Part 19 (2/2)

Before the captive prince were gathered a nuhtered king, who had coeneral, for they still carried their arms, and were not led by the victorious warriors Soround, and others, stretched at full length, rubbed their heads in the dust, all signs of grief and subenerals elco on instruhter of the Philistines, the wo to meet Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instrues in the Scriptures, that the instruments of music chiefly used on such trius (rendered viol or lyre in some versions, but probably a kind of dulcimer), the tabor and the pipe[185], precisely those represented in the bas-reliefs

The whole scene was curiously illustrative of modern Eastern customs The musicians portrayed in the bas-reliefs were probably of that class of public perfores, and on other occasions of rejoicing

Above the assyrian warriors were the captives and their torturers The for- 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 belonged to the Hebrew tribes which were carried away from Samaria and Jerusalem, and placed by Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, or Essarhaddon, as colonists in the distant regions of Ela becoainst their assyrian rulers, and were once again subdued? Soment or pardon Others had been condemned to the torture, and were already in the hands of the executioners Tere stretched naked at full length on the ground, and whilst their li flayed alive Beneath the abo beaten out with an iron mace, whilst an officer held hiue out of the round The bleeding heads of the slain were tied round the necks of the living, who seemed reserved for still roups was a short epigraph, cons of proper names, each followed by a blank space, which the sculptor probably left to be filled up with the names of the principal victi spoken blasphereat God of the assyrians, their tongues had been pulled out (_Lishaneshunu eshlup_, both words being almost purely 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 cuneifor bas-reliefs had been exposed, like all the other sculptures of Kouyunjik, to the fire which had destroyed the palace

Although each slab was cracked into many pieces, the sculptures themselves had suffered less injury than any others discovered in the sa become calcined by the heat like the alabaster The outline was still sharp, and the details perfectly preserved Considerable care was required to th packed, and since their arrival in England have been admirably restored

Some bas-reliefs sculptured by order of the son and successor of Essarhaddon, have been discovered at Kouyunjik and Nebbi Yunus These bas-reliefs prove that es 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 delineation of the animals, and especially of the horses We now approach the period of the fall of the assyrian edoms 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 remind 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 sho late the Greeks commenced to practise the arts After the Persian war a neorld opens at once, and fro that was produced before the Persian war--a few of those works are still extant--was, if we judge of it without prejudice, altogether barbarous”[186]

The cha upon the edge of the mound Of this doorway there only remained, on each side, a block of plain limestone, which ure The outer walls to which it led had been panelled with the usual alabaster slabs, with bas-reliefs of a can in a country already represented in another part of the palace, 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 ritten, ”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 southern face of the palace could not now be deterht angles to theed 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 st 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 sundried bricks, adether, and still perfectly preserved

This inclined way probably led to the upper chaalleries which may have been carried round the principal chambers and halls

I have only to describe twothe summer They opened into the cha the sculptured records of the son of Essarhaddon The entrances to both were for of athe horned cap surle-footed hu a mace in the other These sculptures were reh finish

The bas-reliefs on the walls of the two cha aly fortified cities, which the assyrians took by assault, using battering ra ladders to ed defended theholds were captured, and a vast amount of spoil and captives fell into the hands of the conquerors The ar to the knee, an outer cloak of skins or fur, and gaiters laced in front The robes of the wo lon their backs, and was then gathered up into one large curl

Such were the discoveriesthe summer At Nimroud the excavations had been almost suspended I have already described those parts of the highsmall temples which were explored by the feorkst the ruins, rather to retain possession of the place than to carry on extensive operations

I was engaged until thebas-reliefs fro ments by the fire, had to be taken coed and numbered, with a view to their future restoration Nearly a hundred cases containing these reed to the river side, to wait the rafts by which they were to be forwarded to Busrah, where a vessel was shortly expected to transport theland

CHAPTER XXI

PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING NINEVEH--DEPARTURE FOR BABYLON--DESCENT 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 MOHAMMED--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 noing near, and the season was favorable for exa the remains of ancient cities in Babylonia The Trustees of the British Museum had partly sanctioned a plan subst ruins, no less important and vast, and of no less biblical and historical interest than those of Nineveh I had included, in inal scheme, many remarkable sites both in Chaldaea 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 noever, suspended, I determined to e the cold weather, to researches areat mounds of Southern Mesopotamia

My Jebours were now so skilled and experienced in excavating, that I deemed it e neorkht visit At the sa thus my own men, I should be independent of the people of the country, who ht require exorbitant pay I accordingly selected about thirty of the best Arabs employed in the excavations at Nineveh, to acco again entrusted Toma shi+siven hi on the work, I quitted Mosul on the 18th of October, accolish traveller, on his way to India There were cases enough containing sculptures from Kouyunjik to load a raft of considerable size Hormuzd, who had met with a severe accident, was placed in a bed on a small _kellek_; Mr Romaine occupied withapparatus were on the large raft, and we all kept close company for convenience and ements connected with the excavations to be made at Nian 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 accoha Shaer Placing one of his sons on histhe banks of the river, he stepped uponus accounts of wars and ghazous, s coffee

We reached Tekrit in three days without accident or adventure Bedouin tents andswarms 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 perhdad It is now a sth Tekrit is chiefly famous as the birthplace of the celebrated Saleh-ed-din, better known to the English reader as Saladin, the hero of the crusades, and the nanimous enemy of our Richard Coeur-de-Lion His father, Ayub, a chief of a Kurdish tribe of Rahwanduz, was governor of its castle for the Seljukian e fro, or hereditary prince Military expeditions into the Sinjar and other parts of Mesopotareat Mussulman hero

Tekrit is now inhabited by a few Arabs, who carry on, as raftshdad

Nothing marks more completely the results of the unjust and injurious system pursued by the Porte in its Arabian territories than the almost entire absence of permanent settlements and of coris Two of the finest rivers of Asia, reaching into the very heart of the Turkish doh 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 ees The depredations 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 monopolies of all articles of produce and of merchandise, effectually check the efforts of the natives themselves, by no age in trade, or to navigate the rivers Even the European es secured by treaties, and protection afforded by consuls and diploainst the insecurity of the country through which he ainst the black-ed or abetted by the Turkish governors Froris and Euphrates, in the lower part of their course, are breaking fro fertile districts into a wilderness, and becoable to vessels of even the sh-way frohdad, in order to avoid the restless Bedouin, is carried along the foot of the Kurdish hills, leaving the river, addingdelays froer 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 cohdad fro the banks of the Tigris, through a country uninterrupted by a single streale hill Whilst caravans are now frequently nearly six weeks on their way frohdad, they would scarcely be as many days by the Desert A few military posts on the river, a proper syste 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 comht by the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, where railways and steaht into operation The navigation of the Persian Gulf is, at all tilance at the h the Mediterranean, 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 scheh countries almost unknown, and scarcely yet visited by a solitary European traveller

Between Tekrit and Baghdad there is much to interest the traveller who for the first tireat alluvial plains of Chaldaea The country has, however, been so frequently described[187], that I will not detain the reader with lided noiselessly onwards, without furroith a ripple the quiet surface of the strea Tekrit, we first passed a s on the left or eastern bank, in a plain that still bears the name of Dura It was here, as soold, 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 certain Jeould not serve his Gods, nor fall down and worshi+p the golden ie that he had set up”[188] It is noilderness, with here end 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 Eraceful peace with the Persian king Sapores (Shapour), and saved the Roreat provinces to the east of the Tigris It was here, too, that he crossed the Tigris, a broad and deep streah Mesopotamia