74 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



disentangled from the apparentl}' formless mass of rubbish I found 

 store-houses, ovens, wine-presses, a public hall, private dwellings, 

 a smelting furnace and mighty fortifications. The library, alas! 

 I did not find, though how I came across one booklet from it in the 

 form of a precious tablet in cuneiform has already been described. 

 B}^ chance the objects left in Tel-el-Hesy were few ; by another 

 chance the objects left in other Tells may be many. Nay, in the 

 two-thirds of Tel-el-Hesy left standing there may be the rest of the 

 library of which we found one small example. Scores of Tells 

 wait the excavator, man}^ of them three times the size of Tel-el- 

 Hesy. I paced with impatience the summits of these Tells and 

 thought of the secrets their hearts must contain. What lay be- 

 neath my feet ? Any relics of the great world-battles fought at 

 this spot? Any signs of the various civilizations that met at this 

 point — Hebrew, Egyptian, Babylonian, Syrian? The spade alone 

 can give us the answer, and I believe it will be an ewpJiatic affirm- 

 ative r 



