Although the worship of fish is connected with quite a different order of ideas, there is no doubt of the antiquity of such a worship, as shown by the sculptures of Nineveh; and it is curious that sacred fish are associated with a local tradition of Abraham, and a neighbouring site called Ur, at Tashun, and that there should also be fish sacred to Abraham at Urfah, one of the Urs of the Chaldees, albeit not the original one, and, unquestionably, in the land of the first patriarchal emigration, the land of Serug, afterwards Batnæ; of Harran, afterwards Carrhæ ; and of Ur, afterwards Urchoe, or Orchoe, Edessa, and now Ur-fah. The Ur of the Persians, now Kalah Shirkat, on the Tigris, was also closc to naphtha springs, known as Al Kayarah, or the "pitch place," just as the original Ur of the Chaldees is known as Mukayir, or the place of bitumen.” Sir Henry Layard has objected to the 61 identification of Kalah Shirkat with the Ur of the Persians, that Ammianus does not mention Hatra after, but before Ur. (Nin. and its Remains, ii. p. 64); but the fact is the historian describes Jovian as only proceeding itineribus magnis prope Hatram -near Hatra, not to Hatra, and then arriving at "Ur nomine Persicum vetere castellum." Further to the north is another naphtha spring, where was, probably, a fire temple. now known as Al Hamman, "the bath," and which is noticed in the same record of Jovian's retreat, under the name of Tisalphata, apparently for Tisasphalta. Sir Henry Rawlinson notices three other fire temples on the western side of the Kurdistan range of mountains; one at Gilan, which he associates with a spring surrounded with myrtle bushes, and with the worship of Anaitis, Anahid, or Venus; a second at Kara Bolak, or the "black spring," near the gorge of Holwan; and a third close by, at Baghi. Minijah, a hot-spring issuing from the foot of an adjoining mound. It is not said if either of these springs are bituminous, but the first is described as "sulphureous," and its name alone would indicate that, at one time or another, the several peculiarities almost universally met with in the thermal springs of the whole adjacent countries, of being saline and giving forth naphtha and hydro-sulphuric acid, were here combined. But of all the sources of naphtha met with in these regions, those of Kir.Kûk-the first syllable indicating the presence of naphtha or bitumen-are the most remarkable, and the most interesting. These sources are met with in a low range of limestones, marles, gypsum, and bituminous shales, a little north-west of the town and amidst these sources, on the ridge of the hills, but in a depression of the soil several hundred square yards in ex. tent, having a dull, dusky, cinereous aspect, pale, waving, lambent blue flames appear to be perpetually burning. Wherever a spear was thrust into the ground, a new flame burst forth. (Res. in Assyria, &c., p. 242.) There are no remains of what might have. been a fire-temple on the spot, nor, indeed, would it have been a safe place for such a construction; but a ruinous structure is met with in the neighbourhood, which, from its name, Bal or Ba'al-tar, must have evidently been such. Kir-Kuk is a large town, and its castle, situated upon a high rock, is very extensive and full of ruined buildings. These naphtha springs are noticed by Strabo, and by Ptolemy, and also by Quintus Curtius, Plutarch, and the other historians of Alexander the Great, who is described as having visited them after the battle of Arbela. They are also mentioned in the sacred writings of the Brahmans, and are still visited at times by devotees from India (Asiat. Res., iii., 297, 434; iv., 374. Journ. Roy. Geo. Soc., vol. x, p. 137.) The fires are said to be extinct now, the naphtha having been utilised. This would appear to have been one of the numerous Ecbatanas, or treasure cities," of Western Asia. Media had its Ecbatana at Shiz; Medea Magna at Hamadan; Persia at Persopolis or Pasar-gada; Syria at Gaza; Assyria at Amadiyah, and Babylonia at Kir-Kuk. There was also a Gaza, or "treasure city," known as that of Phraates, or Pacorus, on an island of the Euphrates, at Anah, the Biblical Hena (2 Kings, xviii. 34), and if we are to believe Pliny, another on Mount Carmel. The more ancient name of the place does not appear to have been met with by Assyrian scholars. There are a whole series of naphtha springs to be met with at the foot of the low range of hills which stretch from Kir-Kuk to the plains of Baghdad, in a south-westerly direction. Among the most remarkable of these, are those of Tuz-Khurmati; which are said by the natives to yield about 30 pints of naphtha (Nafta Abiyad, or "white naphtha "), and of petroleum (Kara Nafta, or "black naphtha,") in twenty-four hours. The next most remarkable springs are at Kifri, where are ruins of various character. (Appendix to "General Chesney's Narr. of the Euph. Exp.," p. 494.) The whole of the plain, at the foot of the same hills, is, indeed, dotted with ruins, and mounds of ruin, from some of which Mr. Rich, formerly resident at Baghdad, obtained jars, or urns, with bones, and which he supposes to have been Dakmas, or places where the fire-worshipping Persians, of Sassanian times, exposed their dead bodies. This country bears evidence, indeed, of having, from the abundance of naphtha, been one of those which, after Susiana, was most favoured by the fire-worshippers of old. The absence of ruins of a fire-temple at the pseudo-volcano of Kir-Kuk, may, like the absence of naphtha sources at existing ruins, be both explained by changes which are constantly taking place from frequent earthquakes, and other causes, such as the natural exhaustion of mineral products in the neighbourhood. It is known that the hot springs at Hammam (Hammath, or Ammaus, on the Sea of Galilee), varied with earthquakes. (Robin son, Bib. Res., vol. iii., p. 259); and it was ascertained by actual observation at the hot springs of Al Hamman, north of the lake of Antioch, that the springs which appeared at late earthquakes, were of a higher temperature than those of older date. (Res. in Assyr., &c., p. 295.) There were flames in olden times at the springs in the Wady Zerka Main, in Moab, at the north-east extremity of the Dead Sea, known to the Greeks, like those of Urfah by the name of Callirhoe, and to the Hebrews by the name of Biram-a name which with that of Beth Ba'altin, were also given to the celebrated naphtha springs at Hit. ("Neubauer Geo. de Talmud, pages 328, 354.") Josephus (Bell. Jud. viii. vi., 3) speaks of a valley called Baaras, not far from Machaerus, where John the Baptist was put to death, as giving off flames, which were more particularly visible at night-time. Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon, art. Beelmeon), call the place Baris or Baru. The Talmudi notice smoke as issuing from the same place, and they speak of it as the valley of Hinnom and the gates of Gehenna, in allusion to the fires of Moloch, near Jerusalem-the symbol of hell. Herod the Great bathed in these springs during his illness. The Talmudi notice three sources as having remained after the deluge, those of Tiberias (Ammaus) of Gadara (Um Kais), and those of Biram. ("Geo. du Talmud, p. 34.) The Dead Sea itself, it is well known, throws up large quantities of bitumen, or asphaltum, (el Hummar) after earthquakesa fact noticed by Josephus, and Diodorus, and confirmed by Dr. Robinson (Bib. Res. vol. ii. p. 229); and there were "slime-pits (naphtha sources) on the plain of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Bib. Res. ii. 603.) The naphtha sources at Hit, on the river Euphrates, derive their celebrity, as also their existing importance from their extent and produce, as also for their having furnished the bitumen used as cement by the Babylonians, as also to cover the kufas or wicker boats on the river. These fountains were visited in succession by the great invaders of the country, Alexander the Great, Trajan, and Julian. They are saline, thermal, and emit gases and naphtha, (Res. in Assy., p. 86.) There are no remains indicating fire-worship in the vicinity, and the spot is known by a great variety of names, as, " Is" by Herodotus, "Aeiopolis" of the Greeks, and "Bir-am" of the Talmuds, was also called "Diakira" or "Dakira" by Ammiamus and Zozimus, " Ihi Dakira" of the Talmudi (whence "Idicara" of Ptolemy), and "Kiak ir" of Neubanr and Ritter-in all which epithets, we find the word, Kir, “bitumen.”* The bubbling spring near Tyana, which emits hydro-sulphuric acid from a basin of gypsum, known to Ammianus and Philostratus as the fountain of Asmabæus, and near which was a temple dedicated to Jupiter, the scene of the imposture of Apollonius,appears to have been the last of the attempts to associate religious superstition with these phenomena of nature. It is not attempted to establish in this sketch of the association of fire-temples with naphtha, that the imposture of a perpetual fire was always fire derived from gaseous products, as at Baku; but it is evident that the Magi of old had a good supply of naphtha, petroleum, or bitumen in their neighbourhood, and a glance at the numerous drawings of fire-altars in fire-temples, handed down to us upon the Babylonian cylinders, in the Assyrian sculptures, as also in those of Kayanian and Sassanian times, a once shews that these structures, were more adapted for the combustion of naphtha than of any solid substance. There was in olden times a temple of Atergatis at a spot designated as Besachana; and the site of a Masgid Sandabiya is still pointed out upon the hills south of Hit, where they abut upon and overlook the vast alluvial flats of Babylonia. This is possibly the spot where Trajan had his throne. There were also the heights called Beth-Balthin, where the captive Jews lighted up fires of bitumen from the neighbouring springs of Biram (Hit), to announce the new moon. (Neubauer, Geo. du Talmud, p. 43). This was at or near the "gates of paradise," corresponding to the Pyle or "Gates" of Xenophon, where the hills terminate and the plain of Babylonia is entered upon. (Op. Cit. p. 328.) The trees of Babylonia, the Talmuds tell us, seemed like rushes as viewed from these heights. Biram was the first station in Mesopotamia, arriving from Syria; just as Hit, is to the present day, coming from Palmyra. There seems also to have been another Biram, far away on the Upper Euphrates, at Bir or Birigik; hence Neubauer has been led accidentally to confound this Biram at p. 354, and the adjacent Tel Balkis, or of the "Queen of Sheba " (?) with the Biram and Beth Baltiu from whence the plains of Babylonia were spread out as in a map. The same writer has also confounded Biram, or the sources at Callirhoe, in Moab, with the Biram or sources at Hit. Bîr, or Bireh, is, we have seen, a 66 well," both in Hebrew and Arabic; and Bir-am, from its application in the Talmuds to two renowned naphtha sources, may have signified, "well of bitumen or naphtha." OUR RECENT REVERSES.* Let it be nameless, for Shame's sake. O NAME it not let no true tongue pronounce it e'en to curse, The crimson mantles cheek and brow rememb'ring the reverse, When all but honour buried lies, and o'er an ermy's bier Fame kneels with muffled trump to pay the tribute of a tear. O name it not! although the deeds of daring that day done Flash from behind the battle-cloud, like ray of setting sun; They but light up within the breast the burning of disgrace, That e'en Smith's spiking of the gun, or aught can e'er efface. O name it not! Surprised at noon! O shame! Neglectful shame! That stamped the black and cursed blot upon our country's fame, That gave the swarthy foe to taunt, as we hang down the head, "Come, boasting Pale-face! dare you come! to bury your own dead ?" O name it not! but let the day deep in oblivion lie O name it not! e'en when Revenge rides on the ready blade, And dim the righteous triumph due to the avenging sword. R. COMPTON NOAKE * Written as a reproof to those who have made the Zululand disgrace the theme of song. |