The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1885-08-21
ANCIENT BABYLON.
The Garden Of The Ancient world-A splen.
e. did City.

In the current number of The Brit
ish and Foreign Evangelical Revie,o
there Is finc description of ancient
Babylon, translated from the Germs6
OF +. Delitzsch, tho eminent Assyriolo-
gist, who invites his readers to accom-
pany him in walk through that city
as 1t was b. q. 568, or about eight
years before Nebuchadnezzar's death.
Before entering tho city they view the
surrounding country: 1.-The Baby
lonia pf tho present day resembles a
deserts out of which arise mounds and
and ruins, solitary and grave nearly
all thc4canals arc chokcd with sand;
tho shepherds wandering alone, with
their tlocks nibbling tho sparse grass,
are almost tho only human dwellers
over the whole plateau. How differ
ont was 1t in olden times! Between
3. q. 1000 and 500 Babylonia was tho
garden of tho ancient world. Tho
land, surrounded like an island by two
Of tho finest streams in tho world, tho
Euphratos 'and Tigris-tllo rivers of
paradiso-is truly the gift of both.
They flowed with swift current from
tho Armenian highlands into tho sea
now known as the Persian gulf. In tho
course of centuries large masses of
loan were rolled down and hcaped ut
their original mouths, and this is what
is now called Babylonia. Il was on
this soaked, fat, and fertile soil that
tho oldest civilization, not of Asia
merely, but of tho world, developed
itsclf." The melting of tho Armenian
SHOWS caused foundations which had
to be checked by damming tho rivers
with dikes and walls. Canals served
for navigation, and also led off the
supcriluOus waters to parts unaffected
by the overflow, and developed to such
n degree their fertility that wheat
and barley often gave tho Ia.
borer two hundred or three
hundred fold. Near Bigdad tho
two rivers arc so near that only six
hours are required to pass from ono to
the other. On this tongue of land,
which was once fourth narrower
Qor tho Euphrates has since removed
its bed further wcstward), the great
canal system commenced; and by
means of still smaller arteries the life-
giving waters wero distributed to
nearly cvcry tree. Tho district be-
tween Bagdad and Hilla "a three days
ride) was formerly strcwcd with heaps
of towns and villages. 10 its south,
in tho very heart of tho land, lay
Babylon, ''tho cato of God.". Its
commercial importance is described,
its Notifications, the Euphrates (half a
mile wide), swarming with ships of
every size; the largest Euphratos
bridge, built by Ncbuchadnezzar; the
different quarters and great buildings;
tho royal bank, where important busl-
moss, public and private, was trans
acted. "The conditions and bargains
arc first, perhaps, put down on papy-
rus rolls. then carefully written out on
clay tablets in cunciform writing, to
which each party aflixcs his seal, or in
default of it his iiDgcrnail, whcreupon
the tablet is baked" In running back
over tho history, two or three import
ant periods arc noticed; but the mis-
take is made of saying that it was only
eight years since Samassumukin's re-
bellion against the Assyrian rule.
|. Eighty years must be meant. Many
may not know that forty-two years
before this, when Merodach baiadan
had rebcllcd, Scnnacherib, in 600 B.
g.. marched against the city, gave it
up to the flames. left not one stonc on
another, dug canals through its ruins
to bury it under water, land, as ho
says in his annals, overthrow it ovon
more than was done by tho dclugc." +"
Delitzsch's reconstruction has bccn Of
fnpfnI l,u YOoano of tl,u tl,rno ,,,;rI, ~,