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the stamps of Sargon I. and Naram-Sin, his son, and its date, therefore, is just a thousand years prior to the buildings of Ur-Gur-namely B.C. 3800. the inscriptions of both these kings we know that they both built large portions of an older temple of Mullil, for the bricks bear the inscription, "builder of the temple of Millil," and dedicated a number of vases to the temple inscribed with their legends. These buildings have been entirely removed, and the surface of the vast platform levelled for the reception of the edifices of Ur-Gur.

Of the old temple there is evidence afforded by a discovery to which we shall shortly refer. Proof, however, of the great buildings of Sargon and his son is afforded by some excavations to the north-west of the temple. Here was a line of mounds which marked a rampart, and Mr. Haynes in 1895 cleared a portion of it and unearthed one of the most extraordinary pieces of masonry ever discovered. The foundation consisted of a solid bed of clay mixed with straw and puddled down, resembling some of the constructions found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik. Upon this foundation and plinth was constructed a solid brick wall, fifty-two feet in thickness and rising to an unknown height. The builder of this wall was NaramSin, whom so many have regarded as a mythical king. It is probable that this rampart formed also a broad roadway round the city, and it may possibly, as Mr. Haynes suggests, have had a row of chambers in its upper part. A similar wall, but less than half as thick, was found by M. de Sarzec at Tello.

Directly to the south-east of the great tower and close to the great rampart Mr. Haynes discovered a chamber 11m. long, 3.54m. wide, and 2.60 high. As there was no doorway, it was evidently a vault entered from above. Its floor rested upon the platform of Naram-Sin, and it formed a communication between the two strata. The inscribed bricks proved it to have been built by Ur-Gur. What was its purpose is explained by the discovery of a second chamber of the same kind immediately below it. In this second chamber a brick stamp of

Sargon was found imbedded, and broken stamps and some few tablets were found in the room. The explanation is now easy. Round the walls ran a narrow shelf, on which some tablets and brick stamps were found. The chambers were the archive chambers of the temple; the smaller one that of Sargon, which had been partly restored by Ur-Gur, while the second was that of the king, built up to the level of his own pavement.

Mr. Haynes, encouraged by the success of his work in the upper stratum, proceeded to excavate to reach the virgin soil, which he did at the depth of 9.25 mètres, passing through the débris of ruined buildings, accumulations of broken pottery, and fragments of inscribed stone objects and well-constructed drains. These remains prove the existence of at least two temples below the pavement of Naram-Sin, which at the most rapid rate of débris accumulation cannot be assigned to a later date than between six and seven thousand years before the Christian

era.

This lowest stratum has been much disturbed and the buildings pillaged; still, sufficient remains to reveal to us earlier phases of Babylonian civilization than we have ever seen. The first structure discovered was an altar of sun-dried bricks, 4m. by 2.46. The upper course had a rim of bitumen, and upon the altar was a large deposit of Waite ashes. Round the altar was a low wall marking the sacred enclosure. Outside of this enclosure were found two immense vases of terra cotta. These great specimens of early pottery were each 63.5cm. high, and decorated with rope pattern. We have here in this simple, sacred precinct the germ from which sprang the great temples of Chaldea-the altar, with its teminos, entered only by the priest, and the two great vases for purification, replaced in af.er-times by the greater and lesser absu, placed before the temples. somewhat similar construction was discovered at Sippara, but its archæological value was not recognized. Southeast of the altar was found a remark

A

able structure, a brick platform, 7m. square and 3.38m. high, built of fine, unbaked bricks. Round the base of this Mr. Haynes found a quantity of watervents which indicated a connection with some receptacle below, and on sinking beneath this solid mass he found a drain passing underneath the platform, in the roof of which was the earliest known keystone arch. It is 71cm. high and has a span of 51cm. The bricks are well baked and joined with stiff clay as mortar. Thus in priority of Chaldea in the use of the keystone arch is clearly established.

This structure was over 7m. below the pavement of Ur-Gur and 4.57 below that of Naram-Sin, and, since there were no massive ziggurats or great temples to crumble into ruin, it must have taken many centuries to build up so great a mass of débris, and an estimate of from fifteen hundred to two thousand years before the time of Sargon does not seem too high.

Over twenty-six thousand tablets, as well as numerous inscribed fragments O vases and stela, have been recovered from this site. It must be remembered that the record chambers of both Sargon and Ur-Gur were sacked by the Elamite invaders of Kudur-Nakhunte in B.C. 2205, and this will account for so few inscribed records being found in the lowest strata. That, however, there had been numerous records of the pre-Sargon period which had been removed to the treasury of Sargon, and subsequently to that of Ur-Gur, is shown by a most important find. Under a pavement of Ur-Ninip, a king of the dynasty of Ur-Gur, were found quantities-some hundreds of broken vases and other objects that had been votive offerings to the shrines of Mullil from the earliest times. . . .

All of these records relate to a series of primitive wars and form certainly, whatever their age may be, the oldest historical records known. The earliest of these is the inscription of "Eshagsagana,” written in most archaic characters-this monarch is styled "Lord of Kengi," that is, Lower Babylonia, "the land of channels and reeds." In his .ime

the chief enemy of Babylonia was the city of Kish, the modern El Hymer, whose priest ruler had entered into alliance with some fierce tribes called "the hosts of the Land of the Bow." . . The closing episode of this first of wars is supplied by a monument discovered by M. de Sarzec at Tello, the celebrated stela of the Vultures now in the Louvre. In this monument erected by the King of Lagash, when a dynasty of kings was established after that of Ur, we have the record illustrated by sculpture of the king, who made a victorious campaign, and utterly defeated the "hordes of the Land of the Bow."

After this, neither in the campaigns of Sargon or his son nor in any chronicles of the Babylonian empire, have we any record of these people. Who were they, then? Professor Hilprecht has put forward, in a most dogmatic manner, a theory that they are to be identified with the Semitic tribes of North Mesopotamia, and that the "City of the Bow" was Harran. He cites no ancient authority, no pre-Sargonic mention of Harran, but only a statement of Albiruni "that Harran was built in the form of a crescent moon," and that the plan of the ruins resembled a bow. It is surprising to see so brilliant a scholar using so feeble an argument. It is rather to the plains of Central Mesopotamia and the lowlands between the Tigris and the Kurdish mountains that we must look for the home of these nomadic warriors.

We have been able to give only a brief account of the wonderful work of this campaign, which reflects so much credit on its organizers, and, above all, on Mr. Haynes. For thirty-two months he lived alone among the wildest Arab tribes in Mesopotamia, in an atmosphere of fever varied with cholera. One determined, but fortunately unsuccessful, attempt was made upon his life; yet amid all these surroundings he lived and did the work of three men. It is no overpraise to say that Mr. Haynes is justly entitled to take his place in the front rank of explorers along with those who have restored to us the first chapters of the world's history.

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II. THE AMULET. Part II. From the Italian of Neera. Translated for The Living Age by Mrs. Maurice Perkins,

III. WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE WORLD OF

LETTERS. By Alice Stopford Green, Nineteenth Century,

IV. THE MODERN PENTATHLUM.

ace G. Hutchinson,

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By Hor

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V. A DOUBTFUL ACQUISITION.
Grant Robertson,

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VI. THE KING OF SIAM. By B. A.
VII. PEREZ GALDOS AND PEREDA IN THE

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GREEN PASTURES.

When all thy soul with city dust is dry, Seek some green spot where a brook tin

kles by:

But, if thy lot deny thee nook and brook,

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Turn to green thoughts in a fresh leafy After long years, you would still have the

book.

FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE.

KEATS.

Laughing thou said'st, "Twere hell for thee to fail

In thy vast purpose, in thy brave design, Ere thy young cheek, with passion's venomed wine

Flushed and grew pale, ah me! flushed and grew pałe!

Where is thy music now? In hearts that pine

O'erburdened, for the clamorous world

too frail,

Yet love the charmèd dusk, the nightingale,

Not for her sweet sake only, but for thine. Thy name is writ in water, ay, 'tis writ As when the moon, a chill and friendless thing,

Passes and writes her will upon the tide,

And piles the ocean in a moving ring: And every stagnant bay is brimmed with it,

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HOME.

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From The Fortnightly Review.
ENGLAND AND THE EUROPEAN

CONCERT.

No one who has studied the drift of public opinion in England during the last month or two can have failed to observe that the policy of non-intervention has made great strides. Like all great revolutions, whether social or political, this change has shown itself by countless eddies on the surface, which, though calm now, needs but little to lash it into fury. The signs of the time clearly show that people are beginning to think that, however wise it may have been at one time, Lord Beacons field's Foreign Policy is a menace to our welfare, and must lead us into an European newspaper or magazine of any weight, metropolitan or provincial-the latter especially, being in the nature of things more in touch with the true people of the country-which has not lately ap proached this subject in an inquiring spirit and from the standpoint of acquiescence in a change.

war. There is hardly

a

But the undertow which produces the swirl above is not noticeable in the press alone. In the lobby of the House of Commons, in the smoking-room, or on the terrace, expression is now frequently given to some such view; and were not a seat in Parliament in almost every case a seat on a fence, instead of these views being enunciated with 'bated breath they would find practical expression in a hundred and fifty methods, and would bring about a fundamental change. But naturally on such a delicate question as our foreign policy an ordinary member is no more permitted to express his opinion than a sound Catholic on miracles. Discipline is essential; and the greater interest (their seats) contains the less (the country). But even a member of Parliament is supposed in some dim way to represent the general consensus of educated and intelligent opinion of his constituency, though his raison d'être, even with limited suffrage, is that which is neither. A man must almost always vote on party lines without shadow of turning on questions in

volving war or peace. No heresy is less easily forgiven than a departure from and wisely so, for a government going the party tradition of foreign politics, to war must be backed by the voting machine.

bad

essentially the Now, at the present moment, this is the days of Cromwell, has never been case. England, since as she now is, for a Conservative maso completely in the hands of one man jority is from the nature of things slavish. An individual Radical or Liberal is permitted to differ occasionally from his leader because his leader is often no better than himself socially. But no one will deny that amongst Conservative members the commanding social tensely aristocratic tendencies, and farposition of Lord Salisbury, his reaching social influence have rendered inthe present majority of the House mere puppets in his hands. To vote against him would be "bad form," and form, in a county, loses surely than a breach of the Commandseats more ments up to and including the Seventh. plébiscite could be taken, Lord SalisBut there can be little doubt that if a bury's most recent and present policy out of harmony with the general opinabroad would be shown to be entirely ion statement will be challenged; but any of the country. Naturally this one who moves in the classes and masses, in contact with Society (big S) mercials, naval and military men; an society (small s): amongst a traveller and reader of foreign newspapers and reviews, being honestly in search of the truth, unshackled by party opinion of any kind, and merely anxious to discover bona fide opinion ticle of the paid political agent, will as distinct from the manufactured arfind but two opinions: the first and by far the largest, that the country would not follow Lord Salisbury's policy to port the Turk against all comers, and its logical conclusion—namely, to supRussia in particular; and the second tention of doing so. that Lord Salisbury himself has no in

com

the country. Should we go to wa
Now, this is an important point

or

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