EXPLORATIONS.

He was

mould of ages, the different ruins slept a unjik, he wrote to that gentleman encoursleep which gave no promise of a waking. aging him to persevere. M. Botta's enThe plough cut the soil above them; terprise does not, however, appear to burying-grounds of the true believers have been quite sufficient for such a task. were established in the superincumbent He worked at the heaps of Kouyunjik, earth; Arab villages straggled over the but he failed to broach the casket which ruins, no soul of their inhabitants know- contained so much hid treasure; and but ing or heeding of the famous people who for an accident, his operations would had trod the courts below, and whose only probably have been fruitless to himself, records were enclosed in the mounds. and have discouraged others. The conviction was strong in the mind of not, however, destined to labour in vain. the traveller that these leng-neglected A peasant from Khorsabad happening to heaps had secrets of inestimable value to visit the excavations, told him that such disclose to that adventurous soul who things as he appeared to be seeking were should be worthy to penetrate their mys-frequently turned up in digging foundaAfter being for a teries. Desire to essay the task at a more tions or other trenches in the village to convenient season grew apace as in the which he belonged. clear air of the solitude his eye ranged while unconvinced of the profitableness through a vast expanse from mound to of seeking another field, M. Botta at mound; and his respect for the sealed-up length conceived better hope of the projruins, if it could not be increased, at least ect, and commenced digging at Khorsawas quickened by the immediate recog- bad. The peasant's advice proved fortunition of Nimroud with its pyramidical nate. A shaft sunk in the mound soon mound, as that Larissa which Xenophon reached a wall; the wall proved to be had described, and near to which the ten lined with sculptured slabs of gypsum; it thousand Greeks had encamped twenty-formed the side of a chamber which led two centuries before. It was even then an ancient city; and in what undisturbed obscurity must it have lain to make it possible for the Englishman of the nineteenth century to identify it at sight with that which was seen and written of by the old Greek! "These huge mounds of "made a Assyria," says Mr. Layard, deeper impression upon me, gave rise to more serious thoughts and more earnest reflection, than the temples of Balbec and the theatres of Ionia." His mind was fixed to examine thoroughly, whenever it might be in his power, these interesting remains.

The secret of Mr. Layard's future success lay in that word "thoroughly," which was evidently not a mere figure of He might have ramspeech with him. bled about and scratched at the mounds as others had done before him, without adding much to our knowledge or our collections; but what he undertook to do nil actum Le would do thoroughly reputans si quid superesset agendum; and the scientific world has reason to rejoice that he was a man of this mettle. He was unable for a year or two to carry out his cherished design, but he endeavoured to impress upon others the importance of making the explorations, and the good hope there was of their being rewarded; and when he heard that M. Botta,

into many other chambers, all being set
about with sculptured slabs representing
battles, sieges, and similar events. "His
wonder may be easily imagined. A new
history had been suddenly opened to
him; the records of an unknown people
were before him. . . . The style of art of
the sculptures, the dresses of the figures,
the mythic forms on the walls, were all
new to him, and afforded no clue to the
epoch of the erection of the edifice, or to
the people who were its founders. Nu-
merous inscriptions, accompanying the
bas-reliefs, evidently contained the ex-
planation of the events thus recorded in
sculpture; and being in the cuneiform or
arrow-headed character, proved that the
buildings belonged to an age preceding
the conquests of Alexander.
ta had discovered an Assyian edifice, the
first, probably, which had been exposed
to the view of man since the fall of the
Assyrian empire.” *

M. Bot

The prize was not, however, what it first appeared. The building which M. Botta discovered had been destroyed by fire, and the calcined slabs, on being exposed to the air, began immediately to fall to pieces. There was time to copy the inscriptions and figures before the gypsum was disintegrated, but that was all. The venerable monument had been uncovered only to be dissolved. Like the

who had been appointed by the
French Government Consul at Mosul,
was excavating in the mounds of Kouy-ment), p. 8.

Layard's "Nineveh and its Remains"

(abridg

The

The suspicions and expected opposition of the Turkish officials were obviated by Mr. Layard's prudence, and by the use of the credentials with which he was provided. In his previous excursions he had learned how to manage the Arabs, and to make them labour for him. He conciliated a Sheikh, procured through his means a small gang of workmen, and, before the Pasha was aware of his design, had made such discoveries in the mounds of Nimroud as convinced him that his further labour would be well rewarded. So he now took the Pasha into his confi

lamp in Rosicrucius' sepulchre, it would | pursuit, and agreed to share with Mr. have endured for an indefinite time con- Layard the expense of a venture. cealed and unprofitable; but as soon as ardent explorer left Constantinople in it seemed likely to serve a useful purpose, the middle of October, and such dilior to gratify curiosity, it was shivered in gence did he use that he reached Mosul pieces! Yet though this was the fate of in twelve days. the monument-though it perished for ever as soon as seen -it nevertheless, as Mr. Layard reminds us, answered to a great extent the purpose of its builder. It was preserved underground until men had learned the art of rapidly transferring, and of repeating at will, its forms and its legends. An educated mind caught and stored up its import while it was in the article of dissolution; its story was rescued by art from the limbo of secret things; its material has become powder, but the ideas of its builder belong to us and to our children for ever! That builder was over-sanguine in fancy-dence, asked to have an agent of Governing that his work would endure for all time, but his mind must have come far short of conceiving the dissemination which his thoughts are like to have in spite of the destruction of the marble in which he put his trust.

Encouraged by this success, M. Botta applied for and obtained from his Government the means of pursuing his investigations; but he did not examine other mounds beside those of Khorsabad, all the walls of which had unfortunately, like those first discovered, been destroyed by fire. He did, however, secure some specimens of Assyrian sculpture, and copies of very many inscriptions, and returned home the most successful explorer that had yet busied himself with excavations on the banks of the Tigris.

The first fruits had thus been snatched from Mr. Layard, through no fault of his. Many a man seeing the wind thus taken out of his sails, would have resigned himself to having missed his destiny, and looked for a fresh field for his endeavours. Not so Mr. Layard. He rejoiced and triumphed in M. Botta's good fortune with the soul of a true follower of science; he saw in what had been achieved the justification of his belief, and the earnest of a fuller harvest; his appetite for a "thorough" exploration was only whetted. In the autumn of the same year which had witnessed the termination of M. Botta's labours, he was able to carry out his cherished wish. Sir Stratford Canning, then our Minister at Constantinople, interested himself in the

Vide No. 379 of the "Spectator." ↑ 1845.

ment appointed to secure any treasure that might be found (the idea that hidden riches were the object of the search being fixed in the Turkish mind), and received a tacit sanction to his proceedings. The work advanced, and in a very little while sculptured slabs were uncovered, in many respects resembling those found by M. Botta at Khorsabad a pair of gigantic winged bulls, a crouching lion rudely carved, two smaller winged lions, and a bas-relief nine feet high. Again the slabs had been exposed to fire, but the sculp tures were copied. Each slab contained two bas-reliefs divided by an inscription in the cuneiform character. The scenes represented were: Ist, A battle or pursuit, in which two chariots containing warriors were being driven past or over enemies, some resisting, others prostrate. 2d, A siege of a castle or walled city. 3d, Two warriors-one on horseback, the other in a chariot. 4th, The towers and battlements of a castle, with a stream and a man fishing. These were clearly historical pieces. The dresses and arms of the figures were very distinct, according to the side on which they were fighting, and showed that the war was between nations of diverse fashions. It was assumed that those who were getting the better of the contests were in every case Assyrians, and these were represented in coats of mail, wearing helmets with lappets to protect the neck, like the early Normans. They carry bows and arrows, or swords and shields, and their horses are richly caparisoned, and their chariots much ornamented. The enemies are dressed in short tunics descending to the knees, their heads bare, and the hair confined

by a simple fillet. In the siege are por- ties were enough to break the spirit of an trayed all the ancient methods of attack ordinary man, and yet these were not all and defence: flights of missiles, escalade, the difficulties that Mr. Layard had to demolition of walls, destruction by fire, contend with. He was in the desert, dropping of heavy weights and precipita- surrounded by Arab tribes who were at tion of assailants from the walls, attempts war with each other, continually executing to burn the assailants' engines, and so on; raids, and who might at any time come while the appearance within the walls of down upon his party and make short work a female figure with dishevelled hair, and of himself and his discoveries. To guard in an attitude of supplication, raises a against this he had to make alliances sentiment, and indicates how the victory from time to time with different tribes, so is inclining. The large bas-relief repre- as to secure protection; and this he apsented a human figure raising the right pears to have done with a skill which hand, and carrying a flower in the left. formed no inconsiderable part of his The lion was of black basalt. The heads qualification for the task which he had and wings of the bulls had been de-undertaken. He studied and learned the stroyed; but on the backs of the slabs | peculiarities of the Arab nature; could out of which they had been wrought were adapt himself to the wild simple habits inscriptions. The small winged lions are of the children of the desert; dared to described as being only remains! The rely on their nobler qualities; bore with knowledge of form, of grouping, and of and turned to good account their infirmicomposition exhibited in the bas-reliefs, ties; and was immensely popular with all showed them to have been produced in a the tribes among whom he sojourned. nation much advanced in art. There Many a traveller has managed to lose his were disproportions in the objects; arbi-property or his life before penetrating trary methods of representing the beards a tenth of Mr. Layard's incursion into and hair of men, and the wings and coverings of animals, were used; and there was the presentation of all the figures in profile, as in the Egyptian bas-reliefs; notwithstanding which a considerable power could be traced, and a knowledge of the requirements of art which as yet the sculptors' hands could not satisfy.

It took but a short examination to convince the quick perception of Mr. Layard that the slabs had not originally stood in the place where he found them. The edges had been cut away, to the injury of both figures and inscriptions; and one slab was reversed. Thus far there was nothing to indicate the character of the building of which these relics had been the ornaments.

Here Mr. Layard was compelled to pause, as the Turks were seized with an obstructive fit; but he was so far satisfied with the results of his labours that he wrote to Sir Stratford Canning to proCure for him a definite authority to proreed with them. One excuse made by the Pasha for interrupting the work was, that some graves of the faithful had been disturbed by the excavation. A little while after, it was confessed by a subordinate officer that he had been ordered to make graves which the diggers might appear to have disturbed; also that in making the sham graves he had disturbed several real ones, although the excavators had not. The ignorant suspicions, duplicity, and lying of the Turkish authori

the wastes of Mesopotamia and Assyria, or achieving anything worthy of record; while he, venturing everywhere, shrinking from no attempt which promised to gratify his thirst for information, traversed the wilderness, tore out its secrets, and returned to Europe unharmed. He had, however, sometimes to shift his berth rather suddenly; and a flitting of this kind took place during the first examination of the mounds of Nimroud, which we have just described. On account of the many depredations of numerous and powerful tribes in the neighbourhood of Naisa, a village near to Nimroud, he removed to Selamiyeh, higher up the river, where he took up his quarters in the house of the chief of the village, living in a degree of comfort of which the following extract will give some idea:

pleted, consisted of four hovels, surrounded by The premises, which were speedily coma mud wall, and roofed with reeds and boughs of trees. I occupied half of the larger habitation, the other half being appropriated for beasts of the plough and various domestic animals. We were separated by a wall, in which, however, numerous apertures served as a means of communication. These I studiously endeavoured for some time to block up. Á second hut was devoted to the wives, children, and poultry of my host; a third served as kitchen and servants' hall; the fourth was converted into a stall for my horses. In the enclosure formed by the buildings and outer wall, the few sheep and goats which had escaped the rapacity of the Pasha congregated during

the night, and kept up a continual bleating and coughing until they were milked and turned out to pasture at daybreak.

The roofs not having been constructed to exclude the winter rains now setting in, it required some exercise of ingenuity to escape the torrent which descended into my apartment. I usually passed the night on these occasions crouched up in a corner, or under a table which I had constructed. The latter, having been surrounded by trenches to carry off the accumulating waters, generally afforded the best shelter.

We

about his neck is a string of sacred emblems; the tassels, fringes, and ornaments of his dress, and the ornaments of his person, his thrones, and his chariots, king is not personally present, it is eviare elaborately displayed. Where the dent that most of the tableaux relate to his majesty's service, and principally to his wars and conquests. We have his warriors in chariots, on horseback, and on foot; spearmen, archers, men armed with the sword and with the mace. Though the interruptions of his work have his troops embarked in galleys, or were continual, and some of them of long on rafts supported by inflated skins. The duration, Mr. Layard did not desist from characters of the different countries which it until he had ascertained what were the are the theatres of war, are indicated by treasures of the principal mounds, se- trees, mountains, streams, marshes, by cured and transmitted to England a great the physiognomy and costumes of the many of the most valuable of those treas- enemy, by the kind of booty, and by the ures, traced out the forms of the buildings images of their gods, which are being carin which they were found, and deduced ried away in triumph. There is no Hofrom his discoveries much information, meric ascription of great qualities to the to modern nations quite new, concerning foe, although, as we shall see, we have the history and customs of the Assyrians of old. The sculptures, found in great quantity from time to time, were most of them of the same character as those already described, but they presented varieties of the same subjects, and the execution of some far surpassed in merit that of others. The differences soon suggested that the ruins were of different periods; and a clue was found to the dates, the names of the builders, and the style of the architecture. But perhaps it may be well, before saying how they serve to reconstruct history, or to make intelligible some hitherto obscure allusions in ancient writings, to state what the subjects of the bas-reliefs and other figures were.

much reason to believe that Ionia and Greece generally derived much of their art and elegance from Assyria. On the contrary, the Assyrians seem to have had a charter for "whipping creation;" they pursue, they kill, they over-ride, they crack a castle or a fenced city like a nut, they carry away captive whole nations, they load themselves with spoil. And this is not the worst; we see them putting to death and torturing their prisoners, and in one slab flaying them alive. Scribes take account of the enemies' heads that are brought in; some of the enemy are seen writhing impaled upon the field; birds of prey fly through the air carrying in their beaks the entrails of the slain; but no Assyrian is ever seen dead, or wounded, or prisoner. In other compartments, troops of women and children, and bands of musicians, are going out to meet the returning conquerors. Apes, camels, rhinoceroses, elephants, antelopes, buffaloes, come on the scene either as spoil or tribute.

A very large portion of the sculptures is intended to magnify and record the exploits of the king, who is in most cases the principal figure. He is on his throne, receiving ambassadors who prostrate themselves before him, and offer presents; or he is performing religious services in company with some of his gods; he is hunting, destroying lions generally; or The king is in some places represented he is in his war-chariot, on the march or with the symbol of the supreme being in action, or directing the works of a above his head. This figure is like that siege, or the passage of a marsh, or giving of a man wearing a horned cap, such as orders concerning the disposal of the cap- is seen on the human-headed figures of tives. In other places he is superintend- animals, and shooting an arrow; it is suring civil works. There is an elaborate rounded by a circle with wings. Occarepresentation of the transport to its sionally the figure has three heads. There place in a building of a gigantic image of is a god with the head of a bird, and ana human-headed bull. Here and there other compounded of the figures of a man was found what was thought to be the and a fish. No doubt, among these are portrait of a monarch, on a very large Baal and Rimmon, and Nisroch and Nescale, wearing his robes and head-dress, bo. Again, the hunting pieces prove that and carrying royal symbols in his hand; the pursuit in which Nimrod excelled

maintained its reputation as long as Assyria was an empire. The noblest chase of all was that of the lion, and it is the subject of very many bas-reliefs. The king, generally attended, is shown to us despatching the other king (of the beasts, to wit) by quite a Homeric variety of deaths. There is the hand-to-hand encounter, where the monarch seizes the wild beast by his beard and stabs him through the heart, making us think of an-frame, and placed on a sledge, which was other king,