lines in the details of the wings and in the ornaments had been retained with their original freshness.

I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious emblems, and muse over their intent and history. What more noble forms could have ushered the people into the temple of their gods? What more sublime images could have been borrowed from nature, by men who sought, unaided by the light of revealed religion, to embody their conception of the wisdom, power, and ubiquity of a Supreme Being? They could find no better type of intellect and knowledge than the head of the man; of strength, than the body of the lion; of ubiquity, than the wings of the bird. These winged human-headed lions were not idle creations, the offspring of mere fancy; their meaning was written upon them. They had awed and instructed races which flourished 3000 years ago. Through the portals which they guarded, kings, priests, and warriors had borne sacrifices to their altars, long before the wisdom of the East had penetrated to Greece, and had furnished its mythology with symbols recognised of old by the Assyrian votaries. They may have been buried, and their existence may have been unknown, before the foundation of the eternal city. For twenty-five centuries they had been hidden from the eye of man, and they now stood forth once more in their ancient majesty. But how changed was the scene around them! The luxury and civilisation of a mighty nation had given place to the wretchedness and ignorance of a few halfbarbarous tribes. The wealth of temp'es, and the riches of great cities, had been succeeded by ruins and shapeless heaps of earth. Above the spacious hall in which they stood, the plough had passed and the corn now waved. Egypt has monuments no less ancient and no less wonderful; but they have stood forth for ages to testify her early power and renown; whilst those before me had but now appeared to bear witness, in the words of the prophet, that once "the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches and with a shadowing shroud of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs .. his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his

boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of the multitude of waters when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the fields bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations; " for now is "Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness, and flocks lie down in the midst of her: all the beasts of the nations, both the cormorant and bittern, lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice sings in the windows; and desolation is in the thresholds."*

The entrance formed by the human-headed lions led into a chamber, round which were sculptured winged figures, such as I have already described. They were in pairs facing one another, and separated by the sacred tree. These bas-reliefs were inferior in execution, and finish, to those previously discovered.

During the month of March I received visits from the principal Sheikhs of the Jebour Arabs, whose followers had now partly crossed the Tigris, and were pasturing their flocks in the neighbourhood of Nimroud, or cultivating millet on the banks of the river. The Jebours are a branch of the ancient tribe of Obeid, and their pasture grounds are on the banks of the Khabour, from its junction with the Euphrates, — from the ancient Carchemish or Circesium,- to its source at Ras-el-Ain. Having been suddenly attacked and plundered a year or twó before by the Aneyza, they had left their haunts, and taken refuge in the districts around Mosul. They were at this time divided into three branches, obeying different Sheikhs. names of the three chiefs were Abd'rubbou, Mohammed-Emin, and Mohammed-ed-Dagher. Although all three visited me at Nimroud, it was the first with whom I was best acquainted, and who rendered me most assistance. I thought it necessary to give to each a few small presents, a silk dress, or an embroidered cloak, with a pair of capacious boots, as in case of any fresh disturbances in the country it would be as well to be on friendly terms with the tribe.

The

The middle of March in Mesopotamia is the brightest epoch

* Ezekiel, xxxi. 3., &c.; Zephaniah, ii. 13. and 14.

CHAP. III.

NIMROUD IN MARCH.

55

of spring. A new change had come over the face of the plain of Nimroud. Its pasture lands, known as the "Jaif," are renowned for their rich and luxuriant herbage. In times of quiet, the studs of the Pasha and of the Turkish authorities, with the horses of the cavalry and of the inhabitants of Mosul, are sent here to graze. Day by day they arrived in long lines. The Shemutti and Jehesh left their huts, and encamped on the greensward which surrounded the villages. The plain, as far as the eye could reach, was studded with the white pavilions of the Hytas and the black tents of the Arabs. Picketed around them were innumerable horses in gay trappings, struggling to release themselves from the bonds which restrained them from ranging over the green pastures.

Flowers of every hue enamelled the meadows; not thinly scattered over the grass as in northern climes, but in such thick and gathering clusters that the whole plain seemed a patchwork of many colors. The dogs, as they returned from hunting, issued from the long grass dyed red, yellow, or blue, according to the flowers through which they had last forced their way.

The villages of Naifa and Nimroud were deserted, and I remained alone with Said (my host) and my servants. The houses now began to swarm with vermin; we no longer slept under the roofs, and it was time to follow the example of the Arabs. I accordingly encamped on the edge of a large pond on the outskirts of Nimroud. Said accompanied me; and Salah, his young wife, a bright-eyed Arab girl, built up his shed, and watched and milked his diminutive flock of sheep and goats.

I was surrounded by Arabs, who had either pitched their tents, or, too poor to buy the black goat-hair cloth of which they are made, had erected small huts of reeds and dry grass.

In the evening, after the labor of the day, I often sat at the door of my tent, and giving myself up to the full enjoyment of that calm and repose which are imparted to the senses by such scenes as these, gazed listlessly on the varied groups before me.

emulate the verdant clothing of the plain-its were gradually withdrawn, like a transparent vei the landscape. Over the pure, cloudless sky w the last light. The great mound threw its da across the plain. In the distance, and beyond th another venerable ruin, rose indistinctly into the Still more distant, and still more indistinct was overlooking the ancient city of Arbela. The K tains, whose snowy summits cherished the dying struggled with the twilight. The bleating of she of cattle, at first faint, became louder as the flocks their pastures, and wandered amongst the tents. over the greensward to seek their fathers' cattl down to milk those which had returned alone remembered folds. Some were coming from the the replenished pitcher on their heads or shoulde less graceful in their form, and erect in their carrying the heavy load of long grass which they meadows. Sometimes a party of horsemen mig seen in the distance slowly crossing the plain, the feathers which topped their long spears showing the evening sky. They would ride up to my ten the usual salutation, "Peace be with you, O Be Aienak, God help you." Then driving the end into the ground, they would spring from their ma their halters to the still quivering weapons. Seati on the grass, they related deeds of war and plur lated on the site of the tents of Sofuk, until the m they vaulted into their saddles and took the way

The plain now glittered with innumerable fires. advanced, they vanished one by one until the wrapped in darkness and in silence, only dist barking of the Arab dog.

Abd-ur-rahman rode to my tent one morning, take me to a remarkable cutting in the rock, whic as the work of Nimrod, the Giant. The Arabs goub," or The Hole. We were two hours in