The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-07

D0ODOOO0OS three days without food of any sort and with oniy the most miserable brackish and scanty water, and constantly expect ing attack.
 During these three days, nevertheless. the Baron continued hls work, photo- araphlng measuring and making memo
 randa, copying inscriptions by day, ana by night sleeping on the monGIhshss asc-,s ~" sd and proved to be 8 detachment sent out
 This party, however. had itself con sumed the food it was bringing to the ex- plorers, and it was necessary 10 push on six hours riding before the caravan, which meantime had given up the bafoh and his companions for dead, was reached.
 town, the houses of which were or most peculiar construction, arrested attehtoh: 1t was a city partly excavated out or the solid rock, and partly built or stone tons of these abodss. as well as the parts above ground, were adorned With elaborate sculpture. occasionally or hisn
 City Built in the Rock. Nothing like this city has before been uiation of the place was probably 2o,oo, and the entire architecture. domestic anu pubiic was of this peculiar description. No inscriptions were found here. and yet no conjecture is ventured as 10 the aa.e of the construction. or as to the charae- | ter of the people who inhabited It; l Baron Oppenheim thinks it possible that refuge from the heat was one opJect sought by the subterranean ouiioers' safety, perhaps. another
 Every few miles, while in this region, the party would come upon the remains of castles. churches and clusters of houses. generally in ruins. but sometimes
 standing as if abandoned but yesterday; Basilicas were so well preserved that
 nave aisles and apse were easily dis-
 tinguished. Arches sprung out or 1eids
 of debris which when examined proved
 to be stones of early Christian churches
 some of them marked with the cross,
 Great castles built by the Crusaders were
 frequently almost intact.
 But the remains of sun carrier tiiilSs
 were equally abundant if further ad- vanced in diiapidation. Here were Wit nesses to the occupation of the land by the Gfeeks-mosaics, art works, lnscrip- tions in Hellenic-while Assyrian inscrip.. | tions and Babylonian reliefS spoke or times most remote.
 Frequent evidences of aqueducts were | seen, many cisterns and traces or canals | found. For many successive miles the | journey would be a continuous progress amid ruins
 Between Tigris and Euphrates. | The areas shown by Baron Oppenheim | to have been the chief seats of the civili- | zations now brought to light lie between l the head waters of the Tigris and the l Euphrates Rivers. or more particularly | between two affluents of the Euphratss, | the Belich and the Chabur Rivers. The | discoveries made by Layard, Sayce and other Assyriologists were much further to the south and east. It was in a hill | known as Tel Halaf. on the banks of the | Chabur, that the point of culminating in | terest was reached. l It seems that the Baron's Bedouin | friends brought strange reports to him | of this locality, sprtnging out of the cir Il cumstance that one of their number had | dug into the hill in the filial act of bury | ing his father. The singular character | of the debris which he disturbed, the | curiously cut stones that came to light, | the terrifying heads of beasts and men
 that presently appeared, frightened the poor fellow away.
 | The father was buried in another place
 and the abandoned hill acquired the fame | of a terrible and unearthly spot. Curi- | ousiy enough this episode led to one of
 Baron oppenheimer's most interesting
 Palace of MitanIi King. | An attack on the hill was immediately | begun. and a very short time sufiieed | to thrill the investigators with the cer- | tainty that they were on the verge of l the excavation, although naturally il
 could be carried but little way, were | of the most extreme importance. l Three shafts were sunk, and 1t was
 made clear beyond doubt that here was | the ruin, still marvelously preserved, of l the palace of a king who ruled over d circuit of cities before Nineyeh was | founded Here was the seat of a power
 long antedating that of Asurbanipal; of | which vestiges have yet been unearthed on the Assyrian plains.
 It was, in fact, the palace of king of | ( NI,, fAA VsN whom so many mysterious references are made in the ancient inscriptions else where brought to light, but of whom no undoubted remains have ever before been found.
 The first excavation lay bare the sup porting wall of gate of the palace. cu- riously sculptured. On one stone is carved a pacing lion. On another Is a ailegorical figure of the God of the Hunt, holding in hts right hand the hide of 8 slain beast, in the left dub or javelin. | The figure stands en facesS in eontradis- | tinction to all ancient Assyrian reliefs, | in which human figures are invariably | depicted with the head in profile. On an 4 etiasre stone is deer fleeing before a hunter.
 I Figure of Goddess Found. On still another stone of the wall is | face, this again en face The bull is drawn with horns, hair dressed in a man
 ner suggesting the Egyptian style. and with a crown.
 Other excavations developed many tor | sos of beast, grifiins and mythological an- | imal ofrms.
 But the fnd most interesting of all was | the figure of a goddess, laid bare by | the last excavation made. It is bust. | three times the human size, mounted on | a column into which it passes with an | ease and naturalness sought in vain by l later sculptOrs who attempt this form, l The whole is monolith of black basaitic | stone.
 l Instead of shoulders and arms. square | pilasters run down from the shoulders, 1 with folded wings falling at the sides.
 tact, would be large; eyeballs had been | fixed in the sockets, and one was found | of smooth basaitic stone laid in white | gypsum.
 | The head bears no downfalling locks | of hair, but locks are arranged about it. | and from these depends the most remark | able feature of ala veil. It is perfectly | evident from the folds and lines below | the chin and about the sides of the head | together with the lack of definition given | the features, that the sculptor intend sd | representing a yelled figure; he has in- | deed done so with considerable artistic | success.
 "In the eiled Lady of Tel Halaf we | may have before us the earliest example | of a yelled statue" said the Baron. Per
 haps We have to do here with the halnc | Babylonian goddess named in the Old | Tes lament Ishtar, which became The Sy-