WEST BANK OF THE EUPHRATES. 
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impossible. He insisted “ that my rejection of this mark of his 
respect, could only arise from my contempt of himself and 
people; but on the reverse, my acceptance of it, would be 
regarded by himself as a pledge of my esteem ; and on that 
account give him honour in the eyes of his people.” The 
compliment was even more unmerited than the present; but 
accepting both, with the best grace my modesty would permit, 
I bade adieu to the munificent “ patriarch and his children,” and 
returned to my quarters in the town. 
November 12th. — By the appointed hour this morning, the 
kiahya’s officer appeared before my gate, at the head of a hundred 
well-armed men, some of whom were Arabs, all fairly mounted, 
and ready to attend me to that part of the desolated land of Shinar 
which lies west of the Euphrates. My immediate object was the 
Birs Nimrood ; the tower mentioned by Neibuhr with so much 
regret at his having been prevented, by apprehension of the 
wild tribes in the desert, from closely examining its prodigious 
remains. But the observations he was enabled to make, however 
short of his wishes, were sufficient to awaken in him an idea, 
now ably supported by the more comprehensive investigations of 
the present British resident at Bagdad, that in this pile we see 
the very Tower of Babel, the stupendous artificial mountain 
erected by Nimrod in the plain of Shinar, and on which, in after- 
ages, Nebuchadnezzar raised the temple of Belus. It lies about 
six miles south-west of Hillah. On leaving the suburb on the 
eastern shore of the river, we crossed a bridge of thirty-six pon¬ 
toons, all considerably smaller than those over the Tigris at 
Bagdad, and like them in a neglected state. The width of the 
Euphrates at this passage, is 430 feet. On quitting the crazy 
timbers of the bridge, which gave terrible note of insecurity, 
vol. n. 
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