I reached Mosul in two days, taking the road by Kessi Kupri, and avoiding the desert beyond Abou-Maria, which we had crossed on our march to the Sinjar.

there, they had all an aromatic smell; but no trees appeared. Of wild creatures, the most numerous were wild asses, and not a few ostriches, besides bustards and roe deer (gazelles), which our horsemen sometimes chased. The asses, when they were pursued, having gained ground of the horses, stood still for they exceeded them much in speed); and when these came up with them, they did the same thing again; so that our horsemen could take them by no other means but by dividing themselves into relays, and succeeding one another in the chase. The йesh of those that were taken was like that of red deer, but more tender." (Anab. lib. i. c. 5.) In fleetness they equal the gazelle: and to overtake them is a feat which only one or two of the most celebrated mares have been known to accomplish. The Arabs sometimes catch the foals during the spring, and bring them up with milk in their tents. I endeavored in vain to rear a pair. They are of a light fawn-color-almost pink. The Arabs still eat their flesh. The "wild asses of the desert" are mentioned in Job xxxiv. 5, xxxix. 5.

CHAPTER IX.

EXCAVATIONS UNDERTAKEN BY THE BRITISH MUSEUM.-CHOICE OF WORK. MEN.-DWELLING-HOUSES BUILT AT NIMROUD.-DISCOVERY OF BASRELIEFS.-OF ARMOR AND HELMETS.-OF VASES.-OF KEW CHAMBERS. -OF THE OBELISK.-DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE MOUND.-WINGED LIONS.-CROUCHING SPHINXES.-DISCOVERY OF TOMBS IN THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE MOUND.-ABLE WORKMEN -MODE OF IRRIGATION.-CUSTOMS OF THE ARABS.-FACILITY OF DIVORCE.-ARAB WOMEN.-THE TIYARI OR CHALDEANS.-A RAFT PLUNDERED.-SEIZURE OF AN ARAR SHEIKH.-DEPARTURE OF SCULPTURES FOR BUSRAH.

On my return to Mosul, I received letters from England, forming me that Sir Stratford Canning had made over his share in the discoveries in Assyria to the British nation; and that the British Museum had received a grant of funds for the continuation of the researches commenced at Nimroud, and elsewhere. The grant was small, and scarcely adequate to the objects in view. There were many difficulties to contend with, and I was doubtful whether, with the means placed at my disposal, I should be able to fulfill the expectations which appeared to have been formed as to the results of the undertaking. The sum given to M. Botta for the excavations at Khorsabad alone, greatly exceeded the whole grant to the Museum, which was to include private expenses, those of carriage, and many extraordinary outlays inevitable in the East, when works of this nature are to be carried on. I determined, however, to accept the charge of superintending the excavations, to make every exertion, and to economize as ar as it was in my power-that the nation might possess as extensive and complete a collection of Assyrian antiquities as, considering the smallness of the means, it was possible to collect.

It was, in the first place, necessary to organize a band of work. men best fit to carry on the work. A general scarcity of corn had

driven the Arab tribes to the neighborhood of .the town, wher they sought to gain a livelihood by engaging in labors not very palatable to a Bedouin. I had no difficulty in finding workmen among them. There was, at the same time, this advantage in employing these wandering Arabs—they brought their tents and families with them, and, encamping round the ruins and the village, formed a very efficient guard against their brethren of the Desert, who looked to plunder, rather than to work, to supply their wants. To increase my numbers I chose only one man from each family; and, as his male relations accompanied him, I had the use of their services, as far as regarded the protection of my sculptures. Being well acquainted with the sheikhs of the Jebours, I selected my workmen chiefly from that tribe. The chiefs promised every protection; and I knew enough of the Arab character not to despair of bringing the men under proper control. The Arabs were selected to remove the earth-they were unable to dig; this part of the labor required stronger and more active men; and I chose for it about fifty Nestorian Chaldeans, who had sought work for the winter in Mosul, and many of whom, having already been employed, had acquired some experience in excavating. They went to Nimroud with their wives and families. I engaged at the same time one Bainan, a Jacobite or Syrian Christian, who was a skillful marble-cutter, and a very intelligent man. I also made a valuable addition to my establishment in a standardbearer of the irregular troops, of whose courage I had seen such convincing proofs during the expedition to the Sinjar, that I induced his commander to place him in my service. His name was Mohammed Agha; but he was generally called, from the office he held in his troop, the "Bairakdar, or standard-bearer.” He was a native of Scio, and had been carried off at the time of the massacre, when a child, by an irregular, who had brought him up as a Mussulman. In his religious opinions and ob servances, however, he was as lax, as men of his profession usually are. He served me faithfully and honestly, and was of great use during the excavations. Awad still continued in

my employ; my cawass, Ibrahim Agha, returned with me to Nimroud; and I hired a carpenter and two or three men of Mosul as superintendents.

I was again among the ruins by the end of October. The winter season was fast approaching, and it was necessary to build a proper house for the shelter of myself and servants. I marked out a plan on the ground, in the village of Nimroud and in a few days our habitations were complete. My work men formed the walls of mud bricks dried in the sun, and roofed the rooms with beams and branches of trees. A thick coat of mud was laid over the whole, to exclude the rain. Two rooms for my own accommodation were divided by an iwan, or open apartment, the whole being surrounded by a wall. In a second court-yard were huts for my cawass, Arab guests, and servants, and stables for my horses. Ibrahim Agha displayed his ingenuity by making equidistant loopholes, of a most warlike appearance, in the outer walls; which I immediately ordered to be filled up, to avoid any suspicion of being the constructor of forts and castles, with the intention of making a permanent Frank settlement in the country. We did not neglect precautions, however, in case of an attack from the Bedouins, of whom Ibrahim Agha was in constant dread. Unfortunately the only shower of rain, that I saw during the remainder of my residence in Assyria, fell before my walls were covered in, and so saturated the bricks that they did not dry again before the following spring. The consequence was that the only verdure, on which my eyes were permitted to feast before my return to Europe, was furnished by my own property-the walls in the interior of the rooms being continually clothed with a crop of grass.

On the mound itself, and immediately above the great winged lions first discovered, were built a house for my Nestorian workmen and their families, and a hut to which any small objects discovered among the ruins could at once be removed for safety. I divided my Arabs into three parties, according to the branches of the tribe to which they belonged. About forty tents were pitched on different parts of the mound, at the entrances to the

principal trenches. Forty more were placed round my dwell ing, and the rest on the bank of the river, where the sculptures were deposited previous to their embarkation on the rafts. The men were all armed. I thus provided for the defense of my establishment.

Mr. Hormuzd Rassam lived with me; and to him I confided the payment of the wages, and the accounts. He soon obtained an extraordinary influence among the Arabs, and his fame spread through the desert.

The workmen were divided into bands. In each set were generally eight or ten Arabs, who carried away the earth in baskets; and two, or four, Nestorian diggers, according to the nature of the soil and rubbish which had to be excavated. They were overlooked by a superintendent, whose duty it was to keep them to their work, and to give me notice when the diggers approached any slab, or exposed any small object to view, that I might myself assist in its uncovering or removal. I scattered a few Arabs of a hostile tribe among the rest, and by that means I was always made acquainted with what was going on, 'could easily learn if there were plots brewing, and could detect those who might attempt to appropriate any relics discovered during the excavations. The smallness of the sum placed a my disposal, compelled me to follow the same plan in the exca vations that I had hitherto adopted,-digging trenches along the walls of the chambers, and exposing the whole of the slabs, without removing the earth from the center. Thus, few cham bers were fully explored; and many small objects of great interest may have been left undiscovered. As I was directed to bury the buildings with earth after they had been examined, I filled up the trenches, to avoid unnecessary expense, with the rubbish taken from those subsequently opened, having first copied the inscriptions, and drawn the sculptures.

The excavations were recommenced, on a large scale, by the 1st of November. My working parties were distributed over the mo ind- in the ruins of the N. W. and S. W. palaces; near the gigantic bulls in the center; and in the south