COMPOSITION OF ITS BRICKS. 
329 
tower. Surely these kind of traditions, though confusing per¬ 
sons, and often disfiguring facts, having had truth to ground 
them on, are no bad arguments in establishing the locality of 
the places where they really did happen. 
During my traversing the ruins, both of the tower and the 
mound, I picked up curious fragments of brick and bitumen, 
besides pieces of broken marble, and several thin copper coins 
in a very corrbded state. With respect to the specimens of 
brick, both sun-dried and fire-burnt, there were ample quantities 
everywhere ; giving us an idea, how very opportune the furnaces 
might have been, which manufactured the latter, to execute the 
mad judgments of either Nimrod or Nebuchadnezzar. The 
bricks which compose the tower, and its appending objects, are 
mostly stampt with three lines of inscription, in the cuneiform, 
or, as it is commonly called, the Babylonian character. Some 
extend to four, or even seven lines ; but, though differing in 
this respect, the dimensions of all are the same; the only su¬ 
periority appears in those of seven lines being better stampt 
than those with the fewer numbers. However, I could only 
draw these observations from fragments about, and I examined 
a great many ; entire detached bricks not being now to be found 
on the ruin. I have already mentioned that the bricks of 
Babylon are of two kinds, sun-dried, and fire-burnt. The former 
is generally largest, as it is of a coarser fabric than the latter ; 
but its solidity seems, by proof, to be equal to the hardest stone. 
It is composed of clay mixed with chopped straw, or broken 
reeds, to compact it, and then dried in the sun. Here, then, 
besides tracing the first builders of Babel in their very executed 
work, “ Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly!” 
we find the exact sort of brick which the children of Israel made, 
VOL. II. 
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