Records Of The Past.

mounds of Nimroud or Calalt , and Kouyunjik or Nineveh , ancl found enough for 26 years of inquiry . . Thousands of fragments of fractured clay tablets , inscribed Avith cuneiform characters , the destroyed archives and library of Assurbanipal or Sardanapalus , the son of Esarhaddon , Avere raised to the surface to exercise the skill of

the interpreter . TAVO subsequent missions of Mr . G . Smith in 1873-4 have added about 5 , 000 additional pieces to the 20 , 000 dislocated documents Avhich passed into the presses of the British Museum . To join them together has

been the labour of years and an intimate acquaintance with their contents , ancl the task is by no means accomplished . Thousands of their companions still lie in the Assyrian mounds . Sooner or later they are sure to find

their Avay to public museums . The contents of the inscriptions are not less extraordinary than the documents themselves , the products of the Assyrian kilns , for there the public documents Avere burnt to them

preserve , and the letter , the account , or the title deed _ Avas jotted CIOAVII on a lump of clay in form of a pin-cushion , ancl history Avritten on a clay barrel-shaped cylindroid or hexagonal prism . Even lighter literaturesuch as and

, songs fables , Avas committed along with the laws and legends to the flames . Such may be said to be the preface to the interpretation of Assyrian records , ancl we shall like much to know Avhat these records are .

The most remarkable of these documents as yet deciphered are the tablets of Izdubar , or the legends relating to the Gods of the TAvelve Signs of the Babylonian Zodiac , among Avhich Mr . Smith discovered the celebrated account of

the Assyrian Deluge , the descent of Ishtar or Aphrodite to Hell and her return to Heaven . The historical inscriptions gives the annals of Assyria worn the reign of Shalmaneser to the fall of Nineveh , and mention seven contemporary Kings of Israel , the expedition of Sennacherib against

Jerusalem , the submission of Gyges , and the conquest of Egypt by Assurbanipal or Sarclanapalus ; also the succession of the eponymous officers , by Avhose year of office all deeds and events Avere dated , from B . C . 650 to 908 . Lists and

vocabularies , elementary grammars , and bilingual documents have revealed the existence of another Assyrian language supposed to belong to the Turanian class , ancl piwisionally called Accadian . The library of Assurbanipal Avas only one of the storehouses of Semitic

erudition .- Older repositories existed at Urukh ancl Babylon . Nebuchadnezzar subsequently founded a later collection , and the Arabs have tapped it in the neighbourhood of Bagdad . Among these records are

also the cylinder , called Belino ,, from the name of its first possessor .. It gives an account of the eight first campaigns of Sennacherib , and has been translated by Mr . Fox Talbot . These annals are fortunately Avritten in a

simple , easy style , and recite in a monotonous manner the Avars , the conquests , the sieges , the fetters of brass , the decapitation of enemies , and the dragging aAvay of captives , Avhich Avere

the highest aspirations of Assyrian politics . The great interest of this inscription is the success of Sennacherib against Hezekiah . According to the inscription the King of Judah had interfered in the affairs of Ekron , and

Sennacherib shut him up like a bird in a cage in Jerusalem , having previously taken 40 strong cities and carried aAvay captive more than 200 , 000 JBAVS . Sennacherib states that the King of Judah Avas overwhelmed by the splendour of

the exploit , and only too eager to seek for reconciliation by offering an indemnity of 30 talents of gold , 800 of silver , besides furniture ancl other objects of value , including inmates of the Palace sent to Nineveh as a tribute to the

Assyrian conqueror . As to Merodach Baladan , that King of Babylon , not unmindful of a former defeat , on hearing of the success of the King of Assyria , " to the city of Nagiti-Eakkin , which is K