DISCOVERIES IN MESOPOTAMIA. 549 



ubi-oiid, so that Geriiiaii Assyviologists, Old Testament scholars, his- 

 torians, all who occupy themselves with the archa?ology of western 

 Asia, with the history of art, etc., are almost entirely dependent upon 

 foreign ])uhlications aiul foreijw'n nuiseums. 



But still another consideration peremptorily demands that a change 

 of conditions should as soon as possi1)le take place. We German 

 scholars continue to praise the ever-extended welcome which we 

 receive from the directors and assistants of the British Museum, the 

 Louvre, the National Library at Paris. We have to acknowledge the 

 generosity \vith wdiich the foreign collections are opened to us, the 

 museum publications presented to us as a gift. But the more often 

 we enjoy Knglish and French hospitalit}'^ the more urgent becomes 

 the reminder, noblesse oblige. For more than fifty years (rerman 

 science has ])een availing itself of the fruits of foreign lal)or and 

 sacritice. and has lieen making use of achievements possible not only 

 through enormous expenditures of mone}^ but also l)y continuous 

 sacrifices of time and comfort, health and life, on the part of tlu^ for- 

 eign explorers. It is not a small thing to do excavating yonder in 

 Babylonia, in a climate whose temperature reaches in the shade 39^ 

 Reauuuir (119- F\), among wild, ignorant, and treacherous Arabs, in 

 the vicinity of widely stretching swamps, full of deadly fever germs, 

 attacked by day and t)y night by ubiquitous insects. If the explorers 

 of other nations are constantly ready to endure such sacritices of 

 health, nay, even life (the cemeteries of Bagdad and Aleppo bear wit- 

 ness to it), to science, it is certainly high time that Germany, too, 

 imbued with a similar lofty national and scientific enthusiasm and 

 readiness of self-sacrifice, put her hand to the raising of those treas- 

 ures which are most valued by herself. There is certainly no lack of 

 men who are ready for any sacrifice in the service of the fatherland 

 and of science. As for the money, all Germany will certainly be able 

 to do what a few generous citizens of a single American city, Thila- 

 delphia, have accomplished, they having defrayed the expenses of 

 three expeditions from 1888 to 1896, amounting to 280,000 mai-ks 

 ($70,000). The self-sacrifice of generous Germans, which from 1S88 

 to 1S91 rendered possible the successful excavations of the (^(u-man 

 Orient committee at the mound of ruins in Sendjirli, in northern 

 Syria will certainlv not be wanting for researches on the r,al)ylonian- 

 Assyrian ruined sites, which, in all human probability, will be nnuh 

 more successful, and will put the newly organized (ierman Orient 

 Societv in a position to energetically carry out from now on uninter- 

 ruptedly and in a constantly widening compass its eftorts for the si udy 

 of western Asiatic as well as Egyptian antiquity for the prosp.>r.ty o 

 German museums and German science and for the glory and honor ot 

 the German fatherland. 



