BOOKS.

BAYARD'S NINEVEH AND ITS REMAINS.* MR. LAYARD and a companion had passed part of the years 1839 and 1840 in exploring Syria and Asia Minor, in a manner to enjoy travelling and form a thorough acquaintance with the country and the people. " We rode alone," says he ; " our arms were our only protection ; a valise behind our saddles was our wardrobe; and we tended our own horses, except when relieved from the duty by the hospitable inhabitants of a Turcoman village or an Arab tent. Thus, unembarrassed by need- less luxuries and uninfluenced by the opinions and prejudices of others, we mixed amongst the people, acquired without effort their manners, and enjoyed without alloy those emotions which scenes so novel and spots so rich in varied association cannot fail to produce."

Having exhausted Syria and Asia Minor in this manner, "scarcely leaving untrod one spot hallowed by tradition, or unvisited one ruin con- secrated by history," Mr. Layard wished to extend his travels beyond the Euphrates, and examine the ruins of the ancient cities of Assyria. This be accomplished, but with little other immediate effect than that of whetting his curiosity. Want of pecuniary means, and of any authority from the Porte, prevented his exploration or rather excavation of the mounds, that are so frequent along the backs and plain of the Tigris. But he fixed in his own mind upon the scene of his future labours. He formed a friendship with M. Botta, the French Consul at Mosul ; the man who first led the way to the resuscitation of Assyrian antiquity, discovering chambers, inscriptions and sculptures, in the mound opposite that city, though circumstances prevented him from following Mr. Layard's subse- quent advice to explore the ruins about five " hours" below Mosul, which Mr. Layard eventually investigated with so much success.

Mr. Layard returned to Constantinople in 1842, apparently on some business ; but he did not lose sight of Assyria and its remains. He corresponded with M. Botta on the subject, and he communicated with others privately and publicly. It was not till 1845, however, that he was enabled to undertake active discoveries himself, through the means of Sir Stratford Canning, our Ambassador to Turkey. Sir Stratford not only procured him official recommendatory letters, but furnished the funds to begin the investigation of the mounds, upon what Mr. Layard considers, with great probability, the site of Nineveh.

Thus assisted, Mr. Layard returned to Mosul. His first attempt was secret. He went out with attendants under the old pretence of hunting, engaged a few Arabs to assist him, and commenced his labours on the rains which local tradition assigns as the city of Nimrod, in the angle formed by the junction of the Zab with the Tigris, in North latitude 35° 55' and East longitude 43° 20'. By good luck, or by judicious choice of ground, he soon struck what turned out to be the wall of a chamber, which on the next day was sufficiently made out to be examined.

" Night interrupted our labours. I returned to the village well satisfied with their result. It was now evident that buildings of considerable extent existed in the mound; and that although some had been destroyed by fire, others had es- caped the conflagration. As there were inscriptions, and as the fragment of a bas-relief had been found, it was natural to conclude that sculptures were still buried under the soil. • " Next morning my workmen were increased by five Turcomans from Sela- miyah, who had been attracted by the prospect of regular wages. I employed half of them in emptying the chamber partly uncovered on the previous day, and the rest in following the wall at the South-west corner of the mound. Before evening, the work of the first was completed, and I found myself in a room built of slabs about eight feet high, and varying from six to four feet in breadth, placed upright and closely fitted together. One of the slabs had fallen backwards from its place; and was supported, in a slanting position, by the soil behind. Upon it was rudely inscribed, in Arabic characters, the name of Ahmed Pasha, one of the former hereditary governors of MosuL A native of Selamiyah remembered that some Christians were employed to dig into the mound about thirty years before, in search of stone for the repair of the tomb of Sultan Abd-Allah, a Massulman saint, buried on the left bank of the Tigris, a few miles below its junction with the Zab. They uncovered this slab; but being unable to move it, they cat upon it the name of their employer, the Pasha. My informant further stated, that in another part of the mound, he had forgotten the precise spot, they had found sculptured figures, which they broke in pieces, the fragments being used in the reparation of the tomb. The bottom of the chamber was paved with smaller slabs than those employed in the construction of the walls. They were covered with inscriptions on both sides; and on removing one of them, I found that it had been placed upon a layer of bitumen, which must have been used in a liquid state, for it had retained, with remarkable distinctness and accuracy, an impression of the characters carved upon the stone. The inscriptions on the face of the upright slabs were about twenty lines in length, and all were precisely similar. "In one corner, as it has been observed, a slab was wanting, and although no- thing could be tilaced, it was evident from the continuation of the pavement be- yond the walls of the chamber, that this was the entrance. As the soil had been worn away by the rains to within a few inches of the tops of the upright slabs, I could form no conjecture as to the original height of the room, or as to how the walls were carried above the casing of alabaster. " In the rubbish near the bottom of the chamber, I found several ivory orna- ments, upon which were traces of gilding; amongst them was the figure of a man in long robes, carrying in one hand the Egyptian eras ansata, part of a crouching sphinx, and flowers designed with great taste and elegance. Awed, who had his own suspicions of the object of my search, which he could scarcely persuade him- self was limited to mere stones, carefully collected all the scattered fragments of gold leaf he could find in the rubbish ; and, calling me aside in a mysterious and confidential fashion, produced them wrapped up in a piece of dingy paper. 0 Bey,' said he your books are right, and the Franks know that which is hid from the true believer. Here is the gold, sure enough, and, please God, we shall find it all in a few days. Only don t say anything about it to those Arabs, for they are asses and cannot hold their tongues. The matter will come to the ears of the Pasha.' The Sheikh was much surprised, and equally disappointed, when I generously presented him with the treasures he had collected, and all such as he might hereafter discover. He left me, mattering Yia Rabbi !' and other pious ejaculations, and lost in conjectures as to the meaning of these strange pro- ceedings."

* Nineveh and Its Remains; with an Account of a Visit to the Cbaidaan Christians of Eurdistan, and the Yezidis or Devil-Worshipers ; and an Inquiry into the Manners and Arts or the ancient Assyrians. By Austen Henry Bayard, Esq., D.C.L. In two Volumes. Published by Murray. Thus successful, Mr. Layard returned to Mosul, to procure, for further proceedings, the authority of the Pasha, an exacting and tyrannical man. This was nominally given ; but frequent obstacles were interposed, less, it strikes us, by the Pasha himself, than by the intolerance of some bigoted Mahometans ; for even a more liberal successor in the Pashalic had to recommend caution. Mr. Layard also met with opposition from European residents, partly actuated by envy, partly by a more excus- able national vanity ; and the heats of summer suspended his labours. However, by good-tempered skill and perseverance, he overcame all ob- stacles. Within the space of about 500 yards by 350, he discovered the remains of three buildings, which he calls palaces, (though they might be temples,) besides traces of other remains. Want of means compelled him generally to leave the centre of the apartments uncleared ; but ne traced their intercommunications by passages : he discovered various sculptures, of composite animals—as winged lions with human heads, and winged bulls—as well as a continued series of bas-reliefs, represent- ing the actors and actions of the remote ages when these buildings were erected, both in peace and war. On some of these bas-reliefs and on various slabs were found inscriptions, obviously relating to the founders of the buildings, or to the sculptured events ; and as the work approached its close, an equally remarkable discovery took place.

I had business in Mosul, and was giving directions to the workmen to guide them during my absence. Standing on the edge of the hitherto unprofitable trench, I doubted whether I should carry it any further, but made up my mind at last not to abandon it until my return, which would be on the following day. I mounted my horse, but had scarcely left the mound when a corner of black marble was uncovered, lying on the very edge of the trench. This attracted the notice of the superintendent of the party digging, who ordered the place to be fur- ther examined. The corner was part of an obelisk, about seven feet high, lying on its side, ten feet below the surface.

" An Arab was sent after me without delay to announce the discovery; and on my return I found the obelisk completely exposed to view. I descended eagerly into the trench; and was immediately struck by the singular appearance and evident antiquity of the remarkable monument before me. We raised it from its recumbent position, and with the aid of ropes speedily dragged it out of the ruins. Although its shape was that of an obelisk, yet it was flat at the top and cut into three gradinea. It was sculptured on the four sides: there were in all twenty small bas-reliefs, and above, below, and between them, was carved an inscription 210 lines in length. The whole was in the best preservation; scarcely a charac- ter of the inscription was wanting; and the figures were as sharp and well defined as if they had been carved but a few days before. The king is twice represented, followed by his attendants; a prisoner is at his feet; and his vizir and eunuchs are introducing men leading various animals, and carrying vases and other objects of tribute on their shoulders or in their hands. The animals are the elephant, the rhinoceros, the Bactrian or two-humped camel, the wild bull, the lion, a stag, and various kinds of monkies. Amongst the objects carried by the tribute- bearers may perhaps be distinguished the tusks of the elephant, shawls, and some bundles of precious wood. From the nature, therefore, of the bas-reliefs, it is natural to conjecture that the monument was erected to commemorate the con- quest of India, or of some country far to the East of Assyria and on the confines of the Indian peninsula."

Mr. Layard made copies, casts, or brown paper masks, of most of these remains : the more remarkable he determined to send to England. For this purpose, he endeavoured to procure the aid of one of the two steam- ers that were built to navigate the Euphrates ; and Major Rawlinson granted the request. But the engines were out of repair or too weak to stem the current, and the vessel returned. Nothing daunted, Mr. Layard set himself to work, and made the most of such appliances as he could command. The following extract exhibits but a portion of the difficul- ties overcome, and those not the greatest ; but it will serve to illustrate his energy and resources.

" Without proper materials it was impossible to move either the gigantic lions, or even the large sculptures of chamber G. The few ropes to be obtained in the country were so ill-made that they could not support any considerable weight. I determined, therefore, to displace the slabs (in chamber B) divided into two com- partments ; then to saw off the sculptures, and to reduce them as much as pos- sible by cutting from the back. The inscriptions being mere repetitions, I did not consider it necessary to preserve them, as they added to the weight. With the help of levers of wood, and by digging away the wall of sun-dried bricks from behind the slabs, I was enabled to turn them into the centre of the trench, where they were sawn by marble-cutters from MosuL When the bas-reliefs were thus prepared, there was no difficulty in dragging them out of the trenches. The upper part of a slab in chamber G, containing the heads of a king and his attend- ant eunuch, having been discovered broken off from the lower, it was included amongst the sculptures to be embarked. One of the winged figures from en- trance e of the same chamber, and an eagle-headed divinity, were also success- fully moved. These, with the head and the hoof of the bull in yellow limestone from entrance b chamber B, form the collection first sent to England, and now deposited in the British Museum. As they have been long before the public, and have been more than once accurately described, I need not trouble the reader with any farther account of them. After having been removed from the trenches, the sculptures were packed in felts and matting and screwed down in roughly-made cases. They were trans- ported from the mound to the river upon rade buffalo-carts belonging to the Pasha, and then placed upon a raft formed of inflated skins and beams of poplar wood. They floated down the Tigris as far as Baghdad, were there placed on board boats of the country, and reached Busrah in the month of August."

After all his exertions, his anxieties, his labours, and his plans, the treatment which the results of his toils have met with, must be as gratify- ing to Mr. Layard's feelings as it is creditable to the Government and the authorities concerned "It is to be regretted," says Mr. Layard, " that proper steps have not been taken for the transport to England of the sculptures discovered at Nineveh. Those which have already reached this country, and it is to be feared those which are now on their way, have consequently suffered unnecessary injury. The great winged bull and lion, which I had hoped would have speedily formed an important portion of the national collection, are still lying at Busrah; and there is little prospect at present of their being brought to this country. Surely British inge- nuity and resources cannot, as is pretended, be unable to remove objects which have already with very inadequate means been transported nearly a thousand miles. The cases containing the small objects, recently deposited in the British Museum, were not only opened without authority at Bombay, but their contents exhibited without proper precautions to the public. It is remarkable that several of the most valuable (indeed the most valuable) specimens are missing; and the whole collection was so carelessly repacked that it has sustained very material in- jury. Were these Assyrian relics, however valuable, such as could be again ob- tained, either by ingenuity or labour, their loss might not perhaps be so seriously

lamented; but if once destroyed they can never be restored; and it must be remem- bered that they are almost the only remains of a great city and of a great nation."

And so it ever is with the British Government and British officials, in matters of science, art, or literature, where no influential "interest," no party object, or clamorous " pressure " is concerned. As soon as M. Botta had made his first discovery at Khorsabad, the French Government furnished him with ample funds to carry on his researches. When Sir Stratford Canning's advances were exhausted, and the richness of Mr. Layard's field of exploration known, our Government, at the instance of the British Museum, voted a miserably small sum to continue the works. But after such a pecuniary throe, they require rest; nay, it would.seem that they repent them of their liberality, and think the best mode of doing penance is to throw away what they have spent by wasting the re- sults as far as in them lies.

As a revelation of ancient remains, the labours of M. Botta and Mr. Layard may rank with those of any discoverer on record. Egyptian an- tiquities have been extensions : the most wonderful of their monuments have been visible since their erection, and written about even in profane literature for three thousand years. The Etruscan explorations have been gradual; we had scattered notices of the political state of the people in Roman story, and from modern criticism. The ruins of the American cities, wonderful as they are, and strange as are the speculations or hy- potheses which they open up, have yet come gradually upon the world ; and after all, they may be contemporary with England, and have been erected since the Conquest by the peoples whom the Aztecs overthrew. The remains excavated in the plains of Assyria possibly point to a period antecedent to all known history as recorded in writing, (for we hold Egyptian monumental story to go beyond Mosaic records on modern in- terpretation,) and seem to carry us back to the confusion of tongues, the days of Nimrod, and the first invasion of India. The proofs of this ex- treme antiquity are not, however, conclusive; and it seems clear that some of the buildings discovered by Mr. Layard have, as he himself points out, been constructed with materials taken from older erections, either then in ruins or destroyed for that purpose : and though tombs of a remote peo- ple have been made over the foundations of some building, we must not jump to a rash conclusion as to the extreme age this would indicate, with- out allowing for the destruction or the perishable nature of the materials of the buildings and the peculiarities of the country. Of the high anti- quity of the most modern of these ruins, however, there can be no doubt; for the last two thousand years and upwards such buildings could hardly have been erected without record.

It is not only as a discoverer, ardent, persevering, skilful, sagacious, and fortunate, that Mr. Layard is to be considered : he may take high rank as a traveller. His six-years training in Eastern travel, before he began his labours in Assyria, had made him familiar with the character, habits, and speech of the Orientals. His excavation-plan necessarily brought him into daily contact with the people in the capacity of em- ployer, under circumstances where their superstition, their wonder, their delight, and their fears, were alternately excited; for objects were continually met with in the exploration which stimulated one or the other of these passions, with the addition of surprise. Thus, on the dis- covery of a gigantic head, the workmen and neighbouring Arabs at once jumped to the conclusion that they had fallen upon the image of the "mighty hunter" himself.

" On the morning following these discoveries, I rode to the encampment of Sheik Abd-nr-rahman, and was returning to the mound, when I saw two Arabs of his tribe urging their mares to the top of their speed. On approaching me they stopped. Hasten, 0 Bey,' exclaimed one of them= hasten to the diggers, for they have found Nimrod himself. Wallah, it is wonderful, but it is true! we have seen him with our eyes. There is no God but God;' and both joining in this pions exclamation, they galloped off, without further words, in the direction of their tents.

" On reaching the ruins, I descended into the new trench, and found the work- men, who had already seen me as I approached, standing near a heap of baskets and cloaks. Whilst Awed advanced and asked for a present to celebrate the oc- casion, the Arabs withdrew the screen they had hastily constructed, and dis- closed an enormous human head sculptured in full out of the alabaster of the country. They had uncovered the upper part of a figure, the remainder of which was still buried in the earth. I saw at once that the head must belong to a winged lion or bull, similar to those of Khorsabad and Persepolis. It was in ad- mirable preservation. The expression was calm, yet majestic, and the outline of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art, scarcely to be !wired for in the works of so remote a period. The cap had three horns, and, unlike that of the human-headed balls hitherto found in Assyria, was rounded and without orna- ment at the top. " I was not surprised that the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. It required no stretch of imagination to conjure up the most strange fancies. This gigantic head, blanched with age, thus rising from the bowels of the earth, might well have belonged to one of those fearful beings which are pic- tured in the traditions of the country, as appearing to mortals slowly ascending from the regions below. One of the workmen, on catching the first glimpse of the monster, had thrown down his basket and run off towards Mosul as fast as his legs could carry him. I learnt this with regret, as I anticipated the conse- quences. " Whilst I was superintending the removal of the earth, which still clung to the sculpture, and giving directions for the continuation of the work, a noise of horsemen was heard, and presently Abd- ur-rahman, followed by half his tribe, appeared on the edge of the trench. As soon as the two Arabs bad reached the tents, and published the wonders they had seen, every one mounted his mare and rode to the mound, to satisfy himself of the troth of these inconceivable reports. When they beheld the head, they all cried together, There is no God but God, and Mahommed is his Prophet !' It was some time before the Sheikh could be prevailed upon to descend into the pit, and convince himself that the image he saw was of stone. ' This is not the work of men's hands,' exclaimed he, but of those infidel giants of whom the Prophet, peace be with him ! has said, that they were higher than the tallest date-tree: this is one of the idols which Noah, peace be with him! cursed before the flood.' In this opinion, the result of a careful ex- amination, all the bystanders concurred."

The relation of Mr. Layard to the natives was not merely that of em- ployer to workmen. The confidence they felt in him induced them to bring their differences before hint as judge; and something like the position of feudal lord and vassal was established between them. He also entertained the neighbouring Arabs as well as his own people; and

the effects of hospitality were as conspicuous on the banks of the Tigris as on the Seine, the Thames, or the Potomac. For the grand fete at the excavation we have not room, but the following farewell party is per- haps more interesting as a trait Of nature.

Before my departure I was desirous of giving a last entertainment to my workmen, and to those who had kindly aided me in my labours. On the Western side of Kouynnjik there is a small village. It belongs, with the mound, to a former slave of a Pasha of the Abd-el-Jelleel family, who had received his liberty, and the land containing the ruins, as a reward for long and faithful ser- vices. This village was chosen for the festivities, and tents for the accommoda- tion of all the guests were pitched around it. Large platters filled with boiled rice, and divers inexplicable messes, only appreciated by Arabs, and those who have lived with them—the chief components being garlic and sour milk—were placed before the various groups of men and women, who squatted in circles on the ground. Dances were then commenced, and were carried on through the greater part of the night; the Tiyari and the Arabs joining. in them, or relieving each other by turns. The dancers were happy and enthusiastic, and kept u a constant shouting. The quiet Christian ladies of Masnl, who had scarcely before this occasion ventured beyond the walls of the town, gazed with wonder and de- light on the scene; lamenting, no doubt, that the domestic arrangements of their husbands did not permit more frequent indulgence in such gayeties. " At the conclusion of the entertainment I spoke a few words to the workmen, inviting any who had been wronged, or ill-used, to come forward and receive such redress as it was in my power to afford, and expressing my satisfaction at the successful termination of our labours without a single accident. One Sheikh Khalaf, a very worthy man, who was usually the spokesman on such occasions, answered for his companions. They had lived, he said under my shadow, and, God be praised, no one had cause to complain. Now that I was leaving, they should leave also, and seek the distant banks of the Khabour, where at least would be far from the authorities, and be able to enjoy the little they had sa

All they wanted was each man a teskere, or note, to certify that they had been in my service. This would not only be some protection to them, but they would show my writing to their children, and would tell them of the days they had pas- sed at Nimroud. Please God, I should return to the Jebour, and live in tents with them on their old pasture-grounds, where there were as many ruins as at Nimroud, plenty of plunder within reach, and gazelles, wild boars, and lions for the chace. After Sheikh Khalaf had concluded, the women advanced in a body and made a similar address. I gave a few presents to the principal workmen and their wives, and all were highly satisfied with their treatment."

"Mr. and Mrs. Rassam, all the European residents, and many of the principal Christian gentlemen of Mosul, rode out with me to some distance from the town. On the opposite side of the river, at the foot of the bridge, were the ladies who had as- sembled to bid me farewell. Beyond them were the wives and daughters of my workmen ; who clung to my horse ; many of them shedding tears as they kissed my hand. The greater part of the Arabs insisted upon walking as far as Tel Kef with me. In this village, supper had been prepared for the party. Old Gouriel, the Kiayah, 'still rejoicing in his drunken leer, was there to receive us. We sat on the horse-top till midnight. The horses were then loaded and saddled. I bid a last farewell to my Arabs, and started on the first stage of our long journey to Constantinople."

The adventures and observations of Mr. Layard upon the people were not confined to his connexions with them at Nineveh, or his squabbles and negotiations with the authorities at Mosul. He made excursions into the desert, visited the ruins of Al Hather, and one of the most pow- erful Arab chieftains, though his influence was then upon the wane. Mr. Layard also made an excursion among the Kurds and Chaldxan Christians or Nestorians, who dwell in the mountainous districts to the North-east of Mosul ; and, although somewhat forestalled by Dr. Grant's Nestorians, Mr. Layard saw the country and the people under such different circum- stances, and his style is so much more vigorous and of this world, that his tour has all the freshness of new ground. He also paid a visit to the Yezidis, or Devil-worshipers as they are called, on the occasion of their great annual meeting, and gives a curious account of their pro- ceedings. Little real light, indeed, is thrown upon their tenets ; but he strips their practices of the vulgar horrors with which popular credulity had invested them. Upon all these topics, however, we must refer the reader to the book itself. They will find it as animated and vigorous as Edam or as Warburton's Crescent and C'ross, without their somewhat obvious art of writing ; while the subjects are much fresher, the dis- coveries have an antiquarian and historical interest, and possess a mys- terious attraction, of which the oft-traversed ground of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, were necessarily deprived.

The larger portion of the second volume of the work is occupied with an effort to raise the curtain which shrouds this mystery. It contains a series of chapters on the materials of Assyrian history,—which in re; cord are scant enough and mostly fabulous, but numerous in their in- scriptions if we could read them • and on the origin, arts, military sys- tem, religion, private life, and kingly costume of the ancient Assyrians. This part may be somewhat deficient in trained critical judgment, and distinguished by that sanguine disposition which alone enabled Mr. Lay- ard to do what he has done : it displays great candour with some caution, exhibits the results of his discoveries and of his readings of those discoveries, (which are shown in the narrative in rather a desultory manner,) and contains ingenious conjectures and interpretations. Into this vast field we have not space to enter ; nor indeed is sufficient yet known to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion upon the subjects. We must be more sure of the alphabet before we can do much with the inscriptions, and possibly collect a larger number of examples of their arts to guide us in any deductions as to their manners or their religion. Above all, we must establish some chronological data : till then, we are wandering in the dark.