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

DURING lorn CENTURY : ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 433
seeing the expedition again among them, well knowing that
the presence of the foreigners " meant to them a season
of prosperity," the party established itself at once in its old
quarters. The seals attached to the meftul were found unbroken,
and the three Arab guards, to whom the property
Headquarters of the University of Pennsylvania's Fourth Expedition at Nuffar
Meftul surrounded £y gardens and reed-huts at the south foot of the ruins. The ' Afej sivamps
in the
had been entrusted, had remained " faithful to their charge
under verv great discouragement," waiting year after year
patiently for Haynes' return and for the expected reward of
their doubtless conspicuous services. They had lived near
the house, and also watered the garden regularly, so that
manv date trees had sprung up spontaneously from the
stones which our former workmen had thrown away
thoughtlessly. The little plants, scarcely visible when
Havnes departed from the ruins in 1896, had become
waving palm trees. Some of them even bore fruit after
a growth of onlv three and four years, 1 thus vividly illus-
1
The ordinary time required for a date-palm to bear fruit is five years at
Basra, and eight years in the less tropical gardens of Baghdad, according to