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

142 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
Loftus again on his way to the ruins, supplied with the
necessary funds by his patron, and " with instructions more
especially to procure specimens of the remarkable coffins of
the locality, and seek objects as might be easily packed for
transmission to the British Museum." His whole caravan
consisted of four servants, three muleteers, two Arab guides,
and fifteen horses and mules.
Under the protection of the powerful Muntefik( j) shaikh
Fah(a)d (" Leopard," " Panther"), Loftus proceeded to the
Arab encampment nearest to the ruins of Warka. It was
fully six miles away from the scene of his
soon afterwards
labors, a distance
increased even to nine miles, when, in consequence
of the frequent desertions of his Tuwaiba workmen,
he was forced to decamp to Durraji on the Euphrates,
in order to ensure greater safety to his little party.
His work of three weeks was harassing in the extreme.
" At sunrise," to quote his own words, " I set out with the
Arabs for the mounds, . . . and never left them during the
whole day. The soil was so light that, in walking from
trench to trench, my feet were buried at^each step. The
Arabs required constant directions and .watching. It was
usually long after sunset ere we returned to camp, stumbling
every instant over the broken ground. A few minutes
sufficed for me to swallow the food my cook had
prepared, when, almost tired to death, I was obliged to lay
down plans from my rough notes, write myjournal, and pack
the objects procured in the course of the day. On many
occasions it was two o'clock in the morning before I retired
to rest, perfectly benumbed from the intensity of the cold,
which even the double walls of my little tent could not
exclude."
After many fruitless trials and the demolition of perhaps
a hundred specimens, Loftus succeeded in finding a method
by which some of the fragile but heavy slipper-shaped
coffins so abundantly found at Warka could be removed