Part 24 (1/2)

The chief led us at once to the uesthouse was built of the same materials as the sether It reseine 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 s upon his haunches, was roasting coffee and pounding the fragrant beans in an iron mortar Down both sides were spread carpets and ured silk were specially prepared for the European guest

The museef stood at a short distance from the other huts, and in a corner forles In front of it was the harem of the Sheikh It consisted of several cabins in an enclosure forreat collection of huts, and in theof double rows of shops, all of the same frail materials So that this Arab toas built entirely of ab received me in the most friendly , describing the ruins existing in the neighbourhood

He ordered his people to raise a hut for my servants and the Jebour workmen, and to pitch my tents in the open space opposite the thy or difficult process where the ged froraceful arches, and the cabin duly covered in As a dwelling-place, however, the sht fit to erect his moveable capital was not perhaps the most desirable in the world Had the Euphrates risen by any sudden flood we should have been completely under water My proposition to encaab, on account of the dangers from the Bedouins, evil spirits, beasts of prey, and the like So I made upI was in search of gold, was always my attendant with his followers He knew soup at Niffer, that it was useless to argue with him upon the subject He related tostory:--In the time of Hatab, the uncle of Wadi, Sheikh of the Zobeide, a cameleer of that tribe chanced to be at Da one day in the bazar, an aged man accosted him

”O Sheikh of the Caravan,” said he, ”I know that thou art from the southern Jezireh, and fro thee to reat mound, that marks the site of an ancient city of the Unbelievers, called Niffer Go, dig in the dry bed of the Shat-el-Neel, in the midst of the ruins, and thou wilt find a stone white asit to me, and thou shalt have for a reward double the usual hire for thy cauess 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 caave it to the Sheikh, who first paid him his just reward, and then broke the stone into pieces before hiold, and the philosopher had learned 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 ere 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 ular form, than of one compact platform, like the principal ruins of assyria They roups, 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 ree sundried bricks Beneath the cone masonry of sundried and kiln-burnt bricks protrudes froenerally s and narrow in shape Many of them are sta the na and of the city

My works, or karkhanehs, as they are called by the Arabs, and were placed in different parts of the ruins On the first day so hu the two subsequent days we found lazed and others plain With these relics was a bowl, unfortunately much broken, covered with ancient Hebrew characters, si out of the ruins

On the mound of Niffer, as on other ruins of the salazed 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 workus, of precisely the same material

Within it were human remains, which crumbled to dust almost as soon as exposed to the air The earthenas so ill-burnt, and had suffered so e, 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 surrounded But beneath it was found a second, and subsequently scarcely a day elapsed without the discovery of four or five si; so the remains of children, scarcely exceeded three They were all of nearly 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 us 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

Sons; others, with rude figures of ilebeen only partially burnt, had been exposed to the action of the nitre so abundant in the soil Without considerable care it was i earth was easily detached from them

Human rei

Sometiuish the body, wrapped in its grave clothes, and still lying in its narrow resting-place But no sooner did the outer air reach the e only the skull and great bones of the ars to shohat these now empty cases had once contained One or two slazed pottery, and a few beads and engraved ge reold or silver were discovered at Niffer, though it appears that the Arabs frequently find them in similar coffins from other ruins in southern Mesopotamia It is remarkable, however, that there were no ornaments whatever in metal in nearly a hundred coffins which I opened at Niffer

It is impossible to estimate the number of these earthen coffins; the upper part of the mound in soenerally 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 re the number thus taken away, I did not penetrate many feet beneath the surface

In the lower part of Mesopotamia are lazed pottery, broken from them, are seen on every ancient site to the south of Babylon According to Mr

Loftus, the vast mound of Wurka 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 e from the second or first century before the Christian era to even the time of the Arab invasion Colonel Rawlinson entertains, I believe, a different opinion, and would attribute thereat mounds of Niffer be the remains of a Babylonian city, as they probably are, it is evident that that city must have been co before a people, afterwards inhabiting the country, could have buried their dead above them

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, hdad to hold water in hot weather Many vases and cups were still entire With thelass bottles, jars, and other vessels; and several highly glazed or enamelled dishes These relics appeared to be of the sae nuh, 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 bituh many deep trenches were opened in the ruins, and in the conical mound at the north-east corner, no other remains or relics were discovered With the exception of a fewa cuneifor found at Niffer was of the true Babylonian period The Arabs have a story that a great black stone exists soht be the identical obelisk said to have been brought by Semiramis from Armenia to Babylon[230] 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 excavations carried on at Niffer would produce any very i results

In the Afaij bazar I was able to purchase a few relics froraved gems But even such remains were far more scarce than I had anticipated A ra colors or ointments, apparently Babylonian, and a pebble of white oats before the sacred tree, and a few cuneifor ruin Such were all the antiquities I obtained during my visit to Niffer With the pottery collected at the mound they are now in the British Museu into these wild tracts of southern Mesopotareat mound of Wurka

These remains had already been partly exahly interesting collection of relics, colazed pottery, ornaentle the ruins They are now in the British Museuraved the heads of two horses, apparently part of a subject representing a warrior in his chariot The outline upon them is not without spirit, but they are principally reraved shell found in an Etruscan tomb, and now in the British Museum This is not the only instance, as it has been seen, of relics fro a close connection between the two countries either direct, or by mutual intercourse with some intermediate nation

Unfortunately the state of the country to the south of the marshes was such that I was unable even to reat Arab tribe of Montefik, dwelling on the banks of the lower Euphrates, and exercising a certain control over all the s 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 as now extending to the Afaij

The surrounding tribes taking advantage of the general confusion and of the unsuccessful attempt of the Pasha to subdue the Maidan Arabs, had openly rebelled against the govern 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 ast his own people He had already 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 troubles cohdad

The Sheikh, with other chiefs of his tribe, was accusto 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