SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

69

privileges conferred by Seleucus upon his own city. Thus in a short time afterwards Babylon became wholly deserted and desolate, nothing remaining of her but the empty houses and walls.

These remains of her ancient grandeur, however, resisted for many centuries the general ruin; for the walls, at least, were still standing in the fourth century after Christ. They served a singular purpose; for the whole area of the ancient city was turned into a park of wild beasts by the Parthian kings, who took their sport within the enclosure, the walls being preserved and repaired as the fence of this royal domain.

After this we hear no more of Babylon, till the twelfth century, when Benjamin of Tudela found nothing left but "some ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's Palace," which men were afraid to approach, "by reason of the many serpents and scorpions that were there." In the sixteenth century, Rauwolf found some arches and ruins of the bridge which had once connected the parts of the city, on the opposite banks of the river, as well as the ruins of the palace, which, he also says, were full of venomous reptiles. Still more recently, the place has been often visited, and its present condition we shall hereafter briefly describe. Perhaps there is no spot upon the world's surface so awfully desolate as the silent plain of Shinar, strewn with its burnt and vitrified mounds, where once proud Babylon reared her diademed head to the skies, the centre whither thronged busy multitudes-the metropolis of the glory, wealth, and power of the world!

The Euphrates, whose history we have been tracing, is a great and majestic river, rolling its noble flood of waters through a course of nearly 2,000 miles from its sources in the mountains of Armenia to its termination at the head of the Persian Gulf. Two springs divide the honour of its origin; the more western, known as the Kara-su, rises a little to the north of Erzeroum; the other, or eastern branch, which bears the name of the Murad-chai, flows from a point near Bayazid, far to the east. The name of Phrat (Euphrat-es), by which this magnificent river was distinguished in the very earliest times, and which it still bears, is said to signify either fruitfulness or dispersion, the former term descriptive of the country through which it flows, the latter commemorative of its early history. The name appears to be applied to each of the branches, with the respective additions of Western or Eastern Phrat.

After flowing through many a wild glen and fertile valley of the mountainous Armenia, the two streams unite into one channel at the foot of the mountains, separated only by a narrow ridge from the source of the Tigris; and presently the full river precipitates itself through a cleft in this ridge, and pursues its way, hemmed in by lofty precipices, and interrupted by many bristling rocks, forming rapids and cascades. Its course is now nearly due south, and thus it forms the western boundary of the ancient Naharaim or Mesopotamia. On the east bank of the river is the modern town of Bîr, and not far from it is Urfah, considered to be the Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham. Not far from Bîr, therefore, we may suppose to be the spot where the patriarch

crossed the stream on his pilgrimage, as already narrated.

The town of Bîr has been visited by Mr. Buckingham, to whose Travels we are indebted for the accompanying representation of its appearance. It contains about 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses, built on the side of a very steep hill. The Euphrates is here a strong and rapid river. Its width varies, at different

seasons of the year, from 600 to 200 yards. Rauwolf, in 1575, considered it a mile broad; but Maundrell and Buckingham agree in comparing it with the Thames at London. The water is turbid, of a dull yellowish colour, and soon deposits an earthy sediment, if allowed to stand. The stream cannot be forded here; but large boats are used to ferry passengers and merchandise; and the natives often cross upon an

inflated goatskin, which they tightly clasp with their hands, propelling themselves with the feet.

The Euphrates, now freed from all obstacles, maintains a steady and majestic course through a wide and verdant valley, and soon takes the south-east direction, which it afterwards pursues to the sea. Little of interest detains us on its banks till it enters the great Plain of Shinar, except the bituminous fountains of Hit, noticed by Herodotus, which are situated about seventy miles above. Through a level and now barren country, but once rich with luxuriant vegetation, and everywhere covered with cultivation, the ancient river still flows on, till the ruins of old Babylon rise in uncouth and shapeless mounds upon the view. The traveller, at first sight, might suppose them to be natural hills of earth or rock; so immense are they, yet so shapeless, and so utterly unlike any work of human art. On close examination, however, their true character is discovered. On the east side of the river are two large mounds, and several smaller ones, formed by the decomposition of buildings, furrowed and channelled by the rains of centuries, and strewn with fragments of brick, bitumen, and pottery. To the north of these is an extensive heap, called Mujelibè, or "the overturned," about 140 feet in height, and half a mile in circumference. Traces of chambers, passages, and cellars are discernible; but all is a mass of confusion ; "wild beasts and doleful creatures cry in the desolate houses, and dragons are in the pleasant palaces;" venomous reptiles of various kinds being very numerous in the ruins.

In another part of the ruins on this side of the