Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/131

Rh with Larissa, and therefore existed at the time of Xenophon, I by no means fix the age of these cities to that period. There is good ground for believing that both may lay claim to a much older origin, for Bochart, with some reason, identifies Larissa with the Resen of the Old Testament.

"It would be as difficult a task for me to attempt to account for the different names given to the ancient Resen, as it is to determine why Mes-Pylæ and not Nineveh was the appellation given to the capital of Ninus by the historian Xenophon. I think it likely that Larissa did not long continue to be known under that name after the retreat of the Ten Thousand. A small village called Daraoosh (Darius) still exists between Nimrood and the Tigris, and it is not improbable that this appellation may have succeeded that of Larissa, and has been preserved in the name of the village after the parent city had been destroyed. The extraordinary character of the ruins, and their vicinity to Nineveh, affords a much easier solution of the modern title of Nimrood, by which name the spot does not appear to have been known until the period of the Mohammedan conquest. A little beyond the mound are several wells, which at certain seasons of the year throw up a large quantity of bitumen. In all probability, it was from this source that the builders of Nimrood collected the same material, which they used as cement. The produce of the springs is now claimed by the Pasha of Mosul."

The above was accompanied by the subjoined letter:—

"Malta, 26th October, 1844.

"

"I have the honour to forward to your Excellency a few remarks on the mound of Nimrood, which I ought to have