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which their robberies are carried on, yet it is very true that they go in large companies upon their marauding parties, reciprocally to support each other, and carry off their plunder in greater security.' Their common food consists of the bulbous roots of different plants, particularly of the babiana [see BABIANA, p. 226]; these they dig up with their fingers and peel them with their teeth, and heaps of the parings are frequently seen near the large stones upon which the baboons delight to sit and look round them. In ascending the kloofs or passes in the mountains of South Africa, which are frequently steep, narrow, and dangerous, travellers often disturb troops of these animals which have been sunning themselves on the rocks: if not attacked, they scamper up the sides of the mountains, yelling and screaming; but if fired at and wounded, they no sooner get beyond the range of the gun, than they commence rolling and throwing down stones, and otherwise resenting the injury. A full-grown chacma is more than a match for two good dogs, and though there is no animal which hounds pursue with so much fury, yet the boors of the interior would rather set their dogs upon a lion or panther than upon one of these baboons,

mountains above Arkeeko on the Red Sea; and we learn from Salt and Pearce that they are extremely common upon all the high lands in Tigre. The travellers above-mentioned found troops of a hundred and upwards in the neighbourhood of Eilet, in the chain of the Taranta. These were usually composed of ten or a dozen adult males, and about twenty adult females; the remainder of the troop was made up of the young of the four or five preceding years. When seen at a distance approaching a small stream for the purpose of quenching their thirst, they bore a close resemblance to a flock of wild hogs; and it was observed that the young ones always led the van, and that the old males brought up the rear, probably for the purpose of having the whole family continually under their immediate observation. They did not appear to pay the slightest attention to the Gallas and Abyssinians, but when the European travellers approached, whom they probably distrusted from the appearance of their fire-arms, the old males abandoned their station in the rear, and placed themselves between the troop and their pursuers, so that it was found very difficult to procure specimens of either the females or the young. When they first observed the travellers approaching, they all stood up on their hind feet for the purpose of examining them; the old males, having driven away the females and young animals, remained in this position till the near approach of the party compelled them also to retire, when the whole troop scampered up the sides of the mountains, making them resound with their shrill clamour. The Arabic name of this animal is robah or robba; the Abyssinians call it derrias, according to Pearce's orthography, or karrai, according to the spelling of Hemprich.

The name of this species in the antient Ethiopic or Geez, the learned language of the Abyssinians, is tot or tota. The figure of this animal, in a sitting posture, is common upon the antient monuments of Egypt and Nubia; small metal images of it have been dug up among the ruins of Memphis and Hermopolis, and mummies containing the embalmed body of the animal are still found among the catacombs. Strabo, indeed (p. 812), in mentioning Hermopolis as the centre of the adoration paid to the cynocephalus, says that the Babylonians in the vicinity of Memphis paid divine honours to the cepus: yet though the geographer makes use of very different names, and though these, in reality, apply to very different animals, there is good reason to believe that they both refer, in the present instance, to the same species; no quadrumanous animal is ever found represented upon the sacred monuments of antient Egypt, except the baboon, nor have the images of any other species ever been dug up in searching for antiquities. One or two instances, indeed, occur in the representations of profane subjects, such as the procession of a returning conqueror, in which monkeys (cercopitheci) are introduced, as for instance the painting discovered at Thebes by the late Mr. Salt, and represented by Minutoli (tab. xii., fig. 9), in which a monkey is represented riding on the neck of a camelopard; but this was manifestly intended merely to fix the locality of the country or people whose subjection the triumph was meant to commemorate, and by no means indicates a participation in the divine honours which were paid to the baboon. Neither does the female ever appear to be represented as an object of worship; all the figures and images seem to be those of males, as is proved by the mane which covers the neck and shoulders, and which gives a fulness to the fore part of the body in this sex which is wanting in the other.

2. The Derrias (C. hamadryas, Linnæus), the most celebrated of all the baboons, and probably the only species of this genus known to the antients, inhabits the mountains of Arabia and Abyssinia, and grows to the size of a large pointer, measuring upwards of four feet when standing erect, and two feet and a half in a sitting posture. The face of this species is extremely elongated, naked, and of a dirty flesh colour, with a lighter ring surrounding the eyes; the nostrils, as in the dog, are separated by a slight furrow; the head, neck, shoulders, and all the fore part of the body as far as the loins, are covered with long shaggy hair; that on the hips, thighs, and legs, is short, and, contrasted with the former, has the appearance of having been clipped, so that the whole animal bears no unapt resemblance to a French poodle. The hair of the occiput and neck is upwards of a foot in length, and forms a long mane which falls back over the shoulders, and at a distance looks something like a full short cloak. The whiskers are broad and directed backwards, so as to conceal the ears; their colour, as well as that of the head, mane, and fore part of the body, is a mixture of light grey and cinereous, each hair being marked with numerous alternate rings of these two colours; the short hair of the hips, thighs, ana extremities is of a uniform cinereous brown colour, rather lighter on the posterior surface of the thighs than on the other parts; a dark-brown line passes down the middle of the back, the hands are almost jet black, and the feet are rusty brown. The tail is about half the length of the body, and is carried drooping as in other baboons; it is terminated by a brown tuft of long hair; the callosities are large and of a dark flesh colour; the palms of the hands and soles of the feet dark brown. The female when full grown is equal to the male in point of size, but differs considerably in the length and colour of the hair. This sex wants the mane which ornaments the neck of the male, and is covered over the whole body with short hair of equal length, and of a uniform deep olive-brown colour, slightly mixed with green. The throat and breast are but sparingly covered with hair, and the skin on these parts, as well as on the face, hands, and callosities, is of a deep tan colour. Hemprich and Ehrenberg, who have given a very complete history and description of this species in their excellent work entitled Symbola Physicæ, now in process of publication, compare the female derrias to a bear, whilst the copious mane which adorns the fore quarters of the male' 3. The common baboon (C. papio, Desmarest) is of a unigives to that sex much of the external form and appear-form yellowish brown colour, slightly shaded with sandy or ance of a small lion. The young of both sexes resemble light red upon the head, shoulders, body, and extremities; the female, and the large whiskers and manes of the males the whiskers alone are of a light fawn colour; the face, ears, only begin to make their appearance when the animals ar- and hands are naked and entirely black, the upper eye-lids rive at their full growth and mature age, that is, when they white, and also naked, and the tail about half the length of have completed their second dentition. At this period they the body, but not terminated by the tuft which distinguishes undergo as great a change in their mental propensities it in the last two species. The hair of the occiput and neck as in their physical appearance. While young they are is rather longer than that on the neck and shoulders, but is gentle, docile, and playful, but as soon as they have acquired neither so long nor so thick as to give it any resemblance their full development, they become sulky, malicious, and to the mane of the chacma or derrias; neither is the face of the present species so much prolonged as in these two animals; the nose, however, is advanced rather beyond the extremity of the lips, and has the nostrils opening as in the other baboons; the cheeks are considerably swollen immediately below the eyes, after which the breadth of the face contracts suddenly, giving the muzzle or nose the appearance of having been broken in that situation by

morose.

This species inhabits Arabia and Abyssinia, but is not found either in Egypt or Nubia, though its figure is often sculptured on the antient monuments of both these countries. Hemprich and Ehrenberg found large troops of them in Wadi Kanun and in the mountains near the city of Gumfud in the country of the Wahabees, as well as in the

a heavy blow. The whiskers are not so thickly furnished as in the species already described; they are, however, equally directed backwards, but do not conceal the ears, which are black, naked, and less regularly oval than in man and the generality of the simic. The under parts of the body, the breast, belly, abdomen, and inner face of the arms and thighs, are very sparingly furnished with long hairs of a uniform brown colour. The females and young differ in no other respect from the adult males, except in being of a lighter and more active make.

This species inhabits the coast of Guinea, and is that most commonly seen about the streets, and in menageries and museums. In youth it is gentle, curious, gluttonous, and incessantly in motion, smacking its lips quickly, and chattering when it wishes to beg contributions from its visiters, and screaming loudly when refused or tantalized. As it grows older, however, it ceases to be familiar, and assumes all the morose look and repulsive manners which characterize the baboons in general. The specimen observed by Buffon was full grown, and exhibited all the ferocity of disposition and intractability of nature common to the rest of its kind. It was not (says he) altogether hideous, and yet it excited horror. It appeared to be continually in a state of savage ferocity, grinding its teeth, perpetually restless, and agitated by unprovoked fury. It was obliged to be kept shut up in an iron cage, of which it shook the bars so powerfully with its hands as to inspire the spectators with apprehension. It was a stout-built animal, whose nervous limbs and compressed form indicated great force and agility; and though the length and thickness of its shaggy coat made it appear to be much larger than it was in reality, it was nevertheless so strong and active that it might have readily worsted the attacks of several unarmed

men.'

The Mandrill (C. Mormon and C. Maimon).

4. The Mandrill (C. Mormon and C. Maimon, Linnæus) is the largest of the whole genus, and may be readily distinguished from all the other baboons by the enormous protuberance of its cheeks, and the bright and variegated colours which mark them, as well as by its short upright tail. The full-grown mandrill measures above five feet when standing upright; the limbs are short and powerful, the body thick and extremely robust, the head large and almost destitute of forehead, the eye-brows remarkably prominent, the eyes small and deeply sunk in the head, the cheek-bones swollen to an enormous size, and forming projections on each side of the nose as large as a man's fist, marked transversely with numerous alternate ribs of light blue, scarlet and deep purple, the tail not more than a couple of inches in length, and generally carried erect; the callosities large, naked, and of a blood-red colour. The general colour of the hair is a light olive brown above, and silvery grey beneath, and the chin is furnished underneath with a small pointed yellow beard. The hair of the forehead and temples is directed upwards so as to meet in a point on the crown, which gives the head a triangular appearance; the ears are naked, angular at their superior and posterior borders, and of a bluish black colour; and the muzzle and lips are large, swollen, and protuberant. The

former is surrounded above with an elevated rim or bordet, and truncated like the snout of a hog,-a character which we have observed in no other baboon, and which leads us to suspect that the mandrill is the species that Aristotle incidentally mentions by the name of Choropitheeus (xoponionkos), (Hist. Anim. lib. ii. cap. 2,) and which may have been brought into Egypt or Greece by the merchants who kept up a regular intercourse between Egypt and the countries of the interior. There are other considerations which give a strong degree of probability to this conjecture. The short, indeed almost tuberculous, tail of the mandrill, for instance, would lead Aristotle to compare it with the ape or pithecus (TiOnkoc), rather than with the other simiæ, all of which have tails of considerable length; and the truncated form of the snout would readily suggest its similarity to the hog (xoipoc). We are aware that the choropithecus of the Greek philosopher has been generally identified with the common baboon or the derrias; but neither of these species possesses any character which justifies that supposition; and besides, the derrias is indisputably allowed to be the species designated by the much more appropriate name of cynocephalus (KvvoKépalog.) Nor does the mandrill differ much in its general form and appearance from the pithecus of Aristotle, which was the common magot or Barbary ape (Macacus inuus): there is no very great difference in the size of these animals, their colour is very nearly the same, both are equally remarkable for the powerful make of their bodies, and the sinewy character of their short stout limbs; and in fact the only striking difference which exists between them is the prolonged, truncated, swinish snout of the one, and the round head and short face of the other. Thus we can very satisfactorily account for both members of the compound name employed by Aristotle; nor can an objection be fairly taken to the approximation which we have here made of his choropithecus to the mandrill of Guinea, on account of the extremely limited knowledge which the antient Greeks possessed of the western coasts of Africa; since we know that they were well acquainted with other animals from the same or even a more remote locality; such, for instance, as the gnu (Antilope gnu), which is clearly the catóblepas of antient writers, and the pecasse or buffalo of the Gold Coast.

The females and young mandrills differ from the adult males in the shorter and less protuberant form of the muzzle, which is moreover of a uniform blue colour; the cheekbones have little or no elevation above the general plane of the face, nor are they marked with the longitudinal furrows which give the other sex so singular an appearance; at least they are far from being so prominently developed. It is only indeed when they have completed their second dentition that these characters are fully displayed in the males, and that the extremity of the muzzle assumes that bright red hue by which it is so remarkably distinguished.

The mandrill is often mentioned by travellers, and bears the different names of smitten, choras, boggo, barris, &c., according to the language or dialect of the tribes in whose territories it has been observed. It is described as being amazingly powerful and mischievous, but many traits of its character and habits have been confounded with those of the chimpanzee (Pithecus troglodytes), a very different animal. Its mental character and habits do not differ sensibly from those of the other baboons, except that it becomes, in advanced age, still more morose and lascivious. Those which have been observed in a domestic state are generally remarked to have had a strong taste for spirituous and fermented liquors; a remarkably fine individual, which was long kept at Exeter Change, and afterwards at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, drank his pot of porter daily, and evidently enjoyed it: it was a most amusing sight to see him seated in his little arm-chair, with his quart pot beside him, and smoking his short pipe with all the gravity and perseverance of a Dutchman. In a state of nature, his great strength and malicious character render the mandrill a truly formidable animal. As they generally march in large bands, they prove more than a match for any other inhabitant of the forests, and are even said to attack and drive the elephants away from the districts in which they have fixed their residence. The inhabitants of these countries themselves are afraid to pass through the woods unless in large companies and well armed; and it is said that the mandrills will even watch their opportunity when the men are in the fields, to plunder

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the negro villages of every thing eatable, and sometimes | of the adult baboons of other species. They were in general attempt to carry off the women into the woods.

The Drill (C. leucophaeus).

5. The Drill (C. leucophæus, F. Cuvier) is a species only recently admitted by the most judicious modern naturalists, though long since described by Pennant, and after him by various other writers. It is likewise a native of the coast of Guinea, and, like the mandrill, is distinguished by a short, erect, stumpy tail, scarcely two inches in length, and covered with short bristly hair. The cheeks are not so protuberant as in that species, neither are they marked with the same variety of colours; and the size and power of the animal are much inferior. The colours of the body bear some resemblance to those of the mandrill, but they are more mixed with green on the upper parts, and are of a lighter or more silvery hue beneath. The head, back, sides, outer surface of the limbs, a band at the base of the neck, and the backs of the fore-hands, are furnished with very long fine hair, of a light-brown colour at the root, and from thence to the point marked with alternate rings of black and yellow, the two last colours alone appearing externally, and by their mixture giving rise to the greenish shade that predominates over all the upper parts of the head and body. The under parts of the body are equally covered with long fine hair, but of a uniform light-brown or silvery grey colour, and more sparingly furnished than on the back and sides; the whiskers are thin and directed backwards; there is a small orange-coloured beard on the chin; the hair on the temples is directed upwards, and, meeting from both sides, forms a pointed ridge or crest on the crown of the head; and the tail, short as it is, is terminated by a small brush. The face and ears are naked, and of a glossy black colour like polished ebony; the cheek-bones form prominent elevations on each side of the nose, as in the mandrill, only not nearly so large; neither are they marked with the same series of alternate ridges and furrows, nor with the brilliant and varied colours, which render that species so remarkable; the palms of the hands and soles of the feet are also naked in the drill, and of a deep copper colour; the colour of the skin, when seen beneath the hair, is uniform dark-blue, and that of the naked callosities bright-red. The female differs from the male by her smaller size, shorter head, and much paler colour; and the young males exhibit the same characters up to the time of their second dentition.

The wood baboon, the cinereous baboon, and the yellow baboon of Pennant, are all manifestly referable to this species, and differ only from the difference of the age and sex of the specimens from which he took his description. The habits and manners of the drill have not been observed in a state of nature, nor do we find the animal itself indicated in the works of any of the travellers which we have consulted. In its native country it is probably confounded with the mandrill, at least by casual and passing observers, but it is frequently brought into this country, and is well known as a menagerie animal. Its habits in confinement do not appear to differ in any material respect from those of its congeners. Those individuals which we have observed in the gardens of the Zoological Society, and in other collections, were all of immature age and growth, and consequently exhibited little of the fierce and intractable spirit

silent, sedate, and sufficiently gentle, when not tantalized with food or otherwise strongly excited; but the gloomy ferocity of their natural temper was, nevertheless, gradually beginning to show itself in those which had acquired a certain size and strength, and there can be little doubt that the adult males exhibit all the repulsive and malicious character of the kindred species.

Some writers have enumerated two or three other species of baboons, but they are for the most part fictitious, or refer to different ages or sexes of one or other of those which are here described. The C. babouin of Desmarest, for instance, is confidently declared by Hemprich and Ehrenberg to be the young male of the derrias, C. hamadryas.

BA'BRIAS, or BA'BRIUS, according to Suidas, wrote a collection of Æsopian fables in ten books, which he turned from prose into choliambics. [See ESOP and CHOLIAMBIC.] Avianus, in the preface to his fables, states that the fables of Babrius were contained in two volumes, by which he means rolls of papyrus. The ten books mentioned by Suidas were divisions of the fables themselves, such, for example, as the twelve books of La Fontaine's fables. From the manner in which Avianus mentions Babrius in the preface to his Latin fables, and from the occurrence of some verses of Babrius in the Homeric Lexicon of Apollonius, who probably lived in the Augustan age, or somewhat earlier, it may be conjectured that Babrius flourished within half a century before that period. All other circumstances relating to him are however unknown; nor would any of his writings have come down to us if they had not been used by the transcribers and rédacteurs in the middle ages, as the foundation of their versions of Esopian fables. In some cases the copyist was fortunately contented to transcribe, with only a few variations, the metrical original of Babrius; and thus some of the choliambic fables of this poet have been preserved in the form of prose in different manuscript collections of the Esopian fables. A few fables have likewise been preserved accidentally in an entire form, and several fragments are cited in the Lexicon of Suidas. Collections of the extant fables and fragments of this poet have been made by several scholars. (See Tyrwhitt's Dissertatio de Babrio; Schneider's Fabula Esopia, Vratislav., 1812; Berger, Babrii Fabularum Choliambicarum libri tres; Bishop Blomfield in the Museum Criticum, vol. i. ; Mr. Burges in the Classical Journal, vols. xxv. and xxvi.; and an article in the Philological Museum, vol. i. pp. 280304, which last contains a detailed account of the versification of Babrius, and an amended edition of his fables.) The language of Babrius is extremely terse and elegant, and his style of narration lively, pointed, and simple; and even the small number of his fables which have been rescued from different manuscripts (about twenty), are, in our opinion, sufficient to put him on a level with La Fontaine, the best fabulist of modern times. It is much to be regretted that no manuscript of his fables should have been preserved, which were evidently extant till a comparatively recent period.

BABUYA'NES ISLANDS. A cluster of small islands and islets forming part of the Philippines, and lying to the north of Luzon or Luçonia, the most considerable of the group. Babuyan, the most northern of the cluster, is in 19° 43' N. lat. and 122° E. long., and is about 25 miles in cir cumference. Four others of about the same size are situated as follows:

Calayan 19° 28' N. lat. 121° 30' E. long.
Camiguen 19° 2'
Dalapiri 19° 15'
Fuga 190

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121° 58' 121° 121° 30'

The remainder are little better than rocky islets. The inhabitants of the five which are peopled carry on trade with the Chinese, whom they supply with gold, wax, cassia, and coco-nuts.

BABYLON, HISTORY. The Babylonians belonged to the Semitic race of nations; their language was an Aramaic dialect, and differed little from the common Syriac. The existence of their city and empire can be traced back to an epoch of the remotest antiquity. In the tenth chapter of Genesis, Babel is mentioned as having formed part of the dominions of Nimrod, and Josephus (Ant. Jud. i. 6) calls him the founder of the town of Babylon. The building of the city and tower of Babel, and the subsequent confusion of tongues (Genes. xi. 1-9) are among the earliest facts in the history of mankind which we find recorded in the Hebrew

scriptures. We learn from Josephus, Eusebius, and the Ar-provement of the town of Babylon, may have been the conmenian chronicle of Moses of Chorene, that the Chaldæans temporary, and perhaps the wife of Nebuchadnezzar. But had a similar tradition to account for the origin of the different after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, the empire began languages now spoken by men; but it is difficult to deter- rapidly to fall into decay. His son Evilmerodach (561— mine whether this tradition was independent of, or whether 559) permitted king Joacim, of Juda, to return home out it was derived from, that recorded in the book of Genesis. of his captivity at Babylon, whither Nebuchadnezzar had Diodorus (ii. c. 7), on the authority of Ctes as, attributes brought him. Evilmerodach was killed in the second year the foundation of the city of Babylon to the celebrated of his reign by his brother-in-law Neriglissar, who occupied queen Semiramis, and when we read of immense numbers the throne during the four succeeding years (559-555). of workmen (two hundred myriads) from all parts of her He was followed by his youthful son Laborosoarchod, or Laempire, whom she employed in the execution of her design, bassoarascus, who had been only nine months on the throne we are almost involuntarily reminded of that part of the when a conspiracy broke out in which he was dethroned Hebrew narrative, which describes the children of men and killed. Nabonnedus (the Labynetus of Herodotus, building the tower, until the Lord scattered them abroad i. 74-77, and the Belshazzar, or Balthasar, of the Old from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off Testament) followed him, and reigned seventeen years to build the city.' (Genes. xi. 8.) The epoch at which the (555—538 B. C.), at the end of which he was attacked and city and the tower were founded cannot be determined with defeated by Cyrus (Dan. v. 30, 31), and Babylon_became precision according to the calculation usually adopted, it subject to the Persian empire. [See CHALDEANS.] happened about two hundred years after the deluge. Cyrus did no injury to the town of Babylon: on the contrary, he made it his winter-residence, and the third capital town of his kingdom, after Susa and Ecbatana. But in consequence of a revolt under Darius I., the walls and gateways of the town were broken drown, and the population soon decreased in such a degree that a supply of women from the surrounding country became requisite. (Herod. III. 159.) Xerxes carried away the golden statue of Belus (Zeus, Herod. I. 183), and Alexander the Great found the temple of that deity in ruins. (Arrian. Exp. Alex., vii. 17.) Soon afterwards Seleucus founded the town of Seleucia in the neighbourhood of Babylon, which further contributed to the decrease of the latter. At the time of Diodorus and Strabo, the greater part of Babylon lay in ruins, and there were corn-fields within its antient precincts. Curtius says, that at his time only one-fourth of the town was inhabited: Philo and Josephus observe, that a considerable proportion of the inhabitants were Jews. BA'BYLON, an antient city of Assyria. Mr. Rich, following Major Rennell in his Geography of Herodotus, is of opinion that the site of Babylon is near Hillah, a town situated on the Euphrates, which was built out of the ruins of the city, A.D. 1101: it is about forty-eight miles south of Bagdad. This opinion is founded on, 1. the latitude of the place as given by Abulfeda, Ebn Haukal, Edrisi, and other oriental geographers, compared with the situation of Babylon as recorded by classical writers; 2. the stupendous magnitude and extent of the ruins at and near Hillah; 3. its vicinity to the bituminous fountains of Is, or Hit, mentioned by Herodotus as being eight days' journey above Babylon, upon a stream of the same name, which falls into the Euphrates; and 4. the circumstance of the whole surrounding district having been, from the remotest historical time to the present day, distinguished by the name of Babel. Ebn Haukal, who wrote in the tenth century, calls it Babel. (Maurice's Observations on Mr. Rich's Memoir.) Niebuhr has fixed the latitude at 32° 28′ 30′′.

Herodotus (i. c. 184) says that the building of Babylon was the work of several successive sovereigns: but among them he distinguishes the two queens, Semiramis and Nitocris, to whom the city was indebted for extensive embankments along the Euphrates, and for many other improvements. According to Diodorus (ii. 1, &c.), the Assyrian king Ninus, assisted by an Arabian chief, Ariæus, conquered and killed the then reigning king of Babylon, and made himself master of his dominions: the town of Babylon did not then exist, but there were other flourishing towns in the country. His wife Semiramis, who succeeded him, founded Babylon, and made it her residence. She enclosed it with brick walls of great height and thickness, joined the two banks of the river by a bridge (besides a subterraneous passage or tunnel), built a royal palace on each side, and erected in the middle of the town a high temple in honour of the god Belus. This is usually supposed to have happened about the year 2000 before our

æra.

Respecting the history of Babylon under the successors of Semiramis we are left in almost entire ignorance. After the overthrow of the Assyrian monarchy and the death of Sardanapalus (B.c. 888), Belesis, a skilful priest and astrologer, assumed the government of the Babylonian state. (Diodor. ii. c. 24, &c.) He was succeeded on the throne by his son Nabonassar, and the regal dignity became hereditary in his family. The era of Nabonassar, beginning the 26th of February, 747 B.C., is supposed to have been so called, because the Chaldæans, during the reign of this king, might have begun to avail themselves in their astronomical observations of a moveable solar year, which they might either have invented themselves, or received from the Egyptians. This æra was, however, never used in common life, and for all ordinary practical purposes the Chaldæans counted by lunar years. (See Ideler, Lehrbuch der Chronologie, p. 89.)

We know nothing of the four immediate successors of Nabonassar. The fifth, Merodach-Baladan, or BerodachBaladan, the son of Baladan, is mentioned in the Old Testament (2 Kings xx. 12, 13; Isaiah xxxix. 1) as being on friendly terms with Hezekiah, the king of Judah, at a time when both dreaded the ascendency of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. Soon afterwards the Assyrian monarch, Esarhaddon, incorporated Babylon into his empire. But towards the latter part of the seventh century before our æra, we again find Babylon under Nabopolassar (627604 B.C.) an independent and powerful state, and as such it continued till the period of its destruction by Cyrus. In the battle of Circesium (604) the independence of the Babylonian state was vindicated against the ambitious designs of Nekos, king of Egypt, who had sent an army to conquer it. Babylon had its bright epoch in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, or Nabuchodonosor (604-561 B.C.), who increased his dominions by the conquest of Palestine, Tyrus, and Jerusalem (2 Kings xxv. 1; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17), and added to the fortifications as well as to the ornaments of the city of Babylon. He subdued the Idumæans (the Edomites) and the Ammonites, and his empire extended from the Caucasian mountains to the African desert. It is surprising that the name of Nebuchadnezzar is apparently unknown to Herodotus, especially as we are told by Josephus, that it was familiar to Megasthenes and other Greek historians. Heeren supposes that the queen Nitocris, mentioned by Herodotus (i. 183), who contributed much to the im

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Herodotus, who visited Babylon, says it was the most celebrated city of Assyria. The kings of the country made it their residence after the destruction of Nineveh. The city, situated in a great plain, was of a square form, each side 120 stadia in length, which makes the circuit 480 stadia. It was so magnificent that none could be compared with it. It was, moreover, encompassed with a wide ditch, deep, and full of water. Besides this there was a wall, 50 royal cubits thick, and 200 high. As soon as the earth was dug out to form the ditch, it was made into bricks, which were burnt in furnaces. Hot bitumen was used to cement them together, and at every thirty layers of bricks a layer of reeds was placed. The sides of the ditch were first built in this manner, and then the walls above them; and upon the edges of the wall they erected buildings, with only one chamber, each opposite the other, between which there was space enough left for a chariot with four horses. In the wall there were a hundred gates made of brass, as well as the jambs and lintels. Euphrates runs through the city, and divides it into two parts. Each wall forms an elbow, or angle on the river, at which point a wall of baked bricks commences, and the two sides of the river are lined with them. The houses were built of three and four stories. The streets were straight, and intersected by others which opened on the river. Opposite the end of the streets small gates of brass were formed in the walls which lined the river. By these gates there was a descent to the river, and there were as many gates as

VOL. III.-2 H

The

there were transverse streets. The external wall served for defence; there was also an internal wall which was not less strong, but narrower.

The centre of each of these two parts of the town is remarkable, the one for the palace of the king, of which the inclosure was large and well fortified; the other, for the place consecrated to Jupiter Belus, of which the gates were of brass, and in existence when Herodotus wrote. The sacred inclosure was a regular square, each side being two stadia; in the centre was a massive tower, one stadium in length' as well as width, and above this tower was raised another, and above that again were raised others, until there were eight. An ascent, which winds round the towers on the outside, led up to them. About midway in the ascent there is a resting-place and seats, where those who ascend rest themselves; in the last tower is a large chapel, and in this chapel a large and magnificent bed, and near it a table of gold. A bridge was built by Nitocris, a queen of Babylon, to connect the two parts of the city divided by the Euphrates. The piers were formed of large hewn stones, and in order to fix them in the river the waters of the Euphrates were turned into a great excavation, leaving the bed of the river dry. It was at this time that the banks of the river were lined with the walls, and the descents to the river from the smaller gates were made. The bridge was built about the middle of the city, and the masonry was connected with iron and lead; during the day pieces of squared wood were laid from pier to pier, which were removed at night lest the inhabitants on each side should rob one another. When the bridge was finished, the waters of the Euphrates were turned back into their antient bed. (Herodotus, i. 178-186.) The fragments of Berosus may be compared with the description of Herodotus. [See BEROSUS.]

The ruins of Babylon consist of mounds of earth formed by the decomposition of buildings, channelled and furrowed by the weather: the surface of them is strewed with pieces

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of brick, bitumen, and pottery. (Rich's Memoir on Babylon. See also the view of the ruins in Sir Robert Ker Porter's Travels.)

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The ruins of the eastern quarter commence about two miles above Hillah, and consist of two large masses or mounds, connected with and lying north and south of each other, and several smaller ones which cross the plain at different intervals. These ruins are terminated on the north by the remains of a very extensive building called the Mujelibè, from the south-east angle of which proceeds a narrow ridge or mound of earth wearing the appearance of having been a boundary wall, A A. This ridge forms a kind of circular inclosure, and joins the south-east point of the most southerly of the two grand masses.' (Sir Robert Ker Porter lays down these walls differently. See his plan, vol. ii. of his Travels.) The river-bank, on the south-west of the tomb of Amran, is skirted by a ruin (B), extending from K to B nearly 800 yards; it is, for 300 yards, at B, 40 feet perpendicular; a little above this is a piece of ground, D, formerly the bed of the river; here earthen vases with bones were found. From the east angle of the ruin B commences another mound, similar to that marked A, but broader and flatter; this mound is the most southerly of all the ruins.'* (Rich's Memoir.)

'On taking a view of the ruins from south to north, the first object that attracts attention is the low mound connected with the ruin B: on it are two small walls close together, and only a few feet in height and breadth. This ruin, which is called Jumjuma, and formed part of a Mohammedan oratory, gives its name to a village a little to the left of it. To this succeeds the first grand mass of ruins, which is 1100 yards in length and 800 in its greatest breadth; its figure nearly resembles that of a quadrant, its height is irregular; but the most elevated part may be about 50 or 60 feet above the level of the plain, and it has been dug into for the purpose of procuring bricks. Just below the highest part of it is a small dome, in an oblong inclosure, distinguished by the name of Amran Ibn Ali On the north is a valley of 550 yards in length, the area of which is covered with tussocks of rank grass, and crossed by a line of ruins of very little elevation. To this succeeds the second grand heap of ruins, the shape of which is nearly a square of 700 yards' length and breadth, and its south-west angle is connected with the north-west angle of the mounds of Amran by a ridge of considerable height, and nearly 100 yards in breadth.' (Rich's Memoir.)

Mr. Rich considers this the most interesting part of the ruins of Babylon; and that the buildings here were far superior to those which are situated to the north-east. Not more than 200 yards from the northern extremity of this mound is a ravine, G, hollowed out by those who dig for bricks, in length 100 yards, and 10 feet wide by 40 or 50 deep. On one side of it a few yards of wall remain standing, the face of which is very clean and perfect, and appears to have been the front of some building. Under the foundations at the southern end an opening is made, which discovers a subterranean passage, floored and walled with large bricks laid in bitumen, and covered over with pieces of sandstone, a yard thick and several yards long; the weight above has been so great as to have given a considerable degree of obliquity to the side-walls of the passage; the opening is nearly seven feet in height, and its course is to the south. The superstructure over the passage is cemented with bitumen, other parts of the ravine with mortar, and the bricks have all writing upon them. The northern end of the ravine appears to have been crossed by an extremely thick wall of yellowish brick, cemented with a brilliant white mortar.' A little to the west of the ravine at H is the kasr or palace, by which appellation Mr. Rich designates the whole mass. (See the cut under the head of BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE.) It is a very remarkable ruin, and from its being uncovered and in part detached from the rubbish, is visible from a considerable distance, but so surprisingly fresh in its appearance, that it was only after a minute inspection that Mr. Rich was satisfied of its being in reality a Babylonian remain. It consists of several walls and piers, which face the cardinal points, eight feet in thickness; in some places ornamented with niches, and in others strengthened by pilasters and buttresses, built of fine burnt brick still perfectly clean and sharp, laid in lime-cement of such tenacity, that it is almost impossible to extract a Sir Robert Ker Porter, however, shows, in his plan of Babylon, a continuation of this wall from the tomb of Jumjuma to the river in a southwesterly direction,

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