189 
selves to ask for indemnification for any damage done, as they 
all knew that we were sure to punish any of our employes who 
wantonly did any damage to the property, or trespassed upon 
any domain without our sanction. 
19. It was generally considered all over the country, and 
established as a precedent, that I could dig anywhere I liked, 
as it was known by all that I was always ready to reward any- 
one as he deserved. Indeed, I have been very often accosted 
on my travels by men and women who had an artificial mound 
in their patrimony, or near their village, to go and examine the 
old ruins, which they declared contained antiquities and treasure. 
It is very curious that though the French and ourselves have 
been exploring in that country off and on for nearly forty years, 
and employed thousands of the natives in the diggings, and all 
know that none of us have ever found any treasure, yet the idea 
of the hid precious metal can never be disassociated from the 
minds of the generality of the people of that country. Had I 
to follow the red-tape system, I might not only have been im- 
posed upon, and made to pay most exorbitantly for the privilege 
of digging, but I should, most probably, have been prevented 
altogether from attaining the object of my mission, seeing that 
it was particularly set forth in my Firman that to enable me to 
excavate in a private ground it would be necessary for me to 
obtain the sanction of the landlords, as if I could possibly in- 
trude on any private domain against the wishes of the owner ! 
I was also prohibited from digging in any mound which con- 
tained a graveyard, or where the ground was considered 
sacred ; and had this clause been strictly followed, most of the 
valuable antiquities would have been now and for ever lost to 
the literary and scientific world. 
20. Two incidents in connection with the landlords, one 
which occurred in Sir Henry Layard^s time, and the other 
daring my superintendence, raised us immensely in the esti- 
mation of everyone, especially those owners of land who 
possessed in their property ancient remains. When I rejoined 
Sir Henry Layard at Constantinople in 1849, one of the land- 
lords of Koyunjik happened to be there to solicit some pecuniary 
assistance from two grandees of Mossul who held high positions 
at the Turkish capital ; but it appears that he did not meet 
with success. On finding him in distress I represented his 
case to Sir Henry Layard, who immediately gave him a suit- 
able present, which the poor old man never forgot till the day 
of his death, in the beginning of this year. On returning to 
Mossul he reported in high glee everywhere the kindness and 
liberality of the English, and as he took care not to say what 
