# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1911_S504
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

504 Die Assyriologie und das Alte Testament.

Closed an enormous human head sculptured in full out of the
alabaster of the couutry. Isaw at once that the head must belong
to à winged lion or bull, similar to those of Ihorsabad. The ex-
preéssion was cahn, yet majestic, and the outline of the features
showed a freedom and knowledge of art scarcely to be looked for in
the works of so remote 2 period. I was not surprised that the
Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. This gigantic
ligure, blanched with age, thus rising from the bowels of the earth,
might Well have belonged to one of those fearful beings which are
pictured in the traditions of the country, as appearing to mortals,
slowly ascending from the regions below. One of the workmen, on
catching the frst glimpse of the monster, had thrown down his
baskeéet (for removing eéarth) and run off towards Mosul as fast as
his legs could carry him. ... Entering breathless into the bazaars,
he amounced to every one he met that Nimrod had appeared. While
Iwas supeérintending the removal of the earth which still elung to
the sculpture, and giving diréctions for the continuation of the work,
a noise of horsemen was heard, and présently Abdurrahman, followed
by half his tribe, appearéd on the edge of the trench.. . When they
beheld the head, they all cried out together, There is no God but
God. and Mohannmmned is his Prophet!' It was some time before
the sheikh could be prevailed upon to descend into the pit and con-
vince himself that the image he saw was 0f stone. This is not the
work of men's hands,' éxclaimeéd he, but of those infidel giants of
whom the Prophet — péeace be with him! — has said that they were
higher than the tallest daté tréee; this is one of the idols which Noah
— peace be with him! — curscd beforeé the flood. In this opinion,
the result of a careful examination, all the bystanders concurred.“ I1)

In bezug auf die Fortschaffung einer dieser Riesengestalten er⸗
zählt Layard folgendes: „At last I resolved upon constructing a cart
sufficiently strong to bear any of the masses to be moved Stier und
Löwe . ... Each whéel was formeéd of three solid pieces, nearly à
foot thick, from the trunk of aà mulberry trée, bound together by
iron hoops. I purchased aà pair of iron axles, formerly used by
N. Botta in bringing sculptures from Khorsabad. Across the axles
were laid three beams, and above them several erossbeams, ete.
Simple as this cçart was, it became an object of wonder in the town.
Crowds came to lock at it, as it stood in the yard of the vice-
consul's kxkhan. . .. As long as the cart was in Mosul, it was ex⸗
amineéd by every stranger who visited the town. But when the news
spread that it was about to leave the gates, the business of the place
was completely suspended. The sectaries and scribes from the palace
lekt their divans, the guards their posts, the bazaars were deserted,
and half the population assembled on the banks of the river to wateh

11) Vineveh and Its Remains, I, p. 72 sq.