very successful, and it was literally true that up to 1842, "a case 3 feet square enclosed all that remained, not only of the great city Nineveh, but of Babylon itself." In 1842 M. Botta, a French Consul stationed at Mosul on the Tigris, began to dig, and after fruitless labour at the mound of Kouyunjik, opposite Mosul, was directed by a native to Khorsabad, and there, on cutting a trench, entered a hall lined all round with sculptured slabs, representing battles, sieges, and similar events. A new and wonderful world was suddenly opened, and he walked as in a dream. The discovery created an immense sensation in Europe, and the spirit of research and enterprise was effectually aroused.
The investigation was soon taken up by Mr Austen Henry Layard, our own countryman, and the objects found were brought to the British Museum, which now boasts a splendid collection. After getting over preliminary difficulties—the interesting story of which may be found in his volumes on "Nineveh and its Remains"—Mr Layard obtained a grant of money from the Museum, with full licence from the Turkish Government, and then succeeded in organizing a band of Arabs to work willingly and well, and from that moment made new discoveries every day.
One morning, as he was going to the scene of operations—they were digging in the mound of Nimroud—two Arabs galloped up to him, and said, "Hasten, O Bey, 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!" What they had seen was a sculptured human head, which, upon removing more earth, was seen to belong to a winged quadruped—one of those colossal "bulls" since deposited at the British Museum. A "bull" we say, but really a monster with the body of a bull (sometimes the body of a lion), the head of a man, and the wings of an eagle—the Assyrian idea of the cherubim. Many of these objects were sur-
