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Nineveh and its remains: with an account of a visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or devil-worshippers; and an enquiry into the manners and arts of the ancient Assyrians / [Sir Austen Henry Layard].

  • Layard, Austen Henry, 1817-1894.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nineveh and its remains: with an account of a visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or devil-worshippers; and an enquiry into the manners and arts of the ancient Assyrians / [Sir Austen Henry Layard]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    without effort their manners, and enjoyed without alloy those emotions which scenes so novel, and spots so rich in varied association, cannot fail to produce. I look back with feelings of grateful delight to those happy days when, free and unheeded, we left at dawn the humble cottage or cheerful tent, and linger¬ ing as we listed, unconscious of distance and of the hour, found ourselves, as the sun went down, under some hoary ruin tenanted by the wandering Arab, or in some crumbling village still bearing a well- known name. No experienced dragoman measured our distances and appointed our stations. We were honoured with no conversations by pashas, nor did we seek any civilities from governors. We neither drew tears nor curses from villagers by seizing their horses, or searching their houses for provisions.: their welcome was sincere ; their scanty fare was placed before us ; we ate, and came and went in peace. I had traversed Asia Minor and Syria, visiting the ancient seats of civilisation, and the spots which re¬ ligion has made holy. I now felt an irresistible desire to penetrate to the regions beyond the Eu¬ phrates, to which history and tradition point as the birthplace of the wisdom of the West. Most tra¬ vellers, after a journey through the usually frequented parts of the East, have the same longing to cross the great river, and to explore those lands which are separated on the map from the confines of Syria by a vast blank stretching from Aleppo to the banks of the Tigris. A deep mystery hangs over Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldcea. With these names are