The Arabs have strange stories of this ruin.  The palace, they say, was built by Athur, the vizier of Nimrod.  There Abraham brake in pieces the idols worshipped by the unbelievers.  Nimrod was angry and waged war on the holy patriarch.  Abraham prayed to God:  “Deliver me, O God, from this man who worships stones, and boasts himself to be lord of all kings;” and God said to him, “How shall I punish him?” and the prophet answered, “To thee armies are as nothing, and the strength and power of men likewise.  Before the smallest of thy creatures will they perish.”  And God was pleased at the faith of his servant, and he sent a gnat that vexed Nimrod day and night, so that he built himself a room of glass in that palace that he might dwell therein and shut out the insect.  But the gnat entered also, and passed by his ear into his brain, upon which it fed, and increased day by day, so that the servants of Nimrod beat his head continually with a mallet that he might have some ease from his pain; but he died after suffering these torments four hundred years.  And after him the mound was named Nimroud.

It was dark when Layard and his little company reached the place.  They found near by a few huts occupied by poor Arabs, who had been harried by the Turkish Pasha.  There they slept, or tried to sleep.  But the explorer could not sleep.  Hear him:—­

“Hopes, long cherished, were now to be realized, or were to end in disappointment.  Visions of palaces under ground, of gigantic monsters, of sculptured figures, and endless inscriptions, floated before me.  After forming plan after plan for removing the earth and extricating these treasures, I fancied myself wandering in a maze of chambers from which I could find no outlet.  Then, again, all was reburied, and I was standing on the grass-covered mound.  Exhausted, I was at length sinking into sleep, when, hearing the voice of Awad, I rose from my carpet and joined him outside the tent.  The day already dawned.  The lofty cone and broad mound of Nimroud broke like a distant mountain on the morning sky.”

Awad, his host, was a little chief among the Arabs, and was engaged to take charge of the diggers.  The first morning he had six Arabs at work, and found alabaster slabs with cuneiform inscriptions.  He was now sure he would succeed.

It is not necessary to give the diary of his work.  To be sure, the villanous Pasha forbade him to continue, and recalled him to Mosul, but a new governor was sent from Constantinople, under whom he had no difficulty.  A great palace had been found, and chamber after chamber was excavated, the walls covered with bas-reliefs and inscriptions.  Then came strange, gigantic lions with human heads, that had been placed by the old Assyrian king to guard the entrances to his court.  What was the amazement of the Arabs and Turks cannot be told.  First, the head was uncovered.  It stood out from the earth, placid and vast.  Hear Layard tell the story.  He had been away to visit a neighboring chief:—­