332 
HILLAH, ON THE 
their small round shields, while they mixed indiscriminately 
amongst detachments of horsemen, not deficient in brandishing 
their lances, firing off pistols, and playing the noble animals 
they rode, to within a plunge of the w'ater. The clangour of 
several long trumpets, accompanied by the thumping of three 
or four kettle-drums, mingled in the general noise. And while 
all this was going forward on the bridge, that its crazy timbers 
might not be strained too far, “ the formidable park of artillery !” 
I before mentioned, was dismounted, unwheeled, and otherwise 
divided, to be put on board a couple of large boats, and so 
transported to the opposite shore. It was not in this manner 
that the armies of Cyrus, Xerxes, or Alexander, crossed the 
Euphrates ! but, in all ways, how different is the scene ! Hillah 
stands here, instead of Babylon ! — And, being on the subject, I 
shall take the opportunity of describing the present place, before 
I proceed further in my researches amongst the ruins of the 
former. 
The town of Hillah lies in latitude 32° 31' 18 ', in longitude 
12' 36" west of Bagdad ; and, according to Turkish authorities, 
it was built in the fifth century of the Hegira, in the district of 
the Euphrates, which the Arabs call El-Ared Babel. Lying on 
a spot of the vast site of Babylon, nothing was more likely 
than that it should be built out of a few of the fragments of that 
great city. The town is pleasantly situated amidst gardens and 
groves of date-trees ; and spreads itself on both sides of the 
river, where it is connected by the miserable floating bridge I 
have just described; but which, perilous as it may be, is secu¬ 
rity itself, when compared with the pass of danger at Bagdad. 
The portion of the town, or, as it is usually called, the suburb, 
on the eastern bank, consists of one principal street of bazar, 
