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

DURING IQi/i CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 349
stay at the ruins.
The two principal shaikhs of the Hamza,
'Abud el-Hamid and Hamid el-Birjud, in whose territory
the mounds of Nuffar are situated, were summoned to the
guest-chamber [mudhif) of the ruler of all the 'Afej. But
having carefully laid
their own scheme, through which they
hoped to squeeze the largest possible revenues out of the
pockets of their old friends from beyond " the great upper
sea in the West," they did not respond very eagerly to the
call of the messenger. When finally they appeared in
the course of the following day, both declared that it was
utterly impossible to
guarantee the safety of the expedition
without a permanent guard of forty men from their own
tribes. After much haggling the two interested parties
agreed upon ten Arabs as a sufficient number to insure the
welfare of Haynes and his party. Two hours later the
explorer arrived with his boats at Berdi's old village, then
governed temporarily by the latter's younger brother, 'Asi,
with whom he pitched his tents for a few days until he had
selected a suitable site for his own camp at Nuffar.
After an absence of nearly three years he walked, on
March 20, for the first time again to the ruins*, a mile and
a half from 'Asi's tower and reed huts. As the third expedition
was expected to remain considerably longer in the
field than either of the two previous ones, it became necessary
to erect a more solid structure than mere tents and
sarifas> a building which should afford coolness in the summer,
shelter during the rainstorms, and protection against
fire and the thievish inclinations of the Arabs. In the plain
to the south of the ruins, not very far from Peters' last
enclosure, Haynes marked out a spot, seventy feet long
and fifty feet wide, on which, with the aid of his men from
Hilla, he constructed a meftul or mud house with sloping
walls and without external windows. By the middle of
April the primitive but comfortable quarters were finished,
combining " the features of a castle, a store-house and a