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made of money, and have the art of turning dust into gold ! In 
this instance I brought two gangs of workmen from Babylon, 
headed by an Arab overseer; and, as I had first to try two 
mounds situated on the high road to Hillah, and within half a 
mile of the village of Mahmoodia, we were able to induce some 
of the poor wayfarers to accept service under us. The bait 
was tried with effect in the following manner. Thousands of 
Moslem devotees, especially the Shea sect, visit the shrine of 
Hosain at Karbala the whole year round; and, as a large number 
are very poor, they subsist by begging. Some of these visited 
the excavations on their way, and as many of them were 
almost starving, I told the head overseer to offer them food 
and money on condition they assisted in the digging. Many 
of them who were Kurds were glad to accept the offer, and 
before many days were over I had a good number in my 
employ. No sooner did the neighbouring Arabs see that I 
was able easily td obtain the workmen required than they 
consented to work at the rate I first offered them, and, soon 
after, I could employ as many workmen as were required 
for less than half the amount they demanded when I first went 
to the place. 
As the site of Aboo-habba seemed to me a most promising 
one for extensive operations, I moved my head-quarters 
thither to superintend the works in person. At the mound 
itself there were no Arabs residing, but within a mile of the 
place there is a mausoleum of the patron saint of the neigh- 
bourhood, called Seyid Abdallah, and near which the guardian 
of the shrine and his near relations dwelt. I had my camp 
pitched near his, and to make him interested in our work 
I appointed him an overseer, and offered his brothers and 
connexions good berths, which they accepted most willingly. 
As Dair was also far away from an inhabited place, I had to 
send workmen to dig there from Seyid Abdallah, but had soon 
to give that up, as I found scarcely any good sign of ancient 
remains to warrant the work being carried on in that locality. 
At Aboo-habba, however, I was rewarded, after three days' 
trial, by one of the gangs coming upon the wall of a chamber, 
on examining which I could see it belonged to the old 
Babylonian style of building. This success encouraged me to 
prosecute the research with uninterrupted perseverance, and 
before many days were over we came upon other buildings in 
different parts of the mound. This made me work with 
redoubled energy, and very soon afterwards we came upon a 
chamber paved with asphalt, which proved to contain the 
history of the new city I had discovered. Heretofore all 
Assyrian and Babylonian structures were found to be 
