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.  It is supposed that such a change could only have been brought about by lightning.

People are not quite unanimous in their opinions with respect to these ruins.  Some affirm that they are the remains of the Tower of Babel, others that they are those of the Temple of Baal.

There is an extensive view from the top of the hill over the desert, the town of Hilla with its charming palm-gardens, and over innumerable mounds of rubbish and brick-work.  Near these ruins stands an unimportant Mahomedan chapel, which is said to be on the same spot where, according to the Old Testament, the three youths were cast into the furnace for refusing to worship idols.

In the afternoon I was again in Hilla.  I looked over the town, which is said to contain 26,000 inhabitants, and found it built like all Oriental towns.  Before the Kerbela gates is to be seen the little mosque Esshems, which contains the remains of the prophet Joshua.  It completely resembles the sepulchre of the Queen Zobiede near Baghdad.

Towards evening the family of my obliging host, together with some other women and children, paid me a visit.  Their natural good sense had deterred them from visiting me on the day of my arrival, when they knew I was fatigued by the long ride.  I would willingly have excused their visit today also, for neither the rich nor poor Arabs have much idea of cleanliness.  They, moreover, would put the little dirty children into my arms or on my lap, and I did not know how to relieve myself of this pleasure.  Many of them had Aleppo boils, and others sore eyes and skin diseases.  After the women and children had left, my host came.  He was, at least, clean in his dress, and conducted himself with more politeness.

On the 2nd of July I left Hilla at sunrise, and went on, without stopping, to the Khan Scandaria (sixteen miles), where I remained some hours; and then went the same day as far as Bir-Zanus, sixteen miles further.  About an hour after midnight I again halted, and took a soldier to accompany me.  We had scarcely proceeded four or five miles from the khan when we perceived a very suspicious noise.  We stopped, and the servant told me to be very quiet, so that our presence might not be detected.  The soldier dismounted, and crept rather than walked in the sand to reconnoitre