JULY 6th. The departure of the Tartars for Bagdad being fixed for to-morrow, I had another day of leisure to complete my examination of the town, and having directed the Pasha's cawasses to attend me early in the morning with three fresh horses, we mounted together at daylight, and resumed our task. In the course of our way, protected as I was by these officers on each side, every mark of civility and respect was shewn to me wherever I went, and all my inquiries were very readily answered.

It was about noon when we returned from this second excursion, and after partaking of the refreshments prepared for our party, the greater number of them retired to repose. I, therefore, profited by the retirement and leisure which their withdrawal afforded me,

to embody such observations as I had been able to collect regarding Mousul, as well from information previously collected, as from my own personal observation, and the communications of residents on the spot.

This city is seated on the western bank of the Tigris, and in a low and flat country, extending for several miles around it. The plan of it, as given by Mr. Niebuhr, appeared to me to be in general accurate, though my own observations enabled me only to judge of the fidelity of the outline, without being qualified to pronounce on its details. On entering the town from the north-west, there are appearances of its having been once surrounded by a ditch, which is now filled up. The wall itself is in a ruinous state, and would certainly offer but a slight obstacle to a besieging army provided with artillery, though it is here considered a sufficient barrier to keep out all the enemies that are ever likely to appear before it.

The general aspect of the town is mean and uninteresting: the streets are narrow and unpaved, the lines of their direction irregular, and, with one exception only, there are neither fine bazārs, mosques, or palaces, such as one might expect in a city of this size, to relieve occasionally the dull sameness of the common buildings. The houses are mostly constructed of small unhewn stones, cemented by mortar and plastered over with mud, though some are built of burnt and unburnt bricks. One of their most striking peculiarities is, that they are built on the inclined slope, common to ancient Egyptian temples, and that the angles presented towards the streets are almost always rounded off, as is seen in the improved openings at the corners of narrow streets in London. From the great scarcity and consequent high price of timber, very little of this material is used in their buildings; so that most of them, instead of beams, have vaulted ceilings with rooms above, and vaulted roofs to support their flat terraces. Most of the entrance-doors also, which are in many cases the only apertures presented to the street, as the windows open on square courts within, are crowned by an arch cut

out of a block of veined marble from the neighbouring hills. The form of the arch is, in some cases, the high pointed Gothic, in others the flatter Norman, but in very few indeed is the proportion of the Saracen arch seen, the two others being more in fashion. In some cases, these blocks of marble are ornamented with sculptured designs of flowers, but they are always very clumsily done. Among the devices which I observed on the architraves of these door-ways, was a frequently repeated one of a pillar with something like rams' horns on the top, and another of two triangles interlaced with a star in the middle, like one of the emblems worn by freemasons in Europe. Some of the poorer houses, occupied by the weavers of cotton cloth, are half subterranean, and the lower part being the coolest in the day-time, it is used for their looms, while they sleep on their terraces at night. Many of these terraces are walled around, to seclude those who may resort there from general view; and some of them have windows formed of hollow earthen pots, and loop-holes for musketry in the walls, as if to provide for defence.

The bazārs, though not so fine as those of Cairo, with one exception only, are numerous, and well supplied, from the adjoining country of Koordistan, with an abundance of all the necessaries of life; but these places of public resort are as frequently open as roofed over, are generally dirty, and not remarkable for the symmetry and order which is commonly seen in this department of Eastern towns. There is only one bazar, where the richest merchandize is sold, that is much better in its structure and design; and this is at all times well filled with a great variety of the richest commodities, the produce of Europe and of India.

The coffee-houses are numerous, and in general very large; some of them, indeed, occupy the whole length of an avenue, extending for a hundred yards, with benches on each side of the passage, which is shaded by a roof of matting above.

The baths are estimated to be about thirty in number; but although I was conducted to some of the principal ones, I saw none

that could be compared to those of Cairo, Damascus, or Aleppo, either in appearance or comfort. The mode of bathing seemed to be exactly the same, but the details were not so carefully attended to, either by the master or the servants of the bath, as in those of the large cities of Egypt and Syria.

The mosques are computed to amount to fifty in number, thirty of which are small and ordinary, and twenty large. The principal one of these has a minaret, equal in size to any that I remember to have seen. It is built of brick; and being of a circular form above, with a square base below, it rises like the shaft of an enormous column from its pedestal. The whole of its exterior is covered with a fancy-work of Arabesque, wrought by the projecting and receding of the bricks in the masonry itself, which produces a great richness of effect. The mosque, from which this minaret rises, was originally large and handsome, but it is now completely in ruins. The traditions of the place assign a very high antiquity to the lower part of the building, making it anterior to Mohammed; but it seems certain that the minaret, which is by far the finest in the city, was erected by Nour-el-Deen, the Sultan of Damascus. Near to this large mosque is a smaller one, of the form of an octagonal pyramid. This is built of brick, and is said to be even still more ancient than the other, which, from its singular form, is not improbable. There are other minarets of brick-work, ornamented with green-varnished tiles in fanciful devices, and layers of different colours: but none of them are remarkable for their size or beauty. Among the few domes that are seen, some are guttered or ribbed, like those described at Mardin ; but instead of the gutters being serpentine, they are straight, descending in right lines from the summit to the edge of the roof.

The Christian churches amount to fourteen, of which there are five of one sect of Chaldeans, and four of another; three of Syrians; one of Yacoubites, (as they are here called;) and one of Roman Catholics, in the following order.

CHALDEANS, 1st.—Muskinta, Shumraoon el Suffa, Mugwergees, Mar Bethewn, Miriam el Athra. CHALDEANS, 2nd.-Mar Eeesiah, Mar Kreeakoos, Mar Johanna, Mar Georgis. SYRIANS.-Taharat el Fokāney, Taharat el Hedjereen, Mar Toma. YACOUBITES.-Mar Hewdaini.-ROMAN CATHOLICS, Miriam el Athra.*

I had an opportunity of seeing a drawing of the interior of this Chaldean church of the Virgin Mary, at Mousul, which was taken by Mr. Rich, the British resident at Bagdad, during a visit he made to this city. It is esteemed as one of the earliest Christian places of worship now existing here, and is said to be built on the same model as the ruined church of St. James, at Nisibeen. The arches of the aisles are of the regular pointed Saracenic form; the smaller arches are, however, flatter, and of the Saxon shape, while the broad frieze around the nave is formed of the Arabic and Turkish dropping ornament, like a stalactite. The smaller ornaments, though generally regular in their outline, are not uniform in their details. The flattened and indented arch, as seen in the mosque of Ibrahim-elKhaleel, at Orfah, is also found here, and Arabesque ornaments are frequent, while around the whole of the church the inscriptions are in the old Syriac character; so that in this, which is thought to be one of the oldest buildings in this part of the country, there is such a mixture of styles and orders, that it darkens rather than throws light on the long-agitated question of whether the Gothic architecture originated in the East or the West.

Of the particular differences of faith between these sects, I could learn nothing satisfactory. The children seemed to follow impli

*In the time of Rauwolff, the Nestorians seem to have been the most numerous. He says, "The town Mossel is, as above-said, for the greatest part inhabited by Nestorians, which pretend to be Christians, but in reality they are worse than any other nations whatsoever, for they do almost nothing else but rob on the highways, and fall upon travellers, and kill them; therefore being that the roads chiefly to Zibin (to which we had five days' journey, and, for the most part, through sandy wildernesses) are very dangerous, we staid some days longer, expecting more company, that we might go the surer."-p. 167.