September 18. 
457 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
/" 
Black, White, ok Game Bantam Pullets anij Cockerel.— 
First, Mr. Ephraim Wright, Legraras. (White.) Second, Mr. Henry 
Butler, Shelf, Halifax. (Black.) 
Ducks and Drake. —First, Mr. James Dixon, Bradford. Second, 
Mr. Emanuel Throup, junior, Threap Royd. Commended.—Mr. Joseph 
Horne, Keighley. (Aylesbury.) Mr. T. Young, Londesborough Park. 
(Rouen.) Edward Ackroyd, Esq., Denton Park. 
Ducklings. —First, Mr. F. H. Butterfield, Bingley. Second, H. 
Ambler, Esq., Watkinson Hall. (Aylesbury.) Commended. —Mr. T. 
Young, Londesborough Park. (Rouen.) 
Geese and Gander. —First, Henry Ambler, Esq., Watkinson Hall. 
(Grey Toulouse.) Second, Mrs. Mary Green, Todley. 
REVELATIONS FROM BABYLON. 
Although not strictly within the scope of our pages, yet 
the following information is so extremely interesting, and 
as it will lead, probably, to information relative to the Hang¬ 
ing Gardens of Babylon, we do not hesitate to place it 
before our readers. 
“ At a special meeting, in May, of the Bombay branch of 
the Royal Asiatic Society, 
“ Colonel Rawlinson having been solicited to communi¬ 
cate to the meeting a brief description, viva voce, of the results 
of recent discoveries in Assyria and Babylonia, proceeded to 
comply with the request. He pointed out, however, at tiro 
commencement of his address, that the subject was too large 
to be handled with effect within the limit of time allowed to 
him; that it was impossible to follow out an inquiry that in¬ 
volved the restoration of the history of Western Asia from 
the patriarchial ages to the time of Cyrus in a single hour’s 
discussion ; and that he should therefore confine himself to 
the mere heads of the arguments in general matters, reserv¬ 
ing all particular description for those salient points where 
cuneiform research came in contact with Scripture history, 
and where the means were thus afforded of illustrating and 
verifying the inspired writings of the Jews. 
“ He exhibited on the table a collection of antiquities, 
which he had lately obtained in Chaldea, Assyria, and 
Babylonia, since deposited in the British Museum. They 
were arranged in three different classes, and were intended 
to illustrate three distinct periods of history. The most 
ancient class was Chaldean, the second was Assyrian, and 
the third Babylonian. The Chaldean class consisted of 
relics found at the primitive capitals of Southern Chaldea, 
which are now represented by the ruins of Mugheir (Ur of 
the Chaldees), of Warka (Ereeh of Genesis), of Senkereh 
(Easar of Genesis), of Niffer (Accad), and the neighbouring 
sites. Among the relics were stamps of the cuneiform 
legends impressed on the bricks of the ancient palaces and 
temples, a number of inscribed cones of baked clay, and a 
small tablet of black marble, bearing a well preserved 
legend in the ancient hieratic character; and the period to 
which the relics belonged was stated to extend from the 
twentieth to the thirtieth century B.C. In proof of such 
antiquity, Colonel Rawlinson referred to the brick legends 
of one of the Chaldean Kings, Ismi-Dagon by name, and 
showed that by a series of dates, fortunately preserved upon 
the Assyrian monuments, the interval between this monarch 
and Sennacherib was determined to be above 1150 years, so 
that the former King must have ascended the throne of 
Chaldea in the early part of the nineteenth century B.C. 
But Ismi-Dagon was not the first monarch of his line. 
Relics have been obtained of several of his predecessors, one 
of whom was named Kudar-mapula, “ the ravager of Syria,” 
and it was pointed out that this epithet naturally suggested 
an identity with the Chedorlaomer of Scripture. The latter 
form indeed seemed to be a corruption of Kvdtier-el-Alima r 
or “ Kudur the Red,” and to refer to the King’s Semitic 
national!ly, a conflict of luces at that time having pervaded 
the East, and the Scythian or Cushite aborigines being 
termed “the black,” while the Semitic invaders were dis¬ 
tinguished as “ the red.” It was not thought necessary to 
follow the primitive Chaldean line in any detail, as the 
names were throughout unknown in history; but it was stated 
that a list had been obtained of above twenty of these 
monarchs from the various ruins on the lower Tigris and 
Euphrates, and hopes were held out that as materials 
accqmulated, all the names might be classified and con¬ 
nected, if not in a genealogical series, at any rate in a 
dynastic succession. 
“ It was next explained that the second class of relics, 
consisting for the most part of tablets of 1 terra cotta,’ be¬ 
longed to the Assyrian period, which extended from the 
thirteenth century B.C. to the capture of Nineveh in about 
B.C. 6'25, and that to this chronological division belonged 
all those specimens of Assyrian art which had recently 
attracted the admiration of Europe. There seemed no 
reason to doubt but that during the long period of Chaldean 
supremacy, Assyria occupied a very subordinate place in the 
civil polity of the East. The primeval rulers of the country 
whose names bad been found impressed in rude characters 
on the bricks of the earliest Northern Capital (now called 
Kileh S/iergat), had never assumed the regal title, nor 
among the territorial epithets which the Chaldean monarchs 
catalogued on their monuments was the expression ‘ King 
of Assyria’ to be met with. Works of art anterior to the 
thirteenth century B.C. were absolutely unknown upon the 
upper Tigris, and the inference therefore seemed to be that, 
although the Assyrians had imported from Chaldea in the 
very earliest times the use of letters and the rudiments of 
civilisation, the country had not attained to any political con¬ 
sequence, until the Southern Monarchy had ceased to exist. 
At the same time it was not probable that the Assyrians, 
like the Persians of a later age, had made a sudden stride 
from dependence to universal dominion. Of the early kings 
little had been preserved beyond the names; but we had 
fortunately the detailed annals of a monarch, named Tiglath- 
Pileser (the first), who ascended the throne at least 150 
years after the foundation of the monarchy, and even at 
that late period Babylonia had not become subject to 
Assyria. On the contrary, Merodach-adanakhi, the king of 
Babylonia, contemporary with Tiglath-Pileser I., had, in 
about B.C. 1110, attained a great victory over the auuies of 
Nineveh, and had carried off the Assyrian gods as trophies 
to Babylon;—but the Assyrian army, although checked to 
the south, bad already penetrated to the north far beyond 
the range of Taurus, and to the west to the shores of the 
Mediterranean. The most interesting result, indeed, which 
was obtained from the annals of Tiglath-Pileser I., was the 
light thrown by that monarch’s wars in Syria and Asia 
Minor on the ethnographical distribution of Western Asia 
in the twelfth century B.C. It appeared at that lime that 
Northern Syria and the great plateau of Anatolia were 
peopled by Scythian nations, while Southern Syria was 
dependent upon Egypt (the Casluchim or Khasmonians, 
who, according to Scripture, were the ancestors of the 
Philistines, being the dominant tribe), and the Aramean 
stock was confined to the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. 
The Jews must have been then living under the rule of the 
Judges, and were probably confounded by the Assyrians 
with the other scattered Semite colonies, who acknowledged 
the Khasmonian supremacy. 
“ The most brilliant period of Jewish history—that is the j 
age of David and Solomon—unfortunately admitted of no | 
illustration from the Assyrian annals. The contemporary I 
monarchs of Nineveh were occupied with the building of j 
cities and the adornment of their palaces and temples, or 
with expeditions among the northern mountains ; but they 
were hardly yet strong enough to provoke a contest with the 
organised armies of the kings of Syria. It was at the com¬ 
mencement of the ninth century B.C., shortly after the 
building of Samaria, that the Assyrians first undertook the 
subjugation of the countries on the Mediterranean; and 
from that period to the extinction of the empire, the annals 
of Nineveh, running in a parallel line with Jewish history, 
presented a series of notices, which established in the most 
conclusive manner the authenticity of the Hebrew Scriptures. 
The geographical names which occurred in the Bible were 
also found in the inscriptions. The names of the kings of 
Israel and Judah, of Damascus and of Nineveh, were, given 
in the two independent accounts under the same forms, in 
the same order of succession, and with the same chrono¬ 
logical relations. The same events even were described, 
with that mere variation of colouring which was due to 
national feeling. 
(To be continued.) 
