Chapter XXX: Conclusion (2)

[117] Its note resembles the cry of the camel-driver, when leading the herds home at night, for which it is frequently mistaken.

[118] 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 protection 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 Khabour 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 paying kowee, their protectors are bound to make good, or revenge, their losses.

[119] Cawal Yusuf actually became the farmer of the revenues for a sum scarcely exceeding 350_l._ The inhabitants of the Sinjar were greatly pleased by this concession to one of their own faith, and were encouraged to cultivate the soil, and to abstain from mutual aggressions.

[120] These relics are now in the British Museum.

[121] The height of this fragment was 5 ft. 8 in.

[122] A lion very similar to that discovered at Arban, though more colossal in its dimensions, exists near Serong. (Chesney's Expedition, vol. i. p. 114.)

[123] 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 [Hebrew], Khabour, answering exactly to the Chaboras of the Greeks and Romans, and the Khabour of the Arabs. In Ezekiel it is written [Hebrew], Kebar. There is no reason, however, to doubt that the same river is meant.

[124] 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 tables we find _Thallaba_ on the Khabour, with which it may possibly be identified. (Illustrated Commentary 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 apparently given to the Khabour in Judith, ii. 24., may be connected with Arban: however, it is not quite clear what river is really meant, as there appears to be some 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 Euphrates), 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. Karkisia, when visited in the twelfth century by Benjamin of Tudela, contained about 500 Jewish inhabitants, under two Rabbis. According to Ibn Haukal, it was surrounded by gardens and cultivated lands. The spot is now inhabited by a tribe of Arabs.

[125] In speaking of the Bedouins I mean the Aneyza, Shamma, Al Dhefyr, and other great tribes inhabiting Mesopotamia and the Desert to the north of the Gebel Shammar. With the Arabs of the Hedjaz and Central Arabia I am unacquainted.

[126] Polygamy, it may be here mentioned, is very common amongst the Bedouins.

[127] The title of haraymi (thief), so far from being one of disgrace, is considered evidence 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.

[128] 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.

[129] One of the principal objects of the Bedouins in battle being to carry off their adversaries' mares, they never wound them if they can avoid it, but endeavour to kill or unhorse the riders.

[130] Burckhardt has thus defined the terms of this law: "The Thar rests with the khomse, or fifth generation, those only having the right to revenge a slain parent, whose fourth lineal ascendant is, at the same time, the fourth lineal ascendant of the 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.)

[131] _I. e._ The ancient ruined city, a name very generally given by the Turks to ruins.

[132] The form of salutation used by the Turks, consisting of raising the hand from the breast, or sometimes from the ground, to the forehead.

[133] Burckhardt remarks that "Bedouins are, perhaps, the only people of the East that can be entitled true lovers." (Notes on Bedouins, p. 155.)

[134] In the winter of the year my residence in Babylonia, after an engagement near Baghdad, between the Boraij and the Turkish regular troops, in which the latter were defeated, a flying soldier was caught within sight of an encampment. His captors 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, Mijwell's eldest brother. The Sheikh was absent from home, but his beautiful wife Noura answered to the appeal, and seizing a tent-pole beat off his pursuers, and saved his life. This conduct was much applauded by the Bedouins.

[135] The manner in which reports are spread and exaggerated in the Desert is frequently highly amusing. In all encampments there are idle vagabonds who live by carrying news from tribe to tribe, thereby earning a dinner and spending their leisure hours. As soon as a stranger arrives, and relates anything of interest to the Arabs, some such fellow will mount his ready-saddled deloul, and make the best of his way to retail the news in a neighbouring tent, from whence it is carried, in the same way, to others. It is extraordinary how rapidly a report spreads in this manner over a very great distance. Sofuk sent to inform the British resident at Baghdad, of the siege and fall of Acre, many days before the special messenger dispatched to announce that event reached the city; and I have frequently rejected intelligence received from Bedouins, on account of the apparent impossibility of its coming to me through such a source, which has afterwards proved to be true.

[136] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 93.

[137] I have elsewhere described the ruins and springs of Abou Maria. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 257.)

[138] The Tigris this year had risen much higher than usual. I have already mentioned that the plain of Nimroud was completely under water; opposite Mosul the flood nearly reached the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi Yunus.

[139] 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 mixed: 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 conjectured 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.

[140] Cory's Fragments, page 30.

[141] 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.

[142] 1 Sam. v. 4.

[143] Judges, xvi. 23.

[144] Joshua, xv. 41. From the connection of this verse with the 33rd, it would appear that the town was in a valley.

[145] Joshua, xix. 27. 1 Mac. x. 83.

[146] Ezra, vi. 1.

[147] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 147.

[148] Page 125.

[149] This is evident from Lucian's "De Deâ Syrâ," c. 4.; and see Gesenius's "Thesaurus" in voce "Ashtoreth." (1 Kings, xi. 5. 33. 2 Kings, xxiii. 13.) Quære, whether the bull's horns placed on the head of this divinity, were not originally the horns of the moon's crescent?

[150] 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 monuments in the neighbouring mountains.

[151] This barbarous practice, frequently represented in the bas-reliefs, seems, therefore, 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.

[152] Might this word, translated conjecturally pearls, mean the shell fish from which the Tyrian dye was extracted?

[153] The whole of the last passage is very obscure; the translation is partly conjectural.

[154] Isaiah, xv. 6. Translation by the Rev. John Jones.

[155] For this valley I received three different names, Hassanawa, Hassanmaima, and Nahala, 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 contractions. If it have any meaning, the difficulty is, of course, less.

[156] Khan-i-resh is, by observation, 4372 feet above the level of the sea.

[157] It was this chief, or one of his dependants, I believe, who plundered and was about to murder two American missionaries, who attempted to cross the mountains the year after my visit.

[158] 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 retirement, and that monastic vows are not taken by them.

[159] The height of the convent above the level of the sea is, by observation, 6625 feet.

[160] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 141.

[161] The place of our encampment at Bash-Kalah was, by observation, 7818 feet above the level of the sea.

[162] The Jewish encampment was 9076 feet above the level of the sea.

[163] 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 dwelling-places of the remnant of Israel.

[164] 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 character, 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.

[165] Wan is about 5600 feet above the level of the sea.

[166] This inscription was copied, with a strong telescope, by Schulz, and is published with the rest of his transcripts.

[167] 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.

[168] 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 donation duly filled up in the blank space left for the purpose, the document being signed by the head of the school.

[169] 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 kindness and friendship. The American mission has now establishments in Smyrna, Brousa, Trebizond, Erzeroom, Diarbekir, Mosul, Aintab, Aleppo, and many other cities in Asia Minor, together with native agents all over Turkey.

[170] 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.

[171] The encampment at Billi was 8612 feet above the level of the sea.

[172] 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.

[173] Those who wish to have a painful picture of the nature of the interference amongst the Nestorians, to which I allude, may read Mr. Badger's Nestorians and their Rituals, and Mr. Fletcher's Travels in Assyria. Although Mr. Badger naturally gives his own version of these transactions, the impartial reader will have no difficulty in seeing the misfortunes to which the unfortunate opposition to the American missions naturally led.

[174] Consuls are so called in Southern Turkey and Persia, and all European strangers are supposed to be consuls.

[175] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 180.

[176] 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.

[177] This bas-relief is now in the British Museum.

[178] Cyrop. lib. viii. c. 3.

[179] Quint. Curt. lib. iii. c. 3. I have quoted this description in my Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 279. The Persian king, although represented on the walls of Persepolis with a crown, also wore a high cap or upright turban, as we learn from Xenophon (Anab. lib. ii. c. 5).

[180] 2 Kings, xvii. 6.

[181] Cyrus covered his chariot-horses, all but the eyes, with armour. (Xenophon, Inst. 1. vi.)

[182] Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 109.

[183] So many characters are unfortunately wanting in this epigraph, that the inscription 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 Daniel, for Susa, is highly interesting. It places beyond a doubt the identification of the site of the campaign.

[184] 1 Sam. xviii. 6.

[185] Isaiah, v. 12. In Daniel, iii. 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-reliefs described in the text. The instrument of ten strings mentioned in Psalm xxxiii. 2., xlii. 3., and cxliv. 9., may have been the harp of the sculptures, and the psaltery the smaller stringed instrument.

[186] Niebuhr's Thirty-fourth Lecture on Ancient History.

[187] See especially Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, &c., by the late C. J. Rich, Esq,. vol. ii. chap, xviii.

[188] Daniel, iii.

[189] The white ass of Baghdad is much esteemed in the East. Some are of considerable 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.)

[190] Baghdad contained, before 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.

[191] Jeremiah, 1. 38.

[192] This is the Kasr of Rich and subsequent travellers.

[193] Isaiah, xiii. 19-22., and compare Jeremiah, 1. 39.: "therefore the wild beasts of 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.

[194] From this tribe was the celebrated lady of Haroun-al-Reshid, "the Zobeide," as she was called from her origin.

[195] The generous hospitality frequently shown by men living, like Zaid, upon the smallest means, is one of the most interesting features of Arab character.

[196] 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.

[197] Abydenus states (ap. Euseb. Præp. Evang. l. ix. c. 41.) that the first wall of Babylon, 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.

[198] I had visited it on several occasions during previous journeys. For the first time in 1840, with Mr. Mitford.

[199] These dimensions are from Rich. I was unable to take any measurements during my hurried visit.

[200] See Chap. XI.

[201] Lib. ii. c. 8.

[202] 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.

[203] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 139.

[204] Isaiah, xiv. 23.

[205] On the Tigris, near its junction with the Euphrates, is the traditionary tomb of Ezra. The Jews, from the first centuries of the Christian era, also appear to have visited this spot as the place of sepulture of the prophet. Benjamin of Tudela says of it, "The sepulture of Ezra, the priest and scribe, is in this place (name lost), where he died on his journey from Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes." 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 of Tudela.)

[206] For an interesting account of those singular relics, and for translations of the inscriptions on the bowls, see the larger work in 8vo.

[207] Josephus against Appian, l. i. cviii. The Jewish historian quotes from Hecatæus, who gives a characteristic account of the attachment of the Jews to their faith.

[208] Benjamin of Tudela's Travels; and see Milman's History of the Jews, book xix. &c.

[209] The form of the letters certainly approach the cuneiform character when written with simple lines, as it is sometimes seen on Assyrian relics and monuments. (See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 143.) I am not, however, at present ready to admit that the early Chaldee square letters were derived from this source.

[210] See Book of Enoch translated by Archbishop 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.

[211] Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1049. Oxf. ed. Arrian, lib. vii. 17.

[212] Isaiah, xxi. 9.

[213] Daniel, v. 5.

[214] Esther i. 6.

[215] 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.

[216] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. 2d part, chap. ii.

[217] 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, perhaps the cubit.

[218] Mr. Birch has found more than one notice of Babylon on Egyptian monuments of the time of Thothmes III.

[219] Ezekiel, xvii. 4.

[220] 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 disputed points of ancient history.

[221] Arrian, Exp. Alex. 1. vii. c. 17. See Jeremy's Epistle in the Apocryphal hook 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.

[222] Isaiah, xiv. 23. Jeremiah, li. 42.

[223] See an interesting Memoir on Babylon, by M. de St. Croix, in the 48th vol. of the Transactions of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, in which all the authorities on the subject of the gradual decay of the city are collected.

[224] Isaiah, xliii. 14.

[225] Ezekiel, xxvii. 15.

[226] 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 Achan in his tent. In a curious decree of the time of Diocletian, regulating the maximum value of articles of clothing and food throughout the Roman empire, several objects from Babylon are specified. Babylonian skins of the first quality are rated at 500 denarii; of the second 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 Eski Hissar, the ancient Stratoniceia, in Asia Minor. (See Leake's Asia Minor.)

[227] "And the men of Cuth made Nergal," in Samaria, where they had been transplanted after the first captivity. (2 Kings, xvii. 30.) The country of the Cuthites 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.)

[228] xviii 2.

[229] 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 turmoil which might suffice to drive away a whole army of evil spirits, even at so great a distance.

[230] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 139, note.

[231] Isaiah, xxi. 1.

[232] I have lately learnt, to my great grief, that poor Suttum has been killed in some affray with the Aneyza.

[233] 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.

[234] See Chapter 20.

[235] Isaiah, xxxvii. 18, 19.

[236] 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 frequently represented only one figure to signify many, and that more than one ox probably supported the vessel portrayed in this bas-relief.

[237] These measurements merely include that part of the palace actually excavated.

[238] Since my departure a fine entire bas-relief has, I understand, been found near the ruined tomb in the centre of the mound.

[239] The distance from centre to centre of the pedestals facing each other was 9 feet three inches; their diameter, 11-1/2 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 sundried bricks, 6 feet 3 inches from the centre of one of the pedestals.

[240] Tacit. Ann. lib. xii. c. 13., and Ammianus Marcell. 1. xxiii. c. 20. The latter author especially mentions that the town had belonged to the Persians.

[241] In the same shape as the Egyptian. (See Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 112.)

[242] See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. Introduction, p. xiv. Benjamin of Tudela places the tomb of Nahum at Ain Japhata, to the south of Babylon.

[243] According to Col. Rawlinson (Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xx.), to Neptune or Noah!

[244] The actual weight of the large ducks in the British Museum being 480 oz. troy, 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. It would consequently be to the Babylonian talent as 7 to 8. According to Herodotus (lib. iii. c. 89.) the Euboean talent was to the Babylonian as 6 to 7. If this statement be correct, the Euboean would be to the Attic as 48 to 49. (Dr. Hincks.)

[245] One cylinder bears his name.

[246] 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 seals is very severe, and there are many regulations enforced for securing their authenticity.

[247] Compare Job, xxxviii. 14. "It is turned as clay to the seal."

[248] Compare 1 Kings, xix. 16. and 2 Kings, ix. 2.

[249] 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. xx.)

[250] 1 Kings, xix. 15.

[251] Colonel Rawlinson suggests about 930 B. C.

[252] Especially if, as Egyptian scholars still maintain, the name is found on Egyptian monuments of the 18th dynasty.

[253] See my Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 155, where this genealogy was first pointed out.

[254] Discovered during the first expedition. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 83.)

[255] This interesting discovery was first announced in the Athenæum of Jan. 3, 1852.

[256] 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, between whose reign and that of Menahem only two years elapsed. (2 Kings, xv. 23.)

[257] See an interesting note on this subject in Rich's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 123.

[258] 2 Chron. xxxiii.

[259] 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 saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with fire and died." 1 Kings xvii. 18. There is nothing, therefore, improbable in the romantic history of the Assyrian king.

[260] The reading according to Col. Rawlinson is marked R--that according to Dr. Hincks, H.

[261] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 185.

[262] 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 received a divine mission to announce a coming earthquake or plague.

[263] 2 Kings, xx. 19.

[264] 2 Kings, xxv. 19.

[265] 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 consisted in these animals. When Asa defeated the Ethiopians, "he carried away sheep and camels in abundance; and returned to Jerusalem." (2 Chron. xiv. 15.)

[266] The same thing may, indeed, be inferred from several passages in Chronicles and Kings. See particularly 2 Kings, xvi. 7, xvii. 4.

[267] 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.

[268] 2 Chron. v. 62.

[269] 1 Chron. v. 6 and 26.

[270] 2 Kings, xvii. 6, xviii. 11.

[271] 2 Kings, xvii. 29.

[272] See woodcuts, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 340.

[273] Ch. iii. 12-14.

[274] From this propylæum came the two colossal bulls in the British Museum; it was part of the royal palace.

[275] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. ch. 2. A recent trigonometrical survey 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 parallelogram, 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 remains 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 higher, 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 "half-way village," is "roum," "signifying the territory and inhabitants 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 river over a range of steep limestone hills. I may here observe that the name of "Niniouah" is not known in the country as applied either to the mound of Nebbi Yunus, 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.

[276] 1 Kings, v. 15.

[277] The Jewish cubit appears to have been about eighteen inches.

[278] 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.

[279] 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.)

[280] See Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible.

[281] See frontispiece to Fergusson's Palaces of Nineveh restored.

[282] Josephus, b. viii. c. 2. Fergusson's Palaces of Nineveh, p. 229.

[283] 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.

[284] 1 Kings, v. 8.

[285] See Frontispiece to this volume.

[286] Such also appears to have been the case at Nimroud.

[287] 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. Pharaoh's daughter's house, which was "_like unto the porch_," was probably the harem or private apartment.

[288] Palaces of Nineveh restored, p. 181. That the Assyrians were, however, acquainted with slanting roofs may be inferred from a bas-relief discovered at Khorsabad. (Botta, Plate 141.)

[289] Jerem. xix. 13.

[290] Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. ch. 2.

[291] Daniel, v. 5.

[292] 1 Kings, vi. 28. I cannot, however, but express my conviction that much of the 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.

[293] Rich estimates the entire length of the inclosure at about four miles, and its greatest breadth at nearly two. This appears to me rather above the actual extent of the ruins. It must also be remembered that they narrow off from the northern side to a few hundred yards at the southern. I have not hitherto had time to lay down my survey of Nimroud. The general plan of the mound in my first work must be considered as a mere rough sketch.

[294] Rich's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 60.

[295] It will be borne in mind that the Tigris has now changed its course.

[296] 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.

[297] 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.

[298] Sir Anthony Shirley's Travels in Persia. Purchas, vol. ii. p. 1387.

[299] Narrative of a Residence in Kurdistan, vol. i. pp. 40, 51.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

The original text contains one letter with a diacritical mark that is not represented in this text version.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

The original text includes Hebrew characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with [Hebrew].