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away all the relics discovered, and sold them either in Europe 
or America. We must not, therefore, wonder at the jealousy 
of the Porte and the strict rules which they forced upon the 
late Mr. George Smith, and which they tried likewise to 
impose on me. 
17. Formerly, when Sir Henry Layard, M. Botta, and myself 
excavated in Assyria, there was no restriction placed upon our 
researches, and so we could dig wherever we liked, and send 
to Europe any relics we might find without let or hindrance. 
But, as I said before, that since it came to the knowledge of 
the Sublime Porte that private individuals were enriching 
themselves by digging out ancient relics, and sending them to 
Europe for sale, the Ottoman Government framed certain rules 
which prohibited anyone from digging for antiquities without 
the special sanction of the Minister of Instruction, and obliged 
the explorer to give one-third of the objects discovered to the 
Porte, one- third to the owner of the land where the relics are 
found, and the other third he was to keep, and if exported to 
pay a heavy duty thereon. That a special delegate would be 
appointed to watch the work, and all expenses incurred on 
the appointment of the said delegate, with a proper guard, 
be borne by the excavator. The Firman which Sir Henry 
Layard obtained for me dispensed with all these restrictions, 
and it only stipulated that we should give the Ottoman 
Museum every duplicate we found. To this we had no objec- 
tion, considering that we did not wish to fill the British 
Museum with unnecessary counterparts. Moreover, almost 
all the inscriptions that we have found are separate specimens; 
but when I tried to give the delegate some sculptures and 
other antiquities which we did not want, he looked suspiciously 
at them, as if my reason for giving them to him was because 
they were not thought to be worth keeping by us. 
18. Most of the mounds in which ancient remains are found 
in Assyria and Babylonia are private property, and to enable 
us to make excavations thereat, it is necessary, independently 
of the Firman, to indemnify the landlord before the work can 
be commenced. It had always been the rule with Sir Henry 
Layard and myself not to enter into an agreement with the 
landlords, but merely to reward them with a small present 
which we deemed sufficient for the purpose ; and it is an 
astonishing fact that during our several expeditions we never 
had any dispute on this head, and none of the landlords ever 
gave us a moment's trouble, or interfered in our work, even if 
we chose to destroy or dig up all their ground and render it 
unfit for tillage. Indeed, a great number never troubled them- 
