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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 259
Towards the end of May we both were back in Baghdad,
and for a whole week we met regularly at the hospitable
house of the American vice-consul, communicating to
each other the results of our latest expeditions, discussing
our new plans and dwelling with especial pleasure on the
bright prospect of methodical explorations in the numerous
ruins of Shumer and Akkad. Seated on the flat roof of
our temporary abode, we used to enjoy the refreshing evening
hours of a Babylonian spring, — over us that brilliant
sky in the knowledge of which the early inhabitants of the
country excelled all other nations, below us the murmuring
waters of the Tigris which gradually expose and wash away
the tombs of by-gone generations, carrying their dust into
the realm of the god Ea, " the creator of the Universe,"
and far awav into the ocean to the island of the blessed.
De Sarzec himself looked exceedingly tired and frequently
complained of chills and fever. When we finally separated,
he took the direct route to the coast of the Mediterranean
by way of Der and Aleppo, while the present writer rode
along the western bank of the Tigris and examined the
ruins of Assyria and Cappadocia before he reached Europe
at Constantinople. De Sarzec's hope of a speedy return to
his Arabs and ruins was not to be realized. On May 30,
1 90 1, at the age of sixty-four years, the great French
explorer succumbed suddenly, at
Poitiers, to a disease of the
liver, which he had contracted during his long sojourn in
the East. Only a few weeks later his faithful companion,
who so often had dwelt with him in the tents of the
desert, assisting and encouraging him in the great task of
his life, followed her husband on his last journey to " the
land without return."
The French government, fully recognizing the extraordinary
importance of De Sarzec's work and
the necessity of
its continuation, has taken steps at an early date to resume
the exploration of Tello, so gloriously initiated and for