whose members were formerly the semi-independent chiefs of Nisi- 
 bin and the surrounding districts. He was still the recognised Mutesellim, 
 or governor of that place, and had been sent to Mohammed Emin by the 
 commander of the Turkish troops, one Suleiman Agha, who was at this 
 time encamped in the plain beneath Mardin. His business was to prevail 
 upon the Jebour Sheikh to assist Ferhan in recovering the plundered treas- 
 ure from the Hamoud, and to visit afterwards the encampment of the 
 Agha, with both which requests his host had good reasons not to comply. 
 
 My own large tent was no less a place of resort than that of Mohammed 
 Emin, and as we were objects of curiosity, Bedouins from all parts flocked 
 to see us. With some of them I was already acquainted, having either re- 
 ceived them as my guests at Mosul, or met them during excursions in the 
 Desert. They generally passed one night with us, and then returned to 
 their own tents. A sheep was always slain for them, and boiled with rice, 
 
 * Col. Chesney states that the real name is " Abou Serai," " the father (or chieO 
 of palaces ;" such may be the case. 
 
Chap. XIII. 1 ARAB M0DE 0F GRINDING corn. 245 
 
 or prepared wheat, in the Arab way : if there were not strangers enough 
 to consume the whole, the rest was given to the workmen or to the needy, 
 as it is considered derogatory to the character of a truly hospitable and gen- 
 erous man to keep meat until the following day, or to serve it up a second 
 time when cold. Even the poorest Bedouin who kills a sheep, invites all 
 his friends and neighbours to the repast, and if there be still any remnants, 
 distributes them amongst the poor and the hungry, although he should 
 himself want on the morrow. 
 
 We brought provision of flour with us, and the Jebours had a little wheat 
 raised on the banks of the river. The wandering Arabs have no other 
 means of grinding their corn than by handmills, which they carry with them 
 wherever they go. They are always worked by the women, for it is con- 
 sidered unworthy of a man to engage in any domestic occupation. These 
 handmills are simply two circular flat stones, generally about eighteen inches 
 in diameter, the upper turning loosely upon a wooden pivot, and moved 
 quickly round by a wooden handle. The grain is poured through the hole 
 of the pivot, and the flour is collected in a cloth spread under the mill. It 
 is then mixed with water, kneaded in a wooden bowl, and pressed by the 
 hand into round balls ready for baking. During these processes, the women 
 are usually seated on the bare ground : hence, in Isaiah,* is the daughter 
 of Babylon told to sit in the dust and on the ground, and " to take the mill- 
 stones to grind meal." 
 
 The tribes who are always moving from place to place bake their bread 
 on a slightly convex iron plate, called a sadj, moderately heated over a low 
 fire of brushwood or camels' dung. The lumps of dough are rolled, on a 
 wooden platter, into thin cakes, a foot or more in diameter, and laid by 
 means of the roller upon the iron. They are baked in a very short time, 
 and should be eaten hot.f The Kurds, whose flour is far whiter and more 
 carefully prepared than that of the Arabs, roll the dough into large cakes, 
 scarcely thicker than a sheet of paper. When carefully baked by the same 
 process, it becomes crisp and exceedingly agreeable to the taste. The Arab 
 tribes, that remain for many days in one place, make rude ovens by dig- 
 ging a hole about three feet deep, shaping it like a reversed funnel, and 
 plastering it with mud. They heat it by burning brushwood within, and 
 then stick the lumps of dough, pressed into small cakes about half an inch 
 thick, to the sides with the hand. The bread is ready in two or three min- 
 utes. When horsemen go on an expedition, they either carry with them 
 the thin bread first described, or a bag of flour, which, when they come to 
 
 * xlvii. 1, 2. 
 
 t See woodcut at the head of this chapter. Such was probably the process of 
 making bread mentioned in 2 Sam. xiii. 8, 9. " So Tamar went to her brother Am- 
 non's house ; and he was laid down. And she took flour and kneaded it, and made 
 cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. And she took a pan and poured them out 
 before him." It will be observed that the bread was made at once, without leaven ; 
 such also was probably the bread that Abraham commanded Sarah to make for the 
 three angels. (Gen. xviii. 6.) 
 
246 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 water, they moisten and knead on their cloaks, and then bake by covering 
 the balls of dough with hot ashes. All Arab bread is unleavened. 
 
 If a Bedouin tribe be moving in great haste before an enemy, and should 
 be unable to stop for many hours, or be making a forced march to avoid 
 pursuit over a desert where the wells are very distant from each other, the 
 women sometimes prepare bread whilst riding on camels. The fire is then 
 lighted in an earthen vessel. One woman kneads the flour, a second rolls' 
 out the dough, and a third bakes, boys or women on foot passing the ma- 
 terials, as required, from one to the other. But it is very rare that the Be- 
 douins are obliged to have recourse to this process, and I have only once 
 witnessed it. 
 
 The fuel used by the Arabs consists chiefly of the dwarf shrubs, grow- 
 ing in most parts of the Desert, of dry grass and of camels' dung. They 
 frequently carry bags of the latter with them when in summer they march 
 over very arid tracts. On the banks of the great rivers of Mesopotamia, 
 the tamarisk and other trees furnish them with abundant firewood. They 
 are entirely dependent for their supplies of wheat upon the villages on the 
 borders of the Desert, or on the sedentary Arabs, who, whilst living in tents, 
 cultivate the soil. Sometimes a tribe is fortunate enough to plunder a car- 
 avan laden with corn, or to sack the granaries of a village ; they have then 
 enough to satisfy their wants for some months. But the Bedouins usually 
 draw near to the towns and cultivated districts soon after the harvest, to 
 lay in their stock of grain. A party of men and women, chosen by their 
 companions, then take with them money, or objects for sale or exchange, 
 and drive the camels to the villages, where they load them and return to 
 their tents. Latterly a new and very extensive trade has been opened with 
 the Bedouins for the wool of their sheep, much prized for its superior qual- 
 ity in European markets. As the time for shearing is soon after the har- 
 vest, the Arabs have ready means of obtaining their supplies, as well as 
 of making a little money, and buying finery and arms. 
 
 Nearly the whole revenue of an Arab Sheikh, whatever it may be, is 
 laid out in corn, rice, and other provisions. The quantity of food consumed 
 in the tents of some of the great chiefs of the Bedouins is very considerable 
 Almost every traveller who passes the encampment eats bread with the 
 Sheikh, and there are generally many guests dwelling under his canvas. 
 In times of difficulty or scarcity, moreover, the whole tribe frequently ex- 
 pects to be fed by him, and he considers himself bound, even under such 
 circumstances, by the duties of hospitality, to give all that he has to the 
 needy. The extraordinary generosity displayed on such occasions by their 
 chiefs forms some of the most favourite stories of the Arabs. 
 
 The common Bedouin can rarely get meat. His food consists almost ex- 
 clusively of wheaten bread with truffles, which are found in great abund- 
 ance during the spring, a few wild herbs, such as asparagus, onions, and 
 garlic, fresh butter, curds, and sour milk. But, at certain seasons, even 
 these luxuries cannot be obtained ; for months together he often eats bread 
 
Chap. XIII. 1 F00D 0F THE BED0UINS - 24? 
 
 alone. The Sheikhs usually slay a sheep every day, of which their guests, a 
 few of their relatives, and their immediate adherents partake. The wom- 
 en prepare the food, and always eat after the men, who rarely leave them 
 much wherewith to satisfy their hunger. 
 
 The dish usually seen in a Bedouin tent is a mess of boiled meat, some- 
 times mixed with onions, upon which a lump of fresh butter is placed and 
 allowed to melt. The broad tail of the Mesopotamian sheep is used for 
 grease when there is no butter. Sometimes cakes of bread are laid under 
 the meat, and the entertainer tearing up the thin loaves into small pieces, 
 soaks them in the gravy with his hands. The Aneyza make very savory 
 dishes of chopped meat and bread mixed with sour curds, over which, when 
 the huge platter is placed before the guest, is poured a flood of melted but- 
 ter. Roasted meat is very rarely seen in a Bedouin tent. Rice is only 
 eaten by the Sheikhs, except amongst the tribes who encamp in the marshes 
 of Southern Mesopotamia, where rice of an inferior quality is very largely 
 cultivated. There it is boiled with meat and made into pilaws. 
 
 The Bedouins do not make cheese. The milk of their sheep and goats 
 is shaken into butter or turned into curds : it is rarely or never drank fresh, 
 new milk being thought very unwholesome, as by experience I soon found 
 it to be, in the Desert. I have frequently had occasion to describe the pro- 
 cess of making butter by shaking the milk in skins. This is also an em- 
 ployment confined to the women, and one of a very laborious nature. The 
 curds are formed by boiling the milk, and then putting some of the curds 
 made on the previous day into it and allowing it to stand. When the sheep 
 no longer give milk, some curds are dried, to be used as leaven on a future 
 occasion. This preparation, called leben, is thick and acid, but very agree- 
 able and grateful to the taste in a hot climate. The sour milk, or shenee- 
 na, an universal beverage amongst the Arabs, is either butter-milk pure 
 and diluted, or curds mixed with water. Camels' milk is drank fresh. It 
 is pleasant to the taste, rich, and exceedingly nourishing. It is given in 
 large quantities to the horses. The Shammar and Aneyza Bedouins have 
 no cows or oxen, those animals being looked upon as the peculiar property 
 of tribes who have forgotten their independence, and degraded themselves 
 by the cultivation of land. The sheep are milked at dawn, or even before 
 daybreak, and again in the evening on their return from the pastures. The 
 milk is immediately turned into leben, or boiled to be shaken into butter 
 Amongst the Bedouins and Jebours it is considered derogatory to the char 
 acter of a man to milk a cow or a sheep, but not to milk a camel. 
 
 The Sheikhs occasionally obtain dates from the cities. They are either 
 eaten dry witn bread and leben, or fried in butter, a very favourite dish oi 
 the Bedouin.* 
 
 To this spare and simple dish the Bedouins owe their freedom from sick- 
 
 * In speaking of the Bedouins I mean the Aneyza, Shammar, Al Dhefyr, and other 
 great tribes inhabiting Mesopotamia and the Desert to the north of the Gebel Sham- 
 mar. With the Arabs of the Hedjaz and Central Arabia I am unacquainted 
 
248 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [Chap. XIII 
 
 ness, and their extraordinary power of bearing fatigue. Diseases are rare 
 amongst them ; and the epidemics, which rage in the cities, seldom reach 
 their tents. The cholera, which has of late visited Mosul and Baghdad 
 with fearful severity, has not yet struck the Bedouins, and they have fre- 
 quently escaped the plague, when the settlements on the borders of the Des- 
 ert have been nearly depopulated by it. The small pox, however, occasion- 
 ally makes great havoc amongst them, vaccination being still unknown 
 to the Shammar, and intermittent fever prevails in the autumn, particular- 
 ly when the tribes encamp near the marshes in Southern Mesopotamia. 
 Rheumatism is not uncommon, and is treated, like most local complaints, 
 with the actual cautery, a red hot iron being applied very freely to the part 
 affected. Another cure for rheumatism consists in killing a sheep and plac- 
 ing the patient in the hot reeking skin. 
 
 Ophthalmia is common in the desert as well as in all other parts of the 
 East, and may be attributed as much to dirt and neglect as to any other 
 cause. 
 
 The Bedouins are acquainted with few medicines. The Desert yields 
 some valuable simples, which are, however, rarely used. Dr. Sandwith 
 hearing from Suttum that the Arabs had no opiates, asked what they did 
 with one who could not sleep. "Do!" answered the Sheikh, "why. we 
 make use of him, and set him to watch the camels." If a Bedouin be ill, 
 or have received a wound, he sometimes comes to the nearest town to con- 
 sult the barbers, who are frequently not unskilful surgeons. Hadjir, one of 
 the great chiefs of the Shammar, having been struck by a musket ball which 
 lodged beneath the shoulder-blade, visited the Pasha of Mosul to obtain the 
 aid of the European surgeons attached to the Turkish troops. They de- 
 clared an operation to be impossible, and refused to undertake it. The 
 Sheikh applied to a barber, who in his shop, in the open bazar, quietly cut 
 down to the ball, and taking it out brought it to the Pasha in a plate, to 
 claim a reward for his skill. It is true that the European surgeons in the 
 service of the Porte are not very eminent in their profession. The Bedouins 
 set broken limbs by means of rude splints. 
 
 The women suffer little in labor, which often takes place during a march, 
 or when they are far from the encampment watering the flocks or collect- 
 ing fuel. They allow their children to remain at the breast until they are 
 nearly two and even three years old, and, consequently, have rarely many 
 offspring. 
 
 Soon after our arrival at the Khabour I bought a deloul, or dromedary, 
 as more convenient than a horse for making excursions in the Desert. Her 
 name was Sahaima, and she belonged to Moghamis, the uncle of Suttum. 
 having been taken by him from the Ancyza ; she was well trained, and 
 swift and easy in her paces. The best delouls come from Nedjd and the 
 Gebel Shammar. They are small and lightly made, the difference be- 
 tween them and a common camel being as great as that between a high- 
 bred Arab mare and an English cart-horse. Their powers of endurance 
 
Chap. XIIL] «wriy kjh-ukt. 249 
 
 are very great. Suttum mentioned the following as well authenticated 
 instances. With a companion, each being on his own dromedary, he once 
 rode from Ana to Rowan in one day, one of the animals, however, dying 
 soon after they reached their journey's end. An Arab of the Hamoud, leav- 
 ing an encampment about five miles inland from Dair, on the west bank 
 of the Euphrates, reached Koukab within twenty-four hours. Suttum rode 
 from Mosul to Khatouniyah in two days.^ 
 
 The deloul is much prized, and the race is carefully preserved. The 
 Arabs breed from them once in two years, and are very particular in the 
 choice of the male. An ordinary animal can work for twenty years. Sut- 
 tum assured me that they could travel in the spring as many as six days 
 without water. Their color is generally light brown and white, darker 
 colors and black are more uncommon. Their pace is a light trot kept up 
 for many hours together without fatigue ; they can increase it to an un- 
 Avieldly gallop, a speed they cannot long maintain. A good deloul is worth 
 at the most 10/., the common price is about 51. 
 
 After the day's work at Arban I generally rode with Suttum into the 
 Desert on our delouls, with the hawks and greyhounds. During these rides 
 over the flowered greensward, the Arab Sheikh would entertain me with 
 stories of his tribe, of their wars and intrigues, their successful plundering 
 expeditions, and their occasional defeats. In the evening Mohammed Emm 
 would join our party in the tent, remaining until the night was far spent 
 Both the Arab chiefs were much troubled by the report of an expedition 
 against the tribes, to which the approach of Suleiman Agha, with a con- 
 siderable body of troops, to the upper part of the Khabour, had given rise. 
 However, the season was too far advanced for the march of an army through 
 the waterless plains of Mesopotamia. A general campaign against the Be- 
 douins must be undertaken in the winter, or very early in the spring, and 
 even then, if organised by the Turks, would probably fail. The Shammar 
 would at once leave Mesopotamia, and take refuge in the deserts of Nedjd. 
 where no troops could follow them. They would, of course, abandon their 
 flocks and the greater part of their camels, but they would be ready to re- 
 turn as soon as the enemy retreated from the open country, and to revenge 
 themselves amply for their losses upon the unprotected population of the 
 cultivated districts. To bring the Bedouins under subjection, a regular sys- 
 tem, steadily pursued, and well selected military posts, are essentially nec- 
 essary. 
 
 The grass around Arban having been eaten by the flocks, the Jebours 
 struck their tents at dawn on the 4th of April, and wandered down the Kha- 
 
 * Burckhardt (Notes on the Bedouins, &c. p. 262.) mentions as the best authenti- 
 cated instance of the wonderful speed and endurance of a deloul which had come to 
 his knowledge, a journey for a wager, of 115 miles in eleven hours, including twenty 
 minutes in crossing the Nile twice in a ferry-boat. As that traveller, however, ju>t 1\ 
 remarks, it is by the ease with which they can carry their rider during an Uninter- 
 rupted journey of several days and nights at a kind of easy amble of five, or five and 
 a half miles, an hour, that they are unequalled by any other animal. 
 
250 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 hour in search of fresh pastures. The Boraij , too. moved further inland from 
 the river. During the whole morning the Desert around the ruins was a 
 busy scene ; sheep, cattle, beasts of burden, men, women, and children be- 
 ing scattered far and wide over the plain. By midday the crowd had dis- 
 appeared, and the meadows, which a few hours before had been teeming with 
 living things, were now again left lonely and bare. I know no feeling more 
 melancholy than that caused by the sudden breaking up of a large tribe, 
 and by the sight of the spent fires and rubbish-heaps of a recent encamp- 
 ment ; the silence and solitude which have suddenly succeeded to the busy 
 scene of an Arab community. Mohammed Emiu alone, with a few Shera- 
 been Arabs, remained to protect us. 
 
 Soon after our arrival at the Khabour, Adla, Suttum's first wife, came to 
 us with her child. After the Sheiklls marriage with Rathaiyah. she had 
 been driven from her husband's tent by the imperious temper of his new 
 bride, and had returned to Aloghamis her father. Her eldest sister was the 
 wife of Suttum's eldest brother Sahiman, and her youngest, Alaizi, was be- 
 trothed to Suttum's youngest brother Midjwell. The three were remark- 
 able for their beauty ; their dark eyes had the true Bedouin fire, and their 
 long black hair fell in clusters on their shoulders. Their cousins, the three 
 brothers, had claimed them as their brides according to Bedouin law.* 
 Adla now sought to be reconciled through me to her husband. Rathaiyah, 
 the new wife, whose beauty was already on the wane, dreaded her young 
 rival's share in the affections of her lord, over whom she had established 
 more influence than a lady might be supposed to exercise over her spouse 
 amongst independent Arabs. The Sheikh was afraid to meet Adia, until, 
 after much negotiation, Hormuzd acting as ambassador, the proud Rathai- 
 yah consented to receive her in her tent. Then the injured lady refused 
 to accept these terms, and the matter was only finished by Hormuzd tak- 
 ing her by the arm and dragging her by force over the grass to her rival. 
 There all the outward forms of perfect reconciliation were satisfactorily gone 
 through, although Suttum evidently saw that there was a different recep- 
 tion in store for himself when there were no European eye-witnesses. Such 
 are the trials of married life in the Desert! 
 
 I may here mention that polygamy is very common amongst the Bedou- 
 ins. It is considered disgraceful for a man to accept money for his daugh- 
 ter, according to the custom in towns and amongst the cultivating tribes ; 
 and a girl cannot be forced against her will to marry a man unless he be 
 her cousin, and legally entitled to demand her hand. 
 
 On the 6th of April we witnessed a remarkable electrical phenomenon. 
 During the day heavy clouds had been hanging on the horizon, foreboding 
 one of those furious storms which at this time of the year occasionally visit 
 the Desert. Late in the afternoon these clouds had gathered into one vast 
 circle, which moved slowly round like an enormous wheel, presenting one 
 
 * Amongst the Bedouins a man has a right to demand his cousin in marriage, and 
 she ran not refuse him. 
 
Chap. XIII.] A BED0UIN Y0UTH - 251 
 
 of the most extraordinary and awful appearances I ever saw. From its 
 sides leaped, without ceasing, forked flames of lightning. Clouds spring- 
 ing up from all sides of the heavens, were dragged hurriedly into the vor- 
 tex, which advanced gradually towards us, and threatened soon to break 
 over our encampment. Fortunately, however, we only felt the very edge 
 of the storm,— a deluge of rain and of hail of the size of pigeons' eggs. The 
 great rolling cloud, attracted by the Sinjar hill, soon passed away, leaving 
 in undiminished splendor the setting sun. 
 
 Monday, 8th of April. The Mogdessi, one of my servants, caught a 
 turtle in the river measuring three feet in length. The Arabs have many 
 stories of the voracity of these animals, which attain, I am assured, to even 
 a larger size, and Suttum declared that a man had been pulled under wa- 
 ter and devoured by one, probably an Arab exaggeration. 
 
 A Bedouin, who had been attacked by a lion whilst resting, about five 
 hours lower down on the banks of the river, came to our encampment. He 
 had escaped with the loss of his mare. The lion is not uncommon in the 
 jungles of the Khabour, and the Bedouins and Jebours frequently find their 
 cubs in the spring season. 
 
 In the afternoon, Mohammed Emin learned that the Sherabeen buffalo 
 keepers, who lived under his protection paying a small annual tribute, 
 were about to leave him for the Tai of Nisibin, with whom the Jebours 
 had a blood feud. The Sheikh asked the help of my workmen to bring 
 back the refractory tribe, who were encamped about three hours up the 
 river, and the party marched in the evening singing their war songs. 
 
 April 9th. Messengers arrived during the night for further assistance, 
 and Suttum mounting his mare joined the combatants. Early in the morn- 
 ing the Jebours returned in triumph, driving the flocks and buffaloes of the 
 Sherabeen before them. They were soon followed by the tribe, who were 
 compelled to pitch their tents near our encampment. 
 
 A Bedouin youth, thin and sickly, though of a daring and resolute coun- 
 tenance, sat in my guest tent. His singular appearance at once drew my 
 attention. His only clothing was a kerchief, very dirty and torn, falling 
 over his head, and a ragged cloak, which he drew tightly round him, al- 
 lowing the end of a knotted club to appear above its folds. His story, 
 which he was at length induced to tell, was characteristic of Bedouin ed- 
 ucation. He was of the Boraij tribe, and related to Suttum. His father 
 was too poor to equip him with mare and spear, and he was ashamed to 
 be seen by the Arabs on foot and unarmed. He had now become a man, 
 for he was about fourteen years old, and he resolved to trust to his own 
 skill for his outfit as a warrior. Leaving in his father's tent all his clothes, 
 except his dirty kefneh and his tattered aba, and, without communicating 
 his plans to his friends, he bent his way to the Euphrates. For three 
 months his family hearing nothing of him, believed him to be dead. Dur- 
 ing that time, however, he had lived in the river jungle, feeding on roots 
 and herbs, hiding himself during the day in the thickets, and prowling at 
 
252 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 night round the tents of the Aneyza in search of a mare that might have 
 strayed, or might be less carefully guarded than usual. At length the ob- 
 ject of his ambition was found, and such a mare had never been seen be- 
 fore ; but, alas ! her legs were bound with iron shackles, and he had brought 
 no file with him. He succeeded in leading her to some distance from the 
 encampment, where, as morning dawned, to avoid detection, he was obliged 
 to leave his prize and return to his hiding-place. He was now on his way 
 back to his tents, intending to set forth again, after recruiting his strength, 
 on new adventures in search of a mare and spear, promising to be wiser 
 in future and to carry a file under his cloak. Suttum seemed very proud 
 of his relative, and introduced him to me as a promising, if not distinguish- 
 ed, character.* It is thought no disgrace thus to steal a mare as long as 
 the thief has not eaten bread in the tent of her owner. 
 
 April 11th. The waters of this river had been rising rapidly since the 
 recent storm, and now spread over the meadows. We moved our tents, 
 and the Arabs took refuge on the mound, which stood like an island in the 
 midst of the flood. The Jebours killed four beavers, and brought three of 
 their young to us alive. They had been driven from their holes by the 
 swollen stream. Mohammed Emin eagerly accepted the musk bags, which 
 are much valued as majouns by the Turks, and, consequently, fetch a large 
 price in the towns. The Arabs eat the flesh, and it was cooked for us, but 
 proved coarse and tough. The young we kept for some days on milk, but 
 they eventually died. Their cry resembled that of a new-born infant. 
 The Khabour beavers appeared to me to differ in several respects from 
 the American. The tail, instead of being large and broad, was short 
 and pointed. They do not build huts, but burrow in the banks, taking 
 care to make the entrance to their holes below the surface of the stream 
 to avoid detection, and the chambers above, out of reach of the ordinary 
 floods. 
 
 Beavers were formerly found in large numbers on the Khabour, but in 
 consequence of the value attached to the musk bag, they have been hunted 
 almost to extermination by the Arabs. Mohammed Emin assured me that 
 for several years not more than one or two had been seen. Sofuk, the great 
 Shammar Sheikh, used to consider the musk bag of a beaver the most ac- 
 ceptable present he could send to a Turkish Pasha, whose friendship he 
 wished to secure. 
 
 Two Sheikhs of the Buggara Arabs, who inhabit the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates opposite Dair, visited our encampment. They described some large 
 mounds near their tents, called Sen, to which they offered to take me ; but 
 [ was unable to leave my party. The tribe is nominally under the Pasha 
 
 * The title of haraymi (thief), so far from being one of disgrace, is considered ev- 
 idence of great prowess and capacity in a young man. Like the Spartans of old he 
 only suffers if caught in the act. There was a man of the Assaiyah tribe who had 
 established an immense renown by stealing no less than ninety horses, amongst which 
 was the celebrated mare given by Sofuk to Beder Khan Bey. 
 
Chap. XIIL] mound of shedadi. 253 
 
 of Aleppo, but only pay him taxes when he can send a sufficient force to 
 collect them. 
 
 Our encampment was further increased by several families of Jays, who 
 had fled from the north on account of some quarrel with the rest of the 
 tribe. They inhabit the country round the ancient Harran and Orfa, the 
 Ur of the Chaldees, and still called Urrha by the Bedouins. 
 
 April 12th. We rode this morning with Mohammed Emin, Suttum, and 
 the Sheikhs of the Buggara, Jays, and Sherabeen, to the tents of the Je- 
 bours, which had now been moved some miles down the river. Rathaiyah 
 remained behind. The large tents and the workmen were left under the 
 care of the Bairakdar. The chiefs were mounted on well-bred mares, ex- 
 cept one of the Jays Sheikhs, who rode a handsome and high-mettled horse. 
 He was gaily dressed in a scarlet cloak lined with fur, a many-colored kef- 
 fieh, and new yellow boots. His steed, too, was profusely adorned with 
 silken tassels, and small bells, chains, and other ornaments of silver, re- 
 minding me forcibly of the horses of the Assyrian sculptures. He had been 
 in the service of the Turks, whose language he had learned, and from whom 
 he had acquired his taste for finery. He was a graceful rider, and man- 
 aged his horse with great dexterity. 
 
 About three miles from Arban we passed a small artificial mound called 
 Tel Hamer (the red) ; and similar ruins abound on the banks of the river. 
 Near it we met four Shammar Bedouins, who had turned back empty- 
 handed from a thieving expedition to the Aneyza, on account of the floods 
 of the Euphrates, which they described as spreading over the surrounding 
 country like a sea. 
 
 Three hours from Arban we reached a remarkable artificial mound 
 called Shedadi, washed by the Khabour. It consists of a lofty platform, 
 nearly square, from the centre of which springs a cone. On the top are 
 the tombs of several Jebour chiefs, marked by the raised earth, and by small 
 trees now dry, fixed upright in the graves. I found fragments of pottery 
 and bricks, but no trace of inscriptions. 
 
 Between Shedadi and Arban we saw several ruined bridges, probably of 
 the time of the Caliphs. The mounds are evidently the remains of a much 
 earlier civilisation, when the Assyrian empire extended far beyond the Kha- 
 bour, and when, as we learn from the inscriptions, the whole face of the 
 country was covered with cities, and with a thriving and wealthy population. 
 
 We did not reach the encampment of Mohammed Emin, spreading three 
 or four miles along the Khabour, until after sunset. The chief's tents 
 were pitched near a mound called Ledjmiyat, on a bend of the river, and 
 opposite to a very thick zor or jungle, known to the Arabs as El Bostan, 
 " the garden," a kind of stronghold of the tribe, which the Sheikh declared 
 could resist the attack of any number otnizam (regular troops), if only de- 
 fended by Jebours. Suttum looked upon the grove rather as a delicious 
 retreat from the rays of the summer's sun, to which the Boraij occasionally 
 resorted, than as a place for war. 
 
254 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIII 
 
 During the evening, the different Sheikhs assembled in my tent to plan 
 a ghazou, or plundering expedition, for the following day, against the Agay- 
 dat, encamped at Abou Psera (Garchemish). Suttum was much cast down 
 at not being able to join them, and mourned over his life of inactivity. I 
 urged him to go, but he vowed that, as long as we were under his protec- 
 tion, he would not leave us. I should have taken this opportunity to visit 
 the Khabour to its mouth, but did not wish to appear to mix myself up 
 with the broils of the tribes.* 
 
 On the following morning, Mohammed Emin, with two of his sons, the 
 horsemen of the tribe, and the Sheikhs who were his guests, started on 
 their ghazou. They were all mounted on mares, except the Jays chief 
 and one of Mohammed Emin's sons, who rode a beautiful white horse of 
 the Khalawi race. I accompanied them as far as a large ruin called 
 Shemshani. Suttum came with us carrying his hawk, Hattab, on his wrist. 
 
 The plain, like all the country watered by the Khabour, was one vast 
 meadow teeming with flowers. Game abounded, and the falcon soon flew 
 towards a bustard, which his piercing eye had seen lurking in the long 
 grass. The sun was high in the heavens, already soaring in the sky was 
 the enemy of the trained hawk, the " agab," a kind of kite or eagle, whose 
 name, signifying " butcher," denotes his bloody propensities.! Although 
 far beyond our ken, he soon saw Hattab, and darted upon him in one 
 swoop. The affrighted falcon immediately turned from his quarry, and 
 with shrill cries of distress flew towards us. After circling round, unable 
 from fear to alight, he turned towards the Desert, still followed by his re- 
 lentless enemy. In vain his master, following as long as his mare could 
 carry him, waved the lure, and called the hawk by his name ; he saw him 
 no more. Whether the noble bird escaped, or fell a victim to the "butch- 
 er," we never knew. 
 
 Suttum was inconsolable at his loss. He wept when he returned with- 
 out his falcon on his wrist, and for days he would suddenly exclaim, " 
 Bej ! Billah ! Hattab was not a bird, he was my brother." He was one 
 of the best trained hawks I ever saw amongst the Bedouins, and was of 
 some substantial value to his owner, as he would daily catch six or seven 
 bustards, except during the hottest part of summer, when the falcon is un- 
 able to hunt. 
 
 About a mile and a half below Ledjmiyat, but on the opposite bank of 
 the river, was another large mound called Fedghami. We reached Shem- 
 shani in an hour and three quarters. It is a considerable ruin on the Kha- 
 bour, and consists of one lofty mound, surrounded on the Desert side by 
 smaller mounds and heaps of rubbish. It abounds in fragments of glazed 
 
 * The confluence of the Euphrates and Khabour is, according to Arab reckoning, 
 one day's journey from Ledjmiyat, and two short from Arban. Arban is two long 
 days from Nisibin, three from Orfa, and four from Severek. 
 
 t Easterns never hawk, if they can avoid it, when the sun is high, as the bird of 
 prey described in the text then appears in search of food. 
 
Chap XIII 1 departure of the jebours. 255 
 
 and plain pottery, bricks, and black basaltic stone, but I could find no 
 traces of sculpture or inscription. The remains of walls protrude in many 
 places from the soil. Above the ancient ruins once stood a castle, the 
 foundations of which may still be seen. 
 
 The Arabs have many traditions attaching to these ruins. Amongst 
 others, that they are the remains of the capital of an infidel king, whose 
 daughter, at the time of the first Mussulman invasion, eloped with a true 
 believer. The lovers were pursued by the father, overtaken, and killed (the 
 lady having, of course, first embraced Islamism), in a narrow valley of the 
 neighbouring hills. A nickering flame, still distinctly seen to rise from 
 the earth on Friday nights, marks the spot of their martyrdom. The city 
 soon fell into the hands of the Mussulmans, who took a signal revenge upon 
 its idolatrous inhabitants. 
 
 The Jebours some years ago cultivated the lands around Shemshani, and 
 there are still many traces of watercourses, and of the square plots set apart 
 for rice.* 
 
 Leaving Mohammed Emin to continue his journey we returned to our 
 tents. On our road we met Moghamis, and a large party of Bedouins on 
 their way to join the Jebour horsemen, for they also had been invited to take 
 part in the attack on the Agaydat, and to share in the spoil. They rode 
 their swift dromedaries, two men on each, the rediff leading the mare of 
 his companion ; that of the Sheikh was of the Obeyan race, and far famed 
 in the Desert. She was without saddle or clothes, and we could admire 
 the exquisite symmetry and beauty of her form. 
 
 "We dismounted, embraced, and exchanged a few words. The Bedouins 
 then continued their rapid course over the Desert. We passed other riders 
 on delouls and mares, hastening to join the main body, or to meet their 
 friends at the rendezvous for the night near Abou Psera. The attack on 
 the tents was to be made at dawn on the following morning, the true Be- 
 douin never taking an unfair advantage of his enemy in the dark. 
 
 April 14:th. We were awoke long before dawn by the Jebours striking 
 their tents. By sunrise the whole encampment had disappeared, and we 
 were left almost alone. They were returning towards Arban, fearing lest 
 the Agaydat, assisted by the Aneyza, might seek a speedy revenge after the 
 attack upon them. We breakfasted, and then soon overtook the line of 
 march. For two hours we amused ourselves by riding through the dense 
 and busy throng. I have already described the singular spectacle of a great 
 Arab tribe changing its pastures, — its mingled crowd of women and girls, 
 some with burdens, others without, of warriors on high-bred mares and on 
 fleet camels, of shepherds with their knotted clubs, of sheep, goats, camels, 
 beasts of burden, children, lambs, and all the various appendages of Arab 
 life. A more stirring and joyous scene can scarcely be imagined. 
 
 * Between Shemshani and the mouth of the Khabour, according to Mohammed 
 Emin, are the following mounds : ElMurgadeh (about five miles distant), El Hussain, 
 Sheikh Ahmed, Suor, and El Efdaya. 
 
256 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 The family of the chief, as is usual, moved in front of the tribe. We 
 left them pitching their tents near the mound of Shedadi, and rode to our 
 own encampment at Arban. 
 
 On the 16th of April, Mohammed Emin and his sons returned from their 
 expedition, driving before them their spoil of cows, oxen, and mares. The 
 Agaydat were taken by surprise, and made but a feeble defence ; there was. 
 consequently, little bloodshed, as is usually the case when Arabs go on these 
 forays. The fine horse of the Jays chief had received a bad gunshot wound, 
 and this was the only casualty amongst my friends. Mohammed Emin 
 brought me one or two of the captured mares as an offering. They were, 
 of course, returned, but they involved the present of silk dresses to the 
 Sheikh and his sons. 
 
 April 18th. To-day we visited the tents of Moghamis and his tribe : 
 they were pitched about five miles from the river. The face of the Desert 
 was as burnished gold. Its last change was to flowers of the brightest yel- 
 low hue,* and the whole plain was dressed with them. Suttum rioted in 
 the luxuriant herbage and scented air. I never saw him so exhilarated. 
 ' ; What Kef (delight)," he continually exclaimed, as his mare waded through 
 the flowers, " has God given us equal to this ? It is the only thing worth 
 living for. Ya Bej ! what do the dwellers in cities know of true happiness, 
 they have never seen grass or flowers ? May God have pity on them !" 
 
 The tents were scattered far and wide over the plain. The mares re- 
 cently returned from the foray wandered loose in the midst of them, crop- 
 ping the rich grass. We were most hospitably received by Moghamis. 
 Such luxuries, in the way of a ragged carpet and an old coverlet, as his tent 
 could afford, had been spread for Mrs. R., whose reputation had extended 
 far and wide amongst the Arabs, and who was looked upon as a wonder, but 
 always treated with the greatest consideration and respect. The wild Be- 
 douin would bring a present of camel's milk or truffles, and the boys caught 
 jerboas and other small animals for the Frank lady. During the whole of 
 our journey she was never exposed to annoyance, although wearing, with 
 the exception of the Tarboush, or an Arab cloak, the European dress. 
 
 Moghamis clad himself in a coat of chain mail, of ordinary materials and 
 rude workmanship, but still strong enough to resist the coarse iron spear- 
 heads of the Arab lance, though certainly no protection against a well-tem- 
 pered blade. The Arabs wear their armour beneath the shirt, because an 
 enemy would otherwise strike at the mare and not at her rider.t 
 
 After we had enjoyed all the luxuries of an Arab feast, visited the wom- 
 en's compartments, where most of the ladies of the tribe had assembled to 
 
 • I have already mentioned the changes in the colors of the Desert. Almost in as 
 many days white had succeeded to pale straw color, red to white, blue to red, lilac to 
 blue, and now the face of the country was as described in the text. 
 
 * One of the principal objects of Bedouins in battle being to carry off their adver- 
 saries' mares, they never wound them if they can avoid it, but endeavour to kill or 
 unhorse the riders. 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 RETURN TO ARBAN. 
 
 257 
 
 greet us, examined the " chetab," or camel saddle, used by the wives of the 
 chiefs,* and inquired into various details of the harem, we returned as we 
 came, through the flowers and long grass to our tents at Arban. 
 
 * See woodcut, p. 63., of the abridged edition of my "Nineveh and its Remains,'' 
 ibr a sketch of this extraordinary contrivance. 
 
 Saddling a Deloul, or Dromedary. 
 
 R 
 
Kurdish Women. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LEAVE ARBAN. THE BANKS OF THE KHABOUR. ARTIFICIAL MOUNDS. MIJWELL. THE 
 
 CADI OF THE BEDOUINS. THE THAR OR BLOOD-REVENGE. CAUTION OF ARABS. A NAT- 
 URAL CAVERN. AN EXTINCT VOLCANO. THE CONFLUENTS OF THE KHABOUR. — BE- 
 DOUIN MARKS. SULEIMAN AGHA. ENCAMPMENT AT UM-JERJEH. THE TURKISH IRREG- 
 ULAR CAVALRY. MOUND OF MIJDEL. RUINS ON THE KHABOUR. MOHAMMED EMIN 
 
 LEAVES US. VISIT TO KURDISH TENTS AND HAREM. THE MILLI KIRDS. THE FAMILY 
 
 OF RISHWAN. ARAB LOVE-MAKING. THE DAKHEEL. BEDOUIN POETS AND POETRY. 
 
 TURKISH CAVALRY HORSES. 
 
 The hot weather was rapidly drawing near. Enough had not been dis- 
 covered in the mound of Arban, nor were there ruins of sufficient import- 
 ance near the river, to induce me to remain much longer on the Khabour. 
 I wished, however, to explore the stream, as far as I was able, towards its 
 principal source, and to visit Suleiman Agha, the Turkish commander, who 
 was now encamped on its banks. In answer to a letter, he urged me to 
 come to his tents, and to bring the Sheikh of the Jebours with me, pledg- 
 ing himself to place no restraint whatever on the perfect liberty of the 
 Arab chief. With such a guarantee, I ventured to invite Mohammed Emin 
 to accompany me. After much hesitation, arising from a very natural fear 
 of treachery, he consented to do so. 
 
 On the 19th of April we crossed the Khabour, and encamped for the night 
 on its southern bank. On the following morning we turned from the ruins 
 of Arban, and commenced our journey to the eastward. The Jebours were 
 now dwelling higher up the stream, and Mohammed Emin, with his two 
 sons, and Abdullah his nephew, met us on our way. He was still in doubt 
 as to whether he should go with me or not ; but at last, after more than 
 
Chap XIV.1 sutttjm's return to his tents. 259 
 
 once turning back, he took a desperate resolution, and pushed his mare 
 boldly forward. His children commended him, with tears, to my protec- 
 tion, and then left our caravan for their tents. 
 
 "We rode from bend to bend of the river, without following its tortuous 
 course. Its banks are belted with poplars, tamarisks, and brushwood, the 
 retreat of wild boars, francolins, and other game, and studded with artifi- 
 cial mounds, the remains of ancient settlements. This deserted though rich 
 and fertile district must, at one time, have been the seat of a dense popu- 
 lation. It is only under such a government as that of Turkey that it could 
 remain a wilderness. The first large ruin above Arban, and some miles 
 from it on the left bank of the river, is called Mishnak. According to a tra- 
 dition preserved by the Jebours, the Persians were defeated near it, with 
 great slaughter, in the early days of Islam, by the celebrated Arab tribe of 
 the Zobeide. About one mile and a half beyond is another ruin called 
 Abou Shalah, and three miles further up the stream a third, called Taaban, 
 upon which are the remains of a modern fort. Near Taaban, Mohammed 
 Emin had recently built a small enclosure of rude stone walls, a place of 
 refuge in case of an attack from the Aneyza Bedouins. Around it the Je- 
 bours sow corn and barley, re-opening the ancient water-courses to bring 
 water to their fields. The wheat was almost ready for the sickle even at 
 this early season of the year. 
 
 After a short day's journey of four hours and a half we raised our tents 
 for the night amongst luxuriant herbage, which afforded abundant pasture 
 for our horses and camels. The spot was called Nahab. The river, divided 
 into two branches by a string of small wooded islands, is fordable except 
 during the freshes. Near our encampment was a large mound named 
 Mehlaibiyah, and in the stream I observed fragments of stone masonry, 
 probably the remains of ancient dams for irrigation. 
 
 Next morning Suttum returned to his tents with Rathaiyah, leaving us 
 under the care of his younger brother Mijwell. After I had visited the 
 Turkish commander, whom he did not appear over anxious to meet, he was 
 to join us in the Desert, and accompany me to Mosul. Mijwell was even 
 of a more amiable disposition than his brother ; was less given to diplomacy, 
 and troubled himself little with the politics of the tribes. A pleasant smile 
 lighted up his features, and a fund of quaint and original humor made him 
 at all times an agreeable companion. Although he could neither read nor 
 write, he was one of the cadis or judges of the Shammar, an office hered- 
 itary in the family of the Saadi, at the head of which is Rishwan. The 
 old man had delegated the dignity to his younger son, who, by the consent 
 of his brothers, will enjoy it after their father's death. Disputes of all kinds 
 are referred to these recognised judges. Their decrees are obeyed with read- 
 iness, and the other members of the tribe are rarely called upon to enforce 
 them. They administer rude justice ; and, although pretending to follow 
 the words of the Prophet, are rather guided by ancient custom than by the 
 law of the Koran, which binds the rest of the Mohammedan world. The 
 
260 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAI\ XIV 
 
 most common source of litigatien is. of course, stolen property. They re* 
 ceive for their decrees, payment in money or in kind ; and he who gains the 
 suit has to pay the fee. Amongst the Shammar, if the dispute relates to 
 a deloul, the cadi gets two gazees, about eight shillings ; if to a mare, a 
 deloul; if to a man, a mare.* Various ordeals, such as licking a red-hot 
 iron, are in use, to prove a man's innocence. If the accused's tongue is 
 burnt, no doubt exists as to his guilt. 
 
 One of the most remarkable laws in force amongst the wandering Arabs, 
 and one probably of the highest antiquity, is the law of blood, called the 
 Thar, prescribing the degrees of consanguinity within which it is lawful to 
 revenge a homicide. Although a law, rendering a man responsible for 
 blood shed by any one related to him within the fifth degree, may appear 
 to members of a civilised community one of extraordinary rigour, and in- 
 volving almost manifest injustice.it must nevertheless be admitted, that 
 no power vested in any one individual, and no punishment, however severe, 
 could tend more to the maintenance of order and the prevention of blood- 
 shed amongst the wild tribes of the Desert. As Burckhardt has justly re- 
 marked, " this salutary institution has contributed in a greater degree than 
 any other circumstance, to prevent the warlike tribes of Arabia from ex- 
 terminating one another." 
 
 If a man commit a homicide, the cadi endeavours to prevail upon the 
 family of the victim to accept a compensation for the blood in money or in 
 kind, the amount being regulated according to custom in different tribes. 
 Should the offer of " blood-money" be refused, the " Thar" comes into oper- 
 ation, and any person within the " khomse," or the fifth degree of blood of 
 the homicide, may be legally killed by any one within the same degree of 
 consanguinity to the victim. f 
 
 This law is enforced between tribes remote from one another, as well as 
 between families, and to the blood-revenge may be attributed many of the 
 bitter feuds which exist amongst the Arab clans. It affects, in many re- 
 spects, their social condition, and has a marked influence upon their habits, 
 and even upon their manners. Thus an Arab will never tell his name, es- 
 pecially if it be an uncommon one, to a stranger, nor mention that of his 
 
 * Burckhardt gives a somewhat different table of fees as existing amongst the Be- 
 douin tribes with which he was acquainted. His whole account of Arab law is sin- 
 gularly interesting and correct ; there is, indeed, very little to be added to it. (See 
 his Notes on the Bedouins, p. 66.) 
 
 t Burckhardt has thus defined the terms of this law : "The Thar rests with the 
 khomse, or fifth generation, those only having a right to revenge a slain parent, 
 whose fourth lineal ascendant is, at the same time, the fourth lineal ascendant of tit 
 person slain; and, on the other side, only those male kindred of the homicide are 
 liable to pay with their own for the blood shed, whose fourth lineal ascendant is at 
 the same time the fourth lineal ascendant of the homicide. The present generation 
 is thus comprised within the number of the khomse. The lineal descendants of all 
 those who are entitled to revenge at the moment of the manslaughter inherit the 
 right from their parents. The right to blood-revenge is never lost ; it descends on 
 both sides to the latest generation." (Notes on Arabs, p. 85.) 
 
Chap. XIV.] A natural cavern. 261 
 
 father or of his tribe, if his own name be ascertained, lest there should be 
 Thar between them. Even children are taught to observe this custom, 
 that they may not fall victims to the blood revenge. Hence the extreme 
 suspicion with which a Bedouin regards a stranger in the open country, or 
 in a tent, and his caution in disclosing anything relating to the movements, 
 or dwelling-place, of his friends. In most encampments are found refugees, 
 sometimes whole families, who have left their tribe on account of a hom- 
 icide for which they are amenable. In case, after a murder, persons with- 
 in the " Thar" take to flight, three days and four hours are by immemorial 
 custom allowed to the fugitives before they can be pursued. Frequently 
 they never return to their friends, but remain with those who give them 
 protection, and become incorporated into the tribe by which they are adopt- 
 ed. Thus there are families of the Harb, Aneyza, Dhofyr, and other great 
 clans, who for this cause have joined the Shammar, and are now considered 
 part of them. Frequently the homicide himself will wander from tent to tenl 
 over the Desert, or even rove through the towns and villages on its borders, 
 with a chain round his neck and in rags, begging contributions from the 
 charitable to enable him to pay the apportioned blood-money. I have fre 
 quently met such unfortunate persons who have spent years in collecting 
 a small sum. I will not weary the reader with an account of the various 
 rules observed in carrying out this law, where persons are killed in private 
 dissensions, or slain in the act of stealing, in war, or in the ghazou. In 
 each case the cadi determines, according to the ancient custom of the tribe, 
 the proper compensation. 
 
 Mijwell now took Suttum's place in the caravan, and directed the order 
 of our march. Four miles from Nahab we passed a large mound called 
 Thenenir, at the foot of which is a spring much venerated by the Arabs. 
 Around it the Jebours had sown a little wheat. Near this ruin an an- 
 cient stone dam divides the Khabour into several branches : it is called 
 the " Saba Sckou?'" or the seven rocks. 
 
 Leaving the caravan to pursue the direct road, I struck across the coun- 
 try to the hill of Koukab, accompanied by Mohammed Emin and Mijwell. 
 This remarkable cone, rising in the midst of the plain, had been visible 
 from our furthest point on the Khabour. Some of the Arabs declared it 
 to be an artificial mound ; others said, that it was a mountain of stones. 
 Mohammed Emin would tell me of a subterranean lake beneath it, in a 
 cavern large enough to afford refuge to amy number of men. As we drew 
 nearer, the plain was covered with angular fragments of black basalt, and 
 crossed by veins, or dykes, of the same volcanic rock. Mohammed Emin 
 led us first to the mouth of a cave in a rocky ravine not far from the foot 
 of the hill. It was so choked with stones that we could scarcely squeeze 
 ourselves through the opening, but it became wider, and led to a descend- 
 ing passage, the bottom of which was lost in the gloom. We advanced 
 cautiously, but not without setting in motion an avalanche of loose stones, 
 which, increasing as it rolled onwards, by its loud noise disturbed swarms 
 
262 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 of bats that hung to the sides and ceiling of the cavern. Flying towards 
 the light, these noisome beasts almost compelled us to retreat. They 
 clung to our clothes, and our hands could scarcely prevent them settling 
 on our faces. The rustling of their wings was like the noise of a great 
 wind, and an abominable stench arose from the recesses of the cave. At 
 length they settled again to their daily sleep, and we were able to go for- 
 ward. 
 
 After descending some fifty feet, we found ourselves on the margin of a 
 lake of fresh water. The pitchy darkness prevented our ascertaining its 
 size, which could not have been very great, although the Arabs declared 
 that no one could reach the opposite side. The cave is frequently a place 
 of refuge for the wandering Arabs, and the Bedouins encamp near it in 
 summer to drink the cool water of this natural reservoir. Mohammed 
 Emin told me that last year he had found a lion in it, who, on being dis- 
 turbed, merely rushed out and fled across the plain. 
 
 Leaving the cavern and issuing from the ravine, we came to the edge 
 of a wide crater, in the centre of which rose the remarkable cone of Kou- 
 kab. To the left of us was a second crater, whose lips were formed by the 
 jaggy edges of basaltic rocks, and in the plain around were several others 
 smaller in size. They were all evidently the remains of an extinct volca- 
 no, which had been active within a comparatively recent geological period, 
 even perhaps within the time of history, or tradition, as the name of the 
 mound amongst the Arabs denotes a jet of fire or flame, as well as a con- 
 stellation. 
 
 I ascended the cone, which is about 300 feet high, and composed en- 
 tirely of loose lava, scoria, and ashes, thus resembling precisely the cone 
 rising in the craters of Vesuvius and ^Etna. It is steep and difficult of 
 ascent, except on one side, where the summit is easily reached even by 
 horses. Within, for it is hollow, it resembles an enormous funnel, broken 
 away at one edge, as if a molten stream had burst through it. Anemonies 
 and poppies, of the brightest scarlet hue, covered its side ; although the dry 
 lava and loose ashes scarcely seemed to have collected sufficient soil to 
 nourish their roots. It would be difficult to describe the richness and brill- 
 iancy of this mass of flowers, the cone from a distance having the appear- 
 ance of a huge inverted cup of burnished copper, over which poured 
 streams of blood. 
 
 From the summit of Koukab I gazed upon a scene as varied as exten- 
 sive. Beneath me the two principal branches of the Khabour united their 
 waters. I could track them for many miles by the dark line of their 
 wooded banks, as they wound through the golden plains. To the left, or 
 the west, was the true Khabour, the Chaboras of the ancients ; a name it 
 bears from its source at Ras-al-ain (i. e. the head of the spring).* The 
 
 * One of the sources of this branch of the Khabour is, I am told, in the Kharej 
 Dagh, to the west of Mardin. This small stream, called Ajjurgub, falls into the river 
 near Ras-al-Ain. 
 
Chap. XIV.] bedouin marks. 263 
 
 second stream, that to the east, is called by the Arabs the Jerujer (a name, 
 as uttered by the Bedouins, equally difficult to pronounce and to write), 
 and is the ancient Mygdonius, flowing through Nisibin.* Khatouniyah 
 and its lake were just visible, backed by the solitary hill of the Sinjar. 
 The Kurdish mountains bounded the view to the east. In the plain, and 
 on the banks of the rivers, rose many artificial mounds ; whilst, in the ex- 
 treme distance to the north could be distinguished the flocks and black 
 tents of a large wandering tribe. They were those of the Chichi and 
 Milli Kurds, encamped with the Turkish commander Suleiman Agha. 
 
 On some fragments of basaltic rock projecting from the summit of the 
 cone, were numerous rudely-cut signs, which might have been taken for 
 ancient and unknown characters. They were the devices of the Sham- 
 mar, carved there on the visit of different Sheikhs. Each tribe, and, in- 
 deed, each subdivision and family, has its peculiar mark to be placed upon 
 their property and burnt upon their camels. Mijwell identified the signs ; 
 that of his own family, the Saadi, being amongst them. In little recesses, 
 carefully sheltered by heaped-up stones, were hung miniature cradles, like 
 those commonly suspended to the poles of a Bedouin tent. They had been 
 placed there as exvotos by Shammar women who wished to be mothers. 
 
 After I had examined the second large crater, — a deep hollow, surround- 
 ed by basaltic rocks, but without a projecting cone of lava, — we rode to- 
 wards the Jerujer, on whose banks the caravan was to await us. The 
 plain was still covered with innumerable fragments of basalt embedded in 
 scarlet poppies. We found our companions near the junction of the riv- 
 ers, where a raft had been constructed to enable us to cross the smaller 
 stream. I had sent the Bairakdar two days before to apprise Suleiman 
 Agha of my intended visit, and to learn how far I coulciiwith safety take 
 Mohammed Emin with me to the Turkish camp. He *>Tad returned, and 
 was waiting for me. The Agha had given a satisfactory guarantee for the 
 Sheikh's safety, and had sent an officer, with a party of irregular troops, to 
 receive me. 
 
 We had scarcely crossed the river before a large body of horsemen were 
 seen approaching us. As they drew nigh I recognised in the Turkish com- 
 mander an old friend, " the Topal," or lame, Suleiman Agha, as he was 
 generally called in the country. He had been Kiayah or lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor, to the celebrated Injeh Bairakdar Mohammed Pasha, and, like his 
 former master, possessed considerable intelligence, energy, and activity. 
 From his long connection with the tribes of the Desert, his knowledge of 
 their manners, and his skill in detecting and devising treacheries and strat- 
 
 * The name of Hawaii, by which this branch of the Khabour appears to have been 
 called by the Arab geographers, and which is retained in our maps, appears to be d( - 
 rived from the " Hoi," which will be described hereafter. The course of the stream 
 is also erroneously laid down in all the maps ; and, what is more curious, is as 
 wrongly described by the Arab writers, some of whom place a branch of it to the 
 south-east of the Sinjar, confounding it apparently with the Thathar. 
 
254 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAI\ XIV 
 
 agems, lie was generally chosen to lead expeditions against the Arabs. 
 He was now, as I have stated, endeavoring to recover the government 
 treasure plundered by the Hamoud Bedouins. 
 
 He was surrounded by Hyta-Bashis, or commanders of irregular cavalry, 
 flittering with gold and silver-mounted arms, and rich in embroidered jack- 
 ets, and silken robes, by Aghas of the Chichi and Milli Kurds, and by sev- 
 eral Arab chiefs. About five hundred horsemen, preceded by their small 
 kettle-drums, crowded behind him. His tents were about six miles distant ; 
 and, after exchanging the usual salutations, we turned towards them. 
 Many fair speeches could scarcely calm the fears of the timid Jebour 
 Sheikh. Mijwell, on the other hand, rode boldly along, casting contempt- 
 uous glances at the irregular cavalry, as they galloped to and fro in mimic 
 combat. 
 
 The delta, formed by the two streams, was covered with tents. We 
 wended our way through crowds of sheep, horses, cattle, and camels. The 
 Chichi and Milli Kurds, who encamp during the spring at the foot of the 
 mountains of Mardin, had now sought, under the protection of the Turkish 
 soldiery, the rich pastures of the Khabour, and many families of the Sher- 
 abbeen, Buggara, and Harb Arabs had joined the encampment.* 
 
 Suleiman Agha lived under the spacious canvas of the Chichi chief. 
 The tents of the Kurdish tribes, who wander in the low country at the foot 
 of the mountains in winter and spring, and seek the hill pastures in the 
 summer, and especially those of the principal men, are remarkable for their 
 size, and the richness of their carpets and furniture. They are often divi- 
 ded into as many as four or five distinct compartments, by screens of light 
 cane or reeds, bc^id together with many-colored woollen threads, disposed 
 in elegant patter.^ and devices. Carpets hung above these screens com- 
 plete divisions, v 1 that set aside for the women a smaller partition incloses 
 a kind of private room for the head of the family and his wives. The rest 
 of the harem is filled with piles of carpets, cushions, domestic furniture, 
 cooking utensils, skins for making butter, and all the necessaries of a wan- 
 dering life. Here the handmaidens prepare the dinner for their master and 
 his guests. In the tents of the great chiefs there is a separate compart- 
 ment for the servants, and one for the mares and colts. 
 
 I sat a short time with Suleiman Agha, drank coffee, smoked, and list- 
 ened patiently to a long discourse on the benefits of tanzimat, which had 
 pit an end to bribes, treachery, and irregular taxation, especially intended 
 for Mohammed Emin, who was, however, by no means reassured by it. I 
 then adjourned to my own tents, which had been pitched upon the bank* 
 of the river opposite a well-wooded island, and near a ledge of rocks form- 
 ing one of those beautiful falls of water so frequent in this part of the Kha- 
 bour. Around us were the pavilions of the Hytas, those of the chiefs 
 
 * The Harb is a branch of the great tribe of the same name inhabiting the north- 
 ern part of the Hedjaz, which, in consequence of some blood-feud, migrated many 
 years ago to Mesopotamia. 
 
Chap XIV 1 encampment at um-jerjeh. 265 
 
 marked by their scarlet standards. At a short distance from the stream 
 the tents of the Kurds were pitched in parallel lines forming regular 
 streets, and not scattered, like those of the Bedouins, without order over the 
 plain. Between us and them were picketed the horses of the cavalry, and 
 as far as the eye could reach beyond, grazed the innumerable flocks and 
 herds of the assembled tribes. 
 
 We were encamped near the foot of a large artificial Tel called Um- Jer- 
 jeh ; and on the opposite side of the Khabour were other mounds of the 
 same name. My Jebour workmen began to excavate in these ruins the 
 day after our arrival. I remained in my tent to receive the visits of the 
 Kurdish chiefs and of the commanders of the irregular cavalry. From 
 these freebooters I have derived much curious and interesting information 
 relating to the various provinces of the Turkish empire and their inhabit- 
 ants, mingled with pleasant anecdotes and vivid descriptions of men and 
 manners. They are generally very intelligent, frank, and hospitable. Al- 
 though too often unscrupulous and cruel, they unite many of the good qual- 
 ities of the old Turkish soldier with most of his vices. They love hard- 
 drinking and gambling, staking their horses, arms, and even clothes, on the 
 most childish game of chance. Their pay, at the same time, is miserably 
 small, rarely exceeding a few shillings a month, and they are obliged to 
 plunder the peaceable inhabitants to supply their actual wants. The race 
 is now fast disappearing before the Nizam, or regular troops. 
 
 On the second day, accompanied by Mijwell, I visited a large mound 
 called Mijdel, on the right bank of the river about five miles above Um- 
 Jerjeh. We rode through the golden meadows, crossing the remains of 
 ancient canals and watercourses, and passing the ruins of former habita- 
 tions. A Sheikh of the Buggara was with us, an intelligent Arab, whose 
 tribe in times of quiet encamp at Ras-al-Ain near the sources of the Kha- 
 bour. The Aneyza were out on this side of the Euphrates, and were 
 prowling over the Desert in search of plunder. As Suleiman Agha de- 
 clared that, without an escort of at least one hundred horsemen, I could not 
 go to Ras-al-Ain, I was unable to visit the extensive ruins which are said 
 to exist there. 
 
 Ras-al-Ain was once a place of considerable importance. It was known 
 to the ancients under the name of Hasina. Benjamin of Tudela found two 
 hundred Jews dwelling there in the 12th century.^ The Arabs assured 
 me that columns and sculptures still mark the site of the ancient city. 
 Their accounts are, however, probably exaggerated. 
 
 Mijdel is a lofty platform, surrounded by groups of smaller mounds, 
 amongst which may still be traced the lines of streets and canals. It is 
 about four or five miles from the ridge of Abd-ul-Azeez. These low hills, 
 
 * The name is by some error omitted in the Hebrew text, but it is evident, from 
 the distance to Harran, that Ras-al-Ain is meant. Asher (Benjamin of Tudeln- 
 Itinerary, note to passage, vol. ii. p. 128.) points out that it should be the sources of 
 the Khabour, not the mouth, as usually translated. 
 
266 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIV 
 
 scantily wooded with dwarf oak, are broken into innumerable valleys and 
 ravines, which abound, it is said, with wild goats, boars, leopards, and oth- 
 er animals. According to my Bedouin informants, the ruins of ancient 
 towns and villages still exist, but they could only give me the name of one, 
 Zakkarah. The hills are crossed in the centre by a road called Maghli- 
 yah, from an abundant spring. On the opposite side of the Khabour, and 
 running parallel with the Abd-ul-Azeez range, is another line of small hills, 
 called Harama. in which their are many wells.* 
 
 The Shammar Bedouins encamp on the banks of this part of the Kha- 
 bour during the hot jnonths. The mound of Mijdel is a favorite resort of 
 the Boraij in the " eye of the summer :" the waters of the river are al- 
 ways cool, and there is sufficient pasture for the flocks and herds of the 
 whole tribe. 
 
 An Arab whom I met in the tent of one of the Hyta-Bashis, pretended 
 that he was well acquainted with the ruins called Verhan-Shehr,f of 
 which I had so frequently heard from the natives of Mardin and the Sham- 
 mar. He described them as being on a hill three days distant from our 
 encampment, and to consist of columns, buildings, and sculptured stones 
 like those of Palmyra. The Turkish Government at one time wished to 
 turn the ancient edifices into barracks, and to place a garrison in the place 
 to keep the Arabs in check. 
 
 In the evening Mohammed Emin left us. Suleiman Agha had already 
 invested him with a robe of honor, and had prevailed upon him to join 
 with Ferhan in taking measures for the recovery of the plundered treasure. 
 The scarlet cloak and civil treatment had conciliated the Jebour chief, and 
 when he parted with the Turkish commander in my tent there was an un- 
 usual display of mutual compliments and pledges of eternal friendship. 
 Mijwell looked on with indignant contempt, swearing between his teeth 
 that all Jebours were but degenerate, ploughing Arabs, and cursing the 
 whole order of temmi?iaks.% 
 
 We were detained at Umjerjeh several days by the severe illness of Mr. 
 Hormuzd Rassam. I took the opportunity to visit the tents of the Milli, 
 whose chief, Mousa Agha, had invited us to a feast. On our way thither 
 we passed several encampments of Chichi, Sherrabeen, and Harb, the men 
 
 * The Buggara chief gave me the following names for mounds, in the order in 
 which they occur, between Mijdel and Ras-al-Ain. The Gla (Kalah) or Tel Romana. 
 a large mound visible from Mijdel ; El Mogas, near a ford and a place called El Auja ; 
 El Tumr, about four hours from Umjerjeh, at the junction of the Zergan, a small 
 -tream coming from Ghours, in the mountains to the west of Mardin ; El Tawileh, 
 a large mound fourteen or fifteen miles from Mijdel, and just visible ; Om Kaifah. 
 Tal Jahash, and Gutinah. On the river bank opposite to Mijdel are several groups 
 of mounds called Dibbs. Near Ras-al-Ain is a mound, whether natural or artificial I 
 could not ascertain, called El Chibeseh. 
 
 t J. e. The ancient ruined city, a name very generally given by the Turks to ruins. 
 
 t The form of salutation used by the Turks, consisting of raising the hand from the 
 breast, or sometimes from the ground, to the forehead. 
 
Chap XIV.] visit the milli. 267 
 
 and women running out and pressing us to stop and eat bread. The spa- 
 cious tent of the chief was divided by partitions of reeds tastefully inter- 
 woven with colored wool. The coolest part of the salamlik had been pre- 
 pared for our reception, and was spread with fine carpets and silken cush- 
 ions. The men of the tribe, amongst whom were many tall and handsome 
 youths, were dressed in clean and becoming garments. They assembled in 
 great numbers, but left the top of the tent entirely to us, seating themselves, 
 or standing at the sides and bottom, which was wide enough to admit 
 twenty-four men crouched together in a row. The chief and his brothers, 
 followed by their servants bearing trays loaded with cups, presented the 
 coffee to their guests. 
 
 After some conversation we went to the harem, and were received by his 
 mother, a venerable lady, with long silvery locks and a dignified counte- 
 nance and demeanor. Her dress was of the purest white and scrupulous- 
 ly clean. Altogether she was almost the only comely old woman I had 
 seen amongst Eastern tribes. The wives and daughters of the chiefs, with 
 a crowd of women, were collected in the tent. Amongst them were many 
 distinguished by their handsome features. They had not the rich olive 
 complexion or graceful carriage of the Bedouin girls, nor their piercing 
 eyes or long black eyelashes. Their beauty was more European, some 
 having even light hair and blue eyes. It was evident, at a glance, that 
 they were of a different race from the wandering tribes of the Desert. 
 
 The principal ladies led us into the private compartment, divided by 
 colored screens from the rest of the tent. It was furnished with more than 
 usual luxury. The cushions were of the choicest silk, and the carpets (in 
 the manufacture of which the Milli excel) of the best fabric. Sweetmeats 
 and coffee had been prepared for us, and the women did not object to par- 
 take of them at the same time. Mousa Agha's mother described the va- 
 rious marriage ceremonies of the tribe. Our account of similar matters in 
 Europe excited great amusement amongst the ladies. The Milli girls are 
 highly prized by the Kurds. Twenty purses, nearly £100, we were boast- 
 ingly told, had been given for one of unusual attractions. The chief point- 
 ed out one of his own wives who had cost him that sum. Other members 
 of the same establishment had deserved a less extravagant investiture of 
 money. The prettiest girls were called before us, and the old lady ap- 
 praised each, amidst the loud laughter of their companions, who no doubt 
 rejoiced to see their friends valued at their true worth. They were all ta- 
 tooed on the arms, and on other parts of the body, but less so than the 
 Bedouin ladies. The operation is performed by Arab women, who wander 
 from tent to tent for the purpose. Several were present, and wished to 
 give us an immediate proof of their skill upon ourselves. We declined, 
 however. It is usually done at the age of six or seven : the punctures arc 
 made by a needle, and the blue color is produced by a mixture of gun- 
 powder and indigo rubbed into the wounds. The process is tedious and 
 painful, as the designs are frequently most elaborate, covering the whole 
 
268 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 body. The Kurdish ladies do not, like the Mussulman women of the town, 
 conceal their features with a veil ; nor do they object to mingle, or even 
 eat with the men. During my stay at Umjerjeh I invited the harem of 
 the Chichi chief, and their friends, to a feast in my tent — an invitation they 
 accepted with every sign of satisfaction. 
 
 The Blilli were formerly one of the wealthiest Kurdish tribes. Early 
 in this century, when the hereditary chiefs in different parts of the empire 
 were still almost independent of the Porte, this clan held the whole plain 
 country between the hills of Mardin and the Khabour, exacting a regular 
 baj, or black-mail, from caravans and travellers passing through their ter- 
 ritories. This was a fruitful source of revenue when an extensive com 
 merce was carried on between Aleppo and Baghdad, and the Aghas were 
 frequently, on account of their wealth and power, raised to the rank of 
 pashas by the Sultan. The last was Daoud Pasha, a chief well known in 
 Mesopotamia. Like other Kurdish tribes, the Milli had been brought un- 
 der the immediate control of the local governors, and were now included 
 within the pashalic of Diarbekir. They still possessed all the riches that 
 nomades can well possess, when they were wantonly plundered, and almost 
 reduced to want, by the Turkish troops three years ago. Although the 
 Porte openly condemned the outrage, and had promised compensation, n<> 
 step whatever had been taken to restore the stolen property, the greater 
 part of which had passed into the government treasury. 
 
 We had an excellent dinner in the salamik, varied by many savoury 
 dishes and delicacies sent from the harem : such as truffles, dressed in dif- 
 ferent ways, several preparations of milk and cream ; honey, curds, &c. 
 After we had retired, the other guests were called to the feast by relays. 
 The chief, however, always remained seated before the dishes, eating a lit- 
 tle with all, and leaving his brother to summon those who were invited : 
 such being the custom amongst these Kurds. 
 
 Mijwell, during our visit, had been seated in a corner, his eyes wander- 
 ing from the tent and its furniture to the horses and mares picketed with- 
 out, and to the flocks pasturing around. He cast, every now and then, sig- 
 nificant glances towards me, which said plainly enough, " All this ought to 
 belong to the Bedouins. These people and their property were made for 
 ghazous." As we rode away I accused him of evil intentions. {; Billah. 
 ya Bej !" said he, " there is, indeed, enough to make a man's heart grow 
 white with envy ; but I have now eaten his bread under your shadow, and 
 should even his stick, wherewith he drives his camel, fall into my hand, I 
 would send it to him." He entertained me, as we returned home, with 
 the domestic affairs of his family. Rathaiyah had offered herself in mar- 
 riage to Suttum, and not he to her ; a common proceeding, it would ap- 
 pear, among the Bedouins. Suttum had consented, because he thought it 
 politic to be thus allied with the Abde, one of the most powerful branches 
 of the Shammar, generally at war with the rest of the tribe. But his new 
 wife, besides having sent away her rival, had already offended his famih 
 
Chap XIV 1 matrimonial negotiation. 269 
 
 by her pride and haughtiness. Mijwell rather looked upon his brother 
 with pity, as a henpecked husband. He himself, although already mar- 
 ried to one wife, and betrothed to Maizi, whom he would soon be able to 
 claim, was projecting a third marriage. His heart had been stolen by an 
 unseen damsel, whose beauties and virtues had been the theme of some 
 wandering Arab rhymers, and she was of the Fedhan Aneyza, the mortal 
 enemies of the Shammar. Her father was the Sheikh of the tribe, and his 
 tents were on the other side of the Euphrates. The difficulties and dan- 
 gers of the courtship served only to excite still more the ardent mind of 
 the Bedouin. His romantic imagination had pictured a perfection of love- 
 liness ; his whole thoughts were now occupied in devising the means of 
 possessing this treasure.* He had already apprised the girl of his love by 
 a trusty messenger, one of her own tribe, living with the Shammar. His 
 confidant had extolled the graces, prowess, and wealth of the young Sheikh, 
 with all the eloquence of a Bedouin poet, and had elicited a favorable re- 
 ply. More than one interchange of sentiments had, by such means, since 
 passed between them. The damsel had, at last, promised him her hand, 
 if he could claim her in her own tent. Mijwell had now planned a scheme 
 which he was eager to put into execution. Waiting until the Fedhan 
 were so encamped that he could approach them without being previously 
 seen, he would mount his deloul, and leading his best mare, ride to the tent 
 of the girl's father. Meat would, of course, be laid before him, and hav- 
 ing eaten, he would be the guest, and under the protection of the Sheikh. 
 On the following morning he would present his mare, describing her race 
 and qualities, to his host, and ask his daughter ; offering, at the same time, 
 to add any other gift that might be thought worthy of her. The father, who 
 would probably not be ignorant of what had passed between the lovers, 
 would at once consent to the union, and give back the mare to his future 
 son-in-law. The marriage would shortly afterwards be solemnised, and an 
 alliance would thus be formed between the two tribes. Such was Mij well's 
 plan, and it was one not unfrequently adopted by Bedouins under similar 
 circumstances. 
 
 A Bedouin will never ask money or value in kind for his daughter, as 
 fathers do amongst the sedentary tribes and in towns, where girls are lit- 
 erally sold to their husbands, but he will consult her wishes, and she mav, 
 as she thinks fit, accept or reject a suitor, so long as he be not her cousin. 
 Presents are frequently made by the lover to the damsel herself before mar- 
 riage, but rarely to the parents. Although the Bedouin chiefs have some- 
 times taken wives from the towns on the borders of the Desert, such as Mo- 
 sul, Baghdad, or Aleppo, it is very rare to find townspeople, or Arabs of the 
 cultivating tribes, married to Bedouin women. I have, however, known 
 instances. 
 
 The laws of Dakheel, another very remarkable branch of Bedouin legis- 
 
 * Burckhardt remarks that « Bedouins are, perhaps, the only people of the East 
 that can be entitled true lovers." (Notes on Bedouins, p. 155.) 
 
270 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 lation, in force amongst the Shammar, are nearly the same as those of the 
 Aneyza and Hedjaz Arabs, of which Burckhardt has given so full and in- 
 teresting an account. I have little, therefore, to add upon the subject, but 
 its importance demands a few words. No customs are more religiously 
 respected by the true Arab than those regulating the mutual relations of 
 the protected and protector. A violation of Dakheel (as this law is called) 
 would be considered a disgrace not only upon the individual, but upon his 
 family, and even upon his tribe, which never could be wiped out. No 
 greater insult can be offered to a man, or to his clan, than to say that he 
 has broken the Dakheel. A disregard of this sacred obligation is the first 
 symptom of degeneracy in an Arab tribe ; and when once it exists, the 
 treachery and vices of the Turk rapidly succeed to the honesty 'and fidelity 
 of the true Arab character. The relations between the Dakheel and the 
 Dakhal (or the protector and protected) arise from a variety of circum- 
 stances, the principal of Which are, eating a man's salt and bread, and 
 claiming his protection by doing certain acts, or repeating a certain formu- 
 la of words. Amongst the Shammar, if a man can seize the end of a 
 string or thread, the other end of which is held by his enemy, he imme- 
 diately becomes his Dakheel.* If he touch the canvas of a tent, or can even 
 throw his mace towards it, he is the Dakheel of its owner. If he can spit 
 upon a man, or touch any article belonging to him with his teeth, he is 
 Dakhal, unless of course, in case of theft, it be the person who caught him. 
 A woman can protect any number of persons, or even of tents. f If a horse- 
 man ride into a tent, he and his horse are Dakhal. A stranger who has 
 eaten with a Shammar, can give Dakheel to his enemy ; for instance, I 
 could protect an Aneyza, though there is blood between his tribe and the 
 Shammar. According to Mijwell, any person, by previously calling out 
 " Nuffa" (I renounce), may reject an application for Dakheel. 
 
 The Shammar never plunder a caravan within sight of their encampment, 
 for as long as a stranger can see their tents they consider him their Dak- 
 heel. If a man who has eaten bread and slept in a tent, steal his host's 
 
 * For the very singular customs as to the confinement and liberation of a haramy, 
 or robber, and of the relation between a rabat and his rabiet, or the captor and the 
 captive, see Burckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins, p. 89. I can bear witness to the 
 truth and accuracy of his account, having during my early wanderings amongst the 
 Bedouins witnessed nearly everything he describes. The English reader can have 
 no correct idea of the habits and manners of the wandering tribes of the Desert, hab- 
 its and manners probably dating from the remotest antiquity, and consequently of the 
 highest interest, without reading the truthful descriptions of this admirable traveller. 
 
 t In the winter of the year of my residence in Babylonia, after an engagement near 
 Baghdad between the Boraij and the regular Turkish troops, in which the latter were 
 defeated, a flying soldier was caught within sight of an encampment. His captor3 
 were going to put him to death, when he stretched his hands towards the nearest 
 tent, claiming the Dakheel of its owner, who chanced to be Sahiman, Mij well's eld- 
 est brother. The Sheikh was absent from home, but his beautiful wife Noura an- 
 swered to the appeal, and seizing a tent-pole, heat off his pursuers and saved his life. 
 This conduct was much applauded by the Bedouins. 
 
Chap. XIV.] A bed °uin poet. 271 
 
 horse, he is dishonored, and his tribe also, unless they send back the stolen 
 animal. Should the horse die, the thief himself should be delivered up, to 
 be treated as the owner of the stolen property thinks fit. If two enemies 
 meet and exchange the "Salam aleikum" even by mistake, there is peace 
 between them, and they will not fight. It is disgraceful to rob a woman 
 of her clothes ; and if a female be found amongst a party of plundered 
 Arabs, even the enemy of her tribe will give her a horse to ride back to 
 her tents. If a man be pursued by an enemy, or even be on the ground, he 
 can save his life by calling out " Dakheel," unless there be blood between 
 them. It would be considered cowardly and unworthy of a Shammar to 
 deprive an enemy of his camel or horse where he could neither reach wa- 
 ter or an encampment. "When Bedouins meet persons in the midst of the 
 Desert, they will frequently take them within a certain distance of tents, 
 and, first pointing out their site, then deprive them of their property. 
 
 An Arab who has given his protection to another, whether formally, or 
 by an act which confers the privilege of Dakheel, is bound to protect hi? 
 Dakhal under all circumstances, even to the risk of his own property and 
 life. I could relate many instances of the greatest sacrifices having been 
 made by individuals, and even of whole tribes having been involved in war 
 with powerful enemies by whom they have been almost utterly destroyed; 
 in defence of this most sacred obligation. Even the Turkish rulers respect 
 a law to which they may one day owe their safety, and more than one 
 haughty Pasha of Baghdad has found refuge and protection in the tent of 
 a poor Arab Sheikh, whom, during the days of his prosperity, he had sub- 
 jected to every injury and wrong, and yet who would then defy the gov- 
 ernment itself, and risk his very life, rather than surrender his guest. The 
 essence of Arab virtue is a respect for the laws of hospitality, of which the 
 Dakheel in all its various forms is but a part. 
 
 Amongst the Bedouins who watched our camels was one Saoud, a poet 
 of renown amongst the tribes. With the exception of a few ballads that 
 he had formerly composed in honor of Sofuk, and other celebrated Shammar 
 Sheikhs, he chiefly recited extemporary stanzas on passing events, or on 
 persons who were present. He would sit in my tent of an evening, and 
 sing his verses in a wild, though plaintive, strain, to the great delight of 
 the assembled guests, and particularly of Mijwell, who, like a true Be- 
 douin, was easily affected by poetry, especially with such as might touch 
 his own passion for the unknown lady. He would sway his body to and 
 fro, keeping time with the measure, sobbing aloud as the poet sang the 
 death of his companions in war, breaking out into loud laughter when the 
 burden of the ditty was a satire upon his friends, making extraordinary 
 noises and grimaces to show his feelings, more like a drunken man than a 
 sober Bedouin. But when the bard improvised an amatory ditty, the young 
 chief's excitement was almost beyond control. The other Bedouins were 
 scarcely less moved by these rude measures, which have the same kind of 
 effect on the wild tribes of the Persian mountains. Such verses chanted 
 
272 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 by their self-taught poets, or by the girls of their encampment, will drive 
 warriors to the combat, fearless of death, or prove an ample reward on their 
 return from the dangers of the ghazon or the fight. The excitement they 
 produce exceeds that of the grape. He who would understand the influence 
 of the Homeric ballads in the heroic ages, should witness the effect which 
 similar compositions have upon the wild nomad es of the East. Amongst 
 the Kurds and Lours I have not met with bards who chanted extemporary 
 verses. Episodes from the great historical epics of Persia, and odes from 
 their favorite poets, are recited during war or in the tents of their chiefs 
 But the art of improvising seems innate in the Bedouin. Although his me 
 tre and mode of recitation are rude to European ears, his rich and sonorous 
 language lends itself to this species of poetry, whilst his exuberant imagina- 
 tion furnishes him with endless beautiful and appropriate allegories. The 
 wars between the tribes, the ghazou, and their struggles with the Turks are 
 inexhaustible themes for verse, and in an Arab tent there is little else to af- 
 ford excitement or amusement. The Bedouins have no books ; even a Ko- 
 ran is seldom seen amongst them : it is equally rare to find a wandering 
 Arab who can read. They have no written literature, and their traditional 
 history consists of little more than the tales of a few storytellers who wan- 
 der from encampment to encampment, and earn their bread by chanting 
 verses to the monotonous tones of a one-stringed fiddle made of a gourd cov- 
 ered with sheep-skin. 
 
 The extemporary odes which Saoud sung before us were chiefly in praise 
 of those present, or a good-natured satire upon some of our party. 
 
 The day of our departure now drew nigh, and Suleiman Agha, to do us 
 honor, invited us to a general review of the irregular troops under his com- 
 mand. The horsemen of the Milli and Chichi Kurds, and of the Arab tribes 
 who encamped with, them, joined the Turkish cavalry, and added to the 
 interest and beauty of the display. The Hyta-Bashis were, as usual, re- 
 splendent in silk and gold. There were some high-bred horses in the field ; 
 but the men, on the whole, were badly mounted, and the irregular cavalry 
 is daily degenerating throughout the empire. The Turkish Government 
 have unwisely neglected a branch of their national armies to which they 
 owed most of their great victories, and at one time their superiority over 
 all their neighbours. The abolition of the Spahiliks, and other military 
 tenures, has, of course, contributed much to this result, and has led to the 
 deterioration of that excellent breed of horses which once distinguished the 
 Ottoman light cavalry. No effort is now made by the government to 
 keep up the race, and the scanty pay of the irregular troops is not suffi- 
 cient to enable them to obtain even second-rate animals. Everything has 
 been sacrificed to the regular army, undoubtedly an essential element of 
 national defence ; but in a future war the Turks will probably find reason 
 to regret that they have altogether sacrificed to it the ancient irregular 
 horse. 
 
 The Kurds, although encumbered by their long flowing garments and 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 THE IRREGULAR CAVALRY. 
 
 273 
 
 huge turbans, are not bad horsemen. Mijwell, however, as he scanned the 
 motley crowd with his eagle eye, included them all in one expression of 
 ineffable contempt. 
 
 The Tent of the Milli Chief. 
 S 
 
Volcanic Cone of Koukab. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DEPARTURE FROM THE KHABOUR. ARAB SAGACITY. THE HOL. THE LAKE OF KHATLOM- 
 
 YAH. RETURN OF SUTTUM. ENCAMPMENT OF THE SHAMMAR. ARAB HORSES — THEIR 
 
 BREEDS — THEIR VALUE THEIR SPEED. SHEIKH FERHAN. YEZIDI VILLAGES. FAL- 
 CONS. AN ALARM. ABOU MARIA. ESKI MOSUL. ARRIVAL AT MOSUL. RETURN OF 
 
 SUTTUM TO THE DESERT. 
 
 Mr. Hormuzd Rassam having sufficiently recovered from his dangerous 
 illness to be able to ride a deloul, and no remains, except pottery and bricks, 
 having been discovered in the mounds of Um-Jerjeh, we left the encamp- 
 ment of Suleiman Agha on the 29th of April, on our return to Mosul. We 
 crossed the Jerujer near its junction with the Khabour, where two mounds, 
 named Al Hasieha and Abou-Bekr, rise on the left bank of the river. 
 
 We again visited the remarkable volcanic cone of Koukab. As we drew 
 near to it, Mijwell detected, in the loose soil, the foot-prints of two men, 
 which he immediately recognised to be those of Shammar thieves return- 
 ing from the Kurdish encampments. The sagacity of the Bedouin in de- 
 termining from such marks, whether of man or beast, and, from similar in- 
 dications, the tribe, time of passing, and business, of those who may have 
 left them, with many other particulars, is well known. In this respect 
 he resembles the American Indian, though the circumstances differ under 
 which the two are called upon to exercise this peculiar faculty. The c i 
 seeks or avoids his enemy in vast plains, which, for three-fourths of the 
 year, are without any vegetation ; the other tracks his prey through thick 
 woods and high grass. This quickness of perception is the result of con- 
 
Chap. XV.] ARAB sagacity. 275 
 
 tinual observation and of caution encouraged from earliest youth. When 
 the warriors of a tribe are engaged in distant forays or in war, their tents 
 and flocks are frequently left to the care of a mere child. He must receive 
 strangers, amongst whom may be those having claims of blood upon his 
 family, and must guard against marauders, who may be lurking about the 
 encampment. Every unknown sign and mark must be examined and ac- 
 counted for. If he should see the track of a horseman, he must ask himself 
 why one so near the dwellings did not stop to eat bread or drink water ? 
 was he a spy ; one of a party meditating an attack ? or a traveller, who did 
 not know the site of the tents ? When did he pass ? From whence did he 
 come ? Whilst the child in a civilised country is still under the care of its 
 nurse, the Bedouin boy is compelled to exercise his highest faculties, and on 
 his prudence and sagacity may sometimes depend the safety of his tribe. 
 
 The expert Bedouin can draw conclusions from the footprints and dung 
 of animals that would excite the astonishment of an European. He will 
 tell whether the camel was loaded or unloaded, whether recently fed or suf- 
 fering from hunger, whether fatigued or fresh, the time when it passed by, 
 whether the owner was a man of the desert or of the town, whether a 
 friend or foe, and sometimes even the name of his tribe. I have fre- 
 quently been cautioned by my Bedouin companions not to dismount from 
 my dromedary, that my footsteps might not be recognised as those of a 
 stranger ; and my deloul has even been led by my guide to prevent those 
 who might cross our path from detecting that it was ridden by one not 
 thoroughly accustomed to the management of the animal. It would be 
 easy to explain the means, simple enough indeed, by which the Arab of 
 the Desert arrives at these results. In each case there is a train of logical 
 deduction, merely requiring common acuteness and great experience. 
 
 We encamped for the night near the mound of Thenenir, and resumed 
 our journey on the following morning. Bidding farewell to the pleasant 
 banks of the Khabour, we struck into the Desert in the direction of the Sin- 
 jar. Extensive beds of gypsum, or alabaster, such as was used in the As- 
 syrian edifices, formed for some miles the surface of the plain. Its salt and 
 nitrous exudations destroy vegetation, unless there be sufficient soil about 
 it to nourish the roots of herbs ; generally, only the cracks and fissures in 
 the strata are marked by lines of grass and flowers crossing the plain like 
 the meshes of a many-colored net. 
 
 We soon approached a dense mass of reeds and rank herbage, covering 
 a swamp called the Hoi, which extends from the Lake of Khatouniyah to 
 within a short distance of the Khabour. This jungle is the hiding-place 
 of many kinds of wild beasts : lions lurk in it, and in the thick cover the 
 Bedouins find their cubs. As we drew near to the first spring that feeds 
 the marsh, about eight miles from Thenenir, we saw a leopard stealing 
 from the high grass. When pursued, the animal turned and entered the 
 thickets before the horseman could approach it. 
 
 When we reached the head spring of the Hoi, the Jebours fired the jun- 
 
. 
 
Chap XY 1 LAKE 0F KHAT0UNIYAH - 277 
 
 gle, and the flames soon spread far and wide. Long after we had left the 
 marsh we could hear the crackling of the burning reeds, and until night- 
 fall the sky was darkened by thick volumes of smoke. 
 
 Durin°- our journey an Arab joined us, riding on a deloul, with his wife. 
 His two children were crammed into a pair of saddle bags, a black head 
 peeping out of either side. He had quarrelled with his kinsmen, and was 
 moving with his family and little property to another tribe. 
 
 After a six hours' ride we found ourselves upon the margin of a small 
 lake, whose quiet surface reflected the deep blue of the cloudless sky. To 
 the south of it rose a line of low undulating hills, and to the east the fur- 
 rowed mountain of the Sinjar. On all other sides was the Desert, in 
 which this solitary sheet of water lay like a mirage. In the midst of the 
 lake was a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a narrow causeway, and 
 beyond it a small island. On the former were the ruins of a town, whose 
 falling walls and towers were doubled in the clear waters. It would be 
 difficult to imagine a scene more calm, more fair, or more unlooked for in 
 the midst of a wilderness. It was like fairy-land. 
 
 The small town of Khatouniyah was, until recently, inhabited by a tribe 
 of Arabs. A feud, arising out of the rival pretensions of two chiefs, sprang 
 up amongst them. The factions fought, many persons were killed, and 
 the place was consequently deserted, one party joining the Tai Arabs near 
 Nisibin, the other the Yezidis of Keraniyah. We traced the remains of 
 cultivation, and the dry water-courses, which once irrigated plots of rice 
 and melon beds. The lake may be about six miles in circumference. 
 From its abundant supply of water, and its central position between the 
 Sinjar and the Khabour, Khatouniyah must at one time have been a place 
 of some importance. 
 
 The few remains that exist do not belong to an earlier period than the 
 Arab. The small town occupies the whole of the peninsula, and is sur- 
 rounded by a wall, rising from the water's edge, with a gate opening on 
 the narrow causeway. The houses were of stone, and the rooms vaulted. 
 In the deserted streets were still standing the ruins of a small bazar, a 
 mosque, and a bath. 
 
 The water of the lake, although brackish, like nearly all the springs in 
 this part of the Desert, is not only drinkable, but, according to the Bedou- 
 ins, exceedingly wholesome for man. and beast. It abounds in fish, some 
 of which are said to be of very considerable size. As we approached, the 
 Bairakdar, seeing something struggling in a shallow, rode to it, and cap- 
 tured a kind of barbel, weighing above twenty pounds. Water-fowl and 
 waders, of various kinds, congregate on the shores. The stately crane and 
 the graceful egret, with its snow-white plumage and feathery crest, stand 
 lazily on its margin ; and thousands of ducks and teal eddy on its surface 
 round the unwieldy pelican. 
 
 Our tents were pitched on the very water's edge. At sunset a few 
 clouds which lingered in the western sky were touched with the golden 
 
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 paces by which my eomjnaka's body had 
 :.: 7m. Jmmm ._ i 'mi m i ;mmL 
 showex! the mogSlirek agios of grief: but whea he aw the 
 mm-.: :-::::: :.; m- mmm m. i ms mmmmj M.f- m :mm- 
 
 We rode over a low immolating euualij at the foot of the Sinj ar bilk, 
 r~tM it., mi MMif Mmr i m: ::'£:— m« Amm Mr mm mm 7 .i- 
 -•.:_.:.•:; mm : \ mm_ Mr m rrrir. m..m Mm -mm m - m : :. :m 
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 t m m i mmmm :.m.m mm L Smm. Mr.: MM: 
 mm:: m:m m m mm I f>fr; ~f immm m i 
 
 .V 1MM Mf MMMT. MMMM. M "M.i Mr : .1:1 
 
 MMM MMM 
 
 :.: Mr :.:::.:. : : Mr S m: jmtmm :.: Mr.; 
 .: Mf m-: mm M Mf 7m' ■:.:: 7:.: m-= mmm mm 
 £1; v. :'.; — mm i:L ! mm Mf —"-.-_ r 117 MMf - m if 
 
 -..: i:L m: *:•-:: t- :m mmm::: L «m. m:::m 
 mm :. :..: J-.i mm mit- m :. ::m M7Mi m ::._> m Mr ir:_:Lri 
 
 m :::•: 1: i iMMM.r : .m 
 7... mm- -mm M-.mm. M..M r i m :m m mm f mm "m:im 
 mm m Mr.; M.:i ;':i: .: ml .x>: mm: Mf.; :mm ii: :.: 
 strained over the flam. It k to their perfect freedom whilst young that 
 Mr > m: Mr I . -.;: m m Mr.; mm: m: Mr mm.mmm ::m:m^ 
 It may mot be oat of place to add a few remarks oa the subject of Arab 
 ::;v:« L:.: ;, . - : - .: :• ~ ,-. >:.:~m i.T.if ::. : :::mm:m 
 .:_:: :-■: m rf irMri.ir: ii - Mr m:m:: :::m :;.f t.m- :m^: m.m mim- :. 
 
Chap. XV.] ARAB H0RSES - 279 
 
 the Prophet. The names, however, of these breeds vary amongst different 
 tribes. According to Suttum, who was better acquainted with the history 
 and traditions of the Bedouins than almost any Arab I ever met, they are 
 all derived from one original stock, the Koheyleh, which, in course of time, 
 was divided, after the names of celebrated mares, into the following five 
 branches : — Obeyan Sherakh, Hedba Zayhi, Manekia Hedrehji, Shouay- 
 mah Sablah, and Margoub.* These form the Kamse, or the five breeds, 
 from which alone entire horses are chosen to propagate the race. From 
 the Kamse have sprung a number of families no less noble, perhaps, than 
 the original five ; but the Shammar receive their stallions with suspicion, 
 or reject them altogether. Among the best known are the Wathna Kher- 
 san, so called from the mares being said to be worth their weight in gold 
 (noble horses of this breed are found amongst the Arab tribes inhabiting 
 the districts to the east of the Euphrates, the Beni Lam, Al Kamees, and 
 Al Kithere) ; Khalawi, thus named from a wonderful feat of speed per- 
 formed by a celebrated mare in Southern Mesopotamia ; Jaiaythani,f and 
 Julfa. The only esteemed race in the Desert which, according to Suttum, 
 cannot be traced to the Kamse, is the Saklawi, although considered by the 
 Shammar and by the Bedouins of the Gebel Shammar as one of the no- 
 blest, if not the noblest, of all. It is divided into three branches, the most 
 valued being the Saklawi Jedran, which is said to be now almost extinct. 
 The agents of Abbas Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt, sent into all parts of the 
 Desert to purchase the best horses, have especially sought for mares of this 
 breed. The prices given for them would appear enormous even to the 
 English reader. A Sheikh of the great tribe of the Al Dhofyr was offered 
 and refused for a mare no less than £1200, the negociation being carried 
 on through Faras, Sheikh of the Montefik, who received handsome presents 
 for the trouble he had taken in the matter. As much as a thousand pounds 
 is said to have been given to Sheikhs of the Aneyza for well-known mares. 
 So that, had the Pasha's challenge been accepted, the best blood in Arabia 
 would have been matched against the English racer. During my resi- 
 dence in the Desert I saw several horses which were purchased for the 
 Viceroy. 
 
 To understand how a man, who has perhaps not even bread enough to 
 feed himself and his children, can withstand the temptation of such large 
 sums, it must be remembered that, besides the affection proverbially felt 
 by the Bedouin for his mare, which might, perhaps, not be proof against 
 such a test, he is entirely dependent upon her for his happiness, his glory, 
 
 * According to Burckhardt, the five are, Taueyse, Manekia, Koheyleh, Saklawi, 
 and Julfa. He probably received these names from the Arabs of the Hedjaz, who 
 are less acquainted with the breeds of horses than the Shammar or Aneyza Bedou- 
 ins. (Notes on Arabs, p. 116., but at p. 253. he observes, that the Nedjd Arabs do 
 not reckon the Manekia and Julfa in the Kamse.) 
 
 t A well-known horse, named Merjian, long in my possession, and originally pur- 
 chased from the Arabs by my friend Mr. Ross, was of this breed. 
 
280 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XV 
 
 and, indeed, his very existence. An Arab possessing a horse unrivalled in 
 speed and endurance, and it would only be for such that prices like those 
 I have mentioned would be offered, is entirely his own master, and can 
 defy the world. Once on its back, no one can catch him. He may rob. 
 plunder, fight, and go to and fro as he lists. He believes in the word of 
 his Prophet, "that noble and fierce breeds of horses are true riches. ' ; 
 Without his mare, money would be of no value to him. It would either 
 become the prey of some one more powerful and better mounted than him- 
 self, would be spent in festivities, or be distributed amongst his kinsmen. 
 He could only keep his gold by burying it in some secret place, and of what 
 use would it then be to one who is never two days in the same spot, and 
 who wanders over a space of three or four hundred miles in the course of a 
 few months ? No man has a keener sense of the joys of liberty, and a 
 heartier hatred of restraint, than the true Bedouin. Give him the Desert, 
 his mare, and his spear, and he will not envy the wealth and power of the 
 greatest of the earth. He plunders and robs for the mere pleasure and ex- 
 citement which danger and glory afford. All he takes he divides amongst 
 his friends, and he gladly risks his life to get that which is spent in an 
 hour. An Arab will beg for a whole day for a shirt or a kerchief, and five 
 minutes after he has obtained it, he will give it to the first person who 
 may happen to admire it. 
 
 A mare is generally the property of two or more persons, who have a 
 share in her progeny, regulated by custom, and differing according to the 
 tribe. All the offspring of five celebrated mares belong by usage to the 
 head of the sub-tribe of the Ahl-Mohammed, and whenever horses descend- 
 ed from them are captured by the Shammar from the Aneyza or other 
 tribes, they may be claimed by him. They are merely brought to Ferhan, 
 the present chief, as a matter of form, and he returns them to their cap- 
 tors. Sofuk (his father), however, would frequently insist upon his right. 
 and bestow valuable mares thus obtained upon his immediate retainers. 
 The five breeds are Saklawi Jedran, Emlayah, Margoub, Hedba Enzaii, 
 and Hamdaniyah. 
 
 The largest number of horses, as well as those of the most esteemed 
 breeds, are still to be found, as in the time of Burckhardt, amongst the 
 tribes who inhabit Mesopotamia and the great plains watered by the Eu- 
 phrates and Tigris. These rich pastures, nourished by the rains of winter 
 and spring, the climate, and — according to the Arabs — the brackish water 
 of the springs rising in the gypsum, seem especially favorable to the rearing 
 of horses. The best probably belong to the Shammar and Aneyza tribes, a 
 rivalry existing between the two, and fame giving the superiority some- 
 times to one, sometimes to the other. The mares of the Aneyza have the 
 reputation of being the largest and most powerful, but as the two tribes 
 are always at war, plundering and robbing one another almost daily, their 
 horses are continually changing owners. 
 
 The present Sheikh of the Gebel Shammar, Ibn Reshid, has, I am in- 
 
Chap. XV.] ARAB H0RSES - 281 
 
 formed, a very choice stud of mares of the finest breeds, and their reputa- 
 tion has spread far and wide over the Desert. The Nawab of Oude, the 
 Ekbal-ed-Doulah, a good judge of horses, who had visited many of the 
 tribes, and had made the pilgrimage to the holy cities by the little fre- 
 quented route through the interior of Nedjd, assured me that the finest 
 horses he had ever seen were in the possession of the Shereef of Mecca 
 The Indian market is chiefly supplied by the Montefik tribes inhabiting the 
 banks of the lower Euphrates ; but the purity of their stock has been neg- 
 lected in consequence of the great demand, and a Montefik horse is not val- 
 ued by the true Bedouin. Horse-dealers, generally of the mixed Arab tribe 
 of Agayl, pay periodical visits to the Shammar and Aneyza to purchase colts 
 for exportation to India. They buy horses of high caste, which frequently 
 sell for large sums at Bombay. The dealers pay, in the Desert, from 30Z. 
 to 1501. for colts of two, three, and four years. The Agayles attach less 
 importance to blood than the Bedouins, and provided the horse has points 
 which seem suited to the Indian market, they rarely ask his pedigree. 
 The Arabs henoe believe that Europeans know nothing of blood, which 
 with them is the first consideration. 
 
 The horses thus purchased are sent to Bombay by native vessels at a 
 very considerable risk, whole cargoes being lost or thrown overboard dur- 
 ing storms every year. The trade is consequently very precarious, and less 
 flourishing now than it used to be. With the exception of one or two 
 great dealers at Baghdad and Busrah, most of those who have been en- 
 gaged in it have been ruined. 
 
 The Arab horse is more remarkable for its exquisite symmetry and beau- 
 tiful proportions, united with wonderful powers of endurance, than for ex- 
 traordinary speed. I doubt whether any Arab of the best blood has ever 
 been brought to England. The difficulty of obtaining them is so great, 
 hat they are scarcely ever seen beyond the limits of the Desert. 
 
 Their color is generally white, light or dark grey, light chesnut, and bay, 
 with white or black feet. Black is exceedingly rare, and I never remem- 
 ber to have seen dun, sorrel, or dapple. I refer, of course, to the true-bred 
 Arab, and not to the Turcoman or to Kurdish and Turkish races, which 
 are a cross between the Arab and Persian. 
 
 Their average height is from 14 hands to 14 J, rarely reaching 15 ; I 
 have only seen one mare that exceeded it. Notwithstanding the smallness 
 of their stature they often possess great strength and courage. I was cred- 
 ibly informed that a celebrated mare of the Manekia breed, now dead, car- 
 ried two men in chain armour beyond the reach of their Aneyza pursuers. 
 But their most remarkable and valuable quality is the power of perform- 
 ing long and arduous marches upon the smallest possible allowance of food 
 and water. It is only the mare of the wealthy Bedouin that gets even a 
 regular feed of about twelve handfuls of barley, or of rice in the husk, once 
 in twenty-four hours. During the spring alone, when the pastures are 
 green, the horses of the Arabs are sleek and beautiful in appearance. At 
 
282 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 other times they eat nothing but the withered herbs and scanty hay gath- 
 ered from the parched soil, and are lean and unsightly. They are never 
 placed under cover during the intense heat of an Arabian summer, nor 
 protected from the biting cold of the Desert winds during winter. The 
 saddle is rarely taken from their backs, nor are they ever cleaned or 
 groomed. Thus apparently neglected, they are but skin and bone, and the 
 townsman marvels at seeing an animal, which he would scarcely take the 
 trouble to ride home, valued almost beyond price. Although docile as a 
 lamb, and requiring no other guide than the halter, when the Arab mare 
 hears the war-cry of the tribe, and sees the quivering spear of her rider, 
 her eyes glitter with fire, her blood-red nostrils open wide, her neck is no- 
 bly arched, and her tail and mane are raised and spread out to the wind. 
 The Bedouin proverb says, that a high-bred mare when at full speed 
 should hide her rider between her neck and her tail. 
 
 The Shammar Bedouins give their horses, particularly when young, large 
 quantities of camels' milk. I have heard of mares eating raw flesh, and 
 dates are frequently mixed with their food by the tribes living near the 
 mouth of the Euphrates. The Shammar and Aneyza shoe their horses if 
 possible, and wandering farriers regularly visit their tents. If an Arab 
 cannot afford to shoe his mare entirely, he will shoe her fore-feet. The 
 Chaab (or Kiab) do not usually shoe their horses. The shoes, like those 
 used in all parts of the East, consist of a thin iron plate covering the whole 
 foot, except a small hole in the centre. They are held by six nails, are 
 clumsily made, and usually more clumsily put on. The Arab horse has 
 but two ordinary paces, a quick and easy walk, sometimes averaging be- 
 tween four and five miles an hour, and a half running canter. The Be- 
 douin rarely puts his mare to full speed unless pursued or pursuing. In 
 racing, the Arabs, and indeed Easterns in general, have no idea that the 
 weight carried by the rider makes any difference. 
 
 I have frequently pointed out to the Turkish authorities the fitness of 
 the rich plains watered by the Euphrates and Tigris for a government 
 stud. It would be difficult, in the present state of things, to induce the 
 Bedouins to place themselves under the restraint necessary to such an un- 
 dertaking ; but there are many half-sedentary tribes, who are well ac- 
 quainted with the management of horses, and know the best pastures of 
 the Desert. If properly protected and supported they could defy the Be- 
 douins, and maintain permanent stations in any part of Mesopotamia. A 
 noble race of horses, now rapidly becoming extinct, for the breed of true- 
 Arabs is, I believe, daily deteriorating,* and their number decreasing, might 
 prove a source of strength and wealth to the empire. 
 
 * Burckhardt states that the number of horses in Arabia did not in his time ex- 
 ceed 50.000. It has probably considerably decreased since. The defeat of the Wa- 
 habys, the conquest of Arabia, and the occupation of Syria by the Egyptians, have 
 contributed greatly both to the diminution and deterioration of the race. I have had 
 no means of ascertaining, even proximately, the number of horses belonging to such 
 tribes as the Shammar and Aneyza. 
 
Chap. XV.] BUYING HAWKS - 283 
 
 In the evening, as I was seated before my tent, I observed a large party 
 of horsemen and riders on delouls approaching our encampment. They 
 stopped at the entrance of the large pavilion reserved for guests, and pick- 
 eting their mares, and turning loose their dromedaries adorned with gay 
 trappings, seated themselves on the carpets. The chiefs were our old 
 friends, Mohammed Emin and Ferhan, the great Shammar Sheikh. We 
 cordially embraced after the Bedouin fashion. I had not seen Ferhan since 
 the treacherous murder of his father by Nejib Pasha of Baghdad,* to which 
 he alluded with touching expressions of grief, bewailing his own incompe- 
 tency to fill Sofuk's place, and to govern the divided tribe. He was now 
 on his way with the Jebour Sheikh to recover, if possible, the government 
 treasure, plundered by the Hamoud, for which, as head of the Shammar, 
 he was held responsible by the Porte. 
 
 After they had eaten of the feast we were able to prepare for them, they 
 departed about sunset for the tents of the Jebours. I embraced Moham- 
 med Emin for the last time, and saw him no more during my residence in 
 Assyria. 
 
 The scene at the watering-place at Sayhel was so changing and varied, 
 that I had little cause to regret a delay of two days on the spot. Long 
 before dawn the sheep and camels gathered round the spring, and it was 
 night before the last shepherd had driven away his flocks. My tents, 
 moreover, were filled with Bedouins from various tribes, who supplied me 
 with information, and entertained me with traditions and tales of the 
 Desert. 
 
 On the 4th of May we made a short day's journey of five hours to a 
 beautiful stream issuing from the Sinjar hill, beneath the village of Khersa 
 or Chersa. A Bedouin of the Boraij tribe accompanied us riding on a 
 swift white dromedary of a true Nedjd breed. This animal was scarcely 
 taller than a large English horse. It had been captured by its present 
 owner with another of the same race, and several ordinary camels, during 
 a three months' ghazou, or plundering expedition, which he had under- 
 taken with the warriors of his tribe into the interior of Arabia. 
 
 Leaving the plain, which was speckled as far as the eye could reach 
 with the flocks and tents of the Bedouins, we skirted the very foot of the 
 Sinjar. Khersa had been deserted by its inhabitants, who had rebuilt 
 their village higher up on the side of the hill. 
 
 Since the loss of Hattab, Suttum had never ceased pining for a falcon 
 worthy to take his place. He had been counting the hours to his visit to 
 this part of the Sinjar, known only to yield to the borders of the Persian 
 Gulf in producing the finest and bravest hawks for the chase. The Yez- 
 idis carefully preserve their nests as hereditary property, in which certain 
 families have a vested interest. The young birds, with the exception of 
 one left to prevent the parents deserting the place, are taken when half- 
 fledged. They are then sold, generally to the Bedouins, for comparatively 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 113. 
 
284 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 large prices, from five to twenty gazees (lZ. to 42.) being given according 
 to the reputation of the nest, whose peculiar qualities are a matter of no- 
 toriety amongst true sportsmen. Three birds only, in each brood, are 
 thought worthy of being trained. The first hatched is the most esteemed. 
 and is called " Xadir ;' ; the second ranks next, and is known as the 
 •• Azeez." A hunting-hawk of the Sinjar species brought up by hand is 
 called " Charkh. :; It strikes its quarry on the ground, and not in the air. 
 and is principally flown at gazelles, bustards, and hares. The young are 
 sold by weight. Suttum sat. scales in hand, examining the unfledged birds 
 with the eye of a connoisseur, and weighing them with scrupulous care. 
 All that were brought to him were, however, rejected, the Sheikh protest- 
 ing that the Infidels were cheating him, and had sold all the nadirs and 
 azeezes to more fortunate Bedouins. 
 
 Xext day we made but little progress, encamping near a spring under 
 the village of Aldina, whose chief. Alurad, had now returned from his cap- 
 tivity. Grateful for my intercession in his behalf, he brought us sheep and 
 other provisions, and met us with his people as we entered the valley. The 
 ^Iutesellim was in his village collecting the revenues, but the inhabitants 
 of Xogray had refused to contribute the share assigned to them, or to re- 
 ceive the governor. He begged me to visit the rebellious Yezidis. and the 
 whole day was spent in devising schemes for a general peace. At length 
 the chiefs consented to accompany me to Aldina. and, after some reduction 
 in the Salian, to pay the taxes. 
 
 During the negociations, Suttum, surrounded by clamorous Yezidis. was 
 sitting in the shade, examining and weighing unfledged hawks. At length 
 three were deemed worthy of his notice : one being pretty well advanced 
 in days was sent to his tent for education, under the charge of the rider of 
 the Nedjd deloul. The others, being yet in a weak state, were restored tc. 
 the nest, to be claimed on his return from Mosul. The largest bird, being 
 a very promising specimen, cost five gazees, or 1/. ; the others, three gazees 
 and a half, as the times were hard, and the tax-gatherers urgent for ready 
 money. 
 
 We rode on the following day for about an hour along the foot of the 
 Sinjar hill, which suddenly subsides into a low undulating country. The 
 narrow valleys and ravines were blood-red with gigantic poppies. The 
 Bedouins adorned the camels and horses with the scarlet flowers, and 
 twisted them into their own head-dresses and long garments. Even the 
 Tiyari dressed themselves up in the gaudy trappings of nature, and as we 
 journeyed chanting an Arab war-song, we resembled the return of a festive 
 procession from some sacrifice of old. During our weary marches under a 
 burning sun, it required some such episodes to keep up the drooping spirits 
 of the men, who toiled on foot by our sides. Poetry and flowers are the 
 wine and spirits of the Arab ; a couplet is equal to a bottle, and a rose to 
 a dram, without the evil effects of either. "Would that in more civilised 
 climes the sources of excitement were equally harmless ! 
 
Chap. XV.] taking notes. 285 
 
 The large artificial mound of Tel Shour rose in the plain to the right of 
 us. About nine miles from our last encamping place we crossed a stream 
 of sweet water named Aththenir, and stopped soon after for the day in the 
 bosom of the hills, near some reedy ponds, called Fukka, formed by several 
 springs. As this was a well-known place of rendezvous for the Bedouins 
 when out on the ghazou, Suttum displayed more than usual caution in 
 choosing the place for our tents, ascending with Khoraith a neighbouring 
 peak to survey the country and scan the plain below. 
 
 In the afternoon the camels had wandered from the encampment in 
 search of grass, and we were reposing in the shade of our tents, when we 
 were roused by the cry that a large body of men were to be seen in the 
 distance. The Bedouins immediately sought to drive back their beasts. 
 Suttum unplatting his long hair, and shaking it in hideous disorder over 
 his head and face, and baring his arms to the shoulder, leapt with his quiv- 
 ering spear into the saddle. Having first placed the camp in the best pos- 
 ture of defence I was able, I rode out with him to reconnoitre. But our 
 alarm was soon quieted. The supposed enemy proved to be a party of poor 
 Yezidis, who, taking advantage of our caravan, were going to Mosul to seek 
 employment during the summer. 
 
 In the evening Suttum inveighed bitterly against a habit of some trav- 
 ellers of continually taking notes before strangers. I endeavoured to ex- 
 plain the object and to remove his fears. " It is all very well," said the 
 Sheikh, "and I can understand, and am willing to believe, all you tell me. 
 But supposing the Turks, or any body else, should hereafter come against 
 us, there are many foolish and suspicious men in the tribe, and I have en- 
 emies, who would say that I had brought them, for I have shown you ev- 
 erything. You know what would be the consequences to me of such a 
 report. As for you, you are in this place to-day, and 100 days' journey off 
 to-morrow, but I am always here. There is not a plot of grass or a spring 
 that that man (alluding to one of our party) does not write down." Sut- 
 tum's complaints were not unreasonable, and travellers cannot be too cau- 
 tious in this respect, when amongst independent tribes, for even if they do 
 not bring difficulties upon themselves, they may do so upon others. 
 
 We had a seven hours' ride on the delouls, leaving the caravan to fol- 
 low, to the large ruin of Abou Maria,* passing through Tel Afer. The Je- 
 hesh were encamped about two miles from the place. My workmen had 
 excavated for some time in these remarkable mounds, and had discovered 
 chambers and several enormous slabs of Mosul marble, but no remains 
 whatever of sculpture. They had, however, dug out several entire bricks 
 bearing the name of the founder of the north-west palace at Nimroud, but 
 unaccompanied by that of any town or temple. The ruins are of consid- 
 erable extent, and might, if fully explored, yield some valuable relics. 
 
 A short ride of three hours brought us to Eski (old) Mosul, on the banks 
 
 * I have elsewhere described the ruins and springs of Abou Maria. (Nineveh and 
 its Remains, vol. i. p. 312.) 
 
286 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 of the Tigris. According to tradition this is the original site of the city. 
 There are mounds, and the remains of walls, which are probably Assyrian. 
 Upon them are traces of buildings of a far more recent period. My work- 
 men had opened several trenches and tunnels in the principal ruin, and at 
 a subsequent period Awad, with a party of Jehesh, renewed the excava- 
 tions in it, but no relics throwing any light upon its history were discovered. 
 
 Mosul was still nine caravan hours distant, and we encamped the next 
 night at Hamaydat, where many of our friends came out to meet us. On 
 the 10th of May we were again within the walls of the town, our desert 
 trip having been accomplished without any mishap or accident whatever. 
 
 Suttum left us two days after for his tents, fearing lest he should be too 
 late to join the warriors of the Khorusseh, who had planned a grand ^lia- 
 zou into Nedjd. They were to be away for thirty days, and expected to 
 bring back a great spoil of mares, dromedaries, and camels. As for three 
 days they would meet with no wells, they could only ride their delouls, 
 each animal carrying a spearman and a musketeer, with their skins of 
 water and a scanty stock of provisions. They generally contrive to return 
 from these expeditions with considerable booty. Suttum urged me to ac- 
 company them ; but I had long renounced such evil habits, and other oc- 
 cupations kept me in Mosul. Finding that I was not to be persuaded, and 
 that the time was at length come for us to part, he embraced me, crammed 
 the presents we had made to himself and his wives into his saddle-bags, and, 
 mounting his deloul, rode off with Mijwell towards the Desert. 
 
 Arab Camels. 
 
An Entrance to the Great Hall of the North-west Palace (Nimroud). 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK. PROCESSION OF FIGURES BEARING FRUIT AND GAME. LO- 
 CUSTS. LED HORSES. AN ASSYRIAN CAMPAIGN. DAGON, OR THE FISH-GOD. THE 
 
 CHAMBERS OF RECORDS. INSCRIBED CLAY TABLETS. RETURN TO NIMROUD. EFFECTS 
 
 OF THE FLOOD. DISCOVERIES. SMALL TEMPLE UNDER HIGH MOUND. THE EVIL SPIRIT. 
 
 FISH-GOD. FINE BAS-RELIEF OF THE KING. EXTRACTS FROM THE INSCRIPTION. 
 
 GREAT INSCRIBED MONOLITH. EXTRACTS FROM THE INSCRIPTION. CEDAR BEAMS. 
 
 SMALL OBJECTS. SECOND TEMPLE. MARBLE FIGURE AND OTHER OBJECTS. 
 
 During my absence in the Desert, the excavations at Kouyunjik had 
 been actively carried on under the superintendence of Toma Shishman. 
 On my arrival he described many interesting discoveries, and I hastened to 
 the ruins, crossing in a rude ferry-boat the river, now swollen, by the spring 
 rains, to more than double its usual size.* 
 
 The earth had been completely removed from the sides of the long gal- 
 lery, on the walls of which had been portrayed the transport of the large 
 stone and of the winged bulls. f An outlet was discovered near its west- 
 ern end, opening into a narrow descending passage ; an entrance, it would 
 appear, into the palace from the river side.| Its length was ninety-six 
 feet, its breadth not more than thirteen. The walls were panelled with 
 
 * The Tigris this year had risen much higher than usual. I have already men- 
 tioned that the plain of Nimroud was completely under water ; opposite Mosul the 
 flood nearly reached the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi Yunus 
 
 t No. XLIX. Plan I. J No. LI. same Plan. 
 
Attendants carrying Pomegranates and Locusts (Kouyunjik.) 
 
Chap. XVI.] locust-bearers. 289 
 
 sculptured slabs about six feet high.* Those to the right, in descending 
 represented a procession of servants carrying fruit, flowers, game, and sup 
 plies for a banquet, preceded by mace-bearers. The first servant follow- 
 ing the guard bore an object which I should not hesitate to identify with 
 the pineapple, unless there were every reason to believe that the Assyri- 
 ans were unacquainted with that fruit. The leaves sprouting from the 
 top proved that it was not the cone of a pine tree or fir. After all, the 
 sacred symbol held by the winged figures in the Assyrian sculptures may 
 be the same fruit, and not, as I have conjectured, that of a coniferous 
 tree.f 
 
 The attendants who followed carried clusters of ripe dates and flat bask- 
 ets of osier- work, filled with pomegranates, apples, and bunches of grapes. 
 They raised in one hand small green boughs to drive away the flies. Then 
 came men bearing hares, partridges, and dried locusts fastened on rods. 
 The locust has ever been an article of food in the East, and is still sold in 
 the markets of many towns in Arabia. $ Being introduced in this bas- 
 relief amongst the choice delicacies of a banquet, it was probably highly 
 prized by the Assyrians. 
 
 The locust-bearers were followed by a man with strings of pomegran- 
 ates ; then came, two by two, attendants carrying on their shoulders low 
 tables, such as are still used in the East at feasts, loaded with baskets of 
 cakes and fruits of various kinds. The procession was finished by a long 
 line of servants bearing vases of flowers. 
 
 These figures were dressed in a short tunic, confined at the waist by a 
 shawl or girdle. They wore no head-gear, their hair falling in curls on 
 their shoulders. 
 
 On the opposite walls of the passage were fourteen horses without trap- 
 pings, each horse having a simple halter twisted round its lower jaw, by 
 which it was led by a groom. The animals and men were designed with 
 considerable truth and spirit. The procession was marshalled by a staff- 
 bearer, or chamberlain. The dresses of the grooms were richer than those 
 
 * The figures are about 4£ feet in height. 
 
 + It has been suggested to me that the object carried by the winged figures may 
 be the fruit of the fan palm, a tree whose general usefulness has rendered it sacred 
 to the natives of parts of South America, but which, as far as I am aware, could not 
 have grown in Assyria, or in any countries visited by the Assyrians. 
 
 t Burckhardt (Notes on the Bedouins, p. 269.) gives the following account of the 
 mode of preparing them :— " The Arabs in preparing locusts as an article of food, 
 throw them alive into boiling water, with which a good deal of salt has been mix- 
 ed : after a few minutes they are taken out and dried in the sun. The head, feet, 
 and wings are then torn off; the bodies are cleansed from the salt and perfectly 
 dried ; after which process whole sacks are filled with them by the Bedouins. They 
 are sometimes eaten broiled in butter ; and they often constitute materials for a 
 breakfast when spread over unleavened bread mixed with butter." It has been con- 
 jectured that the locust eaten by John the Baptist in the wilderness was the fruit 
 of a tree ; but it is more probable that the prophet used a common article of food, 
 abounding even in the Desert. 
 
 T 
 
290 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVI 
 
 of the banquet-bearers. They wore a short tunic and an embroidered belt, 
 and to this was attached that ornament of fur, or colored fringe, peculiar 
 to the costumes of the warriors of the later Assyrian period.* 
 
 Tt is probable that the sculptures forming the upper end of the passage, 
 but now entirely destroyed, represented the king receiving this double pro- 
 cession. The passage may have led to the banqueting-hall, or to a cham- 
 ber; where royal feasts were sometimes held, and was therefore adorned 
 with appropriate subjects. At its western end the gallery turned abruptly 
 to the- north, its walls being there built of solid stone-masonry. I lost all 
 further traces of it, as the workmen were unable, at that time, to carry on 
 the tunnel beneath an accumulated mass of earth and rubbish about forty 
 feet thick. I did not, consequently, ascertain its western outlet. "We had, 
 however, nearly reached the edge of the mound ; and as there was no space 
 left for a chamber of any size beyond, this passage may have opened on a 
 flight of steps, or on an incline leading from the river, and forming a kind 
 of private entrance or postern into the palace. 
 
 As the workmen could no longer, without some danger, excavate in this 
 part of the ruins, they had returned to the chamber already described as 
 containing a series of bas-reliefs representing the capture and sack of a 
 large city in the mountains, and as opening into the broad gallery on whose 
 walls were depictured the various processes employed by the Assyrians in 
 moving their colossal figures.! From this chamber branched to the south 
 a narrow passage, $ whose sculptured panels had been purposely destroyed. 
 It led into a great hall, which the workmen did not then explore. § They 
 continued for a few feet along its western side, and then turning through 
 a doorway, discovered a chamber, from which again, always following the 
 line of wall, they entered a spacious apartment,|| completely surrounded 
 with bas-reliefs, representing one continuous subject. The Assyrian army 
 was seen fording a broad river amidst wooded mountains. The sculptor 
 had endeavored to convey the idea of a valley by reversing the trees and 
 mountains on one side of the stream. Rivulets flowed from the hills to the 
 river, irrigating in their course vineyards and orchards. The king in his 
 onariot was followed by a long retinue of warriors on foot and on horses 
 richly caparisoned, by led horses with even gayer trappings, and by men 
 bearing on their shoulders his second chariot, which had a yoke ornamented 
 with bosses and carvings. He was preceded by his army, the variously ac- 
 coutred spearmen and the bowmen forming separate regiments or divisions. 
 
 * Specimens of the led horses, and of the figures bearing locusts, are now in the 
 British Museum. The slabs in this passage had been so much injured by fire, thai 
 only a few of them could be removed. See Plates 7, 8, and 9. of the 2nd series of 
 Monuments of Nineveh for the entire series. t No. XLVIII. Plan I 
 
 t No. XLII. same plan ; 72 feet long, and 11 broad. $ No. XIX. same plan. 
 
 || N08. XXJX. and XXXVIII. same plan. The reader will understand the way in 
 which the excavations wore here carried on by referring to the Plan. It will be per- 
 ceived that there is an uninterrupted line of wall, along which the tunnel was carried, 
 from No. XLII. to Xo. XXXVIII., through entrances b, g, and/. 
 
292 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 After crossing the river they attacked the enemy's strongholds, which they 
 captured one by one, putting to death or carrying into captivity their in- 
 habitants. Unfortunately, the bas-reliefs describing the general result of 
 the campaign, and probably the taking of the principal city, had been de- 
 stroyed. Over one of the castles could be traced a few letters, giving no 
 clue, however, to its name or site. The captives wore a kind of turban 
 wrapped in several folds round the head, and a sh^rt tun^c confined at the 
 waist by a broad belt. From the nature of the country it may be conject- 
 ured that the sculptures represented a campaign in some part of Armenia, 
 and I am inclined to identify the river with the Euphrates, near whose head- 
 waters, as we learn from the bull inscriptions, Sennacherib waged one of 
 his most important wars. 
 
 The slabs at the western end of this chamber were actually curved back- 
 wards, showing the enormous pressure that must have taken place from 
 the falling in of the upper part of the building, by which not only the ala- 
 baster was bent, but driven into the wall of sun-dried bricks. 
 
 On the north side of the chamber were two door- ways leading into sep- 
 arate apartments. Each entrance was formed by two colossal bas-reliefs 
 
 of Dagon, or the fish-god. Unfor- 
 tunately the upper part of all these 
 figures had been destroyed, but as 
 the lower remained from above the 
 waist we can have no difficulty in 
 restoring the whole, especially as 
 the same image is seen entire on a 
 fine Assyrian cylinder of agate in 
 my possession. It combined the 
 human shape with that of the fish. 
 The head of the fish formed a mitre above that of the man, whilst its 
 scaly back and fan-like tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human 
 limbs and feet exposed. The figure wore a fringed tunic, and bore the 
 two sacred emblems, the basket and the cone.* 
 
 We can scarcely hesitate to identify this mythic form with the Oannes. 
 or sacred man-fish, who, according to the traditions preserved by Berossus, 
 issued from the Erythraean Sea, instructed the Chaldaeans in all wisdom, 
 in the sciences, and in the fine arts, and was afterwards worshipped as a 
 god in the temples of Babylonia. Its body, says the historian, was that of 
 a fish, but under the head of a fish was that of a ??ian, and to its tail 
 were joined women's feet. Five such monsters rose from the Persian Gulf 
 at fabulous intervals of time.f It has been conjectured that this myth de- 
 notes the conquest of Chaldaea at some remote and prehistoric period, by 
 a comparatively civilised nation coming in ships to the mouth of the Eu- 
 
 * It is remarkable that on this cylinder the all-seeing eye takes the place of the 
 winged human figure and the globe in the emblem above the sacred tree, 
 t Cory's Fragments, page 30. 
 
 Assyrian Cylinder, with Dagon, or the Fish-god. 
 
Entrance Passage, Kouyunjik 
 
Fish-god (Kouyunjik). 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 THE CHAMBERS OF RECORDS. 
 
 29^ 
 
 phrates. 
 
 Fish-god on Gems in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 I had already* identified with the Babylonian idol a figure in a 
 bas-relief at Khorsabad, having the human 
 form to the waist, and the extremities of a 
 fish. Such figures are also frequently found 
 on antique cylinders and gems, but those at 
 Kouyunjik agreed even more minutely with 
 the description of Berossus, for the human 
 head was actually beneath that of the fish 
 whilst the human feet were added to the spreading tail. 
 
 The Dagon of the Philistines and of the inhabitants of the Phoenician 
 coast was worshipped, according to the united opinion of the Hebrew com- 
 mentators on the Bible, under the same form.f When the ark of the Lord 
 was brought into the great temple of the idol at Ashdod, and the statue fell 
 a second time, " the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were 
 cut off upon the threshold ; only the fishy part of Dagon was left to him. "J 
 His worship appears to have extended over Syria, as well as Mesopotamia 
 and Chaldsea. He had many temples, as we learn from the Bible, in tin- 
 country of the Philistines, and it was probably under the ruins of one of 
 them that Samson buried the people of Gaza who had " gathered them- 
 selves together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to 
 rejoice. "§ "We also find a Beth-Dagon, or the house of Dagon, amongst the 
 uttermost cities of the children of JudahJI and another city of the same 
 name in the inheritance of the children of Asher.1T 
 
 Colonel Rawlinson states that he has read the name of Dagon amongst 
 the gods of the Assyrians in the cuneiform inscriptions. 
 
 The first doorway, guarded by the fish-gods, led into two small chambers 
 opening into each other, and once panelled with bas-reliefs, the greater part 
 of which had been destroyed. # * On a few fragments, still standing against 
 the walls, could be traced a city on the shore of a sea whose waters were 
 covered with galleys. I shall call these chambers "the chambers of rec- 
 ords," for, like " the house of the rolls," or records, which Darius ordered 
 1o be searched for the decree of Cyrus, concerning the building of the tem- 
 ple of Jerusalem, ff they appear to have contained the decrees of the As- 
 pyrian kings as well as the archives of the empire. 
 
 I have mentioned elsewhere!! that the historical records and public doc- 
 uments of the Assyrians were kept on tablets and cylinders of baked clay 
 
 * See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 466. 
 
 t The authorities respecting this god are collected in Selden, " De Dis Syris," and 
 in Beyer's commentary. Abarbanel, in his commentary on Samuel, says that Dagon 
 had the form of a fish, from the middle downwards, with the feet and hands of a man. 
 
 t 1 Sam. v. 4. $ Judges, xvi. 23. 
 
 II Joshua, xv. 41. From the connection of this verse with the 33d, it would appear 
 that the town was in a valley. 
 
 f Joshua, xix, 27. 1 Mac. x. 83. ** Nos. XL. and XLI. Plan I. 
 
 tt Ezra. vi. 1. jj Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 185. 
 
296 NINEVEH 4\D BABYLON. [CHAP. XV I 
 
 Many specimens ha?3 been brought Id this country. On a large hexagon- 
 al cylinder presented by me to the British Museum are the chronicles of 
 Essarhaddon : on a similar cylinder discovered in the mound of Nebbi 
 Yunus, opposite Mosul, and formerly in the possession of the late Colonel 
 Taylor, are eight years of the annals of Sennacherib ; and on a barrel- 
 shaped cylinder long since placed in the British Museum, and known as 
 Bellino's, we have part of the records of the same king.* The importance 
 of such relics will be readily understood. They present, in a small com- 
 pass, an abridgment, or recapitulation, of the inscriptions on the great 
 monuments and palace walls, giving in a chronological series the evenis 
 of each monarch's reign. The writing is so minute, and the letters are so 
 close one to another, that it requires considerable experience to separate and 
 transcribe them. Fragments of other cylinders have also been discovered, 
 and many inscribed tablets, from three to six inches in length, have been 
 long preserved in England and ii various European collections. 
 
 The chambers I am describing appear to have been a depository in the 
 palace of Nineveh for such documents. To the height of a foot or more 
 from the floor they were entirely filled with them ; some entire, but the 
 greater part broken into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the 
 upper part of the building. They were of different sizes ; the largest tab- 
 lets were flat, and measured 9 inches by 6 J inches ; the smaller were slight- 
 ly convex, and some were not more than an inch long, with but one or two 
 lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them were singu- 
 larly sharp and well defined, but so minute in some instances as to be al- 
 most illegible without a magnifying glass. These documents appear to be 
 of various kinds. Many are historical records of wars, and distant expe- 
 ditions undertaken by the Assyrians ; some seem to be royal decrees, and 
 are stamped with the name of a king, the son of Essarhaddon ; others 
 again, divided into parallel columns by horizontal _.nes, contain lists of the 
 gods, and probably a register of offerings made in their temples. On one 
 Dr. Hincks has detected a table of the value of certain cuneiform letters, 
 expressed by different alphabetical signs, according to various modes of 
 using them ; a most important discovery : on another, apparently a list of 
 the sacred days in each month; and on a third, what seems to be a calen- 
 dar. It is highly probable that a record of astronomical observations may 
 exist amongst them, for we know from ancient writers that the Babyloni- 
 ans inscribed such things upon burnt bricks. As Ave find from the Ba- 
 vian inscriptions that the Assyrians kept a very accurate computation of 
 time, we may reasonably expect to obtain valuable chronological tables 
 and some information as to their methods of dividing the year, and even the 
 day. Many are sealed with seals, and may prove to be legal contracts 
 or conveyances of land. Others bear rolled impressions of those engraved 
 
 * In the collection of inscriptions published by the Trustees of the British Museum 
 will be found a transcript of my cylinder ; of part of a second, also brought by me to 
 this country ; and of Bellino's. 
 
Archive Chamber (Kouyunjik). 
 
298 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XVI 
 
 
 !U 
 
 a 
 
 Wmt 
 
 %&S&4^0% 
 
 fe^W 
 
 
 Inscribed Tablet impressed with Seals. 
 
 Inscribed Tablet, with Inscription at one 
 End in Cursive Characters. 
 
 cylinders so frequently found in Babylonia and Assyria, by some believed 
 to be amulets. The characters appear to have been formed by a very del- 
 icate instrument before the clay was hardened by fire, and the process of 
 accurately making letters so minute and complicated must have required 
 considerable ingenuity and experience. On some tablets are found Phoe- 
 nician, or cursive Assyrian characters and other signs. 
 
 The adjoining chambers contained similar relics, but in far smaller num- 
 bers. Many cases were filled with these tablets before I left Assyria, and a 
 vast number of them have been found, I understand, since my departure. 
 A large collection of them is already deposited in the British Museum. 
 We cannot overrate their value. They furnish us with materials for the 
 complete decipherment of the cuneiform character, for restoring the lan- 
 guage and history of Assyria,*" and for inquiring into the customs, sciences. 
 and, we may perhaps even add, literature, of its people. f The documents 
 that have thus been discovered at Nineveh probably exceed all that have 
 yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt. But years must elapse be- 
 fore the innumerable fragments can be put together, and the inscriptions 
 transcribed for the use of those who in England and elsewhere may engage 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson states that he has found the name of Sargon's father and grand- 
 father on one of these clay tablets. (Outlines of Assyrian History, xxix.) 
 
 t According to a tradition. Setfa wrote the history and wisdom of the ages preced- 
 ;iiL r the Deluge on burnt and unhurnt bricks, or tablets, that they might never perish ; 
 for if water destroyed the unburnt, the burnt would remain ; and if fire destroyed tin 
 baked tablets, those which had not been exposed to heat would only become hard- 
 ened. 
 
Chap XVI 1 floods at nimroud. 299 
 
 in the study of the cuneiform character. It is to be hoped that the Trus- 
 tees of the British Museum will undertake the publication of documents of 
 such importance to the history of the ancient world. 
 
 The second entrance formed by the fish-gods opened into a small cham- 
 ber, whose sides had been lined with bas-reliefs representing the siege of a 
 castle, in a country wooded with fir trees, amongst which were long lines 
 of warriors on foot, on horseback, and in chariots.^ But there were no re- 
 mains of inscription, and no peculiarity of costume to identify the conquered 
 people. 
 
 A few days after our return to Mosul, I floated down the river on a raft 
 to Nimroud. The flood, which had spread over the plain during my ab- 
 sence in the Desert, had destroyed a part of the village. The mud walls 
 of my own house were falling in. The roof was supported by a few rude 
 beams, and the rooms with their furniture were deep in mud and silt. The 
 stables and outhouses had become a heap of ruins, and the enclosure wall 
 with Ibrahim Agha's loopholes had completely disappeared. The centre 
 of the plain of Nimroud was now a large lake, and the cultivated fields 
 were overspread with slime. The Shemutti gathered round me as I ar- 
 rived, and told me of crops destroyed, and of houses swept away. 
 
 The workmen had not been idle during my absence, and discoveries of 
 considerable interest and importance had been made in the high mound on 
 the level of the artificial platform. The first trenches had been opened in 
 the side of the ravine between the ruins of the tower and those of the north- 
 west palace. A pavement of large square bricks, bearing the usual super- 
 scription of the early Nimroud king, was soon uncovered. It led to a wall 
 of sun-dried bricks, coated with plaster, which proved to be part of a small 
 temple. 
 
 I have already mentioned! that a superstructure of bricks rested upon 
 the stone basement- wall of the tower, at the north-west corner of the mound. 
 It was against the eastern and southern faces of this upper building that 
 the newly-discovered temple abutted. Four of its chambers were explored, 
 chiefly by means of tunnels carried through the enormous mass of earth 
 and rubbish in which the ruins were buried. The great entrances were 
 to the east. The principal portal-t was formed by two colossal human- 
 headed lions, sixteen feet and a half high and fifteen feet long. They were 
 flanked by three small winged figures, one above the other, and divided by 
 an ornamental cornice, and between them was an inscribed pavement 
 slab of alabaster. In front of each was a square stone, apparently the 
 pedestal of an altar, and the walls on both sides were adorned with enam- 
 elled bricks. 
 
 About thirty feet to the right, or north, of the lion gateway was a sec- 
 ond entrance, § at each side of which were two singular figures. One was 
 that of a monster, whose head, of fanciful and hideous form, had long point- 
 * No. XXXIX. Plan I. t Page 106. 
 
 t Ent. 1. B. Plan II. $ Ent. 2. B. same Plan. 
 

Chap. XVI.] 
 
 THE EVIL SPIRIT. 
 
 IOJ 
 
 ed ears and extended jaws, armed with huge teeth. Its body was covered 
 with feathers, its fore-feet were those of a lion, its hind legs ended in the 
 talons of an eagle, and it had spreading wings and the tail of a bird. Be- 
 hind this strange image was a winged man, whose dress consisted of an 
 upper garment with a skirt of skin or fur, an under robe fringed with tas- 
 sels, and the sacred horned hat. A long sword was suspended from his 
 shoulders by an embossed belt ; sandals, armlets, and bracelets, completed 
 his attire.^ He grasped in each hand an object in the form of a double 
 trident, resembling the thunderbolt of the Greek Jove, which he was in the 
 attitude of hurling against the monster, who turned furiously towards him. 
 This group appears to represent the bad spirit driven out by a good dei- 
 ty ; a fit subject for the entrance to a temple dedicated to the god of war. 
 The singular combination of forms by which the Assyrian sculptor portray- 
 ed the evil principle, so prominent an element in the Chaldsean, and after- 
 wards in the Magian, religious system, cannot fail to strike the reader. 
 The co-existence of a principle of evil and darkness, with the principle of 
 good and light, their contests for supremacy, the temporary success of the 
 former, and its ultimate defeat, appear to have been from the earliest peri- 
 ods essential features in the religious tenets 
 of a large portion of mankind. They thus 
 sought to account for the antagonistic pow- 
 er of evil, exemplified in man by the bad 
 passions, moral and physical infirmities, and 
 death, and in nature by those awful phenom- 
 ena which occasionally visit the face of the 
 earth, or even by that periodical decay to 
 which nature herself is subject. The be- 
 lief was not altogether confined to the coun- 
 tries watered by the Euphrates and Tigris, 
 and to Persia. With certain modifications 
 it extended westward, and in the common 
 impersonification of the evil one, which has 
 passed into Christendom, may perhaps be 
 traced the monstrous forms of the Assyrian 
 demon. 
 
 On the slabs at right angles to these 
 sculptures, forming the outer part of the en- 
 trance, were two colossal human figures, 
 without wings, wearing garlands on their 
 heads, and bearing branches ending in three 
 flowers. 
 
 "Within the temple, at right angles to the 
 
 entrance, Were Sculptured fish-gods, some- 
 Fish-God, at Entrance to small Temple l^i-rr x • r r ,i • .1 
 
 (Nimroud). what different in form from those in the 
 
 * Plate 5. of 2nd scries of the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
3Q2 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 palace of Kouyunjik. The fish's head formed part of the three-horned cap 
 usually worn by the winged figures. The tail only reached to the waist 
 of the man, who was dressed in the tunic and long-furred robe, commonly 
 seen in the bas-reliefs of Nimroud.* 
 
 To the right of this entrance, and apparently outside the walls of the 
 temple, was discovered one of the finest specimens of Assyrian sculpture 
 brought to this country. It represents the early Ximroud king in high re- 
 lief, carved on a solid block of limestone, cut into the shape of an arched 
 frame, in the form of the rock tablets of Bavian and the Xahr-el-Kelb. 
 The monarch wears his sacrificial robes, and carries the sacred mace in his 
 left hand. Round his neck are hung the four sacred signs, the crescent, 
 the star or sun, the trident, and the cross. His waist is encircled by the 
 knotted cord, and in his girdle are three daggers. Above his head are the 
 mythic symbols of Assyrian worship, the winged globe, the crescent, the star, 
 the bident, and the horned cap. The entire slab, 8 ft. 8 in. high, by 4 ft. 6 
 in. broad, and 1 ft. 3 in. thick, is covered behind and before, except where 
 the sculpture intervenes, with an inscription, in small and admirably formed 
 arrow-headed characters. It was fixed on a plain square pedestal and stood 
 isolated from the building. In front of it was an altar of stone, supported 
 on lions' feet, very much resembling in shape the tripod of the Greeks. 
 
 It would seem from the altar before this figure, that the Assyrians, like 
 other nations of old, were in the habit of deifying the heroes of their race, 
 and that the king who extended the bounds of the empire to distant lands, 
 and raised temples to the gods, received after his death divine honors. 
 
 Unfortunately, the heat of the fire which had consumed the building, had 
 also broken this monument into two pieces. From the carelessness shown 
 in its transport to England, this fine specimen of Assyrian sculpture sus- 
 tained still further injury, and the lower part is now almost destroyed. 
 
 The inscription must have contained when entire several hundred lines, 
 and is divided on the back of the slabs into two columns. It commences 
 with an invocation to the god Ashur, the supreme lord, the king of the cir- 
 cle of the twelve great gods. Then follow the names of these deities. 
 They are the same as those on the black obelisk belonging to the son of 
 the king represented on this slab, although they are not placed in the same 
 order, which is so far important as it enables us to determine the exact 
 name and title of each. These divinities may preside over the twelve 
 months, corresponding with the same circle in the Egyptian mythology, 
 with which it is possible they may hereafter, to a certain extent, be identi- 
 fied The first-named is Ann (?), the last Ishtar, probably Astarte, or the 
 moon, and not Venus, as some have believed.! 
 
 * Specimens of all these figures are now in the British Museum. 
 
 t This is evident from Lucian's " De Dea Syra," c. 4. ; and see Gesenius's " The- 
 saurus" in voce "Ashtoreth." (1 Kings, xi. 5. 33. 2 Kings, xxiii. 13.) Quaere, whether 
 the bull's horns placed on the head of this divinity were not originally the horns of 
 the moon's crescent \ 
 
Entrance to Temple, High Mound iNimroud) 
 
304 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVI 
 
 After this invocation occurs the name of the founder of the north- west 
 palace, read by Dr. Hincks, Assaracbal, and by Colonel Rawlinson, Sardan- 
 apalus, with a long exordium, apparently of a religious nature, which has 
 not yet been satisfactorily deciphered. Then follows a full account of his 
 various campaigns and wars, of which I will give extracts when I describe 
 similar inscriptions on other monuments discovered in the same building. 
 
 The lion entrance led into a chamber 46 ft. by 19 ft. Its walls of sun- 
 dried brick were coated with plaster, on which the remains of figures and 
 ornaments in color could still be faintly traced.* Nearly opposite to the en- 
 trance was a doorwayf panelled with slabs sculptured with winged figures 
 carrying maces. Flanking it on the four sides were priests wearing garlands. 
 
 The inner door led into a chamber 47 ft. by 31 ft.,$ ending in a recess 
 paved with one enormous alabaster slab, no less than 21 ft. by 16 ft. 7 in., 
 and 1 ft. 1 in. thick. This monolith had been broken into several pieces 
 probably by the falling in of the roof of the building, and had in several 
 places been reduced to lime by the burning beams of the ceiling. The 
 whole of its surface, as well as the side facing the chamber, was occupied 
 by one inscription, 325 lines in length, divided into two parallel horizontal 
 columns, and carved with the greatest sharpness and care. On subsequent- 
 ly raising the detached pieces, I found that the back of the slab, resting on 
 a solid mass of sun-dried bricks, was also covered with cuneiform writing, 
 occupying three columns. It is difficult to understand why so much labor 
 should have been apparently thrown away upon an inscription which would 
 remain unseen until the edifice itself was utterly destroyed. Still more 
 curious is the fact, that whilst this inscription contains all the historical de- 
 tails of that on the opposite side, the records of two or three more years are 
 added, and that the upper inscription stops abruptly in the middle of a sen- 
 tence. It is possible that the builders of the temple, foreseeing its ruin, had 
 determined that if their enemies should through malice deface their annals, 
 there should still remain another record, inaccessible and unknown, which 
 would preserve the history of their greatness and glory unto all time. 
 
 The inscription on this great monolith appears to have been similar in 
 its historical details to that on the king in the frame. I shall quote some 
 specimens, translated by Dr. Hincks, to show the minuteness with which 
 the Assyrian kings chronicled every event of their reign, and the conse- 
 quent value of their historical records. It is to be remarked that, although 
 these inscriptions are in the form of annals, the years are not mentioned. 
 The king generally sets out on his campaigns in one particular month, 
 the name of which is given ; probably in the autumn, when the heats of 
 summer were over. In the beginning of his reign he collected his army, 
 and made his first expedition into the country of Nummi, or Numi, proba- 
 bly Elam or Susiana, subsequently, as we shall find, called Numaki or 
 Nuvaki. He took many cities, towns, and districts, whose names have 
 not been identified. He slew their women, their slaves, and their chil- 
 
 * B. ch. a. Plan 2. t Ent. 3. B. same Plan. J B. ch. b. same Plan. 
 
Chap. XVI.] inscribed monolith. 305 
 
 dren, and carried away their cattle and flocks. Their fighting men es- 
 caped to a hill fort (?). " Their houses he burned like stubble" (?). Many 
 other countries to the south and south-east of Assyria, some of which are 
 mentioned on the obelisk, were conquered during this campaign. The city 
 of Nishtun (?) is particularly described as one of considerable importance. 
 He seized its king or governor, whose name reads Babou, the son of Ba- 
 boua, and imprisoned him in Babylon. " At that time the cities of Nerib 
 (their position is doubtful), their principal cities, he destroyed. Fom Ne- 
 rib he departed to the city of Tushka A palace for his dwelling 
 
 he made there, and placed pillars (?)* at the gates, and put a statue of 
 .... (probably some kind of stone) .... and set up tablets, and made 
 a place for them in the citadel."! 
 
 He appears subsequently to have turned his arms to the north, and to 
 have received tribute from the kings of Nahiri (the country between the 
 head waters of the Euphrates and Tigris) consisting of chariots (?), horses 
 .... (probably some other animal), silver, gold, various objects of cop- 
 per, oxen, sheep, and asses (?) ; he then placed an officer of his own over 
 the conquered people. 
 
 An account follows of the building of the north-west palace of Nimroud, 
 which, when deciphered, will be of considerable interest, and may enable 
 us to restore that edifice. It had been founded by one of his forefathers, 
 but had been deserted and allowed to fall into ruins. He now rebuilt it, 
 raising pillars of wood (?) and of some other material, and setting up thrones, 
 and three other objects always mentioned in connection with the thrones, 
 but the precise nature of which has not as yet been determined. The in- 
 habitants of the countries over whom he ruled sent things of gold, silver, 
 copper, and iron (?), for the new palace. He also built two cities on the 
 Euphrates, one on each bank (?), calling one after his own name, and the 
 other after the name of the great god Ashur. 
 
 Numerous expeditions to countries to the north, west, and south of Assyria 
 are then related in detail Amongst them one to Carchemish, where he 
 received the tribute of Sangara, king of the Khatti (the Hittites or people 
 of Syria), including a great variety of gold and silver ornaments, some ap- 
 parently to be recognised by their pure Hebrew names. As few of the cit- 
 ies and countries conquered and visited by this king have yet been identi- 
 fied, and a mere repetition of the same dry details would scarcely interest 
 the reader, I will merely give literal versions, as far as they can be given, 
 of the history of two of the most important campaigns. They will show 
 the style of these remarkable chronicles, and the minuteness with which 
 events were recorded. 
 
 * Perhaps inscribed pillars, such as Darius set up when he crossed the Bosphoiu:>. 
 (Herod, iv. 87.) 
 
 t Similar tablets appear to have been frequently put up by the Assyrian kings, a» 
 we see from a bas-relief at Khorsabad, representing Sargon besieging a castle, on the 
 walls of which there is a tablet of himself, or one of his predecessors. 
 
 TJ 
 
306 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 The first paragraph relates to the campaign of the king on the border? 
 of the Euphrates. 
 
 " On the 22d day of the month .... I departed from Calah (the 
 quarter of Nineveh now called Nimroud). I crossed the Tigris. On the 
 banks of the Tigris 1 received much tribute. In the city of Tabit I halt- 
 ed. I occupied the banks of the river Karma (? the Hermus, or eastern 
 confluent of the Khabour). In the city of Megarice I halted. From the 
 city of Megarice I departed. I occupied the banks of the Khabour (Cha- 
 boras). I halted at the city of Saclikanni (? or Kar-dikanni). I received 
 the tribute of Sadikanni. From Sadikanni I departed. In Kedni I halt- 
 ed. I received the tribute of the city of Kedni. From Kedni I departed 
 to the city of . . . lemmi. In the city of . . . lemmi I halted. From 
 the city of . . . lemmi I departed. In the city of Beth-Khilapi I halted. 
 The tribute of Beth-Khilapi I received, gold, silver," and many other ar- 
 ticles, amongst which are apparently objects of clothing, or embroidered 
 stuffs. Then follow his marches day by day to the cities of Sirki, Tzufri. 
 Naqua-rabani, and Kindani, from each of which he received tribute in gold, 
 silver, several objects not identified, cattle, and sheep. The inscription goes 
 on — " The city of Kindani stands on the right bank of the river Euphrates. 
 From Kindani I departed : on a mountain, by the side of the Euphrates, I 
 halted. From the mountain I departed. In Beth-Shebaiya, over against 
 Karid, I halted. The city of Karid stands on the right bank of the river 
 Euphrates. From Bath-Shebaiya I departed : on the top of (or above) 
 Anat I halted. Anat stands in the middle of the Euphrates" (agreeing 
 with the position of the modern town of Ana). He then attacked and took 
 the principal city of Shadu (?), of the country of Suka, and the city of 
 Tzur (?). the capital of Shadu (?), whose inhabitants were assisted by the 
 soldiers of Bishi (a nation also alluded to in the second year of the annals 
 of Sennacherib). Nebo-Baladan, king of Kar-Duniyas, is then mentioned, 
 .showing that the campaign was carried down the banks of the Euphrates 
 far to the south of Babylon. 
 
 The second extract is from the records of a campaign in northern Syria. 
 Having first crossed the Euphrates : 
 
 " From Kunulua, the capital of Lubarna, the Sharutinian,* I departed. 
 The Arantu (Orontes) I crossed. On the banks of the Arantu I encamped. 
 From the banks of the Arantu I departed. Between the countries of Sa- 
 raban and Tapa?i( 1 .) I occupied the country. By the seashore I en- 
 camped. To the city of Ariboua (?), a principal city of Lubarna, the 
 Sharutinian, I returned (undeciphered passage). I caused 
 
 * This city, one apparently of considerable size and importance, must have stood 
 somewhere near Antioch, or between Antioch and Aleppo. The Sharutinians may 
 probably be identified with the Shairetana of the Egyptian monuments, at one time 
 the allies, and at another the enemies, of Egypt. Few travellers are aware that, 
 above the city of Antioch, carved in the rock, are colossal figures of an Egyptian 
 sphinx and two priests. I have been informed that there are other similar monu- 
 ments in the neighbouring mountains. 
 
Chap. XVI.] records of the king. 307 
 
 some men of Assyria to divell in his palace (?). Whilst I was in Ari- 
 boua the cities of Lukuta I took. I slew many of their men. I over- 
 threw and burned their cities. Their fighting men (or ? the desert- 
 ers from my army) I laid hold of. On stakes over against their city 
 I impaled them.^ At that time the countries that are upon Lebanon I 
 took possession of, to the great sea of the country of Akkari (the Medi- 
 terranean). On. the great sea, I put my servants (?). Sacrifices to the 
 gods I offered. The tribute of the kings of the people who dwelt near 
 the sea, of the Tyrians, the Sidonians, the Kubalians, the Mahalatai (?) ; 
 the Ma . . . . ai, the Kha . . . . , and the Akkarians (all nations to 
 the north of Tyre), and of the city of Arvad, which is in the middle of 
 the sea — silver and gold pieces, rings (?) of copper, ingots (?) of copper, 
 two kinds of clothing (?) perhaps the dyed cloth of Tyre, or embroideries 
 such as are frequently mentioned in the Bible), great ' pagouW and small 
 pagouti' (meaning not determined), some wooden objects, apparently of 
 ceder, and pearls (?), from the rivers at or between the sea.f I went to 
 the mountain of Kamana (the Camanus, in the north of Syria). I sacri- 
 ficed to the gods. I made bridges (or beams), and pillars (?). From 
 Kamana I brought them to Bithkara, for my own house, for the temple of 
 San, for the temple of the sun. I went to the forests and cut them down, 
 and made bridges (!) (or roofs or beams) of the wood, for Ishtar, mistress 
 of the city of Nineveh, my protectress. "$ 
 
 The chief events of the reign of this king are briefly alluded to in the 
 standard and other inscriptions discovered in the north-west palace at 
 Nimroud ; but in the records just described we have a minuteness of 
 geographical detail, which enables us to trace the course of his expedi- 
 tions with great certainty. The forms of expression in these chronicles 
 differ from those on later monuments. There even appears to be an oc- 
 casional attempt at poetical illustration ; for instance, instead of giving 
 the exact amount of spoil taken from a conquered country, the king de- 
 clares that "it exceeded the stars of heaven ; " and when speaking of the 
 destruction of enemy's cities, he likens it to "the burning of stubble" (?). 
 His expeditions seem to have been attended by great cruelties and sacri- 
 fice of human life, and he celebrates the burning of innumerable women 
 
 * This barbarous practice, frequently represented in the bas-reliefs, seems, there- 
 fore, to have prevailed from the earliest times in the East. Darius impaled 3000 
 Babylonians when he took their city. (Herod, iii. 159.) The last instance with 
 which I am acquainted of this punishment having been inflicted in Turkey, was at 
 Baghdad, where, about ten years ago, Nejib Pasha impaled four rebel Arab Sheikhs, 
 one at each corner of the bridge. They survived for many hours. It is said that, 
 unless they drink water, when they instantly die, persons so treated will live even 
 for two or three days. 
 
 f Might this word, translated conjecturally pearls, mean the shell-fish from which 
 the Tyrian dye was extracted \ 
 
 X The whole of the last passage is very obscure ; the translation is partly con- 
 jectural. 
 
308 MNEVEH AND BABYLON. [Chap jyj 
 
 and children. The evidence of the populous state of Mesopotamia at that 
 period quite corresponds with the vast number of artificial mounds, the 
 ruins of ancient settlements, still existing in that country, and described 
 in the foregoing pages. 
 
 Opening into the recess paved with this great monolith was a small 
 room, or rather closet, 13 feet by 3, which may have been used to keep 
 the sacrificial utensils and the garments of the priests. 
 
 The entrance formed by the good spirit driving out the evil principle led 
 into a chamber* connected by separate doorways with the two rooms last 
 described. The walls were simply plastered, and there were no remains 
 found in it but the fragments of an uninscribed slab. 
 
 Standing one day on a distant part of the mound, I smelt the sweet smell 
 of burning cedar. The Arab workmen, excavating in the small temple ; 
 had dug out a beam, and, the weather being cold, had at once made a fire 
 to warm themselves. The wood was cedar ; probably one of the very 
 beams mentioned in the inscription as brought from the forests of Lebanon 
 by the king who built the edifice. After a lapse of nearly three thousand 
 years, it had retained its original fragrance. Many other such beams were 
 discovered,! and the greater part of the rubbish in which the ruin was 
 buried, consisted of charcoal of the same wood. It is likely that the whole 
 superstructure, as well as the roof and floor of the building, like those of 
 the temple and palace of Solomon, were of this precious material. 
 
 In these ruins was also found a mass of lead melted by the fire, for em- 
 bedded in it was the iron head of a hatchet. Amongst the various small 
 objects collected were, 
 
 Fragment in blue Clay (Nimroud). Eye in black Marble and Ivory (Niniroad). 
 
 Figures of winged deities, kc, of clay, colored in the muss with a blue 
 derived from copper ; eyes, beards, hair, and ornaments in enamel, proba- 
 bly belonging to figures of wood, metal, or ivory, resembling the crysela- 
 phantine statues of the Greeks ; eyes of black marble inlaid with ivory 
 with the eye-balls of a bright blue enamel, belonging to similar statues : 
 and arms, legs, and other parts of figures in charred wood. A box of chal- 
 cedony probably used for some precious ointment. Another box of the 
 same shape in porcelain (?) has holes round the rim, and was originally in- 
 laid with gold, traces of which still remain. 
 
 * Several specimens are now in the British Museum. + B. Chamber 0., Plan II 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 ENTRANCE GUARDED BY LIONS. 
 
 309 
 
 Box in Chalcedony (Nimroud). 
 
 Box in Porcelain? (Nimroud). 
 
 Fragment in Porcelain? (Nimroud). 
 
 Fragments of porcelain (?), parts of a cup or vase, with carvings in low 
 
 relief, representing a castle with women on 
 the walls, the hind legs of a camel, and a 
 captive carrying a cauldron. An inscription 
 appears to have described the event repre- 
 sented, and to have contained the name of a 
 king. Only a few characters remain. 
 
 Several inscribed fragments of agate, lap- 
 is-lazuli, cornelian, and other precious mate- 
 rials, beads, cylinders, and one or two clay 
 tablets with inscriptions and impressions of 
 seals, complete the list of small objects dis- 
 covered in this temple. 
 
 The inscriptions across the sculptured slabs 
 are nearly the same as the standard inscrip- 
 tion in the northwest palace ; those at the 
 back also contain the name of the founder of that edifice, who, it thus ap- 
 pears, was likewise the builder of the temple. 
 
 About one hundred feet to the east of the building last described, and 
 on the very edge of the artificial platform, I discovered a second temple. 
 Its principal entrance faced the south, and was on the same level as the 
 north-west palace. This gateway was formed by two colossal lions with 
 extended jaws, gathered up lips and nostrils, flowing manes, and ruffs of 
 bristly hair. The heads, though to a certain extent conventional in form, 
 were designed with that vigor so remarkably displayed by the Assyrian 
 sculptor in the delineation of animals. The limbs conveyed the idea of 
 strength and power, the veins and muscles were accurately portrayed, and 
 the outline of the body was not deficient in grace and truth. But the front 
 of the animal, which was in full, was narrow and cramped, and unequal 
 m dignity to the side. In the general treatment the whole sculpture had 
 much of that peculiar feeling and character that mark the archaic monu- 
 ments of Greece, and it was on this account peculiarly interesting. In it, 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 STATUE OF THE KING. 
 
 1 1 
 
 indeed, we may perhaps trace those conventional forms from which the 
 Greek artist first derived his ideal Lion.* The sculptor has given five 
 legs to the animal for the same reason that he gave them to the sphinxes, 
 that they might ofTer a complete front and side view. 
 
 This gateway, about eight feet wide, was paved with one inscribed slab 
 The height of the lions was about eight feet, and their length thirteen. 
 An inscription was carved across them. In front of them, in the corners 
 formed by walls projecting at right angles with the entrance, were two al- 
 tars, hollow at the top, and ornamented with gradines resembling the bat- 
 tlements of a castle. f The exterior walls 
 appeared to have been adorned with enam- 
 elled bricks, many of which still remained. 
 
 Unfortunately, one of these lions had been 
 too much injured by fire to bear removal. 
 The other, although cracked in several places 
 when discovered, and consequently moved in 
 pieces, has been preserved, and is now in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The Lion portal led into a chamber 57 feet 
 by 25.$ At one end was a recess similar to 
 that in the opposite temple, and also paved 
 with one great alabaster slab, inscribed on 
 both sides. This monolith, 19£ ft. by 12 ft, 
 was likewise broken into several pieces, and 
 had been injured in parts by fire. 
 
 The inscription on the upper side, divided 
 into two columns, and containing 230 lines, 
 was nearly the same as that on the king in 
 the frame and on the monolith in the other 
 temple. It was also a record of the wars and 
 campaigns of the early Nimroud king, and 
 was important as enabling us to restore such 
 parts of the other inscriptions as are want- 
 ing, and as furnishing various readings of the 
 same text. The inscription on the under 
 part was a mere abridgment of the other. 
 Nearly in the centre of the principal cham- 
 statue of King, from Temple (Nimroud). ber were two small slabs joined together. On 
 each was the same inscription, merely containing passages from the stand- 
 ard inscription. 
 
 The other rooms in the same building contained no inscriptions, sculp- 
 tures, or other objects of interest. The walls had been plastered and painted. 
 
 * Plate 2., 2nd series of Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 t An altar nearly similar in shape is seen on the top of a hill, in a bas-reliof at 
 Khorsabad, Botta, plate 16. % C. Plan II. 
 
312 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 In the earth above the great inscribed slab, was found an interesting 
 figure, 3 feet 4 inches high, and cut in a hard, compact limestone. It ap- 
 peared to represent the king himself attired as high priest in his sacrifi- 
 cial robes. In his right hand he held an instrument resembling a sickle, 
 and in his left the sacred mace. Round his waist was the knotted girdle ; 
 and his left arm, like that of the king in the opposite temple, was partly 
 concealed by an outer robe. His garments descended to his feet, the toes 
 alone projecting from them. The beard and hair were elaborately curled. 
 The features were majestic, and the general proportions of the statue not 
 altogether incorrect, with the exception of a want of breadth in the side 
 view peculiar to Assyrian works of art of this nature. It was, however, 
 chiefly remarkable as being the only entire statue "in the round" of this 
 period, hitherto discovered in the ruins of Nineveh. 
 
 On the breast is an inscription nearly in these words : — After the name 
 and titles of the king, " The conqueror from the upper passage of the Tigris 
 to Lebanon and the Great Sea, who all countries, from the rising of the sun 
 to the going down thereof, has reduced under his authority.'' The statue 
 was, therefore, probably raised after his return from the campaign in Syria. 
 described, as we have seen, on the monoliths, and alluded to in the stand- 
 ard inscription. 
 
 This statue originally stood on a pedestal of reddish limestone, which, 
 with the figure itself, was found broken into several pieces. They have 
 been restored, and are now in the British Museum.* 
 
 Head in Gypsurn, from small 
 Temple (Nimroud). 
 
 Ivory Head from small Temple (Nimroud). 
 
 Amongst the smaller objects discovered whilst removing the earth from 
 the chambers in this edifice were several rudely carved heads in alabas- 
 ter, which may have been parts of a throne or altar, or of some architect* 
 ural ornament ; fragments of enamel belonging to wooden or ivory figures; 
 and the head of a griffin or mythic animal in ivory, most probably belong- 
 * Plate 52. of 2nd series of the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
Chap. XYI.l various figures. 313 
 
 ing to a wooden figure, or to the top of a staff, as there are holes for the 
 nails by which it was fastened. 
 
 The two interesting buildings just described, the only undoubted remains 
 of temples hitherto found at Nimroud, complete the discoveries at the north- 
 ern extremity of the mound. They enable us, as will hereafter be seen, 
 to restore part of the group of edifices raised on the grand platform in this 
 quarter of Nineveh. 
 
^^rrri}^ \\ry.j?r'T7- 
 
 Landing Place with Ferry-boats on the Tigris, at Mosul. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 
 THE SUMMER. ENCAMPMENT AT KOUYUNJIK. VISITORS. MODE OF LIFE. DEPARTURK 
 
 FOR THE MOUNTAINS. AKRA. ROCK-TABLETS AT GUNDUK. DISTRICT OF ZIBARI. 
 
 NAMET AGHA. DISTRICT OF SHIRWAN OF BARADOST — OF GHERDI OF SHEMDINA. 
 
 MOUSA BEY. NESTORIAN BISHOP. CONVENT OF MAR HANANISHO. DISTRICT AND 
 
 PLAIN OF GHAOUR. DIZZA. AN ALBANIAN FRIEND. BASH-KALAH. IZZET PASHA. — 
 
 A JEWISH ENCAMPMENT. HIGH MOUNTAIN PASS. MAHMOUDIYAH. FIRST VIEW OF 
 
 WAN. 
 
 The difficulties and delay in crossing the Tigris, now swollen by the 
 melting of the mountain snows, induced me to pitch my tents on the mound 
 of Kouyunjik, and to reside there with all my party, instead of daily pass- 
 ing to and fro in the rude ferry-boats to the ruins. The small European 
 community at Mosul was increased in June by the arrival of a large party 
 of travellers. Two English gentlemen and their wives who passed through 
 on their way to Baghdad : the Hon. Mr. Walpole, who has since published 
 an account of his adventures in the East ; the Rev. Mr. Malan, to whom 
 I am indebted for many beautiful sketches, and of whose kindness in afford- 
 ing me these valuable illustrations I again seize the opportunity of making 
 a grateful acknowledgment ; the Rev. Mr. Bowen, an English clergyman, 
 on a tour of inspection to the Eastern churches, with whom I spent many 
 agreeable and profitable hours amongst the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, 
 and his companion, Mr. Sandresky, were our visitors, and were most of 
 them my guests. 
 
 Our tents were pitched at the northern corner of Kouyunjik, near some 
 
Chap XVII. 1 summer of the desert. 315 
 
 earthen banks and embrasures, which tradition points out as the batteries 
 of Nadir Shah, when he directed his guns against the town of Mosul. 
 The spring was now fast passing away ; the heat became daily greater ; 
 the corn was cut, and the plains and hills put on their summer clothing 
 of dull parched yellow. " The pasture is withered, the tender herb faileth, 
 the green herb is no more."^ It was the season, too, of the Sherghis, or 
 burning winds from the south, which occasionally swept over the face of 
 the country, driving, in their short-lived fury, everything before them. 
 Their coming was foretold by a sudden fall in the barometer, which rose 
 again as soon as they had passed. It required the united exertions of my 
 workmen to hold the flapping canvas of the large tent, whilst the smaller 
 were generally carried far away, and their contents hurled in every direc- 
 tion over the mound or the plain. f 
 
 At Nimroud the excavations had been almost stopped : at Kouyunjik 
 they were still carried on as actively as my means would permit. I was 
 now occupied in moving and packing sculptures from both ruins. From 
 Nimroud the beautiful bas-relief of the king in the arched frame, described 
 in the previous chapter, the good spirit driving out the evil principle, the 
 fish-god, the colossal lion from the small temple, and several other interest- 
 ing sculptures, were taken to the river-bank, and sent on rafts to Busrah. 
 At Kouyunjik none of the slabs could be removed entire. I could only 
 pack in fragments several of the bas-reliefs representing the moving of the 
 great bulls, six of the led horses, the figures bearing locusts and game for 
 the banquet, from the descending passage, and one or two battle-scenes de- 
 scribed in the previous pages. The cases were dragged in carts to the 
 Tigris, unloaded below the piers of the ancient bridge, and there placed on 
 rafts prepared to receive them. 
 
 During the day, when not otherwise occupied, I made drawings of the 
 bas-reliefs discovered in the subterranean passages. My guests, choosing 
 some convenient place underground near the parties who were at work, 
 spread their carpets beneath the crumbling sculptures. We all went be- 
 low soon after the sun had risen, and remained there, without again seek- 
 ing the open air, until it was far down in the western horizon. The tem- 
 perature in the dark tunnels was cool and agreeable, nearly twenty degrees 
 of Fahrenheit lower than that in the shade above ; but I found it unwhole- 
 some, the sudden change in going in and out causing intermittent fever. 
 
 After the sun had set we dined outside the tents, and afterwards re- 
 clined on our carpets to enjoy the cool balmy air of an Eastern night. 
 The broad silver river wound through the plain, the great ruin cast its 
 dark shadows in the moonlight, the lights of " the lodges in the gardens of 
 cucumbers"! flickered at our feet, and the deep silence was only broken by 
 
 * Isaiah, xv. 6. Translation by the Rev. John Jones. 
 
 t Isaiah describes these whirlwinds, xxi. 1. (same version), "Like the southern 
 tempests violently rushing along from the Desert, he cometh from a terrible land." 
 X Isaiah, i. 8. These temporary huts are raised in the gardens and plantations of 
 
316 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 the sharp report of a rifle fired by the watchful guards to frighten away the 
 wild boars that lurked in the melon beds. "We slept under the open sky, 
 making our beds in the field. Around us were the tents of the Jebour 
 workmen ; their chiefs and the overseers generally gathered round us to 
 talk over the topics of the day until the night was far spent. 
 
 July had set in, and we were now in " the eye of the summer.". My 
 companions had been unable to resist its heat. One by one we dropped 
 off with fever. The Doctor, after long suffering, had gone with Mr. Wal- 
 pole to the cooler regions of the Kurdish hills, there to wait until the state 
 of the excavations might enable me to join them. Mr. Cooper, too, had so 
 much declined in health that I sent him to the convent of Mar Metti, on 
 the summit of the Gebel Makloub. Mr. Hormuzd Rassam and myself 
 struggled on the longest, but at length we also gave way. Fortunately 
 our ague attacks did not coincide. We were prostrate alternate days, and 
 were, therefore, able to take charge alternately of the works. By the 11th 
 of July I had sent to Busrah the first collection of sculptures from Kouyun- 
 jik, and on that day, in the middle of the hot stage of fever, and half de- 
 lirious, I left Mosul for the mountains. There were still parts of central 
 Kurdistan unvisited by the European traveller. The districts belonging to 
 the Zibari Kurds, between Rahwanduz and the Nestorian valleys, had 
 but recently made a tardy and partial submission to the Porte, and, still 
 unoccupied by Turkish garrisons or troops, acknowledged only their own 
 hereditary chiefs. The tribes inhabiting them are renowned for their law 
 lessness, and commerce had not yet penetrated into their strongholds. 
 
 I determined, therefore, first to visit these districts on my way to Wan, to 
 devote some days to the examination of the ruins and cuneiform inscriptions 
 in and near that city, and then to return to Mosul through the unexplored up- 
 lands to the south of the lake of Wan, and by such of the Nestorian valleys 
 as I had not seen during my former journey in the mountains. I should 
 then spend the hottest part of the summer in the cool regions of Kurdistan, 
 and be again at Nineveh by September, when the heats begin to decline 
 
 Few European travellers can brave the perpendicular rays of an Assyr 
 ian sun. Even the well-seasoned Arab seeks the shade during the day, 
 and journeys by night, unless driven forth at noontide into the plain by 
 necessity, or the love of war. As we had no motive for neglecting the 
 usual precautions, we struck our tents late in the afternoon, and got upon 
 our horses at the foot of the mound of Kouyunjik as the sun went down. 
 With me were Hormuzd, my old servants, and the faithful Bairakdar. 
 Mr. Cooper was to join us on the following day, and we were to seek the 
 Doctor and Mr. Walpole at Akra. 
 
 Five hours' ride over the plain brought us to the small Turcoman vil- 
 lage of Bir Hillan (the well of stone), which stands on the south-eastern 
 spur of the Makloub hills. After two hours' rest we continued our jour- 
 melons, cucumbers, and other fruit, by the men who watch day and night to protect 
 them against thieves and wild animals 
 
Chap. XVII.] REACH AKRA - 317 
 
 ney, and crossed this spur before morning dawned. The Gebel Makloub 
 is here divided into two distinct ranges by a deep valley. The southern 
 ridge, rocky and furrowed like the northern, is called the Gebel Ain-es- 
 sufra (the hill of the yellow spring), from a discolored fountain in one of 
 its ravines, a place of pilgrimage of the Yezidis. One of the annual festi- 
 vals of this sect falling on the day of our journey, we saw many families 
 wending their way to the holy place. The villages, which formerly stood 
 on the hill side, have been long since deserted. 
 
 Leaving the Gebel Makloub, we descended into a broad plain, stretching 
 from it to the first Kurdish range, and soon found ourselves on the banks 
 of the Ghazir, here a clear sparkling stream clothed with tall oleanders, 
 now bending under their rosy blossoms. We sought the shade of some 
 spreading walnut-trees, during the heat of the day, near the small Kurdish 
 village of Kaimawa. 
 
 Here Mr. Cooper joined us, and we were again on our way in the after- 
 noon. Instead of striking for the mountains by the direct path across the 
 plain of Navkur, we rode along the foot of a range of low hills, forming 
 its western boundary, to the large Kurdish village of Bardaresh. Having 
 rested for a few hours, we descended in the middle of the night into a plain 
 receiving the drainage of the surrounding highlands, and during the rainy 
 season almost impassable from mud. In the summer the broad fissures 
 and deep crevices, formed by the heat of the sun, render it scarcely less 
 difficult to beasts of burden. Scattered over it are many flourishing vil- 
 lages, inhabited almost entirely by Kurds, who cultivate the rich and fruit- 
 ful soil. Winding streams irrigate fields of cotton, tobacco, and rice, and 
 turn numerous corn-mills. Artificial mounds, the remains of ancient civil- 
 isation, but of small size when compared with the great ruins of Assyria, 
 rise amongst the hovels of the Kurdish peasants. I passed several that 
 bore marks of having been tapped by my industrious agents, but none ap- 
 peared to contain ruins. They had not been sufficiently examined to show 
 for what purpose they had been raised. 
 
 After we had crossed the parched and burning plain we entered a val- 
 ley in the Kurdish hills, watered by a stream called Melik or Gherasin. 
 We had to climb over much broken ground — rocky ridge and ravine — be- 
 fore reaching the slope of the mountain covered with the gardens and or- 
 chards of Akra. We tarried for a moment at a cool spring rising in a nat- 
 ural grotto, and collected into two large basins. As such places usually 
 are, it was, if not a sacred, a genial spot to the Mussulmans, and they had 
 chosen a small open terrace near for a burial ground. Saints abound 
 amongst the Kurds, as amongst all ignorant people, and there are few 
 grave-yards without a large supply of their tombs : that near the fountain 
 of Akra appeared to be particularly favored, and the place of mourning was 
 made gay by the many-colored shreds and remnants of old garments, which 
 fluttered like streamers from the tall head-stones.* 
 
 * The custom of placing ex-voto offerings on or near the tomb of a holy person- 
 
318 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 We had no difficulty in finding our European fellow-travellers. The 
 first Kurd we met pointed to a well- wooded garden ; above its trees peered 
 their white tents. As we rode into it, however, no one came out to wel- 
 come us. I entered the first tent, and there, stretched out on their carpets, 
 in a state of half-consciousness, the prey to countless flies, lay the Doctor 
 and Mr. Walpole. It was with difficulty I could rouse them to learn the 
 history of their fever. The whole party were in the same state ; the serv- 
 ants prostrate like their masters. I lost no time in enforcing a system of 
 diet, and placing my patients under a course of treatment for ague, with 
 which long experience had given me some acquaintance. 
 
 In the same garden was encamped the Mutesellim, or Turkish governor, 
 of Akra. As it was the month of Ramazan, when good Mussulmans es- 
 chew all food from dawn to sunset, he passed the day in sleep, to awake 
 as the sun went down and the hour of feasting drew near. It was even- 
 ing, consequently, before- 1 visited him. He sat under a large open shed 
 built with green boughs. It was well furnished with soft divans, and stood 
 on the very brink of a large hosh, or reservoir, of clear water, which re- 
 flected the flickering light of numerous colored lamps hung from the branch- 
 es of the surrounding trees. Although Akra stands on the mountain-side, 
 it is still within the region of the great heats, and the inhabitants pass the 
 summer nights beneath the sky. During this season they leave their dwell- 
 ings, and encamp in the gardens. The town contains nearly six hundred 
 families, and the whole district about three hundred villages and hamlets, 
 furnishing a considerable part of the revenues of the pashalic of Mosul. 
 
 Some days elapsed before my companions were able to journey. I took 
 advantage of the delay to visit some bas-reliefs near the neighbouring vil- 
 lage of Gunduk. We passed on the road several hamlets, inhabited partly 
 by Kurds and partly by Catholic Chaldseans, recently converted from the 
 Nestorian Church.* In Gunduk there are still about twenty families who 
 have remained in the Nestorian faith, and a few Jews. The village is 
 pleasantly built on the slope of a hill, overhanging a deep valley filled with 
 shady gardens. 
 
 There are two sculptured tablets in the rocks above Gunduk. They 
 have been carved at the mouth of a spacious natural cavern, whose roof is 
 fretted with stalactites, and down whose sides trickles cool clear water, and 
 hang dark ferns and creeping plants. It is called Guppa d'Mar Yohanna, 
 or the cave of St. John, and near it is an ancient Nestorian church dedica- 
 ted to Saint Audishio. The bas-reliefs are Assyrian. The upper repre- 
 sents a man slaying a wild goat with a spear. In the lower, as far as 1 
 could distinguish the sculpture, which is high on the rock and much in- 
 
 generally pieces torn from the garments — prevails throughout the East. Frequently 
 the branches of a neighbouring tree, and the iron-grating of the windows of the rest- 
 ing-place of a saint, are completely covered with such relics. 
 
 * These villages were Khurfa, Ras-al-Ain, Khardiz, and Shiekhi, or Sheikh Mo 
 aammed. 
 
Chap. XVII. ] 
 
 BAS-RELIEFS AT GUNDUK. 
 
 319 
 
 jured, are two women facing each other and seated on stools. Each holds 
 a child above a kind of basin or circular vessel, as if in the act of baptizing 
 it. Behind the seated female to the left, a figure bears a third child, and 
 is followed by a woman. On the opposite side is a group of three persons, 
 apparently sacrificing an animal. There are no traces of inscriptions on or 
 near the tablets. 
 
 Whilst I was examining these sculptures, the Nestorian Kiayah came to 
 me. He was a shamasha or deacon, a venerable old man with a white 
 beard falling on his breast. The upper sculpture, he said, represented Saint 
 John with his horse ; hence the name of the cavern ; the lower was some 
 church ceremony which he could not exactly explain. Returning with him 
 to his dwelling, where he had prepared a plentiful breakfast, we passed the 
 heat of the day under a shady porch overlooking the plain. 
 
 There are several Nestorian Chaldsean villages at the foot of these hills. 
 Three miles to the north of Gunduk is Shoush, and beyond it Shermen, 
 
 x* 
 
 
 , 
 
 Rock-Sculptures near the Village of Gunduk. 
 
 frequently the residence of Mar Shamoun, the Nestorian patriarch. At a 
 short distance from Shermen farther northwards, is the gorge of Bavian, 
 with its remarkable rock-sculptures. 
 
320 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII 
 
 On the 17th July my companions were able to move to the higher mount- 
 ains. "We all longed for a cooler climate, and we rejoiced as at sunrise we 
 left our garden. The town, through which we passed, contains a few well- 
 built stone houses, rising one above the other, a mosque, a bath, and a 
 ruined castle ; and was formerly the stronghold of an independent chief, 
 who enjoyed the title of pasha, and boasted, like his relation of Amadiyah, 
 a descent from the Abasside caliphs. The last, Mohammed Seyyid, has 
 long been a kind of prisoner at Mosul. 
 
 A precipitous and difficult path leads up the mountain. From the sum- 
 mit of the pass, the eye wanders over the plains of Navkur and Sheikhan. 
 the broken hill country around Arbil, and the windings of the Zab and the 
 Ghazir. On the opposite side is a deep valley dividing the Akra hills from 
 a second and loftier range. "We now entered the region of dwarf oaks, and 
 stopped, after a short day's journey, at the Kurdish hamlet of Hashtgah. 
 surrounded by gigantic trees and watered by numerous streams. It is in 
 the Kurdish district of Zibari, still governed by one of the few remaining 
 hereditary chiefs. 
 
 Through the valley ran a broad clear stream, one of the confluents of 
 the Zab, called by the Kurds Durusho or Bairaisho.* We rode along its 
 banks for nearly an hour, and then struck into a narrow gorge thickly wood- 
 ed with oak. Another stony and precipitous pass was between us and the 
 principal district of Zibari. From its summit the main stream of the Zab 
 is seen winding through a rich valley, beyond which rise the more central 
 and loftier mountains of Kurdistan, with their snow-bearing peaks. De- 
 scending into the low country we rode by the village of Birikapra, the res- 
 idence of Mustafa Agha, the former head of the Zibari tribes. The pres- 
 ent chief, Namet Agha, dwells at Heren, about two miles beyond. He 
 had lately been at Mosul to receive from the Pasha his cloak of investiture 
 and during his visit had been my guest. His abilities and acquirement? 
 were above the ordinary Kurdish standard, which indeed is low enough : 
 for, as the Arab proverb declares, " Be the Kurd a Kurd or a prophet, he 
 will still be a bear." He spoke Persian with fluency, and was not igno- 
 rant of Arabic. As he was well acquainted with the geography of Kurd- 
 istan, I learned from him many interesting particulars relating to the less- 
 known districts of the mountains. 
 
 The Kurds belong to a sect of Mussulmans notoriously strict in the ob- 
 servance of their religious duties. The Agha had feasted all night, and 
 was now sleeping through his daily fast. He was stretched on a rich car- 
 pet beneath a cluster of trees, and near a reservoir of water, outside the 
 
 * For this valley I received three different names, Hassanawa, Hassan-maima. 
 and Xahala, the latter from the Zibari chief. The difficulty of getting a correct name 
 either of a place or a person from a Kurd is very great, and travellers in Kurdistan 
 can scarcely avoid falling into frequent errors in this respect. The same name is 
 pronounced in a variety of ways, and is subject to all manner of additions and con- 
 tractions. If it have any meaning, the difficulty is, of course, less. 
 
Chap. XVIL] namet agha. 321 
 
 walls of his small mud castle. A thin white cloak, embroidered with 
 silk and golden threads, was thrown over him, and whilst one attendant 
 fanned his head, a second gently kneaded his naked feet. I begged that 
 he should not be disturbed, and we proceeded to settle ourselves for the 
 day under the trees. 
 
 The unusual stir, however, soon awoke the chief. He welcomed me 
 with friendly warmth ; and, although forbidden to eat himself, he did not 
 leave his guests uncared for. The breakfast brought to us from his harem 
 comprised a variety of sweetmeats and savoury dishes, which did credit to 
 the skill of the Kurdish ladies. 
 
 I was the bearer of a letter to him from the Pasha : no acceptable com- 
 munication, however, as it treated of new taxes, a subject very generally 
 disagreeable, upon tobacco, cotton, and fruit, which the Zibari Kurds were 
 now for the first time called upon to pay. The salian, too, a kind of prop- 
 erty tax, was raised from twenty-five to sixty thousand piastres (about 
 550/.). The late successful expeditions against the chiefs of Bohtan ^Pl 
 Hakkiari had encouraged the Porte to ask money of the previously inde- 
 pendent tribes under Namet Agha ; and although no Turkish troops had 
 yet entered their mountains, the Kurds deemed it advisable to comply for 
 the present with the demand rather than run the risk of an invasion, and 
 a still more dreaded evil, the conscription. 
 
 There are about fifty Catholic Chaldaean families, recent converts from 
 Nestorianism, in Heren. They have a church, and had no cause to com- 
 plain of their Kurdish masters, especially during the government of the 
 present chief. 
 
 Namet Agha's authority extended over Zibari, Shirwan, Gherdi, Bara- 
 dost, and Shemdeena, from Akra to the Persian frontier. These districts 
 are occupied by different Kurdish tribes, each having its own chief; but 
 they had then submitted to the Agha of Zibari, and paid their tribute 
 through him to the governor of Mosul. Namet placed me under the 
 protection of his cousin, Mullah Agha, who was ordered to escort us to 
 the borders of the pashalic of Hakkiari, now occupied by the Turkish 
 troops. Our guide was a tall sinewy mountaineer, dressed in the many- 
 colored loose garments, and huge red and black turban folded round the 
 high conical felt cap, which give a peculiar and ungainly appearance to 
 the inhabitants of central Kurdistan. He was accompanied by three at- 
 tendants, and all were on foot, the precipitous and rocky pathways of the 
 mountains being scarcely practicable for horses, which are rarely kept but 
 by the chiefs. They carried their long rifles across their shoulders, and 
 enormous daggers in their girdles. 
 
 We left Heren early on the morning of the 19th, and soon reaching the 
 Zab, rode for two hours along its banks, to a spot where a small raft had 
 been made ready for us to cross the stream. Many villages were scat- 
 tered through the valley on both sides of the river, and the soil is not ill 
 cultivated. 
 
 X 
 
322 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 The Zab is not fordable in this part of its course. Numerous eddies 
 and rapids, caused by sunken rock, render it unnavigable even by rafts, ex- 
 cept during the floods of spring. "We had some difficulty in crossing; and 
 were compelled to pass the night in the small village of Kizan, near the 
 ferry, as one of the baggage-mules refused to swim the stream, and was 
 not forced over until near dawn on the following morning. 
 
 "We now entered the tract which has probably been followed for ages by 
 the mountain clans in their periodical migrations. Besides the sedentary 
 population of these districts, there are certain nomade Kurdish tribes called 
 Kochers, who subsist entirely by their flocks. As they do not engage in 
 agriculture, but rely upon the rich pastures of Assyria, they change their 
 encamping grounds according to the season of the year, gradually ascend- 
 ing from the plains watered by the Tigris and Zab towards the highest 
 peaks in summer, and returning to the low country as the winter draws 
 nigh. The principal Kocher tribes, found in this part of Kurdistan, are the 
 Herki, whose encampments we had seen during our visit to the Tai in the 
 early spring.* They are notorious petty thieves and robbers, and during 
 their annual migrations commit serious depredations upon the settled in- 
 habitants of the district on their way, and more especially upon the Chris 
 tians. As they possess vast flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, their track 
 has in most places the appearance of a beaten road, and is, consequently, 
 well fitted for beasts of burden. 
 
 The country beyond, or to the east of, the Zab is broken into a number 
 of parallel ranges of wooded hills, divided by narrow ravines. Small vil- 
 lages are scattered here and there on the mountain sides, in the midst of 
 terraces cultivated with wheat and planted with fruit trees. The scenery 
 occasionally assumes a character of beauty and grandeur, as the deep green 
 valleys open beneath the traveller's feet, and the lofty snow-capped peaks 
 of Rahwanduz rise majestically in the clear blue sky. The nights were 
 still sufficiently warm for us to sleep in the open air. During the middle 
 of the day the heat of the sun compelled us to seek for shade. Our first rest, 
 after leaving the Zab, was in the gardens of Kouran, and our first night's 
 encampment near the small hamlet of Bani, on the declivity of a mount- 
 ain. 
 
 On the 21st July, crossing a high ridge, we left the district of Zibari, and 
 entered that of Shirwan, whose chief, Miran Bey, came out to meet us at 
 the head of his armed retainers. He led us to the large village of Bersi- 
 yah ; situated beneath a bold and lofty peak called Piran. A feast had been 
 prepared for us, and we rested under a walnut-tree. Through the valley 
 beneath ran a considerable confluent of the Zab ; f dividing the districts of 
 Shirwan and Gherdi. During the afternoon, we rode for three hours along 
 this stream, through open valleys and narrow gorges, until we reached Ha- 
 
 * See chap. X. 
 
 t Three names were given me for this stream : Av Sherah, Rudbar Keklik, and 
 Berasghird. 
 
Chap. XVIL] valley of chappata. 323 
 
 rouni, in the district of Baradost. Most of the villages in these mountains 
 have small mud forts, with either four or six towers, — the places of refuge 
 and defence of the numerous petty chiefs during their frequent broils and 
 blood-feuds. We met a few Jewish families who wander from village to 
 village. The men are pedlars and goldsmiths, and are not unwelcony 
 guests, even in the intolerant families of the Kurds, as they make and re- 
 fashion the ornaments of the ladies. 
 
 On one of the many peaks towering above Harouni, is the large village 
 of Khan-i-resh, with its orchards and gardens, the residence of the chief of 
 the district of Baradost. We reached it by a very rapid ascent in an hour 
 and a half* 
 
 We were received by the Mir, Fezullah Bey, in a spacious chamber, sup- 
 ported by wooden pillars, and completely open on the side facing the val- 
 ley, over which it commanded an extensive and beautiful prospect. The 
 turban of the chief, a Cashmere shawl striped red and white, vied in size 
 with the largest headgear we had seen in Kurdistan. His robes were of 
 silk richly embroidered, and his dark eyes were rendered more lustrous by 
 a profuse besmearing of kohl over the eyelids. He was surrounded by a 
 crowd of well-armed and well-dressed attendants, and received us as if he 
 had been the petty sovereign of the hills. Although he had condescended 
 for the last two years to contribute some eight purses (351.) towards the 
 Turkish revenues, he still boasted an entire independence, and submitted 
 with evident ill-will to the control of the Agha of Zibari, under whom his 
 tribes had been placed by the Pasha of Mosul. f He received Mullah Agha : 
 however, with civility, and read the letters of introduction from Namet 
 Agha, of which I was the bearer. Like most of the mountain chiefs, he 
 spoke Persian, the language used in Kurdistan for all written communica- 
 tions, and in books, except the Koran and a few pious works, which are in 
 Arabic. The Kurdish dialects are mere corruptions of the Persian, and are 
 not, with rare exceptions, employed in writing. 
 
 The Mir pressed me to pass the night with him as his guest ; but after 
 partaking of his breakfast, I continued my journey, and reached, by sunset, 
 the small turreted stronghold of Beygishni. 
 
 The next morning we crossed one of the shoulders of the lofty peak of 
 Ser-i-R,esh, into the valley of Chappata.J We were met on the way by a 
 party of Nestorians, who had come out to see me, headed by the brother of 
 the Bishop of Gherdi. He urged me to turn aside to the Christian villages, 
 of which there are several in the valley ; but as it was necessary to visit 
 the Mir of Gherdi, through whose territories we were now travelling, and 
 whose protection we consequently required, I declined his invitation. He 
 walked by me as far as Zernin, the castle of the Kurdish chief, and then 
 
 * Khan-i-resh is, by observation, 4372 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 t It was this chief, or one of his dependants, I believe, who plundered and wa« 
 about to murder two American missionaries, who attempted to cross the mountains 
 the year after my visit. j Or Chapmain, in Chaldaean 
 
324 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 left a relation to guide us to the dwelling of the Bishop of Shemesdin or 
 Shemdeena. As usual, he complained of hitter oppression and injustice 
 from the Kurdish Mirs, who had lately driven a large part of the Christian 
 population across the frontiers into Persia. 
 
 The Mir of G-herdi was away from his castle ; and, after having rested 
 there and eaten bread, we left the hold upland upon which the village 
 stands, and entered a wild and narrow gorge. A very steep pathway led 
 us to the summit of the northern shoulder of the Ser-i-Resh, from whence 
 we gazed over a sea of mountain ranges, whose higher peaks were white 
 with eternal snow. As we wound down a rugged track on the opposite 
 side of the pass, we came upon a party of gaily dressed Kurds, crouching in 
 a circle round a bubbling spring. They were Iahya Bey, the Mir, and his 
 people, who had come from Rua to meet me. The chief, after the usual 
 exchange of civilities, insisted upon returning to that village with us, and 
 mounted his fine white mare, whose tail was dyed bright red with henna 
 to match his own capacious scarlet trowsers. I could scarcely refuse his 
 offer of hospitality, although our day's journey was thereby much shortened, 
 and we rode together down the mountain until, turning into a valley, we 
 found the chief's carpets spread beneath the trees, with the repast that he 
 had prepared for us. 
 
 We had now left the naked hills which skirt the Assyrian plains, and 
 had entered the wooded districts of Kurdistan. On the following day we 
 journeyed through a valley thick with walnuts and other large trees, and 
 followed the windings of a stream called by the Kurds Shambo, one of the 
 principal confluents of the Zab. "We crossed it, backwards and forwards, 
 by wicker suspension bridges, until we ascended, through a forest of or- 
 chards watered by innumerable streamlets, to Nera, the village of Mousa 
 Bey, the chief of Shemdina. 
 
 The solitude of the place was only broken by a few boys who were bath- 
 ing in a brawling stream. The chief himself and the inhabitants were 
 still slumbering after their night's observance of the Ramazan. We 
 pitched our tents near some springs on an open lawn, and waited the re- 
 turn of an aged servant who had been disturbed by the noise of our cara- 
 van, and had undertaken to announce our arrival to his master. 
 
 We had evidently to deal with a man of civilisation and luxury, for the 
 old Kurd shortly returned followed by numerous attendants, bearing sher- 
 bets and various Persian delicacies in china bowls. Mousa Bey himself 
 came to us in the afternoon, and his manners and conversation confirmed 
 the impression that his breakfast had produced. Intercourse with Persia, 
 beyond whose frontiers his own tribe sometimes wandered, had taught him 
 the manners and language of his neighbours. He was somewhat proud of 
 his acquirements ; and when he found that he could exhibit them before 
 the crowd of armed followers that respectfully surrounded him, by talking 
 to me in a learned tongue, a bond of friendship was immediately estab- 
 lished between us. He told me that he was descended from one of the 
 
Chap. XVII.] A nestorian bishop. 325 
 
 most ancient of Kurdish families, whose records for many hundred years 
 still exist ; and he boasted that Sheikh Tahar, the great saint, had deemed 
 him the only chief worthy, from his independence of the infidel government 
 of the Sultan, to receive so holy a personage as himself after the downfall 
 of Beder Khan Bey. This Sheikh Tahar, who, as the main instigator of 
 many atrocious massacres of the Christians, and especially of the Nestori- 
 ans, ought to have been pursued into the uttermost parts of the mountains 
 by the Turkish troops, and hanged as a public example, was now suffering 
 from fever. He sent to me for medicine ; but as his sanctity would not per- 
 mit him to see, face to face, an unbelieving Frank, and as he wished to 
 have a remedy without going through the usual form of an interview with 
 the Doctor, I declined giving him any help in the matter. 
 
 Mousa Bey was at this time almost the only chief in Kurdistan who had 
 not yet made a formal submission to the Turkish government. His terri- 
 tories were, therefore, a place of refuge to those fugitives who, less fortu- 
 nate than himself, had been driven from their strongholds by the arms or 
 intrigues of the Porte. He bewailed the discords which severed the tribes, 
 and made them an easy prey to the Osmanli. It is, indeed, fortunate for 
 the Sultan that this warlike population, extending from the Black Sea to 
 the neighbourhood of Baghdad, has never obeyed one head, but has been 
 split into a thousand clans, ever engaged in their petty blood-feuds, and 
 opening, for the sake of private revenge, their almost inaccessible valleys 
 and mountains to the common enemy. The Turks, wise in their genera- 
 tion, have pursued their usual policy successfully in Kurdistan ; the dis- 
 sensions of the chiefs have been fomented, and, thus divided, they have 
 fallen one by one victims to treachery or to force. 
 
 In Nera are many Jewish families, who make a livelihood by weaving 
 the colored woollen stuffs worn by the Kurds. The Bishop of Shemisden 
 (or Shemdeena), hearing of my arrival, sent one of his brothers to meet me. 
 He came to us in the evening, and inveighed against the fanaticism and 
 tyranny of the Bey, who, he declared, had driven many Christians from 
 their villages into Persia ; on the morrow I should myself witness the un- 
 happy state of the poor Nestorians. 
 
 We rose early on the following day, and left Nera long before the pop- 
 ulation was stirring, by a very steep pathway, winding over the face of 
 a precipice, and completely overhanging the village. Reaching the top 
 of the pass we came upon a natural carpet of Alpine flowers of every 
 hue, spread over the eastern declivity of the mountain, and cooled and 
 moistened by the snows and glaciers which fringed the deep basin. 
 The valley at our feet was the Nestorian district of Shemisden, thick- 
 ly set with Christian villages, the first of which, Bedewi, we reached 
 after passing a few cultivated patches cleared from the forest of oaks. 
 The inhabitants who nocked out to see us were miserably poor, the chil- 
 dren starved and naked, the men and women scarcely half covered with 
 rags. Leaving the caravan to proceed to our night's resting-place, I turn- 
 
326 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 ed down the valley with my companions to visit the bishop at his con- 
 vent* of Mar Hananisho. 
 
 A ride of three quarters of an hour brought us to the episcopal residence. 1 
 Mar Isho, the bishop, met me at some distance from it. He was shabbily 
 dressed, and not of prepossessing appearance ; but he appeared to be good- 
 natured, and to have a fair stock of common sense. After we had ex- 
 changed the common salutations, seated on a bank of wild thyme, he led 
 the way to the porch of the church. Ragged carpets and felts had been 
 spread in the dark vestibule, in the midst of sacks of corn, bourghoul, and 
 other provisions for the bishop's establishment. Various rude agricultural 
 instruments, and spinning wheels, almost filled up the rest of the room ; 
 for these primitive Christians rely on the sanctity of their places of worship 
 for the protection of their temporal stores. 
 
 The church itself was entered by a low doorway, through which a man 
 of moderate size could scarcely squeeze himself, and was even darker than 
 the anteroom. It is an ancient building, and the bishop knew nothing of 
 the date of its foundation. Although service is occasionally performed, the 
 communion is not administered in it. One or two tattered parchment 
 folios, whose title-pages were unfortunately wanting, but which were evi- 
 dently of an early period, were heaped up in a corner with a few modern 
 manuscripts on paper, the prey of mildew and insects. The title of the 
 bishop is " Metropolitan of Roustak," a name of which I could not learn 
 the origin. His jurisdiction extends over many Nestorian villages chiefly 
 in the valley of Shemisden. $ Half of this district is within the Persian 
 territories, and from the convent we could see the frontier dominions of the 
 Shah. It is in the high road of the periodical migrations of the great tribe 
 of Herki, who pass like a locust-cloud twice a year over the settlements of 
 the unfortunate Christians, driving before them the flocks, spoiling the 
 granaries, and carrying away even the miserable furniture of the hovels. 
 It is in vain that the sufferers carry their complaints to their Kurdish mas- 
 ter ; he takes from them double the lawful taxes and tithes. The Turkish 
 government has in this part of the mountains no power, if it had the in- 
 clination, to protect its Christian subjects. 
 
 After we had partaken of the frugal breakfast of milk, honey, and fruit 
 
 * As I have used the word convent, it may be necessary to remind the reader that 
 the Nestorians have no establishments answering to Roman Catholic places of re- 
 tirement, and that monastic vows are not taken by them. 
 
 t The height of the convent above the level of the sea is, by observation, 6625 feet. 
 
 % The following are the villages in the valley of Shemisden, or Shemdeena. Those 
 marked K. are inhabited by Mussulman Kurds, those with an N. by Nestorians : — ■ 
 Butaimo (N.), Bedewi (N.), Benerwi (K.), Sheikhan (K.), Bakurt (K.), Souri (K.), Be- 
 babi (N.), Bemulli (K.), Fakkayien (K.), Tatte (K.), Mezrai (K.), Beburka (K.), Khusna 
 (K.), Gurdekki (K.), Jemanan (K.), Shaweeta (K), Gaouna Gundi (K.), Maseru (K.), 
 Gara (K.), Bedinari (K.), Mullai (K.), Galaishim (K.), Peshkalan (K.), Madrita (K), 
 Bale (K.), Katoona (N. and K.), Hallana (N). The remaining Nestorian villages in 
 the district of Shemisden are Souraserri, Hallan, Teis, Nerdoosa, Tallana, Harounan, 
 Serdost, Deriean, Serunos, Derrieya, Mar Isho, Beyghirdi, and Bentur. 
 
Chap. XVII.] PLAIN 0F ghaour. 32 7 
 
 prepared for us by the bishop, we turned again into the high road to Bash- 
 Kalah. We had another pass to cross before descending into the valley of 
 Harouna, where our caravan had encamped for the night. On the mount- 
 ain top were several Nestorian families crouching, half naked, for shelter 
 beneath a projecting rock. They seized the bridles of our horses as we 
 rode by, beseeching us to help them to recover their little property, which, 
 but a few hours before, had been swept away by a party of Herki Kurds. 
 I could do nothing for these poor people, who seemed in the last stage of 
 misery . On the other side of the valley we spied the black tent of the 
 robbers, and their vast flocks of sheep and herds of horses roving over the 
 green pastures. Their encampments were scattered over the uplands even 
 to the borders of the snow, and to the feet of the bare perpendicular peaks 
 forming the highest crests of the mountains. We were not certain what 
 our own fate might be, were we to fall in with a band of these notorious 
 marauders. 
 
 From the summit of the pass we looked down into two deep and well- 
 wooded valleys, hemmed in by mountains of singularly picturesque form. 
 In that to the left we could indistinctly see two large villages, Erawa and 
 Serunos, the latter once the dwelling-place of the Mirs of Shemdeena. We 
 descended into the more northern valley, and passing the miserable Nes- 
 torian hamlet of Sourasor, and the ruined church and deserted Christian 
 village of Tellana, reached our tents about sunset. They were pitched 
 near Harouna, whose Nestorian inhabitants were too poor to furnish us with 
 even the common coarse black bread of barley. 
 
 A low ridge separated us from the district of Ghaour or Ghiaver, a re- 
 markable plain of considerable extent ; the basin, it would seem, of some 
 ancient lake, and now a vast morass, receiving the drainage of the great 
 mountains which surround it. To the west it is bounded by a perfect wall 
 of rock, from which spring the lofty snow-clad peaks of Jelu, the highest 
 of central Kurdistan. To the east, a line of hills form the frontier limits 
 of Turkey and Persia. We had now quitted the semi-independent Kurd- 
 ish valleys, and had entered the newly-created province of Hakkiari, gov- 
 erned by a Pasha, who resides at Bash-Kalah. The plain of Ghaour is, 
 however, exposed to the depredations of the Herki Kurds, who, when pur- 
 sued by the Turkish troops, seek a secure retreat in their rocky fastnesses, 
 beyond the limits of the pashalic. 
 
 The district contains many villages, inhabited by a hardy and industri- 
 ous race ofNestorian Christians. The American missionaries of Ooroomi- 
 yah have crossed the frontier since my visit, and have, I am informed, 
 opened schools in them with encouraging prospects of success. Ghaour is 
 a Nestorian bishopric. 
 
 We were obliged to follow a track over the low hills skirting the plains 
 in order to avoid the marsh. On its very edge we passed several Kurd- 
 ish villages, the houses being mere holes in the earth, almost hidden by 
 heaps of dry dung collected for fuel. The snow lies deep in this elevated 
 
328 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 region more than half the year, and all communication is cut off with the 
 rest of the world, except to the adventurous footman who dares brave the 
 dangers of the mountain storm. During the summer the moist earth 
 brings forth an abundance of flowers, and the plain was now chequered 
 with many-colored patches. Here and there were small fields of grain, 
 which had just time to ripen between the snows of the long winters. The 
 husbandman with his rude plough, drawn sometimes by ten buffaloes, was 
 even now preparing the heavy soil for the seed. The cold is too great for 
 the cultivation of barley,^ of fruits, and even of most vegetables, and there 
 is not a solitary tree in the plain. The supplies of the inhabitants are 
 chiefly derived from Persia. 
 
 A ride of six hours and a half brought us to the large village of Dizza, 
 the chief place of the district, and the residence of a Turkish Mudir, or pet- 
 ty governor. This office was filled by one Adel Bey, the brother of Izzet, 
 the Pasha of the province. A small force of regular and irregular troops 
 was quartered with him on the inhabitants, and he had two guns to awe 
 the Kurds of the neighbourhood. Soon after my arrival I called on him 
 Seated near him on the divan I found my old friend Ismail Agha of Tepe- 
 lin, who had shown me hospitality three years before in the ruined castle 
 of Amadiyah.f He was now in command of the Albanian troops forming 
 part of the garrison. A change had come over him since we last met. 
 The jacket and arms which had once glittered with gold, were now greasy 
 and dull. His face was as worn as his garments. After a cordial greet- 
 ing he made me a long speech on his fortunes, and on that of Albanian ir- 
 regulars in general. "Ah ! Bey," said he, " the power and wealth of the 
 Osmanlis is at an end. The Sultan has no longer any authority. The ac- 
 cursed Tanzimat (Reform) has been the ruin of all good men. Why, see 
 Bey, I am obliged to live upon my prey ; I cannot eat from the treasury, 
 nor can I squeeze a piastre — what do I say, a piastre ? not a miserable 
 half-starved fowl, out of the villagers, even though they be Christians. 
 Forsooth they must talk to me about reform, and ask for money ! The Al- 
 banian's occupation is gone. Even Tafil-Bousi (a celebrated Albanian 
 condottiere) smokes his pipe, and becomes fat like a Turk. It is the will 
 of God. I have foresworn raki, I believe in the Koran, and I keep Ram- 
 azan." 
 
 The night was exceedingly cold. The change from the heat of the 
 plains to the cool nights of the mountains had made havoc amongst our 
 party. Nearly all our servants were laid up with fever, as well as the 
 Doctor and Mr. "Walpole, who had rarely been free from its attacks during 
 the journey. I could not, however, delay, and on the following morning 
 our sickly caravan was again toiling over the hills. We had now entered 
 the Armenian districts. The Christian inhabitants of Dizza are of that 
 race and faith. From the elevated plain of Ghaour a series of valleys 
 
 * The plain of Ghaour is, by observation, 6493 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 163. 
 
Chap. XVII.] valley of the zab. 329 
 
 leads to Bash-Kalah, and the stream which winds through them joins the 
 head waters of the Zab. We encamped for the night at the Kurdish vil- 
 lage of Perauniss. 
 
 Next day, near the village of Charderrah (the four valleys), we passed 
 some ponds of muddy water, bubbling with gaseous exhalations of a sul- 
 phurous smell, # and reached in the afternoon Antiss, inhabited by Arme- 
 nians and Nestorians. 
 
 Lower down the same valley we found several mineral springs, deposit- 
 ing large quantities of carbonate of lime in fantastic forms, and converting 
 into stone all that they touched. Basins, one rising above the other like 
 those of an artificial fountain, received the trickling water as it issued from 
 long conduits, which appeared to be cut through the whitest marble. Here 
 and there gas issued from the earth with a hissing noise, but the temper- 
 ature of the spring was not higher than that of the pools we had examined 
 the day before. 
 
 The branch of the Zab, which we had seen gradually swollen by small 
 mountain rills, had become a considerable stream. "We forded it near the 
 ruins of a fine bridge, apparently of early Turkish masonry, and beneath an 
 old deserted castle called Kalianon. We now entered the valley of this 
 great confluent of the Tigris, its principal source being but a few miles to 
 the north of us, near the frontiers of Persia. The land is so heavy, that the 
 rude plough of the country requires frequently as many as eight pairs of 
 oxen. The Armenian ploughmen sit on the yokes, and whilst guiding or 
 urging the beasts with a long iron-pointed goad, chant a monotonous ditty, 
 to which the animals appear so well accustomed, that when the driver 
 ceases from his dirge, they also stop from their labors. 
 
 A dell near our path was pointed out to me as the spot where the unfor- 
 tunate traveller Schulz was murdered by Nur Ullah Bey, the Kurdish 
 chief of Hakkiari.f Turning up a narrow valley towards the high mount- 
 ains, we suddenly came in sight of the castle of Bash-Kalah, one of the 
 ancient strongholds of Kurdistan. Its position is remarkably picturesque. 
 It stands on a lofty rock, jutting out from the mountains which rise in a per- 
 pendicular wall behind it. At its foot are grouped the houses of a village. 
 
 * The highest temperature of the water at the escape of gas was 82° ; that of the 
 atmosphere 71°. 
 
 t I subsequently met in the Nestorian district of Baz, a Christian, who was in the 
 service of Nur Ullah Bey at the time of the murder, and was employed to bury the 
 body. According to him, Schulz, who passed by the name of Yohanan, was taken 
 by the guides, furnished him by a Persian Prince, to Nur Ullah Bey, instead of to Mar 
 Shamoon, whom he intended to visit. He was described in a letter sent to the Kurd- 
 ish chief as a dangerous man, who was spying out the country ; an impression which 
 was confirmed by his habit of making notes continually and openly. He remained ten 
 days with the Bey, and then continued his journey accompanied by Kurdish guards, 
 who killed him by their master's orders beside a stream called Av Spiresa, near the 
 castle of Pisa, close to Bash-Kalah. Two of his Christian servants were murdered with 
 him : his two Persian attendants were taken to Nur Ullah Bey, and also put to death. 
 
330 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII 
 
 "We were met on the outskirts of the village hy the Muhrdar, or seal- 
 bearer, of the Pasha, with an escort of cawasses. He led us to a convenient 
 spot for our tents, near a spring, and shortly after brought provisions for 
 ourselves and horses, sent by the governor, who, it being early in the after- 
 noon, was still in bed after his night's vigils. It was not until long after 
 dark that I visited Izzet Pasha. I found him encamped at a considerable 
 elevation in a rocky ravine,* which we reached, guided by cawasses carry- 
 ing huge glass lanterns, by a very precipitous and difficult track. A small 
 rivulet had been dammed up in front of his tents and formed a reservoir 
 which mirrored the red light of a number of torches. 
 
 I remained with him until the night was far advanced, and then return- 
 ed to our encampment. He informed me that there was a direct road from 
 Bash-Kalah to Mosul of forty hours, through Beit-Shebbet, Daoudiyah, and 
 Dohuk, which, "with very little labor and expense, could be made practica- 
 ble for guns. Izzet Pasha's province, formed out of the territories of several 
 Kurdish chiefs who had been recently captured aud sent in exile to distant 
 parts of the empire, consisted principally of the district of Al Bagh (of which 
 Bash-Kalah is the chief place), the mountainous regions of Hakkiari, with 
 the Nestorian valleys, Berwari and Amadiyah. The whole of this country 
 had, for the first time, been brought under the immediate control of the 
 Porte. The Pasha was desirous of ascertaining its resources, and especially 
 the extent of its mineral wealth, of which exaggerated reports had reached 
 Constantinople. The inexperienced officers sent to survey his pashalic, had 
 already discovered one or two mines, the most profitable hitherto being one 
 of arsenic, which he had farmed on advantageous terms to some Armenian 
 merchants. 
 
 Bash-Kalah was formerly the dwelling-place of jSTur Ullah Bey, a Kurd- 
 ish chief well known for his rapacious and blood-thirsty character, and as 
 the murderer of Schulz. He joined Beder Khan Bey in the great massa- 
 cres of the Nestorians, and for many years sorely vexed those Christians 
 who were within his rule. After a long resistance to the troops of the 
 Sultan, he was captured about two years before my visit, and banished for 
 life to the island of Candia. Late at night I visited "\Yali Pasha, the com- 
 mander of the Turkish troops, who resided in the stronghold of the for- 
 mer chief. I reached the harem, then occupied by the general, through 
 many dark passages leading from the arched gateway. The walls and 
 towers are ill-built, and it was chiefly owing to its inaccessible position 
 that the castle was so long able to defy the undisciplined forces sent 
 against it. 
 
 My companions and servants being much in want of rest, I stopped a day 
 at Bash-Kalah. On resuming our journey we took a direct though difficult 
 track to Wan, only open in the middle of summer. Following a small 
 stream, we entered a ravine leading into the very heart of the mountains. 
 
 * The place of our encampment at Bash-Kalah was, by observation, 7818 feet above 
 the level of the sea. 
 
Chap. XVII.l a Jewish encampment. 33] 
 
 Three hours' ride, always rapidly ascending along the banks of the rivulet, 
 brought us to a large encampment. The flocks had been driven down from 
 the higher pastures, and were gathered together to be milked before the 
 black tents. A party of women already crouched round their sheep. Their 
 long hair was platted in tresses ending in tassels mingled with gold coins. 
 From a high turban of gay colors, also adorned with coins, a thin white 
 veil fell over their shoulders, and their flowing garments were of bright 
 silk. The children ran to and fro with wooden bowls, and a girl standing 
 near sang a plaintive air, beating the measure on a tambourine. The feat- 
 ures of the women and of the men, who came out of their tents as we rode 
 up, as well as the tongue in which they addressed one another, showed at 
 once that they were not Kurds. They were Jews, shepherds, and wander- 
 ers, of the stock, may be, of those who, with their high priest Hyrcanus, 
 were carried away captive from Jerusalem by Tigranes in the second cen- 
 tury of our era, and placed in the city and neighbourhood of Wan. Their 
 descendants, two hundred years after, were already so numerous that Sha- 
 pour (Sapores) II. destroyed no less than 10,000 families in Wan alone. * 
 
 We encamped near the Jewish nomades, and I visited their tents, but 
 could learn nothing of their history. They fed their flocks, as their fathers 
 had done before them, in these hills, and paid taxes to the governor of 
 Bash-Kalah. There were many other families, keepers of sheep like them- 
 selves, scattered over the mountains ; they were shepherds again, as they 
 had been when they were an abomination to the Egyptians. 
 
 We had now reached the higher regions of Kurdistan. f Next morning 
 we soon left the narrow flowery valley and the brawling stream, and en- 
 tered an undulating upland covered with deep snow, considerably more 
 than ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. On all sides of us were 
 towering peaks, and to the west a perfect sea of mountains, including the 
 lofty ranges of Hakkiari and Bohtan. Far away to the north was the 
 azure basin of Lake Wan, and beyond it rose the solitary white cone of the 
 Subhan Dagh. A light wind drove a few fleecy clouds across the sunny 
 landscape, now veiling some distant hill, now hiding in shadow the deep 
 valleys. A covey of large birds sailed with a rapid swoop, and with the 
 whistling sound peculiar to the partridge kind, from an opposite height, and 
 alighted within a few yards of me. They were the Kabk-i-dereh, or the 
 Our-kaklik as they are called by the Turks ; a gigantic partridge, almost 
 the size of a small turkey, only found in the highest regions of Armenia and 
 Kurdistan. 
 
 Descending rapidly, and passing, near the foot of the mountain, one or 
 two miserable, half-deserted Kurdish hamlets, we entered a long narrow 
 ravine, shut in by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone and conglomerate. 
 This outlet of the mountain streams opens into the valley of Mahmoudiyah, 
 
 * Moses of Chorcne, 1. ii. c. 19. St. Martin, Mem. sur FArmenie, vol. i. p. 139. 
 These Jews, I am assured, indulge, like their Mussulman neighbours, in polygamy. 
 t The Jewish encampment was 9076 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
332 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 in the centre of which rises an isolated rock crowned by the picturesque 
 castle of Kosh-Ab. 
 
 We pitched our tents on a green lawn, near the bank of the foaming 
 stream which sweeps round the foot of the castellated rock. Soon after 
 our arrival a Kurdish Bey, of venerable appearance, a descendant of the 
 hereditary chiefs of Mahmoudiyah, called upon me. He had once been the 
 owner of the castle, but had been driven from it by an adventurer of some 
 celebrity in this part of Kurdistan. This marauder had recently been 
 captured by the Turks, who had seized his property, but had not restored 
 it to its rightful owner. The village, once a town, whose ruined mosques, 
 baths, and bridges still remain, was named Mahmoudiyah, after a certain 
 Mahmoud Bey, who was of the noble Kurdish family claiming lineal de- 
 scent from the Abbasside Caliphs, of which the Bey of Jezireh, or Bohtan, 
 is the acknowledged head. The castle, built in the fifteenth century, is 
 called Nerin, or more generally Kosh-Ab, " the sweet water," from the 
 pure stream flowing beneath it. Two brothers, named Khan Murad and 
 Khan Abdal, mere mountain robbers, brought together some years ago a 
 band of followers who laid waste this part of Kurdistan. Khan Abdal, 
 by a sudden night attack, seized the castle of Kosh-Ab, and soon subdued 
 the surrounding country. In this stronghold the brothers long defied the 
 Turkish government, levying black-mail upon such caravans as ventured 
 to pass through their territories, and oppressing with fines and forced con- 
 versions their Christian subjects. It was but the year before our visit 
 that they had yielded to the troops sent against them, and had been sent 
 into banishment, with the rest of the rebel chiefs, to Candia. 
 
 With the Kurdish Bey came one Ahmed Agha, a chief of the large border 
 tribe of Mogri, an intelligent man, who conversed freely on the state of the 
 country, and gave me some interesting information regarding the frontiers. 
 The fear of the conscription has driven many families into Persia, and into 
 the more independent districts of Kurdistan. On the whole, the wander- 
 ing tribes are becoming less formidable to the Porte than they formerly 
 were. The northern frontiers between Turkey and Persia are no less un- 
 settled than the southern. The tribes that inhabit them refusing allegi- 
 ance to both governments, and receiving encouragement from both in ag- 
 gressions upon their neighbours, have hitherto been sure of a place of ref- 
 uge by crossing the border, when their depredations have at length driven 
 either power to send a military expedition against them. A commission 
 was finally named by the two Mohammedan states, in conjunction with 
 England and Russia, to settle the long-vexed question of the boundaries, 
 which, in 1841, nearly led to a war between them. Diplomatic difficul- 
 ties and national jealousies, embittered by religious differences, have hith- 
 erto retarded the labors of this joint commission ; but it is to be hoped that, 
 by the help of the European officers who are members of it, the survey will 
 ere long be completed, and the terms proposed be accepted. The uncer- 
 tainty which has so long existed as to the nationality of the various front- 
 
Chap. XVIL] castle of kosh-ab. 333 
 
 ier tribes will then be set at rest, and some of the principal causes of the 
 unsettled states of Kurdistan, and of the frequent disputes between the two 
 powers, will be removed. 
 
 To the east of the district of Mahmoudiyah, and in that of Karasou, are 
 many Yezidi villages and a considerable Jewish population.^ Both races 
 are much oppressed by the Kurdish chiefs, who take their property, and 
 even their lives, with perfect indifference, " the Cadis," as Ahmed Agha 
 informed me, "having given fetwahs (decrees) that both were lawful to 
 the true believer." 
 
 We rose early next morning, and went up to the castle. As it was still 
 Ramazan, the small garrison of regular troops and undisciplined Albanians 
 had feasted during the night, and were now sleeping. We knocked at the 
 iron-bound gate for some time without arousing the slumberers. At length 
 a slipshod sentinel, who appeared to have been fast asleep at his post drew 
 back the rusty bolts. He would not, however, admit us, until he had 
 received orders from the officer in command, who, with much good-nature, 
 slipt on a threadbare uniform, turned out the scarcely awakened guard, 
 and received us with military honors. The castle is falling into ruins, 
 though its towers still rise boldly from the edge of the precipice, overhang- 
 ing at a giddy height the valley below. In them, open to the cool breezes 
 of the mountain, are the dwelling-rooms of the old Kurdish chiefs, adorned 
 with tasteful lattice-work, and with the painted panellings and gilded 
 cornices of Persia. They are now tenanted by the Turkish troops, whose 
 bright arms and highly-polished kitchen utensils hang on the gaudy walls. 
 A few long brass guns richly embossed, the work of the early Turkish con- 
 querors of Kurdistan, lie, upset from their carriages, on the crumbling bat- 
 tlements. After drinking coffee and smoking pipes with the captain of 
 the guard, we walked down the narrow pathway leading to the valley, and, 
 mounting our horses, joined the caravan, which had preceded us on the 
 road to Wan. 
 
 Hormuzd having been seized with a severe attack of fever, and a heavy 
 storm breaking over us, we stopped, after a ride of about fourteen miles, at 
 the Armenian village of Hindostan, situated in a rich but thinly-peopled 
 valley, called Khawassan. On the following morning we crossed this val- 
 ley to Nourtchouk, at the outskirts of which I was met by the priest at the 
 head of the inhabitants. A range of low hills now separated us from the 
 plain and lake of Wan. We soon reached their crest, and a landscape of 
 surpassing beauty was before us. At our feet, intensely blue and spark 
 ling in the rays of the sun, was the inland sea, with the sublime peak of 
 the Subhan Dagh, mirrored in its transparent waters. The city, with its 
 castle-crowned rock and its embattled walls and towers, lay embowered 
 
 * Amongst the Jewish population scattered widely over this part of ancient Media, 
 might be sought the descendants of the ten tribes, with more probability than in the 
 various lands which ingenious speculation has pointed out as the dwelling-places of 
 the remnant of Israel. 
 
334 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XVII. 
 
 in orchards and gardens. To our right a rugged snow-capped mountain 
 opened midway into an amphitheatre, in which, amidst lofty trees, stood 
 the Armenian convent of Yedi Klissia (the seven churches). To the west 
 of the lake was the Nimroud Dagh, and the highlands nourishing the 
 sources of the great rivers of Mesopotamia. The hills forming the fore- 
 ground of our picture were carpeted with the brightest flowers, over which 
 wandered the flocks, whilst the gaily dressed shepherds gathered around us 
 as we halted to contemplate the enchanting scene. 
 
 We now descended rapidly towards "Wan, and as we issued into the plain, 
 a party of horsemen galloped towards us. I soon recognised amongst them 
 my friend Mr. Bowen ; with him were the Cawass-Bashi and a troop of 
 irregular cavalry, sent out by the Pasha to escort me into the city. Nor 
 did the governor's kindness end with this display of welcome. After wind- 
 ing for nearly an hour through orchards and gardens, whose trees were 
 bending under the weight of fruit, and then through the narrow and crowd- 
 ed streets, we were led to his serai or palace, which, such as it was, had 
 been made ready for our use, and where his treasurer was waiting to re- 
 ceive us. Notwithstanding the fast, an abundant breakfast of various meats 
 and sweet messes, cooked after the Turkish fashion, had been prepared for 
 us, and we soon found repose upon a spacious divan, surrounded by all the 
 luxuries of Eastern life. 
 
 The Castle of Mahmoudiyah. 
 

 Kurds of Wan. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MEHEMET PASHA. DESCRIPTION OF WAN. ITS HISTORY. IMPROVEMENT IN ITS CONDI- 
 TION. THE ARMENIAN BISHOP. THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. — THE CAVES OF KHOR- 
 
 KHOR. THE MEHER KAPOUSI. A TRADITION. OBSERVATIONS ON THE INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 TABLE OF KINGS MENTIONED IN THEM. THE BAIRAM. AN ARMENIAN SCHOOL. 
 
 THE AMERICAN MISSIONS. PROTESTANT MOVEMENT IN TURKEY. AMIKH. THE CON- 
 VENT OF YEDI KLISSIA. 
 
 Mehemet Pasha was living during the fast of Ramazan in a kiosk in 
 one of the gardens outside the city walls. We had scarcely eaten, before 
 he came himself to welcome us to Wan. He was the son of the last Bos- 
 tandji-Basha of Constantinople, and having been brought up from a child 
 in the imperial palace, was a man of pleasing and dignified manners, and 
 of considerable information. Although he had never left his native coun- 
 try, he was not ignorant of the habits and customs of Europe. He hau 1 
 long served the Sultan in difficult and responsible posts, and to his discre- 
 tion and sagacity was chiefly to be attributed the subjugation of Beder- 
 Khan Bey and the rebel Kurdish tribes. His rule was mild and concili- 
 ating, and he possessed those qualities so rare in a Turkish governor, yet 
 so indispensable to the civilisation and well-being of the empire, — a strict 
 honesty in the administration of the revenues of his province, and a sense 
 of justice beyond the reach of bribes. From Christians and Kurds we had 
 received, during our journey through his pashalic, the highest testimony to 
 his tolerance and integrity. 
 
 In the evening I returned his visit, and found him surrounded by the 
 chiefs and elders of the city, and by the officers of his household. I sat 
 
336 NIXEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 with him till midnight, the time passing in that agreeable conversation 
 which a well-educated Turk so well knows how to sustain. 
 
 I remained a week at Wan, chiefly engaged in copying the cuneiform in- 
 scriptions, and in examining its numerous remarkable monuments of an- 
 tiquity. 
 
 The city is of very ancient date. It stands on the borders of a large and 
 beautiful lake, a site eminently suited to a prosperous community. The 
 lofty mountains bordering the inland sea to the east, here recede in the 
 form of an amphitheatre, leaving a rich plain five or six miles in breadth, 
 in the midst of which rises an isolated, calcareous rock. To the summit of 
 this natural stronghold there is no approach, except on the western side, 
 where a gradual but narrow ascent is defended by walls and bastions. 
 From the earliest ages it has consequently been the acropolis of the city, 
 and no position could be stronger before the discovery of the engines of 
 modern warfare. The fortifications and castle, of a comparatively recent 
 date, are now in ruins, and are scarcely defensible, with their few rusty 
 guns, against the attacks of the neighboring Kurds. 
 
 According to Armenian history, the Assyrian queen Semiramis founded 
 the city, which, after her, was originally named Schamiramjerd. Here, in 
 the delicious gardens which she had planted in the fertile plain, and which 
 she had watered with a thousand rills, she sought refuge from the intoler- 
 able heats of a Alesopotamian summer, returning again, on the approach of 
 winter, to her palaces at Xineveh. 
 
 The first city having fallen to decay, it is said to have been rebuilt, 
 shortly before the invasion of Alexander the Great, by an Armenian king 
 named Wan, after whom it was subsequently called. It appears to have 
 been again abandoned, for we find that it was once more raised from its 
 foundations in the second century B.C. by Vagharschag, the first king of 
 the Arsacian dynasty of Armenia, who made it the strongest city in the 
 kingdom. In the eleventh century it was ceded by the royal family of 
 the Ardzrounis to the Greek emperors, from whom it was taken by the 
 Seljuk Turks. It fell, in 1392, into the hands of Timourlane. who, accord- 
 ing to his custom, gave the inhabitants over to the sword. Even in his 
 day. the great monuments of solid stone, raised by the Assyrian queen, 
 were still shown to the stranger. 
 
 Moses of Chorene, the early historian of Armenia, has faithfully described 
 its position and its antiquities ; the isolated hill, rising in the midst of a 
 broad plain covered with flourishing villages, and watered by innumerable 
 streams ; the chapels, chambers, treasuries, and caverns cut in the living 
 rock, and the great inscriptions written, as it were, on the face of the prec- 
 ipice, as pages are written with a pen on wax. Twelve thousand work- 
 men and six thousand master masons were employed, he declares, by Sem- 
 iramis to execute those mighty works. The artificial caves and the in- 
 scriptions still remain, but modern research has proved that they belong to 
 a far different period than that to which they were assigned by the Ar- 
 menian antiquary. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] THE CITY 0F WAN> 337 
 
 The first traveller who, in modern times, examined the remarkable re- 
 mains of antiquity at Wan was the unfortunate Schulz. He visited the 
 place in 1827. The cuneiform inscriptions carved on the rock were known 
 to exist long before his day, but he was the first to copy them, and from 
 his copies they have been published by the Asiatic Society of France.* 
 Since the time of Schulz, the city has undergone many changes. It was 
 seized by the rebel Kurdish chief, Khan Mahmoud, who massacred the 
 Turkish garrison, inflicted large fines upon the Christians, and grievously 
 oppressed the dependent villages. After the troops of the Sultan had made 
 many vain attempts to recover the place, it finally yielded two years before 
 my journey. Under the mild rule of Mehemet Pasha it was rapidly rising 
 to prosperity. The protection he had given to the Armenians had en- 
 couraged that enterprising and industrious people to enlarge their com- 
 merce, and to build warehouses for trade. Two handsome khans, with 
 bazars attached, were nearly finished. Shops for the sale of European ar- 
 ticles of clothing and of luxury had been opened ; and, what was of still 
 more importance, several native schools had already been established. 
 These improvements were chiefly due to one Sharan, an Armenian mer- 
 chant and a man of liberal and enlightened views, who had seconded with 
 energy and liberality the desire of the Pasha to ameliorate the social con- 
 dition of the Christian population.! 
 
 Shortly after my arrival, the Armenian bishop called upon me. He 
 was dressed in the peculiar costume of his order, — long black robes and a 
 capacious black hood almost concealing his head, — and was accompanied 
 by the priests and principal laymen of his diocese. On his breast he wore 
 the rich diamond crescent and star of the Turkish order of merit, of which 
 he was justly proud. It had been asked for him of the Sultan by the 
 Pasha, as an encouragement to the Christians, and as a proof of the spirit 
 of tolerance which animated the government. If such principles were fully 
 carried out in Turkey, there would be good hope for the empire. Although 
 he had been duly elected several years before to his episcopal dignity, he 
 still wanted the formal consecration of the patriarch of his church. This 
 ceremony had hitherto been omitted on account of differences which had 
 estranged the Armenian clergy residing in the Turkish dominions from the 
 head of their sect, whose seat is the convent of Echmiadsin, made over to 
 
 * In the ninth volume of the new series of their Transactions ; a memoir by 
 Schulz accompanies the inscriptions. 
 
 t I must not omit to mention the name of Dr. Bimerstein. a German gentleman at 
 the head of the quarantine establishment, from whom I received much civility and 
 assistance during my stay at Wan, and who, by the influence he had obtained over 
 the Pasha, and by his integrity and good sense, had contributed considerably towards 
 the improvement in the condition of the Christians, and the general prosperity of the 
 pashalic. He was a pleasing exception in a class made up of the refuse and outcasts 
 of Europe, who have done more than is generally known to corrupt the Turkish char- 
 acter and to bring an European and a Christian into contempt. I am proud to say 
 that an Englishman is not, I believe, to be found amongst them. 
 
 Y 
 
338 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Russia at the close of the last war. These differences, arising from polit- 
 ical interference in the management of the affairs of the Church, had for 
 some time threatened a division in the community, that portion of it which 
 acknowledges the authority of the Sultan wishing to place itself under a 
 patriarch who resides at Cis, in Cilicia, and, consequently, beyond foreign 
 control. The quarrel had now, however, been settled, and the bishop was 
 on the eve of his departure to receive that consecration which was essential 
 to his due admission into the Armenian hierarchy. 
 
 The modern town of Wan stands at the foot, and to the south of, the 
 isolated rock. Its streets and bazars are small, narrow, and dirty ; but its 
 houses are not ill built. It is surrounded by fruitful gardens and orchards, 
 irrigated by artificial rivulets derived from the streams rising in the Yedi 
 Klissia mountains. It may contain between twelve and fifteen thousand 
 inhabitants. The whole pashalic at the time of my visit paid an annual 
 sum of six thousand-purses (about 27,000/.) to the Turkish treasury. In 
 the town there was a garrison of a thousand foot and five hundred horse, 
 and the commander of the troops in the district and in the adjoining prov- 
 ince of Hakkiari was at the head of five thousand men* 
 
 The old hereditary pashas of Wan, as well as the principal families, were 
 of Turkish origin, and came, I was informed by some of their descendants, 
 from Konia (Iconium). about three hundred years .ago. The chiefs, how- 
 ever, of the surrounding districts are Kurds. Two families, named the 
 Topchi-oglus and the Timour-oglus, divided the town into opposite factions, 
 which were continually at war, and carried their bloody feuds almost daily 
 into the streets. The Timour-oglus were the most powerful, and it was 
 through their means that Khan Mahmoud possessed himself of the place. 
 
 The inscriptions of Wan are of two distinct periods, though all in the 
 cuneiform writing. The most ancient are in a character identical with 
 that on the oldest monuments of Assyria.! The only one not entirely in 
 this Assyrian character is on the southern face of the rock, inaccessible 
 from all sides, but easily legible, on account of the size and distinctness of 
 its letters, by a glass from below. It was copied by Schulz, and is a tri- 
 lingual tablet of Xerxes the son of Darius, very nearly word for word the 
 same as those of the same king at Hamadan (Ecbatana) and Persepolis. 
 
 The earliest inscriptions are found on two square stones built into a 
 wall near the western gateway of the city, and immediately beneath the 
 only entrance to the castle. This wall appears to have been part of the 
 old fortifications, and at a more recent period formed one of the sides of a 
 
 * Wan is about 5600 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 t The distinguishing feature of the Wan writing is a tendency to repeat the hori- 
 zontal wedge when two wedges intersect: thus >-T>- for Jf- # In this character 
 are the inscriptions at Pahlou, on the Euphrates (Brit. Mus. Series, p. 74.), on a rock 
 near Malatiyah on the same river (copied by M. Muhlbach, and published by t 1 e 
 Syro-Egyptian Society), on a column at Patnos (copied by the Hon. F. Walpole), 
 and in various parts of Armenia, but principally in the neighbourhood of Lake Wan 
 
J 
 
 ill. 
 
 ill 1 
 
 ;, 
 
 I'll 
 
340 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON 
 
 [Chap. XVIII 
 
 Christian church, dedicated to St John, but now in ruins. * The inscribed 
 stones were taken from some far more ancient building. 
 
 The two inscriptions are similar, and contain the names of a king and 
 his father, which have not been satisfactorily deciphered . They are written, 
 
 It is remarkable that the royal titles 
 
 << &■ ^ « tfH * « I « v ^ eg HTKf 
 
 are precisely the same as to those used by the early monarchs of Assyria, 
 with the exception of " King of Nahiri," a name apparently applied to the 
 northernmost part of Mesopotamia, between the head waters of the Eu- 
 phrates and the Tigris, and perhaps even including the lake of Wan. It 
 is possible that this country may also be identified with the Naharina of 
 the Egyptian monuments, which, there are grounds for believing, may have 
 been far to the north of the Mesopotamia of the Greeks. 
 
 It is also to be remarked that the language of these inscriptions appears 
 to be Assyrian,! whilst that of all the others is peculiar to Wan. Never- 
 theless, the names of the kings in them can be genealogically connected, as 
 it will be seen, with those on the other monuments. 
 
 But the most important records at Wan are carved on the southern face 
 of the isolated rock, round the entrance to a set of excavated chambers, 
 probably once serving as tombs, which, unlike the artificial caves at Ba- 
 vian and Malthaiyah, may be referred to the same period as the inscrip- 
 tions. As those inscriptions record the victories and deeds of a monarch, 
 it is highly probable that they were placed over royal sepulchres. 
 
 A flight of twenty narrow steps cut in the perpendicular face of the pre- 
 cipice, and partly destroyed, so as to be somewhat difficult and dangerous, 
 
 Interior of a Tomb in the Rock (Wan). 
 
 * In Schulz's collection only one of these inscriptions is given (No. 1.); one is 
 seven, the other eight lines in length. 
 
 t The same forms of expression occur in these inscriptions as in the standard in- 
 scription of Nimroud : compare the 2nd and 3rd lines of Schulz's copy with the 6th 
 and 7th lines of Brit. Mus Series, p. 3. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 ROCK TOMBS AT WAN 
 
 341 
 
 leads to a narrow ledge, above which the rock has been carefully smoothed, 
 and is still covered with inscriptions in the cuneiform character. Here an 
 entrance, about 7 feet deep, opens into a hall, 34 J feet long, by nearly 21 
 wide and 12 high, leading by four doorways into as many distinct cham- 
 bers. Around its walls are window-like recesses, and between them, and 
 on each side of the doorways, are ornamental niches, with holes in the cen- 
 
 Ground Plan of the same Tomb (on the same scale) 
 
 tre, which may have held metal lamps. The floor has been excavated in 
 two places into squares a few inches deep ; I cannot conjecture for what 
 purpose. 
 
 The door to the left on entering leads into a small chamber, 11 ft. 8 in. 
 by 9 ft. 8 in., surrounded by similar window-like recesses. In it is a sec- 
 ond doorway opening upon a well or pit, filled to within a few feet of the 
 mouth with stones and rubbish. There were no means of ascertaining its 
 depth or original use without removing the contents. The three other 
 doors in the entrance hall lead to square rooms, surrounded by niches, but 
 without other ornament. The excavations are sometimes called by the 
 Turks "Khorkhor Mugaralari," the caves of Khorkhor, from a garden of 
 that name below them. 
 
 The inscriptions on the face of the rock around the outer entrance to 
 these chambers are contained in eight parallel columns, including in all 
 above 300 lines and thirteen consecutive paragraphs.* The letters are 
 large and admirably carved, and the writing is divided by horizontal lines. 
 They are defective in many places, partly from natural decay, but mainly 
 from wilful injury : the obliterated characters may to a great extent be re- 
 stored by a comparison of the several inscriptions which contain correspond- 
 * These inscriptions are numbered from ii to viii. in Schulz's collection. 
 
342 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XVIII. 
 
 ing passages. 1 * These rock-tablets are the records of a king whose name, 
 according to Dr. Hincks, is Arghistis. He invokes the gods of his nation, 
 and celebrates the conquest of various peoples or tribes, whose names still 
 require to be identified, but who probably inhabited countries to the north 
 of Armenia ; he describes the burning of their temples and palaces, and the 
 carrying away of captives and of an immense spoil of horses, camels, cat 
 tie, and sheep, the numbers of each being given with apparent exactness. 
 The name of the region in which these conquests were chiefly made seems 
 to read Mana. 
 
 The gardens beneath these inscriptions belong to the family of one of the 
 former hereditary Pashas of Wan. A spring gushes forth from the foot of 
 the rock, and over it is a small tablet, once containing a legend in arrow- 
 headed characters, now entirely destroyed. The grounds, as I have ob- 
 served, are called Khorkhor, and this name has been believed to occur in 
 the cuneiform inscriptions as the ancient name of Wan, on the supposition 
 that it is still given to the whole castle. I was assured, however, that it 
 is limited to these gardens.! 
 
 The remaining inscriptions are on the northern face of the rock. They 
 are five in number. $ The longest and most important contains twenty- 
 nine lines, and is on the side wall to the left on entering an artificial vault- 
 ed recess. It has been partly destroyed by a rude cross cut by the Arme- 
 nians across the tablet. The cave is called the " Khazana Kapousi," or 
 the treasure gate, and is held to be a sacred spot by Christians and Mus- 
 sulmans. Beneath it, according to tradition, an iron gate, guarded by genii 
 armed with swords of flame, closes the entrance to a vast hall filled with 
 all manner of riches. The magic words that can alone open this portal 
 are contained in the inscription, which is guarded at night by a serpent, 
 who retires at break of day into a hole near the cave.§ 
 
 An inscription of seventeen lines is carved at the entrance to a second 
 artificial chamber, and on tablets cut in the rock are three more, each of 
 nineteen lines, word for word alike, but with orthographical variations in 
 the royal name. 
 
 Four of these inscriptions belong to the father of the king, who recorded 
 his conquests on the southern face of the rock. His name, according to 
 Dr. Hincks, may be read Minuas. They merely contain the royal titles 
 and invocations to the gods. The long inscription in the vaulted recess]] 
 is of the grandson of Minuas, the latest king mentioned on the monuments 
 of Wan. It is of considerable interest as containing the name of a coun- 
 
 * And see Dr. Hincks's Memoir on the Inscriptions of Wan, § 2. in the Journal of 
 the Royal Asiatic Society. | 
 
 t The ancient province of Khorkhorunik was to the west of the lake of Wan ; the 
 city of Wan stood in that of Dosb. 
 
 % Numbered in Schulz's collection from xii. to xvi. 
 
 § Schulz gives this tradition, which, like many others, is probably of very ancient 
 date. 
 
 I! Schulz, No. xii. 
 
Chap. XVIIL] inscriptions at wan 343 
 
 try, >— *<Y *—**" TSYT > ^TTY == wn * cn -^ r - Hincks identifies with Babylon, 
 
 and as enumerating, first in detail, the amount of booty taken from three 
 different countries, and afterwards giving the total amount of the whole. 
 By this double account the one checking the other, a clue was afforded to 
 the signs representing numerals in the Assyrian inscriptions, as well as to 
 their respective values, a discovery for which we are indebted to the sa- 
 gacity of Dr. Hincks.* It gives, moreover, a long list of nations conquered 
 by the Armenian king, of which the principal appears to be called Abana, 
 a name not yet identified. 
 
 The Pasha had kindly placed the " Mimar Bashi," or architect in chief 
 of the town, an intelligent and honest Armenian, named Nikoos, under my 
 orders during my researches at Wan. I also found in the place a half-crazy 
 Cawass, who had been all the way to Constantinople to obtain a firman 
 for leave to dig for treasure beneath the inscribed tablets. The imperial 
 document had been granted, with a clause, however, that a share of the 
 riches discovered should be paid into the Sultan's treasury. His search had 
 hitherto been vain, although his purse had been emptied ; but he knew 
 all the old stones and inscriptions in the neighborhood. "With the aid of 
 these two men I carried on excavations for a short time at the foot of the 
 northern face of the rock, without other results than clearing away the 
 earth from one or two half-buried tablets, and laying bare the artificially 
 smoothed rock. 
 
 About a mile and a half to the east of the town, near a small village in 
 the gardens of Wan, is a recess in the rock 15 feet 8 inches high, and 6 
 feet 7 inches broad, containing a long cuneiform inscription. On the tab- 
 let may still be traced the remains of the yellow varnish, or glaze, men- 
 tioned by Schulz. The ancient Persians appear to have protected their 
 rock-carved inscriptions by similar means from the effects of the atmos- 
 phere, traces of the glaze having been discovered on the great monument 
 of Bisutun.f The inscription is called Meher Kapousi, which, according 
 to the people of Wan, means the Shepherd's Gate, from a tradition that a 
 shepherd, having fallen asleep beneath it, was told in a dream the magic 
 word that opened the spell-bound portal. He awoke and straightway tried 
 the talisman. The stone doors flew apart, disclosing to his wondering eyes 
 a vast hall filled with inexhaustible treasures ; but as he entered they shut 
 again behind him. He filled with gold the bag in which, as he tended his 
 flocks, he carried his daily food. After repeating the magic summons, he 
 was permitted to issue into the open air. But he had left his crook, and 
 must return for it. The doors were once more unclosed at his bidding. 
 He sought to retrace his steps, but had forgotten the talisman. His faith- 
 
 * See Dr. Hincks's Paper on the War Inscriptions, in the Journal of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society. 
 
 t Col. Rawlinson, Memoir on the Inscriptions of Behistan, in the Journal of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society. 
 
344 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 ful dog waited outside until nightfall. As its master did not come back, 
 it then took up the hag of gold, and carrying it to the shepherd's wife, led 
 her to the gates of the cave. She could hear the cries of her husband, and 
 they are heard to this day, but none can give him help. 
 
 The inscription of the Meher Kapousi originally consisted of ninety-five 
 lines, comprising the same record twice repeated. Only about sixty are 
 now legible. It was carved by order of two kings, who appear to have 
 reigned together, and whose names Dr.Hincks reads, Ishpuinish and Min- 
 uas. It contains little else than a list of sacrifices and offerings made to a 
 multitude of gods, each one receiving a share probably according to his im- 
 portance in the celestial hierarchy, the lowest in rank getting only one 
 sheep, and the highest seventeen oxen and thirty-four sheep. With the 
 gods of Armenia are mentioned those of foreign nations, who have the 
 smallest portion of the honors, some obtaining but half an ox. 
 
 Near the Shepherd's Gate the rocks are excavated into a vast number of 
 caves. In some places long flights of steps lead nowhere, but finish abrupt- 
 ly in the face of the perpendicular precipice ; in others the cliff is scarped 
 to a great height without any apparent object. A singular shaft, with 
 stairs, leading into a cavern, is called Zimzim. It is difficult to account 
 for the use and origin of these singular excavations ; their height from the 
 plain and their inaccessible position almost preclude the idea of their hav- 
 ing been quarries. 
 
 Several slabs of black basalt, inscribed with cuneiform characters, have 
 been built into the interior walls of two ancient Armenian churches with- 
 in the town of "Wan.* They had been whitewashed with the rest of the 
 building, but the bishop obligingly ordered the plaster to be removed from 
 them. Some of the inscriptions are no longer legible. In the church of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul I found parts of four legends, f which appear to refer 
 to two kings, grandfather and grandson, whose names, according to Dr. 
 Hincks, are Ishpuinish and Milidduris. They are historical, containing a 
 record of the capture of many cities, and of the amount of spoil carried 
 away from conquered countries. 
 
 In the church of Surp Sahak I was able to transcribe two inscriptions, 
 one under the altar, the other in the vestibule beneath the level of the floor, 
 which had to be broken up and removed before I could reach the stone. 
 The longest consists of forty lines, the other of twenty-seven. The begin- 
 ning and ending of the lines in both are wanting. They belong to a king 
 whose name Dr. Hincks reads Arghistis, and one of them celebrates the 
 capture of no less than 453 cities and 105 temples or palaces, and the ear- 
 ning away of 25,170 (?) men, 2734 officers, 73,700 sheep, and an im- 
 mense number of women, oxen, and other spoil. $ 
 
 * These churches are probably of great antiquity, but no record appears to remain 
 of the date of their foundation. They are dark and rudely built, and have nothing 
 remarkable in them. f Two are given by Schulz, Nos. xxxviii. and xxxix. 
 
 t The beginnings of the lines having been destroyed, the numbers are not all com- 
 plete. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] inscriptions at wan. 345 
 
 The only inscription at Wan that I could not copy was the trilingual tab- 
 let of Xerxes. It is on the most inaccessible part of the rock, about sev- 
 enty or eighty feet above the plain. Not having a glass of sufficient pow- 
 er, I was unable to distinguish the characters from below. As it had been 
 accurately transcribed by Schulz, and resembles those of the same king at 
 Persepolis and Hamadan, I did not think it necessary to incur any risk or 
 expense in reaching it by means of ropes or scaffolding.* 
 
 In the rock there are numerous excavated chambers, some even exceed- 
 ing in dimensions those I have described ; but, with the exception of a sim- 
 ple seat or bench of stone, about two and a half feet high on one side of 
 them, they are perfectly plain and unornamented. They appear to have 
 been used as tombs, and Schulz declares that he found human bones in 
 them ; but it is doubtful whether those remains belonged to the original oc- 
 cupants. Some are approached by flights of steps cut in the precipice ; 
 others are altogether inaccessible except by ropes from above. As they all 
 more or less resemble the one previously mentioned, I will not give a par- 
 ticular account or accurate measurements of them.f 
 
 I add a list of the kings mentioned in the inscriptions of "Wan in the 
 order of their succession, which may be interesting to the historical student. 
 
 L JhTT *H^-* ]Hf! HfW' Lutibri, or Lutibar.J 
 2. ^J^ >-]]<] ^Je£?I' Milidduris. 
 
 3. pyy he* ^TTfc *e *ff? ^TT* ishpumish. 
 
 4. y- >~/~ £]]]$z )) *£. Minuas. 
 
 «■ <HPf<T *T HH * 
 
 6. >->f- ^y<| Z£l HfW *&* Milidduris. 
 
 Arghistis. 
 
 It is yet doubtful to what family of languages the Wan inscriptions 
 must be assigned. Some believe it to be a Tatar dialect ; or, at least, to be 
 largely intermixed with the Mongolian element. Dr. Hincks, on the con- 
 trary, is of opinion that it is Indo-Germanic, and adduces, in proof, various 
 
 * This inscription was copied, with a strong telescope, by Schulz, and is published 
 with the rest of his transcripts. 
 
 t Schulz has given the measurements, and a detailed account of each cavern, in 
 his Memoirs. 
 
 t The above are Dr. Hincks's version of the reading of the names. He entertains 
 some doubt as to the correctness of the second and sixth, the first part of which is 
 the name of a goddess, perhaps the Mylitta of Herodotus, though in the Babylonian 
 inscriptions it seems to be written " Gula." It must be observed that they are 
 sometimes written with orthographical variations in the inscriptions, and that those 
 in the above list are, according to Dr. Hincks's view, in the nominative case. 
 
J46 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 nstances of case-endings corresponding with the Sanscrit.* Two of the 
 nscriptions, and the earliest in date, as I have already observed, are in pure 
 Assyrian. 
 
 With regard to the date of the monuments there appears to be a clue 
 which may enable us to fix it with some degree of certainty. In an in- 
 scription from Khorsabad,f amongst the kings conquered by Sargon one is 
 mentioned whose name corresponds with Arghistis, the fifth in the Wan 
 dynasty. Supposing the two, therefore, to be the same, and there is no 
 reason to doubt their being so, we may assume that the monarchs of the 
 Wan records reigned from about the middle of the eighth century before 
 Christ to the end of the seventh ; and the evidence afforded by the forms 
 of the characters leads to this conjecture. It is possible that between the 
 death of the obelisk king and the reign of Sargon, the Assyrian monarchs 
 were unable to enforce their authority beyond the lofty range of mount- 
 ains to the north-east of Nineveh, and that a dynasty, which may indeed 
 have been a branch from that of Assyria,^ established itself during that 
 period in Armenia, and maintained its independence until a great conqueror 
 again sat on the throne of Nineveh. It is to be remarked that Dr. Hincks 
 believes he has even found an invasion of Babylonia recorded in these Ar- 
 menian inscriptions. If such be the case, it must be inferred that the ter- 
 ritories of the Assyrians were at that time confined within very narrow 
 limits round their capital city. 
 
 In the Khorsabad inscription Arghistis is called king of 
 
 War-ar-di, apparently the genitive case of War-ar-ad, a name that may be 
 identified with the biblical Ararath, the kingdom of Armenia.^ But at 
 Wan we have two different names for this country. In the oldest inscrip- 
 tions (those in the Assyrian language) it is called Nahiri, a name which, 
 as I have already mentioned, was applied by the Assyrians to the very 
 
 * On the inscriptions of Wan. Page 14., Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
 
 t Botta, pi. 151.1.5. 
 
 t Since the above was written Col. Rawlinson has announced three synchronisms 
 between the inscriptions of Nineveh and Wan. " Lutipari is found contending with 
 Sardanapalus (the builder of the north-west palace at Nimroud) ; his son Semiduri is 
 attacked by Deleboras (the obelisk king) ; and the fifth Wan monarch, Arghisti, is an 
 antagonist of Sargon." Dr. Hincks, however, denies the second identification, and 
 entertains considerable doubt, therefore, as to the first. (Literary Gazette, Dec. 18, 
 1852, p. 931.) It is a curious fact that the earliest inscriptions found at Wan should 
 be in Assyrian, whilst the others are in an essentially distinct language. Connected 
 with the Armenian tradition, that the two sons of Sennacherib, after they had slain 
 their father, fled into Armenia, and established royal dynasties, which reigned over 
 that country with northern Mesopotamia (St. Martin, vol. i. p. 163.), it might have led 
 to the conjecture that the inscriptions were of a more recent period, and of the time 
 between the fall of the Assyrian empire and the rise of the Persian. 
 
 $ D-PX 2 Kings, xix. 37, &c. 
 
Chap. XVIII. 1 close of the ramazan. 347 
 
 northernmost part of Mesopotamia, if it can be called Mesopotamia at all, 
 between the head-waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. In the others it is 
 termed Biaynee, 
 
 tt W *£ £eT *=T? 
 
 a name not yet identified, but perhaps not unconnected with the mount- 
 ainous province of Adiabene, to the north of Assyria.^ 
 
 At sunrise, on the 8th August, the roaring of cannon, re-echoed by the 
 lofty rock, announced the end of Ramazan, and the beginning of the peri- 
 odical festivities of the Bairam. Early in the morning the Pasha, glitter- 
 ing with gold and jewels, and surrounded by the members of his household, 
 the officers of the garrison, and the gaily-dressed chiefs of the irregular 
 troops, rode in procession through the streets of the town. As it is cus- 
 tomary, he received in the palace the visits of the cadi, mollahs, and prin- 
 cipal Mussulman inhabitants of Wan, as well as of the bishop, clergy, and 
 elders of the Armenian Church. The population, rejoicing at their release 
 from a fast almost intolerable in summer, decked themselves in holiday gar- 
 ments, and made merry in the houses and highways. The sounds of music 
 and revelry issued from the coffee-houses and places of public resort. The 
 children repaired to swings, merry-go-rounds, and stalls of sweetmeats, 
 which had been raised in the open spaces within the walls. The Chris- 
 tians add the feast to their own festivals, already too numerous,! and, like 
 their Mussulman neighbours, pay visits of compliment and ceremony. 
 Their women, who are said to be handsome, but are even more rigidly con- 
 cealed than the Mahommedan ladies, crept through the streets in their long 
 white veils. 
 
 I called in the evening on the bishop, and next morning, at his invita- 
 tion, visited the principal schools. Five have been established since the 
 fall of the Kurdish Beys, and the enjoyment of comparative protection by 
 the Christian population. Only one had been opened within the walls ; 
 the rest were in the gardens, which are thickly inhabited by Armenians, 
 and form extensive suburbs to Wan. The school in the town was held in 
 a spacious building newly erected, and at that time scarcely finished. 
 More than two hundred children of all ages were assembled. They wen 
 through then; exercises and devotions at the sound of a bell with great 
 dtfder and precision, alternately standing and squatting on their hams on 
 small cushions placed in rows across the hall. An outer room held basins 
 and towels for washing, and the cloaks and shoes taken off on entering. 
 Books were scarce. There were not more than a score in the whole school. 
 
 * The country is also thus called in the inscription at Pahlou (Br. Mus. Series, p. 
 74. 1. 20.), and in that near Malatiyah. 
 
 t The Mussulmans have only two great annual feasts in which labor gives way to 
 rejoicings and festivities ; the Christians of all sects have little else but fasts and 
 festivals throughout the year. A lazy Christian will add to his own holidays the 
 Friday of the Mohammedans, and the Saturday of the Jews. 
 
348 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 The first class, which had made some progress, had a few elementary works 
 on astronomy and history, published by the Armenian press at Constanti- 
 nople and Smyrna, but only one copy of each. The boys, at my request, 
 sang and chanted their prayers, and repeated their simple lessons. 
 
 Such schools, imperfect though they be, are proofs of a great and increas- 
 ing improvement in the Christian communities of Turkey.* A change of 
 considerable importance, and which, it is to be hoped, may lead to the most 
 beneficial results, is now taking place in the Armenian Church. It is un- 
 doubtedly to be attributed to the judicious, earnest, and zealous exertions 
 of the American missionaries ; their establishments, scattered over nearly 
 the whole Turkish empire, have awakened amongst the Christians, and 
 principally amongst the Armenians, a spirit of inquiry and a desire for the 
 reform of , abuses, and for the cultivation of their minds, which must ulti- 
 mately tend to raise their political, as well as their social, position in the 
 human scale. It is scarcely fifteen years since the first institution for 
 Christian instruction on Protestant (independent) principles was opened by 
 those excellent men in Constantinople. By a wise selection of youths from 
 different parts of the empire, who from their character and abilities were 
 deemed worthy of the choice, they were shortly enabled to send into the 
 provinces those who could sow the seeds of truth and knowledge, without 
 incurring the suspicions attaching to strangers, and without laboring un- 
 der that ignorance of the manners and languages of those amongst whom 
 they mix, which must always prove so serious an obstacle to foreigners in 
 their intercourse with the natives. A movement of this nature could 
 scarcely escape persecution. The Armenian clergy, not unfavorable to the 
 darkness and bigotry which had for centuries disgraced their Church, and 
 exercising an uncontrolled power over an ignorant and simple people, 
 soon raised a cry against the " Evangelists," as they were contemptuously 
 called. By such misrepresentations and calumnies as are always ready at 
 hand to the enemies of progress and reform, they were able to enlist in 
 their favor the Turkish authorities at the capital and in the provinces. 
 Unfortunately, four sects alone, the Roman Catholic, the Armenian, the 
 Greek, and the Copt, were recognised by the Porte amongst their Chris- 
 tian subjects. The reformed Armenian Church was consequently without 
 an acknowledged head, and unable, to communicate directly with the gov- 
 ernment, to make known its tenets, or to complain of the acts of injustice 
 and persecution to which it was exposed. Many persons fell victims to 
 their opinions. Some were cruelly tortured in the house of the Patriarch 
 himself, and others were imprisoned or utterly ruined in Constantinople 
 and the provinces. Sir Stratford Canning at length exerted his powerful 
 
 * The desire of a large number of the Armenians to improve their institutions, and 
 to adopt the manners of Europe, is a highly interesting, and indeed important, fact. 
 I was amused, after having contributed a trifle to the funds of the school, at having 
 presented to me a neatly printed and ornamented receipt, with the amount of my do- 
 nation duly filled up in the blank space left for the purpose, the document being sign- 
 ed by the head of the school. 
 
Chap XVIII. 1 results of the American missions. 349 
 
 influence to protect the injured sect from these wanton cruelties. Through 
 his exertions and those of Lord Cowley, when minister, a firman was ob- 
 tained from the Sultan, placing the new Protestant community on the same 
 footing as the other Churches of the empire, assigning to it a head, or agent, 
 through whom it could apply directly to the ministers, and extending to it 
 other privileges enjoyed by the Roman Catholics and Greeks. This act of 
 toleration and justice has given fresh vigor to the spirit of inquiry bred by 
 the American missionaries. There is now scarcely a town of any import- 
 ance in Turkey without a Protestant community, and in most of the prin- 
 cipal cities the American mission has opened schools, and is educating 
 youths for the priesthood. Fortunately for the cause, many men of irre- 
 proachable character and of undoubted sincerity from the Armenian nation 
 have been associated with it, and its success has not been endangered,, like 
 that of so many other movements of the same kind, by interested, or hasty 
 conversions. Those who have watched the effect that this desire for im- 
 provement and for religious freedom is gradually producing upon a large 
 and important section of the Christian population of Turkey, may reason- 
 ably hope that the time is not far distant when it may exercise a marked 
 influence upon other Christian sects, as well as upon those who surround 
 them ; preparing them for the enjoyment of extended political privileges, 
 and for the restoration of a pure and rational faith to the East. 
 
 The influence of this spirit of inquiry, fostered by the American missions, 
 has not been alone confined to those who have been cut off from their own 
 community. The Armenian clergy, no longer able to coerce their flocks, 
 or to persecute those who left them, have found that the only mode of 
 checking the schism is to reform the abuses of their own Church, and to 
 educate and instruct their people. Schools in opposition to the American 
 establishments have been opened in the capital and in most of the large 
 towns of Asia Minor ; and elementary and theological works, of a far more 
 liberal character than any hitherto published in Turkey, have been print- 
 ed by Armenian printing-presses in Constantinople and Smyrna, or intro- 
 duced into the country from Venice. This is another, though an indirect, 
 result, of their labors, which the American missionaries may justly contem- 
 plate with satisfaction, unmingled with any feelings of jealousy or ill-will. 
 
 Whilst on this subject, and connected as I have been with the Nesto- 
 rians, I must not omit a tribute of praise to the admirable establishments 
 of the American missions amongst the Chaldaeans of Ooroomiyah in Per- 
 sia, under the able direction of the Rev. Mr. Perkins.* It was with much 
 
 * I cannot refrain from recording the names of the Rev. Messrs. Goddall, Dwight, 
 Holmes, Hamlin, and Schauffler, of the Constantinople missionary station ; the late 
 excellent and enterprising Dr. Smith, who, like the estimable Dr. Grant, his fellow- 
 laborer in the same field, and many others of his countrymen, has recently fallen a 
 victim to his zeal and devotion ; the Rev. Eli Smith of Beyrout, and Perkins of 
 Ooroomiyah ; men who will ever be connected with the first spread of knowledge 
 and truth amongst the Christians of the East, and of whom their country may justly 
 be proud. Personally I must express my gratitude to them for many acts of kind- 
 
350 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 regret that I was compelled to give up the plan I had formed of visit- 
 ing that small colony from the New World. The Rev. Mr. Bowen, who 
 crossed the frontiers from Wan, has in a true Christian spirit borne witness 
 in the English Church to the enlightened and liberal spirit in which their 
 labors are carried on. Forty or fifty schools have been opened in the town 
 of Ooroomiyah and surrounding villages. The abuses that have crept into 
 this primitive and highly interesting Church are being reformed, and the 
 ignorance of its simple clergy gradually dispelled. A printing-press, for 
 which type has been purposely cut, now publishes for general circulation 
 the Scriptures and works of education in the dialect and character peculiar 
 to the mountain tribes. The English language has been planted in the 
 heart of Asia, and the benefits of knowledge are extended to a race which, 
 a few years ago, was almost unknown even by name to Europe. 
 
 The Armenian bishop of Wan was not wanting in intelligence and in 
 liberal feeling ; but, like most of his order, he was profoundly ignorant. He 
 had not seen the valuable works in his native language, even those of the 
 fathers of his Church, published by the Mechitarists of Venice; and was 
 equally surprised and gratified with printed copies of the works of Moses 
 of Chorene, Eusebius, and one or two other authors in Armenian which I 
 had with me. The convents of Wan and of the neighbourhood, he said, 
 were once rich in ancient manuscripts, but they had been carried away by 
 camel-loads some two hundred years before by the Persians, and were be- 
 lieved still to be preserved in Isfahan. With the exception of a few printed 
 copies of the Scriptures, and some religious works for the use of the churches, 
 there are now no books in the city. He received with pleasure from Mr. 
 Bowen a copy of the New Testament in the vulgar Armenian tongue, re- 
 marking that it would be a great advantage to the common people to have 
 a version of the Scriptures in a language which they could understand. 
 He was probably not aware that the head of his church had utterly con- 
 demned its use, and had anathematised all those who received it. 
 
 My companions had been compelled, from ill-health, to leave the plain, 
 and had taken refuge in the convent of Yedi Klissia, from the sultry heats 
 of the plain. Before joining them I visited the village of Amikh, where, 
 according to my Armenian guide, Nikoos, an inscription was engraved on 
 the rocks. I left the city on the 10th of August. Wan stands at a short 
 distance from the lake, and the few boats which traffic along the shores 
 anchor at a small Iskelli, or port, about a mile and a half from the gates. 
 The greater part of this village is now under water, the lake having grad- 
 ually risen during the last few years. The inhabitants pretend that this 
 rising is caused by a periodical ebbing and flowing, each continuing for sev- 
 en years, and that the waters will again fall to their former level. It is 
 certain, however, that, from some cause or other which I cannot explain, 
 
 ness and friendship. The American mission has now establishments in Smyrna 
 Brousa, Trebizond, Erzeroom, Diarbekir, Mosul, Aintab, Aleppo, and many other cit- 
 ies in Asia Minor, together with native agents all over Turkey. 
 
Chap. XVIII.l monastery of yedi klissia 35 , 
 
 many villages on the borders of the lake are now partly submerged, and 
 that there appears to have been for some years a gradual increase in the 
 waters. 
 
 Leaving the small port, and passing some pans in which a kind of alka- 
 line deposit is collected from the water of the lake to be used as soap, we 
 struck into a fine undulating corn country, abounding in Christian villages. 
 The soil is well cultivated, though by dint of much labor. Eight, or even 
 ten, pairs of oxen are frequently yoked to a plough, which differs from that 
 seen in any other part of Turkey ; and having two wheels, one larger than 
 the other, more resembles those in common use in England. The land- 
 scape was richly tinted by large plots of bright yellow thistles,* 1 cultivated 
 for the oil expressed from the seeds, and used by the Armenians during 
 their numerous fasts. We reached at sunset a deep bay hemmed in by gar- 
 dens and orchards, and sheltered from the wind by an amphitheatre of low 
 rocky hills. I pitched my tent about a mile from the village of Amikh, 
 near a transparent spring, in a small glade shelving to the water's edge, 
 and embowered in white roses. 
 
 Early next morning I sought the inscriptions which I had been assured 
 were graven on the rocks near an old castle, standing on a bold projecting 
 promontory above the lake. After climbing up a dangerous precipice by 
 the help of two or three poles, in which large nails had been inserted to 
 afford a footing, I reached a small natural cave in the rock. A few crossevS 
 and ancient Armenian letters were rudely cut near its entrance. There 
 was nothing else, and I had to return as I best could, disappointed, as many 
 a traveller has been under similar circumstances before me. 
 
 From Amikh I rode across the country in a direct line to the monastery 
 of Yedi Klissia, whose gardens on the side of the lofty mountain of Wurrak 
 are visible from most parts of the plain. I stopped for an hour at the 
 church of Kormawor before ascending to the convent. An aged priest, with 
 beard white as snow, and wearing a melon-shaped cap, and long black robes, 
 was the guardian of the place. He led me into an arcade surrounding the 
 inner court of the building. Seeing that I was a Frank, he fancied at once 
 that I was searching for inscriptions, and pointed to a circular stone, the 
 base of a wooden column, which, he said, he had shown many years before 
 to a traveller, meaning Schulz.f It bears three imperfect lines of cunei- 
 form writing, part of an inscription belonging to one of the Wan kings, whose 
 name Dr. Hincks read Minuas. It appears to record the foundation of a 
 temple. A second inscription on a black stone, and several fragments with 
 the same royal name, are built into the walls. $ 
 
 I copied that which remained of the legends, the old priest hooking a 
 pair of primitive spectacles on his nose, and watching my movements with 
 anxious curiosity. He entreated me, with every term of endearment, to 
 
 * Called in Turkish Khanjerek. 
 
 t The inscription is published in his collection, No. xxiii. 
 
 t Schulz, No. xxiv. 
 
352 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 communicate the contents to him. Were they talismans for the discovery 
 of riches, or words of promise to the Armenian nation ? They recorded, I 
 told him, the past glories of his race, and might be regarded as a promise 
 that by education, integrity, and reform, these glories might be revived. 
 This explanation was scarcely sufficiently definite to satisfy him. How- 
 ever, in return for the interpretation, he offered me a frugal breakfast of 
 cheese and sour milk. 
 
 Eight hours' ride from Amikh brought me to the large Armenian con- 
 ent of Yedi Klissia, or the seven churches, built of substantial stone ma- 
 sonry, and inclosing a spacious courtyard planted with trees. It has more 
 the appearance of a caravanserai than that of a place of religious retreat, 
 and is beautifully situated near the mouth of a wooded ravine, halfway up 
 a bold mountain, which ends in snowy peaks. Spread beneath it is a blue 
 lake and a smiling plain, and the city, with its bold castellated rock, and 
 its turreted walls half hid in gardens and orchards. 
 
 The church, a substantial modern edifice, stands within the courtyard. 
 Its walls are covered with pictures as primitive in design as in execution. 
 There is a victorious St. George blowing out the brains of a formidable drag- 
 on with a bright brass blunderbus, and saints, attired in the traditionary 
 garments of Europe, performing extravagant miracles. The intelligence 
 of the good priest at the head of the convent was pretty well on a par 
 with his illustrated church history. He was a specimen of the Armenian 
 
 clergy of Asia Minor. As he de- 
 scribed each subject to me, he spoke 
 of the Nestorians as heretics, be- 
 cause they were allowed, by the can- 
 ons of their church, to marry their 
 mothers and grandmothers ; of the 
 Protestants as freemasons or athe- 
 ists : and of the great nations of 
 Europe as the Portuguese, the In- 
 glese, the Muscovs, and the Abbash 
 (Abyssinians). 
 
 I found two short cuneiform in- 
 scriptions ; one on a stone amongst 
 the ruins of the old church, the oth- 
 er built into the walls of the new.* 
 They also belong to Minuas, and 
 merely contain the name and titles 
 
 Kurd of the neighbourhood of Wan of the king. 
 
 * Nos. xxviii. and xxix. Schulz's Collection. Schulz gives three from this con- 
 vent, one of which may have been covered by the ruins of the former church since 
 his visit. 
 
A Nestorian Family employed in the Excavations at Kouyunjik. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LEAVE WAN THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCH. THE ISLAND OF AKHTAMAR. AN ARMENIAN 
 
 CHURCH. HISTORY OF THE CONVENT. PASS INTO MUKUS. THE DISTRICT OF MU- 
 
 KUS OF SHATTAK OF NOURDOOZ. A NESTORIAN VILLAGE. ENCAMPMENTS. MOUNT 
 
 ARARAT. MAR SHAMOUN. JULAMERIK. VALLEY OF DIZ. PASS INTO JELU. NESTO- 
 RIAN DISTRICT OF JELU. AN ANCIENT CHURCH. THE BISHOP. DISTRICT OF BAZ — 
 
 OF TKHOMA RETURN TO MOSUL 
 
 Sickness had overcome both Dr. Sandwith and Mr. Cooper. A return 
 to the burning plains of Assyria might have proved fatal, and I advised 
 them to seek, without further delay, the cooler climate of Europe Mr 
 Walpole, too, who had been long suffering from fever, now determined upon 
 quitting my party and taking the direct road to Erzeroom. 
 
 In the afternoon of the 12th August I left the gates of the convent of 
 Yedi Klissia with Mr. Hormuzd Rassam. Once more I was alone with 
 my faithful friend, and we trod together the winding pathway which led 
 down the mountain side. We had both been suffering from fever, but we 
 still had strength to meet its attacks, and to bear cheerfully, now unhin- 
 dered, the difficulties and anxieties of our wandering life. 
 
 We made a short journey of three and a half hours to the pleasant vil- 
 lage of Artamit or Adremit, and encamped beneath its fruit trees in a gar- 
 den near the lake.* Our path on the following day led through a hilly 
 district, sometimes edging a deep bay, then again winding over a rocky 
 
 * There are two cuneiform inscriptions near the village, which are included in 
 Schulz's collection. 
 
354 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 promontory. "We crossed by a bridge the large stream which we had seen 
 at Alahmoudiyah, and which here discharges itself into the lake. The 
 feast of St. George had been celebrated during the previous day at the 
 church of Narek, and we passed, as we rode along, merry groups of Arme- 
 nians returning from their pilgrimage. The women, seated with their 
 children on the backs of mules and asses, and no longer fearing the glances 
 of haughty Kurds, had lifted their veils from their ruddy faces. They 
 were dressed in scarlet cloaks, which half concealed their festive robes. To 
 their platted hair was attached a square black pad of silk hung with tas- 
 sels, and sometimes with coins. Most of the men carried umbrellas to pro- 
 tect themselves from the rays of the sun. In the midst of them we met. 
 surrounded by a crowd of adherents, the Patriarch of Akhtamar, once the 
 head of the Armenian Church, but now only recognised by a small section 
 of Christians living in the province of "Wan. He rode a mule, and wa> 
 dressed in long black robes, with a silken cowl hanging over his head. 
 Several youthful priests, some carrying silver-headed wands, followed close 
 behind him. He was on his way to the city, and I thus lost the oppor- 
 tunity of seeing him at his residence on the sacred island. 
 
 On the shores of the lake we found many encampments of gipsies ; the 
 men to be distinguished by their swarthy countenances, the women and 
 children by their taste for begging. 
 
 We passed through Yastan ; in the eleventh century the residence of the 
 royal Armenian family of Ardzrouni, but now a mere village. The con- 
 vent boat was on the beach, three miles above the usual landing-place. 
 Four sturdy monks were about to row it back to the island. As they of- 
 fered to take me with them, I left the caravan to journey onwards to our 
 night's encamping place, and with Mr. Rassam and the Bairakdar, we 
 were soon gliding over the calm surface of the lake. Not a breeze rippled 
 the blue expanse. The burning rays of the sun were still full upon us, and 
 the panting boatmen were nearly two hours before they reached the con- 
 vent. 
 
 In the absence of the Patriarch we were received by an intelligent and 
 courteous monk named Kirikor. His hair, as well as his beard, had never 
 known the scissors, and fell in long luxuriant curls over his shoulders. Il 
 was of jetty black, for he was still a young man, although he had already 
 passed twenty years of a monastic life. He led us through an arched door- 
 way into the spacious courtyard of the convent, and thence into an upper 
 room furnished with comfortable divans for the reception of guests. Tea 
 was brought to us after the Persian fashion, and afterwards a more substan- 
 tial breakfast, in which the dried fish of the lake formed the principal dish. 
 Kirikor had visited Jerusalem and Constantinople, had read many of the 
 works issued by the Venetian press, and was a man of superior acquire- 
 ments for an Armenian monk of the orthodox faith. 
 
 The church, which is within the convent walls, is built of the sandstone 
 of a rich deep red color that has been quarried for the turbehs of Akhlat. 
 
Chap. XIX.] *** Armenian church. 355 
 
 Like other religious edifices of the same period and of the same nation, it is 
 in the form of a cross, with a small hexagonal tower, ending in a conical 
 roof, rising above the centre. The first monastery was founded by a Prince 
 Theodore in a. d. 653 : and the church is attributed to the Armenian king 
 Kakhik, of the family of Ardzrouni, who reigned in the tenth century ; but 
 the island appears from a very remote date to have contained a castle of 
 the Armenian kings. The entrance and vestibule of the church are of a 
 different style from the rest of the building, being a bad imitation of modern 
 Italian architecture. They were added about one hundred years ago by a 
 patriarch, whose tomb is in the courtyard. The interior is simple. A few 
 rude pictures of saints and miracles adorn the walls, and a gilded throne 
 for the Patriarch stands near the altar. The exterior, however, is elabo- 
 rately ornamented with friezes and broad bands of sculptured figures and 
 scroll work, the upper part being almost covered with bas-reliefs, giving to 
 the whole building a very striking and original appearance. The conical 
 roof of the tower, rising over the centre of the cross, rests upon a frieze of 
 hares, foxes, and other animals. Above arched windows are bands of rich 
 foliage, and beneath them, at the base of the tower, a row of small vault- 
 ed recesses. The roof of the transept is supported by human heads. Be- 
 neath is a frieze, Assyrian in its character, and resembling the embossed 
 designs on some of the bronze dishes described in a previous chapter.^ It 
 consists of lions springing upon stags, and figures of wild goats, hares, and 
 deer. Under the projecting roof of the aisle is a frieze, formed of bunches 
 of grapes mingled with grotesque forms of men, animals, and birds. Next 
 is a row of the heads of similar figures, projecting in high relief from the 
 wall. They are succeeded by bas-reliefs representing Scripture stories from 
 the Old and New Testaments, divided into separate subjects by medallions 
 with images of Armenian saints. An elaborate border of scroll work com- 
 pletes the exterior decoration about halfway up the building. The human 
 form is rudely portrayed in these sculptures ; but the general design is far 
 from inelegant, and the ornaments rich and appropriate. I know of no sim- 
 ilar specimen of Armenian architecture, and I regret that time would not 
 allow me to make detailed drawings of the edifice. f 
 
 In a grave-yard outside the church are several most elaborately carved 
 tombstones belonging to the early Armenian patriarchs. That of Zachu- 
 riah, who died in the fourteenth century, and who was for one year patri- 
 arch at Echmiadsin and for nine years at Akhtamar, is especially worthy 
 of notice for the richness and elegance of its ornaments. 
 
 In the portico is a circular black stone, like a millstone, with short cunei- 
 form inscriptions on the two flat sides. They contain the name of the king 
 who carved the great tablet of the Meher Kapousi near "Wan, which Dr. 
 
 * Chapter VIII. 
 
 t This building affords another clue to the origin of the early Mussulman architect- 
 ure — Arab and Tatar — of which remains exist in many parts of Asia Minor, and 
 particularly at Akhlat. 
 
356 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CuAT. X IX. 
 
 Hincks reads Minuas. The inscriptions do not appear to record any events 
 of importance.* 
 
 A library of manuscripts, said to have been once preserved in the con- 
 vent, no longer exists. Kirikor assured me that many works of value had 
 been removed some years ago to the capital by order of the Constantino- 
 politan Patriarch. 
 
 The Patriarchate of Akhtamar, or Aghtamar, was founded in 1113 by 
 an archbishop of the island, who declared himself independent of the uni- 
 versal Patriarch, residing at Echmiadsin. Its jurisdiction does not extend 
 far beyond the immediate neighbourhood of Wan, and the ecclesiastic who 
 fills the office is generally even more ignorant than other dignitaries of the 
 Armenian Church. The present Patriarch, I was informed, obtained his 
 nomination by bribing the celebrated Kurdish chief, Khan Mahmoud, with- 
 in whose territories his followers mainly reside. 
 
 The convent and church are built on a small rocky island about five 
 miles from the shore. On an adjacent islet are the ruined walls of a castle 
 partly covered by the rising waters of the lake. Intercourse with the main 
 land is carried on by the one crank boat which, whenever the weather per- 
 mits, goes backwards and forwards daily for such provisions as are required 
 by the inmates of the monastery. Khan Mahmoud took the place by col- 
 lecting together the vessels belonging to Wan for the transport of his troops. 
 
 Late in the afternoon, accompanied by the monk Kirikor. I was rowed 
 to the farm and garden belonging to the convent, near the village of Ash- 
 ayansk. We had scarcely reached the land ere a violent storm of wind 
 suddenly arose, and lashed the waters of the lake into high waves crowned 
 with foam. The monks dragged the boat high on the beach to save it 
 from being dashed to pieces. I was well satisfied not to have encountered 
 the gale, with which our frail bark could scarcely have struggled. It was, 
 however, but one of those mountain squalls which sometimes sweep down 
 the deep valleys, and expend their fury in a short hour. By sunset the 
 air was again serene, and the face of the blue lake once more reflected, 
 like a mirror, the snow-white gulls and black cormorants that floated on 
 its surface. 
 
 A few monks five on the farm, and tend the property of the convent, 
 supplying the Patriarch with the produce of the dairy and orchards. They 
 received us very hospitably. Kirikor rode with me on the following morn- 
 ing as far as the large Armenian village of Narek, in which there is a 
 church dedicated to St. George, much frequented in pilgrimage by the 
 Christians of Wan and the surrounding country. It was built by one Ta- 
 teos Arakil, in the ninth century, according to the priest of the place; but. 
 according to Kirikor, by a certain Theodorus in the time of King Kakhik. 
 It has probably been added to and repaired at various periods, and there 
 are parts, such as the belfry, which are modern, whilst others bear evident 
 
 * Nos. xx. and xxi. in Schulz's collection. One inscription contains ten, and the 
 other, nine short lines. 
 
Chap XIX. 1 THE DISTRICT 0F mukus. 357 
 
 marks of antiquity. It is a strong solid building, of the same red sand 
 stone as the tombs of Akhlat. 
 
 We had now left the lake of Wan, and our track led up a deep ravine, 
 which gradually became more narrow as we drew nigh to the high mount- 
 ains that separated us from the unexplored districts of Mukus and Bohtan. 
 We passed a large Armenian village named Pagwantz, near which, on the 
 summit of a precipitous rock, stands the ruined castle of Khan Mahmoud, 
 the rebel chief. He was the eldest of seven brothers, all of whom governed 
 under him different districts on the borders of the lake, and sorely oppress- 
 ed the Christian inhabitants. Five were captured and are in banishment. 
 
 On both sides of the ravine were villages and ruined castles. Numer- 
 ous streams from the hill-sides irrigated plots of cultivated ground. Ere 
 long we entered a rocky barren tract, patched here and there with fragrant 
 Alpine flowers. After climbing up a steep declivity of loose stones like the 
 moraine of a Swiss glacier, and dragging our horses with much difficulty 
 after us, we found ourselves amidst eternal snow, over which we toiled for 
 nearly two hours, until we reached the crest of the mountain, and looked 
 down into the deep valley of Mukus. This is considered one of the high- 
 est passes in Kurdistan, and one of the most difficult for beasts of burden. 
 The flocks of the nomade Kurds of Bohtan were feeding in the gullies, crop- 
 ping the sweet and tender herbs nourished by the snow. The descent was 
 even more rapid and precipitous than the ascent, and we could scarcely 
 prevent our weary horses from rolling down into the ravine with the stones 
 which we put into motion at every step. At the foot of the pass is a small 
 Armenian church called Khorous Klissia, or " the church of the cock," be- 
 cause a black cock is said to warn the traveller when the snowdrifts hide 
 the mountain tracks. 
 
 There was no other pathway down the rocky ravine than the dry bed 
 of the torrent. As we approached the widening valley the springs began 
 to collect together and to form a considerable stream, through which we 
 had to wade as we best could. A, track, occasionally followed by the sol- 
 itary foot-traveller, and by the shepherds in their periodical migrations to 
 the uplands, had been carried here and there over the foaming water by 
 trunks of trees. But these simple bridges had been washed away during 
 a recent storm. Leaving the laden horses to find their way over the stones 
 and through the torrent, I rode onwards with Hormuzd. We passed soon 
 after a deep natural cavern, from which burst, white with foam and strug- 
 gling through a bed of pink flowers, a most abundant spring. This was 
 one of the principal sources of the eastern branch of the Tigris, here called 
 ihe river of Mukus, which, according to an Armenian tradition, only issued 
 from the rock for about five hundred years ago. 
 
 A ride of eight hours brought us to the large scattered village of Mukus, 
 the principal place of the district of the same name. We were met, as wo 
 drew near, by the Mudir or governor, an active bustling Turk, who had al- 
 ready chosen, with the usual taste of an Eastern, the prettiest spot, a lawn 
 
358 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 on the banks of the river, for our tents, and had collected provisions for our- 
 selves and our horses. The good Pasha of Wan had sent to the different 
 chiefs on our way, and had ordered preparations to be everywhere made for 
 our reception. The Tigris is here a deep stream, and is crossed by a stone 
 bridge. The houses are built without order, on the slopes of the mountain, 
 each family choosing some open place more free from stones than the usual 
 rocky declivities to cultivate a small plot of ground. There is no room for 
 them in the narrow valley. The place may contain altogether about two 
 thousand inhabitants. 
 
 The district of Mukus, anciently Mogkh, and one of the provinces of the 
 Armenian kingdom, had only lately been brought under the authority of the 
 Sultan.^ Like the rest of this part of Kurdistan, it had long maintained 
 its independence under hereditary chiefs, the last of whom, Abdal Bey, 
 after several times defeating the Turkish troops sent against him, was at 
 length captured as he was flying into Persia. Of its sixty villages forty 
 are inhabited by Christian Armenians. The revenues amounted the year 
 of my visit to little more than 100,000 piastres (about 910/.), of which the 
 village of Mukus contributed 42,000. The garrison consisted of only forty 
 regular soldiers and forty Albanians, so completely had the seizure of their 
 chiefs discouraged the wild Kurdish tribes who dwell in the mountains, and 
 were formerly in open rebellion against the Porte. This nomade race forms 
 the principal part of the Mussulman population, and is the most fierce and 
 independent in Kurdistan. Mukus was anciently celebrated for its mines. 
 None are now worked, and even the site of the greater part of them is un- 
 known. The Pasha of Wan had sent miners from Arghana to examine 
 those of silver and copper, but their report being unfavorable, no further at- 
 tempt was made to explore them. The Armenians of Mukus weave the 
 striped woollen stuffs, some of rich color and fine texture, worn by the Kurds, 
 and export a little honey and wax, but have no other trade. The border dis- 
 tricts are Karkar (containing about eighteen villages), Khiawash, Isparut, 
 Bidar, and Shattak.f 
 
 The Mudir showed the greatest anxiety for our welfare during the night, 
 ••ontinually visiting our tents to see that the Albanians he had placed as 
 
 * The ancient Armenian province of Mogkh was bounded on the south by a part 
 of Assyria called by the Armenians Arovasdan. It was governed by Armenian 
 nrinces, whose descendants still reigned there in the tenth century. (St. Martin, L 
 175., who by mistake places Mukus on the Khabour.) Ammianus Marcellinus men- 
 tions the district under the name of Moxoene. According to a tradition, the mount- 
 ains to the south of the lake of Wan were the original seat of the Armenian race. 
 (St. Martin, i. 206.) 
 
 t The principal villages in the Mukus district are Aughin, Nouravos, Kasr, Achi- 
 chos, Kerkichos, Aurenj, Kotzabiloor, Auveriss, Parangos, Mangoneh, Komos, Ket- 
 ehoks, Amaghus, Marakos, and Berwar. Of the nine districts into which, according 
 to the Armenian writers, the province of Mogkh was divided, I could recognize no 
 name in the modern villages and valleys. From Mukus to Jezireh there are five car- 
 avan days' journeys, and to Sert three, by difficult mountain roads. 
 
bHAP. XIX.] THE DISTRICT 0F SHATTAK. 359 
 
 guards over our property did not sleep, as the village swarmed with Boh- 
 tan thieves. 
 
 The principal Armenians of Mukus with their priests spent a morning 
 with me. They knew of no ruins or inscriptions in the district, and I found 
 them even more ignorant than their fellow-countrymen of the districts 
 around Wan, whose stupidity has passed into a Turkish proverb. Long 
 subjection to the Kurds and a constant intercourse with Mussulmans, have 
 Jed them to adopt their manners and dress ; their religion at the same time 
 consists of mere outward profession, and the punctual performance of a few 
 ceremonies and fasts. 
 
 We left Mukus early in the afternoon, accompanied by the Mudir. The 
 path following the course of the river, leads to Sert Jezireh and the Assyr- 
 ian plains. We soon turned from it, and entered a valley running east- 
 wards. On the mountain-sides were many villages, buried, like those of 
 .tiyari, in orchards and groves of walnuts. We forced our way through 
 thickets and through matted climbing plants hanging from the branches 
 of trees, the track being continually lost in rivulets or in watercourses for 
 irrigation. The valley soon narrowed into a wild gorge. High above us, 
 in a cave in the rock, was an ancient Christian chapel, which I visited, but 
 without finding anything of interest in it. The ravine ended at length in 
 the gardens of Aurenj . We chose amongst them a sheltered nook for our 
 night's resting-place. 
 
 Next day we crossed a high mountain ridge covered in some places with 
 snow, separating the district of Mukus from that of Shattak. Its northern 
 and western slopes are the summer pastures of the Miran Kurds, whose 
 flocks were still feeding on the green lawns and in the flowery glens. On 
 the opposite side of the pass we found an encampment of Hartushi Kurds, 
 under one Omar Agha, a noble old chieftain, who welcomed us with un- 
 bounded hospitality, and set before me every luxury that he possessed. I 
 could scarcely resist his entreaties that we should pass the night under his 
 tent. I had honored it, he declared, by entering into it. All that it con- 
 tained, his children, his wives, and his flocks, were, upon his head, no longer 
 his but my property. I had no wish to profit by his generosity, and at 
 length we parted. Resuming our journey we descended by a precipitous 
 pathway into a deep valley. A broad stream, another arm of the eastern 
 Tigris, wound through it ; its glittering waters had been just visible amidst 
 the gardens of Shattak, from the mountain-top. 
 
 Here again the Mudir had been apprised of our coming, and was ready 
 to receive us. He had collected provisions for ourselves and horses in an 
 open space on the river bank. Shattak is a small town, rather than a vil- 
 lage. It is chiefly inhabited by Armenians, an industrious and hardy race, 
 cultivating the sides of the mountains, on which are built their villages, 
 and weaving in considerable quantities the gay-colored woollen stuffs so 
 much esteemed by the Kurds. In nearly every house was a loom, and the 
 rattle of the shuttle came from almost every door. The large and flour- 
 
360 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. ^ Chap X IX. 
 
 ishing Armenian communities inhabiting the valleys between lake Wan and 
 the district of Jezireh, appear to be unknown to modern geographers, and 
 are unnoticed in our best maps. The difficulties and dangers of the road 
 have hitherto deterred travellers from entering their mountains. The ex- 
 istence of this people in the very heart of Kurdistan might, if taken ad- 
 vantage of by the Porte, be the means of establishing an important trade, 
 and of quieting and civilising a country but recently brought under its rule. 
 The mountains produce galls, wool (some of which has the same silky text- 
 ure as that of Angora), the small under- wool of the goat called teftik (a 
 valuable article of export), and minerals. In the bazar at Shattak I saw 
 a few English prints, and other European wares brought for sale from Wan. 
 
 The priests and principal Armenians of the place came to me soon after 
 my arrival, and I learnt from them that efforts had already been made to 
 improve the condition of the Christian community, now that the oppressive 
 rule of the Kurdish "hereditary chiefs had been succeeded by the more tol- 
 erant government of the Sultan. A school had been opened, chiefly by 
 the help of Sheran, the active and liberal Armenian banker of Wan. 
 
 The town itself is called by the Armenians Tauk, by the Kurds Shokh. 
 and when spoken of together with the numerous villages that surround it, 
 Shattak. It stands near the junction of two considerable streams, forming 
 one of the head- waters of the eastern Tigris, and uniting with the Bohtan- 
 Su. The largest comes from the district of Albagh. These streams, as 
 well as that of Mukus, abound in trout of the most delicious flavor. The 
 entire district contains fifty villages and numerous mezras or hamlets. 
 The revenues are about the same as those of Mukus. A few Mussulmans 
 live on the right bank of the stream opposite Shokh, round the ruins of an 
 old castle, medresseh (college), and mosque, all apparently at one time 
 handsome and well-built edifices. They prove that the place was once a 
 flourishing Mohammedan town. The castle belonged to Nur-Ullah Bey. 
 from whom it was taken by Beder Khan Bey, who gave it to Omar Agha. 
 a chief of the Hartushi Kurds, the last independent lord of the place. 
 
 We left Shokh on the 17th August by a bridge crossing the principal 
 stream. The Mudir rode with us up a steep mountain, rising on the very 
 outskirts of the town. After a long and difficult ascent we came to a br-ad 
 green platform called Tagu, the pastures of the people of Shat 4 :ik, and now 
 covered with their tents and flocks. This high ground overlooked the deep 
 valleys, through which wound the two streams, and on whose sides were 
 many smiling gardens and villages. We stopped at an encampment of 
 Miran Kurds, a large and wealthy tribe, pasturing their flocks far and wide 
 over the mountains and ravines of Shattak and Nourdooz. Their chief 
 had died five days before. We had passed on the road his son, a boy cov- 
 ered with embroidery and gold, and surrounded by armed servants. He 
 was on his way to Wan to receive a cloak of investiture from the Pasha , 
 who had recognised him as lord of the clan. 
 
 Crossing a high mountain pass, on which snow still lingered, we de- 
 
Chap. XIX. 1 A nestorian encampment. 35 1 
 
 scended into a deep valley like that of Shattak, chiefly cultivated by Ar- 
 menians. "We crossed a small stream, and ascended on the opposite side to 
 Ashkaun, whose inhabitants were outside the village, near a clear spring, 
 washing and shearing their sheep. We had now entered Nourdooz, a dis- 
 trict under a Mudir appointed by the Pasha of Wan, and living at a large 
 village called Pir-bedelan. 
 
 Our ride on the following day was over upland pastures of great rich- 
 ness, and through narrow valleys watered by numerous streams. Here 
 and there were villages inhabited by Kurds and Armenians. We were now 
 approaching the Nestorian districts. The first man of the tribe we met 
 was an aged buffalo-keeper, who, in answer to a question in Kurdish, spoke 
 to me in the Chaldee dialect of the mountains. Hormuzd and my serv- 
 ants rejoiced at the prospect of leaving the Armenian settlements, whose 
 inhabitants, they declared, were for stupidity worse than Kurds, and for 
 rapacity worse than Jews. Chilghiri was the first Nestorian village on 
 our way. The men, with their handsome wives and healthful children, 
 came out to meet us. We did not stop there, but continued our journey to 
 Merwanen, which we found deserted by its inhabitants for the Zomas, or 
 summer pastures. The Kiayah, or chief, however, with one or two of his 
 people, had ridden down to examine the state of the crops, and turning his 
 horse he led us up the steep pathway to his tents. They were huddled up 
 in a little rocky nook, high on the mountain, and in the midst of snow. 
 Unlike the Kurds, the Nestorians do not shift their encampments, but re- 
 main on one spot during the whole time they are in the Zomas. They 
 thus live for some months in the midst of the dung of animals and filth of 
 all kinds, whilst vermin abounds as plentifully as in their wretched vil- 
 lages. The cattle and flocks are kept during the night in folds, formed by 
 a circular wall four or five feet high, built of loose stones. The dwellings 
 indeed consist of little more than such rude inclosures, with coarse black 
 goat-hair canvas stretched over them. As the nights are cold, and pro- 
 tection from the high winds is necessary in these lofty regions, a shallow 
 pit is dug in the centre of the hut, in which the family crouches for warmth 
 when not engaged in out-door occupations. Although poor and needy, the 
 people of Merwanen were not less hospitable than other Nestorians I had 
 met with. They brought us as the sun went down smoking messes of mil- 
 let boiled in sour milk and mixed with mountain herbs. 
 
 The Nestorian Christians of these Kurdish districts dress like their Mus- 
 sulman neighbours, and can scarcely be distinguished from them. They 
 still go armed, and are less exposed to oppression than the suffering tribes 
 of Tiyari. The Kiayah and a party of musketeers escorted us next day to 
 a large encampment of Hartushi Kurds, near the outlet of a green valley, 
 watered by many streams, forming the most easterly sources of the Tigris.* 
 Abd-ur-Rahman, the chief, was absent from his tents collecting the annual 
 
 * The several streams forming the headwaters of the eastern branch of the Tigris 
 mentioned in this Chapter were not before known, I believe, to geographers. 
 
362 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CnkT. XIX. 
 
 salian or revenue of the tribe. In his absence we were received under his 
 capacious goat-hair tent by a conceited mollah, who, being the spiritual 
 adviser of its master, considered himself also the joint owner of his per- 
 sonal property. He did the honors, as if we were his guests, in a very pat- 
 ronising fashion. A scene of activity rarely witnessed in a Kurdish com- 
 munity reigned around. The banks of a small stream running through the 
 midst of the camp were crowded with sheep : some being washed in the 
 pure water, others being under the scissors of the shearers. Groups of boys 
 and women were already beating and pressing the newly-cut wool into felt, 
 a manufacture of the Hartushi Kurds much prized for its close yet soft text- 
 ure. In the tents girls were seated before the long warps stretched over 
 the green-sward for the woof of their beautiful carpets. I was not un- 
 known to these mountaineers, who wander during the winter in the plains 
 to the east of the Tigris, below Jezireh, and frequently come into Mosul to 
 trade. A group of chiefs, gaily dressed in the striped cloth of Bohtan, 
 soon collected round us. The wives of Abd-ur-Rahman Agha did not suf- 
 fer their husband's good name for hospitality to be forfeited. Although 
 Hormuzd and myself were the only partakers of the feast, a primitive ta- 
 ble-cloth formed of the skins of the wild goat was spread before us, and 
 covered with a great pile of the white and delicate mountain bread. 
 
 The mountain rising above us was the boundary between the pashalics 
 of "Wan and Hakkiari and the watershed of the Tigris and Zab. On the 
 opposite side of the streams uniting their waters flowed towards the latter 
 river. The first district we entered was that of Lewen, inhabited chiefly by 
 Nestorians. The whole population with their flocks had deserted their 
 villages for the Zomas. We ascended to the encampment of the people of 
 Billi, a wretched assemblage of dirty hovels, half tent and half cabin, built 
 of stones and black canvas. Behind it towered, amidst eternal snows, a 
 bold and majestic peak, called Karnessa-ou-Daoleh.^ Round the base of 
 this mountain, over loose stones and sharp rocks, and through ravines deep 
 in snow, we dragged our weary horses next day. The Kurdish shepherds 
 that wander there, a wild and hardy race, have no tents, but, during the 
 summer months, live in the open fields with their flocks, without any cov- 
 ering whatever. 
 
 After a wearisome and indeed dangerous ride, we found ourselves on a 
 snowy platform variegated with Alpine plants. The tiny streams which 
 trickled through the ice were edged with forget-me-nots of the tenderest 
 blue, and with many well-remembered European flowers. I climbed up 
 a solitary rock to take bearings of the principal peaks around us. A sight 
 as magnificent as unexpected awaited me. Far to the north, and high 
 above the dark mountain ranges which spread like a troubled sea beneath 
 my feet, rose one solitary cone of unspotted white sparkling in the rays of 
 the sun. Its form could not be mistaken ; it was Mount Ararat. My Nes- 
 torian guide knew no more of this stately mountain, to him a kind of mythic 
 * The encampment at Billi was 8612 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
Chap. XIX.] M0UNT ARARAT - 363 
 
 land far beyond the reach of human travel, than that it was within the ter- 
 ritories of the Muscovites, and that the Christians called it Bashut-tama- 
 hamda. From this point alone was it visible, and we saw it no more dur- 
 ing our journey.* 
 
 To the east of us were mountains scarcely less imposing or picturesque 
 in form than Ararat, but more rocky and more naked. We were again 
 drawing near to the lofty peaks of Jelu, beneath whose eastern precipices 
 we had journeyed in the plain of Graour. But the Zab divided us from 
 them. Into the deep and narrow valley through which this river flows 
 we gazed from the top of the Karnesseh-ou-Daoleh Pass. Over against us 
 were the Nestorian districts, at one time inhabited by the only independ- 
 ent Christian tribes of Asia, and still the dwelling-places of this remnant 
 of a primitive church. 
 
 We descended rapidly by a difficult track, passing here and there en- 
 campments of Kurds and the tents and flocks of the people of Julamerik. 
 To the green pastures succeeded the region of cultivated fields, and we 
 seemed to approach more settled habitations. Following a precipitous 
 pathway, and mounted on a tall and sturdy mule, we spied an aged man 
 with long robes, black turban, and a white beard which fell almost to his 
 irirdle. A few lusty mountaineers, in the striped dress and conical felt cap 
 of the Christian tribes, walked by his side and supported him on the ani- 
 mal, which with difficulty scrambled over the loose stones. We at once 
 recognized the features of Mar Shamoun, the Patriarch of the Nestorians, 
 or, as he proudly terms himself, " of the Chaldseans of the East." He had 
 not known of our coming, and he shed tears of joy as he embraced us. 
 Kochhannes, his residence, was not far distant, and he turned back with us 
 to the village. Since I had seen him misfortune and grief, more than age, 
 had worn deep furrows in his brow, and had turned his hair and beard to 
 silvery grey. We had last met at Mosul, the day previous to his escape 
 from confinement into Persia. Since that time he had been wandering on 
 the confines of the two border countries, but had now sought repose once 
 more in the old seat of the patriarchs of the mountain tribes. 
 
 We soon reached his dwelling. It is solidly built of hewn stone, and 
 stands on the very edge of a precipice overhanging a ravine, through which 
 winds a branch of the Zab. A dark vaulted passage led us into a room, 
 scarcely better lighted by a small window, closed by a greased sheet of coarse 
 paper. The tattered remains of a felt carpet, spread in a corner, was the 
 whole of its furniture. The garments of the Patriarch were hardly less 
 worn and ragged. Even the miserable allowance of 300 piastres (about 
 21. 10s.), which the Porte had promised to pay him monthly on his return 
 to the mountains, was long in arrears, and he was supported entirely by the 
 contributions of his faithful but poverty-stricken flock. Kochhannes was. 
 moreover, still a heap of ruins. At the time of the massacre Mar Shamoun 
 
 * The bearing I obtained of Mount Ararat (N. 15°. 30" E.) corresponds correctly 
 with its position on the best maps. Our distance was about 145 miles. 
 
364 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 scarcely saved himself by a precipitous flight before the ferocious Kurds of 
 Beder Khan Bey entered the village and slew those who still lingered in 
 it, and were from age or infirmities unable to escape. 
 
 Mar Shamoun, at the time of my visit, had no less cause to bewail the 
 misfortunes of his people than his personal sufferings. The latter were 
 perhaps partly to be attributed to his own want of prudence and foresight. 
 Old influences, which I could not but deeply deplore, and to which I do not 
 in Christian charity wish further to allude,* had been at work, and I found 
 him even more bitter in his speech against the American missionaries than 
 against his Turkish or Kurdish oppressors. He had been taught, and it is 
 to be regretted that his teachers were of the Church of England, that those 
 who were endeavoring to civilise and instruct his flock were seceders from 
 the orthodox community of Christians, heretical in doctrine, rejecting all 
 the sacraments and ordinances of the true faith, and intent upon reducing 
 the Nestorians to their own hopeless condition of infidelity. His fears were 
 worked on by the assurance that, ere long, through their means and teach- 
 ing, his spiritual as well as his temporal authority would be entirely de- 
 stroyed. I found him bent upon deeds of violence and intolerant persecu- 
 tion, which might have endangered, for the second time, the safety of this 
 people as well as his own. I strove, and not without success, to calm his 
 unreasonable violence. I pointed out to him his true position with regard 
 to the American missions, trying to remove the calumnies which had been 
 heaped upon them, and to show in what respects they could benefit and 
 improve the condition of the Nestorians. I could not disguise from him 
 that in education and the free circulation of the Scriptures, there could 
 alone be found any hope for his people. I showed him that, if he wished 
 to foster an interest which had been naturally felt amongst Protestants for 
 the remains of a primitive Church, exposed to great oppression and great 
 sufferings, he must reform the abuses which had unfortunately crept into it, 
 and endeavour to render his clergy equal to the task of instructing and 
 guiding their flocks. He answered, as might have been expected, that he 
 wished to be helped in that labor by priests of the Episcopal Church of 
 England, whose doctrines and discipline were more in conformity with the 
 Nestor ian, than those of the American missionaries. If such men would 
 join him, he was ready, he declared, to co-operate with them in reforming 
 abuses, and educating the community. It was almost in vain I observed 
 to him that, as the Church of England had hitherto not listened to his ap- 
 peals, and as there was no immediate prospect of help from her, it was his 
 duty, as well as his true interest, to assist in the good work so zealously and 
 
 * Those who wish to have a painful picture of the nature of the interference 
 amongst the Nestorians, to which I ahude, may read Mr. Badger's Nestorians and 
 their Rituals, and Mr. Fletcher's Travels in Assyria. Although Mr. Badger natural- 
 ly gives his own version of these transactions, the impartial reader will have no dif- 
 ficulty in seeing the misfortunes to which the unfortunate opposition to the American 
 missions naturally led. 
 
Chap XIX.l THE NEST0RIAN patriarch. 355 
 
 disinterestedly begun by the American missionaries, and which they were 
 desirous of carrying on with his sanction and support. 
 
 The Nestorian community had greater wrongs to complain of than their 
 Patriarch. The Turkish government, so far from fulfilling the pledges given 
 to the British embassy, had sent officers to the mountains who had griev- 
 ously ill-treated and oppressed the Christian inhabitants. The taxes, which 
 the Porte had promised to remit for three years, in consideration of the losses 
 sustained by the unfortunate Nestorians during the massacres, had not been, 
 it is true, levied for that time, but had now been collected altogether, whole 
 districts being thus reduced to the greatest misery and want. Every man- 
 ner of cruelty and torture had been used to compel the suffering Christians 
 to yield up the little property they had concealed from the rapacity of the 
 Turkish authorities. The pastures and arable lands around their villages 
 had been taken away from them and given to their Kurdish tyrants. Taxes 
 had been placed upon every object that could afford them food, and upon 
 their mills, their looms, and their hives, even upon the bundles of dried 
 grass for their cattle, brought with great labor from the highest mountains. 
 There was no tribunal to which they could apply for redress. A deputa- 
 tion sent to the Pasha had been ill-treated, and some of its members were 
 still in prison. There was no one in authority to plead for them. They 
 had even suffered less under the sway of their old oppressors, for, as a 
 priest touchingly remarked to me, "The Kurds took away our lives, but 
 the Turks take away wherewith we have to live." 
 
 My tents were pitched on a lawn near Mar Shamoun's dwelling. Near 
 to us was a small church, built about 150 years ago, on an isolated rock. 
 The only entrance to it is by a low door, high up from the ground, and 
 reached by a ladder. The interior consists of a yard in which service is 
 performed during summer, and an inner chamber for winter. Mar Sha- 
 moun officiated every evening about sunset in the open air, reading the 
 whole service himself, dressed in his usual robes. A few persons from the 
 ruined village attended, and formed his congregation. 
 
 We remained a day with the Patriarch, and then took the road to Jula- 
 merik, three caravan hours distant from Kochhannes. This town has been 
 more than once visited and described by English travellers. Its castle, 
 strongly built and defended by towers and bastions, is picturesquely situa- 
 ted upon a bold rock, overlooking the valley of the Zab. It was until 
 lately held by the celebrated Kurdish rebel chief, Nur-Ullah Bey, but, 
 since his capture, it has been garrisoned by a small force of Turkish regu- 
 lar troops. The town and bazars are far below it.* They were almost 
 deserted, their inhabitants, as is the custom of the country, living in tents 
 with their flocks amid the summer pastures on the mountains. 
 
 Near Julamerik we met many poor Nestorians flying, with their wives 
 and children, they knew not whither, from the oppression of the Turkish 
 governors. 
 
 * Julamerik is 5625 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
366 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX 
 
 The direct road by Tiyari to Mosul is carried along the river ZaV 
 through ravines scarcely practicable to beasts of burden. It issues into the 
 lower valleys near the village of Lizan. Instead, however, of descending 
 the stream, we turned to the north, in order to cross it higher up by a 
 bridge leading into Diz. I had not yet visited this Nestorian district. 
 Mar Shamoun, as well as the people of Julamerik, declared that the mount- 
 ain pathways could not be followed by beasts of burden ; but a man of Taal 
 offering to show us a track open to horsemen, we placed ourselves under his 
 guidance. On the banks of the Zab, I found the remains of an ancient 
 road, cut in many places in the solid rock. It probably led from the As- 
 syrian plains into the upper provinces of Armenia. There are no inscrip- 
 tions or ruins to show the period of its construction ; but, from the great- 
 ness of the work, I am inclined to attribute it to the Assyrians. 
 
 We picked our way over the slippery pavement as long as we could find 
 some footing for ourselves and our beasts, but in many places, where it had 
 been entirely destroyed, we were compelled to drag our horses by main 
 force over the steep rocks and loose detritus, which sloped to the very edge 
 of the river. At length, after many falls, and more than once turning back 
 from the polished rocks, across which the track was carried, we found our- 
 selves before a wicker suspension bridge. This primitive structure had 
 been almost washed away by recent floods, and now hung from the totter- 
 ing piers by a slender rope of twisted osiers. It seemed scarcely able to 
 bear the weight of a man. However, some Nestorians, who, seeing us from 
 the opposite side of the river, had come to our help, undertook to carry our 
 baggage across, and then to lead the horses over one by one. After some 
 delay this dangerous passage was effected without accident, and we entered 
 the valley of Diz. But there was another stream between us and the first 
 Nestorian village. We had to ford an impetuous torrent boiling and foam- 
 ing over smooth rocks, and reaching above our saddle-girths. One of the 
 baggage mules lost its footing. The eddying waters hurried it along and 
 soon hurled it into the midst of the Zab. The animal having, at length, 
 relieved itself from its burden, swam to the bank. Unfortunately it bore 
 my own trunks ; my notes and inscriptions, the fruits of my labors at Wan, 
 together with the little property I possessed, were carried far away by the 
 stream. After the men from the village had long searched in vain, the 
 lost load was found about midnight, stopped by a rock some miles down 
 the river. 
 
 We passed the night in the miserable village of Rabban Audishio. Only 
 two families dwelt in it ; the other inhabitants had been slain in the mas- 
 sacre. The church was large, but deserted, for there was no priest to 
 serve in it. Three brothers, who owned the only huts still standing near, 
 led a few lamps with oil, and burnt daily before the altar a little incense, 
 whose grateful perfume scented the evening breeze. Near the church 
 were the ruins of a former dwelling-place of Mar Shamoun, who once re- 
 sided in this village. 
 
Chap. XIX.] VALLEY 0F DIZ - 367 
 
 On the opposite side of the valley, but high in the mountains, was the 
 village of Seramus. The pathway to it being precipitous, and inaccessible 
 even to mules, we turned to Madis, the residence of the Melek, or chief, of 
 the district of Diz. We crossed the stream by a rude bridge consisting of 
 two poles, resting on opposite rocks. The horses and mules again forded 
 the torrent, but this time without mishap. The Melek was abroad collect- 
 ing the taxes, which he had been summoned to pay to the governor of Ju- 
 lamerik. The villages of Diz, like those of the Nestorian valleys in gen- 
 eral, stand in the midst of orchards and cultivated terraces. They were 
 laid waste, and the houses burnt, during the first massacre. Diz was the 
 first Christian district attacked by Beder Khan Bey. The inhabitants 
 made a long and determined resistance, but were at length overpowered by 
 numbers. Those who fell into the hands of the Kurdish chieftain were 
 put to death without mercy, none being spared, as in Tiyari, for slaves. 
 The trees were cut down, and the villages reduced to their present state 
 of misery and desolation. They might slowly have recovered had not the 
 Turks, by an unjust and oppressive system of government and taxation, 
 checked all the efforts of these poor but industrious people to cultivate their 
 lands, and rebuild their ruined dwellings. 
 
 "We continued our journey through a deep and narrow valley hemmed in 
 by high mountains and by perpendicular cliffs. The Melek met us on the 
 road near the village of Cherichereh, or Klissa. The old man turning back 
 with me, I dismounted and sat with him beneath a walnut-tree. He had 
 little to tell but the usual tale of misery and distress. The Turkish gov- 
 ernor had called upon the district to pay about 150/., a small sum certain- 
 ly, but more than he could collect by seizing all the little property of the 
 inhabitants. Even the seed for their next harvest had been taken from 
 them, as well as the very millet with which they made their coarse bread. 
 The valley produces nothing but a little rice, garas (a kind of millet), and 
 barley, a few walnut and apple trees and hemp. Scarcely any wheat is 
 raised, and the taxes levied on mills almost prevent its being ground into 
 flour. The district formerly contained thirteen villages. Only one hund- 
 red and twenty families with three priests were left. Many had run 
 away to avoid the payment of taxes, and the rest only waited until they 
 could escape the vigilance of the Turkish authorities to follow the example. 
 Melek Beniamen implored me to help him in his difficulties ; but I could 
 do no more than offer words of sympathy and consolation. 
 
 Leaving the Melek to pursue his tax-gathering, we rode through a mag- 
 nificent valley, now narrowing into a wild gorge walled with precipitous 
 cliffs, then opening into an amphitheatre of rocks encircling a village im- 
 bedded in trees. A church, called Marshalita, built on a natural pinnacle, 
 was a conspicuous object as we journeyed in the ravine below. It was far 
 too high and difficult of access for the pious wayfarer to turn aside to it 
 from his path ; a cross had, therefore, been rudely cut, by way of compro- 
 mise, in a stone by the roadside beneath it, and the Nestorians who weic 
 
368 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 with us kissed it reverentially as we passed. Another lofty rock was point- 
 ed out to us as the place of refuge of a few of those who escaped the mas- 
 sacre : on a third could be seen the remains of an ancient castle, attributed, 
 like all such ruins in the East, to the Franks. The valley at length was 
 abruptly closed by the towering peaks and precipices of the Jelu mountain. 
 At its foot is the village of Khouresin, where we encamped for the night. 
 The inhabitants were, for the most part, like the other people of Diz, in 
 the Zomas, or summer pastures. 
 
 The next morning, after with difficulty dragging our weaiy beasts up a 
 steep and even dangerous mountain track, we found the Nestorian families 
 with their flocks at the very base of those cliffs of naked rock, which, rising 
 far above the surrounding mountains of Hakkiari, form the peak of Jelu, 
 and are visible even from Mosul. On all sides of them was snow ; but 
 the small recess in .which they had built their miserable hovels of loose 
 stones, mud, and dried grass, was carpeted with Alpine herbs and flowers. 
 These poor people were in extreme wretchedness and want ; even their 
 clothing had been taken for taxes. 
 
 Not far from the Zomas of Diz were the tents of the villagers of Jelu. 
 They also had encamped on the very verge of eternal snow, but within the 
 boundaries of Diz, as there were no pastures on the other side of the pass 
 in their own district. They were better clothed, and showed more signs 
 of comfort, if not of wealth, than their unfortunate neighbours. Many of 
 the men spoke a little Arabic, and even Turkish, learnt during their yearly 
 visits as basket-makers to the low country. 
 
 We were still separated from the valley of Jelu by a shoulder jutting 
 from the lofty Soppa-Durek mountain. Before reaching this rocky ridge 
 we had to cross a broad tract of deep snow, over which we had much dif- 
 ficulty in dragging our heavily-laden mules. When on the crest of the 
 pass we found ourselves surrounded on all sides by rugged peaks, the high- 
 est being that known as the Toura Jelu, of which we had scarcely lost 
 sight from the day we had left Mosul. It is probably the highest mount- 
 ain in central Kurdistan, and cannot be under, if it be not indeed above, 
 15,000 feet. On its precipitous sides, rising like an artificial wall of rock, 
 the snow cannot rest ; but around it are eternal glaciers. Some Nestorian 
 hunters assured me that they had followed the wild goat even to its sum- 
 mit, whence they gazed upon a view of sublime extent and grandeur, the 
 Desert stretching like a vast sea beneath them, and the city of Mosul dis- 
 tinctly visible in the distance. The pass we crossed before descending into 
 the valley of Jelu is considered the highest in the Nestorian country, and 
 is probably more than 11,000 feet above the level of the sea.* 
 
 These mountains abound in bears, leopards, wolves, chamois, wild goats, 
 and sheep, of which I was assured there are three distinct varieties. The 
 
 * According to observation by the boiling water thermometer the encampment of 
 the people of Jelu was 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, consequently the crest 
 of the pass must have exceeded 11,000. 
 
Chap. XIX. 1 THE nestorians of jelu. 369 
 
 large yellow partridge, as well as the red-legged, are also found in great 
 numbers. 
 
 From the top of the pass we looked down into a deep abyss. The flocks 
 of the Jelu villagers had worn a small pathway in its almost perpendicular 
 sides during their periodical migrations to and from the Zomas ; but fre- 
 quently it was only marked by a polished line across flat, slippery rocks of 
 enormous breadth, or by a faint streak over the loose stones. Down this 
 terrible descent we had to drag our jaded horses, leaving our track marked 
 in blood. I have had some experience in bad mountain roads, but I do 
 not remember to have seen any much worse than that leading into Jelu. 
 After numerous accidents and great labor we left a rocky gully, and found 
 ourselves on a slope ending, at a dizzy depth, in a torrent scarcely visible 
 from our path. The yielding soil offered even a more difficult footing for 
 our beasts than the polished rocks. One of our mules soon fell, and rolled 
 over and over with an avalanche of stones for two or three hundred feet. 
 We fully expected to find the animal dashed to pieces ; but breaking away 
 from the broad pack-saddle, it contrived to check its rapid course and to 
 regain its legs. Its load, however, was hurled into the valley, and we 
 watched it as it bounded from rock to rock, until it was lost to sight in the 
 depths below. We continued our journey, and it was an hour or two be- 
 fore the active mountaineers succeeded in recovering our lost baggage. 
 
 The wild mountain ravine was now changed for the smiling valley of Je- 
 lu. Villages, embowered in trees, filled every nook and sheltered place. We 
 descended to Zerin or Zerayni, the principal settlement, and the residence 
 of the Melek. To our left were two other villages, Alzan and Meedee. 
 
 As my large caravan descended the hill-side, the inhabitants of Zerin 
 took us at once for Turks, and we lacked that hospitable reception which 
 two or three years before would have awaited a stranger in these Christian 
 communities. Wherever the Osmanli has placed his foot, he has bred fear 
 and distrust. His visit has ever been one of oppression and rapine. The 
 scarlet cap, and the well-known garb of a Turkish irregular, are the signals 
 for a general panic. The women hide in the innermost recesses to save 
 themselves from insult ; the men slink into their houses, and offer a vain 
 protest against the seizure of their property. In many parts of Turkey the 
 new system and the better discipline of the army have placed a check upon 
 these scenes of injustice and violence, and the villager may hope to get 
 some, if not adequate, pay for the supplies he furnishes to those who quar- 
 ter themselves upon him. But in the Nestorian valleys the old habits were 
 still in vigor, and the appearance of a stranger caused a general hiding and 
 dismay. When, at last, we had satisfied the trembling people of Zerin 
 that we were not Mussulmans, they insisted upon our being Americans, of 
 whom they had at that moment, for certain religious reasons, almost as 
 great a distrust. At length they made out that I was the Balios* of Mo- 
 
 * Consuls are so called in Southern Turkey and Persia, and all European strangers 
 are supposed to be consuls. 
 
 A'A 
 
370 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX- 
 
 sul, and the Melek arriving at this crisis we were received with due hos- 
 pitality. Our baggage was carried to the roof of a house, and provisions 
 were brought to us without delay. 
 
 Although, during his expedition into Tiyari, Beder Khan Bey had seized 
 the flocks of the people of Jelu, and had compelled them, moreover, to pay 
 large contributions in money and in kind, he had not been able to entei 
 their deep and well-guarded valleys. * The blackened walls, the roofless 
 house, the plundered church, and the neglected vineyard, which marked in 
 other parts of the mountains the once flourishing villages of the Nestorian 
 tribes, did not disfigure the smiling district of Jelu. Its inhabitants, too. 
 still maintained to a certain extent the appearance of their former prosper- 
 ity, notwithstanding the rapacity and injustice of their new masters. Both 
 men and women were gaily dressed in the many-colored garments usually 
 worn by their Mussulman neighbours. 
 
 The Nestorians of Jelu have no trade to add to their wealth. Shut out 
 from all intercourse with the rest of the world, during six months of the 
 year, by the deep snows of the lofty mountains that surround them, it is 
 only in summer that they are able to exchange a few loads of fruit and a 
 little honey and wax in the districts about Amadiyah for such supplies of 
 corn as may serve for their immediate wants. Many of the men, however. 
 wander during the winter into Asia Minor, and even into Syria and Pal- 
 estine, following the trade of basket-making, in which they are very expert. 
 Thus they save money, and are able in the summer to cultivate the land 
 around their villages. There was only one priest in Zerin, and there ap- 
 peared to be in Jelu less of that earnest religious feeling so peculiar to the 
 Xestorians than in any other Christian district I had visited. The travels 
 of the men, and their intercourse with the rest of the Christian world, have 
 not improved their morals, their habits, or their faith. t 
 
 The district of Jelu is under a bishop whose spiritual jurisdiction also 
 extends over Baz. He resides at Martha d'Umra (the village of the 
 church), separated by a bold rocky ridge from Zerin. It was Sunday as 
 we descended through orchards, by a precipitous pathway, to his dwelling. 
 The bishop was away. He had gone lower down the valley to celebrate 
 divine service for a distant congregation. The inhabitants of the village 
 were gathered round the church in their holiday attire, and received us 
 kindly and hospitably. From a belfry issued the silvery tones of a bell, 
 which echoed through the valley, and gave an inexpressible charm to the 
 scene. It is not often that such sounds break upon the traveller's ear in 
 the far East, to awaken a thousand pleasant thoughts, and to recall to 
 memory many a happy hour. 
 
 * Beder Khan Bey was afterwards troubled by a conscientious scruple for not hav- 
 ing also visited Jelu with fire and sword, and massacred. the Infidels. He was pro- 
 jecting an invasion of the district the year that he was captured by the Turkish troops. 
 
 t The villages of Jelu are Zerin, Biri Khanee, Martha d'Umra, Nara, Muta, Tella- 
 na, Bokhrani or Be Bukra, Uri, Nerik, Zer, Gubawa, Serpilta, Shemsiki, Maturie, 
 Bispira, and Bakshi (Kurdish). 
 
Chap. XIX. 1 church in valley of jelu. 37 j 
 
 The church is said to be the oldest in the Nestorian mountains, and is 
 a plain, substantial, square building, with a very small entrance. To me 
 it was peculiarly interesting, as having been the only one that had escaped 
 the ravages of the Kurds, and as containing therefore its ancient furniture 
 and ornaments. Both the church and the dark vestibule were so thickly 
 hung with relics of the most singular and motley description, that the ceil- 
 ing was completely concealed by them. Amongst the objects which first 
 attracted my attention were numerous China bowls and jars of elegant form 
 and richly colored, but black with the dust of ages. They were suspend- 
 ed, like the other relics, by cords from the roof. I was assured that they 
 had been there from time out of mind, and had been brought from the dis- 
 tant empire of Cathay by those early missionaries of the Chaldaean Church, 
 who bore the tidings of the gospel to the shores of the Yellow Sea. If such 
 were really the case, some of them might date so far back as the sixth or 
 seventh centuries, when the Nestorian Church flourished in China, and its 
 missions were spread over the whole of Central Asia. The villagers would 
 not, in the absence of their bishop, allow me to move any of these sacred 
 relics. The sister of the Patriarch, they said, had endeavored to wash one 
 some years before, and it had been broken. Hung with the China vases 
 was the strangest collection of objects that could well be imagined: innu- 
 merable bells, of all forms and sizes, many probably Chinese, suspended in 
 long lines from one side to the other of the church, making a loud and dis- 
 cordant jingle when set in motion; porcelain birds and animals, grotesque 
 figures in bronze, remains of glass chandeliers, two or three pairs of old bull- 
 ion epaulets, and a variety of other things, all brought at various periods 
 by adventurous inhabitants of the village, who had wandered into distant 
 lands, and had returned to their homes with some evidence of their trav- 
 els to place in their native church. The walls were dressed in silks of 
 every color and texture, and with common Manchester prints. Notwith- 
 standing the undoubted antiquity of the church and its escape from plun- 
 der, I searched in vain for ancient manuscripts. 
 
 We followed the valley to the village of Nara, where the bishop was 
 resting after his morning duties. A young man of lofty stature and hand- 
 some countenance, dressed in the red-striped loose garments of the Kurds, 
 and only distinguished by a turban of black silk from those around him, 
 came out to meet us. A less episcopal figure could scarcely be imagined ; 
 but, although he seemed some Kurdish hunter or warrior, he gave us his 
 benediction as he drew near. We seated ourselves together beneath the 
 shade of a gigantic tree ; and whilst the good people of the village were 
 preparing a simple repast of yaghourt and garas, we discussed the affairs 
 of the church and the political condition of the tribe. 
 
 It was difficult to determine whom the poor bishop feared most, the 
 Turks or the American missionaries ; the first, he declared, threatened his 
 temporal, the others his spiritual, authority. I gave him the best advice I 
 was able on both subjects, and urged him not to reject the offer that had 
 
372 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 been made to instruct his people, but to identify himself with a progress on 
 which might be founded the only reasonable hope for the regeneration of 
 his creed and race. Unfortunately, as in the case of Mar Shamoun, strange 
 influences had been at work to prejudice the mind of the bishop. 
 
 A broad and rapid torrent crossed by a bridge, and a steep mountain 
 wooded with oak, over which we climbed by a rugged pathway, separate 
 the districts of Jelu and Baz. The first village we came to was Shouwa, 
 but we rested for the night at Martha Akhtayiah,* adjoining Ergub, the 
 furthest limits of my journey to the Nestorian districts in 1846. Our re- 
 ception here was far different from that we had experienced in Jelu. We 
 were at once recognised by the villagers. The men and women crowded 
 round us, vieing with each other in offers of hospitality. We alighted at 
 the clean and spacious house of the Melek, who was, however, away at the 
 time of our arrival. The inhabitants had been shamefully ill-used and 
 over-taxed by the Turkish authorities, and were driven to a state of de- 
 spair. I had, as usual, to listen to sad tales of misery and misfortune, 
 without having it in my power to offer either consolation or relief. 
 
 We were now in the track I had followed during my former visit to the 
 mountains. f Crossing the precipitous pass to the west of Baz, which, since 
 my first visit, had been the scene of one of the bloodiest episodes of the 
 Nestorian massacre, we entered the long narrow ravine leading into the 
 valley of Tkhoma. We stopped at Gunduktha, where, four years before, 
 I had taken leave of the good priest Bodaka, who had been amongst the 
 first victims of the fury of the Kurdish invaders. The Kasha, who now 
 ministered to the spiritual wants of the people, the Rais of the village, and 
 the principal inhabitants, came to us as we stopped in the churchyard. 
 But they were no longer the gaily dressed and well-armed men who had 
 welcomed me on my first journey. Their garments were tattered and 
 worn, and their countenances haggard and wan. The church, too, was in 
 ruins ; around were the charred remains of the burnt cottages, and the neg- 
 lected orchards overgrown with weeds. A body of Turkish troops had 
 lately visited the village, and had destroyed the little that had been restored 
 since the Kurdish invasion. The same taxes had been collected three 
 times, and even four times, over. The relations of those who had ran away 
 to escape from these exactions had been compelled to pay for the fugitives. 
 The chief had been thrown, with his arms tied behind his back, on a heap 
 of burning straw, and compelled to disclose where a little money that had 
 been saved by the villagers had been buried. The priest had been torn 
 from the altar, and beaten before his congregation. Men showed me the 
 marks of torture on their body, and of iron fetters round their limbs. For 
 the sake of wringing a few piastres from this poverty-stricken people, all 
 these deeds of violence had been committed by officers sent by the Porte to 
 protect the Christian subjects of the Sultan, whom they pretended to have 
 eleased from the misrule of the Kurdish chiefs. 
 
 * I. e. The lower village, corrupted into Makhtaiyah. 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 209. 
 
Chap. XIX.] 
 
 VALLEY OF BERWARI. 
 
 373 
 
 The smiling villages described in the account of my previous journey 
 were now a heap of ruins. From four of them alone 770 persons had 
 been slain. Beder Khan Bey had driven off, according to the returns 
 made by the Meleks, 24,000 sheep, 300 mules, and 10,000 head of cat- 
 tle ; and the confederate chiefs had each taken a proportionate share cf 
 the property of the Christians. No flocks were left by which they might 
 raise money wherewith to pay the taxes now levied upon them, and even 
 the beasts of burden, which could have carried to the markets of more 
 wealthy districts the produce of their valley, had been taken away.^ 
 
 We remained a night in Tkhoma to see the Meleks who came to us from 
 Tkhoma Gowaia. On the following morning, it being the Feast of the Vir- 
 gin, the people assembled for prayers — a crowd of miserable, half-naked 
 men, women, and children. Leaving the valley, we crossed the high mount- 
 ain inclosing Tkhoma to the south, and passed through Pinianish into 
 Chaal, a district inhabited by Mussulmans, and which had consequently 
 not suffered from the ravages of the Kurdish chiefs. It presented, with its 
 still flourishing villages surrounded by gardens and vineyards, a vivid con- 
 trast to the unfortunate Christian valley we had just left. 
 
 A rapid descent through a rocky gorge brought us to the Zab, over which 
 there were still the remains of a bridge, consisting of two poles fastened to- 
 gether by osier bands placed across the stone piers. It almost required the 
 steady foot and practised head of a mountaineer to cross the roaring stream 
 by this perilous structure. The horses and mules were with much trouble 
 and delay driven into the river, and after buffeting with the whirlpools and 
 eddies reached, almost 
 
 exhausted, the oppo- 
 site bank. 
 
 We now entered the 
 valley of Berwari, and, 
 crossing the pass of 
 Amadiyah, took the 
 road to Mosul, through 
 a country I had al- 
 ready more than once 
 visited. Leaving the 
 caravan and our jaded 
 horses, I hastened on- 
 wards with Hormuzd, 
 and travelling through 
 a night reached Mosul 
 in the afternoon of the 
 30th Aug., after an ab- 
 sence of seven weeks. 
 
 * On my return to Mosul I sent to Constantinople a report of the exactions and 
 cruelties to which the Nestorians had been subjected by their Turkish rulers ; but 
 nothing, I fear, has been done to amend their condition. 
 
 Summer Sleeping-Place in the Hills. 
 
Arabs and Nestoriaus moving a Slab at Kouyunjik. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK DURING THE SUMMER. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCULPTURES 
 
 CAPTURE OF CITIES ON A GREAT RIVER. POMP OF ASSYRIAN KING. PASSAGE OF A RIVER. 
 
 ALABASTER PAVEMENT. CONQUEST OF TRIBES INHABITING A MARSH. THEIR WEALTH. 
 
 CHAMBERS WITH SCULPTURES BELONGING TO A NEW KING. DESCRIPTION OF THE 
 
 SCULPTURES. CONQUEST OF THE PEOPLE OF SUSIANA. PORTRAIT OF THE KING. HIS 
 
 GUARDS AND ATTENDANTS. THE CITY OF SHUSHAN. CAPTIVE PRINCE. MUSICIANS. 
 
 CAPTIVES PUT TO THE TORTURE. ARTISTIC CHARACTER OF THE SCULPTURES. AN IN- 
 CLINED PASSAGE. TWO SMALL CHAMBERS. COLOSSAL FIGURES. MORE SCULPTURES* 
 
 "Whilst I had been absent in the mountains the excavations had been 
 continued at Kouyunjik, notwithstanding the summer heats. Nearly all 
 the Arabs employed in the spring at Nimroud had been removed to these 
 ruins, and considerable progress had consequently been made in clearing the 
 earth from them. Several chambers, discovered before I left Mosul, had 
 been emptied, and new rooms with interesting sculptures had been explored. 
 
 It has been seen # that the narrow passage leading out of the south-west 
 corner of the great hall containing the bas-reliefs representing the moving 
 
 * See page 287. 
 
Chap. XX.l description of the bas-reliefs. 375 
 
 of the winged bulls turned to the left, and by another gallery connected 
 this part of the edifice with a second hall of even larger proportions than 
 that first discovered.^ It was not quite square, the longest sides, those 
 from west to east, being rather more than 140 feet, and the others 126 feet. 
 It had four grand entrances, formed by colossal human-headed bulls, one on 
 each side.f 
 
 The sculptures panelling the western wall were for the most part stili 
 entire. They recorded, as usual, a campaign and a victory, and were prob- 
 ably but a portion of one continuous subject carried round the entire hall. 
 The conquered country appeared to have been traversed by a great river. 
 the representation of which took up a third of the bas-relief. It was filled 
 with crabs and fish of various kinds, and its banks were wooded with date- 
 bearing palms. On one side of the stream was the king in his chariot, sur- 
 rounded by his bodyguard and followed by his led horses. On the opposite 
 bank the Assyrian army laid siege to a detached fort, forming an outwork 
 to a city surrounded by high battlemented walls, and defended by lofty 
 towers rising one above the other in stages. Five square gateways opened 
 upon a small stream or canal. The city walls seem deserted by the in- 
 habitants, but the fort was defended by archers. Drawn up before it were 
 warriors variously armed, and cavalry discharging their arrows without dis- 
 mounting from their horses. A kneeling Assyrian protecting himself by a 
 broad wicker shield, was forcing the stones from the lower part of the for- 
 tifications with an instrument probably of iron. 
 
 When the Assyrian warriors had taken and plundered this city, they 
 brought human heads to the registrars, according to their military laws, to 
 show the numbers of the slain. The spoil consisting of furniture, arms, and 
 vessels of elegant form, was registered by the scribes, to be divided amongst 
 the victorious troops, whilst the captives were either to be apportioned as 
 slaves, or settled as colonists in some distant part of the dominions of the 
 great king. The women with their children were seen riding in carts 
 drawn by oxen. The dress of the male prisoners consisted of a short tunic 
 encircled at the waist by a broad belt, that of the women of an inner shirt 
 and an outef fringed robe falling to the ankles : the hair of both was con- 
 fined by a simple band or fillet round the temples. 
 
 Next came the siege and capture of a city standing on the opposite bank 
 of the same great river, and surrounded by a ditch edged with lofty reeds. 
 The Assyrian footmen and cavalry had already crossed this dike, and were 
 closely pressing the besieged, who, no longer seeking to defend themselves, 
 were asking for quarter. A warrior, covering himself with his large cir- 
 cular shield, was attempting to set fire to one of the gates with a torch. 
 Part of the city had already been taken, and the conquerors were driving 
 away captives and cattle. Carts drawn by oxen were laden with furniture 
 
 * Nos. XII., XLII., and XIX. Plan I. 
 
 t That to the east has already been described, p. 196. It is to be observed that 
 neither of these entrances are exactly in the middle of the sides of the hall. 
 
376 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XX 
 
 and large metal vessels. On the other side of the river, Sennacherib in 
 his gorgeous war chariot, and surrounded by his guards, received the cap- 
 tives and the spoil. It is remarkable that this is almost the only figure of 
 the king which had not been wantonly mutilated, probably by those who 
 overthrew the Assyrian empire, burned its palaces, and levelled its cities 
 with the dust.* 
 
 In this bas-relief the furniture of the horses w T as particularly rich and 
 elaborate. Above the yoke rose a semicircular ornament, set round with 
 stars, and containing the image of a deity. The chariot of the Assyrian 
 monarch, his retinue, and his attire, accurately corresponded with the de 
 scriptions given by Xenophon of those of Cyrus, when he marched out of 
 his palace in procession, and by Q,uintus Curtius of those of Darius, when 
 he went to battle in the midst of his army. The Greek general had seen 
 the pomp of the Persian kings, and could describe it as an eye-witness. 
 After the sacred bulls and horses, he says, came a white chariot with a 
 perch of gold adorned with a crown or wreath sacred to Jove. Cyrus wore 
 a tiara or turban raised high above his head, and a vest of purple, half 
 mixed with white. By him was his driver. Four thousand guards led 
 the way, and two thousand walked on each side. The principal officers 
 were on horseback richly attired, and behind them were the royal led 
 horses, with bridles of gold, and coverings wrought with raised work, pre- 
 cisely as we see them in the sculptures. The procession was finished by 
 the troops of various nations, horse and foot, who were in the pay of the 
 monarch.! The description of Gluintus Curtius is no less illustrative of 
 the Assyrian monuments. " The doryphori (a chosen body of spearmen) 
 preceded the chariot, on either side of which were the effigies of the gods 
 in gold and silver. The yoke was inlaid with the rarest jewels. From 
 it projected tivo golden figures of Ninus and Belus, each a cubit in 
 length The king was distinguished from all those who sur- 
 rounded him, by the magnificence of his robes, and by the cidaris or mitre 
 upon his head. By his side walked two hundred of his relations. Ten 
 thousand warriors bearing spears, whose staffs were of silver and heads of 
 gold, followed the royal chariot. The king's led horses, forty in number, 
 concluded the procession."! Allowing for a little exaggeration on the part 
 of the historian, and for the conventional numbers used by the Assyrian 
 sculptor to represent large bodies of footmen and cavalry, we might suppose 
 that duintus Curtius had seen the very bas-reliefs I am describing, so com- 
 pletely do they tally with his description of the appearance and retinue of 
 the Persian king. 
 
 * This bas-relief is now in the British Museum. 
 
 t Cyrop. lib. viii. c. 3. The bas-reliefs in Chamber XXXVIII. (Plan I.) very ac- 
 curately corresponded with this description. 
 
 t Quint. Curt. lib. iii. c. 3. I have quoted this description in my Nineveh and its 
 Remains, vol. ii. p. 365. The Persian king, although represented on the walls of 
 Tersepolis with a crown, also wore a high cap or upright turban, as we learn from 
 Xenophon (Anab. lib. ii. c. 5.) 
 
Chap XX 1 description of the bas-reliefs. 377 
 
 The usual spoil, the elegantly-shaped bed and throne, the bundle of 
 spears, the swords, and the graceful vase, were brought to the victorious 
 monarch, and heaped up before him with the gory heads of the slain. The 
 captives, bearing skins probably containing water and flour to nourish them 
 during a long and harassing march, were fettered in pairs, and urged on- 
 wards by their guards. The women were partly on foot, and partly with 
 their children on mules and in carts drawn by oxen. Mothers were repre- 
 sented holding the water-skins for their young ones to quench their thirst, 
 whilst in some instances fathers had placed their weary children on their 
 shoulders, for they were marching during the heat of a Mesopotamian sum- 
 mer, as the sculptor had shown by introducing large clusters of dates on 
 the palms. Thus were driven the inhabitants of Samaria through the 
 Desert to Halah and Habor, by the river of Gozan and the cities of the 
 Medes,^ and we may see in these bas-reliefs a picture of the hardships and 
 sufferings to which the captive people of Israel were exposed when their 
 cities fell into the hands of the Assyrian king, and their inhabitants were 
 sent to colonise the distant provinces of his empire. f 
 
 On the south side of the hall, parts of four slabs only had been pre- 
 served; the sculpture upon the others had been so completely destroyed, 
 that even the subject could no longer be ascertained. The fragments still 
 remaining, graphically depicted the passage of the river by the great king. 
 His led horses had been partly stripped of their costly furniture, and the 
 grooms were taking them to the water's edge. One horse had already 
 been detached from the royal chariot, and a groom was removing the yoke 
 from the second. A charioteer still held the reins, and an eunuch raised 
 a parasol above the monarch's head. Men were represented making ready 
 the skins probably to form a raft for the king to cross the stream. Some 
 carried such as had already been inflated, others were blowing into those 
 that were still empty, and tying up the orifice after they had been filled. 
 The bas-relief represented very accurately a scene that may be daily wit- 
 nessed, without the royal warrior, on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. 
 
 Many warriors, supporting their spears and heavy shields on their backs 
 by cords, had already commenced crossing the stream on their skins, and 
 horses led by their grooms were swimming to the opposite bank.$ 
 
 Not a fragment of inscription remained to identify the country repre- 
 sented in the bas-reliefs I have just described. From the size of the river, 
 far exceeding that of any other seen in the sculptures of Kouyunjik, I am 
 inclined to believe that it must have been the combined waters of the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, now known as the Shat-el-Arab. The broad canals 
 
 * 2 Kings, xvii. 6. 
 
 t See 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh, Plates 42 and 43, for part of the se- 
 ries described in the text. 
 
 t Plate 41. of 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh. These interesting bas-re- 
 liefs were unfortunately on the raft, which, after my return to Europe, was plundered 
 by the Arabs on its passage to Baghdad. 
 
378 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 derived from the main stream, and the banks clothed with palms, are the 
 present characteristics of the same district. Dr. Hincks has conjectured 
 that the " Bartu Marratu," literally the " Bitter or Salt River" of the in- 
 scriptions on the Koiryunjik bulls, was not the Persian Gulf as supposed by 
 Colonel Rawlinson,* but the great stream formed by the united waters of 
 the rivers of Mesopotamia, on the opposite sides of which, as we have seen, 
 were two cities of the name of Naghit, taken by Sennacherib in the sixth 
 year of his reign. f The bas-reliefs correspond with sufficient accuracy to 
 the account in the annals to make this conjecture not improbable. No 
 country visited by the Assyrians, except that watered by the Tigris and 
 Euphrates, in the lower part of their course, or after their confluence, pos- 
 sesses the natural features represented in these sculptures. 
 
 In the south side of the hall a centre portal flanked by winged bulls, 
 and two small entrances, formed by gigantic figures, opened into a long 
 chamber, $ whose sculptured walls had been burnt to lime. On the cal- 
 cined slabs, however, could still be traced Assyrian warriors mounting by 
 ladders to the assault of besieged cities, battering-rams, long lines of arch- 
 ers, slingers, and spearmen, a sea with double-banked galleys similar to 
 those frequently described, and a fortified camp, containing pavilions and 
 tents, in which were men engaged in various domestic occupations. The 
 king, as usual, superintended the operations from his chariot. To judge 
 from the fragments that remained of this series of sculptures, the most skil- 
 ful artist of the day must have been employed in its execution. At both 
 ends of the chamber, doors, guarded by colossal figures, led into smaller 
 apartments, in which the bas-reliefs had been almost entirely destroyed. § 
 Facing the great portal was a corresponding, but still wider, entrance, 
 formed by a pair of human-headed lions. Between them was an enormous 
 alabaster pavement slab, sculptured in relief, with a very elegant design, 
 consisting of a border of alternate tulips or lotus flowers and cones, inclos- 
 ing similar ornaments arranged in squares and surrounded by rosettes. || 
 
 On either side of this grand portal were doors, guarded by colossal fig- 
 ures, amongst which was the fish-god. 
 
 Little remained of the chamber into which these three entrances led.TT 
 A few fragments, with part of a procession of captives and warriors, were 
 alone left on the walls. We were now upon the very brink of the south- 
 ern side of the mound, and had consequently reached the furthest chamber 
 in this part of the palace. There were no traces of an exterior wall. 
 
 Returning to the great hall we found an entrance formed by colossal fig- 
 ures leading into a long narrow chamber,** about 70 feet by 12, whose walls 
 had partly escaped the general wreck. It appeared to be the remains of 
 an entrance into the palace, like that on the western face, or a gallery lead- 
 
 * Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xxxviii. f See p. 123. 
 
 t No. XXIV. Plan I., 98 by 27 feet- $ Nos. XXV. and XXVI. Plan. I. 
 
 II Plate 56. 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 1T No. XXVII. Plan I. ** No. XXVIII., same Plan. 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE BAS-RELIEFS. 379 
 
 ing to the outer terrace, which probably surrounded the building. On its 
 alabaster panels were sculptured the conquest of some of those tribes which 
 inhabited, from the remotest period, the vast marshes formed by the Eu- 
 phrates and Tigris in Chaldeea and Babylonia. The swamps of Lemlun 
 are still spread over this low land, and are the place of refuge of a wild and 
 barbarous race of Arabs, not improbably, as I have already observed, the 
 descendants of the very people represented in the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik. 
 With these, or similar tribes, the Assyrians, during the time of Sennacherib, 
 appear to have been in frequent war, and expeditions against them were 
 recorded on the walls of more than one chamber of his palace. * Unfortu- 
 nately there were no remains of epigraphs or other inscriptions on the bas- 
 reliefs. They may, perhaps, represent part of that campaign against Mer- 
 odach-Baladan, king of Kar-Duniyas, recorded in the first year of the an- 
 nals of Sennacherib on the great bulls of Kouyunjik and at Bavian. This 
 king appears to have ruled over all the tribes inhabiting Chaldfea, includ- 
 ing, therefore, those that dwelt in the great marshes at the confluence of 
 the rivers. 
 
 In these bas-reliefs the swamps with the jungles of lofty reeds, the nar- 
 row passages cut through them like streets, and the shallow stagnant wa- 
 ter abounding in fish, were faithfully, though rudely, portrayed. Men and 
 women, seated on rafts, were hiding themselves in the thick brakes, whilst 
 the Assyrian warriors followed the fugitives in light boats of wicker work, 
 probably taken from the enemy, and such as are used to this day by the 
 inhabitants of the same marshes. Some had overtaken and were killing 
 their victims. Others were returning to the banks with captives, and with 
 the heads of the slain. In the water were the bodies of the dead already 
 food for the fishes. The fighting men of the conquered tribes were armed 
 with bows, and wore short tunics ; the women had long fringed robes ; the 
 hair of both was confined round the temples by a fillet. This dress ap- 
 pears from the sculptures to have been common to all the nations inhabit- 
 ing the country watered by the lower part of the Euphrates and Tigris. 
 
 Although the people represented in these bas-reliefs dwelt in the swampy 
 districts of Chaldsea, unless, indeed, they had only taken refuge in them to 
 escape the vengeance of the Assyrian king, they appear to have been as 
 rich, if not richer, than any others conquered by Sennacherib. With the 
 exception of three slabs and part of a fourth, containing the battle in the 
 marsh, the entire walls of the chamber were sculptured with the captives 
 and spoil brought by the victorious troops to their king. Unfortunately the 
 image of Sennacherib himself in his chariot, which, to judge from a frag- 
 ment or two found in the rubbish, must have exceeded all others in the pal- 
 ace, both in size and in the finish and richness of the details, had been en- 
 tirely destroyed. Women and children on foot, on asses, and in carts drawn 
 by oxen, waggons laden with furniture, caldrons and vessels in metal, oxen. 
 mules, camels, sheep and goats, vases and jars of the most elegant forms, 
 * Two campaigns into Babylonia are recorded in the bull inscriptions. 
 
380 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 A\\V 
 
 ftWV\ 
 
 spears, swords, and shields, curiously carved couches, chairs, and tables, 
 were included in the booty with which the Assyrian conquerors returned 
 in triumph to Nineveh. Amongst the objects in metal was an elegant 
 
 casket or vessel, probably of gold or silver, the. 
 upper part of which, shaped like the walls of 
 a castle with battlements and towers, rested 
 upon a column whose capital was formed by 
 Ionic volutes (another instance of the early 
 use of this order of architecture on the banks 
 of the Tigris). The whole was supported by 
 projecting curved feet ending in the hoofs of 
 bulls, and stood on the cone-shaped orna- 
 ment so frequently seen in Assyrian furniture. 
 Some of the captives carried on their shoul- 
 ders wicker baskets, such as are still made in 
 Babylonia, and large bottles, probably of leath- 
 er. The country through which they passed 
 abounded in the date-bearing palm. The As- 
 syrian warriors, hungry after their long march, 
 were represented before a fire roasting the 
 limbs of a sheep. Drawings from this highly 
 interesting series of bas-reliefs, so illustrative 
 of the wars of the Assyrians, will be found in 
 the second series of my work on the Monu- 
 ments of Nineveh.^ 
 Returning to the great hall, from which this gallery led, I found on its 
 western side three other entrances, corresponding with those on the south- 
 ern, the centre formed by a pair of winged bulls in a fossiliferous limestone. f 
 They led into a chamber 58 feet by 34, panelled with unsculptured slabs 
 of the same material as the colossi at the principal portal. Three similar 
 doorways opened into a parallel chamber of the same length, though rather 
 narrower. t Its w T alls had been ornamented with carved alabaster slabs, 
 of which a few fragments remained. A fortified camp, containing the usual 
 pavilions and tents ; priests sacrificing a sheep before a fire altar ; a castle 
 on the sea-shore ; double-banked galleys hung round with shields ; and long 
 lines of captives (the women wearing hoods fitting close over their heads, 
 and falling to their feet behind ; the men turbans of several folds, such as 
 are frequently represented at Khorsabad), were amongst the bas-reliefs 
 still preserved. 
 
 Three doorways on the western side of this chamber, similar to those on 
 the eastern, led into as many distinct rooms, unconnected with each other. 
 There were thus three magnificent portals, one behind the other, each 
 formed by winged bulls facing the same way, and all looking towards the 
 
 * Plates 25, 26, and 35. t No. XXIX. Plan I. 
 
 t No. XXXIV. same Plan. About 29 feet wide. 
 
 Metal Vessel or Casket (Kouyunjik). 
 
Chap XX 1 description of the bas-reliefs. 3gj 
 
 great hall ; the largest colossi, those in front, being above 18 feet high, and 
 the smallest, those leading into the inner chamber, about 12.* It would be 
 difficult to conceive any interior architectural arrangement more imposing 
 than this triple group of gigantic forms as seen in perspective by those who 
 stood in the centre of the hall, dimly lighted from above, and harmoniously 
 colored or overlaid, like the cherubims in the temple of Solomon, with gold. 
 The inner centre portal led into the chamber containing the sculptured 
 records of Sennacherib's memorable campaign against Lachish, already de- 
 scribed.! Of the apartments on each side of it,$ the walls of that to the 
 right had almost entirely disappeared, and that to the left had not been 
 explored before my departure. 
 
 At the upper or southern ends of the two parallel chambers just described 
 were entrances opening into a room 82 feet by 24, whose walls were 
 of the same unsculptured limestone. § From it a portal, formed by winged 
 lions in the same material, led into an apartment 76 feet by 26, standing 
 on the edge of the mound, and consequently one of the last on this side of 
 the palace. || Only six slabs, neither of them entire, remained against its 
 walls ; the rest had been purposely destroyed, and the fragments used for 
 the foundations of a building raised over the Assyrian ruins. These slabs, 
 like the sphinxes, TT were of a limestone abounding in fossils, probably " the 
 polished stone, full of shells," not'iced by Xenophon in the plinth of the 
 walls of Mespila.** It is harder and more difficult to work than the usual 
 alabaster or gypsum, yet it admits of high finish. The six slabs, still 
 standing, were covered from top to bottom with small figures, most elabo- 
 rately carved, and designed with great spirit. Although bearing a general 
 resemblance to the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik, there was sufficient in the 
 style of art and in the details to show that they were not of exactly the 
 same period. Fortunately, several epigraphs still remained over the prin- 
 cipal groups, and enable us to determine to what monarch the sculptures 
 belong, and to identify the events and incidents they portray. 
 
 The three slabs to the right of the winged lions on entering were occu- 
 pied by a highly curious representation of a battle. The subject was in- 
 complete, and could not be restored. The Assyrians, having besieged and 
 captured some great city, appeared to be pursuing the flying enemy. On 
 the first remaining slab was part of a mound, on which a castle was proba- 
 bly built. Down the side of the artificial elevation ran the defeated war 
 riors, no longer attempting defence, but giving themselves up to despair 
 One was plucking out his beard, a common action amongst easterns to de- 
 note grief; some tearing their hair, and others turning round to ask for 
 quarter from their merciless pursuers. On the sides of the mound were 
 
 * These were entrances I and h, No. XXIX. and b, No. XXXVI. same Plan. 
 t No. XXXVI. same Plan ; see p 126. t No. XXXVII. No. XXXV. same Plan 
 $ No. XXX. same Plan. || No. XXXIII. Plan I. 
 
 1T This limestone, being full of shells and other fossils, has, when polished, a vcrv 
 pleasing appearance. ** Anab. c. iii. lib. 4. 
 
382 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XX 
 
 the dead and dying, and the hows and quivers of the slain. A wounded 
 mule was falling to the ground, whilst his rider, pierced by an arrow, raised 
 his hands to implore for mercy. An Assyrian soldier, or ally, distinguished 
 by a low round cap, and a kind of belt or shawl twisted round his breast, 
 was dragging a body towards him, probably with the intention of cutting 
 off the head. Beneath the mound a horseman was piercing with his spear 
 a flying enemy, and two warriors in a car drawn by a mule, were hastening 
 from the battle-field. 
 
 The remainder of the subject was di- 
 vided by horizontal parallel lines into 
 six parts or friezes, of which, however, 
 only three were entire. From the num- 
 ber of figures introduced, and the com- 
 plicated nature of the action, it is diffi- 
 cult to describe these important bas-re- 
 liefs intelligibly. In the lowest com- 
 partment, archers and spearmen, some 
 on horses, were represented in close com- 
 bat with the enemy, whose armies, like 
 those of the Assyrians, were composed 
 of footmen and cavalry. The battle- 
 field was strewn with the slain, and 
 with their scattered arms ; but, as usual, 
 the sculptor, to flatter the vanity of his 
 countrymen, had not portrayed a single 
 Assyrian either dead or wounded. In 
 the second frieze the enemy were seen 
 righting in carts drawn by mules. In 
 the next compartment were Assyrian 
 warriors bearing the heads of the slain, 
 and leaving the field of battle in a cart 
 captured from the foe. Above this 
 group was an epigraph, unfortunately 
 much mutilated, which recorded the 
 slaughter of a king, whose name was 
 
 ■£] £££\ (C (? Tiranish), and 
 
 who, we learn from other inscriptions 
 on the same sculptures, reigned over 
 Elam, or Susiana. The lines being in- 
 complete, the meaning of the whole 
 inscription is not quite clear. 
 
 Behind the cart with the Assyrian 
 
 * The name is defective in this inscription, but can be restored from others in the 
 same series of bas-reliefs. 
 
Chap. XX.] description of the bas-reliefs. 333 
 
 warriors, was the tent of the registrar, to which had been led a captive chief 
 and his two attendants. Within were collected a heap of human heads, 
 whilst warriors were bringing more of these bloody trophies to the appoint- 
 ed scribes. In another part of the battle was seen the chariot of one of 
 the princes of the Elamites. Four spirited horses, wounded by arrows, were 
 plunging and rearing ;* and the chief with his charioteer were falling from 
 the overturned chariot. Beneath was a group representing an Assyrian 
 warrior holding his horse by the bridle, and advancing towards a fallen en- 
 emy, who, turning towards his conqueror, placed one hand upon his throat, 
 a gesture either of entreaty, or to indicate his approaching fate. Above 
 him was an epigraph, commencing apparently with his name, of which only 
 one letter remained, and declaring that he was a general of the Susianian 
 king (?). Around these groups, Assyrians, armed with battle-axes and 
 maces, were slaying the unresisting foe. In this part of the bas-relief were 
 two short epigraphs, which appeared to state that the slaughtered warriors 
 were sons of the king of Elam. These princes were distinguished by a pe- 
 culiar round cap, to which was attached a long feather falling down the 
 back, a head-dress subsequently worn by Persian kings. They were clothed 
 in embroidered and fringed robes, and their chariots were drawn by four 
 horses. 
 
 Crows and vultures were represented feasting upon the carcases of the 
 slain. Adjoining the field of battle was a broad river, into which the As- 
 syrians were driving the retreating enemy : it was filled with the dead 
 bodies of men and horses, and with bows and quivers. 
 
 Above the battle scenes were the conquerors torturing, and leading into 
 captivity, their prisoners. They were divided into three rows ; parts of two 
 only had been preserved. 
 
 Several of the captives were apparently about to undergo some dreadful 
 torture ; with their hands manacled in iron fetters, they knelt over an ob- 
 ject which might be a chafing-dish with hot coals or a vessel to receive 
 their blood. One of the torturers held his victim by a collar round his 
 neck ; whilst a second, seizing the unfortunate prisoner by the hair, was 
 about to strike him with an iron-headed mace. 
 
 The epigraphs declare that the war recorded by these sculptures was 
 undertaken by an Assyrian king, whose image was represented on a slab 
 not yet described, against the people of Elam or Susiana. It is of consid- 
 erable importance thus to identify the conquered people, and to be able to 
 ascertain the costume, the arms, and the mode of warfare of a nation well 
 known in ancient history. The Elamites, we find from these bas-reliefs, 
 used even in war, besides chariots, a kind of cart drawn by mules, and con- 
 sisting of a flat stage raised upon lofty wheels, which had as many as 
 twelve and even sixteen spokes. The largest of these cars could hold five 
 or six persons, and were adorned with a fringed or embroidered cloth. The 
 smallest, it would appear, contained only two, the warrior and the chariot- 
 * This group of horses is remarkable for its spirit and correct delineation. 
 
384 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 eer, who sat on a kind of raised seat. Such carts are probably alluded to 
 by the prophet Ezekiel when he speaks of " the chariots, waggons, and 
 wheels," belonging to "the Babylonians, and all the Chaldseans, Pekod, 
 and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians," who should come up against 
 Jerusalem.* The harness of the mules consisted of a simple band round 
 the chest, hung with rosettes and tassels, probably of colored wool. They 
 were guided either by reins, or by a long rod held by the charioteer in his 
 right hand. Mules were also, it would seem, ridden by this people in bat- 
 tle, and were then caparisoned like horses. f The dress of the fighting men 
 consisted chiefly of a tunic, or single shirt, falling to the knee, and bound 
 at the waist by a narrow girdle. Some of them had round their shoulders 
 a kind of band knotted in front. This appears to have been a contrivance 
 to support the quiver suspended at the back. Their hair was long, and 
 was confined by a fillet, or riband tied behind the head in a kind of bow. 
 The captive chief arid his attendants in the tent wore robes falling to the 
 knee in front, and to the ankles behind. Those who fought on foot were 
 armed with the bow, but the cavalry used the spear. The archers carried 
 at their backs quivers of peculiar form, and ornamented at the sides and on 
 the top with rosettes. I have already described the peculiar dress of the 
 princes ; it was completed by high boots or greaves laced up in front, and 
 probably of yellow leather.! 
 
 Amongst the captives were men clothed in fringed robes and a short 
 under-tunic : these were probably the lords of the land. The women wore 
 their hair in curls, falling on their shoulders, and bound above the tem- 
 ples by a band or fillet. Some had one long ringlet on each side of the 
 face. Their children were either naked or clothed in simple shirts. 
 
 The Assyrian troops were divided into cavalry and foot. The horse- 
 men carried the bow and spear, and wore coats of mail, high greaves, and 
 the pointed helmet, that characteristic part of the Assyrian military cos- 
 tume from the earliest period. Their horses were covered with clothes, 
 and even, it would seem, with a kind of leather armour, reaching from the 
 head to the tail, to protect them from the arrows of the enemy. § It con- 
 sisted of several separate pieces fastened together by buttons or loops. 
 Over it was thrown an ornamented saddle-cloth or a leopard's skin, upon 
 
 * Ezek. xxiii. 23, 24. 
 
 t Susiana is still celebrated for its mules. These animals were evidently much 
 esteemed by the ancients. They were even used by kings. When David sent for 
 Solomon to be anointed king over Israel, he caused him to ride on his mule. (1 Kings, 
 i. 33.) They were also noted for their swiftness and endurance (2 Sam. xiii. 2.), 
 were used for posts (Esther, viii. 10.), and were amongst objects of tribute and spoil, 
 as we see them represented in the sculptures. (1 Kings, x. 25. 2 Chron. ix. 24.) 
 
 t Boots of yellow leather formed a part of the dress of the Persian kings. (Cyrop. 
 lib. viii. c. 3.) It appears from Ezekiel (xvi. 10.) that the skins of badgers were much 
 esteemed for boots. 
 
 § Cyrus covered his chariot-horses, all but the eyes, with armour. (Xenophon, 
 Inst. 1. vi.) 
 
Chap. XX. 1 description of the bas-reliefs. 395 
 
 which the rider sat. Under the head of the horse was hung a bell or a 
 tassel. The reins appear to have been tightened round the neck of the an- 
 imal by a sliding button, and then dropped when the warrior was engaged 
 in the fight. Between the horse's ears was an arched crest, and the dif- 
 ferent parts of the harness were richly embroidered and ornamented with 
 rosettes. These trappings, it will be perceived, differed from those repre- 
 sented in sculptures of an earlier epoch. The costumes of the footmen, as 
 in the bas-reliefs of Sennacherib, varied according to their arms. The 
 archers, probably auxiliaries from different tribes in alliance with the As- 
 syrians, were dressed in very short tunics scarcely covering the thigh. A 
 broad belt, with the fringed ornament peculiar to the later Assyrian pe- 
 riod, encircled their waist, and over their shoulders they wore a cross belt, 
 of chequered cloth resembling a Scottish plaid, to support the quiver. 
 Their hair, confined by a plain fillet, was rolled up behind in one large 
 curl. All the spearmen had the pointed helmet ; but some wore coats of 
 mail and metal greaves, and others a simple tunic, without any covering 
 to their legs. Their shields protected nearly the whole person, and were 
 rounded at the top and straight at the bottom. Some appear to have been 
 faced with small square pieces of leather, others to have been made entire- 
 ly of metal, with embossed edges. For the first time we see in these bas- 
 reliefs the Assyrians using the battle-axe and the mace in battle. 
 
 On the opposite side of the lion-entrance were also three slabs, but bet- 
 ter preserved than those I have just described. They formed part of the 
 same subject, which had evidently been carried round the four walls of the 
 chamber. They represented the triumph of the Assyrian king, and, like 
 the battle scenes, were divided by horizontal lines into several bands or 
 friezes. The monarch stood in his chariot, surrounded by his body-guard. 
 Unfortunately, his face, with those of the charioteer and the eunuch bear- 
 ing the parasol, had been purposely defaced, like that of Sennacherib on 
 his monuments, probably when the united armies of the Medes and Baby- 
 lonians destroyed the palace. The royal robes were profusely adorned with 
 rosettes and fringes ; the attendant eunuch was dressed in a chequered gar- 
 ment resembling a Scotch plaid. The parasol was embroidered with ro- 
 settes, and ornamented with tassels, and to it was hung the long piece of 
 cloth or silk as a protection from the side rays of the sun. The chariot, 
 part of which had been destroyed, was most elaborately decorated. The 
 body was carved with an elegant pattern of intersecting circles and ro- 
 settes, and edged by a tasteful border. In a circular panel was a kneeling 
 figure drawing a bow, probably the protecting deity of the Assyrian king. 
 A round boss projected from the fore part of the chariot, and beneath it was 
 a case to receive the arrows and bow. The chariot was more lofty than 
 that seen in the earlier Assyrian sculptures. The wheels were unusually 
 large, and had eight spokes, encircled by an ornamental border. The har- 
 ness of the horses consisted of a band under the chest, with rosettes and tas- 
 sels, a cluster of large tassels hanging over the shoulder from the yoke, an 
 
386 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAr XX 
 
 embroidered or ivory studded breast-band, and head-pieces similarly adorn- 
 ed. Two lofty plumes, or panaches, rose between their ears. 
 
 In front of the chariot were two warriors or guards in embroidered robes 
 and greaves. Their long hair was bound by a fillet, whose tasselled ends 
 fell loose behind. They were preceded by two remarkable figures, both 
 eunuchs, and probably intended for portraits of some well-known officers of 
 the royal household. One was old and corpulent : his forehead was high 
 and ample ; his nose curved and small, and his chin round and double. 
 The wrinkles of the brow, the shaggy eyebrows, and the bloated cheeks, 
 with the stubble beard peculiar to beings of his class, were very faithfully 
 represented. His short hair was tied with a fillet. His companion was 
 younger, and had not the same marked features. He carried before him 
 a square object resembling a closed box or book, perhaps a clay tablet con- 
 taining some decree or register, such as were discovered in the ruins. Both 
 wore long plain shirts, and round their waists a simple cord, in which was 
 fixed a whip, probably a sign of their office. 
 
 Above this remarkable group was an inscription in eight lines for- 
 tunately almost entire. From it we learn that the name of the king, 
 whose deeds were thus recorded, was written in cuneiform characters 
 
 ► J • -4^ +^— |y* "We know from relics found at Nimroud and Kou- 
 
 yunjik that he was the son ofEssarhaddon, and the grandson of Sennache- 
 rib, and the conqueror of Susiana. He was the Assordanes of the chron- 
 ological tables, and his name begins with the monogram for the Assyrian 
 deity, Asshur.* 
 
 These bas-reliefs record his conquest of the country of >— *T g=| jPf 
 
 (Nuvaki ?), a name by which Susiana or Elymais was anciently known ; 
 as we also find from the inscriptions at Khorsabad, as well as from those 
 of Bisutun.f In the same inscription a king of Armenia is also mentioned ; 
 and it would appear that the great men of that country were sent to the 
 Assyrian monarch whilst in Susiana. They may have been taken prison- 
 ers by his generals, or may have brought him their allotted tribute. 
 
 Above the royal chariot was a row of trees, and beneath a procession of 
 mace-bearers and led horses, richly caparisoned. A lower compartment 
 contained a curious ground plan of a city. In it were the following char- 
 acters, "^ SET Jappf-^ -^J> reading "the district of Madaktu" (?). It 
 will be seen from an inscription to be subsequently noticed, that Susa or 
 Shushan actually stood in a district of this name ; and it is highly prob- 
 able that we have, in the bas-relief, a representation of the city. Its posi- 
 tion between two rivers well agrees with that of existing ruins generally 
 
 * Dr. Hincks reads the name Assaracbal. 
 
 t Rawlinson's Memoir, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xiv. p. 16. In the 
 Khorsabad inscriptions we find the better-known name of " Elam" interchangeable 
 with Nuvaki 
 
Chap. XX.l THE CITY 0F SHUSHAN 387 
 
 believed to mark its site. The smaller stream would be the Shapour, and 
 the larger the Eulceus or river of Dizful.* The city was surrounded by a 
 wall, with equidistant towers and gateways. The houses were flat roofed, 
 and some had one tower or upper chamber, and others two. They had no 
 windows, and their doors were square. Thus, in general form, and prob- 
 ably in the interior arrangements, they closely resembled the common 
 dwellings of the Egyptians, of which a very interesting model is now in 
 the British Museum. f Nor were they unlike the meaner houses of the 
 modern town of Shushter, the representative of ancient Susa. Unfortu- 
 nately, part of the slab containing the city had been destroyed, and many 
 of the more important edifices were probably wanting. Outside the walls 
 were groves of palms and other trees, and a kind of suburb of houses scat- 
 tered amongst the gardens as around Baghdad and Busrah. On the river 
 bank stood two forts with towers, one raised on an artificial mound. Near 
 the large river, at the bottom of the slab, was either a pond in the midst 
 of palm trees, or the source of a rivulet which fell into the main stream. | 
 The adjoining slab was divided into eight bands or friezes, by parallel 
 lines, and the next slab into seven. On both were represented the Assyr 
 ian army returning from its victorious campaign, and bringing to the king 
 the captives and the spoil. The prisoners, who were probably considered 
 rather rebels to his authority than enemies, were being cruelly tortured in 
 his presence. The principal group was that of the eunuch general, or Tar- 
 tan, leading a chief or prince of the conquered people. With one hand he 
 grasped his captive by the wrist, and raised in the other a long and massy 
 spear. At his back was hung a quiver and bow, and an embossed belt en- 
 circled his mailed vest. The prisoner wore a simple robe falling to his an- 
 kles, and a knotted fillet round his head. Above him was an inscription 
 unfortunately much mutilated. It appears to have declared that he was 
 one of the sons or chiefs of the Susianian monarch, defeated and slain in 
 battle near the district of Madaktu (the name, it will be remembered, over 
 
 the city on the adjoining slab), and near the city of *"3[ ^ *~*{~ 
 
 Shushan ; and that the Assyrian king had placed one of his own generals 
 on the conquered throne. § 
 
 * A full account of these rivers, and a description of the ruins upon them ; will be 
 found in my Memoir on the Province of Khuzistan, in vol. xvi. of the Journal of the 
 Royal Geographical Society. 
 
 t Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
 t It is possible that the two rivers above and the two below may represent but 
 two streams ; and that the spring or pool may be the sources of the Shapour, which 
 are in the plain not far distant from Susa. (See my Memoir, Geog. Soc. Journal, vol. 
 xvi. p. 56.) 
 
 $ So many characters are unfortunately wanting in this epigraph, that the inscrip- 
 tion cannot be satisfactorily translated. It commences, it would appear, with the 
 name of the Susianian king, although written without the first character found on 
 the other slabs. The captive, however, was not the monarch himself, who was slain, 
 as it has been seen, in the battle. The name of Shushan, written, as in the book of 
 
388 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP XX 
 
 Before the captive prince were gathered a number of the Susianians. 
 probably the subjects of the slaughtered king, who had come to surrender 
 to the Assyrian general, for they still carried their arms, and were not led 
 by the victorious warriors. Some of them knelt, some bowed to the ground ; 
 and others, stretched at full length, rubbed their heads in the dust, all signs 
 of grief and submission still practised in the East. They were followed by 
 a led horse, and by a cart drawn by a mule, resembling those represented in 
 the battle scenes. Another Tartan of the Assyrian army, holding his war- 
 horse and carrying his spear, also received the homage of the conquered 
 Susianians. The Assyrian generals were welcomed by bands of men and 
 women, dancing, singing, and playing on instruments of music. Thus, 
 ; when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, the wom- 
 en came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet Saul, 
 with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. "* We find from 
 various passages in the Scriptures, that the instruments of music chiefly 
 used on such triumphant occasions were the harp, one with ten strings (ren- 
 dered viol or lyre in some versions, but probably a kind of dulcimer), the 
 tabor and the pipe,f precisely those represented in the bas-reliefs. First 
 came five men ; three carried harps of many strings, which they struck 
 with both hands, dancing at the same time to the measure ; a fourth played 
 on the double-pipes, such as are seen on the monuments of Egypt, $ and 
 were used by the Greeks and Romans. They were blown at the end like 
 the flutes of the modern Yezidis, which they probably resembled in tone 
 and form. The fifth musician carried an instrument not unlike the mod- 
 ern santour of the East, consisting of a number of strings stretched over a 
 hollow case or sounding board. The strings, pressed with the fingers of 
 the left hand to produce the notes, were struck with a small wand or ham- 
 mer held in the right. The men were followed by six female musicians, 
 four playing on harps, one on the double-pipes, and the sixth on a kind of 
 drum beaten with both hands, resembling the tubbul still used by Eastern 
 dancing-girls. 
 
 The musicians were accompanied by six women and nine boys and girls 
 of different ages, singing and clapping their hands to the measure. The 
 first were distinguished by various head-dresses. Some wore their hair in 
 long ringlets, some plaited or braided, and others confined in a net.§ One 
 
 Daniel, for Susa, is highly interesting. It places beyond a doubt the identification of 
 the site of the campaign. * l Sam. xviii. 6. 
 
 + Isaiah, v. 12. In Daniel, hi. 5. we have mention of the " cornet, flute, 'harp, 
 sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer ;" but it is scarcely possible to determine what these 
 instruments really were : they probably resembled those represented in the bas-re- 
 liefs described in the text. The instrument often strings mentioned in Ps. xxxiii. 2., 
 xlii. 3., and cxliv. 9., may have been the harp of the sculptures, and the psaltery the 
 smaller stringed instrument. % Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt., vol. ii. p. 232-234, &c. 
 
 § The modern fashion appears, therefore, to be but a revival of a very ancient one. 
 Isaiah includes "the caps of net-work" amongst the various articles of dress of the 
 Jewish women (ch. hi. v. 8., Rev. Mr. Jones' version). 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 MUSICIANS. 
 
 389 
 
 held her hands to her throat, as the Arab 
 and Persian women still do when they 
 make those shrill and vibrating sounds 
 peculiar to the vocal music of the East. 
 The whole scene, indeed, was curiously- 
 illustrative of modern Eastern customs. 
 The musicians portrayed in the bas-relief 
 were probably of that class of public per- 
 formers who appear in Turkey and Egypt 
 at marriages, and on other occasions of re- 
 joicing. 
 
 Behind the two Assyrian generals were 
 cavalry, chariots, led horses, and armed 
 warriors, forming two friezes of consider- 
 able beauty, no less remarkable for the 
 delicacy of the execution than for the 
 very spirited and correct delineation of the 
 animals. 
 
 A long line of warriors, some bearing 
 maces, bows, spears, and shields, and oth- 
 ers crossing their hands before them in the 
 common Eastern attitude of respect, form- 
 ed a frieze across the centre of the slabs. 
 They were the attendants and body-guard 
 of the king, and were represented of dif- 
 ferent heights, being probably picked men 
 formed into companies or regiments ac- 
 cording to their size and strength. They 
 walked in front of a row of trees. 
 
 Above the Assyrian warriors were the 
 captives and their torturers. The former 
 differed in costume from the Susianian 
 righting men represented in the adjoining 
 bas-reliefs. They were distinguished by 
 the smallness of their stature, and by a 
 very marked Jewish countenance — a 
 sharp, hooked nose, short bushy beard, and 
 long narrow eyes. Could they have be- 
 longed to the Hebrew tribes which were 
 carried away from Samaria and Jerusa- 
 lem, and placed by Shalmaneser, Senna- 
 cherib, or Essarhaddon, as colonists in the 
 distant regions of Elam, and who, having 
 become powerful in their new settlements, 
 had revolted against their Assyrian rulers, 
 
 -v 
 
390 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [CHAr XX 
 
 and were once again subdued ? 
 They wore a kind of conical cap, 
 to which were attached two or 
 more tails or ribands, an inner 
 garment reaching a little below 
 the knee, an outer fringed robe 
 falling down the back to the 
 ankles, and boots turned up at 
 the toes and laced in front. A 
 band hanging over their shoul- 
 ders ended in a tassel. Some 
 in iron fetters were being led 
 before the king, for judgment or 
 pardon. Others had been con- 
 demned to the torture, and were 
 already in the hands of the ex- 
 ecutioners. Two were stretch- 
 ed naked at full length on the 
 ground, and whilst their limbs 
 were held apart by pegs and 
 cords they were being flayed 
 alive. Beneath them were oth- 
 er unfortunate victims under- 
 going abominable punishments. 
 The brains of one were appar- 
 ently being beaten out with an 
 iron mace, whilst an officer held 
 him by the beard. A torturer 
 was wrenching the tongue out 
 of the mouth of a second wretch 
 who had been pinioned to the 
 ground. The bleeding heads of 
 the slain were tied round the 
 necks of the living, who seemed 
 reserved for still more barbarous 
 tortures. 
 
 Above these groups was a 
 short epigraph, commencing by 
 two determinative signs of prop- 
 er names, each followed by a 
 blank space, which the sculptor 
 probably left to be filled up with 
 the names of the principal vic- 
 tims. It then declares that 
 these men, having spoken bias- 
 
392 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 phemies (?) against Asshur, the great god of the Assyrians, their tongues 
 had been pulled out (Lishaneshiaiu eshlup, both words being almost pure- 
 ly Hebrew), and that they had afterwards been put to death (or tortured). 
 The inscription, therefore, corresponds with the sculpture beneath. It is 
 by such confirmatory evidence that the accuracy of the translations of the 
 cuneiform characters may be tested. 
 
 The only spoil represented in these bas-reliefs as carried away by the 
 Assyrians consisted of horses and bundles of precious woods. At the top 
 of each slab was a frieze of warriors drawn up in array, and at the bottom 
 a broad river filled with those killed in the fight, and horses, mules, char- 
 iots, carts, bows, and quivers. 
 
 These highly interesting bas-reliefs had been exposed, like all the other 
 sculptures of Kouyunjik, to the fire which had destroyed the palace. Al- 
 though each slab was cracked into many pieces, the sculptures themselves 
 had suffered less injury than any others discovered in the same ruins, the 
 hard fossiliferous limestone not having become calcined by the heat like 
 the alabaster. The outline was still sharp and the details perfectly pre- 
 served. Considerable care was required to move them. But the pieces 
 were at length packed, and since their arrival in England have been ad- 
 mirably restored, with the rest of the bas-reliefs now in the British Muse- 
 um, by Mr. Sumsion. The whole series has been given from my drawings 
 in the second series of the Monuments of Xineveh.* 
 
 Unfortunately no slabs but those I have described remained against the 
 walls of this apartment, nor were there any other bas-reliefs of the same 
 king found in the ruins. Several detached slabs of limestone, covered on 
 both sides with inscriptions recording certain events of the reign of this 
 monarch, have, however, been discovered both at Kouyunjik and Xebbi 
 Yunus. Amongst other conquests they relate that of Susiana, and describe 
 the overthrow 7 of its king as represented in the sculptures. The Susianians 
 appear to have recently rebelled ; for they w r ere subject to the Assyrians in 
 the time of the predecessors of this king, and are mentioned amongst the al- 
 lies fighting in the armies of Sennacherib. These inscriptions were prob- 
 ably votive tablets placed in temples and other public buildings to celebrate 
 this victory.! 
 
 Although the bas-reliefs were carved by a later king, the chamber itself, 
 like the rest of the edifice, was built by Sennacherib, and on the back of 
 each slab were inscribed his name and usual titles. The inscriptions be- 
 hind the winged lions at the entrance also contained his name, but were 
 especially interesting as describing the cutting of those sculptures and their 
 transport to Xineveh. They will, consequently, enable us to determine the 
 Assyrian word both for the colossi and for the stone of which they were 
 made. The slabs round the room appear, therefore, to have been originally 
 
 * Plate 45. to 49. 
 
 t One of these inscriptions is published in the British Museum Series, p. 85. Many 
 of the tablets from the chamber of archives, in Kouyunjik, bear the name of this king. 
 
Chap. XX.1 discoveries at kouyunjik. 393 
 
 plain, as in the adjoining chambers, and to have been subsequently sculp- 
 tured by order of the son and successor of Essarhaddon. 
 
 These bas-reliefs prove that many changes had taken place in the arts 
 and dress of the people of Assyria between the reign of Sennacherib and 
 that of his grandson. The later sculptures are principally distinguished by 
 their minute finish, the sharpness of the outline, and the very correct delin- 
 eation of the animals, and especially of the horses. We now approach the 
 period of the fall of the Assyrian empire, and of the rise of the kingdoms of 
 Babylon and Persia. The arts passed from Assyria to the sister nations 
 and to Ionia. There is much in the bas-reliefs I have just described to re- 
 mind us of the early works of the Greeks immediately after the Persian 
 war, and to illustrate a remark of the illustrious Niebuhr, that " a critical 
 history of Greek art would show how late the Greeks commenced to prac- 
 tise the arts. After the Persian war a new world opens at once, and from 
 that time they advanced with great strides. But everything that was pro- 
 duced before the Persian war — a few of those works are still extant — was, 
 if we judge of it without prejudice, altogether barbarous."^ 
 
 The chamber containing these sculptures had an entrance opening upon 
 the edge of the mound. Of this doorway there only remained, on each side, 
 a block of plain limestone, which may, however, have been the base of a 
 sphinx or other figure. The outer walls to which it ledf had been panelled 
 with the usual alabaster slabs, with bas-reliefs of a campaign in a country 
 already represented in another part of the palace, t and distinguished by the 
 same deep valley watered by a river, the vineyards and wooded mountains. 
 Over one of the castles captured and destroyed by the Assyrians was writ- 
 ten, " Sennacherib, King of Assyria. The city of Bit-Kubitalmi I took, 
 the spoil I carried away, (the city) I burned." 
 
 Whether these walls belonged to a chamber or formed part of the south- 
 ern face of the palace could not now be determined, as they were on the 
 very brink of the platform. At right angles to them, to the west, a pair of 
 winged bulls opened upon another wall, of which there were scarcely any 
 remains, and midway between the two entrances was a deep doorway, § 
 flanked on both sides by four colossal mythic figures, amongst which were 
 the fish-god and the deity with the lion's head and eagle's feet. It led to 
 an inclined or ascending passage, nine feet wide in the narrowest part and 
 ten in the broadest, and forty-four feet in length to where it turned at right 
 angles to the left. It was paved with hard lime or plaster about an inch 
 and a half thick. The walls were built of the finest sun-dried bricks, ad- 
 mirably fitted together, and still perfectly preserved. Three rows of square 
 projections, each formed by two bricks, were carried along both sides of the 
 passage. Here and there were circular holes purposely cut into the brick- 
 work. I can offer no other conjecture as to the original use of either of 
 these projections or of the holes, except that they supported shelves on 
 
 * Niebuhr's Thirty-fourth Lecture on Ancient History, t No. LX. Plan I. 
 t In No. XXXVIII., same Plan. See page 290. $ Entrance b, No. LX. 
 

 JJ- 
 
Chap. XX.] 
 
 REMOVAL OF THE SCULPTURES. 
 
 395 
 
 which the archives and other public documents were deposited, for it was 
 in this passage that were discovered the detached seals described in a for- 
 mer chapter. 
 
 This inclined way probably led to the upper chambers of the palace, or 
 to the galleries which may have been carried round the principal cham- 
 bers and halls. 
 
 I have only to describe two more rooms discovered in this part of the 
 ruins during the summer.* They opened into the chamber parallel with 
 
 that containing the sculptured records 
 of the son of Essarhaddon. The en- 
 trances to both were formed by two 
 pairs of colossal figures, each pair con- 
 sisting of a man wearing the horned 
 cap surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and a 
 lion -headed and eagle -footed human 
 figure raising a dagger in 
 one hand, and holding a 
 mace in the other. These 
 sculptures were remarka- 
 ble for the boldness of the 
 relief and their high fin- 
 ish. 
 
 The bas-reliefs on the 
 walls of the two chambers recorded the same campaign against a nation 
 dwelling amidst a wooded and mountainous country, and in strongly forti- 
 fied cities, which the Assyrians took by assault, using battering-rams to 
 make breaches in the walls, and scaling ladders to mount to the assault. 
 The besieged defended themselves with arrows and stones, but their strong- 
 holds were captured, and a vast amount of spoil and captives fell into the 
 hands of the conquerors. The men had short, bushy hair and beards, and 
 wore an inner garment reaching to the knee, an outer cloak of skins or fur. 
 and gaiters laced in front. The robes of the women were short ; their 
 hair hung low down their backs, and was then gathered up into one large 
 curl.f 
 
 Such were the discoveries made at Kouyunjik during the summer. At 
 Nimroud the excavations had been almost suspended. I have already de- 
 scribed those parts of the high mound or tower, and of the adjoining small 
 temples which were explored by the few workmen who still remained 
 amongst the ruins, rather to retain possession of the place than to carry on 
 extensive operations. 
 
 I was engaged until the middle of October in moving and packing bas- 
 reliefs from Kouyunjik ; a task of considerable trouble, and demanding 
 much time and labour, as the slabs, split into a thousand fragments by the 
 
 * No. XXXI., 26 by 14 feet, and No. XXXII., 22 by 20 feet, 
 t Plates 19 and 31. of the Monuments of Nineveh, 2d series. 
 
 Tunic of colossal 
 Figures on oppo- 
 Colossal Figures at an Entrance (Kouyunjik.) site Sculpture. 
 
396 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XX. 
 
 fire, had to be taken completely to pieces, and then arranged and number- 
 ed, with a view to their future restoration.^ Nearly a hundred cases con- 
 taining these remains were at length dragged to the river side, to await 
 the rafts by which they were to be forwarded to Busrah, where a vessel 
 was shortly expected to transport them to England. 
 
 * These bas-reliefs have been admirably put together under the superintendence 
 of Mr. Sumsion of the British Museum. 
 
 
 Cases containing Sculptures ready for Embarkation. 
 
A Kellek or Raft on the Tigris. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING NINEVEH. — DEPARTURE FOR BABYLON. THE AWAI. DE- 
 SCENT OF THE RIVER. TEKRIT. THE STATE OF THE RIVERS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 
 
 COMMERCE UPON THEM. TURKISH ROADS. THE PLAIN OF DURA. — THE NAHARWAN. 
 
 SAMARRAH. KADESIA. PALM GROVES. KATHIMAIN. APPROACH TO BAGHDAD. 
 
 THE CITY. ARRIVAL. DR. ROSS. A BRITISH STEAMER. MODERN BAGHDAD. TEL MO- 
 HAMMED. DEPARTURE FOR BABYLON. A PERSIAN PRINCE. ABDE PASHA'S CAMP. 
 
 EASTERN FALCONRY. HAWKING THE GAZELLE. APPROACH TO BABYLON. THE RUINS. 
 
 ARRIVAL AT HILLAH. 
 
 The winter was now drawing near, and the season was favorable for 
 examining the remains of ancient cities in Babylonia. The Trustees of 
 the British Museum had partly sanctioned a plan submitted to them for 
 excavations amongst ruins, no less important and vast, and of no less bib- 
 lical and historical interest than those of Nineveh. I had included, in my 
 original scheme, many remarkable sites both in Chaldsea and Susiana, but. 
 as I have before observed, my limited means did not permit me to carry 
 out my plan to its fullest extent. As the operations at Nimroud were now, 
 however, suspended, I determined to employ fewer men at Kouyunjik, and 
 to devote myself, during the cold weather, to researches amongst the great 
 mounds of Southern Mesopotamia. 
 
 My Jebours were now so skilled and experienced in excavating, that I 
 deemed it more economical to take a party of them with me than to engage 
 new workmen on the various sites that I might visit. At the same time, 
 having thus my own men, I should be independent of the people of the 
 country, who might either be unwilling to labor, or might require exorbi- 
 tant pay. I accordingly selected about thirty of the best Arabs employed 
 in the excavations at Nineveh, to accompany me on the rafts which bore 
 the sculptures. Awad and LatifTAgha, having charge of my horses and 
 dromedary, took the high road through Arbil, and were to meet me at 
 
398 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ C HAP. XXL 
 
 Baghdad. They left Mosul about a week before me, and had scarcely 
 made a day's journey before they were attacked by a party of Bedouin ma- 
 rauders. After losing the deloul and one of the horses, they fortunately 
 succeeded in making their escape. 
 
 Having again entrusted Toma Shisman with the superintendence of the 
 excavations, and given him all necessary directions for carrying on the 
 work, I quitted Mosul on the 18th of October, accompanied by Hormuzd 
 and Mr. Romaine, an English traveller, on his way to India. There were 
 cases enough containing sculptures from Kouyunjik to load a raft of con- 
 siderable size. My Jebours, well armed with guns, went with them for de- 
 fence, as the banks of the river were swarming with Bedouins, who had 
 nearly interrupted all intercourse both by the river and high road between 
 Mosul and Baghdad. Hormuzd, who had met with a severe accident, was 
 placed in a bed on a small kellek ; Mr. Romaine occupied with me another 
 of the same size. I have already described these primitive vessels, by 
 which the trade of the countries watered by the rivers of Mesopotamia is 
 now mainly carried on.^ Ours in no way differed from those in ordinary 
 use, except that a wooden framework covered with thick felt was raised 
 upon them, to shelter us during the night, and to guard us during the day 
 from the burning rays of the sun. The servants and cooking apparatus 
 were on the large raft, and we all kept close company for convenience and 
 mutual protection. 
 
 We stopped for the first night beneath the mound of Hammum Ali, in 
 which a party of my workmen had opened several trenches without mak- 
 ing any discoveries. On the following morning we crossed the foaming 
 rapids of the Awai, or great dam. During the previous three years the 
 river had gained much ground to the eastward, washing away the alluvial 
 soil of the plain, and gradually seeking its ancient bed at the foot of thr 
 mound. The stone-work which, on my first visit to Nimroud, just jutted 
 from the high bank, now stood, like a tower, almost in the centre of the 
 Tigris, dividing the impetuous stream into two roaring cataracts. Solid 
 masonry beneath the level of the river connected this isolated mass with 
 the opposite bank. I endeavored to trace it inland, but after digging for 
 some days without coming to the end, I relinquished the attempt. I am 
 inclined to believe, from the result of this experiment, that the Awai is 
 rather the remains of foundations of a wall and towers, gradually concealed 
 by the deposits of the Tigris during the constant changes in its bed, than of 
 a dam to keep up the level of the river for irrigation. The stream, now 
 wearing its way back, will again uncover these ruins. The wall may orig- 
 inally have stood on the western bank, and its position may have been re- 
 versed by the change in the course of the river. Whether it surrounded a 
 distinct city, or whether it formed part of the inclosure of ancient Nineveh, 1 
 am unable to say. It would have required time and labor, which were bet- 
 ter employed, to trace its course, deeply buried as it is beneath the soil. 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 96. 
 
Chap. XXL] TEKRIT - 39$ 
 
 There were still some arrangements connected with the excavations to 
 be made at Nimroud, and it was not until the 20th that we fairly began 
 our voyage. The navigation of the river as far as Kalah Sherghat was so 
 insecure, that I deemed it prudent, in order to avoid a collision with the 
 Arabs, to engage a Bedouin chief to accompany us. The tents of the Ajel, 
 a branch of the Jebours, being pitched near the junction of the Tigris and 
 the Zab, were then the resort of parties from the wandering tribes in search 
 of provisions or news. In them we found one Awaythe, a Sheikh of the 
 Fedagha Shammar, who agreed to give us his protection until we had 
 passed the danger. Placing one of his sons on his mare, and ordering him 
 to follow us along the banks of the river, he stepped upon my raft, where 
 he spent his time in giving us accounts of wars and ghazous, smoking his 
 pipe and pounding coffee. 
 
 The waters of the Tigris were at this season of the year too low to per- 
 mit our travelling after dark before reaching the alluvial plains of Baby- 
 lonia. As far down as Tekrit the river is continually crossed by reefs of 
 rocks, and interrupted by rapids, which are now impediments to its free 
 navigation, although offering no real obstruction to European skill. Dur- 
 ing the freshes and in the spring months the raftmen float fearlessly on- 
 wards through the night. 
 
 We reached Tekrit in three days without accident or adventure. Be- 
 douin tents and moving swarms of men and animals were occasionally seen 
 on the river banks, but under the protection of our Sheikh we met with 
 no hindrance. Tekrit is almost the only permanent settlement of any im- 
 portance between Mosul and Baghdad. It is now a small town, but was 
 once a place of some size and strength. The remains of an ancient castle, 
 surrounded by a ditch, crown a high sandstone rock rising from the river, 
 and amidst the crumbling hovels of the present inhabitants are seen the 
 ruins of mosques, baths, and well-built houses, and that labyrinth of tombs 
 which invariably marks the site of an ancient Mohammedan city. Tekrit 
 is chiefly famous as the birth-place of the celebrated Saleh-ed-din, bettei 
 known to the English reader as Saladin, the hero of the Crusades, and the 
 magnanimous enemy of our Richard CoBur-de-Lion. His father, Ayub, a 
 chief of a Kurdish tribe of Rahwanduz, was governor of its castle for the 
 Seljukian monarchs of Persia. Mosul itself sustained a siege from Saladin, 
 who was repulsed by its Atabeg, or hereditary prince.* Military expedi- 
 tions into the Sinjar and other parts of Mesopotamia were amongst the ex- 
 ploits of this great Mussulman hero. 
 
 Tekrit is now inhabited by a few Arabs, who carry on, as raftsmen, the 
 traffic of the river between Mosul and Baghdad. To the latter city much 
 
 * In the year of the Hegira 581. The name of the Atabeg was Azz-ed-din. Sal- 
 adin is said to have endeavored to take the city by turning the waters of the Tigris 
 into a canal towards Nineveh. He did not, however, succeed, but the Atabeg, to put 
 an end to the siege, consented to proclaim him in the mosques, and to strike money 
 in his name. 
 
400 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXI, 
 
 corn is annually sent by water from Shomamok and the districts on the less- 
 er Zab. The people of Tekrit also levy a baj, or tax, upon all rafts pass- 
 ing their town, a privilege farmed to them by the Pasha of Baghdad. It 
 is so considerable, and the mode of raising so oppressive, that it is a great 
 impediment to trade. 
 
 Nothing marks more completely the results of the unjust and injurious 
 system pursued by the Porte in its Arabian territories than the almost en- 
 tire absence of permanent settlements and of commercial intercourse on the 
 banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. Two of the finest rivers of Asia, reach- 
 ing into the very heart of the Turkish dominions, spreading fertility through 
 districts almost unequalled for the richness of their soil and for the varied 
 nature of their produce, and navigable one for nearly 850 miles from the 
 sea, the other for nearly 600 miles, are of no account whatever to the State 
 upon which nature has conferred such eminent advantages. The depre- 
 dations of the Arabs, unchecked by the government, and the rapacity and 
 dishonesty of the Turkish authorities, who levy illegal and exorbitant taxes 
 upon every mode of transit, whether by land or water, and who make mo- 
 nopolies of all articles of produce and of merchandize, effectually check the 
 efforts of the natives themselves, by no means deficient in commercial act- 
 ivity and enterprise, to engage in trade, or to navigate the rivers. Even 
 the European merchant, with privileges secured by treaties and protection 
 afforded by consuls and diplomatic agency, is scarcely able to struggle 
 against the insecurity of the country through which he must convey his 
 goods, and against the black-mail exacted by Arab Sheikhs, secretly encour- 
 aged or abetted by the Turkish governors. From the most wanton and dis- 
 graceful neglect, the Tigris and Euphrates, in the lower part of their course, 
 are breaking from their natural beds, forming vast marshes, turning fertile 
 districts into a wilderness, and becoming unnavigable to vessels of even the 
 smallest burden. 
 
 The very highway from Mosul, and, consequently, from the capital, to 
 Baghdad, in order to avoid the restless Bedouin, is carried along the foot 
 of the Kurdish hills, leaving the river, adding many days to the journey, 
 and exposing the caravans to long delays from swollen streams. Even this 
 road is no longer secure, for the utter negligence and dishonesty that have 
 of late marked the conduct of the Turkish authorities in Southern Turkey 
 have led to the interruption of this channel of commerce. Many villages 
 which once offered a safe retreat and necessary supplies to travellers are 
 now deserted. By an ancient law of the Turkish empire, a law prevailing 
 amongst nearly all the Tatar tribes, a local governor was held personally 
 responsible for losses from open robbery on the highways within his juris- 
 diction. This responsibility has been removed, and no other remedy sub- 
 stituted by the Tanzimat, or reformed system. It is, of course, absurd for 
 a native merchant to apply for protection or compensation to the Turkish 
 Government, or to seek redress in a court of law against nomade tribes who 
 defy the authority and arms of the Sultan. 
 
Chap. XXI. 1 the rivers of Mesopotamia. 40 j 
 
 The direct road to Baghdad from the north would be across Mesopotamia, 
 and along the banks of the Tigris, through a country uninterrupted by a 
 single stream of any size, or by a single hill. Whilst caravans are now 
 frequently nearly six weeks on their way from Mosul to Baghdad, they would 
 scarcely be as many days by the Desert. A few military posts on the river, 
 a proper system of police, encouragement to the cultivating tribes to settle 
 in villages, and the construction of a common cart-road, would soon lead to 
 perfect security and to the establishment of considerable trade. This is not 
 the place to discuss the relative merits of the various routes to India, but 
 it may be observed that the time is probably not far distant, when a more 
 direct and speedy communication than hitherto exists with that empire, 
 will be sought by the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, where railways 
 and steam navigation can both be advantageously brought into operation. 
 The only impediments between the Syrian coast and those rivers in any 
 part of their course, arise from the want of proper security ; and may, con- 
 sequently, with a little energy and a comparatively small outlay, be effect- 
 ually removed. The navigation of the Persian Gulf is, at all times, open 
 and safe ; and a glance at the map will show that a line through the Med- 
 iterranean, the port of Suedia, Aleppo, Mosul, Baghdad, Busrah, and the 
 Indian Ocean to Bombay is as direct as can well be desired. This must 
 be the second Indian route before extended civilisation and Christianity can 
 afford a reasonable basis for those gigantic schemes which' would carry a 
 line of iron through countries almost unknown, and scarcely yet visited by 
 a solitary European traveller. 
 
 With these prospects, and with the incalculable advantages which a 
 flourishing commerce and a safe and speedy transit through, perhaps, the 
 richest portions of its dominions would confer upon the Turkish empire, it 
 would seem that more than Eastern apathy is shown in not taking some 
 steps tending to restore security to the country watered by the Tigris and 
 Euphrates, and to encourage the peaceful settlement of its wandering and 
 predatory inhabitants. 
 
 Between Tekrit and Baghdad there is much to interest the traveller who 
 for the first time floats down a river winding through the great alluvial 
 plains of Chaldaja. The country has, however, been so frequently de- 
 scribed,* that I will not detain the reader with more than a general sketch 
 of it. Our rafts glided noiselessly onwards, without furrowing with a rip- 
 ple the quiet surface of the stream. Leaving Tekrit, we first passed a 
 small whitewashed Mussulman tomb, rising on the left or eastern bank, in 
 a plain that still bears the name of Dura. It was here, as some believe, 
 that " Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was 
 threescore cubits and breadth six cubits, and called together the princes, 
 the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, 
 the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to its dedication, and that 
 
 * See especially Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, &c, by the late C. J. 
 Rich, Esq., vol. ii. chap, xviii. 
 
 C c 
 
402 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP XXI 
 
 certain Jews would not serve his gods, nor fall down and worship the gold- 
 en image that he had set up."* It is now a wilderness, with here and 
 there a shapeless mound, the remains of some ancient habitation. The 
 place is not otherwise unknown to history, for it was here that, after the 
 death of the Emperor Julian, his successor Jovian concluded a disgraceful 
 peace with the Persian king Sapores (Shapour), and saved the Roman 
 army by yielding to the enemy the five great provinces to the east of the 
 Tigris. It was here, too, that he crossed the Tigris, a broad and deep 
 stream,! and commenced his disastrous retreat through Mesopotamia. 
 
 Not far below, and on the same side of the river, the great canal of the 
 Xaharwan, the wonder of Arab geographers, robbed the Tigris of a large 
 portion of its waters. Its innumerable arms spread fertility over many dis- 
 tricts, once rich in villages and gardens, but now almost a desert. Lofty 
 banks, all that remains of this mighty work, may still be traced, stretch 
 ing, like natural hills-, far across the plains, here crossed by the remains of 
 a richly-decorated bridge, there losing themselves amidst a confused heap 
 of mounds, marking the site of some ancient town.$ 
 
 Below the Xaharwan, ruins, walls, and dwellings, built chiefly of large 
 pebbles, united by a strong cement, a mode of construction peculiar to the 
 Sassanian and early Arab periods, stand on the alluvial cliffs. They are 
 called Eski, or old, Baghdad ; the Arabs, as usual, assigning a more an 
 cient site to the modern city. On the opposite side of the Tigris, anothei 
 mass of falling masonry, named Ashek, crowns a projecting ridge. 
 
 A tower, about two hundred feet high, now rises above the eastern bank 
 of the river. An ascending way winds round it on the outside like the 
 spiral of a screw, reminding the traveller of the common ideal pictures of 
 the Tower of Babel. It marks the site of the ancient city of Samarrah, 
 where the Roman army under Jovian rested after marching and fighting 
 a long summer's day.§ It subsequently became the capital of Motassem 
 Billah, the eighth caliph of the Abbasside dynasty. Weary of the frequent 
 seditions of the turbulent inhabitants of Baghdad, he resolved to change 
 the seat of government, and chose Samarrah as his residence. If he did 
 not build, he beautified, the city, and displayed in it that magnificence 
 which distinguished the successors of the Prophet, notwithstanding the ex- 
 ample of humility set by the founder of their faith. The Arab historians 
 describe his stables containing one hundred and thirty thousand pied horses, 
 each of which daily emptied its nosebag filled with earth on a certain spot 
 
 * Daniel, iii. 
 
 t It will be remembered that Jovian attempted first to cross the river on the same 
 kind of bridge as the Rhodian proposed to construct for Xenophon and the Ten Thou- 
 sand, — a floating platform of inflated skins of sheep, oxen, and goats, covered with a 
 floor of earth and fascines. (Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. iv. c. 24.) 
 
 X For a very full and highly interesting account of the Naharwan, see a Memoir 
 by Captain Jones in the 9th volume of the Transactions of the Geographical Society 
 3f Bombay. 
 
 6 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. 24. 
 
Chap. XXI.] 
 
 RUINS ON THE TIGRIS. 403 
 
 in the city. The soil thus brought together formed at length a terrace, on 
 which the Caliph built a hall of surpassing splendor, but known as " the 
 Palace of the Nosebags" from its singular origin. A half-ruined mosque is 
 now a place of pilgrimage to Mussulmans of the Sheeah sect, for it is said 
 to cover the tombs of the last Imaums of the race of Ali, and to be the 
 hiding-place of the twelfth prophet, Mehdi, who is to appear at the second 
 coming of Christ. The modern town, inhabited by Arabs, consists of a few 
 falling houses surrounded by a mud wall, defended by bastions and towers. 
 On both sides of the river, as the raft is carried gently along by the now 
 sluggish current, the traveller sees huge masses of brick- work jutting out 
 from the falling banks, or overhanging the precipice of earth which hems 
 in the stream. Here and there are more perfect ruins of buildings — walls 
 of the solid masonry of the Sassanian period, and cupolas fretted with the 
 elegant tracery of early Arab architecture. These are the remains of the 
 palaces and castles of the last Persian kings and of the first Caliphs. The 
 place is still called G-adesia or Kadesia, and near it was fought that great 
 battle which gave to the new nation issuing from the wilds of Arabia the 
 dominion of the Eastern world. * 
 
 Remains of an earlier period are not wanting. A huge mound abutting 
 on the west bank of the river, and still within sight of Samarrah, is known 
 to the Arabs as the Sidd-ul-Nimroud, the wall or rampart of Nimroud. 
 By some it is believed to be part of the Median wall which guarded, in 
 the days of old, the immediate territory of Babylon against invasion from 
 the north. A few heaps of earth on an angle formed by the junction of 
 the Naharwan and another great canal derived from the Tigris, may rep- 
 resent the ancient Chaldaean city of Opis. 
 
 The current becomes more gentle at every broad reach, until the raft 
 scarcely glides past the low banks. The water has lost its clearness and 
 its purity ; tinged by the alluvial soil it has turned to a pale yellow color. 
 The river at length widens into a noble stream. Pelicans of snowy plum- 
 age and colored wildfowl float lazily on the waters, and white herons stand 
 motionless on the margin. A dark line now bounds the southern horizon. 
 It gradually breaks into vast groves of the feathery palm. The loud creak- 
 ing of waterwheels disturbs the silence which has hitherto reigned over the 
 deserted waters, and groups of half-naked Arabs gather together on the 
 banks to gaze at the travellers. A solitary raft of firewood for Baghdad 
 floats, like ourselves, almost imperceptibly along. 
 
 We are now amidst the date groves. If it be autumn, clusters of golden 
 fruit hang beneath the fan-like leaves ; if spring, the odor of orange blos- 
 soms fills the air. The cooing of the doves that flutter amongst the branch 
 es, begets a pleasing melancholy, and a feeling of listlessness and repose. 
 
 The raft creeps round a projecting bank, and two gilded domes and foui 
 stately minarets, all glittering in the rays of an eastern sun, suddenly rise 
 high above the dense bed of palms. They are of the mosque of Kathi- 
 * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. 51. 
 
404 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 main, which covers the tombs of two of the Imaums or holy saints of the 
 Sheeah sect. 
 
 The low banks swarm with Arabs, — men, women, and naked children. 
 Mud hovels screened by yellow mats, and groaning water-wheels worked 
 by the patient ox, are seen beneath the palms. The Tigris becomes wider 
 and wider, and the stream is almost motionless. Circular boats, of reeds 
 coated with bitumen, skim over the water. Horsemen, and riders on white 
 asses,* hurry along the river side. Turks in flowing robes and broad tur- 
 bans, Persians in high black caps and close-fitting tunics, the Bokhara pil- 
 grim in his white head-dress and wayworn garments, the Bedouin chief in 
 his tasseled keffleh and striped aba, Baghdad ladies with their scarlet and 
 white draperies fretted with threads of gold, and their black horsehair 
 veils, concealing even their wanton eyes, Persian women wrapped in their 
 sightless garments, and Arab girls in their simple blue shirts, are all min- 
 gled together in one motley crowd. A busy stream of travellers flows with- 
 out ceasing from the gates of the western suburb of Baghdad to the sacred 
 precincts of Kathimain. 
 
 A pine-shaped cone of snowy whiteness rises to the right ; near it are 
 one or two drooping palms, that seem fast falling to decay, like the build- 
 ing over which they can no longer throw their shade. This is the tomb 
 of Zobeide, the lovely queen of Haroun-al-Reshid, a name that raises many 
 a pleasant association, and recalls to memory a thousand romantic dreams 
 of early youth. 
 
 A mosque cut in two, a singular object, next appears on the eastern 
 bank. The river has gradually undermined and carried away the other 
 part, leaving the innermost recesses of its dome, of which exactly half re- 
 mains, its places of prayer, and its chapel-like chambers open to the air. 
 Colored cupolas and minarets rise on all sides above the palms, until the 
 trees are succeeded by a long line of mud-built houses. We pass the pal- 
 ace of the governor, an edifice of mean materials and proportions. At its 
 windows the Pasha himself and the various officers of his household may 
 be seen reclining on their divans, amidst wreaths of smoke. A crazy 
 bridge of boats crosses the stream, and appears to bar all further progress. 
 At length the chains are loosened, two or three of the rude vessels are 
 withdrawn, and the rafts glide gently through. A few minutes more, and 
 we are anchored beneath the spreading folds of the British flag, opposite a 
 handsome building, not crumbling into ruins like its neighbours, but kept 
 in repair with European neatness. A small iron steamer floats motionless 
 before it. We have arrived at the dwelling of the English Consul-general 
 and political agent of the East India Company at Baghdad. t 
 
 * The white ass of Baghdad is much esteemed in the East. Some are of consid- 
 erable size, and, when fancifully dyed with henna, their tails and ears bright red, 
 and their bodies spotted, like an heraldic talbot, with the same color, they bear the 
 chief priests and the men of the law, as they appear to have done from the earliest 
 times. (Judges v. 10.) 
 
 t I have not attempted to give more than a mere sketch of the banks of the Tigris 
 
Chap. XXI.l steamers on the tigris. 405 
 
 It was early in the morning of the 26th October that I landed at the 
 well-remembered quay of the British residency. In the absence of Colonel 
 Rawlinson, then in England, his political duties had been confided to Cap- 
 tain Kemball, now the East India Company's Resident at Bushire. He 
 received me with great kindness, and I acknowledge with gratitude the 
 hospitality and effective assistance I invariably experienced from him dur- 
 ing my sojourn at Baghdad, and my researches in Babylonia. 
 
 More than ten years had passed since my first visit to the city. Time 
 had worked its changes amongst those who then formed the happy and 
 hospitable English society of Baghdad. Dr. Ross was no more. In him 
 Arab as well as European, rich as well as poor, Mohammedan as well as 
 Christian, had lost a generous and faithful friend. His intimate knowl- 
 edge of the country and its various inhabitants ; his long intercourse with 
 the Bedouins, by whom he was universally known and beloved, and the 
 high character he bore amongst the people of the city itself, rendered him 
 the traveller's best counsellor ; whilst his ever ready hospitality and genial 
 disposition made his house a pleasant home after the toils of eastern travel. 
 He had died as heroically as he had braved a lingering illness, about a year 
 before. 
 
 Twelve years ago four steamers floated on the Tigris, and were engaged 
 in exploring the then almost unknown rivers of Mesopotamia and Susiana. 
 Their officers formed a small English colony in Baghdad. Three of those 
 vessels had long been withdrawn, one alone having been left to keep up a 
 monthly communication between this city and Busrah. Its presence was 
 of no less importance to British merchants and residents who were in cor- 
 respondence with India than to the Turkish authorities, as all intercourse 
 by land with the south was frequently interrupted for months together by 
 the predatory Arabs. Other reasons make it equally desirable that one 
 steamer should still remain on the waters of southern Turkey which flow 
 into the Persian Gulf, and the results of her presence, both politically and 
 scientifically, have fully justified the confidence that the East India Com- 
 pany have placed in Captain Jones as her commander. It is only to be re- 
 gretted that a vessel better suited to the navigation of the rivers has not 
 been selected. 
 
 The expedition under Col. Chesney, and the subsequent ascent of the 
 Euphrates, by far the most arduous undertaking connected with its nav- 
 igation, but accomplished with great skill by Captain Campbell of the East 
 
 between Mosul and Baghdad. It would exceed the limits of this work to dwell upon 
 the various interesting sites near a river so rich in historical associations, or to en- 
 ter into a geographical account of the country. Captain Jones, of the Indian navy, 
 whose accurate surveys of the lower part of Mesopotamia, including Babylonia and 
 Chaldaea, deserve to be better known to the English public, and to whose knowledge 
 of the native character, and tact and energy as a traveller as well as a public officer, 
 I cannot bear too high a testimony, has furnished the best accounts hitherto pub- 
 lished of the Tigris in this part of its course, in his papers communicated to the Geo- 
 graphical Society of Bombay. 
 
406 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 India Company's service, have proved that for ordinary purposes this river 
 in its present condition is not navigable even in the lower part of its course. 
 The neglect to keep up the embankments has increased the obstacles, and 
 it is doubtful whether a steamer of even the smallest useful size could 
 now find its way through the great marshes that absorb the waters of the 
 Euphrates for nearly 200 miles above its confluence with the Tigris at 
 Korna. The latter river is, for the present, navigable from the Persian 
 Gulf to vessels drawing from three to four feet water almost as far as 
 Tekrit, and probably, for vessels purposely constructed, as far as Nimroud. 
 The usual negligence and indifference of the Turkish government are, 
 however, bringing about the same changes in the course and condition of 
 this stream as in those of the Euphrates. The banks were formerly kept 
 in repair by the tribes inhabiting the lower part of Mesopotamia, who per- 
 formed this service to the state* in place of the payment cf taxes and trib- 
 ute. Of late years the Porte has taken them under its own charge, and 
 they have, of course, been allowed to fall into complete decay. The tribes 
 at the same time defy the government, and contribute nothing to the pub- 
 lic revenues. The river has begun to desert its bed, and is now forming 
 vast swamps over the low country, which was probably rescued by the an- 
 cient Babylonians from the Chaldsean lake. 
 
 Baghdad, with its long vaulted bazars rich with the produce and mer- 
 chandise of every clime, its mixed population of Turks, Arabs, Persians, In- 
 dians, and men of all Eastern nations, its palm groves and gardens, its 
 painted palaces and unsightly hovels, its present misery and its former mag- 
 nificence, have been so frequently described, that I will not detain the read- 
 er with any minute account of this celebrated city. Tyranny, disease, and 
 inundations have brought it very low. Nearly half of the space inclosed 
 within its walls is now covered by heaps of ruins, and the population is 
 daily decreasing, without the hope of change. During my residence in 
 Baghdad no one could go far beyond the gates without the risk of falling 
 into the hands of wandering Arabs, who prowled unchecked over the plains, 
 keeping the city itself almost in a continual state of siege. Notwithstand- 
 ing these drawbacks, the importance of its position is so great that Baghdad 
 must at all times command a considerable trade. It is a link between the 
 
 * The banks of the Euphrates and Tigris in the lower part of their course were 
 formerly kept in repair by the great tribe of the Montefik. The following character- 
 istic anecdote is related of Ajel, its celebrated chief. His father had confided certain 
 dams to the care of the head of a dependent tribe. When the old Sheikh died, his 
 tributary, taking advantage of the youth and inexperience of Ajel, refused to obey the 
 orders sent to him, and allowed the embankments to fall into decay. Ajel, who was 
 already distinguished for his courage and resolution, went up with his adherents to 
 the tents of the rebellious chief. At an interview he commanded him to repair the 
 dams, and, on his refusal, ordered his own men to begin the work, and to drive the 
 Sheikh into the earth with the first stake. His directions were strictly obeyed, and 
 the Arab was forced with a stake through his body into the very foundations of the 
 embankment. 
 
Chap. XXI.] CITY 0F Baghdad. 407 
 
 East and the West ; it is the store-house from which the tribes of the Des- 
 ert obtain their clothing and their supplies, and it is the key to the holy 
 places annually sought by thousands upon thousands of Persian pilgrims of 
 the Sheeah sect. 
 
 It is remarkable that, with the exception of the ruins of an ancient 
 medresseh or college, and of a few foundations of edifices, there is scarcely 
 a trace to be found in Baghdad of that magnificent city, " the Abode of 
 Peace,"* on which, according to the general testimony of Arab historians 
 and geographers, corroborated by Western travellers, the Caliphs lavished 
 every resource of Eastern wealth and Eastern taste. The stranger will 
 now seek in vain for the palaces and gardens of Haroun-al-Reshid, and the 
 universities and mosques of Al Mamoun. Even the very names of those 
 great princes, the glory of Islam, are almost forgotten, or are only heard 
 in the crowded coffee-house, when the Arab storyteller relates his fanciful 
 tale. 
 
 The only remains of the Babylonian period hitherto discovered within 
 the city walls are the ruins of an enormous drain or subterranean passage, 
 built of large square bricks bearing the name of Nebuchadnezzar ; the 
 lofty pile of sun-dried bricks, intermixed with layers of reeds, called Akker- 
 Kuf, which now rises in the midst of a marsh to the west of the Tigris, 
 about four or five miles from the city gates, has frequently been described.! 
 During my visit to Baghdad it was not easy to reach this ruin on account 
 of the swamp, and as it is merely a solid mass of mud masonry, excava- 
 tions in it would scarcely have led to results of any interest or importance. 
 
 I found the country around Baghdad so overrun with Bedouins and other 
 tribes in open revolt against the government, that it was some time before 
 I could venture to leave the city for the ruins of Babylon. Not to lose 
 time, I employed the Jebours who had accompanied me from Mosul in ex- 
 cavating some mounds not far from the gates of the city, on the eastern 
 bank of the Tigris. The largest was called Tel Mohammed, and was 
 about four miles from Baghdad, near the Arab village of Gherara. The 
 only objects of any interest discovered there were several hollow bronze 
 balls, with the name of a king engraved upon them in Babylonian cunei- 
 
 * Baghdad was named by Al Mansour, the second caliph of the Abbasside dynasty, 
 and the founder of the modern city, "Dar-al-Salam," the Abode of Peace, a title still 
 used in official documents by the Porte. The Persian historians pretend that the 
 original city was built by the first kings of Persia, and that it was named " Bagh 
 Dad," the Garden of Dad, from an idol previously worshipped there. The founda- 
 tions of the second city were laid by Al Mansour in the 145th year of the Hejira (a. d. 
 762). It was captured and laid waste by the Tatar conqueror, Holaku Khan, who 
 put to a cruel death Mostazem, the last of the Caliphs. From that time it has been 
 continually a place of contention between the Turks and Persians. It contained, be- 
 fore the great plague of 1830, 110,000 inhabitants, but can now scarcely hold many 
 more than 50,000. It is divided into two parts by the Tigris, the smaller quarters 
 forming suburbs on the western bank. 
 
 t See particularly Ker Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 275, &c. 
 
408 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXI. 
 
 form characters ;* a few rude images 
 of the Assyrian Venus in baked clay, 
 such as are found in most ruins of the 
 same period ; a pair of bronze ankle- 
 rings, some terracotta vases, and other 
 relics of the same nature. Foundations 
 
 Bronze Ball from Tel Mohammed. 
 
 Figures of Assyrian Venus in baked Clay. 
 
 in brick masonry were also uncovered, but there were no traces of sculp- 
 ture or inscriptions. 
 
 It was not until the 5th of December that I was able to leave Baghdad. 
 I had been struggling with my old enemy, intermittent fever, and the sur- 
 rounding country was still in the hands of the Arabs, two reasons for re- 
 maining within the gates. At length Abde Pasha, the governor of the 
 province, placed himself at the head of his troops, and marched against the 
 rebellious tribes. Before beginning his campaign, however, he had to dam 
 the mouth of a large canal called the Hindiyah. This artificial channel, 
 gradually widened by the current of the Euphrates during the spring floods, 
 now led nearly half the waters of the river into vast marshes to the west 
 of Babylon. Into these inaccessible swamps the Arabs had driven their 
 buffaloes, and there they defied the Turkish troops. The Pasha's first ob- 
 ject was to close the canal, and thus in time to drain the morasses. 
 
 Before going to Hillah I determined to visit the governor, and to make 
 acquaintance with several Sheikhs of the southern tribes friendly to the 
 Turkish government who were in his camp. I accordingly left Baghdad, 
 accompanied by M. Aristarki, an accomplished Greek gentleman in the 
 service of the Porte, and by one Ahmed-al-Khod, a highly intelligent, act- 
 ive, and faithful Arab of the tribe of the Agayl, who had long been in the 
 service of Captain Jones. His acquaintance with the country, and his con- 
 nection by marriage with Ferhan the Shammar chief, rendered him a very 
 useful guide and companion in a journey through the Desert. 
 
 The marshes formed by the Saklawiyah, a second great canal derived 
 from the Euphrates, had reached almost to the very walls of the western 
 suburb of Baghdad, interrupting communication by land, and spreading mi- 
 asma and disease through the city. To get into the highway to Hillah, we 
 were obliged to make a circuit of some miles, fording ditches, wading through 
 
 * Two of these balls weigh respectively 1 lb. 5| oz. and 1 lb. 4| oz. Several ob- 
 jects of the same kind had previously been discovered in this ruin by the crew of 
 the steamer under Captain Jones. 
 
t? hap. XXI.J ABDE PASHA ' S CAMP - 409 
 
 -water and deep mud, and crossing wide streams by crazy bridges of boats. 
 We had been nearly three hours on horseback before we rode through the 
 vaulted gateway of the Khan-i-Zad, the first habitable caravanserai on the 
 road. In the middle of the spacious court-yard, reclining on carpets spread 
 upon a raised platform,^ we found Timour Mirza, one of the exiled Persian 
 princes. He was surrounded by hawks of various kinds standing on perch- 
 es fixed into the ground, and by numerous attendants, each bearing a fal- 
 con on his wrist. Amongst his own countrymen and the Arabs the prince 
 held the first place as a sportsman ; his gun was unerring in its aim, his 
 falcons were unequalled for their training, and he knew every hunting- 
 ground within many days' journey of Baghdad. He was no less famed for 
 courage in war than for skill in the chase, and his exploits in both are 
 equally notorious among the tribes of Mesopotamia. 
 
 We slept in one of the arched recesses forming a side of the doorway of 
 the caravanserai, amidst a crowd of pilgrims and travellers, whose beasts 
 of burden of every description completely filled the yard. Timour Mirza 
 had not forgotten to bring his Persian cook, who prepared us several sa- 
 voury dishes from the game taken by his master's hawks. During the 
 evening we were entertained by two Arabs of the Agayl irregular troops, 
 who played with extraordinary skill on the small kettle drums which they 
 carried before their company in war. 
 
 The plains between Khan-i-Zad and the Euphrates are covered with a 
 perfect network of ancient canals and watercourses ; but " a drought is 
 upon the waters of Babylon, and they were dried. "t Their lofty embank- 
 ments, stretching on every side in long lines until they are lost in the hazy 
 distance, or magnified by the mirage into mountains, still defy the hand of 
 time, and seem rather the work of nature than of man. The face of the 
 country, too, is dotted with mounds and shapeless heaps, the remains of an- 
 cient towns and villages. A long ride of ten hours through this scene of 
 solitude and desolation brought us to the tents of the Pasha of Baghdad, 
 pitched on the western bank of the Euphrates, below the village of Mussei- 
 yib, and on the inlet of the Hindiyah canal. A string of boats had been 
 placed across the river to connect the camp of the governor with Baghdad. 
 As we approached we heard a loud hum of human voices ; but the whole 
 encampment was concealed by dense clouds of dust. Once over the bridge 
 we found ourselves in the midst of a crowd of Turkish soldiers, Arabs, and 
 workmen of every kind hurrying to and fro in wild disorder ; some bearing 
 
 * The great caravanserais or khans on the high roads between Baghdad and the 
 sacred places are handsome and substantial edifices. They have been built by Per- 
 sian kings, or by wealthy and pious men of the same nation for the accommodation 
 of pilgrims. A large open square, in which are generally two raised platforms of 
 brickwork for travellers to sleep on during summer, is surrounded by small apart- 
 ments or cells, two deep, for winter use. Behind them, spacious stables for horses 
 run round the whole building, and within these stables, on both sides, are other cells 
 for travellers. These khans are chiefly constructed of bricks dug out of the ancient 
 ruins which abound in the country. They are usually about six miles apart. 
 Jeremiah, 1. 38. 
 
410 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [ChAP XXI 
 
 earth and mud in baskets, or in their cloaks, others bending under the 
 weight of bundles of brushwood, mats, and ropes Women and girls were 
 mingled with the men, and as they labored they chanted in a monotonous 
 tone verses on the Pasha and their chiefs, improvised for the occasion. 
 
 This busy throng was building up the dam which was to shut out the 
 waters of the Euphrates from the canal, dry the marshes, and bring the re- 
 bellious tribes to obedience. The nature of the materials and of the work 
 did not, however, promise a very favorable or speedy result. They had in- 
 deed no sooner raised half their frail barrier of earth and fascines, than the 
 impetuous current washed away in a night the fruits of a month's toil. 
 The Pasha had summoned to his aid all the tribes that still owned his au- 
 thority ; his tents were crowded with Arab Sheikhs from the plains, and 
 Kurdish Beys from the mountains. About two thousand regular troops and 
 a large body of irregular horse and foot completed the motley army he had 
 gathered round him at the Hindiyah. 
 
 I spent the following day with Abde Pasha, who was an ardent sports- 
 man, and entertained me with hawking. The Arab and Kurdish chiefs, 
 who were in his camp, were summoned at dawn to accompany him. Most 
 of them had their own falcons and huntsmen — an indispensable part of the 
 establishment of an eastern nobleman. We formed altogether a very gay 
 and goodly company. Bustards, hares, gazelles, francolins, and several wild 
 animals abounded in the jungle and the plains, and before we returned in 
 the afternoon scarcely a horseman was without some trophy of the chase 
 dangling from his saddle. 
 
 Two of the hereditary Pashas of Kurdistan, claiming descent from the 
 ancient Arab tribe of Beni Khaled, were with us. Deprived of their fam- 
 ily possessions, and living as exiles in Baghdad, no longer able to wage war 
 or to go on marauding expeditions, their chief employment was hunting. 
 They were formerly renowned for their well-trained falcons. 
 
 The Bedouins, too, of whom there were many in the camp, are, as I have 
 already remarked, much given to the chase, and especially to hawking. 
 Unable to obtain a variety of falcons, they generally use the species called 
 Chark, a bird found in the Sinjar, in the hills near Arbil, and in the rocky 
 ravines of northern Mesopotamia. They educate them with care ; but the 
 great trainers in the East are the Persians and Kurds. The Turks are sel- 
 dom sufficiently active to engage in these manly pursuits. 
 
 The hawk most valued by Eastern sportsmen is the Shaheen, a variety 
 of the northern peregrine falcon, and esteemed the most noble of the race. 
 Although the smallest in size, it is celebrated for its courage and daring, 
 and is constantly the theme of Persian verse. There are several kinds of 
 Shaheen, each distinguished by its size and plumage ; those from the Ge- 
 bel Shammar, in Nedjd, are the most prized, but being only brought by oc- 
 casional pilgrims from Mecca, are very rare. The next best are said to 
 come from Tokat, in Asia Minor. The Shaheen should be caught and 
 trained when young. It strikes its quarry in the air, and may be taught 
 to attack even the largest eagle, which it will boldly seize, and, checking 
 
Chap. XXL] eastern falconry 411 
 
 its flight, fall with it to the ground. The sportsman should, however, be 
 at hand to release the falcon immediately, or it will soon fall a victim to 
 its temerity. It is usually flown at the crane, the middle bustard (houba- 
 ra), geese, and francolins. There is a variety called the Bahree, found on 
 the borders of the Persian Gulf, which can be taught to catch geese, ducks, 
 and all manner of waterfowl ; but it is difficult to keep and train. 
 
 The next in value is the Balaban, which can be trained to strike its 
 quarry either in the air or on the ground. It is found in the neighbour- 
 hood of Baghdad and in other parts of Mesopotamia ; is caught and train- 
 ed when full grown, and is flown at gazelles, hares, cranes, bustards, par- 
 tridges, and francolins. 
 
 The Baz and Shah Baz (? Astur palumbarius, the goshawk, and the 
 Falco lanarius) is remarkable for the beauty of its speckled plumage and 
 for its size. It strikes in the air and on the ground, and, if well trained, 
 may take cranes and other large game. The Balaban and Baz, when used 
 by the Persians for hunting hares, are sometimes dressed in a kind of 
 leather breeches ; otherwise, as they seize their prey with one talon, and 
 a shrub or some other object with the other, they might have their limbs 
 torn asunder. 
 
 The Chark (? Falco cervialis), the usual falcon of the Bedouins, always 
 strikes its quarry on the ground, except the eagle, which it may be trained 
 to fly at in the air. It is chiefly used for gazelles and bustards, but will 
 also take hares and other game. 
 
 The bird usually hawked by the Arabs is the middle-sized bustard, or 
 houbara. It is almost always captured on the ground, and defends itself 
 vigorously with wings and beak against its assailant, which is often disa- 
 bled in the encounter. The falcon is generally trained to this quarry with 
 a fowl. The method pursued is very simple. It is first taught to take its 
 raw meat from a man, or from the ground, the distance being daily in- 
 creased by the falconer. "When the habit is acquired, the flesh is tied to 
 the back of a fowl ; the falcon will at once seize its usual food, and re- 
 ceives also the liver of the fowl, which is immediately killed. A bustard 
 is then, if possible, captured alive, and used in the same way. In a few 
 days the training is complete, and the hawk may be flown at any large 
 bird on the ground. 
 
 The falconry, however, in which Easterns take most delight, is that of 
 the gazelle. For this very noble and exciting sport, the falcon and grey- 
 hound must be trained to hunt together by a process unfortunately some- 
 what cruel. In the first place, the bird is taught to eat its daily ration of 
 raw meat fastened on the stuffed head of a gazelle. The next step is to 
 accustom it to look for its food between the horns of a tame gazelle. The 
 distance between the animal and the falconer is daily increased, until the 
 hawk will seek its meat when about half a mile off. A greyhound is now 
 loosed upon the gazelle, the falcon being flown at the same time. When 
 the animal is seized, which of course soon takes place, its throat is cut, and 
 the hawk is fed with a part of its flesh. After thus sacrificing three ga 
 
412 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAl XXL 
 
 zelles, the education of the falcon and the greyhound is declared to be 
 complete. The chief art in the training is to teach the two to signal out 
 the same gazelle, and the dog not to injure the falcon when struggling on 
 the ground with the quarry. The greyhound, however, soon learns to 
 watch the movements of its companion, without whose assistance it could 
 not capture its prey. 
 
 The falcon, when loosed from its tresses, flies steadily and near the 
 ground towards the retreating gazelles, and marking one, soon separates it 
 from the herd. It then darts at the head of the affrighted animal, throws 
 it to the ground, or only checks it in its rapid course. The greyhound 
 rarely comes up before the blow has been more than once repeated. The 
 falconer then hastens to secure the quarry. Should the dog not succeed in 
 capturing the gazelle after it has been struck for the third or fourth time, 
 the hawk will generally sulk and refuse to hunt any longer. I once saw 
 a very powerful falcon belonging to Abde Pasha hold a gazelle until the 
 horseman succeeded in spearing the animal. The fleetness of the gazelle 
 is so great, that, without the aid of the hawk, very few dogs can overtake 
 it, unless the ground be heavy after rain.* 
 
 The pursuit of the gazelle with the falcon and hound over the boundless 
 plains of Assyria and Babylonia is one of the most exhilarating and graceful 
 of sports, displaying equally the noble qualities of the horse, the dog, and 
 the bird. 
 
 The time of day best suited for hawking is very early in the morning, 
 before the eagles and kites are soaring in the sky. The falcon should not 
 be fed for several hours before it is taken to the chase. "When not hunting, 
 the Arabs give it meat only once a day. Some hawks require to be hood- 
 ed, such as the Chark and the Shaheen ; others need no covering for the 
 eyes. The hood is generally made of colored leather, with eyes worked on 
 it in beads, and gold and variegated threads. Tassels and ornaments of 
 various kinds are added, and the great chiefs frequently adorn a favourite 
 bird with pearls and precious stones. To the legs are sometimes fastened 
 small bells. Few hawks will return to the falconer without the lure, 
 which consists of the wing of a bustard or fowl, or of a piece of meat at- 
 tached to a string, and swung round in the air. The Eastern huntsman 
 has a different call for each variety of falcon. A good chark will some- 
 times take as many as eight or ten bustards or five or six gazelles in the 
 course of a morning. 
 
 * The gazelle can also be taken immediately after it has drunk water, in hot wea- 
 ther. The Arabs watch for them with their dogs at the pools. The Arab greyhound 
 is small, and unlike the Persian, has short hair. It is a very fleet and beautiful 
 animal, bearing the same relation to the English greyhound as the Arab does to the 
 English horse. From the Eastern stock our breed may also have been derived. 
 They are much prized, and, among some tribes, the race is as carefully preserved as 
 that of their mares. The best greyhounds are found amongst the Obeid and Beni 
 Lam. I have seen dogs from those tribes which could capture a gazelle at any time 
 of the year, and take alone as many as six or seven Desert hares in a couple of hours 
 They are very tender, and even in Assyria require clothing during the winter. 
 
Chap. XXI. 1 THE Ruins of babylon. 41 3 
 
 I have introduced these remarks on falconry, founded on personal expe- 
 rience, as this noble science is probably of the greatest antiquity, and is still 
 the favorite pursuit of the Eastern warrior.* 
 
 Before leaving the camp I obtained letters to the principal chiefs of the 
 southern tribes from the Pasha as well as from "Wadi, the Sheikh of the 
 Zobeide, and other influential Sheikhs. The town of Hillah was about 
 eighteen miles from the Turkish tents further down the Euphrates. We 
 were obliged to take the longest road by the eastern bank of the river, as 
 the Arabs infested the country to the west. Between Musseiyib and the 
 ruins of Babylon the country abounds in dry canals and ancient mounds. 
 A few villages, surrounded by palm groves, stand on the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates and on the channels, which still carry the waters of the river into 
 the heart of Mesopotamia. After riding about four hours we perceived a 
 huge hill to the south. As we drew nearer, its flat table-like top and per- 
 pendicular sides, rising abruptly from an alluvial plain, showed that it was 
 the work of man, and not a natural elevation. At length we could plainly 
 distinguish around it great embankments, the remains of walls and canals. 
 Gradually, as the caravan slowly advanced, the ruin assumed a definite 
 shape. It was the mound of Babel, better known to travellers as the Mu- 
 jelibe, a name not now given to it by the Arab inhabitants of the surround- 
 ing country. 
 
 This is the first great ruin seen on approaching ancient Babylon from 
 the north. Beyond it long lines of palms hem in the Euphrates, which 
 now winds through the midst of the ancient city. To the vast mound of 
 Babel succeed long undulating heaps of earth, bricks, and pottery. A sol- 
 itary mass of brickwork, rising from the summit of the largest mound, marks 
 the remains known to the Arabs as the "Mujelibe," or the " overturned."! 
 
 Other shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of the 
 land. The lofty banks of ancient canals fret the country like natural 
 ridges of hills. Some have long been choked with sand ; others still carry 
 the waters of the river to distant villages and palm groves. On all sides, 
 fragments of glass, marble, pottery, and inscribed brick are mingled with 
 that peculiar nitrous and blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of 
 ancient habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the site of 
 Babylon a naked and hideous waste. Owls start from the scanty thickets, 
 and the foul jackall skulks through the furrows. Truly " the glory of king- 
 doms and the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency is as when God over- 
 threw Sodom and Gomorrah. Wild beasts of the desert lie there ; and 
 their houses are full of doleful creatures ; and owls dwell there, and satyrs 
 dance there. And the wild beasts of the island cry in their desolate 
 houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces," for her day has come.| 
 
 * A falconer bearing a hawk on his wrist appeared to be represented in a bas-ic- 
 lief which I saw at Khorsabad on my last visit to those ruins. 
 t This is the Kasr of Rich and subsequent travellers. 
 % Isaiah, xiii. 19-22., and compare Jeremiah, 1. 39. : " therefore the wild beasts ol 
 
414 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CuAV. XXI. 
 
 A few black tents and flocks of sheep and camels were scattered over 
 the yellow plain. They belonged chiefly to the Zobeide, an ancient tribe, 
 renowned in the history of the conquering Arabs under their first caliphs, 
 and now pasturing their flocks in the wilds of Babylonia.* From Amran ? 
 the last of the great mounds, a broad and well-trodden track winds through 
 thick groves of palms. About an hour's ride beneath pleasant shade brings 
 the traveller to the falling gateway of the town of Hillah. A mean bazar, 
 crowded with Arabs, camels, and asses, leads to a bridge of boats across 
 the Euphrates. The principal part of the town, containing the fort and 
 the residence of the governor, is on the opposite side of the river. We turn- 
 ed off, however, to the left, as our quarters had been made ready on the 
 western bank. A party of irregular troops sent out to meet me, conducted 
 my caravan to a spacious house standing on the very edge of the stream, 
 and belonging to one of the principal families of the place. It had once 
 contained rich furniture, and handsomely decorated rooms in the Persian 
 style, but was now fast falling into utter ruin. The cold wind whistled 
 through the rotten wooden panels of the windows, for there was no glass, 
 and the crumbling ceiling and floor threatened to give way together. In 
 this frail dwelling we prepared to pass a part of our winter in Babylonia. 
 
 the desert with the wild beasts of the island shall dwell there, and the owls shall 
 dwell therein." A large grey owl is found in great numbers, frequently in flocks of 
 nearly a hundred, in the low shrubs among the ruins of Babylon. 
 
 * From this tribe was the celebrated lady of Haroun-al-Resbid, "the Zobeide."' 
 as she was called from her origin. 
 
 A Hooded Falcon (Charkl on its Stand. 
 
The Mujelibe or Kasr (from Rich). 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE CHIEFS OF HILLAH. PRESENT OF LIONS. THE SON OF THE GOVERNOR. DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF THE TOWN. ZAID. THE RUINS OF BABYLON. CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF THE 
 
 EUPHRATES. THE WALLS. VISIT TO THE BIRS NIMROUD. DESCRIPTION OF THE RUIN. 
 
 VIEW FROM IT. EXCAVATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN THE MOUND OF BABEL IN THE 
 
 MUJELIBE OR KASR. THE TREE ATHELE. EXCAVATIONS IN THE RUIN OF AMRAN. 
 
 BOWLS, WITH INSCRIPTIONS IN HEBREW AND SYRIAC CHARACTERS. TRANSLATIONS OF 
 
 THE INSCRIPTIONS. THE JEWS OF BABYLONIA. 
 
 My first care on arriving at Hillah was to establish friendly relations 
 with the principal inhabitants of the town as well as with the Turkish offi- 
 cer in command of the small garrison that guarded its mud fort. Osman 
 Pasha, the general, received me with courtesy and kindness, and during 
 the remainder of my stay gave me all the help I could require. On my 
 first visit he presented me with two lions. One was nearly of full size, and 
 was well known in the bazars and thoroughfares of Hillah, through which 
 he was allowed to wander unrestrained. The inhabitants could accuse him 
 of no other objectionable habit than that of taking possession of the stalls 
 of the butchers, who, on his approach, made a hasty retreat, leaving him 
 in undisturbed possession of their stores, until he had satisfied his hunger 
 and deemed it time to depart. He would also wait the coming of the large 
 kuffas, or wicker boats, of the fishermen, and driving away their owners. 
 
116 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 would help himself to a kind of large barbel, for which he appeared to have 
 a decided relish. For these acts of depredation the beast was perhaps less 
 to be blamed than the Pasha, who rather encouraged a mode of obtaining 
 daily rations, which, although of questionable honesty, relieved him from 
 butcher's bills. When no longer hungry he would stretch himself in the 
 sun, and allow the Arab boys to take such liberties with him as in their 
 mischief they might devise. He was taller and larger than a St. Bernard 
 dog, and, like the lion, generally found on the banks of the rivers of Meso- 
 potamia, was without the dark and shaggy mane of the African species.* 
 The other lion was but a cub, and had recently been found by an Arab in 
 the Hindiyah marshes. Unfortunately it fell ill of the mange, to which the 
 animal when confined is very liable, and soon after died. The other was 
 too old to be sent to England by land, and I was thus unable to procure 
 specimens for this country of the Babylonian lion, which has not, I believe, 
 been seen in Europe.. 
 
 The Mudir, or governor of Hillah, was Shabib Agha, the head of one of 
 the principal families of the town. He claimed a kind of hereditary right 
 to this office. He was aged and infirm, suffering from asthma, and little 
 able to manage public affairs, which were chiefly confided to his youngest 
 and favorite son, a boy of about twelve years old. It was with this child 
 that, in common with the inhabitants of Hillah, I transacted business. He 
 received and paid visits with wonderful dignity and decorum. His notes 
 and his inquiries after my health and wants were couched in the most elo- 
 quent and suitable terms. He showed a warm and affectionate interest in 
 my welfare and in the success of my undertakings which was quite touch- 
 ing. Every morning he crossed the river with a crowd of secretaries, slaves, 
 and attendants, to ascertain by personal inspection whether I needed any 
 help. His salutations were expressed with the greatest gravity. " We 
 trust that it has pleased God to preserve your Excellency's health. Our 
 town is yours as well as our house. Our harem begs your Excellency's 
 acceptance of sour milk and francolins. May we show that we are your 
 slaves, by ordering the irregular troops to accompany you on your ride ; your 
 person is more precious to us than our eyes, and there are evil men, enemies 
 of our Lord the Sultan, abroad in the Desert," and so on. He then gave 
 me his usual report on the political state of the country, and related the 
 successes of the Pasha or of the rebels ; I am afraid his sympathies were 
 more with the latter than with the legitimate power. At the same time 
 he issued orders for rations to be collected for the troops, dictated letters to 
 be sent to the Turkish authorities, summoned levies from the Arab tribes. 
 and settled disputes amongst the inhabitants of the town, occasionally di- 
 
 * I have, however, seen lions on the river Karoon, with a long black mane. The 
 inhabitants of the country make a distinction between them and the common mane- 
 less lion ; the former are Kafir, or infidels, the others Mussulmans. By a proper re- 
 monstrance, and at the same time pronouncing the profession of faith, a true believei 
 may induce the one to spare his life, but the unbelieving lion is inexorable. 
 
Chap. XXII.] HILLAH ' 417 
 
 verting himself with a peep into a kaleidoscope, in which he took great de 
 light, and which I afterwards presented to him. He was a noble boy, with 
 black sparkling eyes, and a bright olive complexion. He wore the long 
 silken robes of a. town Arab, with the fringed keffieh or striped head-ker 
 chief of the Bedouin falling over his shoulders. On the whole, he made as 
 o-ood and active a governor as I have often met with in an Eastern town, 
 and was an instance of that precocity which is frequently seen in Eastern 
 children. A cordial friendship w r as soon established between us, and, dur- 
 ing my stay at Hillah, Azeez Agha, for such was his name, was my con- 
 stant guest. 
 
 From the principal people of Hillah, as well as from Shabib Agha (the 
 father of Azeez), I received every help. The day after my arrival they 
 sent me presents of francolins, gazelles, and other game, and during my 
 stay were unremitting in their attentions. Hillah, like most towns in this 
 part of Turkey, is peopled by Arabs, once belonging to different tribes, but 
 now forgetting their clanships in a sedentary life. They maintain, how- 
 ever, a friendly intercourse with the Bedouins and with the wild inhabit- 
 ants of the marshes, being always ready to unite with them in throwing 
 off their obedience to the Sultan, and frequently maintaining for some time 
 their independence. As several families divide the authority and have their 
 private feuds, which lead to constant broils and bloodshed, the town, thus 
 weakened, falls an easy prey to the Turks when regular troops are sent 
 against it. 
 
 At the time of my visit, its inhabitants were anxiously waiting the re- 
 sult of the expedition of Abde Pasha against the rebellious tribes. Their 
 allegiance to the Turkish governor and the consequent payment of taxes 
 depended upon its success. If the Pasha were beaten they would declare 
 openly in favor of the Arabs, with whom, it was suspected, they were al- 
 ready in communication. The Hindiyah marshes are within sight of the 
 town, and the Kazail (the tribe that dwell in them) ravaged the country 
 to its gates. I was consequently unable to do more than visit the celebra- 
 ted ruins of the Birs Nimroud. To excavate in it in the then disturbed 
 state of the country was impossible. 
 
 Hillah may contain about eight or nine thousand inhabitants. A few 
 half-ruined mosques and public baths are its principal buildings. Its ba- 
 zar supplies the Desert Arabs with articles of clothing, arms, dates, coffee, 
 and corn, and contains a few common Manchester goods and English cut- 
 lery and hardware. The Euphrates flows through the town, and is about 
 two hundred yards wide and fifteen feet deep ;* a noble stream, with a 
 gentle current, admirably fitted for steam navigation. The houses, chiefly 
 built of bricks taken from the ruins of ancient Babylon, are small and mean. 
 Around the town, and above and below it for some miles, are groves and 
 palm trees, forming a broad belt on both sides of the river. In the plain 
 
 * See Col. Chesney's Expedition for the Survey of the Euphrates and Tigris, vol. 
 i. p. 57. 
 
 Dd 
 
418 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII 
 
 beyond them a few canals bear water to plots cultivated with wheat, bar- 
 ley, and rice. 
 
 Amongst the inhabitants of Hillah with whom I became acquainted was 
 one Zaid, a Sheikh of the Agayl, a very worthy, hospitable fellow. His 
 tribe had migrated from the Gebel Shammar when he was still a boy. Its 
 members had mostly taken service under the Turkish government, and 
 amongst the most useful troops of the Pasha of Baghdad are these brave 
 and active, though undisciplined, musketeers. Zaid himself was one of 
 their chiefs, and received regular pay, small enough indeed, from the Bagh- 
 dad treasury. He lived in Hillah, where his house, open to every traveller, 
 was a place of meeting for the Arabs of the Desert from Nejd to the Sin- 
 jar. To keep up this unbounded hospitality he had a date grove and a 
 few sheep, and cultivated a little land outside the walls of the town. He 
 was thus supplied with nearly all that was necessary for an Arab enter- 
 tainment. * There were few parts of northern Arabia that he had not vis- 
 ited, and few Arab tribes with whose history and condition he was not ac- 
 quainted. Constant intercourse with the chiefs who frequented his hospi- 
 table museef made him familiar with all that was passing in the Desert, 
 and rendered him an amusing and instructive companion. He usually ac- 
 companied me in my expeditions, 
 and proved an invaluable guide. 
 With one Ali, also a chief of the 
 Agayl, a man of wit and anec- 
 dote, though somewhat of a buf- 
 foon, and with other Sheikhs, he 
 usually spent the evening with 
 me, relating Arab stories, and de- 
 scribing distant regions and tribes, 
 S^ until the night was far spent. 
 Jfi Having thus established rela- 
 tions with the principal inhabit- 
 ants of the town, who could assist 
 or interrupt me, as they were well 
 or ill disposed, I could venture 
 to commence excavations in, the 
 most important ruins on the site of 
 Babylon. Half concealed among 
 the palm-trees on the eastern 
 banks of "the Euphrates above 
 Hillah, are a few hamlets be- 
 lonofinsf to Arabs, who till the 
 soil. From them I was able to 
 procure workmen, and thus to 
 
 * The generous hospitality frequently shown by men living, like Zaid, upon the 
 smallest means, is one of the most interesting features of Arab character. 
 
 k^soa xuuu zoou - so'oo >fco'oo\ARDS 
 
 Plan of Part of the Ruins of Babylon on the Eastern 
 Bank of the Euphrates. 
 
Chap. XXII.] RUIN 0F BABEL - 419 
 
 make up, with the addition of my Jebours, several parties of excavators. 
 They were placed under the superintendence of Latiff Agha and an intel- 
 ligent Chaldsean Christian of Baghdad, who had entered my service. The 
 ruins of Babylon have been so frequently described,* that I prefer giving 
 a general sketch of them to entering into accurate details of measurements 
 and distances ; at the same time referring my reader to the accompanying 
 plan, which will enable him to understand the position of the principal 
 mounds. 
 
 The road from Baghdad to Hillah crosses, near the village of Mohawill, 
 a wide and deep canal still carrying water to distant gardens. On tho 
 southern bank of this artificial stream is a line of earthen ramparts, which 
 are generally believed to be the most northern remains of the ancient city 
 of Babylon. From their summit the traveller scans a boundless plain, 
 through which winds the Euphrates, with its dark belt of evergreen palms. 
 Rising in the distance, high above all surrounding objects, is the one square 
 mound, in form and size more like a natural hill than the work of men's 
 hands. This is the first great ruin to the east of the river, and the Arab, 
 as I have said, names it " Babel." 
 
 The traveller, before reaching this ruin, still about four miles distant, 
 follows a beaten track winding amidst low mounds, and crossing the em- 
 bankments of canals long since dry, or avoiding the heaps of drifted earth 
 which cover the walls and foundations of buildings. Some have here 
 traced the lines of the streets, and the divisions between the inhabited 
 quarters of ancient Babylon. They believe them to correspond with the 
 descriptions of ancient authors, who declare that the city was divided into 
 a number of equal squares by parallel thoroughfares. But it is perhaps 
 more than doubtful, whether existing remains warrant any such supposi- 
 tion, or whether any definite plan could be restored from them. As yet 
 no traces whatever have been discovered of that great wall of earth rising, 
 according to Herodotus, to the height of 200 royal cubits, and no less than 
 fifty cubits broad ; nor of the ditch that encompassed it. The mounds 
 seem to be scattered without order, and to be gradually lost in the vast 
 plains to the eastward. 
 
 But southward of Babel, for the distance of nearly three miles, there is 
 almost an uninterrupted line of mounds, the ruins of vast edifices, collected 
 together as in the heart of a great city. They are inclosed by earthen 
 ramparts, the remains of a line of walls which, leaving the foot of Babel, 
 stretched inland about two miles and a half from the present bed of the 
 Euphrates, and then turning nearly at right angles completed the defences 
 on the southern side of the principal buildings that mark the site of Baby- 
 
 * The most accurate and careful description is that by Mr. Rich, to whom I shall 
 have frequent occasion to refer, and whose valuable memoirs on the site of the city 
 were my text-books during my researches at Babylon. In the preface, by his widow, 
 to the collected edition of his memoirs will be found an interesting summary of the 
 researches and discoveries of previous travellers. Ker Porter, Mr. Buckingham, and 
 several other travellers, have given accounts more or less full of the ruins. 
 
420 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XXl j 
 
 Ion, on the eastern bank of the river.* Between its most southern point 
 and Hillah, as between Mohawill and Babei, can only be traced low heaps 
 and embankments scattered irregularly over the plain. 
 
 It is evident that the space inclosed within this continuous rampart 
 could not have contained the whole of that mighty city, whose magnifi- 
 cence and extent were the wonder of the ancient world. The walls of 
 Babylon, according to Herodotus, measured 120 stadia on each side, and 
 formed a perfect square of 480 stadia, or nearly sixty miles. Several latei 
 writers have repeated his statement. Strabo and Diodorus Siculus have 
 however reduced the circuit of the city to 385 and 360 stadia ; and such, 
 according to Clitarchus, were its dimensions when it yielded to Alexander. 
 
 The existing remains within the rampart agree as little in form as in size 
 with the descriptions of Babylon ; for the city was a perfect square. Mr. 
 Eich, in order to explain these difficulties, was the first to suggest that the 
 vast ruin to the west of the Euphrates, called the Birs Nimroud, should be 
 included within the limits of Babylon. He endeavored, at the same time, 
 to identify it with the temple of Belus, which, according to Herodotus, 
 stood in one of the western divisions of the city. There is no doubt that, 
 by imagining a square large enough to include the smaller mounds scat- 
 tered over the plains from Mohawill to below Hillah on one side of the 
 river, and the Birs Nimroud at its southwestern angle on the other, the site 
 of a city of the dimensions attributed to Babylon might be satisfactorily de- 
 termined. But then it must be assumed, that neither the outer wall nor 
 the ditch so minutely described by Herodotus ever existed. 
 
 According to the united testimony of ancient authors, the city was di- 
 vided by the Euphrates into two parts. The principal existing ruins are 
 to the east of the river ; there are very few remains to the west, between 
 Hillah and the Birs Nimroud. Indeed, in some parts of the plain, there 
 are none at all. This fact might, to a certain extent, be explained in the 
 following manner. To this day the Euphrates has a tendency to change 
 its course and to lose itself in marshes to the west of its actual bed. We 
 find that the low country on that side was subject to continual inundations 
 from the earliest periods, and that, according to a tradition, Semiramis built 
 embankments to restrain the river, whilst a later queen seems to have 
 taken advantage of the overflowing of its waters to dig a great lake outside 
 the walls.f We know, too, from Arrian,$ that the western quarter of the 
 city was surrounded and defended by enormous marshes, which prevented 
 all access to it. These swamps were fed by the Euphrates. 
 
 The changes in its course to which the Euphrates was thus liable, ap- 
 pear only to have taken place to the west of its present bed. After the 
 most careful examination of the country, I could find no traces whatever 
 
 * The plan in the text, which is taken from Ker Porter's work, makes the lines of 
 these ramparts too straight. In Rich's they form almost a segment of a circle. A 
 correct survey of the ruins is much wanted. 
 
 t Herod. 1. i. c. 184, 185. X Lib. vii. c. 17. and Diod. Sic. ii. 7. 
 
Chap XXII.l changes in the Euphrates. 421 
 
 of its having at any time flowed much further than it now does to the east, 
 although during unusual floods it occasionally spreads over the plain on 
 that side. The great mounds still rising on the eastern bank prove this. 
 Supposing, therefore, the river from different causes to have advanced and 
 receded during many centuries, between the Hindiyah marshes and its pres- 
 ent channel, it will easily be understood how the ruins, which may once 
 have stood on the western bank, have gradually been washed away, and 
 how the existing flat alluvial plain has taken their place. In this man- 
 ner the complete disappearance of the principal part of the western divi- 
 sion of the city may, I think, be accounted for. 
 
 It is more difficult to explain the total absence of all traces of the ex- 
 ternal wall and ditch so fully and minutely described by Herodotus and 
 other ancient writers, and, according to their concurrent accounts, of such 
 enormous dimensions. If a vast line of fortifications, with its gates, and 
 equidistant towers, all of stupendous height and thickness, did once exist, 
 it is scarcely to be believed that no part whatever of it should now remain. 
 Darius and other conquerors, it is true, are said to have pulled down and 
 destroyed these defences ; but it is surely impossible that any human labor 
 could have obliterated their very traces.^ Even supposing that the ruins 
 around Hillah do not represent the site of ancient Babylon, there are no 
 remains elsewhere in Mesopotamia to correspond with those great ram- 
 parts. If there had been they could not have escaped the researches of 
 modern travellers. 
 
 But Herodotus states that, in the midst of each division of the city, there 
 was a circular space surrounded by a lofty wall : one contained the royal 
 palace; the other, the temple ofBelus. There can be little difficulty in 
 admitting that the mounds within the earthen rampart on the eastern bank 
 of the river might represent the first of these fortified inclosures, which we 
 know to have been on that side of the Euphrates. It is not impossible, as 
 Rich has suggested, that the Birs Nimroud, around which — as it will be 
 seen — there are still the traces of a regular wall, may be the remains of 
 the second ; or that the gradual changes in the course of the river just de- 
 scribed, may have completely destroyed all traces of it. 
 
 It may be inferred, I think, from the descriptions of Herodotus and Di- 
 odorus Siculus.f that Babylon was built on the same general plan as Nin- 
 eveh. More than one fortified inclosure, formed by lofty walls and towers, 
 and containing the royal palaces and the temples with their numerous de- 
 pendent buildings, courtyards, and gardens, rose in different quarters of the 
 city. They were so built and guarded as to be able to resist an enemy 
 
 * According to Berossus, Cyrus ordered the exterior walls of Babylon to be en- 
 tirely destroyed, that the inhabitants of the city miglit not again revolt. (Josephus 
 contra Apion, 1. i. § 20.) But Herodotus says expressly that Cyrus did not, but that 
 Darius did pull down the fortifications (1. iii. c. 159.). 
 
 t Diodorus Siculus particularly describes, after Ctesias, the two fortified palaces 
 
 n. a. c. 8.). 
 
422 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 and stand a protracted siege. Around them were the common dwellings 
 of the people, with their palm groves, their orchards, and their small plots 
 of corn-land. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the outer walls of Nineveh as well as those 
 of Babylon have entirely disappeared. Are we to suppose that the histo- 
 rians in their descriptions confounded them with those surrounding the 
 temples and palaces ; and that these exterior fortifications were mere ram- 
 parts of mud and brushwood, such as are still raised round modern Eastern 
 cities ? Such defences, when once neglected, would soon fall to dust, and 
 leave no traces behind. I confess that I can see no other way of account- 
 ing for the entire disappearance of these exterior walls. * 
 
 I will now describe the results of my researches amongst the ruins near 
 Hillah. Parties of workmen were placed at once on the two most import- 
 ant mounds, the Babel of the Arabs (the Mujelibe of Puch) and the Muje- 
 libe (the Kasr of the same traveller). I was compelled, as I have stated, 
 to abandon my plan of excavating in the Birs Nimroud. This great pile 
 of masonry is about six miles to the south-west of Hillah. It stands on 
 the very edge of the vast marsh, formed by the waters of the Hindiyah 
 canal, and by the periodical floods of the Euphrates. The plain between 
 it and the town is, in times of quiet, under cultivation, and is irrigated by 
 a canal derived from the Euphrates near the village of Anana. This year, 
 however, in consequence of the rebellion of the tribes of Al Khazail and Al 
 Maidan, who inhabit the morasses, the land had been left unsown. 
 
 Shortly after my arrival at Hillah I visited the Birs Nimroud, accom- 
 panied by Zaid, and a party of well-armed Agayls. My companions did 
 a little business on their own account on the way. Spying a party of the 
 Khazail Arabs retreating from the marshes with their tents and cattle, they 
 fell upon them, and, " under my shadow/' carried off a few cows and sheep, 
 inflicting at the same time some severe lance wounds upon the bwners, 
 who would have been more summarily dealt with but for my intercession. 
 This was unfortunately the only opportunity I had of examining these re- 
 markable ruins during my residence in Babylonia.! The country became 
 daily more disturbed, and no Arabs could be induced to pitch their tents 
 near the mounds, or to work there. 
 
 The Birs Nimroud, "the palace of Nimrod" of the Arabs, and "the pris- 
 on of Nebuchadnezzar" of the Jews ; by old travellers believed to be the 
 very ruins of the tower of Babel ; by some, again, supposed to represent the 
 temple of Belus, the wonder of the ancient world ; and, by others, to mark 
 
 * Abydenus states (ap. Euseb. Praep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 41.) that the first wall of Bab- 
 ylon, built by Belus, had disappeared, and was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar. It must be 
 borne in mind how much ancient authors copied from one another. Nearly all the 
 descriptions which have reached us of Babylon appear to have been founded on the 
 account of Herodotus and the uncertain statements of Ctesias. 
 
 t I had visited it on several occasions during previous journeys. For the first 
 time in 1840, with Mr. Mitford. 
 
Chap. XXIL] the birs nimroud. 423 
 
 the site of Borsippa, a city celebrated as the high-place of the Chaldaean 
 worship, is a vast heap of bricks, slag, and broken pottery. The dry nitrous 
 earth of the parched plain, driven before the furious south wind, has thrown 
 over the huge mass a thin covering of soil in which no herb or green thing 
 can find nourishment or take root. Thus, unlike the grass-clothed mounds 
 of the more fertile districts of Assyria, the Birs -Nimroud is ever a bare and 
 yellow heap. It rises to the height of 198 feet, and has on its summit a 
 compact mass of brickwork, 37 feet high by 28 broad, * the whole being 
 thus 235 in perpendicular height. Neither the original form or object of 
 the edifice, of which it is the ruin, have hitherto been determined. It is 
 too solid for the walls of a building, and its shape is not that of the remains 
 of a tower. It is pierced by square holes, apparently made to admit air 
 through the compact structure. On one side of it, beneath the crowning 
 masonry, lie huge fragments torn from the pile itself. The calcined and 
 vitreous surface of the bricks fused into rock-like masses, show that their 
 fall may have been caused by lightning ; and, as the ruin is rent almost 
 from top to bottom, early Christian travellers, as well as some of more re- 
 cent date, have not hesitated to recognise in them proofs of that divine 
 vengeance, which, according to tradition, arrested by fire from heaven the 
 impious attempt of the first descendants of Noah. 
 
 Even the Jews, it would appear, at one time identified the Birs Nim- 
 roud with the tower of Babel. Benjamin of Tudela gives the following 
 curious account of the ruin. " The tower built by the dispersed generation 
 is four miles from Hillah. It is constructed of bricks, called Al-ajur (the 
 word still used by the Arabs for kiln-burnt bricks) ; the base measures 2 
 miles, the breadth 240 yards, and the height about 100 canna. A spiral 
 passage, built into the tower (from ten to ten yards), leads up to the sum- 
 mit, from which there is a prospect of twenty miles, the country being one 
 wide plain, and quite level. The heavenly fire which struck the tower, 
 split it to its very foundation."! No traces whatever now remain of the 
 spiral passage spoken of by the Jewish traveller, and it is most probable 
 that he was misled in describing it by the appearance of the ruins. 
 
 Whatever may have been the original edifice, of which the Birs Nim- 
 roud is the ruin, or whoever its founder, it is certain that as yet no remains 
 have been discovered there more ancient than of the time of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar. Every inscribed brick taken from it — and there are thousands and 
 tens of thousands — bear the name of this king. It must, however, be re- 
 membered, that this fact is no proof that he actually founded the building. 
 He may have merely added to, or rebuilt an earlier edifice. Thus, although 
 it would appear by the inscriptions from Nimroud, that the north-west pal- 
 ace was originally raised by a king who lived long before him whose name 
 occurs on the walls of that monument, yet not one fragment has been found 
 of the time of that earlier monarch. Such is the case in other Assyrian 
 
 * These dimensions are from Rich. I was unable to take any measurements dur- 
 ing my hurried visit. t Asher's Transl. p. 107. 
 
424 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 ruins. It is, therefore, not impossible that at some future time more an- 
 cient remains may be discovered at the Birs. 
 
 I will now describe the ruins. It must first be observed, that they are 
 divided into two distinct parts, undoubtedly the remains of two different 
 buildings. A rampart or wall, the remains of which are marked by mounds 
 of earth, appears to have inclosed both of them. To the west of the high 
 mound, topped by the tower-like pile of masonry, is a second, which is 
 larger but lower, and in shape more like the ruins on the eastern bank of 
 the Euphrates. It is traversed by ravines and watercourses, and strewed 
 over it are the usual fragments of stone, brick, and pottery. Upon its sum- 
 mit are two small Mohammedan chapels, one of which, the Arabs declare, 
 is built over the spot where Nimroud cast the patriarch Abraham into the 
 fiery furnace, according to the common Eastern tradition. Not having 
 been able to excavate in this mound, I could not ascertain whether it cov- 
 ers the remains of any ancient building. 
 
 Travellers, as far as I am aware, have hitherto failed in suggesting any 
 satisfactory restoration of the Birs. It is generally represented, without 
 sufficient accuracy, as a mere shapeless mass. But if examined from the 
 summit of the adjoining mound, its outline would at once strike any one ac- 
 quainted with the ruins to the west of Mosul, described in a former part of 
 this work.* The similarity between them will be recognised, and it will 
 be seen that they are all the remains of edifices built upon very nearly, if 
 not precisely, the same plan. The best published representations of the 
 Birs Nimroud appear to me to be those contained in a memoir of that ac- 
 curate and observing traveller, the late Mr. Rich.f I give one of his 
 sketches, over which I have placed a proposed restoration of the form of 
 the original building ; the present shape of the mound, as in Mr. Rich's 
 sketch, being in dark outline. 
 
 It will be perceived that the mound rises abruptly from the plain on one 
 s face, the western, and falls 
 
 to its level by a series of 
 
 1H|| gradations on the opposite. 
 
 |lf(|g|llll Such is precisely the case 
 
 f< . ■ •" EzEEJ^P^J j rzzzi] with the ruins of Mokha- 
 
 / Z/'" 71, 7 r~£r?lJS^W^ ■ ~ — ~^ mour, Abou-Khameera, and 
 
 ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^_ ^ TelErmah. The brickwork 
 
 _V _^^^^^^^^^^^^^^._ still visible in the lower 
 
 7 X , . ,_ t= —rz &= parts of the mound, as well 
 
 Eastern Face of the Birs iSimroud, with proposed Restoration. * 
 
 as in the upper, shows the 
 sides of several distinct stages or terraces. $ I believe the isolated mass of 
 
 * See Chap. XI. 
 
 t Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon (London. 1816), plates 2 and 3. 
 
 X This may be perceived in the sketches given by Rich. He observed, indeed, as 
 did also Mr. Buckingham, these indications of stages. He says. "In the side ofth^ 
 pile, a little below the summit, is very clearly to be seen part of another brick wall 
 
Chap. XXIL] the birs nimroud - 425 
 
 masonry to be the remains of one of the highest terraces, if not the highest, 
 and the whole edifice to have consisted, on the eastern or south-eastern side, 
 of a series of stages rising one above the other, and, on the western or north- 
 western, of one solid perpendicular wall. The back of the building may 
 have been painted, as, according to Diodorus Siculus,* were the palaces of 
 Babylon, with hunting or sacred scenes, and may have been decorated with 
 cornices or other architectural ornaments. There were no means of ascent 
 to it. Nor was it accessible in any part unless narrow galleries were car- 
 ried round it at different elevations. The diagram shows how far the pro- 
 posed restoration suits with the actual form of the ruin ; but it must be 
 borne in mind that the number of terraces is merely conjectural, and that 
 there might have been more or less. The upper stage may have been 
 larger, and the proportions of the others altogether different. The wood- 
 cut is merely meant to give what I conjecture to have been the general 
 form of the edifice. 
 
 It is probable that the ascents from terrace to terrace consisted of broad 
 flights of steps, or of inclined ways, carried up the centre of each stage. 
 Such we may judge, from the descriptions of Diodorus, was the form of some' 
 of the great buildings at Babylon. The ascents to the different terraces 
 of the hanging gardens, he says, were like the gradines of a theatre. f 
 There are certainly traces of them in the mounds in the Desert west of 
 Mosul, if not in the Birs Nimroud. Herodotus states that the temple of 
 Belus at Babylon consisted of a series of towers. His description is not 
 very clear, $ but it may be inferred that the various parts of the structure 
 were nearly square. The base was undoubtedly so, and so also may have 
 
 precisely resembling the fragment which crowns the summit, but which still encases 
 and supports its part of the mound. This is clearly indicative of another stage of 
 greater extent." (P. 167. of the collected edition of his Memoirs.) Since writing the 
 above I have found in a treatise by M. Von Gumpach (Die Zeitrechnung der Babylo- 
 nier und Assyrer, Heidelberg, 1852, p. 25.), some remarks upon the sundial mentioned 
 in 2 Kings, xx. 8 — 11., and Isaiah, xxxviii. 8. The author conjectures that it may 
 have been presented to Ahaz by Tiglath Pileser, and he restores it very nearly in the 
 shape I have suggested as having been that of the edifices of which the Birs Nim- 
 roud, and other great ruins in Mesopotamia, are the remains ; viz. a series of steps 
 or terraces, on which an upright pole cast its shadow. He observes that the hours 
 were marked by the coincidence of the shadow of the gnomon with the edge of the 
 steps (degrees). (See also his Dissertation on the Old Testament, Heidelberg, 1852, 
 p. 181.) Could these great structures have been raised for any astronomical purpose ? 
 It would be important to examine them carefully, in order to ascertain whether they 
 all face precisely the same way. * Lib. ii. c. 8. 
 
 t Lib. ii. c. 10. Such is the form that Calmet and other antiquaries have given to 
 the hanging gardens of Babylon in their restored plans of the city. 
 
 t His words are, " It is a square building, each side of which is of the length of 
 two stadia. In the midst rises a solid tower (or terrace), of the depth and height of 
 one stadium, upon which is another tower and then another, to the number of eight. 
 These towers are ascended from the outside, a way leading round each of them ; and, 
 in the middle of the whole structure, there are convenient resting places. On the last 
 tower is built a large temple," &c. (1. i. c. 181.) 
 
426 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 been the upper stories, although generally represented as round. There 
 is nothing in the word used by Herodotus (~vpyoc) to show that they were 
 circular, and that they were solid masses of masonry appears to me to be 
 evident, for upon the upper one was constructed the temple of the god. 
 The ascent, too, was on the outside. "Without, however, venturing to iden- 
 tify the Birs Isimroud with the ruins of this temple, it may be observed 
 that it is highly probable one uniform system of building was adopted in 
 the East, for sacred purposes, and that these ascending and receding plat- 
 forms formed the general type of the Chaldsean and Assyrian temples. A 
 step may still be traced around the foot of the ruin, probably part of the 
 basement or first platform, and as the whole is surrounded by the remains 
 of a quadrangular inclosure, it is in every respect like those in the Desert 
 to the west of Mosul. Around the Birs are heaps of rubbish marking the 
 sites of ancient buildings.* 
 
 The edifice, of which this remarkable ruin is the remains, was built of kiln- 
 burnt bricks. Fragments of stone, marble, and basalt, scattered amongst 
 the rubbish, show that it was adorned with other materials. The cement 
 by which the bricks were united is of so tenacious a quality, that it is al- 
 most impossible to detach one from the mass entire. The ruin is a speci- 
 men of the perfection of the Babylonian masonry. 
 
 I will not enter into the many disputed questions connected with the 
 topography of Babylon, nor will I endeavor to identify the various existing 
 ruins with the magnificent edifices described by ancient authors. The 
 subject was fully investigated by the late Mr. Rich, and the published con- 
 troversy between him and Major Rennellf has left little to be added. A 
 theory, first I believe put forward by Col. Rawlinson. that the ruins around 
 Hillah do not mark the site of the first Babylon, which must be sought for 
 further to the south, as far even as Nifier, has, I presume, been abandoned. 
 There cannot, however, be a doubt that Nebuchadnezzar almost entirely 
 rebuilt the city, and perhaps not exactly on the ancient site ; a conjecture, 
 as I have shown, perfectly in accordance with Scripture and with Eastern 
 customs.} An accurate survey of the ruins is now chiefly required, and 
 will, I trust, be shortly added to the many valuable contributions already 
 made by Capt. Jones to Eastern archaeology and comparative geography. 
 Recent travellers, amongst whom, I believe, may be included Col. Rawlin- 
 son. are of opinion that the Birs Ximroud cannot be identified, as conjec- 
 tured by Rich, with the temple of Belus, but that it marks the site of the 
 celebrated Chaldaean city of Borsippa, which Rich traced four leagues to 
 the south of Hillah, § in some mounds called Boursa by the Arabs. Until 
 more authentic information be obtained from inscriptions and actual re- 
 mains, the question cannot, I think, be considered as settled. 
 
 * Rich, with his usual accuracy, has described all these indications of building. 
 First Memoir, p. 37.) 
 t See his collected Memoirs, republished by his widow, 1839. 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 173. 9 Memoirs, p. 79. 
 
Chap XXII 1 THE T0MB 0F ezekiel. 427 
 
 From the summit of the Birs Nimroud, I gazed over a vast marsh, for 
 Babylon is made " a possession for the bittern and pools of water."* In 
 the midst of the swamps could be faintly distinguished the mat huts of the 
 Kazail, forming villages on the small islands. The green morass was spot- 
 ted with flocks of the black buffalo. The Arab settlements showed the act- 
 ivity of a hive of bees. Light boats were skimming to and fro over the 
 shallow water, whilst men and women urged onwards their flocks and 
 laden cattle. The booming of the cannons of the Turkish army, directed 
 against the fort of Hawaina, resounded in the distance ; and the inhab- 
 itants of the marsh were already hurrying with their property to safer re- 
 treats in anticipation of the fall of their stronghold. 
 
 To the south-west, in the extreme distance, rose the palm-trees of Kifil, 
 casting their scanty shade over a small dome, the tomb of Ezekiel. To 
 this spot annually flock in crowds, as their forefathers have done for cen- 
 turies, the Jews of Baghdad, Hillah, and other cities of Chaldssa, the de- 
 scendants of the captives of Jerusalem, who still linger in the land of 
 their exile. Although tradition alone may place in the neighbourhood of 
 Babylon the tomb of the prophet, yet from a very early period the spot ap- 
 pears to have been sought in pilgrimage by the pious Hebrew. I visited 
 the edifice some years ago. It is now but a plain building, despoiled of 
 the ornaments and manuscripts which it once appears to have contained. 
 The description given by Benjamin of Tudela of this place is so curious, 
 that I cannot forbear transcribing it. " On the banks of the Euphrates 
 stands the synagogue of the prophet Ezekiel, who rests in peace. The 
 place of the synagogue is fronted by sixty towers, the room between every 
 two of which is also occupied by a synagogue ; in the court of the largest 
 stands the ark, and behind it is the sepulchre of Ezekiel, the son of Busi, 
 the Cohen. This monument is covered by a large cupola, and the build- 
 ing is very handsome ; it was erected by Jeconiah, king of Judah, and the 
 35,000 Jews who went along with him, when Evil Merodach released him 
 from the prison, which was situated between the river Chaboras and an- 
 other river. The name of Jeconiah, and of all those who came with him, 
 are inscribed on the wall, the king's name first, that of Ezekiel last. 
 
 This place is considered holy unto the present day, and is one of those 
 to which people resort from remote countries in order to pray, particularly 
 at the season of the new year and atonement day. Great rejoicings take 
 place there about this time, which are attended even by the Prince of the 
 Captivity and the presidents of the Colleges of Baghdad. The assembly 
 is so large that their temporary abodes cover twenty miles of open ground, 
 and attracts many Arabian merchants, who keep a market or fair. 
 
 On the day of atonement, the proper lesson of the day is read from a very 
 large manuscript Pentateuch ofEzekiel's own handwriting. 
 
 A lamp burns night and day on the sepulchre of the prophet, and has 
 always been kept burning since the day that he lighted it himself; and 
 
 * Isaiah, xiv. 23. 
 
428 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 the oil and wicks are renewed as often as necessary. A large house be- 
 longing to the sanctuary contains a very numerous collection of books, some 
 of them as ancient as the second, some even coeval with the first temple, 
 it being customary that who ever dies childless bequeaths his books to the 
 sanctuary. Even in time of war neither Jew nor Mohammedan ventures 
 to despoil and profanate the sepulchre of Ezekiel."^ 
 
 We galloped back from the Birs Nimroud to Hillah, crossing the dreary 
 and deserted plain without meeting any of those marauders who were wan- 
 dering over the face of the country. 
 
 I remained in Hillah until the 19th December, riding every day to the 
 ruins on the eastern bank of the river, and personally superintending the 
 excavations. The first trenches were opened in the great mound of Babel, 
 about five miles from the gate of Hillah, and three quarters of a mile from 
 the river. f I sought the subterranean passage opened and described by 
 Mr. Rich, and on removing the rubbish I soon came to " the quadrangular 
 funnel, about thirteen feet square, of burnt brick and bitumen," which he 
 had discovered. After the lapse of forty years, it had been once more com- 
 pletely filled with earth. The workmen again entered the underground 
 chamber in which Mr. Rich found a coffin of wood, containing a skeleton 
 still well preserved. The entrance to other galleries which had not been 
 explored, were still closed by large burnt bricks, amongst which were a 
 few square stones, inscribed on one edge with two lines of cuneiform char- 
 acters, containing the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chal- 
 dees, the inscription usually found on Babylonian bricks. It was evident 
 that they had originally belonged to an edifice erected by that monarch, 
 and had been taken from its ruins to form this covering to the vaults and 
 tombs. 
 
 Beneath this masonry were found several entire coffins, precisely similar 
 to that discovered by Mr. Rich. They still held skeletons, more or less 
 entire, which fell to pieces as soon as exposed to the air. No relic or orna- 
 ment had been buried with the bodies. The wood of the coffins was in 
 the last stage of decay, and could only be taken out piecemeal. A foul 
 and unbearable stench issued from these loathsome remains, and from the 
 passages which had become the dens of wild beasts, who had worked their 
 way into them from above. It was almost impossible to stay for many 
 
 * Asher's translation. On the Tigris, near its junction with the Euphrates, is the 
 traditionary tomb of Ezra. The Jews, from the first centuries of the Christian sera, 
 also appear to have visited this spot as the place of sepulture of the prophet. Ben- 
 jamin ofTudela says of it, "The sepulchre of Ezra, the priest and scribe, is in this 
 place (name lost), where he died on his journey from Jerusalem to King Artaxerx- 
 es." In the early part of the 13th century, a celebrated Jewish poet, named Jehuda 
 Charisi ben Salomo, described both tombs in verse. (Dr. Zunz's Essay in 2d volume 
 of Asher's ed of Benjamin ofTudela.) 
 
 t P. 26. The dimensions of the mound, as given by Rich, are, the northern face, 
 200 yards in length ; the southern, 219 ; the eastern, 182 ; and the western, 136. The 
 elevation at the N. E. angle, 141 feet. 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 DISCOVERIES AT BABEL. 
 
 429 
 
 minutes underground. Even the Arabs were compelled to leave their work 
 after a few days. 
 
 On the northern side of the mound, above these places of sepulture, are 
 the remains of a massive wall of sun-dried brick. The masonry is not united 
 by bituminous cement, as in the vaults, but apparently by simple mud, as 
 in modern Arab buildings, and between each course of bricks are spread 
 thin layers of reeds still perfectly preserved. 
 
 The coffins discovered at Babel are of a comparatively recent period, 
 and are not pure Babylonian. At the very earliest they may be of the 
 time of the Seleucidse, but I am inclined to think that they are even of a 
 still later date. It is evident that they were buried after the destruction 
 of the edifice covered by the mound. Upon that great heap, over the fallen 
 palace or temple, was probably raised one of those citadels, which formed 
 the defences of a city built long after the destruction of the Babylonian em- 
 pire and its magnificent capital, and which resisted the arms of Demetrius 
 Poliorcetes.* Of that stronghold the thick wall of sun-dried brick on the 
 northern side is probably the remains. 
 
 Numerous deep trenches opened on the surface of the mound, and sev- 
 eral tunnels carried into its sides at different levels, led to no other discov- 
 ery than that of numerous relics of a doubtful period, such as are found in 
 large numbers, in a more or less perfect state, amongst all Babylonian 
 ruins, especially after heavy rains have washed away the loose soil, or have 
 deepened the ravines. The most interesting were arrow-heads in bronze 
 and iron, small glass bottles, some colored, others ribbed and otherwise or- 
 
 Dottle of ribbed Glass, from 
 the Mound of Babel. 
 
 Glass Bottles, from the Mound of 
 Babel. 
 
 Glazed Earthenware Vessel, 
 from the Mound of Babel. 
 
 namented, and vases of earthenware of various forms and sizes, sometimes 
 glazed with a rich blue color. 
 
 A large and interesting collection of similar relics has been sent to this 
 country by Mr. Loftus, from the ruins of NifTer and Wurka, and are now in 
 the British Museum. They are picked up, in a more or less perfect state, 
 by most travellers on the great mounds of Hillah. I doubt, however, 
 whether they should be considered as strictly Babylonian. The greater 
 part of them undoubtedly belong to a period considerably posterior to the 
 * Diod. Sic. 1. xix. s. 100. 
 
430 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 fall of the empire. The earliest may be of the time of the Greek occupation, 
 whilst the latest are probably of the sixth or seventh century of the Christian 
 sera. It would, perhaps, be impossible to point out any very certain method 
 of ascertaining the exact age of different specimens. With them are constant- 
 ly discovered Greek and Roman terracotta figures, lamps, bronzes, and coins, 
 and also gems and coins of the Arsacian and Sassanian dynasties of Persia. 
 At Babel was also found, at some depth below the surface, a curious jug, 
 which I should have been inclined to believe altogether modern, had there 
 not been one nearly similar in form, and of the same substance, in Mr. 
 Rich's collection in the British Museum, and consequently, it may be pre- 
 sumed, obtained from the 
 same ruins. It is of soap- 
 stone, rudely carved and 
 ornamented, and resem- 
 bles in shape the vessels 
 still used by the Arabs for 
 ablutions. 
 
 Scattered over the 
 mound, and at a little 
 depth beneath the surface, 
 were numerous bricks, 
 bearing the usual super- 
 scription of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar. No ancient mason- 
 ry was, however, discov- 
 ered, from which these 
 bricks had been detached. 
 It was thus evident that 
 the remains of the original edifice, if any still existed, were to be sought 
 far beneath the surface, and I accordingly opened tunnels at the very foot 
 of the mound, nearly on a level with the plain. A few days' labor ena- 
 bled me to ascertain that we had at last found the ancient building. On 
 the eastern side the workmen soon reached solid piers and walls of brick 
 masonry, buried under an enormous mass of loose bricks, earth, and rub- 
 bish. We uncovered eight or ten piers and several walls branching in va- 
 rious directions, but I failed to trace any plan, or to discover any remains 
 whatever of sculptured stone or painted plaster. 
 
 During the remainder of my stay in Babylonia workmen continued to ex- 
 cavate in this part of the mound, uncovering a confused heap of ruin and 
 standing masonry. The enormous accumulation of loose rubbish above 
 them, not a hard compact mass, as at Nineveh, but continually crumbling 
 and falling in, exposed the men to a risk scarcely warranted by the results 
 of their labors. I much doubt whether even more extensive excavations 
 would lead to any important discoveries. It is possible, however, that de- 
 tached inscriptions or sculptured slabs might be obtained. 
 
 Jug of Soapstone, from the Mound of Babel. 
 
Chap. XXII.] RUINS OF b ^ylon. 431 
 
 On the western and southern sides of the mound were also discovered, at 
 the very base, remains of solid masonry. The bricks bore the usual super- 
 scription of Nebuchadnezzar, and were firmly cemented together with fine 
 white mortar. It is thus evident that a vast edifice once stood either on the 
 level of the plain, or raised upon enormous piers and buttresses of brick- 
 work, and that the tombs, and any traces of building that may exist on or 
 near the present surface of the mound, are of a more recent period. I will 
 not attempt to decide whether Babel be the remains of a great palace of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, of the celebrated hanging gardens, or of a temple. The 
 Jews, in the time of Benjamin of Tudela, appear to have believed it to be 
 the ruins of the palace, and near it was pointed out the site of the burning 
 fiery furnace in which Chananiah, Mishael, and Asariah (Shadrach, Me- 
 shach, and Abed-nego) were thrown by the command of the king. The ruin 
 is not without its Mohammedan tradition. Within it are suspended by the 
 heels, until the day of judgment, the two fallen angels, Harut and Marut, 
 and the Arabs relate endless tales of the evil spirits which haunt the place. 
 
 The only remains of building not covered by soil and sand, but still stand- 
 ing above ground, on the site of Babylon, and part of the ancient city, are 
 about one mile to the south of the mound last described. It is the Kasr, 
 or Palace, of Rich, a name by which it is now generally known to travel- 
 lers, but the Arabs call it the Mujelibe, or the " overturned." It rises on 
 the river bank, and is about seven hundred yards square. The principal 
 part of this great ruin consists of loose bricks, tiles, and fragments of stone ; 
 but nearly in the centre a solid mass of masonry, still entire, and even re- 
 taining traces of architectural ornament, protrudes from the confused heap 
 of rubbish.* Piers, buttresses, and pilasters may be traced ; but the work 
 of destruction has been too complete to allow us to determine whether they 
 belong to the interior or exterior of a palace. I sought in vain for some 
 clue to the general plan of the edifice. The bricks are of a pale yellow 
 color, and are not exceeded in quality by any found in the ruins of Baby- 
 lonia. They are as firmly bound together by a fine line cement, as those 
 at the Birs Nimroud, and cannot be separated entire. Upon nearly every 
 brick is clearly and deeply stamped the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 and the inscribed face is always placed downwards. This wonderful piece 
 of masonry is so perfect, and so fresh in color, that it seems but the work 
 of yesterday, although it is undoubtedly part of a building which stood in 
 the midst of old Babylon. 
 
 This ruin has for ages been the mine from which the builders of cities 
 rising after the fall of Babylon have obtained their materials. To this day 
 there are men who have no other trade than that of gathering bricks from 
 this vast heap and taking them for sale to the neighbouring towns and vil- 
 lages, and even to Baghdad. There is scarcely a house in Hillah which is 
 not almost entirely built with them ; and as the traveller passes through 
 
 * See woodcut at the head of this chapter, taken from Mr. Rich's collected Mem- 
 oirs by the permission of Mrs. Rich. 
 
432 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP XXII 
 
 the narrow streets, he sees in the walls of every hovel a record of the fflory 
 and power of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 To obtain these materials, the masonry which had withstood the decay 
 of ages has been gradually destroyed, until only the present shapeless mass 
 remains, whilst the heap itself has been tunnelled in every direction in search 
 of such entire brickwork as may still exist beneath the surface. This proc 
 ess having now gone on for centuries, the ruin has been more fully explored 
 than it could possibly be by any stranger with limited time and means at 
 his command. Those who had been engaged from childhood in this brick- 
 trade, assured me that no sculptures or inscribed slabs had been discovered 
 in their time, and that no remains of stone walls existed in any part of the 
 mound. The tunnels explored by my workmen led to nothing but solid 
 brick-masonry. The subterranean passage described by Rich* still exists, 
 but so completely filled with rubbish, that I was unable to clear it entire- 
 ly during my residence at Hillah. It is not more than seven feet high, and 
 looks like an enormous drain rather than an entrance to a great building. 
 
 A larger number of the fragments of brick found in this ruin are cover- 
 ed with a thick enamel or glaze. The colors have resisted the effects of 
 time, and preserve their original brightness. Parts of figures and orna- 
 ments may still be traced on many specimens. The principal colors are a 
 brilliant blue, red, a deep yellow, white, and black. f "VVe learn from an- 
 cient authors that the walls of the palaces of Babylon were painted with 
 the figures of men and animals, and there can be no doubt that these en- 
 amelled bricks are from the walls of an edifice. In the last century De 
 Beauchamp, a French traveller, was told that a chamber with walls of 
 varnished bricks had been discovered in this very mound, and that upon the 
 sides of one of them were depicted figures of a cow and of the sun and 
 moon, a story to which some credit may be attached, as these emblems are 
 now known to be Assyro-Babylonian. I searched in vain, however, for 
 some traces of them. Fragments of glass, Babylonian gems and cylinders, 
 small bronze figures, and other relics of this nature are occasionally found 
 on the mound by the Arabs, and are bought by the Jews of Hillah, who sell 
 them again to European travellers. 
 
 The huge lion described by Rich$ and seen by De Beauchamp, still ex- 
 ists half buried in the rubbish. The animal stands over a man with out- 
 stretched arms, which has led some imaginative travellers to see in the 
 group a representation of Daniel in the lions' den. The figures are in black 
 basalt, either so barbarously executed as to show very little progress in art, 
 or left unfinished by the sculptor. It would scarcely be worth removal. 
 
 Near the northern edge of the ruin is the solitary tree Athele, well 
 
 * Memoirs, p. 64. It is floored and walled with bricks, and covered with great 
 blocks of sandstone. 
 
 t The nature of these colors has been alluded to in another part of this work, see 
 not3, p. 140. Some additional remarks will be found in an Appendix. 
 
 t Memoirs, p. 64. 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 FRAGMENT OF LIMESTONE. 
 
 433 
 
 known to the Arabs, and the source of various traditions. It is said to 
 have stood in the hanging gardens of Babylon, and to have been saved by 
 God from tho general destruction which overwhelmed the impious city, 
 that Ali might tie his horse to its trunk after the defeat of the enemies of 
 the Prophet in the great battle of Hillah. No other tree of the same kind 
 exists, according to the same tradition, in the whole world. It is, howev- 
 er, I believe, a species of tamarisk, whose long feathery branches tremble 
 in the breeze with a melancholy murmur well suited to the desolate heap 
 over which it may have waved for a thousand years. 
 
 It was a hopeless task to excavate in a shapeless heap of rubbish of such 
 vast extent, which had already been explored in every direction. With 
 the exception of the solitary pile of masonry rising in the centre, the ruin 
 consisted of little else than of shattered brickwork. I continued, however, 
 a few of the tunnels already opened, but the falling rubbish, which had 
 more than once overwhelmed the seekers after bricks, soon compelled me 
 to desist. The only relic of any interest I was fortunate enough to dis- 
 cover was a fragment of limestone, on which were parts of two figures, un- 
 doubtedly those of gods. The name of one deity is added in Babylonian 
 characters to its sculptured image. It is probably only a small portion of 
 a slab or frieze containing a series of similar figures ; but I was unable, 
 after a careful and prolonged search, to find any other pieces. The frag- 
 ment, however, is interesting, as showing that the Babylonians portrayed 
 their divinities in the same manner as the Assyrians. They wear the same 
 
 high head-dress ornamented with 
 
 Villi iiiflinTTTTv --^, ~. feathers and rosettes, the long 
 
 curled hair and beard, and the 
 embroidered garments, and they 
 hold the same staff with a ring 
 as the gods in the rock sculptures 
 of Bavian. 
 
 "With the exception of a few 
 rudely engraved gems and enam- 
 elled bricks, this was the only rel- 
 ic I obtained from the Mujelibe. 
 Excavations were carried on 
 for some days in the smaller, 
 mounds scattered over the plain 
 between Babel and the ruin last 
 described, but without any re- 
 sults, except the discovery of the 
 remains of brick masonry, of a 
 few earthen vases, and of some 
 fragments of glass. 
 
 The last ruin I examined was 
 
 Fragment from the Mujelibe (Babylon). 
 
 a mound of great extent, sometimes called by the Arabs Jumjuma, from a 
 
 E E 
 
434 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 neighbouring village of that name, and sometimes, as stated by Rich, Am- 
 ran ben Ali, from a Koubbe, or small domed tomb, of a Moham medan saint 
 on its summit. No masonry is here seen as in the Mujelibe. All remains 
 of buildings, if there be any still existing, are deeply buried beneath the 
 loose nitrous earth. It is traversed by innumerable ravines, and its form 
 and level are equally irregular.* I opened trenches in various parts, but 
 could find no traces of an edifice of any kind. Some small objects of con- 
 siderable interest were, however, discovered. Although not of the true 
 Babylonian epoch, they are, on more than one account, highly important. 
 
 The mound of Amran, as well as nearly all those in Babylonia, had been 
 used as a place of burial for the dead long after the destruction of the great 
 edifices whose ruins it covers. Some specimens of glass, and several terra- 
 cotta figures, lamps, and jars, dug out of it, are 
 evidently of the time of the Seleucidae or of the 
 G-reek occupation. With these relics were five 
 cups or bowls of earthenware, and fragments 
 of others, covered on the inner surface with 
 letters written in a kind of ink. Similar ob- 
 jects had already been found in other Baby- 
 lonian ruins Two from the collection of the 
 late Mr Stewart had been deposited in the 
 British Museum, and amongst the antiquities 
 recently purchased by the Trustees from Col- 
 onel Rawlinson are eight specimens, obtained 
 at Baghdad, where they are sometimes offered for sale by the Arabs , but 
 it is not known from what sites they were brought. The characters upon 
 them are in form not unlike the Hebrew, and on some they resembled the 
 Sabeean and Syriac. These books had not attracted notice, nor had the 
 inscriptions upon them been fully examined before they were placed in the 
 hands of Mr. Thomas Ellis, of the manuscript department in the British 
 Museum, a gentleman of great learning and ingenuity as a Hebrew scholar. 
 He has succeeded, after much labor, in deciphering the inscriptions, and I 
 will now give, in his own words, an account of these singular relics. 
 
 " A discovery relating to the Jews of the captivity in Babylon, and con- 
 sequently of great interest to Oriental scholars, and especially to biblical 
 students, was made by Mr. Layard during his second expedition to Assyria. 
 Amongst the various curious objects found on the banks of the Euphrates, 
 and in the ruins of ancient Babylonia, were several bowls or cups of terra- 
 cotta, round the inner surface of which were inscriptions in the ancient 
 
 Earthen Jars found in Babylonian 
 Ruins. 
 
 * Rich gives its dimensions as 1 100 yards by 800, but the form is so irregular, and 
 it is so difficult to determine where the ruins cease altogether, that, without a very 
 careful and accurate survey, it appeared to me impossible to ascertain its exact size. 
 The same remark applies to the Mujelibe, and to nearly all the mounds except Ba- 
 bel, whose sides are steep and well-defined. The others lose themselves almost in. 
 sensibly in the plain. 
 
Chap. XXII.] J™ 1811 RELICS - 435 
 
 Chaldsean language, written in characters wholly unknown, and, I believe, 
 never before seen in Europe. The letters appear to be an admixture of the 
 Syriac and Palmyrine,^ and in some instances resemble the ancient Phoe- 
 nician. The subjects of these inscriptions are amulets or charms against 
 evil spirits, diseases and every kind of misfortune. They must have been 
 written long prior to any existing manuscripts of the ancient Hebrew and 
 Chaldsean languages that we now know of, there being no divisions between 
 the words (except in one instance, No. 5.,. where the forms of the letters 
 would seem to indicate a later date), nor are there any vowel points. But 
 the most remarkable circumstance connected with these inscriptions is, that 
 the characters used on the bowl marked No. 1. answer precisely to the de- 
 scription given of the most ancient Hebrew letters in the Babylonian Tal- 
 mud, which contains an account of the nature and origin of the letters used 
 by the Jews. In the tract Sanhedrin we are told that the Jews called 
 their characters Assyrian, rWlttJK, and that they were brought ivith them 
 from Assyria. Abraham de Balmis in his Hebrew grammar states, that 
 the characters called Assyrian were composed of straight lines : his words 
 are, m©KE 15^2 nawi PiWrvwa mCTO &Ofiffl ; the Latin version of this 
 in the same grammar is, ' Quia est recta in suis Uteris et exivit nobiscum 
 ex Assyria.' The orthography of these inscriptions is very defective, and 
 sometimes pure Hebrew sentences are found mixed with the Chaldee, espe- 
 cially in No. 5. ; and the words ' Halleluiah' and ' Selah' occur in nearly 
 every one of them. All this tends to confirm the opinion that the writers 
 were Jews ; for it is well known that the early Christians were utterly 
 ignorant of Hebrew, nor is there any proof that it was cultivated at Baby- 
 lon ; on the contrary, it was at Babylon that the Hebrew ceased to be a 
 spoken language, the Jews being compelled, by their lengthened captivity, 
 to adopt the Chaldaean, whilst at the same time they were corrupted by 
 the idolatry and superstitions of the Babylonians. The Chaldeeans were 
 formerly famous for divination, astrology, and witchcraft, and there is no 
 doubt but that the Jews were not only led away by these practices, but 
 brought them with them into their own country ; for we find that the Jew- 
 ish captives taken to Rome by Titus Vespasian, immediately after the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem, were acquainted with astrology, casting nativities, 
 and magic. We are told this by Juvenal, the Roman satirist. f It is wor- 
 thy of remark, that although the Roman ladies consulted all sorts of as- 
 trologers and soothsayers, such as the Armenians, Jews, and those of 
 Comagena, the Chaldaeans were considered the most proficient in the art. 
 Thus Juvenal, in describing a lady who had consulted cunning men about 
 her nativity, ' Chaldais sed major erit fiducia : quicquid dixerit astro- 
 
 * See the inscriptions discovered in the ruins of Palmyra, published in the " Phil- 
 osophical Transactions," vol. xlviii. part 2. : their dates are from a. d. 49 to 258, and 
 will be found on comparison to resemble very closely the characters used on the bowl 
 No. 1. 
 
 t See Sat. iii. v. 13, et seq., Sat. vi. vv. 541—546. 
 
436 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 logus, credent a fonte r datum Ammonis.' That is, But her chief de- 
 pendence is upon the Chaldcean conjurors ; ivhatever an astrologer of 
 that sort pronounces, she receives as an answer from Jupiter Amnion.* 
 In later times we find that the practices of magicians in and about Baby- 
 lon were not fallen into disuse. Benjamin of Tudela, in his Travels, states 
 that 'Baghdad contained many wise men, and magicians, proficient in 
 all sorts of witchcraft' Cpttt ws bsn own cmain nEsn ban.f It is 
 customary in many parts of the East at the present day, when a person is 
 ill whose malady baffles the skill of the ordinary physician, to send for a 
 magician, who frequently attempts to cure the patient by writing a charm 
 on some convenient utensil, such as a bowl, plate, or bason, and command- 
 ing the sick person to put water into the vessel containing the charm, and 
 to drink it up. It seems highly probable that the bowls from Babylon, now 
 in the British Museum, have been used for a similar purpose ; one, it would 
 seem, contained some substance like soup, and had never been entirely 
 washed out ! 
 
 11 With respect to the translation I have only to state, that in many 
 passages it is mere conjecture, for the ink is faded in so many places that 
 it is quite impossible to decipher two sentences together ; but the difficult) 
 is increased tenfold through there being no distinction between daleth 1, 
 resh i, and frequently lamed b : nor is there any distinction between vat 
 \ zain T, and medial nun 3 ; nor between he n and cheth n, and some- 
 times tau n is written like cheth n. The Syriac inscription on No. 6. has 
 no distinction whatever between he ci and cheth Jm, as may be seen in the 
 word j& i^hSj, for j^i-csil^^, and -^" for oi^tf ; but this is known to 
 be a peculiarity of the Sabaean dialect. Add to this, that many passages 
 in amulets of this kind were never intended to be deciphered, being made 
 up of the initial and final letters of some mystic legends, without making 
 any sense whatever by themselves. These abbreviations are very numer- 
 ous in No. 4. 
 
 " In concluding these remarks, there is one thing to which I wish to 
 call the attention of Oriental scholars, namely, the subject of the inscrip- 
 tion of No. 1. It is a letter of dismissal, or bill of divorce to Satan, and 
 other evil spirits. The word used to express this is RD^a, the very word 
 found in the Talmud to express the same thing, aa plural "pro, and al- 
 most invariably used for a bill of divorce, instead of nn*n3 "i£0. (Deut- 
 eronomy, xxiv. 1, 2.) See the tract Gittin in the Talmud, which treats 
 of divorce. That this is the true interpretation of xa'^ is evident from 
 the explanation given of this word by Bar Bahlul in his Syriac and Ar- 
 abic lexicon, under l-{w ; he has the following : — wo^cjjo j-s ^-*1 J4-« 
 
 *p£>j HU oUT^ : 8 J^l ; au^b* ^_^|wU5 ; that is, < j-^, ac- 
 cording to Bar Serushai, a canal; also, a letter of dismissal or release 
 * Sat. vi. vv. 552 — 554. t Asher's edition, p. 105. Heb. text, p. 64. 
 
Chap. XXII.] 
 
 JEWISH RELICS. 
 
 437 
 
 from an obligation.' This last answers precisely to taa in the Talmud. 
 The word occurs three times in the inscription. The ancient Jews sup- 
 posed that the devils or evil spirits were propagated like mankind ; that they 
 eat, and drank, married, and, it would seem, quarreled with their wives, 
 and divorced them, as may be seen in the following remarkable passage : 
 
 'And as the devils ivrite bills of divorce, and give them to their ivivcs, 
 
 and return not unto them again, so you, in like manner, receive this, &c.'* 
 " I now proceed to give translations of such bowls as I have been able 
 to decipher. 
 
 No. 1. 
 " This is a bill of divorce to the Devil, and to . . . and to Satan, and 
 to Nerig, and to Zachiah, and to Abitur of the mountain, and to . . . and 
 to the night monsters, commanding them to cease from Beheran in Bat- 
 naiun, and from the country of the north, and from all who are tormented 
 by them therein. Behold, I make the counsels of these devils of no effect, 
 and annul the power of the ruler of the night-monsters. f I conjure you 
 
 No. 1. An Earthen inscribed Bowl, from Babylon. Diameter 6 inches, depth 3 inches. 
 
 * See a full account of these superstitions in Bartolocci's Bibliotheca Rabbinica 
 t This word (lilith) occurs once in Isaiah (xxxiv. 14.), and is translated in our ver- 
 sion " a screech owl." But these nocturnal monsters were considered by the Jew I 
 
438 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXII 
 
 all. monsters, . . . both male and female, to go forth. I conjure you and 
 ... by the sceptre of the powerful one. who has power over the devils, 
 and over the night-monsters, to quit these habitations. Behold, I now make 
 you cease from troubling them, and make the influence of your presence 
 cease in Beheran of Batnaiun, and in their fields. In the same manner as 
 the devils write bills of divorce and give them to their wives, and return 
 not unto them again, receive ye your bill of divorce, and take this written 
 authority, and go forth, leave quickly, flee, and depart from Beheran in Bat- 
 naiun, in the name of the living , by the seal of the powerful 
 
 one, and by this signet of authority. Then will there flow rivers of water 
 in that land, and there the parched ground will be watered. Amen, Amen, 
 Amen. Selah." 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE BOWL NO. 1. REDUCED TO HEBREW CHARACTERS. 
 
 vrm TttraaVi nrofo -probi rrooVi « . . . Vi a^b Ktna ?~n 
 '-re pai vn p'ona v" P^a pa pbtam a tt tfrfri p& . . . np\ 
 yn ' t r i prrotai a:-:c m crrabam b-r nma pai Tto'ti par* Vol 
 Vrro'na rarW riboa rrqb* arzaca nrrt^i run at^btt^ pn 
 n->:- aaai iavn trtjp x:"ir-2 rep-: za "W ex nrriW n ViTi 
 xr-r: lip pT*B '*" B*» ^""" siro dpm nrwitni fonWj 
 TH proi nrro pai rana paw* mbaa an an p&a'rpa ro'an 
 a: anrn prrr»rt papp*- po^a pre parol ars stia pan th p'Via 
 ipinw impi ipisn pawna lVopi pbwi bipr? prrto prfri 
 '•:-:'[r]^fnir^n bran th P'tt'O yn pirm nrrn pa ib^niri 
 dot rrftn •ton p^i rpnpn y ai ana** dp^m w pre a V,e ^"nnn 
 
 j nbc paa pa* pas ra'W tdb 
 
 No. 2. 
 "... These idols shall be driven out of his house, and will take away 
 these enchanters who whisper. 
 
 • A remedy from heaven to take away these diseases, . . . and to expel 
 demons, and to cast out Satan, and idolatry, and curses, and Nidra ; pro- 
 hibiting every male and female idolator. This remedy will also render 
 secure all the children of men from the whisperings of the enchanters, and 
 will totally subvert them, and thrust them out of your house, and they shall 
 go forth from your servants also, and from their habitations ; in the name 
 of Him who can subvert the earth, the heavens, the stars, and planets, and 
 v:ho can break down the support of all the children of men ; who can ren- 
 der void the effects of witchcraft, whether of the mother, or of the daughter, 
 or of the daughter-in-law, or of the mother-in-law, far and near, whether 
 in the desert or in the city. . . . That fell on his face, and . ... at the 
 
 to have been in the form of a beautiful female who lay in wait for children by night. 
 Not unlike them were the fabled women "E/j.irov<xa and the bvonev-avpoi of the Greeks, 
 the lamia? and striges of the Romans, and the ghouls of the Arabs, who are supposed 
 to be female monsters who tear men in pieces. 
 
Chap. XXIL] JEW1S±1 KKL1GS - 439 
 
 knees of your enemies, and by the mouth of Levatta, . . . and the strong 
 foundations of the earth. . . . This amulet puts an end to Levatta, 
 whether new or old ; and guards from the whisperings of these enchanters, 
 in the name of Batiel and Gtatueh And by the guardianship of an angel 
 to whom there are eleven names, SS. BB. H.S. RIH. CCC. ACS. CAS. 
 ID. RIH. HRIH. IH. OINI. HCH. aPH. ANG. PAA. NSC. CSC. ICI. 
 CVV. NHA. II. . . • And to all who transgress against the names of this 
 ano-el, for by these names the captives will be let free from their captivity, 
 and from every Nidra, Levatta, Patiki, and Isarta ; as well as from 
 every other evil spirit, the old one, his son, and his daughter ; and every 
 evil enchanter that causes diseases, and all kinds of sorrow, and all the cap 
 tives shall be secure from the enchanters who whisper, every Nidra, Le- 
 vatta, and all the diseases which are on the earth, and those which come 
 from heaven. Observe . . . the voice . . . the earth that . . . and heaven 
 that . . . the names from this world . . . the voice of the woman of Le- 
 vatta was heard . . . and was sent to the kings : for he will surely treat 
 us as strangers, and will bring vengeance upon us, and hold us in cap- 
 tivity, will assuredly .... from .... of the woman of Levatta .... 
 from thy word, that thou mayest not take vengeance upon us, nor curse us 
 with a heavier curse than we now suffer. Amen, Amen, Selah, Amen, 
 Amen, Amen, Amen, Selah, Halleluiah, Halleluiah, V.V.V. Beware 
 V.V.V.V. to thyself and to all. . . ." 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE BOWL NO. 2. REDUCED TO HEBREW CHARACTERS. 
 
 :p pms "pTBB *v fnnr* mnn p pps^ "natoi an "pi ma 
 
 ■nanai pmn rrwB m^o*n p faro yvth rrarc p snioa 
 amno^i "ovi "nans bD po» msi knoibi ■nawi too 'ppB'n 
 p mip ipsni ipsnm p "pma "p^ma p ara^a *» dbi annpis 
 nb? fir?] pmpi imrop pi m^-i pi rrmn pi *p prre "p-parra 
 ■o**Bn maw jidbh ama row jidbh dim *prrirniB ban pnnDi 
 &oaw arraib hd^bh kt»:^» ^n bD*r firm? hd^bh ^bra ^bh ^ddid 
 an^an mapni simn nia^pn nmpi [nprm] arnami artel amiTi 
 nrtKi ataib niaiBii .anm riDnnni ^bs>a nsa bsn annnn rwapn 
 •p-PBia p anprwi amm anuib tf^nnb rannb &no^ aspn 
 rrt> man nDsbs kd^t »d^ ^tttni b^inp^i b^nn died pma 
 spnD"mw"mmn"nmn Vo''aooD8"MD"mn "onnn"co ima© m»^ ^n 
 pnn ^Dabai anrnaiD pbn by inan bDb"^^n"DHD^" h 'DDD"DD^«"xBp^n 
 amo^ai ^nBi antaib rrm bD p inm pnoa annair> pbnm 
 ioid innina punn ^nn bDi arum vq ipn p ammn ^nim 
 *VF3 bD p pmo pTBma p pnbD prosi ^ni-na ^yn bDi [idi]d^i 
 xrnpi ana bp [njn^a© rwa rroiEb^ bD [pp] aanabi bDi amjibi 
 my[M] am« bp K)ab? pnn p [annajrc *>:n[bDntfp miaim 
 p ^t: cdi labao b:»i aiap: Dipn i^dd pDbia nby am«i [amdjibn 
 
 * The phrase p "piTO yTWflQ ",72 ought, perhaps, to be read p jtrO) » WUU p. 
 
440 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII 
 
 DipTi sb-; "p-oi p|>] pa [njsn^rrna] anmx WiKna[-i] anabi 
 tn JTT^bn rrWn nbo pas paa pax pax nbo pa« paa tATi abi 
 
 : . . . bsb [n*»]T»^ fcwban Yni p-at? 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Is an abridgment of No. 2., with some slight variations. It is to be ob- 
 served, that the word "father' (X2X, abba) is inserted in this inscription 
 before " mother, daughter," &c. It is probable that the omission of this 
 word in No. 2. was an oversight of the writer. 
 
 No. 3. An Earthen inscribed Bowl, from Babylon. Diameter 6 inches, depth li inch. 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE BOWL NO. 3. REDUCED TO HEBREW CHARACTERS. 
 
 pa prfro po« arrjbn iw*n tao pi[p]B'n 'nawn f\mn 
 a^i ampi: smo^ p^w *w® bD arrjibn *ro p "ps-To finDSDr 
 bs 'jbrn ps primi p pma p-rasa pa firte pes arcrs "on br 
 nDiD wsn n^f wan n^sn raan mm pnw?w bsn pm? 
 a^Ti an&n xnwib rrntjn at^a 133 bai pimyiD reran *brn roam 
 mapTi anmn rrapi nrnpni nprm m-no smarm tfnbDn amm 
 
Chap. XXII.] JEWISH RELICS - 441 
 
 rcnmm abss nsa bsn rrniD a rran tab^si r^nta anmn a^pi a rvan 
 «mm anaib XEnnb aoiano^bpin "^pna aanai xtab rraiani asm 
 nn rrt rvan no^b^ *o nTraran p pro pn^rra p apnsni sn 
 asp^rm rf^w mi'TH n h >-n"c«DD"sn"«DDD"n^-io &mn"oo "jtroB iibs 
 pox "pb^a anmrc pbn b? msn bsbfiJainiDDra-w ca odk K&pa» 
 p «n»m *>nn bsi smriD^i i-o^nsi arrjibi tt« bD p Tim 
 pioai 'jbnn'a ^a bni id^i om ■pwtt ^ira ^tthn bsi anmi wa ipr 
 pi imrni pi ^-im prm ma pi p pnpvp "P^b T° l n ^ 
 pin p nyttt> Kti^ana rwow^Vi bsi «*np ay-iabi bsi imrvi"^ i fin 
 D^pm aw pbtt fib? fcomo nsan «nt:ib m-nrrj anmx bp a^b? 
 snuib fconrai ambn Kttrwr» fci'oooi «» i"ooi i»bjpa b^i Kfcpa 
 
 No. 4. 
 " Y.V.V.V. Beware of the diseases which are upon thee, and upon . . . 
 from all evil diseases V.V.V.V. . . . sorrow and bodily infirmities from now 
 even for ever. A remedy from heaven against the whisperings of enchant- 
 ers who are not far hence, and also against demons. This amulet will de- 
 liver you from evil sorcerers and from Abdi, and from Levatta, and tribu- 
 lations, from the machinations of the Assyrians, and from extremities, and 
 from treachery, and from rebellion, from Shoq, and from Nidra, and the 
 sorrows of all the children of Adam. And thy petition shall be in the name 
 
 of Barakiel, Ramiel, Raamiel, Nahabiel, and Sharmiel will take 
 
 vengeance . . . these nine angels will guard and protect you from evil en- 
 chanters, and from Abdi the powerful, and from the nets of the enchanters 
 
 that whisper, and from ... in heaven and Nura. Amen. Amen. 
 
 Selah. V.Y.V.Y. Beware V.V.V.V V.V.V.V. Beware .... from 
 
 now even for [ever]. A remedy . . . against the enchanters who whisper, 
 who are not far from hence, and also against demons .... and from Le- 
 vat[ta], .... tribulation, from Asdarta, from the machinations of the As 
 Syrians, from extremities, and from treachery, and from rebellion, from 
 Shoq, and from Nidra .... of all the children of men ... in the name of 
 Barhiel . . . — miel . . . — miel, Raamiel . . . — kiel, Sharmie[l, A]shriel 
 
 against evil enchanters and from Abdi the powerful, and from the 
 
 nets of . . ." 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE BOWL NO. 4. REDUCED TO HEBREW CHARACTERS. 
 
 pun *\nc 1111 »in 111 bD-a "pais •** tfDb^mmmn p -iot 1111 
 pm mbn p pn-D •p^siab rraro p amoa nbiy w nnvn msiDi 
 p KHpa»i Ktrjib pi -nn^i ^rcm ^tnn p bsn am jwbi ran 
 anna pi pi© p armasa pi anabm pi anmnat pi armrja 
 b^^sn b*>&0£n b^pm mira nmn ^©1 ona ^:n ban arrnpi 
 •pDabtt :wn py* oipm oiobp ■ppirrai ppm b^^rai b^xmn: 
 p^pn "p-o^ni pram pimnb pinir ibsi pn» pm pmMm pnac 
 
442 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 c-:tc warn ft^-si mm pai p [^hjid "pTErai m&npq p 
 [-:•] nil "nstD im rfoo paa paa BH131 ptriftb] oritmioTioTi 
 
 amca 151 nnp pa a-nsm ]i»n to» im imp -roa-ja-ib 
 
 rib pan [n] rwVi i ar pn-^. r-':- pi pma f nranafr smo 
 
 pg aB T T cpK pan xna'sEa "pai wf*Tna "jb ftrrrm pa attipaa .... 
 . . . rxa . . . !/K 'fr T o m*» .... tra -<:2 ton . . . arc pal pis 
 -r . . | y T' B n "ppn- yumtyx b]K^in b^o . . . Em broa . . . 
 rta pa paw . . . am wi&] pa v^? n "P^nsi "ptra ftnnb 
 
 : pa» mftn 
 
 No. 5. 
 " An approved amulet confirmed and sealed by divine authority, which 
 is of powerful efficacy to those who read it, and to those at Posikiah, and 
 to all who dwell therein ; to preserve from JMdra. and from sorcery, and 
 
 Bowl No. 5. Diameter 4$ inches, depth 2i inches. 
 
 from enchanters, and from Levatta, and from the waters of pollution, and 
 from burning sores, and from all kinds of blemishes both natural and arti- 
 ficial, and from evil spirits both male and female, and from an evil eye, 
 and from enchantments both of men and women. In the name of Babnaa, 
 Ninikia, and Umanel. These are their forms .... by these angels . . . 
 
Chap. XXIL] ™ w1SI1 relics - 443 
 
 will take away the mist . . . and dispel darkness and tribulation. There 
 names .... [Amen] Amen. Selah."* 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE BOWL NO. 5. REDUCED TO HEBREW CHARACTERS. 
 
 arraffr WTopn onrai tnnn nnm p pi n^nop [anjiata 
 ■pai Wfi p rra pwi bsbi nyoia^i i^pb np* ninitnTo 
 va pi 'O'oy ara pi ^05 »ijg pi antaib pi ^rcnn pi ansip^E 
 nnpsi "idt wi mi pi pTn* ab^ii 'pTnin ^e ba pi ananiTO 
 aywa awrcaa Dirca n««i ima i&©a ni&raa pi run *py pi 
 ■jwDT^hi pba ^aabEa rrtopji pin ypipiB [Whiar pin bss-aiK 
 pa [p« DEDiEiB] fmato psia bin? wini Dip Dip bap pTOtt 
 
 jnbo 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 AN INSCRIPTION ON A BOWL IN A DIALECT RESEMBLING THE SABJEAN. 
 
 11 all fears, and against all sicknesses, and against all 
 
 night-monsters who will receive for himself good, hut for 
 
 wickedness and these mysteries .... who shall rise up and 
 
 kill him and falling into flames, and was heard and 
 
 would rejoice to have his thirst quenched . . . and immediately the broth- 
 er to this man came, and being compassionate, he took him to his own 
 
 habitation and the altar called Sauta and good fortune 
 
 called Sauto. Hear ye then the words of your fathers, and despise them 
 not ; for by disobedience you will be punished, and into burn- 
 ing fire. Believe ye, therefore, and keep these words. Amen, and Amen. 
 Selah." 
 
 After this follows a duplicated Estranghelo Syriac alphabet, then a ser- 
 pent is drawn round the inner margin, close to the rim. 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE BOWL NO. 6. REDUCED TO SYRIAC CHARACTERS. 
 |S>V I '"-c |Zn tin 90 v MiuiL^ |2Lo4 ci^| ^ nnSi ? ^nn\ l&Ao" 
 
 Ol^k jjjOl |j 01^ ■ iS^LCQ ■ iVl IP? TL.1- r X)0 |^-» w^J jji^r j. . . >\| j]]?G 
 
 * This amulet is called a earned, fiyjap ; which is the word usually employed by 
 the Jews to denote a charm or a protector from the wiles of Satan and other evil 
 spirits, as well as from bodily infirmities, &c. This word is found in the Talmud. 
 For specimens of a modern Jewish earned, see a book entitled " Raziel," or the rev- 
 elations which the angel Raziel gave to Adam. Some expressions in this earned are 
 found to correspond exactly with those used in that book, and especially the names 
 of angels ending with el, as may be seen in No. 4. Some sentences in this earned 
 are in pure Hebrew : this is accounted for by the fact, that the Jews believed that 
 the devil did not understand the Chaldaean language ; so that, by a judicious admix- 
 ture of foreign words, he would not be able to make out what the earned was intended 
 to protect, and thus be frustrated from attempting to hinder the requests contained 
 therein from being granted ! 
 
444 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII. 
 
 \o4Jso .c-^g^Z JJo .asa^l |L^o cNSqao 0Z0, )j-o££o |^4 j^o Jjb[*]| 
 ,— »?oi |L^>s [ojj-kfjjo C.L2>[->] . r ^-» 01 & « nuNiO .Mi\S J M°\ 01 £1?? 
 0.O 0101 ,.? w*_ . s^fi j.) v »SW ^iN) <-^]o .Z0l[|]i-»^ £oO 5^S [j.]^a05C 
 
 ZZZZZ £ut La 5 j-c-2 , v as ^Lklc: v ^Lr^J V^o v*VV^ ^s ut w-Z .**» y\ 
 
 Bowl No. 6. Diameter 5 inches, depth 3 inches. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 GENERAL CONTENTS OF THE INSCRIPTIONS ON THE FRAGMENTS. 
 
 "A remedy from heaven to take away fevers and diseases, and to guard 
 from sudden death, from injustice and treachery ; and will loosen the bonds 
 of those who are afflicted, from the machinations of the devil and all evil 
 spirits. By the instrumentality of this amulet you are protected from the 
 wiles of Satan, who is constrained and under the control of a mighty an- 
 gel, to whom there are eleven names. [Here follow mysterious and cabal- 
 istic names, made up of the initial letters of mystic legends, in the same 
 manner as the modern Jews of the East and West make their portable am- 
 ulets, and which are never meant to be understood by any one, not even 
 
Chap. XXII.l the jews of babylon. 445 
 
 by the writer. All the fragments, which are written in the characters re- 
 sembling the Palmyrine, finish the charm by invocations to good angels 
 and genii, as follows.] I charge you in the name of Nadkiel, Ramiel, 
 Damael, Hachael, and Sharmiel. Amen. Amen. Amen. Selah. Amen 
 [On one of them] Halleluiah, Amen." 
 
 Such then are the contents of the inscriptions on these curious bowls as 
 deciphered by Mr. Ellis. Little doubt can, I think, exist as to their Jew- 
 ish origin : and such being the case, there is no reason to question their 
 having belonged to the descendants of those Jews who were carried cap- 
 tive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon and the surrounding cities. These 
 strangers appear to have clung with a tenacity peculiar to their race to the 
 land of their exile. We can trace them about Babylon from almost the time 
 of their deportation down to the twelfth century of the Christian era, when 
 the Hebrew traveller, Benjamin of Tudela, wandered over the regions of 
 the East and among the cities of the captivity to seek the remnant of his 
 ancient nation. During the Persian dominion in Mesopotamia we find 
 them enduring tortures and persecution rather than help to rebuild a tem- 
 ple dedicated to a false god.^ In the time of the Roman supremacy in the 
 East they appear to have been a turbulent race, rebelling against their ru- 
 lers and waging civil war amongst themselves.! They had celebrated 
 schools in many cities of Assyria and Chaldsea. 
 
 As early as the third century Hebrew travellers visited Babylon, and 
 some of them have left records of the state of their countrymen. The 
 Babylonian Talmud, compiled in the beginning of the sixth century, con- 
 tains many valuable notices of the condition of the Jewish colonies in Bab- 
 ylonia, and enumerates more than two hundred Babylonian towns then un- 
 der the Persian rule, inhabited by Jewish families. In manuscripts of the 
 eighth and ninth centuries we have further mention of these colonies. $ 
 
 In the twelfth century, Benjamin of Tudela found no less than twenty 
 thousand Jews dwelling within twenty miles of Babylon, and worshipping 
 in the synagogue, built, according to tradition, by the prophet Daniel him- 
 self. In Hillah alone were ten thousand persons and four synagogues, 
 and he gives the number of families and of their places of worship, in 
 every town he visited, keeping during his journey an exact daily itinerary, 
 which includes nearly all the stations on the modern caravan routes. Al- 
 lowing for some exaggeration on the part of this traveller, it is still evident 
 that a very considerable Jewish population lived in the cities of Babylonia. 
 
 * Josephus against Appian, 1. i. cviii. The Jewish historian quotes from Hecataeus, 
 who gives a characteristic account of the attachment of the Jews to their faith. 
 t They were subdued by Lusius Quietus during the reign of the emperor Trajan, 
 t See Dr. Zunz's valuable essay on the Geographical Literature of the Jews, in the 
 2d vol. of Asher's Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. 
 
446 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 It has greatly diminished, and in some places has entirely disappeared. A 
 few families still linger at Hillah, and in Baghdad the principal native 
 trade and money transactions are carried on by Jews, who are the bankers 
 and brokers of the governors of the city, as they no doubt anciently were of 
 the Abasside Caliphs. 
 
 According to their own tradition these Hebrew families were descended 
 from the Jews of the captivity. They still preserved their pedigrees, and 
 traced their lineage to the princes and prophets of Judah. Their chief re- 
 sided at Baghdad, and his title was " Lord Prince of the Captivity." He 
 was lineally descended, according to his people, from king David himself. 
 Even Mohammedans acknowledged his claim to this noble birth, and called 
 him " Our Lord, the son of David." His authority extended over the coun- 
 tries of the East as far as Thibet and Hindostan. He was treated on all 
 occasions with the greatest honor and respect, and when he appeared in 
 public he wore robes of embroidered silk, and a white turban encircled by 
 a diadem of gold. * 
 
 We may then safely conclude, that these earthen bowls belonged to Jews 
 of Babylonia and Chaldcea. Indeed in one of the inscriptions (No. 2.) the 
 writer appears to call those for whom the charm was intended the " people 
 of the captivity ;" a title which was preserved amongst the Jews of Mes- 
 opotamia until the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Similar relics have 
 been found as I have stated in many ruins near Babylon. I discovered an 
 entire bowl, as well as many fragments, at NifFer. Nearly at the same 
 time, several were dug out of a mound about half-way between Baghdad 
 and Hillah, but they were unfortunately dispersed or destroyed before I 
 could obtain possession of them. On all these sites during the first centu- 
 ries of the Christian sera, dwelt Jewish families. It would appear that the 
 charms were either the work of stranger Jews, or were written in Babylo- 
 nia for persons who had come from a distance. The two cities or towns 
 mentioned on the bowls, numbered 1 and 5, were in the north of Mesopo- 
 tamia. Batnaiun is frequently mentioned by the early Christian fathers. 
 It was near Edessa, the modern Orfa, and was at one time well known by 
 its Arabic name of Serug.f Pozikiah appears to have been on the Eu- 
 phrates, near Samosate, and consequently not far from Batnaiun. A Chris- 
 tian convent stood there at a very early period.! The bowls must, there- 
 fore, either have been brought from those places to Babylon, or were pre- 
 pared for some of their inhabitants by Babylonish Jews, who, like the Chal- 
 dseans, amongst whom they dwelt, appear to have been celebrated for their 
 skill in the art of writing charms. The Sabsean characters on one of the 
 cups tends to show that the latter was the case. I may remark that the 
 two names were deciphered by Mr. Ellis before he was aware of the exist- 
 
 * Benjamin of Tudela's Travels; and see Milman's History of the Jews, book 
 xix. &c. 
 t Assemani (Bibl. Orient, vol. i. p. 283.) gives a full account of this town. 
 t See Assemani, vol. ii. p. 359. 
 
Chap. XXII.l Jewish inscriptions. 447 
 
 ence of the places, a satisfactory proof in favor of the general correctness of 
 his interpretations. 
 
 As no date whatever is found in the inscriptions, it is difficult to determ- 
 ine the exact time when they were written. We must endeavour to form 
 some opinion upon such internal evidence as they may afford. Mr. Ellis 
 remarks, that, " as this is the first time anything of the kind has been ex- 
 amined in Europe, he can only hazard a conjecture from the forms of the 
 letters, which are, certainly, the most ancient known specimens of the Chal- 
 dsean, and appear to have been invented for the purpose of writing the cu- 
 neiform character in a more cursive and expeditious manner."* In sup- 
 port of this conjecture he cites the language of the Assyrian inscriptions as 
 closely resembling that on the bowls. The relics, however, are evidently 
 of different dates. The most ancient seems to be that containing "the 
 Bill of Divorce to the Devils" (No. 1.). It might be referred to the sec- 
 ond or third century before Christ, but may be of a later period. Others, 
 such as No. 5. and No. 6. are undoubtedly of a more recent date, and might 
 even have been written as late as the fifth century of our era. The Syriac 
 characters on the latter bowl appear to have marks of a Sabaean or Men- 
 dean origin, and on a bowl from Mr. Stewart's collection there is an in- 
 scription, unfortunately almost destroyed and no longer decipherable, in that 
 peculiar character still used by the Sabseans of Susiana. 
 
 In the forms of expression and in the names of the angels, these inscrip- 
 tions bear a striking analogy to the apocryphal book of Enoch, which is 
 supposed to have been written by a Jew of the captivity, shortly before the 
 Christian era. That singular rhapsody also mentions the " sorceries, in- 
 cantations, and dividing of roots and trees," which appear to have been 
 practised by the Jews at that period, and to be alluded to on the bowls. f 
 
 As to the original use of these vessels it is not improbable, as conjectur- 
 ed by Mr. Ellis, that the writing was to be dissolved in water, to be drank 
 as a cure against disease, or a precaution against the arts of witchcraft 
 and magic. Similar remedies are still resorted to in the East in cases of 
 obstinate illness, and there are Mullahs who make the preparation of such 
 charms their peculiar profession. The modern inscriptions generally con- 
 sist of sentences from the Koran, interspersed with various mystic signs and 
 letters. But if such was their object it is evident that they could not have 
 been used for that purpose, as the writing upon them is perfectly fresh, and 
 it is essential that it should be entirely washed into the water to make 
 the remedy efficacious. As they were found at a considerable depth be- 
 
 * The form of the letters certainly approach the cuneiform character when writ- 
 ten with simple lines, as it is sometimes seen on Assyrian relics and monuments. 
 (See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 179.) I am not, however, at present ready 
 to admit that the early Chaldee square letters were derived from this source. 
 
 t See Book of Enoch translated by Bishop Lawrence, particularly chap. vii. sect. 
 2. and chap, lxviii. Among the names of the angels who came down to the daughters 
 of men and instructed them in sorcery and the magic arts, we find Tamiel, Agheel, 
 Azael, and Ramiel, and Raamiel, as on the bowls No. 2 and 3. 
 
448 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXII 
 
 neath the surface in mounds -which had undoubtedly been used as places 
 of sepulture, I am rather inclined to believe that they were charms buried 
 with the dead, or employed for some purpose at funeral ceremonies, and aft- 
 erwards placed in the grave. 
 
 In conclusion, I will only observe that the inscriptions in the woodcuts 
 are as nearly as possible facsimiles of the originals, though reduced in size, 
 and that they were copied with the greatest care by Mr. Scharf, under 
 the superintendence of Mr. Ellis. I trust, therefore, that Hebrew scholars 
 may be induced to examine their contents, and to investigate further the 
 history and date of these very curious relics. 
 
 Inscribed Earthen Bowls, from Babylon. 
 
Terracotta Tablet from Babylon, representing an Indian Dog. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 STATE OF THE RUINS OF BABYLON. CAUSE OF THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 NATURE OF ORIGINAL EDIFICES. BABYLONIAN BRICKS. — THE HISTORY OF BABYLON. 
 
 ITS FALL. ITS REMARKABLE POSITION. COMMERCE. CANALS AND ROADS. SKILL OF 
 
 BABYLONIANS IN THE ARTS. ENGRAVED GEMS. CORRUPTION OF MANNERS, AND CON- 
 SEQUENT FALL OF THE CITY. THE MECCA PILGRIMAGE. — SHEIKH IBN RESHID. THE 
 
 GEBEL SHAMMAR. TRIBES OF SOUTHERN MESOPOTAMIA. THE MOUNDS OF EL HYMER 
 
 OF ANANA. 
 
 Such then were the discoveries amongst the ruins of ancient Babylon. 
 They were far less numerous and important than I could have anticipated. 
 nor did they tend to prove that there were remains beneath the heaps of 
 earth and rubbish which would reward more extensive excavations. It 
 was not even possible to trace the general plan of any one edifice ; only 
 shapeless piles of masonry, and isolated walls and piers, were brought to 
 light — giving no clue whatever to the original form of the buildings to 
 which they belonged. If the tradition be true that Xerxes, to punish the 
 Babylonians and humiliate their priests, ordered them utterly to destroy 
 their temples and other great public edifices, and that Alexander the Great 
 employed 10,000 men in vain to clear away the rubbish from the temple 
 
 Ff 
 
450 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 of Belus alone,* it is not surprising that with a small band of Arabs little 
 progress should have been made in uncovering any part of the ancient 
 buildings. 
 
 No sculptures or inscribed slabs, the panelling of the walls of palaces, 
 have been discovered amongst the ruins of Babylon as in those of Nine- 
 veh. Scarcely a detached figure in stone, or a solitary tablet, has been dug 
 out of the vast heaps of rubbish. " Babylon is fallen, is fallen ; and all the 
 graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground."! 
 
 The complete absence of such remains is to be explained by the nature 
 of the materials used in the erection of even the most costly edifices. In 
 the immediate vicinity of Babylon there were no quarries of alabaster, or of 
 limestone, such as existed near Nineveh. The city was built in the midst 
 of an alluvial country, far removed from the hills. The comparatively re- 
 cent deposits of the mighty rivers which have gradually formed the Mes- 
 opotamian plains consist of a rich and very thick clay. Consequently 
 stone for building purposes could only be obtained from a distance. The 
 black basalt, a favorite material amongst the Babylonians for carving de- 
 tached figures, and for architectural ornaments, as appears from numerous 
 fragments found amongst the ruins, came from the Kurdish mountains, or 
 from the north of Mesopotamia. It was probably floated down the Eu- 
 phrates and Tigris on rafts from those districts. Limestone of an inferior 
 quality might have been quarried nearer to the city, but it seems to have 
 been little used for building purposes. The Assyrian alabaster could have 
 been brought from Nineveh, and the water communication by the rivers 
 and canals offered great facilities for transport; yet enormous labor and 
 expense would have been required to supply such materials in sufficient 
 quantities to construct an entire edifice, or even to panel the walls of its 
 chamois. 
 
 The Babylonians were, therefore, content to avail themselves of the 
 building materials which they found on the spot. With the tenacious mud 
 of their alluvial plains, mixed with chopped straw, they made bricks, whilst 
 bitumen and other substances collected from the immediate neighbourhood 
 furnished them with an excellent cement. A knowledge of the art of 
 manufacturing glaze, and of compounding colors, enabled them to cover 
 their bricks with a rich enamel, thereby rendering them equally ornamental 
 for the exterior and interior of their edifices. The walls of their palaces 
 and temples were also coated, as we learn from several passages in the 
 Bible, with mortar and plaster, which, judging from their cement, must 
 have been of very fine quality. The fingers of the man's hand wrote the 
 words of condemnation of the Babylonian empire "upon the plaster of the 
 wall of the king's palace. "$ Upon those walls were painted historical 
 and religious subjects, and various ornaments, and, according to Diodorus 
 Siculus, the bricks were enamelled with the figures of men and animals. 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1049. Oxf. ed. Arrian, lib. vii. 17. t Isaiah, xxi. 9. 
 
 f Daniel, v. 5 
 
Chap. XXIII. ] tablet of Nebuchadnezzar. 453 
 
 Images of stone were no doubt introduced into the buildings. We learn 
 from the Bible that figures of the gods in this material, as well as in metal, 
 were kept in the Babylonian temples. But such sculptures were not com- 
 mon, otherwise more remains of them must have been discovered in the 
 ruins. 
 
 On one of the most important Babylonian relics brought to this country 
 we have some highly curious notices of the architecture of the Babyloni- 
 ans. They are contained in tablets inscribed upon a black stone, and di- 
 vided into ten columns. The inscription commences, according to Dr. 
 Hincks, with the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, whose 
 reign began, it may be inferred from Ptolemy's canon, b. c. 604. He is 
 called " Nabukudurruchur, king of Babylon, son of Nabubaluchun, king of 
 Babylon." We may infer that his grandfather was not a king from the 
 omission of his name. The subsequent part of the inscription contains no 
 notice of any foreign conquests, but speaks of the building of various tem- 
 ples and palaces in addition to the walls of Babylon and Borsippa. Men- 
 tion is also made of works undertaken at Bit-Shaqqathu and Bit-Zida ;* 
 but whether these were distinct cities may be doubted. Minute details 
 are given of the various ornaments used in some of the temples and pal- 
 aces, and these decorations appear to have been very rich. If the tablets 
 could be completely deciphered, and the meaning of many doubtful words 
 accurately ascertained, much information would be obtained relating to 
 Babylonian architecture. The walls were built of burned bricks and bit- 
 umen lined with gypsum and other materials. Some seem to have been 
 wainscotted. Over these walls was woodwork, and on the top an awning 
 sustained by poles, like "the white, green, and. blue hangings, fastened 
 with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings, and pillars of marble," 
 in Ahasuerus' palace at Shushan.f Some of the woodwork is said to have 
 been gilt, other parts silvered : and a large portion of it was brought from 
 Lebanon. 
 
 Marduk appears in this inscription as the principal deity of Babylon, 
 holding the place that Ashur does on the monuments of Nineveh. He is 
 called " the great Lord," " Lord of Lord," " Elder of the Gods," &c. Nebu 
 seems to hold the second rank. The king oners him thanksgiving for what 
 he has already done, and prays for his blessing on himself and his house.} 
 
 It may be conjectured that in their general plan the Babylonian palaces 
 
 * The first name may mean the "house of peace" (compare Hebrew DpttO' the 
 second "the house of pride," or "the house of enlargement." The two places are 
 mentioned together in a fragment of the annals of Pul (B. M. Series, 34. 6.). On 
 Lord Aberdeen's stone Bit-Shaqqathu is called " the palace of the Gods," and is men- 
 tioned in connection with Babylon ; whilst on Grotfend's cylinder the Gods of the 
 two places are spoken of as distinct from each other. (Dr. Hincks.) 
 
 t Esther, i. 6. 
 
 % This inscription was obtained from some ruins near Baghdad by Sir Harford 
 Jones, and is now in the Museum of the East India Company. A facsimile of it has 
 been published. 
 
452 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XXIII. 
 
 and temples resembled those of Assyria. "We know that the arts, the re- 
 ligion, the customs, and the laws of the two kindred people were nearly 
 identical. They spoke, also, the same language, and used, very nearly, 
 the same written characters. One appears to have borrowed from the oth- 
 er ; and, without attempting to decide the question of priority of independ- 
 ent existence as a nation and of civilisation, it can be admitted that they 
 had to a certain extent a common origin, and that they maintained for 
 many centuries an intimate connection. \Ye find no remains of columns 
 at Babylon, as none have been found at Nineveh. If such architectural 
 ornaments were used, they must have been either of wood or of brick. 
 The massy pillars, with Egyptian-like capitals, usually chosen by artists 
 for the restoration of Belshazzar's palaces and temples, are the mere crea- 
 tions of fancy, and are not warranted by any existing remains whatever.* 
 The Babylonian column more probably resembled, in form and proportions, 
 that of Nineveh and Persepolis. It may have been a modification of the 
 Assyrian which afterward gave birth to the Persian, for it was through 
 Babylon that the arts appear to have penetrated partly, if not entirely, into 
 Persia. 
 
 Although the building materials thus used in the great edifices of Bab- 
 ylon may seem extremely mean when compared with those employed in 
 the stupendous palace-temples of Egypt, and even in the less massive edi- 
 fices of Assyria, yet the Babylonians appear to have raised, with them 
 alone, structures which excited the wonder and admiration of the most fa- 
 mous travellers of antiquity. The profuse use of color, and the taste dis- 
 played in its combination, and in the ornamental designs, together with the 
 solidity and vastness of the immense substructure upon which the budd- 
 ings proudly stood, may have chiefly contributed to produce this effect upon 
 the minds of strangers. The palaces and temples, like those of Nineveh, 
 were erected upon lofty platforms of brickwork. The origin of Assyrian 
 architecture, which I have elsewhere described,! was especially that of 
 Babylon. The bricks, as in Assyria, were either simply baked in the sun, 
 or were burnt in the kiln. The latter are of more than one shape and qual- 
 ity. Some are square ; others are oblong. $ Those from the Birs Nimroud 
 are generally of a dark red color, whilst those from the Mujelibe are mostly 
 of a light yellow. Specimens have been frequently brought to this coun- 
 try, and are to be found in many public and private collections. It is well 
 known that a large number of them have inscriptions in a complex cunei- 
 form character peculiar to Babylon. By comparing several bricks, it will 
 
 * According to Strabo, the Babylonians, being unable to procure other wood, made 
 their beams and columns of the trunks of palm trees, binding them together with 
 twisted reeds, and then painting the whole with colors. (Lib. xvi. p. 1050. Oxf. ed.). 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. 2d part, chap. ii. 
 
 t The usual dimensions of the Babylonian bricks are as nearly as possible one foot 
 square, by three and a half inches thick. Rich says thirteen inches square. Mr. Birch 
 has conjectured that they may represent multiples of some Babylonian measure, per- 
 haps the cubit. 
 
Chap. XXIII.] HIST0RY 0F Babylon. 453 
 
 be seen that the superscriptions have been impressed upon them by a stamp, 
 on which the whole inscription was cut in relief. Each character was not 
 made singly, as on the Assyrian bricks, and this is the distinction between 
 them. The Babylonian inscribed bricks long excited the curiosity of the 
 learned, and gave rise to a variety of ingenious speculations as to their use 
 and meaning. By some they were believed to be public documents ; others 
 saw in the writing dedications to the gods, or registers of gifts to temples. 
 The question has now been entirely set at rest by the discovery made by 
 Dr. Hincks, that almost every brick hitherto obtained from the ruins of 
 Babylon bears the same inscription, with the exception of one or two un- 
 important words, and that they record the building of the city by Nebu- 
 chadnezzar the son of Nabubaluchun (?). 
 
 As many as eight lines in close writing, and sometimes letters in a cur- 
 sive character, allied to the Phoenician and other Semetic alphabets, are 
 stamped on a few of these bricks : but such specimens are very rare, and 
 the inscriptions upon them have not yet, as far as I am aware, been satis- 
 factorily deciphered. On some bricks are rude figures of animals. 
 
 A few inscribed tablets of stone and baked clay, figures in bronze and 
 terracotta, metal objects of various kinds, and engraved cylinders and gems r 
 have been almost the only undoubted Babylonian antiquities hitherto 
 brought to Europe. Such relics are preserved in many cabinets. The 
 small original collection in the British Museum belonged partly to Sir Rob- 
 ert Ker Porter, and partly to Mr. Rich. 
 
 It may not be out of place to add a few remarks upon the history of 
 Babylon. The time of the foundation of this celebrated city is still a ques- 
 tion which does not admit of a satisfactory determination, and into which 1 
 will not enter. Some believe it to have taken place at a comparatively 
 recent date ; but if, as Egyptian scholars assert, the name of Babylon is 
 found on monuments of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, we have positive 
 evidence of its existence at least in the fifteenth century before Christ.* 
 After the rise of the Assyrian empire, it appears to have been at one time 
 under the direct rule of the kings of Nineveh, and at another to have been 
 governed by its own independent chiefs. Expeditions against Babylonia 
 are recorded in the earliest inscriptions yet discovered in Assyria ; and, as it 
 has been seen, even in the time of Sennacherib and his immediate prede- 
 cessors, large armies were still frequently sent against its rebellious inhab- 
 itants. The Babylonian kingdom was, however, almost absorbed in that 
 of Assyria, the dominant power of the East. When this great empire be- 
 gan to decline, Babylon rose for the last time. Media and Persia were 
 equally ready to throw off the Assyrian yoke, and at length the allied ar- 
 mies of Cyaxares and the father of Nebuchadnezzar captured and destroyed 
 the capital of the Eastern world. 
 
 Babylon now rapidly succeeded to that proud position so long held by 
 
 * Mr. Birch has found more than one notice of Babylon on Egyptian monuments of 
 the time of Thothmes III. 
 
454 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XXUl. 
 
 Nineveh. Under Nebuchadnezzar she acquired the power forfeited by her 
 rival. The bounds of the city were extended ; buildings of extraordinary 
 size and magnificence were erected ; her victorious armies conquered Syria 
 and Palestine, and penetrated into Egypt. Her commerce, too, had now 
 spread far and wide, from the east to the west, and she became " a land of 
 traffic and a city of merchants. "* 
 
 But her greatness as an independent nation was short-lived. The neigh- 
 bouring kingdoms of Media and Persia, united under one monarch, had 
 profited, no less than Babylon, by the ruin of the Assyrian empire, and were 
 ready to dispute with her the dominion of Asia. Scarcely half a century 
 had elapsed from the fall of Nineveh, when " Belshazzar, the king of the 
 Chaldseans, was slain, and Darius, the Median, took the kingdom."! From 
 that time Babylonia sank into a mere province of Persia. It still, howev- 
 er, retained much of its former power and trade, and, as we learn from the 
 inscriptions of Bisutun, as well as from ancient authors, struggled more 
 than once to regain its ancient independence. 
 
 After the defeat of Darius and the overthrow of the Persian supremacy, 
 Babylon opened its gates to Alexander, who deemed the city not unwor- 
 thy to become the capital of his mighty empire. On his return from In- 
 dia he wished to rebuild the temple of Belus, which had fallen into ruins, 
 and in that great work he had intended to employ his army, now no longer 
 needed for war. The priests, however, who had appropriated the revenues 
 of this sacred shrine, and feared lest they would have again to apply them 
 to their rightful purposes, appear to have prevented him from carrying out 
 his design. $ 
 
 The last blow to the prosperity and even existence of Babylon was given 
 by Seleucus when he laid the foundation of his new capital on the banks 
 of the Tigris (b. c. 322). Already Patrocles, his general, had compelled a 
 large number of the inhabitants to abandon their homes, and to take ref- 
 uge in the Desert, and in the province of Susiana.§ The city, exhausted 
 by the neighbourhood of Seleucia, returned to its ancient solitude. || Ac- 
 cording to some authors, neither the walls nor the temple of Belus existed 
 
 * Ezekiel, xvii. 4. 
 
 t Daniel, v. 30, 31. This event took place b. c. 538. Whether the Darius of the 
 book of Daniel be Cyrus himself, or a Median who commanded the armies of that 
 monarch, and was afterwards appointed viceroy of Babylon, is one of the many dis- 
 puted points of ancient history. 
 
 t Arrian, Exp. Alex. 1. vii. c. 17. See Jeremy's Epistle in the Apocryphal book 
 of Baruch, vi. 10, 11. and 28., for instances of the cupidity of the Babylonian priests. 
 They had even stripped the idols of their robes and ornaments to adorn their wives 
 and children. This epistle contains a very curious account of the idol worship of the 
 Babylonians. 
 
 $ Diod. Sic. xix. 100. 
 
 H Caetero ad solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seleuciae. (Pliny, 1. vi. c. 30. \ 
 Strabo states that part of the city was destroyed by the Persians, and part by time, 
 and that the rest perished in consequence of the neglect of the Macedonians. It had 
 become, he declares, a vast solitude (lib. xvi. p. 2019.). 
 
Chap. XXIII.] importance of babylon. 455 
 
 any longer, and only a few Chaldseans continued to dwell around the ruins 
 of their sacred edifices.* 
 
 Still, however, a part of the population appears to have returned to their 
 former seats, for in the early part of the second century of the Christian 
 sera we find the Parthian king, Evemerus, sending numerous families from 
 Babylon into Media to be sold as slaves, and burning many great and beau- 
 tiful edifices still standing in the city.f 
 
 In the time of Augustus, the city is said to have been entirely deserted, 
 except by a few Jews who still lingered amongst the ruins. X St. Cyril, 
 of Alexandria, declares that in his day, about the beginning of the fifth 
 century, in consequence of the choking up of the great canals derived from 
 the Euphrates, Babylon had become a vast marsh : and fifty years later 
 the river is described as having changed its course, leaving only a small 
 channel to mark its ancient bed. Then were verified the prophecies of 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah, that the mighty Babylon should be but " pools of wa- 
 ter," " that the sea should come upon her, and that she should be covered 
 with the multitude of the waves thereof. "§ 
 
 In the beginning of the seventh century, at the time of the Arab inva- 
 sion, the ancient cities of Babylonia were " a desolation, a dry land, and a 
 wilderness." Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself 
 there rose tjie small town of Hillah.ll 
 
 Long before Babylon had overcome her rival Nineveh she was famous 
 for the extent and importance of her commerce. No position could have 
 then been more favourable than hers for carrying on a trade with all the 
 regions of the known world. She stood upon a navigable stream that 
 brought to her quays the produce of the temperate highlands of Armenia, 
 approached in one part of its course within almost one hundred miles of 
 the Mediterranean Sea, and emptied its waters into a gulf of the Indian 
 Ocean. Parallel with this great river was one scarcely inferior in size 
 and importance. The Tigris, too, came from the Armenian hills, flowed 
 through the fertile districts of Assyria, and carried their varied produce to 
 the Babylonian cities. Moderate skill and enterprise could scarcely fail to 
 make Babylon, not only the emporium of the Eastern world, but the main 
 link of commercial intercourse between the East and the West. 
 
 The inhabitants did not neglect the advantages bestowed upon them by 
 nature. A system of navigable canals that may excite the admiration of 
 
 * Pausanias, Attic, c. 16. But according to Pliny, the temple of Belus still existed 
 in his day (lib. vi. c. 30.). 
 
 t b. c. 127. Diod. Sic. Fragm. 1. xxxiv. c. 21. Justin, 1. xlii. c. 1. Athenaeus, 1. 
 xi. p. 463. 
 
 t And yet Trajan is said to have visited the house in Babylon in which Alexander 
 died, and to have performed religious ceremonies to the memory of the hero. (Dio 
 in Excerpt, p. 785.) $ Isaiah, xiv. 23. Jeremiah, li. 42. 
 
 II See an interesting Memoir on Babylon, by M. de St. Croix, in the 48th vol. of the 
 Transactions of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, in which all the 
 authorities on the subject of the gradual decay of the city are collected. 
 
456 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXI11 
 
 even the modern engineer, connected together the Euphrates and Tigris, 
 those great arteries of her commerce. With a skill, showing no common 
 knowledge of the art of surveying, and of the principles of hydraulics, the 
 Babylonians took advantage of the different levels in the plains, and of the 
 periodical rises in the two rivers, to complete the water communication be- 
 tween all parts of the province, and to fertilise by artificial irrigation an 
 otherwise barren and unproductive soil. Alexander, after he had trans- 
 ferred the seat of his empire to the East, so fully understood the importance 
 of these great works, that he ordered them to be cleansed and repaired, and 
 superintended the work in person, steering his boat with his own hand 
 through the channels. I have so frequently had occasion to mention them, 
 and to describe their actual remains, that I will not weary the reader with 
 a further account of them. 
 
 High-roads and causeways across the Desert united Syria and Palestine 
 with Babylonia. Fortified stations protected the merchant from the wan- 
 dering tribes of Arabia, walled cities served as resting-places and store-houses. 
 and wells at regular intervals gave an abundant supply of water durinu 
 the hottest season of the year. One of those highways was carried through 
 the centre of Mesopotamia, and crossing the Euphrates near the town oi 
 Anthemusia led into central Syria.* A second appears to have left Baby- 
 lon by the western quarter of the city, and entered Idumsea, after passing 
 through the country of the Nabathseans. Others branched off to Tadmor. 
 and to cities which were built in the midst of the Desert almost solely for 
 purposes of trade. 
 
 To the east of Babylonia was the celebrated military and commercial 
 road described by Herodotus. t It led from Sardis to Susa in ninety days' 
 journey, and was furnished, at intervals of about fifteen miles, with sta- 
 tions, and public hostelries, probably resembling the modern caravanserais 
 of Persia. 
 
 Merchandise and travellers descended the rivers upon rafts of skins, as 
 well as in boats built of reeds coated with bitumen, or of more solid ma- 
 terials. The land trade was no doubt principally carried on, as at the pres- 
 ent day, by caravans of merchants, who loaded their goods on the backs of 
 camels, horses, and asses. The Assyrian sculptures show that waggons 
 and carts drawn by mules and oxen were not unknown, and as the roads 
 appear to have been carefully kept in repair, this more convenient and 
 cheaper mode of transporting merchandise was probably not neglected. 
 
 It is difficult to determine to how far the Babylonians may have navi- 
 gated in vessels the Indian Ocean. $ Of the various articles of merchand- 
 ise stored in Babylon, the produce of the islands and shores of the Persian 
 Gulf, and even of India, formed no inconsiderable part. Pearls, from the 
 fisheries of Bahrein, which still supply Arabia, Persia, and Turkey, and per- 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1061. Oxf. ed. t L. v. c. 52 and 53. 
 
 t Heeren, with his usual critical skill, has investigated the subject in his essay ov 
 the commerce of the Babylonians, in the 2d vol. of his Historical Researches. 
 
Chap XXIII.l commerce of babylon. 457 
 
 haps even from Ceylon ; cotton, spices, frankincense, precious stones, ivory, 
 ebony, silks, and dyes, were amongst the objects of trade brought to her 
 markets. They could only have been obtained from the southern coasts 
 of Arabia, and directly or indirectly from the Indian peninsula. We learn 
 from the Kouyunjik inscriptions that the people inhabiting the country at 
 the mouths of the united waters of the Tigris and Euphrates possessed ves- 
 sels in which, when defeated by the Assyrians, they took refuge on the sea. 
 The prophet Isaiah*also alludes to the ships of the Chaldaeans.^ Timber 
 for ship-building could have been floated with ease from the mountains of 
 Armenia to the very quays of Babylon, or to her ports at the head of the 
 Persian Gulf. We have seen that Sennacherib sent down the Tigris the 
 materials for the construction of the vessels required in the siege of the cities 
 of southern Chaldaea, and that he employed Phoenician mariners to build 
 and navigate them. 
 
 But although a coasting trade might have existed along the shores of 
 the Persian Gulf and of the ocean as far as India, yet a very considerable 
 trade was also carried on by land with the same country, through Media ; 
 Hyrcania, and the centre of Asia. It was by this road that gold and va- 
 rious precious stones were probably supplied to Babylon and Nineveh. 
 
 A race of dogs too, much prized by the Babylonians, was brought from 
 India. A satrap of Babylon is declared to have devoted the revenues of 
 four citiesf to the support of a number of these animals. On a small ter- 
 racotta tablet in the British Museum, from Col. Rawlinson's collection, ob- 
 tained, I believe, at Baghdad, but probably found in some ancient ruin in 
 the neighbourhood, is the figure of a man leading a large and powerful 
 dog, which has been identified with a species still existing in Thibet.^ 
 
 Tin, cedar-wood, and various articles, were brought from Phoenicia and 
 other parts of Syria, which were in return supplied with the produce of 
 India and the Persian Gulf, through Babylon. § 
 
 Whilst the Babylonians thus imported the produce of the East and West, 
 they also supplied foreign countries with many valuable articles of trade. 
 Corn, which according to tradition first grew wild in Mesopotamia, and 
 was there first eaten by man, was cultivated to a great extent, and war- 
 sent to distant provinces. The Babylonian carpets, silks, and woollen fab- 
 rics, woven or embroidered with figures of mythic animals and with ex- 
 quisite designs, were not less famous for the beauty of their texture anil 
 workmanship, than for the richness and variety of their colors. The much- 
 prized Sindones, or flowing garments, were the work of the looms of Baby- 
 lon even long after she had ceased to be a city.H 
 
 * xliii. 14. f Herod. 1. i. c. 192. 
 
 t See woodcut at the head of the chapter. $ Ezekiel, xxvii. 15 
 
 || Of the early reputation of the looms of Babylon we may form an idea from the 
 fact of "a goodly Babylonish garment" (i. e. garment of Shinar) being mentioned in 
 the book of Joshua (vii. 21.) amongst the objects buried by Aehan in his tent. In a 
 curious deeree of the time of Diocletian, regulating the maximum value of articles 
 of clothing and food throughout the Roman empire, several objects from Babylon art- 
 
15 S 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 The engraved gems and cylinders discovered in the rains bear ample 
 witness to the skill of the Babylonian lapidaries. Many of these relic = ex- 
 ist in European collections, and, during my residence at Hillah. I was able 
 
 to obtain several inl 
 
 SI iug specimens firom the 
 
 ~ ,= - Arabs, who usually pick 
 
 S _J them up on the mounds 
 c ^—-^ ai:ei»rain. The most re- 
 \ ^ markable of them is a 
 JF'^IhJ cylinder of spotted 
 ^— - ~J — — ___ _^J ite, upon which are in- 
 
 if .My/ _J / J^ f seven figures, and a 
 
 7~ ; \ — " ~~~ :rw Babylonian charac- 
 
 ters The figures are cut 
 with delicacy and spirit. Six appear to represent foreign captives. X 
 are led by a warrior, armed with bow and arrows, and having on his back 
 a quiver ending in a sharp point like the head of a spear. The prisoners 
 are clothed in robes of skin or fur. One wears a flat projecting cap 
 two of them carry weapons in the form of a picki: 1 he fourth Gg 
 
 seems to be that of a woman, and the last two are small b than the 
 
 others. One bears on his shoulders a table or stool, the otnVr a bag hang- 
 ing on a hooked stick. The letters of the inscription are rudely formed, 
 and have not yet been deciphered. 
 
 Another interesting gem obtained by me at Babylon is an agate cone, 
 upon the base of which is engraved a winged priest or dei- 
 ty, standing in an atti- 
 
 
 :uie •:: v:;.;rr ce::re 
 
 a cock on an altar. 
 
 Above this group is 
 
 the crescent moon. 
 
 The Hebrew com- 
 
 r..v:.:i:::;^ :::.;'r ::ure 
 that INergal. the idol of the men of 
 Cuth. had the form of a cock.f On 
 a cylinder in the British Museum 
 there is a subject almost similar. . - 
 
 A priest, wearing the sacrificial Cylinder in the British MusetmL 
 
 ress, stands at a table, before an altar bearing a crescent., and a smaller 
 
 Babylonian skins of the first quality are rated at 500 denarii : of the sec- 
 ond quality at 40 : Babylonian shoes, called mullai. at 120 denarii per pair ; and a 
 Babylonian girdle at 100. Plain Babylonian socks are also mentioned, but the amount 
 at which they were valued is wanting. This decree was discovered at E- H 
 the ancient Stratoniceia. in Asia Minor. (See Leake's Asia Minor.) 
 ien, De Dis Syris, p 
 - And the men of Cuth made NergaL" in Samaria, where they had'been trans- 
 planted after the first captivity. (2 Kings, xvii. 30.) The country of the Cuthites 
 
Chap. XXIII.] DECAY 0F babylon. 459 
 
 altar, on which stands a cock. It would appear, therefore, that this bird 
 was either worshipped by the Babylonians or by some neighbouring na- 
 tion ; or that it was sacrificed, as in Greece, on the celebration of certain 
 religious ceremonies. # 
 
 In the last chapter of this work I shall describe other engraved gems 
 found in the ruins of Assyria and Babylonia, and shall then show the use 
 to which they were applied. 
 
 The vast trade, that rendered Babylon the gathering-place of men from 
 all parts of the known world, and supplied her with luxuries from the re- 
 motest climes, had at the same time the effect of corrupting the manners 
 of her people, and producing that general profligacy and those effeminate 
 customs which mainly contributed to her fall. The description given by 
 Herodotus of the state of the population of the city when under the do- 
 minion of the Persian kings, is fully sufficient to explain the cause of her 
 speedy decay and ultimate ruin. The account of the Greek historian fully 
 tallies with the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets against the sin and 
 wickedness of Babylon. Her inhabitants had gradually lost their warlike 
 character. When the Persians broke into their city they were revelling in 
 debauchery and lust ; and when the Macedonian conqueror appeared at 
 their gates, they received with indifference the yoke of a new master. 
 
 It is not difficult to account for the rapid decay of the country around 
 Babylon. As the inhabitants deserted the city the canals were neglect- 
 ed. When once those great sources of fertility were choked up, the plains 
 became a wilderness. Upon the waters conveyed by their channels to the 
 innermost parts of Mesopotamia depended not only the harvests, the gar- 
 dens, and the palm groves, but the very existence of the numerous towns 
 and villages far removed from the river banks. They soon turned to mere 
 heaps of earth and rubbish. Vegetation ceased, and the plains, parched by 
 the burning heat of the sun, were ere long once again a vast arid waste. 
 
 Such has been the history of Babylon. Her career was equally short 
 and splendid ; and although she has thus perished from the face of the 
 earth, her ruins are still classic, indeed sacred, ground. The traveller visits, 
 with no common emotion, those shapeless heaps, the scene of so many great 
 and solemn events. In this plain, according to tradition, the primitive 
 families of our race first found a resting-place. Here Nebuchadnezzar 
 boasted of the glories of his city, and was punished for his pride. To these 
 deserted halls were brought the captives of Judasa. In them Daniel, un- 
 dazzled by the glories around him, remained steadfast to his faith, rose to 
 be a governor amongst his rulers, and prophesied the downfall of the king- 
 dom. There was held Belshazzar's feast, and was seen the writing upon 
 the wall. Between those crumbling mounds Cyrus entered the neglected 
 gates. Those massive ruins cover the spot where Alexander died. 
 
 was probably in the neighbourhood of Babylon, though the commentators have not 
 agreed upon its exact site. Josephus says that it was in Persia (Antiq. ix. 14.). 
 
 * Can this image have any connection with the brazen figure of the bird which I 
 have described in a former part of this work as belonging to the Yezidis 1 
 
160 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIII 
 
 Soon after my arrival at Hillah, the caravan of the hadj, or annual pil- 
 grimage to Mecca, passed through the town on its way to Baghdad. I met 
 the pilgrims outside the walls. The friends and relations of those who had 
 undertaken this difficult and perilous journey had come out to greet them 
 on their return. The holy places had this year been visited by the cholera, 
 and of the many who had crossed the Desert few had survived. In the 
 crowd that had assembled on the high road were mingled scenes of grief 
 and joy. Here a parent was lamenting for his child, there a child was 
 seeking in vain for his parent. A few yards distant, those more fortunate 
 were embracing and weeping. The mournful wail of the women was 
 heard above the merry laugh of those who had again found their friends. 
 A few stately old Seyyids, who appeared to be without kith or kin in this 
 world, rode along unmoved on their white asses, rejoicing in the sanctity ac- 
 quired by the faithful performance of one of the chief duties imposed upon 
 true believers. The wild Bedouins of Nedjd, who had guided and protected 
 the pilgrims during their arduous journey, passed through the throng on 
 their weary dromedaries. 
 
 After a lapse of some years the annual hadj from the south of Turkey 
 and Persia had been able to follow the direct road to Mecca across the 
 desert of Nedjd and the interior of Arabia. The country on the way is in- 
 habited by numerous Arab tribes, governed by different chiefs, and usually 
 at Avar with each other. It is, moreover, infested by bands of Bedouins, 
 who, combining for the purpose of plunder, leave their tents in the Syrian 
 plains and undertake journeys of two or three months, merely to intercept 
 and plunder caravans. 
 
 Of late years Ibn Reshid, a chief of the Gebel Shammar, has by his cour- 
 age and abilities acquired the whole of that district ; and has rendered him- 
 self sufficiently powerful to hold in check the various tribes which surround 
 it. Pilgrims under his protection could, therefore, again venture to take 
 the shortest road to Mecca. He undertook to furnish them with camels, 
 and to answer for their safety from Hillah to the holy cities and back. 
 The terms agreed upon were, that each Arab pilgrim should pay 150 gha- 
 zees (rather more than 26Z.). Of this sum 70 ghazees was to go to the 
 Sheikh, and the rest to the owner of the camels. Persian pilgrims, being 
 heretical in doctrine, had, of course, to be taxed accordingly, and the sum 
 required from them amounted to nearly 100/. 
 
 The chief punctually fulfilled his engagement, and the caravan I have 
 described was the first that had crossed the Desert for many years without 
 accident or molestation. It was under the charge of Abd-ur-Rahman, a re- 
 lation of Ibn Reshid. I frequently saw this Sheikh during his short resi- 
 dence at Hillah, and he urged me to return with him to the Gebel Sham- 
 mar. Zaid and several other Agayls offered to accompany me ; and it was 
 with great regret that I felt unable, on various accounts, to undertake a jour- 
 ney into a country so little known, and so interesting, as central Arabia * 
 A better opportunity could scarcely have occurred for entering Nedjd. 
 
 * Dr. Wallin, a native of Finland, is, I believe, the only European traveller who hes 
 
Chap. XXIIL] sheikh ibn reshid - 461 
 
 According to my Bedouin friends, a rider on a good deloul could reach 
 the first village in Gebel Shammar within eight days ; or, as Suttum ex- 
 pressed it, a man might go through his mid-day prayers in the mosque oi* 
 Hillah on one Friday, and be in the Gebel in time to perform the same 
 ceremony on that day week. But for three days there are no wells, and a 
 supply of water must be carried in skins for that time. 
 
 Sheikh Abd-ur-Rahman described the Gebel Shammar as abounding in 
 fertile valleys, where the Arabs had villages and cultivated lands. The 
 inhabitants are of the same great tribe of Shammar as those who wander 
 over the plains of Mesopotamia. Suttum told me that his family still pos- 
 sessed their gardens in the hills ; and although, from long absence, their 
 produce had been gathered by strangers, yet that he could by law at any 
 time return and claim them. 
 
 Ibn Reshid was described to me as a powerful, and, for an Arab, an en 
 lightened chief, who had restored security to the country, and who desired 
 to encourage trade and the passage of caravans through his territories. 
 His mares and horses, collected from the tribes of central Arabia, were de- 
 clared to excel all those of the Desert in beauty and in blood. Hawking 
 and hunting are his favorite amusements, and game abounds in the hills 
 and plains. Amongst the wild animals are lions, leopards, deer, and a kind 
 of ox or large antelope, I could not learn exactly which, called Wothaiyah, 
 said to have long spiral horns, and to be exceedingly fierce and dangerous. 
 
 I was assured that in the Gebel Shammar there are ruins of large cities, 
 attributed by the Arabs to the Jews. Inscriptions in an unknown charac- 
 ter are also said to exist on slabs of stone and on rocks. They may be that 
 class called Himyari, found in other parts of the Arabian peninsula. 
 
 The principal tribes encamping near Hillah, and in the south of Meso- 
 potamia, are the Maidan, the Kazail, the Zobeide, and the Montefik.^ The 
 Maidan, according to their traditions, are descended from the people who 
 dwelt in the marshes long before the time of the Prophet. f The Kazail 
 are said to have come from Mecca, and to have been the original guardians 
 of the holy Kaaba, the keys of which were sold by their chief for a bottle 
 of wine ; an anecdote told by Arab authors of the Khazaites, who may, how- 
 ever, be of the same tribe. The Zobeide are famous in the history of the 
 first Mohammedan wars, and are still numerous and powerful. The Mon- 
 tefik possess vast palm groves, and have erected permanent settlements on 
 the banks of the lower Euphrates. Their principal town is Soug-el-Shiouk, 
 the market of the Sheikhs, where their chief resides. 
 
 About two hours and a half, or eight miles to the north-east of Hillah, a 
 mound, scarcely inferior in size to those of Babylon, rises in the plain. It 
 
 passed through this part of Arabia. See an account of his Journey in the 20th vol. 
 of the Royal Geog. Soc. Journal, p. 293. 
 
 * There are numerous smaller tribes, such as the Shammar-Togha and the Jebour, 
 but they are generally under the chiefs of the greater. 
 
 t Strabo states that, in his time, to the south of Mesopotamia, were wandering Arab 
 tribes, who were shepherds and thieves (lib. xvi. p. 1807. Oxf. ed.^ 
 
462 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXIII. 
 
 is called El Hymer, meaning, according to the Arabs, the red, from its color. 
 The ruin has assumed a pyramidal form, but it is evidently the remains of 
 a solid square structure, consisting, like the Birs Nimroud. of a series of ter- 
 races or platforms. It may be conjectured, therefore, that it was a sacred 
 edifice built upon the same general plan as all the temples of Babylonia 
 and Assyria. The basement or substructure appears to have been of sun- 
 dried brick ; the upper part, and probably the casing of the lower, of brick* 
 burnt in the kiln. Many of the latter are inscribed with the name and ti- 
 tles of Nebuchadnezzar. Although the masonry is solid and firmly bound 
 together, it is not united by a white cement like that of the Mujelibe. The 
 same tenacious mud that was used for making the bricks has been daubed, 
 as far as I could ascertain, between each layer. The ruin is traversed like 
 the Birs by square holes to admit air. 
 
 Around the centre structure are scattered smaller mounds and heaps of 
 rubbish, covered with the usual fragments of pottery, glass, and bricks. 
 
 Opposite to the Mujelibe (or Kasr), on the western bank of the Euphra- 
 tes, is a village called Anana, and near it a quadrangle of earthen ramparts, 
 like the remains of a fortified inclosure. A large mass of brick masonry is 
 still seen in the river bed when the stream is low. The inhabitants of the 
 village brought me a fragment of black stone with a rosette ornament upon 
 it, very Assyrian in character. With the exception of these remains, and 
 the Birs Nimroud, there are scarcely any ruins of ancient buildings on the 
 Arabian side of the Euphrates. 
 
 On the eastern bank low mounds covered with broken pottery and glass 
 are found in almost every direction. One resembles another, and there is 
 nothing either in their appearance or in their contents, as far as they have 
 hitherto been ascertained, deserving of particular description. They only 
 prove how vast and thriving the population of this part of Mesopotamia 
 must at one time have been, and how complete is the destruction that has 
 fallen upon this devoted land. 
 
 Heads of Arab Delouls. 
 
Arab Man and Woman. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 RUINS IN SOUTHERN MESOPOTAMIA. DEPARTURE FROM HILLAH. SAND-HILLS. VILLAGES 
 
 IN THE JEZIREH. SHEIKH KARBOUL. RUINS. FIRST VIEW OF NIFFER. THE MARSHES. 
 
 ARAB BOATS. ARRIVE AT SOUK-EL-AFAIJ. SHEIKH AGAB. TOWN OF THF AFAIJ. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS OF NIFFER. EXCAVATIONS IN THE MOUNDS. DISCOVERY 
 
 OF COFFINS OF VARIOUS RELICS. MR. LOFTUS' DISCOVERIES AT WURKA. THE ARAH 
 
 TRIBES. WILD BEASTS. LIONS. CUSTOMS OF THE AFAIJ. LEAVE THE MARSHES. RE- 
 TURN TO BAGHDAD. A MIRAGE. 
 
 The south, of Mesopotamia abounds in extensive and important ruins, of 
 which little is known. The country around them is inhabited by Arabs 
 of the tribes of Rubbiyah and Ahl Maidan, notorious for their lawlessness, 
 •and scarcely more intelligent or human than the buffalos which they tend. 
 One or two travellers have passed these remains of ancient civilisation 
 when journeying through the Jezireh, or have received descriptions of them 
 from natives of the country. Mr. Loftus was the first to explore the most 
 important. Being attached, as geologist, to the mission for the settlement 
 of the boundaries between Persia and Turkey, he went by land from Bagh- 
 dad to Bursah to join its other members. As he was accompanied by an 
 escort of troops, he was able to visit the principal ruins on the way without 
 risk. He found the tribes well-disposed towards Europeans, though very 
 hostile to the Turks. Taking advantage of this favorable feeling, and re- 
 lying upon the protection of the Arab Sheikhs, Mr. Loftus returned a second 
 time alone, and was able to excavate in some of the larger mounds. He 
 obtained during this expedition the highly interesting collection of antiqui- 
 ties from Wurka, now in the British Museum. 
 
464 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 All these ruins are best reached from Hillah. The Sheikhs of the Arab 
 tribes living near them are usually in friendly communication with the 
 principal people of that town. From its bazars they obtain the greater 
 part of their supplies, clothing and many articles of food. During my res- 
 idence at Hillah, the disturbed state of the country had interrupted this 
 intercourse, and I was unable to meet with any Arab from the south who 
 could guide and escort me to their tents. To visit these districts of Mes- 
 opotamia it is necessary to travel under the protection of some powerful 
 chief. I was, therefore, compelled to send a special messenger to Agab, 
 the Sheikh of the Afaij, to inform him of my intention to enter his terri- 
 tories and to ask for men to conduct me. Some days elapsed before I re- 
 ceived an answer to my letter. At length, one evening, two horsemen rode 
 to my door, and having tethered their mares announced that they were 
 come to lead us to the village of their chief. 
 
 The Afaij dwell in the midst of extensive marshes formed by the Eu- 
 phrates, about fifty miles below Hillah. On the eastern border of these 
 swamps rise the great ruins of Niffer, which I was first desirous of exam- 
 ining. Although Agab's horsemen could protect us when we were once 
 amongst their own Arabs, yet there were hostile tribes on our way who 
 but little respected their master's authority. Various plans were conse- 
 quently suggested for our journey. It was proposed that we should descend 
 the river in a boat as far as the marshes, and then proceed, still by water, 
 through them to the Sheikh's residence. But there were many objections 
 to this course, especially the difficulty of getting back again, as we should 
 have to leave our horses behind us. It was finally settled that we were to 
 go by land, keeping as much as possible in the centre of Mesopotamia, and 
 thus avoiding the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, as the Arabs were now 
 congregated along the banks of the river. Zaid, with an Agayl of his ac- 
 quaintance, agreed to accompany me. My own Jebours were, of course, of 
 the party. Having hired mules and laid in a proper stock of provisions, 
 tools, and packing cases to hold any antiquities that might be discovered, 
 we began our journey on Wednesday, the loth of January. 
 
 The weather was bright and intense]y cold. The sky was cloudless, but 
 a biting north wind swept across the plain. It was the middle of the Baby- 
 lonian winter, and a hard frost daily whitened the ground. "We left Hillah 
 by the Baghdad gate. The Bairakdar was with me, with the rest of my 
 Mosul servants. My huntsman, old Seyyid Jasim, wrapt up in his thick 
 Arab cloak, bore his favorite hawk on his wrist. He was followed, as usual, 
 by the greyhounds. The Jebours went partly on foot, riding by turns on 
 the baggage horses. Mr. Hormuzd Rassam was wanting to complete our 
 party. He had been kept in Baghdad by severe illness almost since our 
 arrival, and for the first time during my wanderings in Mesopotamia he 
 was not with me. 
 
 We followed a track leading towards the centre of the Mesopotamian 
 Desert. The long belt of feathery palms bordering the Euphrates for many 
 
Chap. XXIV.l journey through the desert. 455 
 
 and many a mile, and broken here and there by a dome or a minaret, be- 
 came gradually less distinct, until 'it was but a faint black line edging the 
 horizon. Our course was nearly due east. About six miles from the town 
 we found ourselves amidst moving sand-hills, extending far and wide on 
 all sides. They were just high enough to shut out the view of the sur- 
 rounding country. The fine sand shifts with every breeze, and the wrinkled 
 heaps are like the rippled surface of a lake. When the furious southerly 
 wind sweeps over them, it raises a dense suffocating dust, blinding the way- 
 faring Arab, and leaving him to perish in the trackless labyrinth. 
 
 Thirty years only had elapsed, according to Zaid, since the formation oi 
 these hillocks. The sand issues from the earth like water from springs, and 
 the Arabs call the sources, of which we passed two or three, " Aioun-er-rum- 
 mel" (the sand springs). The banks of ancient canals, still rising among 
 the moving heaps, showed that the soil had once been under cultivation. 
 The sand is now fast spreading over the face of the country, and threatens 
 ere long to overwhelm several small Arab settlements. 
 
 After four hours' ride we left the sand-heaps, and again came in sight of 
 the black belt of palm trees. We found ourselves near the village of Hamza, 
 whose mud hovels are built round a turbeh or tomb, covered by a white 
 dome, and shaded by a few slender palms. After stopping to drink water, 
 we proceeded to a small hamlet called Allak, and took up our quarters for 
 the night in the museef of its Sheikh. The inhabitants were of the tribe 
 of Sherayfaut, from Mecca. They had been attacked and plundered two 
 days before our visit by the Maidan Arabs from the other side of the Eu- 
 phrates. Even the very doors of the huts had been torn from their hinges, 
 and dragged away. Notwithstanding his poverty the poor Sheikh receiv- 
 ed us very hospitably. He related to me how from the numerous artificial 
 mounds in the surrounding plains were frequently taken, after rain had 
 washed away the soil, earthen jars and Coffins containing ornaments of 
 gold and silver. 
 
 Near Allak is a great artificial watercourse called the Shat-el-Neel, 
 which, I was assured by the Arabs, was not a continuation of a celebrated 
 canal of the same name running to the north of Babylon. Tradition says, 
 that its source was unknown until a shepherd, dropping his pipe into the 
 Euphrates, found it afterwards in the Neel, whither it had been carried 
 through the underground passage, by which, it thus appeared, the stream 
 was derived from the river. A city similarly called, and whose ruins may, 
 I believe, still be traced, stood on one of the canals, if they be not the same. 
 It was a Chaldaean bishopric in the early ages of Christianity. The canal, 
 as will hereafter be seen, runs far to the south, into the interior of Mesopo- 
 tamia. 
 
 As we continued our journey during the following day, still keeping in 
 the Desert, we passed one or two small encampments of the Zobeide tribe. 
 The Arabs, alarmed at the approach of so large a party, and believing us 
 to be horsemen on a foray, sallied forth to meet us at some distance from 
 
 Gg 
 
466 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XXIV. 
 
 their tents, flourishing their weapons and chanting their wild war-cry. 
 The plain, although now without any stationary population, was once 
 thickly inhabited. The white-domed tombs rising to the right and left of 
 our track marked where former villages had stood, whilst the embankments 
 of innumerable canals, long deserted by their waters, crossed our path, bear- 
 ing witness to the skill and industry which once turned these barren plains 
 into one vast garden. The lion, the hyena, the wolf, the jackall, the wild 
 boar, the fox, and the porcupine now alone break the solitude of a wilder- 
 ness once the seat of the most luxurious and civilised nation of the East. 
 
 It would be needless to describe the few deserted villages we passed dur- 
 ing our day's journey ; their mud walls, once a protection against the wan- 
 dering Arab, are unable to resist the encroaching sand, which has already 
 overwhelmed the empty dwellings. In this region the habitations of men 
 are turned almost in a day to mere heaps of earth. The district is called 
 Shomali. 
 
 After a ride of six hours we reached an ancient mound of considerable 
 size, called Haroun. On its summit was a ruined Imaum-zadeh (Mussul- 
 man oratory). It was a sacred place to the Arab, and within it were de- 
 posited various rude agricultural implements, which had probably been 
 there for years, no one, not even the Bedouin robber, venturing to violate 
 the sanctuary, by touching the objects placed under its protection. This 
 custom of storing property within the walls of a holy building is very com- 
 mon in the East. It is thus left for years, until it rots away, the owner 
 perhaps dying or never returning to claim his own. The mound of Haroun, 
 too, on account of the sacred nature of the edifice, had been used as a bury- 
 ing-place. The grave of the wandering Arab is rarely far beneath the 
 surface of the soil, and the wild beasts of the Desert soon scrape away the 
 scanty earth. Human skulls and remains, scarcely yet bleached by the 
 sun, w r ere scattered over the ruins, mingled with bricks, pottery, broken 
 glass, and other relics of ancient population. 
 
 Several deserted villages in this district had belonged to a tribe bearing 
 the same name as that of my workmen. But these Jebours were a branch 
 of the Maidan Arabs, and in no way related to the tribes living around 
 Mosul. 
 
 We had scarcely passed Haroun when a party of Arabs on horseback and 
 on foot suddenly came forth from behind the lofty banks of a dry canal. 
 They had seen our caravan from afar, and had waylaid us. After they 
 had followed us for some distance they turned back to their tribe, deeming 
 it prudent not to venture an attack, as we were fully prepared for them. 
 
 Shortly after their departure, a gazelle rose from a thicket, and bounded 
 across the plain. Seyyid Jasim unloosed his hawk, and I pursued with the 
 dogs. The sight of horsemen gallopping to and fro alarmed an Arab set- 
 tlement gathered round a small mud fort belonging to a chief called Kar- 
 boul. The men armed themselves and came out against us. Our Afaij 
 guides, however, soon made themselves known to them, and they then es- 
 
Chap. XXIV.] THE AFAIJ MARSH - 467 
 
 corted our caravan to their tents, dancing a wild dance, shouting their war- 
 cries, singing war-songs, and firing their matchlocks. Most of them had 
 no other clothing than the shirt taken off their shoulders and tied round 
 their loins. Their countenances were singularly ferocious, their bright 
 eyes and white teeth making them even more hideous. Long black mat- 
 ted hair was scattered over their heads in horrid confusion, and their bodies 
 were tanned by the burning sun to the color and substance of old leather. 
 
 Their Sheikh, Karboul, was scarcely less savage in his appearance, 
 though somewhat better clothed. However ill-disposed he might have 
 been towards Europeans or travellers in general, he acknowledged the pro- 
 tection that had been extended to us by the Afaij chief, and led me with 
 words of welcome to his spacious tent. His followers, excited by the late 
 alarm, and now full of warlike enthusiasm, were not, however, to be dis- 
 missed until they had satisfied themselves by performing various warlike 
 dances. They did so in circles before the tent, raising a few tattered flags, 
 and deafening me by their shouts and barbarous songs. 
 
 These wild beings, little better than mere beasts, lived in hovels made 
 of mats and brushwood. They fed large herds of bufTalos ; but the greater 
 part of their sheep and cattle had been driven away by the Bedouins. 
 Their tribe was the Shabaneh, a branch of the Ahl Ukra. 
 
 Next morning Karboul sent his son and a party of horsemen to escort us 
 for some distance on our road. Jar-ullah, a Sheikh of the district of Dug- 
 garah, was scouring the country with his Arabs, and there was a risk of 
 meeting with the robbers. We soon came to the borders of those marshes 
 which have now spread over the lower part of the Mesopotamian plains. As 
 we ascended the lofty banks of ancient canals, over which our track contin- 
 ually led, we saw a boundless expanse of dark green, mottled with shad- 
 ows by the wind, like the ruffled surface of a lake. It seemed as if the 
 parched Desert had been suddenly turned into pastures and fields of green 
 corn. But we only gazed upon a vast bed of tall reeds bred by the wide- 
 spreading swamps, no less a sign of desolation, neglect, and decay, than 
 the yellow wilderness. 
 
 We had now to make a considerable circuit to the east to encompass the 
 marsh. We passed numerous artificial mounds, covered with fragments of 
 bricks, pottery, glazed tiles, richly-colored glass and other relics that mark 
 the site of Babylonian ruins. Canals, too, no longer fed by the Euphrates, 
 everywhere crossed our path, and limited our view. The parched soil out- 
 side the swamp has become fine sand, amidst which small tufts of the hardy 
 tamarisk form the only vegetation. These bushes, thus standing alone, 
 were turned by the mirage into forests, whilst the embankments of the old 
 watercourses seemed like ranges of hills. 
 
 After two hours' ride, we emerged from the labyrinth of dry canals, and 
 ascending a heap of rubbish covering some ancient ruin, we beheld, loom- 
 ing on the horizon like a distant mountain, the principal object of my 
 journey — the mounds of NifTer. They were still nearly ten miles from us. 
 
468 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Magnified as they were by the mirage they appeared far to exceed in size 
 and height any artificial elevation that I had hitherto seen. 
 
 To the east of us rose another great ruin, called Zibbliyah, a lofty, square 
 mass, apparently of sun-dried brick. It resembled in form, and was scarce- 
 ly less in size than the well-known remains of Akkerkuf, near Baghdad. 
 
 Between us and Niffer were still many mounds and ancient canals. 
 The largest of the former, covered with bricks and pottery, was called by 
 our Arab guides El Hamra, "the red." The principal canal, whose wa- 
 ters had once been confined between two enormous embankments, ran in a 
 direct line towards the ruins. It is now dry, but appears to have once sup- 
 plied the city. According to the Afaij, it is a continuation of the Neel, de- 
 rived, as I have said, from the Euphrates. Its solid banks now oppose the 
 further spread of the marsh which reaches to their feet. 
 
 "VYe rode along this canal, passing here and there the former sites of 
 Bedouin encampments, marked by the heaps of dry camel's dung, the 
 blackened stones on which the caldron had been heated, and the narrow 
 trenches dug to carry off the winter rain. The tents lately pitched on these 
 spots belonged to the Shammar Arabs, who had wandered thus far to the 
 south, and after having plundered all the tribes not strong enough to re- 
 sist them, were now on their way back to the spring pastures in northern 
 Mesopotamia. The Bedouins cannot, it is said, remain to the south of 
 Baghdad after the month of February, as their camels would be destroyed 
 by eating a poisonous herb which at that season of the year begins to grow 
 plentifully in the Desert. We saw, too, many tracks of lions in the sand, 
 some not many hours old. Flocks of pelicans whitened the plain, we start- 
 led innumerable waterfowl from the reeds, and the pheasant-like francolin 
 sprang with a loud whirring noise from almost every thicket. 
 
 After a journey of five hours we reached the ruins of NifFer. They differ 
 in general form from the great mounds of Assyria, with which my descriptions 
 may have familiarised the reader. Although at their north-east corner is 
 a cone similar to those of Nimroud and Kalah-Sherghat, yet, in their broken 
 outline and in their division into several distinct parts, they have more the 
 appearance of the remains of different buildings than that of one regular 
 platform surrounded by walls. In this respect they are not unlike the Mu 
 jelibe (Kasr) and the Amran of Babylon. The irregular heaps crossed by 
 numerous deep ravines, are divided into two principal parts by a broad gul- 
 ley, apparently the dry bed of a canal. The Arabs call it the " Shat," 
 declaring that it is still a part of the Neel. I could not trace it to the 
 south of the ruins. Boats smeared with bitumen, like those still in use, are 
 occasionally, it is said, found beneath the soil on this spot. The mounds 
 cover altogether a very considerable area of ground, and stand on the edge 
 of the marsh, which is gradually encroaching upon them, and which oc- 
 casionally during high floods of the Euphrates completely surrounds them. 
 They are strewed with the usual fragments of brick, glazed and unglazed 
 pottery, and glass. A loose nitrous soil, into which the feet sink above the 
 
Chap XXIV 1 THE M0UNDS 0F niffer. 459 
 
 ankles, forme a coating about a yard deep over harder and more compaet 
 soil. In the ravines large earthen jars and portions of brick masonry are 
 occasionally uncovered by the rains. Commencing my search after antiq- 
 uities as soon as we had reached the summit of the principal mound, it 
 was not long before I discovered, in one of these newly-formed ruts, a per- 
 fsct vase, about five feet high, containing human remains. Other objects 
 of the same kind were found by the Arabs who were with me. But I left 
 more careful researches to the time when I could commence excavations 
 below the surface. Leaving, therefore, the ruins, I hastened to join the rest 
 of the party. 
 
 The caravan had continued its journey along the western foot of the 
 mound, and my tents were pitched about two miles beyond the ruins on the 
 margin of the marsh. In front of the encampment was a small lake or 
 pond, from which the reeds seem to have been carefully cleared. From 
 this open space branched several narrow lanes, which, losing themselves in 
 the thick forest of lofty canes, appeared to lead into the interior of tho 
 morass. From the top of Niffer I had faintly distinguished in the distance 
 the mat hovels forming the settlements of the Afaij Arabs, and the great 
 herds of buffalos pasturing in the swamps ; but from our tents the view was 
 bounded within a few yards of us by the dense vegetation springing from 
 the stagnant water. 
 
 We had sent one of our Afaij guides to inform Sheikh Agab of our ap- 
 proach. I had not been long seated in my tent when suddenly a number 
 of black boats, each bearing a party of Arabs, darted from the reeds and 
 approached the shore. They were of various sizes. In the bottom of 
 some, eight or ten persons sat crouched on their hams ; in others, only one 
 or two. Men standing at the head and stern with long bamboo poles of 
 great lightness guided and impelled them. The largest were built of teak- 
 wood, but the others consisted simply of a very narrow framework of rushes 
 covered with bitumen, resembling probably " the vessels of bulrushes" men- 
 tioned by Isaiah.* They skimmed over the surface of the water with great 
 rapidity. 
 
 The tiradas, for so these boats are called by the Arabs, drew up along 
 the bank in the open basin before our tents. The largest evidently con- 
 tained three chiefs, who landed and advanced towards me. They were the 
 sons of the Sheikh of the Afaij. Their father had sent them to welcome 
 me to his territories. They brought with them provisions for my caravan, 
 as their village, they said, was still far distant, and it would be impossible 
 to transport our baggage and lead our horses thither before nightfall. The 
 young men were handsome, well-dressed and well-armed, and very cour- 
 teous. My tent was soon filled by their companions and followers. Each 
 man wore a long white shirt, a black abba or cloak, and a bright yellow 
 and scarlet keffieh over his head. They all carried rifles of great length and 
 weight. The charges of ball and powder were contained in pieces of hol- 
 
 * xviii. 2. 
 
470 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIY. 
 
 low reed cut to equal lengths and fastened across their breasts to broad 
 leather bands ornamented with small shells and glass beads. Each was, 
 moreover, armed with a sword and a large curved Persian dagger. The 
 complexion of these marsh Arabs, from constant exposure to the intense 
 heat of the sun, is almost black, with the usual contrast of eyes of extraor- 
 dinary brilliancy, and teeth of the whiteness of pearls. They wear their 
 hair in long, well-greased plaits. 
 
 The young Sheikhs had been ordered by their father to remain with me 
 during the night, and to place a proper guard round the tents, as the out- 
 skirts of the marsh were infested, we were assured, by roving Bedouins and 
 midnight thieves. I gained, as other travellers have done before me, some 
 credit for wisdom and superhuman knowledge by predicting, through the 
 aid of an almanack, a partial eclipse of the moon. It duly took place to 
 the great dismay of my guests, who well-nigh knocked out the bottoms of 
 all my kitchen utensils in their endeavor to frighten away the Jins who had 
 thus laid hold of the planet.* 1 
 
 Soon after sunrise the Sheikh's own tirada issued from the reeds into the 
 open space. It had been spread with carpets and silken cushions for my 
 reception. The baggage was placed in other boats, but the unfortunate 
 horses, under the guidance of a party of naked Arabs, had to swim the 
 stream, and to struggle through the swamp as they best could. The armed 
 men entered their various vessels, and we all left the shore together. 
 
 The tirada in which I sat was skilfully managed by two Arabs with long 
 bamboo-po]es. It skimmed rapidly over the small lake, and then turned 
 into a broad street cut through green reeds rising fourteen or fifteen feet on 
 both sides of us. The current where the vegetation had thus been cleared 
 away, ran at the rate of about two miles an hour, and, as we were going 
 towards the Euphrates, was against us. "We passed the entrances to many 
 lanes branching off to the right and to the left. From them came black 
 boats filled with Arab men and women carrying the produce of their buf- 
 falo herds to the Souk or market. As we glided along we occasionally dis- 
 turbed flocks of waterfowl, and large king-fishers of the most brilliant plum- 
 age, seated on the bending rushes, watching their prey. The sharp report 
 of the rifle resounded through the marsh, and the whizzing of the ball oc- 
 casionally reminded us that the unseen sportsmen were not far distant, 
 though concealed in the brakes. They were shooting the ducks and geese 
 which abound. 
 
 Herds of buffalos here and there struggled and splashed amongst the 
 rushes, their unwieldy bodies completely concealed under water, and their 
 
 * The common notion amongst ignorant Mohammedans is, that an eclipse is 
 caused by some evil spirit catching hold of the sun or moon. On such occasions, in 
 Eastern towns, the whole population assembles with pots, pans, and other equally 
 rude instruments of music, and, with the aid of their lungs, make a din and turmoii 
 which might suffice to drive away a whole army of evil spirits, even at so great a 
 distance. 
 
Chap. XXIV.] SHBIK AGAR 471 
 
 hideous heads just visible upon the surface. Occasionally a small plot of 
 ground, scarcely an inch above the level of the marsh, and itself half a 
 swamp, was covered with huts built of reeds, canes, and bright yellow 
 mats. These were the dwellings of the Afaij, and, as we passed by, troops 
 of half-naked men, women, and children issued from them, and stood on 
 the bank to gaze at the strangers. 
 
 The lanes now became more crowded with tiradas. The boatmen, how- 
 ever, darted by the heavier vessels, turned the sharp corners, and managed 
 their frail barks with great skill and ease. The openings in the reeds be- 
 gan to be more numerous, and it required a perfect knowledge of the vari- 
 ous windings and streets to follow the right way. This singular scene re- 
 called vividly to my mind the sculptures at Kouyunjik representing the 
 Assyrian wars in marshes of the same nature, and probably formed by the 
 waters of the same river. The streets through the reeds, and the tiradas 
 or boats of rushes smeared with bitumen, are faithfully delineated in the 
 bas-reliefs, showing how little the barbarous inhabitants of these great 
 swamps have changed after the lapse of nearly three thousand years. If 
 we may judge, however, from the spoil of furniture and of vessels of metal, 
 probably of gold and silver, carried away from them by the conquerors, the 
 ancient tribes appear to have been more wealthy and more ingenious than 
 their descendants.* 1 
 
 After an hour's journey we left the reeds and came to a swampy plain, 
 scarcely above the level of the marsh. A mud-built edifice rose about half 
 a mile beyond. It was the watchtower and landmark of the Souk-el- Afaij, 
 or market-place of the tribe, and near it was the residence of the Sheikh. 
 Scattered over the open ground were buffalos, oxen, and mat-covered cabins. 
 
 We entered a narrow canal and stopped at length near some larger and 
 better built huts than any we had yet seen. Before them, at the water's 
 edge, and waiting to receive us, were drawn up a number of armed men, 
 at the head of whom stood a tall, handsome Arab. He was attired in a 
 long robe of scarlet silk of Damascus, over which he wore one of those 
 cloaks richly embroidered in gold thread down the back and one arm, pe- 
 culiar to Baghdad. This was Agab, Sheikh of the Afaij. As I stepped 
 out of the tirada he threw his arms round my neck, and gave me the usual 
 embrace of welcome. 
 
 The chief led us at once to the museef. The guest-house was built ot 
 the same materials as the smaller cabins, but they were far more tastefully 
 put together. It resembled in shape the boiler of some enormous steam- 
 engine. Reeds bound together, were bent into arches at regular intervals, 
 and formed a series of ribs, upon which were stretched the choicest mats. 
 About fifty persons could conveniently sit in this hut. In the centre was 
 the usual array of bright pots and tiny cups ranged in circular trays, round 
 a smouldering fire. A hideous black slave, crouching upon his haunches, 
 was roasting coffee and pounding the fragrant beans in an iron mortar. 
 * See Plates 25. 27, and 28., 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
472 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. TChaP. XXIV. 
 
 Down both sides were spread carpets and mats ; soft cushions of figured 
 silk were especially prepared for the European guest. 
 
 The museef stood at a short distance from the other huts, and in a corner 
 formed by two water-streets branching off at right angles. In front of it 
 was the harem of the Sheikh. It consisted of several cabins in an inclosure 
 formed entirely by walls of reeds and mats. Beyond was a great collec- 
 tion of huts, and in the middle of them the bazars, consisting of double rows 
 of shops, all of the same frail materials. So that this Arab town was built 
 entirely of mats and reeds. 
 
 Agab received me in the most friendly manner, and entered at once into 
 my plans for excavating, describing the ruins existing in the neighbourhood. 
 He ordered his people to raise a hut for my servants and the Jebour work- 
 men, and to pitch my tents in the open space opposite the museef. Build- 
 ing is not a lengthy or difficult process where the materials are so simple. 
 "Within an hour the mats had been dragged from the harem, the bundles 
 of reeds turned into graceful arches, and the cabin duly covered in. As a 
 dwelling-place, however, the small island on which the Sheikh of the Afaij 
 had thought fit to erect his moveable capital was not perhaps the most de- 
 sirable in the world. Had the Euphrates risen by any sudden flood we 
 should have been completely under water. Indeed, the place was little 
 better than a swamp, and we appeared to be actually below the level of 
 the streams that encompassed us. We were, at the same time, far distant 
 from the ruins, and much time would be lost in going backwards and for- 
 wards every day. I proposed, therefore, to the Sheikh to encamp under 
 the mound of Niffei itself, and to live there during the excavations. But 
 Agab would not listen for one moment to this suggestion. He declared 
 that we should be stripped of every thing within twenty-four hours, and 
 perhaps be killed in the bargain, by the Bedouins who were wandering 
 over the Desert, or by the neighbouring tribes, who were all in open rebell- 
 ion against the Sultan. If even by a miracle we esoaped these enemies, 
 it would be utterly impossible to avoid a still greater danger in the Jins 
 and evil spirits who swarmed after dark amongst the ruins. Xo Arab 
 would pass a night on the mounds of XifTer. To complete the list of perils, 
 there were wild beasts without number. Our horses first, and then we 
 ourselves, would be devoured by the lions, which leave the marsh after 
 sunset in search of prey. It was useless to contend against this array of 
 evils, and the only real source of apprehension, that from the Arab tribes, 
 not being without foundation, I made up my mind to remain at the Souk. 
 
 To please the Sheikh I engaged some of his Arabs as workmen, and he 
 placed his son Mohammed over them, ordering him to accompany me daily 
 to the ruins, and to protect me during my visits to them. - I hired, at the 
 same time, two large boats to take the excavators every morning to the 
 mounds and to bring them back at night. The Sheikh himself, with a 
 number of his armed followers, frequently accompanied us, ostensibly to 
 guard me against any marauders who might pass that way, but really to 
 
Chap XXIV 1 excavations at niffer. 473 
 
 be at hand in case of the discovery of treasures. He believed, of course, 
 that I was searching after gold. Agab knew so many authentic instances 
 of enormous wealth having been dug up at Niffer, that it was useless to 
 argue with him upon the subject. He related to me, in the usual express- 
 ive manner of the Arabs, the following story : — In the time of Hatab, the 
 uncle of Wadi, Sheikh of the Zobeide, a cameleer of that tribe chanced to 
 be at Damascus with his camels. As he was walking one day in the ba- 
 zar, an aged man accosted him. " Sheikh of the Caravan," said he, 
 " I know that thou art from the southern Jezireh, and from the land of the 
 Zobeide. God be praised for sending thee to me ! Now there is in that 
 country a great mound, that marks the site of an ancient city of the Un- 
 believers, called Niffer. Go, dig in the dry bed of the Shat-et-Neel, in the 
 midst of the ruins, and thou wilt find a stone white as milk ; bring it to 
 me, and thou shalt have for a reward double the usual hire for thy camels 
 both there and back." The cameleer was at a loss to guess how the old 
 man knew of the stone, but he did as he had been asked, and in the place 
 described to him he found the white stone, which was just a camel's bur- 
 den. He took it to Damascus, and gave it to the Sheikh, who first paid 
 him his just reward, and then broke the stone into pieces before him. It 
 was, of course, full of gold, and the philosopher had learnt where it was to 
 be found in the books of the Infidels. 
 
 Being thus compelled to remain at the Souk, I fitted up my tent and 
 cabins as well as I was able. The weather was intensely cold, and it was 
 the middle of the rainy season. By the help of mats we were able to keep 
 out the water to a certain extent. The excavations were carried on until 
 the 3rd of February, and I will describe at once their general results. 
 
 Niffer, as I have already observed, consists rather of a collection of 
 mounds of unequal height, and irregular form, than of one compact plat- 
 form, like the principal ruins of Assyria. They may be divided into four 
 distinct groups, each surrounded, and separated from the others, by deep 
 ravines, which have the appearance of ancient streets. The high cone at 
 the north-east corner is probably the remains of a square tower constructed 
 entirely of large sun-dried bricks. It is called by the Arabs the Bint-el- 
 Ameer, " the daughter of the prince." I could not ascertain the origin of 
 the name, which must be connected with £ome ancient tradition. The 
 Afaij say that within it is still preserved a ship of gold filled with the same 
 precious metal. Beneath the cone masonry of sun-dried and kiln-burnt 
 bricks protrudes from the sides of the ravine:;. The bricks are generally 
 smaller in dimensions than those from Babylon, and long and narrow in 
 shape. Many of them are stamped with inscriptions in the Babylonian 
 character, containing the name of a king and of the city.* 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson (Outlines of Assyrian History, \<. 16.) reads the name of the city 
 Tel Anu, and endeavors to identify it with the Tela li (TeA.az/77) of Stephen of Byzan- 
 tium, the native place, according to that geographer, of the Assyrian kings before the 
 buiiding of Nineveh. 
 
474 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIV 
 
 My workmen were divided into gangs, or karkhanehs, as they are called 
 by the Arabs, and were placed in different parts of the ruins. The only 
 discovery of any interest made during the first day was that of a series of 
 small recesses, or cells of brickwork, six feet deep, and about three feet 
 wide. They contained human remains, and were probably sepulchres built 
 at a comparatively recent period above the more ancent ruins. 
 
 During the two subsequent days we found many vases and jars of earth- 
 enware, some glazed and others plain. With these relics was a bowl, un- 
 fortunately much broken, covered with ancient Hebrew characters, similar 
 to those discovered at Babylon, and described in a previous chapter. Frag- 
 ments of similar vessels were afterwards dug out of the ruins. 
 
 On the mound of Niffer, as on other ruins of the same period in this part 
 of Alesopotamia, are found numerous fragments of highly-glazed pottery, of 
 a rich blue color, but very coarse and fragile in texture. I was at a loss 
 to conjecture the nature of the objects of which they had originally formed 
 part, until, on the fourth day of the excavations, a party of workmen un- 
 covered a coffin or sarcophagus, of precisely the same material. Within 
 it were human remains, which crumbled to dust almost as soon as exposed 
 to the air. The earthenware was so ill-burnt, and had suffered so much 
 from age, that I was unable to remove this coffin entire. It fell to pieces 
 as soon as I endeavored to detach it from the soil by which it was sur- 
 rounded. But beneath it was found a second, and subsequently scarcely a 
 day elapsed without the discovery of four or five 
 similar coffins. The largest were about six feet 
 long ; some, containing the remains of children, 
 scarcely exceeded three. They were all of near- 
 ly the same shape ; an oval, about two feet wide, 
 for the head and shoulders of the corpse, joined to 
 a narrow box for the legs and feet. The oval was 
 closed by a detached flat lid ; the rest of the coffin was covered, and there 
 was a small hole at the very end. The body must, consequently, have 
 been forced into the sarcophagus from the top or open part. 
 
 All these coffins were covered with bright greenish-blue glaze, colored 
 with copper, like that on pottery and bricks from the ruins of Babylon. 
 Some were ornamented with scroll work and other designs ; others, with 
 rude figures of men and animals in relief. They were all of the same fra- 
 gile material. The clay, moreover, having been only partially burnt, had 
 been exposed to the action of the nitre so abundant in the soil. "Without 
 considerable care it was impossible to remove any entire, although the sur- 
 rounding earth was easily detached from them.* 
 
 Human remains, more or less perfect, were found in all these sarcophagi. 
 Sometimes, as the lid was carefully removed, I could almost distinguish 
 
 * Mr. Loftus succeeded in bringing three specimens from the ruins of "Wurka by 
 pasting the whole of the inside and out with thick paper. By these means they 
 were held together, and carried on litters by the Arabs. 
 
CllAT. XXIV.] GOLDEN ORNAMENTS. 475 
 
 the body, wrapped in its grave clothes, and still lying in its narrow resting- 
 place. But no sooner did the outer air reach the empty crust of humanitv 
 
 Glazed Coffins from Babylonia.* 
 
 than it fell away into dust, leaving only the skull and great bones of the 
 arms and legs to show what these now empty cases had once contained. 
 One or two small cups or vases in the same glazed pottery, and a few 
 beads and engraved gems, were occasionally gathered from the crumbling 
 remains ; but no ornaments of gold or silver were discovered at NifTer, 
 though it appears that the Arabs frequently find them in similar coffins 
 from other ruins in southern Mesopotamia. The tribes encamping about 
 Wurka and other great mounds are in the habit of searching for the earth- 
 en sarcophagi by driving their spears into the loose soil. When they have 
 thus detected one, they dig it out with their hands or any rude instruments 
 they may possess. Their labor is frequently rewarded by the discovery of 
 gold and silver ornaments, which are either sold to the wandering silver, 
 smiths and melted down at once, or else are worn by the women. Mr. 
 Loftus obtained several relics of this kind, which are now in the British 
 Museum. I was assured that golden objects of considerable size were not 
 unfrequently found by the Arabs, and Sheikh Agab declared that in former 
 days royal tombs, with crowns and sceptres of solid gold, had occasionally 
 been the prize of some fortunate shepherd who chanced to wander amongst 
 the ruins of the southern Jezireh after the soil had been disturbed by wa- 
 tercourses formed by the winter rains. Although these accounts may be 
 exaggerated, it is by no means improbable that at different times objects 
 of large value may have been thus brought to light. It is remarkable, 
 
 * These woodcuts are taken from coffins obtained by Mr. Loftus from the ruins of 
 Wurka, and now in the British Museum. They are precisely similar in form to those 
 discovered at NifTer, of which no specimens have yet been brought to this country. 
 
476 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 however, that there were no ornaments whatever in metal in nearly a hund- 
 red coffins which I opened at NifTer. 
 
 From a curious relic, also sent to this country by Mr. Loftus, we learn 
 
 the manner in which the dead were placed in these singular coffins. A 
 
 ^^>=ss-^^ small model in terracotta represents the corpse of a man 
 
 in one of the sarcophagi I have described. The body 
 
 /:;;(• J^ v -■ ., and extremities were swathed in linen, the bands of 
 
 lr _i jj!n which are very clearly shown in the clay figure. They 
 
 J I were then probably smeared over with bitumen to pre- 
 
 b'K'-sA" $J 1 serve tnem 5 tne head and hands were left uncovered. 
 
 | The man represented in the model wears a kind of flat 
 
 || £j turban, and his hair falls in ringlets on his shoulders. 
 
 t'.-BI 3 His beard is elaborately curled, like that of the ancient 
 
 ma Assyrians. In each hand he holds a kind of mace with 
 
 jl a circular top, probably some religious emblem, which 
 
 rM may be compared with one of similar form, frequently 
 
 -^ seen in the hand of the king in the bas-reliefs of Nine- 
 
 T Body^C o d ffin 0fa Veh< The Coffin ™ this relic is °P en fr0m t0 P t0 bot " 
 
 torn, but it may have been so made in the model to 
 show the manner in which the body was prepared and placed within it. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the number of these earthen coffins ; the up- 
 per part of the mound in some places appeared to consist alrAost entirely of 
 them. They generally rested one upon the other, but in some cases were 
 separated by a layer of flat bricks or tiles. As fast as the fragments of one 
 were removed a second appeared beneath it ; and notwithstanding the 
 number thus taken away, I did not penetrate many feet beneath the sur- 
 face. In the lower part of Mesopotamia are many ruins in which similar 
 remains are equally abundant. Fragments of glazed pottery, broken from 
 them, are seen on every ancient site to the south of Babylon. According 
 to Mr. Loftus, the vast mound of "VYurka is built almost entirely of such 
 coffins, piled one above the other, and consequently many thousands, or 
 rather hundreds of thousands, must exist in it alone. 
 
 It is difficult to arrive at a very satisfactory conclusion as to the precise 
 date of these remains. My own impression is that they are comparatively 
 modern ; that is, that they are to be attributed to a period subsequent to the 
 fall of the Babylonian empire, extending from the second or first century be- 
 fore the Christian sera to even the time of the Arab invasion. Colonel Raw- 
 linson entertains, I believe, a different opinion, and would attribute them 
 to a much earlier period. If the great mounds of NifFer be the remains of 
 a Babylonian city, as they probably are, it is evident that that city must 
 have been completely destroyed, and its ruins covered with earth long be- 
 fore a people, afterwards inhabiting the country, could have buried their 
 dead above them. 
 
 There appears to have been a city at NifFer during the early centuries 
 of Christianity; and it may be conjectured that it was built partly upon, 
 
Chap. XXIV.] discoveries at niffer. 477 
 
 and partly around, the ancient ruins ; the mound itself having been used 
 as a necropolis. Hence the coffins, urns, and human remains found so near 
 the surface, whilst beneath these remains are the foundations and walls 
 of buildings. As the coffins from Wurka are precisely of the same nature 
 as those from Niffer, there is every reason to believe that they belong to 
 the same period. Not having examined those ruins, I am unable to state 
 whether the cemetery is above any ancient edifices, or whether the whole 
 mound, as it has been asserted,* consists from top to bottom of nothing else 
 but piled-up coffins. 
 
 In one part of the mound, in a kind of recess or small chamber of brick 
 masonry, was discovered a heap of pottery of a yellow color, very thin and 
 fragile, much resembling that still made at Baghdad to hold water in 
 hot weather. Many vases and cups were still entire. With them were 
 fragments of glass bottles, jars, and other vessels ; and several highly glazed 
 or enamelled dishes. These relics appeared to be of the same period as the 
 sarcophagi. A large number of coarse jars or urns, some nearly six feet 
 high, were dug out of various parts of the mound. They contained bones 
 of men and animals, and their mouths had been carefully closed by a tile 
 or brick plastered with bitumen. 
 
 Although many deep trenches were opened in the ruins, and in the con- 
 ical mound at the north-east corner, no other remains or relics were discov- 
 ered. With the exception of a few massive foundations, and the bricks 
 bearing a cuneiform superscription, I much doubt whether anything found 
 at Niffer was of the true Babylonian period. The Arabs have a story that 
 a great black stone exists somewhere in the ruins. I had once conjectured 
 that it might be the identical obelisk said to have been brought by Semi- 
 ramis from Armenia to Babylon. t After I had searched in vain for it, I 
 was assured that it was near some mounds several miles to the east of 
 Niffer. I sent a party of workmen to the spot, but with no better success. 
 On the whole, I am much inclined to question whether extensive excava- 
 tions carried on at Niffer would produce any very important or interesting 
 results. 
 
 In the Afaij bazar I was able to purchase a few relics from the Arabs ; 
 they consisted chiefly of cylinders and engraved gems, which I shall here- 
 after describe. But even such remains were far more scarce than I had 
 anticipated. A ram in baked clay, with three holes for holding colors or 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson has stated (Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xvi.) that, " at Wurka, 
 are probably to be sought the tombs of the old Assyrian kings, which were an object 
 of curiosity to Alexander." I cannot agree with this suggestion, nor, indeed, with 
 his identification of Wurka with the Ur of the Chaldees, from whence Abraham went 
 into Palestine, an identification it seems to me opposed to all biblical and historic 
 testimony, and founded upon a mere tradition, of which there are a thousand similar 
 current in the country. It has been suggested that Niffer and Wurka may have been 
 at some period the public burial-places of Babylon. This may have been the case 
 with regard to Wurka, but it must always be borne in mind that the coffins are found 
 above ruins. t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 174. note. 
 
478 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXIV. 
 
 Ram in baked Clay, from Niffer. 
 
 Engraved Pebble. 
 
 ointments, apparently Babylonian, and a pebble of white marble, on which 
 are rudely engraved two goats before the sacred tree, and a few cuneiform 
 characters, were brought to me from some neighboring ruin. Such were 
 all the antiquities I obtained during my visit to XifTer. With the pottery 
 collected at the mound they are now in the British Museum. 
 
 One of my principal objects in journeying into these wild tracts of south- 
 ern Mesopotamia, was to visit and explore the great mound of Wurka. 
 These remains had already been partly examined, as I have stated, by Mr. 
 
 Loftus. A highly interesting collection of relics, comprising inscribed clay 
 tablets, glazed pottery, ornaments in metal, and engraved gems, had been 
 obtained by that gentleman during his short residence among the ruins. 
 They are now in the British Museum. Amongst them, and deserving par 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 RELICS FROM WURKA. 
 
 479 
 
 ticular notice, are the fragments of a shell,* 
 on which are engraved the heads of two 
 horses, apparently part of a subject repre- 
 senting a warrior in his chariot. The out- 
 line upon them is not without spirit, but 
 they are principally remarkable for being al- 
 ii most identical with a similar engraved shell 
 found in an Etruscan tomb, and now in the 
 British Museum. This is not the only in- 
 stance, as it has been seen, of relics from 
 Assyria and Etruria being of the same char- 
 acter, — showing a close connection between 
 the two countries either direct, or by mu- 
 tual intercourse with some intermediate na- 
 tion. The inscribed clay tablets have been 
 conjectured by Col. Rawlinson to be orders 
 upon the Babylonian treasury for payment, 
 on presentation, of certain sums in gold, in 
 fact bank notes, or a clay currency. That 
 they are not all of the Babylonian period is 
 proved by the name of a Persian king of 
 the Achsemenian dynasty having been read 
 upon one of them. They are less well pre- 
 served than the more ancient documents in 
 the same material, discovered in the Assyrian ruins, and many of them 
 have crumbled away. This is owing to the nitrous nature of the soil cov- 
 ering the remains in Babylonia, and perhaps also of the clay out of which 
 these objects, as well as the pottery of the country, was made. It throws 
 out a kind of white efflorescence, and gradually falls to pieces. The in- 
 scribed tablets, however, have been partly restored by the same process as 
 the ivories from Nimroud, now in the British Museum. They have been 
 boiled in a glutinous substance, which has penetrated into the very heart 
 g i * ^ _ ^^^-^ of the clay, and is expected to prevent 
 
 its further decay. It is to be hoped 
 that the inscriptions upon them, which 
 are, for several reasons, of considerable 
 importance, will ere long be published 
 by the Trustees of the British Museum. 
 Amongst these relics were discovered 
 several small objects in the shape of a 
 bull's horn, made of a greenish clay, and inscribed with several lines in the 
 complicated character of Babylon. The inscriptions upon them have not 
 yet been deciphered. 
 
 Unfortunately the state of the country to the south of the marshes i 
 * This shell is the Tridacna squamosa. 
 
 fragment of engraved 
 from Wurka. 
 
 %^ 
 
 Inscribed Object in Clay, from Wurka. 
 
480 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 such that I was unable even to make an attempt to reach the remarkable 
 ruins of Wurka. The great Arab tribe of Montefik, dwelling on the banks 
 of the lower Euphrates, and exercising a certain control over all the smaller 
 tribes inhabiting the southern part of Mesopotamia, was split into opposite 
 factions on account of the rival pretensions of two chiefs. Much blood had 
 already been spilt, and the war was now extending to the Afaij. The sur- 
 rounding tribes taking advantage of the general confusion and of the un- 
 successful attempt of the Pasha to subdue the Maidan Arabs, had openly 
 rebelled against the government, and were laying waste the province and 
 plundering each other. It was, indeed, scarcely possible even to leave the 
 Afaij territory, and Agab, who, like all other Arab Sheikhs, was not without 
 his rival, began to fear an outbreak amongst his own people. He had al- 
 ready been summoned to take part in the war between the two Montefik 
 chiefs, and he was anxious that I should be on safe ground before his trou- 
 bles commenced. He, therefore, seriously urged me to return to Baghdad. 
 
 The Sheikh, with other chiefs of his tribe, was accustomed to pass the 
 evening in my tent. He would on those occasions describe the unsettled 
 and dangerous state of the country, and lament the insecurity caused by the 
 misrule of the Turkish authorities. 
 
 At the same time he would entertain me with accounts of the districts 
 to the south of the Afaij , their productions, and the manners of the curious 
 populations inhabiting those vast marshes. 
 
 The greater part of the country below ancient Babylon has now been for 
 centuries one great swamp. It is, indeed, what the prophet foretold it 
 should be, "a desert of the sea." # The embankments of the rivers, utterly 
 neglected, have broken away, and the waters have spread over the face of 
 the land. The best known of these marshes are the Lemlun, formed by 
 the Euphrates above its confluence with the Tigris at Korna. But they 
 now only form a part of those which are yearly increasing, and threaten to 
 cover the whole of southern Mesopotamia. 
 
 The Arab tribes inhabiting them are, as I have already observed, amongst 
 the most wild and ignorant that can be found in this part of Asia. Their 
 intercourse with the Turkish rulers, small as it may be, for their depend- 
 ence upon the Porte is indeed but nominal, does not tend to raise them in 
 the scale of humanity. The relations between them have generally con- 
 sisted of little more than a trial of treachery and deceit ; and, whilst the 
 Turk looks upon these Arabs as mere wild beasts, they in return have lost 
 all confidence in the faith and honor of the Ottoman government. That 
 these wild tribes, however, are not insensible to justice and to a feeling of 
 gratitude, that even they — ignorant and barbarous as they are — may be 
 easily governed and moved by kindness and equitable treatment, has been 
 proved by their conduct towards the few English merchants and travellers 
 who have had dealings with them, and have visited the rivers on which 
 they principally dwell. When, on more than one occasion during my res- 
 
 * Isaiah, xxi. 1. 
 
Chap. XXIV.] THE AFAU ARABS - 481 
 
 idence in the East, the navigation of the Tigris had been completely inter- 
 rupted, and all vessels belonging to the Turkish government and its sub- 
 jects had been stopped or plundered, so that the communication between 
 Busrah and Baghdad had entirely ceased, a British merchant was able to 
 bring up his own boats laden with valuable cargoes through the midst 
 of crowds of armed men who lined the banks. For these Arabs knew 
 that in their dealings with Englishmen, they had been treated with just- 
 ice and kindness, and that the black-mail they levied, however contrary to 
 our treaties with the Porte, when once agreed to, had always been hon- 
 estly paid. 
 
 This respect for the British name is mainly to be attributed to the ad- 
 mirable conduct and management of Captain Jones during the time he has 
 commanded the steamer on the Tigris. He has succeeded, during his in- 
 tercourse with the Arabs, in removing the evil consequences of several high- 
 ly imprudent and ill-advised acts committed by those who were employed 
 some years ago in the navigation of the river. 
 
 These Arabs are of the Sheeah sect of Mussulmans, and belong to the 
 great tribes of Rubbiyah and Ahl Maidan. Each tribe has innumerable 
 subdivisions, with distinct names and separate and independent Sheikhs. 
 They live in mat huts and in small black tents. Their chief wealth con- 
 sists in vast herds of buffalos, and they are, on the whole, notwithstanding 
 the wretched appearance of their dwellings and the scanty clothing of both 
 men and women, richer than most Arab tribes. This is to be attributed 
 to their having hitherto been able, in their almost inaccessible retreats, to 
 defy the Turkish authorities. 
 
 Their buffalos supply them with large quantities of butter and milk ; the 
 former is exported, and is a considerable article of trade. These hideous 
 animals appear to thrive in the marshy lands, and some districts actually 
 swarm with them. They are generally inoffensive and easily managed. 
 Sometimes, however, a male will suddenly leave the herd, and from some 
 cause go mad, attacking every one within its reach. It is then very dan- 
 gerous, and a strong party of armed men sally forth to destroy it. The 
 Arabs say that the animal is irritated by the smell of soap, and that it will 
 even run at persons who have recently washed their clothes. 
 
 These tribes have also flocks of sheep and goats, but the animals are 
 small, and their wool thin, and generally too coarse to form an article of 
 commerce. They raise very little corn and barley ; rice of an inferior 
 quality forms their principal food. 
 
 The marshes and the jungles near the rivers are the retreats of many 
 kind of wild animals. Lions abound. I have seen them frequently, and 
 during the excavations at Niffer we found fresh traces of their footsteps al- 
 most daily amongst the ruins. The Maidan Arabs boast of capturing them 
 in the following manner, and trustworthy persons have assured me that 
 they have seen the feat performed. A man having bound his right arm 
 with strips of tamarisk, and holding in his hand a strong piece of the same 
 
 Hii 
 
482 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXIV 
 
 wood, about a foot or more in length, hardened in the fire and sharpened 
 at both ends, will advance boldly into the animal's lair. When the lion 
 springs upon him, he forces the wood into the animal's extended jaws, 
 which will then be held open whilst he can dispatch the astonished beast 
 at his leisure with the pistol that he holds in his left hand. 
 
 The Arabs declare that a small animal, called a " Nees," watching its 
 opportunity in a tree, will spring upon the lion's back, and resisting every 
 attempt of the infuriated animal to shake it off, will suck the blood of its 
 victim until it expires. I do not know the origin of this tale, which is no 
 doubt a mere fiction ; I have frequently, however, met Arabs who have- 
 sworn that they have actually seen the Nees on the lion. 
 
 In the jungles are also found leopards, lynxes, wild cats, wolves, hyenas, 
 jackals, deer, porcupines, boars in vast numbers, and other animals. Wild 
 fowl, cranes, and bustards abound, and that heautiful game-bird the franco- 
 lin, or black partridge, swarms in the low brushwood. The Arahs shoot 
 them with ball. The marshes are full of fish, which attain a considerable 
 size. They are chiefly, I believe, a kind of barbel. Their flesh is coarse 
 and full of bones, but they afford the Arabs a constant supply of food. 
 They are generally taken by the spear. 
 
 Although the inhabitants of the marshes recognise some of the laws of 
 the Bedouins, they are wanting in many of the virtues of the Arabs of the 
 Desert. They have, however, several customs relating to the duties of 
 hospitality, which are rigidly adhered to. To say of a Maidan " that he 
 has sold bread," is to offer him the greatest of insults. To part with a 
 loaf for money is accounted an act bringing disgrace not only upon the per- 
 petrator, but upon his whole family. I found this peculiar custom exceed- 
 ingly inconvenient during my residence amongst the Afaij. Sheikh Agab 
 insisted upon giving daily to my large party their supplies of bread ; and 
 it was impossible to obtain it in any other manner. Even its sale in the 
 public market was forbidden. I was, at length, compelled to send to a 
 considerable distance for flour, and then to employ my own workmen in 
 baking it. The same scruples do not exist with regard to other articles of 
 food. They are sold in the bazar, as in all Eastern towns. 
 
 Every encampment and collection of huts, however small, belonging to 
 the Afaij and other Arabs of the Jezireh, has a museef, or guest-house. It 
 is generally kept up by the Sheikh of the community, and is the resort of 
 the men of the tribe, who meet in it during the day to discuss public affairs, 
 or to pass their time in listening to storytellers and gossip-mongers. Here 
 the traveller is hospitably entertained, and is supplied with food for himself 
 and his horse without any return whatever being expected. It would, in- 
 deed, be considered an insult to offer payment to the owner of the museef. 
 Even in their intercourse with Europeans these Arabs have not yet learned 
 tq receive money from travellers ; and although a cloak, a silk dress, a pair 
 of boots, or any present of this kind is readily accepted by the entertainer, 
 it is rather looked upon as a mark of honor and favor conferred upon him, 
 
Chap. XXIV.] return to Baghdad. 483 
 
 than as an acknowledgment for his hospitality. In encampments of com- 
 paratively wealthy tribes, almost every person of any substance has his 
 museef always open for the reception of strangers, and even in the Souk of 
 the Afaij, a coffee-house, or place of public entertainment, is unknown. A 
 stranger, according to custom, may remain three days as a guest without 
 being asked any questions. After that time, unless invited to continue, he 
 must leave the museef, but he can take up his abode in another for the 
 same period, and thus stop in the encampment until he has visited all those 
 who receive guests. On arriving, the traveller is immediately offered cof- 
 fee, and during his stay he receives two meals a-day ; a breakfast in the 
 morning about ten o'clock, and dinner soon after sunset. All those who 
 happen to be in the museef are invited to eat at the same time. At night 
 he is generally supplied with a carpet or mat to sleep upon, and sometimes 
 with a coverlet. The museefs of the great chiefs are usually crowded with 
 guests and strangers. 
 
 In the souk or bazar, of the Afaij tribe, were exposed for sale a few com- 
 mon Manchester prints — those world-wide evidences of the extent of Brit- 
 ish trade — English stuffs (printed and dyed at Baghdad, called tangebs), 
 keffiehs, Damascus silks, striped abas, dates, rice, coffee, spices, powder and 
 arms, the usual stores of an Eastern market. A few Christian jewellers 
 fashion gold and silver ornaments for the women, and an occasional pedlar 
 from Hillah or Baghdad excites the admiration of the Arabs by the display 
 of a stock of coarse knives, and common European hardware. 
 
 The dampness of the soil upon which my tent was pitched, and the un- 
 wholesome air of the surrounding marshes, brought on a severe attack of 
 pleurisy and fever. I was soon unable to move from my bed, and was re- 
 duced at length to a state of extreme weakness. Fortunately it occurred 
 to me to use a blistering fluid given to me for an injured horse, or I should 
 probably not again have left the Afaij swamps. Notwithstanding the se- 
 verity of the remedy it gave me immediate relief, and when Hormuzd join- 
 ed me on the 28th of January, I resolved to make an attempt, without fur- 
 ther delay, to reach Baghdad, where I could obtain medical aid. To add 
 to our misfortunes, the rain fell in unceasing torrents for four days, and of 
 course soon made its way through our tents. The waters of the marsh be- 
 gan to rise perceptibly, and the Afaij were preparing to abandon their mat 
 huts, and to seek, in their light tiradas, a safer retreat. 
 
 Some days elapsed, however, before I could rise from my carpet. The 
 state of affairs was daily getting worse. Abde Pasha had been sudden- 
 ly deprived of his government by the Porte on account of the failure of 
 his expedition against the Kazail Arabs, and his fall had increased the 
 general anarchy. It was only by joining a large party of horsemen on their 
 way to the seat of war in the south that Hormuzd had been able to reach 
 Niffer. I found that it was quite impossible to penetrate further into Mes- 
 opotamia, and that by remaining much longer amongst the Afaij we ran 
 the risk of being cut off from Baghdad altogether. I determined, there- 
 
484 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP XXIV 
 
 fore, to strike once more into the Desert, where we were less likely to meet 
 with hostile Arabs than in the beaten tracks, and to make a forced march 
 to some village in the neighbourhood of Hillah. 
 
 Fortunately I had my own riding horse with me, and his easy paces en- 
 abled me to undertake the journey although in a state of complete exhaust- 
 ion. On the 2d of February, I took leave of Agab, and pitched my tents 
 for the night beneath the mounds of Niffer. Before dawn on the following 
 morning we were urging our horses over the desert plains of the centre of 
 Mesopotamia. Two armed adherents of the Sheikh were with us, rather 
 to act as guides than to protect us from enemies. We travelled without 
 any cause for alarm as far as the great ruin of Zibbliyah. A large body 
 of horsemen then suddenly appeared in the distance. We ascended the 
 mound, and prepared to defend ourselves from this elevated position. But 
 either the Arabs did not perceive us, or were bent upon some warlike ex- 
 pedition which did not admit of delay, for they passed onwards, and left us 
 to continue our journey. 
 
 Zibbliyah closely resembles the celebrated ruin of Akkerkuf near Bagh- 
 dad. It rises from a heap of rubbish in the centre of the Desert, and 
 consists of a solid mass of large, crumbling, sun-dried bricks, between the 
 courses of which, at certain intervals, are layers of reeds as in many of the 
 Babylonian buildings. It is apparently rather the remains of a compact, 
 tower or platform than of the walls of an edifice, and may have served as 
 the substructure of a temple or altar, like the Birs Nimroud, and other 
 similar mounds. Those who were with me could find no fragments of in- 
 scribed bricks or pottery in their hasty search. 
 
 We saw no human habitation until long after nightfall, when we reached 
 the small Arab hamlet of Bashayi. It was surrounded, for defence, by a 
 low mud wall, and some time was spent in a parley and explanation 
 before the timid inhabitants would open their gates to so large a com- 
 pany of strangers. I could hardly remain in my saddle until their fears 
 were set at rest, and we were admitted within the inclosure. At length 
 I tottered into a wretched hovel, thick with smoke, and sank down ex- 
 hausted, after a ride of fourteen hours and a fortnight's complete abstinence 
 from food. 
 
 My poor Jebour workmen being on foot had been unable to keep up with 
 the caravan during our forced march. They did not reach the village un- 
 til daybreak, and then in a very sorry plight, for they were stripped to the 
 skin. They had approached, in search of water, the tents of some Arabs, 
 and falling in with a plundering party had been robbed of every thing and 
 left naked in the Desert. 
 
 Next morning I had scarcely strength to mount my horse. Hormuzd 
 turned off to Hillah to put a stop to the excavations at Babylon. With 
 the caravan I made another forced march in the beaten track to Baghdad, 
 and reached the khan of Iskanderiyah. 
 
 We were now within a few hours of the end of our journey, and leaving 
 
Chap. XXIV.] PALACE 0F ctesiphon. 485 
 
 the servants and baggage to follow at leisure, I quitted the khan with the 
 Bairakdar before dawn to canter into Baghdad. As the sun rose from the 
 sea-like plain, the great ruin of Ctesiphon appeared above the eastern ho- 
 rizon. The remains of this famous palace of the Persian kings have often 
 been described : a vaulted hall, exceeding 150 feet in depth and about 106 
 feet high, forms the centre of the building. It is completely open at one 
 end to the air, but on both sides of it are wings, divided into several floors, 
 each containing dwelling apartments. Such is the plan of most modern 
 Persian houses, in which a great Iwan, or open chamber for summer resi- 
 dence, is flanked by sleeping and other rooms, forming separate stories to the 
 height of the centre hall. The exterior of the palace of Ctesiphon is orna- 
 mented with pilasters, cornices, and arches of brickwork, now fast falling 
 to decay, but probably once covered with fine plaster, or partly cased with 
 stone. The architecture is peculiar to the time of the Parthian and Sas- 
 sanian dynasties, being a mixture of Western and Eastern forms and dec- 
 orations, resulting from the long connection between the Persian and Ro- 
 man empires. Byzantine architects were probably employed in the erec- 
 tion of many of the great edifices founded by the Arsaces and Chosroes ; 
 and in the style of the ornaments and of the sculptured figures occasional- 
 ly found on buildings of those periods, as at Al Hadhr and in various parts 
 of southern Persia, may be traced the corrupt taste and feeble outline of 
 the artists of Constantinople. 
 
 This ruin, with a few mounds and heaps of rubbish scattered around it. 
 is ail that now remains of the capital of the Parthian empire. On the 
 opposite bank of the Tigris long lines of earthen ramparts, forming a 
 quadrangle and inclosing the usual signs of former habitations, mark 
 the site of the city built by Seleucus after the last fall of Babylon. 
 
 The victorious Arabs, under Saad, the general of the Caliph Omar, pil- 
 laged Ctesiphon after they had overthrown the Persian armies in the de- 
 cisive battle of Cadesia, in the sixteenth year of the Hegira. They found 
 in the palace the throne, the crown, and the standard of the Persian kings, 
 together with a carpet which covered the floor of the great hall, and was 
 of such extraordinary beauty and value that it excited the wonder of the 
 conquerors, and was considered amongst the most precious spoil taken from 
 their enemies. 1 * 
 
 * Gibbon, in the 51st chapter of his Decline and Fall, has, with his usual elo- 
 quence, described the capture and plunder of Ctesiphon. He thus mentions the cel- 
 ebrated carpet alluded to in the text :— " One of the apartments of the palace was 
 decorated with a carpet of silk, sixty cubits in length, and as many in breadth. A 
 paradise or garden was depictured on the ground : the flowers, fruits, and shrubs 
 were imitated by the figures of the gold embroidery and the colors of the precious 
 stones ; and the ample square was encircled by a variegated and verdant border. 
 The Arabian general persuaded the soldiers to relinquish their claim, in the reason- 
 able hope that the eyes of the caliph would be delighted with the splendid workman- 
 ship of native industry. Regardless of the merit of art and the pomp of royalty, the 
 rigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren of Medina. The picture was de- 
 
486 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXI V 
 
 Ctesiphon and Seleucia received from the Arabs the name of Al Madain, 
 or the twin cities. When Baghdad was founded on the Tigris, a few miles 
 above them, the Caliph Al Mansour wished to pull down the palace of 
 Chosroes for materials to build his own capital. His vizir, who had re- 
 cently turned from the Magian religion, endeavored to dissuade him. The 
 caliph upbraided him for being but an insincere convert to Islam, and foi 
 .sympathising with those who still professed his former faith, and whose 
 monuments he therefore wished to preserve. The attempt to destroy the 
 vast edifice was fruitless ; but when it was about to be abandoned, the vizir 
 urged his master to persevere, exclaiming, " that if he now ceased to pull 
 down the palace, history would say that Al Mansour with all his power 
 was unable to overthrow that which another prince had built."* 
 
 I did not visit Ctesiphon on this occasion ; the river separated me from 
 the ruins, and I only mention them in this place to describe a remarkable 
 effect of mirage which I witnessed as I rode towards Baghdad. As the 
 quivering sun rose in unclouded splendor, the palace was transformed into 
 a vast arcade of enormous arches resting upon columns and masses of ma- 
 sonry. Gradually this arcade was, as it were, compressed like the slides 
 of a telescope, but the building gained in height what it lost in length, and 
 one arch slowly appeared above the other, until the ruin assumed the shape 
 of a tower reaching to the sky, and pierced from the base to the summit 
 by innumerable arches. In a few minutes this strange edifice began to 
 melt away into air, and I saw a magnified, though perfect image of the 
 palace ; but upon it was its exact counterpart upside down. Other equallv 
 singular changes succeeded until the sun was high in the heavens, and the 
 ruin at length disappeared in the distance. The small bushes of camel- 
 thorn scattered over the Desert were during this time turned into forest 
 trees, and a transparent lake imaged for a fleeting hour in its counterfeit 
 waters the varying forms of the unsubstantial edifice. Although I have 
 seen many extraordinary effects of mirage during my wanderings in the 
 East, I scarcely remember to have witnessed one more striking or more 
 beautiful than that near the ruins of Ctesiphon. f 
 
 stroyed ; but such was the intrinsic value of the materials, that the share of Ali alone 
 was sold for twenty thousand drams." It was in the palace of Ctesiphon also thai 
 the Arabs found the camphor used by the Persians to mix with the wax for illu- 
 minating the halls. They took it for salt, and did not discover their mistake untii 
 they had mixed it with their bread. 
 
 * A similar story is related by D'Herbelot. See his Bibliotheque Orientale, under 
 the title of Madain. 
 
 f I witnessed another very remarkable effect of mirage in the early spring of 1840, 
 when riding one morning over the plains near Bir, on the Euphrates. Suddenly, as 
 if by enchantment, a magnificent city, standing on the borders of a lake, rose before 
 me. Palaces, domes, towers, and the spires of Gothic cathedrals were reflected in 
 the blue waters. The deception was so complete, the appearance so real, that I 
 could scarcely believe some mighty capital had not been by magic transported intc 
 the Desert. There was scarcely a stone or a bush to account for this singular phe- 
 nomenon. 
 
Chap. XXIV.] 
 
 ARRIVAL AT BAGHDAD- 
 
 487 
 
 I had but just strength left me to reach the gates of Baghdad. Once 
 in the city, under the friendly care of Dr. Hyslop, I soon recovered my 
 health, and was ready to start on fresh adventures. 
 
 Arab Sheep. 
 
Nestorian and A.rab Workmen, with Jar discovered at Nimroud. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. SAHIMAN. PLUNDER OF HIS CAMELS. LEAVE BAGHDAD. 
 
 JOURNEY THROUGH MESOPOTAMIA. EARLY ARAB REMAINS. THE MEDIAN WALL. 
 
 TEKRIT. HORSES STOLEN. INSTANCES OF BEDOUIN HONESTY. EXCAVATIONS AT KALAH 
 
 SHERGHAT. REACH MOSUL. DISCOVERIES DURING ABSENCE. NEW CHAMBERS AT KOU- 
 
 YUNJIK. DESCRIPTION OF BAS-RELIEFS. EXTENT OF THE RUINS EXPLORED. BASES OF 
 
 PILLARS. SMALL OBJECTS. ROMAN COINS STRUCK AT NINEVEH. HOARD OF DENARII. 
 
 GREEK RELICS. ABSENCE OF ASSYRIAN TOMBS FRAGMENT WITH EGYPTIAN CHAR- 
 ACTERS. ASSYRIAN RELICS. REMAINS BENEATH THE TOMB OF JONAH. DISCOVERIES 
 
 AT SHEREEF-KHAN. AT NIMROUD. NAMES OF NEW KINGS. ASSYRIAN WEIGHTS. EN- 
 GRAVED CYLINDERS. 
 
 There was no hope of improvement in the state of the country round 
 Baghdad. The Pasha had left the dam of the Hindiyah, which shortly 
 after again gave way, and afforded fresh retreats to the Arabs. Under 
 these circumstances, and for other reasons, I deemed it prudent to give up 
 for the time the excavations in the ruins of Babylonia. When tranquillity 
 had been to some extent restored in the pashalic, an expedition might be 
 
Chap. XXV.] return to mosul. 489 
 
 undertaken either by myself, or by some other traveller, with better pros- 
 pects of success. 
 
 The Shammar Bedouins were now moving northwards towards their 
 spring and summer pastures. I had been in continual communication with 
 the sons of Rishwan. Suttum, whose wife's imperious temper still kept 
 him apart from his family, had encamped during the winter with another 
 branch of the tribe in the neighbourhood of Tekrit. It was suspected that 
 he had been privy to more than one successful attack on the Turkish post, 
 and on certain treasure convoys belonging to the government. His tents 
 and those of his friends had been wantonly fired upon by a party of Turkish 
 soldiers floating down the river on a raft, and it was only natural that he 
 should take his revenge. The roads between Baghdad and Mosul were 
 completely closed by bands of Bedouins, who plundered every caravan that 
 came within their reach. Sahiman and Mijwell had accompanied their 
 father to the plains of southern Babylonia. The latter had been severely 
 wounded in some affray. Although the Shammar had laid waste the vil- 
 lages and plundered the sedentary tribes belonging to the pashalic of Bagh- 
 dad, the government was not sufficiently strong to send troops against them. 
 The Pasha, indeed, was glad enough to get rid of these troublesome visitors, 
 and to assist them in their return to the north, by sending them boats to 
 cross the marshes and great canals. Had these natural barriers been de- 
 fended by a few armed men, the Bedouins would have been caught in a 
 trap, and must have shortly yielded to the Turkish authorities, for they 
 could neither retreat nor advance. 
 
 As Sahiman was journeying northwards with the rest of his tribe, I 
 thought this a good opportunity of following under his protection the direct 
 track to Mosul through the Desert and along the western bank of the Ti- 
 gris. He at once consented to escort me, only stipulating that I should ob- 
 tain permission from the Pasha for his camels and flocks to pass through 
 the suburbs of Baghdad, instead of following the longer and more difficult 
 road through the marshes, like those of the rest of the tribe. The request 
 was granted, and a guarantee was given to me by the governor and the 
 commander in chief of the troops, that my Bedouin friend, with his family 
 and property, should cross the city in safety. They had no sooner, how- 
 ever, entered the gates, than they were fallen upon by the inhabitants of 
 the quarter, aided by a body of irregular troops and Agayls. Abandoning 
 nearly eight hundred camels, Sahiman and his brother Arabs fled into the 
 Desert. 
 
 Warmly supported by Capt. Kemball, I remonstrated indignantly against 
 this act of treachery. The Turkish authorities declared that it was an ac- 
 cident beyond their control, and at length adopted means to recover the 
 stolen camels. It was, however, with some difficulty, that I was able to 
 find Sahiman, and then to induce him to return to Baghdad. Eventually 
 the greater part of his property was restored to him. It is thus that the 
 Bedouins are encouraged in continual enmity to the Porte, and that their 
 
490 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXV 
 
 reliance on the good faith of the Turks and of the inhabitants of towns has 
 been completely destroyed. 
 
 This untimely occurrence, as well as repeated attacks of fever, delayed 
 my departure for some days, and it was not until the 27th of February that, 
 bidding adieu to my good friends of Baghdad, I crossed the Tigris by the 
 crazy bridge of boats, and took the crowded road to Kathimain. There I 
 passed the night beneath the hospitable roof of the Nawab of Oude. At 
 daybreak on the following morning, under the guidance of Sahiman, and 
 accompanied by Hormuzd, the Jebours, and my servants, I left the sacred 
 suburb, and followed a beaten track leading to the Desert. In order to 
 avoid the windings of the river, we struck across the barren plain. The 
 low houses of Kathimain soon disappeared from our sight, but for some miles 
 we watched the gilded domes and minarets of the tombs of the Imaums, 
 rising above the dark belt of palms, and glittering in the rays of the morn- 
 ing sun. At last they too vanished, and I had looked for the last time upon 
 Baghdad. We were now in as complete a wilderness as if we had been 
 wandering in the midst of Arabia, and not within a few miles of a great 
 city. Not a living creature broke the solitude. Here and there we saw 
 the sites of former encampments, but the Arabs had long since left them, 
 either to move further into the Desert, or to seek security from an enemy 
 amongst the date groves on the banks of the river. 
 
 We travelled with speed over the plain, and in four hours and a half 
 passed the ruins of a large caravanserai, called Tarmiyah. After a ride 
 of nine hours we found ourselves in the midst of the palm trees of a village 
 called Summaichah, formerly a town of some importance, and still watered 
 by the Dujail, a wide and deep canal of the time of the Caliphs, derived 
 from the Tigris. The inhabitants seeing horsemen in the distance armed 
 themselves hastily, anticipating an attack. They met us at some distance 
 from their dwellings, firing their guns, brandishing their naked scimitars, 
 and shouting their war-cry. Finding that we were travellers and friends 
 they escorted us to the house of their Sheikh, Hashem, who immediately 
 slew a sheep, and made other hospitable preparations for our entertainment. 
 This chief, although now ruling over a stationary tribe who till the soil, is 
 of Shammar descent, and is married to a Bedouin lady. As his wife, how- 
 ever, will not condescend to live within four walls, he is obliged to compro- 
 mise matters by passing one half of the year under her tent, and the other 
 in his hovel amongst his own people. As we expected to fall in with her 
 tribe during our journey northwards, he entrusted me with a bundle of em- 
 broidered cloaks and colored kerchiefs as presents to her and her kin. His 
 museef was crowded with Bedouins, for amongst the Arabs the hospitality 
 of Hashem had become a proverb. Summaichah, too, being on the edge 
 of the Desert, is convenient for hearing news from the town, and as a place 
 of meeting before or after plundering expeditions, although a Turkish mu- 
 dir, with a garrison of a dozen half-starved Albanians, resides within the 
 walls of its ruined serai. 
 
Chap. XXV.] journey to mosul. 491 
 
 The plain on all sides is intersected by the remains of innumerable ca- 
 nals and watercourses, derived from the Tigris and the Dujail. Their lofty 
 banks narrow the view, and it was only as we passed over them, after quit- 
 ting Summaichah, that we saw the distant palm groves of the large vil- 
 lage of Belled. Scouts had been stationed on the higher mounds, far and 
 near, to give notice to the inhabitants of the approach of Bedouins, that 
 the flocks might be driven within the walls. They had quickly spread 
 the alarm when they saw us drawing near, and a body of armed men ap- 
 peared in the distance ready to meet the supposed robbers. We left them 
 and their village to the right, and passed through the ruins of an Arab town 
 of the time of the Caliphs. Beyond it we crossed the Dujail, by a falling 
 bridge of four large arches, with a small arch between each. The beauty 
 of the masonry, the ornamental inscriptions, and rich tracery of this ruin, 
 showed that it was of the best period of Arab architecture.* 
 
 To the north of the Dujail we wound through a perfect maze of ancient 
 canals now dry. It required the practised eye of the Bedouin to follow the 
 sand-covered track. About eight miles beyond the bridge the embank- 
 ments suddenly ceased. A high rampart of earth then stretched as far as 
 the eye could see, to the right and to the left. At certain distances were 
 mounds, forming square inclosures, like ruined outworks. A few hundred 
 yards in advance was a second rampart, much lower and narrower than 
 the first. We had reached what some believe to be the famous Median 
 wall, one of the many wonders of Babylonia, built by the Babylonians from 
 river to river across Mesopotamia, to guard their wealthy city and thickly- 
 peopled provinces against invasion from the north. Captain Jones, how- 
 ever, who has examined these remains with more care and for a greater 
 distance than any other traveller, or than I could do during a hasty jour- 
 ney, is of opinion that they are not those of a wall of defence, but merely 
 of an embankment, stretching for miles inland, and originally raised to pro- 
 tect the lower country from inundations, and to regulate its irrigation. I 
 confess that my own impression, even after this explanation, was in favor 
 of the rampart. At any rate, if this be not the Median wall, no traces of 
 which have been as yet found in any other part of Mesopotamia, it appear- 
 ed to me to be a regular line of fortification. It is called by the Arabs, at 
 the place we crossed it, Farriyah ; elsewhere, the Sidr al Nimroud. or the 
 rampart of Nimrod. 
 
 To the north of it there are no canals or watercourses except the Dujail, 
 which was derived from the Tigris a little above it, and passes through 
 the mounds ; an additional proof, it appears to me, that the remains are 
 those of a wall, and not of an embankment against floods. Beyond the 
 Median wall we entered upon undulating gravelly downs, furrowed by 
 deep ravines, and occasionally rising into low hills. With the rich allu- 
 vial soil of Babylonia, we had left the boundaries of the ancient province. 
 
 * It is called, I believe, the bridge of Harba, and was built by the caliph Montasser 
 Billah. 
 
492 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 The banks of the Tigris are here, in general, too high, and the face of the 
 country too unequal, to admit of artificial irrigation being carried far inland 
 by watercourses derived from the river. 
 
 The spiral tower, the dome, and the minarets of Samarrah at length ap- 
 peared above the eastern horizon, and we rode towards them. After nine 
 hours and a half's journey we encamped for the night on the Tigris oppo- 
 site to the town. As the sun went down we watched the women who, on 
 the other side of the river, came to fetch their evening supplies of water, 
 and gracefully bearing their pitchers on their heads returned to the gates. 
 But on our bank the solitude was only broken by a lonely hyaena coming 
 to drink at the stream, and the hungry jackals that prowled round our 
 tents. The ruins of an early Arab town, called Ashik, stood on a hill in 
 the distance, and near our camping place were the deserted walls of a more 
 recent settlement. 
 
 On the third day" of our journey another ride of nine hours and a half, 
 along the banks of the Tigris, brought us to Tekrit. We passed, and ex- 
 changed salutations with, one or two parties of Bedouin horsemen, going 
 to and fro in search of pasture for their sheep. Further inland we could 
 see the vast herds of camels and the flocks belonging to the tribe of Ahl 
 Mohammed, whose tents were concealed, as is the custom, in the sheltered 
 ravines. These Arabs kept the small town of Tekrit in a state of siege, 
 and its supplies having been cut off, we had some difficulty in getting pro- 
 visions for ourselves and our horses. 
 
 We were not sorry to leave Tekrit, whose inhabitants did not belie a no- 
 toriously bad character. Our halting-place, after crossing for seven hours 
 and a half the same undulating gravelly downs, was near the ruins of a 
 fine old khan, called Karnaineh, once standing on the bank of the river, 
 but now nearly a mile from it. Next morning we struck inland, in order 
 to avoid the precipitous hills of Makhoul, at whose very feet sweeps the 
 Tigris. They form part of a long isolated limestone range which com- 
 mences with the Sinjar, runs through the centre of Mesopotamia, crosses 
 the river near Khan Karnaineh, then takes the name of Hamrin, and ap- 
 proaching the mountains of Luristan continues parallel with them to the 
 Persian province of Fars. In the Makhoul hills are several ruins. Some 
 falling walls and towers hanging over the Tigris, and once, probably, the 
 stronghold of a freebooter, who levied black-mail on travellers, are called by 
 the Arabs the " Castle of the Giants," and are said to be the dwelling- 
 place of j ins and various other supernatural beings. 
 
 Our track led through a perfect wilderness. We found no water,* 1 nor 
 saw any moving thing. When after a long ride of about eleven hours we 
 reached some brackish springs, called Belaliss, the complete solitude lulled 
 us into a feeling of security, and we all slept without keeping the accus- 
 
 * There were two watering stations at a considerable distance to the left of us. 
 The first (about eight hours from Karnaineh) called Sultaniyah ; the second (nine 
 hours and a half), Mangour. They are encamping places of the Shammar. 
 
Chap. XXV.] journey to mosul. 493 
 
 tomed watch. I was awoke in the middle of the night by an unusual 
 noise close to my tent. I immediately gave the alarm, but it was too late. 
 Two of our horses had been stolen, and in the darkness we could not pur- 
 sue the thieves. Sahiman broke out in reproaches of himself as the cause 
 of our mishap, and wandered about until dawn in search of some clue to 
 the authors of the theft. At length he tracked them, declared unhesita- 
 tingly that they were of the Shammar, pointed out, from marks almost im- 
 perceptible to any eye but to that of a Bedouin, that they were four in 
 number, had left their delouls at some distance from our tents, and had 
 already journeyed far before they had been drawn by our fires to the en- 
 campment. These indications were enough. He swore an oath that he 
 would follow and bring back our stolen horses wherever they might be, for 
 it was a shame upon him and his tribe that, whilst under his protection in 
 the Desert, we had lost any thing belonging to us. And he religiously kept 
 his oath. "When we parted at the end of our journey, he began at once to 
 trace the animals. After six weeks' search, during which he went as far 
 as Ana on the Euphrates, where one had been sold to an Arab of the town, 
 he brought them to Mosul. I was away at the time, but he left them with 
 Mr. Rassam, and returned to the Desert without asking a reward for per- 
 forming an act of duty imperative on a Bedouin. Such instances of hon- 
 esty and good faith are not uncommon amongst the wandering Arabs, as I 
 can bear witness from personal experience. 
 
 Mr. Rassam frequently sent Suttum across the Desert with as much as 
 five or six hundred pounds in money, and always with the most complete 
 confidence. His only reward was an occasional silk dress, or one or two 
 camel loads of corn for his family, the whole of the value of a few shillings.* 
 Of late years the wool of the Bedouin sheep has been in considerable de- 
 mand in the European markets, and a large trade in this article has al- 
 ready been opened with the Shammar. Money is generally advanced some 
 months before the sheep are sheared, to enable the Arabs to buy their win- 
 ter stock of provisions. Mr. Rassam has thus paid beforehand several thou- 
 sand pounds without any written or other guarantee whatever. The tribes 
 leave the neighbourhood of the town, and are not again heard of until their 
 long strings of camels are seen bringing the promised wool. I remember 
 a Bedouin coming all the way alone from the neighbourhood of Baghdad 
 to pay Mr. Rassam a trifling sum, I think between three and four shillings, 
 the balance of a wool account between them. 
 
 A youth of the great tribe of the Aneyza having quarrelled with his par- 
 ents, ran away and came to Mosul, when he entered as a student in a 
 college. He became a Mullah, and had almost forgotten his early friends, 
 when the tribe, driven by a famine from the Syrian desert, crossed the 
 Euphrates, and encamped near the town to buy corn. Ibn Gayshish, 
 their Sheikh, hearing by chance that the fugitive was still alive, and now 
 
 * I have lately learnt, to my great grief, that poor Suttum has been killed in some 
 affray with the Aneyza. 
 
494 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 a member of the priesthood, sent a messenger to him to say, that since he 
 had quitted his tents his father had died, and had left a certain number 
 of camels, which had been divided according to the law amongst his family. 
 Those allotted to him had been in the safe keeping of the tribe, and had 
 increased yearly. The chief was now ready to do with them as their 
 rightful owner might direct. 
 
 Mr. Rassam had, at my request, sent a party of Jebours to renew the 
 excavations at Kalah Sherghat, which had been very imperfectly exam- 
 ined. The springs of Belaliss are separated from the shoulder of the Ge- 
 bel Makhoul, which overhangs the ruins, by a wild rocky valley, called 
 Wadi Jehannen, the Valley of Hell. We crossed it and the hills in about 
 three hours and a half, and came suddenly upon the workmen, who, of 
 course, took us for Bedouin plunderers, and prepared to defend themselves. 
 They had opened trenches in various parts of the great mound, but had 
 made no discoveries of any importance, and I am inclined to doubt whether 
 an edifice containing any number of sculptures or inscriptions ever existed 
 on the platform. Fragments of a winged bull in the alabaster of the Nine- 
 veh palaces, part of a statue in black stone with a few cuneiform charac- 
 ters, and pieces of a large inscribed slab of copper, were, it is true, found in 
 the ruins ; but these remains were scarcely sufficient to warrant the contin- 
 uation of the excavations on a spot so difficult of access, and exposed to bo 
 much risk from the Desert Arabs. I collected the fragments of a large in- 
 scribed cylinder in baked clay,^ and a copper cup, a few vases in common 
 pottery, and some beads, which had been taken from tombs similar to those 
 before opened on the mound. 
 
 We encamped in the jungle to the north of the ruins, and were visited 
 by fifteen men of the Albou Mohammed, who frankly confessed that they 
 were thieves, out on their vocation. As the tribe does not bear a very good 
 character for honesty, and as it might have struck our guests that they had 
 no need of going further to fulfil the object of their journey, we violated 
 the duties of hospitality, and put some of them in irons for the night, as a 
 guarantee for the good conduct of the rest. 
 
 I ordered the Jebours to leave Kalah Sherghat, and to return with us to 
 Mosul. We now travelled through a country which I have before de- 
 scribed.! Abd'rubbou with his Jebours were encamped in the rich pas- 
 tures of Jernaf. He came out with his horsemen to meet us. We eat 
 bread in his tent, stopped for the night near the bitumen springs of the Ki- 
 yarah, and gallopped the following day into Mosul. 
 
 Mr. Bell, who had been sent to Assyria by the Trustees of the British 
 Museum to succeed Mr. Cooper as artist to the expedition, had arrived in 
 the town two days before. I rode with him without delay to Kouyunjik. 
 
 * Of the same size and form as that containing the records of Essarhaddon, given 
 by me to the British Museum. It has been only partly restored, and the inscription 
 which appears to be historical, has not yet been deciphered. 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. ch. xii. 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK. 
 
 495 
 
 to examine the excavations made during my absence. I will now describe 
 the sculptures uncovered whilst I was at Baghdad and after my return to 
 Mosul, previous to my departure for England. 
 
 To the north of the great centre hall* four new chambers had been dis- 
 covered. The firstf was 96 feet by 23. On its wails were represented the 
 return of an Assyrian army from war, with their spoil of captives and cat- 
 tle. The prisoners were distinguished by a cap turned back at the top, 
 not unlike the Phrygian bonnet reversed, short tunics, and a broad belt. 
 The women had long curls falling over their shoulders, and were clothed 
 in fringed robes. The fighting-men of the conquered tribe wore a simple 
 fillet round their short hair ; a tunic, falling in front to the knee, and be- 
 hind, to the calf of the leg ; a wavy girdle, and a cross-belt round their 
 breasts, ending in two large tassels. At their backs they carried a quiver 
 topped by a circular ornament. The captives bore small squares, which, 
 
 from their apparent weight, were 
 probably meant to represent ingots 
 of gold, or some other metal. Their 
 beasts of burden were laden with 
 the same objects. A kneeling cam- 
 el, receiving its load, was designed 
 with considerable truth and spirit. 
 The legs bent under, the tail raised, 
 the foot of the man on the neck of 
 the animal to keep it from rising, 
 whilst a second adjusts the burden 
 Loading a Camel (Kouyunjik). f r0 m behind, form a group seen ev- 
 
 ery day in the Desert and in an Eastern town. The camel saddle, too, 
 nearly resembled that still used by the Arabs. The women rode on mules, 
 
 Captives resting (Kouyunjik). 
 
 and in carts drawn by these animals and sometimes by men. Asses and 
 waggons bore caldrons and sacks, probably containing corn. One bas-re- 
 lief represented captives resting ; two unharnessed mules stood eating their 
 barley in front of the loaded cart ; a woman seated on a stone held her 
 child upon her knees, whilst her husband drank water from a cup. 
 
 This chamber opened at one end into a small room, J 23 feet by 13. On 
 
 * No. XIX. Plan I. t No. XLIII. same Plan. 
 
 t No. XLIV same Plan. 
 
496 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chaf. XXV 
 
 its Avails were represented a captive tribe, dressed in short tunics, a skin 
 falling from their shoulders, boots laced up in front, and cross-bands round 
 their legs ; they had short, bushy hair and beards. 
 
 In the outer chamber two doorways opposite the grand entrances into the 
 
 Captives in a Cart (Kouyunjik) ♦ 
 
 great hall, led into a parallel apartment, 62 feet by 16 feet.* On its walls 
 was represented the conquest of the same people, wearing the reversed 
 Phrygian bonnet. There were long lines of prisoners ; some in carts, others 
 on foot. The fighti^-men, armed with bows and quivers, were made to 
 bear part of the spoilt *In the costumes of the warriors and captives, and 
 in the forms of the waggons and war-carts, these bas-reliefs bore a striking 
 resemblance to the sculptures of the son of Essarhaddon. described in a pre- 
 vious chapter.! It may, therefore, be inferred that the conquest of the same 
 nation was celebrated in both, and that on these walls we have recorded 
 the successful wars of Sennacherib in the country of Susiana or Elam.J 
 
 This chamber, like the one' parallel to it, led at one end into a small 
 room 17 feet square.^ On its walls, the campaign recorded in the adjoin- 
 ing chamber had been continued. The bas-reliefs still preserved repre- 
 sented the king in his chariot receiving the captives ; musicians playing on 
 harps before him ; mountains and forests, and a castle whose name, written 
 
 ■+ tffl. G> HW * 
 
 has not been identified or deciphered.il 
 
 These rooms completed the discoveries on the southern side of the palace. 
 On the northern side of the same edifice, and on the river-face of the plat- 
 form, one wall of a third great hall had been uncovered ; the other walls 
 had not been excavated at the time of my departure from Mosul. From 
 
 * No. XLVI Plan I t See Chapter 20. 
 
 t See Platel 33 and 34. of the 2nd series of the Monuments of Nineveh for draw- 
 ings of several of the bas-reliefs in the two chambers- § No. XL VII. Plan I, 
 
 II These bas-reliefs were amongst those which had not been drawn at the time 
 of my departure. I am not aware whether Mr. Hodder, the artist chosen by the 
 Trustees of the British Museum as the successor of Mr. Bell, has since made copies 
 of them. 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK. 
 
 497 
 
 the very ruinous state of this part of the building, and from the small accu- 
 mulation of earth above the level of the foundations, it is doubtful whether 
 any sculptures still exist in it. The standing wall had three entrances,* 
 the centre formed by winged lions, and the others by fish gods. Of the bas- 
 reliefs only fragments now remained. In one set was depictured the con- 
 quest of another tribe dwelling in the marshes of southern Mesopotamia. 
 The Assyrians pursued their enemies, in wicker boats, such as I have de- 
 scribed in my account of the Afaij Arabs ; and on the islands formed by 
 the small streams flowing through the morass, were Assyrian warriors on 
 horseback. It will be seen by the accompanying woodcut how closely the 
 
 A Battle in a Marsh in Southern Mesopotamia (Kouyunjik). 
 
 country resembled that now inhabited by the Afaij tribes. The captive 
 women wore long robes fringed and embroidered. The palm-tree flourish- 
 ed on the dry land outside the swamps. t 
 * No. LXIV. Plan I. t See also PI. 27. of the 2d ser. Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 Ii 
 
498 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 On the same side of the hall was represented the conquest of a second 
 nation, whose men were clothed in long garments, and whose women wore 
 turbans, with veils falling to their feet. The Assyrians had plundered 
 their temples, and were seen carrying away their idols. " Of a truth, 
 Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their coun- 
 tries, and have cast their gods into the fire ; for they were no gods, but 
 the work of men's hands, wood and stone ; therefore they have destroyed 
 them."* Unfortunately the bas-reliefs were so much injured that the na- 
 ture of these images could not be satisfactorily ascertained. The figures 
 appeared to be beardless, with the exception of one, which is that of a man 
 raising his right arm, and bearing a mace.f 
 
 The three entrances led into one chamber 86 feet by 24.$ On its cal- 
 cined walls were only the faint traces of bas-reliefs. I could distinguish a 
 line of chariots in a ravine between mountains, warriors throwing logs on 
 a great burning pile of wood, castles on the tops of hills, Assyrians earning 
 away spoil, amongst which was a royal umbrella, and the king on his 
 throne receiving his army 'on their return from battle with the captives and 
 booty. The walls of a small room§ opening into the northern end of this 
 chamber had almost entirely disappeared. The fragments found in the 
 rubbish showed that they had also been covered with sculpture. 
 
 Opposite to and corresponding with the three entrances from the hall 
 were three other doorways leading into a parallel chamber of somewhat 
 smaller dimensions.il Parts of four slabs were the only sculptures suffi- 
 ciently well preserved to be drawn : they represented the siege of a great 
 city, whose many-towered walls were defended by slingers, archers, and 
 spearmen. The king himself in his chariot was present at the attack. 
 Around him were his warriors and his led-horses. 
 
 Three more chambers were discovered in this part of the building. 
 They were on the very edge of the river-face of the mound. The walls 
 of the outer roomH had been almost entirely destroyed. An entrance, 
 formed by colossal winged figures, led from it into a second chamber, 
 about 24 feet square, in which the sculptures were still partly preserved. 
 Amongst the bas-reliefs was another battle in a marsh. The Assyrian 
 warriors were seen fighting in boats, and bringing their captives to the 
 shore, one of the vessels being towed by a man swimming on an inflated 
 skin.** Sennacherib himself, in his chariot, in the midst of a grove of 
 palm-trees, received the prisoners, and the heads of the slain. Above him 
 was the following short epigraph, commencing with his name and title, 
 which I have omitted, as they were written in the usual form. ft 
 
 * Isaiah, xxxvii. 18, 19. 
 
 t Plate 30. of the 2d series of the Monuments of Nineveh. 
 
 t No. LXV. Plan I. $ No. LXVI. same Plan, 26 feet by 19. 
 
 II No. LXVII. same Plan. Its length was about 82 feet, and its breadth 16. 
 
 f No. LXXI. same Plan. ** No. LXX. same Plan. 
 
 ft See Plate 28. of the Monuments of Nineveh, 2d series. 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK. 
 
 499 
 
 
 awa * 
 
 -This inscription appears to read, " Sennacherib, king of the country of 
 Assyria, the spoil of the river Agammi, from the city of Sakrina" (the last 
 line not interpreted). Although the name of this city has not yet been 
 found, as far as I know, in the records on the bulls and on other monu- 
 ments of the same king, yet the mention of the river enables us to recog- 
 nise in the bas-reliefs a representation of part of the campaign, undertaken 
 by Sennacherib, in the fourth year of his reign, against Susubira the Chal- 
 daean : whose capital was Bittul, on the same stream. t Although the river 
 itself has not as yet been identified, it is evidently either a part of the Ti- 
 gris or Euphrates, or one of their confluents, near the Persian Gulf. We 
 have no difficulty, indeed, in determining the site of the country whose con- 
 quest is depictured. The marshes and palm-trees show that it must have 
 been in southern Mesopotamia, or in the districts watered by the Shat el 
 Arab. 
 
 A great retinue of charioteers and horsemen appear to have followed 
 Sennacherib to this war. Large circular shields were fixed to the sides of 
 the chariots represented in the sculptures. 
 
 Chariot, with circular Shield attached (Kouyunjik). 
 
 The third chamber,! entered from that last described through a door- 
 way guarded by colossal eagle-footed figures, contained the sculptured rec- 
 ords of the conquest of part of Babylonia, or of some other district to the 
 
 * One character is wanting at the end of each line. f See ante, page 1S3. 
 
 t No. LXIX. Plan I. About 23 feet by 19. 
 
500 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 LChap. XXV. 
 
 south of it. Long lines of chariots, horsemen, and warriors, divided into 
 companies according to their arms and their costume, accompanied the 
 king. The Assyrians having taken the principal city of the invaded coun- 
 try, cut down the palm-trees within and without its walls. Men beating 
 
 Assyrians cutting down the Palm Trees belonging to a captured City (Kouyunjik). 
 
 drums, such as are ..still seen in the same country, and women clapping 
 their hands in cadence to their song, came out to greet the conquerors. 
 Beneath the walls was represented a great caldron, which appears to have 
 been supported upon metal images of oxen ; perhaps a vessel resembling 
 the brazen sea of the temple of Solomon.^ 
 
 Such were the discoveries in the ruined palace of Sennacherib at the 
 time of my departure for Europe. In this magnificent edifice I had opened 
 no less than seventy-one halls, chambers, and passages, whose walls, al- 
 most without an exception, had been panelled with slabs of sculptured ala- 
 baster recording the wars, the triumphs, and the great deeds of the Assyrian 
 king. By a rough calculation, about 9880 feet, or nearly two miles, of bas- 
 reliefs, with twenty-seven portals, formed by colossal winged bulls and lion- 
 sphinxes, were uncovered in that part alone of the building explored during 
 my researches. The greatest length of the excavations was about 720 feet, 
 the greatest breadth about 600 feet.f The pavement of the chambers was 
 from 20 to 35 feet below the surface of the mound. 
 
 A glance at the general plan will show that only a part of the palace 
 has been explored, and that much still remains underground of this enor- 
 mous structure. Since my return to Europe other rooms and sculptures 
 have been discovered. Both to the north and to the east of the ruins com- 
 prised in the plan, I had found traces of chambers, and the fragments of 
 
 * 1 Kings, vii. 23—25. The brazen sea of Solomon stood upon twelve oxen, three 
 facing each cardinal point. It must be borne in mind that the Assyrian sculptor fre- 
 quently represented only one figure to signify many, and that more than one ox prob- 
 ably supported the vessel portrayed in this bas-relief. 
 
 t These measurements merely include that part of the palace actually excavated. 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK. 
 
 501 
 
 bas-reliefs. The excavations having been carried to the very edge of the 
 mound, to the south and the west, nothing, of course, remains to be discov- 
 ered on those sides. How far any of the unexplored parts of the palace 
 may still be preserved, it is of course impossible to conjecture. ' 
 
 The excavations were not limited to the corner of Kouyunjik containing 
 the palace. Deep trenches and tunnels were opened, and experimental 
 shafts sunk in various parts of the mound. Enormous walls and founda- 
 tions of brick masonry, fragments of sculptured and unsculptured alabaster, 
 inscribed bricks, numerous small objects, and various other remains, were 
 discovered* To the north of 
 the ruins, on the same level, and 
 resting upon a pavement of 
 limestone slabs, were found four 
 circular pedestals. They ap- 
 peared to form part of a double 
 line of similar objects, extending 
 from the edge of the platform 
 to an entrance to the palace, 
 and may have supported the 
 wooden columns of a covered 
 way, or have served as bases 
 to an avenue of statues. f The 
 earth not having been suffi- 
 ciently cleared away around 
 
 ,t T i_i x Assyrian Pedestal, from Kouyunjik. 
 
 them, 1 was unable to ascertain 
 
 whether there was more than a double row. They were amongst the 
 very few architectural remains dug out at Nineveh. The ornament upon 
 them is not inelegant, and is somewhat Saracenic in its character. 
 
 I will now describe some of the most interesting small objects discovered 
 in the earth and rubbish during the excavations at Kouyunjik. It must be 
 borne in mind that the mound within which was the buried palace was 
 used more than once, and by more than one distinct people, for the site of 
 a castle, if not of a town. We know that Nineveh was utterly destroyed 
 by the united armies of the Medes and Babylonians ; yet we find Meher- 
 dates taking the castle of Ninos, and the same place is mentioned by sev- 
 eral later authors. $ 
 
 Coins of more than one Roman emperor were, according to the super- 
 
 * Since my departure a fine entire bas-relief has, I understand, been found near the 
 ruined tomb in the centre of the mound. 
 
 t The distance from centre to centre of the pedestals facing each other was 9 feet 
 3 inches; their diameter, ll£ inches in the narrowest, and 2 feet 7 inches in the 
 broadest part. The second pair found were about 84 feet distant from the first. 
 There were the remains of a wall of sun-dried bricks 6 feet 3 inches from the centre 
 of one of the pedestals. 
 
 t Tacit. Ann. lib. xii. c. 13., and Ammianus Marccll. 1. xxiii. c. 20. The latter au- 
 thor especially mentions that the town had belonged to the Persians. 
 
502 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXV 
 
 Coin of Trajan, struck at Nineveh. 
 
 Coin of Maximums, struck at Nineveh. 
 
 scription, struck at Nineveh. One bears the head of Trajan, and, on the 
 reverse, the legend AUG. FELL NLNT. CLAV. (col.), round an eagle witl> 
 expanded wings between two military standards. Another has on one side' 
 
 the head of the Emperor Max- 
 iminus, and on the reverse a 
 naked figure holding an object 
 resembling a bull's head in one 
 hand, with the legend COL. 
 NINIVA CLAVD. It would 
 appear from these coins that 
 Claudius, who established 
 many colonies in the East, was 
 the founder of one called after 
 him Niniva Claudiopolis.^ 
 
 As buildings thus appear to 
 have been erected at various 
 times on the mound, we ac- 
 cordingly find in the rubbish 
 remains of various periods. 
 Whilst excavating the Assyr- 
 ian palace, we came upon many foundations actually constructed of frag- 
 ments of sculpture from that edifice, which had 
 evidently been broken for the purpose from the 
 slabs panelling the walls. Amongst the relics oc- 
 casionally brought to me by the workmen were 
 a few fragments of pottery, and coins, and ill-cut 
 gems with inscriptions in the Pehlevi character, 
 of the time of the Sassanian kings of Persia, that 
 is, from the first half of the third to the seventh 
 century after Christ. Of the Roman period we 
 have terracotta figures and lamps, and a hoard of 
 eighty-nine silver denarii of the Emperors Ves- 
 pasian, Titus, Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, 
 Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, and 
 Septimius Se verus, according to the dates on the 
 coins themselves, from a. d. 74 to a. d. 201. Mr. E.. Stuart Poole, of the 
 British Museum, — to whom I am indebted for a list and description of 
 
 * There is a Greek coin, bearing on the obverse a female head wearing a turreted 
 crown, and, on the reverse, the legend ATOTSIEflN 
 T(wj/) IIP05 TO(A r ) KAITPON, surrounding a palm branch 
 and an arrow. This coin was first assigned by Mil- 
 lingen (Anc. Uned. Coins, Lond. 4to. 1837, p. 82.) to Atu- 
 sia, which, being near the Caprus, or lesser Zab, was 
 not far from Nineveh. The symbol of the arrow appears to denote the Tigris, whilst 
 the palm branch marks the country. I am indebted to Mr. Vaux for a notice of this 
 coin. 
 
 Fragment of stamped Pottery 
 from Kouyunjik, probably of 
 the Persian Period. 
 
Chap. XXV.] R0MAN denarii. 503 
 
 these coins, — conjectures, with much probability, that they were buried by 
 a Roman soldier during the second expedition undertaken by Severus 
 against the Arabs of Mesopotamia (a. d. 202), or during the Parthian war, 
 carried on by the same emperor. The number of coins of Commodus, and 
 the fact that there are none of any emperor after Severus, lead to the belief 
 that the hoard was buried about this time. It is worthy of remark, too, that 
 the latest have few, if any, marks of having been in circulation. Unfor- 
 tunately there are no coins amongst them actually struck at Nineveh, al- 
 though they mostly belong to Eastern cities. A few of the reverses are of 
 considerable rarity, and one or two are not found in the extensive collection 
 of the British Museum.* 
 
 Of the time of the Seleucidae and of the Greek occupation of Assyria and 
 Babylonia, we have several relics : amongst them a small head of Hercu- 
 les, with the eyes inlaid in ivory, one or two figures in terracotta, some cop- 
 per and glass vessels, and various objects in pottery and bronze. To this 
 period I am now inclined to attribute the earthen sarcophagi, the great jars, 
 and other sepulchral remains found at Nimroud, Kalah Sherghat, Kou- 
 yunjik, and in other Assyrian mounds, f which, when my former work was 
 written, I believed to belong to a much earlier epoch. Since my return 
 to England Mr. Vice-consul Rassam has discovered at Kouyunjik several 
 tombs built of slabs of stone, and apparently of even a later date, for in one 
 of them, I understand, was found a gold coin of the Emperor Maximinus. 
 They contained, however, very interesting relics in the same precious rnetal 
 and in glass. In one of them was a thin golden mask, still preserved, 
 which perfectly retained the features of the corpse. $ Mr. Rassam informs 
 me that most of these tombs had been previously broken into and rifled of 
 their contents. 
 
 It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the most careful search, in all 
 parts of the country around Mosul, I have been unable to find one un- 
 doubted Assyrian tomb, nor can I conjecture how or where the people of 
 Nineveh buried their dead. The sepulchral chambers in the hills so fre- 
 
 * Of the denarii not in the British Museum are, — Obv. Head of M. Aurelius, AV- 
 RELIVS . CAES . ANTON ; rev. military figure standing, TR . POT . X . COS 
 
 . . . : Obv. Head of same emperor, . . . TON . AVG . PII . F . ; rev. Securitas (I) 
 
 standing, COS . II. : Obv. Head of Commodus AEL . AVREL . COMM 
 
 AVG. P . FEL . ; rev. Ceres (?) standing, P . M . TR. . P . XVII. IMP. VIII. COS. 
 
 VII. P . P (a variety) : Obv. Head of Commodus . . . [A]EL . AVREL . COMM . 
 AVG ; rev. Female figure with caduceus and cornucopia, standing . . . IMP 
 
 VIII. COS. VII. P . P. 
 
 t Of the same period, I conjecture, was the row of jars discovered at Khorsabad, 
 and represented in M. Botta's work on Assyria. 
 
 t A similar mask of thin gold was discovered in a tomb opened by the officers of 
 the Euphrates expedition on the banks of that river. It is preserved, I believe, in 
 the museum of the East India Company. The tombs opened at Kouyunjik were de- 
 scribed in the public prints as being those of the Assyrian kings. Similar tombs, con- 
 taining gold and silver ornaments, beads, &c, appear to have been occasionally found 
 by the Arabs amongst the ruins. See Rich's Kurdistan, vol. ii. p. 126. 
 
Glass Objects. 
 
 Bronze Lamp (?). 
 
 Earthen Jar. 
 
 Earthen Lamp. Earthen Jar. 
 
 Greek or Roman Relics from Kouvunjik. 
 
Chap. XXV.] Assyrian relics. 505 
 
 quently described in these pages, are unquestionably of a comparatively 
 late period The rocky gullies outside and between the inclosure walls of 
 Kouyunjik have been examined over and over again with the greatest care 
 for traces of tombs, but in vain. In the numerous isolated conical mounds 
 scattered over the face of the country, I have detected nothing to show 
 that they were places of sepulture. It must, however, be confessed that 
 they have not yet been sufficiently excavated. Further experiments should 
 be made in them, and tunnels opened into their very foundations. The 
 only Assyrian sepulchre hitherto discovered is probably the vaulted cham- 
 ber in the high mound of Nimroud, which may have once contained the 
 remains of the royal builder of the north-west palace Did the Assyrians, 
 like the fire-worshippers of Persia, expose their dead until nought remained 
 but the bleached bones, or did they burn them and then scatter their ashes 
 
 to the winds ? Not a clue is given 
 to their customs in this matter by 
 any bas-relief or monument hitherto 
 discovered. The Assyrians appear 
 to have avoided all allusions to their 
 dead and to their funeral rites ; un- 
 like the Egyptians, who portrayed 
 the ceremonies observed after death, 
 and even the events of a future state, 
 upon the walls of almost every tem- 
 ple and tomb. 
 
 The only relics found at Kouyunjik 
 which I can refer to the Achremenian 
 Persian period are the remains of sev- 
 
 Fragment of Dish, with Inscriptions in Hiero- . .. • , 
 
 glyphs, from Kouyunjik erai dishes and vases m serpentine 
 
 and marble. One fragment of this nature is inscribed with Egyptian hiero- 
 glyphs, characteristic, according to Mr Birch, of the time of the Ptolemies.* 
 
 * The following are Mr. Birch's remarks upon this relic : "A shallow dish of mot- 
 tled black and white serpentine. On the upper edge a line of hieroglyphs, part of a 
 dedication which has been engraved round the dish, reading, ' . . neter mn Amen 
 Hap(i),' ' Hapi, the second priest of Ammon,' probably the person for whom it was 
 made. On examination this does not appear to be pure Egyptian work. The initial 
 sign of the word Hapi, the syllable Hap, is made like the Egyptian Sh, a mode of writ- 
 ing which does, indeed, occur on some of the tablets of the time of the Ptolemies. 
 The usual square mat is also written in an unusual manner, the top being rounded, 
 which does not occur in any Egyptian inscription, and seems to show that it was 
 imitated from the Egyptians by other artists than Egyptians It cannot be much 
 earlier than the time of the Persians, and mottled vases of this style appear to have 
 come into use about the commencement of the 26th dynasty (650 b c), as would 
 appear from that inscribed with the names and titles of Amenartas, the Ethiopian 
 queen of the 25th. See vase, British Museum, No 4701." I may here mention that 
 amongst the relics brought by me to this country, and which ought to have been 
 described in a previous chapter, is a scarab in agate, upon which is engraved a lion 
 springing on a stag or wild goat, a well-known Assyrian emblem. 
 
506 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXV 
 
 Stone Vessel, from Kouyunjik. 
 
 Of Assyrian relics obtained from the ruins, the most interesting are 
 A colossal beardless head in limestone, remarkable for the boldness of the 
 style It is, probably, part of a lion-sphinx .* 
 
 Handles in the form of the heads of lions, and other fragments of vases 
 and dishes. 
 
 A fragment of striped marble, carved with figures in relief, and bearing 
 an inscription with the genealogy and titles of Essarhaddon. 
 
 A gold ear-ring adorned with pearls, resembling those still in common 
 use amongst Arab women. 
 
 A rude circular vessel in limestone, ornamented on the outside with fig- 
 ures in relief of the Assyrian 
 Hercules struggling with the 
 lion. 
 
 Moulds for casting ear-rings 
 and other ornaments in gold 
 and silver The forms upon 
 them are all purely Assyrian, 
 as the lion-headed deity, the 
 cone, the bull's head, and the 
 sacred signs seen in the Nim- 
 roud sculptures round the 
 neck of the king. The largest 
 mould is in limestone, the others in serpentine. They are precisely such as 
 are used to this day by Arab goldsmiths. 
 
 Various copper instruments (one in the shape of a sickle), a key,f a comb, 
 and other objects, such as the heads of spears and arrows, in iron; glass 
 bottles, pottery, fragments of terracotta, and marble with inscriptions, and 
 many other relics, all of which, with those above enumerated, are now in 
 the British Museum. 
 
 I had long been desirous of making some experiments in the mound on 
 which stands the so-called tomb of the prophet Jonah. It forms part of the 
 great group of ruins opposite Mosul, and is, like Kouyunjik, in the line of the 
 inclosure walls. Some have believed it to represent the real site of ancient 
 Nineveh, Kouyunjik being the remains of a palace added to the city at a 
 later period. It was important, therefore, to ascertain the nature and prob- 
 able date of the edifice covered by the mound. The sanctity of the place 
 prevented any attempt to excavate openly, and it was necessary to carry 
 on my researches without exciting the suspicion of the Mussulman inhabit- 
 ants of the neighbourhood. 
 
 A village has risen round the mosque containing the tomb. The rest of 
 the mound is occupied by a burying ground, thickly set with Mussulman 
 gravestones. True believers from the surrounding country bring their dead 
 
 * See woodcut at the end of the chapter. 
 
 t In the same shape as the Egyptian. (See Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol 
 ii. p. 112.) 
 
Handle of Marble Dish, from Kouyunjik 
 
 Copper Instrument, from Kouyunjik. 
 
 Fragments of hollow Tubes in Glass, 
 from Kouyunjik. 
 
 Terracotta Vessel, from Kouyunjik. Moulds for Gold and Silver Ear-rings 
 
 from Nimroud. 
 
 Moulds for Gold and Silver Ear-rings, from Kouyunjik and Nimroud. 
 
508 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 to this sacred spot, and to disturb a grave on Nebbi Yunus would cause 
 a tumult which might lead to no agreeable results. The pretended tomb 
 itself is in a dark inner room. None but Mussulmans should be admitted 
 within the holy precincts, but I have more than once visited the shrine, 
 with the sanction of my good friend, Mullah Sultan, a guardian of the 
 mosque. A square plaster or wooden sarcophagus, entirely concealed by a 
 green cloth embroidered with sentences from the Koran, stands in the cen- 
 tre of an apartment spread with a common European carpet. A few ostrich 
 eggs and colored tassels, such as are seen in similar Mohammedan build- 
 ings, hang from the ceiling. A small grated window looks into the hall, 
 where the true believers assemble for prayer. A staircase leads into the 
 holy chamber. It is needless to repeat that the tradition which places the 
 tomb on this spot is a mere fable. * 
 
 The village of Nebbi Yunus is inhabited by Turcoman families. Some 
 of their dwellings occupy a considerable space. Hearing that the owner 
 of one of the largest wished to make serdaubs, or underground apartments 
 for summer, I offered, through my agent, Toma Shishman, to dig them for 
 him, on condition that I should have all the relics and sculptures discovered 
 during the excavations. By these means I was able to examine a small 
 part of the mound. 
 
 After a few days' labor, the workmen came to the walls of a chamber. 
 They were panelled with inscribed, but unsculptured, alabaster slabs. The 
 inscriptions merely contained the name, titles, and genealogy of Essarhad- 
 don, such as were found on the bulls and sphinxes of the south-west pal- 
 ace at Nimroud. Several bricks and fragments of stone were also obtain- 
 ed from the ruins, but they all bore the same inscription. No remains 
 whatever of more ancient building, and no relics of an earlier period were 
 discovered during my residence at Mosul in the mound of the Prophet Jonah. 
 
 Since my return to England an inhabitant of the village, whilst digging 
 the foundations of his house, uncovered a pair of colossal human-headed 
 bulls, and two figures of the Assyrian Hercules slaying the lion, similar to 
 those in the Louvre. He communicated his discovery at once to the En- 
 glish Vice-consul, who informed Mr. Hodder, the artist sent out by the Trus- 
 tees of the British Museum. Through some neglect these interesting spec- 
 imens were not visited and secured before others became acquainted with 
 their existence, and endeavored to obtain possession of them. The Turk- 
 ish authorities, of course, settled the claims of the rival antiquaries by seiz- 
 ing the sculptures for themselves. On several grounds this is much to be 
 regretted. These remains will, however, probably prove to be of the time 
 of Essarhaddon. 
 
 In the plain between the tomb of Jonah and the mound of Kouyunjik. 
 one of my overseers discovered the foundations of a building in solid brick 
 masonry, and part of a colossal statue of white marble. These remains 
 
 * See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. Introduction, p. xxii. Benjamin of Tudela 
 places the tomb of Nahum at Ain Japhata, to the south of Babylon. 
 
Chap. XXV.l relics from nimroud. 5 q 9 
 
 appeared to be of the same period as the other ruins, and probably belong 
 to a small temple or shrine. 
 
 Three miles to the north of the inclosure of Kouyunjik, and on the bank 
 of the Tigris, is a village called Shereef-Khan. Near it are several mounds. 
 The largest, though much inferior in size to the great ruins of Assyria, is 
 distinguished, like those of Nimroud and Khorsabad, by a conical heap at 
 one corner. Near it are the remains of a canal, which once led water from 
 the Tigris into a rich alluvial plain. These embankments might be mis- 
 taken for a wall or rampart. For some time excavations were carried on 
 in this mound under my superintendence, and discoveries of interest were 
 made in it. At a small depth beneath the surface of the soil are the re- 
 mains of a building. The walls of the chambers are of sun-dried bricks, 
 but several slabs of alabaster, and painted and inscribed bricks, were found 
 in the ruins. A broad flight of alabaster steps appeared to connect an up- 
 per with a lower part of the edifice. 
 
 The inscriptions upon the bricks contain the names of Sargon and Sen- 
 nacherib. Those of the former king read, " Sargon, king of Assyria, the 
 city (or place) of the mound of the fort of Sargon I called it ; a temple of 
 the sun . . . near it I built." Other bricks mention a temple dedi- 
 cated to Mars, or some other Assyrian deity.* 1 From two inscribed lime- 
 stone slabs, also found in the ruins, we learn that a palace was erected on 
 the spot by Essarhaddon for his son — the king who afterwards warred 
 against Susiana, and caused the bas-reliefs celebrating his victories to be 
 carved on the walls of a chamber in the palace of Sennacherib, his grand- 
 father, at Kouyunjik. The name of the place in the inscriptions appears 
 to be Tarbisi. There are several smaller mounds in the neighbourhood, 
 which have not been explored. 
 
 At Nimroud the excavations had been almost suspended. A few Arabs, 
 still working in the centre of the mound, had found the remains of sculp- 
 tured walls, forming part of the edifice previously discovered there. The 
 lower half of several colossal figures, amongst them winged men struggling 
 with lions and mythic animals, had been preserved. 
 
 A few small objects of interest were discovered in different parts of the 
 ruins, and some additional rooms were explored in the north-west and south- 
 east palaces. In none of them, however, were there sculptures, or even in- 
 scriptions, except such as were impressed on bricks ; nor was there any- 
 thing new in their construction to require particular description or addition- 
 al plans. f The south-east edifice appears to have been a building of con- 
 siderable extent. Several rooms were opened to the north of those previ- 
 ously examined. The bricks found amongst its ruins prove that it was 
 
 * According to Col. Rawlinson (Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xx.), to Neptune 
 or Noah ! 
 
 t For plan of upper chambers, see Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 14., and for 
 that of Die chambers excavated in the south-east palace during the first expedition 
 see same volume, p. 39. 
 
510 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 built by the grandson of Essarhaddon, who must consequently have been 
 one of the last of the Assyrian kings. As the inscription is new and of 
 considerable importance, I add a transcript restored from a comparison of 
 several copies. 
 
 T m T Hf- sfl ~ -4- t<~ « I « * *- 
 I? I — ^ - « I « * ~ El 
 
 T ^f< HfTACO Y* W -*=! «< 
 
 It must be observed that variants, or different letters having the same al- 
 phabetical value, are sometimes used in all these names, and that the name 
 of the site of the building is not written as on bricks from the centre palace. 
 Several tombs containing vases, beads, and ornaments, were 
 discovered above the centre palace. A few large earthen jars 
 from different parts of the mound, a number of small cups of 
 peculiar shape from the ruins of the upper chambers, other 
 pottery of various kinds, and some rude figures in baked clay, 
 Cup from Upper were the principal relics found during the excavations at 
 
 Chambers, Nim- A * 
 
 roud JNimroud. 
 
 In the north-west palace was also discovered a duck, with its head turned 
 upon its back, in greenstone, similar to that in white marble engraved in 
 the first series of the Monuments of Nineveh.* These two objects are of 
 considerable interest, as we learn from short inscriptions upon them, deci- 
 phered by Dr. Hincks, that they are weights of thirty mana, or half a Bab- 
 ylonian talent. The inscription on the duck found during the second ex- 
 cavations at Nimroud is as follows : — 
 
 «< e\ *$ -TTA Hf 
 m &- *fl 2f HP KJ 
 ^ <\ &F? id 
 
 That on the other has already been published.! They have been ex- 
 amined at the mint, and are found to weigh 40 lb. 4 oz. 4 dwt. 4 gr. and 
 39 lb. 1 oz. 1 dwt. 6 gr. The difference between them is owing to the 
 head of one having been broken off4 
 
 * Plate 95. A. t See British Museum Series, p. 83. F. 
 
 t The actual weight of the large ducks in the British Museum heing 480 oz. troy, 
 
INSCRIPTIONS ON BRONZE LION-WEIGHTS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 
 The figures in the sixth column indicate the weights of the bronzes 
 after the cleaning process. 
 
 
 :i;i J 
 
 y I j *J ^7 side of m Urn 
 
 remark 
 
 12 ncziark 
 
 ?3 llll 
 
 1 4 Mil 
 
 15 III 
 
 yfy<\wd ^wuj ^ 
 7 *HX 7 
 
 tiide cf the lion, 
 
 \ l\ &\ J£ side cFfhelicn, 
 
 ZVA- 
 
 - ^7 7^ V *\/ suU tfff ie lose, MhmibP 
 
 J/c ivAcrtptum. . 
 
 dl 
 
 JVb znscriptien _ 
 
 / / | / Sj side tit 'the lose Mhmdle fiuUstmct 
 
 \ I 11 JJ\ sidecfthelascKaxMe 
 
 W^Q »»« „ 
 
 / \ J » Icttcni, 
 
 / fide / * Tj<ttcmjingw7udJIaiuUe 
 
 tcttcffi> rnuf rmind '■ M 'handle Jhdisiiizct 
 
 Handle Jhdistmei 
 
 EkndZe 
 
 Indistinct 
 
 7 
 
 
 MMnBle L 
 
 MJumdle 
 
 M handle 
 
 Eandle 
 
 MTumdle 
 
 TT W ^T EFT 
 
 M handle JVc btsenptica. 
 
 *j;;i:^^^^ 
 
 r v 
 
 77 ' Jhaisti/uf, ,, 
 
 Weight. 
 
 rt? 
 
 /J 
 
 / < 
 
 i 1, 
 
 <t 
 
 )3 
 
 3 8 I 
 
 / . 
 
 /** 
 
 £ 
 
 7 « 
 
 #,Z 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ASSYRIAN WEIGHTS. 
 
 513 
 
 It may be inferred that two similar figures in baked clay, inscribed with 
 Assyrian numerals, from the same ruins, and others of small size in agate, 
 onyx, and other hard materials, are likewise weights, probably parts of the 
 talent or of the mana. It is also highly probable that the curious series 
 
 of bronze lions discovered at 
 Nimroud during my first re- 
 searches were used for a like 
 purpose. Since the coating 
 of green rust has been re- 
 moved from them, they are 
 found in several instances to 
 bear two short inscriptions, 
 one in cuneiform characters 
 with the name of Sennache- 
 rib, the other in Phoenician, or 
 cursive Semetic letters, ac- 
 companied by parallel lines 
 or notches cut in the bronze.* 
 
 Egyptian weighing Rings of Metal, with We ghts in the form 
 of a seated Litn. 
 
 Dr. Lepsius has recently pub- 
 
 the mana would be equal to 16 oz., with a small fraction over The Attic mana has 
 been computed to be 14 oz., with a small fraction over It would consequently be to 
 the Babylonian talent as 7 to 8. According to Herodotus (lib. in c 89.) the Euhcean 
 talent was to the Babylonian as 6 to 7 If this statement be correct, the Eubcean 
 would he to the Attic as 48 to 49. (Dr Hincks ) The authorities on the subject of 
 the Babylonian talent, &c. are collected in Boeckh's Hebraisches. Phcenicisches, und 
 Synsches Gewicht und Geld ; and see Art " Pondera'' in Smith's Dictionary of 
 Greek and Roman Antiquities. 
 
 * It must be remembered that the dirt upon them and the decomposition they have 
 undergone, make some difference in their weight I add a table of the weights of 
 fifteen, and the numbers of lines or marks upon such as have had the rust removed 
 A certain relative proportion appears to exist between them. In a parallel column, 
 for the sake of comparison, I have placed the weight of the ducks in the British Mu- 
 seum. No 5. has been plugged with lead. Those marked with a cross have the 
 rings remaining. 
 
 i 
 
 Weight of Lions. 
 
 Number of 
 Marks on Lions. 
 
 Weight of Ducks. 
 
 
 lb oz. dwt. 
 
 gr. 
 
 
 lb. ox. dwt. gr. 
 
 1. 
 
 X 38 1 1 6 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 40 4 4 4 
 
 2. 
 
 X 13 4 12 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 39 1 1 fi 
 
 3. 
 
 7 11 12 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 6 2 :? 
 
 4. 
 
 X 5 6 8 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 5. 
 
 id. 
 
 
 2 
 
 5 14 13 
 
 6. 
 
 2 9 4 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 4 2 3 
 
 7. 
 
 2 6 9 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 13 17.36 
 
 8. 
 
 1 9 12 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 4 23.3P. 
 
 9. 
 
 XI 5 17 
 
 2 
 
 X 
 
 4 19.65 
 
 10. 
 
 1 4 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 3 15.65 
 
 1 11. 
 
 id. 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 ! 12. 
 
 X 7 15 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 :5 8.65 
 
 13. 
 
 X 7 13 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 1 1 5 62:") 
 
 14. 
 
 6 8 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 1 9.85 
 
 ! 15. 
 
 1 15 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 
 1 6.75 
 
 K 
 
514 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXV 
 
 Cylinders in gretn Jasper 
 
 lished a bas-relief from an Egyptian tomb, representing a man weighing 
 rings of gold or silver, with weights in the form of a bull's head, and of a 
 seated lion with a ring on its back, precisely similar to those from Nineveh 
 now in the British Museum.* 
 
 The engraved cylinders or gems, of which ? large collection was brought 
 by me to England, form an important as well as an interesting class of 
 
 Assyrian and Babylonian antiq- 
 uities. They vary in size, from 
 about two inches to a quarter 
 of an inch, and are either quite 
 circular, or barrel -shaped, or 
 slightly curved inwards like that 
 represented in the accompany- 
 ing woodcut. They are usually 
 of lapislazuli, rock-crystal, cornelian, amethyst, chalcedony, agate, onyx, 
 jasper, quartz, serpentine, sienite, oriental alabaster, green felspar, and hae- 
 matite. The workmanship varies in different specimens, that of some be- 
 ing of considerable sharpness and delicacy, and that of others so coarse as 
 scarcely to enable us to recognize the objects engraved upon them. The 
 subjects are generally either religious or historical, usually the former, and 
 on many are short inscriptions in the cuneiform character. These cylin- 
 ders belong to several distinct periods.! The most ancient with which 1 
 am acquainted are those of the time of the kings who built the oldest edi- 
 fices hitherto discovered at Nineveh. Col. Rawlinson states, that on one 
 recently found in the ruins of Shereef-Khan are the names of two of the 
 predecessors of the early Nimroud king. If such be the case, which I am 
 rather inclined to doubt, we have proof of the antiquity of this specimen 
 From the similarity of the subjects, and of the style of art between them 
 and the sculptures in the north-west palace at Nimroud, I have ventured 
 to assign others collected by me to the same period. Nearly all the cylin- 
 ders of this class are cut in serpentine, and the designs upon them are gen 
 erally rude and coarsely engraved. The subjects are usually the king in 
 his chariot discharging his arrows against a lion or wild bull, warriors in 
 battle, the monarch or priests in adoration before the emblem of the deity, 
 the eagle-headed god, winged bulls and lions, and other mythic animals 
 accompanied by the common Assyrian symbols, the sun, the moon, the sev- 
 
 * Lepsius' Denkmaler, Abtheilung 1 1 1 B. 39. No. 3 See also Wilkinson's Ancient 
 Egyptians (vol. li. p. 10.) for weights in the form of a crouching antelope. Mr. Stuart 
 Poole suggests that the use of the bull's head as a weight explains the well-known 
 Greek proverb, &ovs eVl y\oi><T<n t ) (/Eschyl. Agam. 36., &c,), applied to a person who 
 had taken a bribe. The commentators state that the bull was a talent, but go no 
 further. For engravings of the bronze lions in the British Museum, see 1st series 
 of the Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 96. 
 
 t For engravings of cylinders obtained during the excavations, see the 2nd series 
 of the Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 69. Mr. Cullimore has published a number of 
 similar gems frum various collections. 
 
Chap. XXV] 
 
 ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS. 
 
 515 
 
 %C^^^o\/fXl ^ 
 
 . Ancient Assyrian Cylinder, in Serpentine. 
 
 en stars, the winged globe, the sacred tree, and the wedge or cuneatic ele- 
 ment. An unique specimen, apparently of this period, represents a man 
 armed with a spear, standing in the midst of thirty-two human heads, prob- 
 ably the seal of a successful warrior. Upon another is a turtle and a bird 
 before a human figure. 
 
 YTV inr v w O Ti \.i <t lOSEST- 1 - 
 
 Assyrian Cylinders, in Serpentine. 
 
 The next in order of date are those of the time of Sargon and his suc- 
 cessors. To this period belong the cylinder with the fish-god, and that 
 which I believe to be the signet of Sennacherib himself, described in a pre- 
 vious part of this work.* A very fine specimen, cut in agate, represents 
 an Assyrian goddess, perhaps Astarte, or the Moon, surrounded by ten stars, 
 with a dog seated before her. In front of her is the moon's crescent, and 
 a priest in an attitude of adoration. A tree and a rampant goat, both com- 
 mon Assyrian symbols, complete the group. On others of the same age we 
 find the gods represented under various forms, the king and priests wor- 
 shipping before them, altars and various signs peculiar to the period, and 
 the usual mythic emblems. On a small cylinder in white porcelain or 
 quartz is engraved a cow of the Indian breed suckling a calf, an Assyrian 
 emblem, which occurs amongst the ivory carvings discovered at Nimroud.f 
 
 * Ante, p. 135. One cylinder bears his name. 
 
 f A similar group is seen in abas-relief at Khorsabad. Botta, pi. ill. 
 
516 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXV. 
 
 «<\ 
 
 Assyrian Cylinder, in Agate. Assyrian Cylinder, in Porcelain or Quartz 
 
 The pure Babylonian cylinders are more commonly found in European 
 collections than the Assyrian. They are usually engraved with sacred fig- 
 ures, accompanied by a short inscription in the Babylonian cuneiform char- 
 acter, containing the names of the owner of the seal and of the divinity, 
 under whose particular protection he had probably placed himself. They 
 are usually cut in a red iron ore or haematite, which appears to have been 
 
 P 
 
 u 
 
 m 
 
 
 Z!>rrSJ 
 
 P ■ _ - ~-J^' 
 In Jasper 
 
 In Iron Haematite 
 
 Babylonian Cylinders 
 
 a favorite material for such objects Many specimens, however, are in 
 agate, jasper, and other hard substances. Amongst the most interesting 
 cylinders of this kind obtained by me is that in spotted sienite described 
 in a previous chapter,* and one in green jasper, remarkable for the depth 
 
 Babylonian Cylinder, in green Jasper. 
 
 of the intaglio and spirit of the design, representing the Assyrian Hercules 
 contending with a buffalo, and a horned human figure, with the extremities 
 
 * See p. 458. 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ENGRAVED CYLINDERS. 
 
 517 
 
 of a bull, fighting with a lion. Between the two groups is an antelope 
 with long spiral horns, an animal not found at this day in Mesopotamia.* 
 
 - A class of cylinders of very rude workmanship, 
 
 p£ and usually in haematite, are probably of the lat- 
 r y_ est Babylonian period. Upon them are usually 
 '«- found the figures of various deities, and especially 
 of Venus, sometimes represented with the waters 
 of life flowing from her breasts. Amongst the 
 . most curious is one in jasper, engraved with a 
 
 Babylonian Cylinder, in Jasper. , . c v j 
 
 3 man seated in a car oi peculiar construction drawn 
 
 by four horses : in front of him are seven human heads and two birds. 
 
 A few cylinders and gems, Assyrian in character, are inscribed with Se- 
 metic letters, resembling the Phoenician and cursive Babylonian. They 
 are rare, and have chiefly been found, I believe, in ruins on the banks of 
 the Euphrates, to the north of Babylon, near Hit and Ana. I would at- 
 tribute them, therefore, to the Semetic population which inhabited the dis- 
 tricts on the eastern borders of the Syrian desert. They appear to belong 
 to various periods, from the time of the lower Assyrian dynasty (of which 
 three fine specimens are in the possession of Captain Jones of Baghdad) to 
 that of the Persian occupation of Babylonia. To the first period I assign 
 a cylinder in the British Museum, representing two figures, half man hall 
 bull, raising the winged emblem of the deity over the sacred tree. On out- 
 side of them is a priest carrying a goat, such as is seen in the Khorsabad 
 
 Cylinders, with Semetic Characters. 
 
 sculptures, and on the other a man in the act of worship. Of the Persian 
 epoch an interesting example exists in the same collection. On it is en- 
 graved the king contending with a winged human-headed bull and a griffin 
 beneath the image of the god Ormuzd. The first word of the inscription 
 is pure Hebrew, onn, Katham, " the seal," and then follow the names of 
 a man and of his father, which I am not able to decipher satisfactorily. 
 
 Persian cylinders frequently bear an inscription in the cuneiform charac- 
 ter peculiar to the monuments of the Achaemenian dynasty. The most in- 
 teresting specimen of this class is the well-known gem of green chalcedony 
 
 * Could this animal represent the Wothaiyah, described to me by the Arabs of Ge- 
 bel Shammar as existing at Nedjd ? See page 461. 
 
18 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXY 
 
 in the British Museum, on which is engraved king Darius in his chariot, 
 with his name and that of his father. This was probably a royal signet. 
 Another, in the same collection, bears the name of one Arsaces, who ap- 
 pears to have been a chamberlain, or to have held some other office in the 
 Persian court. * The device represents the god Typhon (?)t full-faced, 
 holding a lotus flower in each hand beneath the symbol of the supreme 
 Deity supported by two priests. A very fine cylinder in rock crystal, 
 brought by me to this country, and now also in the British Museum, has 
 the god Ormuzd represented as at Persepolis, raised by two winged bulls 
 with human heads, above an oval, containing the image of a king. The 
 engraving on this gem is remarkable for its delicacy and minuteness. 
 
 
 u 
 
 In red Cornelian. 
 
 In Chalcedony. 
 
 In Rock Crystal. 
 
 t 
 
 m 
 
 
 In Onyx. 
 
 Persian Cvlinders. 
 
 Persian cylinders are recognised at once by the draperies of the figures, 
 gathered up into folds, as in the sculptures of the Achaemenian dynasty, a 
 peculiarity never found on pure Assyrian or Babylonian monuments ; by 
 the crown of the king ; by the form of the supreme deity, or Ormuzd ; and 
 by the monstrous animals, resembling the sculptures on the walls of Persep- 
 olis. Although gems and precious stones of the Arsacian and Sassanian 
 dynasties of Persia, engraved with subjects and mythical figures precisely 
 similar to those on Assyrian and Babylonian relics, are by no means un- 
 common ; yet no cylinders, as far as I am aware, have hitherto been found 
 of those periods. Seals in this form do not appear to have been used after 
 the fall of the Achaemenian power. 
 
 It has been conjectured that these cylinders were amulets, engraved 
 
 * The inscription reads, " Arshaka nama Athiyabushana ;" " Arsaces by name, the 
 chamberlain" (?)• t Represented on Egyptian monuments. 
 
Chap. XXV.] 
 
 ENGRAVED CYLINDERS. 
 
 519 
 
 with a kind of horoscope of the owner, or with the figures of the deities 
 who were supposed to preside over his nativity and fortunes. But it is ev- 
 ident from the specimens above described, that they were seals or signets 
 to be impressed on clay and other materials on which public and private 
 documents were written.* Herodotus states that the Babylonians were 
 accustomed to have their signets constantly with them, as a modern East- 
 ern always carries his seal.f The manner in which they were used is 
 shown in the accompanying engraving of an inscribed terracotta tablet 
 from Kouyunjik. 
 
 Clay Tablet with Cylinder, impressed, from Kouyunjik. 
 
 * Mr. Landseer (Sabaean Researches, p. 3.) has conjectured that they were " used 
 as signets, impressed for the purposes of ratifying such social and religious transac- 
 tions as called for a sacred pledge." 
 
 t Lib. i. c 195. As a written signature is of no value, except in particular cases, 
 in the East, and as all documents to be valid must be sealed with seals bearing the 
 names of the parties to them, the engraved signet is of great importance, and the 
 trade of an engraver one of considerable responsibility. The punishment for forging 
 sears is very severe, and there are many regulations enforced for securing their au- 
 thenticity. 
 
520 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXV. 
 
 The seal was evidently rolled on the moist clay, at the same time as the 
 letters were impressed.* The tablet was then placed in the furnace and 
 baked. All these cylinders have been pierced, and one specimen, found by 
 my workmen in a mound in the desert near the Sinjar, still retained its 
 copper setting. They revolved upon a metal axis, as Mr. Landseer conjec- 
 tured.! like a garden rolling-stone. 
 
 Such then were the objects of sculpture and the smaller relics found at 
 Nimroud and Kouyunjik. I will now endeavour to convey to the reader, 
 in conclusion, a general idea of the results of the excavations, as far as they 
 may tend to increase our acquaintance with the history of Assyria, and to 
 illustrate the religion, the arts, and the manners of her inhabitants. 
 
 * Compare Job, xxxviii 14 "It is turned as clay to the seal '' 
 t Sabgean Researches, p. 7 , a work which, with much useless speculation, contain? 
 many ingenious conjectures. 
 
 Part of Colossal Head, from Kouyunjik. 
 
Tomb of the Prophet Jonah, and the River Khauser 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERIES TO CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY. NAMES OF ASSYRIAN 
 
 KINGS IN THE INSCRIPTIONS. A PATE FIXED. THE NAME OF JEHU. THE OBELISK 
 
 KING. THE EARLIER KINGS. SARDAN APALUS. HIS SUCCESSORS. PUL, OR TIGLATH 
 
 PILESER. SARGON. SENNACHERIB. — ESSARHADDON. THE LAST ASSYRIAN KINGS. 
 
 TABLES OF PROPER NAMES IN THE CUNEIFORM CHARACTER. — ANTIQUITY OF NINEVEH. 
 
 OF THE NAME OF ASSYRIA. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE. STATE OF JUD^A ANP 
 
 ASSYRIA COMPARED. POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE. — ASSYRIAN COLONIES. 
 
 PROSPERITY OF THE COUNTRY RELIGION EXTENT OF NINEVEH. ASSYRIAN ARCHI- 
 TECTURE COMPARED WITH JEWISH. — PALACE OF KOUYUNJIK RESTORED. PLATFORM 
 
 AT NIMROUD RESTORED. THE ASSYRIAN FORTIFIED INCLOSURES. — DESCRIPTION Oh 
 
 KOUYUNJIK. CONCLUSION. 
 
 Although ten years have barely elapsed since the first discovery of ru- 
 ins on the site of the great city of Nineveh, a mass of information, scarce- 
 ly to be overrated for its importance and interest, has already been added 
 to our previous knowledge of the early history and comparative geography 
 of the East. When in 1849 I published the narrative of my first research- 
 es in Assyria, the numerous inscriptions recovered from the remains of the 
 buried palaces were still almost a sealed book ; for although an interpreta- 
 tion of some had been hazarded, it was rather upon mere conjecture than 
 upon any well-established philological basis. 1 then, however, expressed 
 my belief, that ere long their contents would be known with almost cer- 
 tainty, and that they would be found to furnish a history, previously almost 
 unknown, of one of the earliest and most powerful empires of the ancient 
 
522 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [QhaP. XXVI. 
 
 world. Since that time the labors of English scholars, and especially of 
 Col. Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks, and of M. de Saulcy, and other eminent 
 investigators on the Continent, have nearly led to the fulfilment of those 
 anticipations ; and my present work would be incomplete were I not to give 
 a general sketch of the results of their investigations, as well as of my own 
 researches. 
 
 I will not detain the reader by any account of the various processes 
 adopted in deciphering, and of the steps gradually made in the investiga- 
 tion ; nor will I recapitulate the curious corroborative evidence which has 
 led in many instances to the verification of the interpretations. Such de 
 tails, philologically of the highest interest, and very creditable to the sa 
 gacity and learning of those pursuing this difficult inquiry, will be found in 
 the several treatises published by the investigators themselves.* The re- 
 sults, however, are still very incomplete. It is, indeed, a matter of aston- 
 ishment that, considering the time which has elapsed since the discover}' 
 of the monuments, so much progress has been already made. But there 
 is every prospect of our being able, ere long, to ascertain the general con- 
 tents of almost every Assyrian record. The Babylonian column of the 
 Bisutun inscription, that invaluable key to the various branches of cunei- 
 form writing, has at length been published by Col. Rawlinson, and will en- 
 able others to carry on the investigation upon sure grounds. 
 
 I will proceed, therefore, to give a slight sketch of the contents of the 
 inscriptions as far as they have been examined. The earliest king of 
 whose reign we have any detailed account was the builder of the north- 
 west palace at Nimroud, the most ancient edifice hitherto discovered in As- 
 syria. His records, however, with other inscriptions, furnish the names of 
 five, if not seven, of his predecessors, some of whom, there is reason to be- 
 lieve, erected palaces at Nineveh, and originally founded those which were 
 only rebuilt by subsequent monarchs.f It is consequently important to 
 ascertain the period of the accession of this early Assyrian king, and we 
 apparently have the means of fixing it with sufficient accuracy. His son, 
 we know, built the centre palace at Nimroud. and raised the obelisk, now 
 in the British Museum, inscribing upon it the principal events of his reign. 
 He was a great conqueror, and subdued many distant nations. The names 
 of the subject kings who paid him tribute are duly recorded on the obelisk, 
 
 * I refer, of course, more particularly to the several papers by Col. Rawlinson and 
 Dr. Hincks in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and by the latter in the Trans- 
 actions of the Royal Irish Academy, especially in the twenty-second volume, recent- 
 ly published, and entitled, " On the Assyrio-Babylonian Phonetic characters." I take 
 this opportunity of mentioning, with the praise it most fully deserves, the very inter- 
 esting summary of the discoveries at Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis, published by 
 my friend Mr. Vaux of the British Museum. (Nineveh and Persepolis. London, 
 1851.) 
 
 t The north-west palace at Nimroud, for instance, appears to have been founded 
 by an earlier king than the one whose name is in the standard inscription. So also 
 Kouyunjik. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] Assyrian history 523 
 
 in some instances with sculptured representations of the various objects 
 sent. Amongst those kings was one whose name reads " Jehu, the son of 
 Khumri (Omri)," and who has been identified by Dr. Hincks and Col. Raw- 
 linson with Jehu, king of Israel. This monarch was certainly not the son, 
 although one of the successors of Omri, but the term " son of" appears to 
 have been used throughout the East in those days, as it still is, to denote 
 connection generally, either by descent or by succession. Thus we find in 
 Scripture the same person called " the son of Nimshi," and " the son of 
 Jehosaphat, the son of Nimshi."* An identification connected with this 
 word Khumri or Omri is one of the most interesting instances of corrobora- 
 tive evidence that can be adduced of the accuracy of the interpretations of 
 the cuneiform character. It was observed that the name of a city resem- 
 bling Samaria was connected, and that in inscriptions containing very dif- 
 ferent texts, with one reading Beth Khumri or Omri.f This fact was un- 
 explained until Col. Rawlinson perceived that the names were, in fact, ap- 
 plied to the same place, or one to the district, and the other to the town. 
 Samaria having been built by Omri, nothing is more probable than that — 
 in accordance with a common Eastern custom — it should have been called, 
 after its founder, Beth Khumri, or the house of Omri.J As a further proof 
 of the identity of the Jehu mentioned on the obelisk with the king of Israel, 
 Dr. Hincks, to whom we owe this important discovery, § has found on the 
 same monument the name of Hazael, whom Elijah was ordered by the Al- 
 mighty to anoint king of Syria. || 
 
 Supposing, therefore, these names to be correctly identified, — and our As- 
 syrian chronology for this period rests as yet, it must be admitted, almost 
 entirely upon this supposition, — we can fix an approximate date for the 
 reign of the obelisk king. Jehu ascended the throne about 885 b. c. ; the 
 accession of the Assyrian monarch must, consequently, be placed somewhere 
 between that time and the commencement of the ninth century b. c, and 
 that of his father in the latter part of the tenth. IF 
 
 In his records the builder of the north-west palace mentions, amongst his 
 
 * Compare 1 Kings, xx. 16. and 2 Kings, ix. 2. 
 
 t Sargon is called on the monuments of Khorsabad, "the conqueror of Samaria and 
 of the circuit of Beth Khumri." (Dr. Hincks, Trans, of the R. Irish Acad. vol. xxii.) 
 
 t Omri, " bought the hill Samaria of Shamar for two talents of silver, and built on 
 the hill, and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shamar. 
 owner of the hill, Samaria." (1 Kings, xvi. 24.) 
 
 $ It must be observed that Col. Rawlinson detected these names about the same 
 time at Baghdad. In consequence of the distance from England, the priority of pub- 
 lication fell to Dr. Hincks. 
 
 II 1 Kings, xix. 15. 
 
 IT Colonel Rawlinson suggests about 930 b c. It is, I am convinced, impossible to 
 fix to a year any event happening at such remote periods, and I confess that it ap- 
 pears to me a waste of time and learning to engage in lengthened discussions, chiefly 
 founded upon premises of doubtful worth, on such minute questions of chronology, 
 which, even if determined to our satisfaction, would after all be of little or no im- 
 portance. 
 
524 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 predecessors, a king whose name is identical with the one from whom, ac- 
 cording to the inscriptions at Bavian, were taken certain idols of Assyria 
 418 years before the first or second year of the reign of Sennacherib. Ac- 
 cording to Dr. Hincks, Sennacherib ascended the throne in 703 b. c* "We 
 have, therefore, 1121 b. c. for the date of the reign of this early king.f 
 
 There are still two kings mentioned by name in the inscriptions from the 
 north-west palace at Nimroud, as ancestors of its builder, who have not yet 
 been satisfactorily placed. It is probable that the earliest reigned some- 
 where about the middle of the twelfth century b. c. Colonel Rawlinson 
 calls him the founder of Nineveh ;% but there is no proof whatever, as far 
 as I am aware, in support of this conjecture. It is possible, however, that 
 he may have been the first of a dynasty which extended the bounds of the 
 Assyrian empire, and was founded, according to Herodotus, about five cen- 
 turies before the Median invasion, or in the twelfth century b. c. ; but there 
 appears to be evidence to show that a city bearing the name of Nineveh 
 stood on the banks of the Tigris long before that period. § 
 
 The second king, whose name is unplaced, appears to be mentioned in 
 the inscriptions as the original founder of the north-west palace at Nim- 
 roud. According to the views just expressed, he must have reigned about 
 the end of the twelfth century b. c. Colonel Rawlinson states that on a 
 cylinder discovered in a mound near Kouyunjik he believes he has found 
 the names of his two immediate successors.il But this may be doubted un- 
 til we have further proof. 
 
 The father and grandfather of the builder of the north-west palace are 
 mentioned in nearly every inscription from that edifice. Their names, ac- 
 cording to Colonel Rawlinson, are Adrammelech and Anaku-Merodach. 
 They must have reigned in the middle of the tenth century b. c. We have 
 no records of either of them. 
 
 The first king of whom we have any connected historical chronicle was 
 the builder of the well-known edifice at Nimroud, from which were ob- 
 tained the most perfect and interesting bas-reliefs brought to this country 
 In my former work I stated that Colonel Rawlinson believed his name to 
 be Ninus, and had identified him with that ancient king, according to Greek 
 history, the founder of the Assyrian empire. 1T He has since given up this 
 reading, and has suggested that of Assardanbal, agreeing with the historic 
 
 * Col. Rawlinson says 716. (Outlines, p. xxix.) 
 
 t Another king of the same name reigned long after the builder of the nortn-west 
 palace. t Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xxii. 
 
 § Especially if, as Egyptian scholars still maintain, the name is found on Egyptian 
 monuments of the 18th dynasty. Herodotus assigns 505 years to the dynasty of the 
 Heraclidae from Ninus to Candaules, king of Sardis (1. i. c. 7.) Query whether this 
 led to his also assigning 500 to be the duration of the Assyrian empire founded by 
 Ninus. 
 
 || Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xxii. Dr. Hincks believes this king to have 
 been the immediate predecessor of the builder of the north-west palace. 
 
 IT Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 228. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] Assyrian history. 525 
 
 Sardanapalus. Dr. Hincks, however, assigning a different value to the 
 middle character (the name being usually written with three), reads Ash- 
 urakhbal. It is certain that the first monogram stands both for the name 
 of the country of Assyria and for that of its protecting deity. We might 
 consequently assume, even were other proof wanting, that it should be read 
 Assur or Ashur. 
 
 I have elsewhere^ given a description of the various great monumental 
 records of this king, with extracts from their contents. He appears to have 
 carried his arms to the west of Nineveh across Syria to the Mediterranean 
 Sea, to the south into Chaldaea, probably beyond Babylon (the name of this 
 city does not, however, as far as I am aware, occur in the inscriptions), and 
 to the north into Asia Minor and Armenia. 
 
 Of his son, whose name Colonel Rawlinson reads Temenbar and Divan- 
 ubara, and Dr. Hincks Divanubar, we have full and important historical 
 annals, including the principal events of thirty-one years of his reign. They 
 are engraved upon the black obelisk, and upon the backs of the bulls in 
 the centre of the mound of Nimroud. Colonel Rawlinson was the first to 
 give a connected translation of them.f This king, like his father, was a 
 great conqueror. He waged war, either in person or by his generals, in 
 Syria, Armenia, Babylonia, Chaldsea, Media, and Persia. He received trib- 
 ute, as it has been seen, from Jehu, king of Israel, and, according to Colonel 
 Rawlinson, from the kings of Egypt, who were dependent upon him. J 
 
 The two royal names next in order occur on the pavement slabs of the 
 upper chambers, on the west face of the mound of Nimroud. § They may 
 belong to the son and grandson, and immediate successors, of the obelisk 
 king. Such is Colonel Rawlinson's view. Dr. Hincks, however, has sug- 
 gested another reading of these inscriptions. He believes that Ashurakh- 
 bal had a brother of the same name as his son, the obelisk king ; that this 
 brother reigned over Mesopotamia, but not over Assyria, the empire being 
 at that time divided ; that his son succeeded to the obelisk king (his cous- 
 in), uniting the two kingdoms, and leaving them to his immediate de- 
 scendant, the second king on the pavement slabs. The two names have 
 not been satisfactorily deciphered. Colonel Rawlinson reads them Shamas- 
 Adar and Adrammelech II. ; Dr. Hincks only ventures to suggest Sham- 
 siyav for the first. 
 
 On the Assyrian tablet, from the tunnel of Negoub,|| are apparently two 
 
 * See chap. 16. 
 
 t In his interesting and valuable paper read, in 1850, before the Royal Asiatic So- 
 ciety (published in part 2. of vol. xii. of their Journal). 
 
 t This, however, appears very doubtful. 
 
 $ See my Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 196., where this genealogy was first, 
 pointed out. 
 
 II Discovered during the first expedition. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 81.) 
 This tablet was unfortunately broken and carried away before I could verify my copy 
 of the inscription, published in the British Museum Series, p. 35. During my second 
 residence in Mosul 1 was. able to examine the fragments which are now in the con- 
 
526 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XXVI. 
 
 royal names, which may be placed next in order. They are merely men- 
 tioned as those of ancestors or predecessors of the king who caused the rec- 
 ord to be engraved. Dr. Hincks reads them Baldasi and Ashurkish. As 
 the inscription is much mutilated, some doubt may exist as to the correct- 
 ness of its interpretation. 
 
 The next king of whom we have any actual records appears to have re- 
 built or added to the palace in the centre of the mound of Nimroud. The 
 edifice was destroyed by a subsequent monarch, who carried away its sculp- 
 tures to decorate a palace of his own. All the remains found amongst its 
 ruins, with the exception of the great bulls and the obelisk, belong to a 
 king whose name occurs on a pavement-slab discovered in the south-west 
 palace. * The walls and chambers of this building were, it will be remem- 
 bered, decorated with bas-reliefs brought from elsewhere. By comparing 
 the inscriptions upon them, and upon a pavement slab of the same period, 
 with the sculptures in the ruins of the centre palace, we find that they all 
 belong to the same king,f and we are able to identify him through a most 
 important discovery, for which we are also indebted to Dr. Hincks. In an 
 inscription on a bas-relief representing part of a line of war chariots, he has 
 detected the name of Menahem, the king of Israel, amongst those of other 
 monarchs paying tribute to the king of Assyria, in the eighth year of his 
 reign. $ This Assyrian king must, consequently, have been either the im- 
 mediate predecessor of Pul, Pul himself, or Tiglath Pileser, the name on the 
 pavement-slab not having yet been deciphered. § 
 
 The bas-reliefs adorning his palace, like those at Khorsabad, appear to 
 have been accompanied by a complete series of his annals. Unfortunately 
 only fragments of them remain. With the exception of the general record 
 on the pavement-slab, no perfect inscription has hitherto, as far as I am 
 aware, been found. II His first campaign seems to have been in Chaldaea. 
 and during his reign he carried his arms into the remotest parts of Armenia, 
 
 vent of the Catholic missionary monks, and to restore the greater part of it. It ap- 
 pears to contain an account of the cutting of the remarkable tunnel through the rock 
 in which the tablet was found, and of the canal leading from it. These great works 
 were undertaken to convey the waters of the river Zab either to Nimroud or to the 
 surrounding plain for irrigation. 
 
 * British Museum Series, p. 17. 
 
 + Compare British Museum Series, p. 17. 1. 7. with p. 52. 1. 3., and p. 17. 1. 17 and 
 18. with p. 51. 1. 6. second column; and also an unpublished inscription from the 
 south-west palace in the British Museum. 
 
 t British Museum Series, p. 50. 1. 10. This interesting discovery was first an- 
 nounced in the Athenaeum of Jan. 3. 1852. 
 
 $ These three kings came against Israel (2 Kings, xv. 19. and 29., and 1 Chron 
 v. 26.); but Pul is particularly mentioned as. receiving tribute from Menahem, and 
 Tiglath Pileser, as carrying away Israelites into captivity in the time of Pekah, be- 
 tween whose reign and that of Menahem only two years elapsed. (2 Kings, xv. 23.) 
 
 II Colonel Rawlinson, in a letter recently published in the Athenaeum, states that 
 he has discovered the complete annals of Tiglath Pileser, but I am not aware whether 
 it is to this king that he alludes. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 ASSYRIAN HISTORY. 
 
 527 
 
 and across the Euphrates into Syria as far as Tyre and Sidon. There is a 
 passage in one of his inscriptions still unpublished, which reads, " as far 
 
 as the river Oukarish" (Cj JrTTTir T £:TT ^TH 5ft- *T) that might 
 lead us to believe that his conquests were even extended to the central prov- 
 inces of Asia and to the Oxus. His annals contain very ample lists of con- 
 quered towns and tribes. Amongst the former are Harran and Ur. He re- 
 built many cities, and placed his subjects to dwell in them. 
 
 Colonel Rawlinson conjectures that the first Assyrian dynasty ended with 
 
•328 NINEVEH AND BABYLON [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 this king,* but of this we have as yet no proof. The next monarch, whose 
 name is found on Assyrian monuments, was the builder of the palace of Khor- 
 sabad, now so well known from M. Botta's excavations and the engravings 
 of its sculptures published by the French government. His name, though 
 read with slight variations by different interpreters, is admitted by all to be 
 that of Sargon, the Assyrian king mentioned by Isaiah. The names of his 
 father and grandfather are said to have been found on a clay tablet dis- 
 covered at Kouyunjik, but they do not appear to have been monarchs of 
 Assyria.! The ruins of Khorsabad furnish us with the most detailed and 
 ample annals of his reign. Unfortunately an inscription, containing an ac- 
 count of a campaign against Samaria in his first or second year, has been 
 almost entirely destroyed. But, in one still preserved, 27,280 Israelites 
 are described as having been carried into captivity by him from Samaria 
 and the several districts or provincial towns dependent upon that city 4 
 Sargon, like his predecessors, wai a great warrior. He even extended his 
 conquests beyond Syria to the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, and a tab- 
 let set up by him has been found in Cyprus. § He warred also in Baby- 
 lonia, Susiana, Armenia, and Media, and apparently received tribute from 
 the kings of Egypt. 
 
 Colonel Rawlinson believed that the names " Tiglath Pileser" and " Shal- 
 maneser" were found on the monuments of Khorsabad as epithets of Sar- 
 gon, and that they were applied in the Old Testament to the same king. 
 He has now changed his opinion with regard to the first, and Dr. Hincks 
 contends that the second is not a name of this king, but of his predecessor, 
 —of whom, however, it must be observed, we have hitherto been unable to 
 trace any mention on the monuments, unless, as that scholar suggests, he 
 is alluded to in an inscription of Sargon from Khorsabad.il 
 
 From the reign of Sargon we have a complete list of kings to the fall of 
 the empire, or to a period not far distant from that event. He was suc- 
 ceeded by Sennacherib, whose annals have been given in a former part of 
 this volume. His name was identified, as I have before stated, by Dr. 
 Hincks, and this great discovery furnished the first satisfactory starting- 
 point, from which the various events recorded in the inscriptions have been 
 linked with Scripture history. Colonel Rawlinson places the accession of 
 Sennacherib to the throne in 716, Dr. Hincks in 7 03, If which appears to be 
 more in accordance with the canon of Ptolemy. The events of his reign, 
 as recorded in the inscriptions on the walls of his palace, are mostly related 
 
 * Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xxvi. 
 
 t Rawlinson. Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xxix. 
 
 % The inscription is given in the 145th plate of Botta's great work (see line 12.). 
 I understand that the French consul at Mosul has recently discovered two entire his- 
 torical cylinders of Sargon at Khorsabad ; they may furnish us with some of the de- 
 tails wanting on the monuments. § Now in the Royal Museum of Berlin. 
 
 || Mem. Trans, of Irish Acad. vol. xxii. 
 
 if See Appendix to his Memoir in the twenty-second vol. of Trans, of the Irish 
 Academy. 
 
Chap. XXVL] Assyrian history. 52 9 
 
 or alluded to in sacred and profane history. I have already described his 
 wars in Judaea, and have compared his own account with that contained 
 in Holy Writ. His second campaign in Babylonia is mentioned in a frag- 
 ment of Polyhistor, preserved by Eusebius,^ in which the name given to 
 Sennacherib's son, and the general history of the war appear to be nearly 
 the same as those on the monuments. The fragment is highly interesting 
 as corroborating the accuracy of the interpretation of the inscriptions. I 
 was not aware of its existence when the translation given in the sixth chap- 
 ter of this volume was printed. "After the reign of the brother of Senna- 
 cherib, Acises reigned over the Babylonians, and when he had governed for 
 the space of thirty days he was slain by Marodach Baladan, who held the 
 empire by force during six months ; and he was slain and succeeded by a 
 person named Elibus (Belib.) But in the third year of his (Elibus) reign, 
 Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, levied an army against the Babylonians ; 
 and in a battle, in which they were engaged, routed and took him prisoner 
 with his adherents, and commanded them to be carried into the land of the 
 Assyrians. Having taken upon himself the government of the Babylonians, 
 he appointed his son, Asordanius, their king, and he himself retired again 
 into Assyria." This son, however, was not Essarhaddon, his successor on 
 the throne of Assyria. The two names are distinguished by a distinct or- 
 thography in the cuneiform inscriptions. Sennacherib raised monuments 
 and caused tablets recording his victories to be carved in many countries 
 which he visited and subdued. His image and inscriptions at the mouth 
 of the Nahr-el-Kelb in Syria are well known. During my journey to Eu- 
 rope I found one of his tablets near the village of Hasana (or Hasan Agha), 
 chiefly remarkable from being at the foot of Gebel Judi, the mountain upon 
 which, according to a wide-spread Eastern tradition, the ark of Noah rested 
 after the deluge. f 
 
 Essarhaddon, his son, was his successor, as we know from the Bible. He 
 built the south-west palace at Nimroud, and an edifice whose ruins are 
 now covered by the mound of the tomb of Jonah, opposite Mosul. His an- 
 nals are inscribed on the cylinder presented by me to the British Museum. $ 
 Like his father he was a great warrior, and he styles himself in his inscrip- 
 tions " King of Egypt, conqueror of iEthiopia."§ It was probably this king 
 who carried Manasseh, king of Jerusalem, captive to Babylon. || 
 
 The name of the son and successor of Essarhaddon was the same as that 
 of the builder of the north-west palace of Nimroud. His father, as we have 
 seen, IF had erected a dwelling for him in the suburbs or on the outskirts of 
 Nineveh. His principal campaign appears to have been inSusiana orElam, 
 
 * Cory's Fragments. 
 
 t See an interesting note on this subject in Rich's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
 t British Museum Series, p. 20-29., and also on a fragment of a similar cylinder, 
 p. 54-58. 
 
 § This title was first read and pointed out to me by Dr. Hincks. Col. Rawlinson 
 has, I believe, since found fuller mention of the Egyptian campaign of this king. 
 
 II 2 Chron. xxxiii. f P. 508. 
 
 L L 
 
530 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ Chap XX yj 
 
 and some of the beautiful and elaborate bas-reliefs which he caused to be 
 carved on the walls of the palace of Sennacherib atKouyunjik have already 
 been described.* As the greater number of the inscribed tablets found in 
 the ruins of that edifice are of his time, many of them bearing his name, 
 we may hope to obtain some record of the principal events of his reign. 
 
 His son built the south-east palace on the mound of Nimroud, probably 
 over the remains of an earlier edifice. Bricks from its ruins give his 
 name, which has not yet been deciphered, and those of his father and grand- 
 father. "We know nothing of his history from cotemporaneous records. 
 He was one of the last, if not the last, king of the second dynasty; and may, 
 indeed, as I have already suggested, have been that monarch, Sardanapa- 
 lus, or Saracus, who was conquered by the combined armies of the Medes 
 and Babylonians under Cyaxares in b. c. 606., and who made of his palace, 
 his wealth, and his wives one great funeral pile.f 
 
 There are apparently two royal names still unplaced ; that on the bulls 
 at Arban,$ which may not be the name of a king of Nineveh, and that on 
 the black stone in the possession of Lord Aberdeen, which appears to be- 
 long to an Assyrian king of the second dynasty. Unless the latter be a va- 
 riant, or different reading of one of those already mentioned, it may be the 
 name of a successor of the builder of the south-east palace. 
 
 For convenience of reference I give a table of the royal names hitherto 
 discovered, with their English versions according to Dr. Hincks and Col. 
 Rawlinson, the principal monuments on which they are found, and the ap- 
 proximate date of the reigns of the several kings. In a second table will be 
 found the most important proper and geographical names in the Assyrian 
 inscriptions which have been identified with those in the Bible. To make 
 this list more useful to the biblical student, I have added their forms in He- 
 brew, as well as in cuneiform letters. A third table contains the names 
 of the thirteen great gods of Assyria, with their reading according to Dr. 
 Hincks. 
 
 * Chap. 20. 
 We have a curious illustration of the magnificent suicide of Sardanapalus in the 
 history of Zimri, king of Israel. " And it came to pass, when Zimri aaw that the city 
 was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king'a 
 house over him with fire, and died." — 1 Kings, xvii. 18. There is nothing, therefore, 
 improbable in the romantic history of the Assyrian king. $ P. 235. 
 
Chap. XXVL] 
 
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 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 TABLE II. — Names of Kings, Countries, Cities, &c, mentioned in the 
 Old Testament, which occur in the Assyrian Inscriptions. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Cuneiform. 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 Jehu 
 
 -Elf eflfc: If 
 
 I- SS= A ^-ff h- 
 
 r< h mi Tf if m= 
 
 ff< ff 4Hh Hr 
 
 ( or in monograms >-JL ] T| > __\ ! 
 
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 Omri 
 
 ■HE? 
 
 Menahem 
 
 _:n:E 
 
 Hezekiah 
 
 
 Hazael 
 
 Merodach Baladan . . 
 Pharaoh 
 
 
 Sargon 
 
 liana 
 
 Sennacherib 
 
 Essarhaddon 
 
 Dagon 
 
 Tito 
 
 Nebo , 
 
 ; t 
 
 Judaea 
 
 nfnm 
 
 Jerusalem 
 
 dbBrp 
 
 Samaria 
 
 • - r : 
 
 Ashdod 
 
 TfcrtDB 
 
 Lachish 
 
 syob 
 
 Damascus 
 
 pto_w 
 
 
 r •.• ••• - 
 
Chap. XXVtl table of royal names, countries, etc. 
 
 535 
 
 Name. 
 
 Cuneiform. 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 Hamath 
 
 Tf Hf fcET *HM 
 
 rvan 
 
 
 
 Hittites (the) 
 
 }}< *& *r 
 
 n*nn 
 
 Tvre 
 
 « htc 
 
 nis 
 
 -*- j x '- / 
 
 
 Sidon 
 
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 jttsj 
 
 
 Graza 
 
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 to 
 
 
 T - 
 
 Ekron 
 
 t^ £4 21 ^tT 
 
 T^W 
 
 
 Askelon 
 
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 yfcgifia 
 
 
 Arvad 
 
 <MTI £T £M 
 
 •ma 
 
 
 » : ~ 
 
 Gubal (the people of) 
 
 b-t «Hft n ^Tf 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Lebanon . . . , 
 
 till ^T -7 
 
 pnb 
 
 E OTDt 
 
 •* rt-fe Mil (or^ « 
 
 fi^lSE 
 
 JJ o;r' / 
 
 
 Euphrates 
 
 IT -TT- («S- iff ^TJ 
 
 JinS 
 
 
 t : 
 
 Carchemish 
 
 v tm m 
 
 ifrwig 
 
 Hebar or Chebar ) 
 (river) ) 
 
 ff< EV 
 
 -ins or ninn 
 
 Harran 
 
 n ^tt ^ 
 
 ^TTT= B:TT C-UiT ^H)- 
 
 cr ■» ^ j if © 
 
 •pn 
 
 Ur 
 
 » T T 
 
 1W 
 
 Gozan (the people of) 
 
 •jTia 
 
 Mesopotamia 
 
 ^.o& 
 
 
 
 CnfcHf ^HF" *£ ' 
 
 -TT<T) 
 
 
 Children of Eden. . . . 
 
 t^ Tf <T£ 5p(?) 
 
 
 tjp.?? 
 
 Tigris 
 
 *•- **- (or>^- >^^ £. 
 
 40 
 
 ipjn 
 
 ■*- O ............. 
 
 Nineveh 
 
 tssr -ur (-ftp + u 
 
 
 nnrp 
 
 
 
536 
 
 Name 
 Babylon 
 
 Elam 
 
 Shushan. . . . 
 
 Media 
 
 Persia 
 
 Yavan 
 
 Ararat 
 
 Hagarenes . . 
 Nabathaeans . 
 Aramaeans . . 
 Chaldaeans . , 
 
 Meshek 
 
 Tubal 
 
 Assyria 
 
 Assyrians . . . 
 
 Pethor 
 
 Telassar .... 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI. 
 
 ClJNEIFORK. 
 
 4tf Hf- ^TT <B 
 (or ^ ^ <<Jf <&*) 
 
 Sfl -Ef h- 
 
 ET ^T<T If If 
 rf m Tf 
 
 m M ^\ *% 
 
 CM A4 -it If tf) 
 
 M Mil <M= 
 ^T fcj M 
 
 n ecu •* 
 
 g & esfT Tf Tf 
 if- £E^T ^[T! 
 
 Hi 
 
 baa 
 
 V r 
 
 Jt r 
 
 T T -: 
 
 T • 
 T - 
 
 * The names of Babylon and Nineveh are found in various other forms. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 TABLE OP GODS 
 
 537 
 
 TABLE III. — Names of the Thirteen Great Gods of Assyria, as they 
 occur on the upright tablet of the King, discovered at Nimroud 
 
 1, 
 
 
 Asshur, the King of the Circle of 
 the Great Gods. 
 
 2. 
 
 4- If + 
 
 Anu, the Lord of the Mountains, or 
 of Foreign Countries. 
 
 3. 
 
 ~f m Tf 
 
 (?) 
 
 4. 
 
 (or -4" -11 ^Tf) 
 
 San. 
 
 5. 
 
 (or ->f P- 
 (or^Jf- J^T) 
 
 Merodach (? Mars) 
 
 6. 
 
 ■4- Afl 
 
 (or<) 
 
 Yav (? Jupiter). 
 
 7. 
 
 Hf" ¥ 
 
 Bar. 
 
 8. 
 
 ~f ?£ 
 
 Nebo (? Mercury). 
 
 9. 
 10. 
 
 Hh i^t tin 
 
 (?) Mylit (or Gula), called the Con- 
 sort of Bel and the Mother 
 of the Great Gods (? Ve- 
 nus). 
 
 (?) Dagon. 
 
 11. 
 
 -+ - 
 
 Bel (? Saturn) Father of the Gods 
 
 12. 
 
 ■4 ' V ■ + 
 
 Shamash (the Sun). 
 
 13. 
 
 ~f < -to 
 
 (orHf" ~n — ) 
 
 Ishtar. (the Moon). 
 
538 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON 
 
 [Chap XXVI 
 
 Although no mention appears to be made in the Assyrian inscriptions of 
 kings who reigned before the twelfth century b c , this is by no means a 
 proof that the empire, and its capital Nineveh, did not exist long before 
 that time I cannot agree with those who would limit the foundation of 
 both to that period. The supposition seems to me quite at variance with 
 the testimony of sacred and profane history The existence of the name 
 of Nineveh on monuments of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty is still con- 
 sidered almost certain by Egyptian scholars. I have in my former work 
 quoted an instance of it on a tablet of the time of Thothmes III , or of the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century b. c* Mr. Birch has since pointed out 
 
 Captives fromPadan Aram, Assyria, and Carchemish, of the Time of Amenophis III 
 
 to me three interesting cartouches copied by Dr Lepsius in Egypt, and 
 published in his great work,f which completely remove any doubt as to the 
 name of Assyria having been also known as early as the eighteenth dynasty, 
 They occur at the foot of one of the columns of Soleb, and are of the age 
 of Amenophis III , or about the middle of the fourteenth century before 
 Christ The three figures, with their arms bound behind, represent Asiatic 
 captives, as is proved by their peculiar features and headdress, a knotted 
 fillet round the temples, corresponding with that seen in the Nineveh sculp- 
 tures. Each cartouche contains the name of the country from which the 
 prisoner was brought. The first is Patana, or Padan-Aram ; the second is 
 written A-su-ru, or Assyria ; and the third, Ka-ru-ka-mishi, Carchemish, 
 On another column are Saenkar(? Shinar or Sinjar) ; Naharaina, or Meso- 
 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii p 224. A second mention of Nineveh has been 
 recently found by Mr. Birch on a monument of Thothmes III., engraved in Lepsius' 
 Auswahl. Taf xii. 1. 21 Unfortunately the line before the name is wanting, and 
 the event connected with the mention of Nineveh cannot be determined. Following 
 it, however, is a sentence stating that Thothmes "erected his tablet in Naharaina 
 (Mesopotamia), for the extension of the frontiers of Kami (Egypt)," showing that the 
 campaign described was actually carried on near the borders of the Tigris. 
 
 t Denkmaler, Abth. III. Bl 88 
 
Chap. XXVL] the Assyrian records. 539 
 
 potamia ; and the Khita, or Hittites * The mention in succession of these 
 Asiatic nations, contiguous one to the other, proves the correctness of the 
 reading of the word Assyria, which might have been doubted had the name 
 of that country stood alone. 
 
 Mr. Birch has detected a still earlier notice of Assyria in the statistical 
 tablet of Karnak. The king of that country is there stated to have sent to 
 Thothmes III., in his fortieth year, a tribute of fifty pounds nine ounces of 
 some article called chesbit, supposed to be a stone for coloring blue. It 
 would appear, therefore, that in the fifteenth century a kingdom, known by 
 the name of Assyria, with Nineveh for its capital, had been established on 
 the borders of the Tigris. Supposing the date now assigned by Col. Raw- 
 linson to the monuments of Nineveh to be correct, no sculptures or relics 
 have yet been found which we can safely attribute to that period ; future 
 researches and a more complete examination of the ancient sites may, how- 
 ever, hereafter lead to the discovery of earlier remains. 
 
 As I have thus given a general sketch of the contents of the inscriptions, 
 it may not be out of place to make a few observations upon the nature of 
 the Assyrian records, and their importance to the study of Scripture and pro- 
 fane history. In the first place, the care with which the events of each 
 king's reign were chronicled is worthy of remark. They were usually writ- 
 ten in the form of regular annals, and in some cases, as on the great mon- 
 oliths at Nimroud, the royal progress during a campaign appears to have 
 been described almost day by day. We are thus furnished with an inter- 
 esting illustration of the historical books of the Jews. There is, however, 
 this marked difference between them, that whilst the Assyrian records are 
 nothing but a dry narrative, or rather register, of military campaigns, spoli- 
 ations, and cruelties, events of little importance but to those immediately 
 concerned in them, the historical books of the Old Testament, apart from 
 the deeds of war and blood which they chronicle, contain the most inter- 
 esting of private episodes, and the most sublime of moral lessons. It need 
 scarcely be added, that this distinction is precisely what we might have ex- 
 pected to find between them, and that the Christian will not fail to give 
 to it a due weight. It may, however, be objected that these Assyrian in- 
 scriptions, being merely records of national events, such as at this day might 
 be placed upon public monuments, did not admit of any irrelevant reflec- 
 tions or details of private life and incident ; but that the Hebrew books, 
 being more strictly a connected and written history, the author could draw 
 his own inferences, and point out to his readers the moral of his story. The 
 Assyrians, it may be added, might have had similar volumes, which have 
 long since perished. This, indeed, may have been the case, but the nature 
 of more private documents, such as those on the clay cylinders and tablets 
 described in the foregoing pages, leads, as far as they have been hitherto 
 deciphered, to an opposite conclusion. 
 
 * Probably the Hittites dwelling in northern Syria, near the Euphrates, mentioned 
 in the campaigns of the Nimroud king. See p. 305. 
 
540 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 The monuments of Nineveh, as well as the testimony of history, tend to 
 prove that the Assyrian monarch was a thorough Eastern despot, unchecked 
 by popular opinion, and having complete power over the lives and property 
 of his subjects — rather adored as a god than feared as a man, and yet him- 
 self claiming that authority and general obedience in virtue of his rever- 
 ence for the national deities and the national religion. It was only when 
 the gods themselves seemed to interpose that any check was placed upon 
 the royal pride and lust ; and it is probable that when Jonah entered Nin- 
 eveh crying to the people to repent, the king, believing him to be a special 
 minister from the supreme deity of the nation, " arose from his throne, and 
 laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes."* 
 The Hebrew state, on the contrary, was, to a certain extent, a limited mon- 
 archy. The Jewish kings were amenable to, and even guided by, the opin- 
 ion of their subjects. The prophets boldly upbraided and threatened them ; 
 their warnings and menaces were usually received with respect and fear. 
 11 G-ood is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken," exclaimed Heze- 
 kiah to Isaiah, when the prophet reproved him for his pride, and foretold 
 the captivity of his sons and the destruction of his kingdom ;f a prophecy 
 which none would have dared utter in the presence of the Assyrian king, 
 except, as it would appear by the story of Jonah, he were a stranger. It 
 can scarcely, therefore, be expected that any history other than bare chron- 
 icles of the victories and triumphs of the kings, omitting all allusion to 
 their reverses and defeats, could be found in Assyria, even were portable 
 rolls or books still to exist, as in Egypt, beneath the ruins. 
 
 It is remarkable that the Assyrian records should, on the whole, be so free 
 from the exaggerated forms of expression, and the magniloquent royal titles, 
 which are found in Egyptian documents of the same nature, and even in 
 those of modern Eastern sovereigns. I have already pointed out the in- 
 ternal evidence of their truthfulness so far as they go. We are further led 
 to place confidence in the statements contained in the inscriptions by the 
 very minuteness with which they even give the amount of the spoil ; the 
 two registrars, "the scribes of the host," as they are called in the Bible,$ 
 being seen in almost every bas-relief, writing down the various objects 
 brought to them by the victorious warriors, — the heads of the slain, the 
 prisoners, the cattle, the sheep, § the furniture, and the vessels of metal. 
 
 The next reflection arising from an examination of the Assyrian records 
 
 * It was not necessary to the effect of his preaching that Jonah should be of the 
 religion of the people of Nineveh. I have known a Christian priest frighten a whole 
 Mussulman town to tents and repentance by publicly proclaiming that he had re- 
 ceived a divine mission to announce a coming earthquake or plague. 
 
 t 2 Kings, xx. 19. t 2 Kings, xxv. 19. 
 
 § Driving away the cattle and sheep of a conquered people, and accounting them 
 amongst the principal spoil, has ever been the custom of Eastern nations who have 
 not altogether renounced a nomadic life, and whose chief wealth consequently con- 
 sisted in these animals. When Asa defeated the Ethiopians, " he carried away sheep 
 and caro >is in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem." (2 Chron. xiv. 15.) 
 
Chap. XXVI.l political state of Assyria. 541 
 
 relates to the political condition and constitution of the empire, which ap- 
 pear to have been of a very peculiar nature. The king, we may infer, ex- 
 ercised hut little direct authority beyond the immediate districts around 
 Nineveh. The Assyrian dominions, as far as we can yet learn from the 
 inscriptions, did not extend much further than the central provinces of Asia 
 Minor and Armenia to the north, not reaching to the Black Sea, though 
 probably to the Caspian. To the east they included the western provinces 
 of Persia ; to the south, Susiana, Babylonia, and the northern part of Ara- 
 bia. To the west the Assyrians may have penetrated into Lycia, and per- 
 haps Lydia ; and Syria was considered within the territories of the great 
 king ; Egypt and Meroe (^Ethiopia) were the farthest limits reached by 
 the Assyrian armies. According to Greek history, however, a much greater 
 extent must be assigned to Assyrian influence, if not to the actual Assyrian 
 empire, and we may hereafter find that such was in fact the case. I am 
 here merely referring to the evidence afforded by actual records as far as 
 they have been deciphered. 
 
 The empire appears to have been at all times a kind of confederation 
 formed by many tributary states, whose kings were so far independent, that 
 they were only bound to furnish troops to the supreme lord in time of war, 
 and to pay him yearly a certain tribute. Hence we find successive Assyr- 
 ian kings fighting with exactly the same nations and tribes, some of which 
 were scarcely more than four or five days' march from the gates of Nine- 
 veh. On the occasion of every change at the capital, these tributary states 
 seem to have striven to throw off the Assyrian yoke, and to have begun by 
 refusing to pay their customary tribute. A new campaign was consequent- 
 ly necessary to bring them to obedience. We learn from the inscriptions, 
 that when a city or kingdom was thus subdued, however near it might 
 have been to Nineveh, when not actually forming a part of the imperial 
 district, a new ruler was appointed to it with the title of "King," written 
 in the same cuneiform characters on the monuments as when applied to 
 the head of the empire.^ Hence, too, the Assyrian armies, as the army of 
 Xerxes described by Herodotus,! were made up of many various nations, 
 retaining their own costumes, arms, and modes of warfare. 
 
 The Jewish tribes, as it had long been suspected by biblical scholars, 
 can now be proved to have held their dependent position upon the Assyr- 
 ian king from a very early period, indeed long before the time inferred by 
 any passage in Scripture. "Whenever an expedition against the kings of 
 Judah or Israel is mentioned in the Assyrian records, it is stated to have 
 been undertaken on the ground that they had not paid their customary 
 tribute. $ 
 
 * This fact illustrates the passage in Isaiah (x. 8, 9.), "For he saith, Are not raj 
 princes altogether kings ? Is not Calno as Carchemish 1 Is not Hamath as Arpad 1 
 Is not Samaria as Damascus?' t Lib. vii. 
 
 t The same thing may, indeed, be inferred from several passages in Chronicles and 
 Kings. See particularly 2 Kings, xvi. 7., xvii. 4. 
 
542 NINEVEH AND BABYLON CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 The political state of the Jewish kingdom under Solomon appears to have 
 been very nearly the same as that of the Assyrian empire. The inscrip- 
 tions in this instance again furnish us with an interesting illustration of the 
 Bible. The scriptural account of the power of the Hebrew king resembles, 
 almost word for word, some of the paragraphs in the great inscriptions at 
 Nimroud. " Solomon reigned over the kingdoms from the river unto the 
 land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt : they brought pres- 
 ents, and served Solomon all the days of his life He had do- 
 minion over all the region on this side the river, from Tipsah even unto the 
 Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river."^ 
 
 The political condition of Assyria can only be compared in modern times 
 with that of India, when the peninsula was divided into numerous distinct 
 sovereignties under a nominal dependence to the emperor of Delhi as the 
 head of the Mogul dynasty ; or to that of Turkey in the last century, when 
 the empire was made up of a number of semi-independent pashalics, gov- 
 erned by hereditary rulers, from whom the Sultan demanded little more 
 than yearly tribute, and a contribution of troops in war, though invested 
 with an absolute power over them of life and death, arising from his mixed 
 political and religious character, sometimes exercised and submitted to in 
 a manner inexplicable to those unacquainted with the Eastern character. 
 
 In the custom, frequently alluded to in the inscriptions, of removing the 
 inhabitants of conquered cities and districts to distant parts of the empire, 
 and of replacing them by colonists from Nineveh or from other subdued 
 countries, we have another interesting illustration of Scripture history. It 
 has been generally inferred that there was but one carrying away, or at 
 the most two, of the people of Samaria, although three, at least, appear to 
 be distinctly alluded to in the Bible ; the first, by Pul ;t the second, by Tig- 
 lath Pileser \% the third, by Shalmaneser.§ It was not until the time of the 
 last king that Samaria was destroyed as an independent kingdom. On 
 former occasions only the inhabitants of the surrounding towns and villages 
 seem to have been taken as captives. Such we find to have been the case 
 with many other nations who were subdued or punished for rebellion by 
 the Assyrians. The conquerors, too, as we also learn from the inscriptions, 
 established the worship of their own gods in the conquered cities, raising 
 altars and temples, and appointing priests for their service. So after the 
 fall of Samaria, the strangers who were placed in its cities, " made gods of 
 their own and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samar- 
 itans had made. "|| 
 
 * 1 Kings, iv. 21. and 24. "He reigned over all the kings from the river even unto 
 the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt ;" and the kings "brought him 
 every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness, 
 and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year." (2 Chron. ix. 24. 26.) Such were 
 probably the very articles brought yearly to the Assyrian king, and enumerated in his 
 records, 
 t 1 Chron. v. 26. t 1 Chron. v. 6. and 26 
 
 $ 2 Kings, xvii. 6. xviii. 11. II 2 Kings, xvii. 29. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] THE assyria n gods. 543 
 
 The vast number of families thus sent to dwell in distant countries, must 
 have wrought great changes in the physical condition, language, and relig- 
 ion of the people with which they were intermixed. When the Assyrian 
 records are with more certainty interpreted, we may, perhaps, be able to 
 explain many of the anomalies of ancient Eastern philology and compara- 
 tive geography. 
 
 We further gather from the records of the campaigns of the Assyrian 
 kings, that the country, both in Mesopotamia and to the west of the Eu- 
 phrates, now included in the general term of" the Desert," was at that re- 
 mote period teeming with a dense population, both sedentary and nomade ; 
 that cities, towns, and villages arose on all sides ; and that, consequently, 
 the soil brought forth produce for the support of this great congregation of 
 human beings. It will have been seen from many parts of the foregoing 
 narrative, that there are still traces in those now desolate regions of their 
 ancient wealth and prosperity. Mounds of earth, covering the ruins of 
 buildings, or the sites of fenced stations and forts, are scattered far and 
 wide over the plains. When the winter rains furrow the face of the land, 
 inscribed stones, graven pottery, and masses of brick work, the certain signs 
 of former habitations, are everywhere found by the wandering Arab. All 
 those settlements depended almost exclusively upon artificial irrigation. 
 Hence the dry beds of enormous canals and countless watercourses, which 
 are spread like a network over the face of the country. Even the travel- 
 ler, accustomed to the triumphs of modern science and civilisation, gazes 
 with wonder and awe upon these gigantic works, and reflects with admi- 
 ration upon the industry, the skill, and the power of those who made them. 
 And may not the waters be again turned into the empty channels, and may 
 not life be again spread over those parched and arid wastes ? Upon them 
 no other curse has alighted than that of a false religion and a listless race. 
 
 Of the information as to the religious system of the Assyrians which may 
 be derived from the inscriptions, I am still unwilling to treat in the pres- 
 ent state of our knowledge of their contents. It is highly probable that 
 the large collection of clay tablets now in the British Museum may here- 
 after furnish us with important matter connected with the subject ; but a 
 far more intimate acquaintance with the character than we yet possess is 
 required before the translation of such documents can be fully relied on. 
 All we can now venture to infer is, that the Assyrians worshipped one su- 
 preme God, as the great national deity under whose immediate and special 
 protection they lived, and their empire existed.* The name of this god 
 appears to have been Asshur,f as nearly as can be determined, at present, 
 
 * Different nations appear to have had different names for their supreme deity ; 
 thus the Babylonians called him Nebo. 
 
 t It would appear that Col. Rawlinson has given up the translation of this name, 
 Assarac, upon which he first insisted. (Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xviii.) Hence 
 one of his arguments against its identification with the biblical Nisroch no longer ex- 
 ists. I may here observe that I am still inclined to believe that the name was applied 
 to the eagle-headed figure of the sculptures. It is possible that Sennacherib may have 
 
544 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI 
 
 from the inscriptions. It was identified with that of the empire itself, al- 
 ways called " the country of Asshur ;" it entered into those of both kings and 
 ±>.'vate persons, and was also applied to particular cities. AYith Asshur, 
 bu\ apparently far inferior to him in the celestial hierarchy, although called 
 the gveat gods, were associated twelve other deities, whose names I have 
 given in table No. 3. Some of them may possibly be identified with the 
 divinities of the Greek Pantheon, although it is scarcely wise to hazard con- 
 jectures which must ere long be again abandoned. These twelve gods 
 may also have presided over the twelve months of the year, and the vast 
 number of still inferior gods, in one inscription, I believe, stated to be no 
 less than 4000, over the days of the year, various phenomena and produc- 
 tions of nature, and the celestial bodies. It is difficult to understand such 
 a system of polytheism, unless we suppose that whilst there was but one 
 supreme god, represented sometimes under a triune form, all the so-called 
 inferior gods were originally mere names for events and outward things, or 
 symbols and myths. Although at one time generally accepted as such even 
 by the common people, their true meaning was only known in a corrupted 
 age to the priests, by whom they were turned into a mystery and a trade. 
 It may, indeed, be inferred from many passages in the Scriptures, that a 
 system of theology not far differing from the Assyrian prevailed at times 
 amongst the Jews themselves. Asshur is generally, if not always, typified 
 by the winged figure in the circle.* Although the kings of the later dy- 
 nasty are sometimes represented worshipping the minor deities, I know of 
 no monument on which the earlier monarchs are seen adoring any other 
 figure than that of Asshur. 
 
 The question as to the space occupied by the city of Nineveh at the time 
 of its greatest prosperity is still far from being set at rest. Col. Rawlinson, 
 founding his opinion upon the names on bricks from the several sites, be- 
 lieves the inclosures of Nimroud, Kouyunjik, and Khorsabad, and the small 
 mounds of Shereef-Khan, scarcely three miles from Kouyunjik, as well as 
 others in the immediate neighbourhood, to be the remains of distinct cities. 
 He would even separate the mound of Nebbi Yunus from Kouyunjik, identi- 
 fying the former with Nineveh, and making the latter a mere suburb. A 
 glance at the plan of the ruins will show this conjecture to be quite unten- 
 
 been slain in the temple of Asshur, and that the Hebrews, seeing everywhere the 
 commonest of the Assyrian mythic figures, may have believed it to be the peculiar 
 god of the Assyrians, to which they consequently gave a name denoting an eagle. 
 The fact of its occurring on the door-posts with Dagon and other undoubted repre- 
 sentations of deities, proves that it must be ranked amongst them, whilst they may 
 all originally have been, as I have pointed out in the text, mere myths or symbols. 
 
 * See woodcuts, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 448. There is some doubt 
 whether the figure standing on an animal, frequently represented on Assyrian mon- 
 uments as worshipped by the king, as at Bavian for instance (2d series of the Monu- 
 ments of Nineveh, Plate 51.), be Asshur, or one of the twelve gods. I am inclined 
 to the latter opinion ; as on cylinders the figures of the deities standing on animals 
 are frequently seen in act of adoration before the supreme god in the circle. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] extent of nineveh. 545 
 
 able. Discoveries in both mounds prove that they belong to nearly the 
 same period, and that Nebbi Yunus is the more recent of the two.* The 
 supposition that any of these groups of mounds represent alone the city of 
 Nineveh can in no way be reconciled with the accounts in Scripture and 
 in the Greek authors, which so remarkably coincide as to its extent ; a dif- 
 ficulty which leads Col. Rawlinson to say, that all these ruins " formed one 
 of that group of cities which, in the time of the prophet Jonah, were known 
 by the common name of Nineveh. "f It is indeed true, that, on bricks 
 from different mounds, distinct names appear to be given to each locality, 
 and that those from Kouyunjik are inscribed with the name of Nineveh, 
 whilst those from Nimroud and Khorsabad bear others which have not yet 
 been satisfactory deciphered.^ These names are preceded by a determin- 
 ative monogram (p*% — j or *"t | J ) assumed to signify a city, but which 
 
 undoubtedly also applies to a fort or fortified palace. § Nahum describes 
 Nineveh as a city of many strongholds and gates, || and such I believe it to 
 have been, each fort or stronghold having a different name. The most im- 
 portant, as it was the best defended, may at one time have been the palace 
 at Kouyunjik, which being especially called Nineveh, gave its name to the 
 whole city. By no other supposition can we reconcile the united testimony 
 of ancient writers as to the great size of Nineveh with the present remains. 
 It is very doubtful whether these fortified inclosures contained many 
 buildings besides the royal palaces, and such temples and public edifices as 
 were attached to them. At Nimroud, excavations were made in various 
 parts of the inclosed space, and it was carefully examined with a view to 
 ascertain whether any foundations or remains of houses still existed. None 
 were discovered except at the south-eastern corner, where, as already de- 
 scribed, If the height of the earth above the usual level at once shewed the 
 existence of ruins. In most parts of the inclosure, the natural soil seems 
 never to have been disturbed, and in some places the conglomerate rock is 
 almost denuded of earth. 
 
 * On the inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soci- 
 ety, vol. xii. p. 418. The expression used by Col. Rawlinson with regard to the mound 
 of Nebbi Yunus, " the huge mound opposite Mosul," rather tends to mislead ; it is, in 
 fact, much inferior in size to Kouyunjik, and other great ruins in Assyria. 
 
 t On the Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 417. 
 
 t Col. Rawlinson reads the name of Levkeh or Calah on the bricks from Nimroud, 
 and consequently identifies the ruins with the Calah of Genesis, one of the primitive 
 cities of Assyria, but I cannot believe that the four cities mentioned in the Bible could 
 have stood within so short a distance of each other, particularly as we are told that 
 Resen, "a great city, was between Nineveh and Calah." (Genesis, x. 12.) 
 
 $ In like manner the common determinative sign "^ signifies a country, a hill, and 
 a mine. (Dr. Hincks' Mem. on the Assyro-Babylonian Phonetic Characters, note p. 
 301. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxii.) It appears to be also used 
 on some bricks in the same way as the determinative described in the text. 
 
 11 Ch. iii. 12—14. % P. 140. 
 
 Mm 
 
546 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI 
 
 Such is also the case opposite Mosul. The remains of one or two build- 
 ings appear to exist within the inclosure ; but in the greater part there are 
 no indications whatever of ancient edifices, and the conglomerate rock is. 
 as at Nimroud, on a level with the surrounding soil. 
 
 At Khorsabad, the greater part of the inclosed space is so much beUnc 
 the surrounding country, that it is covered with a marsh formed by the 
 small river Khauser, which flows near the ruins. Within the walls, which 
 are scarcely more than a mile square, can only be traced the remains of one 
 or two buildings, and of a propylseum, standing below the platform, and 
 above two hundred yards from the ascent to the palace,* but they are at 
 once perceived by well-defined inequalities in the soil. 
 
 If the walls forming the inclosures of Khorsabad and other Assyrian 
 ruins were the outer defences of a city, abruptly facing the open country, 
 it is difficult to account for the fact of the palace having been built in the 
 same line, and actually forming part of them. All access to it must have 
 been strongly fortified, and even the view over the surrounding country, the 
 chief object of such a position, must have been shut out. 
 
 After several careful excavations of the ruins and of the spaces inclosed 
 by the ramparts of earth, I am still inclined to the opinion that they were 
 royal dwellings with their dependent buildings, and parks or paradises, 
 fortified like the palace-temples of Egypt, capable of standing a prolonged 
 siege, and a place of refuge for the inhabitants in case of invasion. They 
 may have been called by different names, but they were all included with- 
 in the area of that great city known to the Jews and to the Greeks as 
 Nineveh. I will not pretend to say that the whole of this vast space was 
 thickly inhabited or built upon. As I have elsewhere observed, we must 
 not judge of Eastern cities by those of Europe. f In Asia, gardens and 
 
 * From this propylaeum came the two colossal bulls in the British Museum ; it 
 was part of the royal palace. 
 
 t Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. chap. 2. A recent trigonometrical sur- 
 vey of the country by Captain Jones proves, I am informed, that the great ruins of 
 Kouyunjik, Nimroud, Karamless, and Khorsabad, form very nearly a perfect parallel- 
 ogram, corresponding with the conjecture I ventured to make in my former work. A 
 recent writer (Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 94.), adopting the theory of the 
 greater extent of Nineveh, has endeavored to prove that the Gebel Makloub is the re- 
 mains of its Eastern walls, stating that he " has the testimony of a recent observant 
 traveller, Mr. Barker, who has no doubt that the so-called ' mountain' is entirely the 
 work of man." Unfortunately it happens that the Gebel Makloub is somewhat high- 
 er, and far more precipitous and rocky than the Malvern hills. It would, indeed, have 
 required Titans to raise such a heaven-reaching wall ! Scarcely less extravagant are 
 the conjectures that the mound is called Kouyumjik, not Kouyunjik, because silver 
 ornaments may have been found there, and that Yaroumjeh, a mere Turkish name 
 meaning "the half-way village," is " roum," " signifying the territory and inhabitant? 
 of the Roman empire," and, consequently, a part of Nineveh, " Roman and ancient 
 being synonymous terms !" The line, too, indicated in Mr. Bonomi's diagram for the 
 former bed of the Tigris, in order to complete the parallelogram, would take the riv 
 er over a range of steep limestone hills. I may here observe that the name of "Nini- 
 ouah" is not known in the country as applied either to the mound of Nebbi Yunus ; 
 
Chap. XXVI. 1 Assyrian architecture. 547 
 
 orchards, containing suburbs and even distinct villages, collected round a 
 walled city are all included by the natives under one general name. Such 
 is the case with Isfahan and Damascus, and such I believe it to have been 
 with ancient Nineveh. It appears to me quite inconsistent with Eastern 
 customs, as well as with historic testimony, to place within so short a dis- 
 tance of each other several great and distinct cities. Recent researches 
 have in no way shaken the opinion that I ventured to express in my for- 
 mer work, partly founded upon arguments derived from the fact of each of 
 these separate fortified palaces having been built by different kings.* 
 
 A few remarks are necessary on the additional information afforded by 
 recent discoveries as to the architecture and architectural decorations, ex- 
 ternal and internal, of the Assyrian palaces. The inscriptions on their 
 walls, especially on those of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, appear to contain 
 important and even minute details, not only as to their general plan and 
 mode of construction, but even as to the materials employed for their dif- 
 ferent parts, and for the objects of sculpture and ornaments placed in them. 
 This fact furnishes another remarkable analogy between the records of the 
 Jewish and the Assyrian kings. To the history of their monarchs and of 
 their nation, the Hebrew chroniclers have added a full account of the build- 
 ing and adornment of the temple and palaces of Solomon. In both cases, 
 from the use of technical words, we can scarcely hope to understand, with 
 any degree of certainty, all the details. It is impossible to comprehend, by 
 the help of the descriptions alone, the plan or appearance of the temple of 
 Solomon. This arises not only from our being unacquainted with the ex- 
 act meaning of various Hebrew architectural terms, but also from the dif- 
 ficulty experienced, even in ordinary cases, of restoring from mere descrip- 
 tion an edifice of any kind. In the Assyrian inscriptions we labor, of course, 
 under still greater disadvantages. The language in which they are writ- 
 ten is as yet but very imperfectly known, and although we may be able to 
 explain with some confidence the general meaning of the historical para- 
 graphs, yet when we come to technical words relating to architecture, 
 even with a very intimate acquaintance with the Assyrian tongue, we could 
 scarcely hope to ascertain their precise signification. On the other hand, 
 the materials, and the general plan of the Assyrian palaces are still pre- 
 served, whilst of the great edifices of the Jews, not a fragment of masonry, 
 nor the smallest remains are left to guide us. As Mr. Fergussonf has 
 shown, the architecture of the one people may be illustrated by that of the 
 other. "With the help of the sacred books, and of the ruins of the palace? 
 
 or any other ruin in the country. Before founding theories upon such grounds, it 
 would be as well to have some little acquaintance with the localities and with the 
 languages spoken by the people of the country. 
 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. c. 2. 
 
 t See his highly interesting work, entitled " The Palaces of Nineveh and Persep- 
 olis restored," to which I shall have frequent occasion to refer in the remarks in the 
 text, and to which I take this opportunity of acknowledging my obligations. 
 
548 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 of Nineveh, together with that of cotemporary and later remains, as well 
 as from customs still existing in the East, we may, to a certain extent, re- 
 store the principal buildings of both nations. 
 
 Before suggesting a general restoration of the royal edifices of Nineveh, 
 I shall endeavor to point out the analogies which appear to exist between 
 their actual remains and what is recorded of the temple and palaces of 
 Solomon. In the first place, as Sennacherib in his inscriptions declares 
 himself to have done, the Jewish king sent the bearer of burdens and the 
 hewers into the mountains to bring great stones, costly stones, and hewed 
 stones,^ to lay the foundations, which were probably artificial platforms, 
 resembling the Assyrian mounds, though constructed of more solid materi- 
 als. We have the remains of such a terrace or stage of stone masonry, 
 perhaps built by king Solomon himself, at Baalbec. The enormous size of 
 some of the hewn stones existing in that structure, and of those still seen in 
 the quarries, some being more than sixty feet long, has excited the wonder 
 of modern travellers. The dimensions of the temple of Jerusalem, three- 
 score cubits long,f twenty broad, and thirty high, were much smaller than 
 those of the great edifices explored in Assyria. Solomon's own palace, 
 however, appears to have been considerably larger, and to have more near- 
 ly approached in its proportions those of the kings of Nineveh, for it was 
 one hundred cubits long, fifty broad, and thirty high. " The porch before 
 the temple," twenty cubits by ten,$ may have been a propylaBun, such as 
 was discovered at Khorsabad in front of the palace. The chambers, with 
 the exception of the oracle, were exceedingly small, the largest being only 
 seven cubits broad, " for without, in the wall of the house, he made numer- 
 ous rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the w r alls 
 of the house." The words in italics are inserted in our version to make 
 good the sense, and may consequently not convey the exact meaning, which 
 may be, that these chambers were thus narrow that the beams might be 
 supported without the use of pillars, a reason already suggested for the nar- 
 rowness of the greater number of chambers in the Assyrian palaces. These 
 smaller rooms appear to have been built round a large central chamber, 
 called the oracle, the whole arrangement thus corresponding with the halls 
 and surrounding rooms at Nimroud, Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik. The ora- 
 cle itself was twenty cubits square, smaller far in dimensions than the 
 Nineveh halls ; but it was twenty cubits high — an important fact, illus- 
 trative of Assyrian architecture, for as the building was thirty cubits in 
 height, the oracle must not only have been much loftier than the adjoining 
 chambers, but must have had an upper structure often cubits. § Within it 
 
 * 1 Kings, v. 15. t The Jewish cubit appears to have been about 18 inches. 
 
 X The height, according to 2 Chron. iii. 4., was 120 cubits, which would appear to 
 be an error slipt into the text, although Josephus gives the same dimensions, adding 
 an upper story or structure. 
 
 ij Mr. Fergusson has pointed out, from the account of Josephus, the probability of 
 the temple having had two stories. (The Palaces of Nineveh restored, p. 222.) 
 
Chap. XXVI.l TEE TEMPLE 0F solomon. 549 
 
 were the two cherubim of olive wood ten cubits high, with wings each five 
 cubits long, " and he carved all the house around with carved figures of 
 cherubim and palm trees, and open flowers, within and without." The 
 cherubim have been described by Biblical commentators as mythic figures, 
 uniting the human head with the body of a lion, or an ox, and the wings 
 of an eagle.* If for the palm trees we substitute the sacred tree of the 
 Nineveh sculptures, and for the open flowers the Assyrian tulip-shaped or- 
 nament—objects most probably very nearly resembling each other — we find 
 that the oracle of the temple was almost identical, in general form and in 
 its ornaments, with some of the chambers of Nimroud and Khorsabad. In 
 the Assyrian halls, too, the winged human-headed bulls were on the side 
 of the wall, and their wings, like those of the cherubim, " touched one an- 
 other in the midst of the house."! The dimensions of these figures were 
 in some cases nearly the same, namely, fifteen feet square. The doors 
 were also carved with cherubim and palm trees, and open flowers, and 
 thus, with the other parts of the building, corresponded with those of the 
 Assyrian palaces. On the walls at Nineveh the only addition appears to 
 have been the introduction of the human form and the image of the king, 
 which were an abomination to the Jews. The pomegranates and lilies 
 of Solomon's temple must have been nearly identical with the usual Assyr- 
 ian ornament, in which, and particularly at Khorsabad, the pomegranate 
 frequently takes the place of the tulip and the cone. 
 
 But the description given by Josephus of the interior of one of Solomon's 
 houses, already quoted by Mr. Fergusson in support of his ingenious argu- 
 ments, even more completely corresponds with, and illustrates the chambers 
 in the palaces of Nineveh. " Solomon built some of these (houses) with 
 stones of ten cubits, and wainscoted the walls ivith other stones that were 
 saived, and were of great value, such as were dug out of the bowels of the 
 earth, for ornaments of temples, &c. The arrangement of the curious work- 
 manship of these stones was in three rows ; but the fourth was pre-eminent 
 for the beauty of its sculpture, for on it were represented trees, and all sorts 
 of plants, with the shadows caused by their branches and the leaves that 
 hung down from them. These trees and plants covered the stone that was 
 beneath them, and their leaves were wrought so wonderfully thin and sub- 
 tile, that they appeared almost in motion ; but the rest of the wall, up to 
 the roof, was plastered over, and, as it were, wrought over with various 
 colors and pictures. "$ 
 
 To complete the analogy between the two edifices, it would appear that 
 Solomon was seven years building the temple, and Sennacherib about the 
 same time building his great palace at Kouyunjik.$ 
 
 * See Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
 t See frontispiece to Fergusson's Palaces of Nineveh restored. 
 t Josephus, b. viii. c. 2. Fergusson's Palaces of Nineveh, p. 229. 
 4 It will be remembered that the annals on the bulls of Kouyunjik include six years 
 of his reign, and must consequently have been inscribed on them in the seventh year. 
 
550 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [ C HAP. XXVI. 
 
 The ceiling, roof, and beams of the temple were of cedar wood. The 
 discoveries in the ruins at Nimroud show that the same precious wood was 
 used in the Assyrian edifices ; and the king of Nineveh, as we learn from 
 the inscriptions, employed men, precisely as Solomon had done, to cut it in 
 Mount Lebanon. Fir was also employed in the Jewish buildings, and prob- 
 ably in those of Assyria.* 
 
 In order to understand the proposed restoration of the palace at Kou- 
 yunjik from the existing remains, the reader must refer to the plan of the 
 excavated ruins. f It will be perceived that the building does not face the 
 cardinal points of the compass. I will, however, assume, for convenience 
 sake, that it stands due north and south. To the west, therefore, it imme- 
 diately overlooked the Tigris ; and on that side was one of its principal fa- 
 cades. The edifice must have risen on the very edge of the platform, the 
 foot of which was at that time washed by the river. If, therefore, there 
 were any access to the palace on the river front, it must necessarily have 
 been by a flight of steps, or an inclined way leading down to the water's 
 edge, and there might have been great stairs parallel to the basement wall 
 as at Persepolis. Although from the fact of there having been a grand 
 entrance to the palace on this side, it is highly probable that some such 
 approach once existed, no remains whatever of it have been discovered. 
 The western facade, like the eastern, was formed by five pairs of human- 
 headed bulls, and numerous colossal figures,J forming three distinct gate- 
 ways. 
 
 The principal approach to the palace appears, however, to have been on 
 the eastern side, where the great bulls bearing the annals of Sennacherib 
 still stand. In the frontispiece I have been able, by the assistance of Mr. 
 Fergusson, to give a restoration of this magnificent facade and entrance. 
 Inclined ways, or broad flight of steps, appear to have led up to it from the 
 foot of the platform, and the remains of them, consisting of huge squared 
 stones, are still seen in the ravines, which are but the ancient ascents, 
 deepened by the winter rains of centuries. From this grand entrance di- 
 rect access could be had to all the principal halls and chambers in the pal- 
 ace ; that on the western face, as appears from the ruins, only opened into 
 a set of eight rooms. 
 
 The chambers hitherto explored appear to have been grouped round three 
 great halls marked Nos. VI., XIX., and LXIV. on the Plan. It must be 
 borne in mind, however, that the palace extended considerably to the north- 
 east of the grand entrance, and that there may have been another half 
 and similar dependent chambers in that part of the edifice. To the east 
 of hall LXIV. and to the north of No. VI. there were also remains of build- 
 ings. Only a part of the palace has been hitherto excavated, and we are 
 not in possession of a perfect ground plan of it. 
 
 The general arrangement of the chambers at Kouyunjik is similar to that 
 of Khorsabad, though the extent of the building is very much greater. It 
 
 * 1 Kings, v. 8. t See Plan I. t See Frontispiece to this volume. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] M0DE 0F lighting. 551 
 
 is also to be remarked that the Khorsabad mound falls gradually to the 
 level of the plain, apparently showing the remains of a succession of broad 
 terraces, and that parts of the palace, such as the propylaea, were actually 
 beneath the platform, and removed some distance from it in the midst of 
 the walled inclosure. At Kouyunjik, however, the whole of the royal edi 
 fice, with its dependent buildings, appears to have stood on the summit of 
 the artificial basement, 1 * whose lofty perpendicular sides could only have 
 been accessible by steps, or inclined ways. No propylsea, or other edifices 
 connected with the palace, have as yet been discovered below the platform. 
 
 The inscriptions appear to refer to four distinct parts of the palace, three 
 of which, inhabited by the women, seem subsequently to have been reduced 
 to one. It is not clear whether they were all on the ground floor, or whether 
 they formed different stories. Mr. Fergusson, in his ingenious work on the 
 restoration of the palaces of Nineveh, in which he has, with great learning 
 and research, fully examined the subject of the architecture of the Assyrians 
 and ancient Persians, availing himself of the facts then furnished by the 
 discoveries, endeavors to divide the Khorsabad palace, after the manner of 
 modern Mussulman houses, into the Salamlik or apartments of the men, 
 and the Harem or those of the women. The division he suggests, must, of 
 course, depend upon conjecture ; but it may, I think, be considered as highly 
 probable, until fuller and more accurate translations of the inscriptions than 
 can yet be made may furnish us with some positive data on the subject. In 
 the ruins of Kouyunjik there is nothing, as far as I am aware, to mark the 
 distinction between the male and female apartments. Supposing Mr. Fer- 
 ^usson's theory to be correct, and following the analogy between the two 
 buildings, the hall marked XIX. on the Plan would best correspond with 
 the harem court of Khorsabad. Of a temple no remains have as yet been 
 found at Kouyunjik,f nor is there any high conical mound as at Nimroud 
 and Khorsabad. 
 
 In all the Assyrian edifices hitherto explored we have the same general 
 interior plan. On the four sides of the great halls are two or three narrow 
 parallel chambers opening one into the other. Most of them have doorways 
 at each end leading into smaller rooms, which have no other outlet. It 
 seems highly probable that this uniform plan was adopted with reference 
 to the peculiar architectural arrangements required by the building, and I 
 agree with Mr. Fergusson in attributing it to the mode resorted to for light- 
 ing the apartments. 
 
 In my former work I expressed a belief that the chambers received light 
 through an opening in the roof. Although this may have been the case in 
 some instances, yet recent discoveries now prove that the Assyrian palaces 
 had more than one story. Such being the fact, it is evident that other 
 means must have been adopted to admit daylight to the inner rooms on the 
 
 * Such also appears to have been the case at Nimroud. 
 
 t Col. Rawlinson recently mentions a temple at Kouyunjik (Outlines of Assyrian 
 History, p, 23.), but I question whether it be not simply a part of the palace 
 
552 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chai\ XXVI 
 
 ground floor. Mr. Fergusson's suggestion, that the upper part of the halls 
 and principal chambers was formed by a row of pillars supporting the ceil- 
 ing and admitting a free circulation of light and air, appears to me to 
 meet, to a certain extent, the difficulty. It has, moreover, been borne out 
 by subsequent discoveries, and by the representation of a large building, ap- 
 parently a palace, on one of the bas-reliefs discovered at Kouyunjik.* In 
 the accompanying woodcut an edifice is seen with openings at equal dis- 
 
 Exterior of a Palace, from a Bas-relief at Kouyunjik. 
 
 tances immediately beneath the roof, each opening being formed by two 
 pillars with capitals resembling the Ionic. In the restoration of the ex- 
 terior of the Kouyunjik palace forming the frontispiece to this volume, a 
 somewhat similar capital has been adopted in preference to that taken by 
 Mr. Fergusson from Persepolis, which, although undoubtedly, like the other 
 architectural details of those celebrated ruins, Assyrian in character, are 
 not authorised by any known Assyrian remains. f 
 
 A row of pillars, or of alternate pillars and masonry, would answer the 
 purpose intended, if they cpened into a well-lighted hall. Yet inner cham- 
 
 * See also 2nd series of Monuments of Nineveh. Plate 40 
 
 t See frontispiece to Mr. Fergusson's Palaces of Nineveh restored The pure Ionic 
 volute occurs amongst the bronze ornaments from the throne in the British Museum. 
 I have lately, however, found, amongst the small objects brought by me to this coun- 
 try, what appears to be part of a double bull precisely similar to the capitals of Per- 
 sepolis. Between the figures is a gtoove for the beam. It may have belonged to 
 some model of a building or of a column. 
 
Chap XXVI.] 
 
 SOLOMON'S TEMPLE 
 
 553 
 
 bers, such as are found in the ruins of Kouyunjik, must have remained in 
 almost entire darkness. And it is not improbable that such was the case, 
 to judge from modern Eastern houses, in which the absence of light is con- 
 sidered essential to secure a cool temperature. The sculptures and deco- 
 rations in them could then only be seen by torchlight. The great halls 
 were probably in some cases entirely open to the air, like the court-yards 
 of the modern houses of Mosul, whose walls are still adorned with sculp- 
 tured alabaster. When they were covered in the roof was borne by enor- 
 mous pillars of wood or brickwork, and rose so far above the surrounding 
 part of the building, that light was admitted by columns and buttresses im- 
 mediately beneath the ceiling. It is most probable that there were two 
 or three stories of chambers opening into them, either by columns or by win- 
 dows. Such appears to have been the case in Solomon's temple ; for Jo- 
 sephus tells us that the great inner sanctuary was surrounded by small 
 rooms, " over these rooms were other rooms, and others a,bove them, equal 
 both in their measure and numbers, and that these reached to a height 
 equal to the lower part of the house, for the upper had no buildings about 
 it." We have also an illustration of this arrangement of chambers in the 
 modern houses of some parts of Persia,* in which a great central hall, called 
 an Iwan, rises to the top of the building, and has small rooms in two or 
 three separate stories, opening by windows into it, whilst the inner cham- 
 
 Throne-room, Teheran. 
 
 bers, having no windows at all, have no more light than that which reaches 
 them through the door. Sometimes these side chambers open into a cen- 
 tre court, as 1 have suggested may have been the case in the Nineveh pal- 
 * Especially of Isfahan, Hamadan, and Kermanshah. 
 
554 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI 
 
 aces, then a projecting roof of woodwork protects the carved and painted 
 walls from injury by the weather. Curtains and awnings were also sus- 
 pended above the windows and entrances, to ward off the rays of the sun. 
 The accompanying woodcut of the great Iwan or throne-room of a royal 
 palace at Teheran, taken from Mr. Fergusson's work, will show the arrange- 
 ment of these central halls and courts. 
 
 Although no remains or even traces of pillars have hitherto been discov 
 ered in the Assyrian ruins, I now think it highly probable, as suggested by 
 Mr. Fergusson, that they were used to support the roof. The sketch of a 
 modern Yezidi house in the Sinjar, given in a previous part of this volume, * 
 is a good illustration not only of this mode of supporting the ceiling, but of 
 the manner in which light may have been admitted into the side chambers. 
 It is curious, however, that no stone pedestals, upon which wooden columns 
 may have rested, have been found in the ruins, nor are there marks of them 
 on the pavement. Lean scarcely account for the entire absence of all such 
 traces. However, unless some support of this kind were resorted to, it is 
 impossible that even the large chambers at Kouyunjik, without including 
 the central halls, could have been covered in. The great hall, or house as 
 it is rendered in the Bible,! of the forest of Lebanon was thirty cubits high, 
 upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. The 
 Assyrian kings, we have seen, cut wood in the same forests as King Solo- 
 mon ; and probably used it for the same purposes, namely, for pillars, beams, 
 and ceiling. The dimensions of this hall, 100 cubits (about 150 feet) by 
 50 cubits (75 feet), very much resemble those of the centre halls of the pal- 
 aces of Nineveh. " The porch of pillars" was fifty cubits in length ; equal, 
 therefore, to the breadth of the hall, of which I presume it to have been an 
 inclosed space at the upper end, whilst " the porch for the throne where he 
 might judge, even the porch of judgment .... covered with cedar wood 
 from one side of the floor to the other," was probably a raised place beneath 
 it, corresponding with a similar platform where the host and guests of hon- 
 or are seated in a modern Eastern house. Supposing the three parts of the 
 building to have been arranged as I have suggested, we should have an ex- 
 act counterpart of them in the hall of audience of the Persian palaces. 
 The upper part of the room, in which I have frequently seen the governor 
 of Isfahan, was divided from the rest of a magnificent hall by column?, 
 and his throne was a raised place of carved woodwork adorned with rich 
 stuffs, ivory, and other precious materials. Suppliants and attendants 
 stood outside the line of pillars, and the officers of the court within. Such 
 also may have been the interior arrangement of the great halls in the As- 
 syrian edifices. 
 
 * P. 213. 
 
 \ 1 Kings, vii. 2. It is only by supposing it to have been one great hall that we 
 can at all understand the proportions and form of the building as subsequently given. 
 The Hebrew word, as its Arabic equivalent still does, will bear both meanings. Pha- 
 raoh's daughter's house, which was " like unto the porch" was probably the harem or 
 private apartment. 
 
Chap. XXVI.l Assyrian palace restored. 555 
 
 That the Ninevite palaces had more than one story, at least in some 
 parts if not in all, can now no longer be doubted. The inscriptions appear 
 to describe distinctly the upper rooms, and at Kouyunjik, as it has been 
 seen, an inclined way was discovered leading to them.* Without there 
 had been an upper structure, it would be impossible to account for the 
 enormous accumulation of rubbish, consisting chiefly of remains of build- 
 ings, over the ruins of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad. These upper rooms 
 were probably built of sun-dried bricks and wood, but principally of the 
 latter material, and may have been connected with the lower by winding 
 staircases, as in the temple of Solomon, as well as by inclined ways. The 
 roofs were flat, as those of all Eastern houses are to this day ; and, as sug- 
 gested by Mr. Fergusson,f they may have been crowned by a wooden talar 
 or platform, and altars upon which sacrifices were offered, — " The houses 
 upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and 
 have poured out drink offerings to other gods."$ 
 
 I have already described the internal decorations of the Assyrian pal- 
 aces, § and have little more to add upon the subject. The walls of Kou- 
 yunjik were more elaborately decorated than those of Nimroud and Khor- 
 sabad. Almost every chamber explored, and they amount to above sev- 
 enty, was panelled with alabaster slabs carved with numerous figures and 
 with the minutest details. Each room appears to have been dedicated to 
 some particular event, and in each, apparently, was the image of the king 
 himself. In fact, the walls recorded in sculpture what the inscriptions did 
 in writing, — the whole history of Sennacherib's reign, his great deeds in 
 peace as well as in war. It will be remarked that whilst in other Assyrian 
 edifices the king is frequently represented taking an active part in war, slay- 
 ing his enemies, and fighting beneath a besieged city, he is never represent- 
 ed at Kouyunjik otherwise than in an attitude of triumph, in his chariot 
 or on his throne, receiving the captives and the spoil. Nor is he ever seen 
 torturing his prisoners, or putting them to death with his own hand. 
 
 There were chambers, however, in the palace of Sennacherib, as well as 
 in those of Nimroud and Khorsabad, whose walls were simply coated with 
 plaster, like the walls of Belshazzar's palace at Babylon. || They may have 
 been richly ornamented in color with figures of men and animals, as well as 
 with elegant designs ; or they may have been panelled with cedar wain- 
 scoting, as the chambers in the temples and palaces of Solomon, and in 
 the great edifices of Babylon. Gilding, too, appears to have been extens- 
 ively used in decoration, and some of the great sphinxes may have been 
 overlaid with gold, like the cherubim in Solomon's temple. IF 
 
 * No. LXI. Plan I. See page 394. 
 
 t Palaces of Nineveh restored, p. 181. That the Assyrians were, however, ac- 
 quainted with slanting roofs may be inferred from a bas-relief discovered at Khorsa 
 bad. (Botta, Plate 141.) t Jerem. xix. 13. 
 
 § Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. ch. 2. II Daniel, v. 5. 
 
 H" 1 Kings, vi. 28. I cannot, however, but express my conviction that much of the 
 
556 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 At Kouyunjik, the pavement slabs were not inscribed as at Nimroud ; 
 but those between the winged bulls at some of the entrances, were carved 
 with an elaborate and very elegant pattern.^ The doors were probably 
 of wood, gilt and adorned with precious materials, like the gates of the 
 temple of Jerusalem, and they appear to have turned in stone sockets, for 
 amongst the ruins were found many black stones hollowed in the centre, 
 and bearing an inscription in these words : " Sennacherib, the great king, 
 king of Assyria, brought this stone from the distant mountains, and used it 
 for the sockets of the pillars of the doors of his palace." 
 
 To ward off the glare of an Eastern sun hangings or curtains of gay 
 colors and of rich materials were probably suspended to the pillars support- 
 ing the ceiling, or to wooden poles raised for the purpose, as in the palaces 
 of Babylon and Shushan. Such hangings, as we have seen, appear to be 
 described in the tablets of King Nebuchadnezzar. The frontispiece to this 
 volume will enable the reader to understand how they were used. This 
 engraving from a beautiful water-color drawing, made by Mr. Baynes un- 
 der the superintendence of Mr. Fergusson, represents the Eastern facade 
 and the great entrance to the palace of Sennacherib, as they are supposed 
 originally to have been. The lower part of the building actually exists, 
 and is drawn to scale ; the upper part of course is mainly founded upon 
 conjecture ; but the preceding remarks may show that we are not alto 
 gether without materials to authorise some such restoration. The edifice 
 represented in the bas-relief discovered at Kouyunjik has furnished some of 
 the architectural details, the battlemented finish to the walls is still seen 
 at Kouyunjik and Nimroud, and the various decorations introduced in oth- 
 er places are all taken from Assyrian monuments. The two poles with 
 streamers in the foreground, are from a bas-relief at Khorsabad. The 
 sculptures at the sides of the steps are those from the descending passage 
 at Kouyunjik. The stone facing of the platform is that of the basement 
 of the tower at Nimroud. The lions. Assyrian in character, are placed on 
 the steps conjecturally, and the steps themselves are restored. The de- 
 sign upon the pavement is found on slabs at the entrances at Kouyunjik. 
 
 The excavations carried on at Nimroud during the last expedition have 
 enabled me to restore, to a certain extent, the several buildings on the plat- 
 form, and to obtain some idea of their original appearance. I have en- 
 deavoured, with the able assistance of Mr. Fergusson. to convey in a col- 
 ored frontispiece to the Second Series of my larger work on the Monuments 
 of Nineveh, the general effect of these magnificent edifices when they still 
 rose on their massy basement, and were reflected in the broad stream of 
 the Tigris. I must refer the reader who desires to follow me in the fol- 
 lowing description to the accompanying general plan of the platform and 
 palaces at Nimroud.f 
 
 metal called gold both in the sacred writings and in the profane authors of antiquity, 
 was really copper, alloyed with other metals, the aurichalcum, or orichalcum of the 
 Greeks, such as was used in the bowls and plates discovered at Nimroud. 
 * 2d series of the Monuments of Mneveh, Plate 56. t Plan III. 
 
.' 
 
 Harper & Brothers New',; 
 
Chap. XXVI.] palaces at nimroud. 557 
 
 On the artificial platform, built of regular layers of sun-dried bricks in 
 some parts, and entirely of rubbish in others, but cased on all sides with 
 solid stone masonry, stood at one time at least nine distinct buildings. Be- 
 tween each was a terrace, paved with stone, or with large kiln-burnt bricks, 
 from one and a half to two feet square. At the north-western corner rose 
 the great tower, the tomb of the founder of the principal palace. I have 
 described its basement, encased with massive masonry of stone, relieved by 
 recesses and other architectural ornaments. The upper part, built of brick, 
 was most probably painted, like the palaces of Babylon, with figures and 
 mythic emblems. Its summit, I conjecture, to have consisted of several 
 receding gradines like the top of the black obelisk, and I have ventured to 
 crown it witk an altar on which may have burnt the eternal fire. Ad 
 joining this tower were, as we have seen, two small temples, dedicated to 
 Assyrian gods. One actually abutted on it, although there was no com- 
 munication, whatever, as far as I could discover, between the interior of 
 the two buildings ; the other was about 100 feet to the east. They were 
 both adorned with sculptures, and had evidently been more than one story 
 high, and their beams and ceilings were of cedar wood. They contained 
 statues of the gods, and the fullest records of the reign of the king their 
 founder, engraved on immense monoliths. Between them was a way up 
 to the platform from the north. 
 
 Between the small temples and the north-west palace were two great 
 nights of steps, or inclined ways, leading up from the margin of the river. 
 Their sites are still marked by deep ravines. They opened upon a broad 
 paved terrace. The north-west palace having been so fully described in 
 my former work, I need only add that I have now been able to ascertain 
 the position of its principal facade and entrance. It was to the north, 
 facing the tower, and nearly resembled the grand approaches to Kouyunjik 
 and Khorsabad. The two gateways formed by the sphinxes with the hu- 
 man form to the waist,* appear to have flanked a grand centre portal to 
 which they were united on both sides, as in Sennacherib's palace, by colos- 
 sal figures of human-headed bulls and lions and winged priests. The re- 
 mains of no other great entrance to the palace have yet been discovered, 
 but I have little doubt from several indications in the ruins, that there was 
 a similar facade on the river side, and that a terrace, ascended by broad 
 flights of steps, overlooked the Tigris. f 
 
 To the south of the north-west palace was a third ascent to the summit 
 of the platform, also marked by a ravine in the side of the mound. Be- 
 yond it were the upper chambers, built by the fourth king in succession 
 from Sardanapalus, probably over the remains of an earlier edifice. Ex 
 cavations made in different parts of the small mound covering their ruins, 
 show that they consisted of three distinct groups, built round a solid cen- 
 
 * See woodcut at head of Chapter XVI. 
 
 i I understand that Mr. Hormuzd Rassam has lately discovered the remains of 
 some very fine bas-reliefs near this edge of the mound. 
 
558 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI 
 
 tral mass of sun-dried bricks. The great accumulation of earth, above 
 them proves that this building must have had more than one story. 
 
 The upper chambers were separated from the palace of Essarhaddon. 
 the most southern on this side of the platform, by a fourth grand approach^ 
 to the terraces. Remains of great blocks of stone, of winged bulls, and of 
 colossal figures in yellow limestone, were found in the ravine. 
 
 Essarhaddon's palace was raised some feet above the north-west and cen 
 tre edifices. It has been so entirely destroyed by fire, and by the removal 
 of the slabs from its walls, that a complete ground-plan of it cannot be re- 
 stored. In the arrangement of its chambers, as far as we are able to judge 
 from the ruins, it differed from other Assyrian buildings with which we are 
 acquainted. The hall, above 220 feet long, and 100 broad. Opening at the 
 northern end by a gateway of winged bulls on a terrace, which overlooked 
 the grand approach and the principal palaces, and at the opposite end hav- 
 ing a triple portal guarded by three pairs of colossal sphinxes, which com- 
 manded the open country and the Tigris winding through the plain, must 
 have been a truly magnificent feature in this palace. It occupied the cor- 
 ner of the platform, and an approach of which considerable remains still 
 exist led up from the plain to its southern face. Around the grand hall 
 appear to have been built a number of small chambers ; and this Assyrian 
 building probably answers in its general plan, more than any other yet dis- 
 covered, to the descriptions in the Bible of the palace of Solomon, especial- 
 ly if we assume that the ante-chamber, divided into two parts, corresponds 
 with the pGrtico of the Jewish structures. 
 
 The palace of Essarhaddon was considerably below the level of that of 
 his grandson, and was separated from it by what appears, from a very deep 
 and wide ravine, to have been the principal approach to the platform. The 
 south-east edifice was very inferior, both in the size of its apartments and 
 in the materials employed in its construction, to the other royal buildings. 
 It was probably built when the empire was fast falling to decay, and, as 
 is usual in such cases, the arts seem to have declined with the power of 
 the people. In the palace there was no great hall, nor even any sculp- 
 tured slabs. It consisted of a number of rooms of small proportions, pan- 
 elled by common limestone slabs, roughly hewn, and not much above three 
 feet and a half high. * The upper part of the walls was simply plastered. 
 I have not been able to find any grand entrance, facade, or exterior archi- 
 tecture, and recent excavations have only led to the discovery of a few new- 
 chambers containing no objects of interest. There are traces of an earlier 
 building beneath it. The terraces to the west, overlooking the approach 
 from the plain, were floored with thick lime-plaster or cement, which still 
 remains. 
 
 Returning northwards, we come to the only traces of an approach on the 
 eastern side of the platform, and consequently from the interior of the wall- 
 ed inclosure. It is remarkable that there should have been but one on this 
 * Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 38. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] palaces at nimroud. 559 
 
 face ; and it is even more curious, that the only sides to the mound on 
 which there are any remains of walls or fortifications, are the eastern and 
 northern, where the royal residences would have overlooked the city, sup- 
 posing it to have been contained within the existing ramparts of earth. 
 The edifices facing what would, in that case, have been the open country, 
 were left apparently defenceless. 
 
 On the west side of the platform no actual ruins have been discovered, 
 although there are undoubtedly traces of building in several places, and I 
 think it not improbable that a temple, or some similar edifice, stood there. 
 
 It only remains for me to mention the palace in the centre of the plat- 
 form, founded by the king whose name is believed to read Divanubar or 
 Divanubra, but rebuilt almost entirely by Pul or Tiglath Pileser. Exca- 
 vations carried on during the second expedition, brought to light the walls 
 of a few additional chambers and numerous fragments of interesting sculp- 
 tures.* But the edifice was so utterly destroyed by Essarhaddon, who used 
 the materials in the construction of his own dwelling place, that it is im- 
 possible to ascertain its general plan, or even the arrangement of any of its 
 rooms. The great inscribed bulls and the obelisk, we know to have been 
 of the time of the older king; and the bas-reliefs of battles and sieges, heap- 
 ed up together as if ready for removal, to have belonged to the latter. 
 
 Around this edifice was a pavement of large square bricks, extending on 
 one side to the north-west palace and the small temples, and on the other 
 to the upper chambers, Essarhaddon's palace, and that of his grandson. 
 
 In the ramparts of earth, marking the inclosure-wall of Nimroud to the 
 north, fifty-eight towers can still be distinctly traced. To the east there 
 were about fifty, but all traces of some of them are entirely gone. To the 
 south the wall has almost disappeared, so that it could not have been of 
 great size or thickness on that side. The level of the inclosure is here, 
 however, considerably above the plain, and it is not improbable that the 
 Tigris actually flowed beneath part of it, and that the remainder was de- 
 fended by a wide and deep ditch, either supplied by the small stream still 
 running near the ruins, or by the river. 
 
 At the south-eastern corner of the inclosure, as I have already mention- 
 ed,! is a mound of considerable height, and the remains of a square edifice ; 
 they may have been a fort or castle. I searched in vain for traces of gates 
 in the walls on the northern side. A high double mound, which probably 
 marks the ruins of an entrance, was excavated ; but no stone masonry or 
 sculptured figures were discovered, as in a similar mound in the inclosure 
 of Kouyunjik. I conclude, therefore, that the gateways of the quarter of 
 Nineveh represented by Nimroud were not, like those of the more northern 
 divisions of the city, adorned with sculptures, but were built of the same 
 
 * Amongst them were winged figures struggling with mythic animals, and various 
 other groups such as are seen on cylinders and on the robes of the king in the north- 
 west palace. They appear to have been sculptured in colossal proportions on the 
 walls of this palace. t See p. 139. 
 
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 ..7 .; =i:.e.t 
 
Chap. XXVI.] 
 
 DEFENCES OF KOUYUNJIK. 
 
 561 
 
 N*,=.. ■ 
 
 p 
 
 Plan of the Inclosure Walls and Ditches at Kouyunjik. 
 
 are still shown by mounds exceeding those around in height and size ; but 
 the only two which have hitherto been explored are in the northern and 
 eastern walls, and have been described in a previous chapter.* 
 
 The western wall (a) was washed by the river, and needed no other de- 
 fence.! A deep ditch, of which traces still exist, appears to have been dug 
 beneath the northern (b). That to the south (d) was also protected by a 
 dyke and the Tigris. The side most accessible to an enemy was that to 
 the east (c), and it was accordingly fortified with extraordinary care and 
 strength. The small river Khauser flows nearly in a direct line from the 
 hills to the north-eastern corner of the inclosure, makes a sweep to the 
 south (at e) before reaching it, and after running for some distance beneath 
 a perpendicular bank formed by conglomerate hills (g) parallel to the walls, 
 but about three quarters of a mile from them, again turns to the westward 
 (at/), and enters the inclosure almost in the centre. It then traverses this 
 quarter of the city, winds round the base of Kouyunjik, and falls into the 
 Tigris. Nearly one half of the eastern wall was. consequently, provided 
 with natural defences. The Khauser served as a ditch ; and the conglom- 
 erate ridge, slightly increased by artificial means, as a strong line of forti- 
 fication. The remains of one or more ramparts of earth are still to be 
 traced between the stream and the inner wall, but they could not have 
 
 * Chap. 5. 
 
 t It will be borne in mind that the Tigris has now changed its course. 
 
 N H 
 
562 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 been of very considerable size. The north-eastern extremity of these outer 
 defences appears to have joined the ditch which was carried along the 
 northern face of the inclosure, thus completing the fortification in this part. 
 
 Below, or to the south of, the entry of the Khauser into the inclosure, 
 the inner wall was defended by a complete system of outworks. In the 
 first place a deep ditch, about one hundred and fifty feet wide, was cut im- 
 mediately beneath it, and was divided for half its length into two separate 
 parts, between which was a rampart. A parallel wall (h) was then car- 
 ried from the banks of the Khauser to the dyke on the southern side of the 
 inclosure. A second ditch, about one hundred and eight feet wide, and of 
 considerable depth, probably supplied by the Khauser, extended from the 
 point at which that stream turns to the westward, as far as the southern 
 line of defences. A third wall (i), the remains of which are above one 
 hundred feet high on the inner face, abutted to the north on the ridge of 
 conglomerate hills (g), and completed the outer defences. A few mounds 
 rising in the level country beyond, the principal of which, near the south- 
 ern extremity of the lines, is called Tel-ez-zembil (the Mound of the Bask- 
 et), appear to have been fortified outposts ; probably detached towers, such 
 as are represented in the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik.* 
 
 An enemy coming from the east, the side on which the inclosure was 
 most open to attack, had consequently first to force a stupendous wall 
 strengthened by detached forts. Two deep ditches and two more walls, 
 the inner being scarcely inferior in size to the outer, had then to be passed 
 before the city could be taken. f The remains still existing of these forti- 
 fications almost confirm the statements of Diodorus Siculus, that the walls 
 were a hundred feet high, and that three chariots could drive upon them 
 abreast ; and lead to the conclusion that in describing the ramparts form- 
 ing the circuit round the whole city, ancient historians were confounding 
 them with those which inclosed only a separate quarter or a royal resi- 
 dence, as they have also done in speaking of Babylon. Whilst the inner 
 walls were constructed of stone and brick masonry, the outer appear to 
 have consisted of little else than of the earth, loose pebbles, and rubble 
 dug out from the ditches, which were cut with enormous labor into the 
 solid conglomerate rock.J 
 
 The walls and ditches around Kouyunjik were a favorite ride during 
 my residence among the ruins. The summit of the outer ramparts com- 
 mands an extensive and beautiful prospect over all the great mounds, the 
 plains bounded by the several mountain ranges of Kurdistan, the windings 
 of the river, and the town of Mosul. " Niniue (that which God himself 
 
 * See 2nd series of Monuments of Nineveh, Plate 43. 
 
 t According to Mr. Rich, the distance from the inside of the inner wall to the inside 
 of the outer was 2007 feet. Allowing 200 feet for the outer, the breadth of the whole 
 fortifications would be about 2200 feet, or not far from half a mile. 
 
 t If the city, or this part of it, were ever taken by the river having been turned 
 upon the walls, as some ancient authors have declared, the breach must have been 
 made at the north-western corner. There are no traces of it. 
 
iiiiii 
 
 .,,>g. 
 
 ■ ; 
 
 Mi 
 
 f ■ 
 
 ^■:r 
 
 ml 1 
 
 
 
 it. 
 
 i- 
 
 
564 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 calleth that Great Citie) hath not one stone standing, which may giue mem- 
 orie of the being of a towne : one English mile from it is a place called Mo- 
 sul, a small thing, rather to be a witnesse of the other's mightenesse, and 
 God's iudgement, than of any fashion of magnificence in itselfe."^ Such 
 are the simple though impressive words of an old English traveller, who 
 probably looked down upon the site of Nineveh from the same spot two 
 centuries and a half ago. 
 
 Beaten tracks from the neighbouring villages have for ages led, and still 
 lead, through the ruins. Along them Arabs and Kurds with their cam- 
 els and laden beasts may be seen slowly wending their way to the town. 
 But the space between the walls is deserted except by the timid gazelle 
 and the jackals and hyenas which make their dens in the holes and caves 
 in the sides of the mounds and in the rocky banks of the ancient ditches. 
 
 The spring called by the Arabs Damlamajeh, and described by Mr. Kich,f 
 is a small pool of cool- and refreshing water in a natural cavern, the fore 
 part of which is adorned with an arch, cornice, and stonework, evidently of 
 Roman or Greek construction. Upon the masonry are still to be traced the 
 names of Mrs. Rich, and of the companions of the distinguished traveller. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The time was drawing near for my departure. Once more I was about to 
 leave the ruins amidst which I had spent so many happy hours, and to 
 which I was bound by so many pleasant and solemn ties ; and probably to 
 return no more. 
 
 I only waited the arrival of Abde, the late Pasha of Baghdad, who was 
 now on his way to his new government of Diarbekir. He was travel- 
 ling with a large company of attendants, and without a strong escort it 
 was scarcely prudent to venture on a journey. It was doubly necessary 
 for me to have proper protection, as I took with me the valuable collection 
 of bronzes and other small objects discovered in the ruins. I gladly, there- 
 fore, availed myself of this opportunity of joining so numerous and powerful 
 a caravan. 
 
 At length, after the usual Eastern delays, the Pasha arrived at Mosul. 
 He remained encamped outside the. town for two or three days, and during 
 that time visited the excavations, his curiosity having been excited by the 
 description he had received of the wondrous idols dug out of the ruins. He 
 marvelled at what he saw, as a Turk marvels at strange things which he 
 can neither understand nor explain. It would be in vain to speak to him 
 of the true objects of such researches, the knowledge they impart, the les- 
 sons they teach, or the thoughts they beget. 
 
 * Sir Anthony Shirley's Travels in Persia. Purchas. vol. ii. p. 1387. 
 t Narrative of a Residence in Kurdistan, vol. i. pp. 40. 51. 
 
Chap. XXVI.] conclusion. 565 
 
 In these pages I have occasionally indulged in reflections suggested by 
 the scenes I have had to describe, and have ventured to point out the moral 
 of the strange tale I have had to relate. I cannot better conclude than by 
 showing the spirit in which Eastern philosophy and Mussulman resignation 
 contemplate the evidences of ancient greatness and civilisation, suddenly 
 rising up in the midst of modern ignorance and decay. A letter in my 
 possession contained so true and characteristic a picture of the feelings that 
 such an event excites in the mind of a good Mohammedan, that I here give 
 a literal translation of its contents. It was written to a friend of mine by 
 a Turkish Cadi, in reply to some inquiries as to the commerce, population, 
 and remains of antiquity of an ancient city, in which dwelt the head of the 
 law. These are its words : — 
 
 " My illustrious Friend, and Joy of my Liver ! 
 
 " The thing you ask of me is both difficult and useless. Although I have 
 passed all my days in this place, I have neither counted the houses nor 
 have I inquired into the number of the inhabitants ; and as to what one 
 person loads on his mules and the other stows away in the bottom of his 
 ship, that is no business of mine. But, above all, as to the previous his- 
 tory of this city, God only knows the amount of dirt and confusion that the 
 infidels may have eaten before the coming of the sword of Islam. It were 
 unprofitable for us to inquire into it. 
 
 " Oh, my soul ! oh, my lamb ! seek not after the things which concern 
 thee not. Thou earnest unto us, and we welcomed thee : go in peace. 
 
 " Of a truth, thou hast spoken many words ; and there is no harm done, 
 for the speaker is one and the listener is another. After the fashion of thy 
 people thou hast wandered from one place to another until thou art happy 
 and content in none. We (praise be to God) were born here, and never de- 
 sire to quit it. Is it possible then that the idea of a general intercourse be- 
 tween mankind should make any impression on our understandings ? God 
 forbid ! 
 
 " Listen, oh my son ! There is no wisdom equal unto the belief in God ! 
 He created the world, and shall we liken ourselves unto him in seeking to 
 penetrate into the mysteries of his creation ? Shall we say, behold this star 
 spinneth round that star, and this other star with a tail goeth and cometh 
 in so many years ! Let it go ! He from whose hand it came will guide 
 and direct it. 
 
 " But thou wilt say unto me, Stand aside, oh man, for I am more learned 
 than thou art, and have seen more things. If thou thinkest that thou art 
 in this respect better than I am, thou art welcome. I praise God that I 
 seek not that which I require not. Thou art learned in the things I care 
 not for; and as foT that which thou hast seen, I defile it. Will much 
 knowledge create thee a double belly, or wilt thou seek Paradise with 
 thine eyes? 
 
 " Oh, my friend ! If thou wilt be happy, say, There is no God but God ! 
 
566 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Chap. XXVI 
 
 Do no evil, and thus wilt thou fear neither man nor death ; for surely thine 
 hour will come ! 
 
 "The meek in spirit (El Fakir), 
 
 "IMATJM ALI ZADE." 
 
 On the 25th of April I bid a last farewell to my faithful Arab friends, 
 and with a heavy heart turned from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. 
 
 Last View of Mosul. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Notes by Dr. Lindley on the Acorns brought from Kurdistan. 
 
 " In the year 1840, an account was published in the ' Botanical Register,' of certain 
 oaks that had been found in Kurdistan, by Dr. Edward Dickson, while travelling with 
 James Brant, Esq., Her Majesty's Consul at Erzeroum. From the information thus 
 obtained it appeared, that out of six or seven species inhabiting the country exam- 
 ined by Mr. Brant, three were previously unknown, and two were of great rarity. 
 These were, Quercus rigida, of Willdenow ; Q. infectoria, of Linnaeus ; and Q. regia, 
 Brantii, and mannifera, then described for the first time. Q. rcgia was a tree with 
 the foliage of a Spanish chestnut. Q. Brantii was remarkable for its large leaves, 
 which, when full grown, were six inches long, including the stalk, and three and a 
 half inches across at the widest part ; when young they were covered with thick 
 down. Q. mannifera, with much the appearance of the Q. scssihflora of Europe, had 
 larger and thinner leaves without the yellow footstalks of that species : it received 
 its name from producing, in considerable quantity, a sweet secretion, comparable to 
 manna, called by the natives Ghiok-hel-vahsee, and made by them into round flat 
 cakes. 
 
 " As soon as the existence of these oaks was ascertained, a desire was felt to ob- 
 tain them for cultivation. Mr. Layard, at the request of the Horticultural Society, 
 sent home, in the autumn of 1850, a box of acorns packed in paper, and still retain- 
 ing vitality ; and at a later period a package, in which honey had been employed as 
 a preservative, but in that instance the acorns were all dead From the former a 
 small number of plants was raised, all perhaps belonging to the two species Q. Brantii 
 and infectoria; and thus the most important of the Koord oaks was secured to this 
 country, while Q. infectoria, the species that produces the nutgalls of commerce, was 
 also recovered, no other plants of it being now known to exist in a live state in En- 
 gland. 
 
568 
 
 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 [Appendix. 
 
 " The dried specimens sent to Europe by Mr. Brant were unfortunately collected 
 without acorns, so that one of the most important features by which the species of 
 oak are recognised, still remained unknown. Among the acorns, however, transmit- 
 ted by Mr. Layard, five forms were distinguished, of which two have been identified. 
 No 1. with Q. Brantii, and No. 2. with Q. infectoria. 
 
 " There is some reason to believe that two others, Nos. 3 and 4., may be among 
 
 the young plants that have been raised ; the former may indeed be a mere form of 
 
 Q Brantii. 
 " But of No 5., remarkable for its large hemispherical cup, with hard, straight. 
 
 woody scales, and short, broad acorns, nothing 
 more is known. It came in the package plunged 
 in honey, but was dead. 
 
 "Among the dried plants preserved by Mr 
 Layard are leaves of several species or varieties 
 of oak, to some of which the three last acorns 
 may possibly belong ; but no means exist of de- 
 termining to which, if to any. Fresh supplies 
 of the Armenian acorns packed in dry clay, when 
 perfectly ripe, and dried specimens of the branch- 
 es with leaves and acorns on them, are there- 
 fore much to be desired, especially since there 
 is reason to believe that all the species will prove 
 to be hardy ornamental trees." 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
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 571 
 
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 APPENDIX III. 
 
 A^es of the Specimens from Nineveh, kindly favored to the Author by Dr. Percy, of the 
 
 School of Mines. 
 
 " In the collection of Assyrian antiquities, with which Mr. Layard has enriched the 
 British Museum, are numerous illustrations of ancient metallurgy, consisting of ves- 
 sels, weapons, and miscellaneous articles, which clearly prove that the Assyrians of 
 old possessed considerable skill in the art of working metals. Several of these speci- 
 mens have been examined in the metallurgical laboratory of the School of Mines at 
 the Museum of Practical Geology ; and I have now pleasure in presenting a summary 
 of the results as far as the investigation has proceeded. 
 
 " 1. A portion of a bronze bowl, or dish, from Nimroud. — The surface generally had 
 a green coating of carbonate of copper, which was crystalline where it was thickest. 
 Below the thickest parts of this coating was a layer of red or sub-oxide of copper, 
 also more or less distinctly crystalline. A portion of the metal free from crust was 
 analysed, and found to be composed of copper and tin in the following proportions : 
 
 Composition. 
 
 Copper 89 51 
 
 Tin 063 
 
 10014. 
 
5/2 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [APPENDIX. 
 
 '*2. A bronze hook from the same rums* — The external appearances were similar 
 to those of No. 1. 
 
 Composition. 
 
 Copper 89-85 
 
 Tin 9-78 
 
 9963. 
 
 *' 3. This was a very remarkable specimen. It was a small casting, in the shape 
 of the fore-leg of a bull. It formed the foot of a stand, consisting of a ring of iron, 
 resting on three feet of bronze. It was deeply corroded in places, and posteriorly 
 was fissured at the upper part. A section was made, which disclosed a central piece 
 of iron, over which the bronze had been cast. At the upper part, where it had been 
 broken off, the iron had rusted, and so produced the crack above mentioned. The 
 casting was sound, and the contact perfect between the iron and surrounding bronze. 
 It was evident on inspection that the bronze had been cast round the iron, and that 
 the iron had not been let into the bronze ; and in this opinion I am confirmed by Mr. 
 Robinson of Pimlico, who has had considerable experience in bronze casting. 
 
 Composition. 
 
 Copper 88-37 
 
 Tin 11-33 
 
 99-70. 
 
 Some interesting considerations are suggested by this specimen. 
 
 " The iron was employed either to economise the bronze, for the purpose of orna- 
 ment, or because it was required in the construction. If the former, iron must have 
 been much cheaper than bronze, and, therefore, probably more abundant than has been 
 generally supposed. No satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at on this point, from 
 the fact that bronze antiquities are much more frequently found than those of iron ; 
 for the obvious reason, that bronze resists, much better than iron, destruction by ox- 
 idation. Although, i think, there are reasons for supposing that iron was more ex- 
 tensively used by the ancients than seems to be generally admitted ; yet, in the spec- 
 imens in question, it appears to me most probable, that the iron was used because it 
 was required in the construction. And if this be so, the Assyrians teach a lesson to 
 many of our modern architects and others, who certainly do not always employ met- 
 als in accordance with their special properties. The instrument under consideration, it 
 will be borne in mind, was one of the feet of a stand composed of an iron ring rest- 
 ing upon vertical legs of bronze. A stand of this kind must have been designed to 
 support weight, probably a large cauldron ; and it is plain that the ring portion should 
 therefore be made of the metal having the greatest tenacity, and the legs of metal 
 adapted to sustain vertical or superincumbent weight. Now this combination of iron 
 and bronze exactly fulfils the conditions required. I do not say that a ring of bronze 
 might not have been made sufficiently strong to answer the purpose of the ring of 
 iron ; but I do say that, in that part of the instrument, iron is more fitly employed 
 than bronze. Moreover, the contrast of the two metals, iron and bronze, may also 
 have been regarded as ornamental. 
 
 " 4. A small bell, corroded like the preceding. 
 
 Composition. 
 
 Copper 84-79 
 
 Tin 1410 
 
 98-89. 
 The proportion of tin was probably increased is this specimen, with reference to its 
 
 * See woodcut, ante. p. 151 
 
Appendix.! notes on Assyrian metallurgy. 573 
 
 use as a bell ; though some of the ancient coins, rings, and other articles have been 
 found to have the same composition. 
 
 " These analyses were made by one of the assistant-chemists, Mr. T. Philipps. 
 
 " The first three specimens described have the composition of the bronze, which 
 was most extensively employed by the ancients. Experience seems to have amply 
 proved that this alloy is best adapted to the various purposes for which it was de- 
 signed. It is extremely durable, although in some of Mr. Layard's specimens corro- 
 sion has proceeded to such an extent, as to have left no trace of the alloy in a metal- 
 lic state, both the copper and tin having been completely oxidised. One such spec- 
 imen consists of a white central stratum, composed chiefly of stannic acid coated 
 with suboxide of copper, which in its turn is coated with green carbonate. This al- 
 loy is excellent for casting, and for works of art, such as statues and bas-reliefs, may 
 be especially recommended; works in the production of which no unwise consider- 
 ations respecting the cost of the metal should be allowed. Moreover, the ancients 
 have left us abundant evidence of their great skill in the working of this alloy. They 
 were able to cast it extremely thin, which is no small difficulty ; and with great la- 
 bour fashioned it into articles for domestic use, into shields for war, and vessels for 
 the service of their temples, which they skilfully elaborated by chasing and by curious 
 ornamental tracery. They applied it, moreover, in their most sumptuous decorations, 
 as the ornaments obtained by Mr. Layard, from the throne of the Assyrian monarch, 
 will testify. 
 
 "There are numerous other objects in metal in Mr. Layard's collection at the Brit- 
 ish Museum, which are extremely interesting in respect to the mode of manufacture, 
 and which require very accurate examination before they can be properly described 
 by the metallurgist. The beautiful workmanship of the vessels which Mr. Layard 
 believes to have been used in religious ceremonials, is especially deserving of atten- 
 tion, and demonstrates the skill of the Assyrians in their treatment of bronze. 
 
 " One specimen particularly deserves attention. It was a thin hollow casting in 
 bronze, which was attached to the end of one of the arms of the throne. This cast- 
 ing had evidently been chased, and for that purpose must have been filled with some 
 soft material, such as pitch, which is used at the present time. In the interior there 
 was some black matter, which, on examination, I found to burn like pitch, and leave 
 an earthy residue, so that probably a mixture of asphaltum and earth had been em- 
 ployed for the purpose mentioned. 
 
 " Glass. — I have only examined one of the specimens of glass in Mr. Layard's col- 
 lection. It was a fragment from a vase, the surface of which was dull and green, 
 as though encrusted with green carbonate of copper. This color was quite super- 
 ficial, and the glass itself was opaque, and of a fine sealing-wax red color, due to sub- 
 oxide of copper. The external green coating was caused by atmospheric action on 
 the surface of the glass, and the consequent conversion of the suboxide into green 
 carbonate of copper. This specimen is interesting as showing the early use of sub 
 oxide of copper as a coloring agent for glass. The ancients were in the habit of em- 
 ploying several substances in their glass and colored glazes for bricks, of which I have 
 not yet found any account published. We have evidence to show that they were 
 acquainted with the use of oxide of lead as a flux in their vitreous glazes, and with 
 Naples yellow and stannic acid as coloring agents." 
 
 Mr. Vaux, of the British Museum, has added the following interesting note on the 
 metallurgy of the ancients : — 
 
 " 1. The earliest form of metal work appears to have been employed in the orna- 
 mentation of sacred vessels, for temples, &c, and in the manufacture of idols for the 
 
574 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [APPENDIX 
 
 services of religion. This was called ScuSoAAejv. Thus Hesiod (E. 152.) speaks of 
 XaAKea /ue»> revxea x*^ Ke0l $* T6 oIkoi. Probably this was little more than wood cov- 
 ered with thin plates of copper or bronze (see also Horn. Odys. iv. 72. ; vii. 86.) ; and 
 for the use of ivory [though this, I imagine, is of later introduction]. (Eurip., Iph. 
 Aul. 583., who speaks of i\c<pavr65eTot 56fj.oi.) 
 
 " Occasionally the foundation or rather floor of some temples was of brass : thus 
 xetA/ceos ovSbs (Soph. CEd. Col.) ; perhaps, like the room at Delphi called \divos ov56s, 
 itself also a treasury. 
 
 " In Homer the use of metal was general wherever peculiar splendor was required. 
 Thus Odysseus's bed (Od. xxiii. 200.) ; the chair made for Penelope by the tcktwu 
 Ikmalius. (Od. xix. 56.) 
 
 " The wood vessels were hewn out of the rough block by an axe (Te/nwetf , ireX- 
 eKeiv) and smoothed with finer instruments (lee'tv), and ornaments of gold, silver, ivo- 
 ry, or amber were inlaid in the bored or depressed portions (Sivovv eAe'^ajm nal ap- 
 
 yvpa SaiSaAAeti'). 
 
 " Later than Homer the same system of inlaying wood continued. (Vide descrip- 
 tion of the chest of Cypselus, Dio. Chrys. xi. p. 325. ed. Reiske. Paus. v. 17.) 
 
 " 2. Manufacture of cups, goblets, cauldrons, &c. Of these Homer repeatedly 
 speaks, and we may therefore fairly presume that they were common in the ninth 
 and tenth centuries b. c, and that their manufactures commenced a century or two 
 earlier still. Cf. tripods of Hephaestus (II. xviii. 374.) ; Nestor's cup with two bot- 
 toms and four handles (Asclep. irepl NearuplSos, Bottiger Amalthea, iii. 25.) ; the Cyp- 
 rian coat of mail and the rest of Agamemnon's armour (II. xi. 17., k.t.a.) ; the shield 
 of iEneas (111. xx. 270.); an Egyptian spinning basket (Od. iv. 125.); Sidonian era 
 ters (II. xxiii. 743. Od. iv. 616.) ; and the notice of Laertes, a xaA/cew and x? vao 
 Xo6s, who gilds the horns of the bulls in Od. iii. 425. (Vide also the account of the 
 shield of Heracles in Hesiod, and for further details of the various instruments used 
 in fashioning the metals, Millin, Mineral Homer. 2d. ed. 1816, p. 65., and Clarac, Mus 
 de Sculpt, i. p. 6.). 
 
 " It is clear, from Homer's description of the shield of Achilles, that large compo 
 sitions with numerous figures were known at that time ; and there can be no doubt 
 that the mode of work was this, — the metal after being softened and hammered into 
 plates was wrought up with sharp instruments, and then fastened to the ground with 
 nails and studs. 
 
 " The technical name for such hammered \A*>rks was a(pvpT]\ara. The joinings of 
 the different pieces were effected by mechanical means (deo-fxoi, II xviii. 379. ; t^Aoj, 
 II. xi. 634. ; irep6vcu, Kwrpa, Paus. x. 16.). 
 
 " 3. Previous to Homer no trace of casting has been discovered, while it is express- 
 ly stated that this art, as well as that of soldering, were inventions a little subse- 
 quent to his time. The discovery of the first is attributed to Rhcecus and Theodoras, 
 both Samians. (Paus. viii. 14. ; ix. 41. Plin. xxxv. 12. 43.) 
 
 " Theodorus is especially noticed as a worker in metals, who made for Croesus 
 (01. 55 — 58.) a large silver crater, enchased a ring for Polycrates the Samian, and 
 made a golden ring for the. palace of the Persian kings, which is still to be seen. 
 (See full details of both in Sillig. Diet, of Artists, sub nom.) 
 
 " The second invention, that of soldering (criSripov k6\\7}<tis), is attributed to Glaucus 
 of Chios. (Herod, i. 25.) 
 
 " Pausanias (x. 16.) gives a particular account of the inroKpriTriptiiov, which he made 
 by these means. Plutarch (Defect. Orac.) mentions another invention of his, the 
 alternate hardening and softening of iron ai5i]pov o-T^uoxm k<x\ p.d\a^is. (See also 
 Sillig.)" 
 
Appendix. 1 notes on Assyrian glass. 575 
 
 To Sir David Brewster I am indebted for the following very interesting and val- 
 uable notes on the Ancient Glass found at Nineveh : — 
 
 " The different kinds of glass in common use consist of sand or silex combined, by 
 fusion, with earths, or alkalies, or metals, which either act as fluxes, or communicate 
 different colors or different degrees of lustre, or refractive power to the combination. 
 In quartz, or rock crystal, which is pure silex, and in other regularly crystallised bod- 
 ies, their molecules or atoms unite in virtue of regnlar laws, the pole of one atom 
 uniting with the similar pole of another. Such substances, therefore, do not decom- 
 pose under the ordinary action of the elements. The lens of rock crystal, for exam- 
 ple, found by Mr. Layard at Nineveh, is as sound as it was many thousand years ago, 
 when in the form of a crystal. 
 
 " In the case of glass, however, the silex has been melted and forced into union 
 with other bodies to which it nas no natural affinity ; and, therefore, its atoms, which 
 have their poles lying in every possible direction, have a constant tendency to recover 
 their original positions when in the state of silex. For the same reason the earths, 
 or alkalies, or metals, with which the atoms of silex have been constrained, by fusion, 
 to enter into union, all tend to resume their primitive state, and separate themselves 
 from the silex. 
 
 " Owing to the manner in which melted glass is cooled and annealed, whether it is 
 made by flushing, or blowing, or moulding, the cohesion of its parts is not the same 
 throughout the mass, and consequently its particles are held together by different 
 degrees of force, varying in relation to points, lines, and surfaces. No atom of the 
 flux, or other ingredient, may be less firmly united to an atom of silex in one place 
 than in another, depending on the degree of heat by which they were united, or upon 
 the relative position of the crystalline poles of the atoms themselves when combined 
 There are some remarkable cases where flint glass, without any rude exposure to the 
 elements, has become opaque ; and we have seen specimens in which the disinte- 
 gration of the same kind of glass has commenced a few years after it was made. In 
 general, however, the process of decomposition is very slow, excepting in stables, 
 where the presence of ammonia hastens the decomposition, and produces upon its 
 surface all the beautiful colors of the soap bubble. 
 
 " It is, however, from among the ruins of ancient buildings that glass is found in 
 all the stages of disintegration ; and there is, perhaps, no material body that ceases 
 to exist with so much grace and beauty, when it surrenders itself to time and not to 
 disease. In damp localities, where^ acids and alkalies prevail in the soil, the glass 
 rots, as it were, by a process which it is difficult to study. It may be broken between 
 the fingers of an infant, and in this state we generally find in the middle of it a frag- 
 ment a thin fibre of the original glass which has not yielded to the process of decay. 
 
 " In dry localities, where Roman, Greek, and Assyrian glass has been found, the 
 process of decomposition is exceedingly interesting, and its results singularly beauti- 
 ful. At one or more points in the surface of the glass the decomposition begins. It 
 extends round that point in a spherical surface, so that the first film is a minute hem- 
 ispherical one of exceeding thinness. Film after film is formed in a similar manner 
 till perhaps twenty or thirty are crowded into the tenth of an inch. They now resem- 
 ble the section of a pearl or of an onion ; and, as the films are still glass, we see 
 brilliant colors of thin plates when we look down through their edges, which form 
 the surface of the glass. These thin edges, however, being exposed to the ele- 
 ments, decompose. The particles of silex and the other ingredients now readily sep- 
 arate, and the decomposition goes on downwards in films parallel to the surface of 
 the glass, the crystals of silex forming a white ring, and the other ingredients rings 
 of a different tint. As the particles previously combined have now separated, the 
 hemispherical cup occupies a larger space, and rises above the general level of the 
 glassy surface. 
 
576 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. [APPENDIX. 
 
 Such is the process of decomposition round one point ; but it commences at many 
 points, and generally those points lay in straight lines, so that the circles of decom- 
 position meet one another and form sinuous lines. When there are only two points, 
 the circles, when they meet, surround the two points, like the rings round two knots 
 of wood, so that when there are many points, and these points near each other, the 
 curves of decomposition must unite, as already mentioned, and form sinuous lines. 
 When the decomposition is uniform, and the little hemispheres have nearly the same 
 depth, we can separate the upper film from the one below it, the convexities of the 
 one falling into the concavities of the other. 
 
 '• When the decomposition has gone regularly on round a single point, and there 
 is no other change than a division of the glass into a number of hemispherical films, 
 like a number of watch glasses within one another, the group of films exhibits in the 
 polarising microscope a beautiful circle of polarised light with a black cross. The 
 edges of the hemispherical films give to the figure the colors of thin plates, and we 
 imagine we have before us a circular crystal with its fine system of polarised rings. 
 The colors, however, are only those of thin plates, and the light is light that has been 
 depolarised cylindrically, as it were by refraction, in passing obliquely through the 
 hemispherical cups. When a drop of water, alcohol, or oil is applied to this or any 
 other specimen, the fluid enters between the films, and the polarised light and the 
 splendid colors immediately disappear. 
 
 " In salt water the decomposition of glass goes on very rapidly, as is proved by 
 the state of the bottles brought up from the wreck of the Royal George ; and M. 
 Brseme of Paris, having seen a notice of the decomposed glass from Nineveh- sue- 
 ceeded in producing upon glass, in a very short time, regular and irregular circles of 
 decomposition, in the centre of which there was always a small cavity, or a small 
 nucleus This effect was obtained by plunging fragments of thick glass into a mix- 
 ture of fluoride of calcium and concentrated sulphuric acid, or by exposing them to 
 the vapor of fluorhydric acid.* 
 
 * " See Comptes Rendus des S6ances de l'Academie des Sciences, Nov. 2. 1S52, and Report of Brit. 
 Assoc, vol xx. p 5." 
 
 Ivory Ornament, from Nimroud. 
 
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 Page 95, line 13, insert "is" before "consequently." 
 
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 " 121, " 15, after " Egyptians" insert " and." 
 
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 " 166, note t, insert "and" before "have." 
 
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\ \ 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abde Agha, 47. 
 
 Abde Pasha, 408, 410, 564. 
 
 Abd-ul-Azeez, mound of, 190. Hills of, 226, 
 266. 
 
 Abd-nl Mejid, Sultan, 9. 
 
 Abd-ur-rahman, Sheikh, 82. 
 
 Abou-Jerdeh mound, 189. 
 
 AbouKhameera, ruins of, 205, 206. 
 
 Abou-Maria, excavations at, 285. 
 
 Abou- Salman Arabs, 82. 
 
 Abou- Sheetha, mound of, 143, 191. 
 
 Abraham thrown into the furnace by Nimrod, 
 424. 
 
 Adrammelech, name Df, according to Rawlin- 
 son, 525. 
 
 Adremit, village of, 353. 
 
 ^Ethiopia, mentioned in inscriptions, 121. 
 
 Afaij, visit to tribe of, 464. Their boats, 469. 
 Their huts, 471. Bazar of, 483. 
 
 Agab, Sheikh of the Afaij, 471. 
 
 Agammi river, 123, 499. 
 
 Agayl, tribe of, 418. 
 
 Ahaz, sundial of, 425, note. 
 
 Ajel, Sheikh of the Montefik, anecdote of, 406, 
 note. 
 
 Akhlat, village of, 19. 
 
 Akhtamar, patriarch of, 354, 356. Visit to the 
 island of, 354. Church of, 354. Cuneiform 
 inscriptions at, 355. 
 
 Akka, name of, in inscriptions, 307. 
 
 Akkari, sea of the Mediterranean, 307. 
 
 Akker-Kuf, ruin of, 407. 
 
 Akko, a Yezidi chief, 35. 
 
 Akra, town of, 317. 
 
 Alabaster, jars in, 166, 170. 
 
 Albanian, an, 328. 
 
 Alexander the Great, 176, 193. Wish to un- 
 cover ruins of Temple of Belus, 449. To re- 
 build it, 454. To restore canals, 456. 
 
 Ali-Baba, mountains, 11. 
 
 Ali-Illahi, sect of, 184, note. 
 
 Allak, village of, 465. 
 
 Altars discovered at Khorsabad, 111. At Nim- 
 roud, 302, 311. 
 
 American missionaries, their establishments, 
 327, 348, 349, and note. Their schools at 
 Ooroomiyah, 350. Intercourse with Nesto- 
 rians, 364. 
 
 Amikh, vilage of, 351. 
 
 Amran, mound of, 414. Discoveries in, 434. 
 
 Amulets, Jewish, 442, note. 
 
 Ana, town of, mentioned in inscriptions, 306. 
 
 Anana, ruin and village, 462. 
 
 Angels, Chaldaean names of, on bowls, 441, 
 445, 447, and note. 
 
 Antioch, Egyptian monument at, 306, note. 
 
 Arab workmen, 84. Instances of honesty in, 
 493. 
 
 Arabs. See Bedouins. 
 
 Aramaeans defeated by Sennacherib, 119. 
 
 Arapkha, a city under Sennacherib, 120. 
 
 Ararat, name of Armenia, 346. View of 
 mount, 362. 
 
 Araxes river, 12. Mentioned in inscriptions, 
 180. 
 
 Arban, arrival at, 228. Description of, 233. 
 Excavations at, 235. Departure from, 258. 
 
 Arbela, battle of, 176. 
 
 Arch at Nimroud, 139. 
 
 Architecture, Armenian, 7, 27. Assyrian, 100, 
 119. Babylonian, 451, 452. Early Persian, 
 485. Comparison between Assyrian and 
 Jewish, 547. 
 
 Arghistis, name of Armenian king, 342, 344, 
 345. 
 
 Armenia, villages of, 12, 333. A bishop of, 16, 
 25, 31, 337. Ploughs in, 18. Religious cer- 
 emonies, 39. Church differences, 337. In- 
 scriptions of kings at Wan, 341. Ancient 
 dynasties of, 346. Schools in, 347. Reform 
 in church, 348. Books in language of, 350. 
 Ignorance of Christians in, 352. Dress of 
 women, 354. 
 
 Armour, parts of, discovered, 153, 164. Worn 
 by Bedouins, 256. 
 
 Arms in iron and bronze discovered, 164. 
 
 Arrows, heads of, discovered, 164. At Baby- 
 lon, 429. 
 
 Art, Assyrian, of lower period, 393. 
 
 Arvad, name of, in inscriptions, 307. 
 
 Ascalon, name of, in inscriptions, 121. 
 
 Ashayansk, village of, 356. 
 
 Ashik, a ruin, 402, 492. 
 
 Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the moon, 303, and note. 
 
 Ashur, the supreme god of the Assyrians, 54 3, 
 and note. 
 
 Ashurakhbal. See Sardanapalus. 
 
578 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 4ss, a wild, 228, and note. "White, of Bagh- 
 dad, 404, and note. 
 
 Assordanes, name in inscriptions, 386. 
 
 Assurnadin, son of Sennacherib, 123, 529. 
 
 Assyria, computation of time in, 181. Hebrew 
 letters from, 435. Greek coin of, 502. 
 Name of, on Egyptian monuments, 539, 540. 
 Records of, compared with Jewish, 540. 
 Nature of government, 541. Bounds of em- 
 pire, 542. 
 
 AtMe, a tree at Babylon, 432. 
 
 Athur or Assur, mound of, 140. 
 
 Awai, the, 398. 
 
 Azeez Agha, a young Sheikh, 416, 417. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baoshiekhah, village of, 112, 174. 
 
 Baazani, village of, 112. 
 
 Babel, mound of, 413, 419. Excavations and 
 discoveries in, 428. Small objects from, 430. 
 Tradition connected with, 431. 
 
 Babylon taken by Sennacherib, 118, 180, 529. 
 In possession of early Nimroud king, 305. 
 Name of, in Wan inscriptions, 343, 346. 
 Approach to ruins of, 413. Excavations 
 commenced at, 418. Walls of, not traced, 
 419, 421. Dimensions of walls. 420. Gen- 
 eral plan of, 421. Hanging-gardens of, 425. 
 Temple of Belus, 425. Painted walls at, 
 432. Deities of, 433. Jews of the captivity 
 at, 445. Building materials of, 450. His- 
 tory of, 453. Destruction of, 455, 459. Com- 
 merce of, 454, 456. Fabrics of, 457. In- 
 habitants impaled by Darius, 307, note. 
 Common origin of inhabitants with Assyri- 
 ans, 452. Cupidity of their priests, 454. 
 Commerce and roads of, 456. Corruption 
 of, 459. Cylinders and gems of, 516. 
 
 Badger, the Rev. Mr., his intercourse with the 
 Nestorians, 364, note. 
 
 Baghdad, pashalic of, divided, 186, note. De- 
 parture for, 398. Entrance to, 403. De- 
 scription of, 406. Departure from, 488. 
 
 Baiandonr, Sultan, the tomb of, 20. 
 
 Bairakdar, the, 83, 204. 
 
 Bairam, Mussulman feast of, 347. 
 
 Baradost, district of, 323. 
 
 Bashkalah, castle of, 330. 
 
 Batnaiun, name of, on bowls, 437, 446. 
 
 Bats, 262. 
 
 Battering-rams, 126. 
 
 Bavian, sculptures of, 176. Inscriptions of, 
 179, 524. 
 
 Baz, district of, 372. 
 
 Beauchamp, M. de, discoveries at Babylon, 
 432. 
 
 Beavers of the Khabour, 252. 
 
 Bedouins, customs of, with regard to captured 
 horses, 187. On seeing a stranger, 207. On 
 approaching tents, 221. Their women, 222. 
 
 Their bread, 245. Their hospitality, 24b 
 Their food, ib. Diseases amongst, 248. 
 Their Cadis, 259. Their marks, 263. Love- 
 making of, 268. Laws of Dakheel, or pro- 
 tection, 269. Their poetry, 271. Their sa- 
 gacity, 274. Their horses, 280. Their hon- 
 esty, 494. 
 
 Belad, ancient district of, 98, 99. 
 
 Belib, made king of Babylon, 119, 529. 
 
 Bell, Mr., drowned, 181, note. 
 
 Bellino's cylinder, 118, note, 296. 
 
 Bells discovered at Nimroud, 150. Analyses 
 of copper of, 161. 
 
 Benjamin of Tudela, his description of Baby- 
 lon, 423. Of tomb of Ezekiel, 427. Of 
 tomb of Ezra, 428, note. Account of captive 
 Jews, 445. 
 
 Beth Khumri, or Samaria, 523. 
 
 Biaynee, ancient name of Armenia, 347. 
 
 Bimer stein, Dr., 337, note. 
 
 Birch, Mr., note on Egyptian seals, 133. On 
 Egyptian scarabs, 239. 
 
 BirS'Nimroud, the, 422, 423. Restoration of, 
 424. 
 
 Bishi country conquered by Sennacherib, 119. 
 
 Bitlis, town of, 29. 
 
 Bitumen pits fired, 172. Used for cement, 
 450. 
 
 Blood-revenge among Bedouins, 260. 
 
 Boars, wild, represented in bas-relief, 91. 
 
 Boats of Afaij, 469. 
 
 Borsippa, the Birs Nimroud, 426. 
 
 Bowen, the Rev. Mr., 314, 334, 350. 
 
 Bowls of bronze from Nimroud, 154. Earth- 
 enware with Hebrew inscriptions, 434, 446. 
 Date of, 447. 
 
 Brant, Mr., 7. 
 
 Bread, Arab mode of baking, 245. Unlawful 
 to see among Afaij, 482. 
 
 Brewster, Sir D., note on lens, 167. On glass, 
 575. 
 
 Bricks, painted, at Khorsabad, 111. At Nim- 
 roud, 140, 141. Babylonian, 426, 432, 452, 
 453. 
 
 BroJizes, discovery of, 150. Analysis of, 161, 
 571. Origin of, 162, 163. 
 
 Buffalos of Arabs, 481. 
 
 Bukra, village of, 214. 
 
 Bulls, winged, transport of, represented in 
 bas-reliefs, 86, 98, 99. At gateway, 101. 
 In facade of Kouyunjik, 117. At Arban, 
 235. 
 
 Burckhardt, his account of the Bedouins, 204, 
 note, 260, note, 270. 
 
 Bustard, the, 209. Hawking the, 411. 
 
 C. 
 Calah, ancient name of Nimroud, 306, 545, 
 
 note. 
 Caldrons, discovery, at Nimroud, 150. Value 
 
INDEX. 
 
 579 
 
 of, among ancients, 154. Represented in 
 
 bas-relief, 500. 
 Camanus mountain. See Kamana. 
 Camels of Nimroud, 28. Abstinence from 
 
 water, 219. note. Represented in bas-re- 
 liefs, 495. 
 Canals of Babylonia, 455, 456. 
 Canning, Sir S., 3, 4. Protects reformed Ar- 
 menians, 349. 
 Captives in bas-reliefs, with feathers in their 
 
 heads, 140. With feathered head-dress, 
 
 196. 
 Captivity, Prince of the, 427, 446. Relics of 
 
 Jews of the, 435. The history of the Jews 
 
 of the, 445. Three of the Jews, 542. 
 Car, for war, represented in sculptures, 382. 
 
 383. 
 Caravanserais, description of, 409, note. 
 Carckemish, 199, 242, 244, 305. Mentioned on 
 
 Egyptian monuments, 538. 
 Cavalry, Turkish irregular, 272. 
 Cavern, a natural, 261. Artificial, at Wan, 
 
 344. 
 Cedar-wood brought by Assyrians from Leb- 
 anon, 307, 550. Discovered at Nimroud, 
 
 308. Employed in palaces, 555. 
 Centre Palace, Nimroud, builder of, 526. State 
 
 of, 559. 
 Chaal, district of, 373. 
 Chaldceans defeated by Sennacherib, 119, 123. 
 
 Marshes of, 379. Ancient astrologers, 435. 
 Chariot, an Assyrian, 127. For war, 383, 384. 
 
 Royal, 385. 
 Chark, a hawk used by Bedouins, 410. 
 Charms, ancient Jewish, 436, 442. Eastern, 
 
 447. 
 Chellek, village of, 42. 
 Cherubim of Jews compared with Assyrian 
 
 figures, 549. 
 Chesney, Col., expedition under, 405. 
 Chinese bottle discovered at Arban, 238. 
 
 Vases in church of Jelu, 371. 
 Cis, the Armenian patriarchate of, 338. 
 Claudiopolis, name of Nineveh in a Roman 
 
 colony, 49. 
 Cock, image of, on Babylonian gems, 458. 
 Coffins of earthenware at Arban, 241. At 
 
 Niffer, 474. Of wood, at Babel, 428. 
 Colonies, Assyrian, 542. 
 Colors on pottery, 113. On bricks, 140, and 
 
 note, 432. 
 Columns not found at Babylon, 452. Used at 
 
 Nineveh, 554. 
 Commerce of Babylon, 456. 
 Convent, a Nestorian, 326. An Armenian, 
 
 354. 
 Cooper, Mr., 2, 84. Returns to England, 353. 
 Copper, used in colors, 308. 
 Corinthian capital, 198. 
 Cotvley, Lord, protects the Armenians, 349. 
 
 Ctesiphon, ruin of, 485. Tradition connected 
 with, 486. 
 
 Cuneiform, progress in deciphering, 522. 
 
 Cuth, country of, 458, and note. 
 
 Cylinders, of Sennacherib, 135. Babylonian, 
 458, 516, 517. Assyrian, 514, 515. Phoeni- 
 cian, 517. Persian, 518. Used as seals, 519. 
 
 Cyprus, discovery of silver bowls in, 164, note- 
 Assyrian tablet found in, 528. 
 
 Cyrus, description of, 376. Takes Babylon, 
 454, and note. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dagon, representee in bas-reliefs, 294, 301. 
 
 Dakheel, the law of, among Bedouins, 269. 
 
 Dam, building at, 410. 
 
 Damlamajeh, spring of, 564. 
 
 Darius, cylinder of, 518. 
 
 Deloul. See Dromedary. 
 
 Denarii found at Kouyunjik, 502. 
 
 Dereboun, village of, 47. 
 
 Dereh Beys, the, 9. 
 
 Dervish, a Persian, 24. 
 
 Desert, the, described, 208, 209, 256. 
 
 Divanubar, name of Assyi'ian king, 525. 
 
 Diz, district of, 366. 
 
 Dizza, town of, 328. 
 
 Doubleday, Mr., 154. 
 
 Dromedary, the, 200, note, 248, 283. 
 
 Drum, a, represented in bas-relief, 388 
 
 Played by Agayls, 409. 
 Ducks, in marble, &c., used as weights, 510, 
 
 513, and note. 
 Dudjook tribes, 7, 8. 
 Dujail, canal of, 490, 491. 
 Dura, plain of, 401. 
 
 Ear-ring of gold from Kouyunjik, 506, 507. 
 Moulds for casting, 507. 
 
 Eclipse, Eastern prejudice concerning, 470, 
 and note. 
 
 Effendi, the, a Yezidi chief, 210. 
 
 Egypt, seal of king of, 132. Bronzes of Egyp- 
 tian character, 3 55, 159. Relics of, discov- 
 ered at Kouyunjik, 505, 506, and note. Con- 
 quered by Essarhaddon, 529. 
 
 Egyptians, mode of transport of great stones, 
 97. Defeated by Sennacherib, 121. An- 
 tiquities of, at Antioch, 306, note. Weights 
 used by, 514. 
 
 Ekron, name in inscriptions, 121. 
 
 Elam, ancient name of, 123, 386, note. Con- 
 quest of, 180, 304, 382, 383, 496. Dress of 
 people of, 384. 
 
 Ellis, Mr. Thos., translation of inscriptions on 
 bowls, 434. 
 
 Elul&us, king of Tyre, mentioned in inscrip- 
 tions, 120. 
 
 Embossing on bronze vessels, 155, and note. 
 
580 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Enamel, Assyrian, 167, 308, 312. Babylonian, 
 432, and Appendix, No. 3. 
 
 Enoch, book of, 447, and note. 
 
 Erzeroom, roads to, 4. City of, 7. 
 
 Eski Baghdad, ruins of, 402. 
 
 Eski Mosul, ruins at, 285. 
 
 Essarhaddon, name of, 135. Cylinder of, 296. 
 Name at Nebbi Yunus, 508. His monu- 
 ments, 529. His palace at Nimroud, 558. 
 
 Essarhaddon' s son, bis bas-reliefs, 381. His 
 name, 366. His palace at Shereef-Khan, 
 509. His monuments, 530. 
 
 Etruscan bronzes, Assyrian character of, 161. 
 Engraved sbells, 314. 
 
 Eulceus river, 124. 
 
 Eunuch, represented in bas-relief, 366. 
 
 Euphrates river, 16. Represented in bas-re- 
 liefs. 377. Banks of, deserted, 400. Navi- 
 gation of, 405. State of, 406. Changes in 
 its course at Babylon, 420.- 
 
 Eusebius describes Sennacherib's war against 
 Babylon, 529. 
 
 Evemerus, king of Parthia, sends Babylonians 
 to Media, 455. 
 
 Evil Spirit, the, represented in bas-reliefs, 
 299. 
 
 Eyes in marble and enamel, 308. 
 
 Ezekiel, tomb of, 427. 
 
 Ezra, tomb of, 428, note. 
 
 F. 
 Facade of Kouyunjik palace, 115. 
 Falcoiis. See Hawking. 
 Faras, Sheikh of the Tai, 145, 146 
 Faicaz, a hawk, 228. 
 Fergusson, Mr., remarks on Assyrian cornice, 
 
 110. Restoration of Assyrian palaces, 548, 
 
 550, 552, 555, 556. 
 Ferhan, son of Sofuk. 283. 
 Ferry-boat at Mosul, 314. 
 Fish- god. See Dagon. 
 Footstool of bronze discovered, 169. 
 Ford, the Rev. Mr., 202. 
 Fountain, an Assyrian, 182. 
 Funduk, village of, 43. 
 Futhliyah, village and mound of, 111. 
 Fynyk, rock sculptures at, 45. 
 
 G. 
 
 Galleys represented in bas-reliefs, 195, 295. 
 
 Gate of Eastern cities, 47. Of Nineveh, 101. 
 Of palace, 556. None discovered at Nim- 
 roud, 559. 
 
 Gaugamela, battle of, 176. 
 
 Gaza, name of, in inscriptions. 121. 
 
 Gazelle, hawking the, 411. 
 
 Ghaour, district of. 327. 
 
 Ghazir river, the, 147, 317. 
 
 Gherara, mound of, excavated, 407. 
 
 Gherdi, district of, 322. Chief of, 324. 
 
 Glass bowls, 166. Vase ofSargon,166. Frorr 
 Babel, 429. From Kouyunjik, 504, 507. 
 Analysis of, 573, 575. 
 Gods, the twelve Assyrian, 302, 544. Tabic 
 
 of, 537. 
 Gold inlaid in bronze, 166. Brought to Baby 
 Ion, 457. Mask of, 503. Laid over figures 
 in temples, 555. 
 j Gomel river, 176. 
 I Greek art, resemblance to Assyrian, 393. Ro 
 
 mains at Kouyunjik, 503, 504. 
 j Greyhound, Persian, 40. 
 
 Gubal, name of, in inscription, 307. 
 ! Gula Shailu lake, 16. 
 Guli, village of, 9. 
 
 Gumpach, M. Von, conjecture as to sundial of 
 Ahaz, 425, note. 
 j Gunduk, Assyrian bas-reliefs at, 318. 
 Guzeldei; village of, 36. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hadj, the, or caravan to Mecca, 460. 
 
 Hagarenes, conquered by Sennacherib, 1 1 
 
 Hakkiari, pashalic of, 327. 
 ' Hall, great, in palace of Kouyunjik, 360. 
 I Hamki, village of, 33. 
 
 Hammum AH, mound of, 398. 
 
 Hanging gardens, 198, 425. 
 
 Hangings of silk in Babylonian palace, 451. 
 At Nineveh, 556. 
 
 Harba, ruin of, 491, note. 
 
 Harisa, an Arab dish, 72. 
 
 Haroun, mound of, 466. 
 
 Harps represented in bas-reliefs, 388 
 
 Hartushi Kurds, 361. 
 
 Hat em Tai, anecdote of, 146, note. 
 
 Hoicking, 224, 228. 254. Falcons, how bougl.r, 
 283, 410. Training, 411. 
 
 Hazael, king of Syria, mentioned in inscrip- 
 tions, 523. 
 
 Hebar. See Khabour. 
 
 Hebrew characters on bowls from Babylon, 434. 
 
 Heeren on the commerce of the Babylonians, 
 456, note. 
 
 Hercules, the Assyrian, 115, 181, 506, 508, 516. 
 
 Herki, tribe of, 186, 322, 326. 
 
 Hermus, river, mentioned in inscriptions, 306. 
 
 Hezekiah, name of, in inscriptions, 121. Wars 
 of Sennacherib with, 122. 
 
 Hillah, arrival at, 414. Governor of, 415. 416. 
 Built of Babylonian bricks, 431. 
 
 Hincks, the Rev. Dr., translations of inscrip 
 tious, 99, 118, 179, 304. Discovery of name 
 of Sennacherib, 117. Of Nebuchadnezzar 
 117, note. Of syllabarium, 296. Discov- 
 eries, 522. On Wan inscriptions, 342, 343, 
 345. Translation of inscription of Nebuchad 
 nezzar, 451. 
 
 Hindiyah canal and marshes, 408, 409, 421. 
 
 Hittites, the, name of Syrians, 120. Tribute 
 
INDEX. 
 
 581 
 
 of, 305. Name of, on Egyptian monuments, | 
 539. 
 
 Hooks, bronze, discovered, 150. Analysis of, 
 Appendix 3. 
 
 Horses, trappings of, 152. Pedigrees of Be- 
 douin, 187. Bedouin, 220. Turkish, 272. 
 Arab breeds, 278. Represented in bas-re- 
 liefs, 291, 384. Clothed in armour, 384. 
 
 Howar, Sheikh of the Tai, 144, 186. 
 
 Hymer, the ruins of, 462. 
 
 I. J. 
 
 Jays, tribe of, 253. 
 
 Ibn Rcshid, Sheikh of, Nedjd, 460. 
 
 Idols of Assyrians carried away, 181. Taken 
 
 by Assyrians, 194, 498. 
 Jeliesh, tribe of, 205. 
 Jehu, name of, on obelisk, 523. 
 Jelu, mountains of, 327, 363, 368. Valley of, 
 368. Ancient church in, 370. Bishop of, 
 371. 
 Jerraiyah, mound of, 78. 
 
 Jews represented in bas-reliefs, 128, 389. 
 Dress of, 129, and note, 388. Captives on 
 the Chebar (Habor), 241, 389. Families in 
 Kurdistan, 323. Nomades, 331. On Per- 
 sian frontiers, 333. Pilgrimage to Ezekiel's 
 tomb, 427. Relics of, from Babylon, 434. 
 Given to astrology, 435. Belief in evil spir- 
 its, 436. Their amulets and charms, 443, 
 note. Their history after the captivity, 445. 
 Ancient political state of, compared with 
 Assyria, 541, 542. 
 Illibi, a country conquered by Sennacherib, 
 
 120. 
 Impalement, 307. 
 
 India, overland road to, 401. Intercourse of 
 
 Babylonians with, 457. Dogs of, brought to 
 
 Babylon, 457. Political state of, compared 
 
 with Assyria, 542. 
 
 Inclined way discovered, 394. 
 
 Inclosures of Nimroud and Kouyunjik, 545, 
 
 656. 
 Inlaying, art of, known to Assyrians, 166. 
 Inscriptions deciphered, 98, 99. Progress 
 
 made in, 522. 
 Jones, Capt., recovers stranded lion, 174. Sur- 
 veys Mesopotamia, 404, note. Conduct to- 
 wards Arabs, 481. Survey of Kouyunjik, 
 560, note. 
 Ionic ornament in Assyria, 100, 380, 552, and 
 
 note. 
 Jonah, tomb of, 507. Excavations in mound 
 
 of, 508. His preaching, 540, and note. 
 Jovian, retreat of, 402. 
 
 Iron, bronze cast over, 162. Objects discov- 
 ered in, 164, 308, 507. 
 Ishpuinish, name of king at Wan, 344, 345. 
 Judi mountain, ark rested on, 529. Tablet at 
 foot of, 529. 
 
 Jularnerik, town of, 365. 
 
 Jumjuma. See Amran. 
 
 Ivory, objects in, discovered, 164, 308, 312. 
 
 Izzet Pasha, 330. 
 
 K. 
 Kadesia, site of battle, 403. 
 Kalah-Sherghat, excavations at, 497. 
 Kamana, mountain of, mentioned in inscrip- 
 
 tions, 307. 
 Karachok, hills of, 188. 
 Karagol, village of, 14. 
 Kar-Duniyas, a city of Ch aid Be a, 118, 180, 
 
 306. 
 Karboul, Sheikh, 466. 
 Karnaineh Khan, 492. 
 Karnessa on Daoleh mountain, 362. 
 Kasr, the, of Rich, 431. See Mujelibe. 
 Kathimain, tombs of, 403, 404, 490. 
 Kazail, Arab tribe of, 427, 461. 
 Kemball, Captain, 405. 
 Keshaf, mound of, 186. 
 Kestcak, village of, 28. 
 
 Khabour river, 46, 50. Journey to, 200. Ar- 
 rival at, 227. Discoveries on, 235. Ancient 
 condition of country on, 241. Course of, 262. 
 Sources of, 265. Mentioned in Assyrian in- 
 scriptions, 306. 
 Khan-i-resh, village of, 323. 
 Khan Mahmoud, a Kurdish chief, 337, 357. 
 Kharareh, subdued by Sennacherib, 119. 
 Kharkhar, a country conquered by Senna- 
 cherib, 120. 
 Khatouniyah, lake of, 275. 
 Khauser, the river, 64, 99, 180. 
 Khazana Kapousi, tablet at Wan, 342. 
 Khelath. See Akhlat. 
 Kherimmi conquered by Sennacherib, 119. 
 Khoraif, a Bedouin, 200. 
 Khorkhor, name of gardens at Wan, 341. 
 Khorsabad, discoveries at, 109. Builder of, 
 
 125. Inclosure of, 560. 
 Kiamil Pasha, 64. 
 Kifil, tomb of Ezekiel, 427. 
 King, bas-relief of, at Nimroud, 302. On bas ■ 
 
 relief, 385. Table of names, 531. 
 Kirikor, an Armenian monk, 354. 
 Kochers, or nomades, 186, 322. 
 Kochhanes, village of, 363. 
 Kordereh, stream, 189. 
 Kormaiuor, inscription in church of, 351. 
 Kosh-ab, castle of, 332. 
 Kosli, village of, 13. 
 Koukab, volcanic hill of, 233, 261, 274. 
 Kouyunjik, discoveries at, 55, 62, 99, &c. 
 General description of, 63. Excavations re 
 newed in, 80, 85. Grand entrance discov- 
 ered, 115. Descending passage, 288. Res- 
 idence at, 314. Extent of ruins excavated, 
 501. Small objects from, 504, 506, 507. Res 
 
>82 
 
 index. 
 
 ::::■.:.— ::::li:e. ::.". :.":" :..;'.:s-.-r ;:. : . 
 
 :;:V::f5 ::\\ ::•: 
 Kurdistan, journey into, 320. Dialects of, 
 
 323. Chiefs of. 413. 
 Kurds, chief of. 43, 323, 324. Character of, 
 
 320. Fanaticism, 325. 
 
 L. 
 L.z.:.\:.r. sir-v ::' rerrf Sr:.:e.":. IC:. N-irr 
 
 of. on bas-reliefs, 128, 129, mote. 
 L\ .:-.:. :::;:::::r :« :; r..-.i '.':'.-..:■■:. 
 L:.>. ni:r.ii= ;:' '.12. 
 Latif Agna r S3. 
 Ac.:..: A -.A !:: rAn?. : : c 
 lc ;.:-:,--: :eA.r w;._-.i •;.-_--. 1 ."■." :."«. C::- 
 
 quered by Sardanapalus. 312. Cedar wood 
 
 ::'. A 3i:;.\:L:-i c.il.-.:rs. A"~. 
 Ledjmiyat, encampment at, 253. 
 Lens of reck crystal, 166, 167. 
 L--.v-:-i "Sri ':;■- A>; yrA-s .-•." 
 I.-;;- :. :.i7r.:: ::'. A'C. 
 Limestone in palace of Kouyunjik 
 Lindley, Dr., notes an oaks, 31, 567. 
 Lion (headed) figure, 395. 
 Lions brought as tribute, 116. Statue of, at 
 
 Arban, 237. Found oq toe Khabour, 251. 
 
 Colossal statues, at Nimroud, 310. Tame, 
 
 at Hillah, 415. Found in marshes of Baby- 
 
 AAi 4:_ M;ie A : i: : .n_f -:?".. 4»-, 
 
 Bronze weights, 511, 513, and note. 
 Lions [ringed*, removal of, 137, 171. Sent to 
 
 3;::;ii 17; C:^:5;il ::>::.::e:::X::> 
 
 r:zi ■:.".-. 
 L ..'.■■'.-> :i re:7r5f _:f : . A : is-rAAA. •:?.'■ 
 A/':-- ?■!.-. -.f: v-.t5 :•.: I", At.- .v_ : . V.~\- A -, 
 
 4.- -:-: . 4---. -:~: -:7« 
 Lntibri. name of king at "Wan, 345. 
 
 M. 
 AT: AA-. 2. Asm .: :: S "sA.::?.. '. •■ 
 Mahmoudiyah, Talley and town of, 331. 
 Maidan Arabs, 461, 480. 
 
 aaaa ; : As. -.}■: 
 
 AAA: A AAs V.-.. 
 
 Malan, Rev. Mr, 314. 
 
 AT:; .:::;.- '.. :t:.r ::"..—- :l? ;.v ; : as a. 1:5... v. 
 
 Mamanli, tribe of, 15. 
 
 AAa. - ■. .:-'• . a_aa A. -A. 
 
 Marduk, a god of the Babylonians, 451. 
 
 Afar Skamoun, 363, 364. 
 
 AT.:-/:: rr; :t5t::: : A :as-a..As .j~>. 4>7 
 498. Of the Hindiyah. 421, 422. Of the 
 Afaij. 471. Of Southern Mesopotamia, 480. 
 
 }■[-:::- r-: : a : :' : aaa_ A: -. 4-: :. 
 
 Median Wall, 403, 491. 
 
 Mediterranean Sea mentioned in inscriptions, 
 
 .'-/-"- - AAa a As: a ::a :.'.-.' 
 Mekemet, Pasha of Wan, 335. 
 Mdek Toons of Yezidis, 39. 
 
 Menakem, discovery of name. 
 
 Merodaek Baladan, his name in inscriptions. 
 118, 123, 180. "War against, represented iu 
 bas-reliefs, 379. War against, describ E 
 I sebius, 529. 
 
 Meroe, See -Ethiopia. 
 
 Menranen, Tillage of, 361. 
 
 Mesopotamia, tribute from, 305. Ancient a : 
 of, 215, 308, 340, 347, 543. Journey into 
 Southern.. 463. Present state of, 480. 
 
 Mespila, walls of, 381. 
 
 Metallurgy of Assyrians, 162. 
 
 Mtjirell, a Bedouin chie: 
 
 AA' ' - :aa: A a. a :.: V.Aa. .Z 44 3 -5c' 
 
 .V '. KaA Cf 4. ■:•::. 
 
 Mineral spring, 329. 
 
 Minnas, name of Armenian king, 342 
 
 11 .:. aa:.Aa A ere:: A. -A:. 
 
 Mirkan, Tillage of. 9 : . 
 
 Mirza Agha. a Yezidi chief, 37. 
 
 11 _ ' . - Aiaa:: C T :. 
 
 Mohammed Emin, Sheikh, 2 ents. 
 
 343 283. 
 
 11 A ■'. :."■ - .-A us ::" lr~. 
 Monoliths at Nimroud, 304, 311. 
 11: .-; A Aa':s. 4::. 
 
 Moses of Ckorene, description of Wan, 336. 
 
 Mosul, arrival at, 49. 
 
 Motassem BUlah, palace of, at Samarr&i 
 
 Moulds for ear-rings discovered, 506, 507. 
 
 Mound, building represented. 93. 
 
 Mousa Bey, a Kurdish chief. 
 
 2-1 :::■: -:. >:. M ->.:;. 
 
 Mujelibi, mound of, 413. Discoveries in, 431. 
 
 433. Painted walls and basalt lion. 432. 
 
 Tree on, 432. 433. 
 Mukus, pass into, 357. District of. 
 Mule ridden in battle, 382. By k 
 
 .: : 
 
 21 ■:■-' :r _ :es:-:r:.: 4 C ', 
 
 12 • : i-_s:ri-_:-rL.:s ::'. :-.-;- .'f s-r :.:-.- : ::: ' \- - 
 liefs, 388-390. 
 
 Musseiyib, Tillage of, 409. 
 
 NabaOueans, conquered by Sennacherib, 119 
 Xadir-Shah, his encampment at Kouyunjik 
 
 315. 
 
 . cities of, 123. 
 Nahirij tribute of 305, 340. Name : 
 
 scrip tic cs of Wan, 346. See Mesopotamia 
 Xaharwan, canal, 402. 
 Xakr-eLKelb, tablets of Sennacherib 
 Xahum, tomb o£ 507, note. 
 Names, Assyrian royal, 1 9 4 
 Namet Agha, chief of Zibari, 
 Xamo, a Jacobite chief, 36. 
 Sarek, Tillage and church of, 356. 
 Nasr, Sheikh, 68. 
 Xarkur, plain of, 317. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 
 Nazi, a Yezidi chief, 37. 
 
 Nazik, lake of, 17. 
 
 Nebbi Yunus. See Jonah. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, name of, 117, note. His gold- 
 en image at Dura, 401. Bricks and stones 
 bearing his name, 423, 428, 430, 431. Re- 
 built Babylon, 426, 453. Tablet of, 451. 
 
 Nedjd, road to, 286. Present state of, 460. 
 
 Neel, Shat-el, a great canal, 465, 468. 
 
 Nees, a fabulous animal, 482. 
 
 Negoub, tablet from tunnel of, 525, 526. 
 
 Nergal, an idol, 458. 
 
 Nerib, a city taken by Assyrians, 305. 
 
 Nestorian villages near Akra, 318, 484. Fam- 
 ilies in Gherdi, 323. Bishop of Shemisden, 
 326. Districts, 361. Patriarch, 363. Turk- 
 ish oppression, 366.. 372, 373. A bishop, 370- 
 372. A church, 371. 
 
 Newbold, Captain, 83, note. 
 
 Niebuhr, remarks on Greek art, 393. 
 
 Niffer, first view of, 467, 468. Description of, 
 468. Excavations at, 472. Coffins discov- 
 ered, 474. 
 
 Night monsters, Jewish belief in, 437, and 
 note. 
 
 Nimroud, return to, 81. Discoveries at, 104. 
 Flood at, 299. Small temples at, 299, 310. 
 Account of building of north-west palace in 
 inscriptions, 306. Small objects from, 308, 
 309. Restoration of platform, 556. 
 
 Nimroud Dagh mountains, 28. 
 
 Nineveh, Roman coins of, 502. Its founder, 
 according to Rawliuson, 524. Name of, on 
 Egyptian monuments, 524, 538, note. Ex- 
 tent of, 546, 548. Described by old En- 
 glish travellers, 564. 
 
 Ninos, castle of, on site of Nineveh, 501. 
 
 Nisroch, the eagle-headed god, 543, note. 
 
 Noah, a temple to, 509, note. 
 
 Nourdooz, district of, 360. 
 
 Nur TJllah Bey, murderer of Schulz, 329, 
 330. 
 
 Nuvaki, ancient name of Susiana or Elam, 
 123, 304, 386. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oaks, of Kurdistan, 31, 567. 
 
 Oannes. See Dagon. 
 
 Obelisk, from Nimroud, by whom raised, 522. 
 Name of Jehu on, 523. 
 
 Omri, name of, in inscriptions, 523. 
 
 Ooroomiyah, American schools at, 350. 
 
 Opis, site of, 403. 
 
 Ormuzd, form of, 518. 
 
 Orontes, river mentioned in inscriptions, 
 306. 
 
 Ossqfa, village of, 216. 
 
 Oxus, river, supposed to be mentioned in in- 
 scriptions, 527. 
 
 Ozair Agha, 208. 
 
 P. 
 
 Padan-Aram, mentioned on Egyptian mon- 
 uments, 538. 
 
 Pahlou, cuneiform inscription at, 339, note, 
 347, note. 
 
 Palace at Nimroud built, 305. Of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, 451. Assyrian mode of lighting, 
 551, 552. More than one story, 555. In- 
 ternal decorations, 555. 
 
 Palmyra, letters on ruins of, 435. 
 
 Parasang, its length, 49. 
 
 Partridge, of Kurdistan, 331. 
 
 Patnos, cuneiform inscription at, 339, note. 
 
 Patriarch of Akhtamar, 354, 356. Bodies of 
 Chaldaean patriarchs discovered, 238, note. 
 
 Pearls brought to Babylon, 456. 
 
 Pedestals discovered at Kouyunjik, 501. 
 
 Percy, Dr., notes on bronze and other sub 
 stances from Assyria, 161, 571. 
 
 Persia, frontiers of, 332. Costume of ancient 
 kings of, 376, 384. A prince of, 409. Con 
 quest of Babylon, 454. Relics of, at Kou- 
 yunjik, 505. 
 
 Persian Gulf navigated by Babylonians, 45f. 
 457. Cylinders, 518. Houses compared 
 with Assyrian, 553. 
 
 Phoenician seals, 131. Scarab, 157. Letters 
 on bronze, 159. Workers in metal, 162. 
 Coast conquered by Assyrians, 195. Trib- 
 ute to Assyrian king, 307. Letters on Bab- 
 ylonian bricks, 453. Trade with Babylon. 
 457. Cylinders, 517. 
 
 Pine-apple in bas-reliefs, 289. 
 
 Pipes, the double, represented in bas-reliefs, 
 388, 390. 
 
 Plaster on walls of palaces, 450, 555. 
 
 Plough, Armenian, 18, 329, 351. 
 
 Poetry of Bedouins, 271. 
 
 Polledrara, bronzes, &c, from, compared with 
 Assyrian, 161. 
 
 Poole, Mr. Stuart, note on denarii, 503. 
 gestions as to weight, 514, note. 
 
 Posikeah, name of, on bowls, 442, 446. 
 
 Pottery from Babylon, 429. From Kouyun- 
 jik, 504. 
 
 Priest, Assyrian, sacrificing, 194. 
 
 Protestant religion, extension of, in Turkey, 
 349. 
 
 Propyl&um at Khorsabad, 111. 
 
 Pul, monuments of, 526. 
 
 Pyramid at Nimroud, excavations in, 104. 
 
 a. 
 
 Quarries of alabaster, 112. 
 Quintus Curtius, description of Persian ' 
 376. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rafts of skins, 196, 377, 397. 
 
584 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Rahicanduz, mountains of, 322. 
 Ras-al-Ain, source of the Khabour, 265. 
 Rassam, Mr. Honnuzd, 84. 
 Rathaiyah. the wife of Suttum, 223, 227. 
 Raxclinson, Col., 83, Sculptures purchased by 
 
 111. Discovery of annals of Sennacherib, 
 
 117 ; of name of father of Sargon, 298, note. 
 
 On the Wan inscriptions, 346, note. Theory 
 
 as to Babylon, 426 ; as to Wurka and Ur, 
 
 477, note; as to tablets from Wurka, 479. 
 
 Discoveries, 522, 526. note. 
 Records, chamber of, 296. Of early Nimroud 
 
 king, 304, 311. Nature of Assyrian, 540. 
 Rediff, meaning of term, 200. 
 Redican, town of, 36. 
 Reshid Pasha, 7. 
 Rich, Mr., description of Babylon, 419, note, 
 
 420. Sketch of the Birs Nimroud, 424. 
 
 Discoveries at Babel, 428. 
 Rishwan, an Arab Sheikh, 219. 
 Roads, Turkish, 4. Babylonian, 456. 
 Rollers used by Assyrians, 96. 
 Romaine, Mr., 398. 
 Roman relics discovered at Kouyunjik, 502, 
 
 504. 
 Ropes, Assyrian, 96, and note. 
 Ross, Dr., 405. 
 Rubbiyah, tribe of, 481. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sabaco, seal of, 132, and note. 
 
 Sabcean letters and dialect on Babylonian 
 bowls, 436, 446. 
 
 Sahiman. brother of Suttum, 220, 489, 493. 
 
 Saklaiciyah canal, 408. 
 
 Saladin, birth-place of, 399. 
 
 Samaria, name in inscriptions, 523. 
 
 Samarrah, town of, 402, 492. 
 
 Sand-hills, moving, 465. 
 
 Sandicith, Dr., 2, 353. 
 
 mapalus, or Ashurakhbal, his tomb, 108. 
 Name read by Col. Rawlinson, 304. His 
 records, 304, 311. Builds a city on the Eu- 
 phrates. 305. Campaigns of, 306. Small 
 statue of, 312. His records, 522, 525. 
 
 Sargon, name of, 125, and note. Name on 
 glass vase, 166. His coternporary at Wan, 
 346. Name on bricks of Shereef-Khan, 509. 
 Monuments of, 528. 
 
 Sassanian ruins, 403. 
 
 Saulcy, M. de. investigations of, 522. 
 
 Saw of iron from Nimroud, 165. 
 
 Scarabs on bronzes, 157, 166. Egyptian, dis- J 
 covered at Arban, 239. At Nineveh, 505, 
 note. 
 
 Sceptre of ivory found at Nimroud, 165. 
 
 Schools, Armenian, at Wan, 347. In Turkey, 
 349. 
 
 Schulz murdered, 329, and note. His account 
 of Wan, 337. 
 
 Seals, Assyrian, discovered, 130. Phoenician 
 and Egyptian, 130. Of king of Egypt, 132 
 Importance of, in East, 519, note. 
 
 Seleucia, ruins of, 485. 
 
 Selencus founded Seleucia, 454. 
 
 Seleucida, remains of period of, at Kouyun- 
 jik, 503. 
 
 Semil, village of, 47. 
 
 Semira?nis founded Wan, 336. 
 
 Sennacherib superintending transport of co- 
 lossi, 93. His annals discovered, 117. Name 
 of, 124. Image of, 127, 376, 379. His sig- 
 net, 135. His sculptures at B avian, 177. 
 His buildings at Shomamok, 189, 190. His 
 sons found dynasties in Armenia, 346, note. 
 Name at Shereef-Khan, 509. Date of ac- 
 cession, 524. His monuments, 528, 555. 
 
 Sert, river of, 32. 
 
 Seven Sleepers, the cave of, 175. 
 
 Shahbak, sect of, 183. 
 
 Shahan Bey, 9. 
 
 Shaheen, a falcon, 410. 
 
 Shalmaneser, name of, 125, and note. Name 
 on monuments, 528. 
 
 Shammar, tribe of, divisions, 220, note. 
 Gebel, present state of, 460. 
 
 Sharutinian, the, 306. The Shairetana of tie 
 Egyptians, 306, note. 
 
 Shattak, district of, 359. 
 
 Shat-el-Arab. See Euphrates. 
 
 Shell, engraved, from Wurka. 479. 
 
 Shemdeena, district of, 324. Nestorian bishop 
 of, 326. 
 
 Shemshani. mound of, 254. 
 
 Shamas-adar, name of, according to Col. Raw- 
 linson, 525. 
 
 Sheikh Adi, 67. Ceremonies at, 70. 
 
 Shep>herds' Gate, tradition of. at Wan, 343 
 
 Shereef-Khan. excavations at, 509. 
 
 Shields of bronze discovered, 164. 
 
 Shirican, district of, 322. 
 
 Shomamok, plain of, 146. Excavations in, 
 185. The Kasr, 189. The Gla, 190. 
 
 Shushan, city of, represented, 386. Name of 
 in inscriptions. 3S7. 
 
 Sidon, name of, in inscriptions, 120,307. Mar 
 iners of, employed by Sennacherib, 123. 
 Workers in metal of, 162. 
 
 Singara, coin of, 211. See Sinjar. 
 
 Sinjar, the, 208, 211, 224, 276, 278. 
 
 Skins used for rafts, and to cross rivers, 377. 
 
 Snake-charmer, a, 217. 
 
 Sockets of gates of palace, 138. 
 
 Solomon, bronze vessels of, 162. Jewis'. 
 kingdom under, 542. His buildings com 
 pared with Assyrian, 548, 549. Form of his 
 house, 554. 
 
 South-east Palace, Nimroud, genealogy from. 
 510. Builder of, 530. State of, 558. 
 
 Stags, represented, 91. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 555 
 
 Statue, an entire, discovered, 312. 
 
 Steamer, English, on Tigris, 405. 
 
 Stewart, Mr., Babylonian bowls from his col- 
 lection, 434. 
 
 Storms, 206, 250, 315. On Lake Wan, 356. 
 
 Studs, in mother of pearl and ivory, 150. 
 
 Subhan mountain, 13, 14, 331. 
 
 Suleiman Agha, visit to, 258, 264. 
 
 Summaichah, village of, 490. 
 
 Summer, in Assyria, 315. 
 
 Sumsion, Mr., repairs bas-reliefs from Kou- 
 yunjik, 396, note. 
 
 Sundial of Ahaz, 425, note. 
 
 Susiana, conquest of, 123, 124. Rivers of, 
 387. See Elam. 
 
 Susubira, king of Chaldaea, 123, 499. 
 
 Suttum, a Bedouin Sheikh, 200, 202, 207. His 
 mare, 218. His encampment, 221. Rathai- 
 yah, his wife, 223, 233. Adla, his wife, 250. 
 His hawk, 254. His honesty, 493. His 
 death, 493, note. 
 
 Syria, conquered by Sennacherib, 120. 
 
 Syriac characters on Babylonian bowl, 443, 
 444. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tablets, set up by Sennacherib, 120. At Ba- 
 vian, 177. At Nahr-el-Kelb, 178, 179, note. 
 Inscribed clay, 295, 309. Of Assyrian kings, 
 304, 318. At Wan, 338. From Wurka, 
 479. With cylinder impressed, 519. 
 
 Tadwan, village of, 28. 
 
 Tai, tribe of, attack on Nimroud, 142. Visit 
 to, 144. 
 
 Talent, the Babylonian, 513, note. 
 
 Talmud, the, 445. 
 
 Tartan, a title, 125, note. 
 
 Tatar, tombs, 20. 
 
 Taylor, Col., his cylinder, 118, note, 296. 
 
 Tekrit, town of, 399, 492. 
 
 Tel-Anu, name of Niffer, 473, note. 
 
 Tel Ermah, mound, 206. 
 
 Tel Kef, village of, 48. 
 
 Temple of Jerusalem, compared with Assyri- 
 an palaces, 548, 553. 
 
 Tent, an Assyrian, 127, and note. An Arab, 
 144, 221. 
 
 Thief, a B edouin, 251 . Tracing, 274. 
 
 Thistles, grown for oil, 351. 
 
 Threshing-floors, 14. 
 
 Throne, a, 127. Discovery of, 167. 
 
 Tiglath Pileser, monuments of, 526. His an- 
 nals said to be discovered, 526, note. 
 
 Tigris, the river, 39, 41, 204. Changes in 
 course of, 64, note. Sources of Eastern 
 branch, 357. Head waters of, 360, 361. De- 
 scription of banks of, 399. Navigation of, 
 405. 
 
 Tilleh, village of, 41. 
 
 Timour Mirza, 409. 
 
 Tin, mixed with bronze, 161. With colors. 
 
 140, note. 
 Tkhoma, district of, 372. 
 Tokkari, conquered by Sennacherib, 123, 196. 
 Tombs, in the rock, 22. At Bavian, 176. 
 
 Mussulman, 317. At Wan, 340, 345. At 
 
 Kouyunjik, 503. 
 Tortures, represented, 383, 390, 391. 
 Tower at Nimroud discovered, 104. Tomb in, 
 
 106. 
 Trajan, visits house in Babylon in which 
 
 Alexander died, 455, note. 
 Treasure chamber discovered, 149. 
 Trebizond, 4. 
 
 Tripod, stands of bronze, 152. 
 Trumpet, speaking, in bas-reliefs, 90. 
 Tulip, the origin of an Assyrian ornament, 
 
 156. 
 Turkey, reforms in, 9. State of frontiers, 332. 
 Turks, destructive policy of, 145, 401, 406, 480 
 Turtle, a, taken in the Khabour, 251. 
 Tusks, elephants', discovered at Nimroud, 
 
 165. 
 Tyre, mariners of, employed by Sennacherib, 
 
 123. Name of, in inscriptions, 307. 
 
 U. V. 
 Varzahan, ruins at, 6. 
 Vastan, village of, 354. 
 Vault at Nimroud, 138. 
 Vaux, Mr., notes on metallurgy of the an- 
 cients, 573. 
 Venus, the Assyrian, images of, 408. 
 Um-Jerjeh, encampment at, 265. 
 Volcano. See Koukab. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wali Bey, a Turcoman chief, 147, 189. 
 
 Walls represented, 196. Of Kouyunjik, 563. 
 
 Walpole, Hon. F., 314, 318. 
 
 Wan, fish in lake of, 17. First view of, 18, 
 331. Jewish families taken there by Ti- 
 granes, 331. Arrival at, 334. History ot, 
 336. Inscriptions at, 345. List of kings 
 from monuments of, 345. Language of 
 inscriptions of, 345. Rising of the lake, 
 350. 
 
 Wararad, ancient name of Armenia, 346. 
 
 Weights, Assyrian, discovered at Nimroud, 
 510. 
 
 Well, a, at Kouyunjik, 59. At Nimroud, 149. 
 
 Wine-strainer of bronze, 153. 
 
 Wolf, a, 193. 
 
 Women, Arab, their dress, 222. Of the Mil;! 
 tribe, 267. Singing, represented in bas-ru 
 liefs, 388, 389. 
 
 Wurka, coffins discovered at, 474, 475. 
 
 X. 
 
 Xenophon, retreat of the Ten Thousand, re- 
 
566 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 marks on, 41, 44, note, 49, 191. Description 
 of Cyrus, 376. 
 Xerxts, inscription of, at Wan, 338, 345. De- 
 stroyed the temples of Babylon, 449. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yasubirablai, country conquered by Senna- 
 cherib, 119. 
 
 Yavan, the Greek islands, 120. Mariners of, 
 employed by Sennacherib, 123. 
 
 Yedi Klissia, convent of, 351. Cuneiform in- 
 scriptions at, 352. 
 
 Yezidis, state of, 3. Reception by, 33, 36. 
 Bronze bird of, 39, 40. A meeting with, 48. 
 Sacred ceremonies of, 66. A book of the, 
 74. Their chants, 77, and Appendix 2. 
 
 Customs of, 77. Visit from chiefs, 109. A 
 marriage, 174. Of the Sinjar, 211. Their 
 houses, 214. Their dress, 215. On Persian 
 frontiers, 333. 
 YusufCaical, 2, 33, 174. His father's tomb, 216. 
 
 Zab river, 143, 147, 186, 321, 329, 366. 
 Zaid, an Arab, 418. 
 Zerga, plain of, 204. 
 Zibari Kurds, 320. Chiefs of, 320. 
 Zibbliyah, rain of, 484. 
 Zidkaha, king of Sidon, 121. 
 Zobeide, tomb of, 404. Tribe of, 414, 461. 
 Zunz, Dr., Essay on Jewish Literature, 445 
 note. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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