he workmen, who
had already seen me as I approached, standing near a heap of baskets
and cloaks. Whilst Awad advanced and asked for a present to celebrate
the occasion, the Arabs withdrew the screen they had hastily
constructed, and disclosed an enormous human head, sculptured in full
out of the alabaster of the country. They had uncovered the upper part
of a figure, the remainder of which was still buried in the earth. I
saw at once that the head must belong to a winged lion or bull,
similar to those of Khorsabad and Persepolis. It was in admirable
preservation. The expression was calm, yet majestic; and the outline
of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art scarcely to be
looked for in works of so remote a period. I was not surprised that
the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. It
required no stretch of imagination to conjure up the most strange
fancies. This gigantic head, blanched with age, thus rising from the
bowels of the earth, might well have belonged to one of those fearful
beings which are pictured in the traditions of the country as
appearing to mortals, slowly ascending from the regions below. One of
the workmen, on catching the first glimpse of the monster, had thrown
down his basket, and had run off towards Mosul as fast as his legs
could carry him." The marvellous fidelity and power with which this,
and the colossal human-headed bull are executed, must astonish the
most uninstructed observer. For an account of the marvellous labour at
the cost of which these colossal Assyrian works were conveyed from
Asia Minor to the British Museum, we must refer the reader to Mr.
Layard's excellent condensed account of his researches, published by
Mr. Murray. And with the contemplation of these mysterious monuments
of the past, the visitor should close his third visit to the national
Museum.

He may usefully recapitulate the points of his present visit. He has
been travelling for hours amongst the wrecks of the remote past. Over
vast tracts of land, where now the Turk lazily dreams away the hours,
or moves only to destroy the remains of the ancient civilisation of
his Asiatic provinces. Throughout this, his third visit, the visitor
has been exploring the revelations of the past, written upon the face
of Turkish provinces. The bigotry with which the explorers of Thebes,
Nimroud, and Xanthus had to contend, is written in their histories of
their labours. How when the human-headed bull was