330 
TOWER OF BABEL. 
during their captivity in Egypt: “ And Pharaoh commanded 
the task-masters, and said, ye shall no more give the people 
straw to make bricks, &c.” These unburnt bricks commonly 
form the interior or mass of any strong foundation amongst 
these ruins ; and this is the case with the great tower ; while it 
is, or rather has been, faced with the more beautiful fabric of 
those manufactured in the furnace or kiln. From every account 
left us by historians, of the supereminently stupendous structure 
of the Tower of Belus, we must seek it on the banks of the 
Euphrates, and on the site of Babylon; and of all the colossal 
mounds which remain amongst its far-spreading ruins, not one 
appears to answer so fully, in place, dimensions, and aspect, to 
all their pictures of the tower, whether called by the name of 
Babel, or of Belus, as this sublime inhabitant of the desert, 
known universally to the present descendants of Ishmael, by the 
name of Birs Nimrood. The etymology of the word Birs, 
Mr. Bicli considers difficult to trace. He observes, that it does 
not appear to be Arabic, though it is possible to be some term 
which has suffered the corruptions of time, that might originally 
be derived from that language, or the Chaldean. There are 
words in both, similar to it in sound; in the latter meaning a 
palace, or splendid building; in the former, a sandy desolation, 
or the habitation of dsemons. The Arabs, as I mentioned before, 
call it Birs Nimrood ; but the remnant of the captivity, still 
abiding amongst “ the waters of Babylon,” when they speak 
of it, call it Nebuchadnezzar’s prison. It is not improbable, 
that some old tradition of that monarch having been placed here, 
during his madness, in charge of the priesthood dedicated to his 
deified ancestor, may have given rise to such a name, amongst 
the Jews, who certainly considered his malady a punishment; or, 
