atables. As soon as the bread was ready,
they began their meal. The women also seated themselves, and I
thought that the modern Arabs were sufficiently advanced in
civilization to give my sex their place at table. But to my regret
I saw the poor women, instead of helping themselves from the dishes,
take straw fans to keep off the flies from the heads of their
husbands. They may have had their meal afterwards in the house, for
I did not see them eat anything, either upon the terraces or in the
courts. They all slept upon the terraces. Both men and women
wrapped themselves in rugs, and neither the one nor the other took
off any of their clothing.

1st June. I had ordered for this morning two fresh horses and Arabs
as a guard, that I might proceed with some safety to the ruins of
Birs Nimroud. These ruins are situated six miles distant from
Hilla, in the desert or plain of Shinar, near the Euphrates, upon a
hill 265 feet high, built of bricks, and consist of the fragments of
a wall twenty-eight feet long, on one side thirty feet high, and on
the other thirty-five. The greater part of the bricks are covered
with inscriptions. Near this wall lie several large blackish blocks
which might be taken for lava, and it is only on closer examination
that they are found to be remains of walls. It is supposed that
such a change could only have been brought about by lightning.

People are not quite unanimous in their opinions with respect to
these ruins. Some affirm that they are the remains of the Tower of
Babel, others that they are those of the Temple of Baal.

There is an extensive view from the top of the hill over the desert,
the town of Hilla with its charming palm-gardens, and over
innumerable mounds of rubbish and brick-work. Near these ruins
stands an unimportant Mahomedan chapel, which is said to be on the
same spot where, according to the Old Testament, the three youths
were cast into the furnace for refusing to worship idols.

In the afternoon I was again in Hilla. I looked over the town,
which is said to contain 26,000 inhabitants, and found it built like
all Oriental towns. Before the Kerbela gates is to be seen the
little mosque Esshems, which contains the remains of the prophet
Joshua. It completely resembles the sepulchre of the Queen Zobiede
near Baghdad.

Towards evening the family of my obliging host, together with some
other women and children, paid me a visit. Their natural good sense
had