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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 201
congenial manner of adapting oneself to the customs and
laws of the East, that loving sympathy with the joys and
sorrows of the children of the desert, which won for Layard
the respect and confidence of the natives, and made him a
welcome guest at every camp-fire and tent of the Arabs.
And as a scholar he did not acquire that depth and extent
of knowledge, that independence of judgment and bold selfreliance
which permeate the writings of Rawlinson, nor could
he ever boast of Hinck's mental brilliancy and that subtle
understanding of grammatical rules which characterize the
latter's works. But stern in the conception of his duties,
always thinking of his task and never of his person, provided
with an astonishing memory, and a highly developed
sense for the differences of form, he stands unexcelled in
his
masterly knowledge of the cuneiform inscriptions of the
British Museum, while his numerous contributions to science
testify to that rare intuition and gift of divination
which enabled him often to translate correctly where others
failed to grasp the meaning.
rassam (1878-82).
Upon the sudden death of George Smith the trustees of
the British Museum requested Hormuzd Rassam to take
charge again of the excavations in the Assyrian mounds.
Although in 1869 the latter had resigned his political appointment
at Aden and retired to private life in England,
after many hardships experienced as prisoner of King Theodore
of Abyssinia, he accepted the proffered trust at once and
started for Constantinople in November, 1876, in order to
obtain a more satisfactory firman than had been granted
his predecessor. But all his efforts in this direction proved
without result.
Certain grave political complications which
soon led to the Turco-Russian war, and the unexpected termination
of the International Conference at Pera which tried
to