relates further on that he had his royal barge built there
at the time of the cruise which he undertook on the
Euphrates in the VIth year of his reign. The itineraries of
modern travellers mention a place called es-Sauar or es-
Saur, eight hours' march from the mouth of the Khabur on the
right bank of the river, situated at the foot of a hill some
220 feet high; the ruins of a fortified enclosure and of an
ancient town are still visible. Following Tomkins, I should
there place Suru, the chief town of Khalupi; Bît-Khalupi
would be the territory in the neighbourhood of es-Saur.

[Illustration: 024.jpg ONE OF THE WINGED BULLS FOUND AT ARBAN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.

They were virtually Chaldæan cities, having been, like most of those
which flourished in the Mesopotamian plains, thoroughly impregnated
with Babylonian civilisation. Shadikanni, the most important of them,
commanded the right bank of the Khabur, and also the ford where the road
from Nineveh crossed the river on the route to Hariân and Carche-mish.
The palaces of its rulers were decorated with winged bulls, lions,
stelae, and bas-reliefs carved in marble brought from the hills of
Singar. The people seem to have been of a capricious temperament, and,
nothwithstanding the supervision to which they were subjected, few
reigns elapsed in which it was not necessary to put down a rebellion
among them. Bît-Khalupi and its capital Suru had thrown off the Assyrian
yoke after the death of Tukulti-ninip; the populace, stirred up no doubt
by Aramæan emissaries, had assassinated the Harnathite who governed
them, and had sent for a certain Akhiababa, a man of base extraction
from Bît-Adini, whom they had proclaimed king. This defection, if not