The Sun.
London, England, 1815-11-18 00:00:00

stIN

(Ye. C.! V, )
kemoir on the Ruin'lt 13.11,ff1".• By Cl'Avi"s
trAmsc3
tsq. Resident f6r the Hon. East India Company at the
Court of the Pasliti. of Bag•da(l. frith three Plates. svo.
PP. 67. price 83. man,Lonz Hui'st; Rees, Orme, and Brown,
l'aternostee-row; J. Murrav, Alberharle-street.

• , (Concluded from our Pap& of Monday last.)
iiaving; in the preliminary part of this Essay,
adated the very favourable opinioti withwhich a
rtisal of this e%cellent Tract has impressed us,
'Svc shall novv; almost entirely, confine ourselves
to further seleetions, in Order to justify that
ilion to the Public. The following introductory-,
aragraph elucidaes the subject, (page 20.) t--- •
" Before entering into a minute description of
• 'the ruins,, to avoid repetition, it is necessary to
State that they consist of mounds of earth, formed
by the decomposition of buildintr
f , channelled and
In""°wed by the weather, and the-surface of
ern strewed with pieces of brick, bitumen, and
pottery,"
•
Such are the component parts of which the
It "jos of Babylon consist, And such the appearance
Which they present to the eye of the Traveller.
After describing several mounds, and lastly a
*listinguiShed heap called the Kase;or.Palace, we
114-ve this description of a sin,
h gu.ar_ tree Iva.c.
"'lands alone, almost as 'great a wonder in the na-
Nral world of Babylonia, as the Ruins are among
the works
of
human industry :1—
" lhe"There are two paths near this ruin, made by
workmen.who carry down their-bricks to the,
31" r .Side, whence they arc transported by boats
19 ellah ; and a little to the N.N.E. of it is the
unions tree which the.:: natives call Athele, and,
ilnaintain to have been flourishiug ancientßa-.,
*Yl°l5, front the destruction of which they'say'
nAli od purposely ireserved it, that it might afford
a convetdenit spot to tie up his horse after the,
,mttle of ! it stands on a kind of ridge, '
:Old nothing more than one side of its trunk re-
(by which it appears to have been of con-
siderable.girth) ; yet r
-he branches at the top are
Ptill erfeetlY verdant, and gently waving in the
prothice a melancholy rustlieg sound. It is
e`.ergreen ntr . soniethi resembling the lignum,
41;1; aPd of a kind, Chelieve, not common in
' of the country, though I am told there
11; tree of the same description at Bassora."
The next remarkable description is of a vast
ThHia
called the Mukallihe or illtijdibb, which has
lut'g been considered as the remains Of the Toe. er
of Belos. 'We select this part as forming an. epi-
sodi.
dea! uetail, hest adapted to the extent of a
ewsliaPer Review :
lnile to the. north of the Kasr, or full -five
Fiver les distant from Hdl,th, and 950 yards from the
bank 4
be ,s
, the. last ruin of this sei les, which
lien (teserib,d dell Valle, who de
r)1 -
's;;lles it to have been the Tower of Befits, an
()111101) adopte
d nledhy Rennel. Ihe natives call it
(or, according to the vulgar .rab pro-
41:inci
ation .-
of these parts, Mujelibe). meaning
9tvVrturned sometimes also apply this term.
se't
the. ilionts ul • f the Kasr. it is of an oblong
oat), •
tit venial- m its height mul the measure--
,ti of its sides, •vhi(l. face the cardinal points
`e being 2,00 yards in
'length, the
13,rn- 919, the eastern 18.2, and the western
14.; the elevation of the S.E. or highest angle,
feVt. The western face, which is the least:
`, e 4 :s the most interesting, on account of Lhe
k;,;lanee of bAilding it presents. Near the
tin-in't of it appears a low wall,
with, interrttP-
t);l"). hnilt imburnt bricks mixed up with
ill ()Piled straw oi• reeds, and cemented with clay-
t:,....tar of great thiLkness, having between cl'ery
ai7'' laytr of reeds ; and on the north side arc
‘,.estigeS of a similar construction. The
ke ettorli:tte'e tern : ais crowned by something like a Wt.-
the other angles are in less per-
Vented"at but may originally have been orna-
in a similar manner. The western • face
111Ziets! and easiest of ascent, the northern the
trt;lLutileult: All'
are worn into furrows by the
I)ef -"e; and in some places, where several chan-
are' of rkill have United together, these furrows
ofuat, great depth, and penetrate a considerable
with lie Int° the moitud. The summit is covered
hll i.•cil alls of rubbish, in digging into some of
11/4.ti
' layers of broken burnt brick
-cemented
‘vith" Mortar are discovered, and whole bricks
fox, illSer'ptions on them, are here and there
t_ 1' .the whole is covered with innumerable
ITa.gments of pottery, brick, bitumen, pebbles,
t„If!, d brick. or. scoria, and even shells, bits of
kty lie
's, and Monier of pearl. On asking a Turk
in'agined these latter substances were
there, he replied, without the least he-
' the deluge." There are many
tvild beasts in various parts, in one of
Ilti:ls,th I round the bones 'of sheep 'and other ani-
Ai° -' rid Perceived a strong smell like that of a
a rig 11130 found_ quantities'of porcupine quills,
to most. of the cavities are numbers of bats
oMs. It is a curious coincidence, .that I
I"js. first beard the oriental account of satyrs.—
hatl always in agiued the belief of their
W exist-.:
"te
Ives ((molten to toe mythology
Jmneo of the est :
tt a C hNdar, who was with e when 00
'l4. I m
tine toot, mentioned by accident, that in
s:desert an animal is found resembling a man
:11 ,the hea4l to the waist, but having the thighs
A:(7egs of a si;eep or goat ; he said also that the
a-i 1-s hunt it-with dogs, and eat the lower part*,
4ctainiug oin ._lie upper, on account of their
thsell:;11)1al'ee to thOse of the human species. " But
their beast of the desert shall' lie there, and
antl 21"ses
he full of doleful creatures ;
clwi-°l4ll dwell there, and satyrs shall dance
'-'ere•" Isail2, ah, xiii. 21.
sit the northern face of the Mojeli4„
for nilnit, is a niche or recess, high enongh.
trlhic iiito stand upright in, at the.baeli of
, iow
lt.n aperture leading to a. small cayjty,
s3till i!..,J1,11".5a.e branches oti to the right, slop-
.l . aza3 ja 7x Westerly directioni till it_ loses