* 
= 
Letter from Rev. Dr. Smith on the Ruins of Nineveh. 123 
read from left to right, like English, and unlike all languages now 
spoken in the vicinity of these ruins. This fact is determined 
by the comparison of two passages whose commencements are 
the same and whose lines are of different length. The number 
of different characters amounts to some hundreds, and hence it 
seems unlikely that they represent alphabetic sounds,—perhaps 
the proper names only are thus represented, while the more com- 
mon words have each their appropriate sign. In the inscriptions 
upon the castles or cities, the left hand character of each is gen- 
erally, and if we mistake not, in every case the same. The ex- 
tent of the records found in these ruins and their relation to the 
_ bas-reliefs is such, that there can be no doubt that they will one 
be day deciphered, and that thus the history of ancient times will 
have been transmitted directly down to us without the possibility 
of any forgery. That their solution will confirm and throw light 
upon Holy Writ we may also hope; and especially as there was 
in Scripture times much intercourse between Assyria and the 
Kicly Land. In order to ensure the greatest accuracy in the pre- 
servation of these records, Mons. Botta has not only copied them 
with extreme care, but he has had impressions of them taken on 
paper, by means of which the originals can at any time be re- 
produced by a casting of wax or plaster of Paris. 
As if to leave nothing undone that would serve to bring these 
ruins within the reach of the curious, two of the monster oxen 
which were in a perfect state of preservation, have been cut in 
five pieces with the view to send them to Paris, where they are 
destined to guard the main entrance to the Reyal (?) Museum. 
Thirty of the best preserved blocks containing bas-reliefs have 
also been removed, and will probably not be separated from their 
guardian cherubim.* ‘These were transported to the Tigris on 
cannon carriages furnished by the Pasha of Mosul, and from there 
upon rafts floated by inflated skins, to the mouth of the river, 
and. will be carried eventually around the Cape of Good Hope to 
their final destination. A small bronze lion, weighing say seven- 
ty-five pounds, was the only metallic antiquity found that is 
worthy of notice. It hada staple in its back which was evidently 
once connected by a chain with a similar staple fixed in the floor. 
Besides this the only relics which. remain to be noticed are some 
* See Art. Cherub in Robinson’s Calmet. 
