alighted at the khan, where we remained until the heat of the day had subsided, without further extending our inquiries regarding Hillah itself, already so often and so well described. It is seated on both banks of the Euphrates, the stream of the river running through its centre. Its two divisions are connected by a bridge of boats, close to each end of which is a door, terminating a long street of communication. The eastern division is inconsiderable in extent and population, but the western contains from eight to ten thousand inhabitants, chiefly Arab traders. There are some Jewish dealers, who have a synagogue for their worship, but there are no resident Christians; and the only Turks here are such as fill the immediate offices dependent on the Governor, who is generally a Georgian appointed from Bagdad.

About six o'clock we mounted our horses at the khan, and went over the bridge of boats on our return, when it was as much crowded as before. Just beyond the eastern division of the town, while yet among the gardens and date-groves, we met an Arab lad, with no covering but a shirt, his hair flying loosely in the wind, a naked dagger or yambeeah in his hand, his neck and breast covered with blood, and himself running almost breathless along the road. He made no replies to our questions, and seemed as if flying from some murderous affray.

As we approached the mounds on the eastern division of the ruined Babylon, the Koord guide and an Arab of our party expressed great alarm, from the evil spirits, both of the living and dead, whom they firmly believe to haunt these heaps at night. We passed, however, unmolested by both, which they attributed to some favourable influence possessed by Mr. Bellino, as an European and a man of necromantic learning, and slept at the khan of Mohāwil in safety.

JULY 28th. The rest of our way to Bagdad was marked by no peculiar occurrence, as we travelled chiefly by night, and halted during the heat of the day, on the same road by which we had come down.

On the morning of the 30th, as we approached Bagdad, we met a caravan of Persian corpses, conveying to Imaum Hussein for interment. Near the bend of the Tigris, about two hours below Bagdad, we were shewn the marks of an inundation all the way from the Euphrates, rafts even coming over from one river close to the other by its waters. This is greater in extent than any inundation of the Nile, and proves also that the bed of the Euphrates is higher at Felugiah than that of the Tigris at Bagdad, in a line of east and west; though the course of the former river is slow, as if its descent were gentler, and that of the latter rapid, as if its descent were steeper, than the other; a difference to be accounted for only by the more winding course of the Euphrates.

We arrived at the hospitable residence of Mr. Rich, in time to join the family at breakfast, and passed some hours of the day together, in recounting the incidents of our journey, and comparing our notes and opinions on the interesting remains of the ruined city we had returned from visiting.

On the day after our return from Hillah, I had been seized with a severe fever, an effect of the heat and fatigue of the journey. This confined me for some time to my bed, during which period my companion also suffered from the same cause. I was again recovering my strength, however, until about a fortnight after my first attack, when, exposing myself to the sun at noon-day, in order to fix the latitude of Bagdad by a meridian altitude, at the request of Mr. Rich, I experienced a coup de soleil, which threw me into a relapse, and occasioned a longer and more severe illness than the first attack.*

* The observation of the sun's meridian altitude, taken on the 4th of August, 1816, for ascertaining the latitude of Bagdad, gave the following result :

During this confinement, I had the benefit of the best medical advice, from the physician of the establishment, Dr. Hine, and every comfort which Mr. Rich's house, and the kind attentions of himself and family, could afford. But the state of the weather was itself a sufficient obstacle to rapid recovery; as, from the close of July until the middle of August, the thermometer stood at an average between 119° and 122° of Fahrenheit, in the shade at noon, with calms, now and then broken by the Simoom or Desert wind. Those who had long resided in the country had known nothing like this heat for any great number of days in succession before; and its effects were universally felt among all classes. Here, in the midst every convenience that money could procure to ameliorate it, we fled to the terrace for air at night, and to the subterraneous cells for shelter during the day; in both cases, going nearly without garments, and finding it a sufficient penance to dress even in the lightest robes for an hour at breakfast, which was never later than seven o'clock in the morning, and again for dinner, which was always an hour after sun-set.

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By a Tartar who had recently arrived from Constantinople, we heard the most distressing accounts of the state of the country, which was parched and burnt up, in the immediate neighbourhood of Bagdad and Mousul, by the excessive heat; and accidents of death from the same cause were daily reported to us. We learnt, at the same time, the fact of a kellek or raft, coming from Mousul to Bagdad by the Tigris, having been attacked by Arabs in a narrow part of the river, and every creature on board it murdered.

The continuance of the Fast of Ramazan, added to my yet weak state of health, and the oppressive heat of the weather, were sufficient reasons for my postponing the further prosecution of my journey towards India, until more favourable combinations might allow me to do so without great risk.

During this period of my recent illness, two vessels had arrived at Bussorah from India, one of them the East-India Company's cruiser Aurora, which brought despatches, and then sailed again directly, in order to take round the Bishop of Calcutta from Bombay to Bengal; the other, his Majesty's ship Favourite, the Honourable Captain Maude, who had taken an English vessel from Muskat, laden with slaves, and departed from Bussorah again so soon, that there was no hope of my reaching her in time.

The tedium of my confinement was considerably relieved by the number and variety of excellent books which Mr. Rich's library contained, and which were accompanied also by the most unreserved communication from that gentleman himself, of every thing calculated to increase the interest of my future journey eastward. In his extensive and valuable collection of antiques, I found also a source of amusement and information. These were chiefly Babylonian, and consisted of cylinders, amulets, idols, and intaglios, of the most curious kind. Among these I was more particularly struck with some cylinders, drilled through with holes, as if to be worn round the neck, the ornaments on which were purely Egyptian; the winged globe, wavy lines of water, the lotus, the moon, a globe in a boat, sacrifices of gazelles, rams' heads; a lunated female divinity, like Isis; priests in the same attitudes, and divinities on similar thrones to those of Egypt, with a mixture of Persepolitan figures and symbols on the same objects, and most of them accompanied by inscriptions in the arrow-headed character, such as has been found at the ruins of Persepolis, Babylon, and Nineveh. Besides these, were a fine ram's head in agate, as of Jupiter Ammon; a cow, or bull, in copper, as of Apis or Mnevis; a male figure in a sitting attitude, but unsupported by a seat, bearing an open scroll on his knees, the whole