of Nineveh. One of these mounds, Nimroud, has been excavated and many great statues, tablets, etc., from it have been placed in the British Museum in London.

The plains of Mesopotamia lying between the Tigris and the hills abound in coarse alabaster, or gypsum, which is easily worked and valuable. The Assyrians used it for sculpture, ornaments, and for public buildings. They built walls five to fifteen feet thick of brick, then used slabs of alabaster for panels. On the back of each panel was an inscription giving the name, title, and descent of the king doing the work.

The Assyrians were great builders and were very proud of their palaces and other structures. One king describes his home, "A palace for my royal dwelling place, for the glorious seat of my royalty I founded for ever and splendidly planned it; I surrounded it with a cornice of copper. Sculptures of the creatures of land and sea carved in alabaster I made, and placed them at the doors. Lofty door posts of cedar wood I made, and sheathed them with copper and set them upon the gates. Thrones of costly woods, dishes of ivory containing silver, gold, lead, copper, and iron the spoil of my hand, taken from conquered lands I deposited therein."1

We have spoken of the libraries of Babylonia, but Nineveh contained the only really great literary library which has been excavated thus far in Babylonia or Assyria. It had a regular librarian and was open to the public, for the king recorded that he had written upon the tablets and placed them in his palace for the instruction of his people. The region about Nineveh is strewn with remains of pottery, bricks, and other remnants of an earlier civilization. Probably the open spaces between the mounds were once the grounds of private homes, gardens, or land for crops. Many cities have at different times been built on the site of ancient Nineveh, destroyed, and again rebuilt. Mesopotamia is dotted with the mounds of ruins which await

1 Jas Baikie, National Geographic Magazine, vol. xxix, No. 2.

the work of archæologists, some of whom tell us that at least one hundred cities lie buried in the Tigris-Euphrates basin.

Great warriors.-The Mesopotamian kings were a strange combination of savage force and artistic taste. One of them, Sargon II, carried the ten tribes of Israel, or the Northern Kingdom, into captivity after besieging their capital of Samaria for three years (2 Kings 18. 10, 11)., His son, Sennacherib, sent an army to attack Hezekiah of Judah, king of the Southern Kingdom, but a part of the great force was destroyed by pestilence and the Israelites were saved. "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians. . . . So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt in Nineveh" (2 Kings 19. 35, 36).

Although Sennacherib failed to capture Hezekiah, he exacted at various times a heavy tribute from him, "all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria" (2 Kings 18. 15, 16). This great plunderer conquered and destroyed Babylon. He even turned the waters of a canal across its site!

The Assyrians were very fond of dress and show. They were imitators and copied much of the art and literature of the Chaldeans. Their artisans were noted for working and casting metal, and used silver, copper, iron, lead, and perhaps gold. Pig iron was given as tribute to Egypt. They made no contribution to the human race and deserved Isaiah's name for them, "the ax of God" (see Isa. 10. 15).

"How art the mighty fallen?"-The prophets of God foretold the utter destruction of Nineveh, whose kings were cruel and whose people were wicked. "And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cor

morant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me" (Zeph. 2. 14, 15). The date of the final destruction of Nineveh is uncertain, but it was so complete that Xenophon and his army passed over its ruins about one hundred years later without knowing it. Though the very site of the ancient city was forgotten for about 2,000 years, the Arabs preserved the tradition of its location. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century scientists, chiefly English archæologists, have excavated various parts of its ruins.

1. Read the description of Assyria and the prophecy of its destruction in Ezekiel, chapter 31.

2. Read Lord Byron's poem, "The Destruction of Sennacherib." 3. If you were an archæologist and were going to work in the ruins of Mesopotamia, which city would you rather excavate, Nineveh or Babylon? Give the reasons for your

answer.

THE LAND OF THE HITTITES

Older than the civilization of Assyria and Babylonia is that of the Hittites, who dwelt in the valley of the Euphrates, southwest of Nineveh.

A nation feared by the mighty. The Hittites built many walled towns, the chief of which were Kadesh, "the holy city," on the Orontes River, and Carchemish, the modern Jerablus, on the Euphrates.

These cities were so powerful that Rameses II of Egypt was glad to make peace with them, and marry the king's daughter. They troubled the Assyrians greatly, until King Sargon captured their rich capital, Carchemish, and made it the seat of a governor of the province, in B. C. 717. From this time the Hittites disappeared from history. The ruins of their civilization have been unearthed but recently.

Promoters of civilization.-The Hittites had many books and a system of picture-writing, the remains of which have been found at Aleppo, Carchemish, and in the ruined cities in Asia Minor. Their civilization was carried into Greece and other parts of eastern Europe. The Amazons of Greek mythology were the priestesses of the Hittite goddess Ashtoreth, in whose honor they wore armor. The Greek cities "founded by the Amazons" were really built by the Hittites. More will be heard about these ancient people as we journey through Palestine, Asia Minor, and Greece.

A city in the midst of ruins.-One stands on the site of Sennacherib's palace and looks across the river to the city of Mosul. As in the case of most Oriental cities, distance lends enchantment, for it is extremely dirty and ill-smelling, especially in its market place.

Travelers often called Mosul "the most inaccessible city in the Turkish empire." The completion of the Bagdad Railroad will restore to it its trade and former importance. Its situation at the head of navigation on the Tigris River gives it a strong military position. Whoever controls it will possess the great valley of the Tigris-Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Most of the many rafts that float down the upper Tigris are taken apart here. The skins are sold and the poles carried back on donkeys to upper Mesopotamia. Mosul is now a thoroughfare for caravans between Syria, Bagdad, and Constantinople, and carries on extensive trade with Kurdistan.

The home of muslin. The looms of Mosul formerly manufactured many cotton cloths, such as napkins and chintz shawls for the turbans which one sees on the head of nearly every Arab he meets.

Famines and plagues have devastated the city repeatedly. Manufacturing has almost ceased, so the merchants import their cottons and other goods largely from England. The region surrounding Mosul has fertile soil. It is capable of raising crops

of cotton, rice, wheat, and barley when it is again irrigated as it was in Jonah's time and at a later period when Ezekiel said of this region: "The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants" (Ezek. 31. 4).

1. Will Mosul be as great a city in the future as Bagdad? Give the reason for your answer.

2. What effect will the fact that England has practical control of Mesopotamia have on the future development of the country?