Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

98 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
governor had quickly restored confidence among the inhabitants
of the province. Even the Bedouins were returning
to their old camping grounds between the Tigris and Zab,
from which for a long while they had been excluded. The
incessant winter rains had brought forward the vegetation of
the spring, and the surface and sides of Nimrud were clothed
in a pleasing green. Security having been established in
this part of the country, the mound itself now offered a
more convenient and more agreeable residence to Layard
than the distant village of Selamiye. Accompanied by a
number of workmen and by Hormuzd Rassam, an intelligent
Chaldean Christian and brother of the British viceconsul
at Mosul, who henceforth acted as his reliable agent
and overseer, he therefore moved at once to his new dwelling-place
at Nimrud. The polite governor had offered no
objection to the continuation of his labors, but another
month elapsed before he could venture to resume his excavations.
For the qadi of Mosul once more had stirred
up the people of the town against the explorer, so that it
was found necessary to postpone work until the storm had
passed away.
It was near the middle of February before Layard could
make some fresh experiments at the southwest corner of
the mound. Slab after slab was exposed, by which it was
proved that " the building had not been entirely destroyed
by fire, but had been partly exposed to gradual decay."
But in order to arouse the necessary interest in England,
he needed much better preserved sculptures.
Abandoning,
therefore, the edifice, which until then had received his
principal
attention, he placed the workmen at the centre of
a ravine which ran far into the west side of the mound, near
the spot where he had previously unearthed the first complete
monuments. His labors here were followed by an
immediate success. He came upon a large hall, in which
all the slabs were not only in their original position, but in