184/.] Journal of a Steam Trip to the north of Baghdad. 325 



wall once stood. On the south face between the citadel and the 

 modern town, and half way down the cliff, two buttresses of the same 

 formation as the bastions, point out the situation of the gate-way. 

 The bricks which faced them have been carried away for other build- 

 ings. A deep ditch about 30 yards in breadth, but now filled up with 

 rubbish, conveyed the waters of the Tigris around the base of the 

 citadel, thus completely insulating and rendering it impregnable, before 

 cannon came into use. South of this on another isolated hill, stands 

 the modern town, formerly girt in by a wall which has fallen to decay. 

 It contains at present about 300 miserable houses and 1000 inhabitants, 

 but the space formerly occupied by the ancient town is of great extent. 

 Some ruins, called the Kanisah, or " Church," are still shown. A few 

 years ago, when Suffok, the Shammar Sheikh, invested the town, a 

 trench was dug by the inhabitants for defence. From it many curious 

 urns of pottery and sepulchral vases were exhumed, one of which, in 

 the possession of a Moollah Rajib, spoken of by Dr. Ross in his journal, 

 I with difficulty procured from the owner. It is surrounded with 

 figures of men and birds, of a curious, but rude execution, and is 

 probably Babylonian.* The modern town has two mosques but no 

 minarets. The streets are kept free from filth, and altogether bear an 

 aspect of cleanliness and order seldom seen in eastern towns. 



I am told on an emergency 400 matchlocks and guns can be collect- 

 ed for the defence of the place, and am inclined to believe this is rather 

 under, than above, the true amount. It is however, certain, that the 

 Tekriths have maintained their position against the Arabs, and even 

 compelled the powerful Sheikh of the Shammar to relinquish his 

 intended assault on the place by the menacing attitude they assumed. 



Mr. Rich, in speaking of this place in the nourishing times of Daood 

 Pasha, states that it was then farmed for 22,000 conl. Piastres annually, 

 and that it boasted at that time of 600 houses. I presume this must 

 be a mistake, for at present, though its dwellings are but half that 

 number, and its population proportionably small, from the effects of the 

 plague and other causes, the proprietor or farmer, pays yearly to the 



* It is now in the possession of Major Rawlinson, C. B., the Political Agent in Turkish 

 Arabia, and the learned and indefatigable author of a work which is now in the press 

 on the cuneiform inscriptions of the East. To his other and varied accomplishments he 

 adds, that of a keen and persevering antiquarian. 



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