December 31, 



1891] 



NA rURE 



oke two entirely different dialects, making, with the Kassite, 

 Liie Semitic Babylonian, the Aramaic, and the Chaldee, no less 

 than six dialects and languages ; and, as if this Babel were not 

 enough, the tones of Elauiites and other foreigners might also 

 be heard. It will probably be admitted that the confusion of 

 tongues which this gathering of nations made at Babylon was 

 striking enough to the visitor in whose native land one language 

 only prevailed. 



The indications point to the fact that the Akkadians were the 

 invaders in Babylonia, and they gave a great many kings to the 

 land. It was a state of things not unlike the heptarchy in Old 

 England — a num^ier of small States fighting amongst themselves, 

 the most powerful gradually absorbing the weaker, until, about 

 the time of the great Hammu-rahi, about 2220 B.C., the whole 

 became united ; after which date probably only the wild 

 Chaldrean tribes remained practically independent, under their 

 native chiefs, and afterwards gave kings to Babylonia it=elf. 



The Semitic Babylonian* of Mesopotamia were probably rather 

 short and thick-set, though there must have been a great many 

 people of normal height and even tall stature among them. 

 They were dark and heavily nearded, hut during the time of the 

 Akkadian supremacy they seem to have shaved, like their rulers. 

 The Akkadians seem to have had noble and dignified features, 

 and their figures, as shown on the engraved and sculptured 

 stones, were far from inelegant. Theie was also, apparently, 

 a type of Akkadian with a curved prominent nose and a retreat- 

 ing forehead, something like the Elamites shown on the 

 Assyrian bas-reliefs. [Several examples of the various types 

 were shown.] 



These people, jourheying "in the East," resolved to build a 

 city "and a tower" ; and this tower, which the inhabitants of 

 Shinar decided to build, was quite a special thing of their own. 

 Every city in ancient Babylonia had a tower, some more than 

 one, and they were of varying forms. The Semitic Babylonians 

 seem to have called their memorial towers zikkurdti, a name 

 which was even applied (as in the Babylonian account of the 

 Flood) to natural eminences of a similar form. The Akkadians 

 appear to have called them "watch-towers." They were in- 

 tended (according to Perrot and Cliipiez) to give that picturesque 

 element to the land which accidents of Nature usually give to 

 other countries more favoured, and also to astonish the contem- 

 porary traveller, as well as that posterity for whom no more 

 than a heap of shapeless ruins would remain. However that 

 may be, they certainly served in their time a practical purpose — 

 namely, for religious ceremonies, and for astrological and astro- 

 nomical observations. There were twenty-two principal erec- 

 tions of this kind in the earliest period in Babylonia, according 

 to one of the lists. 



Descriptions and illustrations were now given of the different 

 forms of towers in Babylonia, and it was pointed oijt that 

 Nebuchadnezzar mentioned a "Tower of Babel" {zikiirat 

 Babilam) v\hich he " made anew," and "raised its head with 

 burnt brick and bright lapis " ; but he did not devote many words 

 to it — why, is not known, unless it be that some ill omen was 

 attached to it. This "Tower of Babel " of Nebuchadnezzar is 

 not the Birs-Nimroud, and for that reason, as well as because the 

 latter did not lie within Babylon, we may doubt whether it be 

 the Biblical "Tower of Babel," as has been, and still is, 

 supposed. 



It is difficult now to imagine the place where the great con- 

 fusion of tongues existed as the site of a great city, with its 

 teeming life. The place where Babylon stood is now a series 

 of mounds more or less .shapeless, and masses of brickwork, but 

 otherwise a marsh. The "great city," "the beauty of the 

 Chaldees' excellency," has " become heaps." The ruins of the 

 palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and of the temple-tower of Babil, 

 are among the more prominent remains. 



After a sketch of the life of the city of Babylon in ancient 

 limes and the religious festivals and ceremonies, and how the 

 temple-towers and the services remained after the cities had 

 decayed and practically vanished, the lecturer recited a transla- 

 tion of the hymn to the setting sun sung by the priests of E zida, 

 the supposed Tower of Babel — 



Hymn to the Setting Sun, chanted by the Priests of E-zida. 



" Sun-god, in the midst of heaven, 



At thy setting, 

 May the latch of the glorious heavens 



Speak thee peace ; 

 May heaven's door to thee be gracious ; 

 May the Director, thy beloved messenger, direct thee. 



NO. II 5 7, VOL. 45] 



At E-bara, the seat of thy lordship, 



Show forth thy supremacy. 

 May Aa, thy beloved wife. 

 Gladly go to meet thee. 



May thy heart take rest, 



May the property of thy godhood 



Be confirmed to ihee. 



Warrior, hero, Sun-god, may they glorify thee I 



Lord of E-bara, may the road of thy path be prosperous— 



Sun-god, cause thy highway to prosper. 



Going the everlasting road to thy rest. 



Sun-god, thou art he who is the judge of the land, 



Causing her decisions to be prosperous." 



The priests' morning hymn began : — 



"Sun-god, in the glorious heavens rising," 



and the lecturer pictured thfe day when the priests who chanted 

 these hymns were there no more, and the faith which had raised 

 Babylon's splendid temples and noble towers was, at last, as 

 dead as her departed glories, to become the heritage of 

 the student and of those who love to hear the ever-charming 

 story of the romanceful East. 



A YEAR'S SCIEiVJIFIC WORK IN NEW 

 GUINEA. 



A RECENT administration report from New Guinea, issued 

 ■^ by the Colonial Office, contains an appendix on the 

 scientific work of the year in the island. The first paper 

 in this is a report by Baron von Mueller on the botanical 

 specimens collected He says that the increase in our 

 knowledge of the Papuan flora, derived from Sir William 

 MacGregor's collection in 1890, has been again important. 

 Foremost as a result we learn from these contributions that 

 a considerable number of Australian species of plants, which, 

 as such, were hitherto regarded as quite endemic, are like- 

 wise indigenous to the vicinity of the Mai-Kussa and Wasi- 

 Kussa in New Guinea. Thus they occur precisely opposite 

 to Cape York, from whence the seeds may have been 

 carried across by migratory birds or perhaps by some other 

 agencies. These, otherwise only Australian, plants may there- 

 fore not really belong to the primitive vegetation of New Guinea, 

 though they are now established in such a way as not to admit 

 of distinguishing them in regard to their origin from the great 

 bulk of the lowland species, whether truly Papuan or simulta- 

 neously also Malayan. The occurrence has already been 

 demonstrated of a number of lowland plants of specific Austra- 

 lian type in various parts of New Guinea. To these can now 

 be added a number of others which are specified by Baron 

 von Mueller. It can now be shown also that the cedar (or 

 rather cedrel), of which many shipments have been made to 

 Australian ports, is identical with the Singapore cedar {Cedrela 

 Toona). The magnificent and renowned aquatic p'ant, Nelumbo 

 nucifera, has now tieen located on the upper P^iy River. Some 

 other plants, unknown from New Guinea before, such as 

 Polygala chincnsis, Salomonia oblongifolia, Sesuvium Portiila- 

 castrum, Leptospernnim jfavanicu/jt, and Limnophila gratio- 

 loides, are recorded in the Administrator's last collection, while 

 some more are awaiting careful comparative elucidation before 

 the fixing of their systematic position. Count Solms-Laubach, 

 the monographer of Pandanea?, has acknowledged the screw 

 pine from Ferguson Island, in the Louisiades, as a new species 

 under the name P. Macgregorii. An essay of Baron von 

 Mueller on the highland plants collected during the year by 

 Sir William MacGregor has appeared in the publications of the 

 Royal Society of Victoria. But he was able to examine only a 

 few of the ferns brought from the upper region of the Owen 

 Stanley Range ; among them, however, is the new Cyalhea 

 Macgregorii, which reaches a higher elevation than any other 

 of the many kinds of fern-trees now known. To expedite the 

 determination of their specific position, Mr. Baker, of Kew, has 

 undertaken to define systematically the seventy species of Ficilis 

 and Lycopodiacece, contained in tJir William MacGregor's col- 

 lection from the Owen Stanley Ranges. Mr, Baker regards 

 nineteen of these ferns as new, and therefore, so far as our 

 present experience reaches, as exclusively Papuan. These 

 hitherto unknown species aie comprised within the genera 

 Cyathea, Hymenophyllum, Dicksonia, Davallia, Lindsaya, Aspi- 

 dium, and largely Poly podium. The Curator of the Queensland 

 Museum reports on the zoological collections. No new animal 

 of the warm-blooded class has been met with during the year ; 



