at Carchemish. That great mound of
Carchemish needs to be thoroughly explored. Already an English
expedition has very carelessly just opened the hill and exposed, but not
fairly published, some few as fine friezes as are to be found in the
Assyrian capitals, with unread Hittite inscriptions, and a fine statue
of the Hittite Venus; but much remains to reward the student of Oriental
history and art. At Senjirli a German expedition under Von Luschan has
done more and better work, handsomely published, but this was a smaller
Syrian town, and less was to be expected; and yet here, and near by,
were found what was not expected, steles (upright slabs or pillars) with
the portraits of kings in high relief, covered over with long
inscriptions in Aramaic, the oldest and longest as yet discovered
anywhere in that language. It was a magnificent result of very moderate
labor,--Hittite friezes, Assyrian and Aramean inscriptions all in one
little mound. But for the most part we know the art and writing of the
Hittites from what we have found above ground, in their towns and
fortresses in the hills, for little digging has been done. At Pterium
was a principal sacred capital, and there, on a natural corridor of
rock, they carved a procession of gods and kings and soldiers that
excites the wonder of scholars. As I write, the announcement comes that
Professor Sayce has at last discovered the secret of the Hittite
hieroglyphs, and we may hope that very soon it will be possible to read
them. But there is vastly more of their records yet to be disinterred.

And there remain the two lands most sacred and beloved in poetry and
history,--the land of Israel and the land of Homer. It is amazing that
so little search has been made to find out what is hidden under the soil
of Palestine. Scholars in plenty have walked over the top of it, and
have told all that is on the surface, but almost nothing has been done
underground, no such excavations as in Egypt or Assyria. I do not forget
that the English Palestine Exploration Fund has followed out, with
trenches and tunnels, the walls of Jerusalem, nor that one or two old
mounds have been partly explored. But what is this to the great work
that needs to be done? There has been found on the surface the Moabite
Stone, at the old capital of Dibon, a wonderful record of early kings
mentioned in the Bible. And there is the short account in the rock-cut
conduit of Siloam, of the success of the workmen in the t