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.
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