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a gauge which enables us to measure how low in these dark localities the whole stratum of society has sunk.

2. JUVENILE IGNORANCE AND MISERY.

People who find it difficult enough, with all the appliances of a good education and religious training, to keep their children in the paths of honesty and rectitude, wonder that there is so much crime. If they saw what some of us have seen, and knew what some of us have known, they would still wonder, but wonder there was so little crime. To expect from those who have been reared in the darkest ignorance, and in a very hot-bed of temptations, anything else but crime, is sheer folly. A man might as well wonder that he does not see wheat or barley growing in our streets-where plough never goes, and where no seed is sown. What can a farmer expect to find in a field left fallow, abandoned to wild nature, to the floating thistle-down, and every seed furnished with wings to fly, but evidence of his own neglect, in a rank vile crop of weeds?

Look at the case of a boy whom I saw lately. He was but twelve years of age, and had been seven times in jail. The term of his imprisonment had run out, and so he had doffed the prison garb and resumed his own. It was the depth of winter; and having neither shoes nor stockings, his red, naked feet, were upon the frozen ground. Had you seen him shivering in his scanty dress-the misery pictured on an otherwise comely face-the tears that went dropping over his cheeks as the child told his pitiful story--you would have forgotten that he had been a thief, and only seen before you an unhappy creature more worthy of a kind word, a loving look, a helping hand, than the guardianship of a turnkey and the dreary solitude of a jail. His mother was in the grave. His father had married another woman. They both were drunkards. Their den, which is in the High Street I know the place-contained one bed, reserved for the father, his wife, and her child. No couch was kindly spread for this poor child and his brother, a mother's son, then also immured in the jail. When they were fortunate enough to be allowed to lie at home, their only bed was the hard bare floor. I say fortunate enough, because on many a winter night their own father hounded them out. Ruffian that he was, he drove his infants weeping from the door, to break their young hearts and bewail their cruel lot in the corner of some filthy stair, and sleep away the cold dark hours as best they could, crouching together for warmth, like two houseless dogs. A friend listened with me to that too true tale, and when he saw the woe, the utter woe in that child's face, the trembling of his lip, the great big tears that came rolling from his eyes, and . fell on one's heart like red-hot drops of iron, no wonder that he declared, with indignation flashing in his eyes, "They have not a chance, sir; they have not a chance." In circumstances as hopeless, how many are there in every large city of the kingdom!

AUSTIN LAYARD.

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XXV. AUSTIN LAYARD.

AUSTIN LAYARD, the most famous traveller of our day, was born in Paris in 1817. His grandfather had been Dean of Bristol, and his father held an important office in Ceylon. Part of his youth was spent in Florence, where he acquired the Italian language, a taste for antiquities, and considerable skill as an artist. On his return to England, it was intended that he should study for the law; but after a brief trial of the profession, his love of adventure prevailed, and he set out on a continental tour, in which he visited Russia, and several of the northern kingdoms, Germany, and Turkey. From Turkey he passed into Asia, and in the course of a lengthened sojourn in Arabia and Asiatic Turkey, he made himself thoroughly acquainted with the languages, customs, and objects of interest of these countries. Of these early travels several memoirs were written and communicated to the Royal Geographical Society. In 1842, while passing through Mosul on his way to Constantinople, he heard of the excavations of the French Consul, M. Botta, on the site of the ancient Nineveh, and this first excited his interest in the subject with which his name is now indissolubly connected. In 1845, by the assistance of the British ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, he was enabled to commence operations at Nimroud. The amazing discoveries which were made, so full of interest to the antiquarian and the student of sacred history, have been narrated by him in his " Nineveh and its Remains," which was published in London in 1849, in two volumes; and a subsequent volume contains an account of the discoveries made since that date. No discovery of equal importance has been made by any modern traveller; and his works, without any pretensions to the graces of style, are among the most interesting which this age has produced.

1. DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT LIONS AT NIMROUD.

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In the morning I rode to the encampment of Sheikh Abd-ur-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, O 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 pious 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 workmen who had already seen me as I approached-standing near a heap of baskets and cloaks. Whilst Awad1 advanced and asked for a present to celebrate the occasion, the Arabs withdrew the screen they had hastily constructed, and disclosed an enormous human head sculptured in full out of the alabaster of the country

1 Chief of a small Arab tribe, and the host of Mr Layard.

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 admirable preservation. The expression was calm, yet majestic, and the outline of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art scarcely to be looked for in the works of so remote a period. The cap had three horns, and, unlike that of the human-headed bulls hitherto found in Assyria, was rounded and without ornament at the top.

I was not surprised that the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. It required no stretch of the 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 pictured 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 learned this with regret, as I anticipated the consequences.

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-urrahman, followed by half his tribe, appeared on the edge of the trench. As soon as the two Arabs had 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 truth 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 examination, all the bystanders concurred.

I ascertained by the end of March the existence of a second pair of winged human-headed lions, differing from those previously discovered in form, the human shape being continued to the waist, and furnished with arms. In one hand each figure carried a goat or stag, and in the other, which hung down by the side, a branch with three flowers. They formed a northern entrance into the chamber of which the lions previously described were the southern portal. I completely uncovered the latter, and found them to be entire. They were about twelve feet in height, and the same number in length. The body and limbs were admirably portrayed; the muscles and bones, although strongly developed to display the strength of the animal, showed at the same time a correct knowledge of its anatomy and form. Expanded wings sprung from the shoulder and spread

DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT LIONS AT NIMROUD.

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over the back; a knotted girdle, ending in tassels, encircled the loins. These sculptures, forming an entrance, were partly in full and partly in relief. The head and fore-part, facing the chamber, were in full; but only one side of the rest of the slab was sculptured, the back being placed against the wall of sun-dried bricks. That the spectator might have both a perfect front and side view of the figures, they were furnished with five legs; two were carved on the end of the slab to face the chamber, and three on the side. The relief of the body and three limbs was high and bold, and the slab was covered, in all parts not occupied by the image, with inscriptions in the cuneiform character. These magnificent specimens of Assyrian art were in perfect preservation; the most minute lines in the details of the wings and in the ornaments had been retained with their original freshness. Not a character was wanting in the inscriptions.

I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious emblems, and muse over their intent and history. What more noble forms could have ushered the people into the temple of their gods? What more sublime images could have been borrowed from nature by men who sought, unaided by the light of revealed religion, to embody their conception of the wisdom, power, and ubiquity of a Supreme Being? They could find no better type of intellect and knowledge than the head of the man; of strength, than the body of the lion; of rapidity of motion, than the wings of the bird. These winged human-headed lions were not idle creations, the offspring of mere fancy; their meaning was written upon them. They had awed and instructed races which flourished three thousand years ago. Through the portals which they guarded, kings priests, and warriors had borne sacrifices to their altars, long before the wisdom of the East had penetrated to Greece, and had furnished its mythology with symbols long recognised by the Assyrian votaries. They may have been buried, and their existence may have been unknown, before the foundation of the eternal city. For twentyfive centuries they had been hidden from the eye of man, and now they stood forth once more in their ancient majesty. But how changed was the scene around them! The luxury and civilization of a mighty nation had given place to the wretchedness and ignorance of a few half-barbarous tribes. The wealth of temples, and the riches of great cities, had been succeeded by ruins and shapeless heaps of earth. Above the spacious hall in which they stood, the plough had passed and the corn now waved. Egypt has monuments no less ancient and no less wonderful; but they have stood forth for ages to testify her early power and renown; whilst those before me had but now appeared to bear witness, in the words of the prophet, that once the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and with a shadowing shroud of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied; and his branches became long, because of the multitude of waters when

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he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations;' for now is "Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness, and flocks lie down in the midst of her: all the beasts of the nations, both the cormorant and bittern, lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice sings in the windows; and desolation is in the thresholds."1

2. LOWERING AND REMOVING THE GREAT BULL.—(“ NINEVEH,”

CHAP. XIII.)

The men being ready, and all my preparations complete, I stationed myself on the top of the high bank of earth over the second hill, and ordered the wedges to be struck out from under the sculpture to be moved. Still, however, it remained firmly in its place. A rope having been passed round it, six or seven men easily tilted it over. The thick, ill-made cable, stretched with the strain, and almost buried itself in the earth round which it was coiled. The ropes held well. The mass descended_gradually, the Chaldæans propping it up firmly with the beams. It was a moment of great anxiety. The drums and shrill pipes of the Kurdish musicians increased the din and confusion caused by the war-cry of the Arabs, who were half frantic with excitement. They had thrown off nearly all their garments; their long hair floated in the wind; and they indulged in the wildest postures and gesticulations as they clung to the ropes. The women had congregated on the sides of the trenches, and by their incessant screams, and by the ear-piercing tahlehl, added to the enthusiasm of the men. The bull once in motion, it was no longer possible to obtain a hearing. The loudest cries I could produce were buried in the heap of discordant sounds. Neither the hippopotamus-hide whips of the cawasses, nor the bricks and clods of earth with which I endeavoured to draw attention from some of the most noisy of the group, were of any avail. Away went the bull, steady enough as long as supported by the props behind; but as it came nearer to the rollers, the beams could no longer be used. The cable and ropes stretched more and more. Dry from the climate, as they felt the strain, they creaked and threw out dust. Water was thrown over them, but in vain, for they all broke together when the sculpture was within four or five feet of the rollers. The bull was precipitated to the ground. Those who held the ropes, thus suddenly released, followed its example, and were rolling one over the other, in the dust. A sudden silence succeeded to the clamour. I rushed into the trenches, prepared to find the bull in many pieces. It would be difficult to describe my satisfaction, when I saw it lying precisely where I had wished to place it, and uninjured! The Arabs no sooner got on their legs

1 Ezekiel xxxi. 3, &c.; Zephaniah ii. 13 and 14.

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