130 



was exposed on the banks of the Nile, we learn that, " she took for 

 him an ark of bull rushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch*." 



We have perhaps, not sufficient authority, either from the words 

 which the English translators of the Bible, have here employed, or 

 from the words adopted into the Hebrew, to rest on more than proba- 

 bility, that it was bitumen that was used in coating over the ark 

 of Noah ; or in covering the vessel of bull-rushes, in which Moses 

 was exposed on the banks of the Nile. Little doubt, however, can 

 exist, that it was the substance which the builders of the tower of 

 Babel employed, instead of mortar. In proof of this, we learn^ 

 from some modern travellers, that the remains of buildings have 

 been discovered, in which bitumen had been thus employed, in- 

 stead of mortar ; and that there exists every reason to believe, that 

 this was on the very spot on which Babylon stood. 



That this was really the site of the ancient city of Babel, appears to 

 be very evident, from the information obtained by the learned re- 

 searches of Major RennelL Abulfeda, he says, an oriental geogra- 

 pher, states, that the ancient city of Babel has now nothing more 

 than a village on its site ; and that this village, Hellah, stands on the 

 land of Babel. This account is very much corroborated by the 

 Turkish geographer, Ibrahim Effendi, who says, that Babel is close 

 to Hellali ; and modern travellers agree, that the Arabs, and the in- 

 habitants on the spot, give the name of Babel to the district round 

 about Hillah ; and point out vast ruins, as the remains of the ancient 

 city, spoken of by Abulfeda. 



The city of Babylon, in the opinion of Major Rennell, formed 

 from a careful examination and comparison of the several accounts 

 given by different authors, must have been at or near the present 

 city of Hillah, or Hellah, which is known to have been built of the 

 bricks of the ancient city ; and is even said to stand on a part of its 



* Exodus, ehap* iL ver. 3. 



